best civ for science?

[Dappington]

i was wondering what civ is best for science because i want to be able to progress past the other civs

[skip dip trippin]

Either Babylon or Korea. Maybe egypt if you start wonder spam early enough

[Alan Partridge]

Babylon hands down. You get a free Great Scientist as soon as you learn Writing (within 15 turns on a quick game) and they spawn 50% quicker as well. Just be careful you don't get too bullied if you don't have much of a military, best way to avoid it for most of the game is refuse any embassies in your capital.

[Dappington]

Originally posted by Alan Partridge:

Babylon hands down. You get a free Great Scientist as soon as you learn Writing (within 15 turns on a quick game) and they spawn 50% quicker as well. Just be careful you don't get too bullied if you don't have much of a military, best way to avoid it for most of the game is refuse any embassies in your capital.

thanks for the advice!

[Damsteri]

Babylon and Korea are the only ones with science focused trait. Other civs can get science victory and beat the, but they have to direct their traits to sicence if they can.

And of course the fastest possible science victory is probably: jungle start (don' chop), 4 cities in jungle, all next to a mountain (+50% science bonus with observatory) and a river (+25% great person bonus with garden), policies: tradition (growth bonus) then rationalism (science bonus) and tech fast to universities (to get those jungle tiles to provide 2 speakers each). Start will be slow and have very bad production, but after you get your universities up and running you are unstoppable and get that space ship ready when others are probably still 2-3 ERAs behind. And.. that can be done with any civilization.

[Matthew]

Honorable mentions go to Maya and Poland. Poland, because they can do anything well.

[Damsteri]

Originally posted by matthewameluxen:

Honorable mentions go to Maya and Poland. Poland, because they can do anything well.

Poland is very good too. You can get social policies very fast when focusing on the upper half of the tech tree (where the science buildings are). But Maya is normally only good in science at the start of the game. Every great person is increasing the cost of future great persons and Maya's ability greats useless great persons which just increase the cost of the great scientists. Maya can be the first to get universities, but after that other science focused civilizations which are producing only great scientists (and maybe some great engineers) will go pass them.

[Matthew]

Which is why I said honorable mention. They are still one of the strongest Civs in the entire game and can do a lot of things others cannot on higher difficulties (nabbing Chichen Itza, for example). They require a bit more micromanagement to abuse the great people well, but still a solid Civ and better at science than most others.

[Damsteri]

Sure, Maya have their strength but also some weaknesses. If you know those both well they are a very good civ for everything and I actually play with them quite often.

[TheGaleRider]

Babylon and Korea are the best science based Civs. Babylon's UA gives a free Great Scientist upon discovering Writing, so PLOP DOWN AN ACADEMY. Never waste early Great Scientists on a free tech unless it's completely necessary. Babylon's UA also generates Great Scientists faster.
Korea's UA gives +2 Science for each Great Person tile (Holy Site, Manufactury, Academy, etc), so Academies have the potential for +14 science.
Another good science Civ are the Inca. They have a start bias of hills and mountains. This means Civs will have a harder time invading you and taking your cites. The mountains allow you to get Observatories in your cities (if you are next to a mountain). I got into a HUGE science battle with Babylon as the Inca, on a Earth map with 12 Civs. I was in South America, and if it wasn't for the Jungle and Observatories, I would've lost.

[Damsteri]

Don't forget Inca's terrace farms! They give you so much food in mountaineous area... and population = science. One of my best starts was with Inca in mountaneous valley with rivers... and terrain was desert. Good production and good food. After the desert folklore, petra and civil service my riverside terrace farms next to 1-3 mountains had a huge field of: 4-6 food, 3 production and 1 faith. And I got at least +10 of those tiles alone.

[Matthew]

Shoshone are actually very good, too. This game is all about the snowball effect, and they are perfect for it. Perhaps not as strong for a specific niche, like Babylon, but if all you are looking for is to get a jump on other empires, they are more than capable of that.


Or reroll spain until you get something like Great Barrier Reef in your starting area ;) No need to play the game then, you've already won!

[Planestranger]

I must also mention that Shoshone are quite good for the final part of Science race. They will have 3-4 very early cities which will have huge number of specialists and therefore production (especially if you are lucky enough to built Statue of Liberty) so building parts for spaceship is not a big deal for them.

[Cookelele]

Originally posted by Ingeniosi:

Either Babylon or Korea. Maybe egypt if you start wonder spam early enough

Very Very helpful! Thanks!