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

[Obark]

Russia and China. I don't recall a single game with those two present where they didn't represent a serious threat for victory. Isabella and Montezuma on the other hand will always fizzle.

 

[OmniPotent42]

Russia. I was able to contain her once, but every other time she's taken half of the map which is like every single game I've had. She's one of the best programmed AI's, that's for sure. Haven't had Hiawatha in many of my games, thank goodness.

Polynesia, Carthage, America, Aztecs, and India always fizzle out, it seems, due to either poor diplomacy or not making enough units.

 

[njmfff]

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.

I've never seen Iroquois doing much. Yes, they get wide, yes they spam wonders, and yes they are always at war, but I've never seen them doing anything with those wars. Maybe grab some low pop city on worst possible place, but nothing really important.

On the other hand, Austria can quickly become powerhouse if you don't pay attention to her allied CS.

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.

I've noticed that too, but Russia will spam lot of Wonders even when she's not "Salt start". No surprise there tho, Cathy usually has minimum of ten cities that produce units, while Moscow only produce wonders.

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.

Spain AI was never too bright. She builds some huge force, but it's usually lot of Conquistadors and Tercios, then decides to attack civ that has GWI and Artillery. and gets beat up badly, often losing her Capital.

ps. I simply love when some random AI comes to me and says that Venice has become threat and instability to the world. or when Venice spawns next to Attila.

 

[Gucumatz]

Snowballers:

Greece
Mongolia
Poland
Russia
Iroquois


Occasional runaways, but may fail:
Sweden
Denmark
Zulu
Inca
Polynesia
Egypt
And others I am forgetting

 

[Hruberen]

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.

Funny, in my current game, they started next to each other and Japan warred against them and took 2 of their cities, including the capital. I'm fighting a war o fliberation to get them back.

 

[Aquaplex]

Snowballers:
Russia
Greece
Rome
Inca

Fizzlers
Brazil (always fizzles!)
Portugal

 

[JustinianIV]

Russia and Siam are top snowballers.

Byzantium, Aztec, Spain, Carthage are the Captains of Fizzle

 

[jaget80]

Russia, Rome, Alex and Hiawatha always seems to have +20 cities late game.

Byzantium, Aztec, Spain, Carthage, Mongols and the Songhai's always seems to have less cities.
Well to be fair Mongols tend to go wide but usually tend to fall apart around industrial age where more techy civs destroys them.