Why is Civ 5 America terrible?

[Matthew.]

What difficulty? On higher difficulties I see it do well, like many of the other warmongers. Pumping out minutemen like crazy when most other Civs are still on pikes...

 

[holywar]

Odd, I've actually yet to have a game where America didn't do amazingly well. They always end up absorbing at least 2 other civs (usually cultural powerhouses and wonder spammers as luck would have it) before the Modern Era and growing out of control. They're my biggest roadblock to victory every time.

Same here

 

[chazzycat]

in my experience America AI is one of the better ones. At least they try to expand and build up and do science.

 

[Aquaplex]

Last game that I had George in, he manged to eat up the three other Civs on the continent I spawned on. A couple of successful Classical and Medieval wars that snowballed into a curb stomping when he got his Minutemen.


He'll kick you apart, if you're not careful.

This pretty much sums it up. America is sort of like the Iroqouis. You let them build up and they'll tear you apart and they just snow ball into killing machines. If George is your neighbor and you're relatively weak militarily he will often backstab you right away. This is on Emperor difficulty.

 

[Trackmaster]

Right, I think that the consensus here is that it depends on which part of the game that you're in. Kind of like in real life some of the third world empires are very strong in the beginning of the game, but none of their special abilities or units help them later in the game. America's special ability is lame, but the bombers and the minutemen come in handy if it makes it that far.

 

[Lord Alexander]

America is almost always the police force in my games. They're usually the one hateful to warmongers kind of Civ that will actually do something about it. Whenever I go for an early conquest they will be the ones that try and stop me and they do put up a pretty good fight.

Often when were separated and I end up discovering them mid game they will always have conquered other cities but 90% of the time it's cities from a warmongering civ like Attila.

America is always near the top for score except the odd game where they end up falling behind. But usually I like becoming friends with them if there's another warmonger around they will usually protect me.

 

[Lord Alexander]

Though on the other hand he will usually try and suffocate you or other civs and try to provoke war that way which then doesn't make him look like the bad guy. Either way he's an interesting civ to play against. Though I dislike playing as him.

 

[civmaster17]

For a human v human match America is very good but I've never seen the ai be Murica

 

[Dtekkar]

I find that the American AI is too expansionist and just for his own good. The best aggressive civs are generally ultra cruel, exterminating their weakest, peaceful neighbors and stealing all their wonders, then snowballing out of control from there. America tends to pick fights with warmongers and end up in costly wars, generally forgoing the defenseless that have treated him kindly in the meantime. It's just a bad strategy. Ironically, Washington fights like American Revolution era redcoats - his notion of honor and fairness are so incompatible with the grotesqueries of war that it often gets him killed.

In addition, the amount of cities they place tends to anger everyone and make them a universal target, but economically, technologically, and diplomatically they have no meaningful special bonuses. Their UUs come late if at all and their strongest unit, the B52, the AI regularly sends to its death, using them like 3-use guided missiles and ignoring interceptors to boot.

Rarely a runaway.

 

[Lord Alexander]

I find that the American AI is too expansionist and just for his own good. The best aggressive civs are generally ultra cruel, exterminating their weakest, peaceful neighbors and stealing all their wonders, then snowballing out of control from there. America tends to pick fights with warmongers and end up in costly wars, generally forgoing the defenseless that have treated him kindly in the meantime. It's just a bad strategy. Ironically, Washington fights like American Revolution era redcoats - his notion of honor and fairness are so incompatible with the grotesqueries of war that it often gets him killed.

In addition, the amount of cities they place tends to anger everyone and make them a universal target, but economically, technologically, and diplomatically they have no meaningful special bonuses. Their UUs come late if at all and their strongest unit, the B52, the AI regularly sends to its death, using them like 3-use guided missiles and ignoring interceptors to boot.

Rarely a runaway.

He did amazing in my last game and had more score than me at the end. I won as Ethiopia with a science victory. But still he had good science, every CS on his side and conquered Mongols, Austria and Denmark.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I actually haven't played America yet. Maybe I should give it a go. On paper, it doesn't look too impressive.

 

[Trackmaster]

Here's why I think it's smart to make America a lame civilization to play:

It's already an American/Canadian game. Even if it wasn't, you have to imagine that America would take up a huge market share of the people playing it. While not everybody would be drunk off of patriotism, you'd have to imagine that many people would naturally gravitate towards America inherently, even if the civilizations all played the same. This gives most people an incentive to try out other civilizations.

Maybe they should have split America into the union and confederacy.

 

[reddishrecue]

1. America uu ,minuteman, can drown in water maps.
2. America uu, b 17, comes in too late to save a day.
these are both reasons why America could be terrible.

 

[brasaelal]

Playing vanilla and g+k the AI America was always strong. In BNW not so much. Usually they start ok, but around modern era they begin to have problems. The AI doesn't use Minutemen very well and seems that they spent money with the wrong tiles and not the essencial ones.

 

[NukeAJS]

America doesn't do well compared to Russia because of starting positions. Russia gets a tundra start which usually gives lots of space to settle and America gets grasslands/forests which usually gets lots of rivals near.

This isn't always the case, but it's usually why Washington gets whacked early.

 

[Trackmaster]

I don't think that America has a set starting space, but it's usually similar because of process of elimination.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I've been mulling an idea for a Unique Building for America. It's not a fully-formed idea yet, so maybe this thread is as good a place for it as any. I also don't know if anyone has done a mod like this already...

American Football Stadium.
Unique American Stadium replacement. Cost 500, Maintenance 2, +2 Happiness, Prereqs Refrigeration and a Zoo.

City must have a University. 25% of the Culture from World Wonders, Natural Wonders, and Improvements (Landmarks, Moai, Chateau) is added to the tourism Tourism output of the city. Tourism output from Great Works +25%.

A unique version of rugby football, American football became the most popular sport in the country in the latter half of the 20th Century. By the beginning of the 21st Century, there were over 100 American football stadiums seating 50,000 people or more, with several seating more than 100,000. The professional league's annual championship game, known as the Super Bowl, was watched by more than one hundred million people, in more than 30 countries.

So it's a Stadium that provides a Tourism boost equal to half that of a Hotel , in addition to the usual Stadium benefits. There is no additional Maintenance cost, but it has an additional prerequisite building, a University.

My thinking is that America ought to be more of a Cultural and Ideological power and not simply a military one. I'm not sure which UU this UB would replace.

 

[rover6695]

Somewhat OT but how is America for a newbie?

 

[chazzycat]

because america is the biggest video game market and a "newbie" is more likely to just pick the country they are from.

 

[Sharples]

This discussion again? How many more threads are we going to get with the whole America is underpowered?

America works fine for early game and fast expansion, they're designed to take Liberty and buy a good plot of land. Their scouts are really good at finding ruins and barbarian camps, not to mention finding early civilizations, trading with them, knowing where they are, ect.

If Scouts get attacked by Barbarians, America can just save the XP for extra sight, Level 2 America scout will let you see 5 tiles in any direction depending on terrain.

The Minutemen is quite meh. It get's some good bonuses, but I'm not fond of Gunpowered replacements.

The B-17 Bombers are very powerful. Even normal bombers are powererful, this is just making it more stronger. Very easy to take cities with these beasts. Even with city strengths of 100. Just make sure they don't get anti-air. And if they do? Just intercept them.

America overall is designed for expansion and their main focus should be domination or science. They do less well with culture and diplomacy. They're supposed to be mean and agressive. The AI is sometimes situational. I've seen them become very strong at times, just expanding and letting that gold/science rack up, even on BNW they can become ahead.

Now please. We don't need anymore threads on America being underpowered. From my eyes just because the game was from America doesn't mean they should be all "beast" and overpowered. Not offending anyone here, but it's annoying getting these threads and repeating the exact same words.