The 18 Civilizations.

[Dinner]

18 civs will be included with the original release and this is all the information we have on them so far. As more information becomes available I will update this list.

Civ - Leader - Unique Trait
America - Washington
Arabia - Harun al-Rashid (no Persia)
Aztec - Montezuma
China - Wu Zeitein
Egypt - Ramses
England - Elizabeth - Naval Dominance
France - Napolean
Germany - Bismark
Inca - (leader not announced)
India - Gandhi - City Growth
Japan - Oda
Mongolia - Genghis Khan
Ottoman - Suleiman
Rome - Caesar
Russia - Catherine - City Expansion
Songhai - Askia (no Zulu) - Conquest

2 left unannounced:
Greece - (Probably Alexander, but maybe they buck trends and go with Leonidas... Hell yeah!)

Spain(would be surprised to see them replace Spain with Portugal) -

[Dinner]

Based on the trailer I'd guess the Vikings are one of the unannounced civs.

[Guynemer]

When did we get that much information to begin with? IGN mentions Songhai, US, Germany, Russia, Brits, Aztec, India, Japan, Rome, and Turks... I think I saw China somewhere else too. But hadn't heard anything about the other civs.

[Dinner]

Looking over screen shots, the previews, etc...

[Dinner]

Washington:


Bismark:

[Dinner]

Alexander's spread sheet on Civ leaders:

[Norselord]

That is absolute bull****.

The Dutch should be in for the following reasons alone:
a) the role in global history from 16th-18th century.
b) the # of dutch gamers that will buy the game

[Robert]

I'm not convinced yet that the Songhai and the Mongols not simply will be city states that are misunderstood by to be real civs by us.

[ColdPhoenix]

I can see that being the case with the Songhai but I'm sure the mongols will be in as a playable civ.

[Robert]

Why are you sure?

[ColdPhoenix]

Because they'd the second largest empire ever and have been in every other version of civ.

[ColdPhoenix]

Of course maybe you've inside info and I'll be proved wrong!

[Robert]

Nope, no inside info from me.
Maybe they were large, but what's their impact except being large? A civilization needs to accomplish more to be among the big ones, imho. I never liked their presence in civ. Same with the Vikings. Good warmongers, but culturally not that interesting.

[Dinner]

That is absolute bull****.

The Dutch should be in for the following reasons alone:
a) the role in global history from 16th-18th century.
b) the # of dutch gamers that will buy the game

Actually, I agree with you. The Dutch and the Spanish, hell, even the Portugese are much more deserving inclusion then Songhai. I guess they're hoping to play the diversity card and then expect us all to pay $20-$30 bucks extra per expansion pack to get the civs we really want.

[Guynemer]

Dude, it's Civilization. You're creating your own history. Simply for balance on an Earth map, you need a diverse geographic sampling of civs, not only the most important civs.

In the long run, the Dutch have been overshadowed by other European civs, even though they might be one of the 18 greatest civs in world history.