Most Underrated Civ?

[Frostburn]

I think Victoria since the Spring patch. Now she is the only one that can double trade route with royal navy dockyard and commerical district. Probably the strongest district on Island maps and one of the strongest ivs on those maps as well. I also think the redcoat is pretty good- espaiclly on maps with a lot of sea where often you will be off the continent and no disembark cost will come into play

 

[Metecury]

I'd say the most underrated civ is Spain. They are truly strong if you chose your religious beliefs and government policies well and manage to pump out enough faith, you completely dominate the renaissance era and can quickly spread your religion across the landmass you are on. The issue is that most people do not think it worth the effort to rush for holy sites and religion early on (which is essential if you want to get a religion on higher difficulties).




Spain aside, I do agree Victoria got much better after the patch, though I would argue the free unit on foreign continents was already very strong, after you get corps and armies you become stronger the more you conquer. The island hopping achievement was rather easy to get with her.

 

[gettingfat]

Victoria is very powerful after the recent patch, probably the top 3 mid-game civ and imho the best island map civ. As long as she doesn't get killed too early by those early rushers like Scythian or Aztec, you can easily get all victory conditions except religious.

 

[Turrdy]

Brazil.
20% bonus on every great person is pretty nice and the adjacency bonuses for jungle are cool too in the first half of the game. too bad you can't improve jungle tiles with a lumber mill or something like that.
the most awesome thing about Brazil is the Minas Geraes UU (replacing the battleship). it unlocks with a industrial age civic (compared to a modern age tech) and obliterates pretty much everything swimming in the ocean or within 3 tiles from coast. plus you can produce it cheaper for longer since the policy cards for 100% boost for ships is for renaissance-industrial-era ships and after that for modern-atomic-information-era ships (which comes waaaay later in the civics-tree). With the Minas Geraes you can dominate the seas for at least two eras before the Missile Cruiser comes along which isn't that much better than the Minas Geraes (85 vs. 80 ranged strength).

 

[RohirrimElf]

I`ve finished a victoria game on deity in the first 2 months. I truly had an amazing culture digging game.
Somehow i keep trying to make Russia work. But i fail a lot of times. Somehow the extra tiles per city dont make up for the poor other traits and tundra starting location.
Russia should be strong on paper but i can`t seem to make it work. Maybe rushing an early religion just is not my style.

 

[Kimiimaro]

France, hands down. Wonder tourism is small in game, but doubled wonder tourism can be a significant bonus towards the culture victory. And it's even better with bonus production on wonders of three eras. I admit that Catherine's flying squadron is somewhat weak, but at least can help you with uncovering hidden agendas.

 

[Melchizedek]

One pleasing change from 5 is that there are no abjectly ridiculous civilizations in the game. Even Spain and Norway have plausible and fun paths to victory, even if they're well below average. I think America is underrated. Yes, the fact that their most useful bonuses are military is an awkward combination with a UB that has no value outside culture games, but the +5 combat on your home continent is better than most UUs and it lasts the entire game.

 

[ShakaKhan]

One pleasing change from 5 is that there are no abjectly ridiculous civilizations in the game. Even Spain and Norway have plausible and fun paths to victory, even if they're well below average. I think America is underrated. Yes, the fact that their most useful bonuses are military is an awkward combination with a UB that has no value outside culture games, but the +5 combat on your home continent is better than most UUs and it lasts the entire game.

The legacy bonus is pretty good as well, and is the only advantage other than the combat bonus that starts to accrue early, and for the entire game.

As for my pick, I'll reiterate what I said in the other post; Japan. They're the only civ that can get multiple districts at 1/2 price, and the ones that they get are three out of the four victory condition districts (encampments for domination victory, theaters for culture victory, and holy sites for religious victory.) While you can't always take advantage of it, Japan getting 1/2 priced encampments becomes incredibly powerful when Carthage is in the game. And the district adjacency bonuses are a little small, yes, but they compound... everywhere! And since some of those districts are 1/2 priced, they not only get bigger bonuses but are completed quicker, just great synergy. Finally, the UB comes not too late and basically adds 1 hammer to every city, which isn't too shabby, but more importantly it later adds 4 culture to every city, which becomes a very big boom later in the game. Most people complain about their other bonuses, the combat bonus is too situational, and I agree. The UU doesn't upgrade from anything and has a poor upgrade path, and I agree. But I don't even care about those bonuses; the main three mentioned earlier are the core strength of Japan/

 

[isau]

I also vote Brazil, literally "underrated" because they have a secret ability that isn't reported in their description. Brazil is the only civ that doesn't get negative appeal from Rainforest. This secret ability, combined with their adjacency bonus from Rainforest, works out quite well.

After that, Arabia. Mainly because Mamluks, the Knight replacement unit, are annoying and viable for a very long time, without resource prereqs, and the free religion ability gives an Arabian player who is thusly determined the ability to load up on abilities like "+10 Combat in Rival Cities that Follow this Religion" and have enough Faith to reasonably make it stick.

 

[agonistes]

France, hands down. Wonder tourism is small in game, but doubled wonder tourism can be a significant bonus towards the culture victory. And it's even better with bonus production on wonders of three eras. I admit that Catherine's flying squadron is somewhat weak, but at least can help you with uncovering hidden agendas.

... and help you with knowing about wonder starts and who is planning on going to war with whom. And the messages help pass the time between turns.