What is the most versatile civilization?

[nzcamel]

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. What is the nation that can deal with most of the situations?

I haven't played every Civ yet (it's a marathon thing lol), though I have played most from Vanilla; and I think some that are being overlooked so far here is both Greeces. That extra wildcard slot from the get go is kick ass for getting you off to a flier which will help with any victory condition.
And while I like getting good relations with lots of CS's, it's Sparta's ability of getting heaps of early culture against barbs that is a real killer, getting you to Political Philosophy really quickly.

 

[Scaramanga]

Yeah it has to be Greece, the extra wildcard slot is the definition of versatile.

That said, i'd like to make a case for Spain. They can dominate land and sea with conquistadors and armadas and there are always continents around to exploit. Sending mass trade routes can create flourishing cities anywhere on the map. Lastly, missions provide faith for anything from inquisitors to great people.

 

[Bizrock]

In my understanding, I will split the definition of flexibility into two and compare them separately.

Having potentials in all victory routes:
These are the civs that have a chance to focus on any one/two route(s).
Civs on the list: Germany, Australia, Rome, Aztec

My grading of the civs in this category:
1st: Rome, Aztec
2nd: Germany
3rd: Aussie

-Germany and Rome have greater potential if they have the opportunity to ripe, while Rome has a greater land mass to build districts and Germany has a production benefits that will be op in later game.
-Germany is powerful, but they cannot go religious, so this makes them less flexible in that sense, although they do really well on the other routes.
-Aztec has a earlier potential to gain districts, and they needs constant conquest as well as Rome does.
-While Rome has a infrastructure bonus and more powerful UU, Aztec has an amenity and strength bonus. Their strengths are similar and similarly powerful.
-Australia's potential is situational, and comes quite late as well.

Having advantage on various paths:
These are the civs that have a unique that covers multiple routes, but not doing particularly well on each of them.
Civs on the list: Japan, Brazil

My grading of the civs in this category:
1st: Japan
2nd: Brazil

-Both civs have advantage on every paths, but not too powerful.
-Japan builds districts faster and earn them in a faster pace from the beginning, on top of the adjacency bonuses.
-Brazil may catch up in earning Great People in later time, but it cannot pull up districts as fast as Japan.

Rounding up them all, in terms of dealing with situations (e.g. being DOW, having amenity problem, being surpassed in any of the victory routes), Rome and Aztec should stand out. Both possess strong military power and ways to support other route on top of the army. Aussie only does well in DOW, rendering their strength quite passive. In Japan and Brazil's cases, they do not have a convenient way to solve the problem.

I think most of people didn't get the meaning of versatility, this is the most accurate answer

 

[sonicmyst]

For me, versatile civ are those strong in both production, gold and/or faith, as well as have advantage over GPs.

Production is king for both science and domination.
Gold is needed for obvious reasons. As in gold can buy anything.
Faith is obviously needed for religious victory, and somehow can also tie up with cultural (via religious tourism + Cristo Redentor + faith buying GP).

With these in mind, I think the most versatile civs are:
Russia
Germany
Nubia
Australia
Netherlands
Brazil
Poland
Scythia
Persia

 

[Archon_Wing]

Well, basically the more you need going for you, the less versatile you are, because it just takes something going wrong to knock you out of contention. The more conditionals and "ifs" you have, the worse it is. That's why Civs like Rome, Germany, and Greece are versatile. These things will generally benefit you almost regardless of situation. They always work. Arabia always gets a religion and China can get whatever wonder they want aside from Stonehenge. That's going to carry them far.

Civs that have their bonuses depending on a religion, or a continent cannot be versatile because some things can happen out of your control that will set you behind. (Sorry Spain!) So that leaves civs like England and America out right off the bat.

On the other hand, you can see a civ like Russia who can go for religion but even if that should fail, they still have great writers to fall back on, as well as trade routes giving more science.

There seems to be a frequenting recurring theme in Civ discussions to count the amount of types of victories that a civ can go for, but I think this isn't very accurate because honestly, if you secure a dominating position, ANY civ, can win any kind of victory. And not all victories are equal too. So, Korea isn't just pigeonholed into a science victory just because they're good at science. They're also good at winning culture too, since science helps a lot with winning culture.....

Anyone said Brazil yet?

I'm playing them for the first time, and they seem to be able to do everything pretty well. GP's cover all victory conditions, and the Amazon bonus applies to holy sites, theater districts, commercial hubs, and campuses.

The problem with Brazil is that the rainforests eventually become poor tiles, and the Great Person thing only works if you're succesful in getting great people. If you're beaten to great people, Pedro's ability does nothing to help you catch up so what happens is that Brazil looks really strong when ahead, but doesn't really seem like much when behind. I think it's more of a "win harder" mechanic.

They do have a sick battleship though.

 

[Victoria]

I think most of people didn't get the meaning of versatility,

No, that’s your meaning, improvise, adapt, overcome. Nothing to do with victory conditions despite then saying it is.
If they didn’t get that then they didn’t read your first thread very well.

 

[Portinou]

Australia, Rome, Germany. These are good in ANY situation for ANY victory type.

After a couple of playthroughs, I definitely add Crees to this list. The only condition is 2-3 camps/pastures in your capital or second city. On turn 150, you get so much production that you can go whatever path you want. Though it requires a bit more plan than the other ones.

 

[isau]

It might almost be easier to list which civs are not versatile. I think a pretty good case can be made for the versatility of most of them. Really what it sounds like folks are debating is effectiveness, not versatility per se.

A compounding factor is that elements that would appear to gear a civ toward Domination victory handily bleed over into also providing benefits for the other victory types. Being able to knock other players from the game with force is always going to be a "versatile" characteristic, whether you actually kill everyone else or not. I suppose you could argue, though, that a civ with strong combat abilities wastes its bonuses if it never attacks, and some people may see that as "less versatile."

In comparison, Religious Victory elements tend to not bleed over to other areas of the game so readily, although there are some exceptions. A good example of an exception is Spain and Poland, who have access to an easy way to generate Golden Ages via their religion flipping abilities in the middle of war. I don't know that I'd call a steamroll-for-Golden-Age-points strategy "versatile," but it can certainly be effective, and has applications beyond the obvious goals of war or religion spreading on their face.

The least versatile civ in the game is Kongo, since it is the only civ that cannot complete the Religious Victory. It's still a strong civ with excellent bonuses though.

 

[Esperr]

Australia. Even after the nerf my group still has them banned in MP because theyre you but just better. Having +7 campus right away not only rocketa them ahead in tech but frees up early production for other things. Not to mention in SP the random joint war DOW just helps them.the outback station isn't in the top 3 best UI, bit its pretty good. The fact that they are a science and money monster makes them just good at everything. They are a jack of all good trades.

Gorgo is up there because of the policy slot, and having cheap theatres is really important in R and F, getting free envoys as well is a big deal for maxing yellow and,blue city states early to rack up bonuses. This makes them good for any victory type.

Korea, because they excel at science, which can trump all and leads to any victory condition. Having cheap high bonus campus also frees up early production like Australia.

These are just off the top of my head.

 

[nzcamel]

I think most of people didn't get the meaning of versatility, this is the most accurate answer

No, that’s your meaning, improvise, adapt, overcome. Nothing to do with victory conditions despite then saying it is.
If they didn’t get that then they didn’t read your first thread very well.

Well I'm confused. I guess I don't see much difference between versatility and an ability to improvise, adapt, overcome. And surely with the end goal of a victory in mind?

I still can't go past Greece (boring as my answer may be) as the extra wildcard slot the whole game is the very definition of versatility than can be geared towards any victory. Possibly the combo of another leader's entire traits might go past that...but I doubt it. Almost all UU are about warfare; and UI's tend to be also focused on one or two area's of the game that they cannot change.

 

[Portinou]

Versatility to me means be able to pursue reliably with equivalent chances any kind of victory type in any starting position with warmongering or peace. So not so many civs are so versatile. The key here is ability to generate big production mid-game.

Top versatility tier:
Rome
Australia
Germany
Cree

Tier 2
Aztec
Indonesia
Nubia
England
Arabia

Most civs in the middle

Limited to one synergy between 2 victory factors
Spain (religion-military)
Khmer (religion-culture)
Gorgo (culture-military)
Russia (religion-culture)

Not versatile at all (limited to 1 victory type or 1 strategy)
Macedon
Zulu
Mongols
Korea
Scotland
Scythia

 

[Victoria]

Well I'm confused. I guess I don't see much difference between versatility and an ability to improvise, adapt, overcome. And surely with the end goal of a victory in mind?

You mean the 4 standard victory conditions provided by the game? The only time I play to them is GOTM because I have to. Versatility is the ability to cope with different situations. If the OP had standard victory conditions in mind they should have been mentioned or my mind just discards them.

 

[nzcamel]

Versatility is the ability to cope with different situations. If the OP had standard victory conditions in mind they should have been mentioned or my mind just discards them.

Granted. Without the victory conditions in mind however I think much of this discussion is meaningless.

 

[Victoria]

Then the versatility is futile, it’s gilgamesh, Monty, Alex, Tomyris blah blah blah.
I would venture that with victory conditions in mind versatility is meaningless because the VC are primarily based on the early OP civs and we already know the answer... again. Zzzzz
It’s just thread after thread of top tier civs, little versatility of thought required.

 

[nzcamel]

Yeah, but OP-ness is often based around one VC, and not the other three - think Mongolia and Macedon for instance (as they should be!) That isn't versatility. I'm not saying they don't have any ability to cross over into other VC's...but they certainly aren't OP in them.

VC's give us more black and white metrics by which we can judge versatility. We can have a conversation about versatility without referring to VC's; but it will be much more subjective than a conversation with VC's in mind will be or should be.

 

[Victoria]

VC's give us more black and white metrics by which we can judge versatility.

but it will be much more subjective than a conversation with VC's in mind

Sorry, if you want to be objective then it’s OP war civs. Gilga or Monty will outstrip others for ALL VC’s
Subjectivity is what this game is all about IMO.

Now if you were to wrap in there... peaceful victory, the entire list changes.
But no, no specification at all

How about OCC? France is mighty awesome at that.

Nope, just “what’s versatile” which I have zero issue with until they turn around and add comments later which is where this started. @Bizrock sort of chastising people for not knowing what’s in his head. Everyone knows what versatile means.

I,m gonna leave it now because I suspect it will continue otherwise.

 

[leandrombraz]

Speaking of France, doesn't diplo visibility affect religious combat as well?

Yes, it does

aaand speaking of spies, does anyone know how the listening post mission works? Does it give diplomatic visibility while you're running then you lose it once finished or it give you a permanent +1 visibility level once you finish it? Do I need to keep the spy running the mission over and over again or run it once and you're set?

 

[Victoria]

how the listening post mission works? Does it give diplomatic visibility while

Yes, need to keep running it.

 

[Portinou]

Then the versatility is futile, it’s gilgamesh, Monty, Alex, Tomyris blah blah blah.
I would venture that with victory conditions in mind versatility is meaningless because the VC are primarily based on the early OP civs and we already know the answer... again. Zzzzz
It’s just thread after thread of top tier civs, little versatility of thought required.

What about my answer where Alex and Tomyris are bottom of the list and Gilgamesh a middle tier one?

 

[Victoria]

What about my answer where Alex and Tomyris are bottom of the list and Gilgamesh a middle tier one?

I have no issue with your list or answer.