Unique playstyle civs

[Inspector Javert]

Venice was an amazing step forward for Civ V in terms of unique play styles. I was wondering if anyone had ideas for other civs like that. What civ would it be, why and how would it play out in terms of game play.

A few ideas I have:

Nomads:
A civ that doesn't found permanent cities, this would make gameplay tough considering the whole game is based on city building, still maybe there's a way it could be done.

Confederation:
A civ that starts with several settlers but either can't build more and/or has to deal with struggles between the cultures that make up their confederation (IE Iroquois).

Pure Religion:
A civ that relies on faith, or perhaps the unity of its people rather than building its own cities. (Someone else mentioned Vatican City or Jerusalem as an example)

It these ideas sound bad, its because they are, I'm not good at this outside the box thinking but I know the rest of you can come up with ideas. If there's one thing us Civ fans are good at its making things more complicated

 

[waun2der]

Nomads:

Play as barbarians. Pillage and trade what you've stolen. Build black markets that move with your cargo trains. Trade in illicit goods. Drugs. Weapons. Slaves? Occupy cities and make barbarian babies. Undermine civil society. Build mercenary armies. Ransom cargo ships.

 

[Krajzen]

Nomads:

Play as barbarians. Pillage and trade what you've stolen. Build black markets that move with your cargo trains. Trade in illicit goods. Drugs. Weapons. Slaves? Occupy cities and make barbarian babies. Undermine civil society. Build mercenary armies. Ransom cargo ships.

The problem with "barbarians" is, it's just a name given by some civilisations to other societies, regardlessly of development level. Gauls, Celts, peoples conquered by Rome, Vikings, Germanic peoples and Central Asian hordes could have been easily adapted as civilisations in civ series, as well as Subsaharan societies etc.
In fact, I don't exactly recall historical societies that were so obsessed with criminal activity

 

[waun2der]

So if you would argue that Daesh is ahistorical, do they not present an interesting civilizational challenge? Seems to call for unique diplomatic responses.

Regardless that fascinating discussion, would it not be interesting in Civ to play without your own cities? To have to borrow others' scientific development? To subvert someone else's religion, to plunder their cultural artifacts? Or to defend yourself against such criminals. Humh.

 

[unpossible251]

As a custom scenario, not necessarily part of the main game. Awesome idea.

Heres an obvious one: United States. You start out as a single city, with a small army, and youre surrounded by British, Dutch, French and Spanish cities. As well as indigenous city states.

The goal is to convert (through faith, conquest, trade, culture) a number of these cities to your own new republic.

It starts in the 1500s and reaches into the 1800s.

I'm sure everyone can see that this is basically Civ: Colonization, and it kind of is. But the thing about this custom scenario is that after you win, you can "pick up" the exact same civ with the exact same layout, resources, armies, etc, right into the main game. Kind of like how BNW has an option, after science victory, to carry on to BE.

 

[j51]

I love the idea of the "confederation." Trying to unite a number of fractious cities would work well as a dynamic for the Greeks, Germans, Maya, Sumerians, and several other civs.