How to enjoy Civ VI?

[MightyCaco]

I've been trying to get into Civilization series since Civ IV. It seems to be one of those games that have always interested me, and I've been trying time and time again to enjoy, but never seem to do. I've tried Civ V, and now Civ VI, and yet, for each title of Civ I own, I can never quite immerse myself into the experience.

I think part of the reason why is because I don't really "get" the game, or know how to really play it properly. While there are certainly victory conditions, I don't quite grasp the mechanics that will get me there. There seems to be a lot of micromanagement going on, with regards to building stuff up like culture, tourism, the military, science, gold, and so on. Between that and managing my own population, growth, trade, and figuring out which technologies to research, I find myself to be quite overwhelmed. And this is a bit painful, because I really do want to get into the game. Its one of the few games that seem to require some tactful thought, and where defeating opponents doesn't always involve a violent bloodbath.

So, for a noob like myself, how should I best be interacting with this game so that I can start to enjoy it? What is the most efficient way in learning it?

[[EYE]Doyle]

lol same here man, starting with civ 6, i just fn can't... Feels like wayyy too much is going on, and my decisions don't seem to matter til i ran into an issue where they had guns and i didn't... so then i started over, then run into other issues. 20 turns to do this, 20 turns to do that, by 40 turns the enemy is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ stacked. lol, almost why rise of nations is a more enjoyable experience when compared to this game, same concept, real time, and everything makes sense..

[MightyCaco]

Ya I hear ya. I mean, there seems to be a lot to learn, but I don't even know what to learn to start off with, or what to focus on. Feels like a rudderless ship whenever I dive into Civ. Yet there are a lot of people who enjoy this, so there has to be a way!

[Elazul]

Play on easiest setting until you get the hang of how everything works. You can pretty much be brain dead and still win that way.

[mvon007]

I came in with V. I knew it was a game I -should- like, and after about 100 hours I was getting there.

Got VI at launch and got through 50 hours but struggled to enjoy the changes, especially to exploration, barbarians, and religion. Getting back in now, there really is a stupid amount of stuff going on compared to in BNW, and so much that I still don't understand. Games are much more exhausting than in V for sure.

Re victory types, one issue I often have is that I just want to play as it comes and figure out how I want to win later, but it really is so important, especially in VI, to have your ducks in a row early on, for most efficiency, and that is less interesting to me. VI seems to have less that changes in terms of replayability. I mean there are the great people that rotate, but then there are the governors that are always the same, and the policy cards, where there isn't usually actually that much choice.

It is also very notable that you can safely ignore far more systems in VI than in V.

[Fatbill]

I recommend playing drunk or in an otherwise altered state.

The AI might be a challenge then (but probably not).

Otherwise, there is not much fun to be had with this game after a couple plays.

Worst of the Civs so far, imo.

[Aeekto]

Originally posted by Fatbill:

I recommend playing drunk or in an otherwise altered state.

The AI might be a challenge then (but probably not).

Otherwise, there is not much fun to be had with this game after a couple plays.

Worst of the Civs so far, imo.

Obviously you're drunk right now

Beyond Earth was the worst of all, followed by Civ5.
Civ 6 is actually in the higher brackets like Civ2/4

[Meerkat023]

It's one of those games that you don't really learn by playing. Just as you don't really learn lore, for instance, by playing Skyrim. To be truly competitive and to understand what is going on, you'd have to look at forums, youtubeguides etc. It's quite a hassle really, but also entertaining once you get the hang of it. (Still Civ 6 is kinda forgiving, so do whatever you want and have fun =)).

[Molybdane]

I think I know where you're getting at. In my opinion, there are 2 aspects to this game which make you lose track of your objective and inhibits a player from enjoying the game.

1. End game objectives. Say you're going for a cultural victory. You build your cultural districts early, generate some great writers and take an early lead in the race. But it takes untill the end of the game to win it, because that's where the tourism and tourism multipliers show up.

In the mean time, the game signals you to keep your science, production and gold income going. To keep your military on par, consider trade and the diplomatic situation. And as a dutifull player, you set aside some resources for all that too. But you make very little progress towards your goal, it more looks like you're averting a bad situation, rather than you gaining something.

2. The boring renaissance. Dependant on your chosen victory path, there's a good chance you might end up in the boring renaissance, a period between the city scramble and positioning of the early game, and the rush towards victory (hopefully) at the end. This usually happens to me during the renaissance, results might vary. I really need to push myself to keep playing in this era.

All this obviously depends on the chosen victory condition, unique civilization benefits, continent layout and at times other AI's roflstomping their own continent or not, but I contend that some of this shows up in more games than I would like to.

[pmgduarte]

I played every Civ game ever released, with the exception of the Console ones.

I recommend you set the difficulty at Prince (neither you nor AI get bonuses) and then just play to feel good. Don't try to win. Make the stuff you want. Feel like creating a city in a certain place? Go for it. Want to make a certain thing because it looks cool? Go ahead.

If you can't, game will tell you why - read all tips.

Basically, play for FUN above all else. In due time, you will understand why some things influence others and learn the game.

It may be that you might not understand everything, or even LIKE all victory conditions. That's ok - you're free to ignore them if you decide they are not fun/too complex.

Remember, one victory condition everyone understands is: KILL EVERYONE ELSE.

(I never understood why the series is called 'Civilization' but I got my biggest Civ scores by being the most barbaric and genocidal maniac ever known to Man).

This goes for all the Civ versions you have, btw.

[Royal Raven]

Well if you are talking about Civ 6, there are 6 Victory types. Thinking about all of them during game-play is not how you do it. You have to figure out which one you go for before playing, during the setup phase, the civ or empire you pick before game starts.

Domination, and Religious Victories are something you pre-plan before starting a game and go after it right out the gate. So if your not doing those two, you can eliminate 2 victory types from your train of thought. Also you can eliminate score victory, that is more like a safety net or a feature to force a winner win reaching 500 turns.

So right there you can clear your mind of 3 victory types.

Culture is one that can happen pre-plan before game starts, but it can also happen in the right situation during game too. It really depends on your map, if you got lucky with some nice city spots, but you can also later on boost culture with things you built and many other things. And also depends on what other Civs you are playing against.

Science and Diplomacy can be one of the easier victory types. You can at times be leader at both and either shift gears to the one you want to win with. This also depends on the Civ or Empire you pick.

I would play on Prince for a while and move onto King. Do Standard size map since 8 players seems pretty balanced. Map type is what you really want to try or like.

I am not a Domination player and since Religion victory I have to focus on get go, I always focus on Science and Diplomacy, I keep Culture in my mind to, depending on my situation or who i am playing, I could shift early on you that.

I think these kinds of games, Civ games, Endless games or Stellaris, a person has to bring in role-play aspect, as little or a lot. Civ games I think you have to bring it more, since its not like the other games I mention, where there is like Event pop-ups on decisions a player has to make. Civ to me is more like a digital board game, where the life comes from me, the player.

I am playing a game right now as Egypt and my neighbor below me is Nubia, I thought her and I were be good friends. No. Early on she attacked me and took my main capital. So her and I have been battling it out to get my capital back. I almost had it back, but I had to retreat, because I had no proper unit to take the city. Later on I got it back do to a join war against her, that I was invited in. I guess Nubia was harassing her other neighbors too.

So playing that game, I was adding a lot of Role-play to it, talking to Nubia, like she was real and I wasn't going to let her rule me. It was fun. I could of gave up after she took my capital and attacking my other cities, but I did not. There is so much character and stories in this game play, that the role-play came natural.

[jonnin]

there are 4 win conditions (base game). Pure conquest is pretty obvious: big military with bombard units and funds / resources to maintain it. Everything else can be ignored nearly, you need a little culture to get a government with some card slots unlocked and a bit more to get grouped units so you can't totally ignore it but you can burn theaters of opponents to get big boosts and use their sites for points so you just need enough to get by early on. And you can smash religious units, no threat there. Science takes too long, and if someone launches a rocket, you target them for war right away.

religion is exactly like military win: you spam units, this time faith instead of gold backed, but there isnt much to it. Load up holy sites, with the best faith bonuses you can get, and go convert them. Peacefully, if possible. All you really need are boosted holy sites and enough military to quietly ensure no one bothers you.

science is a turtle up approach. build your civ, focus hard on science generation and production. you need at least 3 and possibly as many as 5 towns with very high production capability, and work on having leveled up spies asap as you will be victim of constant burnings if you cannot defend against spies. The 2 extra towns provide backups and decoys, you can get by without but nothing worse than having someone capture and burn your production town as you are getting close.

culture is complicated, and I advise to read a guide. Master the above 3 first.

Picking a civ suited for the win condition you chose is a big help.

[brooklyncontrivance]

Originally posted by jonnin:

Picking a civ suited for the win condition you chose is a big help.

This is the biggest thing: play to the strengths of the civ you're playing. Some civs are custom built for prioritizing one path above all others; others have two or three very viable approaches. Some - Mali, Inca, Russia - require throwing the regular playstyle of the game right out the window and playing in an entirely different manner than normal to take full advantage of.

If you want a generalist, try Brazil (the extra adjacency bonus for rain forest tiles makes a surprisingly big difference early on while you're getting your feet under you) or Rome (free monuments makes a surprisingly big early game difference in terms of getting civics quicker)..

[Scroller]

I have over 400 hours on this game and I have probably enjoyed playing less than half of that. It has many great features and interesting possibilities but it is such a disappointment in some ways. Two things almost ruin the game for me and they are: it almost always feels cramped (even on Huge with the number of civs and states reduced) and the appalling start locations that I seem to get way too often (more than half the area being tundra and/or desert in an extended start view). Neither were ever as bad with the other versions (excepting Civ V, which I no longer bother with).

[Dio Aloke]

Civ is a series that really brings to mind that saying "the devil is in the details". I also felt overwhelmed at first, so I have a few tips for you:

#1: The game has a built-in wiki. On the top right corner there's a "?" button that opens the Civlopedia. You can search districts, units, etc there to get some info

#2: I recommend you start playing from the easiest setting and go up as you learn the ropes. Also, when creating a new game, go to Advanced Setup and change the speed to Quick. Quicker games lets you experiment more and faster: try, fail, improve, repeat.

#3: I'll put some YouTube playlists with some tips and explanations that REALLY helped me

BASICS https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7HDSlx8eSxlhBF7oEMVgfYdoxkp1tMMv
IN-DEPTH https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7HDSlx8eSxlSFB_-ljQPG48nAGZVWyxZ

#4: It's really important to expand your territory early, aim for at least 6 or 7 cities (don't need to hit this number right at the beginning, more like 3 then 5 then 7). This is important so you can have more districts, more luxuries/strategic resources, more tiles and the yields they bring. It's really difficult to win with few cities because you'll get locked out of more advanced resources like oil or uranium.

I'll see if any more tips come to mind. Feel free to ask, specially something specific you have trouble with.

[MightyCaco]

thanks for the responses