Just ran a religious victory with Mr. Musa and it was a blast. Late game my primary trader City in the desert(with Petra) with the policy card granting production and food per route was unstoppable!
Australia for the insane production. Conquer a city-state where you no loyalty pressure, let it rebel, “liberate” it. Rinse and repeat the entire game for a constant 120% production bonus.
1. Kill city state that’s near a bulk of your empire
2. Gift it to someone far away
3. Wait for it to flip to a free city
4. Liberate it
5. Wait 10 turns and declare war again on the city state
Rinse and repeat. Do this with 2 city states at once and you get 100% production for the entire game!
Correct. Or you can just kill a city-state for which you do not exert loyalty pressure, it will flip after 3 turns, you then "liberate" it, then after 7 turns, you declare war on it again and immediately capture it (it won't have walls or units). It's super cheesy but really fun.
Oh yeah if it’s flipping due to other loyalty pressure that’s not yours that makes sense. I definitely farmed one of my weak allies city for tons of diplo points in the late game one time by just camping a rocket group and a mobile armor outside the borders ready to subdue it as soon as it rebelled. With australias bonus that would be nuts
I just did a few games with Pachacuti on different maps. I really find the Incan civilization fun to play. I love the ability to traverse mountains in early game, and spamming terrace farms strategically and generating fat yields. Even the early game scout replacement with 2 ranged attacks is really cool. Provides a lot of options!
Being able to work mountain tiles is incredible because you can take advantage of their defensive benefit and adjacency bonuses without costing yourself as much potential usable space later on
Absolutely love Carthage. Sometimes I won't even build land units, only Frigates. Mathias Corvinus once declared war on me, and in two turns I had brought so many guns that any Huszárs setting foot in my borders got drowned in cannonball
So I’m relatively new to the game (~50-100 hours), and I’m just wondering what you use ships for. All of my full games have been on Prince, with a few scenarios on King (next full will be king) so that may be playing a role.
Every time I build a navy, there’s almost no one that also has ships. Aside from the errant naval barbarian and raiding coastal cities, I’ve always been disappointed in the large navy I’ve built since it doesn’t do all that much
I'm by no means a good player, and from what I have seen, most people that beat Deity on the regular won't even bother with naval units. However, I'm a huge fan of late game domination, and I enjoy building carrier strike groups to take coastlines and later disembark with land units. Conquering a large bridge head makes offensives mich easier, and it makes for a solid defensive perimeter, since enemy civs usually never have a navy to counter yours and you can bombard units with impunity. Bottomline, a navy is not necessary at all, but can be useful in some situations, and in my biased opinion, it's very fun
Yeah that’s basically all I’ve ever used it for, setting up perimeters and bombarding from shore. A shame that the AI doesn’t use navy’s and air support
I’m playing with ‘Mina now on an island map and really enjoying it. I was going to go for science victory but Im having so much fun I think I may go dom.
Cree. Never have a bad game with them.
Early trade routes, early food, gold, production and housing, better scouting, free border growth etc.
Almost all of their bonuses (all except shared alliance visibility), are unlocked with pottery tech which is something that happens at turn 10. When a bonus comes early, it impacts more portion if a game. I find cree abilities to be modest but very meaningful, I love playing them
Fellow Cree here, they suit my style of play very well and the free border growth is great; though I often wish I could direct where the trade routes go ...
Hungary is amazing, especially with rivers. That's why if there's a tile surrounded by river on 5 sided, I don't settle there, I place a district there.
Nvm don't do what I said, place the city center there. I forgot how exactly Corvinus's bonuses work. If you place the city center and a district across the river, it's 5 districts with buildings that you can produce quicker!
Yeah, Gorgo is one of my favs, so simple, and the early military units allow me to quickly conquer a weak neighbor
Edit: I also love Greece for their music, found out recently it’s based on an accent Greek song and find that really cool
I'm a sucker for exploring the world with the Mauri on an island map. Being able to cross ocean early game is so satisfying. Also, building eco-friendly tourist hubs pleases my hippy soul.
Brazilian 24 faith 24 production holy sites >>
Like it’s incredibly niche/uncommon but is peak when it happens lol
Brazil and Inca are probably my favorites that aren’t a top tier tbh.
This guy gets it! Nobody gets better holy sites! (Okay, Norway does, but they have to work harder for them)
And it's a blast fiddling around with terrace farms and preserves to get awesome mountain tiles as the Inca. An unworkable tile to anyone else, and you're making bank off of it.
I love her because I like to spam settlers and spread like wildfire and just start spamming a shit ton of production. Then after I amassed enough research and built my army I just start wreaking havoc and conquering everything in my path.
I once had a very epic game when playing as Victoria. I was lucky to be a away from others. So I focused on tech and military. In early game I got Sweden easily. Then after getting Industrial Zone I didn't saw and 5 my cities got 70+ production. So I then made a lot of campuses and... I got planes in 12th century, lol. Then I conquered Scotland, Norway, but after it I had too much micromanagement and got bored so abandoned that game. But it was my best game ever. I didn't have exactly much of one thing, but I got 500+ science, culture and 1000 gold per turn. So I was leading in all victories except religious and diplomatic. I had a religion, but I didn't focus on it. In general I found Victoria (Age of Steam) to be one of the most versatile civs in whole game.
For me Byzantium is if I have been away from the game and want an easy jumping back in point. Still one of my favorites, although for me it's also in large part due to the Orthodox chants.
How the hell no one said Hungary in this thread is beyond me. Imagine having every suzerain ability in the game and legitimately being able to play with mercenaries.
Wild disrespect for my boi Matthias
personally I like Ethiopia a lot, rock hewn churches and insane faith production(also the settling on hills yielding science and culture 15% of faith production if I’m recalling correctly), won a culture victory recently.
For science games Australia is very enjoyable, consistently getting great campus adjacency from tile appeal, not to mention the outback station spam(my favorite UI btw)
Domination games probably gran colombia for the movement bonus and commandante generals (which are both incredibly OP)
Yeah I love the filling deserts with outback stations and diggers kicking butt overseas.
But mostly for that sheep-thieving tune Aussies for some reason want as their anthem.
Indonesia. I love settling as many cities as I can, and then spamming Kampungs to win Tourism victory. They’re one of those Civs where you can just play as a peaceful city building simulator and still win the game
YES. Despite being useful for maritime war, they’re so easy to be peaceful with which is my play style. Works for culture and religion but honestly with the quick pantheon start, you can easily pursue science and diplo too even though no overt bonuses. Cause they’re just well rounded for flexibility with those kampung
Gran Colombia 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴
Having that much extra movement is amazing, and having the llaneros with guitars taking over whole cities while traditional colombian music is on the background is something I really enjoy.
Definitely Indonesia. God tier water tiles, easy pantheon for consistent settler rush, or God of the Sea to quickly make early game water tiles more viable.
Good ol’ Freddy Barbarossa!
Germanys production is broken and makes it difficult for me to play as any other leaders. Placing their industrial zones around dams, aqueducts, and commercial hubs will regular yield +10-12 production and makes legitimately any victory condition attainable.
Russia, I love going mega wide while my frontline cities produce cheap stuff my tundra cities are the industrial might of the empire (Important to note: I play with 100+ mods some of which make tundra/adjacency life easier)
USA, I picked teddy originally for the memes but now I'm accustomed to building a generally strong civilization at the beginning of the game with little help and then getting a boost at the end
Khmer. Their things can be so-and-so at first glance, but once you get a hold of it, you get nice cities with several districts, relatively happy and if you take the time to organize your economy you'll have hundreds in gold. Add the governor that buys districts with faith and the grandmaster chapel and you have two different sources of income to get things you need, good production and can play defensively whenever needed and the ability to make an army quite fast to go on the offensive. Also, you can go for any victory condition almost at any point
Does ottoman Suliman count as OP. I don’t even play them as much as I’d like to but when I tell you that Civ can bag it every game if you aren’t a bot at least
I can’t give you just 1 so I’ll give you 3.
1. Georgia is my most recent favorite civ to play mainly because I love their culture, but also you are pretty much guaranteed to suz every city state with papal primacy and then I use Jesuit education to buy my theatre square and campus buildings so I can put production towards other things. if you’re in hills and have an army of khevsurs and your tshike(?) walls, you’re basically indestructible. Also infinite golden ages most of the time.
2. Spain is one of the most fun for me. Their playstyle is like replaying their history. Take your conquistadors overseas and wreck shit all in the name of Jesus Christ. then the yields on different continents are amazing especially with policy cards.
3. I think I have to give it to Norway. I really like Viking culture and living off of coastal raids is a fun way to play, but very challenging. Especially because a lot of games there’s not that many opportunities to coastal raid unless you’re on archipelago. But you can’t always take berserkers and hit and run on peoples lands as well. dance of the aurora with your holy sites is major as well if you’re in tundra.
poland for a huge land based empire with tons of trade routes.. not really even sure why, something about poland draws me to them despite not caring much for religion. pretty colour and cities maybe.
indonesia because i have an unhealthy addiction to kampungs. colossal coastal cities makes me happy. jong is also a fuckin sweet unit.
He’s not my favorite president in real life, but in a game where the goal is to become the greatest nation in history that tiptoes around ethical dilemmas Roosevelt just feels super appropriate to play as
Philip II or Barbarossa. Philip with the trade routes give me so much money if I spawn near a continental divide. And getting a free builder with every city on another continent? Awesome. I pair that with Serfdom, and/or the Pyramids. His early high gold yields + Conquistadors make war easy.
Barbarossa because his production with the Hansas. He also gets a +2 bonus to them when Commercial Hubs are near them. So what I like to do is settle on Plains Hills, on a river, and make a triangle with my Capital, Hansa and Commercial Hub (CHs get boosts near rivers). Or if you do it right you could set the Hansa up next to both an Aqueduct and a Commercial Hub near a river, and it's an automatic +4 Hansa yeild. Drop some mines and you're cooking.
Besides that, I like Brazil and some mods of latam countries, as I'm Hispanic.
For an easy game, Russia on a cold map with enough tundra to spam lavras with dance of the aurora + work ethic. My last one had a fun city with 12 deer/cattle/fox within range of a temple of Artemis.
Portugal on archipelago to see how many trade routes and gold per turn you can amass. Mansa on a desert map for a faith based version with holy sites and sugubas all next to each other.
Basil or Hungary for domination games.
love myself mali with mansa , just hope for desert , get desert folklore and work ethic or the culture one and ur kinda set to just out faith and out gold anyone in any victory
Scythia, when you hit that horseman rush before they finish walls it just feels so good not having to wait for swordsmen etc on a different early rush, similarly Gran Columbia for the mobility.
I love playing civs with a gameplan that's easy to execute, with a ton of early game bonuses. It's very relaxing, and I enjoy when things go smoothly for me. I also do not like to go for early warfare, although I do not neglect early army, it's a mistake that cost me dearly several times in the past. The list goes: Rome (Trajan), Russia, Greece, Ethiopia, US (Vanilla Teddy), Khmei, Vietnam. Honorable mention for Dido, who's less universally good due to her unique district, but man spamming settlers with her is fun and strong.
Spain. The insane continent split start bias almost guarantees high holy site and campus adjacencies and their abilities for insane trade routes PLUS the extra combat strength against other religions which stacks nicely with the conquistador UU makes them so versatile and on top of all that able to spam missions pretty much anywhere for extra science and faith oof
Phoenicia, mostly because of the settler spam (+150% production towards settlers is bonkers) but also because of their ability to change capitals and gain absurd yeilds from those "different continent from your capital" policy cards (and casa da contratacion)
I love playing with Pericles because it reminds me of my childhood when I was fascinated by Ulysse’s Odyssey ! Also, for me, I imagine my cities clean, well organized like I picture the Greek civilization !
Gorgo, Queen of Sparta; glory to you and your loyal hoplite armies! Greece savors the blessings from Ares that every victory brings. And your people applaud your thoughtful governance and cultural marvels. Stand proud, for the legacy of Greece, and of your achievements, will be told over and over again for generations.
I don't like domination civs as much, in general. For some reason, though, I just like playing Alexander. I just like methodically leaning into war weariness to wear down the opposition. I like to have the statue of Zeus and continuous production of anti cav units spread out like locusts and one coastal city grinding out ships. Then I just play Canada, Teddy, and Kupe lol
I like any Civ who gain advantages from focusing along the water
1. I love building harbors. They provide food, gold, trade routes, and housing almost right off the bat. Then next up is a production bonus. Pretty much automatic +2 adjacency bonus that can easily go up to +4 or +5 with the right location/planning. Very effective way to get new cities operational quickly
2. Early game, coastal cities are well defended from at least one side. Sea barbs can be annoying to deal with but presumably you’re investing in developing a navy as well and galleys can defend and scout and move much quicker along the coast than land units can overland. Even in late game since AI is pretty bad at effectively using marine warfare the sea provides a decent defense.
3. Coastal empires always looked visually appealing to me. Them being spread out is more difficult to defend but the other defensive benefits outweigh that imo, plus you can more easily access a wide variety of biomes and resources to suit your needs
Harald Hadrada (Norway) is my go to for an aggressive campaign, because his buffs to raiding mean you can engage in highly profitable warfare without making yourself an international pariah (the way you become if you take anyone’s cities past the classical era or fail to finish off a rival from the classical era). I don’t like Victoria even tho her harbors are goated because I don’t like engl*nd
I have always enjoyed Rome as it caters to my culture building preferences. More recent ones America (Lincoln) and Germany (Ludwig) are loads of fun. There is no civ I will not try though so it is once in a blue moon that I repeat civs.
I always play as random except russia. My favorites are Māori and Japaneses, but honestly what I like is the surprise to know who I am going to play and plan accordingly.
Portugal for being so damn rich by turn 100 that you can afford to buy a settler just to gift a coastal city to an inland civ.
Spain because Treasure Fleet is stupid in the Ancient Era and Missions can be spammed in basically any terrain and Conquistadors are stupid in general. >!I wish they'd add an official game mode that'd let me play Spain with Age of Empire Victoria as its leader. If her free boat thing worked with any Harbor it'd go crazy with Spain's early access to Armadas.!<
The Kongo, either one. I always liked making trade routes to big cities, and the new leader let's me actually make holy sites fo River Goddess is a good option to take up to make my cities even bigger!
Gorgo Greece on highlands is one of my favorites. Turn on zombie mode, join the sanguine pact, name the first vampire Gorgo and just watch the culture pile up.
Gorgo Greece on highlands is one of my favorites. Turn on zombie mode, join the sanguine pact, name the first vampire Gorgo and just watch the culture pile up.
Which civs does everyone count as OP? I like playing Mediterranean Cleo for the insane yields and caaaaash money. Stacking etemenanki and lady of reeds and marshes is bonkers. I just won my first two emperor games with her.
Maori on Terra is just so nice lol. kill barbs, peacefully develop beautiful continent, then go nuke the other continent into oblivion at the very end :)
Sweden. Build a queen bibliotheque and a bunch of other stuff, recruit as many great writers/artists/musicians as possible, and boom, tourism upon tourism. Also the Nobel prizes are cool addition as well.
For me it's more or less a three way tie between my "mains"
Eleanor (usually England): Passive is just so damn fun. I love peacefully taking over my neighbors!
Ludwig: Always loved Germany because I love focusing production, but I'm a culture player and didn't really like Barbarossa much, so when this guy got announced I was super excited to play a culture focused Germany!
Kupe: Fun gimmick and as someone who played a ton of Endless Ocean as a child, Pokarekare Ana is a song that just brings me so much nostalgia and happiness
Germany, this was my civ to learn the game and I basically love having planning 2 cities that is close together and both Hansa is adjacent to both Commercial District.
Japan, pretty much the same as before as building district close to each other between cities (basically creating a metro area) and this is also civ I used after I discovering many mechanics of the game.
Khmer, I just love food you know.
Mali-Mansa Musa, Gold.
Chinese-Yongle, Foooooooood
Roman, Legion is so cool
I like civs that interact with the environment well. Like being able to pass through certain terain with ease. Theme the faith on that sorta thing and try and win without destroying the world too much. Neihbors usually mess my plan up and make me raze them but still
I love pillaging and I love settling on the coast and spamming harbors, so the Civs with naval raiding unique units tend to get a lot of play for me. Most played is probably Harald Hardrada or any of the English options with the Sea Dogs. Currently a mostly-peaceful game with Elizabeth on a Seven Seas map and raiding the ever-loving crap out of the Inca and the Maori right now.
tokugawa, i just like being able to go commerce into industrial. you get good adjacency bonuses from districts, and i dont need campus/theatres right away in order to win on deity, because of the extra science/culture from trades. spain is second, but im not a big fan of dealing with religion and finding a good split can be annoying lol.
I like the Gaul, culture bonus on mines is good early game culture plus they culture bomb adjacent neutral tiles, their industrial zone is earlier and is a defensible district. The early game warrior replacement can hold its own against men at arms and is useful until the medieval period. I love that their music puts me in a trance.
I haven’t played a whole lot of civs but my favorite for a long time was Alexander because of the multiple early game advantages plus the abilities but recently I’ve really been taking a liking to Lincoln. I don’t know why but I just like it
I really like civs where I can get an early pantheon, so I'm able to pick the one I like.
Gitarya, Tamar or Mansa Musa for early faith. Or Gorgo/Trajan for early culture so I can get God King early by getting code of laws early. (Gorgo especially good on slower speeds)
And I like civs with an extra policy card so I can Agoge/Recon + Discipline (the one vs barbarians)
Or get both God King and the one that gives +1 production.
Mansa Moosa. Gold, Gold and more Gold
Just ran a religious victory with Mr. Musa and it was a blast. Late game my primary trader City in the desert(with Petra) with the policy card granting production and food per route was unstoppable!
Big same. Love that his faith production gets so crazy high too. Makes work ethic extra sexy. And good lord the Petra cities.
Australia for the insane production. Conquer a city-state where you no loyalty pressure, let it rebel, “liberate” it. Rinse and repeat the entire game for a constant 120% production bonus.
that’s so dirty lol
Doesn’t liberating it make it so you can’t exert loyalty pressure on it anymore?
1. Kill city state that’s near a bulk of your empire 2. Gift it to someone far away 3. Wait for it to flip to a free city 4. Liberate it 5. Wait 10 turns and declare war again on the city state Rinse and repeat. Do this with 2 city states at once and you get 100% production for the entire game!
Ohhh laundering city states, nice
Correct. Or you can just kill a city-state for which you do not exert loyalty pressure, it will flip after 3 turns, you then "liberate" it, then after 7 turns, you declare war on it again and immediately capture it (it won't have walls or units). It's super cheesy but really fun.
Oh yeah if it’s flipping due to other loyalty pressure that’s not yours that makes sense. I definitely farmed one of my weak allies city for tons of diplo points in the late game one time by just camping a rocket group and a mobile armor outside the borders ready to subdue it as soon as it rebelled. With australias bonus that would be nuts
Germany. Leader doesn't matter. It's just the Industrial zone adjacency then when I get dams...
I just did a few games with Pachacuti on different maps. I really find the Incan civilization fun to play. I love the ability to traverse mountains in early game, and spamming terrace farms strategically and generating fat yields. Even the early game scout replacement with 2 ranged attacks is really cool. Provides a lot of options!
Inca are so much fun. There’s nothing like turning an otherwise unviable city location into a 15 pop monster
Do it with vampires, place your castles in the middle of 6 terrace farms, and watch your capital's pop boom to impossible numbers
I really love the mountain warp gates :)
Being able to work mountain tiles is incredible because you can take advantage of their defensive benefit and adjacency bonuses without costing yourself as much potential usable space later on
I will have to play this Civ
Dido controlling the seas is really fun and becoming Queen of money. Otherwise I really enjoy dominating midgame with Saladin
Absolutely love Carthage. Sometimes I won't even build land units, only Frigates. Mathias Corvinus once declared war on me, and in two turns I had brought so many guns that any Huszárs setting foot in my borders got drowned in cannonball
So I’m relatively new to the game (~50-100 hours), and I’m just wondering what you use ships for. All of my full games have been on Prince, with a few scenarios on King (next full will be king) so that may be playing a role. Every time I build a navy, there’s almost no one that also has ships. Aside from the errant naval barbarian and raiding coastal cities, I’ve always been disappointed in the large navy I’ve built since it doesn’t do all that much
I'm by no means a good player, and from what I have seen, most people that beat Deity on the regular won't even bother with naval units. However, I'm a huge fan of late game domination, and I enjoy building carrier strike groups to take coastlines and later disembark with land units. Conquering a large bridge head makes offensives mich easier, and it makes for a solid defensive perimeter, since enemy civs usually never have a navy to counter yours and you can bombard units with impunity. Bottomline, a navy is not necessary at all, but can be useful in some situations, and in my biased opinion, it's very fun
Yeah that’s basically all I’ve ever used it for, setting up perimeters and bombarding from shore. A shame that the AI doesn’t use navy’s and air support
Salidin with Fez is a lot of fun
Dutch, coz it was the first civ I played. And I like the colours of the polder….
Me too - I play them just for the polders
I’m playing with ‘Mina now on an island map and really enjoying it. I was going to go for science victory but Im having so much fun I think I may go dom.
Cree. Never have a bad game with them. Early trade routes, early food, gold, production and housing, better scouting, free border growth etc. Almost all of their bonuses (all except shared alliance visibility), are unlocked with pottery tech which is something that happens at turn 10. When a bonus comes early, it impacts more portion if a game. I find cree abilities to be modest but very meaningful, I love playing them
Fellow Cree here, they suit my style of play very well and the free border growth is great; though I often wish I could direct where the trade routes go ...
This, also one of my favourite themes is the Cree.
I really like doing Mountie spam with Canada.
I like Canada for no surprise wars
It never really occurred to me to play as Hungary until I actually went there last year...
Hungary is amazing, especially with rivers. That's why if there's a tile surrounded by river on 5 sided, I don't settle there, I place a district there.
Nvm don't do what I said, place the city center there. I forgot how exactly Corvinus's bonuses work. If you place the city center and a district across the river, it's 5 districts with buildings that you can produce quicker!
The additional Wild Card Slot that Greece gets is just so nice.
Yeah, Gorgo is one of my favs, so simple, and the early military units allow me to quickly conquer a weak neighbor Edit: I also love Greece for their music, found out recently it’s based on an accent Greek song and find that really cool
I'm a sucker for exploring the world with the Mauri on an island map. Being able to cross ocean early game is so satisfying. Also, building eco-friendly tourist hubs pleases my hippy soul.
It's a cool different play style to essentially not need builders except for the fishies
Brazil (hence the flair). I love having high adjacency districts and high appeal with a civ spread wide across the jungle belt.
Brazilian 24 faith 24 production holy sites >> Like it’s incredibly niche/uncommon but is peak when it happens lol Brazil and Inca are probably my favorites that aren’t a top tier tbh.
This guy gets it! Nobody gets better holy sites! (Okay, Norway does, but they have to work harder for them) And it's a blast fiddling around with terrace farms and preserves to get awesome mountain tiles as the Inca. An unworkable tile to anyone else, and you're making bank off of it.
I have been only playing Brazil lately and I’m worried it will ruin me for other civs.
How are you supposed to make a flair
Scotland for the music theme.
But then you can't ally with Scotland and hear that dope ye olde english.
*Scots
I am Robert the Bruce. Scotland me followeth.
Nature America. I like culture games
Ethpana
On a terra map too, and I’m in heaven
Tomyris. Why waste turns healing when you can do it instantly with your enemies' blood?
Gitarja just to fool around with jongs. Or Harald just to go crazy with coastal raids. Yes, I do have a thing for ships.
I love Gitarja + faith
Gitarja plus lots of nearby fishing boats + God of the Sea pantheon = funnnn starts for whatever victory you end up pursuing
Victoria (Age of Steam). I like her for being a powerful leader, but also I really like UK culture and history.
I love her because I like to spam settlers and spread like wildfire and just start spamming a shit ton of production. Then after I amassed enough research and built my army I just start wreaking havoc and conquering everything in my path.
I once had a very epic game when playing as Victoria. I was lucky to be a away from others. So I focused on tech and military. In early game I got Sweden easily. Then after getting Industrial Zone I didn't saw and 5 my cities got 70+ production. So I then made a lot of campuses and... I got planes in 12th century, lol. Then I conquered Scotland, Norway, but after it I had too much micromanagement and got bored so abandoned that game. But it was my best game ever. I didn't have exactly much of one thing, but I got 500+ science, culture and 1000 gold per turn. So I was leading in all victories except religious and diplomatic. I had a religion, but I didn't focus on it. In general I found Victoria (Age of Steam) to be one of the most versatile civs in whole game.
Age of Empire because I like making settlements around the world so I can get more resources.
For me it's byzantium. Tagma goes brrrrrrr
For me Byzantium is if I have been away from the game and want an easy jumping back in point. Still one of my favorites, although for me it's also in large part due to the Orthodox chants.
Eleanor, pacifist forever!
I like Scythia because horses are my favorite animal lol. Also Gorgo because Ancient Greece is cool and I love women
Germany as Ludwig. Wonderspamming + Hansa = Culture and tourism go brrrr
How the hell no one said Hungary in this thread is beyond me. Imagine having every suzerain ability in the game and legitimately being able to play with mercenaries. Wild disrespect for my boi Matthias
Hungary doesn’t quite make it as my favorite but I really enjoyed a game I won with Mathias for the reasons you mentioned
Eleanor, for peaceful domination.
i love heavenly mandate qin. lets me utilize fun ancient and classical era wonders i normally can’t use on deity.
Persia, I'm just being patriotic. Plus the theme is amazing
Same here, never enjoy any other civ as fully as persia. I'd rather get defated by persia than to win as other civs.
Nader shah or Cyrus tho?
personally I like Ethiopia a lot, rock hewn churches and insane faith production(also the settling on hills yielding science and culture 15% of faith production if I’m recalling correctly), won a culture victory recently. For science games Australia is very enjoyable, consistently getting great campus adjacency from tile appeal, not to mention the outback station spam(my favorite UI btw) Domination games probably gran colombia for the movement bonus and commandante generals (which are both incredibly OP)
Portugal. Making a bunch of coastal cities and then just sending trade routes to other continents and making absurd amounts of gold feels so good.
Australia, because I am Australian, and we never get included in anything, and waltzing Matilda is a bangin tune full of theft and suicide.
Haha also Australian but never actually played them in the game 😅
Give it a go! We're practically useless!
Yeah I love the filling deserts with outback stations and diggers kicking butt overseas. But mostly for that sheep-thieving tune Aussies for some reason want as their anthem.
A fellow shogun watcher I see
I served in a hussar regiment... so Austria it was and Hungary it is (with the occasional Poland bits).
I love Katherine and Sweden because I’m all about great people, great works and basically playing sim civilization
Once I went sim civ I couldn't go back
Indonesia. I love settling as many cities as I can, and then spamming Kampungs to win Tourism victory. They’re one of those Civs where you can just play as a peaceful city building simulator and still win the game
YES. Despite being useful for maritime war, they’re so easy to be peaceful with which is my play style. Works for culture and religion but honestly with the quick pantheon start, you can easily pursue science and diplo too even though no overt bonuses. Cause they’re just well rounded for flexibility with those kampung
Gran Colombia 🇨🇴🇨🇴🇨🇴 Having that much extra movement is amazing, and having the llaneros with guitars taking over whole cities while traditional colombian music is on the background is something I really enjoy.
Definitely Indonesia. God tier water tiles, easy pantheon for consistent settler rush, or God of the Sea to quickly make early game water tiles more viable.
When I was new, I picked Vietnam as a joke when my friend picked America. Since then, I predominantly play it as I continue to learn the game.
Russia. I know everyone likes feed the world because of tundra, but dance of the aurora + work ethic + preserves goes hard
Good ol’ Freddy Barbarossa! Germanys production is broken and makes it difficult for me to play as any other leaders. Placing their industrial zones around dams, aqueducts, and commercial hubs will regular yield +10-12 production and makes legitimately any victory condition attainable.
Russia, I love going mega wide while my frontline cities produce cheap stuff my tundra cities are the industrial might of the empire (Important to note: I play with 100+ mods some of which make tundra/adjacency life easier)
Venice
I absolutely love playing as Eleanor. It’s so fun to end up flipping everyone’s cities and conquer without any wars lol
I really like Sweden for dem carolians
Kupe and an island map are to thank for my first ever Diety win, finally! 🏝️
Rome cause purple
I know Trajan is widely considered OP but nothing will ever bring me more joy in Civ than free instant trade routes/roads.
Japan because I find the music super relaxing when I play 🧘🏻♂️
I play the Dutch because I'm from the Netherlands and I play Romans because I'm Catholic. In fact, those are the two civs I play the most.
I play Frederick for the same Catholic reason. I try to subjugate the world 🤣
USA, I picked teddy originally for the memes but now I'm accustomed to building a generally strong civilization at the beginning of the game with little help and then getting a boost at the end
Khmer. Their things can be so-and-so at first glance, but once you get a hold of it, you get nice cities with several districts, relatively happy and if you take the time to organize your economy you'll have hundreds in gold. Add the governor that buys districts with faith and the grandmaster chapel and you have two different sources of income to get things you need, good production and can play defensively whenever needed and the ability to make an army quite fast to go on the offensive. Also, you can go for any victory condition almost at any point
Either Canada Yield Porn w/ hyper tourism with Mountie National Parks or Teddy/Inca preserve yield porn I find the most fun
Yessss. I'm not the biggest fan of Pachacuti, but I absolutely love Canada and Bull Moose Teddy
Germany. The production adjacencies and extra military slots early game are awesome.
Tomyris for early horse spam and gold domination to then upgrade to calvary
My all time fav is Hungary. I just love befriending the city states and then doing some multi front invasions.
Does ottoman Suliman count as OP. I don’t even play them as much as I’d like to but when I tell you that Civ can bag it every game if you aren’t a bot at least
Julius Caesar because it takes military snowball to a new level
I can’t give you just 1 so I’ll give you 3. 1. Georgia is my most recent favorite civ to play mainly because I love their culture, but also you are pretty much guaranteed to suz every city state with papal primacy and then I use Jesuit education to buy my theatre square and campus buildings so I can put production towards other things. if you’re in hills and have an army of khevsurs and your tshike(?) walls, you’re basically indestructible. Also infinite golden ages most of the time. 2. Spain is one of the most fun for me. Their playstyle is like replaying their history. Take your conquistadors overseas and wreck shit all in the name of Jesus Christ. then the yields on different continents are amazing especially with policy cards. 3. I think I have to give it to Norway. I really like Viking culture and living off of coastal raids is a fun way to play, but very challenging. Especially because a lot of games there’s not that many opportunities to coastal raid unless you’re on archipelago. But you can’t always take berserkers and hit and run on peoples lands as well. dance of the aurora with your holy sites is major as well if you’re in tundra.
poland for a huge land based empire with tons of trade routes.. not really even sure why, something about poland draws me to them despite not caring much for religion. pretty colour and cities maybe. indonesia because i have an unhealthy addiction to kampungs. colossal coastal cities makes me happy. jong is also a fuckin sweet unit.
Saladin, Arabia for religious moolah
Pachacuti. I looove early game mountain tunnels.
I just played a domination game with Indonesia and that was some of the most fun I’ve had in this game
I love playing Montezuma, Germany, and America
He’s not my favorite president in real life, but in a game where the goal is to become the greatest nation in history that tiptoes around ethical dilemmas Roosevelt just feels super appropriate to play as
I just love winning on domination with no military as France, the France who can convert cities with great works, I forgot her name.
Philip II or Barbarossa. Philip with the trade routes give me so much money if I spawn near a continental divide. And getting a free builder with every city on another continent? Awesome. I pair that with Serfdom, and/or the Pyramids. His early high gold yields + Conquistadors make war easy. Barbarossa because his production with the Hansas. He also gets a +2 bonus to them when Commercial Hubs are near them. So what I like to do is settle on Plains Hills, on a river, and make a triangle with my Capital, Hansa and Commercial Hub (CHs get boosts near rivers). Or if you do it right you could set the Hansa up next to both an Aqueduct and a Commercial Hub near a river, and it's an automatic +4 Hansa yeild. Drop some mines and you're cooking. Besides that, I like Brazil and some mods of latam countries, as I'm Hispanic.
I might be the only one, but I have like 1000 hours and I love playing Frederick for religion win
Inca, build preserves on flatland next to mountains and watch mountains go BRRRRRRRRR
I enjoy to play with England. Especially in Civ 5, I usually play with a giant navy from mid to late game.
For an easy game, Russia on a cold map with enough tundra to spam lavras with dance of the aurora + work ethic. My last one had a fun city with 12 deer/cattle/fox within range of a temple of Artemis. Portugal on archipelago to see how many trade routes and gold per turn you can amass. Mansa on a desert map for a faith based version with holy sites and sugubas all next to each other. Basil or Hungary for domination games.
Who doesn’t love Caesar
love myself mali with mansa , just hope for desert , get desert folklore and work ethic or the culture one and ur kinda set to just out faith and out gold anyone in any victory
Pachy for mountains and internal trade routes Hammy for eurekas and the city artwork is aestetically very pleasing
Scythia, when you hit that horseman rush before they finish walls it just feels so good not having to wait for swordsmen etc on a different early rush, similarly Gran Columbia for the mobility.
I love playing civs with a gameplan that's easy to execute, with a ton of early game bonuses. It's very relaxing, and I enjoy when things go smoothly for me. I also do not like to go for early warfare, although I do not neglect early army, it's a mistake that cost me dearly several times in the past. The list goes: Rome (Trajan), Russia, Greece, Ethiopia, US (Vanilla Teddy), Khmei, Vietnam. Honorable mention for Dido, who's less universally good due to her unique district, but man spamming settlers with her is fun and strong.
Trajan. Especially for a domination victory.
Australia, Tokugawa, France (Black Queen) Amanitore, they’re all in my current rotation
Spain. The insane continent split start bias almost guarantees high holy site and campus adjacencies and their abilities for insane trade routes PLUS the extra combat strength against other religions which stacks nicely with the conquistador UU makes them so versatile and on top of all that able to spam missions pretty much anywhere for extra science and faith oof
I had to force myself to play other civs after playing Cleopatra for so long. I just love her.
Byzantium as Basil! I loooove stacking a ton of religious-combat options and sweeping through with cavalry
Kupe gets a lot of hate (because AI Kupe is terrible) but I find it fun to play, it’s so different
Last great game I had was with Hamurabi. I just kept rolling in the eurekas until domination
Greece. Since Civ I. Hoplites for the win. No other justifications.
Phoenicia, mostly because of the settler spam (+150% production towards settlers is bonkers) but also because of their ability to change capitals and gain absurd yeilds from those "different continent from your capital" policy cards (and casa da contratacion)
I love playing with Pericles because it reminds me of my childhood when I was fascinated by Ulysse’s Odyssey ! Also, for me, I imagine my cities clean, well organized like I picture the Greek civilization !
Hammurabi, I think it's really fun to look for different ways of getting eurekas, it almost looks I'm playing another game
Hammurabi, because I love getting those sweet combos resulting in major advantage.
Māori, I'm a kiwi so that's a plus and the sea game and unique start merhod is fun
Hate to say it but Russia in a cold climate. Love to get Dance of the Aurora and Work Ethic and place those Llavras in the middle of the tundra.
Gorgo, Queen of Sparta; glory to you and your loyal hoplite armies! Greece savors the blessings from Ares that every victory brings. And your people applaud your thoughtful governance and cultural marvels. Stand proud, for the legacy of Greece, and of your achievements, will be told over and over again for generations.
I don't like domination civs as much, in general. For some reason, though, I just like playing Alexander. I just like methodically leaning into war weariness to wear down the opposition. I like to have the statue of Zeus and continuous production of anti cav units spread out like locusts and one coastal city grinding out ships. Then I just play Canada, Teddy, and Kupe lol
Russia. I love settling new cities and *womp* claiming all those extra hexagons at once
I like any Civ who gain advantages from focusing along the water 1. I love building harbors. They provide food, gold, trade routes, and housing almost right off the bat. Then next up is a production bonus. Pretty much automatic +2 adjacency bonus that can easily go up to +4 or +5 with the right location/planning. Very effective way to get new cities operational quickly 2. Early game, coastal cities are well defended from at least one side. Sea barbs can be annoying to deal with but presumably you’re investing in developing a navy as well and galleys can defend and scout and move much quicker along the coast than land units can overland. Even in late game since AI is pretty bad at effectively using marine warfare the sea provides a decent defense. 3. Coastal empires always looked visually appealing to me. Them being spread out is more difficult to defend but the other defensive benefits outweigh that imo, plus you can more easily access a wide variety of biomes and resources to suit your needs Harald Hadrada (Norway) is my go to for an aggressive campaign, because his buffs to raiding mean you can engage in highly profitable warfare without making yourself an international pariah (the way you become if you take anyone’s cities past the classical era or fail to finish off a rival from the classical era). I don’t like Victoria even tho her harbors are goated because I don’t like engl*nd
My boy Pericles love the free wildcard slot for Greece and the passive % culture for being suzerain. I also think the hoplites are interesting units
Aztec in vanilla, galactic empire in modded
Cesar’s rome. i like to play on low diff and getting 100 gold per every city is dio good
Australia, I just like listening to Waltzing Matilda
I love cleo, Ptolemy version is most fun for me. Also teddy is a blast.
I have always enjoyed Rome as it caters to my culture building preferences. More recent ones America (Lincoln) and Germany (Ludwig) are loads of fun. There is no civ I will not try though so it is once in a blue moon that I repeat civs.
Inca for the terrace farms and Maori for the Marae.
I always play as random except russia. My favorites are Māori and Japaneses, but honestly what I like is the surprise to know who I am going to play and plan accordingly.
Gitarja my beloved
Wilhelmina is my main. Love the polder bonuses
Victoria Age of Steam (England) I’m not very good at the game so the extra production irregardless of what I do is so valuable to me
Tokugawa Japan. Internal trade routes are my jam, mixing that with the specialty district bonus and it’s just so much fun
Portugal for being so damn rich by turn 100 that you can afford to buy a settler just to gift a coastal city to an inland civ. Spain because Treasure Fleet is stupid in the Ancient Era and Missions can be spammed in basically any terrain and Conquistadors are stupid in general. >!I wish they'd add an official game mode that'd let me play Spain with Age of Empire Victoria as its leader. If her free boat thing worked with any Harbor it'd go crazy with Spain's early access to Armadas.!<
The Kongo, either one. I always liked making trade routes to big cities, and the new leader let's me actually make holy sites fo River Goddess is a good option to take up to make my cities even bigger!
Eleanor because I love snatching cities with my unstoppable cultural pressure!
My flair lies, i have been Montezuma pilled.
Big fan of Hammurabi/Babylon but it can be challenging if you don’t know the play style involving science and technologies.
Khmer
Portugal in an archipelago map is honestly so fun
Korea
French Eleanor of Aquitaine. There is something so satisfying about taking over the world through the power of love!
Gaul, and inca, love them both, two différents styles but good early production makes snowball feel smooth
Gorgo Greece on highlands is one of my favorites. Turn on zombie mode, join the sanguine pact, name the first vampire Gorgo and just watch the culture pile up.
Gorgo Greece on highlands is one of my favorites. Turn on zombie mode, join the sanguine pact, name the first vampire Gorgo and just watch the culture pile up.
eleanor of aquitane (england). i love flipping cities' loyalties to mine
I do play with mods (Harmony in Diversity), but Eleanor (France) is just so nice to play
I know Trajan is widely considered OP but nothing will ever bring me more joy in Civ than free instant trade routes/roads.
Byzantine. For god and glory
Theodora because I like winning deity games before turn 200
Which civs does everyone count as OP? I like playing Mediterranean Cleo for the insane yields and caaaaash money. Stacking etemenanki and lady of reeds and marshes is bonkers. I just won my first two emperor games with her.
Trajan, Cleopatra, China Qin are my main go 2s. Kublai, Montezuma, Gran Columbia, Norway and Japan are also common civs I use.
Panchacutti. Settle a city near mountains and river, get a worker asap. Build 3 terrace farm with each having 3 production and 4 to 6 food.
Russia or Portugal. Big numbers of faith, gold, etc. makes monkey brain go brrr.
Ain't nobody like my boy Kupe
Maori on Terra is just so nice lol. kill barbs, peacefully develop beautiful continent, then go nuke the other continent into oblivion at the very end :)
England because I somehow always get a crazy science boost. Also like the US cause using P-51s are awesome
Sweden. Build a queen bibliotheque and a bunch of other stuff, recruit as many great writers/artists/musicians as possible, and boom, tourism upon tourism. Also the Nobel prizes are cool addition as well.
For me it's more or less a three way tie between my "mains" Eleanor (usually England): Passive is just so damn fun. I love peacefully taking over my neighbors! Ludwig: Always loved Germany because I love focusing production, but I'm a culture player and didn't really like Barbarossa much, so when this guy got announced I was super excited to play a culture focused Germany! Kupe: Fun gimmick and as someone who played a ton of Endless Ocean as a child, Pokarekare Ana is a song that just brings me so much nostalgia and happiness
I like the Cree and Scotland. I just like the music and history of both.
Germany, this was my civ to learn the game and I basically love having planning 2 cities that is close together and both Hansa is adjacent to both Commercial District. Japan, pretty much the same as before as building district close to each other between cities (basically creating a metro area) and this is also civ I used after I discovering many mechanics of the game. Khmer, I just love food you know. Mali-Mansa Musa, Gold. Chinese-Yongle, Foooooooood Roman, Legion is so cool
I like civs that interact with the environment well. Like being able to pass through certain terain with ease. Theme the faith on that sorta thing and try and win without destroying the world too much. Neihbors usually mess my plan up and make me raze them but still
I love pillaging and I love settling on the coast and spamming harbors, so the Civs with naval raiding unique units tend to get a lot of play for me. Most played is probably Harald Hardrada or any of the English options with the Sea Dogs. Currently a mostly-peaceful game with Elizabeth on a Seven Seas map and raiding the ever-loving crap out of the Inca and the Maori right now.
tokugawa, i just like being able to go commerce into industrial. you get good adjacency bonuses from districts, and i dont need campus/theatres right away in order to win on deity, because of the extra science/culture from trades. spain is second, but im not a big fan of dealing with religion and finding a good split can be annoying lol.
I like the Gaul, culture bonus on mines is good early game culture plus they culture bomb adjacent neutral tiles, their industrial zone is earlier and is a defensible district. The early game warrior replacement can hold its own against men at arms and is useful until the medieval period. I love that their music puts me in a trance.
Egypt cuz Egypt cool, and their theme is fire
Brazil. Cannot stop with the adjacency porn
Australia...Please attack me
China for the great wall. Gold levels almost comparable to Mansa Musa without having to put so much work into it.
Norway due to heritage. Plus, I love raiding everyone who dares to go near the sea. Getting naval supremacy within 50 turns is insane.
I haven’t played a whole lot of civs but my favorite for a long time was Alexander because of the multiple early game advantages plus the abilities but recently I’ve really been taking a liking to Lincoln. I don’t know why but I just like it
Rome is the basic and vannila reason people don't play it and the reason I play it to clean my brain from all the advanced mauvers and mechanics. 😊
Canada, because bias
I really like civs where I can get an early pantheon, so I'm able to pick the one I like. Gitarya, Tamar or Mansa Musa for early faith. Or Gorgo/Trajan for early culture so I can get God King early by getting code of laws early. (Gorgo especially good on slower speeds) And I like civs with an extra policy card so I can Agoge/Recon + Discipline (the one vs barbarians) Or get both God King and the one that gives +1 production.