The best CIV in CIV5.

Mine is Russia. I like building stuff. Siberian Riches are the best perk for the expansive style of play. Maximizing further the production rate, I was able to build any wonders in 6 turns. In my last game, I ended up building literally all wonders, except one or two early ones, I was having 240 gold/per turn at the middle of the game, easily going upto 500 gold/turn during Golden Ages. Late at the game I was having 900 gold/turn during Golden Age. And I was having Golden Ages every 8 turns. And I was building almost every building in every city. I conquered a whole continent for my self. But I had so much money so I was buying buildings in conquered cities boosting all my culture and faith parameters to max.

By year 1992, I was able to choose between science, diplomatic or cultural victory. it was all the same for me. I just became jack of all trades empire.

And thanks to double Uranium quantity, it´s easy to nuke an entire nation at the end of the game as a goodbye. :D

Siberian Riches

Strategic Resources provide +1 Production, and Horse, Iron and Uranium Resources provide double quantity

Building Krepost 

• +15 experience for all units built in this city
• Reduces  cost of buying new tiles by 25%

 I was eyeing other civilizations, and all of them look quite weak compared to Russia.

Russia, Rome and Egypt. Mainly because I like Expansion + Culture victory the most and its quite easy with these 3. Need to go outside of my comfort zone at some point though. Rome has 25% faster production to all cities providing the capital has the building. and the Legion unit is amazing... more roads, strong fighters, quick to make... great for defending my empires. Egypt Purely for the Wonder construction bonus if I intend to wonder farm.MBirdy88

The Glory of Rome:

+25%  Production towards any buildings that already exist in the Capital

Damn. Romam Empire is OP too. Gonna try them as well.

I'm a big fan of Venice at the moment.
They require very different strategies than the other civilisations, since you're basically playing as a city state without any control over your conquered cities...but they more than make up for it with awesome money-making abilities (I was earning multiple thousand gold per turn in my previous playthrough) and some fun late-game power-plays.

Their power is Serenissima:

• Cannot gain settlers nor annex cities
• Double the normal number of trade routes available
• A Merchant of Venice appears after researching Optics
• May purchase in puppeted cities

The Merchants of Venice get twice as much money and influence from making trade missions with city-states, and can outright convert city-states instantaneously (at no cost) without any negative repurcussions. So they're great towards the end of the game, where you can instantly turn an enemy-aligned city-state into a friendly airport and unit-producing location in a single turn.

My favorites

Domination: Mongolia - Spam keshiks and you will see how mongolia conquered half of the earth in reality

Cultural: France- that bonus in the capital makes culture victory really easy

Diplomatic:Greece - Unique Ability + Patronage, for a 1000 gold you can befriend a city state for a thousand years

Science:Babylon - I can't keep track on how many great scientist I generated. the best feeling is launching that rocket before other civilization even finish reinassance 

As for BNW civs the only one I played is poland and I like its social policy per era advancement

Mine is Russia. I like building stuff. Siberian Riches are the best perk for the expansive style of play. Maximizing further the production rate, I was able to build any wonders in 6 turns. In my last game, I ended up building literally all wonders, except one or two early ones, I was having 240 gold/per turn at the middle of the game, easily going upto 500 gold/turn during Golden Ages. Late at the game I was having 900 gold/turn during Golden Age. And I was having Golden Ages every 8 turns. And I was building almost every building in every city. I conquered a whole continent for my self. But I had so much money so I was buying buildings in conquered cities boosting all my culture and faith parameters to max.

By year 1992, I was able to choose between science, diplomatic or cultural victory. it was all the same for me. I just became jack of all trades empire.

And thanks to double Uranium quantity, it´s easy to nuke an entire nation at the end of the game as a goodbye. :D

 

Siberian Riches

Strategic Resources provide +1 Production, and Horse, Iron and Uranium Resources provide double quantity

Building Krepost 

• +15 experience for all units built in this city
• Reduces  cost of buying new tiles by 25%

 I was eyeing other civilizations, and all of them look quite weak compared to Russia.

 

jhonMalcovich

I've been enjoying Rome quite a bit.

Arabia is broken if you know how to fast expand. Once you build your trade routes and develop gold mines across the map, your gold income becomes ridiculous. You can buy armies. You can bribe city-states to go to war with you. I usually get all city-states to befriend me by sending them endless money. Rssia is a really well rounded civilization and good early to mid game, but I think Arabia will smash the late game with their infinite money supply.SKaREO

[QUOTE="SKaREO"]Arabia is broken if you know how to fast expand. Once you build your trade routes and develop gold mines across the map, your gold income becomes ridiculous. You can buy armies. You can bribe city-states to go to war with you. I usually get all city-states to befriend me by sending them endless money. Rssia is a really well rounded civilization and good early to mid game, but I think Arabia will smash the late game with their infinite money supply.malatato

I roll pretty well with Babylon

Seems to be a good mix of muscle and brain with a lot of options for wealth

[QUOTE="malatato"]

[QUOTE="SKaREO"]Arabia is broken if you know how to fast expand. Once you build your trade routes and develop gold mines across the map, your gold income becomes ridiculous. You can buy armies. You can bribe city-states to go to war with you. I usually get all city-states to befriend me by sending them endless money. Rssia is a really well rounded civilization and good early to mid game, but I think Arabia will smash the late game with their infinite money supply.SKaREO

vanilla China's power is not in great generals but in chu ko nu's that attack twice and also gains experience in every attack that means double exp. Paper maker one of the most broken unique building ensures that you can fund all your military. truly one of the best civ in domination

[QUOTE="SKaREO"]Arabia is broken if you know how to fast expand. Once you build your trade routes and develop gold mines across the map, your gold income becomes ridiculous. You can buy armies. You can bribe city-states to go to war with you. I usually get all city-states to befriend me by sending them endless money. Rssia is a really well rounded civilization and good early to mid game, but I think Arabia will smash the late game with their infinite money supply.malatato

[QUOTE="SKaREO"][QUOTE="malatato"]Not as broken as vanilla china and venice. venice ai swims at 1000gpt at my last game in immortal

malatato

vanilla China's power is not in great generals but in chu ko nu's that attack twice and also gains experience in every attack that means double exp. Paper maker one of the most broken unique building ensures that you can fund all your military. truly one of the best civ in domination

China

Ranged unit that can attack twice in a turn?

Free generals all the time?

Paper Maker?

Yes please.

China

Ranged unit that can attack twice in a turn?

Free generals all the time?

Paper Maker?

Yes please.

Squeets

China

Ranged unit that can attack twice in a turn?

Free generals all the time?

Paper Maker?

Yes please.

Squeets

I did random my last game and they started me off as Korea, not impressed.Allicrombie

best science victory civ in the game :P

I'm playing a game as India right now. They seem pretty weak. Culture seems like it would be the way to go, but I really don't have a solid understanding of how that even works in BNW.PurpleMan5000

Culture output leads to more social policies.  Use these social policies to further define your desired play style.  If going for a culture victory, you need to focus on creating great people, which make great works like art and music, and that leads to tourism.  You need to have the dominant culture and highest tourism from all other civs to win

I'm playing a game as India right now. They seem pretty weak. Culture seems like it would be the way to go, but I really don't have a solid understanding of how that even works in BNW.PurpleMan5000

If you play India, then you don´t need to have more than 3 cities. With every additional city you will get 30% increase in culture costs for getting a next policy. 

never played a civ game should i play the others or are they not sequential

I imagine they have got progressively more accessible to new players, seems to be a trend

never played a civ game should i play the others or are they not sequential

I imagine they have got progressively more accessible to new players, seems to be a trend

gio-dude

None of them have any story campaign, so there's no sequential story that would be hard to understand playing them out of order. It's really a matter if which one has the game mechanics you like. Long time players of civ games all have their own favorite.

Civ 3 and Civ 5 are best for the conquest style play, conquering as much territory as possible. Civ 4 has the best diplomacy making it a better game if you like the more peaceful wins. Civ 5 has gotten much better at the peaceful wins with the two expansions, but many players still prefer Civ 4's deeper mechanics.

[QUOTE="Allicrombie"]I did random my last game and they started me off as Korea, not impressed.wis3boi

best science victory civ in the game :P

[QUOTE="PurpleMan5000"]I'm playing a game as India right now. They seem pretty weak. Culture seems like it would be the way to go, but I really don't have a solid understanding of how that even works in BNW.wis3boi

Culture output leads to more social policies.  Use these social policies to further define your desired play style.  If going for a culture victory, you need to focus on creating great people, which make great works like art and music, and that leads to tourism.  You need to have the dominant culture and highest tourism from all other civs to win

[QUOTE="wis3boi"]

[QUOTE="PurpleMan5000"]I'm playing a game as India right now. They seem pretty weak. Culture seems like it would be the way to go, but I really don't have a solid understanding of how that even works in BNW.PurpleMan5000

Culture output leads to more social policies.  Use these social policies to further define your desired play style.  If going for a culture victory, you need to focus on creating great people, which make great works like art and music, and that leads to tourism.  You need to have the dominant culture and highest tourism from all other civs to win

You need to have the dominant tourism over every single other civ in the game.  There's a new tourism menu that shows your influence on others.  Other leaders will converse with you and say they are "buying your jeans and listening to your pop music" when you're influencing them. 

Russia is my favorite but I like Prussia as well. Thier ability to convert Barbarians is very handy if you have a troublesome neighbour or two early on. Even more so if you enable 'raging barbarians' :)

[QUOTE="Allicrombie"]I did random my last game and they started me off as Korea, not impressed.wis3boi

best science victory civ in the game :P

Babylon beats all when it comes to science

It's actually a little unfair how quickly science gets off the ground if you play them.

Science then gets you clout with city states, better chances to develop, and a better army.

'MURICA!

I change based on mood.

Byzantine for the music. Korea for the art style. Rome for the history.

Sometimes I'll watch a documentary about a culture, and then go play that culture.

There's no civilization I haven't played, but some just feel boring to me.

According to Steam I've put in 550 hours on this game.

I like England when I play Archipelago maps for obvious reasons lol.

Playing as Venice for the first time right now, it is interesting but very fun so far :) Going for culture victory.

I enjoy Japan for military just because they fight at full strength even when wounded.

For some reason, I like Ethiopia. This is because their unique buildin, that replaces a monument, generates faith