Top 5 best civs and why.

[Harv72b]

Germany never made my list and the combat chance killed what was at best a bad UA in the barb conversion. landsknechts are ok in all yes but i never saw them as a battlefield running unit just a cheap unit

The landsknechts basically allow you to run a warrior swarm with pikemen (literally half the production time of the standard unit), and the much more important UA imo is the 25% reduction in land unit maintenance...which again plays into swarm tactics.

Germany isn't my favorite civ to play, but they're a really solid warmongering choice, especially in tight maps where you're going to see a lot of combat early. And with pikemen being buffed in G&K they're even stronger.

 

[RohirrimElf]

Amerika isnt to bad eather. Just scout for weaknesses with a scout +2/3 extra sight or a horseman with sight upgrade. Make sure ur opponent cant respond in time and he is in trouble. It requires some micromanagement but hit and run attacks worked well in vanilla.

 

[on7green]

With Gods & Kings on a Huge map, Arabia is the best civilization in the game.

The best unique building in the game. Bazaar adds ludicrous amounts of wealth to your empire through trade with other civilizations. It also adds extra gold for Oases and Oil. The sheer amount of wealth this single building produces is just stupid.

+1
With a luxury rich map, Arabia can be getting 200-300/turn by 100 AD. Then buy to your heart's content. Settlers, military, buildings... production issues are over.

 

[Gali]

Late game warmongering with America is amazing, especially now that musketman is on sword line. having all your infantry with scout movement is amazing. Teh b-17 is hideously powerful with proper brandenburg gate can get 2 attack and repair out of the gate and has evasion.

 

[Infiltrator]

Being a warmonger, right now I'd say (in no order):

Wu - obvious warmongering power with a good economy to back it up. The changes to the ranged units just makes her even better.
Attila - probably the best punch early on, but loses steam faster than any other civ
Genghis - another obvious one, takes a bit more than the huns to take off but it's much harder to stop after
Suleiman - with the GaK changes, his navy is ridiculous, and both of his Janissary went from to god tier.
Harald - Berserkers are probably the best tier 3 melee unit, fast and versatile, while upgrading into yet another great UU.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Wow, no one mentioned Egypt?

OP:

Rules are:
Conquest Victory

But I can see how amazing they would be on a peaceful game now. Something I want cleared up: a review mentioned that they changed building so that production gets easier as the techs progress so "my cities now feel like the sprawling metropolises they are". Could someone confirm that building has gotten easier? If so, how does this mechanic work?

20% wonder building bonus is huge... Basically allows me to build any wonder. If not every wonder.

And burial tombs gives 2 culture 2 happiness. Bad UU that I never use. If I want to spam wonders no one comes close to Egypt. And since this is Civ, I definitely feel like spamming wonders very often. I'd probably put them #1 for cultural victory potential.

I usually play on Emperor-Deity. On Deity warmongering is the easiest strategy so I like the Aztecs.

Also religion is a gimmicky joke and very hard to get on deity with not so many benefits. I have 22 opponents on going for religion so I really don't focus religion. It's not worth it unless I'm making religion my core strategy, in which case I'd use Byzantium. I'd say that building Pagodas and Mosques is the best effect of religion. Then the "Just war" makes is sort of worth it. You can also add that 34% spread speed as a bonus.

As for the best civ I have to say Aztecs. It's impossible to lose as the Aztecs. I rape all the computers every time and I don't even really need peace... ever. This is deity I'm talking about here.

It's really a joke how good the Aztecs are. I'm always at war and I just leech massive amounts of culture. I get the honor policy tree as soon as I can which is easy and takes almost no time. Then I get gold for all my kills as well as culture.

So right there... In one fell swoop all my economic and cultural issues gone. My only probably is I don't have enough enemies to kill and all the comps annoy the out of me begging me for peace every turn.

Basically the jaguar warriors are the first unit you get, easily spammable, moves easily through forests/jungles, and here is the kicker +25 hp after winning a battle. This upgrade stays through-out the game. So I spam jaguar warriors and just have an epic army which I upgrade at a 33% discount.

Since I'm always at war I don't really care about diplomacy and I make agreements I never honor. So I rob the computers every chance I get diplomatically. (Easy money)

So I basically the Aztecs have no comparison as far as I observed.

I can see how other civs can be better war-mongers like the mongols and the huns but they don't have the economy backing them up like the Aztecs. The Aztec special building give ridunculous (ridiculous) food bonuses which makes it GG. After my war mongering is done and my core cities are set up, I usually have the #1 spot.

Basically a typical game is over after the classical/medieval era when I rush and enemy capital with 4 jaguar warriors + 2-3 archers. I get two good cities fairly fast. I'm stealing workers the whole time while producing my military. I fall behind tech/economy but I quickly catch up as I have more cities/resources. And everyone around me is my feeding my culture.

No one has given me better results or comes close. My only complaint about the Aztecs is the lack or wonders and religion. Which is why I play Egypt/Byzantium. I really want to try the Arabs now after reading this thread, I never thought about their money making potential.

So my top civs:

Cultural - Egypt
War Mongering - Aztec

Religion - Byzantium - Only civ really viable with religion because of the bonus. I also really enjoyed their special units which are both monsters. I ripped everyone apart in my current immortal game and I'm getting like 100 faith a turn converting everyone

Civs I assume are really good:
Persia (Surprised I still haven't played them yet, guess I'm enjoying Egypt too much since they get everything... 150% golden ages? YES PLEASE.)
Mayans (Shrines give 2 science and faith? lol! Free great people? ROFL)
Carthage (Free harbor? Holy ...)
Huns (Battering Rams? Free husbandry and hammers? Holy crap...)
Arabia (Very well rounded, I want to try them)
Austria (Broken ability at the moment, but I still don't like them.)

Are the Aztecs still good? I mean, I know that they get more culture per kill now, but units also take longer to kill. I'm even more worried about Persia. Now that Great People can't all start Golden Ages now, have they been nerfed that badly?

Genghis - another obvious one, takes a bit more than the huns to take off but it's much harder to stop after

Is he better in the long run? Wouldn't Keshiks be weaker after the Medieval Era?

 

[Lyoncet]

I'm even more worried about Persia. Now that Great People can't all start Golden Ages now, have they been nerfed that badly?

Haven't tried them yet (they're coming up shortly on my list), but I'd assume they're much better. Golden Ages got buffed in that they give you culture now, too. Great Artists give you golden ages that don't diminish in length. You can buy Great Artists with Faith by taking Freedom. Louvre is utterly insane now as it gives you two full-length golden ages (I assume they'll reduce that to just one in the near future). And everyone has happiness coming out of the wazoo, meaning more golden ages. So no, I'm not to worried about Persia, which was already high tier to begin with.

Also, combat got slowed down, and I'm guessing that means Immortals quick patch-up will be handier.

 

[ShahJahanII]

Great Artists give you golden ages that don't diminish in length. You can buy Great Artists with Faith by taking Freedom. Louvre is utterly insane now as it gives you two full-length golden ages (I assume they'll reduce that to just one in the near future).

That changes everything. Thanks for bringing that up, I know realize they are probably even stronger.

 

[fury7]

I think Germany is now a viable civilization for warmongering, now that pikeman is buffed in GnK. Having Landsknecht produced every single turn is going to be scary now.

With logistic, keshik will at least deal 2hp damage on any unit (in pre GnK hp era, having your mechanized infantry lost 20% of hp by a medieval keshik is BS). This no longer happens now since units have 100hp instead of 10hp, therefore keshik is indirectly nerfed in this expansion.

Also Boudicca UU, pictish warrior is surprisingly good for early aggression, considering that pictish warrior has higher strength than swordman (str:11 +20% on foreign land), and available at ancient era

 

[ShahJahanII]

I think Germany is now a viable civilization for warmongering, now that pikeman is buffed in GnK. Having Landsknecht produced every single turn is going to be scary now.

Again, they take longer to get to. A good player with experience with Germany in the vanilla game will have to try them out now and tell us if the boost outweighs the longer time to research Civil Service.

 

[Lyoncet]

Also Boudicca UU, pictish warrior is surprisingly good for early aggression, considering that pictish warrior has higher strength than swordman (str:11 +20% on foreign land), and available at ancient era

Aren't Swordsmen strength 14 now? So even in foreign land, it's 13.2 vs 14. I mean, that's still really good considering Pictish is resourceless and ancient era and gives faith, but it's not stronger.

That changes everything. Thanks for bringing that up, I know realize they are probably even stronger.

Happy to help!

 

[fury7]

Aren't Swordsmen strength 14 now? So even in foreign land, it's 13.2 vs 14. I mean, that's still really good considering Pictish is resourceless and ancient era and gives faith, but it's not stronger.

Yikes, i did not build any swordman in GK expansion, so I had no idea of the change.

Still, the 20% upgrade is even more useful if you can upgrade those pictish warriors

 

[Securion]

If there is water on the map; Ottomans.
Reason; Three times as large navy that you dont even have to build yourself. Actually, you get paid for getting the ships...
All coastal cities will be yours in no time, even if you just suicide your ships into the cities, you will still conquer all of them easily.
Makes Deity level feel like Warlord.

If mostly land; Still, the Ottomans.
Reason; Heal after kill makes your army unstoppable. If you know how to move your troops that is...

Runner up; Arabia.
Reason; You have so much gold its ridiculous. Also, one of the best UUs in the game. AND endless supply and guarantied access to the most valuable resource in the game; Oil. Just mass buy bombers, battleships and tanks and take over the world.
Also very easy on Deity level since the AI have endless amounts of gold you can easily get from them.

 

[ShahJahanII]

If there is water on the map; Ottomans.
Reason; Three times as large navy that you dont even have to build yourself. Actually, you get paid for getting the ships...
All coastal cities will be yours in no time, even if you just suicide your ships into the cities, you will still conquer all of them easily.
Makes Deity level feel like Warlord.

If mostly land; Still, the Ottomans.
Reason; Heal after kill makes your army unstoppable. If you know how to move your troops that is...

I won my earliest domination victory with the Ottomans. 1535 A.D., Prince, Small Continents, I only built a single military land unit (spearman).

 

[thadian]

Austria is good if you can use their UA. You can buy-over CSs and (I didn't realize this at first), you get to keep all their buildings and they act like a native city with no need for a courthouse.

Also, if you buy a native city it doesn't "add" to your culture penalty like "founding" a city does.

First, my numbers didnt go up, so i hit end turn a few times. then i reloaded a new start to test something, i fire tuner myself 2000 gold, map place a few scouts until one "bumps" and discovers a city state.

Then i donated + annexed the city and over 10 turns it did NOT increase my culture as founding a new city with a settler.

 

[Infiltrator]

Is he better in the long run? Wouldn't Keshiks be weaker after the Medieval Era?

They would, but Keshiks have a much bigger "life span" than both Horse Archers and Rams, while being more than twice as mobile, and a +2 heal GG is useful all game long.

 

[ShahJahanII]

They would, but Keshiks have a much bigger "life span" than both Horse Archers and Rams, while being more than twice as mobile, and a +2 heal GG is useful all game long.

Thanks for the input. I've also found (with the Songhai) it is easier to get a really strong core 3 cities even while trying to get to chivalry as fast as possible.

 

[Monthar]

Since you're talking about marathon speed I think the Mayan need to be looked at a bit closer.

Mayan

• Archer UU that's cheaper to build and can be built on the first turn. In fact on marathon it takes 2 turns less than the warrior to build it or 40 gold less to buy it.
• Shine UB with +2 faith and +2 science (regular shrine is only +1 faith). This gets your Pantheon and religion faster. That extra science that only needs Pottery to build it will help get you to iron working a lot faster.

In fact I think I'm going to try a domination win with them on marathon.

 

[ButSam]

I'd like to say England is the most-improved in the warmongering capability. Now that ships can attack cities or do ranged attack, England's mobility is that much more dangerous. Not saying they are necessarily top-5 in general, but for a water-heavy map they are certainly pretty darn close.

 

[s0nny80y]

I've never played Mongols until God & Kings, the only reason being that the English Lowngbowmen have the plus one range to their range attack.

Playing as the Mongols in a Conquest game, one can compare the Keshik's siege ability [to drive in through a forest or hill, range attack a city, then pull out to safety] to the survivability of the Longbowman and their extended ranged attack.

Half of my Keshik force I have yet to upgrade to Cavalry simply because the Keshiks over power most if not all cavalry and pre modern infantry type units...however, the other half of my Keshik horde I did upgrade for the ability to have a mobile invading force to complement my very mobile arty siege Keshik force.

With that said, my top TWO favorite civs thus far (without having tried the G7K civs, yet) are the English and the Mongols.