Civ 6 | Who Is The BEST Leader In Civ 6? LEADER PASS Tier List Update!!! - 2023 edition

[@alecjordan4180]

if Basil is so good then why is he dead and I'm not? checkmate

[@chaseblauvelt7008]

Real

[@t_xxic8814]

These last free updates introduced so many leaders that offer interesting and sometimes plainly OP strategies. I like.

[@roxxdude1]

Yeah, some of the OP strats are just really really fun! It's nice to have civs where it's more balanced and I want a challenge vs civs that are great to boot up on a bad day and have fun with

[@joelpierce1453]

Btw, the reason for Lincoln's loyalty effects is that industry was a deciding factor in the Civil War. The Union North was industrialized and was able to produce weapons much more effectively than the Confederate South, whose economy was based around plantations. I genuinely think this effect was not added for gameplay, but mainly to make a historical reference.

[@niallreid7664]

Aren't they all? Generally the devs try to be historically flavourful when designing a civ. But thanks for the info, I'm not American and the ability confused me.

[@joelpierce1453]

@@niallreid7664 They try to do it with all, but they usually make a bigger difference on gameplay.

[@newrecru1t]

To also add to this? The plantations adding disloyalty for Lincoln is also an homage to the South wanting to secede from the US in order to preserve their _"State's Rights"_ to own slaves. So canonically? Losing control of your city because of disloyalty and needing to wrestle control back over it with military violence is quite literally a civil war-also canonically proves that Civ6 Plantations maybe sorta run on slave labor?...

[@niallreid7664]

@New Recruit or at the very least Lincoln's do. Which is pretty funny honestly.

[@widgetb]

I think I said this on the last one, but I love how you position your tier list. What I don't think I said, is how much you make all of the civs sound fun and exciting to play! I too will be forever grateful that you appeared on Potato's channel, because (nothing against Potato), but I enjoy your style so much more, because of just how much fun you are clearly having all the time. And also how much you enjoy the civs themselves, being proud of them when they actually do well and giving players like Eleanor their due. Thank you for taking the time to make this list and bringing such delight every day. You bring a predictable, daily dose of fun and delight to my day and I'm so glad you're having all the success you deserve!

[@UrsaRyan]

Thanks so much Widget = ) Great to read, really helps give me the energy to create = ) I'll forever be grateful to the Potato showcase!!!

[@alicbischof7920]

Agreed!

[@jonathanpilcher337]

For sure, cuz at the end of the day all civs and leaders are perfectly viable

[@rorymcmahon2480]

Julius Caesar has had a pretty good buff since this. 300 gold instead of 200. Then it's 500 at metal casting and 700 at steel. +5 combat strength against barbs and always earn normal xp

[@MikeNerdlaw]

i love how you literally love everything, it's refreshing.

[@theProfessaurus]

commenting for the algortithm and letting you know you've spent about 188 days playing civ 6 for 24h non-stop :D

[@UrsaRyan]

Oh no that's so long!

[@revolutioninc7081]

@@UrsaRyannot as much as jynxi on siege (400+ days)

[@johnbeeple8835]

I played multiplayer with someone with 37,000 Hours.... thats 4 STRAIGHT YEARS OF CIV1!!!!!

[@Dutch_is_a_Weird_Language]

I feel you didn't adress the main reason why Nzinge Mbande outclasses Mvemba: Kongo is now actually able to build Holy Sites, found their own Religion, and more or less reliably get the Reliquaries belief to supercharge their Relic game and Nkisi, instead of lacking a steady source of Faith and frustratingly relying on other players to gain a Majority Religion, which is an important problem for a Civ with strong bonusses towards Culture, as Faith gets you Rock Bands, National Parks, Patronage,... Also, I love how Tokugawa kinda splits the focus of Japan: Hojo being more Culture/Faith focussed, and Tokugawa perfecting Japan's Scientific potential (easily one of the strongest Communism civs)

[@fishraposo7192]

I think the mod that allows you to build holy sites is a MUST exactly because of that. Even if you can't found your own religion, it makes him SO MUCH BETTER

[@legionglory3154]

Yeah on some maps Mbande can win T40-50 culture victory on deity because of that

[@jasonpeterson3860]

Specific rankings not withstanding, I LOVE your (general and situational) tier methodology. It is so perfectly Civ.

[@joelpierce1453]

About Sundiata Keita: notice his ability reads that the markets get the slots in cities *founded* by him, meaning even if you capture his cities and build the markets later, you still get the slots! I found this out in my last game when I conquered him and found out I could put my great works in there!

[@UrsaRyan]

Still boggles me that! Very cool to know

[@lucasblauw4394]

these videos make me enthusiastic to once again try certain civs, that i had been very critical of before. even after 2000h of playing. Very nice to hear your perspective!

[@UrsaRyan]

glad you enjoyed!!!

[@taranrudlin-speed6402]

I found that Harald (Varangian) is one of the best support civs in the game. If you're playing in a team, being able to levy loads of units to protect and/or go to war against other civ allows your ally to scale tremendously with little to no contest. All of that with the upside of getting yields from kills allows you to keep up in the game. It's amazing imo. Would totally recommend to try it out with a couple friends. On a solo playthrough though i'd agree he is more lacking than the original harald.

[@SpringDragonfly15]

I got back into Civ VI a few week ago and have been playing obsessively and watching YT vids to learn more about the mechanics. Your two tier lists are very informative and make every Civ feel worth playing at least once.

[@Toadspring]

The recent buff to Julius makes him much easier to use. After the update I played with him on an inland sea map, which has tons of extra land and tundra, created a barb hunting party, escorting a couple of barb converting apostles, and simply did a ring around the outside of the map, killing and converting barbs and upgrading troops as I went. The map is so huge you probably need a couple of allies or city state suzerainties on the far side of the map so you can get your troops some rest and upgrades without having to come all the way back home (or you could escort some settlers to the far side of the map where there should be plenty of space to settle a few exclaves) By the time they completed a complete ring around the map, my barb hunting party had grown larger than my main army and had more promotions as well. I took out a total of 26 barb camps by the time I won at turn 240. It was a lot of fun!

[@eddievedderface]

Everyone else's tier lists: S, A, B, C, D, E, F tier. Ryan's tier lists: Situationally kinda sorta very good sometimes excellent tier.

[@UrsaRyan]

As everything should be!

[@loridians]

yeah he did a great job on the descriptions!

[@coubra82]

Thank you for your tier list. It's interesting how diplomatic you try to be when padding your tier list. As you know, gamers tend to get upset when their favorite civs may be ranked lower by you than how they themselves would rank them. I pretty much agree with your entire list and you brought me around to realizing the power of some of the 'generally excellent' civs you ranked. Another thing to mention is that all of your high ranked civs are extremely fun to play as well. Civ isn't just about min/maxing, it's about having fun too.

[@UrsaRyan]

thanks for watching = )

[@alexanderlattreuter5196]

I really like how instead of just S-F Tier you put generally and situationally good as options, however i personally would‘ve made a few changes: Babylon is definitely Situationally Excellent because you just need a nice spawn with a few hills and resources and you can get planes on turn 110. The Khmer are, in my opinion, Top 5 because all your cities will have a population of 15-20 incredibly early.

[@abcpsyroman4954]

Thanks for those lists man :D Allways learn a lot. I think you forgot to tell that Nzinga Mbande is able to found her own religion and so is able to produce her own relics.

[@UrsaRyan]

Doh! I thought I mentioned it at the time but must have overlooked!!!

[@AJMA02]

Great Video Ursa... as a long player of this amazing game my top 5 is: 1. Yongle (Ridiculosly broken) 2. Basil (very OP) 3. Hammurabi (Helicopters at renaissance era? come on!) 4. Steam Vicky and England Eleanor 5. Peter (most versatile civ to all kind of victories)

[@UrsaRyan]

Great list!

[@reidfrederiksen3821]

I really love this. Not only is it vastly different from almost any other Civ VI tier list I've ever seen, but it also is one that's not necessarily based on their stats, but more so how they're played. I really like that you made a specific point to say that "no civ in the game is a bad civ in the right hands" because I think that's so true. Just because a Civ is OP or easy to exploit doesn't mean the player knows how to do so, nor does it mean they'll even come close to winning the game. When I started playing, I was extremely overwhelmed and didn't understand a majority of the concepts within the game, and despite playing what I thought were "successful games" I never won any of them because I didn't understand how to play them. I appreciate the time and effort you put into making this video. It is always important to get the opinions of those who do the hard work.

[@UrsaRyan]

This was so lovely to read this morning, thank you Reid - really pleased you enjoyed the video = )

[@Stachelbeeerchen]

My thoughts! Caesar: Underwhelming leader ability. Most of the time city states get to the barb camps before you can abuse them. Funny as an AI friend because he loves you killing barbs and will instantly take friendship requests when you kill one near him. Abraham Lincoln: Getting a free unit that doesn't require resources is stupid. You also get more production towards new buildings that get you more free units. Absolutely hilarious. Love him. Nzinga Mbande: Yay finally Kongo can print their own religion for stupid relic games. Situationally awful if you don't get a nat wonder within your exploration phase. Saladin: Nice domination bonus: -easy to use -easy to unlock -pro tip: double the double with anti-cavalry flanking promotion for stupid bonuses (+they don't need resources) Nader Shah: I love myself a good trading civ. He isn't as good as Cyrus because +2 move on Settlers is just unbeatable. Tokugawa: Japans adjacency power is one of my favorites getting extra yields on trading for doing the natural Japan thing is the cherry on top. Love him. Wu Zetian: Using spies is hard but if you really focus on them you'll get a really spy-cy game. Unifier Qin: I don't know. I found it hard using him maybe I'll try the zombie game mode with him. Should be more fun. Yongle: haven't played him yet. He is still on my list. From a first glance he looks broken. Food is the best yield in CIVVI and every leader synergizing with it is automatically S tier in my eyes. Ramses II: Good science leader. Focus on industrial Zones as soon as you unlock him and see the culture skyrocket. The building bonus on rivers from Egypt finally synergizes with its leader. *GOTH MOMMY* Kleopatra: Did somebody say national parks? She has even more versatility then Teddy and Wilfred when building these. I wish she had gotten the extra yields on all floodplain tiles instead of only those with resources on them but that would have been broken (well Byzantium is in the game so the devs probably don't care about balance) Sundiata Keita: You say I can buy books which give me gold to buy more books to get more gold to get more books to get more gold? Im in! Theodora: Top 5 easiest victories I've had. Its Byzantium. what did I expect? Pro tip: scout for Hildegard of Bingen and get river goddess pantheon and work ethic for a holy site that gets you: +2 housing +2 Amenities +12 faith +12 culture +12 production +12 science Without any buildings THE Swan king: As a German his ability is fitting. Construction sites everywhere is part of our culture. Sejong: Having a moon landing every era is great. Synergizes well with Korea Harald: "Hey city state! Wanna attack your neighbor for 3 gold? Trust me! Best deal you'll get! Meanwhile im just going to build infrastructure without needing to put even a bit into unit construction." Such a strong nuisance towards others. Age of steam Victoria: Want an easy victory? Start in the industrial age. Elizabeth: Trading focussed England leader? Yes! Im in! Gimme that +50 gold trade route!

[@ViggleTheVirgil]

Very interesting to see the Civ dev’s adding in all these new leaders to the mix. Here’s to hoping they maybe take the time to give the us one last balance patch for the of the more situational civ’s and to tune back the more amazing and versatile civ’s. but overall it’s a very balanced and fun game!

[@UrsaRyan]

A balance patch would be fantastic, here's hoping!

[@carl4889]

I rate Khmer incredibly highly in Civ6. The way they can snowball and get a mass of huge, productive cities super early is just amazing. As powerful as a lot of other civ's abilities are, no one can stop you once you cover a third of the map.

[@orkolahiri5846]

I agree. I think one thing that slightly annoyed me was Ursa's main issue was that, if you don't get rivers you can't do much. However, I feel like he forgot, both for Khmer and Mali, in that video about spawn bias.

[@UrsaRyan]

I love Khmer!! Yongle does alas show them up a little but Khmer are one of my favourite civs in the game!

[@poeschls]

Honestly, I could listen to you read off the ingredients for various fish recipes, you're so funny and gregarious. But when you convey really great information as well, it's a double win.

[@UrsaRyan]

For this stew you'll need: 150g of smoked haddock (cod or other suitable white fish will do), 200g of cream (single), 3 large potatos, 2 leeks, and a 2,000g bag of crisps you should leave alone and undefended

[@jacobalexander1151]

You are the most polite, positive and respectful character I have encountered on this platform… absolutely brilliant! I really appreciate your attitude :)

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers! Thanks for watching =)

[@TheBlackBantha]

The only one i strongly disagree with is Babylon. I think that one deserves to be in the top 5

[@l0kpcr397]

Man I’m so happy to hear your list at the end of your videos get longer. Well deserved

[@UrsaRyan]

Thanks!!! Always amazing to look back at old videos and see the smaller list = )

[@roxxdude1]

"England is better than France" *Sips tea victoriously*

[@UrsaRyan]

hides across channel

[@excancerpoik]

i bought civ last year played it for 500 hours beat it on deity a couple of times a few no unit build dominations challenges with hungary and then i got bored and quit youre one of the people who made me like actually good at the game so its going to be a pleasure to watch this video again after months of no civ

[@UrsaRyan]

So glad I've been a part of your civ journey!

[@onesteek4you]

Yay! I think you’re the “best” of the Civ 6 players whose channels I’m subbed to.

[@UrsaRyan]

XD

[@Milo8519881]

Saying that Mongolia is only second best domination civ and then ranking it below Basil, the hardest leader to get the domination victory screen... Love your vids Ursa!

[@UrsaRyan]

Doh!!! Beaten by technicality!!!

[@woodysmith2681]

The new leaders either screamed "This is your Victory Type" or synergized well with the civ's bonuses to produce amazing generalist civs (victory type TBD). I think, not putting in Diety or a ton of hours, that much of the problems with some leaders is that unclear Victory Types are hard for some people.

[@NikolaHoward]

Early Bear assembling! Looking forward to your thoughts here 🙂

[@jslimefeld]

I've been playing for 15+ years and this is my first Civ video. Excellent stuff 💜

[@UrsaRyan]

Welcome, glad to have you here!

[@nicholasslepnikoff9771]

Thank you!! Been waiting for this one from ya. Yippee!!

[@supadude44]

I know it would be a absolutely massive undertaking, and completely understand you not wanting to do this (and that you have likely been asked this many a time before), but have you ever considered making a civilizations expanded tier list? You have quickly become my favourite civ KZbinr and one of my favourites in general, so having your insight into my favourite mod in a game with many fantastic mods would be excellent. Plus more Ursa content is a win for the entire civ community so anything to give you more content ideas is wonderful. Even releasing it in parts since there is so much to go over with each civ would work, if that makes it easier, I’m sure nobody would be opposed to that.

[@UrsaRyan]

I'm not sure I would be qualified to make a tier list for it, I've only played a few! Neat idea though

[@garrettjenkins6527]

Literally my favorite mod

[@TheBlackBantha]

I will never tire of Ursa tier lists. or gameplay videos...or any sort of civ vid.. Eh who am I kidding? I enjoyed watching the Pidgey challenge as well lol.

[@UrsaRyan]

As a creator who loved the pidgey vid, thank you, I'm really glad you enjoyed = )

[@platypus547]

UR, I always enjoy seeing other’s tier lists, nice job! I think you are still sleeping on Cree. Based on your rules, Cree is easily generally excellent. They are probably the most adaptive civ in the game. No civ can turn bad spawns into good spawns like Cree and you generally have a free district slot from having more pop earlier. All that combined with their faster scouting and then shared vision mean you also meet every city state faster than anyone else generally.

[@UrsaRyan]

Totally get it, I just don't get them!!! XD I need to be schooled a bit with them I think

[@gumbycat5226]

On my old Pooter I only played on large x2 maps with 12 leaders while now with my juiced up monster Pooter I can comfortably play on huge x2 maps with 20 leaders. It gives a very different game. For instance, it's harder to meet everyone and much harder to get great people points and wonders, although I still usually manage to get Feed The World. I have literally never won domination although I always take over several civs - that damn Byzantium always ensures you get a religious victory. I try for peaceful early-mid game development and hence my favourite civs tend to be ones like Germany and Japan. The new Japan, in particular, is right up my alley. I agree with you entirely about culture and, especially, faith. In most of my games Faith is a better currency than gold. And golden ages, well, they are so much easier to obtain. If there is one thing that should be addressed in Civ, in my opinion it is the speciality units built around swordsmen. Man of War knocked them all back a bit. I disagree with your original list re Scotland in particular. It is a brilliant general civ. And I loved your last Poland game, it really opened up my eyes. I have always thought they should remove Byzantium and Grand Columbia from the game because they are too overpowered - I played them once and thought it was like playing at Prince level. The new Byzantium is more balanced. Incidentally, re the new Cleopatra and her +1 spy capability - the old Catherine of France and her +1 visibility is much more powerful. I think that Catherine should focus on commercial hubs and get that great merchant which gives +1 visibility and you have +2 visibility against everyone, before any game tricks. Pretty potent and, in my opinion, not situational and strongly underrated. I love Age of Steam England (nearly as good as Germany) and I also love Stave Church - the pillaging, for me, is just a nice extra bonus but the new Norway is not to my liking. Portugal has always been great as is the revised Spain and the new Elizabeth 1 - had a really fun game with her. Re your top 5 I disagree re Mongolia and Hungary. They are both only for agression. Mongolia is neutralized by Catherine of France, which makes it, by definition, a situational leader. You've got me thinking about Genghis - if you denounce someone, can they still send a trader? My top 5 would be Bazil Byzantium and Grand Columbia, followed by your China and England and the new Germany (maybe) or the old one.

[@UrsaRyan]

Great thoughts - that's what I love about Civ, you can argue it so many ways!!

[@gustavinus]

Wait.. what? 4 days without Ursa videos? Is he fine? Was he abducted by the Oxford University secret police?

[@UrsaRyan]

I was studying at the university of sankore and Paul waylaid me

[@cecagna]

I'm only at 16:00 and saw the revisions to previous leaders, but I'm very surprised you moved up both Alexander and Cyrus. If anything, I would say they deserved to be moved down mostly due to their unique swordsmen units losing a lot of power compared to Man-At-Arms but also due to their leader abilities simply not measuring up with the new Leader Pass ones. I'm an aggressive, domination-oriented deity player and would look towards any other civilization in their tiers over them. Cyrus in particular has gotten worse and worse over the lifespan of Civ with the Pairidaeza nerf, among other things. I'll be curious to see where you put Nader Shah and Julius Caesar, both of whom I would classify as being better than Alexander and Cyrus. Anyway, I'll come back another time and watch this in bits. For an hour and fourty-four minutes, I'll need some popcorn!

[@UrsaRyan]

So weirdly it's because the swordsmen replacements are teh unimportant bits - it's Cyrus fast moving catapults that do the damage and Macedons late game science grind!

[@Osma777]

One interesting thing about England, and Elizabeth specifically. Iirc, from watching Potato, the +2 gold from harbors on other cont applies as a adjacency bonus. This means that double harbor adjacency makes this bonus +4, which then applies to the production of shipyards.

[@UrsaRyan]

That production is pretty epic!

[@McCloudious]

Woooooo thanks Ursa! Always very interesting to hear your thoughts.

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers, thanks for watching =)

[@christiannersinger7529]

I think for Caesar, other game speeds should be kept in mind, in standard it's 300 base per camp, in epic it's 500 base, and in marathon it's 1000 base, and in marathon it's a lot more powerful because of the balancing issues that exist with marathon, besides, marathon gives you more use out of your units, it feels like every standard speed game I play my units are already outdated by the time they reach the place they're attacking

[@andycooper4901]

Brilliant vid you are definitely the king of domination victory!

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers = )

[@dusan666m]

Wow, the last bit with top 5, some surprising picks. I value peter, bolivar and khmer much more highly. Very interesting to see your perspective. Granted, im an immortal player just starting to break into diety so i still got a lot to learn, doing the no reroll diety games right now and its tough

[@UrsaRyan]

That's the best bit about Civ - everyone plays very different!

[@sterlingblagg3471]

I'm pretty early, haha. Can't wait to watch this!

[@UrsaRyan]

Huzzahh!!!

[@bhess1212]

That was a lot of work! Great job going through all of this.

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers Gooberman = )

[@ronbent2563]

I truly enjoyed this video. Very well done, and thought out. A bit of constructive criticism that no one thinks about. Would you consider increasing the size of your pointer in videos where you’re using it to make points, like pointing to specific leaders. Watching this on mobile, something larger than 2 pixels would be a great help. Thank you Ursa, again. Great video

[@UrsaRyan]

I would have no idea how to change the pointer size in game to be fair, but not a bad idea, thank you!

[@traviswilliams3034]

23:55. "As you go through the game you'll be spawning swordsmen" [from Lincon's Industrial zones]. Given that apprenticeship unlocks Man At Arms I'm not sure how this is possible 😂.

[@UrsaRyan]

Line Infantry are just swordsmen with rifles imo

[@okuma1618]

Eleanor has become my favourite civ. When I played her last weekend, I settled 5 cities (later 2 more), conquered 1 city. At the end of my deity, standard size & speed culture victory, I had 24 cities by doing nothing. She was so fun and she's cute too :D

[@mbobzien1]

It's a bold top 5. Bold but solid. Absolutely love Basil and Yongle.

[@andrewwilson201]

I thoroughly enjoyed this video thank you for hard work!

[@joelpierce1453]

The Paridaeza should give additional yields on domestic trade routes. Then you could really convert one city into a trading hub for Persia.

[@UrsaRyan]

Great shout!

[@Proxima_X]

Bro did Gaul and Poundmaker dirty as hell

[@Grivehn]

Seems like the new Civs got some broken ones, some okay ones, but they can all still be fun. Appriciate the work you put into this! My top 5 as someone who loves production+gold combo, but doesnt do a lot of domination or faith: 1. Eleanor (favoring England version over France, but like the french 'princess' portrait better) - Just seeing the world fall without fighting, nothing can beat that. The others in no particular order: Germany (sliding towards Ludwig honestly - culture for wonders you dont even need to build> beating up city states), China- Yongle (just ridicolous), England- Steam Victoria and quite possibly Elizabeth, too. Industrial and gold powerhouses, these new leaders really made the game so much better for me. If I put my mind to doing faith and domination, feel like Byzantium would be up there as well. Some honorable mentions to USA-Lincoln, Gaul, Portugal, og Germany, og England, Ottomans (probably both), China-Kublai, Hungary, Russia, Japan-Tokugawa and Mali (both). Most still leaning towards production, gold or free policy slots.

[@mirandabee2323]

Eleanor's French portrait is giving "fairytale princess," but her English portrait is giving "fancy bridal hairstyle."

[@Grivehn]

@@mirandabee2323 I shall not refute that! I just prefer seeing long hair, is all. :) Not that you see your leader's portrait much haha. Best if she is in the game as an AI.

[@gregtuff4020]

Tier list where nobody sucks. Actually makes perfect sense 😎

[@alexsamurai1230]

Its great that you are doing these tier lists and basing it on Diety difficulty. Would you consider doing a shorter video exploring which civs might get relatively stronger or weaker on easier difficulties?

[@bolthusbear]

Beautifully well thought out, fellow bear

[@UrsaRyan]

why thank you = )

[@michaelyoakum]

Still a good watch! Thanks for the work you do.

[@drany6707]

I think they gave Julius the +5 bonus to barbarians because of this video

[@UrsaRyan]

haha, I like to think so!

[@SWaaga]

This is a great video, thanks Ursa

[@benjaminwiedel6366]

While I do not agree with some of your rankings, i like your system and respect your opinion. Thanks Ursa

[@UrsaRyan]

why thank you, thanks for watching!

[@salty_tech]

Wait! You've missed the most important mandatory civ: Ryzantium. Not even AoS Vicky gives this much great ability to play Civ6 properly: as the grand railway simulator! You may say: Hey, don't be salty, it's only modded civ. If I were a 2D drawing and somebody would mod it into 3D it's not a mod any more, it's the new reality. P.S. Great tier list. You have my seal of approval - feed it with a fresh tuna to see marvellous tricks =]

[@UrsaRyan]

Ryzantium would need a whole tier above all others !!!

[@tommyosborne4776]

I’ve actually won a lot of culture games as Tokugawa! Having amazing yields and gold from the trade routes just had me win culture passively, as I was doing other things like war, science, wonder building etc I just built up enough culture lol

[@nicksetzer4563]

putting babylon in generally good is kinda like putting the US military power somewhere at, say, around Brazil's military power

[@atmoz_]

It's always funny how easy it looks for you to win all those Deity games. Didn't play all new leaders yet. I did win with the Tokugawa one. Was for sure a very entertaining win (science victory). Had a blast playing him. Never won with Basil I guess should give it a shot.

[@timothycollins3829]

Thanks for the new tier list. A suggestion, though, how about a tier list or commentary on what you think are the best AI leaders? In other words, the leaders that the AI can best utilize. I personally feel that a lot of the newer leaders are great for the player (or at least an experienced player), but would not be properly played by the AI because they take some finesse. Sejon is a great example.

[@UrsaRyan]

neat idea!

[@TeenagePope]

Surprised and overjoyed to see Genghis Represented!

[@robmongar7933]

That's because YOU'RE so positive and engaging Ryan :)

[@UrsaRyan]

awwww

[@SweenyMarc]

This are always subjective, but it's hard to argue with Ursa's placements. As a player that's not even remotely as skilled as Ursa, I think I have had the most wins with Ambiorix, Basil, João, Mansa Musa, Menelik, Pericles, Peter, Trajan (I do almost always play with Secret Societies on though so I appreciate that alters the game a lot) and the only one I think Ursa may have a bit low is Menelik. I think they could push into Situationally Very Good. They do have all the limitations Ursa mentions in his previous vid, but in my experience when they do get what they need they really pop off.

[@NanoGalactic42]

This is soooo interesting to see

[@bpwwhirl]

Been waiting on this one. Buckle up, this'll be a good'un!

[@UrsaRyan]

Huzzah!!!

[@cyrusii2746]

really informing and entertaining ❤

[@UrsaRyan]

thank you!

[@bluebambue]

I don't care about tier lists, but wish you algorithm joy

[@dolomaticus1180]

I would like to point out a flaw to your ranking system: There should be an F tier for one very good reason, that Firaxis can and has FUBAR'ed Civs and Leaders, so this has to be pointed out. One metric is that ok you Civ does X, but if 4 other Civs do the same thing and better? Why are you using that Civ/leader? Sometimes you have to point out when a Civ or leader is lacking and that it does need help or reworked so its up to snuff. Cause players like you can squeeze blood from a stone, but does that mean its worth it for anybody else? Just giving you food for thought on this cause if you have best, there will be a worst and in a game like Civ, pointing out these things will help the Devs to improve...hopefully :) Have a good day sir!

[@shawnf4600]

Man, I haven't played Civ 6 in ages. Thanks for the vid. #EarlyBearGang

[@Thorite_Gem]

Exciting! Tier lists are always fun. I'm incredibly excited to see who you changed your mind on, as compared to your last tier list.

[@vic_the_slick]

Considering how many leaders there are, the fact that 4/5 of our top 5 are the same is pretty cool! (I like Montezuma over Crow King)

[@Jawu523]

Finally. The tier list is out

[@drjonritz]

But where is Ryzantium in this list? The world wants to know.

[@UrsaRyan]

right at the top!!!

[@ledrash6079]

Although i really like civ as a single player, i'd like to see some content where some civ players take on each other in a multiplayer game :)

[@UrsaRyan]

never say never...!

[@SeniorReef]

Good stuff!

[@Mecrobb]

Yay, thank you ursa these videos are great to watch any time

[@UrsaRyan]

You are very welcome!!

[@traviswilliams3034]

Having now made it to the end of the video, here's my top 5 5: Gorgo. You ranked her as the weaker Greece, but I disagree. Her Hoplite push is the most devastating and consistent ancient/classical era push in all of civ 6. Hoplites don't require strategics and only cost 60 production, and hulk-smash through basically everything in the classical and even into the early renaissance era. Some quick math to prove my point. A hoplite has 28 combat strength (warrior 20). Put it adjacent to another hoplite (38) and you're outclassing Swordsmen (35) for 2/3rds the production and half the maintenance. Use your extra wildcard policy slot to rush a Crusade religion via revelation and you're up to 48 strength (Man at Arms: 45). Use your culture from kills to get to Oligarchy fast and you can add another 8 (4 military policies as gorgo) and you're up to 56 combat strength. A Musketman unlocks 4 eras after a hoplite, costs 4x as much to produce, and has 55 combat strength. Obviously a hoplite isn't actually as good as a musket since you can stick combat bonuses onto the musket as well. But a 56 combat strength unit running around at a time when the AI is still on Swordsman tech will 1 or two shot basically everything, and as mentioned, they're dirt cheap to make, free to maintain (once you inevitably slot conscription), and don't require strategics. But what really puts Gorgo into the top 5 over other civs with similarly devastating early game firepower is how good Greece is. Sure plan A is to take all your neighbor's stuff and just have more of everything than the AI. But you've also got strong potential in the diplo game from all your bonus envoys, very good culture production, and if the city state generation breaks your way you can potentially get excellent science or faith output by putting say 3-6 envoys into 4 or 5 different faith/science city states for incredible bonuses to libraries/shrines. 4: Theodora. Honestly I think this is the better Byzantium. As long as you rush Theology even before Political Philosophy nobody can come close to matching Theodora's early game culture output. Hilariously, she's the one civ that can produce enough culture and faith fast enough to make Warrior monks work reliably, although you're obviously much better off going with a conventional army. You're a little bit slower at domination because you have to blow up walls with siege equipment, but you're so much better at everything else that I'd rather her than Basil. 3: Yongle. Basically for all the reasons you said. 2: John Curtain. Curtain is the best science civ in the game, and it's not even close. Getting tiles to breathtaking appeal is pretty easy to do. Something I've not seen a youtuber do, but I regularly do myself is invest a few extra governer promotions into Liang for City Parks and their +2 appeal to adjacent tiles. Which means that every city with a reef, geothermal fissure, or 2 mountain tiles can have - at minimum, a +5 campus (2 from the feature, 3 from breathtaking), and after you put a district or two next to the campus you can easily get up to +6 or better in basically all of your cities. Beautifying the land dovetails nicely with a Work-Ethic religion, which means a +4 or better holy site in most cities, with Scripture up to +8 faith and production. Essentially Curtain is what Korea would be if Seowon's had +6 adjacency and the Koreans had some source of bonus production. All this completely ignores Curtain's most powerful feature, which is the ability to abuse Citadel of Civilization. It's fairly easy to war-monger your way into a civ having a weak 1 population city somewhere where it's under heavy loyalty pressure from a 3rd party. It'll flip independent every few turns and you can liberate it, leaving you with double production for the remainder of the game. Curtain's not even a science/dom only civ, as bonuses to faith, culture and gold makes him strong when pursuing other victory paths, even if I'm not sure why you would want to. 1: Jayavaraman. With the possible exception of Ethiopia the Khmer have the game's strongest overall faith output. The obvious way to harness this is with Feed the Word, but if you get beat to the first religion there's always Jesuit Education, Work Ethic, or even a Reliquaries fueled Mon St Michel game. Of the (I think) 77 different leaders in the game right now, the Khmer are the only civ that's top 15 in all 5 victory types. Granted with the lone exception of original Kongo and Religion any civ can win any victory type the want. But the Khmer are more of a generalist civ with bonuses that make them excellent at everything, as opposed to (for example) trying to win a tourism game as Tokugowa where elements of your kit are actively working against you. Honestly, they're just Yongle, except slightly better.

[@UrsaRyan]

all good thoughts! thanks for sharing = )

[@nwahoutlander]

Spamming scouts early game as Sultan Saladin as gank squads is hilarious. Surprise war and capturing escorted settlers with the scouts is super gimmicky but super fun.

[@azimuthclark462]

Great video!

[@musumeci88]

Basil is a tough nut to crack but beatable if you play specifically to counter him. Best game I had against Basil in MP was as Zulu. I rushed religion and took crusader before he could but neither of us would have ended up using it. Ikandas gave me defenses against horse raids and General points. I counter raided with Impi to pillage his iron and horses and built an Impi corps deathball by the time he had Tagmas. Would gave a tough time as any other civ I think.

[@benjaminwiedel6366]

Great video. My least favorite by a mile was Wu Zetian. I also dont use spies well. But, I tried with her and......they still sucked. They kept dying. Lots of bad rolls i guess but I look forward to not trying her ever again.

[@Emmetlovesredvelvet13]

I got a counterpoint to your placement of nzinga mbande there's no need to worry about spawn bias if you go early war her yields are more than reliable to take over an entire continent then sit there on deity if take it early enough.

[@clinthenness7186]

I'm looking😊 forward to this.

[@sco145]

Great stuff, as always!

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers = )

[@gwiazdeczek7752]

Jadwiga Poland is better tahn Norway btw. And thats my Point to see how much strong is she. She can take some placeses to build more tiles than your oponent 😂 Polska GUROM! And great content bro, love your films so much! I educate firstly here and the i go on deity level and got some wins ❤

[@UrsaRyan]

glad you enjoyed, thanks for watching!

[@martinengstrom5592]

A most fun leader+game setting tier list would be great

[@saraquartzia]

Really late but I would say my top 5 civs are: 5. Ludwig's Germany 4. Jayarvaman's Khmer 3. Peter's Russia 2. Yongle's China 1. Basil's Byzantium Although, it's really hard cause there are some amazing civs that ain't there like Ottomans, Japan, Colombia or Mongolia.

[@kyletitterton]

Great video man. Cheers.

[@UrsaRyan]

Welcome!

[@jaredwhite7285]

For Abe- It's worth noting that you will actually never spawn swordsman because in order to build an industrial zone you have to have research apprenticeship which will also give you the ability to construct a man at arms which would be stronger than a swordsman.

[@TheWhiteGyrfalcon]

Nothing against you and the hard work you put in here, Ursa. I'm a huge fan of Egypt, Rome and Persia, I hope in Civ 7, they make Ramses and Cleo good again, and add Darius or even Xerxes back in and Augustus, my fave Rome leader they have added. Sad to see my 2 faves reduced to just ok. I have a general soft spot for these Civs, as a Classics historian, and for these 2 great Civs in real history, to be reduced to mediocre is sad. I'd also love to see Boadicia come back, was great alternative for me. For a new Civ, would love Australia to gain Aborigines tribe and to add Samoa or Tonga, us Oceania region are grateful for Maori, but more please. As others have mentioned Ireland or Pict tribe for Scotland, Finland (unique tribal group) and Catherine the Great for Russia. Again, this is personal preference.

[@jonathanpilcher337]

Personally I'd prefer different civs added. First and foremost a harappan civ, since the indus is a really neglected cradle of civilization in a series literally called civilization. I'd also like to see more south asian civs in general like bengal and chola, maybe even maurya as a separate civ from india(modern). Morocco returning would be nice as some proper maghreb representation. A swahili/kilwa civ would be cool, that along with a madagascar civ(add them in a pack maybe). Not to mention a benin/edo civ. A hawaiian civ wouldn't hurt either, nor would the iroquois and comanche(possibly added in a pack as well). Those last three might just be my personal bias as an american though

[@TheAntoine185]

Not even second Vicky! :O I'm so disappointed xD

[@nikolasmoore2252]

I loved playing with Yongle and new Victoria and agree with almost all of this, except Sundiata and especially Elizabeth. I couldn't follow from your explanation why Sundiata is so much higher than Mansa, as the extra yields are nice but pale in comparison to, say, Yongle's extra yields and are partially cancelled out by him losing Mansa's ability. I do feel like Sundiata is slightly better and deserves to be a tier or two higher, but I feel like he's rather embarrassed by the remaining leaders in the top tier. Also he needs to build Theatre Squares (for Great Writer Points) to take advantage of this ability at all. Unfortunately I had to stop it early when I saw Elizabeth England as I couldn't take seriously putting her in the Generally Excellent tier as she seems garbage compared to new Victoria, and weak even compared to old Victoria (I do like England's ability, and I gave these two an A and an B respectfully, gave Sundiata a B and Elizabeth a D) as to get extra gold she needs to trade with City-States instead of with other Civilizations and domestically. Especially as the list seems top-heavy as-is and I feel that putting her in it really lowers the bar a lot more than for Sunidata.