History GameBreaker / Civilization

* The Monumentality Golden Age. Giving the ability to buy Settlers, Builders, and Traders with Faith, and at a significant discount, it far outstrips the benefits of every other Golden Age option except in certain niche scenarios. It's so powerful that many high-tier players will judge civilizations in part by how well they can achieve and take advantage of a Classical Era Monumentality Golden Age because it's the single biggest factor in determining early-game expansion.

* Tech trading with AI sounds like a ViolationOfCommonSense. Except AI is going to trade technologies with each other ''anyway'', and the more civs know the same technologies, the less value they have in exchange. Even exchanges where you give 2 technologies for just 1 are still beneficial. The reasons are threefold. First, you gain a tech that you don't know, and it doesn't really matter what it is. Second, since it always takes at least 4 turns to research new tech, you save yourself a lot of time that you ''can't'' overcome in any way. And last, this allows you to foster very good relationships with AI factions, which in turn makes them far more willing to trade resources, sign pacts, and be far less aggressive towards your own civ.

* The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus increases the charges on all Great Engineers by 1, including those that only had one charge to begin with, effectively doubling their strength. Great Engineers are often considered the most useful and powerful Great People for those intending to play a longer game, so getting an extra charge on each one is one of the game's strongest bonuses. This results in certain Great Engineers like Leonardo da Vinci becoming game-breakers in their own right (2 modern-era Eurekas and +6 culture for every Workshop) and can lead to silliness like a 240% production bonus to Space Race projects (via Robert Goddard and Wernher von Braun) or regional buildings, including the Colosseum, extending their bonuses 18 tiles away (with Nikola Tesla and Joseph Paxton).

* Ludwig II of Germany and his ability to generate culture from wonder adjacencies is overwhelmingly powerful for a few reasons. For one, wonders get a whopping +2 culture for each district they're adjacent to, and since Germany can build more districts per population, it's startlingly easy to have even a single wonder generating 6 to 8 in no time. Another is that the wonders do not have to be finished building in order for the bonus to work, which encourages a player to place as many wonders as possible -- even if they don't work on them actively or even intend to finish them -- to get maximum yields through very little investment. All this extra culture lets one speed through the civics tree, getting access to new wonders quicker, which can then be cycled out to generate more culture! And to top it all off, when the Castles technology is researched, the culture adjacencies generate tourism, so all those wonders can rocket the player straight into a culture victory. What elevates Ludwig II from overpowered to broken is how early in the game he has access to these boosts -- almost immediately for the culture, and at a medieval-era tech for the tourism. Both yields have enormous impacts the earlier one has them in the game, and being able to generate so much tourism before other civs have much of their own makes culture victories exponentially faster than normal, even only as long as an ''hour''.

* Ludwig II of Germany and his ability to generate culture from wonder adjacencies is overwhelmingly powerful for a few reasons. For one, wonders get a whopping +2 culture for each district they're adjacent to, and since Germany can build more districts per population, it's startlingly easy to have even a single wonder generating 6 to 8 in no time. Another is that the wonders do not have to be finished building in order for the bonus to work, which encourages a player to place as many wonders as possible -- even if they don't work on them actively or even intend to finish them -- to get maximum yields through very little investment. All this extra culture lets one speed through the civics tree, getting access to new wonders quicker, which can then be cycled out to generate more culture! And to top it all off, when the Castles technology is researched, the culture adjacencies generate tourism, so all those wonders can rocket the player straight into a culture victory. What elevates Ludwig II from overpowered to broken is how early in the game he has access to these boosts -- almost immediately for the culture, and at a medieval-era tech for the tourism. Both yields have enormous impacts the earlier one has them in the game, and being able to generate so much tourism before other civs have much of their own makes culture victories exponentially faster than normal, even only as long as an ''hour''.
* While not as uniformly focused on it as Russia, Theodora of the Byzantine Empire is well capable of giving Peter a run for their money in the 'powerful Holy Sites' department. Her special ability gives a culture adjacency bonus to all Holy Sites, and gives them an adjacency bonus from farms, which when combined with Work Ethic means she can consistently get +6 Holy Sites that provide Faith, Culture and Production. Better yet is what happens if you find a Desert Floodplain early on, since Desert Folklore and Theodora's ability stack. Not only do you have a +6 Holy Site, once workers have added some farms to the adjacent river Theodora can easily get a +8 or +9 holy site, which with the +100% adjacency card means '''+16 to +18''' to three very good early-game resources, all from one district, while still in the classical era. Her main 'weakness' is that she is less focused on obtaining a quick military/religious victory than Basil, and even so the ability to rush down the culture tree for early Theocracy and Grand Master's Chapel (which lets her faith-purchase an army for cheap) is in itself worth it.

* While not as uniformly focused on it as Russia, Theodora of the Byzantine Empire is well capable of giving Peter a run for their money in the 'powerful Holy Sites' department. Her special ability gives a culture adjacency bonus to all Holy Sites, and gives them an adjacency bonus from farms, which when combined with Work Ethic means she can consistently get +6 Holy Sites that provide Faith, Culture and Production. Better yet is what happens if you find a Desert Floodplain early on, since Desert Folklore and Theodora's ability stack. Not only do you have a +6 Holy Site, once workers have added some farms to the adjacent river Theodora can easily get a +8 or +9 holy site, which with the +100% adjacency card means '''+16 to +18''' to three very good early-game resources, all from one district, while still in the classical era. Her main 'weakness' is that she is less focused on obtaining a quick military/religious victory than Basil, and even so the ability to rush down the culture tree for early Theocracy is in itself worth it.

* Ludwig II of Germany and his ability to generate culture from wonder adjacencies is overwhelmingly powerful for a few reasons. For one, wonders get a whopping +2 culture for each district they're adjacent to, and since Germany can build more districts per population, it's startlingly easy to have even a single wonder generating 6 to 8 in no time. Another is that the wonders do not have to be finished building in order for the bonus to work, which encourages a player to place as many wonders as possible -- even if they don't work on them actively or even intend to finish them -- to get maximum yields through very little investment. All this extra culture lets one speed through the civics tree, getting access to new wonders quicker, which can then be cycled out to generate more culture! And to top it all off, when the Castles technology is researched, the culture adjacencies generate tourism, so all those wonders can rocket the player straight into a culture victory. What elevates Ludwig II from overpowered to broken is how early in the game he has access to these boosts -- almost immediately for the culture, and at a medieval-era tech for the tourism. Both yields have enormous impacts the earlier one has them in the game, and being able to generate so much tourism before other civs have much of their own makes culture victories exponentially faster than normal, even only as long as an ''hour''.

* For non-science civs, Poland, oddly for a civilization that's often the butt of jokes, is widely seen as this. Its unique ability, Solidarity, lets it get a free Social Policy every time it advances an Era--and with seven eras to advance through, that's enough to fill out an entire extra tree with space left over. Because of this, Poland can basically become a MasterOfAll as the game goes on. And if that wasn't enough, it also has the Ducal Stables, which is basically purpose-built to turn a civ into a cavalry power, and the Winged Hussar, a mounted unit that can certifiably ''shred'' any other army of the era. Once they've unlocked it, they can basically take over the planet--and even if they're held off, they can use their free social policies to seamlessly transition into whatever other victory condition fits the situation. It's often mused by hardcore players that a civ with Solidarity and nothing else would still be top-tier. Notably, the GameMod Vox Populi, which gave significant buffs to every other leader ability in the game, ''including Babylon and Korea'' (this is counterbalanced by science-boosting being less important in Vox Populi), nerfed Solidarity considerably by only giving you a free one for every alternate age instead of every age, plus an extra one upon assuming an Ideology.

* ''I'' and ''II'' had the Republic and Democracy governments in combination with the [[HundredPercentAdorationRating "We Love the X" Day]] and trade mechanics. While other governments simply gave resource gathering bonuses to cities with enough happy citizens, Republic and Democracy governments got those bonuses by default, and happiness allowed for instantaneous population growth instead. Meanwhile, trade caravans could be built and sent to foreign cities for absolutely ludicrous one-time cash windfalls. The upshot of this was that a civilization with these two governments could effectively pour the vast majority of its taxes into luxuries and watch as all of their cities turned into economic powerhouses over a few turns, continuously pump out trade caravans, and use the absurd amounts of money they would soon have in order to rush build any and all units and improvements necessary. The only downside (a Senate that would veto war declarations and try to force your civilization to make peace during negotiations whenever possible) was negated by the fact that the AI was already suicidally aggressive anyway, and that the player could use spies and their ludicrous piles of money to subvert enemy cities even when not at war. "Power Democracy" takes a bit of fine-tuning to pull off correctly, but it'll allow you to run away with the game if you manage it right.

*** Mods aren't typically included in lists of Game Breakers (for obvious reasons) but special mention here goes to the popular (and well-balanced) ''Religion Expanded'' mod for adding in a worship building that gains an additional +1 adjacency bonus from woods. Combined with the ''Scripture'' policy the Norwegian Holy Site described above would produce an incredible '''42''' production.

* Republic government, but for different reasons than in the previous two games. The main selling point is just how much money it generates thanks to a commerce multiplier and how early it can be accessed. The only government with lower corruption is Democracy, but unlike Democracy, Republic offers small, but still useful free support for units and doesn't require sinking an extra 12 turns (at the very least) into otherwise useless research and then a few more due to anarchy. There is no better government from an economic standpoint, and unless doing some massive late-game conquest, there is no better government, period. Oh, and while it doesn't offer any Police value, making garrisons useless for increasing happiness, it offers a far more reliable and ultimately ''cheaper'' option to simply increase Happiness slider. Even if going for either Democracy or Communism later on, Republic offers an unprecedented technological edge thanks to the commerce multiplier.

* The Sistine Chapel Great Wonder doubles the effects of all Cathedrals in your empire. Cathedrals make three unhappy citizens content in their city. With the Sistine Chapel under your belt and only a modest investment into citizen happiness, your can ensure you'll never suffer civil disorder. Best of all, the Sistine Chapel never becomes obsolete like many other wonders.

* The Theocracy government used to allow you to purchase military units with faith rather than gold. With the right build this could help you field entire hordes without losing much money (if any). Now it's taken UpToEleven with the ability delegated to "Grand Master's Chapel", an independent building. With the latest updates, Theocracy simply lowers the faith cost of purchase, apparently to ease spreading of religion... Combining this with the chapel, ''and'' "Jesuit Education", ''AND'' a Golden Age of Monumentality, a faith-intensive civilization can build entire districts, workers, buildings and armies free of charge.

* For non-science civs, Poland, oddly for a civilization that's often the butt of jokes, is widely seen as this. Its unique ability, Solidarity, lets it get a free Social Policy every time it advances an Era--and with seven eras to advance through, that's enough to fill out an entire extra tree with space left over. Because of this, Poland can basically become a MasterOfAll as the game goes on. And if that wasn't enough, it also has the Ducal Stables, which is basically purpose-built to turn a civ into a cavalry power, and the Winged Hussar, a mounted unit that can certifiably ''shred'' any other army of the era. Once they've unlocked it, they can basically take over the planet--and even if they're held off, they can use their free social policies to seamlessly transition into whatever other victory condition fits the situation. It's often mused by hardcore players that a civ with Solidarity and nothing else would still be top-tier. Notably, the GameMod Vox Populi, which gave significant buffs to every other leader ability in the game, ''including Babylon and Korea'' (this is counterbalanced by science-boosting being less important in Vox Populi), nerfed Solidarity considerably by

* On a similar note due to new DLC, there's Korea. As the only other Civ in the game which adds directly to science, Korea is often as high or higher on the list as Babylon in multiplayer. They may not have the free Great Scientist Babylon gets, but their +2 science per specialist and tech boosts from science buildings makes them snowball ''hard'' once they get going. All a Korean player needs to do is to specialize in having as many specialists as possible while simultaneously popping down as many great people improvements as possible, and he will be virtually rolling in science. This combined with the fact that they have a strong naval defense unit from the Renaissance on and a good anti-personnel siege unit in the beginning of the game, and you have a very difficult Civ to take down.

* For non-science civs, Poland, oddly for a civilization that's often the butt of jokes, is widely seen as this. Its unique ability lets it get a free Social Policy every time it advances an Era - and with seven eras to advance through, that's enough to fill out an entire extra tree with space left over. Because of this, Poland can basically become a MasterOfAll as the game goes on. And if that wasn't enough, it also has the Ducal Stables, which is basically purpose-built to turn a civ into a cavalry power, and the Winged Hussar, a mounted unit that can certifiably ''shred'' any other army of the era. Once they've unlocked it, they can basically take over the planet - and even if they're held off, they can use their free social policies to seamlessly transition into whatever other victory condition fits the situation.

* The Statue of Zeus World Wonder gives you a free Ancient Cavalry unit every 5 turns. They're 3/2 mounted units that also gets an extra hitpoint, letting them go to six. Since retreat odds for mounted units are tied to hitpoint totals, they're notoriously resilient as well, both on the attack and defense. Their total stats makes them by far the most powerful military unit in the Ancient World, and they'll be able to keep up with Middle Age units too, only tapering off in usefulness once you get to the end of the Middle Ages and Cavalry are an option. Of course, you need Iron or Saltpepper and Horses to build Knights and Cavalry; Ancient Cavalry need only Ivory, and produce for free every five turns.

** Coinage provides pretty lackluster bonuses, along with hampering profit from trade routes... but it's the only of the Currency civis allowing the option to speed construction by paying for it, up until modern tech. Coinage shows up at the start of Classical Antiquity period.

* In ''Rhye's and Fall: Dawn of Civilization'', the original Rhye's and Fall's spiritual successor, China is the most ridiculous civilization in the current 1.15 patch. Its unique power was changed from faster melee/gunpowder unit production to a increased science rate for technologies that nobody has discovered yet. While China still suffers from tech cost penalties, the bonus is big enough to ensure a massive snowball should either the player or even the AI, depending on how high the difficulty is, maximize it's infrastructure. While you're still a target for various barbarians and other hostile neighbors, the player is still capable to prepare himself to beat the onslaught, ensuring that he can propel at an even higher rate, thanks to it's very fat and rich core cities.

* ''VideoGame/FallFromHeaven'' features the [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards All-In Death Magic]] strategy. Generally, the game balances "training combat units" and "training wizards who summon combat units" against each other by having summoned units be very weak, short-lived, and expendable, whereas combat units are expensive but powerful. A pit demon has base power 5 but the equivalent melee unit, the champion, has base power 8; this balances the fact that if the champion dies you need to train another one, which costs resources, whereas if the pit fiend dies you just summon another one, which doesn't. The problem with All-In-Death Magic is that while the Specter, the mid-level necromancy summon, has only base power 3, it also has [[FragileSpeedster Move 2]], [[StandardStatusEffects Fear]] and [[MinmaxersDelight Affinity]] For Death Magic, the last of which gives it [[LightningBruiser +1 base power]] for every source of death mana you control. It is very easy to get three or four death magic nodes in your empire, at which point the free Specter can fight toe-to-toe with the expensive champion, letting you destroy any enemy army by sitting back and sending in wave after wave of expendable summons while your wizards stay far enough away to be in no danger.

** Until Norway came along; although they lack the bias towards tundra, the Norwegian Stave Church is even better as it gains a full +1 bonus from ''adjacent woods,'' the one tile feature that can be reliably placed as needed. This can even be combined with ''Dance of the Aurora'' for a base production of '''15.'''

** The new Work Ethic belief combos well with any of the three terrain-based pantheons, but Russia is the best at consistently getting the most out of it, due to almost always starting near lots of tundra and having a cheaper way to get to an early pantheon.

* ''Civilization III'' had the Small Wonder "Wall Street". Its effect? Giving you 5% interest on your treasury per turn. After a few turns you had no money issues for the rest of the game, as long as you kept your treasury above zero. It was later fixed with an ObviousRulePatch, capping the generated income from the building to 50 gold - which is still more than enough to make it worthwhile.