What is your favorite Civilization?

[Razzlesnaff]

What is your favorite Civilization? I know this poll has been done to death, but I don't just mean it's your favorite just because you think it has the absolute best UA/UU/UB. Otherwise it would just be Greece, China, etc. You can vote for whatever reason you like obviously, but I'd like to get opinions of Civs beyond just "I like them more because they let me win 50 turns earlier."

My personal favorite is the Aztecs. Montezuma's UU is nice for an extremely early rush especially if there is lots of jungle and makes for pretty powerful upgrade. Longswordsman with 50% jungle bonus and 2 Health per unit kill? Yes please.

His UB is extremely nice and makes good use of lake tiles. Lake tiles provide an additional +2 food, an additional 15% Food Supply on top of the +2 food from a normal Water Mill? Yes please. It allows you to quickly build up huge populations in any city near a lake or river tile.

But it's his UA that allows me to immerse myself the most in this game. Sacrificial Captives provide culture for each enemy killed. I'm not sure if it scales with difficulty or the length of the game. But on King and Standard Time, I'm getting +9 Culture from Longswordsman and Knights. It allows me to gain huge amounts of culture and still have a huge empire.

After awhile of playing as Montezuma, you start looking at the enemy units purely as sacrificial fodder for your empires culture. An enemy Horseman is no longer just an obstacle to over come on your way to victory and the destruction of your opponent, but a juicy +6 culture for an early empire.

 

[jagdtigerciv]

Ottomans. Why? Because I like playing as multi-ethnic empires (America, Mongolia, etc), they have a wonderful history that I personally enjoy and they I really enjoy how close their two UU's are to one another -- it really add's for a good empire 'burst' in the renaissance -- something that fits well given Ottoman history.

 

[Razzlesnaff]

Just played my first game as the Iroqouis. I have to say they come pretty close to the Aztecs as far as fitting my play style. Early UU, a fantastic UB considering how hard hammers are to come by. His UA is pretty nifty too. Saving that extra gold on road costs really helps an early empire.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Iroquois. Fricking. Own. Everything.

It's was a close call between them, Nebz and Songhai though.

 

[RadioLemon]

The Siamese have the greatest Unique Building EVER!

and a good Unique Ability

 

[glaivemaster]

I like the Ottomans for two reasons I think:

The first is that gunpowder - metallurgy - rifling period where, no matter what you've been doing so far (as long as you've been doing ok at it) you can just suddenly burst out of the gates rushing everyone nearby and doubling/tripling your opponents while they reel from the shock of the speed and efficiency of your units. That all out attack attack attack style, with units made specifically to support it, I find really fun and interesting (with the Ottomans in a way that it isn't necessarily with other civs)

The second is that their UA sucks, and people keep saying it sucks, and thus assume that the Ottomans are poor as a civ just because of that downfall. I make it my mission in any game I play to prove that the thing everyone says is rubbish is not as bad as it looks, and that's the Ottomans in this game. Sure, their UA *does* suck, but that doesn't mean that they're a bad civ, and so I've proved many times to my friends (in SP and MP)

 

[Zyxpsilon]

To play against or with?
For competitivity reasons or the glamour effect of better uniques & colors?
When aiming for specific victory conditions?
While on any given maps and/or using multiple different kind of settings?

Highly complex set of tricky but necessary variables if you ask me.

So - in some sort of an intellectual snap - i went for Germany -- dunno exactly why, it just felt right for a few good (even silly!) reasons in my mind; Berlin, Dark Grey, Landsknecht (I swear without CivPedia Online by Sterkhov i wouldn't have spelled this unit the proper way.), History, U-Boats, etc.

A close second would have been the Iroquois (Mohawks, btw) since i live close to some Natives reserve here in Québec near the St-Lawrence river.

As for playing against... England, China, Russia - i'll let you sensually guess why!

 

[Abraxis]

The Siamese have the greatest Unique Building EVER!

and a good Unique Ability

and a great unique ability you mean. I specifically keep them out of every game I play because combined with the HUGE happiness bonus from difficulty, they grab a few maritime city states and have 20+ size cities in the middle ages. By the time I get to industrial they're entering modern, even if they only have 4 cities.

Personally, I like Ghandi the best for playing, with Ramshakamenophenoden coming in second. I am a builder and Enjoy not having to go to war early with my immediate neighbor just for a shot at victory. Building up huge metropolises is more fun IMO, and will be more fun once they revamp diplomacy so I can better manipulate the world whilst I'm sipping ambrosia in my utopia

Ramshakophenolenopen would be best at this in theory, but the happiness cap really kills his potential, unless I suppose you started out with cultural city states, then later switched to maritime.

 

[Harald]

India, just for the UA. The easiest way to build a large empire. The UU is pretty good as well due to the ability to move after firing. The UB is a bit lacklustre though.

 

[Shadow717]

India, just for the UA. The easiest way to build a large empire. The UU is pretty good as well due to the ability to move after firing. The UB is a bit lacklustre though.

I chose India too, although I think the mughal fort is at pretty good. In my game as India, I can safely say that without my Mughal forts I would have lost at least 1 city, maybe 2. And playing a cultural game that would have been a substantial chunk of my empire. And once the gold from flight kicked in, my economy got a big boost.

Also, using my elephants in a single tile wide, hilly mountain pass was fantastic. Always out of range of the enemy but always able to rain down death. I had my elephants, a simple chariot replacement, killing off musketeers and even riflemen. Drill 3+ oligarchy (I think that is the right policy, +33% in friendly lands), and 2 attacks per turn. Good times, good times... well maybe not for the Romans it wasn't.

 

[Omega124]

Siam. Play with your cute little converted barbarians or jannersaries, but once your ready for huge metropolises with tons of science, with food to support them, plus not stagnating in the culture race, we'll talk. It also has Elephants, which are stronger than all the units in its age, and stronger than all the other units in the next age but one. Combine that with the lack of need of horses, and bonus to other mounted unis, the Elephant is probaly the best UU ever, and is a total game winner. Finally, Wats add cuture and cost less, so you get more science and culture out of them!

 

[AmazonQueen]

Persia
Interesting history, solid UU, UB and UA, very versatile

 

[EasyGoin]

Siam for sure, they are just made to conquer and made for sprawling empires. Early horseman + a beeline to Chivalry (especially if you invest in the honor tree) makes your army unstoppable for around 200 turns. Watt + cultural city states keep you flowing on policies. Even if they nerf horseman, as long as they don't nerf the Elephants Siam owns.

Nothing like showing up to WW1 against rifleman and early infantry with elephants - and stomping them.

Edit- surprised to see such an even balance of favorite civs on the poll. That's a great sign.

 

[Supr49er]

China works well for me

 

[Dark_Jedi06]

Rome.

Legionaries (backed up by Ballistas), decent UA, some of the world's greatest/most interesting history, awesome city names, etc.

 

[Razzlesnaff]

Edit- surprised to see such an even balance of favorite civs on the poll. That's a great sign.

I was concerned that people wouldn't read the post or would ignore it and it would be once sided towards Greece or China. But I think most people understand that while some Civs are better then others, you can win with any Civ. You eventually find one Civ that pokes your fancy and suits your play style. Rome is far more popular Civ than I originally thought.

 

[Bob_]

I voted Iroqouis because it feels like you acually have a different way to develop your civilisation due to these wood- bonuses. In the end its not that different, but ah well...

I miss Gilgamesh damnit. Im kinda fascinated by the sumerian people.

 

[Abraxis]

I was concerned that people wouldn't read the post or would ignore it and it would be once sided towards Greece or China. But I think most people understand that while some Civs are better then others, you can win with any Civ. You eventually find one Civ that pokes your fancy and suits your play style. Rome is far more popular Civ than I originally thought.

no kidding, I would have expected greece to have the 9-ish votes and rome to have the 1.

I wonder if people just find Greece overpowered, or maybe they just don't like city states...

Personally, I'm not to crazy about the roman UA as I usually build a lot of wonders early on in my capitol, and infrastructure wise it's usually surpassed by an early production city. The legionnaires building roads sounds nice though

 

[Cordycep]

I like the Russians for their small production bonus on strategic resources and the Krespost which allows for faster border expansion. Cossacks are murder on infantry but for whatever reason, I don't use them as much as swordsmen and archers. Funny thing is, the CiV art book says that the Russian UB is the Fur Trading Post which replaces the Granary creating extra wealth to nearby cities and speeds up the creation of settlers...

 

[Mango Elephant]

I love Russia to death because of how I feel playing as them, not because they're particularly powerful or none of that.