This enables Austria to acquire cities and resources, expand their borders, and defend against opposing diplomatic victories, all without entering a single war. That said, the Coffee House is not all Austria has going for it their remarkable ULA gives the player the ability to buy allied city-states with gold. Replacing the windmill, it provides the usual bonus to production, and but also increases the generation of great people by 25% in each city where it is built (equivalent to the effect of the National Epic wonder). The Coffee House may not sound like something that would really help much at first, but it is undoubtedly the most overpowered UB in the game. Their UB isn’t too bad either: They have a replacement building for the Stables that increases the gold output for every pasture and increases the XP bonus for mounted units. In fact, by the end of a standard game, this ability alone can allow a player to unlock almost the account for more than an entire tree of social policies.
With a free social policy at the start of every era, Poland is almost guaranteed to eclipse the cultural and political development of its competitors. Never mind that their UU, the Wingedwinged Hussar, is one of the strongest cavalry units in the game there is, but Poland’s ULA is where this nation really takes the cake. Like it or not, Poland is probably the best all around, win-in-any-situation, civilization in the game. Poland's leader is serious about victory. You might survive to see another nation win, but that is often the best case scenario when playing with these leaders. These civs are really challenging to play with at in any high difficulty. They are, best suited to specific situations and victory paths. Even highly skilled players would have trouble defeating an S-Tier civ in any game difficulty setting over warlord.Ĭ-Tier civs are limited in ability and flexibility. These civs lack the heavy-hitting unique features of the S- & A-Tier civs but can pose a serious threat given the right situation. In the hands of a skilled player, these civs can easily compete with S-Tier. These civs are more situational but still provide a clear route to victory with at least one highly differentiating and unique feature. These can be great for players who aren’t sure which route to victory they want to take when starting out. S-Tier civs provide a clear advantage to the player who is not situationally dependent, providing multiple avenues to victory with several extraordinary uniques. In this tiered list, we break down the unique leader abilities (ULA), unique units (UU), unique buildings (UB), and unique improvements (UI) from each one to help you determine the best world leader for your style and strategy. Some civs are better than others, and understanding the ins and outs of each can swing any game in your favor. Civ 5 is a complicated game with hundreds of different variables, but that doesn't mean you need to pick your nation blindly when setting up a game.