I think I finally have a favorite CIV...

[MattZed]

I remember my first game as Spain. It was also my the first game where I found Skilldorado. Needless to say, it was an easy game.

 

[Gort]

I remember playing Spain in a multiplayer game. It felt a lot like playing a civ with no bonuses at all.

 

[Js_9001]

In G+K I rarely start near a NW or even find one in the first 100 turns or so. Is that different in BNW? I don't like the idea of restarting a game to get a better starting position, it would feel like cheating.

 

[Abraxis]

they are a bottom tier civ along with Denmark/Polynesia/Indonesia.

Threw your credibility right out the window.

 

[Aaron90495]

Threw your credibility right out the window.

Meh. Most agree Indonesia's weak, although Polynesia is quite strong now, I agree.

 

[Snuffleupagus]

I love Spain, lots of fun, but my most recent game with them had awful NW's in the worst places, and none on the island I started on . . . so I thought that would ruin the game, but even the tiny happiness and gold bonus (after getting my caravels out there) made the game perfectly viable.

 

[Abraxis]

Meh. Most agree Indonesia's weak, although Polynesia is quite strong now, I agree.

Kris swordsmen alone make you untouchable when used correctly. They would be a good civ with just those, but okay. Guess this isn't the thread for that.

 

[Toadman]

I only play Spain. The big decision for me in their games, once you found 1-3 wonders and nabbed the, is what to do with your religion.

You will probably have the +4 faith per NW and be turning out 20-40 faith per turn. So.....

Either Holy warrior for first pick and go conquer if you think you need it, or Go buildings and enhanced religion with the next profit for more buildings or Holy warriors if you are really scattered and need muscle.

If you nab more holy buildings happiness and faith generation are not a problem and I usually go Piety for massive Profit turn out and holy sights.

If I get holy warriors second I have to put it to use and conquer everything on the continent.

 

[JanghanHong]

I had a game where I started 2 tiles away from being able to work the reef, named the capital The Big Reefer.

 

[flying_dug0ng]

Spain's fun and all but like someone mentioned earlier, City States in BNW seem to spawn a heck lot more with NW near their borders. Pretty frustrating when your Settler misses the spot by 1-2 turns.

 

[yasinbin]

I'm playing them right now, and my second and third cities were founded on faith bonus mountains. I had around 44 faith per turn by like 2000 BC. I'm well behind scientifically, but my religion dominated the continent pretty easily.

As a question: is wandering around to settle your capital on a natural wonder worth doing? I really want the experience of that, so I think I'm going to play on marathon next time so I can be absolutely sure that it is.

i am noob in this game. Till now the games I played, I am yet to found a city with NW init...but i am doing quite good even without them.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Kris swordsmen alone make you untouchable when used correctly. They would be a good civ with just those, but okay. Guess this isn't the thread for that.

Kris Swordsmen can potentially be a complete and utter waste of 75 hammers. Not to mention the fact that you have to go after an expensive tech that is completely off of the optimal route for early game science to get them. Legions can be worth it, but the Kris... As long as Enemy Blade exists I will never use them.

 

[Redaxe]

Spain is fun but really unpredictable. In my current game (archipalaego) I settled 2 cities on a distant island with Kilimanjaro. I settled another medieval age city on a 1 island tile with Sri Prada out in the ocean but Monty took if off me after 50 turns
I think it was a bad site for a city anyway because apart from the wonder and the luxury there was no real productive value for the city and being medieval age the faith was too late to make a difference. Therefore I didn't bother fighting for it.

Lake Victoria was located in the Tundra and snow so that was basically a useless site and I didn't bother with it.
Cierra de Potosi was owned by a city state which I captured but I angered some rival Civs doing so. The 20 gold/turn is fantastic but its just too bad I couldnt get any wonders early.

But I really enjoy the Spanish theme, the bonuses really encourage you to play an exploration game. With other civs you can just lie low for a while and avoid looking for trouble

 

[poom3619]

And thus not an amazing enough Civ to be called " a favorite."

IMO, I can call whatever civ I like most the "favorite", because I simply think I am lucky and can steamroll the map as Spain or Indonesia.

Kris Swordsmen can potentially be a complete and utter waste of 75 hammers. Not to mention the fact that you have to go after an expensive tech that is completely off of the optimal route for early game science to get them. Legions can be worth it, but the Kris... As long as Enemy Blade exists I will never use them.

If your Kris swordsmen got Enemy Blade. You can simply garrison him in a city...

Edit : After post this I try playing as Spain. First game, I spawned on tiny island with Attila. Start another game and found two tiles of Great Barrier Reef by Turn 3

 

[The QC]

Spain is one of my favorites as well. It's not necessarily that it is powerful, but rather it's the fact that they push you towards an interesting playstyle.

The fact that you usually don't find easily accessible natural wonders is the interesting part! You have to fight people for them, steal cities, grab land with citadels and generally adapt to the situation. You have to be active and aggressive, which makes the game more interesting. If it was easy to find natural wonders close to you, it would have been a simple, boring, yeld bonus.

 

[Resipsa]

Threw your credibility right out the window.

Explain why Denmark, Polynesia, and Indonesia are higher than bottom tier on balanced maps.

 

[The QC]

Denmark is pretty weak, no doubt about it. Not as bad as Germany, imo, because their unique units are a bit stronger and more timely.

Polynesia is a confortable middle of the pack civ, with an useful exploration bonus and a solid UI that provides a significant amount of culture over the course of the game.

Indonesia has a UU that is, on average, extremely strong, and a UA that is useful on 90% of the maps (definitely useful on all balanced map types). It requires an unusual play style, but it's certainly not bottom tier.

Spain varies between solid (a civ with two useful, strong UUs), powerful (a civ for which certain city locations are excellent) and broken (a civ that earns 500 gold on turn 2 and has an amazing second city set up by turn 10).

 

[Emstinson]

All I know is if I play random I feel free to setup a game any way I want with the map settings and number of civs/city states. But when I pick Spain outright I feel kind of guilty lowering those numbers to up my chances... But I always justify it with "well my computer will run the game better for a few more turns..." It is amusing to see how seriously people take the overall ranking of the civs as I like to look at them all as equally fun to play. However I just finished a game as Venice and I must say that was ridiculously fun... So I should go see how people rank them.

 

[El Caballerion]

Another reason why Spain is fun... any war you may be looking to start will probably be because another CIV has a juicy NW in their land. Hence, Spain will likely these target specific cities more so than any other CIV choice. I find it to be very fun.

 

[Resipsa]

Denmark is pretty weak, no doubt about it. Not as bad as Germany, imo, because their unique units are a bit stronger and more timely.

Polynesia is a confortable middle of the pack civ, with an useful exploration bonus and a solid UI that provides a significant amount of culture over the course of the game.

Indonesia has a UU that is, on average, extremely strong, and a UA that is useful on 90% of the maps (definitely useful on all balanced map types). It requires an unusual play style, but it's certainly not bottom tier.

Spain varies between solid (a civ with two useful, strong UUs), powerful (a civ for which certain city locations are excellent) and broken (a civ that earns 500 gold on turn 2 and has an amazing second city set up by turn 10).

I think you are underestimating Germany's late game gold savings also while the Landsknecht isn't a sexy UU its easy to pump out 1 per turn. I'd rate Germany as a below average Civ but above Denmark on balanced maps. In any situation you can throw at Denmark there is always another civ that's going to be better. Maybe Tundra Archipelago is a map where they can excel.

Polynesia's UA is good for +1sight on balanced maps but their UI is inferior to France and Brazil's UI when it comes to culture.

If Indonesia isn't a bottom tier civ on balanced maps what civilizations do you place below Indonesia, someone has to be the worst civ?

Spain is either top tier or bottom tier depending on your map/luck. Hitting El Dorado first is basically an I win button in the beginning of the game.