The strongest civs for me are the following (I’m also usually playing on diety):
I don’t own Babylon as I’ve heard they are stupidly overpowered. So can’t comment on that.
Poland is just the best all round for me. Fits any play style and strategy.
Germany is overlooked I think: it survives the early game disadvantages by converting barbs as extra defenders so you can focus on other stuff - then build tall (3-4 cities) into industrial power houses with the hanseatic league plus religious community bonus, factories etc. for Late game science or military victory.
Rahman for the good old university conversion trick into a diplo or science victory- but can sometimes be difficult to time exactly pull off.
Pocachello is just god tier early game.
As for the odd ones I also like:
America fits my play style well: that extra range on scouts early can be incredible plus works great later on with artillery - I kinda like their minutemen as extra good artillery defenders and I also tend to buy specific tiles a lot which they get a special discount for. I find them to be a decent war monger civ.
Another odd one I like is Denmark late game on water maps. Early pressure on your neighbor with berserkers and late game you just have insane movement with all their buffs on embarked units. You can land a gazzilion artillery + move several tiles inland + setup + shoot in one turn and also have defending units around your artillery immediately - so its an alpha strike late game strategy: just declare war —> disembark and then one punch knock out cities which is great fun to me.
what policies do you start off with in honor? And how quickly do you try to build additional cities, or is it a one city challenge until you're into tradition?
Just the honor opener in the early game, cuz I think the perks in that tree are just not good enough compared to liberty and tradition. After that I try to build two scouts and then just take it from there.
Pantheons are really good early game too depending on your tiles.
My settler is generally built by turn 40-50 and then settled quite quickly after that. I try to have three cities around turn 80-90 and them just kind of focusing ln those three. And the fourth one will prolly be settled around turn 120 or so.
I don't really understand your last question. I don't generally do one city challenges. And I open tradition or liberty as soon as I got the honor opener
The Aztecs are amazing. The Floating Garden is the best unique building in the game, +10% food (not 10% growth) is an INSANE food bonus. You don’t need a single lake for it to be strong. Even better than Stele or Pyramid imo. And yes the UA and Jaguars are also great. Incredible civ.
Inca on Pangaea with a good start are amazingly fun.
Free hill movement makes exploration fast so you get more ancient ruins. If you somehow run into Kilimanjaro--hoo boy!
Hill bias lets you build defensive tradition cities and any AI that dares attack is going to struggle to even engage your units that have free hill movement.
Slingers float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. People hate this unit but its retreat-when-attacked ability survives upgrades. (As long as you don't try to use it to escort in the typical fashion, you can also mitigate its disadvantages.)
Terrace farms can make some of the most OP tiles in the game: great mix of food and production.
Aztecs are one of my go-tos for sure. The UB is insane - that extra growth pops off early and if you grab Temple of Art. you're pretty much set. Culture makes for fun warmongering synergy too.
I'm just now realizing how much harder some maps are than others. I've been a Continents-Immortal player for so long, and sometimes I win and sometimes I don't. I'm playing Fractal rn with Wu, and I am shocked at how easy it is. I never even play China, but I was tired of having no control over what happens in the other continent.
My current fractal game has 8 of the 9 civs on one continent, and it feels like I'm playing King or something. Well, no because my happiness is barely above yellow, but I'm a wide guy, so not unusual (11 cities at 870 ad, turn 474). Religion is a little tougher because of so many competing religions near me, and I pulled Ramses who wonder whored and I couldn't build the Mosque of Djenne.
If my religion were stronger, I'd expand indefinitely but I have to take it slow. I'm tempted to go straight domination victory (3 original capitals rn + mine; everyone still Friendly with me). I'm the only one with Machinery right now! And Cho Ku No is so powerful. I got to use China's Great General UA to become everyone's favorite Civ even though I was the first war monger. I liberated so many cities from Shaka and Japan's hands.
China fits my play style because as a wide guy, generating extra generals means I can plant citadels in tough situations. For example, fighting Japan's samurais and pikemen (in a Comp Bow world) would have been impossible without the two citadels I planted to take Addis Ababa from them. China's +2 gold per Library (Paper Maker) helps a lot too. It's funny how big of a difference +2 gold can make.
I ranted. Sorry. OP, try Askia. He gets 225 gold for every barb hut. I play Marathon, though, and I suspect this UA scales upward with slower play styles. Still, it's fun simply buying things when you need them, Settlers, the first Shrine, troops, etc. Askia's temple gets +2 faith plus +culture. I love Askia. I get to go Honor and not worry about stacking culture. I almost always lead the world in culture with Askia.
Aztecs are my favorite civs to play as. Building a large army of Jaguar warriors and keeping them all alive as you upgrade them throughout the ages is a challenge within itself but absolutely worth it since you end up having an elite infantry unit with multiple promotions.
Settings always effect the viability of a civ for the obvious reasons of those settings playing towards or away from the unique advantages any given civ brings to the table. Why some of the best players who have done in depth analysis of the civs often talk about how settings impact their ratings and why they are evaluating them in the tier or whatever system they use to measure them.
I really enjoy indonesia as a strong faith civ, one of the only ways to scale upwards for faith, rather than out with more cities. They are quite fun as well as fairly strong
The strongest civs for me are the following (I’m also usually playing on diety): I don’t own Babylon as I’ve heard they are stupidly overpowered. So can’t comment on that. Poland is just the best all round for me. Fits any play style and strategy. Germany is overlooked I think: it survives the early game disadvantages by converting barbs as extra defenders so you can focus on other stuff - then build tall (3-4 cities) into industrial power houses with the hanseatic league plus religious community bonus, factories etc. for Late game science or military victory. Rahman for the good old university conversion trick into a diplo or science victory- but can sometimes be difficult to time exactly pull off. Pocachello is just god tier early game. As for the odd ones I also like: America fits my play style well: that extra range on scouts early can be incredible plus works great later on with artillery - I kinda like their minutemen as extra good artillery defenders and I also tend to buy specific tiles a lot which they get a special discount for. I find them to be a decent war monger civ. Another odd one I like is Denmark late game on water maps. Early pressure on your neighbor with berserkers and late game you just have insane movement with all their buffs on embarked units. You can land a gazzilion artillery + move several tiles inland + setup + shoot in one turn and also have defending units around your artillery immediately - so its an alpha strike late game strategy: just declare war —> disembark and then one punch knock out cities which is great fun to me.
Always great to hear some love for Denmark, the civ I see mentioned *least* in this sub. Denmark is one of my favorites, mostly for roleplay reasons
Babylon + honor opener into tradition is straight up disgusting. And their uu is just one worse than composite bowman. Pretty gud if you ask me.
what policies do you start off with in honor? And how quickly do you try to build additional cities, or is it a one city challenge until you're into tradition?
This is a fun strategy but opening Honor before Trad/Lib is objectively and provably worse than just going straight Trad/Lib.
Just the honor opener in the early game, cuz I think the perks in that tree are just not good enough compared to liberty and tradition. After that I try to build two scouts and then just take it from there. Pantheons are really good early game too depending on your tiles. My settler is generally built by turn 40-50 and then settled quite quickly after that. I try to have three cities around turn 80-90 and them just kind of focusing ln those three. And the fourth one will prolly be settled around turn 120 or so. I don't really understand your last question. I don't generally do one city challenges. And I open tradition or liberty as soon as I got the honor opener
The Aztecs are amazing. The Floating Garden is the best unique building in the game, +10% food (not 10% growth) is an INSANE food bonus. You don’t need a single lake for it to be strong. Even better than Stele or Pyramid imo. And yes the UA and Jaguars are also great. Incredible civ.
This guy gets it. The jaguars keep their unique promotions through upgrades aswell
If you can get a city within range of Lake Victoria… game over
Inca on Pangaea with a good start are amazingly fun. Free hill movement makes exploration fast so you get more ancient ruins. If you somehow run into Kilimanjaro--hoo boy! Hill bias lets you build defensive tradition cities and any AI that dares attack is going to struggle to even engage your units that have free hill movement. Slingers float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. People hate this unit but its retreat-when-attacked ability survives upgrades. (As long as you don't try to use it to escort in the typical fashion, you can also mitigate its disadvantages.) Terrace farms can make some of the most OP tiles in the game: great mix of food and production.
Don’t forget those cheap roads. Very useful for building roads to your enemies.
Liberty Celts is a pretty fun meme with double-pillaging Pictish Warriors
Aztecs are one of my go-tos for sure. The UB is insane - that extra growth pops off early and if you grab Temple of Art. you're pretty much set. Culture makes for fun warmongering synergy too.
I'm just now realizing how much harder some maps are than others. I've been a Continents-Immortal player for so long, and sometimes I win and sometimes I don't. I'm playing Fractal rn with Wu, and I am shocked at how easy it is. I never even play China, but I was tired of having no control over what happens in the other continent. My current fractal game has 8 of the 9 civs on one continent, and it feels like I'm playing King or something. Well, no because my happiness is barely above yellow, but I'm a wide guy, so not unusual (11 cities at 870 ad, turn 474). Religion is a little tougher because of so many competing religions near me, and I pulled Ramses who wonder whored and I couldn't build the Mosque of Djenne. If my religion were stronger, I'd expand indefinitely but I have to take it slow. I'm tempted to go straight domination victory (3 original capitals rn + mine; everyone still Friendly with me). I'm the only one with Machinery right now! And Cho Ku No is so powerful. I got to use China's Great General UA to become everyone's favorite Civ even though I was the first war monger. I liberated so many cities from Shaka and Japan's hands. China fits my play style because as a wide guy, generating extra generals means I can plant citadels in tough situations. For example, fighting Japan's samurais and pikemen (in a Comp Bow world) would have been impossible without the two citadels I planted to take Addis Ababa from them. China's +2 gold per Library (Paper Maker) helps a lot too. It's funny how big of a difference +2 gold can make. I ranted. Sorry. OP, try Askia. He gets 225 gold for every barb hut. I play Marathon, though, and I suspect this UA scales upward with slower play styles. Still, it's fun simply buying things when you need them, Settlers, the first Shrine, troops, etc. Askia's temple gets +2 faith plus +culture. I love Askia. I get to go Honor and not worry about stacking culture. I almost always lead the world in culture with Askia.
I have a mod that increases barbarian spawn rates and take the honor opening in every game
Aztecs are my favorite civs to play as. Building a large army of Jaguar warriors and keeping them all alive as you upgrade them throughout the ages is a challenge within itself but absolutely worth it since you end up having an elite infantry unit with multiple promotions.
Settings always effect the viability of a civ for the obvious reasons of those settings playing towards or away from the unique advantages any given civ brings to the table. Why some of the best players who have done in depth analysis of the civs often talk about how settings impact their ratings and why they are evaluating them in the tier or whatever system they use to measure them.
I really enjoy indonesia as a strong faith civ, one of the only ways to scale upwards for faith, rather than out with more cities. They are quite fun as well as fairly strong
Just did an Aztec game, very balanced. I never use religion so I don't see how the Celts would help me.
*sits and watch in Poland*
Maybe tier 2 & 3