What are the best Civ traits? (This is the REAL thread!)

[GABB]

I don't see to anybody voting for philosophical trait, I think that is very powerfull because it has double GPP and the university is a very common city improvement (needed for Oxford NW).

Spiritual trait are the best for micromanagment:

- You can change religion depend on the moment.
- You can pre-build unit to "1-turn" then switch to Vass + Theo civics for 4 xp and switch back again for more usefull civic (in long term).
- In emergency you can switch to nationhood, draft units and come back to work.
- Cheap temples, if you got all the religions and go to cultural victory you can safe many hammers in your empire while build one cathedral per religion in the "Legendary cities"

I'm not sure about expansive, I never play with them yet. I will try with Peter (more health + philo -> more population + spec -> more GP)

 

[Kalleyao]

I think the best traits for my gamestyle are Organized and Aggressive.

 

[opensilo]

For me:

1. Organized
2. Philosophical
3. Financial

The rest are fun to play in their own way, but I like playing with these the best. They may not be optimal, but I enjoy playing with large empires, popping great people and not worrying too much about cash flow.)

I have to admit that playing random leaders is cool. The question becomes "how do I adapt?" rather than "how do I implement <insert pre-game strategy here>?" But I've played both ways and they're both fun.

 

[jerVL/kg]

Expansionist, however, I'm not so sure about. I think it's useful, but so far I haven't played a game where I wished I had some extra health to spare.

Two words: Ice Age map. (Ok, so that's three words. Sue me. ) Health resources are in such short supply, you'll be posting SAMs in your rice patties and wheat fields before you even start to worry about protecting the oil and uranium. Might as well not bother building granaries, they'll be useless!

Cyrus, thanks to Exp/Cre traits, was the runaway leader for more than half of my Ice Age America scenario. With more human ingenuity and less AI stupidity, he could have remained there...(ya know that fishing village island that was in bombing range of your core cities, Cyrus?? Shoulda dislodged it back in 1400BC. Seriously, you were dumb to leave it alone.) His economy did eventually collapse on itself, mostly due to lack of happy resources, as well as Roosevelt (me) hogging all the late game Wonders = esp. Kremlin, Pentagon, Eiffel Tower, Broadway, Rock & Roll, and 3 Gorges Dam. (Mansa got Hollywood.) Expansive also helps on jungle maps...but those typically have plenty of Calendar-based resources, and IW is a quick beeline away, so it's not really needed. So yeah, Expansive is very limited in its usefulness.

 

[KillerCardinal]

It's the nature of forums that some people just like to get on other folks' cases for posting a similar topic. Ironically, these are often the same people who'd complain about "necro threads" if the newbie in question DID go back to a previous post to offer his own opinion.

Basically they just don't like new people.

I know, I was just irritated at the amount of it happening. One or maybe even two people doing it I understand(don't like it, but I understand), but with the amount of ragging that was going on I felt the need to say something to him to let him know we aren't all that nasty.

 

[Fetch]

It's the nature of forums that some people just like to get on other folks' cases for posting a similar topic. Ironically, these are often the same people who'd complain about "necro threads" if the newbie in question DID go back to a previous post to offer his own opinion.

Basically they just don't like new people.

Um, what's a necro thread?

 

[solvero]

I think that spiritual really comes handy only from monarch and above, when every turn can turn into war, and you have to use very smart diplomacy in order to win.
Anyway, I think the same way Jarrod does, but there are some combinations that are good even from the "weaker" traits. I think that any trait can be good somehow.

1. Creative. I can't live without that, becuase the bonus is so immediate and is really strong too for early expansion.
2. Financial. With military you can keep high research, in a peaceful victory you can keep high research etc. Becuase of the first ones my favorite leader is Chatherine.
3. Organized. Good for early expansion like creative, and also for science.
4. Aggressive- If I'm playing a war game, I gotta have this one.
5.Philo- good for GP, a big part of the game. However, if you don't have philo you are likely to create only 3 or 4 GP less, not that much.
6. Expansive- health is really a limiting factor in most of my games.
7. Industrious- not the wonder player, and anyway even with that I get beaten to them in most cases
8. Spiritual- I don't have more than 20 turns of anarchy in my games, so it's the least effective.

But if really depends on what I'm aiming for. Kublai khan is my military leader, catherine for culture and SR and Washington for SR and in games I don't aim for anything.
Although I use Elizabeth for culture too and Ghandi for diplomacy.

 

[Zombie69]

Thread necromancy is bringing an old thread back to life by posting on it, thus sending it to the top of the forum. The result is sometimes pretty funny. In any case, it's much less annoying than posting the same question that was already asked multiple times before; that's just bad forum etiquette and plain rude.

 

[Chieftess]

migthegreek, you can add a poll within 15 minutes of making a thread.

Fibber - look earlier in this thread for your warning on trolling.

 

[tombeef]

such a hard choice.

I like Financial. As for combos, the Financial and Aggressive combination (Capac). I also like Kublai's Agg/Cre.

 

[Jarrod32]

I
7. Industrious- not the wonder player, and anyway even with that I get beaten to them in most cases
8. Spiritual- I don't have more than 20 turns of anarchy in my games, so it's the least effective.

Think about this for a moment...are you beaten to late game wonders by a handful of turns? If you miss out on wonders by less than 10 turns, then that 20 turns of anarchy isn't as insignificant...

How long does it take you to research techs? 6 turns? 7 turns? Then 20 turns of anarchy means three more techs in the late game...fewer turns of anarchy could mean getting to flight or industrialism 10 turns sooner...

Not tryin' to pick on you...just some thoughts...

 

[aviator99_uk]

Creative.

All the rest are irrelevant compared to +2 culture. The only must have.

 

[Inqvisitor]

In multiplayer team games, Industrious and Creative are my best traits. Those are my top two. Watch your borders quickly encompass the continent.

When I have to fund my own research though I'll probably try to fit Financial in somewhere. Spiritual is fun though not extremely useful unless you very good at civic and religious strategies. Philosophical is perfect if you're playing a specialist-based strategy.

Aggressive offers only marginal benefits but it is a nice bonus if you're looking to play a war strategy, but unfortunately a certain popular warlike civ seems to lack this trait.

Expansive and Organized offer limited tangible benefits. Expansive can be helpful getting an extra population point out of your cities (and cheap granaries), but I've never noticed much of a difference in upkeep from Organized trait alone, just from the cheap courthouses.

Come to think of it I find uses for civs of every trait except Organized.

 

[Guerra]

To add to my previous post, where I simply said Financial and Aggressive, let me explain:

Financial allows you increased commerce, which boosts gold and research, very valuable, not to mention the cheap banks. Financial is especially useful on coastal cities or water maps.

Aggressive is my favorite because I love cheap barracks, cheap drydocks and the ability to squish my enemies. With barracks and the right civics, you can pump out some VERY powerful units, especially when playing water maps, you can get your units to have the default combat I, upgrade Combat II, and then get amphibious upgrade. Load your marinelike troops onto a few upgraded ships, and suprise the hell out of your enemy.

 

[DementedAvenger]

I like using the aggressive trait defensively with financial - have a military city pumping out shock axes for easy defense and all my other cities can focus on the economy (especially if financial). The fact that Huayna has these two traits as well as such a killer UU makes him overpowered in my opinion.

 

[afireinside]

1.) Industrious: No matter what your style is, +50wonder production and worker speed!? cmon. +50 worker speed is a wonder so its like starting with one. Also, forges are helpful in nearly any city and are required for factories. Also the wonder speed just frees up time in your major cities instead of wasting 10 extra turns on a wonder.

2.) Expansive: First off +2 health in each city. WOW. Look at the hanging gardens. Its a wonder to get +1 health in all cities. But you have 2 for free. Its like 2 free health resources. Leads to freer city placement and clear chopping. Also, makes graneries less tedious to build. This stat goes good with...

3.) Organized: Cheap civics are key in the early game. Without this, your limited with cities until cottages develop. With organized you can keep up your science slider while still making profit. In the end you probably make more money with -50% civic cost than with +1 commerce per terrain. Courthouses are key for reducing costs and help later on.

4.) Creative: Not good in my opinion. Culture doesn't help that much unless your going for that victory. If you want to expand your cities to second level, caste system -> artist. Helpful for warmongering. or denf

5.)Philosophical: Its good to have a gp city but +2 in your whole empire? kinda wasted trait. Its better to have one gp city. Also, with this trait, i find myself going with theocracy and mercantilism when it really isnt what i want to do. universities dont need to be rushed i think becasue you build them late in cities which have beter production/commerce.

6.) Financial: People overrate this. Banks are good i suppose but they have no culture or health,happy benefits. Also, youd be surprised how much money your acutlly making from the +1 bonus. I usulaly find that only 50-60 squares are in use which gain the +1. With organized, you end up saving more per turn compared to the bonus.

7.) Spiritual: Ok for starting a religion but religions suck to found. In harder dificulties you waste tech time and u end up making enemies early. Led the comp spread its religion then take its holy city. Temples also aren't much help since only +1happy/culture and they're cheap anyway.

8.) Aggressive: No... What's to like about this. Fast barracks? baracks are like 40 hammers anyway and they aren't even that beneficial. The + on attack units is convinient but it just doesn't all add up. On aggressive, i find myself low on cash since i have a huge army and little of anything else. When i do attack and i need to upgrade, cash is a huge problem.

 

[Inqvisitor]

1.) Industrious: No matter what your style is, +50wonder production and worker speed!? cmon. +50 worker speed is a wonder so its like starting with one. Also, forges are helpful in nearly any city and are required for factories. Also the wonder speed just frees up time in your major cities instead of wasting 10 extra turns on a wonder.

Do you mean from the speed advantage building Hagia Sophia? Perhaps it is an undocumented feature I am unaware of, but industrious worker speed boost was only in Civ III. Industrious trait in Civ IV only helps you get wonders faster. It would likely be overpowered otherwise.

5.)Philosophical: Its good to have a gp city but +2 in your whole empire? kinda wasted trait. Its better to have one gp city. Also, with this trait, i find myself going with theocracy and mercantilism when it really isnt what i want to do. universities dont need to be rushed i think becasue you build them late in cities which have beter production/commerce.

Philosophical doesn't give you +2 anything. It flat-out doubles your production of great people like having a National Epic in all cities.

 

[Guerra]

Wait, what? Industrious improves worker speed?? I thought that was only Civ 3?

I thought it was only half wonder cost and half cost for forge?

 

[BadHorsie]

Thread necromancy is bringing an old thread back to life by posting on it, thus sending it to the top of the forum. The result is sometimes pretty funny. In any case, it's much less annoying than posting the same question that was already asked multiple times before; that's just bad forum etiquette and plain rude.

As has already been pointed out - I know there are similar threads, but nobody has made a poll about which two traits are favourites. I'm not a noob. I am a regular on many forums, with thousands of posts - this forum just has many options disabled/changed and therefore works differently to most.

So get off your high horse and join in the discussion instead

 

[glumlord]

My Favorite Traits are in this order:

1) Creative
2) Expansive
3) Financial
4) Industrious
5) Aggressive
6) Organized
7) Philosophical
8) Spiritual

I usually choose Persian and build alot of cities early on. I use it as a way to block off areas until I have city placement I want.

I dont know why people dislike Expansive since it allows for cheap building of granary and harbor which are things that help your city grow faster, and creative spreads cultural borders much sooner which allows you to pull in special resources via roads quicker (also growth for cities).

I find it annoying when city growth is stagnant. With fast city growth I can use specialist if I need to, dont feel bad about using slavery to quick production because I know in 10 rounds I'll be back to what I was before.