The DLC Elimination Thread

[Lyoncet]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 13
Inca 14
Polynesia 6
Denmark 12

 

[Polycrates]

is that a joke? babylon can complete any victory condition except cultural faster than any other civ. everything stems from science and a free academy on turn 20ish really trivializes the game. or want rifles on turn 80? babylon.

speaking of rigid inflexibility, how about civs which require mountains for one of their abilities to be useful, and hills for the other.

Inflexible in that everything depends on beelining straight for Education. There's very little room for tailoring early/mid-game strategies (which is where the game is really won or lost) to the specifics of your situation because you're pretty much always forced down the one path. And the significance of Babylon's early GS is now kinda mitigated by everyone else getting Meritocracy, though of course 2 is better than 1 - and that the GS really needs to be bent towards one thing - getting to Education.
Plus you're kinda cheating yourself if you go for strategies around the use of non-scientist specialists.
Sure your game opens up by the midgame, but there's really only one road to get you there. I know the same is true of a bunch of other civs (which is why I didn't vote for Denmark or Mongolia, though both of those have significant earlier advantages as well) but it just seems particularly pronounced with Babylon. I dunno, seems a bit one-dimensional to me.

Whereas Inca have both economic and wartime strengths, and terraces are far more about flexibility than anything else - they give you the ability to settle and thrive in terrain where others can't. Which to my mind makes them actually less terrain-dependent than other civs. Their reliance on mountains is minimal, and while they get the most from hills in their own territory (and even more so in enemy territory), they're still getting a significant gold advantage with not a single hill in sight. I find Inca to be one of the most flexible civs, but then I have a bit of a thing about them.

 

[spider1]

Babylon, Inca, Poly rock. After that, meh..........

 

[Kevin J]

Well said Polycrates - you put words to the vague ideas I have in support of the Inca. Plus, they're fun to play! No other DLC civ have I played as often, and I think they're just out and out one of the most fun civs to play.

The extra mobility in hills really seems to open up the land, as do the extra free roads Inca's can have. The extra free gold from trade route maintenance makes a big difference in large empires, and more gold always gives more options - the flexibility of Inca is probably a big part of why it feels fun to me.

Songhai is another civ that captures that amorphous personal sense of fun for me - barb hunting, and getting big chunks of extra gold is fun. It makes the game more engaging.


Babylon is probably the strongest civ in the game. But it's far from the most fun - for me, at least.

 

[vexing]

Inflexible in that everything depends on beelining straight for Education.

the university specialists aren't required at all: the academy boost alone is so powerful you can do whatever you want after that, or alternatively saving that GS for bulbing rifles is probably one of the best deity domination strategies available. meritocracy for a GE for GL opens up many early possibilities plus a GS in 50 turns.

 

[Glassmage]

Babylon 15
Mongolia 13
Inca 14
Polynesia 4
Denmark 12

 

[HarryLime]

Babylon 16
Mongolia 13
Inca 14
Polynesia 2
Denmark 12

 

[Optical]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 13
Inca 14
Polynesia 2
Denmark 13

 

[Babri]

Babylon 12
Mongolia 14
Inca 14
Polynesia 2
Denmark 13

 

[Pouakai]

Babylon 12
Mongolia 12
Inca 14
Polynesia 3
Denmark 13

 

[aatami]

Babylon 13
Mongolia 10
Inca 14
Polynesia 3
Denmark 13

 

[filli_noctus]

Babylon 13
Mongolia 8
Inca 14
Polynesia 3
Denmark 14

 

[Arilian]

Babylon 13
Mongolia 8
Inca 15
Polynesia 1
Denmark 14

I think Mongolia is most powerful for Domination, Inca is for Builder.
Polinasia is the most fun but i vote them down now as they are not so powerful.

 

[Mesopotamian]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 8
Inca 13
Polynesia 1
Denmark 14

 

[Optical]

So Polynesia are gone - you used the 2-posts-up list.

Corrected list:

Babylon 14
Mongolia 8
Inca 15
Polynesia 0 Next person deletes this from their list
Denmark 14

 

[filli_noctus]

So Polynesia are gone - you used the 2-posts-up list.

Corrected list:

Babylon 14
Mongolia 8
Inca 15
Polynesia 0 Next person deletes this from their list
Denmark 14

No they're not, Pouakai up voted them to three and they've only been downvoted once since then.

 

[Sparthage]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 8
Inca 13
Polynesia 0
Denmark 15

 

[BSPollux]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 8
Inca 14 +1
Denmark 13 -2

 

[The_Quasar]

Babylon 14
Mongolia 6
Inca 14
Denmark 14

 

[black213]

Babylon 12 -2
Mongolia 6
Inca 15 +1
Denmark 14

Don't have Denmark or Polynesia so I didn't vote for Denmark.