Unique Ability Elimination Thread

[Wabango]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 18
Phoenician Heritage: 25
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 9
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 25
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 10
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 18
Father Governs Children: 24
Seven Cities of Gold: 14
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

Austria: I dislike the removal of CS as the player of Austria and especially against Austria, it just isn't conducive to my play style to remove CSs.

Netherlands: I would of voted for Great Andean Road, but for some reason Dutch East Indies is falling low, which is baffling to me, since you can either trade Luxuries for huge profit early and continue solid growth rate in the late game.

 

[Tabarnak]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 18
Phoenician Heritage: 25
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 9
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 25
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 10
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 18
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 12
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

SCG : Put a quarter into a slot machine instead. Seriously, this UA can be pretty powerful but i don't like gamble ones. Can be very nice on pangea maps but you still need to find at least 1 nat. wonder first to gain enough benefits. Powerful on quick speed though.

FGC : Pretty rare are games where you don't ally a cultural or maritime cs through the game. And this can be pretty early if you are surrounded with many of them.

 

[Skibbi]

Hellenic league seems better!

 

[Lordleoz]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 18
Phoenician Heritage: 25
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 9
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 25
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 10
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 16
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

Sven Cities of Gold: it isn't a total gambling. Natural wonders are evenly distributed on a whole map so you can always find some. Although I have to agree that there is a small chance to appear near a NW in the first turn, it's still not difficult to build colonies near them in later game.

Siberian Riches: +1 prod has little use and I seldom run out of strategic resources.

EDIT: @Wabango: it's nice to see your votes counted!

 

[Rooftrellen]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 18
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 25
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 10
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 16
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

Love the free harbors. I'm not one to build lots of roads to get around, just for the trade, and if it makes things faster, its a byproduct in general. Carthage still needs roads for trade, but the free harbors makes things much cheaper, particularly when railroads come into play.

Viking Fury still isn't doing anything for me. No matter how I try to look at it, I'm not seeing anything that great. I consider it much worse than some of the UA's that have fallen by the wayside already.

 

[Skibbi]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 18
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 26 Having a fast destroyer or battleship is like having a fast tank! You can rush to safety and heal, spring better traps explore alot faster.
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 9 I see no point for this, every so often, you get a great person but you have to research theology which means it is not free at all...
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 16
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

 

[maurcus]

Manifest Destiny: 14 (+1) it is useful in most circumstances to have more sight, as more sight =less traps being sprung against you and less scouts explore your continent in less time
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 15 (-2) it is so bland and i primarily play for the flavor
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 9
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 16
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 18

 

[woodshadows]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 15
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 21
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 7
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 16
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19


long count - because i dont really want to take a great admiral or great merchant over a great engineer or great scientist

river warlord - because it is almost always useful to have free promos on units and there's something nice about having a bunch of mandekalu cavalry sitting along the coast harrassing units that come too near who aren't able to attack back.

 

[crawf0rd]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 15
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19 (-2)
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 7
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 17 (+1)
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19

Guys, listen up: Siberian Riches is good. I just played as Russia, decided to try and get all the plot modifiers (kreposts, religious settlemets, etc.). With all that land, I was able to get a lot of strategic resources (16 horses and 20 iron), which I then sold for boatloads of money, and bought off some city states. It is very effective at getting an early bank.

Monument Builders is only good when you are focusing on wonders. It is just a bit too restrictive for my liking.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 16
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 20
Great Andean Road: 26
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 5
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 17
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19

Babylon: I'm not a massive science vc fan, but I do really like that this one gives the tech boost super early, meaning there's at least one civ that can get near/past the AI for tech to the medieval units. Does very well in renaissance too. A nice war civ

Maya: Sorry, but there's only 6 ones I have left to vote on and this looks like it might go before tomorrow, sorry, it's a downvote. All your GP space is ruined by merchants and the like. Wasn't I supposed to be spamming GS's all over my empire? I almost like maya more for their altlatist/comp bow rush. Almost. I do like the different clock though, it makes me forget that I have SoTL's in 600AD etc.

 

[Gucumatz]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 16
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 18 (-2) I am not a fan of Hellenic league. It doesn't give the player enough advantage/mobility of circumstance and with early UUs helps make Greece feel underwhelming in the longrun
Great Andean Road: 27 (+1) My favorite UA of the list :: Just so many options, so much utility, and so many ways for the player to adjust to whatever and any roll given to him/her. And unlike the free science UAs (I have never liked them not because they aren't strong, they are - but they just feel so... gimmee)
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 5
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 17
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 13
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19

 

[crawf0rd]

One thing I dislike about elimination threads is once they up the downvote power. Instead of going +1 -3, I was thinking, maybe +2 -5? It would really speed things up, and would make the upvote 40% as powerful as the downvote, rather than 33%. The only problem there is that -5 means one person can eliminate something in just 4 attempts, which would be a bit too much power to one hater. If you guys are up to it, we can do it.

 

[Lordleoz]

What about double the present points of each trait, and than change into +2, -5?

Edit: This is actually equivalent to +1, -2.5 on the current basis but it makes calculating easier.

 

[Crafty Bison]

What about double the present points of each trait, and than change into +2, -5?

Edit: This is actually equivalent to +1, -2.5 on the current basis but it makes calculating easier.

This would defeat the point of increasing the values. The idea is to increase the absolute difference between upvote and downvote as a proportion of total points remaining so it doesn't slow down. If we double the points it wouldn't make any real difference to what is happening at the moment.

 

[Lordleoz]

This would defeat the point of increasing the values. The idea is to increase the absolute difference between upvote and downvote as a proportion of total points remaining so it doesn't slow down. If we double the points it wouldn't make any real difference to what is happening at the moment.

Some say +1,-2 is too slow while +1,-3 is unbalanced so I think +1,-2.5 is better. But since the decimal numbers look pretty annoying, I double it and change it to +2,-5 and also double the current points for each trait. Now it is equivalent to +1,-2.5 on the current basis. If we don't double the points, but only adopt +2,-5, the vote will be more than twice as fast as before.

 

[Petiscator]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 9
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 16
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 18
Great Andean Road: 27
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 5
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 27
Siberian Riches: 18
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 11
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19

Siberian Riches: Crawf0rd said it all. One of the best UAs for me, has a lot of sinergy with the Krepost, gives a great early production (and even not so early) and the resources are plentiful to trade without trying to give your happiness away.

Seven Cities of Gold: Can be really powerful, can suck hard. It is harder to found a natural wonder early than it is, lets say, to found a religion (the big reason why Patriarchate of Constantinople was eliminated), and if you can't find one pretty soon (and by this, I mean within the first 25 turns, then it is plain useless. 100 gold is basically an ancient ruin, so if you find them after the other players, well, good luck for you and for that stupid Bareer Reef within Budapest's territory.

 

[Crafty Bison]

Some say +1,-2 is too slow while +1,-3 is unbalanced so I think +1,-2.5 is better. But since the decimal numbers look pretty annoying, I double it and change it to +2,-5 and also double the current points for each trait. Now it is equivalent to +1,-2.5 on the current basis. If we don't double the points, but only adopt +2,-5, the vote will be more than twice as fast as before.

The idea is that it's supposed to make the vote faster, not just to change the ratio of upvote to downvote. It should change when there are a larger number of entries with a high value and people are getting bored of voting on the same ones, so 2 and 5 seems fine to me atm. An effective 1 and 2.5 won't really change anything dramatically.

 

[Lordleoz]

yeah, makes sense

 

[Lordleoz]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 7
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 16
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 18
Great Andean Road: 27
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 5
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 28
Siberian Riches: 18
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 11
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19

the Glory of Rome: one of the best UA. Now that it's only 27, I'll upvote it again.

Diplomatic Marriage: I love getting along with those city-states and I love the benefit they provide. No, I seldom consider annexing allied ones.

 

[Skibbi]

Manifest Destiny: 14
Diplomatic Marriage: 7
Sacrificial Captives: 24
Ingenuity: 16
Phoenician Heritage: 26
Art of War: 22
Viking Fury: 7
Monument Builders: 19
Sun Never Sets: 26
Ancien Regime: 23
Hellenic League: 19 Invaluable for getting city state allies! City States always give you great advantages.
Great Andean Road: 27
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 23
The Long Count: 3 As said before, not really a free great person! You also have to wait for quite some time just to get a mere great person!
Dutch East India Company: 22
Achaemenid Legacy: 29
The Glory of Rome: 28
Siberian Riches: 18
Father Governs Children: 25
Seven Cities of Gold: 11
Nobel Prize: 21
River Warlord: 19