Favourite Civ and how you like to play them

[nightwolf199]

Just wondering what peoples favourite civs are in the game and how you like to play them. Just out of interest really. My favourite is probably Polynesia. I like to expand really early on in the game and grab land as their embarking comes in real handy to get land that is out of reach to others. Then I tend to build a good defense and focus on non-domination victories really.

 

[kingrich10]

I've got the whole Empirical thing going on with Elizabeth, Rule Britannia and all that.

I prefer an isolated start, and if I find myself next the Napoleon then I might cause a bit of friction, but usually like to just evolve as a Civilization and research away left to my own devices, using a standing army to deflect any tension.

I realise they have modelled England as a sea-faring nation, Spanish Armada etc... but it would be nice to have a land unit as a UU (Redcoat perhaps), historically these have been crucial (and iconic) to the English Empire cause.

A bonus is the music for England, it's just brilliant.

 

[Veneke]

England all the way, similar to you Kingrich in fact. A nice isolated start, ideally with a limited number of cities followed by some wars for critical islands/strategic positions around the late Renaissance and onwards in which I deliberately refuse to allow myself to outnumber the AI. Even on the higher levels I've found that the AI puts up very little of a fight if you get rolling, so I've found that deliberately restricting myself tends to make for more fun gameplay.


I agree entirely that the Redcoat would have fit better and for the life of me cannot understand why they decided to have a Crossbow unit over a Rifleman unit. If you want to play the history card and argue that the Redcoat was British not English you'd have a fair point, if neither the Ship of the Line nor the speed bonus were there. Both of these were aspects of the British Empire of which England was part and not purely English endeavours. You'd also have to be reminded that the Longbow was Welsh, not English. Ironically, the most 'English' unique advantage England has is the extra spy and that was only recently added.

You're quite right though, the music is spot on for England.

 

[R17MCMLXXIX]

Fav is definitely Japan

Especially with the new combat, you get three to four combat attacks against a similarly strengthed opponent, but because of the Bushido perk, you keep striking at full strength, and easily defeat your opponent. Its great for a one on one attack, or when you have backup support.

I'm trying to work out a new strategy for the new Gods and Kings. Especially surrounding religion.

Great Scientists seem a waste of time now, and so I go for prophets, or engineers. I get the happiness and production beliefs.

I race to get the national library, build science quickly, then head to the samurai, on harder games, you usually get attacked early, so you just gotta hang in there. I try to get my warriors out there, killing barbarians, collecting city-state influence, and getting them up to 30 exp. I usually level up with a 3 shock : 1 drill ratio. By the time I have samarai, I get them up to blitz, and March.

The only wonders I try to get are Pisa and CN Tower.

My city strategy is maximum population in 3-4 cities, then spam trading posts as I take over civs, starting with the least popular civs. The idea with Japan is to fight and promote early, then build the barracks etc later when its quicker to build.

My last game finished at 1985, with 3500 science, which tells me I didn't get my science up quicker; earlier, so the goal next time is to finish by 1900.

My major problem is unhappiness, gotta work that one out. I think I needed to get the forbidden palace, which I didn't. And I needed to avoid the Honor tree until later, so I could go down the Autocracy tree.

I've finished it easily on King, but want to try it out on a harder level. Overall they are great for warmongering, I'd like to try this out with Germany and Russia.

 

[Slvynn]

Carthage will be favorite i think. Liking almost everything about tgis Civ and like to play agressive expansion style.

 

[Randall_Flagg]

After messing for 2 weeks, Byzantine is right now. I like to build 4 fast cities, grab my religion, freind up the AI's who did not found a religion, all the while spreading The Religion of Bob far and wide.

I rush to HBR, get me 3 or 4 catapracts and barb hunt till no more barbs appear. I can still count on 5 or 6 defensive wars before 0 AD. So I have some decently upgraded units by then. Then I help all my bros and sister of faith stay free from the tyranny of the false word.

 

[The A.K.T]

Mongols. Counqere your continent, and rule the game!¨
Best setup:
Huge
Continent
Emperor

 

[budweiser]

Empirical France!

Usually 3 maybe 4 tall. Then cultural. If I dont get the French wonders, I resign, but I almost always get them.

 

[PhilBowles]

You'd also have to be reminded that the Longbow was Welsh,

Not correct - this misconception is spread by the fact that the longbowmen used at Agincourt, the longbow's best-known use, were indeed Welsh, and that was indeed a spur for more widespread use of the weapon; yet you wouldn't suggest that all early firearm units should be Chinese because the Chinese pioneered the use of the weapon. In the same way, the longbow was adopted by and used to greatest effect by the English, and indeed for a long time after Agincourt longbow training was mandated by English law, and it was the characteristic weapon of the English throughout the Middle Ages and early Renaissance.

As for my favourite Civ, I haven't yet played enough G&K to decide. In vanilla my favourite was Siam because I liked the way city-state-heavy games worked. I imagine this will be even more true now, but I haven't played Siam since the expansion came out (I'm revisiting Korea at the moment).

 

[smallfish]

Not many particular civs in mind - but I'm currently digging the Ottomans and their brand new UA in the expansion, even though I don't even use it much.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

I've got the whole Empirical thing going on with Elizabeth, Rule Britannia and all that.

I prefer an isolated start, and if I find myself next the Napoleon then I might cause a bit of friction, but usually like to just evolve as a Civilization and research away left to my own devices, using a standing army to deflect any tension.

I realise they have modelled England as a sea-faring nation, Spanish Armada etc... but it would be nice to have a land unit as a UU (Redcoat perhaps), historically these have been crucial (and iconic) to the English Empire cause.

A bonus is the music for England, it's just brilliant.

I'm not so sure about the redcoats being a UU. I mean sure, they where iconic and all, but they were pretty standard compared to other european nations. Once the musketeer fell out of prominence the french musketmen were on par with the lobsterbacks, the spanish army was on equal terms unitl it's economy was sapped by the constant overseas fighting (low happyness from to much annexation and pupetting) the prussian army and by extension the mercenaries of the germanic lands were on equal footing, the portuguese infantry had to be well trained to make up for their lack of numbers and vast overseas land that needed defending, so really, what's the point? Why have a UU that was equal to all its contemporarries? What would its UA even be? Just my 2 cents.

 

[Andulias]

I'm a tech guy - Babylon, Korea, I like Egypt an China, Byzantium and Carthage from G+K. I'm not a warmonger. In CIV in fact I have never won a conquest or Domination victory. Ever . 'Cept that time when I played on a small Duel map to see the victory videos that is.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Also, favorite sides would be:
1. Etheopia- everything I like in a civ. good defensive unit, a cultural building, able to hold off attackers, I love playing tall culture powers, and etheopia fits that quite nicely.
2. France- stong early game culture, strong late game war machine. A nice side for quickly building up dominance and then maintaining it
3. Aztecs- hate most warrior replacements (really, how many could I get and how long before they all die out) but here it fits there ability so nicely. Rush 3-5 of these with honor and you'll be getting huge cilture and gold from barbs, upgrade and use your powerful army to build a sphere of influence and you have either a warnation that can keep up on utopia, or a peace nation that gets stronger as it pisses people off.
4. Songhai- an odd choice considering my nations so far, but with G+K they have some real culture potential. Have your mud pyramids to spread faith and pick up piety quickly, then have mandekalu snatch up a buffer zone of puppets and you have yourself a formidible defensive position.
5. Polynesia- their moari is kind of bleh but their ability to spread fast, control the gap between continents and build up massive economic/culture cities (harbor towns can get 8-10 culture easily without a single building) and you have a recipe for success.

 

[Koiranputki]

..l.the portuguese infantry had to be well trained to make up for their lack of numbers and vast overseas land that needed defending...

Ahh...you do know your history....Portugal came early to the point where it simply could not easily muster the resources to defend it's empire. It did what it could for as long as it could, but was steadily being eclipsed by it's more powerful neighbours....Spain, France, the Netherlands, and, as well, that erstwhile ally, England... For long centuries, gleaning what it could from its overseas holdings....in particular from Brazil.

And, then, as if some higher power.... ...wanted to drive home the point, it handed Portugal the 1755 earthquake.... Small wonder the iconic music of Portugal is fado....

 

[aceflamingo23]

i play as americans because america be the most hood civilization and at the end they got B-17 airplanes that blow everyone else away. i also play as america to reprezent for missippi holmes.

 

[PhilBowles]

4. Songhai- an odd choice considering my nations so far, but with G+K they have some real culture potential. Have your mud pyramids to spread faith and pick up piety quickly, then have mandekalu snatch up a buffer zone of puppets and you have yourself a formidible defensive position

Songhai's always been able to perform respectably at the culture game, due to both the higher culture output of mosques relative to temples and the lack of a maintenance cost. Also their UA naturally works well with opening the Honor tree, since as Songhai you want to be actively hunting barbarians early and often. Arguably they suffer somewhat on that front in G&K since the culture boost is reduced and, unlike other unique faith buildings, the mosque unlocks late, so it's not going to net you early cathedrals when you'll get most use from them.

Siam is an odd omission from your list, though - a cultural powerhouse before that can play tall (very tall with maritime friends), now only exacerbated by getting double faith from religious CSes to allow for very early religion.

 

[connorsmith236]

My favorite is definitely England - although my play style differs from the others who have posted about England.

I usually play defensively until I've researched the longbow and after that I take out every other civ on my continent with about 6-8 longbows and a few horsemen with +1 sight so they can see the city. Then when the city is down to 1hp I bring in the horsemen to take it down, and move on.

With G+K out I do try and get shrines and Stonehenge for an early boost to religion and take all +happiness modifiers with the religion so I can keep rolling over cities.

Also, I policy the right side of the honor tree for the added garrison happiness and defensive building happiness.

After I've conquered my continent, I use England's naval strength to take out all civs on the other continents.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Songhai's always been able to perform respectably at the culture game, due to both the higher culture output of mosques relative to temples and the lack of a maintenance cost. Also their UA naturally works well with opening the Honor tree, since as Songhai you want to be actively hunting barbarians early and often. Arguably they suffer somewhat on that front in G&K since the culture boost is reduced and, unlike other unique faith buildings, the mosque unlocks late, so it's not going to net you early cathedrals when you'll get most use from them.

Siam is an odd omission from your list, though - a cultural powerhouse before that can play tall (very tall with maritime friends), now only exacerbated by getting double faith from religious CSes to allow for very early religion.

These are fair points, but I haven't really enjoyed my campaigns with Siam (do you capitalize countries that aren't around anymore?) as they seem to lack power projection. Sure their elephants are nice, but they rely on the uncertainty that the AI send horses en mass, as they get cut to bits if they slowly lumber at cities and lavk the power to fight off more than 2 longswords (1 if he has some cover fire) and the wat is very good, but yet again by the time you get it your cultural borders are allready pretty set. They lack the ability to project power, and thus will be under attack a lot more than the Songhai, Aztecs, and France. As for Etheopia, they can quickly crush an invasion and launch counter offensives to project their power, and polynesia (should I capitalize even though it's not a country, person, city, or title?) can quickly gain complete control of the oceans, making the AU more inclined to be friendly (unless they never want to cross the ocean, found colinies, or meet new people)

 

[Kabloosh]

I've got the whole Empirical thing going on with Elizabeth, Rule Britannia and all that.

I prefer an isolated start, and if I find myself next the Napoleon then I might cause a bit of friction, but usually like to just evolve as a Civilization and research away left to my own devices, using a standing army to deflect any tension.

I realise they have modelled England as a sea-faring nation, Spanish Armada etc... but it would be nice to have a land unit as a UU (Redcoat perhaps), historically these have been crucial (and iconic) to the English Empire cause.

A bonus is the music for England, it's just brilliant.

England doesn't seem to play out the way it should when it was at the height of it's power. I only ever see a small 4 city or less empire by England and it's generally crappy even on a water map. I would expect her to be a bit more expansionist especially when it comes to colonizing far off lands. England does play the culture/city state game a lot though.

 

[connorsmith236]

England doesn't seem to play out the way it should when it was at the height of it's power. I only ever see a small 4 city or less empire by England and it's generally crappy even on a water map. I would expect her to be a bit more expansionist especially when it comes to colonizing far off lands. England does play the culture/city state game a lot though.

That's true - but if you're the player it's very easy to expand with any civ. See my post

With G+K out I do try and get shrines and Stonehenge for an early boost to religion and take all +happiness modifiers with the religion so I can keep rolling over cities.

Also, I policy the right side of the honor tree for the added garrison happiness and defensive building happiness.

By taking only happiness modifiers to your religion, especially the +1 happiness per city or the +happiness per follower you can gain quite a bit of happiness.

You do have to put in a bit of an effort to spread your religion to other civs through missionaries or prophets - but taking the final modifier that spreads your religion 34% faster (68% with printing press) ensures that your rate of happiness increase exceeds your need for happiness.

But, if you're still having happiness problems you can always bribe city states or trade for extra luxuries.

Honestly, expansion becomes extremely easy with this approach. I'll post some screens in a bit.