Guess I'll start explaining myself from my non-expert point of view. Rank post was
here
Starting from the bottom....
Trash Tier Perhaps this is too strong of a word, because you can win the game with any civ. But these civs have some unfortunate design decisions that make them inferior choices that either make it hard to take advantage of their bonuses and even some anti-synergy. The more proper term would be "not in this meta". The game is of course, in its current state, biased against builder civs that have bonuses later in the game, meaning there's generally little reason to pick this civs over any other civ. Perhaps it's because other civs are OP? But that's still the way it is.
20. Spain Spain was buffed during the Summer Patch, for good reason, but it simply wasn't enough. Religious strategies are already risky enough, but Spain almost receives no bonuses unless it goes for it, yet receives no bonus towards getting a religion, and even if you do, it barely bears fruit until the mid game where practically every other civ would have catapulted past you. And what do you get? A combat bonus vs others that are following a different religion than you. But this is wasted if they didn't found a religion, or even worse if they converted to you, causing this bizarre paradox where the bonus works against you if you're going for a religious victory.
It does help with theological combat though, which is quite nice for protecting your own religion and advancing.
Inquistors getting an extra charge is.... ok. Nothing home to really write about, except it's nice to have when cleansing out conquered cities with religions.
Spain's lone claim to fame is the conquistador. You can have musketmen without resources, and they're very strong if you're willing to baby some religous units with you. This, is actually pretty good but it comes awfully late and isn't that decisive. Missions also come kinda late, but at least you can get setup towards science. Oh yea, you can form fleets faster That's also kinda ok
Overall: Very inflexible bonuses that have minimal payoff for taking huge risks
Preferred Strategies: Aggressive, looking to capture holy sites early on.
19. Egypt: Egypt has a bunch of small, consistent bonuses that actually help in most games. The best one is the boost to building districts and wonders on rivers. If China is not in game, you can secure quite a few wonders, and this bonus takes place through the entire game! Floodplains don't stop you and kinda suck anyways.Trade routes give you a bit more gold and the Sphinx is a solid unique improvement, able to give tourism after flight, and culture early on. Plus you could build a spaceport on a river or something.
So that's pretty solid. Why are they down here? It's because of their terrible Chariot Archer. For the price of 120 production (!), you get a mobile archer that packs quite a punch. Note you could build almost 2 regular chariots for this! But hey, lots of civs have crappy UUs. This UU actually makes things worse, as you cannot build regular chariots. If you do not have iron, the strongest melee unit will be warriors instead of chariots! And the biggest problem is yet to come. These things do not upgrade to knights, meaning Egypt is the only civ in the game that cannot do the chariots into knights attack and must always hard build their knights.
It's rare that a single malus would sink a civ that far, but this would be it. Unfortunate really.
Overall: Actually not a bad civ, just that it doesn't fit in the meta at all
Preferred Strategies: Aggressive development and building wonders, culture/religion/science
Low Tier These civs can actually shine just as well the best civs when the stars align. But most of the time they just don't. Generally too specific, they're what I call "feast or famine" civs.
18. Norway There's seas and coastal cities! Hurray! Uh oh people built their stuff inland. /quit
Norway is the epitome of the feast or famine civ, being incredibly one dimensional They're either really good or really bad, and at the mercy of the map.
They do have one thing going for them, and that is the melee ship production bonus. Combined with the card you can have massive overflow. The other funky thing is parking a longship in a city increases its defense because it is melee, making it rather hard to attack which can help for defense.
Them being able to take to the seas at shipbuilding means they can meet everyone if this is a continents or sea map much, much faster. Take advantage of that trade.
Other than that, there's really not much to say about them.
Overall Seas turn from Zero to Hero
Preferred Strategies Exploration, naval sniping.
17. Brazil On paper they look great. I mean, more great people! Problem is his bonus doesn't really help you getting great people but rather gives you a bonus after the fact. Now, why is that a problem? It definitely gurantees you'll get more great people over time and this is true. But the thing here is that the game is not about getting the most great people, because not all Great People are equal. You need to get THE Great People you need, and because it is impossible to predict which one comes next, it's not that hot. Most evidently , it doesn't help with Great Prophets. And barring this, most of the Great People early on are pretty useless, and if you're investing so much to get a Great Person early on, you're certainly not looking to get the one after it. This means it doesn't really provide a benefit early game.
Ultimately this makes Brazil a "win harder" civ where if you get rolling and start collecting GPs it's all good. But if it's competitive, then suddenly you lose a lot of luster.
That being aside, it is still a solid mid and late game bonus especially if you do get yourself in a strong position and quite helpful for winning a science victory.
He also gets the Street Carnival which is an entertainment district that isn't terrible because it gives amenities upfront. Running the project gives you some great people points which is some nice synergy, but oh wait, where are you going to put your great works now that you've taken a district slot for this? It almost seemed better if you just built a theater district.
Rainforests providing appeal is not a bad thing especially when you want to place resorts and neighborhoods. But Rainforests by then are terrible tiles unless you built Chichen Itza, so.... this is sorta moot.
Brazil, however, does have a game breaker, and that puts Pedro above the rest. His UU is a stronger battleship that requires no resources and comes earlier. It also comes with the same civic as fleets. See, this is a real and decisive naval advantage, unlike Spain. This allows Brazil to terrorize the coast because battleships can hit 3 tiles in!
Overall: Brazil doesn't do too much to stand out, but at least they are consistent
Preferred Strategies Build Chichen Itza! Dominate the seas. Win culture!
16. Kongo: Basically the same as Pedro; has a bunch of stuff that looks good on paper but doesn't really yield a bonus quick enough. However, in his case he actually has a very large boost into getting Great People AND he can get the Great People he wants but you're limited to merchants and the culture people. (Wait, he doesn't get any for scientists? I didn't know that). But it's still a decent bonus. And then Firaxis nerfed it because we can't have good things.
His other bonuses either don't come early enough or leave you at the mercy of the RNG and others. Not exactly a good spot to be in. Sure, if you pick up 5 relics from huts, you'll probably win the game, but it's not something that can be relied upon. Being unable to found a religion doesn't seem too bad but you can't use holy sites either, meaning you can't really generate faith without external help and that shuts you out of faith buying and theocracy. So again, feast or famine.
The Mbanza is an okay building because it comes earlier than neighborhoods, which suck anyways. Unless you use the neighborhood exploit, but whatever on that.
And his UU is alright. You can upgrade them from warriors.
On a more odd note, due to the strength of AI Kongo not wasting production on religion/Holy Sites, playing as Kongo means you won't have to deal with that. That probably does count as a bonus of some sorts, but only in a meta sense.
Overall: Decent bonuses, but highly inflexible and ends up doing a little of everything and not enough of what's needed. Too much anti-synergy and luck.
Preferred Strategies Culture, growing big cities
15. America America is a pretty boring civ, because most of their bonuses don't come into play really late much like they always do so there isn't much to say about them. But their sole usable bonus is awesome-- that they get +5 on their home continent which is very powerful because most actions early game are going to take place there. You'll have a better time fighting barbs and attacking your neighbors. Other than that, that's really about it. One thing to note is these combat bonuses apply to religious units too, so if you're just safeguarding your religion, this works nice. You're like Spain, but actually useful!
Overall: Secured Early Game.
Preferred Strategies: Conquer your landmass, spam national parks, Try local religion for culture
