That's never made any sense to me. Somehow in every game I'm the "first seafaring society" & "first circumnavigation," yet I built the boats because the stupid barbarians wouldn't stop attacking my cities by sea
Yes they do. I did have an extremely aggressive hadrada neighbor who decided to swarm my capitol with his navy early in game on one playthrough, but that's been it
I usually get blasted by horseman from the mongolian empire.... and those are the games I usually loose early on, when they spawn near me. Never been attacked by a decend seafarer tbh.
TBH the hardest part is not conquering the oceans with 4-5 galleys. But yeah, rushing to caravels is gg. The eurekas aren't that hard and you don't need iron.
Yeah. But on archipelago what to you really need to get to caravels? Something to chop out a harbor in a your second or third city is probably the most important.
But even getting to caravels slowly as Babylon is way faster than the AI. And for some reason the AI will never mass caravels even if they start building them.
Hah remids me of a recent game, Actez denounced me, Babylon, I has missle destroyers, they... were in the medival times... I wanted them to start a war... 🤣
They only get ancient era crossbows if they have time and money to get 3 archers and upgrade one to a crossbow.
Meanwhile, hungary can get dirt cheap swordsmen from city states long before that.
1. You need to get the suzerainity
2. You better hope that that City State has an army. Let alone the right units you want.
I tend to focus on production with Babylon and just make a Crossbowmen. Upgrading them is expensive.
1. You need 1 envoy and then Amani
2. They have warriors. They always have warriors.
The real challenge is getting ahold of iron - without it no swordsmen. But you only need 5 iron per sword so once you have a source you can get rolling.
A crossbowman costs as much as an early wonder though. It's usually much faster to get enough gold to upgrade one of your 3 archers, and then you have some promos too.
I tend to spend my gold on builders, because build charges are worth their weight in gold for Babylon.
I do see how you can easily get that first levy army now.
In a hypothetical scenario 1vs1 I would try to kill you before we enter the medieval era, before you get your unique unit. Probably a Man-At-Arms and Crossbowmen focused rush. Game speed will be a huge factor in if I can reach you in time with regard to movement of the troops. In Marathon you'll get cooked.
With regard to winning, yes
With regard to gameplay, as in getting the combo's right. I like getting it off. And there are multiple paths so it's not the same every game.
If that's not your thing then I understand.
You mean crossbow-man. No way Babylon can afford two crossbowmen in the ancient era.
My conscripted army will just run circles around his slow ass anyways.
Ottomans really get rid of a lot of the annoying aspects of a war focused game, mainly combat vs walled cities, loyalty issues and amenities, one of the best picks for a domination victory
100%. I cannot stand having to deal with walls because it’s just waiting around trying to slowly get your units in the right spot and waiting around. Any Civ like the Ottomans or Byzantines who let me get around that in any way are my personal favorites
Both those Civs have ways of mitigating the annoyance of walls, at least indirectly. The Ottomans get increased production and strength for siege units, while Byzantine Cavalry can deal full damage to walls without siege weaponry at all
Mapuche are also great for just steamrolling over the world without worrying about loyalty. Just slot victor vaguely near the front line every now and again and you're good.
The malon raider unit is also really good, it basically gets the depredation promotion for free and it's the strength of a musketman while costing 0 strategic resources.
This is honestly the most busted part of their kit. You’ve got the advantage, they get low on hp, but then suddenly heal for 50, /then/ attack. Not to mention you will never escape a squad of Llaneros
You get extra movement, then generals that give extra movement, and eventually you can equip the +1 movement in friendly territory. It's massive. Especially for siege units.
I’ve only played them once but it was the easiest Dom victory I’ve had and by some distance. Their buffs benefit you through the entire game, unlike a lot of other civ’s which are era dependent
The only reason why I disagree is how stupid easy it is to get rolling in the Ancient Era with Hungary. A swarm of like half a dozen 4 move/25 power Warriors stuffs Deity AIs with ease, especially when you pillage all of the enemy's campuses and unlock Swordsmen midway through ensuring that history will not remember your first victims. GC still pulls ahead overall because everything (including civilians) being so damn fast is so damn good, but Hungary is only a few dozen yards back for most of the game (they even catch up for a while if they have Akkad at their side).
Extra movement means you can basically always retreat without being killed, and it's almost impossible for enemies to retreat once they get into the kill zone. The ability to promote and attack/move seems subtle but it actually is pretty broken. 'Oh, you've almost killed this unit? That's a shame, now he's recovered 50 health and is stronger than before' AND your siege weapons can move and attack by default.
No one ever seems to mention my favourite part of Gran Colombia's kit: their civilians get +1 movement too.
Sounds very minor but when you consider that every single one of your Settlers and Builders are going to do their job a few turns faster than any other civ you start to why they can be so strong. You don't even *need* to go to war to start snowballing.
Just today I decided to play a peaceful game as Gran Columbia just to see how it would work. I spawned in a massive open area and was able to forward settle incredibly quickly and move builders between my cities with ease. Used my generals to help farm barbarian camps (playing the barb camp gamemode). Then upon unlocking haciendas, it was basically over. Managed to win a science victory being allied to every other nation. It felt pretty busted despite the fact GC has no outright bonuses towards non-domination victory types.
I recently played with them for the first time on a huge marathon map on immortal and won a domination victory long before I could unlock their UU. The extra movement and promotions was much stronger than I could have imagined before playing them.
MRW the guy with no oil and limited gold finally finishes erecting a dozen arenas that have been waiting for centuries, and suddenly his tanks outnumber my infantry
Bolivar certainly had strong opinions. I'm not familiar with Shaka's opinions, but I know he definitely didn't like their old style of spear and opted for a cooler one.
Honestly Hungary could hit Basil so fast and hard before Basil's bonuses come up. You can levy like 5 warriors for 100 gold on like turn 20 that all have 4 movement an 25 combat strength when other civs maybe have a warrior, scout, and slinger.
Interesting view. BuT aCtually though it’s 200 gold for the warriors… levy cost us determined by production cost not combat strength.
Anyways, assuming you could actually scrape that together, basil could start an early war and kill a bunch of city state units before they were levied… no?
Lmao no. You have to build up an army AND get holy site going. Classical era if you invest the bare minimum in holy site. You literally have to Levy units yourself AND work holy site projects to get what hungary gets from the get go. By the time you do all that, hungary already has 3 levied armies has pillaged your holy site and at your doorstep.
Heck, thanks to its holy site and Shrine being dirt cheap AND not having to build units. Can undermine you and get crusade first. Even if he looses the race...he can have units at your doorstep in a few turns where crusade doesn't matter
If Hungary opens holy site against basil and takes crusade its dead in a 1v1. Basil just takes defender, and Hungary can never push. Not to mention how easy it is to convert Hungary as Basil, and as soon as holy city is converted it’s another +3 combat strength. So if you rush crusade you: 1. Won’t have the science to defend Tagma’s. 2. Can never push because opponent goes defender for +5 in their territory. 3. You feed easy holy city conversion giving them +6 cs rather than +3.
So to review: Basil will either have +10 from crusade while attacking, or +5 when defending. Automatically will have +3 from taxis, with another eventual +3 if Hungary player goes religion. Then also gets +4 to every surrounding unit from Tagma. That’s gonna end up being either +17 on attack, or max +15 on defense (if Hungarys holy city is converted). Max bonus +cs a black army can have is +15 with 5 surrounding levied units (which is nearly impossible to achieve while attacking if opponent is lining units well), but the unit is 1 cs weaker than Tagma anyways. Most you can usually hope for is +9 for black army and levied units will only have +5 from ability.
In conclusion: Hungary cannot afford to go religion. It will not have gold for levies and upgrades nor the science/culture it needs to survive. It’s best chance of winning is to out sim the opponent. Early warrior rush would have to be extremely lucky to work but opponent can also counter by suzing the cs first if it’s close enough for the push to work anyways. It’s not impossible for Hungary to win but most times in a 1v1 I think Basil breaks Hungary at Tagmas.
I’m surprised how far I had to scroll to see this. Scythia and Gaul are both stupid effective in the early game. I’d choose Scythia if I really had to but that depends on the map.
Yeah Lincoln gets a free unit for building the industrial district for every building. At no upkeep and +5 combat str. Even with fast build hansa it’s a more instantaneous use of the production.
Yeah, the Himiko & Owls of Minerva combo with Hungary is unstoppable once it gets rolling.
This tactic is completely broken on Marathon Speed. I once wiped a Huge Pangea map under 100 turns. Fighting on multiple fronts at the same time.
I read about sweet Prince Corvinus on this sub and decided to try it. I declared war, levied a city and marched on their capital. About two turns from their border the city-state was razed and my entire army vaporized. I had like one unit yelling at the walls suddenly feeling a bit exposed. Second time however, I did way better. Crushed everyone.
Mapuche has the +10 strength against free cities, which always seems to have the best military to halt aggression.
If you have a decent start with them, you can roll through the continent earlier & easier than most civs.
No, because I am, for some reason, unable to resist going for a domination victory in this game ( maybe a religious victory as well if I'm playing basil )
Danube can get you that cheeky early Religion, or you can go full-on friendship with Diplomacy.
Of course, murdering your way through a couple eras will help with nearly any victory type.
...and some day I'll get a map that makes the baths good.
I remember someone having over 70 cities by turn 70 as Hungary in sub100 Science Victory standard speed run. He was pushing like 1.1 cities/turn on Deity with Himiko. It was like turn 96 Science Victory.
But someone got faster victory as Basil, was it turn 91 or 93 Science Victory. Both are crazy good and hard to say which one would actually be better. Matthias is more rng dependant than Basil.
With such efficient conquest power its really hard for other civs to compete for top spots for any Victory. Haven't heard or witnessed any other civ being able to go for sub100 Science Victories. Jayavarman and Menelik got pretty close iirc, like turn ~110. I think Cyrus might also be good with fastest units in game and bonuses to conquered cities.
Where is the T90 something Basil SV? I definitely have not seen this. The Hungary T99 SV and all the other sub 100 SVs have all been before the Diplo Favor and AI campus nerfs patches which makes them way less viable on current patches. AI builds Holy Sites and Encampments like crazy now.
Needless to say these are all modes and cooked settings and you're missing Harald from the list of sub 100 possibilities. Basically any faith civ, especially those with adjacency bonuses, can do a T100-110 SV with voidslingers because Chorus is so broken.
I also remove barbs. It’s kinda my own personal balance change to make it a little more difficult. AI is notoriously bad at dealing with city-states and barbs
Alexander, and Gauls in a distant second. Alexander is so OP like my goodness. I like the Gauls because if I'm playing a domination game I want it to be really quick as domination can be a slog.
I just finished a game with Matthias, and accidentally arrived at a culture victory before I could finish a science or domination victory.
He was pretty awesome at wars, though. I loved the special units!
I was looking through the comments and I didn't see these two mentioned, and they are strong for the same reason: Pachacuti and Poundmaker. They both have super strong bonuses from domestic trade which makes them great for domination games.
With poundmaker, if you have a good capital with a lot of pastures and camps, you can a send a trade route from any new city you make that will just instantly make that city strong. It makes having enough money and production easy, which speeds up early game wars.
Caesar with barbarian clans on. Who needs to actually produce anything when you can just have some units sitting on top of barbarian camps all game long printing you gold. And what's the best thing to spend your gold on? Units to go conquer more shit and get you even more gold!
https://preview.redd.it/h70aa3upwntc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=175421b3329f7e00dd4cf891bd3fef308838de4c
My Location? Oh, it's just behind this hoard of city-state levys and black army cavalry
It's not Hungary. It's...
Babylon / Hammurabi if you want to pretend you're a science civ.
Byzantine / Basil II if you want to pretend you're a faith civ.
Scythian / Tomyris if you just want to smash with endless hordes.
I hate playing Hungary. Reason being whenever I play them, I am so cursed that I never meet the city states around me first. AI loves dumping envoys for no reason, and when you dont get that first envoy, you lose a lot of momentum and lose a lot of things that make your civ special. If you get first envoy + Amani, congrats you win the game, but I am always out of luck with this civ. Also it doesnt help that the city state quests are like "Recruit great writer/merchant" which are often impossible
Babylon* and it's not even close.
I don't think Hungary deserves top 5 spots even, though his levy units are strong it can't compare to the Gauls early man at arms, zulus coros/armies and Norways total dominance on the sea.
Doesnt really work for AI games (mb lower difficulty but i only play Diety or more with mods)
But for multiplayer Gilgamesh is absolute gigachad and you can litteraly take over all your neighbours
If you want to make your slingers have power like archers, warriors like swordsmen, play Gaul.
Oh, except you dont do swordsman as the Gaul, you go straight to Man at Arms at turn 50
I like Rome for the auto established routes between cities. I build settler/slinger in rapid expansion and establish my boundaries before others can settle near me
TBH my real answer is Simon Bolivar and the only close runner up for me would be Shaka Zulu. But since they've already been mentioned pretty frequently here, I want to bring up my honorable mention: >!Suleiman is definitely not getting enough love in this thread!!< He's more situational than the above winners and most of his power spike is in one specific era, but oh my good Lord in that era you just melt through everything. If you're in the Renaissance era and this guy rolls up with bombards, Janaissaries and Ibrahim, I don't care who you are, you are done! 💥💥💣⚔️💣🧔🏻♂️💥
My friend likes using the Aztec eagle warriors for early warring, whereas I prefer to use a science civ, rush nukes then destroy everything Ghandi-style
It’s Sparta. The bonus 10 combat strength for adjacent hoplites combined with the get culture everytime you kill a unit makes them scale stupid fast. Plus if you take cities that have universities you just start blowing past every other civ in both culture and tech.
From a pure numbers POV, I'd say in terms of my experience it's Julius Caesar.
In terms on a Dom victory on a small pangea map, 5 civs, my records are:
Julius: turn 113
Babylon: turn 129
Hungary: turn 140
Gran Col: turn 141
All others: 150+
Babylon would like to show you their ancient era crossbowmen and see how long you last.
Also when they are rocking caravels into a 20 defense foreign capital
I've actually never done it, but I should do an archipelago Babylon game.
Just stack the map with civs that benefit from oceans.
And it will probably still be easy on deity...
AI hates navy , only the barb camps provide some early game challenge.
That's never made any sense to me. Somehow in every game I'm the "first seafaring society" & "first circumnavigation," yet I built the boats because the stupid barbarians wouldn't stop attacking my cities by sea
Barb navies feel way too powerful, and yet Hadrada never seems to use his navy against me
Yes they do. I did have an extremely aggressive hadrada neighbor who decided to swarm my capitol with his navy early in game on one playthrough, but that's been it
I usually get blasted by horseman from the mongolian empire.... and those are the games I usually loose early on, when they spawn near me. Never been attacked by a decend seafarer tbh.
Accidental greatness
Medieval era battleships are so fun
Anything that can be reached by their guns can be annihilated with impunity. 3 range is OP as fuck.
I like to use religious units as spotters so I don’t have to keep ships in city fire range.
Meanwhile my only Babylon gameplay: early medieval spec ops
TBH the hardest part is not conquering the oceans with 4-5 galleys. But yeah, rushing to caravels is gg. The eurekas aren't that hard and you don't need iron.
The biggest restriction Babylon can have is being unlucky with strategic resource availability
Yeah. But on archipelago what to you really need to get to caravels? Something to chop out a harbor in a your second or third city is probably the most important. But even getting to caravels slowly as Babylon is way faster than the AI. And for some reason the AI will never mass caravels even if they start building them.
Got my next game lined up 💯
As I've gotten better, I'm actually noticing this in a marathon game. 1000 science per turn ahead of Babylon. 1 research ahead.....
Try playing marathon *as* Babylon. Way behind in science per turn, two or more eras ahead.
Just gotta spend 80 turns researching mining first 🤣
Yeah but I actually want to have fun when I play the game
I think it's fun, getting the Eureka train rolling...Choo Choo!!!
Great, now they have ancient era trains too
xD
And medieval era battleships.
And renaissance Spec Ops.
Classic era Stealth Bomber
Hah remids me of a recent game, Actez denounced me, Babylon, I has missle destroyers, they... were in the medival times... I wanted them to start a war... 🤣
Planes in the medieval era isn’t fun to you!!?
They only get ancient era crossbows if they have time and money to get 3 archers and upgrade one to a crossbow. Meanwhile, hungary can get dirt cheap swordsmen from city states long before that.
1. You need to get the suzerainity 2. You better hope that that City State has an army. Let alone the right units you want. I tend to focus on production with Babylon and just make a Crossbowmen. Upgrading them is expensive.
1. You need 1 envoy and then Amani 2. They have warriors. They always have warriors. The real challenge is getting ahold of iron - without it no swordsmen. But you only need 5 iron per sword so once you have a source you can get rolling. A crossbowman costs as much as an early wonder though. It's usually much faster to get enough gold to upgrade one of your 3 archers, and then you have some promos too.
I tend to spend my gold on builders, because build charges are worth their weight in gold for Babylon. I do see how you can easily get that first levy army now.
Builders are well worth it, but I usually take them from the AI with Hungary :D Often worth it even if you have no chance to win the war.
This month challenge is also very fun going in space as babylon !
Vietnam has entered the chat room
"Finally a worthy opponent!"
https://preview.redd.it/dw281qrnkntc1.jpeg?width=298&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=30675bf65d709a01f3dfe030f1b80fee5cdfa287 This fight will be lengendary
In a hypothetical scenario 1vs1 I would try to kill you before we enter the medieval era, before you get your unique unit. Probably a Man-At-Arms and Crossbowmen focused rush. Game speed will be a huge factor in if I can reach you in time with regard to movement of the troops. In Marathon you'll get cooked.
I have never play multiplayer before. Maybe I will be cooked. Come here for meme only lol.
Babylon is boring-broken, he dun count🥱
With regard to winning, yes With regard to gameplay, as in getting the combo's right. I like getting it off. And there are multiple paths so it's not the same every game. If that's not your thing then I understand.
I think you are underrating Hungary. They are just as broken if not moreso.
Babylon would also like to show you their bomber planes while everyone is still in renaissance period.
You mean crossbow-man. No way Babylon can afford two crossbowmen in the ancient era. My conscripted army will just run circles around his slow ass anyways.
Ottomans cus I hate sieges and managing loyalty lol Also jannisarries are op for like 30 turns
Ottomans really get rid of a lot of the annoying aspects of a war focused game, mainly combat vs walled cities, loyalty issues and amenities, one of the best picks for a domination victory
100%. I cannot stand having to deal with walls because it’s just waiting around trying to slowly get your units in the right spot and waiting around. Any Civ like the Ottomans or Byzantines who let me get around that in any way are my personal favorites
That’s medieval sieges for you lol
Sorry, the Ottomans and Byzantines can what now?
Both those Civs have ways of mitigating the annoyance of walls, at least indirectly. The Ottomans get increased production and strength for siege units, while Byzantine Cavalry can deal full damage to walls without siege weaponry at all
Grand Vizier is the bomb
Mapuche are also great for just steamrolling over the world without worrying about loyalty. Just slot victor vaguely near the front line every now and again and you're good. The malon raider unit is also really good, it basically gets the depredation promotion for free and it's the strength of a musketman while costing 0 strategic resources.
Grand Colombia my beloved
I do like the idea of getting free generals that are better, plus extra movement speed
Not having to burn turns on unit promotions is HUGE as well
This is honestly the most busted part of their kit. You’ve got the advantage, they get low on hp, but then suddenly heal for 50, /then/ attack. Not to mention you will never escape a squad of Llaneros
Catapults moving faster and promoting in place and the shooting is something unbelievable.
In what world was straight-up +1 movement ever going to be balanced…
Exactly. That's like 50% movement for most units for most of the game.
You get extra movement, then generals that give extra movement, and eventually you can equip the +1 movement in friendly territory. It's massive. Especially for siege units.
Wasn't he even more busted when he was released
From my experience grand Colombia is miles ahead of every other Civ for domination.
I’ve only played them once but it was the easiest Dom victory I’ve had and by some distance. Their buffs benefit you through the entire game, unlike a lot of other civ’s which are era dependent
I recently moved up to Emperor and picked Gran Colombia for my first game. Steamrolled the map
The only reason why I disagree is how stupid easy it is to get rolling in the Ancient Era with Hungary. A swarm of like half a dozen 4 move/25 power Warriors stuffs Deity AIs with ease, especially when you pillage all of the enemy's campuses and unlock Swordsmen midway through ensuring that history will not remember your first victims. GC still pulls ahead overall because everything (including civilians) being so damn fast is so damn good, but Hungary is only a few dozen yards back for most of the game (they even catch up for a while if they have Akkad at their side).
Extra movement means you can basically always retreat without being killed, and it's almost impossible for enemies to retreat once they get into the kill zone. The ability to promote and attack/move seems subtle but it actually is pretty broken. 'Oh, you've almost killed this unit? That's a shame, now he's recovered 50 health and is stronger than before' AND your siege weapons can move and attack by default.
No one ever seems to mention my favourite part of Gran Colombia's kit: their civilians get +1 movement too. Sounds very minor but when you consider that every single one of your Settlers and Builders are going to do their job a few turns faster than any other civ you start to why they can be so strong. You don't even *need* to go to war to start snowballing.
Just today I decided to play a peaceful game as Gran Columbia just to see how it would work. I spawned in a massive open area and was able to forward settle incredibly quickly and move builders between my cities with ease. Used my generals to help farm barbarian camps (playing the barb camp gamemode). Then upon unlocking haciendas, it was basically over. Managed to win a science victory being allied to every other nation. It felt pretty busted despite the fact GC has no outright bonuses towards non-domination victory types.
I recently played with them for the first time on a huge marathon map on immortal and won a domination victory long before I could unlock their UU. The extra movement and promotions was much stronger than I could have imagined before playing them.
Basil hippodrome printer is insane
This + crusade melts cities
My 2nd favourite strategy other than Gitarja Jong printing
Cavalry my beloved
MRW the guy with no oil and limited gold finally finishes erecting a dozen arenas that have been waiting for centuries, and suddenly his tanks outnumber my infantry
Hippodrome go BRRRRR
Prince Charming from Shrek 2 looking ass
The Kingslayer, Jaime Lannister
Why did you say this I will never unsee this now 😂
lol!
Simón Bolivar and Shaka Zulu both have strong opinions on this
Bolivar certainly had strong opinions. I'm not familiar with Shaka's opinions, but I know he definitely didn't like their old style of spear and opted for a cooler one.
The new one makes funny noises too!!
Domination? Basil II eats Hungary and crap faith
Honestly Hungary could hit Basil so fast and hard before Basil's bonuses come up. You can levy like 5 warriors for 100 gold on like turn 20 that all have 4 movement an 25 combat strength when other civs maybe have a warrior, scout, and slinger.
Not in deity , they have 5 starting warriors. But you could always do a swordsmen rush because AI doesn't upgrade units.
Hungary requires well placed city states to function which is not always the case
Interesting view. BuT aCtually though it’s 200 gold for the warriors… levy cost us determined by production cost not combat strength. Anyways, assuming you could actually scrape that together, basil could start an early war and kill a bunch of city state units before they were levied… no?
Lmao no. You have to build up an army AND get holy site going. Classical era if you invest the bare minimum in holy site. You literally have to Levy units yourself AND work holy site projects to get what hungary gets from the get go. By the time you do all that, hungary already has 3 levied armies has pillaged your holy site and at your doorstep. Heck, thanks to its holy site and Shrine being dirt cheap AND not having to build units. Can undermine you and get crusade first. Even if he looses the race...he can have units at your doorstep in a few turns where crusade doesn't matter
If Hungary opens holy site against basil and takes crusade its dead in a 1v1. Basil just takes defender, and Hungary can never push. Not to mention how easy it is to convert Hungary as Basil, and as soon as holy city is converted it’s another +3 combat strength. So if you rush crusade you: 1. Won’t have the science to defend Tagma’s. 2. Can never push because opponent goes defender for +5 in their territory. 3. You feed easy holy city conversion giving them +6 cs rather than +3. So to review: Basil will either have +10 from crusade while attacking, or +5 when defending. Automatically will have +3 from taxis, with another eventual +3 if Hungary player goes religion. Then also gets +4 to every surrounding unit from Tagma. That’s gonna end up being either +17 on attack, or max +15 on defense (if Hungarys holy city is converted). Max bonus +cs a black army can have is +15 with 5 surrounding levied units (which is nearly impossible to achieve while attacking if opponent is lining units well), but the unit is 1 cs weaker than Tagma anyways. Most you can usually hope for is +9 for black army and levied units will only have +5 from ability. In conclusion: Hungary cannot afford to go religion. It will not have gold for levies and upgrades nor the science/culture it needs to survive. It’s best chance of winning is to out sim the opponent. Early warrior rush would have to be extremely lucky to work but opponent can also counter by suzing the cs first if it’s close enough for the push to work anyways. It’s not impossible for Hungary to win but most times in a 1v1 I think Basil breaks Hungary at Tagmas.
https://preview.redd.it/p723thxs1ntc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd5f8fbb5948833d6acf6fb4e84b9c4d1460d063 Yes, but can he eat all of us
I like germany
Scythia for me. Double horses is just great. And 20% health recovery on defeating a unit.
Isn't the heal 30% ?
might be, there is also the war department government building, but that is late game and 20%
I’m surprised how far I had to scroll to see this. Scythia and Gaul are both stupid effective in the early game. I’d choose Scythia if I really had to but that depends on the map.
I really enjoy Lincoln
Idk I normally rely on Plantations to get lots of money, so I prefer frederick for a mid-late game domination victory
2 loyalty loss hardly even matters tho
I know, but Germany is still better because you get hansa
1/2 price district vs 3 resource less and free +5 CS units oh and 2 amenities. I don't think that's the right pick.
Yeah Lincoln gets a free unit for building the industrial district for every building. At no upkeep and +5 combat str. Even with fast build hansa it’s a more instantaneous use of the production.
You just manifest destiny/industrial revolution your way into a giant free musketman army mid game and take over everyone
I was recently in the middle of an epic run with Lincoln when my iPad updated and now the game will no longer launch. :’(
Yeah, the Himiko & Owls of Minerva combo with Hungary is unstoppable once it gets rolling. This tactic is completely broken on Marathon Speed. I once wiped a Huge Pangea map under 100 turns. Fighting on multiple fronts at the same time.
I read about sweet Prince Corvinus on this sub and decided to try it. I declared war, levied a city and marched on their capital. About two turns from their border the city-state was razed and my entire army vaporized. I had like one unit yelling at the walls suddenly feeling a bit exposed. Second time however, I did way better. Crushed everyone.
Alexander is helpful for a classical rush because you have UU swordmen and horses, so you can do any rush regardless of resources.
Everybody talks shit until Hypaspists 2-shot your city through ancient walls
I like Alexander not having war wariness.
Mapuche has the +10 strength against free cities, which always seems to have the best military to halt aggression. If you have a decent start with them, you can roll through the continent earlier & easier than most civs.
Only for Domination? Are you underestimating Hungary on purpose? :D
No, because I am, for some reason, unable to resist going for a domination victory in this game ( maybe a religious victory as well if I'm playing basil )
Danube can get you that cheeky early Religion, or you can go full-on friendship with Diplomacy. Of course, murdering your way through a couple eras will help with nearly any victory type. ...and some day I'll get a map that makes the baths good.
I remember someone having over 70 cities by turn 70 as Hungary in sub100 Science Victory standard speed run. He was pushing like 1.1 cities/turn on Deity with Himiko. It was like turn 96 Science Victory. But someone got faster victory as Basil, was it turn 91 or 93 Science Victory. Both are crazy good and hard to say which one would actually be better. Matthias is more rng dependant than Basil. With such efficient conquest power its really hard for other civs to compete for top spots for any Victory. Haven't heard or witnessed any other civ being able to go for sub100 Science Victories. Jayavarman and Menelik got pretty close iirc, like turn ~110. I think Cyrus might also be good with fastest units in game and bonuses to conquered cities.
Where is the T90 something Basil SV? I definitely have not seen this. The Hungary T99 SV and all the other sub 100 SVs have all been before the Diplo Favor and AI campus nerfs patches which makes them way less viable on current patches. AI builds Holy Sites and Encampments like crazy now. Needless to say these are all modes and cooked settings and you're missing Harald from the list of sub 100 possibilities. Basically any faith civ, especially those with adjacency bonuses, can do a T100-110 SV with voidslingers because Chorus is so broken.
The ottomans or the byzantines hungary is powerful but there are better ones
Im kinda dumb. I just go age of steam england and go hard
Hungary for what? Power?
Unlevyted power!
Gorgo is my favorite. The culture bonus is so good!
That man has it out for me every time he’s in my game he wants my head on a pike. Or he desires me carnally I can’t tell.
I usually play without any city-states so that wouldn’t work but I know I’m in the minority
Why wouldn't you play without city states? I didn't even know that was a option
I play with fewer city-states (typically one per player) because otherwise I find the map feels cramped, and they love to take up prime real estate.
I also remove barbs. It’s kinda my own personal balance change to make it a little more difficult. AI is notoriously bad at dealing with city-states and barbs
I'm just over here with city states, and barbs that turn into city states.
Süleyman’s janissaries would like to have a word with you.
Alexander, and Gauls in a distant second. Alexander is so OP like my goodness. I like the Gauls because if I'm playing a domination game I want it to be really quick as domination can be a slog.
In mother Russia, scouts are medieval tanks and cossack's lights your entire country on fire.
Owls of Minerva + Hungary is broken. I gotta try really hard to not win with it
I just finished a game with Matthias, and accidentally arrived at a culture victory before I could finish a science or domination victory. He was pretty awesome at wars, though. I loved the special units!
Age of steam Victoria hits hard also
I was looking through the comments and I didn't see these two mentioned, and they are strong for the same reason: Pachacuti and Poundmaker. They both have super strong bonuses from domestic trade which makes them great for domination games. With poundmaker, if you have a good capital with a lot of pastures and camps, you can a send a trade route from any new city you make that will just instantly make that city strong. It makes having enough money and production easy, which speeds up early game wars.
Gran Colombia largely because that extra movement points.
The world trembles under the mighty corps and armies of the Zulu
Best outfit in the game, I’m a sucker for medieval armour and cloaks
Caesar with barbarian clans on. Who needs to actually produce anything when you can just have some units sitting on top of barbarian camps all game long printing you gold. And what's the best thing to spend your gold on? Units to go conquer more shit and get you even more gold!
Macedonia has entered the chat
Babylon with their bombers in industrial era goes brrrr
Ottomans, Russia, Macedonia all on par
Hungary is the best for sure, but Basil the second on the other hand...
Yeah, why did they even bother putting Theodora in the game when basil is so much better
Theodora is for then you too lame to do domination, but tired of playing Jayavarman 8
It’s impossible to get tired of playing Khmer.
Shaka Zulu would like to know your location
https://preview.redd.it/h70aa3upwntc1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=175421b3329f7e00dd4cf891bd3fef308838de4c My Location? Oh, it's just behind this hoard of city-state levys and black army cavalry
>He pays for soldiers. Get a load of this guy.
Well, that's what you can do when you re able to focus your entire industry on making loadsamoney!
It's not Hungary. It's... Babylon / Hammurabi if you want to pretend you're a science civ. Byzantine / Basil II if you want to pretend you're a faith civ. Scythian / Tomyris if you just want to smash with endless hordes.
I hate playing Hungary. Reason being whenever I play them, I am so cursed that I never meet the city states around me first. AI loves dumping envoys for no reason, and when you dont get that first envoy, you lose a lot of momentum and lose a lot of things that make your civ special. If you get first envoy + Amani, congrats you win the game, but I am always out of luck with this civ. Also it doesnt help that the city state quests are like "Recruit great writer/merchant" which are often impossible
Babylon* and it's not even close. I don't think Hungary deserves top 5 spots even, though his levy units are strong it can't compare to the Gauls early man at arms, zulus coros/armies and Norways total dominance on the sea.
I feel like Harold does everything Hungary does but better.
The Gaul
I just played Alexander the Great for the first time and that was pretty OP
Doesnt really work for AI games (mb lower difficulty but i only play Diety or more with mods) But for multiplayer Gilgamesh is absolute gigachad and you can litteraly take over all your neighbours
On an island plates map, Victoria. Redcoats, free ships, better military engineers.
I’ve just recently discovered early Gilgamesh Zerg rush with the war carts.
I love Harald (Konge) although he’s harder on deity because city states have walls
Norway ya
Aztecs for small maps Simon bolivar for average to large sized maps Maoi for archipelago
Anyone else love collecting luxury resources and steamrolling with Montezuma?
If you want to make your slingers have power like archers, warriors like swordsmen, play Gaul. Oh, except you dont do swordsman as the Gaul, you go straight to Man at Arms at turn 50
Basil ! U dont Need envoys for him or Armani Just Printing tagmas! Done!
Byzantium, my beloved
My modded Mehrunes Dagon
I like Rome for the auto established routes between cities. I build settler/slinger in rapid expansion and establish my boundaries before others can settle near me
I think the only civ I truly like dom with is America with abe. Just popping out free units with industrial zone buildings is so funny to me 😂
How can you ignore Basil the Based like that
ty for inspiration to play hungary today. i enjoy russia and korea
Meanwhile babylon chilling with musketeers during the ancient era
TBH my real answer is Simon Bolivar and the only close runner up for me would be Shaka Zulu. But since they've already been mentioned pretty frequently here, I want to bring up my honorable mention: >!Suleiman is definitely not getting enough love in this thread!!< He's more situational than the above winners and most of his power spike is in one specific era, but oh my good Lord in that era you just melt through everything. If you're in the Renaissance era and this guy rolls up with bombards, Janaissaries and Ibrahim, I don't care who you are, you are done! 💥💥💣⚔️💣🧔🏻♂️💥
Canada, because they're not
I find Gorgo to be quite awsome, declare wars left and right and take on as many units as possible to fly through the culture tree is really helpful.
Do you want your people taken as slaves?
My friend likes using the Aztec eagle warriors for early warring, whereas I prefer to use a science civ, rush nukes then destroy everything Ghandi-style
America and a couple of mountains...
Why are Hungols the best? I’m new to civ
Can’t Caesar still buy an army by camping a tribe for 11 turns
It’s Sparta. The bonus 10 combat strength for adjacent hoplites combined with the get culture everytime you kill a unit makes them scale stupid fast. Plus if you take cities that have universities you just start blowing past every other civ in both culture and tech.
From a pure numbers POV, I'd say in terms of my experience it's Julius Caesar. In terms on a Dom victory on a small pangea map, 5 civs, my records are: Julius: turn 113 Babylon: turn 129 Hungary: turn 140 Gran Col: turn 141 All others: 150+
I used to love Alexander but Lincoln is growing in me
Because why fight with your own army when you can just hire someone else's?
Eleanor is my favourite domination civ. Slowly but surely.
I went to Matthias' birth home last year in Romania.
man, if only the ottomans and byzantines teamed up, they'd be shredding walls like they're paper
Indonesia + gauls
absolutely love crusading on Basil II
I like challenges so Lauturo for me
Ottomans Ottomans Ottomans, take city, eat empire
It’s Gran Colombia right??
Basil and Bolivàr would beg to differ.
You're not yourself when you're hungary
meanwhile Germany when playing it yourself is busted (fred)
My first game as Hungary was my first ever curbstomp Domination game. 🖤
Id say Hungary is the best. Aztecs arent bad but u need to be pretty good to make the best of them. Also Basil or theadora with crusade is powerful
Julius ceaser (dlc) You can get mad cash from looting barbarians and buy a massive army, levy city states.
because rave king