Your Favorite Trait Combo

[Sodfather]

Here is my favorite combo, although the civs in the game that feature this combo aren't the greatest (Americans):

• Expansionist: I picked this trait mainly because it can serve as Scientific and much more. By this I mean that if you know what you are doing, those scouts can bring in plenty of free techs from goody huts; most likely more than the three that you would get from the Scientific trait. Also, you can get settlers, cities, warriors, money, and who knows what else from the goody huts. And barbarians are less aggressive towards you (so Firaxis says).
• Industrious: Industrious is another great trait because it speeds up my initial growth and gives me an early lead. As you may have noticed from my Expansionist comments, I like to gain an early lead and then hold it throughout the game.

 

[billindenver]

I don't know if I have a favorite combo, just ones that I like and ones I don't.

I like: religious, scientific, industrious, militaristic.

I don't like as much: commercial.

I dislike: expansionist.


You say that expansionist is as good as scientific, but I don't buy it. I've had a few good expansionist games, where I got a settler or two, and 4-5 techs. In most games, however, I end up with lots of empty huts, 2-3 techs and that's about it. The scout eventually gets trapped and killed by barbs. In several games I've played, I built a scout 1st, and my two scouts explored the entire tiny little dinky island I was one in about 10 turns, popping one empty goody hut. Whoop-de-do.

Scientific gets 3 free techs, but it also gets cheap libraries and universities, like religious civs get cheap temples and cathedrals. Libraries and universities are also strong culture buildings.

Militaristic - more elites, thus more leaders.

As to commercial, it is a very helpful trait, but it's just hard to see the benefit. You don't notice the few extra gold/turn, but it does really add up during the game. I'd definitely take commercial over expansionist though.

 

[Elek]

i never go without industrious, and i dont like militaristic/commerical

so:

industrious-expansionist
industrious-religious
industrious-scientific

any of those 3 are great

 

[Sodfather]

You're right, billindenver. Islands are a huge exception. A Pangea map is ideal for Expansionist civs.

Also, the reason you get a lot of empty huts and I do not is probably because you play at a higher difficulty level than I do (Your chances of finding something nice decreases, right?). In that case, you will get more empty huts and even a hoard of barbarians will pop outta a goody hut here and there, usually resulting in the death of your scout.

 

[billindenver]

Originally posted by Sodfather
You're right, billindenver. Islands are a huge exception. A Pangea map is ideal for Expansionist civs.

Also, the reason you get a lot of empty huts and I do not is probably because you play at a higher difficulty level than I do (Your chances of finding something nice decreases, right?). In that case, you will get more empty huts and even a hoard of barbarians will pop outta a goody hut here and there, usually resulting in the death of your scout.

Well, I play at Monarch or Emperor, and yes, it does reduce the goodies the higher you go. However, AFAIK, expanionist civs NEVER pop barbarians from goody huts. The only barbs an expanionist civ sees come from those little outposts, or from a hut popped by some other civ.

 

[Sodfather]

Originally posted by billindenver
However, AFAIK, expanionist civs NEVER pop barbarians from goody huts. The only barbs an expanionist civ sees come from those little outposts, or from a hut popped by some other civ.

I didn't know that. Nice.

 

[djstoop_id]

As someone said in another post, I used to love Religious, still do, but if you play with an industrious civ, I never feel the need to switch to Democracy, I just stay in Republic, the workers work fast enough (by the time I could get Democracy, i have enough workers to do the whole railroad map anyway fast. So religious is pretty useless that way. The problem is, you have to have industrious in order to do this.

So i'd say either MIL/IND (CHINA ! what an UU)
or SCI/REL (don't like the bowmen but oh well...)

 

[Speaker]

Originally posted by Sodfather
Here is my favorite combo, although the civs in the game that feature this combo aren't the greatest (Americans):

If they have the two best traits, doesn't that make them the best Civ? I think they are the best and with a stronger/earlier UU they would be unbalancing.

To those who bash Expansionistic Civs: scouts mean you uncover more terrain and more contacts equals cheaper tech equals more money equals more upgrades equals more .

 

[Sodfather]

My playing style always features the UU as a big part of my plan. And with a UU like the F15 that kind of destroys my gameplan. Seriously, it is such a terrible unit. They should have made a Minute Man for a rifleman or something like that; anything besides the F15.

Sorry for going a little off track there.

 

[Speaker]

I assume you mean that you rely on the UU to launch your GA? If you have fun doing that, then more power to you, but relying on gamebreaking wonders/units etc can hinder your improvement as a player and while we all have fun wrecking Warlord, it is so much more fun and satisfying to beat Deity.

 

[Sirp]

I really don't see how the Americans have so much more powerful traits than the Egyptians, Chinese, or Persians -- all whom have very good unique units.

-Sirp, who realizes he is setting himself up to have to explain once again why war chariots are so good.

 

[Beanzy]

I always play as Carthage because of their Commercial and Industrious combo. I get fast workers, and exta shields from industrious. And commercial gives me extra commerce and less corruption. These two led me have a large, farflung empire that is well serviced by swift workers and, no matter how far the city is from the capital, it still will probably do pretty well (what with the boost to shield production and the decrease in corruption).

 

[Sodfather]

Originally posted by Speaker
while we all have fun wrecking Warlord, it is so much more fun and satisfying to beat Deity.

You may be shocked, but the Sodfather has never beaten Deity. Actually, I've never completed a successful game on Warlord . Guess I'm pretty bad if all of you have been playing Warlord for fun .

True, relying on a UU to get you through the game is not a good strategy, although I wouldn't call my use of the UU "relying" - it's more like, "Hey, I've got this great tool to win the game. Why not use it?"

 

[Amber]

I always play with religeous, the secondary trait depends on the map/victory conditions. On a larger map it keeps your civ content and on a smaller map you can flip the AIs civs like no tomorrow.

 

[Ville]

Ind. & Sci. or Ind. & Rel. or Rel. & Sci. if I choose my civ, I usually take random so it doesn't matter

 

[Nad]

to those who say expansionist gets you more free techs than scientific: yes, but we're talking about cheap ancient age techs here, and at that stage in the game, AI civs have little money/not many resources connected/equal in tech etc, so brokering opportunities are limited. Scientific on the other hand gets you free techs in all the ages - massive brokering opportunities, and techs that can literally earn you tens of thousands of gold - Nationalism, for example, on its own is worth more than all the techs you'll ever get in the ancioent age as an expansionist civ.

People have been trying for ages to demonstrate the amazing power of expansionism, but I'm afraid I still don't buy it....sure, expansionist is useful, all traits are useful, but for me, it is by far and away, without a shadow of doubt, the worst civ trait; way too map-dependant to be in any way reliable, and a trait that diminishes even more on higher levels (okay, so you won't get barbs, you'll just get loads of empties on deity).

In terms of trait combinations, I like industrious with anything, militaristic and religious go well together (japan, aztecs, celts), and scientific/commercial is a great research combination.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Favourite Combo ... well, that would be Industrious and Scientific. Industrious and Religious is probably the strongest, tho'.

Overall, I think Industrious is a bit overbalanced, but the five other traits are very nearly equal. Perhaps Militaristic is a bit weaker than the rest tho'. Then all those extra Elites don't hurt. Commercial, Religious, Industrious and Scientific are all good in almost every situation, whereas Militaristic and Expansionist are more situation-dependent; in circumstances optimal for it, Mil+Exp can very possibly be the greatest combo.

 

[WickedSmurf]

Industrious, that's a must-have for me.

The second trait, well religious is handy, to build up temples and other religious buildings faster, but scientific is also good since you get a free tech when entering a new era... Yeah, I'll go for scientific.

IND/SCI.

 

[Darkness]

I agree with the thread starter! Industrious-Expansionist rocks!
Just try it on a huge pangaea map. Just try it!

I got the entire ancient age tech tree from GH's and a settler (in 3850 BC)...

 

[bru]

Industrious, and commercial. I like to build and just dabble in war, so these traits seem the best!!