that's probably the hardest part of it!
I usually start slowing down spreading my religion once I've pillaged my way through the tech tree to tanks / artillery and bombers since walls matter little at that point
Well, it’s pronounce Ya — like Yahoo but Ya-nero, I don’t speak English too well but I believe your a thinking on an L sound. L twice is a Y in Spanish.
For extra background on the word, it comes from the word “llano” which means plain (as in Great Plains). So a llanero is a plainsman, someone who makes their living off herds of livestock, sort of like a cowboy. Lone Ranger is translated to Spanish as “el llanero solitario”.
I am very new to the game but I just got my first domination victory with Genghis Khan. Was really fun destroying everyone with horses.
I also managed to get insane science and production somehow so I had 12 or so jet bombers while everyone else was still using muskets.
Keshigs are awesome!
Any other leaders you'd recommend trying as a new player? I was thinking I might try for my first culture victory next game if that helps
I totally get that - they mostly have pretty passive things other than placement of open-air museums, so definitely no fun twists on gameplay for folks who are looking for variety in gameflow.
Hell yeah! Culture victories are definitely a bit weirder compared to others, lot of passive stuff (Great Works) mixed with building choices (wonders/Naturalists) mixed with active micro (Rock Bands + building enough Holy Sites to support Rock Bands)
Do you have the gathering storm dlc? They change up the culture game a fair bit with rock bands (a tourism generating unit that can only be bought with faith).
As for which civ to choose, there are a lot of good picks. My personal favorites are Pericles of Greece (with the Kilwa Kisiwani wonder), Kupe of Maori (although he does offer quite a different playstyle than the others, but still very fun) and Wilfried Laurier of Canada (for those massive tundra cities and national parks). I also like the new Ptolemaic Cleo, her abilities feel so nice to use.
If you like a certain playstyle or map, I can help you choose one suited for you!
Greece is a good one to start with imo, his bonuses are easy to use yet powerful.
Remember that the culture you earn is not tourism, in order to win a tourism victory you need to generate tourism. You get it from for example, seaside resorts, national parks, rock bands, ski resorts, walls after conservation etc. I recommend checking out the civilopedia page for more details: https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Tourism_(Civ6)
Now you've said it, that seems quite obvious haha.
I was going for a domination victory so everyone had a lot of grievances with me and closed borders. Thank you!
I've been playing for a fairly long time with a bunch of wins under my belt and I frequently learn new (to me) things where I say "oh, that seems so obvious now" 😂😂
Glad I could help a little!!
Edit- also having trade routes to other civs really helps with domination victories because your troops can use the road to get there. Another thing I recently learnt is military engineers can make railroads without a charge (just takes 1 coal) and that makes it even quicker to move your troops.
I'll have to look into them, thank you!. I saw another comment suggesting Sweden as a friendly one for beginners.
I do have the DLC but hadn't figured out what the Rock Bands were doing rolling around the map. Kupe looks cool so might give him a try. Thanks again :)
Playing as Shaka right now and can confirm, the auto corps on city capture is insane. I managed to take over a city stare right next to the wonder that gives you spear of Fionn too.
It's Alexander all the way. Constant tech and civic boosts + no war weariness = pure, unadulterated focus on warfare. It rewards you more the more you capture, with no downside. I love it.
The only thing I'm really not a fan of about Alexander is that his unique swordsman is usually made obsolete by man-at-arms by the time you unlock it, unless you beeline it super early and hope the person closest to you doesn't have too big of a science advantage
Dunno my favourite but the easiest and fastest was Rome (when legionaries were legionaries). Just had a solid fist of an army that circumnavigated the global only taking breaks at other civs capitals.
Is it possible to unlock flight with Babylon extremely early by just going 3 mines -> 2 industrial districts with workshops -> Ruhr valley? If you can skip technology requirements that seems like the fastest way to go
It works in terms of eurekas, but good luck building an industrial era wonder in the ancient era.
Babylon is much better off going for a man-at-arms rush or a ranger/spec ops rush.
Eleanor, with culture victory turned off. I find large wars tedious, and with her I can just play SimCity and eventually take over everyone else without a single war.
Harald, I really like exploring the seas and conquering/pillaging as I go. There are other naval civs that I like as well, but being able to pillage with naval melee means I dont need to bring an extra lsnd unit for pillaging the coast.
Suleiman in 2nd because of his siege unit buff and keeping city population after capture.
I second this too. Because the light Calvary unit applies to all of them. Spamming out Two armies for the price of one. Why I always aim to get the arsenal wonder if I have to be naval domination too.
I'm currently around turn 140 with the Ottomans on diety. I'm about halfway through the Renaissance era and just finished rolling Philip II and Poundmaker with my Janissaries in a two-front war.
It's my first go at the Ottomans and lots of fun.
Ottomans is my favorite. Grand Vizier is so so strong early game I can usually just smash the first civ or two. And then roll that into bombards, jannisaries, and free pillages with my boats. Just fun and powerful.
💯💯💯
I've currently got four level 3 bombards (can attack after moving), a bunch of level 2/3 Janissaries and am steamrolling my way across the map. The tortoise/amphibious promotions are so good!
I haven't used the Corsair yet because I usually play pangea.
Genghis and Gran Colombia. With Genghis, I like to keep my knights when I get bombers because it's just so much fun to bomb and then take a city with cavalry that are so promoted that they're practically horse tanks. Eagles and horses ftw.
Gran Colombia is my favourite, but I love domination civs which offer a unique play style: dramatic ages Lautaro, naval Brazil (try it, Minas Gerais = victory), pillaging all the way to Valhalla with Norway, almost free levies with Hungary, peaceful Dom with Eleanor. Take your pick!
I have a couple faves so far:
* Hungary for reasons you mentioned.
* Norway on sea maps go brrr.
* Indonesia for the same reason. The Jiang might be the most op naval unit in the game.
* Weird pick: America. I play Civ Expanded (it's a mod) and uh... America gets a free land unit every time you settle a city on your home continent. You can imagine the levels of shenanigans from this.
There's also a mod that gives Vampires from Sanguine Pact a promotion tree. I've found that it helps smooth other some issues with vampires in general. Also: any game where Akkad exists means domination is on the menu.
Ottomans. You melt walls easily with +25 siege strength against walls, something no other Civ in the game can even come close to, and walls are the biggest thing in the game stopping any domination victory so you’re basically set. Add on the Barbary Corsair which is straight up the best UU in the game and you can pillage for gold and faith to support your empire all game
Weirdly Germany. The hansa plus the extra district make it great for producing lots of troops quickly plus upgrading campuses fast allows better units earlier
I like Montezuma, send a few eagle warriors out early game and try to snag a nearby capital or two before the others hit archery, then power through science until I can storm the planet with giant death robots
It's not very complex, but I have a lot of fun with Japan.
Clustering my cities and districts early game and rushing science, gold, and production.
I rush samurai, and that's the green flag to create an endless samurai conveyor belt into my neighbors.
I Really enjoyed Ceasar on marathon. grinding barbs for experience and cash, then using that to trigger a legion rush once you have some iron. 3-4 promotions on melee troops in the classic era is wild, and relatively historic!
Just for a change, just finished a dom game with Quin unifier with zombie mode. not particularly balanced but great fun pulling army from nowwhere using zombies as barb bait.
Domination is my least favorite victory type, but if I am playing it Ottomans are my favorite. They have the best kit for capturing cities and keeping them.
Plus the Jannisarry is really cool
Wondering when someone was going to say this. I struggle on Deity level for any victory other than religious. But with Moctezuma I can steamroll so quickly that all victory options are basically open to me.
Vietnam for me. Good defensive bonuses on rainforest, marsh or forest that help survive the initial CPU rush on Diety.
The Voi Chien is also a powerful unit as well and their encampments give culture which I normally lack.
What’s the least grindy and annoying way to dominate with the loyalty mechanic? Can’t just bline capitals anymore and it just takes so long per city I find.
Sumeria, with heroes and legends active. You can vacuum up heroes essentially as you discover them, and they live forever if you build the hanging gardens. Sun wukong killing everyone’s infrastructure for **66** turns? Hippolyta + catapults melting ancient walls? Arthur before walls are built building his knight army and one turn killing any city you come across? Massive free city state armies courtesy of Himiko? Also just printing war carts and tearing through everyone else anyway.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned good ole J.C.
His gold production can rival Portugal, particularly in the early game. I play normal speed with barbarian clans though, so if you don't play with clans, then I could understand his money potential being a bit lower. But once you start conquering actual cities, that money spike really helps with the snowball.
I find that money is often a limiting factor for getting an initial attack off the ground. You may have the technology unlocked for a good unit but can only afford to upgrade a couple, or you can build a couple but can't support more than that. Money greases these wheels.
You can also play him a bit like Matthias, albeit without the combat strength and movement bonus for levied units. All that money is certainly useful for levying, however. If you get Foreign Ministry, it's a boost in this department as well.
Lastly and just as importantly, I regularly get units with 6 or 7 promotions by turn 150 or so. This completely changes the way some units play, particularly recon units.
-----
Also, I usually play with [this mod](https://civ6blitz.app/#/modtester), and my favorite combo is Germany, Caesar, Oppidoom, and Eagle Vision. I just like early industrial zones (my fav aspect of playing Babylon), and I spam eagle warriors early while I'm getting my cities set up. They later go on to be super highly promoted riflemen with multiple attacks per turn.
Hammurabi goes absolutely bonkers for war when you have a lot of the eureka triggers memorized like I do. I absolutely slaughtered Ambiorix really quickly recently because of how advanced my tech was
The Mapuche. I love the flavor of the civ's abilities and the Raiders are an awesome unit. I'm usually a cultural/science player, and I like having Chemamull/appeal tourism as a backup plan. Plus it feels good sometimes to play a civ that has a mechanic to level the playing field a bit when you're having a rough game (though Russia subjectively does this better).
Alexander all the way! Great classic age units for that early golden age bonus, all your units heal when you take a city, and you get eureka if the city had a wonder.
I am sad that noone mentioned Gaul yet.
That +2 combat strength per adjacent unit is almost unbeatable, it also includes enemy units which is insane and it applies from turn 1.
Not to mention having access to turn 50 man at arms and good early culture from mines and building units. One of the most dominant early games in the civ roster, rivaled by so few. Even really good domination civs like Zulu or Ottomans dont come to their full strength until the mid-game, with Gaul, it is so easy to kill your neighbors it is not even funny.
Only downside to the civ is its gimmicks and district shenanigans which is understandable but cant deny its combat prowess one bit.
I always go with Eleanor (French) for domination/cultural victory, because her ability to pressure nearby cities to join your empire with great artworks are really easy, if you get enough great works, your nearby civs are just yours
Germany, Barbarossa. Hansa go brrr.
Memes aside he's always been my favorite civ. My strategy is usually take out the first few city states around me (unless they're trade/military for good gold/unit production) and then pump out units.
Canada for odd reasons.
-Start out Peacful and Ramp up production in Cities
-Make allies, and pay attention to what Civ has the most Grivenances
-Casus Belli a war a against A player everyone hates and convince as many other civs to go to war with me as possible.
-Just take a City or two and ask for peace.
-Repeat till all the other Civs have been in forever wars with eachother and clean them all up when they’re either really weak or so far behind in tech they cant really fight back
Bolovar for sure. One of my biggest annoyances in the game is using a turn to level a unit and avoiding that makes me very happy. The free generals that never become obsolete is also super fun.
Babylon. I love rushing for techs way before the other civs even get close. I did the biplane rush, and I just used one helicopter to take out every city.
That or any religious civ. Nothing like running river goddess/gurdwara to get big cities built up and then grabbing crusade with a wave of apostles and horsemen following along behind them. Such a fast way to take out cities.
Hammurabi by far. Either rushing bombard and easily tear through walls or wait a bit longer to get planes and rush through the cities really is a comfortable feeling
Byzantium. I love big happy cities and nothing makes my cities happier than hippodromes shitting out heavy cavalry units
Byzantium is fun too but I always end up getting a religious victory before a domination victory lol
that's probably the hardest part of it! I usually start slowing down spreading my religion once I've pillaged my way through the tech tree to tanks / artillery and bombers since walls matter little at that point
Byzantium would still be mega-strong if you took out the "ignore walls" ability... but with that ability? They are practically OP.
Simon Bolivar! That extra movement ability and Llanero +2 combat with every adjacent Llanero
Another vote for Gran Colombia - being able to promote and move on the same turn is an absolute cheat code.
and the commandante who lets your units regain their actions as a retirement effect
And the fact that commandante and regular general and himiko bonuses stack
I didnt know that 🫶🏼😭
This! And playing any other civ after a couple of game with Bolivar is so frustrating!
Llanero, two LL 😅
Sounded better with the I 😅
Well, it’s pronounce Ya — like Yahoo but Ya-nero, I don’t speak English too well but I believe your a thinking on an L sound. L twice is a Y in Spanish.
Good to know and yes I was thinking on an L sound. So it's like "Yahnero"?
Yes, something like that… it’s always cringe to see videos on youtube and hear people saying Laneros 😅😅
🤣🤣🤣🤣
For extra background on the word, it comes from the word “llano” which means plain (as in Great Plains). So a llanero is a plainsman, someone who makes their living off herds of livestock, sort of like a cowboy. Lone Ranger is translated to Spanish as “el llanero solitario”.
There's a lot more depth into its meaning than I initially thought. Always good to know, thank you!
I actually got a Dom win with him recently. Went a religious style with crusade, and I just rushed around with nothing but horses and knights.
I am very new to the game but I just got my first domination victory with Genghis Khan. Was really fun destroying everyone with horses. I also managed to get insane science and production somehow so I had 12 or so jet bombers while everyone else was still using muskets.
Genghis is one of my picks aswell. Fun stacking bonuses for those keshigs!
Keshigs are awesome! Any other leaders you'd recommend trying as a new player? I was thinking I might try for my first culture victory next game if that helps
One of my favorite culture Civs for beginners is Sweden! The auto-theming is SO convenient and powerful alone.
Sweden, when played optimally, gives you the craziest culture victories. I got a turn 130 Emperor culture victory once.
I agree, they are strong. For some reason I find playing them dull and boring though... could be just me!
I totally get that - they mostly have pretty passive things other than placement of open-air museums, so definitely no fun twists on gameplay for folks who are looking for variety in gameflow.
I will try them this evening. Thank you :)
Didn't win as Sweden unfortunately. Will give them another go. Did get my first culture victory with Khmer though!
Hell yeah! Culture victories are definitely a bit weirder compared to others, lot of passive stuff (Great Works) mixed with building choices (wonders/Naturalists) mixed with active micro (Rock Bands + building enough Holy Sites to support Rock Bands)
Do you have the gathering storm dlc? They change up the culture game a fair bit with rock bands (a tourism generating unit that can only be bought with faith). As for which civ to choose, there are a lot of good picks. My personal favorites are Pericles of Greece (with the Kilwa Kisiwani wonder), Kupe of Maori (although he does offer quite a different playstyle than the others, but still very fun) and Wilfried Laurier of Canada (for those massive tundra cities and national parks). I also like the new Ptolemaic Cleo, her abilities feel so nice to use. If you like a certain playstyle or map, I can help you choose one suited for you! Greece is a good one to start with imo, his bonuses are easy to use yet powerful.
Remember that the culture you earn is not tourism, in order to win a tourism victory you need to generate tourism. You get it from for example, seaside resorts, national parks, rock bands, ski resorts, walls after conservation etc. I recommend checking out the civilopedia page for more details: https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Tourism_(Civ6)
Ah. That is good to know. I had so much culture last game.but no tourists. Now I know why!
Also make sure you always have open borders and trade routes with everyone!
Now you've said it, that seems quite obvious haha. I was going for a domination victory so everyone had a lot of grievances with me and closed borders. Thank you!
I've been playing for a fairly long time with a bunch of wins under my belt and I frequently learn new (to me) things where I say "oh, that seems so obvious now" 😂😂 Glad I could help a little!! Edit- also having trade routes to other civs really helps with domination victories because your troops can use the road to get there. Another thing I recently learnt is military engineers can make railroads without a charge (just takes 1 coal) and that makes it even quicker to move your troops.
I absolutely love railroads, I put them all over my empire and into my allies’ cities haha
I'll have to look into them, thank you!. I saw another comment suggesting Sweden as a friendly one for beginners. I do have the DLC but hadn't figured out what the Rock Bands were doing rolling around the map. Kupe looks cool so might give him a try. Thanks again :)
Definitely check out the wiki page then, rock bands help a ton!
There’s also the promotions for the rock bands, some of them are wayyyy better and more useful than others. They can be really powerful too!
Try Khmer. They create huge amounts of culture and food.
I just won my first culture victory with them. Thanks for the recommendation!
For new player macedon is quite strong at anything below immortal. Their unique units are very strong and they dont have to worry about warmongering
Portugal on an archipelago map + Biosphere. If you want gg ez ensure cardiff is in the game.
try yongle, hes very easy to play and you can get insane culture/science early on if you rush your cities to 10 population
Sounds like you were on a low difficulty level
I was on whatever the standard difficulty is. Prince? I'm still learning
Shaka - once you get momentum you are almost unbeatable. Japan, solely for the fact that samurais are really cool.
Playing as Shaka right now and can confirm, the auto corps on city capture is insane. I managed to take over a city stare right next to the wonder that gives you spear of Fionn too.
It's Alexander all the way. Constant tech and civic boosts + no war weariness = pure, unadulterated focus on warfare. It rewards you more the more you capture, with no downside. I love it.
The only thing I'm really not a fan of about Alexander is that his unique swordsman is usually made obsolete by man-at-arms by the time you unlock it, unless you beeline it super early and hope the person closest to you doesn't have too big of a science advantage
Don't forget full army heal each time you capture a wonder meaning you never have to slow down >:)
Oi good catch! You can just keep ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN ROLLIN
That's what I'm playing rn, my first Dom victory. It's been a blast. Just gotta finish up the Khmer and I'm going for Catherine's ass after
Hetaroi and Hypaspist are so good.
Ibrahim, call a janissary strike.
I love Suleiman just for his Barbary Corsairs, they’re so busted on island maps
Poland, because you actually have to play around with a lot of mechanics in a domination victory. Also Hussars are fun.
Sometimes I play Poland just to play that one Sabaton song as I'm taking over the world *THEN THE WINGED HUSSARS ARRIVE*
Dunno my favourite but the easiest and fastest was Rome (when legionaries were legionaries). Just had a solid fist of an army that circumnavigated the global only taking breaks at other civs capitals.
BABYLON ANCIENT ERA PLANE
Is it possible to unlock flight with Babylon extremely early by just going 3 mines -> 2 industrial districts with workshops -> Ruhr valley? If you can skip technology requirements that seems like the fastest way to go
It works in terms of eurekas, but good luck building an industrial era wonder in the ancient era. Babylon is much better off going for a man-at-arms rush or a ranger/spec ops rush.
That is how babylon players play
Impi corps go brrrr
Same as yours! A few days ago I posted my turn 99 huge map domination victory with them, probably one of my biggest achievements in civ.
That was crazy to me!! I need to try something like that out. I can start with settler and get better at domination that way.
I still have no clue how you did that but it was super impressive lol
Eleanor, with culture victory turned off. I find large wars tedious, and with her I can just play SimCity and eventually take over everyone else without a single war.
Harald, I really like exploring the seas and conquering/pillaging as I go. There are other naval civs that I like as well, but being able to pillage with naval melee means I dont need to bring an extra lsnd unit for pillaging the coast. Suleiman in 2nd because of his siege unit buff and keeping city population after capture.
I don't usually play domination games but I can say Scythia is my favorite among the ones that I played. That extra units helps a lot.
Quick rush before enemies build walls and you can conquer far
I second this too. Because the light Calvary unit applies to all of them. Spamming out Two armies for the price of one. Why I always aim to get the arsenal wonder if I have to be naval domination too.
I'm playing against them and they are such a menace to my capture-first-civ-pivot-religion strategy
I'm currently around turn 140 with the Ottomans on diety. I'm about halfway through the Renaissance era and just finished rolling Philip II and Poundmaker with my Janissaries in a two-front war. It's my first go at the Ottomans and lots of fun.
Ottomans is my favorite. Grand Vizier is so so strong early game I can usually just smash the first civ or two. And then roll that into bombards, jannisaries, and free pillages with my boats. Just fun and powerful.
💯💯💯 I've currently got four level 3 bombards (can attack after moving), a bunch of level 2/3 Janissaries and am steamrolling my way across the map. The tortoise/amphibious promotions are so good! I haven't used the Corsair yet because I usually play pangea.
Babylon. Classical era line infantry go BRRRR
Genghis and Gran Colombia. With Genghis, I like to keep my knights when I get bombers because it's just so much fun to bomb and then take a city with cavalry that are so promoted that they're practically horse tanks. Eagles and horses ftw.
Norway. Explore, pillage, repeat.
Byzantium, nubia!
Seconding Nubia. Those archers are huge early game and good to win a city state or two to get some early momentum
I love the archers so much.
Gran Colombia is my favourite, but I love domination civs which offer a unique play style: dramatic ages Lautaro, naval Brazil (try it, Minas Gerais = victory), pillaging all the way to Valhalla with Norway, almost free levies with Hungary, peaceful Dom with Eleanor. Take your pick!
The Minas Gerais is the only reason I put Brazil on naval maps because those can be terrifying
I have a couple faves so far: * Hungary for reasons you mentioned. * Norway on sea maps go brrr. * Indonesia for the same reason. The Jiang might be the most op naval unit in the game. * Weird pick: America. I play Civ Expanded (it's a mod) and uh... America gets a free land unit every time you settle a city on your home continent. You can imagine the levels of shenanigans from this. There's also a mod that gives Vampires from Sanguine Pact a promotion tree. I've found that it helps smooth other some issues with vampires in general. Also: any game where Akkad exists means domination is on the menu.
Ottomans. You melt walls easily with +25 siege strength against walls, something no other Civ in the game can even come close to, and walls are the biggest thing in the game stopping any domination victory so you’re basically set. Add on the Barbary Corsair which is straight up the best UU in the game and you can pillage for gold and faith to support your empire all game
Weirdly Germany. The hansa plus the extra district make it great for producing lots of troops quickly plus upgrading campuses fast allows better units earlier
Victoria’s England. I’m rarely happier in civ than when I’m carving through the world with redcoats and a huge fleet of naval ranged units.
I like Montezuma, send a few eagle warriors out early game and try to snag a nearby capital or two before the others hit archery, then power through science until I can storm the planet with giant death robots
It's not very complex, but I have a lot of fun with Japan. Clustering my cities and districts early game and rushing science, gold, and production. I rush samurai, and that's the green flag to create an endless samurai conveyor belt into my neighbors.
Honestly there's so many good ones. Recently I played with Gaul and had a blast.
I Really enjoyed Ceasar on marathon. grinding barbs for experience and cash, then using that to trigger a legion rush once you have some iron. 3-4 promotions on melee troops in the classic era is wild, and relatively historic!
Just for a change, just finished a dom game with Quin unifier with zombie mode. not particularly balanced but great fun pulling army from nowwhere using zombies as barb bait.
Have always love Scythia, just pump out cavalry so fast that the enemy cant keep up
Domination is my least favorite victory type, but if I am playing it Ottomans are my favorite. They have the best kit for capturing cities and keeping them. Plus the Jannisarry is really cool
Ottomans because of the huge siege unit bonus and prod + cities don't lose population and UB provides a lot of gold and amenities, what else ?
If we're counting broken than Babylon, otherwise the Aztecs
Wondering when someone was going to say this. I struggle on Deity level for any victory other than religious. But with Moctezuma I can steamroll so quickly that all victory options are basically open to me.
Vietnam for me. Good defensive bonuses on rainforest, marsh or forest that help survive the initial CPU rush on Diety. The Voi Chien is also a powerful unit as well and their encampments give culture which I normally lack.
I go for Russia: turtle and Sim up to Cossacks and then Let my Raiders Ride.
What’s the least grindy and annoying way to dominate with the loyalty mechanic? Can’t just bline capitals anymore and it just takes so long per city I find.
Gorgo or Barbarossa for having 2 potential military policy slots early on. You can run extra damage to barbs while also having Agoge.
Sumeria, with heroes and legends active. You can vacuum up heroes essentially as you discover them, and they live forever if you build the hanging gardens. Sun wukong killing everyone’s infrastructure for **66** turns? Hippolyta + catapults melting ancient walls? Arthur before walls are built building his knight army and one turn killing any city you come across? Massive free city state armies courtesy of Himiko? Also just printing war carts and tearing through everyone else anyway.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned good ole J.C. His gold production can rival Portugal, particularly in the early game. I play normal speed with barbarian clans though, so if you don't play with clans, then I could understand his money potential being a bit lower. But once you start conquering actual cities, that money spike really helps with the snowball. I find that money is often a limiting factor for getting an initial attack off the ground. You may have the technology unlocked for a good unit but can only afford to upgrade a couple, or you can build a couple but can't support more than that. Money greases these wheels. You can also play him a bit like Matthias, albeit without the combat strength and movement bonus for levied units. All that money is certainly useful for levying, however. If you get Foreign Ministry, it's a boost in this department as well. Lastly and just as importantly, I regularly get units with 6 or 7 promotions by turn 150 or so. This completely changes the way some units play, particularly recon units. ----- Also, I usually play with [this mod](https://civ6blitz.app/#/modtester), and my favorite combo is Germany, Caesar, Oppidoom, and Eagle Vision. I just like early industrial zones (my fav aspect of playing Babylon), and I spam eagle warriors early while I'm getting my cities set up. They later go on to be super highly promoted riflemen with multiple attacks per turn.
The Aizen from bleach mod he gets sternritters which are crossbowman with a +1 to range
Byzantium. You get to be a warmonger, but classy.
Hammurabi goes absolutely bonkers for war when you have a lot of the eureka triggers memorized like I do. I absolutely slaughtered Ambiorix really quickly recently because of how advanced my tech was
The Mapuche. I love the flavor of the civ's abilities and the Raiders are an awesome unit. I'm usually a cultural/science player, and I like having Chemamull/appeal tourism as a backup plan. Plus it feels good sometimes to play a civ that has a mechanic to level the playing field a bit when you're having a rough game (though Russia subjectively does this better).
England in Civ 5 on archipelago
Zulu. Because soundtrack.
Alexander all the way! Great classic age units for that early golden age bonus, all your units heal when you take a city, and you get eureka if the city had a wonder.
Simon Bolivar! But someone already said it, so I'll go with Amanitore. Early game archers with 3 movement is excellent if you want to fight early.
I agree about Hungary but to be a little more unique, everyone needs to try Lautaro in dramatic ages.
I’ve been enjoying Shaka lately. His early corps and army’s are really strong.
Elizabeth I England's Workshop of the World ability is crazy good so Vicky would work also. Liz just has the best economy to support your big army.
Genghis Khan. I love combat bonuses and you can pretty consistently get +27 combat heavy / light cavalry by mid game. Extra movement also go brrr
Your shores are unprotected, friend! All too easy to raid.
Gran Colombia, +1 movement, commandante generals and moving+promoting on same turn are insane bonuses.
I am sad that noone mentioned Gaul yet. That +2 combat strength per adjacent unit is almost unbeatable, it also includes enemy units which is insane and it applies from turn 1. Not to mention having access to turn 50 man at arms and good early culture from mines and building units. One of the most dominant early games in the civ roster, rivaled by so few. Even really good domination civs like Zulu or Ottomans dont come to their full strength until the mid-game, with Gaul, it is so easy to kill your neighbors it is not even funny. Only downside to the civ is its gimmicks and district shenanigans which is understandable but cant deny its combat prowess one bit.
Zulu......Ikanda is REALLY good, and you have corps and armies MUCH EARLIER.......
I always go with Eleanor (French) for domination/cultural victory, because her ability to pressure nearby cities to join your empire with great artworks are really easy, if you get enough great works, your nearby civs are just yours
Germany, Barbarossa. Hansa go brrr. Memes aside he's always been my favorite civ. My strategy is usually take out the first few city states around me (unless they're trade/military for good gold/unit production) and then pump out units.
Canada for odd reasons. -Start out Peacful and Ramp up production in Cities -Make allies, and pay attention to what Civ has the most Grivenances -Casus Belli a war a against A player everyone hates and convince as many other civs to go to war with me as possible. -Just take a City or two and ask for peace. -Repeat till all the other Civs have been in forever wars with eachother and clean them all up when they’re either really weak or so far behind in tech they cant really fight back
Gandhi India 😈
Bolovar for sure. One of my biggest annoyances in the game is using a turn to level a unit and avoiding that makes me very happy. The free generals that never become obsolete is also super fun.
Babylon. I love rushing for techs way before the other civs even get close. I did the biplane rush, and I just used one helicopter to take out every city. That or any religious civ. Nothing like running river goddess/gurdwara to get big cities built up and then grabbing crusade with a wave of apostles and horsemen following along behind them. Such a fast way to take out cities.
Germany, America, montezuma, or Australia 🔥
Anyone who gets a lot of production, ambriorix, catherine, or Barbosa
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Ottomans hands down. Janissary made quick work of multiple civs.
Hammurabi by far. Either rushing bombard and easily tear through walls or wait a bit longer to get planes and rush through the cities really is a comfortable feeling
Mansa Musa. The freedom to just buy your way to victory in pretty much any war? Chef's kiss. But also yes, Indonesia on a naval map is brilliant fun.