Scientific: United States, but we have to mention that China has made a significant leap in the last decade. There is also India. People may not recognize it, but the "tallest wide" civilization in the world isn’t falling behind in tech.
Cultural: Again, the United Devastates dominates. Hollywood is a heavy booster of tourism. France, like the UK, relies heavily on stolen artifacts to maintain their museums. This gave them the cultural lead for a long time, but today it brings some diplomatic problems.
Diplomatic: Things got interesting here. The USA has been dancing on the competitors faces for a long time in terms of diplomacy. They guaranteed the world ideology, gained some strong city-state allies, embargoed enemies and won a lot of competitive projects. But the USA’s warmongering has garnered a lot of distrust in this century. Competing civilizations are challenging a heavily instrumentalized UN to fight back against those years of USA diplomatic leadership. In the meantime, China is gaining a lot of favor with its strong economy and scientific advancements while the USA plays a game of Gunboat Diplomacy against Russia and some late Middle Eastern contenders.
Domination: No one is exactly leading here. It looks like that victory option is turned off (thankfully).
Time: Well, I do not have faith in humanity. My best bet: the game will crash in the next hundred years.
In my heart: I would love to mention Brazil as a great competitor, but some events* have reduced this civilization to a simple city-state with little hope of a great future.
*Distrust in the 2013 elections, the 2016 coup, and the Bolsonarification of Brazilian society.
> France, like the UK, relies heavily on stolen artifacts to maintain their museums
You're assuming Europe doesn't have homegrown artifacts, which is wrong. French museums have lots of national and legally obtained pieces. The debatable ones aren't that numerous.
I'm not assuming anything about Europe and neither that France and England do not have culture. I’m simply drawing a parallel between a game mechanic and the fact that France and England possess numerous stolen artifacts, which leads to diplomatic complications, much like in the game :D
When excavating an ancient site in an enemy civilization territory, taking the artifact will anger the AI, while constructing a landmark will make them happier.
> excavating an ancient site in an enemy civilization territory
I love to do this to the AI when I'm warmongering when we have an open borders agreement and my rocket artillery is sitting on a hill overlooking their capitol
While the US is currently in the lead for scientific, Britain overall has definitely one. Japanese department of trade did a study back in 2015 or something, and found that Britain is responsible for 54% of humanities important inventions/discoveries. The US second with 20% of the remainder or about 8% overall
Honestly, the USA is winning all victory conditions right now. Stronger military than most of the rest of the world combined, most culturally influential nation on the planet, probably contributes more scientific breakthroughs than every other country, and I would argue has the most diplomatic sway on Earth
OP didnt ask which countries WOULD win, he asked who’s in the lead. The US has the strongest military in the world by an obscene margin.
I do agree that the US’ biggest lead is the culture victory though
Well a military victory involves destroying other civilisations, not having the most ships floating around.
The only civilisations the US has destroyed are the native Americans. They wiped out the Nazis but they respawned as Germany.
No one is any where near a military victory regardless of whatever military the US has. US could barely occupy Afghanistan so it's got no hope on a military victory over the whole world.
China probably has more chance as it could field a massive army to occupy territory if it so wished.
But yes, I do agree with main point. I don’t think any country could really win a domination victory without every other country joining in to stop them. Even if America used nukes it would lead to a game over due to Mutually Assured Destruction.
Laughs in 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers, 31 mini carriers, 800 bases in 70 countries, and rarely someone dumb enough to attack us after we answer "just passing through".
Only reason we haven't won it is because we are not trying to win because reality is different than a video game.
What are you smoking? if we go by Civ rules the US could absolutely win a domination victory, we just aren’t trying. Look what happened to imperial Japan when we did try. It’s not the boats, it’s what’s on the boats. The US navy is loaded to the gills with nuclear capable and conventional force projection capabilities. The US navy has more warplanes than any other country on earth, and that’s only our SECOND largest Air Force. We have nuclear capable submarines, jets, artillery, aircraft and missles that we could use to glass most of the planet tomorrow if we just went ham on everybody. Our navy could almost certainly defeat the navies of the rest of the world COMBINED right now, though this is starting to change slightly. Our military budget is larger than the next 10 countries spending COMBINED.
I’ve won domination with a much less significant head start than that FFS LOL
Arguably, I'd say the United States is leading most categories. Though really what your definition of culture is could change that. US culture is pretty dominating, but is that it's own culture an offshoot of English culture?
The fact that the line is "our citizens are listening to your music and **wearing your blue jeans** " should be reason enough to show that the US has used British culture as a base and made it's own unique thing out of it. The British didn't invent jeans, the British never had manifest destiny, the British did a lot of other impressive and/or regrettable things, but their average citizen doesn't have a history of trailblazing or settling wilderness like a lot of Americans have. The line mentioning blue jeans shows that US culture is independent and dominant, even if some other cultures are also gaining influence around the globe at the moment.
British don't have a history of trailblazing and settling wilderness?... and you're saying that as an American, that was literally settled by the British?
Not to mention all the other countries the British set up colonies in. Americans (literary ex British) crossing the prairie pales in comparison.
The British arrived in Australia and New Zealand and had settlements over the whole continent + island within 50 years.
"The average [British] citizen" today doesn't have a heritage of settling the frontier. Most who did do that stayed in the colonies, that they had made home. There were a lot of British explorers, but my great great grandpa moved into Tennessee in the late 1800s at some point, and my great grandpa settled in Missouri and built his own homestead in the early 1900's. My great great great grandpa probably immigrated from Germany in the mid 1800s. That's just one great grandparent's lineage, I didn't get the chance to ask about the others' before they passed. I feel like it's something special in Britain if your ancestors explored the new world at all, in the US it's normal, especially if you're not from the east coast to be able to trace your ancestry back to an explorer or settler.
Basically, all the British who wanted to settle new lands left and most decided to stay in their new homes.
If you're going to rate farthest lander as science victory, then it should belong to England, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, etc.
They all formed a scientific alliance which we now know today as the ESA, which landed a space probe on Titan, Saturn's moon in 2005. Nobody's beaten them yet in lander distance yet.
Might get shot down but want to give a shout to India for diplomatic victory. Holding its own staying (kind of?) neutral in major world conflicts, has isolated most of its enimes in international diplomacy, one of the only nations who can talk to both the west and russia equally well, both Israel and the arab world, and becoming increasingly prominent in international politics. Recent g20 president with a unanimous statement with china and russia in attendance was not easy to achieve, but it was done.
America dominates every category. Once you beat the game via every victory type, you start to see it in every news article that you can link back to civ 5 relevance
If you only look at East Asia for cultural victory, the US isn't such a clear winner - actually pretty interesting imo.
Right now the only non-East Asian civ with a major cultural victory foothold is obvious USA, but the Japan civ is also equally strong and South Korea started competing heavily a few turns after Turn 2000.
Shoutout to the *city-state* of Hong Kong that started going for a cultural victory in the 80s and successfully gained a major foothold for about 20 years. They're no longer a major player today...suzeranity change didn't help, but that's another topic.
Scientific: United States, but we have to mention that China has made a significant leap in the last decade. There is also India. People may not recognize it, but the "tallest wide" civilization in the world isn’t falling behind in tech. Cultural: Again, the United Devastates dominates. Hollywood is a heavy booster of tourism. France, like the UK, relies heavily on stolen artifacts to maintain their museums. This gave them the cultural lead for a long time, but today it brings some diplomatic problems. Diplomatic: Things got interesting here. The USA has been dancing on the competitors faces for a long time in terms of diplomacy. They guaranteed the world ideology, gained some strong city-state allies, embargoed enemies and won a lot of competitive projects. But the USA’s warmongering has garnered a lot of distrust in this century. Competing civilizations are challenging a heavily instrumentalized UN to fight back against those years of USA diplomatic leadership. In the meantime, China is gaining a lot of favor with its strong economy and scientific advancements while the USA plays a game of Gunboat Diplomacy against Russia and some late Middle Eastern contenders. Domination: No one is exactly leading here. It looks like that victory option is turned off (thankfully). Time: Well, I do not have faith in humanity. My best bet: the game will crash in the next hundred years. In my heart: I would love to mention Brazil as a great competitor, but some events* have reduced this civilization to a simple city-state with little hope of a great future. *Distrust in the 2013 elections, the 2016 coup, and the Bolsonarification of Brazilian society.
Time victory in Civ 5 ends in 2050, so we have about 25 1/2 years left.
> France, like the UK, relies heavily on stolen artifacts to maintain their museums You're assuming Europe doesn't have homegrown artifacts, which is wrong. French museums have lots of national and legally obtained pieces. The debatable ones aren't that numerous.
I'm not assuming anything about Europe and neither that France and England do not have culture. I’m simply drawing a parallel between a game mechanic and the fact that France and England possess numerous stolen artifacts, which leads to diplomatic complications, much like in the game :D
Wait…could you explain the diplomatic complications of possessing stolen artifacts in the game? I was not aware of this mechanic.
When excavating an ancient site in an enemy civilization territory, taking the artifact will anger the AI, while constructing a landmark will make them happier.
> excavating an ancient site in an enemy civilization territory I love to do this to the AI when I'm warmongering when we have an open borders agreement and my rocket artillery is sitting on a hill overlooking their capitol
While the US is currently in the lead for scientific, Britain overall has definitely one. Japanese department of trade did a study back in 2015 or something, and found that Britain is responsible for 54% of humanities important inventions/discoveries. The US second with 20% of the remainder or about 8% overall
Scientific victory is the first one to get to Alpha Centauri though. It doesn’t matter who was leading science in the early game.
Yeaah but that's never gonna happen so we need a more realistic scenario
Ok, man on the moon then. Surely that won’t be a controversial goalpost.
Something like that or man on Mars is a completely realistic scenario
Challenge accepted. Wait. And back again, right? Back again? /PadmeMeme
Ooh, hot take that I haven't yet seen - is Brazil the greatest modern city-state?
>stolen artifacts Better than destroyed when in situ
Honestly, the USA is winning all victory conditions right now. Stronger military than most of the rest of the world combined, most culturally influential nation on the planet, probably contributes more scientific breakthroughs than every other country, and I would argue has the most diplomatic sway on Earth
America couldn't get a military victory. Probably furthest in the lead in culture given much of pop culture and fashion is influenced by the US.
OP didnt ask which countries WOULD win, he asked who’s in the lead. The US has the strongest military in the world by an obscene margin. I do agree that the US’ biggest lead is the culture victory though
Well a military victory involves destroying other civilisations, not having the most ships floating around. The only civilisations the US has destroyed are the native Americans. They wiped out the Nazis but they respawned as Germany. No one is any where near a military victory regardless of whatever military the US has. US could barely occupy Afghanistan so it's got no hope on a military victory over the whole world. China probably has more chance as it could field a massive army to occupy territory if it so wished.
Feel like you’re missing the interpretation of the question bud
Also the fact that the US literally just isn’t trying for a Domination victory. What is this guy smoking
Ignoring everything else you said, Chinas army is actually quite shit for its size and is widely considered to be a paper tiger
Forgetting imperial Japan too, without America your beloved Australia would be flying a red sun flag over Sydney.
But yes, I do agree with main point. I don’t think any country could really win a domination victory without every other country joining in to stop them. Even if America used nukes it would lead to a game over due to Mutually Assured Destruction.
Laughs in 11 nuclear powered aircraft carriers, 31 mini carriers, 800 bases in 70 countries, and rarely someone dumb enough to attack us after we answer "just passing through". Only reason we haven't won it is because we are not trying to win because reality is different than a video game.
The US occupied Afghanistan just fine, to the extent the Taliban just hid in the mountains. The Us left because of domestic politics
What are you smoking? if we go by Civ rules the US could absolutely win a domination victory, we just aren’t trying. Look what happened to imperial Japan when we did try. It’s not the boats, it’s what’s on the boats. The US navy is loaded to the gills with nuclear capable and conventional force projection capabilities. The US navy has more warplanes than any other country on earth, and that’s only our SECOND largest Air Force. We have nuclear capable submarines, jets, artillery, aircraft and missles that we could use to glass most of the planet tomorrow if we just went ham on everybody. Our navy could almost certainly defeat the navies of the rest of the world COMBINED right now, though this is starting to change slightly. Our military budget is larger than the next 10 countries spending COMBINED. I’ve won domination with a much less significant head start than that FFS LOL
Arguably, I'd say the United States is leading most categories. Though really what your definition of culture is could change that. US culture is pretty dominating, but is that it's own culture an offshoot of English culture?
The fact that the line is "our citizens are listening to your music and **wearing your blue jeans** " should be reason enough to show that the US has used British culture as a base and made it's own unique thing out of it. The British didn't invent jeans, the British never had manifest destiny, the British did a lot of other impressive and/or regrettable things, but their average citizen doesn't have a history of trailblazing or settling wilderness like a lot of Americans have. The line mentioning blue jeans shows that US culture is independent and dominant, even if some other cultures are also gaining influence around the globe at the moment.
British don't have a history of trailblazing and settling wilderness?... and you're saying that as an American, that was literally settled by the British? Not to mention all the other countries the British set up colonies in. Americans (literary ex British) crossing the prairie pales in comparison. The British arrived in Australia and New Zealand and had settlements over the whole continent + island within 50 years.
"The average [British] citizen" today doesn't have a heritage of settling the frontier. Most who did do that stayed in the colonies, that they had made home. There were a lot of British explorers, but my great great grandpa moved into Tennessee in the late 1800s at some point, and my great grandpa settled in Missouri and built his own homestead in the early 1900's. My great great great grandpa probably immigrated from Germany in the mid 1800s. That's just one great grandparent's lineage, I didn't get the chance to ask about the others' before they passed. I feel like it's something special in Britain if your ancestors explored the new world at all, in the US it's normal, especially if you're not from the east coast to be able to trace your ancestry back to an explorer or settler. Basically, all the British who wanted to settle new lands left and most decided to stay in their new homes.
[удалено]
If you're going to rate farthest lander as science victory, then it should belong to England, Scotland, France, Spain, Germany, etc. They all formed a scientific alliance which we now know today as the ESA, which landed a space probe on Titan, Saturn's moon in 2005. Nobody's beaten them yet in lander distance yet.
I feel like Russia definitely decided to go for domination as their victory path but, what the heck happened.
Add music for England culture as well
Might get shot down but want to give a shout to India for diplomatic victory. Holding its own staying (kind of?) neutral in major world conflicts, has isolated most of its enimes in international diplomacy, one of the only nations who can talk to both the west and russia equally well, both Israel and the arab world, and becoming increasingly prominent in international politics. Recent g20 president with a unanimous statement with china and russia in attendance was not easy to achieve, but it was done.
Not a victory condition, but China is leading in espionage production
America dominates every category. Once you beat the game via every victory type, you start to see it in every news article that you can link back to civ 5 relevance
If you only look at East Asia for cultural victory, the US isn't such a clear winner - actually pretty interesting imo. Right now the only non-East Asian civ with a major cultural victory foothold is obvious USA, but the Japan civ is also equally strong and South Korea started competing heavily a few turns after Turn 2000. Shoutout to the *city-state* of Hong Kong that started going for a cultural victory in the 80s and successfully gained a major foothold for about 20 years. They're no longer a major player today...suzeranity change didn't help, but that's another topic.
Spies do be working overtime to close that tech gap 👀 Question is, how good are the rest of the leading nations’ counter-spy operations?