New to civ, who to start with

[SpartyParty]

Hi, I just started playing civ 5 bnw. On level one and two I have been trying to beat the game in the different ways, domination,culture, etc. What civs do you Suggest for each victory type? Thanks!

 

[werothegreat]

Korea for Science, France or Brazil for Culture, Venice, Greece or Siam for Diplo, and Huns, Japan or Assyria for Domination. If you like to play religious, Celts and Ethiopia essentially guarantee you the first religion, and Maya aren't too shabby at that either (and are pretty good at Science, too). Shoshone is great at pretty much everything, but will get you into some bad habits if you're just beginning, so you might want to try Poland instead.

 

[SpartyParty]

Sorry, Im a beginner, but what do you mean religion? I have so far on level one beaten culture with Brazil, in the process of two types, domination, and science.

 

[Arcaian]

If you're playing Brave New World there is a religion mechanic. Building a shrine will let you get faith per turn, you can use it found found a Pantheon (like a mini religion) and then when you get enough a full religion, which can be spread and gives quite significant bonuses.

Culture is generally the hardest victory type - especially for new players - in BNW. I wouldn't reccomend it, but Brazil or France are the way to go for a culture victory. If you're playing domination, then you can either go early domination - e.g. Attila the Hun - which is not very powerful in BNW, a faction like England which gets nice Medieval/Renaissance unique units or go for a faction like America that gets late game power. The middle of the timeline factions are probably the best for domination at this point.

For Science, Korea or Babylon are the best. Maya can go well if you enjoy building wide, but building many cities (wide) isn't very good for science, as each new city gives you 5% more research required per technology. Korea gets science for specialists, so they get a mid to late game bonus. Babylon gets faster Great Scientists and importantly one at Writing. Always put the free one from writing down as an academy! It'll double your science

 

[Browd]

For religion, start with this article (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=521452) and follow the internal links for more.

 

[werothegreat]

Culture is generally the hardest victory type - especially for new players - in BNW.

Says who? It seems every game I play I end up winning a Culture victory. Sure, it takes pretty much the entire game, but I consistently end up with quadruple-digit Tourism by the Information era.

 

[HelloGoodbye123]

Since its brave new world I dont think it comes with religion right?

 

[Browd]

BNW includes all of the religion mechanics. Does not include G&K civs (except Ethiopia).

 

[Ikael]

If you are playing with the BNW expansion, these would be my picks:

- Domination: Mongols, Huns, Japan
- Culture: France, Brazil, Siam
- Science: Mayas, Aztecs, China
- Diplomatic: Arabs (due to massive gold influx), Greece
- Flexible: Poland, Spain, Iroquois

 

[Ryoga]

If you are playing with the BNW expansion, these would be my picks:

- Domination: Mongols, Huns, Japan
- Culture: France, Brazil, Siam
- Science: Mayas, Aztecs, China
- Diplomatic: Arabs (due to massive gold influx), Greece
- Flexible: Poland, Spain, Iroquois

I actually can't see in which way Siam is particularly good for cultural victory.
It may be counterintuitive but culture in itself doesn't make you win a cultural victory, tourism does. Culture serves the purpose to defend against other cultures, but you can't win the cultural struggle by defending.
Now it is true that later on you can convert culture into tourism but that doesn't work for all kind of cultural bonuses, for example: those that come from city states.

Siam used to be one of the best Civs geared for cultural victory, but since BNW that totally changed.

 

[joncnunn]

Vanilla civs that aren't DLC:

Egypt if you want to build lots of world wonders
Greece if you want lots of city state allies.
Siam for extra benefits from city state allies. (Their benefit from cultural city state allies was especially good for old Cultural victory [Vanilla and G&K]. And their benefit from martime city state allies makes them one of the best vanilla non-DLC civs for science victory.)

Civs introduced as DLC:
Korea or Babylon for science bonuses any victory condition.
Inca for massive food bonuses.
Spain for natural wonder bonuses. (Also included in G&K even if you didn't buy the Inca + Spain DLC)

G&K civs:
Celts, Ethiopia, or Maya for religion. (Ethiopia is also included in BNW even if you didn't buy G&K)

BNW civs:
Venice for semi OCC and extra trade routes
Poland for extra progress thru the cultural policy trees.
France or Brazil for new cultural victory

Overall if you have BNW, I'd go with Poland first.

 

[ixias]

I think for just starting out, you want a Civilization that is flexible. I'd suggest Poland as someone suggested or something like the Maya, where they have nice bonuses, but allow for a wide range of gameplay options. I'd suggest Shoshone, but they can spoil a first time player.

Honestly, I'd say to avoid "specialized" Civilizations, such as Egypt (you don't want to get into the habit of wonder spamming - it doesn't work on higher difficulty levels), Brazil, the Huns, Venice, etc.

 

[Dedrytus]

Maybe you should try Aztecs? Good military unit from the start, culture points from killing barbs - combined with honor policy (even opener) they can be useful to get any victory type you want.

 

[SpartyParty]

I played around with Greece and Mongolia today and had a little success with Mongolia, Greece was a fail, ended for warmonger and took out Poland. Then every other leader freaks the heck out because i attacked him. Even though his and my settlers where racing for the same spot. he won and lets just say, the first city I conquered should have been mine

 

[jlim201]

Honestly, Poland is the easiest to use top tier civ. I recommend them for all beginners. There are no special strategies for them, except maybe going down a different policy path.

 

[jlim201]

If you are playing with the BNW expansion, these would be my picks:

- Domination: Mongols, Huns, Japan
- Culture: France, Brazil, Siam
- Science: Mayas, Aztecs, China
- Diplomatic: Arabs (due to massive gold influx), Greece
- Flexible: Poland, Spain, Iroquois

LOL! Recommending the Iroquois, and then calling them flexible and rating them up there with Poland and Spain? They are a broken, needs rebalancing civ. UA does not work, new players wont even know how to use it if it worked. Longhouse generally is a worse workshop, and Mohawks are decent but not great.

If i were to list, i would go

Domination- Huns (early), England (mid-game land/naval), China (mid-game land). Late game is similar for every civ.

Science- Babylon, Korea, Maya.

Culture- Brazil (very good), France (mediocre), Polynesia (can explore/meet faster, has moai)

Diplo- Venice, Greece, Inca (free roads), Arabia

Flexible- Poland, Spain, Aztec

Japan is not good, Bushido gives max 25% boost to 1 HP units, and you want to retreat those. Samurai are at awkward time, Zero is a bit too late.

Mongolia is too one dimensional, not a great first choice.

 

[Illianor123]

BABYlon
Poland
Korea
Inca
Mayans
Ethiopia.
That's not ranked.
Try playing on level 3 (prince) to get more of a challenge because that's the best way to improve.

I also recommend watching a Lets Play to help understand the game. I recommend, MadDjinn, Marbozir, or Quill18. MD also has a series called Beyond the Monument focused on helping new players, but I don't know when it switched to being about Brave New World from Gods and Kings.

 

[TheBoulderite]

Leave it on random and see who you get.

 

[Question]

I tried out Shonshons and i was surprised by how good they are. Pathfinders are amazing early game and the ability to pick ruin bonuses can be a powerhouse if you can scout fast enough. Plus they can take on a barbarian brute one on one at lower difficulties.

To top it off, they apparently promote to composite bowmen....not archers like what scouts do. Not sure if its a bug because thats just crazy. I did notice that they dont get embarkation when you research optics though...nasty bug.

 

[Illianor]

Promoting to composites is working as intended. Units have to return to your borders after researching optics to get the embarkation promotion