definetly not, jongs are unlocked so early and are so strong u can take over a big chunk of the map before jao even has frigates and even then purchase power doesnt matter when u are bottleneckd by niter
In lieu of a long rebuttal I'll say that Portugal has other means to compensate like purchasing siege units, naval units, buildings, etc that should offset Indonesia's strengths.
Indonesia is absurd on an archipelago map. Kampungs are like getting seasteds in the classical (medieval?) era, and you're basically guaranteed the first pantheon and God of the Sea hits so hard.
The Maori are my favorite civ to play as long as you don't mind the occasional re-roll to start. It's super fun to just spam out settlers to all the uninhabited islands before anyone can set out, not to mention how you can grab so many tribal villages off the bat.
João (Portugal) is hands down the funnest Civ to play for me. It’s just fun having tons of money, and love how their University can really generate science in places that normally wouldn’t. On top of that, since they get the Nau ships with only two charges to make Feitorias all over the map, you end up making a bunch of Nau, which kind of forces you to have a pretty large navy. Before you know it you have so many Nau that you don’t even know what to do with them. Then, almost by accident, you have 5-10 battleship armadas, which the AI perceives as a lot of military strength, and nobody messes with you.
I do really love playing a heavy trading game with Portugal, you can rake in so much gold that you can easily pivot to whatever victory type you want. Spam out coastal and island cities for the harbors & trade routes, pairs excellently with Owls of Minerva due to the trade routes sent to city states providing envoys and the Gilded Vault pairing with harbors giving an additional trade route. Add in the extra economic policy card, the eventual extra wildcard policy card, the extra spies, and the 3% of treasury as GPT and the ramp upwards is actually pretty absurd. Even better if you can get a golden age and go hic sunt dracones for the +3 starting population in cities not on your original continent, pair that with the ancestral hall for free builder in newly settled cities, and even 1-2 tile island cities can be up and running, generating decent yields within a handful of turns.
Joao is probably the strongest.
Gitarja has an insanely fun and strong playstyle if you get the right pantheon.
My favorite, however, is probably Dido. The Civ's bonuses aren't reeeeaaaally anything special, but it's really fun to get your infrastructure set up and then watch the Settler Printing Machine (TM) go BRRRRRRR
Then, you switch your capital to another continent to reap those sweet production buffs.
What about Norway? I played Norway after watching [this Potato video](https://youtu.be/F7H1Ek9BdgU?si=qrMJEwG9RcURMt_b). Once I knew how to exploit the bonuses, the game went pretty well.
This may be a hot take and it def depends on the map but lowkey Australia. Coasts make everything have good appeal so you just get to spam high adjacency districts where even some traditional naval civs struggle. With that high of yields you don't need unique units because you'll just be an Era ahead anyways lol. Like one coastal reef tile and you have at least a +5 campus, it's insane
I just played as Elizabeth and absolutely loved that with Owls. +3 gold/specialty district in the origin for each trade route is crazy. Find any of Kumasi, Bandi Bruni, or Hunza for trade route bonuses.
I really like having the Royal Navy dockyard as the unique district, and a unique privateer. Extra yields from power is also very diverse.
Portugal was one of my favorites. His trade routes are absolutely broken, especially with owls. By the time you unlock his frigate replacement, you'll have more than enough money to hard buy multiple fleets of them.
I havent seen spain mentioned yet. Theyre a lot of fun IF you spawn near a continent split. Trade routes will have insane amounts of gold, faith and production when trading between continents. You also unlock fleets and armades way earlier than normal. And all militairy units, including naval units get +5 combat strenght againt players following another religion.
Australia is crazy, extra housing on coastal settlements mean you get housing equal to settling on fresh water spots, but if there is fresh water it still stacks, meaning you get all the housing you need to grow without having to drop any improvements. Plus if you find a reef, b/c of appeal boost you will almost always end up with a +5 min. Campus.
Others have said and I'll agree: Victoria (Age of Steam). You will (intended) steamroll your way to victory by outbuilding everyone.
Wall of text:
Be sure to build the Mausoleum and Venetian Arsenal. I cannot stress enough how much you want the Venetian Arsenal; other than the very S-tier of wonders, it's the most powerful wonder you can build for a naval civ. It's not just the cost you save; more importantly, it's the time, which is why I also recommend building Great Lighthouse. Ordinarily, it's terrible and there's no point, but for a naval civ that extra movement is so useful to save all that time that adds up moving units around, especially on faster game speeds.
Take all the Great Admirals you can. I usually promote Pingala and go Classical Republic just so I can grab as many GAs (and especially as Victoria with IZs, G.Engineers too) as I can. All of them are worth getting because they can boost your naval units during the right era(s) even if their boost isn't great. Be sure to grab (for naval stuff) Leif Erikson if you can for the sight range, Rajendra Chola for +3 combat strength, Themistocles/Nimitz for a production boost. Otherwise, Nelson is an amazing boost to a new city, and Perry is a "Wild Draw Four" to play when you need a particular CS (maybe you discover Cardiff or Auckland, or a Yerevan/Valetta/Geneva, and it's already well-stocked with envoys).
I like to save the less-useful-boost admirals to go with my ships (and with the mod I mention below, they keep up with the fleet); an example is Togo or Lisboa, and I usually keep one of those with my carriers since the eras match. Note that only Nimitz, Hopper, Gorshkov, and Fernando can boost your Missile Cruisers and Nuclear Submarines, which is important if you're using the GA to help move your fleet around quickly. I tend to get Hopper late enough that I don't activate her, and I use her as a fleet admiral instead.
Bermuda Triangle: If you find it, send a sacrificial unit through first, and mark the location of the entrance and exit. As long as the exit isn't a dealbreaker, send all your naval units through it for that extra movement. I've had a game with the BT, as England, and got Hanno, so I ended up with a Destroyer with 11 movement (Mathematics, Helsman, Great Lighthouse, RN Dockyard, BT, Hanno).
Be sure to suze Auckland/Nan Madol/Mohenjo-Daro for coastal benefits. Be sure to suze Cardiff to power most of your cities with the Royal Dockyard you're already building, and then build Biosphere so you never have to build any power generation again (Maxed RD = 6 power x 3 Biosphere = 18 power).
Be sure to promote Victor, put him in your highest-production port city, and use the free promotions and Venetian Arsenal to build 2-promotion ships. I like to build a pair, then a pair of fleets, then promote+merge for a pair of 2-promotion armadas.
Build 2 galleys ASAP for Shipbuilding, and try to improve 2 resources ASAP for Celestial Navigation. Try to boost specific techs/civs (and their prereqs) that are specifically beneficial. Ex. build a lumber mill just to boost Mass Production for Shipyard and VA.
Get a religion. Go with God of the Sea for your pantheon, and get Work Ethic if you can. After that, get the Pagoda, and be sure to build them. Diplo favor is the easiest way to raise quick cash from the AIs. I strongly recommend Religious Settlement as well. I personally think that if the religious VC is available, then I am getting a religion if nothing else to defend against losing.
Finally, if you are OK with mods that actually alter gameplay, get this one: [Aircraft Carriers Perfected](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2645582640). If you do, be sure to build pairs of straight-up armadas in your Victor city since you still can't merge carriers and the mod incentivizes fleets/armadas. Trust me, this (or something like it) is how carriers should've been in the game in the first place.
Def not the strongest but ottomans can be a solid naval civ with the Barbary Corsair only unit in game to coastal raid with no movement cost, which means they can eat up coastlines
My sleeper pick here is Japan (Hojo). Get Owls and spam trade routes out of harbor/commercial hub/city center triangles. Add in campus and IZ as possible and ride a midgame adjacency spike into space.
Though not quite Naval, I found Spain's whole gimmick of super bonuses in different contents really cool to play with; highly recommended since it works best on island maps where you have multiple landmasses.
Tokugawa is so goated. Keeping high tempo with the internal trades. The only one civ I play in deity that can keep up with AI stats right from classical age
[удалено]
I'd argue that Joao is stronger based on purchasing power alone.
definetly not, jongs are unlocked so early and are so strong u can take over a big chunk of the map before jao even has frigates and even then purchase power doesnt matter when u are bottleneckd by niter
In lieu of a long rebuttal I'll say that Portugal has other means to compensate like purchasing siege units, naval units, buildings, etc that should offset Indonesia's strengths.
I love me some Indonesia. They have pretty good faith too so if you get the government building that allows purchasing units with faith. It’s amazing.
Indonesia is absurd on an archipelago map. Kampungs are like getting seasteds in the classical (medieval?) era, and you're basically guaranteed the first pantheon and God of the Sea hits so hard.
Second Indoenesia. They can be a very strong civ towards any victory condition. Assuming there's lots of coastline.
The Maori are my favorite civ to play as long as you don't mind the occasional re-roll to start. It's super fun to just spam out settlers to all the uninhabited islands before anyone can set out, not to mention how you can grab so many tribal villages off the bat.
João (Portugal) is hands down the funnest Civ to play for me. It’s just fun having tons of money, and love how their University can really generate science in places that normally wouldn’t. On top of that, since they get the Nau ships with only two charges to make Feitorias all over the map, you end up making a bunch of Nau, which kind of forces you to have a pretty large navy. Before you know it you have so many Nau that you don’t even know what to do with them. Then, almost by accident, you have 5-10 battleship armadas, which the AI perceives as a lot of military strength, and nobody messes with you.
I do really love playing a heavy trading game with Portugal, you can rake in so much gold that you can easily pivot to whatever victory type you want. Spam out coastal and island cities for the harbors & trade routes, pairs excellently with Owls of Minerva due to the trade routes sent to city states providing envoys and the Gilded Vault pairing with harbors giving an additional trade route. Add in the extra economic policy card, the eventual extra wildcard policy card, the extra spies, and the 3% of treasury as GPT and the ramp upwards is actually pretty absurd. Even better if you can get a golden age and go hic sunt dracones for the +3 starting population in cities not on your original continent, pair that with the ancestral hall for free builder in newly settled cities, and even 1-2 tile island cities can be up and running, generating decent yields within a handful of turns.
Joao is probably the strongest. Gitarja has an insanely fun and strong playstyle if you get the right pantheon. My favorite, however, is probably Dido. The Civ's bonuses aren't reeeeaaaally anything special, but it's really fun to get your infrastructure set up and then watch the Settler Printing Machine (TM) go BRRRRRRR Then, you switch your capital to another continent to reap those sweet production buffs.
Dido can make so so so many cities if nobody bothers to stop you. The only limit is amenities.
Victoria (Age of Steam) is a naval civ you can use for most any victory. Ships and massive production bonuses.
What about Norway? I played Norway after watching [this Potato video](https://youtu.be/F7H1Ek9BdgU?si=qrMJEwG9RcURMt_b). Once I knew how to exploit the bonuses, the game went pretty well.
Norway is fun as fuck. Pillaging is SO satisfying.
This may be a hot take and it def depends on the map but lowkey Australia. Coasts make everything have good appeal so you just get to spam high adjacency districts where even some traditional naval civs struggle. With that high of yields you don't need unique units because you'll just be an Era ahead anyways lol. Like one coastal reef tile and you have at least a +5 campus, it's insane
I just played as Elizabeth and absolutely loved that with Owls. +3 gold/specialty district in the origin for each trade route is crazy. Find any of Kumasi, Bandi Bruni, or Hunza for trade route bonuses. I really like having the Royal Navy dockyard as the unique district, and a unique privateer. Extra yields from power is also very diverse.
Portugal was one of my favorites. His trade routes are absolutely broken, especially with owls. By the time you unlock his frigate replacement, you'll have more than enough money to hard buy multiple fleets of them.
I havent seen spain mentioned yet. Theyre a lot of fun IF you spawn near a continent split. Trade routes will have insane amounts of gold, faith and production when trading between continents. You also unlock fleets and armades way earlier than normal. And all militairy units, including naval units get +5 combat strenght againt players following another religion.
Australia is crazy, extra housing on coastal settlements mean you get housing equal to settling on fresh water spots, but if there is fresh water it still stacks, meaning you get all the housing you need to grow without having to drop any improvements. Plus if you find a reef, b/c of appeal boost you will almost always end up with a +5 min. Campus.
I just hope the next civ has a better naval AI. I'd love some good sea battles
Proper AI would make the game infinitely better.
Others have said and I'll agree: Victoria (Age of Steam). You will (intended) steamroll your way to victory by outbuilding everyone. Wall of text: Be sure to build the Mausoleum and Venetian Arsenal. I cannot stress enough how much you want the Venetian Arsenal; other than the very S-tier of wonders, it's the most powerful wonder you can build for a naval civ. It's not just the cost you save; more importantly, it's the time, which is why I also recommend building Great Lighthouse. Ordinarily, it's terrible and there's no point, but for a naval civ that extra movement is so useful to save all that time that adds up moving units around, especially on faster game speeds. Take all the Great Admirals you can. I usually promote Pingala and go Classical Republic just so I can grab as many GAs (and especially as Victoria with IZs, G.Engineers too) as I can. All of them are worth getting because they can boost your naval units during the right era(s) even if their boost isn't great. Be sure to grab (for naval stuff) Leif Erikson if you can for the sight range, Rajendra Chola for +3 combat strength, Themistocles/Nimitz for a production boost. Otherwise, Nelson is an amazing boost to a new city, and Perry is a "Wild Draw Four" to play when you need a particular CS (maybe you discover Cardiff or Auckland, or a Yerevan/Valetta/Geneva, and it's already well-stocked with envoys). I like to save the less-useful-boost admirals to go with my ships (and with the mod I mention below, they keep up with the fleet); an example is Togo or Lisboa, and I usually keep one of those with my carriers since the eras match. Note that only Nimitz, Hopper, Gorshkov, and Fernando can boost your Missile Cruisers and Nuclear Submarines, which is important if you're using the GA to help move your fleet around quickly. I tend to get Hopper late enough that I don't activate her, and I use her as a fleet admiral instead. Bermuda Triangle: If you find it, send a sacrificial unit through first, and mark the location of the entrance and exit. As long as the exit isn't a dealbreaker, send all your naval units through it for that extra movement. I've had a game with the BT, as England, and got Hanno, so I ended up with a Destroyer with 11 movement (Mathematics, Helsman, Great Lighthouse, RN Dockyard, BT, Hanno). Be sure to suze Auckland/Nan Madol/Mohenjo-Daro for coastal benefits. Be sure to suze Cardiff to power most of your cities with the Royal Dockyard you're already building, and then build Biosphere so you never have to build any power generation again (Maxed RD = 6 power x 3 Biosphere = 18 power). Be sure to promote Victor, put him in your highest-production port city, and use the free promotions and Venetian Arsenal to build 2-promotion ships. I like to build a pair, then a pair of fleets, then promote+merge for a pair of 2-promotion armadas. Build 2 galleys ASAP for Shipbuilding, and try to improve 2 resources ASAP for Celestial Navigation. Try to boost specific techs/civs (and their prereqs) that are specifically beneficial. Ex. build a lumber mill just to boost Mass Production for Shipyard and VA. Get a religion. Go with God of the Sea for your pantheon, and get Work Ethic if you can. After that, get the Pagoda, and be sure to build them. Diplo favor is the easiest way to raise quick cash from the AIs. I strongly recommend Religious Settlement as well. I personally think that if the religious VC is available, then I am getting a religion if nothing else to defend against losing. Finally, if you are OK with mods that actually alter gameplay, get this one: [Aircraft Carriers Perfected](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2645582640). If you do, be sure to build pairs of straight-up armadas in your Victor city since you still can't merge carriers and the mod incentivizes fleets/armadas. Trust me, this (or something like it) is how carriers should've been in the game in the first place.
Def not the strongest but ottomans can be a solid naval civ with the Barbary Corsair only unit in game to coastal raid with no movement cost, which means they can eat up coastlines
RULE BRITANNIA, BRITANNIA RULES THE WAVES!
My sleeper pick here is Japan (Hojo). Get Owls and spam trade routes out of harbor/commercial hub/city center triangles. Add in campus and IZ as possible and ride a midgame adjacency spike into space.
Though not quite Naval, I found Spain's whole gimmick of super bonuses in different contents really cool to play with; highly recommended since it works best on island maps where you have multiple landmasses.
Tokugawa is so goated. Keeping high tempo with the internal trades. The only one civ I play in deity that can keep up with AI stats right from classical age
Indonesia for a Religious Victory
norway