Unique Ability Elimination Thread

[Rooftrellen]

Sacrificial Captives: 20
Sun Never Sets: 6
Hellenic League: 0
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 18
Achaemenid Legacy: 22
Nobel Prize: 10

Not sure about MP, but in SP, Nobel prize is a gem. It's not hard to stay at peace most of the time, meaning friendly relations, and if you don't declare war, people forgive you for wars that happen quite readily. The massive influence from giving away extra GP is also very noticable in any game

Bye bye Hellenic League. You're good, but it's just time. It's not even my least favorite left, but I can't very well promise a round of 3 and only do two, and it's just next in line. It's a huge boost, particularly with religion and the new quest system (which made it much better than in vanilla), but it's up against strong and interesting competition. Nobel Prize is the better diplo option, Sacrificial Captives is more interesting to play. Sun Never Sets is stronger, and Achaemenid Legacy is strong as well, leaving this as the odd one out.

I'll not be doing a loop of 3 again however.

 

[ArnoldI]

Sacrificial Captives: 20
Sun Never Sets: 3 (-2)
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 18
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 10

SNS: good, but occasional, and the not my favorite one.
GAR: less maintenance is always good, and hills movement is so wonderful. You can make easily attacks, retreats and make your Settler get in the best position. Wonderful, just wonderful.

 

[abandag]

City-states give you things - food/luxuries/resources/an ally in war/friendly territory to pass through/heal in/units(sometimes UU's), faith, happiness, culture. I think you knew this already though, so while I'm sure you'd agree that having any of these benefits is generally a positive thing, wouldn't you also agree that having a UA that allows you to effectively have double as many citystates on your side is an even better thing? Double the amount of citystates on your side, or conversely (father governs children) 50% culture/faith/food (with no effect upon mercantile/militaristic cs's). You may be playing on a low difficulty level making city state influence very easy, with no competition from other civs, in which case of course this would appear a lacklustre UA. On higher difficulty levels however there is a *lot* of competition for citystates from other civs, so having a 50% decrease on influence can be enormous, either saving you loads of gold or doubling the amount of citystates you have allied to you. In fact, the only times I have managed to win on Deity (that wasn't a prefabricated duel type cheesey win) involved using a diplomatic civ and going heavy into city states - ignoring citystates on Deity or even Immortal is often suicide as you will wind up with little pockets on multiple sides of your empire with massive armies which when the appropriate civ declares on you will all swarm into your territory, forcing you to fight on multiple fronts. Conversely, if you have those citystates on your side, it's an enormous benefit to have them do the exact same thing to your enemy, watching the AI attempt to fight off citystates invasions on multiple fronts, allowing you to walk in with a small force of siege and one melee and take any city you want.

E: I should also emphasize just how devastating citystate invasions can be on Deity especially. Judging from peoples opinion of Mongol Terror's citystate combat bonus I think a lot of people scoff at the idea that a citystate could mount a serious offensive against you. In my first Deity game I didn't bother too much about citystates, thinking the same thing "oh, whatever, they aren't going to be any threat to me", until I had the runaway buy off all of the citystates around me before declaring war. I had a city state to the northwest, south west, east and south, invading me, each bringing on minimum 15 units (for a total of at least 60 units! - all contemporary units, no outdated stuff), this outside of the invasion which came from the runaway civ by sea (I was on another continent). I was able to fight off the runaway civ, by focusing my forces on his invasion, but this left my second largest city weakly defended against as well as my other cities. Compare this to my recent game as Sweden, playing an earth map where I focused heavy on citystates, got them all on my side, which freed me up to focus on rome, without worry about strong ethiopia in my rear ( surrounded by my citystates), I took out rome then turned on ethiopia, who had to fight off 6 citystates at once, making my artillery/carolean invasion very easy even against his spirit of adwa/defender of the faith/mehal safari/that wonder that gives 15% combat bonus in friendly territory units.

Thank you for the reply/explanation of why people like Hellenic League. No, I don't play on harder levels. I play this game to have fun, and Immortal/Diety are not fun. Despite your explanation, I still think it is a sub-par UA overall. A UA that only shines in certain situations or on certain difficulty levels is inferior to one that is useful in all situations and difficulty levels. But that's just my opinion.

 

[SnowKomodo]

Sacrificial Captives: 20
Sun Never Sets: 0
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 10

Sun Never Sets: I don't know what else to say. The movement is great but nothing about it screams game-changer or top civ. Goodbye, Liz

Scholars of the Jade Hall: Not going to lie, I barely have a clear-cut favorite since my favorites are already eliminated. I play with the remaining civs seldomly so I'm running off the one I've had the most success with: Korea. I need all the science help I can get. Completely voting without regard to flavor for this one. With the way the word flavor has been thrown around in this thread I'm not even sure I know what it means anymore...

 

[Udey1]

Sacrificial Captives: 20
Sun Never Sets: 0
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 10

Sun Never Sets: I don't know what else to say. The movement is great but nothing about it screams game-changer or top civ. Goodbye, Liz

Scholars of the Jade Hall: Not going to lie, I barely have a clear-cut favorite since my favorites are already eliminated. I play with the remaining civs seldomly so I'm running off the one I've had the most success with: Korea. I need all the science help I can get. Completely voting without regard to flavor for this one. With the way the word flavor has been thrown around in this thread I'm not even sure I know what it means anymore...

I consider flavor something of an ability that a stock (barbarian civ) would not be able to emulate. Something beyond a modifier or flat bonus.

The persian UA- that is definitely a flavor to me, units with additional movements in GA, no one else gets that.
GAR - flavorful- hills aren't a problem for these guys.
Romes UA- not flavorful, just a modifier.
Siberian Riches- no flavor, just a flat bonus.
ect.

That's my opinion.

 

[SnowKomodo]

Since we're coming to a close I thought I'd give a few thoughts on the 34 UA's:

Civs I thought would last longer than they did but I don't care for either way:
1. Druidic Lore (29th) - Thought there would be more people who put weight into early religion advantages. Surprised me to see them get voted out so early but I never voted for them myself so I guess I'm on the same page.
2. The Great Warpath (25th) - I almost never play these guys but for whatever strange reason I always assumed it was really popular with some players. Clearly wrong about that.
3. Ingenuity (13th) - Thought a science heavy civ would crank the top 5. Hell, at least top 10.

Civs that got voted out where I expected but I think should be much higher:
1. Wayfinding (23rd) - Moai bonus strength is significant in the early game. Immediate embarkation and extra sight even more so
2. Manifest Destiny (19th) - See a trend here? I put heavy emphasis on extra sight and early exploration. It's just even better than the extra sight applies the entire game. Really useful in combat

Civs that I think lasted way too long:
1. Monument Builders (18th) - still believe that it's overkill on lower levels and strategically unhelpful on higher.
2. Sun Never Sets (6th) - are some people manifesting their love for Longbowman and Ship of the line into SNS? Just don't get it. But that's the beauty of civ, everybody has their own style of play so at the end of the day, really, these threads are nothing more than a way for us to talk about civ.

Just my two cents, nothin' more

 

[Karmah]

Sacrificial Captives: 21
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 7

Sacrificial Captives : Call it childish but I love to get gold , xp and culture everytime I kill

Nobel Prize : I love it for all the reason mentionned above but ... the three others are just darn OP so ....

 

[Lordleoz]

Since we're coming to a close I thought I'd give a few thoughts on the 34 UA's:

Civs I thought would last longer than they did but I don't care for either way:
1. Druidic Lore (29th) - Thought there would be more people who put weight into early religion advantages. Surprised me to see them get voted out so early but I never voted for them myself so I guess I'm on the same page.
2. The Great Warpath (25th) - I almost never play these guys but for whatever strange reason I always assumed it was really popular with some players. Clearly wrong about that.
3. Ingenuity (13th) - Thought a science heavy civ would crank the top 5. Hell, at least top 10.

Civs that got voted out where I expected but I think should be much higher:
1. Wayfinding (23rd) - Moai bonus strength is significant in the early game. Immediate embarkation and extra sight even more so
2. Manifest Destiny (19th) - See a trend here? I put heavy emphasis on extra sight and early exploration. It's just even better than the extra sight applies the entire game. Really useful in combat

Civs that I think lasted way too long:
1. Monument Builders (18th) - still believe that it's overkill on lower levels and strategically unhelpful on higher.
2. Sun Never Sets (6th) - are some people manifesting their love for Longbowman and Ship of the line into SNS? Just don't get it. But that's the beauty of civ, everybody has their own style of play so at the end of the day, really, these threads are nothing more than a way for us to talk about civ.

Just my two cents, nothin' more

Good comment.

There are another 3 UAs that I think are ranked way too low and deserve a much higher place.

the Glory of Rome (12th): is that too hard to have buildings in your capital? If you wanna build wonders, just buy buildings there. +25% is really a big deal and it makes your cities run up much faster. With this UA, Rome can do everything pretty well.

Seven Cities of Gold (17th): no love for this fun UA? Indeed it somewhat depends on luck but even if you don't start near a NW, you can still enjoy a sweet benefit, as long as you keep exploring the fog of war. Early extra gives you a fast start and more always helps.

River Warlord (16th): 75 from each camp is helpful and makes the game very fun. Amphibious promotion is awesome too. You can use embarked units to attack from sea with combat navy protecting them. This is very efficient.

 

[Gucumatz]

Sacrificial Captives: 21
Great Andean Road: 21
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 22
Nobel Prize: 7

Arnold gave a positive vote I am pretty sure to the wrong UA after reading his description I think is pretty clear

 

[Skibbi]

What the???
Hellenic League and Sun Never Sets, gone???

 

[woodshadows]

Sacrificial Captives: 22
Great Andean Road: 18
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 22
Nobel Prize: 7

woohoo to culture killing

andean road more like newbie road, who wants to play with so many crutches?? (not this guy)

 

[BrotherInJah]

Sacrificial Captives: 19
Great Andean Road: 18
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 22
Nobel Prize: 7

SC: Culture from killing (not just warring), and what with turns without any kill? NOTHING!

SOTJH: Like I said + from workshop for me is great. But it's like a little gratis for everything else, turn by turn.

 

[black213]

Sacrificial Captives: 16 (-3)
Great Andean Road: 19 (+1)
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 22
Nobel Prize: 7

Sacrificial Captives: Forces you to warmonger and thus doesn't give many options on how to play the Aztecs.

Great Andean Road: Cheaper (or free) roads? Neat. Faster movement in hills? AWESOME!

 

[Skibbi]

Sacrificial Captives: 16
Great Andean Road: 19
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23 +1 When fighting a friend, with my mechs, I was stopped by riflemen in his Golden Age!
Nobel Prize: 4 -3 allowing civs to get great generals faster is just helping the enemy.

 

[maurcus]

Sacrificial Captives: 17 +1
Great Andean Road: 16 (-3)
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 4

SC, is an extremely useful UA as when fighting barbarians you can get a load of culture and when fighting late game civs you can get some 100 for a giant death robot,

GAD, while awesome it should not be in the top. its value is that your men can go through hills super super fast and super super cheap improvements, the latter part can be replicated via commerce policy track. which leaves just the first part as unique, and that in itself makes it of lower caliber than the others.

 

[Gucumatz]

Sacrificial Captives: 17
Great Andean Road: 17 (+1) In this game movement can be everything. An extra movement point to get in range of a unit and have another archer on a hill to fire on a city - Its priceless. With higher level AI and in Multiplayer this power is just too great. This UA also gives you one of the best scouting abilities for ruins early on and get extra production in real situations vs humans by moving settler on a hill turn 0 and having workers improve faster.
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 1 (-3) Its amazing that it got to the top 5. Doesn't really belong to the top 4 though - its a decent UA I would have marked it probably at 10-11 but thats fine.

 

[woodshadows]

Thank you for the reply/explanation of why people like Hellenic League. No, I don't play on harder levels. I play this game to have fun, and Immortal/Diety are not fun. Despite your explanation, I still think it is a sub-par UA overall. A UA that only shines in certain situations or on certain difficulty levels is inferior to one that is useful in all situations and difficulty levels. But that's just my opinion.

Deity/Immortal are super fun, expect to lose half the time and especially when you first start playing, but the learning curve is steep and you'll catch on quickly to what works and what doesn't and at that point you'll have stiff competition and a healthy challenge. I'm not a powergamer, in fact most of the time I automate my workers and my scout/initial warrior to explore, I don't spend a lot of time in my city screen optimizing all my citizen placement and specialists every turn and I don't spend my time watching youtube videos and reading long strategy posts.. which is to say, for a casual gamer Immortal/Deity is totally accessible and winnable.. but by not following specific policy trees/teching strategies etc, you will be opening yourself up to losses occasionaly, but I think this is exactly what I enjoy, competition stiff enough that it can win against me from time to time.

I wouldn't discount any of the diplomatic-oriented civs however, they are all very strong under most conditions, possibly *too* strong on lower levels, but regardless - strong. I'd suggest giving Greece a try, pay attention to citystates and finish quests for them, the barb camp killing quests are very easy if you take an honour opener and if you get lucky and your initial warrior turns into a hoplite from a ruin. When you can, jump into patronage and take every city state to your side and watch how powerful you'll become.

 

[woodshadows]

Sacrificial Captives: 21
Great Andean Road: 20
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 23
Nobel Prize: 7

Sacrificial Captives : Call it childish but I love to get gold , xp and culture everytime I kill

Nobel Prize : I love it for all the reason mentionned above but ... the three others are just darn OP so ....

get god of war pantheon for faith as well

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Sacrificial Captives: 17
Great Andean Road: 18
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 20
Nobel Prize: 1
Great andean: so many ways to usethis, and very powerful with machu pichu (which you can always easily get, as the AI don't really even try for it.
Achaemenid: I really don't hate this ability, it just really doesn't suit me and I have stronger feelings for all the other UA's. And where not comparing sides all together, which would give me a higher opinion (immortal).

 

[Petiscator]

Sacrificial Captives: 17
Great Andean Road: 15
Scholars of the Jade Hall: 19
Achaemenid Legacy: 21
Nobel Prize: 1

Ok, I won't be able to save Nobel Prize anymore... I'm glad it is at top 5

Skibbi: You won't help your enemies unless you have a DoF with them. If they are your enemies, how in help are you helping them? You can't have a DoF and be at war at the same time, so it is impossible to give the enemy more GGs. The stacking bonus is for you, not to help enemies.

Achaemenid Legacy: I played it and loved it. Pick the right policies and the right wonders and you can get some awesomely powerful units and things like move-setup-shoot catapults or a nice blitz promo for a normal unit. Makes a war much more funny and the Satrap's Court are there to help the golden ages start (it also gives +2 gold, something the regular bank doesn't - besides the percentage modifier).

Great Andean Road: routes take time to build and you can mimic this with some policies; for it to really work you have to have a hilly terrain; the movement bonus is nice but I prefer much more the Persian 3 moves during golden ages bonus, as that is not useless on water maps.