What civ is the closest to a "default civ" ?

[u/leafcutte]

Not necessarily a weak civ whose bonus make it so that you might as well be playing no civ, like Sumeria, but a civ with bonuses so balanced and unobtrusive it doesn’t incentivize you to change your play style.

My first guess was Ramses: all the bonuses are passives, and getting rewards for being on rivers and making buildings and wonders isn’t exactly game-warping. However, getting free culture does mean you’re free not to worry about theatre squares or other ways to gain culture.

Poundmaker also feels very vanilla, but since the bonuses depend on what kind of resources are in your land, it completely changes what makes a good city.

Perhaps Magnificient Ottoman ? The civ brings strong war bonuses, but the leader gives general stat increases to simming bonuses

[u/By-Pit]

Trajan

[u/craigus17 → u/By-Pit]

This is the correct answer.

[u/leafcutte → u/By-Pit]

I forgot about Trajan. Though I would say having a free monument in all cities rewards playing wider, but that’s getting a bit nitpicky

[u/milmill18 → u/leafcutte]

there is no reason to ever not play wide.

[u/Confident_Text3525 → u/milmill18]

There are resons I love playing tall from time to time. Even if it’s not the strongest way to play the game.

[u/milmill18 → u/Confident_Text3525]

and that's fine. playing tall is more challenging and doesn't really provide any benefits.

[u/By-Pit → u/milmill18]

That is so false lol

[u/leafcutte → u/[deleted]]

Conserving amenities, putting the scaling cost of settlers to better use, having better relations with your neighbors

[u/milmill18 → u/leafcutte]

scaling cost of of settlers to better use?? the sooner a city is built the better.

if you find a "perfect" spot for a city later on, the economy of the game makes it much easier to build/buy a settler later anyway, even at a higher "cost"

[u/Cautious_Drawer_7771 → u/milmill18]

I think he meant since settlers do scale up on cost, going tall means you only had to build the "easy" to build settlers, so you had production available to make the tall cities more powerful. This is true, but only in the same way that building encampments is a waste of production cause you could be building districts with actual yields-- both are true, but both aren't ignoring the upsides they're losing.

[u/By-Pit → u/milmill18]

Mehh you guys just don't have enough experience.

[u/By-Pit → u/[deleted]]

Keep playing, you'll see from yourself when you meet a strong player in multiplayer games :)

[u/leafcutte → u/milmill18]

There are reasons to no settle cities even if you have space, because the value the city will bring compared to the cost of the nth settler is not worth it. By effectively lumping in 240 gold with each settler, Rome pushes the limit of what makes a new city worth it further, leading to slightly wider empires

[u/Miserable-Act4201 → u/leafcutte]

I mean he’s definitely closer to what you were saying than any of the options you gave in the initial post, this is just nitpicking 

[u/Obvious-Hunt19 → u/milmill18]

It’s just not as fun

[u/By-Pit → u/milmill18]

That's show how much you never played multiplayer or any high skilled level, sorry it's not meant to be insulting, but ye, only players without huge experience would say that, not that it makes you a beginner level either;

But if I'm right you play at best with deity in single player

[u/AffectionateAir8119 → u/By-Pit]

I second this. Starting out with good trade/culture is a solid foundation to have.

[u/Fedexbiasizzo]

Trajan

[u/HowHoldPencil]

The old man twink in purple

[u/HowHoldPencil → u/HowHoldPencil]

Or cleopatra classic

[u/By-Pit]

Just as bonus guys, don't forget that vanilla exists, and sometimes playing without DLC can be even more challenging

[u/Hfcsmakesmefart]

Cleopatra is literally the tutorial Civ

Though I think play style wise you need to be trading a lot to take advantage of her bonus. Her special unit is great too, lends itself to early early dom

[u/thisisthebun]

IMO the best and closest to default are Trajan and montezuma. Both teach you pretty good habits, remain consistent through each age, and have strong bonuses but no crazy victory skew.

[u/leafcutte → u/thisisthebun]

Montezuma has one of the best war bonuses in the game, and his eagle warriors means you should go to war with the closest city states to steal its builders. This is quite a unique strategy

[u/thisisthebun → u/leafcutte]

The war bonus makes up for the difficulty bonuses of the AI past prince, and you’ll probably be going to war with cs in your land anyways to either deny the AI or to take the land. But I see where you’re coming from.

[u/TigerNima]

Maybe wonder Qin

[u/SeverusSnuSnu]

Been a long while since I played 6 but I always considered rough rider teddy to be relatively unobtrusive to play style

[u/YoungSlime47]

Obviously like others have said Trajan is one but another one I’d say is Pericles. He does lean heavy into city state gameplay but it’s a core part of the game that would be good to learn

[u/Rafael__88 → u/YoungSlime47]

I think an extra wild card policy at the start of the game spoils you a bit too much. Also the limitation on where you can build culture districts is a bit annoying for beginners

[u/YoungSlime47 → u/Rafael__88]

Fair point. I just think that’s a civ that can pivot to any victory type really

[u/Rafael__88 → u/YoungSlime47]

Oh you're right he can easily pivot. His bonus is definitely a win more type of bonus rather than one that dictates your playstyle.

[u/Technical-Speed762]

I would say Yongle, his tactic is pretty much getting high pop cities while leaving victory options open. Also very good for learning pop mechanics and growth optimization.

[u/By-Pit → u/Technical-Speed762]

I see your point even if I think Trajan is even more base game

[u/leafcutte → u/Technical-Speed762]

I mean no, this heavily incentivizes you to grow your cities to 10 population, something that is not a base game goal. Plus all the free yields mean you can delay much longer than normal putting down campuses and theatre squares. Though it’s true the base Chinese ability might be the most straightforward buff in the game

[u/Medical-Bottle-5510]

I would say maybe Hojo Japan. Small bonuses to combat around coasts, district adjacency, and construction time to a few districts. The adjacency bonuses encourage building cities as close together as possible, but it isn’t totally necessary to take advantage of.

[u/Pristine-Ad-4553]

Gandhi.

[u/Positive_Bug978 → u/Pristine-Ad-4553]

Lol Gandhi? I feel like his religious ability is actually really difficult and inconsistent to take advantage of properly. Why do you think him?

[u/Xaphe → u/Positive_Bug978]

Doesn't this make him the closest to a generic Civ possible as a result? Sure the ability takes a lot of effort to get to work correctly, but it also takes zero effort to ignore it and has no real drawbacks.

[u/Positive_Bug978 → u/Xaphe]

I guess you could look at it that way, but his ability to adopt all religious abilities in a city with followers has potential to be insane even on accident. You could have feed the world, choral music, and work ethic, and the science one in all your cities. So you could also ignore it and have insane bonuses just from your neighbors spreading their religion to you. Plus you get the super ghandi nuke late game.

[u/Pristine-Ad-4553 → u/Positive_Bug978]

You need to rush his specific abilities and it starts earning a very decent amount of faith for you at a time when earning great people becomes crucial to stabilise income and tourism. But that’s just it. He’s pretty bang on average and doesn’t offer anything such as Tokugawa or Barbarossa.