Most Interesting Civs

[Crafty Bison]

Hi all! been getting bored with the same old Mongolia strategy over and over again? Maybe you've got some advice to give to battle wearied fellow fanatics.

Why not add a shout out to some of the civs you've found most interesting to play? (NB: NOT a list of what you think the strongest ones are)

To add my two pennies, in no particular order, here's a few of the civs which have given me really interesting games:

Sweden - What? A CiV game where diplo actually matters? Made me stop and think about whether or not to DoW someone, and that's tough to do
Byzantium - Got to be up there for civ that plays the most different each time, working around the religion choices that are best for the situation
Persia - Massive golden ages require a bit of set up, and deciding how to use them gives a lot of different options. Could go for any of the victory conditions
Spain - Strategy works with whatever wonders are lying around, and it can make for some interestingly shaped empires! Bit of a dice roll though
America - The most intangible but also useful of the domination abilities. Plus, just when you're getting bored of the game, B17's come along so you can finish and start again!

So that's what I think. Do you agree? Think mine are useless and got a whole heap of better ones? Add a post and join the discussion!

P.S I'm new to the forum, so please be nice

 

[Petiscator]

Carthage: trying to find coastal-spots only is nice, you will avoid expanding inside the continent.

The Huns: turns all your starting plans into an early rush, you really have to prepare for that.

Austria: found less cities, buy more. Saving money to choose the best spotted city state is nice and changes your plans.

Polynesia: send your units into the sea to find the best possible city spots ever, before anybody else.

Just my opinion. I agree with all your choices (specially Spain, it changes all my games and I never keep going for the same VC as them ) except for America. Its bonuses does not change my games, though, I find them rather weak and I usually forget about it.

Welcome to the forums, by the way! I'm kind of new too, so, yay

 

[Sword Dancer]

Carthage -- couple that with the 'Messenger of the Gods' pantheon, in addition to all of your cities being automatically connected by harbours once you research the Wheel. That gives you a nice early science boost...

 

[Crafty Bison]

Ya Carthage can be interesting because it sets you up wide very nicely in the early game, but then leaves the task of converting that into a victory condition up to you. I imagine the Huns wouldfall into a similar category.

Also, yeah, America is an out and out one victory condition civ, though I did find that the UA made me open in a style I'm not used to, and it's much more interesting in battle than just a 10% bonus, say. Though I suppose one you've picked the civ it just kinda happens and you can just sort of take it for granted though. Anyway, yeah you're right, there may be better civs to put on the list!

Thanks for the comments all!

 

[Valbuena]

Any advice for the dutch?

 

[DevilHell]

Inca: Due to the really scarce food tiles it changes your strategy completely, even your tech path, and you start worrying more about workers than even settlers

Arabia: Every time I play them I feel the necessity to ICS and connect my cities ASAP, AND you could adapt a Mongol Keshik rush to the Arabian UU

 

[GhostSalsa]

Any advice for the dutch?

Do you mean for making them more interesting to play?

Their UA already encourages thoughtful trade, flexible happiness growth, and makes one-lux or marshy settle locations a bit more attractive. That fades off early and is replaced by a timeframe where naval aggression is very rewarding. Still, not the most excitement you can have in bed.

Denmark and England both shine for their embarkment bonuses, which reward creativity in city seiges (England never has that annoying 2-movement stage where you can't approach a city embarked without paying a few hits). I always enjoy playing those two.

 

[GenjiKhan]

Russia: The production bonus is quite powerful and it has an unpredictability element . Plus,the double iron/horse allows either a warmongering/peaceful games,which makes them get as much gold from trades than Arabia or Netherlands;

 

[frozenmoses]

Russia: The production bonus is quite powerful and it has an unpredictability element . Plus,the double iron/horse allows either a warmongering/peaceful games,which makes them get as much gold from trades than Arabia or Netherlands;

i play on immortal with russia all the time on single player and i mosh the AI by selling all my strategic resources, but i have to counter it by saying that is useless in multiplayer games plus if u aint got atleast 2 horses and 2 iron hexes the bonus is irrelevent after about 20 -30 turns( the reason i say this is because u c that plus 1 hammer as boost to have faster production but in a sense this buff is only good early game, although double resources is boss seeing as how u can have ur army while supplying ur enemies or friends wars).

 

[Jabberwockxeno]

In regards too...?

How they play? History? Visual style?

 

[Ritzy Cat]

Has anyone else seen potential in Byzantium for a cultural victory? That extra belief can really change things around

 

[Tachii]

Has anyone else seen potential in Byzantium for a cultural victory? That extra belief can really change things around

I want to try it but aside from that, they don't get bonuses to get a religion nor do their UUs help in anyway. Actually, in a culture victory, I would't even be building any of those UUs unless I'm actually near warmongers.

So I don't think it has a lot of potential, but it's certainly interesting since that belief could be anything.

 

[ArchyDarky]

Ethiopia - You have to limit the amount of cities that you play and farm barbs with new units and try to expand your land with great generals. Mixing in religion with turtling is also interesting. I personally lose with Ethiopia since I get swamped by scientific civilizations (looking at you Korea).

Maya- UA is interesting when it comes to timing which GP you want. Holding the mouse on the turn counter to see the actual year is always interesting since it follows the mayan calendar. I found that detail interesting and unique. I also like their science pyramid building.

 

[Crafty Bison]

In regards too...?

How they play? History? Visual style?

When writing the OP, I'd only thought about how their playing style was interesting, and how much they made you think during the game rather then follow a set formula to victory.
However, I see no reason why this thread can't mean interesting in a more general sense as well, if that's what you want to post about. I know nothing of the civs' histories and failed at art in school, so it'd be fun to see what comments come up!

 

[Esperr]

Polynesia is probably the most interesting. The maoi can get pretty silly if youv got some extra tiles to just max them out on, and the instant ocean crossing and stuff really changed up how you play them.

 

[woodshadows]

im having a load of fun with polynesia, on a small continents standard map the early exploration is enormously powerful to get a nice lead going. im undecided on these moai's tho, while the culture is enormously great i'm finding gold to be a problem as there isn't a great deal of room to fit in enough farms and trading posts as well, partly due to this map which forces all my cities to the coast with not much inland portion available, but still. great civ tho, got my religion out on immortal around the same time the other civs were just getting their pantheons.

 

[Esperr]

im having a load of fun with polynesia, on a small continents standard map the early exploration is enormously powerful to get a nice lead going. im undecided on these moai's tho, while the culture is enormously great i'm finding gold to be a problem as there isn't a great deal of room to fit in enough farms and trading posts as well, partly due to this map which forces all my cities to the coast with not much inland portion available, but still. great civ tho, got my religion out on immortal around the same time the other civs were just getting their pantheons.

If you have a bunch of coastal cities gold shouldnt be a problem.

 

[woodshadows]

you'd think eh? not sure what's up.. or now that i think about it, i have three cities on other islands unconnected by harbours to my capital.. that's probably it, that's what i get for playing almost exclusively pangaea for the past year

 

[Alloran]

I like Polynesia as well. Certainly not the most powerful, but they're fun to explore with. More fun than the "explorer" civ Spain. Also they're orange, and everyone knows orange is the best colour.

Hiawatha and Harun are also fun. I like Harun for the opening challenge of a desert start (one that's been kindov eliminated with the advent of Petra and Desert Folklore) though he tends to dominate once Bazaars are up and running. I like Hiawatha for the 'no iron swordsmen' and find it fun to figure out ways to connect two cities with a minimum amount of roads. Though this does require micromanaging the workers.

 

[Tachii]

I'd put a vote for England. On Fractal maps, the map generation seem to have a thing for England's UA, that is the starting coast bias can create an interesting start that utilize the +2 naval movement. I usually end up playing England very differently because of it at the early start.

Another mix is the Aztecs going for culture victory while being a warmonger. The early game is pretty fun with Jaguars camping barbs and getting ridiculous culture and the late game on higher difficulties where the AI have almost endless units they can produce every turn for you to bombard. Also having very tall cities as a warmonger civ is also kind of silly to see as well.