Top 5 best civs and why.

[Colonel Travis]

Attila - probably the best punch early on, but loses steam faster than any other civ

Would agree here, I've played the Huns more than any other so far, and always I steamroll 2-3 civs (sometimes it's embarrassingly quick) and then everything flatlines in the Medieval Era. Gonna have to reevaluate my strategy because the Huns have stunk for me when the technology ramps up.

 

[Esperr]

The greeks, you cant rush them succusfully, they can rush you succusfully most likely and Helenic Legions is the most OP trait in the game, it, coupled with the patronage tree gives them a super well rounded game thats very powerful at all time periods.

 

[Zenstrive]

Arabia (money makes the world goes round, so it could make war goes on forever, albeit hampered by happiness)
Askia (loots are great)
Russia (IROOONSSS!)
Byzantium (faiths makes good warriors and lotsa sciences)
Huns (break them gates!)

 

[YohanLeafheart]

Carthage. People who don't like this civ don't understand how insanely powerful it is to have an automatic trading route with every coastal city immediately after founding/conquering. And that's not even taking into account having the best trireme unit in the game, getting an extra hammer from every ocean source immediately, being able to cross mountains...very powerful Civ and extremely well-rounded, too.

Having played a domination game as Carthage on large islands yes, the free harbor is really silly. I had a city with 2 fish and 2 pearls, on a 3 dot island, it was a monster. I easily wiped out the rest. The early trirreme if you have two spaces to attack from the city on your first target is really good. Elizabeth suffered on my hands.

 

[Slvynn]

People understimate Carthage on paper. Alot more GPT per turn on ancient and classic than any other civ. While being expansion/economy focused civ its rapidness and hidden but present synergy with religion (pressure thru instant routes, science from mesengers and happiness) make them rapid expanding and rival-consuming civ

 

[pspboy7]

I've played the Huns and don't find them that great, especially when the other civs have decent armies to defend themselves, they just tear my rams and horse archers apart. I would rather play Mongols, Rome, or China.

 

[Orgetorix]

Mayans
Pyramid (Faith + Science) equlas ICS monster
Atlatlist spam for early defense while REXing like crazy covering the continent with pyramids. Mayans can get a religion even on Diety every time and then enhance it with liberty's GP or the GP from The Long Count giving them a solid foundation for mid-late game conquest.
7 GP 4 free from UA + a guaranteed prophet + free one from liberty, all quite early. Who can match that?
Strategically placing cities not to expose to wide a front you can concentrate a stupid amount of units from your 12+ cities
How is this good for conquest? Well, churning out twice as many units as any opponent on diety while at the same time teching hard and having so much faith that you can by units or religious building avery 4 turns is indeed good for conquest. With pagodas lux problems from captured cities are mitigated, with holy warriors you can buy a crap ton of soldiers and later you can buy GE for juicy wonders or manufactories.

Chinese
More GG equals offensive citadels.
Better GG equals overcoming the disadvantage of being offensive,
Double attack Chu-Ko-Nu's that become gatling guns and machine guns means china is powerful from start to finish unlike some other civs that have to hit thier specific window of oppertunity. Also, you can skip logistics and get early range and march instead meaning you can actually "fully" upgrade these units without honour's extra XP.
Paper makes is meh but it will pay for itself and 2 units.

English
Extreme mobility on land and sea. Longbows are just stupid. You can conquer any other civ in medieval with them unless the terrain is extremely disadvantageous (all open terrain) and the enemy has a lot of mounted units.
Ship of the Line rules the sea for a very long time. With englands extra movement they will always get first strike and if they dont they can fire and escape.
Extra spy is always good. Instigate revolts in a militaristic CS behind enemy lines, steal extra tech or just keep track of backstabbers.

Aztecs
All offensive infantry you'll ever need will heal with each kill, move fast and get extra protection as long as you get enough Jaguars early on. Which you'll want anyway for scouting and extra culture.
Floating gardens are on the path to CB's and Swords.
Very tall, well defended(next to lakes with no ships in them) empire can focus their production meaning more blood-drinking units.
Go for left side of honor and continue with building jaguares and pissing off every AI near you by building an enormous city in their face to get a ton of culture and easy XP. Then kill everyone in the world and sacrifice them to the Great Serpent Ixiquatl...

Greece
I hate greece. Alex is in my opinion the most agreesive AI of them all and will DOW you on turn ~20 on diety with units as strong as something you will not have for another 50 turns... That's why YOU should play him
Sersiously 13 Stength spearmen and 14 strength horsemen that you can have after 5 techs on the path to chariot archers and CB's. the ponies also generate more generals which isn't to bad.
Concentrate on building units instead of food/happiness/culture because you can get that from a city state... Sell your lux to a neighbour and use the money to get it back from a CS along with some strategics and for a longer time. Or you could focus on building and allying some militaristic CS to get you some unique units that can change the war in your favour... Pretty cool. In fact, Hellas will reign supreme in my next game!

 

[budweiser]

Inca - The Earth Shakers! They are in a league of their own, built for war, built to take land. The hill movement is just not fair.

Hi, I am Pacachuti and this is my Golden Halberd. All your base are belong to us!

 

[Gucumatz]

Top 5

1. Arabia - Camel Archers are sturdier Keshiks - Plus they come with the added bonus of a gold intensive civ - a desert start bias (for a Petra/Desert Pantheon bonus) - Bazaars which allow in singleplayer for extra gold to attack

2. Inca - Less gold maintenance = Bigger armies. Add into the fact the hills bonus works anywhere you can outflank in the early game almost any opponent in mixed terrain - and in the later game basically have commando troops. With happy easier to achieve - Terrace farms allow for a mix of heavy production cities with a big enough food basin to grow at t he same time

3. Huns - In truth they are propbably number one. The early rush ability is just... phenomenal. Horse Archlers wipe anything off the map.

4. England - On a water map Ships of the Line crush any cities/units you will ever meet. Add in longbows to act as artillery on land... and well a pretty unstoppable force you have there. Add in the extra spy to get the techs you ignored as you beelined your UU techs - and well arguably the most powerful civ in the later game. Gatling Guns are much more powerful with extra range + bonus movement in water allows you to use the oceans as highways

5. Denmark - Yes, I didn't pick Mongolia. I normally play multiplayer and Keshiks are much weaker to hits - and they happen in simultaneous turns. Still a useful unique unit - but I just don't like Mongolia that much in multi. Anyways - Denmark. Excellent scouting civ. Land on an island - explore it and then go back to the ocean. Grabbing Comerce/Great Lighthouse are a huge focus for this civ. Why? That extra movement in the water translates to extra movement on land. Go into the ocean and with 6-7 movement in the water you can land on the coast and move 4-5 tiles inland before setting up to fire at an unsuspecting inland city. Berserkers used to be much stronger - but the amphib promotion + extra movement is still nice. Norwegian Ski infantry get an additional rough terrain combat modifier - which is extreemly useful. Similar to England - Extra movement on the oceans is killer. Being able to land off the sea and attack the same turn in blitzkrieg fashion - wiping out any units protecting the coastline in one turn? - Priceless.

 

[Loucypher]

I find it interesting that, while Sweden isn't THE strongest warmonger, nobody even mentioned them. Get DOF's with a few Civs, attack others and watch the Generals roll in. Gift the Generals to Militaristic City States and bam, you got something scary going on. Add to that they got two rather powerful UU's (Though they do come late) and well...

 

[bcaiko]

I think Japan deserves some consideration, if only for one combination: Samurai/Armory. Having the ability to win off of desperate last-minute attacks with instant seige bonuses can come in handy and mean a smaller army remains effective at conquering.

Still...

I think Japan also deserves some consideration; now that units tend to be able to survive longer, Bushido becomes even stronger.

I think Japan also deserves some consideration; now that units tend to be able to survive longer, Bushido comes into play less often.

Fixed that for you. Japan's no longer getting much benefit from Bushido, since it can't one shot your unit for attacking it in the last turn. Pre G&K, units were either full health, dead or almost dead. It's only in that last state where the Bushido bonus really reared its head (READ: a unit that's hardly or mildly injured is basically the same as any other unit, even under Bushido). Since it's more difficult for even a full strength unit to kill another unit, there's no reason to try kamikaze style attacks anymore...Japan would rather send back the unit for healing than risk the very good chance that it will die (except, as I said above, where the unit has a good chance of taking a city).

On the other hand...

I almost added Japan then i realized, with steel pushed further back (along with gunpowder) the time samurai run the field is shorter while taking longer to build up to.

This "nerf" actually works in Japan's favor, because it's created a near infinate Samurai loop. Samurai don't go obsolete when Muskets become available (they become obsolete at Metalurgy), so just pop a Samurai with two instant open terrain bonuses and a seige bonus, then upgrade him to Musketman and get your iron back. Rinse, repeat. With Alhambra, an army of Samurai Musketmen is neigh unbeatable.

 

[teakbois]

Top 5

1. Arabia - Camel Archers are sturdier Keshiks - Plus they come with the added bonus of a gold intensive civ - a desert start bias (for a Petra/Desert Pantheon bonus) - Bazaars which allow in singleplayer for extra gold to attack

Not to mention start bias usually means oil as well, and double amounts of it. Helpful for building a good air force.

 

[superfeds]

I think difficulty level needs to be factored in when judging these civs. Some UAs are amazing, but become borderline useless on Immortal/Deity.

Egypt and Byzantium are obvious favs, however their UAs just dont pan out once you get to the high difficulties.

Wonder spamming becomes almost impossible...at least early...and even then probably not worth it when youre dealing with all the bonus production the AIs get. Wonders can set you back. Egypt is just not a great high lvl civ IMO.

Byzantium allows for crazy belief choices with religion, but getting a reglion without a way to generate early faith means you have to focus it from the start. It also means getting locked out, or having to pick left over beliefs are pretty much your only religious choices.

So for my top 5 warmonger civs on Immortal/Deity...I would pick civs that allow me to easily build infrastructure and economy, so I can build and maintain a large military.

1) Iroquois - With the right start, you can have great production cities. Picking the right food and happiness religious beliefs allow you to grow huge forested cities with high defense. Lots of extra and early gold. The Mohawk warriors while not as strong outside of forest and jungle still keep the promotions, and building swordsmen allows you to have strong front line troops in every era.

2) Inca - Similar to the Iroquois. More gold from trade routes and higher production from start bias. Usually get several cities next to mountains, that will have high pop and access to observatories. Very high science potential. Also very high defense with hills and mountains. Lots of gold, defensible empire means you can maintain a large, army and usually be ahead on tech. The terrace farm lets you grow and produce at the same time.

3) Celts - Sneaky good warmonger. Getting faith from the start means you dont have to focus shrines. Allows you to tech military at the start for your UU and other fun stuff. Go Liberty of Honor, kick out your UUs and pick on neighbors while you kick out a few cities. You will almost always get the first religion. Pick happiness beliefs and ICS...or warmonger to your hearts content.

4) English - All about timing with them. You want to spend the first 3 eras establishing your infrastructure and preparing for the Renaissance. Once your two UUs coming online, kick out Ships of the Line and a few privateers. You can have any coastal city you want with the privateers feeding your navy. The longbow and a few meat shields can push any army forward.

5) Sweden - Bit of an oddball, but strangely powerful for warmongering at high levels when done right. Set up your cities to be great person generators. Keep your empire Tall at first. Start using faith and the GP to get CS allies. Your cities will grow huge, you will have tons of happiness, and free military units. When you get your UUs, roll through everyone.

 

[milk steak]

Over the weekend I have been playing 2 games with Austria and been doing the following strategy for making insane amounts of cash:

1.Scout and find city states which share borders/are very close to the AI territory. These city states will almost always be allied with those AIs.

2.Have a spy rig a couple of elections and perform a coup. Spy needs to be level 3 and success rate needs to be over 66% - I did 10 coups with success rate of 66% or more and they all went through.

3.Marry off your princess to the rich nobleman (500 gold)

4.Wait 1 turn to get money from dismissing the units(or keep them) and sell the city to the nearby AI for sums of over 3000-4000 in instagold or GPT.

The whole point here is that AIs are willing to spend very large sums for cities that are close to them.

On another note - here is a trick for getting a super early level 3 spy - tech to renaissance without getting sailing and optics(not needed in early game on most land maps anyway). When you send your spy to any civ capital those two tech will almost always be available for stealing and will cost 5 turns each = level 3 spy in 10 turns after he starts stealing.

What a crazy strat... Thank you for sharing.

 

[Slvynn]

0. I dont like Austria

1. Japan.
2. China
3. Denmark
4. Iroquois
5. Babylon (yes, bowmans, and good research to keep on more advanced units)

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

purely discussing conquest my list (in no real order) are Mongols, Arabia, Carthage, England, and either China or Huns (now that ive been wizened to the real value of Rams, haha).

I include Dido and Elizabeth because sea combat is so much more fun and effective now that I had to give them props. Elizabeth gets an extra spy on top of great movement and Ships of the Line. Dido gets free harbors for great ICSing. i havent played Polynesia yet either so they would probably get a big nod too. The others have been explained already so i wont reiterate the same stuff but the improvement to Arabia's camel archers is one of the larger reasons why they are even more powerful than in vanilla.

 

[woodshadows]

Arabia: The Camel Archer is just ridiculously good; if you like Keshiks then you'll love Camel Archers. They rip holes through cities faster than a keshik, are cheaper to build than a keshik and with the bazaar you don't have to burn every city down because you can actually afford the happiness/upkeep of cities you take. Plus unlike most CiV colours, the double-green is pretty slick looking, with the crescent moon and star, so much nicer than most of these goofy colour combinations.

France: The ability to expand rapidly without being culturally/policy penalized significantly is very powerful, knock out several cities along Liberty line and have a large amount of cities with an economy supplemented by the loads of policies you'll be able to get. Just like with Arabia, a well-oiled Economy is really the greatest asset to a warmonger, on all but the smallest maps and lowest difficulty levels, playing standard size+ difficulty Immortal+ without an economy you're just another flash in the pan using an era-dependent UU to gain a large empire you can't support.

Spain: Conquistadors. I'm biased in favour of the medieval for my time to expand militarily, my cities are all built, tiles are mostly improved, workers are busy at work, cities are connecte, I have some neighbours with some weak cities close-by, marketplaces, circuses, diplomacy with other civs has taken a certain direction, it's a good time to war and I rate the Conquistador as the single best unit in the game, they are like a hot knife through butter, it's only unfortunate that the Spanish don't have much else going for them..

Dutch: Sea Beggars and Bazaar-like UA mean a great economy and a very flexible naval unit that can range far from home and influence the political landscape of the world. Someone getting too big on the other side of the continent, declaring war on someone weak? Send some seabeggars and harrass/take/burn some of their cities to distract their focus and give the weaker civ a chance to hold out.

Incans: Great economy and a UA that turns every unit into a UU, great for guerrilla warfare style tactics, hopping onto/across hills, frustrating the AI.

 

[Crafty Bison]

By best do you mean most fun, or easiest to win with?

Most fun:
Persia (Immortal is awesome, movement is awesome for blitz, is economic powerhouse so don't need to worry about stopping. There's also a 10% modifier and a hapiness UB thrown in for good measure)
England (SotL takes a long time to get to logistics but is an absolute beast. Longbows are rlly fun too. Generally a great blitz civ due to reduced time to do anything on the water and beastly kiting ability)
Denmark (Vikings rule. Also, amhibious attacks are no longer difficult but now epic)
Greece (Ok so probably settling down to a diplo vc later on but this is the fun list! Companion cavalry is insane for blitz in the open field. Attached to the G&K hoplites, this feels like cheating)
Aztecs (Play a domination game but end with a cultur vc - makes a nice change of pace in dom games)

Easiest to win:
China (GG boost is boring but powerful, CKN's really good, paper makers helpout economically)
Mongols (Pretty sure this one's obvious)
Arabia (Not that different from Mongolia, except slower promotion and movement coupled with economic stability and more base firepower give a more calculated and less psychotic feel)
Songhai (Great UA, very good UU, UB also helps out)
Huns (Not as sold as everyone who's saying obvious top 2, and might not even end up on a domination vc, but for early warring there's no-one anywhere near as good)

 

[That nerdy kid]

My personal opinion is that Arabia is more powerful than the Mongols. They get the oil bonus, a strong UU, and a great UB, while the Mongols get a similar UU, a useful UGP, and a terrible UA.

 

[ahawk]

1) Maya: RapidEx strategy coupled with all those +2 science Pyramid UBs adds up to a lot of extra science to help keep up at higher levels, or to easily outpace the AI at lower levels

2) China: RapidEx strategy coupled with Papermakers is nice, and add on extra powerful GG's and Cho-ko-nu's, and you get a powerful side

3) Austria: the UA, combined with a decent amount of GPT, creates a situation where you can dominate the game by buying up CSs

4) Persia/Huns: both have the potential for some of the nastiest early rushes around (Immortal rush during a Persian GA [or] Battering Rams and, for good measure, more Hunnic Battering Rams!)

5) Iroquios/Netherlands: top-end production from tiles that slow invaders down (although the Netherlands never seem to spawn enough marshes in the games I play)

Honorable Mention: Aztecs, with their huge food boost from the UB and their UA which helps them flesh out whatever SP track they want early on; Inca with their UI that makes production tiles into great food tiles as well