Hmm... Have any of you actually tried playing Sumer yourselves, as opposed to putting them in your game? I designed Sumer specifically so he could decapitate 1-2 close neighbours ultra-early. The AI is also rather aggressive, and the production focus suits the AI very well. If you're finding that you are getting crippled if you start next to him then it's working; you have to rush spearmen tech if your scouts find him as your neighbor.
I don't play above king (I don't find it fun), but I imagine the bonuses they get to production at higher difficulties makes this civ quite troublesome early. I'm guessing this is an Iroquois/Songhai problem, where the AI is conspicuously better at handling their traits than most other civs. Sumer is pretty straightforward
@Jarula, I don't doubt your experience, but I'm not inclined to adjust the civ too strongly for a few reasons:
a) you're reporting 3x the amount of policies on a civ that has mediocre boosts to culture. Their main boosts are science and production.
b) you're reporting a non-standard game setup, which makes me think that such insane culture gain is likely a mod conflict or glitch. Same as Mitch.sp's bug, I haven't been able to reproduce outrageous culture gains in my own games.
At any rate, a new version inbound:
Reduced food and production boost on settle to 60
/50
, down from 60/60
switched Eduba to 2
/2
+20%
, instead of culture
My first guess is that this is overnerfed. We'll see though. I suspect I will be putting that production back up to 60 in short order
Tradition doesn't seem optimal to me. Authority offers more production, expansion and early war benefits. Sumer has a specialist bonus, but I wouldn't say they have a GP focus
from working tiles.
, 4 policies in authority, mostly from bullying, worker, settler, could've easily take out my neighbor Egypt, who build Karnak for me (nice of them 
), but I stopped playing 2 turns before I've reached Ziggurat.
