Useless Civs

[Comrade Tribune]

Are there Civs that are positively useless as they stand? I would define a Civ as 'positively useless', if it is bettered by at least one other Civ in (more or less) every respect.

Example: I think there is a case for considering the English (Civ -not real life!) useless. Why play the English if you can play the Romans? Mil-Com is better than Exp-Com, the Legion is clearly more useful than the MoW. Even worse, the English abilities and UU don´t fit: On Pangaea, Exp is good, but MoW is useless. On Archipelago, MoW may be somewhat useful, but Exp is irrelevant. There is no perfect world for the English, but nearly every world type (except Archipelago, perhaps) is good for the Romans.

Is there ANY reason at all to prefer the English to the Romans? If not, they are clearly outclassed, and therefore useless. Other similar examples?

[Lord Merciless]

People may want to play the most 'useless' civ as a challenge?

[One_Brow]

I would think that the English have an advantage on huge Archipelago maps with 60% water.

[Comrade Tribune]

You are right; thinking along that line, large/continents/60% water might also do. Still, the problem with their UU remains: It is obsolete in no time. Before you can build a large fleet of MoW, the first Ironclads will show up, no?

I think the English, with their enormous Victorian Empire, should be one of the best Civs, but in the game they are really one of the worst.

[sabrewolf]

expansionist is only good on large and huge maps. on the same maps, commercial is one of the better ones too (less corruption when many cities are built).

for "normal" games (e.g. standard size) both traits lose their power and on smaller maps they are completely useless.

however: the UU is imho totally useless. not much more powerful than normal frigates, comes late and only a few turns before the ironclad. even on archipelagio-maps there isn't a lot of naval warfare... civ3 and it's AI just isn't made for that...

i usually play english in scenarios (e.g. WW2) or if i feel like playing a harder game without having to play deity...

[Nuclear Winter]

Another useless civ is the Zulu. What is the use of a spearman with 2 mov if he won´t be attacking anyway?

[One_Brow]

Originally posted by Nuclear Winter
Another useless civ is the Zulu. What is the use of a spearman with 2 mov if he won´t be attacking anyway?

Send in one or two with a horseman stack to absord counter-attacks from opposing archers/swordmen.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Nuclear Winter
Another useless civ is the Zulu. What is the use of a spearman with 2 mov if he won´t be attacking anyway?

a) great for escorting a bunch of horsemen
b) great for early game pillaging in multiplaying

[Homunculus]

I'd think the english UU should really be the LONGBOWMAN. the longbow was a typically english weapon and used by no other civ.
with PTW i think longbowman (as English UU) should be 5.2.1 and normal unit crossbowman 4.1.1 (or 3.2.1, but thats the swordman..)

Judging "useless" from which countries i play with (side note, i usually play large or huge earth maps with correct starting locs)

-babylon
-persia (thats because of my playing style)
-greece (i dunno, but i never played em..)
-zululand
-Japan (island too small)
-England (see Japan)

I have yet to form my oppinion on the PtW civs..

[siredgar]

There are no useless civs! They can all be used. If you don't want one, replace it with one you want by going to the CivEditor.

[orange]

expansionist also gets you an early settler from a hut about 33% of the time, friendly huts throughout, and you can gain a good look at the map to sell once you reach other tribes and have researched map making.

Expansionist is good...but what I always need is Industrious...Industrious and anything and I'm set.

[HAND]

If being a commercial civ (English) allowed you to build marketplaces and banks quicker then it would be one of the best!

[Ribannah]

Well, it does (less corruption).
In fact it allows you to build EVERYTHING faster.

[Beren]

Originally posted by Homunculus
I'd think the english UU should really be the LONGBOWMAN. the longbow was a typically english weapon and used by no other civ.
with PTW i think longbowman (as English UU) should be 5.2.1 and normal unit crossbowman 4.1.1 (or 3.2.1, but thats the swordman..)

Nice scheme, but normally a UU only gets on bonus point (making him 5/1/1 or 4/2/1) and besides the crossbow was used a long time ago in China (I don't know when) and used in Europe by the 11th century, while longbows started to appear at earliest at the end of the 13th century. I think there's a gap.
More importantly, I don't think the English golden age was the Hundred Year War (neither the time of MoW, I think of ninteenth century England: it was unequalled at that time.)

[The Pioneer]

It's a funny thing that all through the years I've played with the same few civs. I usually play Greeks, Americans and the Germans. I've experimented very little with other civs but I will try some when I get PTW next. I really do not care for the traits, I use most the same strategy for all my civs. Now don't you call me boring

So long...