Civilization VI

I liked Endless legend quite a bit, but I do agree that tactical combat didn’t add a lot to the game. But it was tremendously better then Civ V or VI combat.

I think Endless Legend had significantly better combat as well… and I just autoresolved all battles. That alone makes it better than Civ5/6.

I mean, AoW3 is the best 4X ever made. You guys are being super unfair to Civilization VI.

I so prefer the Endless games to AoW3, but i think at this point in my life i’m sensitive to time/in-productivity/value. It’s why i look on Paradox games with such a jaundiced eye now, when i hear things like the “average” game of EU4 lasts a 100 hours or something. On paper games like AoW3 are better but in the end i don’t feel like i’m making any more “meaningful” decisions than EL, and EL plays much, much faster. Endless Legend’s combat estimate is pretty accurate actually and i rarely am able to win significantly more decisively than what the auto-resolve estimated (where, Total War games, for ex., usually undervalue your ability to win manual combat) so i almost always auto-resolve EL combat. Even so EL manual combat is both really clever and totally janky.

But i also like the aesthetic more in Endless Legend, and AoW 3 plays like complete crap on the Mac (it gets completely confused about that Retina Resolution thing and it crushes the GPU).

Really? I find AOW3 plays pretty quick tbh.

Haven’t struggled with any Mac nonsense, though.

That’s a really weird way to spell Imperialism 2.

I’m home.

I would dispute this. Unless you mean how in EL you spend most of your time clicking end turn…but I doubt you mean that as you wrote:

I’m with him here lol.

A chacun son envie. I disliked it quite strongly. All jagged edges etc.

I would also dispute this. Imho only “clever” if your frame of reference is Civ 5.

Anyway, I’m not the best person to talk about AoW3 with.

I love the game but even I’m not sure I’d go quite that far.

I’m trusting Firaxis’s track record with expansions here. I picked up Civ VI and pre-ordered the expansion. We’ll see how this goes.

Sure, but major updates and expansions always wreck my ever growing collection of mods! 😉

Expansion is 25% off at GMG with EARLYBIRD25.

(Also works with Metal Gear Survive and Kingdom Come: Deliverance)

Trusting Firaxis for anything at this point is like trusting a used car salesman.

A very nice summary of the changes and additions:
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/rise-and-fall-features-thread.624895/

My sense is that for builders, this is going to be a stellar expansion. For those who want it to be a military game, not so much.

Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station

I like this.

Agreed. I personally love what I’m seeing, but then I’m a sucker for all things Civ.

I’m so weak… bought

Well the base game just updated, and expansion apparently unlocks here in 8 hours. So I hope GMG are forthcoming with those keys! :)

So do any of you pro players think these new mechanics, especially City Loyalty, will help end the tyranny of ICS as the biggest dominating strategy?

Bought here too. I’m a sucker for all things Civ, and a builder. Changes look nice for my playstyle.

I’m nowhere near a pro, but I think that the loyalty system is meant to address city sprawl. You can still send your settlers off to distant points and plop down cities, but then you will have to devote significant resources trying to avoid their loyalty flagging to the point that they break away from your empire – and even if they don’t, diminished loyalty will sap their productivity.

But we will have to see how this plays out. They are also trying to create better separation between starting locations, and an unintended result might be more cities, and without the need to build far off where loyalty is an issue.

I think a lot of Civ players are a bit schizo – they are very frustrated if the map doesn’t allow extensive expansion, but then they are frustrated when too many cities leads to, well, too many cities.

I think the biggest question, though, is whether the system where your civ’s performance each age determine whether the next age is golden, dark, or normal. If it works, city sprawl might be less unpleasant because you are always focused on picking up era points to meet your quota for this “chapter.” Honestly, I am 50-50 as to whether this will work; looking at the system on paper, I am not sure the point system or the rewards will click. But even if they don’t, I’ll bet that modders will do some great things with the system in coming weeks.