Civilization VI—muddling thru

[Brian Boru]

Wonderful… wonders aren't as impactful as in Civ4, but there are a few with general usage and a few more situational ones.

The Great Library

You always need Science in Civ, no matter what victory type you're pursuing, so this one can be worth grabbing if it fits in with your plans. Or not—it's weaker than the standard city building University, and costs a lot more, so it needs to 'fit in' to a plan to be worthwhile.

The Great Lighthouse

Situational—if you're playing a water-based game, get this early. It adds +1 movement to your boats AND embarked units, which makes a nice difference especially in the earlier exploration and Barb clearance times.

 

[Brian Boru]

Pumakkale for Campus

Pumakkale seems to be a great Natural Wonder, its main trait being +1 of the scarce Amenities, and +1 again with Entertainment Complex. However…

…to me it looks like the biggest benefit is sticking a campus down beside it for a big fat adjacency reward. Do this asap and stick Pingala in the city as Governor—he's got 2 great promotions to go on top of his starting +15% Science.

Governments

There are 3 tiers, which provide 4, 6, and 8 policy cards—you start with 2 from around turn 10. They're color-coded:
Red = Military
Gold = Economy
Green = Diplomacy

I pick Oligarchy in Tier 1 because the Diplomacy slot is useless for my purposes. The 4th card is a wildcard, so I get 2 Military and 2 Economy cards from Oligarchy.

However it reverses in Tier 2, as Merchant Republic is the only one which gives me useful traits—I've turned off the annoying World Congress which nerfs Diplomatic Favor trait, and I haven't tried playing a religious game yet. Hard to go wrong with buffs to District building.

 

[ZedClampet]

Finally played Civ 6 today. I had gone through and downloaded some graphics mods because I remembered not liking what 6 looked like, but so much time has passed since I played 5 that I think 6 looks fine now.

Was a little put off by having to constantly make builders and needing trade routes for roads, but the builders make up for it by building things much faster, and I would definitely not build roads if I was using 1/3 of my builder for each segment.

I feel like, overall, I'll appreciate not having 40 builders all over the map during the end game and having to figure out what each is going to do every turn. I have to admit I half-arsed that after awhile.

Unfortunately, I didn't notice any real change to the combat except that instead of engaging my units, the AI tried to go around them and head straight for my cities.

All-in-all, I'd say it's a Civ game, and that's not a bad thing.

 

[Brian Boru]

constantly make builders

You can get one extra charge via Pyramids wonder and Governor Liang, which can get 'em to 5 charges fairly early on. Then there's the Serfdom economic policy which Feudalism civic gives in Medieval era—so potentially 7 charges total. I always install Liang, but rarely build Pyramids—too expensive.

Btw Builders can repair pillaged plots without using a charge.

needing trade routes for roads

Play Rome—new cities not too far from Rome start with a road. It's the easiest civ to start with cos it also gets a starting building, the Monument for culture for faster border growth.

You can also make roads manually in Medieval with a Military Engineer, tho they are much better used for tunnels imo.

AI tried to go around them and head straight for my cities

I never did much combat in 5 that I recall, but I like the AI in 6, less predictable. Withdraws badly injured and replaces with healthy, and can flank and surround if you're not awake.

I think 6 looks fine

Yeah, me too—with the exception of the leaders and govs, don't like the caricature treatment.

 

[ZedClampet]

You can get one extra charge via Pyramids wonder and Governor Liang, which can get 'em to 5 charges fairly early on. Then there's the Serfdom economic policy which Feudalism civic gives in Medieval era—so potentially 7 charges total. I always install Liang, but rarely build Pyramids—too expensive.

Btw Builders can repair pillaged plots without using a charge.


Play Rome—new cities not too far from Rome start with a road. It's the easiest civ to start with cos it also gets a starting building, the Monument for culture for faster border growth.

You can also make roads manually in Medieval with a Military Engineer, tho they are much better used for tunnels imo.


I never did much combat in 5 that I recall, but I like the AI in 6, less predictable. Withdraws badly injured and replaces with healthy, and can flank and surround if you're not awake.

Yeah, me too—with the exception of the leaders and govs, don't like the caricature treatment.

Thanks for the info. I didn't get into all that yet because I just played the tutorial campaign, which ends very quickly since there is just one other civ. I was in a hurry to start cooking dinner, so I was just pumping out units and ignoring the rest. I managed to capture a settler to prevent having another city to have to worry over, but I just had him fortify and didn't start a third city, for instance. The catapults worked great at that part of the game, but I think I got them early due to it being the tutorial. I think everything was accelerated a little. I know you couldn't get them that quickly in 5.

 

[ZedClampet]

Started a real game with default settings. Got to start somewhere. It's going SLOW. I think I've read the entire tech tree half a dozen times

Edit: AND I'm starting over. It didn't let me pick what civ I played as, started me in the middle of the ocean, and it took me 7 turns to make it to land where I finally set up a city in the Tundra. I played about 30 more turns and just didn't like it. That's a bit of a rough start for my first playthrough. Guess I'll set up a custom game so I can pick my civ.

 

[Pifanjr]

Started a real game with default settings. Got to start somewhere. It's going SLOW. I think I've read the entire tech tree half a dozen times

I don't remember the last time I played a Civilization game on normal speed. My wife and I always play on quick, because then it's at least possible to finish a game within a day.

 

[ZedClampet]

I don't remember the last time I played a Civilization game on normal speed. My wife and I always play on quick, because then it's at least possible to finish a game within a day.

I almost always did that in 5. My brother always does the opposite. Takes him forever to build basic stuff. But for some reason that's the way he likes it.

 

[Brian Boru]

started me in the middle of the ocean

Hah, only one civ does that—Kupe of the Maori, the legendary guy who sailed the Pacific to get to NZ.

took me 7 turns to make it to land where I finally set up a city

Kupe does have good balancing compensations to counteract that—my plays of him suggests that ~10 turns to found a city is fine at King diff. He starts with the Fishing, Sailing and Shipbuilding techs, a free Builder plus extra pop, extra Housing and Amenity, and accumulates 2 Science and 2 Culture during each turn before settling.

He also has a biggie imo in that woods give an extra Production—Civ 6's key need—while left alone, which decreases need for Builder chop actions and of course boosts early game builds, multiplied by the extra Capital pop.

I finally set up a city in the Tundra

You want him to start coastal with accessible sea resources—ideally on a river mouth, fresh water is important for city growth. His fishing boat is powerful, it gives an extra food and culture bombs the adjacent tiles, so leverage that to start. The God of the Sea Pantheon is often ideal for Kupe.

I've had most fun with him on Terra map, where he can have the New World all to himself for half the game—fight off the Barbs, get free Envoy for first to meet the local City States, and settle cities uninterrupted to your heart's desire! Works great on any water map of course, eg Archipelago or Islands or Small Continents.

Coastal settlements can suffer from lower production after a while, so look at using Gov Liang's first promo of Aquaculture in a city with lots of coastal tiles—eg a seafood-rich island. This allows the Fisheries improvement which increases food and production.

SLOW. I think I've read the entire tech tree half a dozen times

Yeah, it is very slow, takes forever to build early stuff. Tech & Civic trees are horribly designed, all arty aesthetic and close to zero usefulness—I still have little idea of which techs & civics I need to release other techs and civics to enable the units and buildings I want, or what the choices I'm currently looking at in the choose menu will enable.

One of the worst examples of form over function I've seen since Lady Gaga's meat dress.

 

[ZedClampet]

Hah, only one civ does that—Kupe of the Maori, the legendary guy who sailed the Pacific to get to NZ.



Kupe does have good balancing compensations to counteract that—my plays of him suggests that ~10 turns to found a city is fine at King diff. He starts with the Fishing, Sailing and Shipbuilding techs, a free Builder plus extra pop, extra Housing and Amenity, and accumulates 2 Science and 2 Culture during each turn before settling.

He also has a biggie imo in that woods give an extra Production—Civ 6's key need—while left alone, which decreases need for Builder chop actions and of course boosts early game builds, multiplied by the extra Capital pop.



You want him to start coastal with accessible sea resources—ideally on a river mouth, fresh water is important for city growth. His fishing boat is powerful, it gives an extra food and culture bombs the adjacent tiles, so leverage that to start. The God of the Sea Pantheon is often ideal for Kupe.

I've had most fun with him on Terra map, where he can have the New World all to himself for half the game—fight off the Barbs, get free Envoy for first to meet the local City States, and settle cities uninterrupted to your heart's desire! Works great on any water map of course, eg Archipelago or Islands or Small Continents.

Coastal settlements can suffer from lower production after a while, so look at using Gov Liang's first promo of Aquaculture in a city with lots of coastal tiles—eg a seafood-rich island. This allows the Fisheries improvement which increases food and production.



Yeah, it is very slow, takes forever to build early stuff. Tech & Civic trees are horribly designed, all arty aesthetic and close to zero usefulness—I still have little idea of which techs & civics I need to release other techs and civics to enable the units and buildings I want, or what the choices I'm currently looking at in the choose menu will enable.

One of the worst examples of form over function I've seen since Lady Gaga's meat dress.

Kupe was actually going fine. It just wasn't what I wanted. I had a nice starting city location where a river ran met the ocean. There weren't any other civs nearby to claim land too close to me. It just wasn't the setup I imagined, and it did sort of irk me that it took me so long to found a city and it was in the Tundra. I'll definitely play them later. I just wanted something more normal for my first game.

 

[Brian Boru]

First Bug

Met my first bug in Civ6 last night. Setting the scene:

It's not obvious there, but I have a Quadrireme [boat] repairing out of harm's way in the city, and another has just been built in the same city—and there's a third in the visible build queue.

Now with 1UPT you can't have 2 similar military units on the same tile. So I need to move the new boat out of the city.

But…

The Barb boat is blocking the only exit tile! So I can't move it!! What surprised me is that I couldn't attack the Barb boat with mine

Meanwhile, UI won't move on from 'Unit needs orders', so I'm stuck. Had to load the auto-save from previous turn, and not hide my damaged boat in the city—thereby leaving room for the new boat to sit in splendor and wait for my archer to dispatch the pesky Barb.

Civ6 is in great shape overall, that's the only glitch I can recall from hundreds of hours play.

 

[Pifanjr]

First Bug

Met my first bug in Civ6 last night. Setting the scene:

It's not obvious there, but I have a Quadrireme [boat] repairing out of harm's way in the city, and another has just been built in the same city—and there's a third in the visible build queue.

Now with 1UPT you can't have 2 similar military units on the same tile. So I need to move the new boat out of the city.

But…

The Barb boat is blocking the only exit tile! So I can't move it!! What surprised me is that I couldn't attack the Barb boat with mine

Meanwhile, UI won't move on from 'Unit needs orders', so I'm stuck. Had to load the auto-save from previous turn, and not hide my damaged boat in the city—thereby leaving room for the new boat to sit in splendor and wait for my archer to dispatch the pesky Barb.

Civ6 is in great shape overall, that's the only glitch I can recall from hundreds of hours play.

I got curious whether this was a known bug and found this thread:

[1.0.0.129] Galley trapped in coastal city, unable to proceed

One of my Galleys was in a coastal city when that city finished another galley. The only exit is blocked by a barbarian ship. Now there are two galleys in the city, and because of one unit per tile one of them has to move out, but can't because of the barbarian. Now I'm stuck and can't end my turn.

forums.civfanatics.com

You should have been able to continue by disbanding one of your ships. If you could, it means that it wasn't actually a bug, though reloading was probably a good idea regardless.

 

[ZedClampet]

I suppose you have to be in the water to attack. Would have been annoying if you'd had to disband a ship that just finished being built. Sounds like a reload situation to me.

I reloaded Total War the other night because I forgot to take my crossbows out of skirmish mode during an ambush defense, which makes them useless and probably would have cost me the battle and one of my very hard-earned dragons.

 

[Brian Boru]

found this thread

Nice one
I agree with LegalizeFreedom's solution. Game identifies a blockade situation—that existed in diff form in Civ4, so should be easy to code—stops production 1 turn before completion and moves item to #2 in build queue, then pops up the usual 'Select Production' prompt for city.

continue by disbanding one of your ships

Yes of course, but no way—it takes horribly long to produce anything early on in Civ6, and I was already annoyed enough from the Barbs pillaging all my fishies by then—buggers had boats out before turn 10!

it wasn't actually a bug,

Yeah, I can go with that, a blockade is a good tactic—and fair play to the Barbs for implementing it. I'll be more careful about considering city locations with only 1 exit tile in future.

But allowing the problem to occur without any warning is a bug imo—eg you get 'This will start a war' notifications, and 'settling a city here will incur negative loyalty' warnings, etc. Very minor tho in the overall game.

I suppose you have to be in the water to attack

Yeah, it's just weird that ranged land units can blast away at boats, but other boats can't—especially ranged boats like my Quads

I reloaded Total War the other night

I often have to reload because the action I specified happened to a different unit than the one I expected. It may be the way I mess around with units—eg going back to 'finish up' a situation when the game whips the UI away to its next action—but I end up sending Builders to attack or Warriors to mine

 

[ZedClampet]

Nice one
I agree with LegalizeFreedom's solution. Game identifies a blockade situation—that existed in diff form in Civ4, so should be easy to code—stops production 1 turn before completion and moves item to #2 in build queue, then pops up the usual 'Select Production' prompt for city.



Yes of course, but no way—it takes horribly long to produce anything early on in Civ6, and I was already annoyed enough from the Barbs pillaging all my fishies by then—buggers had boats out before turn 10!



Yeah, I can go with that, a blockade is a good tactic—and fair play to the Barbs for implementing it. I'll be more careful about considering city locations with only 1 exit tile in future.

But allowing the problem to occur without any warning is a bug imo—eg you get 'This will start a war' notifications, and 'settling a city here will incur negative loyalty' warnings, etc. Very minor tho in the overall game.



Yeah, it's just weird that ranged land units can blast away at boats, but other boats can't—especially ranged boats like my Quads



I often have to reload because the action I specified happened to a different unit than the one I expected. It may be the way I mess around with units—eg going back to 'finish up' a situation when the game whips the UI away to its next action—but I end up sending Builders to attack or Warriors to mine

At least your units try to do what you tell them to. I sent a dragon to attack the catapults and when I checked back in a couple minutes later, he had stopped halfway and was fighting Stormvermin infantry. Even though his path was clear when I gave the order, someone must have shot him on the way and made him mad.