Civilization VI—muddling thru

[Brian Boru]

Started my first real dip into Civ 6 a few days ago, after a couple of months of occasional Civ 4. Man, 6 is so much more tactical at first glance—there seem to be endless quirks and nuances to wade thru. If you spin to the right while hopping, you'll get a different outcome than if you read a book while eating…

Plenty to like tho, so I'll stick with it for a while—I can always play at a difficulty level where unfamiliarity with the myriad of detail doesn't derail the fun.

I like the greater diversity among civs and leaders via their individual perks and traits. Also like the Eureka and Inspiration systems, which give boosts based on things you do while playing. Eureka is for the normal Tech tree, and Inspiration for a new second tree, a Culture one. Nice to see culture buffed as a much more significant part of the game.

I haven't figured out the food and production systems yet, having trouble growing my cities and also producing stuff in them. I like that the Traders build the roads between their 2 cities, that was a pain in Civ4. Workers—now called Builders—are not permanent, they disappear after performing 3 actions like build a mine or a fishing boat. Against that, their action is instant, no waiting X turns for the mine.

I always played Civ4 with Raging Barbarians, but they're tame compared to 6's Barbs—which I like. Wonders and Great People seem to have been nerfed considerably unless I'm missing something. I've only played a bunch of 50-100 turn sessions so far, and the only of those I've said "I want that" is the Pyramids, which provide an extra 4th action for Builders—seems a biggie to me. However, there are restrictions on where you can build various things, so in my current effort, Pyramids are not available to me.

Took me a while to realize that building the new Districts obliterates the ground yields, ie you lose whatever food & production was in a hex. Districts have all sorts of niggly details connected to them, which I haven't begun to unravel yet—just built the ones for science, military & commerce so far, and plopped 'em on hexes with low yields. I'll need to complete a few games to get a feel for their better positioning.

I like the hex map and the 1UPT—one unit per tile—so far. The Civilopedia is really poor, most of the info I sought isn't there. The screen interface looks to be excellent, but I won't know for a while yet until I figure out where everything is. Thing I most dislike is the leader cartoons, they're so out of whack with the otherwise epic and glorious vibe which Civ has always presented, and still does otherwise.

It's got to be a tough game for a casual player to get to grips with—there seems to be a lot more going on than in 4. But then, 'getting to grips' is probably not necessary to have a fun experience at easy difficulty.

[Mod edit: deleted "first time" from title.]

 

[Pifanjr]

Started my first real dip into Civ 6 a few days ago, after a couple of months of occasional Civ 4. Man, 6 is so much more tactical at first glance—there seem to be endless quirks and nuances to wade thru. If you spin to the right while hopping, you'll get a different outcome than if you read a book while eating…

I like the greater diversity among civs and leaders via their individual perks and traits. Also like the Eureka and Inspiration systems, which give boosts based on things you do while playing.

I really liked the eureka and inspiration systems as well, as well as the requests you get from city states. It felt like having a quest log with things I could strive for the entire game.

I haven't played much of 6 though as without the DLC it feels like there's some depth missing and I haven't really been able to justify spending a bunch of money on buying them, especially since I have to buy them for both me and my wife. And since we only have one gaming PC now and we're not going to play hotseat, we're not getting them any time soon either.

 

[Brian Boru]

You have to plan which crops you are going to put in which fields

Is there crop rotation as well? FS22 sounds great!

without the DLC

I'm playing the "Complete" version I got for $40 on a Steam sale last year, base game + everything. Except it wasn't everything—I thought the DLC'd finished, but no, there are still civ packs after that. They're deep in the barrel now, nearly down to microstates

Hah, Steam just told me I'm missing 9 DLC—NINE, I bought the freakin' thing 6 years after the base launched, and they're still dribbling cash grabs! It's funny, they're actually confusing themselves now, cos I have some of the 9
That's a sour taste itself, but what's worse is leaving very significant civs until this late in the day—anyone think Portugal is an afterthought in world development? Released 2021-03-25, looks like the last one…

One thing which is a big PITA is the initial load time, even after doing a few file adjustments to reduce or eliminate some parts of the launch sequence. One bad thing is there are 3 different places where you have to interact—typically press 'Play' or 'Continue'—during the load, so you can't just wander off for a couple of minutes and come back to your previous save ready to play.

The reverse of that is they still have a quick save F5 and Esc + Exit to Desktop—so you can be out of the game in ~10 seconds, in contrast to over a minute to load. So one end of it is very good, as it should be.

Apart from the file hacks I mentioned, I'm also playing with a set of mods recommended by PotatoMcWhiskey. When I'm more clued in, I'll have a look thru some of the others.

 

[Pifanjr]

I'm playing the "Complete" version I got for $40 on a Steam sale last year, base game + everything. Except it wasn't everything—I thought the DLC'd finished, but no, there are still civ packs after that. They're deep in the barrel now, nearly down to microstates

Hopefully I'll be able to get the "Completely complete" version at some point...

One thing which is a big PITA is the initial load time, even after doing a few file adjustments to reduce or eliminate some parts of the launch sequence. One bad thing is there are 3 different places where you have to interact—typically press 'Play' or 'Continue'—during the load, so you can't just wander off for a couple of minutes and come back to your previous save ready to play.

Have you checked whether you can skip some of those with certain launch options?

I thought Civ V was slow to start as well. It would be nice if they could at least get you to the main menu quickly.

 

[Brian Boru]

Discovered a couple of interesting things…

Barbs won't capture your capital

They showed up very early when my warrior was off gadding about, and my first-build Slinger still had 3-4 turns to go. I decided to watch the carnage… and it never completed.

So I tested again with a quick second city which I left undefended. Yep, they whacked that no bother. So with definite city whackers in play, I took my defender out of the capital again. No deal, they wouldn't touch it.

Barb Scouts are really scouts

Huda thunk it, scouts being all scouty? In previous Civs, if I recall correctly, they were just another unit wandering around. In 6, when they find your city, they head for home and a bunch of Barbs show up soon after. I'd wondered a little why there was sometimes an exclamation mark—as in, ! —above their heads… I'm almost sure now that means they're on their way back to base to spill your location.

I always played Civ4 with Raging Barbarians, but they're tame compared to 6's Barbs—which I like

I've had Barb Horsemen show up very early, maybe around turn 10—way before I could have Archers, which seem to be the first 'can handle Barbs' unit. So it looks like the first 2 builds need to be Slingers, before sending out a Scout. Slingers are useful for defense, and you need to kill a unit with one to get a Eureka for Archery tech, so they're worthwhile. Build 3, and upgrade 'em to Archers later when you have the money, since there's another Eureka comes from having 3 Archers.

Barbs don't heal

I've yet to see a Barb heal. I've parked a Warrior in a defensive plot, and slugged with more powerful Barbs. Not a problem as I heal my guy in place, and then go again, rinse and repeat. This is very useful, as 2 other Eurekas require killing 3 Barbs, and clearing a Barb camp.

Settle for 1 Production, 2 Food

After a lot of starts where I prioritized Food, my conclusion is that Production is more important—obviously both is the ideal. Taking more than 10 turns to build basics like Warrior, Granary, Monument etc… not good.

 

[Brian Boru]

Have you checked … if they could at least get you to the main menu quickly

I was in the middle of checking… and I found it!
This post by Aristos over at CivFanatics has the detail:
How to bypass the stupid launcher

I got it wrong first try, made a path error, so check your path if Steam says it can't find it. Now I click my desktop icon and get straight to the main game menu

 

[Brian Boru]

Mods

Apart from the hacks & mod group in post #3, two I added and find great:
Auto Record Goody Huts
Hillier Hills
Search for them in the Steam Workshop.

Hillier Hills pretty much gets rid of needing to mouseover a tile to confirm if it's flat or not—simple idea, very nice QoL improvement.

Same QoL boost with the Goody Huts one. Usually I'd miss the notification re what the hut gave, and spend a bit trying to see what changed, too often without success. The mod puts a Map Tack on the location of the hut, which you can read and then delete—again, simple and great.

Two others I installed but haven't experienced yet:

Red Alert 2 & 3 intelligence officer voice
As a big C&C fan, why not? I don't know when it should show up, but I assume somewhere in the Espionage system—which I haven't got to yet.

Movable Districts
Thought it might be useful for whenever I get an inkling of good District placement, to correct my mistakes.

 

[Whitelynx]

I believe Civ 6 is a great product, but I prefer Civ 5 with "Community Patch", it's more hardcore. And to my opinion Civilization 6 should be called with some other name, maybe.

 

[ZedClampet]

@Brian Boru Still playing Civ 6?

 

[Brian Boru]

Still playing Civ 6?

Indeed, it's been my main one since I posted this. There's a struggle going on between:
A) Posting about my experience;
B) Playing another few turns.

B) has won all those battles so far

 

[ZedClampet]

Indeed, it's been my main one since I posted this. There's a struggle going on between:
A) Posting about my experience;
B) Playing another few turns.

B) has won all those battles so far

I'm installing 6 right now. I have The Gathering Storm and Rise and Fall DLC, but none of the other ones, which is kind of irritating.

One thing I definitely like about 5 versus Old World, and I'm guessing this is the same for other Civ games, is that the map is easy to get a read on visually even after you've built it up significantly. In Old World I'm having to hover over an area and read what, if anything, is built there.

Bleh, I'm getting random again. I mentioned that because I was thinking about how different the Civ 6 aesthetic is from 5. I should be able to get used to it now because it's been ages since I played 5.

Be expecting a post later where I explain how I've apparently missed the whole point and have no idea what I'm doing...

 

[Brian Boru]

Be expecting a post later where I explain how I've apparently missed the whole point and have no idea what I'm doing...

Actually, that is the point. It better be, cos that's what I've been doing for the last weeks!

I have only vague memories of 5, much clearer on 4. Loved 5's art style, but found it very slow, and I just didn't like that the wide game was nerfed—I like to build an empire, not a super-strong little corner.

6 is both more complex, and more complicated—a lot more complicated, to a painful degree. Hence the no idea what I'm doing… So many conditions attached to so many things—you can only build this next to a mountain on a desert tile… bwgaah!

That I'm still at it, and looking forward to each session, speaks volumes for how attractive so many parts of it are. I'm pretty sure I'm in this for the long haul, so I'll just keep throwing mud at the wall, and then periodically throw myself at the wall too!

DLC … none of the other ones

Won't affect your game, all you're missing is a bunch of civs and/or leaders—there are still plenty to enjoy between the 3 versions you have. You may not have Kupe of the Maori tho, which is indeed a pity—he's really unique and a great guy to play with while learning the mechanics.

Settlers

Don't stop your city's growth, but you lose a pop when it's produced. When you're offered a governor choice, take Magnus in your capital—his second promotion 'Provisions' stops the pop loss from settlers. There's also a policy card which reduces Settlers' cost by half. You should have both those perks around turn 50-60 iirc, so that's the time to spam settlers—maybe from all cities, then just from capital.

Workers = Builders

Diff from previous Civ games, these guys start with 3 actions, and then disappear—so you're going to be building them all game long. I target the Pyramids as my main early wonder, since that gives the guys a 4th action. Then there's a policy after a while which gives 2 more actions, so now you're up to 6 per. If that's not enough, install Liang as governor in a city—any Builders made there will have another extra action, so 7 total. They make fishing boats as well as land improvements.

Religion

I've mostly avoided it, other than going for an early Pantheon, and founding one, usually via building Stonehenge. I'm playing coastal cities mostly, so I pick the God of the Sea pantheon which gives an extra production to fishing boats. Placing a city to have 3-5 sea resources is a nice food + production boost. If I don't meet a religious City State early, then I pick the 'God and King' policy card from the first 2 offered around turn 10—run that for 25 turns to get the Pantheon, then switch to Urban Planning for the production boost. The whole religion system is quite extensive.

Cities and Districts

Diff from previous Civ games, cities are spread out via Districts—science D, military D, money D etc. You build what you want, and then build relevant buildings within the D—so eg build the science D aka Campus, and then you can build a Library there, and later a University.

This is part of the complex attribute. There's a plethora of rules for optimizing the placement of Ds in a city—near a mountain, on a river, by a quarry, etc etc. A hard cap is you need +3 pop for each new D—ie with pop 1 you can build your first D, but can't build 2nd until pop 4, 3rd until pop 7, etc.

Mastering the rat's nest of optimal D placement is likely key to doing well at higher difficulties. Search for "D cheat sheet", you want the Sept 2019 update version.

Natural Disasters

I recommend turning these down to zero while you're learning. Even with that, I've lost citizens and improvements to floods—good news is that fixing a damaged tile doesn't consume a Builder action. Volcanos have been less damaging, but of course they're easier to avoid—there are advantages to settling on rivers, which is where floods happen.

There's also Climate Change late in the game, which is a bear if you don't get Flood Barriers up in time. I didn't in the one game I took to a finish, and I lost a lot of tiles. I've only seen one drought, didn't affect me, and only lasts 5 turns. Same with wandering hurricanes, 2-3 turns elsewhere. Certainly add lots of flavor to the game!

Barbarians

These are their own natural disaster, far more dangerous than Raging Barbs in previous Civ games. I recommend build Scout, Slinger, Settler, Slinger, Builder, Settler, Slinger, Builder. Tech Animal Husb first, cos it opens Archery. Send slinger out looking for trouble—Archery research time is reduced by 40% if slinger kills someone. Slingers upgrade cheaply to Archers, and 3 Archers gives a boost to another tach, so…

There are also perks for killing 3 barbs, and for clearing a barb camp. You'll have to learn not to underestimate 'em the hard way Once a scout finds your city, he hares back to camp and you can expect 4-5 units to arrive soon after. So it's a priority to whack those camps—they can spawn units sometimes one turn after another.

There are no wild animals. One annoying barb thing is they keep up in tech—I've seen them with units I didn't have access to, looks like if any civs has something, the barbs can have it. Another annoying thing is coastal camps can spawn a bunch of naval units, which can make developing your sea resources a problem—they'll come along and pillage.

Eurekas and Inspirations

There are 2 tech trees, science and culture—they function the same. Almost everything in them can have its research cost significantly reduced—usually by 40% afaics—by Es and Is. These guys are mainly earned by game activities, from as simple as building a farm to more involved stuff like having 3 archers or 2 Campuses.

You can also pick up a bunch of these from the goody huts, which is why you want that Scout out first.

Great People

Not sure how that works yet—you can 'Pass' on a GP if you don't fancy 'em, haven't looked up what that means. Neat thing is they're all individuals now, so Newton is going to provide a different buff to that from Einstein, etc. Like wonders, they seem weaker than previous Civ games.

User Interface

Abysmal, compared to what I'm used to with Civ 4. I really hope I'm blind, and there's a shining light UI hiding around a corner.
Let's bring up the chart which shows each city's pop, production capacity, gold earnings, what it's currently working on, etc etc. Nope, doesn't exist—feel free to check each one sequentially. And this is with Spud's recommended mods installed.

What exactly is this "harvesting" I keep seeing? Seems related to chopping in previous Civ games, let's confirm in the Civopedia. Or not—it's not there. Nor are half the things I tried to look up.

Wonders

Underpowered compared to previous Civ games, but some are certainly useful—there are too many to try building a lot, so pick & choose. Pyramids, the Great Bath if you have a long or dangerous river, maybe the Great Lighthouse or Great Library—but mostly underwhelming.

There are a good few natural wonders too, each with their own perks, some great, some not.

City States

Useful, you'll want 1 envoy at most of 'em, which gives 2 of a resource—science, production, faith, culture—or 4 gold in the capital. First civ to meet 'em gets a free envoy, so explore, explore, explore.

Strategy

Clear the barb camps, pump out settlers, get the Eurekas and Inspirations to move research along, explore with scout(s)—who btw can fight a bit. Muddle thru, picking up stuff about districts as you go. That's about where I am at the moment.

Happiness seems to be the main brake on growth, cured mainly with luxury resources plus some civics and buildings. So far I find gold the most important resource, you can do a lot with it. Buy city plots, buy and upgrade units, buy some buildings, buy settlers and builders.

Ranged are the best military in general, they get a free shot and also have some melee defense—so they'll win any 1-on-1 with same era melee opposition. The barbs don't heal, so you can engage, withdraw and heal, and re-engage ftw.

Enjoy!

Despite the complexity and complications and sucky UI, I'm really enjoying it. There's a lot to like—the maps are much bigger than previous Civ games, even Duel or Tiny has a lot in 'em.

 

[ZedClampet]

Actually, that is the point. It better be, cos that's what I've been doing for the last weeks!

I have only vague memories of 5, much clearer on 4. Loved 5's art style, but found it very slow, and I just didn't like that the wide game was nerfed—I like to build an empire, not a super-strong little corner.

6 is both more complex, and more complicated—a lot more complicated, to a painful degree. Hence the no idea what I'm doing… So many conditions attached to so many things—you can only build this next to a mountain on a desert tile… bwgaah!

That I'm still at it, and looking forward to each session, speaks volumes for how attractive so many parts of it are. I'm pretty sure I'm in this for the long haul, so I'll just keep throwing mud at the wall, and then periodically throw myself at the wall too!


Won't affect your game, all you're missing is a bunch of civs and/or leaders—there are still plenty to enjoy between the 3 versions you have. You may not have Kupe of the Maori tho, which is indeed a pity—he's really unique and a great guy to play with while learning the mechanics.

Settlers

Don't stop your city's growth, but you lose a pop when it's produced. When you're offered a governor choice, take Magnus in your capital—his second promotion 'Provisions' stops the pop loss from settlers. There's also a policy card which reduces Settlers' cost by half. You should have both those perks around turn 50-60 iirc, so that's the time to spam settlers—maybe from all cities, then just from capital.

Workers = Builders

Diff from previous Civ games, these guys start with 3 actions, and then disappear—so you're going to be building them all game long. I target the Pyramids as my main early wonder, since that gives the guys a 4th action. Then there's a policy after a while which gives 2 more actions, so now you're up to 6 per. If that's not enough, install Liang as governor in a city—any Builders made there will have another extra action, so 7 total. They make fishing boats as well as land improvements.

Religion

I've mostly avoided it, other than going for an early Pantheon, and founding one, usually via building Stonehenge. I'm playing coastal cities mostly, so I pick the God of the Sea pantheon which gives an extra production to fishing boats. Placing a city to have 3-5 sea resources is a nice food + production boost. If I don't meet a religious City State early, then I pick the 'God and King' policy card from the first 2 offered around turn 10—run that for 25 turns to get the Pantheon, then switch to Urban Planning for the production boost. The whole religion system is quite extensive.

Cities and Districts

Diff from previous Civ games, cities are spread out via Districts—science D, military D, money D etc. You build what you want, and then build relevant buildings within the D—so eg build the science D aka Campus, and then you can build a Library there, and later a University.

This is part of the complex attribute. There's a plethora of rules for optimizing the placement of Ds in a city—near a mountain, on a river, by a quarry, etc etc. A hard cap is you need +3 pop for each new D—ie with pop 1 you can build your first D, but can't build 2nd until pop 4, 3rd until pop 7, etc.

Mastering the rat's nest of optimal D placement is likely key to doing well at higher difficulties. Search for "D cheat sheet", you want the Sept 2019 update version.

Natural Disasters

I recommend turning these down to zero while you're learning. Even with that, I've lost citizens and improvements to floods—good news is that fixing a damaged tile doesn't consume a Builder action. Volcanos have been less damaging, but of course they're easier to avoid—there are advantages to settling on rivers, which is where floods happen.

There's also Climate Change late in the game, which is a bear if you don't get Flood Barriers up in time. I didn't in the one game I took to a finish, and I lost a lot of tiles. I've only seen one drought, didn't affect me, and only lasts 5 turns. Same with wandering hurricanes, 2-3 turns elsewhere. Certainly add lots of flavor to the game!

Barbarians

These are their own natural disaster, far more dangerous than Raging Barbs in previous Civ games. I recommend build Scout, Slinger, Settler, Slinger, Builder, Settler, Slinger, Builder. Tech Animal Husb first, cos it opens Archery. Send slinger out looking for trouble—Archery research time is reduced by 40% if slinger kills someone. Slingers upgrade cheaply to Archers, and 3 Archers gives a boost to another tach, so…

There are also perks for killing 3 barbs, ad for clearing a barb camp. You'll have to learn not to underestimate 'em the hard way Once a scout finds your city, he hares back to camp and you can expect 4-5 units to arrive soon after. So it's a priority to whack those camps—they can spawn units sometimes one turn after another.

There are no wild animals. One annoying barb thing is they keep up in tech—I've seen them with units I didn't have access to, looks like if any civs has something, the barbs can have it. Another annoying thing is coastal camps can spawn a bunch of naval units, which can make developing your sea resources a problem—they'll come along and pillage.

Eurekas and Inspirations

There are 2 tech trees, science and culture—they function the same. Almost everything in them can have its research cost significantly reduced—usually by 40% afaics—by Es and Is. These guys are mainly earned by game activities, from as simple as building a farm to more involved stuff like having 3 archers or 2 Campuses.

You can also pick up a bunch of these from the goody huts, which is why you want that Scout out first.

Great People

Not sure how that works yet—you can 'Pass' on a GP if you don't fancy 'em, haven't looked up what that means. Neat thing is they're all individuals now, so Newton is going to provide a different buff to that from Einstein, etc. Like wonders, they seem weaker than previous Civ games.

User Interface

Abysmal, compared to what I'm used to with Civ 4. I really hope I'm blind, and there's a shining light UI hiding around a corner.
Let's bring up the chart which shows each city's pop, production capacity, gold earnings, what it's currently working on, etc etc. Nope, doesn't exist—feel free to check each one sequentially. And this is with Spud's recommended mods installed.

What exactly is this "harvesting" I keep seeing? Seems related to chopping in previous Civ games, let's confirm in the Civopedia. Or not—it's not there. Nor are half the things I tried to look up.

Wonders

Underpowered compared to previous Civ games, but some are certainly useful—there are too many to try building a lot, so pick & choose. Pyramids, the Great bath if you have a long or dangerous river, maybe the Great Lighthouse or Great Library—but mostly underwhelming.

There are a good few natural wonders too, each with their own perks, some great, some not.

City States

Useful, you'll want 1 envoy at most of 'em, which gives 2 of a resource—science, production, faith, culture—or 4 gold in the capital. First civ to meet 'em gets a free envoy, so explore, explore, explore.

Strategy

Clear the barb camps, pump out settlers, get the Eurekas and Inspirations to move research along, explore with scout(s)—who btw can fight a bit. Muddle thru, picking up stuff about districts as you go. That's about where I am at the moment.

Happiness seems to be the main brake on growth, cured mainly with luxury resources plus some civics and buildings. So far I find gold the most important resource, you can do a lot with it. Buy city plots, buy and upgrade units, buy some buildings, buy settlers and builders.

Ranged are the best military in general, they get a free shot and also have some melee defense—so they'll win any 1-on-1 with same era melee opposition. The barbs don't heal, so you can engage, withdraw and heal, and re-engage ftw.

Enjoy!

Despite the complexity and complications and sucky UI, I'm really enjoying it. There's a lot to like—the maps are much bigger than previous Civ games, even Duel or Tiny has a lot in 'em.

I'm beginning to suspect Civ 5 was the Idiot Edition. No wonder I spent so much time with it.

 

[Brian Boru]

Load, Save, Exit

F5 = quick Save
F6 = quick Load
This works very well, even in the middle of a turn afaics.

I haven't been able to find a way to launch directly to the QuickSave file from a desktop icon, it still stops at the main menu. If anyone's cracked it, please share.

As with previous Civs, the Esc menu has 'Exit to Desktop'—very good.
There's also a great 'Restart' in the menu—it rerolls your current setup with a new map.

Custom Advanced Menu

I don't think I've actually looked at the default 'Play Now' menus yet. I go into 'Create Game' and then 'Advanced' at the bottom of that.

Loads of choices and options there to get the game you want. If you find a setup you want to repeat a few times, use the 'Save Config' button at the bottom—next time you start a game, use 'Load Config'. You can have a load of diff configs saved, great time saver.

Don't miss the scrollbar on the right in the Advanced menu, I'd probably rolled 10 games before I spotted there were more options down there

Turns are Slooow

My PC is 5 years old, which is still 2 years after Civ 6 launch—around same time as the 2nd expansion. So I should be fine with my i7-7 and 1060.

I played first with the default 5-6 opponents—small map if I recall correctly—and even early on the turns were taking 20-30 seconds. Didn't take me long to turn on 'Quick Movement' in the 'Game' options, it's off by default. That helped a lot, but it's still not as fast as I'd like.

There's also an annoying 'Unit needs orders' every time I click Next Turn—obviously the idle unit cycling doesn't fully gel with the software's action sequencing.

Get the Map Tacks mod

I have ~30 mods installed, but the one which shines in the foreground is Map Tacks. It allows you to put tags on the map as you see things, eg new city spot, goody hut, barb camp etc etc.
Shift+A to add a tack to the tile your mouse is over;
Shift+D to delete a tack.

 

[Brian Boru]

Build Power Stations, or not?

Took my second game to a finish—still just practice v one AI on Prince. Due to my flood problems mentioned above, I avoided coal and oil PS and waited for nuclear. ~30 turns later, Radioactive steam leak! 5 turns after that, Radiation leak—in a diff reactor. So I learned about 'recommissioning' the nuke plants—spending typically 4 turns making like new.

All fine, except… if I'm going to spend say 1/6th of city production baby sitting the nukes, is it worth building them at all? I'm not clear what the effects of leaving a city unpowered are—slower performance than when powered of course, but by how much?

I have a feeling the production saved on initial build and then periodic maintenance would make up for not having power. Anyone have a handle on this?

Small Island Cities

I founded a city on a 2-tile tundra island just cos—lots of seafood—and stuck an Industrial zone on the other tile. I was surprised at how well it developed, with Harbor + Lighthouse etc—even got the Great Lighthouse wonder there later. So they're viable.

Is there a Log of Events?

'You completed a City State request'—nice, but I'd like to know what it was. I saw it 10-30 turns ago, but totally forgotten now.
'You triggered an Eureka/Inspiration for…—nice, but I'd like to know what the trigger was. I saw it 10-30 turns ago, but totally forgotten now. Yes, it's in the tech tree, but…
Plus various other events.

Civ4 had a log of each turns events, I don't see anything in Civ6 other than the history of main periodic events.

Governor Liang in Builder City

Liang's initial perk is an extra action for Builders, so I put her in a lesser coastal city and basically produced all my Builders there. I already had the Pyramids which is another extra action empire-wide, and not too long after I got the policy card which gives 2 extra actions. So I ended up with 7 actions on each Builder, which is more than double the unbuffed 3 they get.

You need a steady stream of Builders until the late game, so seems a great investment to me. There is an early policy I also snagged which knocks 30% off the cost of producing builders—allied with the 50% off Settler cost policy and you have a good basis for rapid expansion and development.

 

[Brian Boru]

Oh gosh, is that the time? I see RPG masochists playing Necro characters, so figured I'd play it on this thread
Besides, useful info in previous posts is all still relevant to new Civ6 players.

Civ4 with Raging Barbarians, but they're tame compared to 6's Barbs—which I like

He's not kidding, here's a pic from Turn 18 of my current game:

3 freakin' Galleys and a Spearman already from that Barb camp! I've seen an occasional early Horseman before, but never this full load.

I'm playing Kupe the Maori, who starts with some sailing tech, which presumably is what makes boats available to the Barbs.

I've never had an era score anywhere near this heading into Classical—I need 25 for a Golden Age and have 39, ie more than 50% extra! It's usually a struggle to hit the GA score, previous game I was 16 at this stage if I recall correctly.

I didn't take notice during play, but I have to assume it came from clearing out a lot of Barbs on sea and land—they were just all-round vicious this game.

 

[Brian Boru]

Careful improving Horses early on

Horseman, Horseman, my Kingdom for a Horseman

Latest game I have Horses in capital's first ring—they show up once you research Animal Husbandry, which is always my 1st [or sometimes 2nd if I need Mining for Stone first] tech with Kupe of Maori—I have Resources set to 'Abundant' in game setup, which improves odds of such goodies.

Built a horse pasture while Slinger was exploring for 2nd city site—this is on Terra map, starting Warrior is away on other continent meeting their civs and City States.

Slinger engages & chases Barb Scout. Barb Horseman shows up & whacks Slinger big-time, just escapes into ocean—he was exploring coastline. 2nd Slinger kills Scout, so I switch research to Archery which got boosted by that kill [40% off].

3rd Slinger out now, first 2 brought back to capital, only 3 turns for Archery and I have the gold to upgrade all 3 Slingers to Archers—which is main reason for building them rather than Warriors, which would be more effective short-term.

So all is well. Well… 2 Barb Horsemen and a barb Horse Archer show up—they must've been spawned almost one after another! Only 2 turns to Archery—aka 'just two more turns'

Slinger whacks Horseman, Horseman whacks Slinger right back atcha, lot of damage, maybe ~80%. But Slinger's got a promo, so activate that and Health back up to ~75%. 2nd Slinger in Capital so safe, 3rd one behind the active guy, also safe.

Just one more turn. Slinger whacks Horseman again. Barbs pull very damaged Horseman back out of range and send in Horse Archer for a volley. Gulp. Then fresh 2nd Horseman comes charging thru…

Alas, poor Slinger! I knew him, Horatio… 💀

No more turns, wonderful! Archers, with an attack range of 2, twoderful!! Upgraded remaining 2 Slingers immediately and whacked Barbs and their nearby camp over next few turns.

Note to self: Don't improve Horses until ready for consequences.
Self: Now he tells me.

Pillaging doesn't kill improvements

Huh, had forgotten this.

During above skirmish, Barbs had pillaged my Stone and Horses tiles—and to add insult, when my border expanded to include Fish and I made Fishing Boat improvement… a Barb Galley arrived in short order to pillage that too!

Those 3 builds had used up my starting Builder—Kupe gets a freebie to compensate for delay in settling—so I had to build another to redo them. I wasn't looking forward to losing him too, Settlers need building early on, nothing else except minimum military.

Sent new Builder to Fish site. No 'build fishing boat' action symbol. Whaat? Consternation. After various puzzled pokings, found the Repair icon on the Builder's action panel. Huh, okay, but why bother with a needless extra action?

Because doing the repair doesn't consume a Builder action, that's the why! Repair Stone and Horses too, and still got 3 actions on my new Builder—sweet, nice surprise after the earlier annoyance

Ideal City site

Did a bunch of restarts to try variations, and as far as I can see the default optimal city site is:
On a Plains Hill;
On fresh water.

Water gives extra Housing which you need for population growth, and Plains Hill is only plot I found which provides 2 Production to the city center.

You also want nearby resources, and of course adapt this to your civ's and leader's traits—eg with Kupe you want coastal locations with sea resources.

 

[Brian Boru]

Oops, the Pihanga volcano has become active

…but it shouldn't bother the Aqueduct in the distance.

I got another Golden Age, just barely, for the next era.

I've never had that before—2 GAs in a row—so probably due to the big overshoot for the first one carrying forward. I haven't looked into it, I'm not targeting GAs at this stage of my learning

 

[Brian Boru]

Horses again, and Intensive Care

This game, I didn't improve Horses—but clearly someone else did, very likely this guy:

Wherever they came from, same as before, 2 Horsemen and a Horse Archer showed up before I had Archery. Luckily this time I had produced a couple of Warriors as well as Slingers, so fared much better—lost one Warrior, but no pillaging.

See the Health bars on the 2 remaining Barbs and my left-side Warrior? Even magnifying to 200%, I can't see even a smidgen of health on any of the 3—talk about at death's door! But got me a cheap Slinger kill to boost Archery, so no complaint.

PS that's horse lover Genghis in the first pic.

Intercontinental Angst

But… but… I'm on a different continent, across a big ocean! Are you Cyrus the Great or Cyrus the Sissy?

 

[Brian Boru]

Good Capital

I didn't get fresh water, but I did get a plains hill plus some other great tiles. This enabled me to make Warriors in 2 turns, which is twice as fast as normal, and generally produce everything else much quicker.

See all those land tiles, 3 with 3x production and 3 more with 2x—and all with 2x food, so self-supporting for food. Then there are the 2 sea tiles with 2x production also, and 4x food!

This is part of Kupe's traits, which I hadn't paid enough attention to previously—mainly that woods and rainforests give +1 production without any improvement. Big early boost, and saves on Builders needed to get good yields. Fishing boats also give an extra food compared to other leaders.

A Whale of a City

Look at my 3rd city:

There are 8 sea resources to be improved eventually! 6 Whales and 2 Fish—you can see the effect of one of the Whales already improved. A 7-yield tile 3-2-2 is huge [4-yield is good], and I'll have 6 of 'em eventually—plus 2 Fish, 2 wooded hills, Horses and Stone to come…

I may let this game play out longer than usual just to see how these cities end up.

God of the Seas Pantheon

If you're wondering where the production on sea resources comes from, behold the GotS Pantheon which gives +1 production to fishing boats—this should be your default for Kupe. Get it asap via God King in the first Policy change around turn 10.

 

[Brian Boru]

Great Lighthouse

Being sea-focused with Kupe of the Maori, I like to grab this when it's available—the AI civs don't seem to prioritize it, they seem to chase religious ones + Great Bath.

Its main benefit is +1 movement to all units in water—not just boats, also embarked units, which was a nice surprise omitted from the bad Civopedia. Very handy for chasing down Barb raiders or making a surprise coastal raid on a Barb camp to weaken 'em—or destroy the garrison over a few turns if they don't have boats nearby… but they usually do.

Governor Magnus

This game I avoided Pingala and Leang, and went for pretty boy Magnus in my capital.

His starting benefit is almost useless for Kupe, since we want to leave a lot of terrain untouched due to Kupe's +1 production. However, 2 & 3 are really good.

With the good production, I decided to use the capital to produce mainly Settlers and Builders. Magnus' #2 of not costing a pop for each Settler let my Cap grow nicely. Matched this with the Civics Policies for -50% Settler cost and -30% Builder.

Magnus #3 is also a biggie. Instead of a Horse and a Sword costing 20 Horses and 20 Iron, they only cost 4 resources. As I expect an unfriendly visit from Genghis—just coz he Khan—that will be a major help to churning out strong units quickly.

 

[Brian Boru]

Combat 101

For folk new to Civ, here's the basic simplest military assault formation.

Enemy is the Barb Camp with a Spearman bottom left, with a Barb Scout nearby. I'm approaching with my melee guy—Warrior—in front and ranged guy—Archer—one step behind. Next turn, if I ignore the Scout, Warrior will be beside camp and Archer will be in range directly behind him.

Melee units have an attack range of 1, iow they must be beside an enemy to attack. Ranged units from Archer up—ie not Slinger—have an attack range of 2, so they can fire over the Warrior. Warrior's job is to fortify and protect Archer, while Archer does the attacking.

Shooting Fish over a Barrel

One of Kupe's starting techs is Shipbuilding, which allows all land units to embark, makes ranged boat Quadrireme available, and allows ocean travel. Without this, only coastal travel by Galleys is possible.

3 Barb Galleys, one partly hidden behind the Crabs, and my Quad [in the white circle]. My Quad is in an ocean tile—they're the ones with only a green food icon, no gold icon. Gold icon means a coastal tile, not ocean—where the 3 Barb boats are.

Since Galleys can't enter the ocean, they can't use their melee attack on my Quad.
As an aside: From the little I've seen, it also seems that Barb Quads can't attack an ocean tile—but I'm not sure about that, it could be that they simply withdrew from combat.

The screenie is after 5-6 turns of this situation, which has left the Barb boats in poor shape. Another few turns finished 'em off.

I am loving this guy Kupe with all his unusual traits, great fun to play with so far while learning.

 

[Brian Boru]

Galley Ambush!

As we know, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. I'm gonna be paranoid about Barb boats from now on.

Coast was clear—heh heh—when I sent Quad in to knock some skelps off the Barb camp. End Turn, and outa nowhere like a synchronized swim team, 3 Galleys surround me—with a 4th coming from the SE for good measure.

Zone of Control means I can't leg it outa there—oar it?—did well I suppose to live thru round 1. Round 2… RIP my noble Quaddies.

Massive Science start

Tried this for a small bit.

That's the Galapagos Islands natural wonder which gives buckets of science. Great, except working the science tiles means not working the few production tiles. Not much use having Swordsmen researched if it's taking 8 turns to make a Warrior! So yeah, nice try, but balance is essential to make decent progress.

Custom Game menus

A couple of screens involved to make a custom game setup. In this first one…

…click on Create Game bottom right.

This brings up this second screen…

…where you don't make any selections, but rather click on Advanced Setup at the bottom.

That brings you into the screen where you can make loads of selections. Post below if you want my novice views on any particular ones.

 

[Pifanjr]

As we know, it's not paranoia if they really are out to get you. I'm gonna be paranoid about Barb boats from now on.

So they aren't really out to get you, but you're going to think so anyway?

 

[Brian Boru]

So they aren't really out to get you, but you're going to think so anyway?

Exactly, you have identified one of my key traits. I need to tech to Axels asap cos that gets me a free head swivel every turn!