Unique Ability Elimination Thread

[jlim201]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 11
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4, I think of China as a science civ, not a military Civ
Greece: Hellenic League - 27
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41- I like this better than Babylons, it gives you more reliable science.
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13- This UA dosent work with itself. It encourages you to destroy cities during GAs which in turn gives you less GAs.
Poland: Solidarity - 46
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 8
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -12
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 35
The Zulu - 29

 

[ense7en]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 11
Babylon: Ingenuity - 45
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4
Greece: Hellenic League - 27
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 46
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 8
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 9
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 35
The Zulu - 29

Free GS at Writing + faster GS generation is extremely powerful.
The entire game is based around science, and Babylon is one of the best.

10% faster GP generation per friend is decent, but not amazing.
And gifting great people to CSes is silly. It's only ever something worth doing w/ Admirals and occasional GGs, making it a largely useless ability.

 

[bbbt]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 11
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4, I think of China as a science civ, not a military Civ
Greece: Hellenic League - 28 kill a few barbarians and rescue a worker, and suddenly you're getting extra food/happiness/faith/etc. for half the game
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 46
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 5 Not a bad UA - none of the ones left are, of course, but a bit of extra production (and resources) doesn't always make up for the tundra start
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -12
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 35
The Zulu - 29

 

[ense7en]

you missed my post; updated your list:

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 11
Babylon: Ingenuity - 45
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4
Greece: Hellenic League - 28 kill a few barbarians and rescue a worker, and suddenly you're getting extra food/happiness/faith/etc. for half the game
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 46
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 5 Not a bad UA - none of the ones left are, of course, but a bit of extra production (and resources) doesn't always make up for the tundra start
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -9
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 35
The Zulu - 29

 

[redwings1340]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 13 Awesome UA. All things equal, warring should put you temporarily down in tech, but then the results of warring (getting awesome cities) should catch you up in tech later. It also is good if you're equal in tech with someone else, but going down a different tech path.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 46
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 1 Gives a bit of money and production. Doesn't make the civ all that great though.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -12
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 35
The Zulu - 29

It's really easy to forget +2, -4. I did it this time. I suppose it skews the votes in favor of people who read stuff before posting though.

 

[cpm4001]

10% faster GP generation per friend is decent, but not amazing.
And gifting great people to CSes is silly. It's only ever something worth doing w/ Admirals and occasional GGs, making it a largely useless ability.

This pretty much demonstrates the confusion surrounding Sweden. Nobel Prize SOUNDS silly and worthless, but in fact it is very, very strong. It just requires you to think ahead, and also (as odd as this sounds) requires you to simultaneously not have everything while doing a little bit of everything. To take full advantage of it, you have to a) be willing to give up "better" Great People for an extra +90 influence (yes, this even means the occasional GE or GW!), b) DoF as many people as possible while simultaneously warmongering against the Civ (or Civs) everyone else hates (to get the extra diplomatic modifiers, as well as GGs and Great Admirals) and c) use the power of allied City-States to keep your Science and Culture afloat. Filling out Patronage to get the "Occasional Gifts of Great People by City-States" and thinking along the lines of, "Hmm, would it be better to use this Great Writer for a Culture boost now, or should I gift him to that Cultural City-State instead?" are necessary prerequisites to succeeding as Sweden.
Basically, Sweden requires an unconventional way of playing Civ, and hence can't be viewed or played as other Civs would be.

 

[DonStamos]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 13
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48 I haven't played as Poland yet, but if my Brazil test game is any indication, the ideology policies are POWERFUL. Anything that gets more of them is excellent.
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 1 I want to support this since it gives extra uranium and I <3 nukes, but they'll be eliminated soon anyway, so I put my + votes elsewhere. Goodnight, sweet prince :'(
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -12
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31 Don't get me wrong, extra tiles are powerful, but the Shoshone really could have used something to help them turtle more effectively. As it is, they're just claiming more tiles for you to take.
The Zulu - 29

 

[striker4life360]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 13
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 32
China: Art of War - 4
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Russia: Siberian Riches - 0 Meh uranium is nice but its almost dead, so I had to kill it off.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31
The Zulu - 29

5 Dof means half of both Brazils and Babylon UA, yea the AI get some use out of it but its only increase their rate by ten percent saving them a a turn or two

 

[eisforeccentric]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 13
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34 - Free harbors keep my maintenance costs down since I don't have to build roads. Yes please. The mountain thing is kind of interesting too, even though it's not helpful at all. It's what Carthage is most famous for, after all.
China: Art of War - 0 - I really thought Russia might outlive this. It's good, but after a while too many GGs can get annoying. Au revoir!
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31
The Zulu - 29

 

[Arcaian]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 13-4 = 9. Would be useful if early warmongering wasn't so penalized in BNW, and by the time you can warmonger without too many penalties you could've caught in in science with most other civs.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 44 +2 = 46. Free GS as at writing can double your bpt at the start, and works on useless tiles like desert or on strategic/luxury resources if you've got no worker/full of jungle at the start. 50% increase in GS production means you can have some insane bulbing late game.
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31
The Zulu - 29

 

[bbbt]

you missed my post; updated your list:

Whoops, sorry. You must've posted in the time it took me to edit my post, but I should've gone back and checked that. Thanks for catching it.

 

[Ajay Sabharwal]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 5
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 23
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31
The Zulu - 29

I second Arcaian.

 

[Josh123914]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 5
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24 I'm not gonna argue Portugal has the best UA, but you earn so much gold with it that you don't know what to do with it.
On a Terra map, I had 2 cities in old World, and by Industrial era, I had 3 cities in the New world all around ~20 pop through sheer gold investment.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 29
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 28 Sorry Shoshone, but your strategy is basically to bulldoze into first place at the very start and then maintain that lead. Thats a daunting prospect and one that is hard to keep.
The Zulu - 29

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 1 This took a big nerf in the fall patch when warmongers get a lot more hate than they used to. Perhaps this will be adjusted, but for now makes playing with this UA a lot harder.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 13
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 31 I find this one very helpful, your choice of GP from the list and the fact that they come quicker at first means you get the most useful GP in the early game when they really help you out.
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 28
The Zulu - 29

 

[redwings1340]

The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 31 Don't get me wrong, extra tiles are powerful, but the Shoshone really could have used something to help them turtle more effectively. As it is, they're just claiming more tiles for you to take.

Units recieve a +20% combat bonus in their own territory. I'd say this helps them turtle pretty effectively if that's your strategy.

 

[Aenthin]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 3
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 9
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 28
The Zulu: Iklwa - 29

I don't exactly understand how warmongering penalties is a nerf to Assyria's UA. Treasures of Nineveh never really changed. It's just how you play that changed. That said, I love Assyria's ability to climb back up to the tech lead while bringing your opponents down at the same time. Helps lots in late game.

Never understood Persia's UA though. Golden ages are rare unless I could secure like 10 Great Artists and even then, I prefer Golden Ages for building more wonders and not so much for building more units for even greater conquests. Plus conquering cities take a blow to your general happiness which also means less golden ages in the future. Again, unless I have like 10 Great Artists with me.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 5 You don't have to be behind to get good use out of this, just on a different tech path. It actually encourages you to research military techs earlier than you otherwise would have. You can have the most technologically advanced military in the world and still be stealing techs.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 5 I just don't get as much use out of this as I probably should. I rarely have a very big happiness surplus.
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 28
The Zulu: Iklwa - 29

 

[jacer21]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 7 - Incredibly fun. Who cares if everybody hates you because you're a warmonger? That doesn't stop you from taking them over.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 5
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 24 - Gives you a nice bonus at the beginning but then nothing else.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 29

 

[Merciorum]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh - 3 It may be fun, but the time spent putting production into it does not mitigate the reward.
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 28
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 5
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 35 Long count has always been great, but since BNW, it becomes seriously good if you're going cultural.
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 24
The Zulu: Iklwa - 29

 

[vibe96]

Assyria: Treasures of Nineveh
Babylon: Ingenuity - 48
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 34
Greece: Hellenic League - 30
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 41
Persia: Achaemenid Legacy - 5
Poland: Solidarity - 48
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 24
Siam: Father Governs Children - 32
Sweden: Nobel Prize -14
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 24
The Zulu: Iklwa - 29

I voted for persia so my vote goes for the next one, assyria. Greeces ability carries the civ.