INSANELY silly post

joony · July 11, 2002, 16:31

Right. Brace yaselves. Which is the best Civilisation? Everybody only gets one vote, and i will add them up after a good number of replies. You have to have good reasons though. Here goes with the first vote

The Indians

They have the War Elephant which can be used without resources and is as good as a Knight. Religious so no Anarchy. Commercial so less corruption.

Marquis de Sodaq · July 11, 2002, 16:34

Insanely silly.

You should try the poll option, it tallies the votes for you!

I don't really have a favorite, but play best with the frogs.

dunk · July 11, 2002, 16:34

I like the Egyptians. They're my new favorite. Religious, so no anarchy, and industrious, so quicker roads, mines, rails, and so forth. Plus, the war chariot is a good UU. Cheap horsemen.

This would be better done if it were a poll. Anyhoo, it will probably end up being moved to the Civilizations forum, where an exact copy has probably been around for a while.

cracker · July 11, 2002, 18:25

Joony,

Welcome to the forums, did you choose the Indians as you favorite civ based on their rendition of that great disco hit "The War Elephant shuffle"?

You are new to the forums and will learn a great deal here and on CivFanatics as well. Much of what you learn will help you fix problems with the game and enjoy it better.

One thing you will learn is that the Civs in the game are just graphics wrappers over the top of a limited set of combinations of civ specific traits, unique units, and just darned old meaness levels set by a mathematical slider.

Some civs are better under different game conditions that match up against different opponents and different terrain combos. The primary advantage to the Indians is that their UU the War Elephant is free from resource constraints in the mid-game while everyone else has to have Horses and Iron to stay on par. The Mahatma can be a bit flaky in the current game play because of how his traits match up with his aggression level.

There are only 15 possible combinations of the existing traits and with 16 in the standard game plus 8 more coming in the XP, there will be roughly 2 duplicates of every combination.

There are no real "best" civs in the game but it can be argued that a couple of them come fairly close to sucking the big green weenie because of really sucky combos of Unique Units (UUs) and traits.

You will also learn that this topic gets posted and reposted and argued, whined, and moaned about at least once every two to three weeks when some new person falls off the turnip truck without searching for the 72 previous discussion threads on this same topic. Its almost like there needs to be an FAQ index that comes up on the registration screen that lists this question with direct links to all the prior posts and messages so you can catch up with the process and read all the previous comments. Don't want you to miss out on anything.

Coracle · July 11, 2002, 19:15

I long ago edited the game reducing war elephants to a realistic and historical 3.1.2. Made them cheaper, also.

Elephants that are as strong as knights is pure Fantasy.

Mongoloid Cow · July 11, 2002, 21:24

Egypt

dnassman · July 11, 2002, 21:33

Persians are my pick with a couple of mods.

Jethro83 · July 11, 2002, 21:42

For a pure builder strategy:

1. Babylon
2. France
3. America

For pure warmongering:

1. Japan
2. Iroquois
3. Germany

And for a balance between building and warmongering:

1. Egypt
2. China
3. Persia

Jon Shafer · July 11, 2002, 22:04

Persia. When the Immortals are on the warpath, nothing can stand up to it... 2 to 1 ratio attack VS defense (at best) for an entire age.

Dauphin · July 12, 2002, 07:17

@ first post.

Papa Chubby · July 12, 2002, 07:55

Personally I like the Chinese the best. We have them as industrial, fast workers and extra shield, right. Then they are militaristic, which means faster promotion of units, thats a good advantage to have. Their UU is also very good, just a usual knight, but 1 move faster.

Purple · July 12, 2002, 16:16

Quote:

Originally posted by cracker

There are only 15 possible combinations of the existing traits and with 16 in the standard game plus 8 more coming in the XP, there will be roughly 2 duplicates of every combination.

Do we know that PTW will not introduce new traits?

Mongoloid Cow · July 12, 2002, 20:56

PTW won't, one of the Firaxians already said so

Purple · July 13, 2002, 09:41

Pity.

sabrewolf · July 14, 2002, 15:28

england.
bad traits, useless UU

if you win with england at diety lever, you're god

BeBro · July 14, 2002, 19:10

I still like the Romans most, it was the same in Civ2, and also in Civ3 they are great

But I don´t think there is really one single "best " civ, they all have their strengths...

Purple · July 15, 2002, 17:51

I'm with BeBro. The various traits and UUs make the civs different, not better or worse. You might really want a challenge, as pointed out above by Sabrewolf (English), or you might want to indulge your inner builder, or go into warmonger mode. You can chose the best civ for a given style, or try to play against type and try to turn the Aztecs, for example, into a builder civ.

Right now I'm cleaning AI clock as India, which was a surprise to me. I thought they would be harder to turn into a military power, but by the year 1815 I've wiped out four of the eight starting civs.

Different strokes.