Which civs always snowball in your game, and which fizzle out?

[Botswana]

I'd say these civs always have a potential to get big in my games

- The Shoshone
- Egypt
- The Iroquois
- Russia
- Persia
- Morocco
- Zulus
- France (pre BNW)
- Mongolia
- Austria
- Incas
- Greece
- Poland
- Rome

Civs that never seem to get past 3 or 4 cities half the time

- Ethiopia
- Sweden
- Byzantium
- Polynesia
- America
- Brazil
- Celts
- China
- England
- India
- Japan

 

[Pythakoreas]

There's an "Expansion" and "Growth" value for each of the leaders. For America, this "Expansion" value is actually 7, higher than 5(average). Polynesia 8.

India has the highest "Growth" value (10!) so they will grow their cities and worry less about grabbing more land.

 

[Princeofnigeria]

Always explode out of control:
Iroqouis
Rome
Russia
France
Zulu
Always remain competetive (not dominate):
Japan
Siam
Greece
Etheopia
Ottomans
Arabia
Always crumbles:
Aztecs (wastes all early game reacources on useless wars)
Isabella (isloates herself with constant war)
Celts (gets conquered easily, lacks defense)
Byzantium (too passive, always misses religion)
Indonesia (never expands by settlers, always trys conquest and fails)
Mongolia (peters out in renniasance)
All others are scattershot in effectiveness

 

[Ximixanga]

If Japan starts next to India, India will somehow always end up conquering Japan and wiping them out by the late Renaissance era. Germany and the Ottomans have also always been very strong in my games, as well as France and Poland. If left unchecked, the Huns will also destroy anyone close to them once they can get battering rams.

 

[simonthesinner]

There is a luck factor where any civ with a good enough start can snowball, but the ones that does it more regularly in my games are Russia and Maya. If I have an unknown civ leading with double my score, despite me doing quite well when I get those caravels out It's 80% Likely Russia.

 

[Skull_]

Greece, always greece.

 

[KaneofEgypt]

I actually seem to see Polynesia explode in many of my games.

 

[Jewman]

My last game was weird because the swedes actually fought several successful wars and conquered the Russians (who were gearing to run away) and they conquered the Aztecs (before the Iroquois could) therefore leaving a stalemate between the swedes and Iroquois which prevent the latter from being good at anything besides delaying my culture victory, I was playing as brazil on another continent. Interestingly enough, China fought an aggressive war agaisnt Atilla and conquered him. My last few games have been very bloody, and the AI have been challenging and surprisingly intelligent too. I'm way off topic now...

 

[reddishrecue]

Snowball civs
Rome
China
Japan
Egypt
Shoshone
Denmark
Sweden

Fizzle out civs
Spain
Germany
France
Songhai
Byzantium
Aztec
Zulu
Huns

 

[strijder20]

Haven't played any of the expansion packs, but in vanilla Greece is definitively a consistent threat.

 

[The A.K.T]

Songhai ALLWAYS get thier asses kicked. cant remember a game wher he didnt just get conqered by another civ.

 

[njmfff]

Same here. Askia 9 out of 10 games get wiped out. So does Shaka (Shaka can get successful with early wars, but by the mid game, everyone hates him, so they group attack him and eventually he will be out of the game) and Sejong (Korea) - usually piss everyone off by settling near other AI cities. Monthy is also big candidate for selfdestruction.

Russia, China, Mongolia, The Netherlands, Rome and Siam tend to get huge and powerful if left unchecked... and hilariously, I've often seen Ghandi being very powerful civ, altho he rarely ever declares war first. He's also very trusty ally if you play peacefully.

 

[Czer]

In my games the Iroquois always seem to explode. And they seem to show up just about every time I leave the leaders as random. Its actually getting a bit old with how consistently they dominate their continent, I think their UA in AI vs AI combat must give them a heavy advantage.

Also, if any civ gets multiple salt resources around their capital it seems to snowball out of control very quickly, the added production and food lets them snap up wonders. It seems that Russia often gets this start, added with extra production from their UA I've seen an AI Moscow able to crank out midgame wonders in 5-10 turns.

 

[Tachii]

Russia
Greece
Rome

All 3 are expansive and builds a ridiculously large army in the beginning.

 

[VainoValkea]

Greece. Alex, that devil.

 

[livsbrand]

Common late game threats for me include Russia, Arabia, Siam, the Aztecs and the Iroquois. Civs that will seem strong for a while but mess up horribly come late game include Spain and Japan. Civs that never seem to get anywhere at all include Byzantium, Morocco, Songhai and *drumroll* Venice. That's off the top of my head.

I've yet to experience playing against the Zulus.

 

[Arachnofiend]

Songhai ALLWAYS get thier asses kicked. cant remember a game wher he didnt just get conqered by another civ.

Usually I agree, but he seems to be doing much better in Brave New World for me for some reason. The two times I've seen him so far he's continued to be a significant powerhouse into the late game; the first time he would have won by science if I wasn't there to win first.

 

[spfun]

Iroquois and Shoshone always dominate in my games, but if both are in i find Iroquois have the edge.

All in all Iroquois are the best AI Civ, they just seem to roll the best 'flavor' to do well consistently, unlike many other civs.

 

[eldiablonoche]

In BNW, I've had Germany snowball a couple times already(out of 7 or 8 games and they weren't in all my games) so that's still there...

Haven't noticed any other repeat offenders but I've been seeing weird Assyrian runs (2 games in a row they had smallish empires of 3 to 5 cities but managed to spike Science like mad... current game they Apollo'd in the mid 1800's with 3 cities, no GL, maybe just mad RAs I guess)

 

[Hruberen]

Snowballers:
-Morocco
-The Mayans
-The Netherlands

Fizzlers:
-Brazil
-Mongolia