The Quick and the Dead: A Guide to QuickCiv

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Ironically, many members of the MP community find the “Quickciv” modified rules scenario unenjoyable – often for the same reasons that the SP community objects to the MP-standard Accelerated Production. “Not true civ,” they say. “Impossible to keep track of everything,” some say. “Too hard to know what to do,” some say. Particularly for ladder players who are very comfortable and very experienced in the “normal” MP environment, it can be intimidating, frustrating, and confusing to try and adjust to the Quickciv environment. In many respects, Quickciv completely transposes afk the “traditional” concepts of MP, making what was good inadvisable, and previously terrible civs very strong. The purpose of this guide, then, is to offer some guidance to this exciting and intense civ format – one that can allow players to work on a scale and with technologies normally not available in a typical MP game. First, we will address the civilizations and their traits, then talk about the improvements and wonders in the Quickciv environment, and finally wrap up with a discussion of tips to keep ahead of the sometimes overwhelming production rates in Quickciv.

The World As Quickciv Knows It [/u]

First, it might be useful to discover what exactly has been changed in the Quickciv environment. This list is rather simple, but the effects are far-reaching:

All food production is doubled.
Construction costs are ¼ of non-AP, and ½ of AP cost. (This is particularly noticeable with upgrades.)
Commerce is increased moderately.
Citizens require slightly more food to maintain population.
Settlers cost 3 population.
Research costs are roughly half of their old values; the maximum research is now 13 turns, and the minimum is 1 (though in most cases, 2 is the fastest a player can research a tech.)
Workers move at an increased speed; non-IND workers road in 1, irrigate in 1, mine in 2 on flat terrain.
Despotism’s tile penalty (if you have 3 or more of something from one tile, you lose one) is removed.
The game is a total of 135 turns.

All of these changes are intended to make the game balanced, but still flow smoothly at an accelerated pace. Many of the “golden rules” still hold true, however, such as unit support costs, corruption, optimal city number, and so on.

Turning The World Upside-Down, or an Examination of Traits in Quickciv [/u]

Quickciv allows players to easily reach the end of the medieval tech chart within 2 hours, and games that go the full 135 turns can actually reach all the way into modern times, depending on the players and situation. Generally, an average quickciv game will see – at the very least – technology approaching the end of the medieval. This means that several civilizations that get little consideration might now be factors. To best decide what civilization you should use in the Quickciv environment, consider – as always – which traits are most effective:

Agricultural Clearly one of the most powerful traits in normal games, agricultural is also potent in Quickciv, but not to the same degree. The weakening of the agricultural trait – due to the increase of food – is most noticeable at small city sizes. Provided that you have reasonable land (or really bad land with one floodplain-wheat square) you can grow at the same speed as an AGR civ in many cases – simply because it is easy for you to fill the “Food bar” every turn, increasing the city size. Particularly for cities with granaries, you will notice your cities growing at a rate of 1 turn for 1 population with or without agricultural traits – provided you can irrigate one square. (On the other hand, an agricultural civ with a floodplain wheat square produces enough food to go from 5 to 6 in one turn!) Still a significant bonus: the cheaper aqueduct. Particularly with the speed at which cities grow, the ability to develop an aqueduct quickly is very handy.

Bottom Line While still powerful, agricultural traits save you at most 1-4 turns in growth from size 1 to size 6 – probably not worth it unless you plan on building a lot of aquaducts.

Industrial Another widely regarded “power trait” that Quickciv turns upside down. The majority of the work that takes place in MP is road/mine/irrigate of flat land – and in the Quickciv setting, a normal worker can road or irrigate flatland squares in one turn! Therefore the only situation in which an Industrial civ moves faster is mining any land, or roading non-flatland. Certainly, these are both nice things to have, but the value of IND goes way down in the face of the speed of the average worker in Quickciv.
Bottom Line Like agricultural, this trait is a nice perk – but there may be other perks that are more useful.

Religious Quick civilization often frustrates players because it is easy for your cities to go into unrest due to the speed of your growth; the cheap religious temples are one method of combating that problem. With the possibility of anarchy lasting 8 turns, religious starts to look even better. Eight turns is a very long time to be doing nothing in QC – you could potentially research 2-5 techs in that time, depending on commerce and tech cost, and many other things can change as well. If you envision yourself changing governments (which may or may not be important – Despotism has no tile penalty anymore, remember) then the religious trait may be important for you.

Bottom Line This is a “crutch” trait – if you can keep your people happy reliably and don’t plan on switching governments, skip it. If you plan on switching governments more than once, or have problems with unrest – take it and build culture with ease.

Commercial Often maligned as a trait of dubious value for having too little effect, Commercial becomes much more important in the Quickciv environment, for several reasons: 1) You tend to have a lot more cities (or should) in Quickciv, which means more sources of revenue. 2) For much the same reason, you should have a lot more roads/workers making roads, which also increases revenue. 3) Research costs are significantly lower, making every single coin of income count. 4) It is MUCH easier to exceed your free military support, again making every coin count.

Bottom Line This trait isn’t half bad in Quickciv – and might even be worth serious consideration, in fact. If you plan on doing a lot of upgrading, or being a research powerhouse for your team, this trait could be a winner.

Militaristic In Quickciv, wars are short, brutal, and often filled with MANY units, on both sides. A trait that was only of moderate value in AP civ, militaristic is surprisingly good in the Quickciv environment for several reasons: 1) Faster barracks – a barracks in 1 turn is a nice thing to have when an attack comes from an unexpected direction and your troops will need to heal quickly. 2) More promotions – while 1 more HP isn’t that grand on its own, more promotions means more elites, which increases your chances (indirectly) of getting a Great Leader. Armies are very nice things to have in any format, and the ability to potentially insta-rush your Forbidden Palace isn’t too bad either.
Bottom Line The militaristic trait – particularly if you are a solid builder already and don’t need AGR or IND to keep up in QC – is a winner. Many of the other traits are “softened” by the general increase of many things in civ, but militaristic is the trait that is the least affected – making it much more useful, since this is a bonus that is not mimicked by the bonuses inherent to the scenario.

Expansionist Ironically, Quickciv makes the Expansionist trait more accurate to its non-AP nature – “hit or miss.” Rapid exploration of your surroundings is not a problem when you can generate warriors in a single turn, but rapid exploration with scouts when your opponent lacks them can frequently gain you quite a few bonus technologies/gold/maps and so on. Unfortunately, if barbarians are set to “off” this isn’t possible, and unfortunate land setups (you’re on the wrong side of a bottleneck, or the area is filled with mountains/jungle/etc) can make this trait almost useless in comparison to normal warrior-exploration. When it works, it can work beautifully, however – four or five scouts working together can quickly clear very large sections of the map, reaping very considerable rewards for the player.
Bottom Line This is a gambler’s trait – it can pay off huge dividends or almost none at all, much like its nature in non-AP. Special note goes out to the Inca, however, who have even better odds at scouting, since the warrior-scouts that run rampant in Quickciv can’t instantly kill off Chasquis.

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Scientific The scientific trait is probably the most difficult trait to judge in the Quickciv environment. The benefits of scientific are difficult to judge in this context: Cheaper libraries are certainly a plus – for a SCI civ in QC, these are very viable “culture pop” tools, provided happiness is a non-issue. They also benefit you in research, but corruption still limits their effectiveness; they only give a 50 percent bonus to the commerce going into that city’s research. Oftentimes, this bonus can total perhaps 1 or 2 in a town under size 6, leaving their utility as very questionable indeed. On the other hand, larger cities can benefit considerably – and QC frequently has large cities. Scientific’s free tech is probably not very helpful with minimum research times set all the way down to 1 turn, though later in the game this can save as many as 7 turns. Scientific leaders coming at a faster rate are nice, but it’s still a small increase and tech leads are unpredictable, especially when Golden Ages can suddenly set someone to 1 or 2 turns per tech. Bottom Line Tough call – if you plan on a research-based strategy (or are the research goon for your team) then the SCI trait is probably still a winner, but EXP will possibly net you a lot more free tech, especially early, and comparing cheaper SCI libraries to higher amounts of commerce flowing through standard-price COM libraries doesn’t look too good for SCI.

Seafaring Seafaring, like militaristic and expansionist, is largely unaffected by the change to Quickciv – the bonuses it gives were not lessened by the increased pace of the game. Faster boats means quicker contact with other civs and lower chances of sinking does the same – both handy for increased trading, as well as potentially giving you valuable strategic information. Cheaper harbors are also nothing to sneeze at, since they increase your rewards at sea – the “tundra/sea harbor town” can be a valuable research asset, even more so for a SEA civ.

Where We Go From Here, Or the Shocking Power Civs of Quickciv [/u]

The above list means some truly shocking changes for the “power civs” list in the QC environment. For example, some of the power players in QC: India(!), Scandinavia (!), Rome (!!), China, Japan, the Zulu, and perhaps most stunning of all: the Mongols! This, perhaps more than anything else, can stun those who are used to “normal” MP and its civs – many of the perennial powerhouses are second-rate here. Treasured giants such as Carthage, the Maya, the Inca, Egypt, and others are significant, but by no means the “power picks” anymore. First, let’s examine which civs WERE powerhouses, and then which ones are significant now:

Has-Beens

The Maya – One of if not THE perennial powerhouse builder civ in standard MP, the Maya are quite second-rate in this environment. The explanation is quite simple: the traits! The Mayan traits are the two most “softened” by the general bonus increases built in to Quickciv, and their UU – the archer who can harvest slaves – doesn’t look that useful when any floodplain town can irrigate and produce 1 worker every turn. Worse: the Javelin Thrower lacks defensive bombardment, meaning you can’t produce a “spiny spear” defense using this Civ!

The Aztecs – The perennial “Dagger” civ is also noticeably weakened in Quickciv. One of the greatest strengths of the Aztecs is that in defending against Dagger-rushes in normal MP, you must decide between less spears or more warriors, and oftentimes players make the wrong choice. In Quickciv, however, you can often produce a spear (in most, though admittedly not all) cities as fast as you can produce a warrior – 1 turn – which makes the Jaguar Warrior a lot less frightening. When you have to choose between facing 10 Jags with 8 warriors or 4 spears, it’s scary – but when you can choose to face 10 Jags with 8 spears, you probably won’t even bother to watch the fight. This isn’t to say that the Aztecs can’t still be a threat – Mil/Agr is a combo that still allows for early warmongering – just that they aren’t the tremendous threat they could be, particularly if the defending player uses sentinels.

The Sumerians – Sumeria, perhaps one of the most dreaded civs (particularly in 1v1) for MP games, is much weaker indeed in the QC environment. Sumeria’s chief benefit is the “spear for a warrior’s price,” but in QC, spears can already be built in most productive cities at the same speed – 1 turn! Sumeria’s traits are also of dubious nature – SCI without a good supporting trait is uncertain in its usefulness, and AGR is, as mentioned above, largely unimpressive in this format. Throw in that exceedingly early golden age (very unpleasant, given how important it can be to have later when both civs have lots of cities – you don’t want to be caught with half your production missing against your foe!) and you have a civ that really can’t measure up to some of its opponents in this environment.

The WHO? – Not the band, the new powerhouse civs..

Scandinavia – Before you laugh, consider: In QC, the “builder traits” don’t really offer that much of an advantage. If all building is roughly equal, the traits of war suddenly become more important. Scandinavia shows up well here, and also has one additional advantage: a UU that can be a serious threat until the time of infantry! Special added bonus: The vast majority of QC games proceed well past Invention, giving Viking Berserks plenty of time to plunder, and that trait combination means you can expect those Veteran Berserks to come in fast and without warning – especially if the Scandinavia player gets the Lighthouse!

Zulu – This will probably come as a welcome surprise to many players, particularly given the falling popularity of the Zulu in the C3C environment. Don’t forget one important part of QC – while food production is way up, the food needs of cities are also increased! Combine this with the fact that (veteran!) Impis can easily be produced at a rate of 1 per turn, and you could conceivably work to starve your opponent while expanding wildly in your own terrain. Throw in the expansionist scouts to scoop up free techs, gold, and maps, and suddenly the Zulu may be medieval and preparing medieval infantry and knights while you are still struggling to throw off the Choke!

Rome – Another civ that gets little or no acknowledgement in common MP games, Rome can be quite a significant force in the QC environment. The military trait combined with your sturdy legionnaires could actually result in you having a mixed veteran/elite force to attack with, if your opponent is kind enough to send you their own attack force first. Special added bonus and interesting strategy: Continue building archers even though you can build Legionnaires; once Invention comes around, send your Legionnaires to ESCORT your now-upgraded archer/longbows, and you have a force with 3 defense and 4 attack, and the Legions can throw their own weight into the fray after the longbows finish! Your commercial nature helps keep costs in check while you do so! While this tactic (both cost and production time wise) would work poorly in regular MP, QC allows this unusual strategy of sending an escorted force, but with guards who can strike as well!

Greece – Staunch defenders of the Hoplite rejoice! Greece (and its *weaker* brethren Carthage) are two civs that stand a chance of surviving in the QC environment without iron, early on. Simple fact: if you lack iron and your opponent knows you lack it, you can expect a vicious attack in the pre-saltpeter era which stands a reasonable chance of success. Greece, however, can withstand this assault without fear – making them the best candidate for no-iron survival until saltpeter is available. Combine this with the Greek traits: SCI/COM, and suddenly you have a civ that has its survival assured, and very strong research prospects; potentially being the first to many major advances, which in turn could result in SGLs, leading to a Greek juggernaut as they arrive at vital military techs far ahead of their foes.

India - The “Gandhi Stompy” is an impressive and potentially deadly force in the QC environment – particularly if India finds horses nearby. Remembering that in the QC environment upgrade costs are WAY down, it is possible for horseman-to-elephant upgrades to occur en masse, and India’s commercial trait helps to ensure the gold keeps coming in. While the religious trait normally isn’t terribly useful, it allows India to shift governments quickly, from an early Republic during expansion to a Monarchy as things grow, making them a quick-transitioning civilization as well. Nothing is more frightening than seeing Gandhi’s medieval picture and realizing you don’t have iron. Facing elite-health or elite-plus-one-health knights that you can never cut the resources for is painful if you have pikes, nearly impossible if you lack them.

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Mongols – Before you chalk me up as completely insane, consider what the problem with the Mongols was in regular MP: A unique unit you never saw, which was basically only cheaper, and traits which didn’t help in building, which is certainly vital to a regular MP game in which you don’t expect to see your UU. The Zulu were a dozen times better than these guys. Now, however, the Mongols have a lot going for them – just as much as the Zulu, in fact. With the trait combination of MIL/EXP the Mongols can expect a potential early research surge from huts (particularly if the opposition has no scouts) and can prepare veteran horsemen. When the time comes for the upgrading, the Keshik’s low cost will result in an even *cheaper* upgrade cost than QC already bestows! The result: such a large number of mountain-and-hill scooting units that you won’t care about the missing defense point - the terrain protects them anyhow - and in the numbers you’ll be fielding, you can afford a few losses. The slight downside still exists that you DO need to hook up both iron and horses, but this exists with any knight-civ. MIL/EXP, however, is still a good combination for QC, even if resources are lacking.

“Look Upon My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair!”

Knowing what to build in the QC environment can also be a difficult question. Many things which are smart to build in the normal MP environment are actually bad ideas here, and vice versa. In no particular order, here is a discussion of city improvements – what to build, and what you can probably skip.

Granaries : Here is probably the only time you will ever see Friedrich say “Granaries are probably not a good idea.” Make a note of it – it won’t happen again. Remember that granaries work best in towns where the population fluctuates and doesn’t just increase – your settler and worker factories. If your town has any kind of “food bonus” in its radius, irrigate that food bonus, and ignore a granary – a town with irrigated floodplain wheat (and to a lesser degree, just irrigated floodplain!,) an irrigated grassland cow, or irrigated grassland wheat will grow from size 1 to size 2 to size 3 (and depending on the other squares around to size 4 at a rate of 1 city size per turn; granaries can’t increase that rate! Your non-settler/worker pump towns will grow fast enough that the granary will be largely wasted anyhow. In most cases (but not all), skip ‘em.

Barracks – Nothing new here; if a town produces troops, it’s a good idea. If a town produces settlers/workers/artillery, skip ‘em. Don’t forget though, that a barracks affects the rank of Crusaders or Ancient Cavalry generated by a wonder if you build it in that town. Military production centers absolutely must have a barracks, though – they’re quick builds and when you generate troops in mass numbers, there’s no excuse for not having them.

Temples – Only if you must. The vast majority of QC games are won by elimination or domination, not points. Having a little extra land area isn’t going to help. If happiness is an issue and you can’t solve it with luxuries or garrisons (garrisons are GOOD in QC) then build one, but often these can be skipped until it’s Cathedral time – and then only if you need Cathedrals. If you MUST have the land area, consider a library, especially if you have a decent amount of commerce in the town.

Marketplaces – These are fairly decent “mid-game” builds if you find your unit support running high (as can often happen in this environment.) Avoid them if a town isn’t bringing in a good amount of commerce (generally at least size 5 and with a moderate or higher amount of roads/rivers) as they don’t bring in that much benefit. A marketplace in a size 12 city with a river and full roads, on the other hand, can be quite the cash cow! Also note that if you have several luxuries, marketplaces can remove the need for luxury rates or temples altogether – they increase the effectiveness of your 3rd luxury and beyond.

Libraries – See the marketplace entry for a good idea of when to build them. Also remember that the lower your research rate, the less commerce is going into research in towns, and the less effect a library will have. Particularly for SCI civs however, these can be strong cultural improvements.

Aquaducts – The saving grace of the AGR trait is that these are cheaper – and they are a must in the QC environment. Towns are capable of *very* quick growth in QC, and so giving the town the ability to move from size 6 to 12 can be very useful.

Harbors – Not as useful as they once were. Primarily good as a “naval barracks” and for resource trading, the plentiful nature of food on land means sea fishing isn’t as important as it was. Note however that “tundra science centers” work quite well in QC.

Colosseums – They still suck.

Cathedrals – Only for those who are really starved for happiness items; a marketplace with 3 or 4 luxuries should do fine. If you have a lot of grouchy size 12 towns, consider this and the Sistine to allow you to actually turn off all other forms of luxuries when you’re done.

Universities – Depending on how much time is left in the game, these may or may not be worth it – if you have less than 20 turns left, skip em and focus on your game winning plan. More might make it worth the time – provided your town is research friendly – and especially for SCI civs.

Banks – If you get this far on the “butter” side of the Medieval research tree, congrats on a good research effort. These are really only good if you plan on a *really* massive war effort later, or want to drive your commerce through the roof in an effort to fund massive research later on. Odds are you’ll probably have better things to do though.

And now on to the wonders, and more eyebrow-raising changes to the traditional “good choices.” Simple fact: The vast majority of wonders aren’t worth it in the Quickciv environment, because they don’t last long enough! Please note that a cultural victory, while possible, is NOT factored into the grades given to these wonders.

The Colossus – Not a bad idea in a coast-heavy town that you intend to really work the commerce from. It can actually be a significant cash asset in this environment, and doesn’t take long to build. Take care not to trigger your GA unless you mean to, however, as the Colossus satisfies a lot of requirements. Grade: B

The Pyramids – If you plan on building a lot of cities, this is still a pretty spiffy wonder, particularly as it will aid your towns in the slower 6-12 growth stages. If you plan a Feudalism-style campaign or are too lazy to build aquaducts, it will be largely wasted. The more cities you build that will exceed size 6, the better this wonder looks. Grade: B

The Statue of Zeus – A great AP-MP wonder made humble in QC. 5 turns to produce a Celtic sword with an extra HP? No thanks – with the numbers of units being thrown around in QC, Ancient Cavalry will look like drops in a bucket unless you build this quite early. Remember, with 135 turns in the game, at 5 turns per unit, the SoZ can build *at best* perhaps 20 units, and Ancient Cav will be obsolete before it builds more than 10 or so! Think of it this way if you like: in the time the AC builds 1 Ancient Cav, you can build 2 spears and 3 archers to kill it. Eugh. Grade: F!

The Oracle – Coupled with the Temple of Artemis, this might be worthwhile. Otherwise, bump your lux rate by 10 percent and move on – Theology comes too soon, unless you’re just looking for a wonder trigger, or have absolutely nothing for luxuries. (Remember, 2 unhappy citizens in despotism are cancelled by a garrison!) Grade: D

The Mausoleum of Mauslous – Utterly pointless unless you’re going for a GA trigger. Just garrison some units! Don’t be sucked in because it’s a cheap wonder! Grade: F!

The Great Lighthouse – For seafaring civs, this turns their boats into speed demons. For others, this can be the enabling device for massive naval attacks or making those vital jumps across ocean waters for distant contacts. A landlocked pangea civ with 1 coastal city, on the other hand…. Wonder is largely unchanged from its AP status. Grade: C+

The Great Library – Also known as “The Great Target.” Building this usually draws you a LOT of negative attention, but in QC (obviously provided there are enough players you have contact with) this can be a very powerful build. Simply turn off your research and live off the research of your peers while build a massive military. When a needed tech comes along, make a big upgrade and go on a rampage. Admittedly, your opponent will have the technology too…. but odds are very good he won’t be fielding the army you are, since you don’t have to pay for your research! Grade: A for 2v2 games and up, F for anything less.

The Temple of Artemis – See the Pyramids and say “Second verse, same as the first!” This wonder is more useful as you build more towns, and is handier for civs with larger-size cities in keeping the people happy as your population grows. Feudalistic-style players will not find this wonder worth the time to build it, however. Grade: B

The Great Wall – While walls generally take no more than 2 turns in QC, it can be nice to have them built the instant your town is placed. One of only two ways for a MIL civ to get a non-UU Golden Age in the ancient, and usually not a highly competed-for wonder. Still, since it doesn’t double the effectiveness of walls anymore, it isn’t nearly as useful as it once was – free ultra-cheap, no maintenance buildings? Whoopie! Grade: D

[FriedrichPsitalon]

The Hanging Gardens One free happy citizen is worth two content ones, so this wonder is a little better than the Oracle – but not much. It does serve as a nice way to trigger an AGR civ’s GA if you missed out on the Pyramids, though, since not many other chances will come for awhile.

Sun Tzu’s War Academy Barracks are a quick build in QC – extremely quick if you’re a MIL civ. The only reason to build this would be for the reduction in maintenance costs, and for as many shields as this will cost you to build, you can throw around a few marketplaces and get more bang for your buck. One possible use: if your opponent doesn’t build a lot of barracks and you need to keep your troops healed on a fast advance, but that’s still a lot of shields for little return. Grade: D

Sistine Chapel : A final and lasting solution for the religious and luxury deprived, but very pointless for those with luxuries-and-market systems or no cathedrals. Grade: C

Leonardo’s Workshop : Possibly the most important wonder of the QC environment: makes already cheap upgrading astoundingly cheap. A sharp player with this and a decent gold supply could play resource-cut-and-reattach games for vast numbers of troops. Pretty much the only civ that can’t abuse this? India. Grade: A

Sage Advice For Quick Learners [/u]

No excuse for a lack of sentinels. In the QC environment *very* large armies are not at all uncommon. With warriors – and very often spears – available with only one turn’s request, there is absolutely no excuse not to have a massive, far-reaching, and possibly even multi-layered sentinel net. Being taken by surprise is a grave sin in QC and very frequently a fatal one, elimination or not.

Balance! Don’t go so insane with troop production that you strangle your own research. Keep planting cities until that option is self-destructive (way over OCN, high risk of vulnerable city, etc) and then build commerce-increasing structures. You *must not* let your research falter in the QC environment, or you will find out the hard way what muskets do to swords and archers, or what cavalry can do to your spears and pikes. Markets, courthouses, libraries – all things MPers commonly eschew – are important to success in QC. (Making QC rather like the “true” game indeed!)

Plan Ahead! Have a general game plan well in advance, and have your research set in a fairly long queue – it is not at all uncommon for strange things to happen in QC which require your entire attention for a turn or two, and without a general plan and some queues, you can find that you have a handful of warriors or a tech you would have skipped.

Watch Your Advisors Important in AP, vital in QC. Things can change *very* quickly in the QC environment – not staying ahead of change is a fast way to be run over by it. You may have been strong to your opponent 3 turns ago, but 6 turns of golden age in QC can mean 6 turns of 1 knight per city per turn! Ouch!

Finally- Don’t get frustrated Remember when you first started playing MP? No one wins right off. QC is just like that – a new environment with new tricks and conditions. Until you get used to it, keep trying. The rewards are great, and the game itself is a blast – just as MP is totally different than SP, QC adds another whole dimension to MP as well.

Good luck and enjoy!

[Mo D]

Again, very nice analysis. ::tips cap:: D**n you though for letting this cat outta the bag!

Comments:

1) You're absolutely right; Militaristic, commercial, and seafaring are great traits in the QC environment. I usually try to take a militaristic civ.

2) Scandanavia IS the civ of choice, IMO. My Viking strategy: go on the early rampage with archers. When you think you have enough archers, build more. Forget swords, forget horses, build archers and nothing but archers (and spears of course). Once you hit invention, it's upgrade time! Mwuhahahha! Of course, barracks should be built early and often (they're so cheap - why wouldn't you?).

3) The Mongols are indeed a great civ for QC. India, Greece, the Dutch, and Carthage too (yes, Carthage!). I think I regard Carthage a little higher than Fried does. Mercs and the Greek Hoplites are cheap to build and are effective thru 2 eras!

4) I find marketplaces to be incredibly useful. As Fried pointed out, your cities should be at least size 5-6 or better first. Once you get a good way into the middle ages, QC usually gets to be bloody. You're going to need the extra cash to fund your massive army (not to mention helping to keep your luxury slider cranking on the science). Libraries are somewhat less useful than marketplaces in the QC environment (unless you're scientific, of course).

5) Leonardo's Workshop is indeed a great Wonder for QC. I personally would rank the Colossus as an "A" though. It's cheap and can really help crank out the commerce in a large city. As Fried pointed out, it's probably best to avoid it though if it will trigger a GA. I also disagree on the Mausaleum. Nice Wonder to have if built in a large (or potentially large) city. It's not a must-have, but I would grade it a "B". I also would give the Lighthouse a "B" ("A" for seafaring civs).

Again, good job Mr. Fried. All you QC nuts out there will be expected to memorize this before taking your next test (your next QC game). Class dismissed!

[Cruise]

I played and won a 8 player QC game with Russia today. Cossacks are awesome, and the tech lead i had with the scientific trait and a good number of free techs really helped.

[whiplash]

Hmmm.. No discussion of my favorite QC civ, Japan

[FriedrichPsitalon]

Japan actually probably should have "made the cut" Whip- they, too, are quite a powerhouse. A "Knight type" unit with extra defense, the same speed, and only ONE required resource? Sammies rule! (And that cool sound they make is just a nice bonus.)

Their traits are pretty good, too. Props for Japan in QC!

[Hrathnir]

I do so wish that you could play longer then 135 turns...

;p

[whiplash]

Longer than 135? I'd have to change my vacation schedule. I have played a couple of 90 turn games that have gone 6 hours. If you have 8 micromangers in the game it takes forever. Very quickly into the game players have a lot of cities and units to manage.

[whiplash]

Yeah, Fried and with some luck Japan can pull off the quick dagger with horse nearby.

[Mo D]

Ahhh yes; forgot all about Japan. Definitely a tier-one QC choice. The Arabs aren't bad, either. I'd say they are a tier-two choice, mostly because they need two resources.

[Swissy]

I have in the past couple weeks embarked on playing SP QC witha goal of a win with every civ. Here are some of my obsevations:

Rel trait is a game breaker, as Firaxis had tailored most aspects of the game to fit the fast pace of the game, but neglected the anarchy time. You are indeed lucky to get a quick 4 turns of anarchy if you are non-rel. Once you get construction, it is imperitive to get into a non-despotic government so you can take advantage of your population.

Rivers rule the the day, its plain and simple. And since rivers are so important, Ag and Com civs rule the roost. Forget about UU's, with enough rivers I can have Iroq riflemen before those nasty beserks get anywhere near me. And the defensive bonus of a metro is not to be taken lightly.

Seafaring is nice, but the coastal sqaures do not provide adequate shields to match the production of an inland civ.

Granaries are a must unless you have a food bonus (cow/wheat). With a granary, or food bonus, a city can produce a settler every 4 turns. The name of the game in QC is get as many cities out ASAP. Cities are crucial, you early science progress and future production/commerce are tied to getting these set in the quickest possibile manner.

[theProphet]

What about Persia? Immortals (Med Infantry) at 1/turn right after Iron Working is enough to make anyone wet themselves.

[MotownTonia]

Nice points everyone!

Here is an analysis of a civ that was not mentioned, but won 2 QC games for me:

Babylon:

UU:

Requires no resources and only one tech to build it, nice bombardment with more than one/city which is very much doable in QC

Traits:

Rel-cheap temples for faster border expansion than your opponets, helps with happiness factor especially with no luxuries as cathedrals will be cheaper too

Sci-free tech at beginning of era which could help catch you up if you are behind or put you further ahead of your opponets, cheap libraries for even faster border expansion taking available land away from your opponets

Both of these traits really help with score if the QC game is done with regular scoring. Those bow's really help with defense if someone decides to attack you cause these traits have helped you move into 1st place.

Go Babylon!

Tonia