Which country should I pick?

[风水 Benny from the Block]

So I am just getting into this game, I have played before but not properly and I am going into a game with the idea of rapid expansion and domination.
So I want to be expanding and building an effective military.
Which countries should I consider picking and why?
Also any tips on how I should play the game (e.g. what I should focus on production wise or research wise or literally anything will be extremely helpful).

[Grendalcat]

For expansive domination games I like Honor, and the Authority ideology.

My favorite civs for domination games are Assyria, Huns, Mongols, America, China.

As to strategy I like to build four cites first, build them up some, before building my first army to go off conquering. Usually burn most non-capitals, except for really nice cities with wonders.

[风水 Benny from the Block]

Originally posted by Grendalcat:

For expansive domination games I like Honor, and the Authority ideology.

My favorite civs for domination games are Assyria, Huns, Mongols, America, China.

As to strategy I like to build four cites first, build them up some, before building my first army to go off conquering. Usually burn most non-capitals, except for really nice cities with wonders.

Thank you for the info, very useful!

[CloudSeeker]

Well. Egypt is always a strong choice no matter what you do. Poland is also a very good Civ. By the end you will have been given a whole Social Policy tree from their bonus.

[Jet City Gambler]

Greece is a lot of fun to go on a rampage with, their early-game military units are awesome and their diplomacy lets them shake down city-states for lots of gold.

[风水 Benny from the Block]

Originally posted by CloudSeeker:

Well. Egypt is always a strong choice no matter what you do. Poland is also a very good Civ. By the end you will have been given a whole Social Policy tree from their bonus.

Originally posted by Jet City Gambler:

Greece is a lot of fun to go on a rampage with, their early-game military units are awesome and their diplomacy lets them shake down city-states for lots of gold.

Big thanks for the info guys, I now feel as though I can look at these countries individually and see which one will suit me best

[otto_43]

my personal favorite is playing the celts, you can make an extremely dominant religion early on with little effort, and snag tithe and pagodas nearly every game. then you have a very nice midgame boost in the form of the ceildah halls or something like that, netting you 3 happiness and 1 culture, these with pagodas and mosques (the other thing you want in a religion), i have easily made 100s of faith a turn. if you explore piety to reformation then you can get the ability to turn faith into great scientists as well, which can help immensly when you have saved many thousands to purchase with. the religion becomes incredibly hard to extinguish due to city proximity as well.

if you want to play some other civs for wide rome is a civ kind of made for it, though i dont personally like it too much their special swordsmen making roads is nice.

the shoshone are another powerful wide civ because of your ability to immediately establish control over vast swaths of land, improving your ability to choke others out of your space. their pathfinders are also kind of nice for the early tech roll to stay level with tall civs in the early mid game where you can lag behind the most.

for the most part every civ can be played wide, with the exceptions being ghandi, venice ,and maybe 1 or 2 i am forgetting, but it requires more luxuries, preferrably a good religion, and different tech choices. going for civil service right off the bat may not be a good idea instead of workshops, and with those workshops you can invade faster while getting the other mission critical techs later on.

[风水 Benny from the Block]

Originally posted by otto_43:

my personal favorite is playing the celts, you can make an extremely dominant religion early on with little effort, and snag tithe and pagodas nearly every game. then you have a very nice midgame boost in the form of the ceildah halls or something like that, netting you 3 happiness and 1 culture, these with pagodas and mosques (the other thing you want in a religion), i have easily made 100s of faith a turn. if you explore piety to reformation then you can get the ability to turn faith into great scientists as well, which can help immensly when you have saved many thousands to purchase with. the religion becomes incredibly hard to extinguish due to city proximity as well.

if you want to play some other civs for wide rome is a civ kind of made for it, though i dont personally like it too much their special swordsmen making roads is nice.

the shoshone are another powerful wide civ because of your ability to immediately establish control over vast swaths of land, improving your ability to choke others out of your space. their pathfinders are also kind of nice for the early tech roll to stay level with tall civs in the early mid game where you can lag behind the most.

for the most part every civ can be played wide, with the exceptions being ghandi, venice ,and maybe 1 or 2 i am forgetting, but it requires more luxuries, preferrably a good religion, and different tech choices. going for civil service right off the bat may not be a good idea instead of workshops, and with those workshops you can invade faster while getting the other mission critical techs later on.

wow this was really helpful, thank you!

[otto_43]

Originally posted by 风水 Benius:

Originally posted by otto_43:

my personal favorite is playing the celts, you can make an extremely dominant religion early on with little effort, and snag tithe and pagodas nearly every game. then you have a very nice midgame boost in the form of the ceildah halls or something like that, netting you 3 happiness and 1 culture, these with pagodas and mosques (the other thing you want in a religion), i have easily made 100s of faith a turn. if you explore piety to reformation then you can get the ability to turn faith into great scientists as well, which can help immensly when you have saved many thousands to purchase with. the religion becomes incredibly hard to extinguish due to city proximity as well.

if you want to play some other civs for wide rome is a civ kind of made for it, though i dont personally like it too much their special swordsmen making roads is nice.

the shoshone are another powerful wide civ because of your ability to immediately establish control over vast swaths of land, improving your ability to choke others out of your space. their pathfinders are also kind of nice for the early tech roll to stay level with tall civs in the early mid game where you can lag behind the most.

for the most part every civ can be played wide, with the exceptions being ghandi, venice ,and maybe 1 or 2 i am forgetting, but it requires more luxuries, preferrably a good religion, and different tech choices. going for civil service right off the bat may not be a good idea instead of workshops, and with those workshops you can invade faster while getting the other mission critical techs later on.

wow this was really helpful, thank you!

no problem man, i like to help inform people, if you want to talk or play we can do that some time.

[jreese46]

I like to play Britain, because longbowmen and ships of the line are very handy.

[X Y Ranger]

Id say china they have many opportunities expansive and have mid game unique unit

[Bfloo]

Go England and build longbowman and ships of the line and invade all over the globe.

[Bomber Rex]

England for navy and longbows.
Zulus for Impi spam.

Arabia for the best military unit in the game. But arabia is a cross breed between a domination and diplomatic victory.

If you like early game warfare, which is essentially wiping out your enemy before they have even built their military then you should try the Huns and Assyria. Both very good civs for early game rushes.

For social policies you should do Liberty and Honour. As a domination civ you want to remain "dormant". Focusing on your infrastructure, growing cities and science until your "peak" comes. Every domination civ has an era where they're unique units are strongest, this is they're era of expansion (like when zulus get impis). Before your peak you should have a normal sized army and then upgrade them once your peak comes. During your peak you want to go all out war, conquer as much as possible and focus on your military.

Hope this helps and do inform us what civ you decide to play with

[Ghadaro]

Originally posted by otto_43:

for the most part every civ can be played wide, with the exceptions being ghandi, venice ,and maybe 1 or 2 i am forgetting

Every city adds 3 unhappiness (6 for Gandhi), each population point adds 1 unhappiness (0.5 for Gandi).
So every city above population 6 produces less unhappiness than normal for Gandhi.
This means that while his bonus looks like it forces you into tall play he can actually maintain more cities of population 6+ than other civs.

[dcain3456]

Originally posted by Neko:

Zulus for Impi spam.

THIS. The impi are gawd tier units and you get a bonus to lower maintenance costs. Even musketmen are no match for tricked-out impis.

[Bomber Rex]

Originally posted by dcain3456:

Originally posted by Neko:

Zulus for Impi spam.

THIS. The impi are gawd tier units and you get a bonus to lower maintenance costs. Even musketmen are no match for tricked-out impis.

Game: You need to use siege units to take down cities other wise its almost impossible

Shaka: No i dont think i will

*proceeds to take over city using only impis*