I hate that you need faith to by the national parks guy. With the new expansion they added rock bands too which are pretty useful, but you can only buy them with Faith too.
Well, yeah. What else would you buy Rock Bands with?
Yes. Yes! YES!!! It becomes more like a puzzle game than a game about taking a civilization from the stone age to the space age. Bogged down in minutiae.
I am guessing it’s more powerful in MP because fewer people chase religion?
Districts game is ok until you start plopping districts over valuable resources, that bothers me a lot.
Like strategic resources? I notice they changed it at some point so that you still gather the resources even with a district on top of it.
It’s funny because the early civ games were bogged down in late-game unit management hell, while building could just be done fairly carelessly. Now it sounds like they’ve added building management to the late-game micromanagement hell.
There are a bunch of really valuable beliefs to pick up. Gold generation is hugely important in MP (mostly for unit upgrades), and Defender of the Faith for +10 combat strength in your own territory can make you a very unpalatable target for an attack.
Against the AI, gold is really easy to come by and you don’t need much help beating it in combat.
It’s one of my problems with the religious system. Spamming missionaries/apostles just adds MORE micromanagement and moving units around every. I liked the way religion worked better in Civ4 where it was more hands-off.
The other thing I’ve done to help my enjoyment is only play on small maps with the maximum number of civs and city states allowed. It fills up the map, and lets me continue to focus on 2 - 4 cities and military expansion.
Old civ games I used to like to play on large maps, minus a civ, because I liked the settling game so much… but city management is so tedious now that I enjoy it a lot more if I can just focus on a few cities.
My suggestions for enjoying Civ VI more esp. at higher difficulty (playing solo v. AI not multi-player)
In no particular order…
Religion and Faith: I used to hate it as well until I learned this trick. Scramble early to earn a prophet but DO NOT USE IT right away. (Yes, it is hard to get a prophet before they run out unless you use the mod that increases number of religions in the game which I do now.) Let the AI pound you with its religious units, even convert your cities. Make a Holy Site in each of your important cities (or all cities) and only when you have Holy Sites completed in each city you want, THEN spend the prophet and create your religion. It will instantly become the majority religion in every city of yours that has a Holy Site. I usually do this in late Medieval or Renaissance era. Can have a lot of Faith built up by then, temples in sites, and especially with the discount religious units era bonus, you can come from nowhere to completely overwhelm the AI.
Important mods: I use a lot of different ones but there are a few I always use and will not play without. The one that I think helps balance the game better for you at higher difficulty is a simple mod that changes the distance between cities from 3 tiles to 4 tiles. Total game changer; now you can really lock up your territory and leave no tiles available upon which the AI can spring a city up on you. Also helps keep the AI in check from spamming cities in general.
Playstyle: Embrace the chop mentality and grind up forests, jungles and many/most bonus resources early on. (I do always build a farm or a pasture on first available resources for the inspiration bonuses if still applicable; then later go back and bulldoze and chop.) If you eventually think you’ll want a national park, etc. it’s not going to be one of the first 3 or 4 cities but you have to keep up with the Jones in the Ancient and Classical eras. My ploy is to try and plan on the last charge for a builder to chop a forest while I have my next builder in the queue and keep the party going.
Other early game tips:
Too easy to fall behind in Science and Culture in the early going unless you luck into a few City States in the early going or maybe a good goody hut. I typically build the monument in my first city very early on and if I think I need it, in each of the first 3 or 4 cities. But my newest trick is for my first Governor to be the Science and Culture one; Pingala. He immediately gives a small 15% boost to both but I also use my next two promotions on him and take the two that give a flat per-citizen bonus to each which in the Ancient era is absolutely huge.
Thanks for the tip on that 4-tile mod; I might try that. I’m enjoying Jam’s difficulty mod, which gives the AI increasing bonuses as the game progresses but no extra starting units. It’s designed for higher difficulty levels. I’m falling further behind as the game goes along, rather than the other way around – a nice change. But then, I’m not as good at this game as most people, it seems.
I’ve been having fun watching this guy’s comedy experiments with putting all the civs on true start locations (i.e., on actual Earth). He’s got a whole series. I get a laugh out of these.
Jam’s Mod didn’t do it for me. Felt like it had the effect of pacifying all the other civs; even the hawkish ones. Nobody ever declared war on me it seemed like. But I definitely am keeping my eye on it; I imagine it will get tweaked some along the way.
And I tend to like playing peacefully myself but I expect the AI to test me and try and knock me down. When that never happens it’s just too flat.
So, you chop all your bonus resources? Dang, that will be a big departure for me
[quote=“Mr_PeaCH, post:3696, topic:78555”]
Jam’s Mod didn’t do it for me. Felt like it had the effect of pacifying all the other civs; even the hawkish ones. Nobody ever declared war on me it seemed like.
[/quote] Same experience here.
I think that the lack of extra units discourages the AI from attacking. But whatever the reason, I don’t think a single civ has declared war on me while using the mod.
No, like high-yield squares. I just don’t like breaking them up to put a stupid district down, which is only going to be useful after I invest another 20 turns of production anyway.
If you want a shits and giggles game btw, try Eleanor of France in true start earth. Eat all the euros and watch them revolt!
Strictly speaking not all but certainly most. And while I appreciate the +50% that Governor Magnus brings to the table I don’t wait for him.
For me it’s the best way to get level with the AI as quickly as possible, population and production-wise. I spawn a scout or two to explore, a few units to keep close for protection from Barbarians and AI alike. But beyond that it’s just builders, settlers (try to time first with arrival of policy card for +50% production of settlers; maybe one before, then two after.) the monument and the granary. And more builders. Chop chop.
Assuming there are any religions left to be created by then…I dunno what your experience is, but if I don’t build holy sites and create a religion ASAP, I’m not getting one, period.
Fenris - too true. That’s why I never play without the mod I mentioned which raises the limit of religions which can be founded; now everyone can have one. IF I had to play without it then I’d have a plan B backup for if/when I don’t get one of the Prophets that would just use the Faith accrued to buy GP or units, etc. But now that I can get a Prophet of my own (with the use of the mod) it’s really opened up my eyes on how to play with it and I enjoy it a lot more. Love having Inquisitors and a Guru especially and just prey on the AI’s units when they come around.
So what is your typical build order?
Scout -> Builder -> Settler -> Monument -> Settler -> Warrior-> Warrior?
Something like that?
OK, time to come clean. I regularly play with a couple other mods, one that grants a starting scout and one a starting builder. It’s a good hedge against the AI at higher difficulty when they start with extra units inc. extra settler.
But if I didn’t it would probably go something like this:
Slinger > Scout > Builder > Monument > Slinger > Warrior > Builder or Settler (soon the Granary if I’m able to chop some food and grow quickly)