Unique Ability Elimination Thread

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 31 -
Greece: Hellenic League - 35
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43- Science is the most important aspect of the game. This UA is more consistent than Babylons which require GP and lowers your GE rate.
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -7- Giving GP away is usually bad, and 10% per friend is okay, but it helps them too.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 43
The Maya: The Long Count - 32
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

In rebuttal (again)...

 

Sweden's UA isn't bad, but its start bias (tundra) is depressing...

 

I just don't like giving GP away because I like getting lots of wonders/culture and GP help a lot with that. SCIENTISTS/ENGINEERS to get ahead in tech and rush wonders and GW/GA/GM to get a culture or tourism boost. I rarely work merchant slots so I get very few of them.

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 27 - Nice, but not nice enough to stay on this list much longer. Strong on water maps, but great UA is great on any map. I suppose you can build just coastal cities on Pangaea, but i still like the roads for movement bonus. Trade bonus on the other hand is unneccessary to all cities, since i usually start all my trade routes from one city, if possible.
Greece: Hellenic League - 35
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43-
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -7-
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 45 - There are hills everywhere on the map, no matter what map you play (if it's not tiny islands). UA's movement side helps with warfare and gives opportunity to really fast scouting. Maintenance side will help even without hills, but will sometimes even allow you connect your cities for free.
The Maya: The Long Count - 32
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

I mean, we're down to the top 12 here. These abilities are the best of the best, but pretty soon one ability's merits (such as Sweden's) aren't going to be as popular with the community as another civ's ability, such as the Shoshone. It's nothing against Nobel Prize by any means.

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 27
Greece: Hellenic League - 35
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43-
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -4- The +10% can definitely add up (especially on bigger maps). The gifting though is pretty meager - early game Great People are too valuable, and later well, 90 is about the same as 1000 gold gift with philanthropy, less if the CS is looking for gold. And a GP is usually worth more than 1000 to me.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 46 I'll toss this one another point. The money savings is great, but the movement bonus here vs the Iroquois (everywhere versus just in your lands) really shows the difference between a very powerful OP and a meh one
The Maya: The Long Count - 32
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24 Good ability, but still the most limited of all the remaining. Harbors are more or less important depending heavily on map type, and the ability to cross mountains is useful maybe 1 in 30 occasions.
Greece: Hellenic League - 35
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43-
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -4
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47 Fantastic. Great synergy with UI, free roads on all hills means roads just for the hell of it, no movement cost on any hill tile = easy defense, easy warring, some of the best cavalry other than the mongols, and general easy maneuvering of workers.
The Maya: The Long Count - 32
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Yeah, it's one of the main reasons why I dislike Sweden. Tundras are useless, and Stockholm always happen to be surrounded by 10 tiles of them (and snow is never that far). Otherwise, Sweden has good UA and good UU. Guys above explained how to (ab)use Sweden UA.


Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League - 35 - 3 = 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43-
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -4
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 32 +1 = 33
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27


Greece: Hellenic League - it's not a bad UA, it's rather good in fact, but it requires no special strategy (like Swedish UA), so it makes players lazy. Oh, and I don't want to kill of Sweden.


The Maya: The Long Count - it has limited use, sure, but it will help you immensely during early game. Grab GS to improve science, grab GP to get first religion, grab GE to grab some early-mid wonders (like Petra)... or if you don't want to "waste" GP at that time, grab something "less useful" for CS quests (like GA while being land-locked). and Mayan's UU and UB are good, so it makes all around good and strong civ. (yeah, UU is great, requires no tech, so you can spam them right away to hunt\fend off barbs and protect workers\settlers)

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 21 - 3 = 18 : Wonderful UA, lot of cash, yes. Default choice at this time of elimination. In comparaison i prefer other UA.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize -4 +1 = 5 10 for you 10 for me. 10 for you 10 for me. Wait that's make 20 for me. Fair deal. At least 90 influence in a CS. Despite tundra startbase.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count -33
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 25
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 51
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35 - Incredibly fun, good and versatile.
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 21 - This UA is pretty good, but I think most of the other ones left outmatch a few extra tiles when you settle a city.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Wait, if that's the standard we're voting on, goodbye Babylon and Poland too Actually, maybe goodbye most of this list

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53 Science is king for the best UAs, unless you're Poland and can get an entire extra policy tree and more! Poland's speeding through the policies also gives some additional benefits that may not be apparent at first. A liberty opener is more viable because you can get your first settler from the policy earlier than you can with any other civ, and therefore get the 50% discount while you want to be ordinarily producing settlers anyway. With a full tradition opener you can get aqueducts that much earlier! You can get down to scholasticism faster than other civs can, or alternatively get a few more wonders from the openers that would have too much of an opportunity cost for other civs. Lots of amazingness early and late game from this UA.
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 17 Really good UA, but I think we overvalue this one because I think we attribute some of the awesome starts to this UA, when the pathfinder is far more important. Every UA left is awesome though, and I have to downvote something.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 1- It is not up to par with the others, and helps other civs.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 19- This deserves to stay longer than some others (im looking at Portugal, Sweden and carthage)
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 3 Has anyone who downvoted this played Sweden? I never even bothered to gift Great People, and especially with BNW, it's really easy to go for Cultural and Diplomatic with them.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15 I know that everyone will hate me for this, but I will give you that it's fun. However, it offers little means of winning the game (unlike Sweden) and just gives you more of stuff that you'd get by a) having money, b) having culture or c) having patience.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 50
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

Save the Swedes. Sorry Portugal but getting a lot do different resources isn't easy as you think when you don't conquer others.

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46 overrated and dependent on tall empires. Grabbing wonders that contribute to great scientist points are also needed as well.
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 16
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 7 - same reason as person above. UA is being underrrated
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 32
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 53
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 18
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17 Not top 5 material, but I think it deserves to live a little longer than the shoshone, carthage, or portugal. Better reasoning in a previous post
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 4 Sure it may be underrated, but do the sweden supporters really believe this UA is on the level of Greece's for CS influence or the Maya for GP production? I agree it's a good UA. I agree it's better than most of the UA's removed before now, but I don't agree that it belongs in the top 10.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

Totally trumps the Maya's for GP production - you'll be getting multiple Great People in the stretch of time it gets for the Maya to get one. As for Greece, I would say it's better than Greece's for getting CS influence but weaker than it for keeping CS influence (see how neatly I side-stepped that?)

 

Hm. I've never actually played the Maya but I assumed they got a fair number of them more than a standard civ.