Interesting civ combos for duo playthrough?

[Braze]

Hi, I was wondering what you guys think are the most interesting/synergistic civilization combos in a duo game?

My friend recently purchased the game and we're going to start up a duo game so it got me thinking. He likes building wonders so I was thinking suggesting Egypt, because then we can use her trader bonus. Other civs with direct ally bonuses seems to be Cree and Sumeria, but what combos are out there? Does'nt need to be the strongest, more that they interact/reinforce each other in some way.

Sorry if this is in the wrong section, I'm a long time lurker on this site and was not completely sure where it fits the best.

 

[Wielki Hegemon]

The University of Sankore wonder.
The Dutch Radio Oranje.

 

[Buktu]

You can always use one scientific (for example Korea or Maya) and one cultural (for example Russia or Greece) oriented civ since you will get inspirations/eurekas for civics/techs the other one researchs.
If you are playing with a religious civ you can combo it with Kongo or maybe India.
A warmonger goes well with Mansa Musa since he can pay all the upgrades easily.

 

[Ludvig]

Egypt and sumeria will get alliance points super fast so you can get a nice bonus for a military alliance and conquer the world.

Mapuche and Eleanor for maximum loyalty flips would be interesting.

 

[Naeshar]

I have checked the victories recently and it occurred to me that the victories are teamed as well. Perhaps a religious victory is satisfied if the world follows any of your religions, that means taking a pious duo would be effective. Russia and Arabia, perhaps? You have one less religion to fight and Saladin can focus on science and military while Peter spams apostles and GWAMs.

Also, since you still can fight each others religious units, the relic strategy of Jayavarman is a lot easier, you don't even have to lose any pressure in your cities and can sacrifice the missionaries safely. Add another cultural beast and you are up for a quick game.

How about a Pericles' duo? You can decide who gets which CS and stomp out AIs, while having economical alliance lets you have even more envoys.

 

[Leucarum]

Culture and science victories don't take place at the team level and since culture is particularly uninteractive I reccomend avoiding that win condition...

Cleopatra is really good for helping a new player learn the ropes as you can passively support them a lot with your traders.

 

[TCBB]

If you are playing with a religious civ you can combo it with Kongo or maybe India.

This was going to be my response, my friend and I did a team game as Saladin & Mvemba and it was great fun. He got loads of bonus science from converting my cities, while I got his beliefs as well as the free apostles which (after rushing Mont St Michel) I turned into relics.

Other combos you could try:

- Kupe & Harald on a Terra map: both have early ocean travel so you can grab the entire second continent for yourselves.
- Gilgamesh and literally any other warmonger: Gilgabro shares combat experience with allies & gets extra alliance points when you’re both at war, meaning your wars together are extra meaningful.
- Cleopatra & Mansa Musa: the one wants you to trade with her, the other gets more trade routes than anyone – a perfect synergy!
- Kristina & Peter: just earn all the free Great Works from Russia’s Lavra, then gift them to your Swedish ally who can auto-theme them for free!
- Lautaro & Eleanor: as someone else suggested, Lautaro can reduce the loyalty of Eleanor’s neighbour by pillaging, so that when the cities flip they go straight to her – super fast loyalty domination!

 

[Kjimmet]

One idea I once thought out with my friend: Scythia and Mongolia.
Mongols have stronger cavalry, and all enemy cavalry units have change to be captured. If you have decided to capture cities (or get more units), they could be your choice.
Scythia has higher quantity of (light) cavalry. If you have decided to hinder enemy progress by pillaging everything they have, they could be your choice.

 

[Buktu]

- Kupe & Harald on a Terra map: both have early ocean travel so you can grab the entire second continent for yourselves.

Actually this is more of a SP thing for me. Just pick Kupe and be lucky enough to find the second continent with your first settler. Its going to be a quite chill game where you can do whatever you want

 

[Sostratus]

I don’t think you can gift units anymore, which would really spice things up.

Some of the alliance recommendations are good. You really just want to both end up in democracy and get the Uber trade routes going.

 

[Braze]

Wow, thanks for some really nice suggestions . Mapuche+Eleanor is something I didn't think of at all! But since he is quite new I think we'll wait with that. Otherwise it seems to be the:

- Trading duos (Egypt, Cree, Mali, Dutch, university of sankore, democracy)
- Strong Culture and Science duos (like Greece + Korea/Maya)
- Religious duos (one civ gets the religion, other one uses it (Russia/Arabia/Kongo/India))
- Ocean buddies (settling new land together as Harald/Kupe/Dido)
- War duos (Sumeria/Mali helping a domination civ)
- Feed relics into Kongo/Khmer/Poland or GWs to Sweden with another civ (like Russia)

I'm not sure if we're gonna start in teams or just ally with eachother in game, so that will effect the choice. But lots of good combos to try, think I will suggest something like Egypt + Sumeria/Mali so he can build his wonders while I defend and trade with him. Wondering if one could make a diplomatic duo tho, where we decide everything in congress/bribe civs and city states. Like some combination of Rough rider Teddy/Canada/Sweden/Greece? Hmmm

 

[Buktu]

Diplomatic combos should be easy to pull off. In most of my games, even with teams, every AI votes for itself. So if you vote as a team you can take advantage of this quite easily. The best combo imo is Rough Rider Teddy with Pericles (both with Owls of Minerva if you play with SS).

 

[agonistes]

Religious combo would be fun. Spain and Russia and go on a crusade?