Easiest and Hardest races to play

[PyreStarite]

When I played Civ 5, I learned that playing the hardest civs when I was in the earlier difficulties allowed me to rack up more of the achivements I so coveted, then saving the best civs for the hardest difficulties to top off my collection. Before I begin this game, what would you guys say are the "Easiest and Hardest races to play" that are currently in the game to maybe future additions?

[Gespenst Gaming]

A custom race with no perks is pretty hard, but not that hard really. also adding on some of the negative perks can make it even harder.


The Mrrshan are probably the worst though, because their only real benefit is the ablilty to launch more troop transports than the other races.

[Dark Fire]

Originally posted by Gespenst Mk-II:

A custom race with no perks is pretty hard, but not that hard really. also adding on some of the negative perks can make it even harder.


The Mrrshan are probably the worst though, because their only real benefit is the ablilty to launch more troop transports than the other races.

It's all in your play style. Every stock race has something they have that, if taken advantage of, gives them a powerful start:

Alkari have a racial beam defense bonus, faster ships, artifact home world, and Physics tech (Automated Factory and Neutron Blaster). This gives them a research and production edge at the start of the game, especially if they choose Government as their first field of research (Research Laboratory and Government Support Facility). By turn 20, the Alkari will have +2 PP and +2 RP on their homeworld. Alkari will have a slightly stronger fleet defense that focuses on neutralizing projectiles as a combat strategy.

Bulrathi have a racial ground combat bonus, can be in high gravity without penalties, start off on mineral rich planet and start with Physics tech (Automated Factory and Neutron Blaster). This gives them a similar research and production edge at the start of the game as the Alkari for the same reasons. Bulrathi benefit more offensively when it comes to invasion, as they can more easily convert an enemies' colony into their own, without having to reduce the colony to rubble. This allows a faster turn-around for resources as the invaded colony now provides the same, if not slightly less, resources to the Bulrathi instead of the enemy. Their direct counters are the Mrrshan due to Mrrshans generally having more ground troops to fight both defensively and offensively.

Humans have a racial counter espionage bonus, benefit from higher returns on trade treaties, have an easier time at diplomacy in general, and start with the Government tech (Research Laboratory and Government Support Facility). This gives humans and early start in research (they can have +2 research within the first 10 turns), and allows them to supplement the lack of a production advantage by using diplomacy to create more money making opportunities. By turn 20 they are usually on par with resources as the Alkari and Bulrathi, but as more races become known, they are more apt to have a higher per turn income than the other races, which means bigger BC reserves and more opportunies to simply buyout production.

Mrrshan have a racial ground defense in the form of more troop capacity, a large homeworld, an uber world potential, and Engineering tech (Destroyer Ship Design and Anti-Missile Rockets). This race starts out better offensively and defensively with initial access to a larger ship type, but starts out behind other races as far as production and research. As such, Mrrshans must adopt a more aggressive play style, seeking out to eliminate enemy defenses as soon as possible in order to catch up technologically and productively, and like the Bulrathi benefit more from invasion than destruction of colonies due to their ability to create a larger invasion force than their enemies. The natural counters for the Mrrshan are the Bulrathi due to that race's better ground combat rating.

Psilon have a racial research bonus, a large homeworld, can be in low gravity without penalty, start with Government tech (Research Laboratory and Government Support Facility), but suffer from a ground combat penalty. This makes Psilons #1 in research gain, which allows them an edge in all other areas. They will have upgrades sooner than their enemies and rely on infrastructure as their main strength. They are however extremely susceptable to invasion which makes them an easier target for either the Bulrathi or Mrrshan and as such will need to put a stronger focus on defense than the other races.

Sakkra have a racial population growth bonus, an uber world potential, and start with Biology tech (Hydroponic Farms and Biospheres). This means Sakkra will tend to expand faster and max out their colonies sooner than the other races. They have a slight research advantage over Bulrathi and Mrrshan, but their real power comes from being able to specialize their colonies sooner.

Klackons have a racial food and production bonus, an uber world potential, Biology starting tech (Hydroponic Farms and Biospheres), but have a poor homeworld penalty. This race can specialize very early in the game while growing its population at similar rate as most races. They benefit the most from rich and ultra-rich colonies with decent biomes, so need to be a bit more picky than other races to take advantage of their racial bonuses, athough any biome that supports food production will benefit them. Because of their ability to specialize earlier this gives them a similar advantage to research as the Alkari and Humans.

Meklar have a racial food consumption bonus (which is similar to the Klackon food production bonus), a production bonus that is on par with the Klackons, automatic ship repair after combat, and Physics tech (Automated Factory and Neutron Blaster). Meklar, like the Klackons and Sakkra, can specialize much earlier than the other races, and much like the Klackon benefit the most from rich and ultra rich homeworlds, although Meklar can operate better on low food production so they can be less picky about these planets. The ship repair ability allows them to conduct hit-and-run combat strategy much more effectively than other races as they don't need to return to an outpost or star base to repair after combat. Their major advantage is in the form of the best productive race early on by comparison, with the Klackons being a close second.

Terran have a racial ship cost bonus, beam attack bonus, command point bonus, and start with Engineering (Destroyer and Anti-Missile Rockets). This race, like the Mrrshan benefits the most from being aggressive, but can be effective defensively as well like the Alkari. Their beam attack bonus neutralizes the Alkari defense bonus which allows them to specialize less away from beam weapons against the Alkari than the other races, while being able to focus more on beam weapons against the other races. The ship cost and command point bonus also allow for larger fleets produced faster, which places them competively with the Sakkra in expansion speed potential. Effective play strategy would be destruction of worlds over invasion, and fleet superiority.

Darlok and Silicoid races aren't implemented yet so I can't comment one them, but every race so far brings something to the table that gives them an advantage in some facet of the game. However, every race CAN be played the same way if the player chooses to without a serious disadvantage overall.

So no race is inherently harder or easier to play, it all depends on what is more comfortable for the player.

Defense-style players will find the Alkari, Terran, Bulrathi, and Mrrshan easier (probably in order from easiest to hardest) with the other races harder to manipulate in that direction.

Offense-style players will find the Terran, Mrrshan, Alkari, and Bulrathi easier (again probably in that order)

Players who prefer resource advantages will prefer Meklar and Klackon.

Players who prefer techology superiority will want the Psilon; Those who want to expand as fast as possible will prefer the Terran or Sakkra; Those who want money to solve their problems will want the Humans; Those who prefer to steal colonies away will want either the Mrrshan or Bulrathi.

In a human multi-player sense, any race played expertly has an equal chance against any other race with a few being direct counters. So if you're in a game against the Bulrathi, you can choose the Mrrshan to directly counter the ground combat aspect, or the Terran to better prevent invasion. If you're playing against Meklar and Klackon, you might want to take the Sakkra to allow for quicker expansion to grab rich and ultra-rich worlds away from them while also being faster to specialize like they are.

[Tabarnak]

Currently the best race are Sakkras due to 50% pop. growth which is the best spec from all(yes, they are still superior to Klackons and Meklars). Then the worst are Humans obviously but not their fault since espionnage and some other stuff related arent implemented yet.

If i let down Humans i would say Alkaris atm(no food, prod or enhancement bonus related to population). population(growth, production, science) bonus>ship(weapons) bonus

[Dark Fire]

Originally posted by Tabarnak:

Then the worst are Humans obviously but not their fault since espionnage and some other stuff related arent implemented yet.

The Human race's strength is more in their economical and technological advantage as it applies to diplomacy than it is with their counter-espionage advantage. The counter-espionage will make them a natural counter to the Darloks when they are implemented. They can be very competitive with any of the other races since positive diplomatic ventures raise disposition more and negative ventures lower it less.

In multi-player, Humans still have a research advantage at the start of the game, if there is no AI, since the first meaningful structure they can build on turn 1 is the Research Laboratory which puts them second overall in Research speed within the first 10 turns of the game. If the player capitalizes on this, they can achieve research superiority over every race (which is where the counter-espionage will come in when spying is implemented) with the exception of the Psilons. If there is AI, Humans in a multi-player game can easily use them for trade-treaties to increase their BC reserves and be competitive with the higher production races through buyout potential.

[Tabarnak]

Originally posted by darkfire2012df:

Originally posted by Tabarnak:

Then the worst are Humans obviously but not their fault since espionnage and some other stuff related arent implemented yet.

The Human race's strength is more in their economical and technological advantage as it applies to diplomacy than it is with their counter-espionage advantage. The counter-espionage will make them a natural counter to the Darloks when they are implemented. They can be very competitive with any of the other races since positive diplomatic ventures raise disposition more and negative ventures lower it less.

In multi-player, Humans still have a research advantage at the start of the game, if there is no AI, since the first meaningful structure they can build on turn 1 is the Research Laboratory which puts them second overall in Research speed within the first 10 turns of the game. If the player capitalizes on this, they can achieve research superiority over every race (which is where the counter-espionage will come in when spying is implemented) with the exception of the Psilons. If there is AI, Humans in a multi-player game can easily use them for trade-treaties to increase their BC reserves and be competitive with the higher production races through buyout potential.

You don't need to play Humans to sell techs for a huge stack of gold...treaties are still useless for now...maybe because the AI is still too weak. If you are very strong they will almost automatically hate you. Then you know that you played well :p

[Dark Fire]

Originally posted by Tabarnak:

Originally posted by darkfire2012df:

The Human race's strength is more in their economical and technological advantage as it applies to diplomacy than it is with their counter-espionage advantage. The counter-espionage will make them a natural counter to the Darloks when they are implemented. They can be very competitive with any of the other races since positive diplomatic ventures raise disposition more and negative ventures lower it less.

In multi-player, Humans still have a research advantage at the start of the game, if there is no AI, since the first meaningful structure they can build on turn 1 is the Research Laboratory which puts them second overall in Research speed within the first 10 turns of the game. If the player capitalizes on this, they can achieve research superiority over every race (which is where the counter-espionage will come in when spying is implemented) with the exception of the Psilons. If there is AI, Humans in a multi-player game can easily use them for trade-treaties to increase their BC reserves and be competitive with the higher production races through buyout potential.

You don't need to play Humans to sell techs for a huge stack of gold...treaties are still useless for now...maybe because the AI is still too weak. If you are very strong they will almost automatically hate you. Then you know that you played well :p

I've played humans establishing trade treaties with 3 or 4 races bringing my net income to 300+ BC/turn during mid-game (with a drop of 50-100 BC/turn if the treaty drops). Since for Humans the returns on the treaty are higher then the standard (double the cost), it only benefits. With the better diplomacy ability, it's easier to keep races neutral especially by tossing them a low tier tech they don't have just to keep them happy. Plus, every race starts out neutral with you when they meet you, so there's no real bribery needed. Of course, if you don't want to take advantage of the diplomacy bonuses, then yes, the Humans are a little harder to play than other races.

[Tabarnak]

Originally posted by darkfire2012df:

I've played humans establishing trade treaties with 3 or 4 races bringing my net income to 300+ BC/turn during mid-game (with a drop of 50-100 BC/turn if the treaty drops). Since for Humans the returns on the treaty are higher then the standard (double the cost), it only benefits. With the better diplomacy ability, it's easier to keep races neutral especially by tossing them a low tier tech they don't have just to keep them happy. Plus, every race starts out neutral with you when they meet you, so there's no real bribery needed. Of course, if you don't want to take advantage of the diplomacy bonuses, then yes, the Humans are a little harder to play than other races.

Ok but what turn(s) are mid game for you? You know that you can get around 3000-4000 gold in a few turns only when selling tech? Thats enough to win the game actually...