Your favorite civ to play as so far?

[Ferocitus]

China is fun.
A) It is awesome sauce rushing Pyramids, Petra !!!, Colosseum etc with builders, which means Ilkum now gives 30% to wonders plus you use the wonder card as well. . Build,a "SupaPetra" City and then fill it with Concentric Great Walls, wont be disappointed
B) Eureka Mini Game....It is quite fun trying to maximise your UA. This does not mean getting every Eureka. Turning a 4 turn Tech into a 2 turn Tech doesnt help anyone. Turning a 30 Turn tech into 15 Tech does .... Pick when to just Hard Tech
C) As a Wonder Builder myself I can empathise with Qin's hatred for people beating him to Wonders.

I've had great fun with China on ludicrous-size Giant Earth Maps.
Left alone for quite a while with only Japan and India nearby.
Slow build up, and then turn the whole of Asia an Europe into a slaughterhouse around 1200AD.
Just like real history!

Some Dude across the other side of the World beat me to the Oracle and it actually made me . One day soon i will find him , One... Day... Soon

If you see Napoleon from Civ5, point him out. We have a few old scores to settle.

 

[Darth Tribble]

So far, I really like China as it fits my wonder spamming play style and I enjoy leaving behind a cultural legacy that sparks jealousy into other civs.

 

[johnnybaseball]

I have only played ~ half of the civs so far. While not the strongest, I liked Arabia most. You can do some different stuff and it feels fresher than switching from Germany to Rome or something like that. Also, the Mamluk is an awesome unit. I also never felt pushed to go for any victory type or style of play - it felt really open what to do (except early religion).

I had a very similar experience; I got Arabia as my random civ on a shuffle map, and it was just fun. I like the Last Prophet ability; it was nice to be able to spend the early game not worrying about religion at all. I'm not a great player or anything Arabia just worked for me.

 

[CaiusDrewart]

I had a very similar experience; I got Arabia as my random civ on a shuffle map, and it was just fun. I like the Last Prophet ability; it was nice to be able to spend the early game not worrying about religion at all. I'm not a great player or anything Arabia just worked for me.

Agree. I think religion is very weak in this game--the bonuses it gives are just not very significant--but it is really fun to have one. At the same time, if you invest in Stonehenge or a bunch of holy sites early on, you're really setting yourself back. You'll end up with a much worse Civ than you could have had. Either of these strategies suck up a lot of early game production that could be settlers or builders or military. Plus there's the added risk that if you go for Stonehenge you might get beat to it, and if you go for holy sites, you might be too slow to get a religion at all. Plus the holy sites will take up a district slot and slow down the construction of important stuff like commercial hubs and campuses and industrial zones.

So it's nice to play Arabia, where you can get all the fun of religion without any of the effort. Russia has a similar dynamic.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

Agree. I think religion is very weak in this game--the bonuses it gives are just not very significant--but it is really fun to have one. At the same time, if you invest in Stonehenge or a bunch of holy sites early on, you're really setting yourself back. You'll end up with a much worse Civ than you could have had. Either of these strategies suck up a lot of early game production that could be settlers or builders or military. Plus there's the added risk that if you go for Stonehenge you might get beat to it, and if you go for holy sites, you might be too slow to get a religion at all. Plus the holy sites will take up a district slot and slow down the construction of important stuff like commercial hubs and campuses and industrial zones.

So it's nice to play Arabia, where you can get all the fun of religion without any of the effort. Russia has a similar dynamic.

I only build 1 Holy Site and shrine, temple if possible so I can immediately Evangelize 2x. I don't really care what Founder beliefs are left although the AI seems to always leave the housing or amenities ones which I probably would have taken anyway. I play on the TSL maps quite a bit and 90% of the time Jerusalem is nearby for me to take over their nice pre-built Holy site. Tech is luxury techs > Horseback Riding > Stirrups while I go straight for Theology after getting Tier 2 Government civic. Early Madrasas in 2 cities are quite good, then it's total war until about the Industrial Era. I usually faith buy units and build districts in my cities. I haven't really encountered any games sp or mp where this approach hasn't consistently gotten me to the tech and culture leader by the end of the Renaissance.