The Tundra is probably the worst location to begin a civ. These attributes mean that Babylon begins the civilization with essentially double the science of all the other civs. The starting bias for the civ is avoiding the Tundra, which is a great bias to have. The second is that Great Scientists are earned 50 percent faster in the civilization. The first is a free Great Scientist when the civilization discovers writing, which will occur quite early in the civ.
Another common quality shared by all of the top civilizations is either a bonus to food or a bonus to science.
Most of the top-tier civilizations (civs) in Civ V are science civilizations.
