Hypothetical CIV Wager

[yahzuk]

A Hypothetical Question:

Imagine that you and a friend make a wager, to be settled by whether or not you can win a game of CIV.
The stakes are unimportant to this question, other than to assume it is something you are greatly interested in winning.
The difficulty level is whatever level is currently challenging to you.

Standard speed, standard size map of random type, all default settings.
You get to pick which civ you want to play.
But after you pick, your friend gets to pick which victory type you have to win by.

All victory types are enabled, but you only win the wager if you can win by the victory condition designated by your friend.
The question, of course, is which civilization do you choose for the greatest chance of winning the wager, knowing that your friend will force you to pursue that civ's weakest victory condition?

 

[mutant-enemy]

Babylon (you always need scientists) or Persia (golden ages).

 

[Catbot]

Ooh. I like this question.

I don't have any of the DLC civilizations (yet), but if I did I would say either Korea or Babylon because the science boost will always be useful. I assume the friend would pick cultural victory for these civs, but their abilities would still be quite helpful.

Out of the standard civs I would go for Arabia. Having double luxury resources is always useful regardless of the victory type. I'm not even sure which victory type is hardest for them. Maybe cultural so they don't build many cities and have fewer bazaars or domination so that other civs reject their trades due to warmongering. Greece or Persia would be tied for second.

 

[DavidCAD]

What I really like about Civ5 vs Civ4 is that you could up this challenge even more - the victory condition could be written down and not revealed until turn 100 and it would still not be unreasonable for a competent player to win it with regular gameplay.

My personal choice would be Korea, but I have been playing some interesting games with the Aztecs recently - I avoided the usual expansion build order and strategy and instead build up a single super city using stacking food bonuses. The UA helps build early culture while I'm building key wonders, the size makes it easier to defend from an attack and attracts less hostile attention (I've suddenly got most of the AIs wanting to be friendly with me, since they're more concerned with their expansionist neighbors) and after an initial slump the explosive population growth (to which a lot of national wonder multipliers like the college are applied to) gives you a science and culture edge over other empires. Thanks to the science rate and GS spam I've got mech infantry and an atom bomb against the best AI's cannons and infantry (most others only have rifles, and my nemesis Rome didn't even have knights when I took him apart with mech infantry while backfilling for nuke techs).

 

[bcaiko]

Hmmm...not my usual Civs (Japan, sometimes Aztecs), that's for sure! Though I can often pull off a Science by Conquest victory with Japan.

France, maybe? That early culture could really give you a nice Social Policy boost to work into the other victory conditions, and France's late/mid-game military units are certainly nice.

 

[crashcrush]

I suppose you could take a militaristic civ (like Japan) knock out all the other civs except one early on, and then modulate to arrive at the correct victory type.

 

[Jacques Lamerde]

My choice of non DLC Civs would be either France, or
Rome. I would choose France because no matter what the VC the extra culture to help keep the SP's coming quick is quite powerful. I would also choose Rome because no matter what
the VC, there are certain buildings that you need in every city, Rome's UA is very strong.

If you have DLC, Korea, or Babylon are definitley my picks. Science that strong will help you towards any VC.
I play on King level and playing those Civ's, I win the majority of my games. However my lack of success with all the other Civ's I do attribute more to my own ineptitude than any thing else. Sounds like a fun wager.
Good luck.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

Aztecs.
Floating Gardens give them more population per city which is good for every victory condition.
Their UA doesn't give them a lot culture in the long run, but it gives them a very large early policy boost to specialize your civ right away. Science victory ? Early expansion through Liberty. Culture? Patronage and Piety asap. Conquest ? Honor.

 

[timtofly]

What I really like about Civ5 vs Civ4 is that you could up this challenge even more - the victory condition could be written down and not revealed until turn 100 and it would still not be unreasonable for a competent player to win it with regular gameplay.

Spoiler :

My personal choice would be Korea, but I have been playing some interesting games with the Aztecs recently - I avoided the usual expansion build order and strategy and instead build up a single super city using stacking food bonuses. The UA helps build early culture while I'm building key wonders, the size makes it easier to defend from an attack and attracts less hostile attention (I've suddenly got most of the AIs wanting to be friendly with me, since they're more concerned with their expansionist neighbors) and after an initial slump the explosive population growth (to which a lot of national wonder multipliers like the college are applied to) gives you a science and culture edge over other empires. Thanks to the science rate and GS spam I've got mech infantry and an atom bomb against the best AI's cannons and infantry (most others only have rifles, and my nemesis Rome didn't even have knights when I took him apart with mech infantry while backfilling for nuke techs).

Is that not the point the AI get their marching orders?

 

[Rydin_Nurdy]

Great question! For me if it were Vanilla CiV my choice would be the French as their UA adds good early culture that you can use to go whichever way you needed to go.

As for DLC's I don't have the Pacific Islander DLC yet but I have the rest and would have to also go with Babylon, their UA sets up for great Scientific bonuses that can keep you in any kind of game and their UU can keep you safe early while you go about your victory.

 

[uigaw423]

Random!

 

[ShahJahanII]

I would definitely go with Korea.
You can apply the science from specialists to all victory conditions.

 

[black213]

Probably France or Babylon.

 

[elprofesor]

Well, actually, a militaristic civ would be the best choice, if you ask me.
The most difficult victory condition is cultural, so at first a cultural civ would seem like a good choice, to even that out. But then again, if you take a civ geared towards culture, and he chooses a time victory, you are utterly screwed, because making sure that you win that way is basically a harder domination victory: you have to make sure that NO player wins before 2050... which may be particularly difficult if the map is random...

I would go with Songhai:
-if he chooses Domination, well, thank you!
-if he chooses Scientific, Diplomatic or Time, just make sure that you reduce all empires but one (best if he was going science or domination and you've left him only with his capital) to ashes, and wait till you win.
-If he chooses Cultural, go with the preferred massive puppet empire strat, helped by the mud mosques.
-And if you're in a heavy water map, you won't get to use your mandekalu cavalry of doom (which is a heavy penalty, I admit), but at least your embarked units won't get runover (sure, there's a bug with the promotion, but let's pretend for a moment that it isn't there, shall we?)

And as a note, your triple gold from ransacking will let you buy tons of CSs and RAs (even if everybody hates you from your massive warring, just buy their "friendship"!), so I think you are good to go for any VC and any map.

There are other good choices, I just think that Songhai is overall the most well-rounded for this specific condition, since cultural and time victory are pretty much radically opposed.
You can also take the Danes, which will take longer to win via culture, but are better geared towards razing everything, get some gold from the free pillaging, and are absolutely fantasterrific on heavy water maps; or Siam and France, which suffer more than Songhai on heavy water maps and don't get extra money (but have other advantages); or Korea and Babylon, push for a riflemen beeline and hope that it isn't to late to defeat the runaway civ; etc...

 

[headcase]

I agree with getting a militaristic or science civ. Both are good for militaristic dominance, which helps win any victory condition. For a culture victory, you can either turtle up and build lots of wonders, with a smaller number of high quality units, or spread out and puppet. I would probably pick Japan.

 

[Louis XXIV]

I think picking a scientific or cultural civ makes the most sense. Those are typically the conditions that require the most planning. I think France would be the best. If he chooses domination, you have two strong UUs. If he chooses science, you can still effectively REX and can push the rationalism tree when the time comes. If he pushes diplomatic, that's easy enough anyway, but certain policies always help. Basically, you can work the SP tree to get the advantages your Civ does not naturally provide.

 

[MantaRevan]

Great question. I would go with Korea because
1. Sejong is über-amazing
2. All of the victories are tied to science besides time. Military needs advanced troops, diplomacy needs the united nations, culture needs later policy trees, and science is a no-brainier.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Great question. I would go with Korea because
1. Sejong is über-amazing
2. All of the victories are tied to science besides time. Military needs advanced troops, diplomacy needs the united nations, culture needs later policy trees, and science is a no-brainier.

This exactly.
If you focus on specialists (Korea is second only to India in this) and take Freedom, Korea is BOSS

 

[Camikaze]

It should be possible to win any victory condition if you completely dominate in warfare. Take all but one capital and pillage all that city's surrounding tiles and you'll be able to customise what you're going for without any threat. So, it'd be tempting to go for a militaristic civ.

 

[MantaRevan]

Meh. But if you over-exercise your military, culture won't be an option.