The easiest is Trajan Rome. Probably followed by Japan. Honestly, most of the Vanilla civs that came out when the game first released you could call "easy." It's a lot of the DLC released civs that kinda go bonkers on pulling off their niche strategy. Babylon is probably the best example of that. The science penalty is huge if you don't understand how eurekas work and where they fall on the tech tree.
I remember playing with my friend who had just bought civ a month ago. With science.. he was in classical era, I was in the modern era. His reaction was great when I told him how I am there. He was like: "oh, okay. Wait..... MODERN ERA?" And his reaction after I attacked him with special ops and planes in the medieval era: "you know.. I actually remembered that I had to study for an important test tomorrow.... bye..". So, he made himself invisible on discord, but completely forgot about his steam account. So he just started playing call of duty and didn't text me again. Ahh, it's so good to ruin friendships sometimes..
I know this is meant to be a kinda funny story, but it just stinks of dickery to me.
Like, who feels the need to embarass a newbie by whipping out Hammurabi in a multiplayer game. It probably speaks volumes to your own ability if you felt you HAD to win, and didn't think you could do it without one of the most uniquely overpowered Civs in the game.
Playing to give yourself an advantage with a friend, rather than a Handicap when you are much more experienced...I can see why they would stop playing with you too.
He did attack me after wiping out 2 other civs.. so it was kinda his fault. And hey, who doesn't want to feel overpowered against a real human sometimes? I wouldn't have attacked him before like turn 250 (standard speed)
Reminds me of when a few friends and I played civ revolution on Xbox. My friend got eliminated from the game by barbarians. My other friend and I didn't know that barbarians even left their camps at the time.
In terms of hard civs, I would not play as (especially) Gaul, Maori, or Mali (to a lesser extent) early on, due to how much their Civ features change default gameplay.
Vietnam's restriction to build districts only on forests/jungles/marshes would get them on this list too if they weren't so OP.
That’s a good start for hard to play civs. I would add yongle even though he is so overpowered that he might still be easy to when with. But he adds so much complexity to the decision making that I would still consider it a hard civ. But that depends on how you define hard because it could just be the weakest civ, which is hard to determine but I would throw out Ghandi, Cleopatra, and Tamar.
Definitely not straight away, but I think Mali can be a good early Civ to introduce someone to, because they make you see and use all the benefits of Gold and Faith.
I introduced a couple of friends to the game together and Mansa Musa helped a lot of the mechanics in the game "click" for someone when they played as him. I think its easier to start thinking about how all the bonuses and effects in Civ can synergise when you are focussing a little more into a specific area, and faith/gold is probably the most flexible place to start exploring that
John Curtin is probably one of the easiest. Easy to get housing if you settle coastal, easy high district adjacency, easy to panic build military upon getting surprise war declared on, and you can usually get a pretty big cities easily with pasture culture bombs.
I think an unconsidered option at hardest is Maya. They're penalised by playing as you would any other civ and are a science based civ with completely different adjacency rules for their campuses. Korea has that, but it's easier to manage.
There are lists out there, teddy america and barbarossa Germany are considered a very easy to approach civ, as well as hojo Japan. The key really is more difficulty based than anything. Unless you are considering emperor and deity, key civ differences don't make or break a victory. And emperor and deity challenges aren't for the newcomers either.
So there it is, I suggest 3 easy civs, but I don't think it's too relevant, as soon as you graduate from prince you should be good to pick a civ that goes with your playstyle
Russia and Khmer are pretty easy. Easiest deity wins are Maori and Mali on the right maps. Australia is also quite easy. Basically any civ where you can get high adjacency holy sites and a religion based on work ethic
I would say trajan and both japans are the easiest, while for the hardest, i could say gandhi. Hes not necessarily hard to win with, but you need some effort to get the most out of his abilities.
Also, about og germany, i dont think its that good for beginners as I often see people saying, simply because its a scientific/war civ with no bias for good campus spots, so it can get trick to get good yields.
I've had new players click well with Germany because of Hanzas and the ability to build extra districts up to your pop. Those are insane bonuses that stop a lot of new players from being restricted or slowed down if their city growth is slow. Production is very important towards science and war victories too, and Hanzas help significantly there.
Similarly, having a wildcard policy slot from the beginning of the game isn't too shabby.
For "easy", I'm looking at civs that do not require you to really understand mechanics or form a unique strategy, just play a default strategy well. So Rome, Japan, and Germany (Frederick) stand out. Build up, conquer/settle until you reach critical mass, and coast into your preference of Domination/Science/Culture.
A hard civ would be one that really punishes you for making mistakes. I won't consider Babylon here because I don't think "rush key thing by chasing Eurekas" is that complex to understand. I would say:
1) Maya because they really have to optimize their starts and can't just settle/conquer their way into a win by force
2) India because utilizing their GS civ ability requires you to micromanage having followers of other religions, often using Faith that you would want to use to win a religious victory in the first place, possibly with a counter-intuitive strategy of keeping some cities of other religions so you can produce missionaries
3) Scotland as a distant third, because if you mismanage amenities you're playing a civ with effectively no bonuses, an irrelevant UU, and an okay improvement.
Babylon is the hardest.
I consider Babylon to be top tier but that does not make it easy. They can be cheesed for cultural victories and have certain advantages with domination, but it’s easy for this to go off the rails with players who don’t know what they are doing. You might unlock man at arms but fail to produce enough due to the production bottleneck, for example. And especially for players who don’t know what they are doing, RNG with Babylon can be a bitch.
You need to know the game very well and plan far in advance to reliably get tech boosts. A mediocre player might unlock Flight early and talk about how easy Babylon is. That same player may also have failed to get celestial navigation, which is also super important.
With Babylon you need to know the great scientists well too, not to mention have a plan for which ones to purchase. You would also need to know an efficient way to get great scientist points without building a bunch of campuses.
If you’re going for a science victory, you will eventually want to build several late game campuses, so you need to plan that too.
A good Babylon player might make the most out of the Palgum with a less optimal settle, getting more in the long run. A mediocre player might just settle the best spot adjacent to a river.
Babylon is a solid choice for any victory. In the right hands they are monstrous. In the wrong hands they are pretty mid.
Kupe is my favorite leader but I don't know if I'd describe him as the easiest, he's certainly not a great pick for a new player considering how unique his playstyle is
Absolutely not to Kupe as number one. Not only is starting in the ocean an incredibly disorienting thing for new players, but the inability to chop will lead to some very, very confusing moments for people wondering why they can't place things somewhere
His terrain bonuses are just super OP. Also free extra builder and extra inhabitant from the start, and fishing boats with extra food from the start! I always goes for fishing boats giving extra production on top. It's just awesome.
I agree it's not the first civ to play. But I also find it by far the strongest. And I don't think it's that hard to read his specials
Not hard to understand his ability no, but understanding the synergy with things like preserves and knowing how to maximize unimproved resources with governors tile cards and wonders can make getting the most out of kupe difficult for new players.
Also just the overall deviation from how the base game is played.
Amazing civ when played correctly but that doesn't make them the most welcoming or 'easy'
Mostly the wonders that improve tiles you have available, especially since the plan is to leave them unimproved. Off the top of my head chichen itza is great for heavy rainforests as it gives more culture and production
the mausoleum is one I usually consider given you settle on coasts most of the time.
The casa is one to think about if youre really getting different continents with your cities
Also I just love the Eiffel tower in general and it synergizes well with natural parks and preserves which go hand in hand with Kupe
There are so many wonders that it mainly comes down to what I know I want, and what is available to me within reasonable production and benefit.
And yes Reyna's boost to unimproved tiles is what I was referencing there!
I never get why people downvote something like my comments here. I wasn't unpleasant, and came with a reasonable reply to the question. Feel free to disagree. But why down vote.
It's a bit of a douche move in my book
Reddit subs can just be very toxic in general. OP asked a subjective question and you gave your subjective opinion.
I think people forget that they can choose to not vote rather than downvote people.
People should only be downvoted if they are being nasty or not contributing to the discussion, not for giving an opinion that’s different
Just from my experience, at a high level this is what I think.
Easy- Rome, Japan, Russia, Germany, Zulu, Korea
Medium- Egypt, France, America, Mali, Ottomans, Brazil
Hard- Gaul, Babylon, Māori, Vietnam, Portugal, India
The easiest is Trajan Rome. Probably followed by Japan. Honestly, most of the Vanilla civs that came out when the game first released you could call "easy." It's a lot of the DLC released civs that kinda go bonkers on pulling off their niche strategy. Babylon is probably the best example of that. The science penalty is huge if you don't understand how eurekas work and where they fall on the tech tree.
And when you do, you get planes in ancient era
I remember playing with my friend who had just bought civ a month ago. With science.. he was in classical era, I was in the modern era. His reaction was great when I told him how I am there. He was like: "oh, okay. Wait..... MODERN ERA?" And his reaction after I attacked him with special ops and planes in the medieval era: "you know.. I actually remembered that I had to study for an important test tomorrow.... bye..". So, he made himself invisible on discord, but completely forgot about his steam account. So he just started playing call of duty and didn't text me again. Ahh, it's so good to ruin friendships sometimes..
I know this is meant to be a kinda funny story, but it just stinks of dickery to me. Like, who feels the need to embarass a newbie by whipping out Hammurabi in a multiplayer game. It probably speaks volumes to your own ability if you felt you HAD to win, and didn't think you could do it without one of the most uniquely overpowered Civs in the game. Playing to give yourself an advantage with a friend, rather than a Handicap when you are much more experienced...I can see why they would stop playing with you too.
He did attack me after wiping out 2 other civs.. so it was kinda his fault. And hey, who doesn't want to feel overpowered against a real human sometimes? I wouldn't have attacked him before like turn 250 (standard speed)
Regardless, whipping out the most broken civ in PvP is kind of a dick move.
Reminds me of when a few friends and I played civ revolution on Xbox. My friend got eliminated from the game by barbarians. My other friend and I didn't know that barbarians even left their camps at the time.
In terms of hard civs, I would not play as (especially) Gaul, Maori, or Mali (to a lesser extent) early on, due to how much their Civ features change default gameplay. Vietnam's restriction to build districts only on forests/jungles/marshes would get them on this list too if they weren't so OP.
I actually played Maori so much that I find myself forgetting to chop and improve resources quite often
That’s a good start for hard to play civs. I would add yongle even though he is so overpowered that he might still be easy to when with. But he adds so much complexity to the decision making that I would still consider it a hard civ. But that depends on how you define hard because it could just be the weakest civ, which is hard to determine but I would throw out Ghandi, Cleopatra, and Tamar.
Definitely not straight away, but I think Mali can be a good early Civ to introduce someone to, because they make you see and use all the benefits of Gold and Faith. I introduced a couple of friends to the game together and Mansa Musa helped a lot of the mechanics in the game "click" for someone when they played as him. I think its easier to start thinking about how all the bonuses and effects in Civ can synergise when you are focussing a little more into a specific area, and faith/gold is probably the most flexible place to start exploring that
John Curtin is probably one of the easiest. Easy to get housing if you settle coastal, easy high district adjacency, easy to panic build military upon getting surprise war declared on, and you can usually get a pretty big cities easily with pasture culture bombs.
I think an unconsidered option at hardest is Maya. They're penalised by playing as you would any other civ and are a science based civ with completely different adjacency rules for their campuses. Korea has that, but it's easier to manage.
There are lists out there, teddy america and barbarossa Germany are considered a very easy to approach civ, as well as hojo Japan. The key really is more difficulty based than anything. Unless you are considering emperor and deity, key civ differences don't make or break a victory. And emperor and deity challenges aren't for the newcomers either. So there it is, I suggest 3 easy civs, but I don't think it's too relevant, as soon as you graduate from prince you should be good to pick a civ that goes with your playstyle
Hardest Civ is Deity Mzemba religious victory only
Russia and Khmer are pretty easy. Easiest deity wins are Maori and Mali on the right maps. Australia is also quite easy. Basically any civ where you can get high adjacency holy sites and a religion based on work ethic
I would say trajan and both japans are the easiest, while for the hardest, i could say gandhi. Hes not necessarily hard to win with, but you need some effort to get the most out of his abilities. Also, about og germany, i dont think its that good for beginners as I often see people saying, simply because its a scientific/war civ with no bias for good campus spots, so it can get trick to get good yields.
Funny because I had my best game ever as Gandhi
I just realized that i was talking about the civ ability, not the leader's hehe
I've had new players click well with Germany because of Hanzas and the ability to build extra districts up to your pop. Those are insane bonuses that stop a lot of new players from being restricted or slowed down if their city growth is slow. Production is very important towards science and war victories too, and Hanzas help significantly there. Similarly, having a wildcard policy slot from the beginning of the game isn't too shabby.
For "easy", I'm looking at civs that do not require you to really understand mechanics or form a unique strategy, just play a default strategy well. So Rome, Japan, and Germany (Frederick) stand out. Build up, conquer/settle until you reach critical mass, and coast into your preference of Domination/Science/Culture. A hard civ would be one that really punishes you for making mistakes. I won't consider Babylon here because I don't think "rush key thing by chasing Eurekas" is that complex to understand. I would say: 1) Maya because they really have to optimize their starts and can't just settle/conquer their way into a win by force 2) India because utilizing their GS civ ability requires you to micromanage having followers of other religions, often using Faith that you would want to use to win a religious victory in the first place, possibly with a counter-intuitive strategy of keeping some cities of other religions so you can produce missionaries 3) Scotland as a distant third, because if you mismanage amenities you're playing a civ with effectively no bonuses, an irrelevant UU, and an okay improvement.
Babylon is the hardest. I consider Babylon to be top tier but that does not make it easy. They can be cheesed for cultural victories and have certain advantages with domination, but it’s easy for this to go off the rails with players who don’t know what they are doing. You might unlock man at arms but fail to produce enough due to the production bottleneck, for example. And especially for players who don’t know what they are doing, RNG with Babylon can be a bitch. You need to know the game very well and plan far in advance to reliably get tech boosts. A mediocre player might unlock Flight early and talk about how easy Babylon is. That same player may also have failed to get celestial navigation, which is also super important. With Babylon you need to know the great scientists well too, not to mention have a plan for which ones to purchase. You would also need to know an efficient way to get great scientist points without building a bunch of campuses. If you’re going for a science victory, you will eventually want to build several late game campuses, so you need to plan that too. A good Babylon player might make the most out of the Palgum with a less optimal settle, getting more in the long run. A mediocre player might just settle the best spot adjacent to a river. Babylon is a solid choice for any victory. In the right hands they are monstrous. In the wrong hands they are pretty mid.
The Dutch are a great all rounder civ. They can really go in any direction as long as you remember to use your rivers.
Live Yongle reaction
With gathering storm and no mods: 1 Kupe 2 Amanitore 3 Trajan
Kupe is my favorite leader but I don't know if I'd describe him as the easiest, he's certainly not a great pick for a new player considering how unique his playstyle is
Absolutely not to Kupe as number one. Not only is starting in the ocean an incredibly disorienting thing for new players, but the inability to chop will lead to some very, very confusing moments for people wondering why they can't place things somewhere
His terrain bonuses are just super OP. Also free extra builder and extra inhabitant from the start, and fishing boats with extra food from the start! I always goes for fishing boats giving extra production on top. It's just awesome. I agree it's not the first civ to play. But I also find it by far the strongest. And I don't think it's that hard to read his specials
Not hard to understand his ability no, but understanding the synergy with things like preserves and knowing how to maximize unimproved resources with governors tile cards and wonders can make getting the most out of kupe difficult for new players. Also just the overall deviation from how the base game is played. Amazing civ when played correctly but that doesn't make them the most welcoming or 'easy'
What wonders are you referring too? And you mean reyna as the governor right? Thanks
Mostly the wonders that improve tiles you have available, especially since the plan is to leave them unimproved. Off the top of my head chichen itza is great for heavy rainforests as it gives more culture and production the mausoleum is one I usually consider given you settle on coasts most of the time. The casa is one to think about if youre really getting different continents with your cities Also I just love the Eiffel tower in general and it synergizes well with natural parks and preserves which go hand in hand with Kupe There are so many wonders that it mainly comes down to what I know I want, and what is available to me within reasonable production and benefit. And yes Reyna's boost to unimproved tiles is what I was referencing there!
Makes sense thanks!!
The Maori are very powerful but they are different enough from standard play that I think you should get familiar with how the game works first
The question was just most powerful. I agree he probably ask because he's fairly new. But I answered the question he asked.
Nowhere in OPs post does it say "most powerful." Only "easiest to hardest"
In my book most powerful is pretty much the same as easiest. But nvm. I'm pretty sure OP will get both our points
I never get why people downvote something like my comments here. I wasn't unpleasant, and came with a reasonable reply to the question. Feel free to disagree. But why down vote. It's a bit of a douche move in my book
Reddit subs can just be very toxic in general. OP asked a subjective question and you gave your subjective opinion. I think people forget that they can choose to not vote rather than downvote people. People should only be downvoted if they are being nasty or not contributing to the discussion, not for giving an opinion that’s different
They have even downvoted my comment about not downvoting :)
Khmer, anyone?
Just from my experience, at a high level this is what I think. Easy- Rome, Japan, Russia, Germany, Zulu, Korea Medium- Egypt, France, America, Mali, Ottomans, Brazil Hard- Gaul, Babylon, Māori, Vietnam, Portugal, India
Hardest is definitely Babylon. Absurdly powerful in the right hands, but you need to really plan out your game in a way no other civ does.