Favorite Civilizations

[mharmless]

BAH!

Posting from Athens, Greece? I thought I razed that city yesterday and used the population that I hadn't killed to build my pan-african road to bring the might of the legion to Zululand?

[Bereta_Eder]

and which country are you from? clown

[mharmless]

Why, I'm posting from Rome of course

[Bereta_Eder]

Rome where? The one in Kentucki?

[mharmless]

Of course. And I'm sitting here with my sister-wife and my son-nephew typing this into a beat up 386 in the back of my pickup truck.

[eric77]

Vikings!

Oh, how I miss the Vikings!
Perhaps the Viking warrior, or a modified longship. Ahh, my favorite
civ seems to be no more.
The leader could be Eric the Red, of course! Expansionistic and
Military. Yeehaw!
Thanks for this thread to enable me to squak on my big
Viking (or lack thereof) gripe.

Eric77

[Enigma]

I voted for Persians, because the Immortal unique unit is HUGE!

Legions are blah, you don't need that extra defense in the ancient age, 1 or 2 elite spearmen will give all the backup my immortals need.

It takes a LOONG time for immortals to become obsolete, they are easily the longest lasting of any unique unit, they are useful until calvalry.

The double worker rate from industrious is very big, and the scientific bonus is nice for getting culture and 3 extra techs over the course of the game.

As far as militaristic giving you tons of extra leaders I disagree... I have gotten 3 great leaders and am only 1/2 way done with the midevil age as the persians, I have conquered the Russians and am about to attack the Babylonians, this is only on a medium sized map mind you.

If we knew about the actual statistics for how often militaristic gives you a great leader it would be nice.... DAN MAGHDA/SOREN JOHNSEN PLEASE APPEAR HERE!

Anyways I change my civ preferences pretty frequently, I have only beaten 1 game so far as americans, all I know for sure is that Industrious ROCKS!

[mharmless]

Defense of three is far from worthless, particularly in the ancient age. Legions can take and hold any position in the ancient era with hardly any difficulty. They have the same defense as middle ages units and an offense factor that is not serriously rivaled till the advent of calvery.

Hell, if the game lasts long enough I find myself deploying them even in the more modern eras. By the time the end game is nearing, I find myself with a huge army of elite legions. I use them to garrison towns and to pick off single enemy units (even higher tech ones) for the chance to spawn yet annother great leader.

[YefeiPi]

I'll take German Panzers over Chinese Riders anyday!!!

That's IF you ever make it to the panzers when my Chinese riders put the misery out of your civ.

[squeeze truck]

Dai Nippon Teikoku!!

I usually play Japan. For a couple of reasons:

1. The Samurai. Easily the a$$-kickingest unit before the industrial age.
4 attack (same as longbowmen), 4 defense (same as musketman), and the ability to withdraw.
If you play Japan you always have India and China as neighbors. All three get their special units at the same time (Chivalry). The samurai is easily better than elephants or riders. It takes about 4-5 elephants or riders to take down one samurai, especially because with the militaristic attribute the samurai are usually elite after being attacked twice.
Chinese bazashi. Yum! (bazashi = raw horse meat)

Also, a whole lotta love went into the Samurai unit animation.

2. If you play 12 civs, the Japanese are RED! The Chinese are pink. I can't play a pink civ.

3. Militaristic and Religious isn't a bad combination. Somehow if I don't play Japan I never get a leader because I can't keep elite units around ling enough.
Elite samurai never die, I only loose them when they're healing in cities that revert due to culture.

[cassembler]

So greeks get cheap libraries and universities do they? Good luck staying alive long enough to get universities while you have a competent roman player actively trying to crush you.

bring it on!!!


Once the Roman "offensive" fails miserably, not only will the Greeks have lost a minimal (if any) part of their territory, but they will start swallowing up cities with culture and will be significantly ahead in science.

Of course, it all depends on the players... Either side has a chance, though I think the Greeks are geared more towards mid to late game expantion and the Romans' window is almost always open.

[mharmless]

Fortified hoplite in a city less than size seven on a plains will beat an equal rank legion 57.85% of the time. Decent odds, true. But a legion will have the same odds of beating your swordsman when the legion is fortified on open ground (to starve your cities). The true power of the legion is that it combines the defense of the hoplite with the offense of a swordsman, for the same price as just building a swordsman. The best offensive and defensive infantry of the era, rolled up into one unit. A situation that never repeats itself.

The legions can take any peice of ground, possibly at some cost, true. But they don't need to. You can't protect your entire road network. Once the legions have you on the defensive, relying on hoplites, its already over. The roman player can keep expanding, and keep putting pressure on the greek player to keep them bottled up nicely. The greek player hasn't got that option, because their best offensive unit (assumeing they still have iron) will lose against a legion on both offense and on defense, more often than not. True, they can bring along hoplites with the swordsmen. But faced with an equal number of just legions, the legions will defeat the stack no matter who attacks first.

In a *** for tat war of attrition in the ancient era, the roman player will gain ground, against any Civ. The opponent will end up on the defensive, there is nothing they can do about it untill the advent of knights or the longbow.


Now, all of the above assumes roughly equal skill on the part of the players. If the greek player is better at manageing a war, uses superior tactics, and suprises the roman player, then the greek player will of course win. If the roman player has the edge in skill, then the decimation of the greek player will be all the swifter.

[chocoballs]

Babylon Baby!



For some reason, i've always been able to make great use of the 2-2-1 Bowman. go figure



i'm big on the religious guys cuz i can switch govs to suit the purpose.

but a super close second would be English. Unlike most, I actually like using the man-o-war.

[dexters]

Wow. This post got five stars :P

who doles out the ratings? :-D

[Aurel]

best civ

my favourite civilization? bavarians!
why? there is no known protection against their ultimate unique bio-weapon: yellow alcohol...
every year in the late summer their capital is attacked by warriors of dozens of civilizations but every time they suffer a painful defeate.