Civilization 6 - how hard can it be? Uh, quite hard, noob.

[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

[FnG]magnolia

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So, I picked up Civ 6 yesterday and gave it a shot today and, welp, either I'm a massive idiot (this is likely) and/or have no experience of these games (this is true) and/or didn't do any research (this is not true, I spent 3 hours watching youtube videos on tactics).

Not having any success or fun or - and this is the bit that is irking me - understanding of the concepts so far. Does it grow on you? Is it a learned thing where you know that (a) leads to (b) and then you need (c) because that gives you (d) and so on? I thought I could turtle and then just go war mode but then got beat up extensively by some (computer contreolled) dude who took exception to me building a border too close to his city. Had some guys with a harpoon gun on a mother flipping elephant shoot my archer to death which sucked.

Anyway. Is it worth learning and persevering with? Thoughts?
 
Definitely worth persevering with and yes there is a learning curve to knowing what to build and where to place it, Campus/Holy sites like mountains and rivers usually and as such get you bonuses when placed in these locations, then placing districts next to other districts also gives you bonuses. For example if you just stick a campus down on a plain tile you will get no science from it until you build the buildings for the campus, but place it correctly next to a mountain and another district and you could instantly be getting 2, 3 4 or more science just from the campus. Ive been playing a few months and am just starting immortal level games.
 
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is still the best Civ-type game, if you can look beyond the graphics... which you might generously call "dated".
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
So, I picked up Civ 6 yesterday and gave it a shot today and, welp, either I'm a massive idiot (this is likely) and/or have no experience of these games (this is true) and/or didn't do any research (this is not true, I spent 3 hours watching youtube videos on tactics).

Not having any success or fun or - and this is the bit that is irking me - understanding of the concepts so far. Does it grow on you? Is it a learned thing where you know that (a) leads to (b) and then you need (c) because that gives you (d) and so on? I thought I could turtle and then just go war mode but then got beat up extensively by some (computer contreolled) dude who took exception to me building a border too close to his city. Had some guys with a harpoon gun on a mother flipping elephant shoot my archer to death which sucked.

Anyway. Is it worth learning and persevering with? Thoughts?
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If you like strategy games try CK2, is free to play now (CK3 coming out this year) with several ways to grab free DLCs. After you start, you will forget CIV games forever.

Thats what happened to me few years ago when CIV6 annoyed around release time and was looking for something different. CK2 & EU4 killed also my interest in Total War series which with CIV were my favourite strategies until then.

I know the game is daunting, but do the tutorials, watch some videos and when you get the hang of it, you will have the best time playing strategy ever. And is normal laughing like a maniac in the middle of the night when your ruller desecrated some church brewing herecies or feeling sad when one of your rulers played from child died.
 
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Civ is responsible for the phrase 'Just one more turn' for a reason.

As above, placing districts where you get the biggest bonus is key as well as securing certain resources like Iron, coal, oil and eventually uranium.
I focus on building science and late game victories as I build my military in the early - mid game. Shock and Awe tactics dominate and the first to fall is whomever tries to religiously convert my cities.
Most of my cities are built on the coast or by rivers.
 
You've got to learn how the mechanics and systems work in thes types of games, plenty of help on game related forums, Prardox have their own forums for their games, there's TW forums like TW Center and i'm certain there will be forums for Civ.

And of course there's YT, so as much help as you need is easily accesible.
 
I've played so many hours of every CIV so I assumed I would be competative quickly, but like you found myself getting destroyed even on the easiest difficulty setting.

However once you learn where a district should be placed and what makes a good city location things are much easier. For good science look for an area of mountains, if you can find 5 in a 'C' shape - put your science campus in the centre of it, massive bonus from that; rain forest is similar, just remember not to chop it down.

A good science output will give you a tech edge and of course make war fighting so much easier.

I really hated this version of CIV until I understood it, perservere, I love it now.
 
A couple of Civ 6 early game tips:

Don't overlook diplomacy in the early game. When you first meet another civilisation to help your relationship spend 25 gold to send a delegation to them that same turn, if you wait even one turn they might already be too upset with you to accept the delegation. They'll usually send you a delegation back fairly quickly if you do this. Later on sending them a trade route and setting up open borders will help keep them happy as well. A little bit of effort here early on can help avoid a costly war before you are ready for it.

Also check the other civilisations' likes and dislikes. Genghis Khan for instance hates civs who build cavalry. So if you want to stay on good terms with him, don't build cavalry.

Don't let barbarian scouts get within sight of your cities. Once a scout has seen your city an exclamation mark will appear above it and it will head off back to its barbarian encampment to report in. After that the encampment will spawn a load of units towards your city.
 
[FnG]magnolia said:
Anyway. Is it worth learning
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Yes.

[FnG]magnolia said:
and persevering with?
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No.

In other words, get a feel for this noob console game, then gravitate to one of the real strategy games that PDX make.

Or play a modded Civ 4 (Caveman to Cosmos) or Alpha Centauri if they're too OTT.

Alternatively, ignore the disgruntled life-long Civ players and play what you want. But branch out from Civ 6. The franchise is such a shadow of its former self.
 
Smokey Deza said:
Yes.



No.

In other words, get a feel for this noob console game, then gravitate to one of the real strategy games that PDX make.

Or play a modded Civ 4 (Caveman to Cosmos) or Alpha Centauri if they're too OTT.

Alternatively, ignore the disgruntled life-long Civ players and play what you want. But branch out from Civ 6. The franchise is such a shadow of its former self.
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Alpha Centauri Civ is best Civ.

Although I haven't played any mods of any of them, because I'm not down with the mod scene kids :p
 
If you build a couple of military units after building your first city it tends to make life easier, that way you can quickly clear out barbarian camps and even take a city state or another civ that has settled close to you. It could be worth picking a civ with good early game units or bonuses until you get used to getting a decent start.
 
My start is usually, try and settle first city on turn one - never more than turn 2. Always move the warrior before settling that first city. I then usually start with a slinger as that and a warrior is usually enough to get rid of early barbs. Then it is a monument to encourage city growth, then I would get another slinger (by this point I would hope to have the Archery boost from a slinger kill). The first science will be based on whether I want to mine early etc based on the first citys tiles.

I watch a guy on YT called GameMechanics and he always seems to start with double scouts to investigate as much of the land as possible (I usually just use the slingers and warriors) to try and get first meets, goody huts etc for that era score.

Just started with Korea (I am on Rise and Fall Expansion - which is a vast improvement on the vanilla game) and having to slightly rethink layout as their campuses are unique districts that get nothing from being against a mountain and lost science if next to other districts (so reverse of normal) - I did find a nice holy site spot though to get a +6!.
 
Is it worth it? totally, part of the fun is working out the best strategy for the various objectives and using what you have available to your advantage. Sometimes you'll win and sometimes you won't, I think for many that's a difficult thing to accept, but It can also be fun dragging out an inevitable defeat for as long as you can.

I'm fairly good at the game now, but the harder difficulties are still challenging.

If you're a noob start off at Warlord and once you're won a few games increase to prince and so forth... This isn't a game you'll get good at over night.

Online can be fun but there are various exploits which kinda ruin it, some have been fixed but not all.
 
Man it took me a few dozen of hours to get a hang of this game. I had a few hundred hours in civ 5. But the mechanics were quite complicated. The best bet is to focus on one victory condition and looking up information regarding it. It always comes back to domination or science victory for me though ;(
 
My Korea one has me leading in Science (just got spaceport at turn 200 ish), but could pivot into culture as have lots of art museums, broadcast centres and even two national parks. Basically going about as well as any game I've played yet.
 
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FoxEye said:
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is still the best Civ-type game, if you can look beyond the graphics... which you might generously call "dated".
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Hear me out here, XCOM 2 is the best Civ-type game.

I actually have nothing to say to back that up, but it is, even if it isn't.
 
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