The best and worst abilities.

[iskar]

ey people,
I have been reading this forum for quite some time now and ive played civ 3 and 4 for a long time.

now my only point here would be, why wonder which civilization would be the strongest, isnt it all up to the players skill? I mean, yes the aztec and japanese ability are strong but only if you have a long war, wich isnt very good for your economy. to be honest, in my opinion they are all verry balanced, by exploiting your strengths you weaken other aspects of your empire, it takes a skilled player to master the civs UA while keeping the rest of his empire under control. I mean all the turns you use to build units for your long wars can also be used to build up your empire and rule late game. yes the greek UA is usefull when dealing with city states but if they are in the way or you realy need the extra city that the ability will be useless since you might want to conquer them instead.

like in all civ games, you need to make choices, what strategy you use is all up to the map you play and how your opponents play.

(sorry for any spelling and grammar errors)

 

[Trine]

The problem I forsee with the Barbarian based UA is the simple fact that almost every multiplayer game I've ever played in during CivIV has barbarians (as well as random events, tech trading, and alot of other things that have been removed from Civ5 oddly enough) disabled. So tell me, if you play as Germany and the host disables Barbarians, does that mean you're just out of luck and end up with no UA?

 

[stealth_nsk]

The problem I forsee with the Barbarian based UA is the simple fact that almost every multiplayer game I've ever played in during CivIV has barbarians (as well as random events, tech trading, and alot of other things that have been removed from Civ5 oddly enough) disabled. So tell me, if you play as Germany and the host disables Barbarians, does that mean you're just out of luck and end up with no UA?

I think the barbarians will not be disabled in Civ5 MP, because:
- There are 3 civ abilities depending on barbarians directly and at least 1 depending indirectly.
- Cities are able to defend themselves no, so barbarians aren't critical threat.

P.S. Also I'd say disabling goody huts will weaken America.

 

[iskar]

ehm, dont join a game where they are disabled?
and if you pick random for a civ, dont join a game which has them disabled since you know that your UA might become useless.

 

[Iceciro]

Don't play Multiplayer with the STOP HAVING FUN! guys who take civ too seriously and turn off all the stuff like barbarians and goody huts and you'll be fine as Germany.

Really, you'd want to sit down for a game of civ with those kind of people? They'll probably put the game on Super Hyper Fast speed too.

 

[Ikariam]

I think they should add a feature that Civs like Germany will be given a certain amount of gold at game start if barbarian is disabled.

 

[Gallean88]

Why has nobody brought up Siberian Riches yet? It's a great UA, as it gives you more resources to build units with, resulting in more swords or horsemen, and gives you extra production to either get those units out faster or leverage it otherwise. I can't wait to try russia out.

 

[Iceciro]

Siberian Riches is awesome UA. It lets you get out more Cossacks, which is thier UU, too - which is a nice synergy if I do say so myself.

 

[Hawe Hawe]

One of the neglected benefits of the Ottoman and German abilities might be the economic side effect: You earn money by defeating barbarians. Not much, but it is difficult yet to judge how 25 gold effect your economy. Plus, you could immediately disband your new conquered barbarian units getting you additional gold.
I expect money to be more important than in civ 4, so this could be a small extra bonus. But in general i agree, that there are more convincing abilities like siberian riches, arab trade caravans and glory of rome.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

I think Germany's ability isn't bad. You can use it for early rushes, faster exploration and invest the production you saved on units in one or two early wonders. I just wish Germany had a science or industry related UB instead of having only military advantages.
Same for Japan: Great ability and very good UUs but in the game Japan is a very one-dimensional warmonger civ.
The weakest ability for me is without doubt barbary corsairs because it looks very situational and I'm not impressed with sun never sets and great warpath either, but it seems all weak abilities are balanced with strong unique units and buildings.

 

[Lap]

ey people,
now my only point here would be, why wonder which civilization would be the strongest, isnt it all up to the players skill?...to be honest, in my opinion they are all verry balanced,

I see this failure of an argument brought out for every game. Then why even bother trying to balance the game then if it's all or mostly based on player skill?

To be honest, none of us have played the game, but more games come out imbalanced than well balanced so my money is on there being some initial issues that will get patched later.

 

[Schuesseled]

Yea, England will suck on Pangaeas. So will the Ottomans UA.

If you neglect your navy on a pangea you will get messed up.

However Englands abiltity will be completely pointless on maps like the great plains, maps where there is literraly no water.

 

[Bibor]

Having extra ships, units and gold for free can't really be a bad thing. Maybe they'll need to tweak the % a bit, but that's for future patches.

 

[McDanny]

The UA's all seem rather balanced, at least from where I'm standing. A Japanese/Aztec invasion may be imposing, but if you manage to repel it they haven't any decent economic benefits to fall back on. The only one that really struck me as weak is the Egyptian UA (it always amused me that Rameses went from two traits in Civ IV, to less than half a trait in Civ V ). But, then again, since there are no other Industrious leaders any more you have no real direct competition for wonders, so a 20% bonus in Civ V will likely be much more effective than in Civ IV.

 

[Celevin]

I think people would better understand the French ability if you rephrased it:

French get a 100% boost towards getting Social policies for the first 50 turns of the game. After that the boost will obviously degrade at variable rates.

Other civs have to tech all the way to Philosophy, and then build a temple before they can raise their culture.

And nearly all Civ games will be essentially won or lost before you get out of the Medieval Era, so expiring with Steam Power is irrelevant. On higher lvls its typically won or lost by the end of the Classical Era, truth be told.

Monument is available to build from turn 1, and provides +2 culture for the city. France can build monuments, but it still holds that they don't have an overwhelming lead on culture. It's more that they can afford to do other things while others are catching up.

I find the arguing over the UAs funny, and I fell victim to it at one point as well. If social policies are dwarfing UAs, why so much debate that one civ will gain such a huge advantage? I feel that the UAs are mainly flavour, but don't actually offer that much change in power compared to policies, wonders, and everything else. The reason UAs are good is because you don't need to wait to get them, you have them from turn 1.

 

[Infiltrator]

I think the Ottomans have the worst UA while the german first UU is unimpressive (if it's just cheaper).

 

[Stefanskantine]

The only one that really struck me as weak is the Egyptian UA (it always amused me that Rameses went from two traits in Civ IV, to less than half a trait in Civ V ). But, then again, since there are no other Industrious leaders any more you have no real direct competition for wonders, so a 20% bonus in Civ V will likely be much more effective than in Civ IV.

I would rate it as one of the better ones. As you mentioned, Egypt will be the only one getting a leg up on wonders. Get an early wonder for +culture, then beeline to that SP that also gives +wonder production to stack with it, and you should be cleaning up. You can have the confidence to plan a strat around wonder beelines, without worrying who the other civs in your random game might be. Egypt will be the primary builder Civ of choice IMO.

 

[SGRaaize]

From the gameplay footage, I thought just the Samurai had the "fight at full strength even when wounded" ability?

Every single Japanese unit, actually, freaking awesome

 

[WeaselSlapper]

Am I the only one that finds it ironic that Washington's ability is best paired with Monarchy (total of -75% for tile purchase)?

 

[Armada88]

The Japanese ability doesn't sound that great, they're a pretty one-sided militaristic civ and the UA will be irrelevant so long as you can stay ahead of them tech-wise. I like the Russian Siberian Riches because you get a sustained bonus throughout the game with horses, iron and uranium.

I guess it depends the way you play the game though. I'm looking forward to the Greeks and Romans and a huge advantage early on with the 2 early UU's