why is england so weak in civ v?

[Antiphon]

Hahaha, this made my day, England being called a weak civ. Ok, it's no use flogging a dead horse , and England has improved a lot in , but I'll try anyway: England is one hell of a naval power and thanks to longbowmen is also strong on land. 3-ranged Crossbows and 2-ranged Gatlings and Machine Guns are a lot worth in current build where ranged units rule the battlefield. On naval maps England truly rules the seas. Remember that naval movement stacks, Ships of the Line with Great Lighthouse and with Social Policy have 9 movement points over 5 for unimproved Frigates. Oh yeah, Ships of the Line...take the single strongest unit for naval maps, make it 25% stronger, plus +2 movement from UA alone and what you get is...havoc. Extra spy is the cherry on top. So how does England fare? It is for sure the top-domination power on Archipelago and is still adequate on Pangaea. And any Civ that can dominate, can also conquer a large enough empire to support all other victory conditions maybe except cultural.

 

[Sabrina]

QFE.

I hate posts where a poster says, "I'm a better player than you, so what I say is right".....but I'm just about to do that So apologies in advance.

I don't mean it in an arrogant way but what Sabrina says is right. If you find England are weak, the problem is with your playstyle, not the civ. Adjust your playing style and I think yuo'll see that England are anything but weak.

I am probably one of the worst players on this forum, so I hope what I said didn't sound arrogant, didn't mean to.

 

[apocalypse105]

People really need to look closer at unique units and Unique abilities

Yes unique ability about ships is indead only usefull at water maps but they do give you a massive advantage if you have a navy. Extra sight and movement thats the key to naval superiority .

The extra spy is usefull especially in the early game where you can steal more techs and in the late industial era you can keep more cities state a diplomatic victory with england is easier because of the extra spy. because of this ability just wants me to play england.

units

Their unique longbow unit is extremely powerfull it can conquer a hole lot territory until the industrial where artillery and flight start showing up. However you can just use you're gatling guns as front line infantry because they all have +1 range so its basicly a 2 range unit with a counter atack
if atacked.

Ship of the line can take any ship until battleships the longer it takes before a unit gets outdated the better it is.

 

[DarthSheldonPhD]

Pretty much already been said, anyone who thinks England is weak or that Longbows are the primary reason to play England hasn't adjusted their play to accommodate the changes in naval battle, particularly navy vs. city. SOTLs are incredibly powerful units and the chemistry between SOTLs and the English UA is rivaled only by the Mongolian Keshik/Khan chemistry. Seriously, play a game with the civ of your choice on a small continents map and utilize a navy. Then do so again, but with England. You'll see.

 

[IkM]

England isn't underpowered nor overpowered, just a balanced civ, IMO. their UA isn't so great but longbows are quite good.

 

[pilot00]

elizabeth's unique trait just sucks. any other leader can gain it by building great lighthouse and or going through the commerce policy. i understand the devs wanted each civ to play uniquely but why not give a trait thats both uniquie and beneficial to the player when they play as that civ. +2 movement for all naval units?? really? this is suppose to compare to +2 culture for every city you build, or units always fighting at full strength, or 50% longer golden ages. all of those unique traits offer distinct advantages to the civ. + 2 movement for naval units offers very little advantage over other civs. a better unique trait would have been doubling the production speed of naval units for england. or even maintence cost for naval units reduced by 50%.

I've been going down the list of civs trying to win at least one game with every civ. i have yet to win a game-prince level, with england.I would like to know if their are any players who regularly play as england what would be a good strategy for them in winning the game? all input welcome. /rant

All those advantages you state for other civs can be simulated by wonders too: Chitsen Itza and Sistine chapel respectively.

Given that their UU are enormously good, the +2 movement can make their fleet in the late eras (try it on battleships) a force to be reckoned with.

 

[mintcandy]

England isn't weak, by any stretch of the imagination.

Sure, England is weaker on maps with no or very little water due to naval centric nature of England, but their Longbowman still makes them quite formidable, not to mention their free Spy.

I mean, contrast England on a no water map with the Polynesians on the same map...or the Inca on a map with scarce mountains and hills.

 

[n00bxqb]

Longbowmen alone is a disgusting advantage that other Civs don't have.

A few Longbowmen and a mounted unit = take any city without much effort at all.

 

[pilot00]

If you want underpowered civs, look at Germany, Japan and America. And to an extent India (their drawback can be played around with great results, but those UU/UB are just...sad)

Well, having finished an autocracy science game with India (yep you read that right) I cant say that they are undepowered at all. They are sensitive to a good starting location and handling though. Just beeline growth buildings, keep your own settled cities to a minimum and get Nuchnestein. Then the Mughal fort becomes a corner stone of your strategy.


As for England, underestimating them because of their UA is a mistake. Almost all CiVs who have a situational UA can be considered week. Is Siam and Greece weak for example? Surely not top tier but not week.
As it stands now the CB rush is the most viable strategy to lead to a fast victory. An upgraded CB means even faster.

 

[blackcatatonic]

I'd go so far as to say that England is one of the top 5 Civs in the game, particularly on water-based maps. I think I would have even said that before the free Spy got added.

One of the most ridiculous things you can do in the game military-wise is play as England, build the Great Lighthouse, unlock Commerce, build Brandenburg in a coastal city and churn out insta-ranged SotLs with something silly like 9 movement points. The AI's ineptitude at defending against naval assaults combined with the above has made for one of the easiest-won late-game Domination games I've ever seen.

 

[Antiphon]

I'd go so far as to say that England is one of the top 5 Civs in the game, particularly on water-based maps. I think I would have even said that before the free Spy got added.

One of the most ridiculous things you can do in the game military-wise is play as England, build the Great Lighthouse, unlock Commerce, build Brandenburg in a coastal city and churn out insta-ranged SotLs with something silly like 9 movement points. The AI's ineptitude at defending against naval assaults combined with the above has made for one of the easiest-won late-game Domination games I've ever seen.

Base movement =5 + UA 2 + GLH 1 + NT 1= 9 movement points, which can be further enhanced by individual upgrades.

 

[Vintage Port]

Will England be receiving an update in the new Brave World Edition? On all but archipelago maps I feel they are really underpowered.

Resurrecting a 2 year old thread was probably not a good idea as so much has changed since the original post.

This would have been better as a new thread in the BNW section.

Having said that England is anything but underpowered. On Pangaea you can pump out Longbowman and dominate the continent and upgrade them to 2 ranged Gatlings and add either planes and/or artillery to go with.

Extra spy is a nice bonus too. Plus you can play as a total dewchbag if you want to roll-play

 

[LoneRebel]

Oh, so this was a resurrected 2-year-old thread. No wonder it seemed...a little unusual.

Even without their UA - those effing 2-range Machine Guns.

 

[Jelster]

Will England be receiving an update in the new Brave World Edition? On all but archipelago maps I feel they are really underpowered.

Continets, Archipeligo, small Islands, large Islands, do I need to go on ?

They are my favourite Civ, they own the seas, and with the right strategy are damn good on land too. Use your navy to take 1 or 2 coastal sites as a beach head, roll in the long bows. Keep a SotL in the city for defence when you take it too, an upgraded SotL will take out most units in 1 turn.

Weak, underpowered ??? I don't think so.....

 

[Crafty Bison]

Ha! You wanted to rant about a weak civ and chose not India, not Germany, not Japan, but England? For continents or even pangea plus really, they do just fine (though try to make sue it's not too wet and hilly or the longbows will get really glitchy with all the trees). They are a pretty strong civ, and by the looks of things only set to get stronger in BNW with the importance of defending maritime trade routes.

The UA is regularly seen as 2 more moves on a 9 movement destroyer, which is not so great, but it's advantages are especially pronounced early on (as with all civ games, that's when it matters most). Importantly it applies not only to scout triremes (6 movement at sailing!) but also your first amhibious compbow attacks take only half the time to travel and in the drink where they're vulnerale. workers and settlers travel faster in water than land, so you can expand your civ and boost infrastructure along the coast quicker than other civs. Cumbersome and slow galleas attacks are a thing of the past, and they'll be active on more turns and get further towards logistics, which is exactly when SoTL's get silly. OK, so you can't take every capital unless you're on small continents or less, but in pretty much every domination game I've played, once you get 1/3 to 1/2 of the way there, it's pretty much over anyway, and only a matter of time.

As England, the benefits on a water map are not only military but expansionist. You can settle across the sea quicker, take more puppets quicker and require less navy which can be spread more thinly in order to defend your empire, meaning you can spread to the far flung corners to grab the best spots without worrying as much abut defense. Your wokers and great people can tranverse between locations quicker and your missionaries can move between continents quicker.

I would go on about the UU's and 2nd spy, but they already seem pretty well covered. Needless to say, I don't think any of that's weak either.

England's stuff is all good, and when played correctly provides a lot of synergy between pieces. A strong civ, but also one with a fun and distinctive style. What more could you want?

 

[bcaiko]

Will England be receiving an update in the new Brave World Edition? On all but archipelago maps I feel they are really underpowered.

Why the two year old thread ressurrect? Most of the posters here are going to be confused by the original poster and not be able to answer your question.

Seeing as G&K gave England major mechanical boosts, I doubt they'll get a buff. They might get some sort of rework for trade, but I doubt it. They're one of the strongest Civs in the game now. On Standard maps, England is very good. On island based maps, they're overpowered.

Ship of the Line and Longbowman are extremely powerful units. The UA means you rarely need to build roads because your embarked units will get between coastal cities quicker. And the additional spy is gravy; more free tech for you!

In vanilla, England was undoubtedly one of the weakest Civs in the game. But you can't say that post Gods and Kings.

 

[Jerman]

elizabeth's unique trait just sucks. any other leader can gain it by building great lighthouse and or going through the commerce policy. i understand the devs wanted each civ to play uniquely but why not give a trait thats both uniquie and beneficial to the player when they play as that civ. +2 movement for all naval units?? really? this is suppose to compare to +2 culture for every city you build, or units always fighting at full strength, or 50% longer golden ages. all of those unique traits offer distinct advantages to the civ. + 2 movement for naval units offers very little advantage over other civs. a better unique trait would have been doubling the production speed of naval units for england. or even maintence cost for naval units reduced by 50%.

I've been going down the list of civs trying to win at least one game with every civ. i have yet to win a game-prince level, with england.I would like to know if their are any players who regularly play as england what would be a good strategy for them in winning the game? all input welcome. /rant

You don't have G&K then... She gets one extra spy, Longbowmen can up to gattling guns with one extra range, and Naval combat is great in G&K (attacking coastal cities.)

 

[EnglandIsBoss]

Try archipelago for once, you might kick some Persian booty. Just change you play style dude. By turn 200 I had 5/7 of enemy capitals under my empire. I also renamed all enemy cities to UK names. I never knew Aberdeen could border Sparta.

 

[Browd]

Moderator Action: Again, please do not revive long-dead threads. If you want to start a conversation about England, just start a new thread.