What Civ Traits are The Best?

EnderSword · November 5, 2001, 03:02

What Civ Traits Are the Best?

I Actually havn't tried it yet, just going to now But My tendancy tends to think Commercial and Industrious French are the logical option.

Commercial Improves trade in all your city squares while at the same time reducing corruption, which is huge 'cause in my last game I was losing 1500 gold per turn to corruption and had cities with courthouses that were still useless to me. Seems this is a high yield trait 'cause it helps you all game

Industrious improves production, seems like this is obviously useful, again for the whole game.

I like Those, the only other one I Would condier is Scientific 'cause it again helps all game and increases science output...but since Science is a product of taxes mostly you would be better served increasing commercial and getting the corruption bonus.
The only time i'd use This Trait is in conjunction with Commercial, which would increase science a lot.

Religious seems kinda dumb, helps build temples etc... no biggie there, and they eliminate period of anachy between governments...yippie you'll get to use that two or 3 times ever. Seems like a lame one

Expansionistic - Get a free scout and barbarian huts are nicer (how intangible is that?) The scouts are nice, but really only good in the very beginning to explore/round up huts. This trait gives you a quick jump, but doesn't lead to prolonged expansion or anything. Again ,seems like it's not enough to get given what you could have with other traits

Militaristic - Military improvements cheaper and units gain rank faster. Well, build sun Tzu's academy and the small wonder military academy and who cares? This trait should have had some bonus helping your military itself.

Maybe I'm missing a key angle or perspective or something, but this seems to Me that Industrious/Comerce and Scientific/Commerce are the only 2 real good choices

someone tell me otherwise

GNGSpam · November 5, 2001, 03:30

While I admit Science, Commercial, and Industrous are the better attributes (I myself am also a Commercial/Industrous French, sometimes Commercial/Scientific Greek), the other options do have benefits depending on your style.

Expansionist has a lot more value at higher levels with aggressive Barbarians. Friendly nearby huts can be a big boast early on, especially when normally youd get aggressive barbarians. The scout is also beneficial both in scouting out city locations early but also in making early contact with multiple civs, allowing you to sell communications, trade maps, and make tech trades early on.

Religious has benefits which seem to come out more as we delve deeper into the game.

I myself play the culture game, and use culture takeovers to my advantage heavily. Its actually a good tactic, put 2 cities near the border of another city, load them with culture to show off how great you are, and volia, culture takeover.

Temples before everyone else is actually a tangiable benefit. Not only do you extend your influence and secure the surrounding area earlier then normal, but your aquiring a big culture lead early on, which could yield some useful city conversitions before you hit the Industrial age.

Barry Brenesal · November 5, 2001, 03:55

Each trait works best for certain kinds of worlds, and specific playing strategies. None are better than the others, IMO.

@Endersword, religious civs keep your cities from rising in turmoil: grow larger, faster, and don't worry about paying for luxuries. And who can object to anarchy that lasts only a single turn, when you want to convert from a republic to a monarchy while swiftly going to a war footing?

The point is, all of the traits are deliberately scaled to have a very small effect which can be crucial in just a few instances. I've played Commercial, for instance, and you *won't* find a lack of corruption in those civs; nor does it give you tons of trade. It only improves things slightly.

EnderSword · November 5, 2001, 05:33

Does religious really make the people happier? I didn't see that in the description of it. I'll have to try it...'cause if that's the case then it would be essential

IBNobody · November 5, 2001, 20:02

Industrious only really boosts your worker rates. The production bonus doesn't show up until you have a city of size 7 or more, and even then, it's only a shield.

The worker bonus, though, is awesome.

One thing...Only cities started by industrious civs can produce these super workers. If you capture an enemy worker or force a captured city to produce workers, they work at the regular rate.

- Nobody

Lawrence of Arabia · November 5, 2001, 21:48

Industrious/ Expansionist are the best for me.

(1) The extra scout lets me find other nations and make strong diplomatic ties with them so I won't get gang banged by all 16 civs on the second turn. Also lets me scout out the best positions for my next cities

(2) Better stuff from barbairan huts translates into big tech lead or more units or more money or more cities etc

(3) Faster working worker means roads/mines at the beginning of the game are completed faster and infrastructure between cities is completed faster and resources are hooked up faster.

(4) Masonry is a great tech to get early on.

vovan · November 5, 2001, 23:19

Scientific + religious = the best (for me)

1. Science = I am always (ok, almost always) ahead in technology - others are afraid of me.
2. Religion = lots of culture (others can not build their villages on my territory).
3. Technology + culture = What could be better?

David Floyd · November 6, 2001, 01:28

Commerical Expansion, like the English...

Good commerce, free scout, good goody huts...very well rounded...only problem is I don't think the Man Of War is too useful although I haven't really used to much yet...my favorite unique units are the Aztec Jaguar (although I hate their unique attributes) and the German Panzer (and Militaristic/Scientific isn't a bad combo either).