Who will you play as first?

[Oaks]

With less than two weeks till early release, I'm starting to consider who to play as when I finally get my hands on the game. Right now I'm considering Rome / Normans / French Empire.

Rome seems like a good civ to learn the game with. Their abilities seems helpful while not pushing too much in one direction. They favor tall play, with some nice bonuses from having towns instead of cities.

Normans seem to be a nice defensive civ. I was originally going to go with Spain, but they look like a blast to play with the navel game and treasure fleets, so I think I'll hold off on them until I'm a bit more experienced and know how to really lean into their abilities. So to keep with a European theme, Normans it is.

France seems like a good flexible Modern Age Civs. Quite a few of the modern agers has abilities that really excel in one direction or the other (Mexico loves celebrations, Siam just wants to be friends with everyone) France has nice mix of military and culture, offering some choices of which victory condition to go with.

What about you folks? Already know who your first game will be with?

[universecreep]

Random Civ for my first game...I've done that with every first game in a Civ game.
And random AI.

[sprenkledavid]

I'm still undecided, even after watching many of the early access game-plays. Lots of civ/leader combos seem fun! And I like that we can very clearly set up a focus of our Antiquity age play through--and then switch as needed when the Exploration age hits.

Early contenders for my first game:

1). Augustus/Rome for the reasons you give.
2). Hatsheput/Egypt for the juicy early game navigable rivers--and the Wonders
3). Machiavelli/Greece to abuse the probably OP new influence mechanics.

[plaguepenguin]

You only have to choose a leader and your Antiquity civ before you start a game. Probably best to leave the decision on what civs to play in the later ages until the new age starts, because by then you'll know how things went in the last age, and therefore what particular set of skills will best serve you in the new age.

To take your sequence as an example.

You have Rome in Antiquity. They are indeed good at a variety of things, including a bit of culture, which is nice, but if they have any concentration, it seems to be on expansion, peaceful and otherwise. You can get a higher settlement limit in your unique civics tree. You are incentivized to gain levels with your legates, so you can get free settlers, but gaining levels seems most naturally done by taking enemy cities, so you really push the cap.

Then you have the Normans. It is true that they get better defensive structures, but, they also get cavalry. In your sequence of civs, they also inherit heavily promoted commanders from Rome. Because the commanders let siege units keep up with other units, even cavalry, the Normans can be quite good at conquest as well. Good defensive structures can help you hold on with fewer troops in areas where you aren't advancing, then help you keep your ill-gotten gains from recapture by the enemy. Trading the defense bonuses for even more offense in addition to the cavalry would help Norman offense directly, so even more, but it's not as if their better defense doesn't help conquest at all.

So, as French Empire you inherit commanders that are super-promoted, then get all that civ's military bonuses. Yikes!

The result is a sequence whose advantages in each age are for expansion, and especially conquest. They have side hustles, but they are all three built for war. Well, aggressive expansion in all three ages may not be optimal. The commander promotions will certainly stack, without any factors that push back and create counter-incentives, but expansion definitely runs into the settlement cap. Maybe after a lot of expansion in Antiquity, to the point that you exceed the cap by a fair amount, it might be better for Exploration to take a rest from pushing the cap, and instead devote your resources to building up other areas, expanding only a bit. This could be true even if you plan to go on a conquest rampage in the Modern, with French Empire (or Prussia, if they turn out in this game to mirror a certain stereotype we have about historical Prussia). The Modern really looks like it will reward moving up the tech tree more quickly than the competition, perhaps especially in terms of conquest. If that pans out, an Exploration civ that helps you get the third science milestone will prove more important for Modern conquest, because the golden age it confers -- keeping adjacency for all your Exploration science buildings into the Modern -- looks especially tasty for research early in the Modern. You might even find America better for conquest than French Empire, because increased production looks like it will rule that age.

I don't have any particular sequence in mind yet, because I haven't seen descriptions of all the golden ages you can earn in one age that lets you carry over perks to the next age. The one I cited above seems huge to me, but some of the others described seem pretty mediocre. I am going to need to see all of the golden ages described before I even begin to spitball on sequences, because those seem to me to be one of the biggest carryover perks, in a game that rewards being ahead of the competition early in the new age. Then, in any particular game, I am going to try to remain quite flexible, and change any civ sequence plans I might have had in the abstract in light of what the last age has told me about what's going to be important for me in the next age.

[JerBeware]

Originally posted by universecreep:

Random Civ for my first game...I've done that with every first game in a Civ game.
And random AI.

I'll probably do the same thing :)

Edit: From what I could gather it may be worth doing the tutorials. Not sure if it gives extra perks or not for when you start. So I may change my mind on the completely random part.

[katzenkrimis]

Originally posted by Oaks:

Already know who your first game will be with?

Same Leader every game because you can level them up to 50. Tecumseh currently makes the most sense for me.

Tecumseh > Mississippian > Shawnee > America.

I'll learn the game practicing with that lot. I'll only switch depending on what Firaxis decides to do with the rest of North America. The First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.

If they add Canada or any other indigenous peoples from the Canadian regions of North America, I'll consider changing parties.

Until then, I play for America.

Oorah!

[Someguyinhere]

I'll play any of the actual Civ games that aren't this where who you pick actually matters to a small degree.

[Oaks]

Originally posted by katzenkrimis:

Originally posted by Oaks:

Already know who your first game will be with?

Same Leader every game because you can level them up to 50. Tecumseh currently makes the most sense for me.

Tecumseh > Mississippian > Shawnee > America.

I'll learn the game practicing with that lot. I'll only switch depending on what Firaxis decides to do with the rest of North America. The First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.

If they add Canada or any other indigenous peoples from the Canadian regions of North America, I'll consider changing parties.

Until then, I play for America.

Oorah!

I think you are confusing the two paths. There is:

"Foundation Path, leveled up by playing Civilization VII with any leader you like, maxing out at level 50"

And

"Leader Path, leveled up by playing as individual leaders, with each leader having their own distinct 10-level track."


Regardless, it's a ton of content. A good few hundred hours in the base game to level everyone up.

[Freedom]

I always play as Rome 1st.

[Lëgënd]

Was thinking Khmer or Mississippian, just to avoid the typical for myself and most people of Rome/Greece.

[ethandestruct]

Gonna play as Tecumseh of Greece/Shawnee/Siam. Gonna be Suzerain of all the City States.

[lmr]

Maya probably, their buildings are gorgeous and I'm curious about the tradition that gives your units poison. Not sure about who'll lead them though.

[Amethyst_Cat]

I've never been a fan of military victory - there are many games where you try to win a military victory. I'd like to get there through science or culture, so I'll probably play as Greece or the Maya to start off.