Would you classify Russia as a pretty weak civ in this game?

[starrywisdom]

Doubled strategic resources is often really only useful when it becomes double uranium. There are lots of games I've had where I ended up with way more Horses/Iron then I needed anyways. The AI won't trade anything of value for it unless it's used up all it has. So usually, as Russia, I'm left with a bunch of horses and iron unused and with unit maintenance costs there's often listen incentive to use any more of it then I already am.

So what about doubled Uranium? Well that is great if the game hasn't been decided yet. Sometimes it's game changing. More often then not, however, I've already secured victory.

This is one of my main reasons for disliking Russia. I just never 'utilize' the benefit of the double resources, so it's a real loss for me. The production increase is great, but I'm better off using someone else majority of the time ;/

 

[danieladler]

They didn't put Stalin in for the same reason they didn't put Hitler in, they were both mass-murdering tyrants who lived close to our time. If you wait like 500-1000 years i'm sure they'll both be in

For your information, Stalin was available as a leader in Civ4, so its not controversial at all.

 

[qyll]

I consider Russia decent maybe even good. That's because having only a 2 iron tile can suffice for conquering a neighboring civ and start a snowball that engulfs the entire world.

 

[codepoet]

Then the UU would be almost useless. Cossacks can be upgraded to tanks and retain one of the best offensive bonus. 25% strength on a fast unit is awesome at picking off units with Artillery shots followed by the cossack finishing it off. Makes the Cossack a stupidly good defensive unit too. Shell with a city, eat up with cossack, rince/repeat.

This is one of the most powerful combos in the game IMO. Upgraded Cossaks == how many wars do I want to start?

 

[fmlizard2]

I consider the Russians at about the exact midpoint among civs. I don't find their UA particularly useful since I almost always do Cultural Diplomacy (double CS gifted resources, +50% luxury happiness) so I never have a resource shortage once the CSes start to harvest theirs.

Cossacks are nice and their UB is also useful. I really like it because I love to do a few cities with huge borders. One could skip the Tradition tree altogether with the enhanced border expansion. I always start it for the opener and sometimes the wonder bonus, but never finish it.

Also, their start bias (tundra) can be pretty unfavorable.

 

[Hasire]

I don't like russia. I don't build barracks in any city except my unit producing cities, so only one of two. Maybe, if I have three cities, I will make another barracks to get the HE. I have cavalry. Any unit that is weaker (IIRC) than the thing you upgraded it from is terrible. When I have a tech advantage I want to kill my enemies units, not lose when our units our both fully healed. The bonus is nice, but it is not worth it to have cavalry. Maybe you could spam than upgrade to tank, but tanks are even later than cavalry! Siberian riches is nice, but it is not enough to redeem the civ in my eyes.

 

[Jim Bro]

in my last poll, out of 436 people, only 3.90% of them picked Russia as the strongest civ so no, they are not very good. Siam, France and China are way better. Persia (if you build the Chichen Itza) and Japan are close behind.

Russia's ability is very average. I guarantee you will not use 40 strategic resources and if you miss some of them, just go with fascism.

 

[Thry]

Are people forgetting that Cossaks are worthless?

 

[starrywisdom]

in my last poll, out of 436 people, only 3.90% of them picked Russia as the strongest civ so no, they are not very good. Siam, France and China are way better. Persia (if you build the Chichen Itza) and Japan are close behind.

A biased poll from less then 1% of people who purchased the game really has little meaning...lol It's also worth noting that if the poll isn't done after every single balance patch / update it's results are null and void. Unless of course you want to say 'Civ X is currently in Y position after Z build'.

Also worth noting it's about playstyle - while Japan may be a good 'war' civ, it's not an exponentially good offensive war civ. If you're poll doesn't allow for macro and micro strategies within each civ - once again the poll has a large bias. Not to mention many people just pick the civ they like - not the civ that is 'statistically better'.

 

[snarzberry]

in my last poll, out of 436 people, only 3.90% of them picked Russia as the strongest civ so no, they are not very good.

It could be that every respondent to your poll rated Russia as the second best civ, except the 3.9 % who rated them as best. The fact that a small number of people rated them as the single best does not necessitate them being overall 'not very good'.

It's wise to be careful about how you use, or react to, statistics from polls. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, they can often be like lampposts in the hands of drunks - used more for support than illumination.

 

[nokmirt]

Russia is one of my favorite civs to play just because I think the russian empire was pretty cool.

But in civ 5 the actual stats for this civ seem kind of on the weak side. What do you think?

When I play as Russia, I dominate with a huge empire.

 

[Onan]

Russia is indeed a strong civ in MP.

 

[Jim Bro]

It could be that every respondent to your poll rated Russia as the second best civ, except the 3.9 % who rated them as best. The fact that a small number of people rated them as the single best does not necessitate them being overall 'not very good'.

It's wise to be careful about how you use, or react to, statistics from polls. Paraphrasing Winston Churchill, they can often be like lampposts in the hands of drunks - used more for support than illumination.

yeah right but still...

i wondered something. the +1 production bonus per strategic resource... how does it work exactly. is it on the tile on which the resource is and the tile needs to be worked?? or is it +1 prod per resource and they divide the production by the number of cities. i don't get it.

 

[He-Who-Hunts]

^^^

I was just about to mention the +1P, it can be immensely useful early game, before Martin Alvito's brilliant tech strategy pre patch Russia was one of my favorites, I would tech AH immediately and then usually settle 1 or 2 quick cities WITH horses in their radius giving them an automatic +1P for quick lib production (with the aim to be able to build the NC while I pump out workers/units with the other cities).

Oh and FYI the +1 production bonus per strategic resource is an added hammer to each strategic resource in a city radius, even without being improved.

 

[Sonereal]

When I play as Russia, I dominate with a huge empire.

I dominate with Russia as a small empire. Because it doubles strategics, you don't have to expand across Creation to equip your armies with horses and iron.

 

[ButSam]

ATTENTION MODS: Tried "report post" but it told me I didn't have permissions. Look carefully at the posts by mxh5210.

EDIT: Looks like a mod already got it taken care of Feel free to delete this post if desired.

 

[woodshadows]

Russia is a pretty enjoyable civ to play. Very well-balanced and changes my usual play style a bit. I don't often bother with barracks but with Russia there is an added incentive to do so and I'm appreciating the extra promotions gained for what in the long run has been a pretty small investment. The increased production works out wonderfully when combined with borders which reach out and grab resources further out before other civs can get them. The cossack is pretty nice, altho it has influenced me to build knights which aren't so nice. It also means I have to either build some infantry or be stuck without strong frontline troops until I can get tanks. Once tanks are around however you have an extremely strong army. I still think Aztecs are the strongest civ to play, but Russia relies less on early rushes and has more staying power.

 

[qemist]

Doubled strategic resources is often really only useful when it becomes double uranium.

Try sparse resources.

 

[KevinJK]

Let me ask a question for everyone who doesn't like Russia: do you also dislike Arabia?

I ask this because, in my mind, they're fairly similar in how they're meant to be played. Russia has no use for the hordes of extra strategic resources it gets. You're better off selling them to get tons of cash. Arabia literally cannot use its surplus luxury resources unless it sells them. But you cannot get the AI to purchase things from you in a fair trade if you piss them off. So just don't do that. Russia and Arabia have no real benefits for conquest, so just stay out of war. The AI still isn't very good, but this is perfectly possible to do. Never, ever, form a declaration of friendship or a defensive pact. This are always negative and will always screw you. Also, you can't really stay out of war if you start close to other nations, so Tiny Islands or Archipelago help a lot. Still, it's perfectly possible to get a peaceful victory with very few wars if you just keep yourself out of global politics and treat every other civilization like they're all customers. Because they are all potential customers, and you can make tons of money off of them.

 

[peddroelm]

Their tundra start bias - means you will often only have one neighbor (very important on deity not to start amidst 4-5 AIs ..)

Won a deity space with Catherine - had 3 horse resources in range of Moscow -> turned a weak production capital on plains - into a production powerhouse EARLY(15 from the horse tiles alone once I build the stable). The hoard of multiplied horses provided a massive infusion. Also managed to get some iron with my other two cities ...even more ...

Used tradition + teched Philosophy before CS so I had time to hard build Angkor Wat after HS.
tradition + Angkor Wat + krepost made for insane border growth which secured me some oil wells far from my cities on the late game - ...

Had enough in the end to rush-buy the 3 space-factories and (3k+) and still had 6k+ in the bank on lift off...(~ T250)

Had Persia as an original neighbor and Arabia as the second after they conquered some persian cities ... Only war was Monty who decced me early but was unable to reach me because he was pretty far ...

Russia is not weak (have no multi-player experience but I don't see them doing too bad there either .. )