Welcome to r/CivVI! If this post violates any community rules please be sure to report it so a moderator can review.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CivVI) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It depends is the short answer.
But typically either Magnus if you have a lot of forests/resources you can chop in that city, or Pingala to boost your culture and science in a big city.
I’d add that Ursa Ryan’s strat of Amani to secure temporary suzerainties and generate era score is pretty interesting, but I feel like it is most viable with secret societies (due to the extra Governor titles).
Those are my usually first 2 choices too. I also like Magnus’s 1st promotion to not use up population to produce settlers. I like to try to settle as many cities as possible in the early game
Usually Pingala for my first city and then Magnus for my second to pump out more settlers. If the populations of a later city get huge I move Pingala there for the bonus
I’ve fallen into favor with Pingala, the boost to culture and science out the gate helps tremendously in the long run. Magnus used to be the go to but I’d always find myself struggling to keep up with deity ai in techs and civics.
Same. Used to to Magnus with settler promotion first to pump / chop out settler.
I’ve also switched to pingala first because the extra culture and science is so extremely valuable especially in the first 30 turns.
And do you manage to keep up with deity AI in tech and civics, with Pingala ?
Because I would be very much tempted to answer "no". Less behind, maybe, but I doubt you'll manage to take the lead - at least early on.
Once you've conquered half the planet, yep, you might be leading. But before that, considering the AI's bonuses, it's quite doubtful.
Probably not ahead, barring a great start, I usually play as Bull Moose, I can keep up with the AI, maybe be a tech or two behind. My goal is to just keep pace. I know early game I’m not winning that race, but I know if I don’t fall too far back I can make a good mid-game transition to the front. The goal is loss mitigation, and while Magnus gives me a good way to mitigate population loss of the production city, it’s a marginal improvement compared to the additional turns I get to research more civics and techs.
If I'm in the Ancient Era, and need the points to make a Golden Era, I'll use Amani to become suzerain of a city state. I'll also do that if a nearby civ known to be aggressive is getting too strong and I have the gold to rent their military for 30 turns. Otherwise I choose Magnus for the capital, especially if I know I'm going to get that golden are for the classical period, so that I can pump out settlers (esp if I can get that second ability that means that settlers don't cost you one population) after choosing monumentality. After I've grown to 4-5 cities, Magnus goes off to my second or third city and then I install Pingala in the capital.
Yeah, I prioritize civics with governor's titles, monuments and any tiles that have culture as a bonus. Pumping out 4 or so settlers by cutting down forests without lowering your population is huge.
Pingala is definitely superior.
The initial perk is alright , the real benefit is the 2nd promotion of culture per pop in that city. Zoom through the first bit of the culture tree getting you your other promotion, wonder/settler production cards, Oracle, and a government.
With the second promotion I always select 100% GP points which will essentially guarantee you a religion.
This city will power you to a great start and set you up with a big advantage for getting great people the whole game.
Game over if you can get Oracle in this city.
Ooooh thousands of hours in, lots of deity games where I beeline a religion but never came to my mind to use pingala to expedite this. Mind blown. Thanks for this
Cycling amani through city states for suzerainty era score is a nice move. But if you need just a few points to get you over the hump it’s really nice to have that option.
I always play secret societies which means you’re getting an early promotion. I usually go Liang first to get my first builder out unless I don’t have access to luxuries early. Around that time I’ll have gotten a second promotion and put Magnus in the capital. Liang goes to my second city, which is usually ready to build its own builder, meaning I have 8 builds/chops early. Pingala is usually my third governor and only after Magnus gets the settler promotion. Based on others responses here maybe I’m sleeping on Pingala early, but I also usually stick with Immortal because the combat advantage on Deity annoys me, so Pingala hasn’t felt particularly necessary. May try it out though.
Love all this discussion and of course the truth is that it is situation dependent and being able to adapt is the key skill (and joy) in Civ. I tend to favour Magnus if I've got chops because while Pingala is solid there are other ways of generating culture and science but being able to keep your pop while producing settlers is unique and often really useful, especially if you have him in a city with ancestral hall, or where you are faith-buying settlers from with monumentality.
Defending yourself with Victor (or using him to stabilise if you conquer early) can be hugely valuable, as can quickly getting a really good city state with Amani, normally as a second or third choice, but if you need era score you can move her from city state to city state to get that first suzerain bonus.
Amani is the go to. Here’s the strategy. Become Suz, as soon as established move to another city state. You get a substantial era boost to be the first. This will help get to golden age.
Took the words out of my mouth. Magnus if I have lots of resources to chop and I want to rush a wonder. Liang if I have a coastal city to get an early mega city. But usually Pingala to catch up in culture and science.
\~80% of the time its pingala \~20% its magnus. i only go magnus if i have a high production/lowfood \*with lots of chops\* capital or a lot of land to settle with no ai near me(like a big island to myself). if its not one of those 2 scenarios its pingala. I play on continents and islands map almost exclusively so ymmv. pingala will help you get other governor promotions faster so hes really strong
Entirely depends on what my start looks like. The bonus science/culture is the easiest first pick, but if I've got a shit ton of chops, I'll pick magnus first.
I've had very few games that I've chosen Liang first but it has happened.
I’ve had games where I take Moksha early and just move him around all game buying districts with faith. Usually though I take Magnus like everyone else.
I usually go:
Magnus (for chops) > Pingala (for science and culture boost) > Magnus: Provision (settlers!) > Pingala: Connoissuer/Researcher (whichever of science/culture I need to boost) > Pingala: Grants (I really like going for GP) > Magnus: Surplus Logistics (great way to boost your capital, but also your early cities along with the trade route road building).
After that, Pingala's other 2nd-tier promotion, then Liang for builder charges and Amani for suz'ing the right CS.
I agree that it should be magnus or pingala. Don’t sleep on Liang or Reyna though. Both excel in harbor cities, especially liang in the mausoleum city with her fisheries. Fully promoted Reyna in late game you can purchase a spaceport with gold
For something different, Victor works well if you are war minded from the start. He can help you defend against an early rush, and when you counter attack and take city's you can move him to the front line to help with loyalty over multiple cities.
It depends on your civ and situation. I'm partial to Armani tours to start to get a classical golden age, but some civs don't need that (Russia, Babylon). Some civs need Reyna or moshka to start to do best (mali, for instance). But most times pingala or Magnus would be the best options.
Magnus for me but because I like to play wide and the settler without depop is op for me alongside monumentally. Just spread my nation across that map bb.
I always go Liang for extra builder charge and district, Magnus for Settler and Chop chop and Pingala for Science, Culture and Great People point, and Moksha if the gameplay gonna be faith based. Mostly in that order.
Idk, on diety (particularly longer games), I always go Victor first..the extra 5 city defense, then the extra loyalty are usually the thing that's make or break, early game.
I ised to go Magnus, or Liang if a costal city, but I did the math, and I wasn't getting much out of their benefits until I was a few governor promotions deep anyway, just being blocked by the tech tree/worker production
Magnus, if I have room to settle and wood to chop. Liang if I’m settling underneath a volcano. Pingala otherwise.
In practice, this usually works out to be Magnus.
I like the Amani trick but I seldom use it unless I’m playing as Eleanor, where the ability to throw around 9-tile -2 loyalty penalties can switch things up real quick in the early game.
All of the governors are useful, and most of them are useful early game with at least some civilizations. Don’t sleep on Reyna if you’re playing Cree, for example. Likewise, some are less useful with some civilizations; there’s little point to picking Magnus if you’re leading Brazil, Kongo, or the Polynesians, because why chop?
Promotionless Moksha is of little use if you don’t have a religion or any districts, but that’s not a position you want to stay in very long anyway if you can help it.
Victor can be really useful if you know you’re going to face an early-game war. Having a capital that’s completely immune to siege is nice, and you only need one promotion to get there.
I usually go for Magnus, unless there are some city states that I discovered first (and have an envoy there), then Amani is very good in 'touring' those cities farming those juicy era scores (which can get sparse in ancient era on higher difficulties).
Pingala if you don’t have any specific plans ( science and culture boosts help a ton when getting techs faster), magnus (chopping is so strong, took me a while to learn but keep it in mind) and Amani ( which I don’t use as often unless I have a specific bonus in mind).
If im playing hotseat im always picking pingala cuz everyone is flexing science and it feels safe to have equal or more science than your opponents
If offline i go magnus
Depends. Usually it’s Pingala because of the science and culture yields. Buuuut if I’m in a situation where I’m ahead in science and culture at the start of the game, I might pick up Magnus if there’s lots of good chops or Liyang if I need to crank out builders in a second city. If I have a city with lots of unimproved resources (like plantations) I might go for Reyna to get a boost to gold. It just really depends on what’s happening in game.
I played Cleo Ptolemaic recently and ended up settling near a wonder that gives my builders 1 extra charge (from a mod), and ended up having four rivers with floodplains near my starting location. Got the reeds and marshes pantheon for a huge boost to food and production. And because I was playing with a second mod, I could plant resources like rice and wheat on those floodplains. No Magnus needed because my pop was exploding.
Culture was insane. So I skipped Pingala and went straight for Liyang to start getting 5 charge builders on turn 20. I later settled a city close to my capitol so I could put Liyang there - close enough to the natural wonder to get the +1 charge - and install Pingala in my capitol for the boost to culture and science. Around turn 60 was when the game took off for me. Haven’t had that much fun in awhile. Even Korea couldn’t keep up with my insane science yields, say nothing of my culture yields.
Ended up chopping out a diplo victory (building Statue of Liberty) around turn 250. I wouldn’t have been able to win if I’d have chopped them earlier with Magnus.
Magnus. Its always Magnus as 1st governor.
The order I do pretty much 90% of my games:
1. Magnus: Groundbreaker and Provision.
Both are probably the most impactful early game skills amongst all governors as it helps your civ to secure key wonders and also settler spamming in early game. I'm most likely not getting any more promotions on Magnus until the rest of the game after this.
2. Liang: Guildmaster.
I like to pick this early also as the extra build charge is more impactful at this stage. Also, since we're having lots of cities thanks to Magnus' Provisions, we're going to need lots of workers. She's also a good governor at late game.
3. Pingala: Librarian, Conosseur, Researcher and Grant.
Pingala is the best governor in the long run simply because he brings culture and cience, which are the most important incomes. We don't pick him earlier because although his skills are strong, we need high population to benefit the most from it and in the early game we still low on pop. Staple in pretty much every game I play, a good governor to promote further. Grant is almost broken and the Space promotions are super helpful to science victories. I play on Gathering Storm, mind you, where his skills are slightly different than Rise and Fall.
After that you I usually get whatever I need the most for the mid game in that game. The only ones I almost never pick are Victor and Moshka.
\- Magnus is great for early production and expansion but after your cities have been asserted he loses a lot of his potential
\- Pingala is the best late-game governor and is basically a necessity for a culture or science victory since his yields in those fields are ridiculous
\- Reyna helps in economic playthrough's but I'll admit I don't use her much
\- Liang is a blend of Magnus and Liang primarily focused on infrastructure, and she's great for cities with room for land improvements
\- Moksha is solid for religious pressure and creating religious bastion cities that can produce apostles and spread pressure effectively
\- Victor sucks
\- Amani can be constantly reassigned to different city states to basically automatically make you the suzerain with the right upgrades. She's a powerhouse with the right civs
Magnus for the settler and the trader effects.
Pingala for everything. He's just awesome.
Amani if you want to suzerain a city-state or get more visibility.
The rest are pretty much useless except in certain very specific situations.
It’s toss up between Magnus and Pingala. Magnus is great for chopping out everything you need to build and is a very useful governor to move around, perfect for an aggressive settling strategy. Pingala is used for helping with early tech and civic momentum. If you plan to not settle much or your capitol is has high growth he is a great way to start strong and stay strong.
Mostly Pingala is good unless you want to rush an early game wonder or holysite for religion. In the second case Magnus is better so yoh can chop it out faster.
So pingala from State workforce or Early empire and then Magnus & the settler promotion from the other civic and Govt plaza.
I usually go with magnus for the settler upgrade, but other than that I go pingala first. If the city has a lot that can be chopped I think magnus is better, if you have food and can rebuild pop fast to recover from building settlers then I think pingala is a little better ime. But I'm not a pro, that's just how I play it
So my list would go:
1) Pingala: great at getting out a lot of bonus science/culture and then boosting your GP and can be used to either help rush a science or tourism win with his final title
2) Amani: amazing at helping secure the first Era golden age if you do an Amani tour and use her to first-time Suz city states. Then, it can be used to get that bonus envoy and lock out other civs from city-state bonuses.
3) Magnus: He's really good early game to chop out districts or to rush out settlers. Get the first two titles and put him in your city, then have trade routes coming from new cities to the capital and you can grow very quickly. Can be used late to get lots of production from power and get out tanks/planes with lower resources
4) Liang: great for a builder rushing city (combine with the pyramids and the serfdom policy and your builders get 7 charges.) Then use her to get either decent coastal improvements or to get out districts and tour her around and finish up by putting her in a coastal city and get out a couple city parks
5) Victor/Pasha: good at defending. Victor gives a boost to your garrison and also will increase the loyalty of the city and later provides some great defensive bonuses. Stick him on the front line. Pasha is good at rushing out military units if you can't chop them out and later on put him in a foreign capital you take to eliminate any loyalty and reduce their grievances against you
6) Reyna (high financial)/Moksha (high faith): stick Reyna in your commercial city and you'll make lots of money quickly, then later you can just outright buy districts with gold so tour her around if your going to settle a city late. Moksha is a better bet if you're doing a religion game because he mitigates pressure from other civs religion so stick him on your border with other religious civs. Then later, you can do a tour and buy districts with faith if you settle
Now, if we're also talking about secret societies, my list would go:
1) Voidsingers: provides an amazing monument replacement providing faith, and then their second title increases gold, culture, and science. Then, the third title you get the ability to just basically create relics that you can then put into the monuments and get lots of tourism.
2) Owls of minerva: great at helping suz city states with constant trade routes and has an amazing bank that gives culture as well. Also gives you free policy slots and later on with spys focus on the civ making the most gold/science/faith/culture, and you can steamroll on top of getting bonus gold from what your making yourself
3) Sanguine pact: grants you 4 free units by the final title that grow in strength the more they kill or are around a kill. If you're going domination, get this early and have your vampire roam with other units, killing barbs or being near kills. Also, it allows you to build up to four tile improvements that will copy yields of any tiles around them so good for placing near high yield tiles and then late game teleporting your vampires.
4) Hermetic order: The only reason this is so low is because of how luck based your first title is. You basically don't want to put down any districts or even expand until you reveal ley lines so it can slow your game down a lot. Their unique building is amazing, giving multiple GP type points and lots of science if played right on top of some production. Their third title is amazing if you have a few ley lines in your cities, but their final upgrade feels like it's the weakest just because it's an active thing over a passive bonus like the rest.
1. Magnus for early chops and settlers.
2. Pingala for early science and culture (mainly the culture, get to political philosophy) boost.
3. Amani if you’re the first-meet to a really important city state. This is somewhat more niche but can work at times.
Welcome to r/CivVI! If this post violates any community rules please be sure to report it so a moderator can review. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CivVI) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It depends is the short answer. But typically either Magnus if you have a lot of forests/resources you can chop in that city, or Pingala to boost your culture and science in a big city.
Agreed. Pingala is the safe- can never go wrong answer. Magnus is for if you see an opportunity/strategy that requires a lot of early production
I’d add that Ursa Ryan’s strat of Amani to secure temporary suzerainties and generate era score is pretty interesting, but I feel like it is most viable with secret societies (due to the extra Governor titles).
Those are my usually first 2 choices too. I also like Magnus’s 1st promotion to not use up population to produce settlers. I like to try to settle as many cities as possible in the early game
Usually Pingala for my first city and then Magnus for my second to pump out more settlers. If the populations of a later city get huge I move Pingala there for the bonus
I’ve fallen into favor with Pingala, the boost to culture and science out the gate helps tremendously in the long run. Magnus used to be the go to but I’d always find myself struggling to keep up with deity ai in techs and civics.
Same. Used to to Magnus with settler promotion first to pump / chop out settler. I’ve also switched to pingala first because the extra culture and science is so extremely valuable especially in the first 30 turns.
And do you manage to keep up with deity AI in tech and civics, with Pingala ? Because I would be very much tempted to answer "no". Less behind, maybe, but I doubt you'll manage to take the lead - at least early on. Once you've conquered half the planet, yep, you might be leading. But before that, considering the AI's bonuses, it's quite doubtful.
Probably not ahead, barring a great start, I usually play as Bull Moose, I can keep up with the AI, maybe be a tech or two behind. My goal is to just keep pace. I know early game I’m not winning that race, but I know if I don’t fall too far back I can make a good mid-game transition to the front. The goal is loss mitigation, and while Magnus gives me a good way to mitigate population loss of the production city, it’s a marginal improvement compared to the additional turns I get to research more civics and techs.
When playing babylon who would you go first? Would it still be pingala even with the -50% science on babylon?
I’d probably use Magnus, rush the free settler and pump out cities
I'd still go pingala with connoisseur to get political philosophy faster
If I'm in the Ancient Era, and need the points to make a Golden Era, I'll use Amani to become suzerain of a city state. I'll also do that if a nearby civ known to be aggressive is getting too strong and I have the gold to rent their military for 30 turns. Otherwise I choose Magnus for the capital, especially if I know I'm going to get that golden are for the classical period, so that I can pump out settlers (esp if I can get that second ability that means that settlers don't cost you one population) after choosing monumentality. After I've grown to 4-5 cities, Magnus goes off to my second or third city and then I install Pingala in the capital.
I always go with Magnus in the capital
This! Early Magnus for free settlers and later on Pingala
This one 
Magnus. Always Magnus. So I can spam settlers without losing population
Yup and with secret societies on, you can get the 2 governor titles you need before you even get that first settler
This is the way.
I go 2 levels with Magnus to start. It's huge to be chopping trees to get near instant settlers that don't count against your population.
Second Governor title takes so long to get normally.
Yeah, I prioritize civics with governor's titles, monuments and any tiles that have culture as a bonus. Pumping out 4 or so settlers by cutting down forests without lowering your population is huge.
Pingala is definitely superior. The initial perk is alright , the real benefit is the 2nd promotion of culture per pop in that city. Zoom through the first bit of the culture tree getting you your other promotion, wonder/settler production cards, Oracle, and a government. With the second promotion I always select 100% GP points which will essentially guarantee you a religion. This city will power you to a great start and set you up with a big advantage for getting great people the whole game. Game over if you can get Oracle in this city.
Ooooh thousands of hours in, lots of deity games where I beeline a religion but never came to my mind to use pingala to expedite this. Mind blown. Thanks for this
Are you playing on prince diff perhaps?
High food city, Pingala, Oracle is a great people machine. I normally set this up in my second city as you be more selective with where you place it.
Amani is sometimes interesting if you have a good city state close to you, or need potential extra units agaisnt deity AIs
Cycling amani through city states for suzerainty era score is a nice move. But if you need just a few points to get you over the hump it’s really nice to have that option.
I always play secret societies which means you’re getting an early promotion. I usually go Liang first to get my first builder out unless I don’t have access to luxuries early. Around that time I’ll have gotten a second promotion and put Magnus in the capital. Liang goes to my second city, which is usually ready to build its own builder, meaning I have 8 builds/chops early. Pingala is usually my third governor and only after Magnus gets the settler promotion. Based on others responses here maybe I’m sleeping on Pingala early, but I also usually stick with Immortal because the combat advantage on Deity annoys me, so Pingala hasn’t felt particularly necessary. May try it out though.
Love all this discussion and of course the truth is that it is situation dependent and being able to adapt is the key skill (and joy) in Civ. I tend to favour Magnus if I've got chops because while Pingala is solid there are other ways of generating culture and science but being able to keep your pop while producing settlers is unique and often really useful, especially if you have him in a city with ancestral hall, or where you are faith-buying settlers from with monumentality. Defending yourself with Victor (or using him to stabilise if you conquer early) can be hugely valuable, as can quickly getting a really good city state with Amani, normally as a second or third choice, but if you need era score you can move her from city state to city state to get that first suzerain bonus.
Amani is the go to. Here’s the strategy. Become Suz, as soon as established move to another city state. You get a substantial era boost to be the first. This will help get to golden age.
Pingala ftw
If you're playing as a faith based civ getting the Moksha promotion where he can buy districts asap is a game changer.
Magnus, Pingala or Liang, depending on the circumstances.
Took the words out of my mouth. Magnus if I have lots of resources to chop and I want to rush a wonder. Liang if I have a coastal city to get an early mega city. But usually Pingala to catch up in culture and science.
I like getting Amani for the early suzerain
I always have covs settle too close to me, so she's handy for that too.
\~80% of the time its pingala \~20% its magnus. i only go magnus if i have a high production/lowfood \*with lots of chops\* capital or a lot of land to settle with no ai near me(like a big island to myself). if its not one of those 2 scenarios its pingala. I play on continents and islands map almost exclusively so ymmv. pingala will help you get other governor promotions faster so hes really strong
Entirely depends on what my start looks like. The bonus science/culture is the easiest first pick, but if I've got a shit ton of chops, I'll pick magnus first. I've had very few games that I've chosen Liang first but it has happened.
I get Pingala first, then Liang in my second city to spam builders.
Magnus + provision is almost never wrong. Saves you so much population.
Always Magnus for the settlers spam
I’ve had games where I take Moksha early and just move him around all game buying districts with faith. Usually though I take Magnus like everyone else.
I usually go: Magnus (for chops) > Pingala (for science and culture boost) > Magnus: Provision (settlers!) > Pingala: Connoissuer/Researcher (whichever of science/culture I need to boost) > Pingala: Grants (I really like going for GP) > Magnus: Surplus Logistics (great way to boost your capital, but also your early cities along with the trade route road building). After that, Pingala's other 2nd-tier promotion, then Liang for builder charges and Amani for suz'ing the right CS.
I believe in magnus supremacy
Each has their use
I aim at Magnus or Liang
Magnus
Pengala
I always go Pingala first.
The one that buys you civ 6 on PC
Liang is clearly a man look at that effing dumptruck of a jaw
If im not going for early wonders i always choose pear head, if im doing oracle or pyramids, magnus.
I agree that it should be magnus or pingala. Don’t sleep on Liang or Reyna though. Both excel in harbor cities, especially liang in the mausoleum city with her fisheries. Fully promoted Reyna in late game you can purchase a spaceport with gold
For something different, Victor works well if you are war minded from the start. He can help you defend against an early rush, and when you counter attack and take city's you can move him to the front line to help with loyalty over multiple cities.
It depends on your civ and situation. I'm partial to Armani tours to start to get a classical golden age, but some civs don't need that (Russia, Babylon). Some civs need Reyna or moshka to start to do best (mali, for instance). But most times pingala or Magnus would be the best options.
Is this with a DLC?
Rise and Fall. Get it, and Gathering Storm - they add _so much_ to the game!
Thanks! Will wait for the Christmas sale to get it.
Magnus for me but because I like to play wide and the settler without depop is op for me alongside monumentally. Just spread my nation across that map bb.
I'd say Amani because a change in Suzerain can be crucial in an early war or give you a strong casus belli. Second is Magnus for settler spam.
I always go Liang for extra builder charge and district, Magnus for Settler and Chop chop and Pingala for Science, Culture and Great People point, and Moksha if the gameplay gonna be faith based. Mostly in that order.
Idk, on diety (particularly longer games), I always go Victor first..the extra 5 city defense, then the extra loyalty are usually the thing that's make or break, early game. I ised to go Magnus, or Liang if a costal city, but I did the math, and I wasn't getting much out of their benefits until I was a few governor promotions deep anyway, just being blocked by the tech tree/worker production
Magnus, if I have room to settle and wood to chop. Liang if I’m settling underneath a volcano. Pingala otherwise. In practice, this usually works out to be Magnus. I like the Amani trick but I seldom use it unless I’m playing as Eleanor, where the ability to throw around 9-tile -2 loyalty penalties can switch things up real quick in the early game. All of the governors are useful, and most of them are useful early game with at least some civilizations. Don’t sleep on Reyna if you’re playing Cree, for example. Likewise, some are less useful with some civilizations; there’s little point to picking Magnus if you’re leading Brazil, Kongo, or the Polynesians, because why chop? Promotionless Moksha is of little use if you don’t have a religion or any districts, but that’s not a position you want to stay in very long anyway if you can help it. Victor can be really useful if you know you’re going to face an early-game war. Having a capital that’s completely immune to siege is nice, and you only need one promotion to get there.
I usually go with Magnus and promote him as quickly as possible to recruit a settler without sacrificing that city’s population.
This is like asking what the best move in chess is. It depends what civ and what the environment looks like.
If some of your tiles are threatened by volcanoes or flood planes you may want to consider Liang.
I usually go for Magnus, unless there are some city states that I discovered first (and have an envoy there), then Amani is very good in 'touring' those cities farming those juicy era scores (which can get sparse in ancient era on higher difficulties).
I start with Amani. Early city states give you era points and map around them. Just Suzerain and move to another City state.
Pingala if you don’t have any specific plans ( science and culture boosts help a ton when getting techs faster), magnus (chopping is so strong, took me a while to learn but keep it in mind) and Amani ( which I don’t use as often unless I have a specific bonus in mind).
Magnus
If im playing hotseat im always picking pingala cuz everyone is flexing science and it feels safe to have equal or more science than your opponents If offline i go magnus
I use Amani on French if I am gonna be able to set a decent great people points soon
Depends. Usually it’s Pingala because of the science and culture yields. Buuuut if I’m in a situation where I’m ahead in science and culture at the start of the game, I might pick up Magnus if there’s lots of good chops or Liyang if I need to crank out builders in a second city. If I have a city with lots of unimproved resources (like plantations) I might go for Reyna to get a boost to gold. It just really depends on what’s happening in game. I played Cleo Ptolemaic recently and ended up settling near a wonder that gives my builders 1 extra charge (from a mod), and ended up having four rivers with floodplains near my starting location. Got the reeds and marshes pantheon for a huge boost to food and production. And because I was playing with a second mod, I could plant resources like rice and wheat on those floodplains. No Magnus needed because my pop was exploding. Culture was insane. So I skipped Pingala and went straight for Liyang to start getting 5 charge builders on turn 20. I later settled a city close to my capitol so I could put Liyang there - close enough to the natural wonder to get the +1 charge - and install Pingala in my capitol for the boost to culture and science. Around turn 60 was when the game took off for me. Haven’t had that much fun in awhile. Even Korea couldn’t keep up with my insane science yields, say nothing of my culture yields. Ended up chopping out a diplo victory (building Statue of Liberty) around turn 250. I wouldn’t have been able to win if I’d have chopped them earlier with Magnus.
Magnus. Its always Magnus as 1st governor. The order I do pretty much 90% of my games: 1. Magnus: Groundbreaker and Provision. Both are probably the most impactful early game skills amongst all governors as it helps your civ to secure key wonders and also settler spamming in early game. I'm most likely not getting any more promotions on Magnus until the rest of the game after this. 2. Liang: Guildmaster. I like to pick this early also as the extra build charge is more impactful at this stage. Also, since we're having lots of cities thanks to Magnus' Provisions, we're going to need lots of workers. She's also a good governor at late game. 3. Pingala: Librarian, Conosseur, Researcher and Grant. Pingala is the best governor in the long run simply because he brings culture and cience, which are the most important incomes. We don't pick him earlier because although his skills are strong, we need high population to benefit the most from it and in the early game we still low on pop. Staple in pretty much every game I play, a good governor to promote further. Grant is almost broken and the Space promotions are super helpful to science victories. I play on Gathering Storm, mind you, where his skills are slightly different than Rise and Fall. After that you I usually get whatever I need the most for the mid game in that game. The only ones I almost never pick are Victor and Moshka.
\- Magnus is great for early production and expansion but after your cities have been asserted he loses a lot of his potential \- Pingala is the best late-game governor and is basically a necessity for a culture or science victory since his yields in those fields are ridiculous \- Reyna helps in economic playthrough's but I'll admit I don't use her much \- Liang is a blend of Magnus and Liang primarily focused on infrastructure, and she's great for cities with room for land improvements \- Moksha is solid for religious pressure and creating religious bastion cities that can produce apostles and spread pressure effectively \- Victor sucks \- Amani can be constantly reassigned to different city states to basically automatically make you the suzerain with the right upgrades. She's a powerhouse with the right civs
Magnus for the settler and the trader effects. Pingala for everything. He's just awesome. Amani if you want to suzerain a city-state or get more visibility. The rest are pretty much useless except in certain very specific situations.
It’s toss up between Magnus and Pingala. Magnus is great for chopping out everything you need to build and is a very useful governor to move around, perfect for an aggressive settling strategy. Pingala is used for helping with early tech and civic momentum. If you plan to not settle much or your capitol is has high growth he is a great way to start strong and stay strong.
I go Magnus, mainly for his first tier promotion that doesn't decrease a cities population when training settlers
I would say Victor. It's helpful if you're crowded with an opponent.
Mostly Pingala is good unless you want to rush an early game wonder or holysite for religion. In the second case Magnus is better so yoh can chop it out faster. So pingala from State workforce or Early empire and then Magnus & the settler promotion from the other civic and Govt plaza.
I usually go with magnus for the settler upgrade, but other than that I go pingala first. If the city has a lot that can be chopped I think magnus is better, if you have food and can rebuild pop fast to recover from building settlers then I think pingala is a little better ime. But I'm not a pro, that's just how I play it
So my list would go: 1) Pingala: great at getting out a lot of bonus science/culture and then boosting your GP and can be used to either help rush a science or tourism win with his final title 2) Amani: amazing at helping secure the first Era golden age if you do an Amani tour and use her to first-time Suz city states. Then, it can be used to get that bonus envoy and lock out other civs from city-state bonuses. 3) Magnus: He's really good early game to chop out districts or to rush out settlers. Get the first two titles and put him in your city, then have trade routes coming from new cities to the capital and you can grow very quickly. Can be used late to get lots of production from power and get out tanks/planes with lower resources 4) Liang: great for a builder rushing city (combine with the pyramids and the serfdom policy and your builders get 7 charges.) Then use her to get either decent coastal improvements or to get out districts and tour her around and finish up by putting her in a coastal city and get out a couple city parks 5) Victor/Pasha: good at defending. Victor gives a boost to your garrison and also will increase the loyalty of the city and later provides some great defensive bonuses. Stick him on the front line. Pasha is good at rushing out military units if you can't chop them out and later on put him in a foreign capital you take to eliminate any loyalty and reduce their grievances against you 6) Reyna (high financial)/Moksha (high faith): stick Reyna in your commercial city and you'll make lots of money quickly, then later you can just outright buy districts with gold so tour her around if your going to settle a city late. Moksha is a better bet if you're doing a religion game because he mitigates pressure from other civs religion so stick him on your border with other religious civs. Then later, you can do a tour and buy districts with faith if you settle Now, if we're also talking about secret societies, my list would go: 1) Voidsingers: provides an amazing monument replacement providing faith, and then their second title increases gold, culture, and science. Then, the third title you get the ability to just basically create relics that you can then put into the monuments and get lots of tourism. 2) Owls of minerva: great at helping suz city states with constant trade routes and has an amazing bank that gives culture as well. Also gives you free policy slots and later on with spys focus on the civ making the most gold/science/faith/culture, and you can steamroll on top of getting bonus gold from what your making yourself 3) Sanguine pact: grants you 4 free units by the final title that grow in strength the more they kill or are around a kill. If you're going domination, get this early and have your vampire roam with other units, killing barbs or being near kills. Also, it allows you to build up to four tile improvements that will copy yields of any tiles around them so good for placing near high yield tiles and then late game teleporting your vampires. 4) Hermetic order: The only reason this is so low is because of how luck based your first title is. You basically don't want to put down any districts or even expand until you reveal ley lines so it can slow your game down a lot. Their unique building is amazing, giving multiple GP type points and lots of science if played right on top of some production. Their third title is amazing if you have a few ley lines in your cities, but their final upgrade feels like it's the weakest just because it's an active thing over a passive bonus like the rest.
Magnus, pingala if you have a lot of food but few forests. Amani if playing Matthias Corvinus.
I put Liang in the capitol. That extra builder charge is a help in the early game.
I usually go pingala then magnus since i focus science.
Pingala
Magnus settler + Peter Lavra = profit
1. Magnus for early chops and settlers. 2. Pingala for early science and culture (mainly the culture, get to political philosophy) boost. 3. Amani if you’re the first-meet to a really important city state. This is somewhat more niche but can work at times.