(For Fun) Which Civs most directly counter the abilities of other civs?

[Stalker0]

Meant for fun, not a balance discussion. Every civ has that other civ that they hate to be their neighbor, the one that is going to make this game just a bit harder for you than normal. Lets list out some of them.

Russia -> Shoshone: Nothing like getting forward settled by Shoshone and losing all of that land you had planned to turn into science. Further, while you could argue whether the Cossack or Comanche Rider is the better UU....the fact that both come out at the same time tends to limit your UU potential.

Byzantium -> Siam: Theodora has a truly great UU...often the linchpin of Byzanteen expansion in the medieval era. Except if your next to Siam....whose Elephant hard counters the cataphract. It doesn't hurt that Siam backed by some faith CS tends to pound missionaries like its going out of style.

Aztecs -> Greece: The Aztec jaguar rush can be very brutal...but finds its counter in the Hoplite. Further, Greece is often incentivized to get spears up early, so is normally ready by the time the jaguar rush finds them.

Austria <-> Germany: You can argue which one truly counters the other, but generally if both of these civs are near each other....it means war. Both have ways to secure votes, cutting off the others power. Austria has ways to hold CS allies away from Germany, while Germany's late game military can often crush an unprepared Austria.

 

[Legen]

Carthage/Portugal/Ottomans -> Morocco: Nothing like having your UA bonuses toward trade routes being raided by someone that isn't even at war with you. If you get to his bad side, Ahmad will make you miserable in more ways than one. This is more extreme for Carthage, since better Resource Diversity means nothing for internal trade routes.

Quite noteworthy, vanilla Korea -> vanilla England: Elizabeth's extra spy turns Korea's lategame science into her personal laboratory. Moreover, both of England's UUs hardcounter both of Korea's UU; the Longbowman's extra range allows it to kite the Hwach'a, who has to move and then set up before shooting, which the longbowman can answer by stepping one tile back and shooting from 3 tiles away. Meanwhile, the Turtle Ship's inability to enter ocean tiles is exploited to the extreme by the Ship of the Line, which shoots hard from said ocean tiles and has extra vision and mobility from the UA.

 

[Favorius]

Venice vs Austria

 

[JamesNinelives]

Shoshone vs. America. How dare you steal my territory when I was trying to steal yours! And stay away from my ancient ruins with those +1 sight land units!

Polynesia vs. Denmark. You might be able to settle all those islands but good luck holding onto them lol.

Egypt vs. France. Capturing an Egyptian city as France = win. Not a 'counter' per se but a lot of fun. Egypt's UU helps early on but not when Musketeers turn up!

Korea vs. Assyria. Oh, you just want to survive the early game and focus on science? How about I declare war on you while you are weak and steal your knowledge from you!

 

[Vektic]

Those are some interesting matchups, however I feel an obvious one missing, which would be

Mongolia, Venice vs. Germany and Austria, as well as Morocco and Siam (to a lesser extent) : The ability to annex away potential CS-Allies is crippling for those Civs reliant on connections to a fair number of City-states, Germany gets hit twice: once in the UA, and once in the Hanse. Generally any Civ eyebaling Statecraft gets very sad when meeting that Mongolian pathfinder.

Edit: Shoutout to Favorius who alluded to the painful interaction of Venitian GM's purchasing married CS from Austria

 

[andersw]

The Huns are also a huge land grabber which isnt fun to be next to as Russia (well not really as any civ).

 

[MIS]

Songhai v Persia or Greece, makes ManCav rush that much harder.

 

[SolutionIt]

Surprised nobody mentioned modded civs so I'll go ahead and throw a few out there.

Canada vs. Sumer: Have fun settling cities in meaningful spots with the current version or the prod/science instant yields if Canada settles a city near your territory and claims up the land on the way over with a trade route. Definitely not the hardest counter but still an interesting way to downplay Sumer's ability.

America vs. Canada: Let me buy up those plots you claimed and buy up any citadel tiles you set up on the TRs or near your cities if possible.

Philippines vs. Morocco: Have fun setting up trade routes to other civs with better production, or alternatively if you're siphoning too much off me I'll just cut you off instead.

Siam vs. Phoenicia: Oh that's cool, you get more influence than me and get to create city-states? Let me just get free benefits from you doing that anyway cause I also get an influence bonus and compete against you for those same city-states. Lowkey probably also a super busted team combination for an early game snowball.

 

[kenneth1221]

Those are some interesting matchups, however I feel an obvious one missing, which would be

Mongolia, Venice vs. Germany and Austria, as well as Morocco and Siam (to a lesser extent) : The ability to annex away potential CS-Allies is crippling for those Civs reliant on connections to a fair number of City-states, Germany gets hit twice: once in the UA, and once in the Hanse. Generally any Civ eyebaling Statecraft gets very sad when meeting that Mongolian pathfinder.

Edit: Shoutout to Favorius who alluded to the painful interaction of Venitian GM's purchasing married CS from Austria

I thought Mongolia's power to bully-annex was reworked out of the latest versions? Otherwise yes, I agree. CS-eaters pretty much have to be met with war.