Favorite Cultures

[SuperFly47]

What are your favorite cultures to play and why?

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Ming for Mega cities (the more Territories the city has, the faster it makes influence to add territories)... also "Free" civics once you get to Industrial.

 

[Cakeathon]

I try to avoid egypt/khmer if I can. Some of the ones I enjoy are:

Nubians: With their LT by the time you have to worry about gold for your troops the game will already be decided. Their EQ increases production and is therefore actually worth building in the early game. Their EU is just a better version of one of the best units in the whole game.

Mongols: I don't particularly care for their EU/EQ, but double ransack is a lot of money, every single district is worth hundreds of gold and the AI on higher difficulties just covers the whole map with them. By the time medieval comes around you are probably over the city cap so if you aren't in a hurry to race to a win condition, consider turning your neighbors into ransack farms

Aztecs: 2 movements makes warfare a lot more enjoyable, they might aswell not have an EU/EQ however.

Ming: Feels like a must on huge maps, otherwise most of my land is just stuck as outposts, it's the only culture up to that point that can really generate legit amounts of influence, which is a shame. Edo japan looks so pathetic in comparison. Aesthete cultures in general need a rework/rebalance.

 

[fortydayweekend]

I like Nubia and Ming too for the reasons above.

Also Carthage - Cothons are nice and work in basically every coastal territory regardless of other district placements, terrain etc, so you can build them in new cities for an immediate food/ind boost in multiple territories. Many EQs need adjacencies to really kick off which can be hard in the early game. Nubia/Egypt the other exception as you need to be building Makers Qs anyway. War Elephants seem to come at just the right time for a rush too

Egypt/Khmer/Joseon/France all feel like cheating.

Norse are actually really good if you're colonising the New World.

Anything with elephants is fun.

German Coking Works are a really noticeable boost to industry too.

 

[Taefin]

Hittites are my favorite early aggression culture. The Gigir EU come online at pretty much the exact right time for me, after I’ve built up some production and trained 4-6 infantry I can crank out 4 Gigir and start conquest. They stay relevant into classical, hitting hard enough with charge and hills to take on swords and making great combos with your own classical EU with the suppression. Suppression is just really fun, and I need to play a game long enough to try machine guns sometime.

Teutons always end up feeling more rewarding than I expect, clinching the religious game and giving a knight EU that just cleans up in the open with the religious bonus strength.

Norse, I’ve never regretted picking them, as they just completely open up naval movement and give so much food with EQ. Their EU naval transport has felt a little awkwardly timed to me as I am not usually in a position for overseas conquest until the next era.

Romans, it’s fun to have a late classical EU, feels unique and a surprisingly fun time to get a boost, when the AI are still fielding large armies. Favorite opponent is Persia. The EQ gives a lot of influence!

Spanish/Ottomans, love having move-and-shoot guns early, and siege cannons are among my favorite! These are for games when early modern conquest will decide the game. I’ll just as readily pick Edo Japanese for this, since EU dominates the era and EQ is not important.

Italians, EQ feels worthwhile for the influence boost right when I need it for fame stars, and I enjoy climbing cliffs with EU and not having to worry about getting contemporary units.

Phoenicians > Carthage, Babylon > Rome, and Hittites > Huns are my favorite starts that aren’t names Egyptians > Persians.

 

[Siptah]

That's a difficult question! So many choices and so many situations...

I really like the Phoenicians > Carthage > Norse combination if there is enough coast. And also Carthage and Norse as individual picks. Further, I like Mycenaeans and Nubians (I played a lot of Assyrians, but in the current patch they aren't that fun anymore), regularly pick Persia or Aksumites, and often go English, Byzantines or Teutons. Since the update on Shamanism/Polytheism, I really like to go Spanish in EM.

I usually avoid the picks that seem too strong, such as Egypt, Ming, Mughals, Khmer, or France. There are also some cultures that I find not interesting enough and thus almost never choose, such as Mongols, Babylonians, Poles, British, Indians, and Americans.

 

[Buktu]

Its hart to name just a few but I like the Aksumites, Zhou and Goth alot.

 

[Taefin]

Its hart to name just a few but I like the Aksumites, Zhou and Goth alot.

Give us the deets Buktu! I’ve had quite some fun as Aksumite but I’ve always chickened out of playing Goths. What do they play like?

 

[Siptah]

Give us the deets Buktu! I’ve had quite some fun as Aksumite but I’ve always chickened out of playing Goths. What do they play like?

One of the best units in Classical. With no other bonuses to anything else. That's how they feel.

 

[Buktu]

Give us the deets Buktu! I’ve had quite some fun as Aksumite but I’ve always chickened out of playing Goths. What do they play like?

As @Siptah mentioned their EU is nice. Also ransacking is fun. With the nerf of the first tenents the religion on the UD is finally a little more useful and extra influence is ofc always welcome.
I like how the Aksumites combine getting tons of gold from getting faith. Imo a great set up for teutons later on.
For the Zhou its the stability and extra science (given I have some mountains).

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I like doing the Phoenicia/Carthage/Norse/Dutch Mega-Harbor thing. But my favorite of all is probably the Contemporary Era Japanese. Their EQ is perfect for closing out the game with the Space Race

 

[Cherenkov]

Been tough but I finally broke away from my dependency on Egypt->Greece or Harappans(not easy to get) and loving the Nubian->Persian combo for lots of gold and awesome EU combo of tau-seti archer and immortal anti-cav. If you are planning to keep the war drive going then Norsemen after that is a good pick. In this game I went Ghanaians instead and regret it. Military stars are so easy to get compared to merchant.

I'm playing a really tough HK diff, large map game right now. Had a rough start in the middle of four civs! I was going to restart until I saw copper and iron within reach. It took a while but I beat back the Hittites first, then made them my vassal after the 2nd war. Nubian archers protected by Persian Immortals is pretty nasty and I went from dead last to 2nd place but still far behind the first place AI by 2.8k fame ouch. I went Ghanians after Persia for more gold then Josean early to CM my way up the tech tree to easily dispatch my English neighbors with Halberdiers. I don't have the greatest production but the gold makes up for it with upgrades, minting new troops/districts quickly and contributing to CM output.

Now it gets tricky. I unfortunately forgot that I left New World enabled and the first place AI just happens to be to the east of me past my vassal and making strides in the new world further away. I'm teching my up like crazy to get as much an advantage as possible. It's going to be a bloody war pretty soon and he has got a ton of those Byzantine Varangian warriors running around. Those have a +5 advantage on my Halberdiers so I need those musketeers asap. Win or lose it has been my favorite game so far.

 

[Don Andre]

Played too little games, but Persians are a good choice when you have the Mycenaeans>Huns as neighbor. This Immortal can take them out with one blow.

Of course it's debatable whether an anticav bonus should really apply to a non-charging cav unit... But that would make horse archers (as difficult as it is) pretty much as overwhelming as they were in real life ;-)

 

[reddishrecue]

Idk why I lost when I started with Phoenician but i had the upgrades for troops with the gold. Faming up to other cultures I got to 3rd place. I also don't know why I would win with Olmecs. Tech cultures are the best, too bad the research buildings cost so much and not only that you have to defend or kill other opponent's troops. Rising up cultures through agrarian, research or builder civilizations are so relaxing when there's no longer anyone to conquer in your continent. I've been in 1st place before and I think I used the Olmecs at that time. I also like Swedes for the late research, French, Zhou, Greeks scientist civilizations I've even gotten to all the research tree of the ancient era with Zhou so bad that I needed more fame from other stars to start researching technologies on classic. It held me back for about 7 turns and I couldn't research anything. If only the science in those 7 turns were saved for later technologies in the future eras like classic. I simply couldn't get any more technologies for Zhou since I built the school and I built the Confucian academy.

 

[Krajzen]

I highly recommend "India" run: Harappa, Maurya, Khmer, Mughals, Siam, India. Culture shuffle really shines in this case, you feel as if you had an identity which changes with time, architecture and muaic feel as if they evolved gradually with eras. Also it just happens to be one of the most overpowered combinations
possible, every culture is a top tier in its era... until you hit modern era India which is horrible trash, because apparently it is impossible to create 4X game in which civ named "India" doesn't suck but obviously with all those killer cultures it doesn't matter, you will still finish the last era in like two turns anyway (God pls fix this game)

If you fail to get Harappa, which is understandable then just go for Babylon or whatever, it will still feel fine. Besides there has been very minimum impact of Harappans on Indo - Aryans anyway, so it's not that much different...

 

[Zaarin]

Shallow answer: Joseon because hanbok.
Thematic answer: Babylon because Babylon.
Gameplay answer: Iran is a lot of fun. So is Turkey.

If you fail to get Harappa, which is understandable

PLAYER: Can I be Harappa this time?
AI: No.
PLAYER: Understandable, have a nice day.

Either Harappa needs a debuff or the AI is seriously obsessive-compulsive about Harappa.

 

[Taefin]

When they balance Neolithic loitering, I’d still think Harappans and Mycenaeans should be some of the first choices, just for having EU tied to early units. But then players won’t be as bothered by not being able to get them after loitering.

 

[Cherenkov]

Yea I'm actually liking the Mycenaeans more than any civ now if I'm lucky enough to get a fast start. The trio of LT/EQ/EU means you can get a force of promachoi bullies out quickly for early conquest. You just need a really lucky start as Harappans/Mycenaeans are gone around T8-T9 in my experience.

 

[7daysofwar]

My experience is different, in my last few games, the Egyptians were the ones that were chosen first instead of Harrapan or Mycean.

 

[Taefin]

Yea I'm actually liking the Mycenaeans more than any civ now if I'm lucky enough to get a fast start. The trio of LT/EQ/EU means you can get a force of promachoi bullies out quickly for early conquest. You just need a really lucky start as Harappans/Mycenaeans are gone around T8-T9 in my experience.

I believe you can even upgrade curiosity warriors into them, if you can muster the gold.