• Lizard people
• Mole men
• CHUDs
• Iroquois
• Atlanteans
• Hobbits
• Dark elves
• Darker elves
• Raccoons
• Neanderthals
• Darkest elves

Personally I like having multiple leaders of a civ available, each with their own unique bonuses and therefore playstyle. So you get to choose a civilization you will play as (which influences starting location etc) and then the leader themselves which will further affect gameplay.

I think my personal list would be:

1. China
2. Egypt
3. Rome
4. America
5. Brazil
6. The Inca
7. The Mayans
8. England
9. Spain
10. France
11. Indonesia
12. Japan
13. Arabia
14. The Mauryans
15. Hawaii
16. The Swahili
17. Russia
18. Germany
19. Mali

Trying to get a nice geographic spread, so I’m missing a few staples, but I think they can wait for DLC, it’s my philosophy that diversity should be less of an afterthought 😅