Strongest Civ characteristics to date

[Dorindus]

If you were developing your own custom made Civ and could use any of the announced Civ's Abilities/"Uniques" to build that Civ, which would you choose? In other words we are talking about identifying potentially the most powerful Abilities/"Uniques" and thereby the most powerful Civ's.

Here are my Top three by category (not in any order):
- All info taken from Civ Analyst

Special Ability

Plato's Republic (Greece): Receive an extra Wildcard policy slot no matter which government is chosen.

Dharma (India): Receive the benefits of all Follower beliefs of Religions present in your cities, not just the one you founded.

Meiji Restoration (Japan): All districts receive an additional standard adjacency bonus for being adjacent to another district.

Leader Bonus

Surrounded by Glory (Pericles): Bonus Culture for every City-State to which Greece is the Suzerain.

People of the Steppes (Tomyris): When producing light cavalry units, receive two instead of one.

Gifts for the Tlatoani (Montezuma): Luxury resources in his territory provide an Amenity to 2 extra cities. Military units receive +1 Combat Strength for each different Luxury resource improved in Aztec lands.

Unique Unit

Legion (Rome)
Requires: Iron Working
Movement: 2; Melee Strength: 40
Notes: Unique unit for Rome, replaces Swordsman. Can function as a Military Engineer to build a Roads and the Roman Fort, which gives +4 defensive strength and Fortification bonus to the occupying unit. Has a limited number of build charges. Is "more expensive" than the Swordsman.

Varu (India)
Requires: Horseback Riding
Movement: 2; Melee Strength: 40
Notes: Indian unique unit, presumably replaced Horseman. Reduces the Combat Strength of adjacent enemy units by -5.

Minas Geraes (Brazil)
Requires: Nationalism
Movement: 5; Melee Strength: 70; Ranged Strength: 80; Attack Range: 3
Notes: Unique unit for Brazil, replaces Battleship but is available earlier. It has "improved defense and ranged attack" and requires the Nationalism civic (instead of the normal technology).

Unique Infrastructure

Acropolis
Notes: Unique district for Greece that replaces the Theater District. Gains higher culture adjacency bonuses for being next to districts, especially the City Center. Must be built on a Hill.

Baths
Requires: Engineering
Notes: Unique district for Rome. Provides Amenities and more Housing than the Aqueduct, which it replaces.

Street Carnival
"A district unique to Brazil dedicated to keeping your people happy by increasing Amenities. Replaces the Entertainment district."
Projects: CARNIVAL Project. Holds an elaborate festival which makes citizens more happy and helps uncover talented individuals. +2 Amenities for this city while being worked. Earn Great (Artist, Engineer, Merchant, Musician, Writer) Points upon completion.
Notes: As a unique district, the Street Carnival is half the production cost of the normal entertainment district.

For me, I think Greece, Rome and India come out the strongest... How about you?

 

[HoTT-NiXX]

I don't think anything revealed thus far is a bad ability/characteristic and I really don't think any combo thus far are stronger then the combo of others since all 4 when combined seem to average out over the length of a game but we will find out once it is released. My top three, which don't mean they are the strongest just the ones I look forward to using, would be as follows:

Plato's Republic - All Governments get a free Wildcard slot
All Roads Lead to Rome - Cities within trade route range start with roads to capital, all cities start with Trading Post, trade routes earn extra gold from passing through Trading Posts in own cities.
Epic Quest - When you capture a barbarian outpost, you get a tribal village reward.

Qin Shi Huang - an extra charge, and can use that to help rush Ancient/Classical wonders
Barbarossa - +1 Military Card Slot for Governments, bonus Combat against City State Units
Trajan - All cities start with one free building in city center (usually monument)

Samurai - Does not lose combat strength when wounded.
Ngao Mbeba - Extra defense vs ranged attacks, neither woods or rain forests slow them down or block sight, they don't need iron.
Eagle Warrior - Powerful version of the basic Warrior. Can turn defeated enemies into Builders.

Great Wall - Provides a defensive and Gold bonus, and later Culture and Tourism. Must be built in a line along the edge of the empire
Stepwell - +food, +Housing, Bonus Food if next to Farm, bonus Faith if next to Holy Site
Ziggurat - +Science and if adjacent to a river +Culture. Cannot be built on a hill.

 

[Dorindus]

To prove your point that there is a ton of parity in this game, we only had one characteristic that we both chose. (Plato's Republic)....Impressive job by game designers.

 

[Halcyan2]

My favorite special abilities:

1. Nkisi (Kongo): Bonus Food, Production and Gold from each Relic, Artifact, and Great Work of Sculpture. Bonus Great Artist and Great Merchant points each turn.

2. Plato's Republic (Greece): Receive an extra Wildcard policy slot no matter which government is chosen.

3. Free Imperial Cities (Germany): Can build one more District than the population limit would normally allow.


Leader Bonuses:

1. The First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang): When building Ancient and Classical wonders you may spend Builder charges to complete 15% of the original wonder cost. Builders receive an additional charge.

2. Magnanimous (Pedro II): After recruiting or patronizing a Great Person, 20% of its Great Person point cost is refunded.

3. Trajan's Column (Trajan): New cities start with a free building, usually a Monument.


Unique Unit:

1. Eagle Warrior (Aztec)

2. Legion (Rome)

3. Conquistador (Spain)


Unique District:

1. Acropolis (Greece)

2. Carnival (Brazil)

3. Hansa (Germany)


Unique Improvement:

1. Sphinx (Egypt)

2. Ziggurat (Sumer)

3. Chateau (France)


Unique Building (don't like any of them but):

1. Tlachtli (Aztecs)

2. Stave Church (Norway)

3. Electronics Factory (Japan)


Overall Unique Infrastructure:

1. Acropolis (Greece)

2. Sphinx (Egypt)

3. Carnival (Brazil)

 

[HoTT-NiXX]

I think the more that reply the more we will see that wild card benefit from Greece being listed. It just allows so much flex and stays useful for the entirety of the game that I think most will list that as a favorite or something they view as stronger than the rest.

 

[Haggbart]

That's a tough one, we don't have all the information, but based on what we know and what I can remember, the strongest seem to be the following:

Special ability
1. Brazil: District adjacency bonus for rainforest + extra housing.
2. China: Eureka and inspiration boost (60% instead of 50%)
3. Greece: Extra wildcard slot

Leader ability
1. Tomyrus: Two for one light cavalry
2. Qin Shi Huang: Extra builder charge and can use builders to rush early wonders
3. Trajan: Free monument in every new city

Unique Unit
1. Hoplite (Greece), early unit with big adjacency bonus
2. Viking Longship (Norway), can heal in neutral territory
3. Conquistador (Spain), big combat bonus when stacked with religious unit and converts city when captured.

Unique infrastructure
1. Ziggurat (Sumeria). Science and culture adj. to river, available from the start which is huge.
2. Electronics factory (Japan). Culture, production and GE-points, Bonuses extend to all cities within 6 (!) tiles
3. Street Carnival (Brazil). Street carnival project gives a bunch of GP points, and as a unique district half cost of normal ent. district.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I think the more that reply the more we will see that wild card benefit from Greece being listed. It just allows so much flex and stays useful for the entirety of the game that I think most will list that as a favorite or something they view as stronger than the rest.

While Greece's UA will be in effect all game, its bonus is definitely stronger early and less relevant later. The difference between 3 policies and 2 policies is quite large, the difference between 9 policies and 8 policies much less so.

Anyway, here are my guesses for the strongest abilities.

Civ UA:
1) Brazil: these adjacency bonuses look crazy strong and come so early in the game.
2) China: this isn't quite a +10% science bonus but it's pretty close. Plus it affects culture, too.
3) Greece: lots of flexibility and power here, especially in the early game.

Leader UA:
1) Barbarossa: this strikes me as almost as good as Greece's Civ UA, even if I don't think the city-state part will be helpful.
2) Tomyris: the cavalry spam should be pretty amazing, though I'm not sure how many cavalry units you'll actually need to defeat the AI. Probably not many.
3) Qin: a nice game-long bonus that significantly reduces the amount of builders you'll need, and the wonder rushing opens up lots of possibilities.

Unique Unit:
1) Saka Horse Archer: ranged mounted units are simply insane in 1UPT. This will also come nice and early in the game.
2) Maryanu Chariot Archer: see above.
3) War-Cart: strong, mobile, uncounterable, available early in the game. I'm guessing it'll be possible to rush with these things.

Unique Improvement/Building/District:
1) Ziggurat: early game science bonus? Yes please.
2) Mbanza: not until the middle of the game but it does look like this will allow the Kongo to build dramatically larger cities much earlier than other civs.
3) Acropolis: a nice, early culture bonus, though I really have no idea if this or the Sphinx will turn out to be better.

Just for fun, here are my predictions as to the worst uniques:

Worst Civ UA: England. The bonus to Museums and archaeologists won't kick in until late-game and even then just seems underwhelming. An easy choice here.

Worst Leader UA: Gilgamesh. The UA has three separate components, but all three seem pretty minor. The cooperation-in-war aspect is going to be tricky to manage with the AI, and probably offers only a modest benefit. This seems more designed for the AI Gilgamesh than the human player.

Worst Unique Unit: P-51 Mustang. It's going to come way too late in the game to matter, I think.

Worst Unique Improvement/Building/District: Film Studio. See above. A unique that doesn't show up until the modern era is not good for much.

 

[Halcyan2]

I think the more that reply the more we will see that wild card benefit from Greece being listed. It just allows so much flex and stays useful for the entirety of the game that I think most will list that as a favorite or something they view as stronger than the rest.

Kind of reminds me of Poland in Civ V....

 

[IBrutal lLegend]

Special Ability

Dynastic Cycles - China

Dharma - India

All Roads lead to Rome - Rome

Leader Bonus

Tomyris - Scythia

Trajan - Rome

Mvemba a Nzinga - Kongo

Unique Unit

Samurai - Japan

Eagle Warrior - Aztec

Conquistador - Spain

Unique Infrastructure

The Ziggurat - Sumeria

M'banza - Kongo

Stepwell - India

That puts Rome, India and Kongo in the top spots

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

We do not know how the museum works although there are clearly a theming bonus.
If each great work give an adjacency bonus of +1 to all other great works, england unique ability can be really strong.

Compare 6*5 = 30 (england adjancecy) vs 6*2 =12 (normal adjancey)

And that is only one advantage of english museums.

Redcoat look to be something beyond the other unique units. A 65 strength unit that get a bonus then on all continents but english home continent and it also embark faster. Basically a cheaper infantry that is avaiable a whole era earlier, maybe it is civilization VI version of the praetorian. In the england video they look to be so strong that they kill musketmen in two attacks while taking nearly no damage at all.

 

[nzcamel]

Here's mine:

Civ Ability

1) All Roads lead to Rome - Rome
2) Plato's Republic - Greece
3) Free Imperial Cities - Germany

Leader Ability

1) Mediterranean's Bride - Egypt
2) Catherine's Flying Squadron - France
3) The First Emperor - China

Unique Unit

1) Legions - Rome
2) Samurai - Japan
3) Conquistador - Spain

Unique Infrastructure

1) Hansa - Germany
2) Stepwell - India
3) Royal Navy Dockyard - England

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

1) Legions - Rome
2) Samurai - Japan

Im not sure why people pick these units so often. Yes I know they are resourceless melee units that counter resourcless pikemen which will be a common unit in the medieval era but there are alot of units to pick from.

3) Conquistador - Spain

It is worth to mention that this unit only get its combat boost if on the exact same tile as the religious unit. A creative person could thus kill these religious agents before combat with the conquistador at which point they are just musketmen.

1) Saka Horse Archer: ranged mounted units are simply insane in 1UPT. This will also come nice and early in the game.

I think its range is only 1 and I do not think it can move after attacking.

2. Qin Shi Huang: Extra builder charge and can use builders to rush early wonders

Everyone can rush wonders with builders by chopping trees and haveresting resources both which give more production per charge then directly rushing the wonder with Qin's ability.

 

[nzcamel]

Im not sure why people pick these units so often. Yes I know they are resourceless melee units that counter resourcless pikemen which will be a common unit in the medieval era but there are alot of units to pick from.

Rather than just rubbishing others choices, why not put forward some of your own as the OP asked

Re the Legion, along with it's dominance of the Classical period, I like that it can build at least one improvement. It's not much, but it reduces the opportunity cost of building them instead of something else...especially when you're not at war!
And the Samurai - I think that it fighting at full strength for every combat it is in is very handy. It certainly lessens the morale of those fighting you and messes with their calculations on just what it will take to destroy your units....or rather how much damage they can take in the process of destroying your units.

It is worth to mention that this unit only get its combat boost if on the exact same tile as the religious unit. A creative person could thus kill these religious agents before combat with the conquistador at which point they are just musketmen.

I'm really more interested in it's conversion ability than it's fighting abilities alone. Like the Legion, again doing the work of two units.

Everyone can rush wonders with builders by chopping trees and haveresting resources both which give more production per charge then directly rushing the wonder with Qin's ability.

Yeah...but Qin can do that too, meaning he's ahead the whole way.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Rather than just rubbishing others choices, why not put forward some of your own as the OP asked

Well because:

In other words we are talking about identifying potentially the most powerful Abilities/"Uniques" and thereby the most powerful Civ's.

Without argument for picking stuff how can we say it is the most powerful?

In my opinion we know to little to bring out what is most powerful. Like we have no clue about England museum bonus because we do not know how museum works.

 

[Siptah]

Civ Ability (Many of them seem so good, hard to pick only 3):
Free Imperial Cities: Cities can have one additional district above what the population would normally allow
Dynastic Cycles: China gets a larger boost from Eureka and Inspirations
Plato’s Republic: Greece has an extra wildcard policy slot no matter which government they choose

Leader Ability
Trajan’s Column: All cities start with one free building in the city center, usually a monument
Thunderbolt of the North: All naval melee units can perform coastal raids (pillage adjacent coastal districts or improvements , capture unoccupied barbarian camps, or claim tribal village rewards) + Hardrada can build the Viking Longship
Mediterranean’s Bride: External Trade routes give Egypt more gold + Trade routes from other civilizations also give Egypt more gold and give the trading partner food

Unique Unit
Maryannu Chariot Archer: Bonus movement when it starts on open terrain
Conquistador: Get a significant combat bonus when there is a Spanish inquisitor, apostle or missionary on the same hex + If a conquistador is adjacent to a city when it’s captured the city automatically converts to Spain’s majority religion
Ngao Mbeba: Extra defense against ranged attacks + Forests and rainforests do not slow their movement or block their sight

Unique Infrastructure
Stepwell: Provides housing and food with bonus food if built next to a farm and faith if built next to a holy site
Hansa: Additional production if placed next to a commercial hub, additional adjacent districts or resources
Great Wall of China: A tile improvement that provides defense, gold, culture and tourism, increasing as you advance through the tech tree + Yields improve with each adjacent segment and if built on a hill

seems rather balanced, especially since some others I did not choose seem so good as well...
Germany 2
China 2
Egypt 2
Rome 1
Greece 1
India 1
Norway 1
Spain 1
Kongo 1

 

[nzcamel]

@ Denkt:

We're speculating. It's fun It's clearly an inexact science seeing as -you're very correct that- there are many details that aren't nailed down.

Just give us your educated guesses thus far

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Just give us your educated guesses thus far

Well I could try

Special Ability

Founding Fathers (America): Double legacy bonus growth rate

Founding Fathers is basically the same as Polands civilization V ability, it become stronger over time. Then other civs have finished one legacy bonus America may have finished 2 which becomes 2 vs 4 and later 3 vs 6. America thus get a stronger and stronger civ ability as time moves on making it eventually good at all aspect of the game.

British Museum (England): Archaeological museums have twice the amount of slots and can support twice amount of archaeologists

We know there are a theming bonus and if it is something like each great work provides and adjacency bonus of +1 to all other great works this ability can be very powerful. Not only that but the ability to support twice the amount of archaeologist will give England an advantage in the archaeology rush and with the very powerful redcoat as support England may quickly turn into a culture powerhouse without the need to think about wonders and such.

Grand Tour: (France): +20% Production toward Medieval, Renaissance and Industrial era wonders. Tourism from wonders of any era is doubled.

This ability make France very scary. Tourism both defend and win culture victory and double tourism from a main source (wonders) is very powerful. Not only that but during 3 eras France get a significant boost to wonder production which is even larger then it look like due to the game lacking % buildings. Even if France only manage a few wonders it can still be a signficant culture threat.

Leader Ability

Pax Britannica (Victoria): When you settle on a continent other than your home continent, receive a free melee unit. Gain the Redcoat unique unit when you research the Military Science technology.

Given that redcoat is tied to this ability I talk about it here. Redcoat is probably 65 base strength and also get a combat bonus if it is on any continent but the capital continent. So we can assume that redcoat is a 70 strength unit avaliable in the industrial era at a time then the strongest normal unit, the cavalry have 61 strength. As you can see it is pretty powerful in its era and even useable in the modern era as it is cheaper and as good as infantry.

The other part of the ability may not sound impressive but later on units cost hundreds of production and you may want to raze and settle cities instead of keeping cities due to probably permanent unhappines from foreign population and given that you may get a unit that is more expensive then the settler it is a pretty nice boost and then you can use these unit to conquer even more land.

Religious Convert (Mvemba a Nzinga): Kongolese cities can't build Holy Sites, but they do receive the benefits of the Founder Beliefs of any religion that has established itself as the majority religion in that city. Receives a free Apostle whenever an Mbanza or Theater District is built.

An ability not liked by everyone because it make Kongo unable to win a religious victory. But that is a small price for getting a founder belief without doing any work yourself. While other civs sacrifice everything for a religion you can build up your civilization and then they convert you, you get all their work for free while you are far ahead in other stuff.

El Escorial (Philip II): Combat bonus vs. units of factions following other religions; Inquisitors have 1 extra Remove Heresy charge.

So a small but pretty much global combat boost, that is very nice and strong inquisitors will help your cities and maybe those of other civs follow the true religion.

 

[nzcamel]

Nice That wasn't so bad was it?

I do like Founding Fathers (it's 4th in my list), and the British Museum.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I just don't get the love for British Museum. If a civ's main UA in Civ V had been that Museums have double the amount of great work slots, that would have been terribly underpowered, even with the theming bonuses factored in. Admittedly, there's a lot we don't know about how culture/tourism works, but why should we assume this is going to be good?

I do like the design of British Museum from a flavor perspective. I'm just highly dubious it can compete with some of the other really powerful UAs, pretty much all of which kick in much earlier in the game.

 

[Sansa_Stark]

I don't like British museum, since it is UI in disguise, not UA