What civ's/leader's uniques do you think have the best/worst synergy?

[EvaDK]

Khmers and Georgias leader traits seem very situational to start with and they diminish as the game progresses through the ages.

Tomyris has an awesome synergy if you find early conquest fun to play.
She can also swarm the battlefield with cheap horseman much earlier than the Mongols can get their horses out of the stables. So fun to play.
Her Achilles heel is post conquest and the end game.

 

[Linklite]

While I think Portugal gets the superlative, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Byzantines yet. At least, I didn't see them.

Assuming you can get Crusade (their achilles weakness and why they lose to Portugal), they're insane.

They build a Holy Site, which gives extra Great Prophet points so they get an early religion, and can get Crusade. They build a Hippodrome, which gives them free Tagmas. They go to an enemy city, kill a few units with their Tagmas, spreading their religion due to TAXIS to that city and converting it. Their Tagmas now do full damage to the city walls thanks to PORPHYROGÉNNĒTOS, which combined with their +4 CS due to being next to other Tagmas and +10 due to Crusade, and +3 per Holy City following their religion, they get +17 attacks minimum (because their own Holy City counts)...meaning that they can take out that city pretty easily. They then have a new city, with the potential to add four more Tagmas for free that have no resource requirements. That's enough to take on two more cities at time...

Even when Tagmas come to an end, it's only a loss of +4, and they should have Holy Cities converted to make up for that.

It really is a snowball civ. It just takes a while to get going (your first districts have to be Holy Sites, then you want to get your Hippodromes (Entertainement Complexes) researched and built in order to get going...but once you do, the everyone is in for a world of hurt.

 

[ManoftheHour333]

While I think Portugal gets the superlative, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Byzantines yet. At least, I didn't see them.

Assuming you can get Crusade (their achilles weakness and why they lose to Portugal), they're insane.

They build a Holy Site, which gives extra Great Prophet points so they get an early religion, and can get Crusade. They build a Hippodrome, which gives them free Tagmas. They go to an enemy city, kill a few units with their Tagmas, spreading their religion due to TAXIS to that city and converting it. Their Tagmas now do full damage to the city walls thanks to PORPHYROGÉNNĒTOS, which combined with their +4 CS due to being next to other Tagmas and +10 due to Crusade, and +3 per Holy City following their religion, they get +17 attacks minimum (because their own Holy City counts)...meaning that they can take out that city pretty easily. They then have a new city, with the potential to add four more Tagmas for free that have no resource requirements. That's enough to take on two more cities at time...

Even when Tagmas come to an end, it's only a loss of +4, and they should have Holy Cities converted to make up for that.

It really is a snowball civ. It just takes a while to get going (your first districts have to be Holy Sites, then you want to get your Hippodromes (Entertainement Complexes) researched and built in order to get going...but once you do, the everyone is in for a world of hurt.

Wait nobody mentioned the Byzantines yet? I do agree that things mix together hella well for conquest and that their abilities give them a massive boost to religious domination. I still think Portugal has a little better synergy as the abilities don't funnel you down one path only (i.e. if you don't get crusade) but the Byzantines are an S-tier civ for a reason!

In terms of lack of synergy, I would also say Egypt sadly. Cleo's ability is pretty useless (Unless you're Portugal sending TRs to her lmao) and doesn't help with building wonders or anything and Itaru is famously weak+inconsistent. 15% is just paultry...Sphinxes then put her in direction to go culture or faith but no one would want to build a HS on a river due to lack of adjacency so you're out of luck there...so you just gotta hope that your weak 15% boost can get you enough wonders to get TSs up and running. Nothing just flow with how the game is played...unlike Rome whose bonuses have remained consistent throughout all the expansions, Egypt just feels disjointed all the time.

I also would say that India lack synergy but...well India is lacking a lot of things. Apart from the niche Chandragupta Varu rush, their abilities are all over the place while giving them so little bonuses overall. Amazing that they never got buffed.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

It really is a snowball civ. It just takes a while to get going (your first districts have to be Holy Sites, then you want to get your Hippodromes (Entertainement Complexes) researched and built in order to get going...but once you do, the everyone is in for a world of hurt.

Agree that Byzantium is very synergistic (and obviously very strong).
A small caveat though: I find tagmas and hippodromes to be rather overrated.
Personally I dont bother with hippodromes at all, and just faith buy (because you really want GMC as Byzantium) with the enormous amounts of faith I have from pillaging.
Instead I have heavy chariots and horsemen ready, and jump my neighbour immediately once the religion is founded and my first missionary converted the closest city.
Either way, Byzantium has some extremely strong synergy and is imo quite OP (but fun!).

In terms of lack of synergy, I would also say Egypt sadly.
I also would say that India lack synergy but...

This is the problem with a lot of the vanilla civs - they were designed at a time when the power creep wasnt as rampant yet.
I personally never played India yet (one of the few I haven't), and I don't really feel the need to either.
Like Egypt, they are somewhat bland and disjointed civ that don't really have that impactful bonuses that set them apart from other civs.
The only thing I personally like about Egypt is an early Maryannu rush and (if I can pull it off) Etemenanki being super strong if you get desert floodplains with Lady of the Reeds and Marshes or Desert Folklore as pantheons.
That's about it though.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

While I think Portugal gets the superlative, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Byzantines yet. At least, I didn't see them.

Assuming you can get Crusade (their achilles weakness and why they lose to Portugal), they're insane.

They build a Holy Site, which gives extra Great Prophet points so they get an early religion, and can get Crusade. They build a Hippodrome, which gives them free Tagmas. They go to an enemy city, kill a few units with their Tagmas, spreading their religion due to TAXIS to that city and converting it. Their Tagmas now do full damage to the city walls thanks to PORPHYROGÉNNĒTOS, which combined with their +4 CS due to being next to other Tagmas and +10 due to Crusade, and +3 per Holy City following their religion, they get +17 attacks minimum (because their own Holy City counts)...meaning that they can take out that city pretty easily. They then have a new city, with the potential to add four more Tagmas for free that have no resource requirements. That's enough to take on two more cities at time...

Even when Tagmas come to an end, it's only a loss of +4, and they should have Holy Cities converted to make up for that.

It really is a snowball civ. It just takes a while to get going (your first districts have to be Holy Sites, then you want to get your Hippodromes (Entertainement Complexes) researched and built in order to get going...but once you do, the everyone is in for a world of hurt.

Maybe they haven't been mentioned is because you forgot to mention the Dromons, which aren't really synergistic with the rest of the abilities at all?

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Maybe they haven't been mentioned is because you forgot to mention the Dromons, which aren't really synergistic with the rest of the abilities at all?

They kind of are though, as they arrive roughly right after you established your religion and like all units, benefit immensely from fighting with Crusade.
That being said, I never used Dromons before because in most civ 6 games, boats are nigh useless for combat operations.
This is a fault with civ 6 in general though, and it really makes me miss civ 5 at times (which was still bad for sea combat, but unfinitely better than what civ 6 has going).

 

[Linklite]

Maybe they haven't been mentioned is because you forgot to mention the Dromons, which aren't really synergistic with the rest of the abilities at all?

Eh, it's a unique boat that I don't understand why it's even been given to them. I mean, I get the historical reasoning, but given how strong they are with the Tagma and just general bonuses...it seems overkill to give them a unique ship as well. Especially one that, with Crusade, can easily get +20 CS over and above it's standard attack. Add to that the fact that navies basically have no reason to exist in the game beyond exploring or transporting, so I tend to ignore them and forget they exist

To more sincerely respond to your point - the rest of the attributes so strongly synergise that I feel that the second unique unit not synergysing is more than accounted for.

 

[steveg700]

Gorgo is a big no-no.

The Acropolis favors a DipV strat, but the leader ability sets up a DomV strat. I take a capital, I lose the diplo favor I'm getting from my suzerainties.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

Gorgo is a big no-no.

The Acropolis favors a DipV strat, but the leader ability sets up a DomV strat. I take a capital, I lose the diplo favor I'm getting from my suzerainties.

While I would agree Gorgo's leader ability pulls Greece in a different direction, I feel like you're also not taking into account that Envoys are generally useful for your empire because they can give you big stat boosts, city-state suzerainty effects (like Akkad's, which is super useful for Gorgo), and also open up levying opportunities.

 

[Newflipflops]

There's a ton of civs that have great bonuses for culture, I've just recently made a list of the top 7 and how to play with them.