Which Civs are easy mode?

[Yzman]

So I am just trying to wrap up my last few achievements and was going for rivals on ice ( I hate achievements like this btw where I have to rely on AI doing something) and I played as Russia on a world map TSL. Good god did I dominate the whole game.

I did the combination of dance of the aurora, lavras, the productivity from faith adjacency and ran the card where I doubled adjacency bonuses for holy sites. The game was easy mode. I was in modern era as the game was telling me it was renaissance or something like that.

What other civs or strats just totally trivialize the game like this?

 

[Victoria]

Kupe on a terra map, easy win even on deity

 

[Yzman]

What kind of victory? Cultural?

 

[Buktu]

What kind of victory? Cultural?

Any really. Domination and religion are the hardest but since you have basically 50% of all land and all CS for your own you can do anything you like.

 

[Victoria]

What kind of victory? Cultural?

As @Buktu said, you were asking for faceroll strategies, it does not get simpler although domination with Kupe coming from over the sea is pretty awesome

 

[SaboteurINT]

Saladin - as you have a religion guaranteed.
Tamar & Gorgo - with Zombie mode.
Kupe - all kind of maps with water.
Gran Columbia - nothing to explain here
Norway & Indonesia - on Archipelagos
Rome - 2 instant culture when settling up a city.
Vietnam - on Wetlands map or when spawned in the middle of map with jungles/forests.

 

[aieeegrunt]

Rome for sure, immediate free roads, monument and trading post when founding a new city

You get the roads when capturing an enemy city, which can be very important for maintaining momentum (not sure about the monument and stuff)

 

[Victoria]

@Yzman I think you need to change the title to what civ+strategy is easy mode, people tend to look at titles and reply.
So Scythian +horseman rush domination is just easy mode, you are fairly guaranteed to start with horses, get two horsemen every time you build one and the self heal when they destroy a unit.
Or Catherine de Medici (magnificence) with her court festival is just OP for a CV if done well.

 

[Yzman]

@Yzman I think you need to change the title to what civ+strategy is easy mode, people tend to look at titles and reply.
So Scythian +horseman rush domination is just easy mode, you are fairly guaranteed to start with horses, get two horsemen every time you build one and the self heal when they destroy a unit.
Or Catherine de Medici (magnificence) with her court festival is just OP for a CV if done well.

Not sure how to change a title but it isn't too important, I am getting the general idea of what everyone is saying.

 

[ezzlar]

Babylonians are broken.

 

[Hellenism Salesman]

After getting my hands on them, I recently tried out Ethiopia and I have to say they deserve to be in this list. As long as you settle your cities on hills, you basically get to ignore Science and Culture as you completely focus on Faith. And since they also give you insane Faith generation, you'll never have to worry about not having enough of it.

And then that Faith can be used for... well, just about anything.

• During a Monumentality Golden Age, you can spend it on Builders, Settlers, and Traders
• With the Jesuit Education Belief, you can use it to buy Campus and Theater Square buildings
• With the Divine Architect promotion on Moksha, you can use it to insta-buy Districts
• With Grand Master's Chapel, you can use it to buy military units
• Patronage of Great People (which is helped greatly by building the Oracle)
• Every Culture Victory unit you'll ever need: Naturalists, Rock Bands, and Archaeologists, thanks to their Civ ability
• Recalling Heroes in the Heroes and Legends Game Mode
• And of course, good old Religious Units

Ethiopia has a ticket to almost every single victory type except arguably Diplomatic, and the only prerequisite they demand is having lots of Faith, which they give you for free.

 

[Socrates99]

Aztecs ever since release imo. The "free" early builders (I guess you do have to work for them somewhat) and the fast built districts start a snowball that never stops. Basically just spam eagle warriors and maybe a few archers to whittle units down and go to war. Dont even really need a strategy.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Byzantium as long as you get a religion with crusade set up quickly, and from there rush a missionary + heavy chariots + horsemen. Domination doesnt get any easier, even on deity. Feels like Russia in terms of how much easier the game suddenly becomes.

Otherwise agree with Russia, it's both stupid easy and strong to play at the same time.

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Babylonians are broken.

Also (negatively) broken for everyone else but Babylon as well, as barbs tend to suddenly spam stuff like musketmen in late classical era. Infuriating as all hell when you're not Babylon yourself.

 

[Tuvok694]

Byzantium as long as you get a religion with crusade set up quickly, and from there rush a missionary + heavy chariots + horsemen. Domination doesnt get any easier, even on deity.

(should I laugh or should I cry?)
I just tried that on level immortal. I should have quit the game in turn 6 when I met Scythia. They had 5 to 6 times my military strength at any given time. Plus I had to deal with tons and tons and tons of barbarian crossbows and men-at-arms looooong before I had such units. Having my own religion was basically worthless when trying to defend against superior enemy units. Playing this game for a little over 100 turns was one of the most hopeless things I have ever done.

 

[Aristos]

Civ 6, followed by Civ 5.

In terms of Civ 6, I find ALL leaders easy mode. Some of them less, some of them more, but all my Deity games became a matter of how, and not if, I would win. That never happened before, at least to me, in the franchise's history, although it came close with Civ 5. That's why I can't play it anymore, sadly.

 

[Thormodr]

I just love the variety. Lots of overpowered and civs where you can do crazy things.

It reminds me of this board game - The Voyages of Marco Polo. All the characters are broken on purpose. That's part of what makes the game so fun. Mind you, you are playing against other humans so as long as they are roughly equally experienced, it balances out.

The "problem" with Civ VI (and Civ in general) is that the AI generally can't take advantage of the brokeness of its civ. However, the beauty of civ (at least for single player) is that it doesn't have to. It just has to be competent. (Yeah, yeah I know. ) It is there to entertain and not necessarily play to win.

Soren Johnson did a great talk called Playing to Lose - AI and Civilization, which focused on how the AI should be built. Civ developers should follow these guidelines, IMHO.

https://riseagain.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/playing-to-lose-ai-and-civilization-soren-johnson/

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

(should I laugh or should I cry?)
I just tried that on level immortal. I should have quit the game in turn 6 when I met Scythia. They had 5 to 6 times my military strength at any given time. Plus I had to deal with tons and tons and tons of barbarian crossbows and men-at-arms looooong before I had such units. Having my own religion was basically worthless when trying to defend against superior enemy units. Playing this game for a little over 100 turns was one of the most hopeless things I have ever done.

That is the one thing that can be tricky with Byzantium, getting a religion set up while staying safe.
Fortunately I tend to play a lot with religions and combining them with an offense, so I'm used to it.
Once you get the hang of securing the religion while not falling behind too much, Byzantium becomes absolutely broken for offensive play though.
I recommend opening up 3 cities and rushing holy sites in the first 2, then spamming units from all of them afterwards.
Holy site prayers if needed, otherwise a shrine in the city with the most pop.
Pop a missionary on the nearest enemy city and go to town with the heavy chariots you got in the meantime.

 

[Disgustipated]

In terms of Civ 6, I find ALL leaders easy mode. Some of them less, some of them more, but all my Deity games became a matter of how, and not if, I would win. That never happened before, at least to me, in the franchise's history, although it came close with Civ 5. That's why I can't play it anymore, sadly.

This, pretty much. Though there are a few crappy civs that should be avoided. Georgia being one of them. Though Georgia has gotten better in recent patches, and even they can do fairly well if you play them right.

And that's the thing, any civ can excel if you play them right. As the OP seen, playing Russia with that pantheon and focusing on those things made them massive. Many civs are like this if you focus on their strengths.

The only thing that might make a civ kind of crappy is if they depend on getting a religion and you are playing the top two difficulty levels.

 

[Aristos]

I just love the variety. Lots of overpowered and civs where you can do crazy things.

It reminds me of this board game - The Voyages of Marco Polo. All the characters are broken on purpose. That's part of what makes the game so fun. Mind you, you are playing against other humans so as long as they are roughly equally experienced, it balances out.

The "problem" with Civ VI (and Civ in general) is that the AI generally can't take advantage of the brokeness of its civ. However, the beauty of civ (at least for single player) is that it doesn't have to. It just has to be competent. (Yeah, yeah I know. ) It is there to entertain and not necessarily play to win.

Soren Johnson did a great talk called Playing to Lose - AI and Civilization, which focused on how the AI should be built. Civ developers should follow these guidelines, IMHO.

https://riseagain.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/playing-to-lose-ai-and-civilization-soren-johnson/

Hey Vancouver-Japan man! Long time no see!

Fun AI vs Good AI, yeah yeah, I know that speech from memory by now... the thing is, it's one thing to have a "fun" AI that does not play to win, and another to have a "boring" AI that does not play with all its own systems, and the ones it plays with, it does so very very badly. That is neither a fun nor a good AI. Its a non-existent AI.

That is NOT what Soren referred to. Gosh, how badly Firaxis needs a Soren...

And yes, it is ON topic, because that is what makes all civs easy mode, at least for me.