Review

• Recommended


• Awesome turn-based strategy civilization builder with some combat


• Has tutorial and demo


• Multiple ways to win a game


• Each game can last for hours


• Great replayability

After almost 200 hours of Civ6, I find it a good time to write more about the game. Basically, Sid Meier’s Civilization is a turn based strategy game. It’s not completely focused on combat, it’s more about growing a civilization. I don’t really like the combat part of the game, it doesn’t fit my play style and that’s perfectly ok, there are many ways to play. I like to build cities. I’m too busy building districts to worry about units, so my armies are usually very small. Unfortunately this means I’m a bit more vulnerable to attack, but I’ve been playing on the lowest difficulty level to learn the game, so I haven’t had too much of a problem.

Tutorial and demoThe game is very deep and complex, there is a learning curve, but it’s not too bad now that the game has an included tutorial (you can play it in the demo as well). However the tutorial only gives you a bit of a basic understanding. The Civpedia is accessible, but not always the most appealing source. I found some good videos on YouTube including things for “complete beginners.” I learned a lot more than the game told me and I was able to get a better understanding of what’s going on.

I spent a lot of time with the tutorial. I like to play at a slow pace. My first goal was to beat the tutorial, but the only way to do so is with a domination victory. That means using a military to take over every other capital. I spent hours at this, especially since the tutorial doesn’t allow you to save. I ended up watching someone do it on YouTube and I was able to accomplish my goal. So, I moved on to the single player game.

I started out thinking big and went with the biggest maps, I struggled. I watched another video that gave some good tips for beginners that mentioned starting out on a very small map. The bigger the map in Civ, the more opponents there are, unless you modify that. Resources and civilizations get spread out more and it can be quite difficult for a beginner. So, I started doing duel maps which only have room for two civilizations. I also chose the lowest difficulty and I still had some trouble.

The learning experience is part of the enjoyment of the game. The more I played, the more I learned and when I ran into trouble I checked YouTube. This became necessary, because after a while I ran into things I was ignorant about, like the culture and religious victories. I managed to get the science victory on my own with Teddy Roosevelt, which means I survived long enough to colonize Mars.

Cultural victory:One of the victories that caught me by surprise was when I lost to a cultural victory. I had to figure it out, so I watched someone do it on YouTube, which was, again, very helpful. Basically, you have to have the most tourists to your civilization. You can get more in a variety of ways, like building wonders, but having great works of art also generates tourism. I had previously ignored these. Other civilizations wanted to trade for my great works, and I always traded them away.

The religious victory is often the most surprising and it can be the most frustrating. I ended up losing to this a few times by surprise, so once again, I had to go to YouTube to see what was up. I found a great series that helped me figure it out. In time, I found that it was the easiest and quickest to achieve and thus how I shaped my Civ6 strategy. I won more games this way than any other.

Essentially, the religious victory is achieved by having more than 50% of cities follow your religion. You start by selecting a pantheon, which grants some religious ability. I usually go with the 15% border expansion. As your civilization generates gold, science, and culture, it also generates faith, which is mostly used to purchase religious units or structures. You are able to create your religion once you obtain a great prophet, either though building Stonehenge or great people points (choose great prophet in your wildcard diplomacy slot).

Once you get your religious structures built, you can generate more faith and then purchase units or buildings (buildings may come with religious ability). There are a few religious units and they can only interact with other religious units. Missionaries can spread religion, but can only defend. Apostles can do both and more. One thing they can do is evangelize a belief, meaning you get an extra religious ability. Another unit seems to just heal other units, I never use them. Some civilizations have other units as well.

I usually buy apostles, even though they’re about twice as expensive as a missionaries. If I get into a religious fight and I kill the opposing unit, my religion gets more influence in the area and the other goes down. Other cities will convert in time, but you can send units to a city’s capital and spread your religion. Before you use this ability, you can see a tool tip on how many of the population will follow your religion after that action. Cities with higher populations are harder to convert, so the best strategy is to go for low population cities. You can only spread your religion a certain amount of times with a unit, although this can be boosted, which is why I use Mosques.

I’ve been enjoying playing the game. I also like the historical aspects involved. I think the religious victory may be new to Civ6, but it does feel a bit OP. I have finally won a game with every civilization, finishing quite a long goal. I’m taking a break from it for now, but the new expansion arrives in less than a month (2/8/18).

Victory conditions: http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Victory_(Civ6)
A good Civ YouTuber: https://www.youtube.com/user/BAStartGaming