What is the best civ for beginners?

[Musa do Verao]

I just started playing Civ V and I'm playing with the ottoman empire. I don't know if it is a good civ to start playing with. What do you guys think?
Is Brazil good? I would like to play with my country

[Raddish]

Some good choices:

- Persia. Longer Golden Ages, and your units get a bonus to attack and movement during a Golden Age.
- India. Less unhappiness from large cities, more from large number of cities. Basically, limit yourself to 2-3 cities (which would be a good idea when starting out anyway) and you won't have any happiness problems.
- Rome. Production bonus to any building you already have built in your home city. Basically, build up Rome as much as possible, and reap the benefit in your other cities.
- Russia. Bonus production, more Horses and Iron, and your boundaries expand faster (with the unique building)
- Egypt: Faster building of Wonders.
- China: Bonus to science based on population with Paper Maker, Chu-Ko-Nu's are amazing units.

[americanman_4_life]

Another similar question!
We see these a lot... and I'll share what I always say!

Every Civ has it's own uniqueness in benefits, and it's own Unique Units... As long as you know what Civ you are playing as, and know what Unique benefits you have to use... you can play AS any Civ at ANY level, and be able to succeed!

My suggested Favorites, may not be agreed upon by others, because it depends on different playing styles... I try to look for Civ with UU's, UA, and UB's (Unique... Units, Abilities, Buildings... respectively) that last as much the whole game as possible.

Take Poland's UA, free SP every new age! Lasts til final age, and in whole game you get 8 or so Free SPs.

I played as Shoshone... they don't have anything really that can last whole game... per se! They're UU, the Pathfinder, is a Scout that can choose among a list of free bonuses upon every ANcient ruin discovered... If you can choose that pathfinder to choose upgrade Equip... he becomes an archer, but Never loses the Pathfinder ability... and every unit upgrade to the end, if kept alive, will still act as a Pathfinder (with the scout features)! Also, with the chosen benefits from those ANcient Ruins, my Civ got ahead with Faith (first one to have Pantheon and Religion), Culture, and growth to cities!

Germany... take their UA... conversion of Barbarian Camps when cleared, at 67% chance... will increase your military size amazingly fast! Their Panzer tanks are blazing fast! Their UB, forget it's name, is a bank with extra bonuses!

All I can suggest... take any Civ, read up on it in Civiliopedia... and muster your Civ to its Uniqueness... you will not be dissapointed!

[Chaoslink]

I found that America's increased view distance was really nice on my second game. No one can sneak up on you if you post up a few units on hills. Nothing worse that moving a worker onto a hill and finding an invasion on the other side

The shoshone mentioned above are great too. You start off with more territory with every settlement built making it great for taking control of valuable resources. On top of that, the pathfinder is great for that early-game edge that could be all you need to win later on.

India is also a good one if you don't built too many cities. Happiness is hard to keep under control sometimes and India doesn't suffer from it nearly as much if you don't hold onto too many cities. Losing control of your happiness can be rather frustrating and it can be hard to recouperate from low happiness.

Overall though, just about every civ can handle itself. Just read about their abilities and stuff and figure out what victory type you're after. Military buffs and abilities mean you'll be at war taking towns more often. Making a lot of gold? Then focus on commerce and you'll find yourself swimming in gold. Personally I like culture civs though. Get that culture under focus and find yourself some tourism and next thing you know, you'll win simply by building up. Its up to you to choose a civ that you like though, no one can do that for you.

[m.d.nealy]

Mayan, their shrine replacement is very powerful in the early game. The Mayan long long count provides you with extra great leaders.

[Musa do Verao]

Yeah, every new player asks this question. I'm sorry for that, but sometimes a person say something new!
There are many ways to win a game and there are many civilizations that are focused in one way. I think I'll read some guides about the way of winning the game and choose a civ good for my style. I should have done that before. Sorry guys

[xycotta]

Any Civ but Venice, they have a unique approach.

[V]

Korea is the best in my opinion we are the best in science so if you wanna win with that you should be Korea

[twinsenstwinsens]

if you are a begineer babylon may be a good start aswell

[Tatanka]

Pedro is pretty awesome.
Play on amazone map get religion +culture from jungle if you lucky enough not to start at the bottom left or right, rush to acoustics :D culture victory was never so easy.

[zxcvbob]

Poland and Persia are good for beginners. Just generally strong without needing any unique strategy. Babylons is also a good choice. Wait with Brazil until you know what you're doing (or you'll get overrun and eaten by the Aztecs)

Just one more thing; don't play too many games at the super easy levels. You will learn too many bad habits. One game at level 1, one game at level 2, then settle in at levels 3 and 4 for a while.

[Tatanka]

Originally posted by zxcvbob:

Wait with Brazil until you know what you're doing (or you'll get overrun and eaten by the Aztecs)

Haha yes he tried, never had so much jaguar beef in the fridge ....

[Borntobefox]

Well as a beginner, you may play low AI level, so I'd say all Civ are good to try up to Prince level. AI won't be cheating so far.

[biogoo]

Originally posted by TheCoherentRaddish:

- India. Less unhappiness from large cities, more from large number of cities. Basically, limit yourself to 2-3 cities (which would be a good idea when starting out anyway) and you won't have any happiness problems.

Misunderstood! India is great for making a LOT of cities!

[EnigmaVisionary]

The best thing is when starting at difficulty lvl 4.
That is "normal" and you and the AI are equal in all statistics.
Just play with a lot of civs to see how it goes and works for your playing style.
Later, when you decided what faction is best for you, while it fullfill your playstyle, you can start to play on higher lvl.
But remember, as higher the lvl is (5 or higher), as better the AI, so you have to be realy good to beat those "cheater" AI.

[Matthew]

Originally posted by biogoo:

Originally posted by TheCoherentRaddish:

- India. Less unhappiness from large cities, more from large number of cities. Basically, limit yourself to 2-3 cities (which would be a good idea when starting out anyway) and you won't have any happiness problems.

Misunderstood! India is great for making a LOT of cities!

Yep. This only 2-3 city nonsense has been around since vanilla. India's early game is slower to expand, but has a far easier time with happiness in the late game. Ironically (or perhaps not *cough* Gandhi *cough*) India is great for late-game warmongering and domination. They basically have infinite happiness once you are able to cover the 6 unhappy settle cost.