Unique Ability Elimination Thread

[sendos]

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

Put simply, the Mayan UA is 6 free great people over the entire course of the game (each have to be different, so no 6 free GE's). Enter medieval era with theology to maximize its effect a little (hopefully). For the Swedes, depending on how you manage your diplomacy, you could get GP's twice as fast as other civs. To maximize Swedish UA, aim for cultural victory early in game and then for diplomatic victory and then choose either Order or Freedom ideology to get the 25% GP bonus.

Also, I might end my support for Sweden if people can criticize it for other reasons. I can name at least 2 that haven't really been mentioned.

 

[redwings1340]

Put simply, the Mayan UA is 6 free great people over the entire course of the game (each have to be different, so no 6 free GE's). Enter medieval era with theology to maximize its effect a little (hopefully). For the Swedes, depending on how you manage your diplomacy, you could get GP's twice as fast as other civs. To maximize Swedish UA, aim for cultural victory early in game and then for diplomatic victory and then choose either Order or Freedom ideology to get the 25% GP bonus.

Also, I might end my support for Sweden if people can criticize it for other reasons. I can name at least 2 that haven't really been mentioned.

Well, I kind of view the Mayans UA as an inferior version of Babylon. You beeline to theology to get a great scientist far earlier than most other civs can. If you can get to theology really early, you can get a couple of other really fast great people too, because the amount of years will go by quickly early in the game. Your second great person can be used for a free wonder. The Mayans may not get as many great people as Sweden, but they get them sooner, and the first couple ones are really valuable.

Now, I have not downvoted Sweden yet and have basically stayed out of this debate. I think their UA is really good, but that right now is about the right place to go out for them. Maybe a couple UAs could go away first, but I would put the Mayans above Sweden.

 

[fuzzatron717]

I feel Sweden is better than Maya and Greece you have to work to get city-states to like you with Greece but, with Sweden give a worthless Great General or Great Admiral and the city-state is your ally for quite a while. And as mentioned before you can get several great people where with Maya you get 1 GP after 394 years and its one and you can't get that GP again. Where as Sweden even if you get 1 great writer you will get at least 1 of almost every other GP before the Maya get its bonus.

 

[sendos]

Fuzz, my apologies. I skipped your downvote on Portugal when we both voted. I didn't see your post until after I sent mine.

Portugal is on 14 points.

In other news, still a few people forgetting the voting rule here. It's +2/-4.

 

[arand86]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 34 Makes diplo victories all the much easier. Delve into Patronage and you'll be raking in all kinds of benefits from CS's without having to do much at all.
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49 Great UA, without a doubt, but I personally don't think it quite stacks up to that of Babylon, and because of that it's overrated. Poland perhaps may be the better civ, but that's only because the Ducal stable and winged hussar far outclass the walls of babylon and bowmen.
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 4
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[Memoryjar]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 34
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 4 + 1 = 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35 -3 = 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

For the match, in my opinion. Number versus choice.
Tiny map, Maya is the better choice. Standard to Hudge, Sweden is insane. You don't really have the choice without microgestion, but used to have +50 % on standard map with DoF.
Overall, Maya are easier than Sweden, thanks Pyramid. But on UA, Swedishes rule.
I need more practice Alex for the match versus Greece. I think, sweden is more flexible, maybe not. Will see this week-end.

 

[bbbt]

Well, I kind of view the Mayans UA as an inferior version of Babylon. You beeline to theology to get a great scientist far earlier than most other civs can.

Depending on the VC I'm going for, I often use my first Mayan GP for a GE (even on deity).

 

[Sake]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 20 - Reasons on my previous post.
Greece: Hellenic League 36 - Makes diplo victory super easy.
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[DanteTests]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 20
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14 - 3 = 11 Bit too limiting for me
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15 + 1 = 16 Land for free and faster + valuable on any mape type / random situation (meaning less dependant on outer factors)
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 20
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 11
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 6 Trumps the Maya because you can focus on the GPs you want rather than being forced into one of each. Even when you don't get the 6 extra GPs the Mayans get at least you're getting the ones you want. It also gives you something to do with the extra generals and admirals. Only drawback is being forced to play very diplomatically but if you're careful it's pretty easy to keep 5 or 6 friends on a standard map. Obviously this gets stronger on larger maps.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 13 Out of what's left this one is the weaker one imo. It's nice because it does save time and money but most of the time you'll get those tiles sooner or later. I'd say the combat bonus is nice but BNW has turned the AI into such wimps I don't see the need for it very often.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[Ajay Sabharwal]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 11
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 6
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 13
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[jacer21]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 11
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 8 - I had previously down voted this one but the conversation in this thread made me change my mind. A decent UA, to say the least.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 9 - Easily the worst one left. This deserves to go before Sweden.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[jlim201]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 7- Worst one left, its necessary for different resources, which is an IF. (Shoshone will always get more tiles, you can usually get one friend with Sweden, and Carthages harbors give you a extra certain extra trade range.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 8 -
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 11- You don't exactly deserve to go yet.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[sendos]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 46
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 24
Greece: Hellenic League 34
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 14
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 4 + 1 = 5
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 35 -3 = 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 15
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

For the match, in my opinion. Number versus choice.
Tiny map, Maya is the better choice. Standard to Hudge, Sweden is insane. You don't really have the choice without microgestion, but used to have +50 % on standard map with DoF.
Overall, Maya are easier than Sweden, thanks Pyramid. But on UA, Swedishes rule.
I need more practice Alex for the match versus Greece. I think, sweden is more flexible, maybe not. Will see this week-end.

Um, your Mayan downvote is an upvote and again you forget the OP's change of voting rules.

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 45 A true science powerhouse.
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 7
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 8 -
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 31 35 - 3 =/= 38 (downvote is 4, or this elimination thread will take forever)
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 7 Both UA's are great in times of peace and war respectively, but the expansion ability is a bit situational. Expansion UA is limited if other civs forward settle on you first. It's a tough choice as to what to votedown, but I think Shoshone should go and then Portugal, then Sweden.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[redwings1340]

Um, your Mayan downvote is an upvote and again you forget the OP's change of voting rules.

My general philosophy is that it's a person's choice to do +2/-4 or +1/-3 right now. By not rereading the OP or looking at other people's votes, all they're doing is making their vote count for less weight. If it were just one person doing this, I might correct it, but it's about half the posters doing the standard +1/-3, so I'm generally not going to bother.

Also, it's still a net -2 in amount of points left on the board, so the change isn't actually making things go faster. It's just making upvotes more valuable comparatively. I like this though, as it has certainly allowed Sweden to stay in longer, and gives people who really like certain UAs to have a stronger voice.

 

[sendos]

Hm, I guess so, then.

 

[fuzzatron717]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 45
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 3 Could be better but it isn't.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 10 Same reasons as before.
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 7
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[jacer21]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 17
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 43
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 7- Worst one left, its necessary for different resources, which is an IF. (Shoshone will always get more tiles, you can usually get one friend with Sweden, and Carthages harbors give you a extra certain extra trade range.
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 8 -
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 47
The Maya: The Long Count - 38
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 11- You don't exactly deserve to go yet.
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

The Shoshone will always give you more tiles, but will it always help you? Will you always need those tiles? No. Saying Sweden usually gets a friend is like saying you will usually have different resources if you're Portugal, so no difference there. Carthage gives you free harbours but will there be ocean resources/trade routes that will benefit from this? Again, usually, but not 100% of the time.

The point is, none of those UAs guarantees you a real bonus, not even the Shoshone.

 

[bbbt]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 47
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 13 UA is very good, of course, but it's usefulness is likely the most terrain/landmass dependent of the ones left.
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 45
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 3
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 10
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 49 And even on the great plains, this UA would still save you a chunk of change.
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 7
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Babylon: Ingenuity - 49 A top 3 UA for sure. It says a lot about this UA, that many regard Babylon as a top tier civ, when their UU and UB are poor to average.
Carthage: Phoenician Heritage - 13
Greece: Hellenic League 36
Korea: Scholars of the Jade Hall - 45
Poland: Solidarity - 49
Portugal: Mare Clausum - 3
Siam: Father Governs Children - 17
Sweden: Nobel Prize - 10
The Inca: Great Andean Road - 49
The Maya: The Long Count - 31
The Shoshone: Great Expanse - 3 Great for land grab, but not as good as the others here
The Zulu: Iklwa - 27