April Balance Comprehensive Civ Review

[Crim]

Patch Notes
https://civilization.com/news/entries/civilization-vi-april-2021-game-update-available-now/

Trebuchet & Men at Arms - So, before early-mid game wars became stagnated the moment Crossbows hit the scene because they were so good at destroying everything needed to take out cities. Catapults were basically a liability. These 2 additions are huge, not to mention the MAA basically already existed for a few Civs like Norway, Japan, and Georgia.

Line Infantry - Probably won't have as much impact as the previous two, also another one that basically existed English, French, and Spanish.

Aztecs - +2 Culture from Arena replacement. Small buff that doesn't help any win condition, but helps a little in general. It's still not really enough to make Entertainments to be built early, so won't have much impact overall.

Canada - +1 Food/Production from tiles. Huge buff that actually makes Tundra good for Canada, before Canada only made Tundra be equal to normal territory, now its actually better.

China - Free Eureka/Inspiration after Wonder. This is seems kinda weak, but its fairly strong. Especially powerful for Qin. This will have a direct improvement to their standard game and can basically be equivalent of getting a few free Great Scientists. Fairly big buff for an already highly rated Civ

France - Chateau no longer NEEDs to be on Rivers. HUGE HUGE buff for Chateaus. They were insanely clunky and difficult to use before. It honestly made playing France annoying because of this. The Yields are also generally higher now too. France just shot up a tier or two for Culture Victories.

Gaul - Unlocks MAA at Iron Working - This isn't in the balance patch, but this is legit. This is pretty absurd and makes their Unique unit kinda questionable in utility... I expect this will eventually be changed or fixed. Easily the strongest unit even among Uniques, and it's similar to Babylon's War Cart rush, but arguably better because its a bit more delayed.

Georgia - 50% Combat Strength of Kills as Faith. It's a buff... It's one that requires a lot of work to achieve for passive gameplay, and it makes Georgia really good at Faith Wars. Georgia probably just went up a tier in Dom Victories. Georgia was in a decent place before, just underrated.

Greece Gorgo - +1 CS per Military Policy. FINALLY! Gorgo has always been laughed at as a Dom Victory Civ, because she was actually GARBAGE at actually doing war. Now her units can finally be a little bit stronger.

Inca - +1 Prod from Mts in Industrial, UI now provides +1 Housing, Inca got buffed? What? Inca is already a T1 Science Civ... What? Alright, these buffs aren't huge or come late, so whatever I guess.

Khmer - Huge Revamp - WOAH, Khmer weren't strong, but they were always a solid mid tier. They got HUGE SWEEPING buffs. They also got rid of their Relic Gameplay, so a few record setting Tourism victories are gone for them. Overall, amazing changes, with my #1 favorite change being Food per Adjacency. Khmer will definitely be a T1 Civ for probably every Victory type this patch.

Kongo - Relics, Artifacts, Sculptures give +1 Faith, no more GWP. Big Nerf, small compensation for it. Probably won't change a ton? Tourism victories will be slightly slower.

Korea - Seowon now stack - Small quality of life to make Korea slightly less stressful to play. It's a pretty good buff on an already T1 civ... so... yea

Mapuche/Lautaro - Ah, these are awesome buffs for Eleanor... Wait... This isn't Eleanor! This is just a little Chilean boy! I'm calling it now, Lautaro is going to be banned in MP games and will be considered SSS Tier. These bonuses are beyond absurd and effective. Oh, the Chemamull buff is great tho, good change there. Also, Eleanor didn't ge buffed... Ouch

Maya - Free Builder with Cities, +1 Production from Observatory... Another huge buff for a high tier Civ... Okay, so they weren't T1, but they were up there. I get that playing Maya can be really annoying because of their penalty, but this feels like a lot.

Mongolia - Ordu gives Siege units XP - more of a bugfix than anything else imo...

Netherlands - Trade Routes give more Loyalty and Culture - NGL, I don't pay enough attention to Netherlands. I know this isn't the buff that NL players were looking for. This overall probably isn't going to change much of anything. But a buff is a buff I guess...?

Nubia - -20% Production to Ranged, UI gives more yields - Great changes, Nubia was ever so slightly too strong, and their Pyramids were kinda clunky and rarely useful. Just great changes all around.

Ottoman - +1 G.Title at Gunpowder, Nitre Bias - I'm surprised they didn't get a free G.Title before considering they get a unique Gov. Getting more reliable nitre is nice too. Great changes overall.

Persia - UI gives -1 Appeal - WOAH! HUGE HUGE HUGE Nerf to Persia's Cultural Game. Holy Holy WOW... I know Persia is a high tier Cultural Civ, but I didn't expect that they would practically gut them.

Poland - Culture Bomb flips all enemy Religion - Hurray, Poland are now forced to help the opponent win! This is a buff... right? right?

Russia - -3 Tiles on new cities, Gated GPPs - No more Great Musicians before the world even know what Music is! Well, maybe still yes, but its a little slower now. Russia needed nerfs, this is a very solid little hit. Won't likely remove them from T1 status.

Scythia - UI gives more Yields and Tourism - Scythia calling out Persia being all like, Oh yea?! Well, now we also have a BOMB Culture Game... AND we can even do a Religious game! Aww, your little paradise was nerfed? Cry me a river you nerd! Probably T1 or T2 Culture Victory now, not a super high tier Religious Victory, but it exists now at least.

Spain - Huge Buffs - Oh man, Spain has lingered near the bottom of every tier list for every victory condition for so long, after Portugal was released Spain was completely written off... These buffs are huge, but Spain is still mostly a generalist Civ, meaning that they will now probably be mid to upper range of the tier lists, but probably not topping any.

Sumeria - +5 CS to all units with Allies. Great Buff, Gilgabro has become even more of a bro... GilgaBRO? Gilgamesh offensiveness before dropped off way too harshly, so this is a much needed buff.

Vietnam - Encampment no longer gives generals - Lol at Vietnam coming in heavy. She was pretty insanely overloaded. This is a fine 'fat trimming'

Zulu - Ikanda buildings provide Gold and Science - It's not really enough to help any other victory conditions, and its not a huge buff to their existing victory condition. I suppose the +1 Science means they get to their rush slightly earlier and can afford a few more upgrades. It's nice that they got a bit more numbers, but its pretty small.


Australia, Germany, Japan - Better start bias, no nerfs... What? Why are T1 Civs getting buffs? I know these are minor buffs but still... These are all civs I was expecting to be nerfed

Bull Moose & Hungary - Where yo nerfs at?

Eleanor, Cree, India, Scots - Where your buffs at?!


Units
Persia Immortal - +5 CS, LOLOLOL WHAT?!
Berserker - +8 CS, -5 CS from only melee... I'm legit scared
Pikeman - +4 CS, Hey, good for you buddy, you may actually be built for the 1st time ever
Hoplite - +3 CS, FINALLY! Another buff to Greece actually being able to go to war.
Mountie - +1 NP Charges, -110 production... WHAT?! WHAT!!!! HOLY WOW! WTF?! This might be the biggest buff to a unit I've ever seen, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Canada.
Keshig - +5 CS, Good buff, Keshigs were kinda mediocre
Saka Horse Archer - +5 CS, Another Good Buff, Saka were literally garbage before.
UBoat - No longer needs Oil. Because Tier1 Civs need more buffs... I mean I like this change, and its a minor buff. My point stands.
Warrior Monk - +5 CS, I would say that this is huge, but Men At Arms are 5 CS higher still. It's still hugely appreciated and will introduce some fun military strategies.


Cultural Domination now has bonuses... Neat... Slight bonuses for the few turns before you win! Then again, if someone is HARD slacking on Tourism, it can happen a little earlier.

Edit - I just discussed these with a friend on Discord, these 3 bonuses would have been excellent as France exclusives.
+Gold from Trade Routes could have been limited to France in general
+Faster Spy Missions could have been limited to Catherine
+Loyalty Flipping Cities could have been limited to Eleanor (and the effect doubled)


Random stuff...
Vampires can no longer use Siege Towers... Cool
Sinbad was nerfed... Good, Hercules too right... right... no? right...
Himiko was nerfed... Was Himiko OP? Did I miss this train?
Barbarb clans spawn more Horses! YAY! Oh no...
Moksha now gives +2 Faith per District - This is actually huge for Cultural Victories, great buff for Moksha, you are now worthy of having a single promotion... Still trash overall.

[BezaoBuilder]

The Mountie buff is to compensate that "recently", they made naturalists ultra cheap, but as far as I can remember, didn't touch the mounties.

[Crim]

Originally posted by BezaoBuilder:

The Mountie buff is to compensate that "recently", they made naturalists ultra cheap, but as far as I can remember, didn't touch the mounties.

True, they went from 1600 Faith to 600 Faith, but 600 Faith is still a significant amount that Cultural Victory Civs don't really want to go out of their way to get...

They could have easily reduced the production of Mounties as they did and they would still be the best unit in the game. Which they arguably already were before this patch...

The extra Park Change just honestly feels excessive

[goatkim3]

RIP Eleanor

[Pure_Riddle]

At least I am not the only person to have these thoughts about Eleanor. As someone who frequently plays as Eleanor. This patch almost moves her down a rank because it is moving so many others up in the tier list. The benefits given by cultural domination just fit so well with what she does well that adding these as her buffs would have been awesome. Feels like a whiff there.

But I am excited and happy to play some of these newly buffed civilizations. Also hard agree on removing Mapuche from multiplayer games he feels mega busted.

[Kornstalx]

You forgot: "Fixed an issue that prevented new Barbarian Camps from spawning"

This is huge if true, because now you can actually play with that mode enabled and not just have a million city-states with no new barbs late game.

[Troodon]

I really hate the men-at-arms. They not only represent an indirect nerf for Rome, but it also really goes against the historical reality that during the middle ages, cavalry were really the dominant force on the battlefield.

[Crim]

Holy crap thank you at whoever awarded this post with Clever!

Originally posted by Troodon:

I really hate the men-at-arms. They not only represent an indirect nerf for Rome, but it also really goes against the historical reality that during the middle ages, cavalry were really the dominant force on the battlefield.

Well, like I said its the biggest indirect nerf to Xbows.

I suppose it can technically be seen as a weakening Rome as well, but you could also take it that Rome was often stopped by Xbows, now they can use the Mercenary card and upgrade all their Legions to MAA.

Also, Coursers and Knights are stronger than MAAs... So, they still are the dominant force on the battle field... Then again, I don't think it justifies paying +60 Production for +5 CS
40% more expensive to make a Knight than a MAA, but then again I guess you're mostly paying for Speed at that point.

[Artela]

They needed to nerf Greece a little on culture... *way* too quick and easy to get the culture victory with Greece.

[Crim]

Originally posted by Artela:

They needed to nerf Greece a little on culture... *way* too quick and easy to get the culture victory with Greece.

Not really? No...?
Greece doesn't have any Tourism bonuses
They are at best B rank at achieving the Victory, and A rank overall for their stable gameplay.

[Hellpanda]

Wait, no one’s going to talk about how Samurai was moved to Feudalism civic tree (from Military tactic tech tree)? That’s a huge Japan nerf considered we can’t Samurai rush now.

[dcain3456]

They buffed Korea. KOREA!

[Crim]

Originally posted by Hellpanda:

Wait, no one’s going to talk about how Samurai was moved to Feudalism civic tree (from Military tactic tech tree)? That’s a huge Japan nerf considered we can’t Samurai rush now.

It's a huge change to Samurai, but it was too big to properly analyze while rapid firing thru these long list of changes...

I want to say, I'm not sure if it actually is a nerf...

One of Japan's MANY bonuses is that they build Theatre Squares faster than normal, which plays directly into Feudalism Samurai's

They could potentially go Monument Start, heavy builders for the 6 Farms, beeline Construction for Siege Tower + the Eureka, and get to Feudalism quite fast

After conquering a neighbor or two, they can pivot into a Science game.


This is definitely a different way to play Japan, and it honestly might be even stronger than the current Samurai rush.

On the other hand, there are indirect nerfs to this strategy, like MAA existing, other civs like Norway and Georgia getting their counter uniques buffed, and even the absurd Gaul getting MAA faster than you can get Samurai's .

[Crim]

I tried typing up a new tier list for Civ6... and I gotta say... it's difficult now

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of Civs that are strictly above the curve

Mapuche, Hungary, Bullmerica, Inca, Germany, Qina, Khmer, Australia, Japan, Korea...

Arguably also, Alex, Rome, Russia, Brazil, Arabia, Egypt, Indonesia, Canada, Portugal, Colombia, Goreece, Scythia, Phoenicia, Byzantines, Persia, Gauls, Vietnam, Nubia, and Maori...

But the Mid Tiers is just so polluted with basically everyone else... and there are a LOT of Civs here...

Don't get me wrong, there are some Civs that are probably clearly below the curve like India and Cree

Also, Eleanor deserves to be in her own Tier... 2 Tiers below the next lowest...

[pether.pg]

I don't get it... Poland got nerfed, when they really needed buff, as Jadwiga's ability has little impact on the game since you can't have that many relics... Compare to Kongo, who works very similar, but not only on relics, but other great works too...

I really hoped for something fun for Poland this patch, now I can have fun helping my opponents win the game, yay!

[Crim]

This is more or less the best tier list I could think of for this patch

https://i.imgur.com/V6yg3FK.png

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2469534915&fileuploadsuccess=1