Damn this game is hard

[Phoenix]

I've no idea how your supposed to win on higher diifficulties. I accidentally selected Prince on my latest game, I've built campuses in every city and libraries but I also have to keep all the other 800 plates spinning too. As usual all neighbour states are unfriendly. As usual they have managed to out-settle, out-wonder, out-produce and out-religion me at every turn. I'm last in tech, despite beelining every boost I can.

One of the big issues with this game for me is the fact the barbarians are more advanced than the players. The seas are already swarming with Quadriremes and I havent even built a galley yet. Camps on other continents have crossbowmen and knights and I've just built my first horseman.

Just can't seem to figure out any kind of strat..unlike Civ 5, this game just doesn't seem to click at all for me sadly.

[Eldrane]

Is it worth trying a game with Barbarians turned off?

[Fenris]

not sure what faction youre playing as, but in general the moment you see a scout is the moment u go find the camp he spawned from and kill it. if you wait a few turns he will go back and let the camp know where ur city is, and then instead of killing some spearmen you'll have to kill 2-3 units. if done properly the barbarians are a nice source of income early game

[Oaks]

A key aspect of the campus is the adjacency bonus. Understanding that helps much.

To recap: Normally a campus does not produce science itself; it needs buildings like the library to produce science. So just a campus does nothing for you without buildings.

However, there is the adjacency bonus. This means if a district is placed next to certain things on the map, it does produce a resource on its own. The campus, for example, produces science when placed next to mountains, jungles, and other districts (and a few other things as well).

A well placed campus can produce 5 science on its own just by being well placed.

You won't need a campus in every city. Two or three well placed ones is usually enough for me to keep on pace with the AI at king level.

Also, city states provide bonuses if you have an envoy there. Even the bonus they provide with one envoy - plus one resource, depending on the state - is very helpful early on.

Perhaps you knew these things already. These are just a few things that when I learned them, my early game success went up considerably.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by Oaks:

A key aspect of the campus is the adjacency bonus. Understanding that helps much.

To recap: Normally a campus does not produce science itself; it needs buildings like the library to produce science. So just a campus does nothing for you without buildings.

However, there is the adjacency bonus. This means if a district is placed next to certain things on the map, it does produce a resource on its own. The campus, for example, produces science when placed next to mountains, jungles, and other districts (and a few other things as well).

A well placed campus can produce 5 science on its own just by being well placed.

You won't need a campus in every city. Two or three well placed ones is usually enough for me to keep on pace with the AI at king level.

Also, city states provide bonuses if you have an envoy there. Even the bonus they provide with one envoy - plus one resource, depending on the state - is very helpful early on.

Perhaps you knew these things already. These are just a few things that when I learned them, my early game success went up considerably.

Very good, sir, very good It is indeed quite possible to have a district alone produce more science than another will with a library just because of where the two are placed. Even whether the campus tile the campus is located on rates as breath taking or average makes a small difference. To me this is one of the more irritating aspects with the game. It's like the developers took the kiss principle and booted it as far as they possibly could.

[Oaks]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

Very good, sir, very good It is indeed quite possible to have a district alone produce more science than another will with a library just because of where the two are placed. Even whether the campus tile the campus is located on rates as breath taking or average makes a small difference. To me this is one of the more irritating aspects with the game. It's like the developers took the kiss principle and booted it as far as they possibly could.

I think the breathtaking and tile appeals for campuses is only for Australia; it doesn't matter for anyone else.

[grognardgary]

I was under the impression that it matter more for australia but that it affected everyone.

[Oaks]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

I was under the impression that it matter more for australia but that it affected everyone.

Don't think so. Read up on it here.

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Appeal_(Civ6)

[jonnin]

I forget the names, but I think prince is 'normal' not 'harder'. Normal meaning I think the AI gets no bonuses at all.

I keep it simple... settle first, and make some military right away (archers to defend at the least). Wipe out your nearest neighbors quickly if you have someone on top of you. Once you have claimed what you need or can get, then build infrastructure after.

at first, when playing at a difficulty that is challenging for you, rig the map and your faction to your preferred style. Eg if you want science, try sumaria with a mountain heavy map. Make war carts and stomp your neighbor, build ziggys for science in key locations, build settlements that let you dump campus with 3+ mountains around it. War carts upgrade to knights, but you need a mix as the AI has anti-cal & archery etc too. Remember that sumaria gets perks for clearing barbs, so prioritize carts clearing them out when not neighbor stomping. As you get better, you can slowly turn off the tailored map or try different win strats and various civs. Turn off goody huts. The AI will find 5 or 6 to your 1 usually.

[grognardgary]

Originally posted by Oaks:

Originally posted by grognardgary:

I was under the impression that it matter more for australia but that it affected everyone.

Don't think so. Read up on it here.

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Appeal_(Civ6)

All I saw was that Australia gets additional bonuses to appearance for some things they build Not that appearance doesn't matter to everyone else. now how much it matters depends a lot on the type of district. Neighborhoods can be almost completely crippled by being poorly placed.

[NoOnions (Kebab)]

Originally posted by Oaks:

A key aspect of the campus is the adjacency bonus. Understanding that helps much.

To recap: Normally a campus does not produce science itself; it needs buildings like the library to produce science. So just a campus does nothing for you without buildings.

However, there is the adjacency bonus. This means if a district is placed next to certain things on the map, it does produce a resource on its own. The campus, for example, produces science when placed next to mountains, jungles, and other districts (and a few other things as well).

A well placed campus can produce 5 science on its own just by being well placed.

You won't need a campus in every city. Two or three well placed ones is usually enough for me to keep on pace with the AI at king level.

Also, city states provide bonuses if you have an envoy there. Even the bonus they provide with one envoy - plus one resource, depending on the state - is very helpful early on.

Perhaps you knew these things already. These are just a few things that when I learned them, my early game success went up considerably.

Thank you - very useful - I've got 680 hours in this and clearly have not bothered learning the basics!

[Exemplar]

Originally posted by grognardgary:

Originally posted by Oaks:

Don't think so. Read up on it here.

https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Appeal_(Civ6)

All I saw was that Australia gets additional bonuses to appearance for some things they build Not that appearance doesn't matter to everyone else. now how much it matters depends a lot on the type of district. Neighborhoods can be almost completely crippled by being poorly placed.

tile appeal matters to campus only for australia, that is part of australia's bonus. the normal adjacency bonus for campus is this
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Campus_(Civ6)
so what you may be looking at, when you're supposing tile appeal is, for example, mountain adjacency.

on a side note, korea campus receives no adjacency bonus outside of an inherent +4, and adjacent districts actually lower the seowon inherent +4 by -1 each. indonesia, as their unique bonus, receives small (+0.5) for each adjacent lake or coast tile (which can get really big with the normal adjacency for reef, mountain, rainforest or other specialty district)

edit: on another side note, campus (for all except korea) receive minor (0.5) for each adjacent specialty district, plus city center, plus engineering districts. (and there are exceptions to this, for example Japan which gets +1 instead of 0.5 each)

it does get confusing at first, i know, but when you're used to it, you can just look at a new map and say, "if i do this and this, i can have (this bonus) eventually", and particularly if you're aiming for a science game you optimally want these to equal +4 or greater (in GS) for rationalism. but much earlier than this, natural philosophy adds +100% adjacency, which can be huge for leaders with big initial campus adjacency (or inherent like korea's +4).

[Exemplar]

so just theorycrafting, an australia campus next to 3 or 4 mountains is usually going to be +5 to +7 and with natural philosophy this makes the campus +10 to +14 even before a library. similarly, indonesia puts a campus on a single tile island with an adjacent reef (.5 x 6+2) is 5 adjacency, and 10 with natural philosophy, which seems to happen to me at least once every indonesia game, sometimes 2 reefs for +7 (+14).

korea wants seowon to be isolated, and keeping them so nets the inherent +4 (+8 with natural philosophy) for rationalism. you might ask , "but korea gets +1 with adjacent mines", yes but that +1 is put on the mine's tile, not the seowon tile, so it does not count toward natural philosophy or rationalism.

no, a 2 adjacency bonus x2 from natural philosophy will not count toward the 4 necessary in rationalism. it must be naturally 4 before natural philosophy (but slotting both is wholly possible and often beneficial, until "5 year plan" which you'd just replace in natural philosophy's slot).

[Red Dragon]

Just watch a pro play on youtube and you will learn a lot faster than via trial and error. You don't need to watch all of it just the beginning to wrap your head around how they are thinking. I took a peak at PotatoMcWhiskeys "Overexplained" game, some pretty good stuff at the beginning.

At prince the AI gets no bonuses so you are on equal footing with them, I think if you can't beat them at that difficulty you are probably still missing some basic insights. Which is totally fine, Civ is a massively complex game as it evolves into later ages.

Barbarian tech level depends on the most advanced civ tech level, so if the barbs are too strong you are probably lacking in science output or you don't use your army efficiently when dealing with them. Barbarian scouts get an "!" over their head when they touch your city borders and if you allow them to run back to their camp they will spawn a lot of barbarian units that will go for your city so if you can you need to block and prevent that from happening.

[americanman_4_life]

Originally posted by Oaks:

A key aspect of the campus is the adjacency bonus. Understanding that helps much.

To recap: Normally a campus does not produce science itself; it needs buildings like the library to produce science. So just a campus does nothing for you without buildings.

However, there is the adjacency bonus. This means if a district is placed next to certain things on the map, it does produce a resource on its own. The campus, for example, produces science when placed next to mountains, jungles, and other districts (and a few other things as well).

A well placed campus can produce 5 science on its own just by being well placed.

You won't need a campus in every city. Two or three well placed ones is usually enough for me to keep on pace with the AI at king level.

Also, city states provide bonuses if you have an envoy there. Even the bonus they provide with one envoy - plus one resource, depending on the state - is very helpful early on.

Perhaps you knew these things already. These are just a few things that when I learned them, my early game success went up considerably.

Not just campuses. Any productive District will have Adjacency Bonuses. I for one, LOVE to find a place for IZ near Strategic, next to if not 1, 2 of "Aqua/Canal/Dam" as the IZ gets +2 from any of those! A well placed IZ can gain +7 Adjacency, being adjacent to Aqua for most cities, maybe Dam/Canal, with some strategic, and another random District?

Holy Sites. If I know of a Nat Wonder near by, I try to place a city near that, place my Holy near the Nat Wonder for added bonus. In Religion, develop the tenet Work Ethic, all Holy Sites produce Production = to that of Holy Adjacency! So near a Nat Wonder, with couple woods, and a couple districts? I've had one Holy Site in a previous game, set near the Stairway to the Gods Nat wonder (two tile, water shoreline, grants +5 combat to adjacent military units), the Holy was place adjacent to BOTH wonder tiles, counting as two Adjacency Bonus, with 2 Forest, and 2 Districts, for a base of +6 Faith/+6 Production (Work Ethic), plus the Economic Policy card, 100% bonus to Holy Site Adjacency Bonus = +12 Faith/+12 Production, from a Holy Site.... Not to forget the IZ went in same town!

Theater? +2 for ANY wonder (built, not natural)! Also +2 for Either Entertainment/Water Park! I now have a Theater gaining +8, with two wonders, Entertainment, and 4 Districts, in my current game.

Yes, Campus!! Find a set of Mtns? City to Reach Mtn/Geothermal/Reefs the Campus gains Sci for those aswell. In my last game (England, in city of London), I had Campus near 2 mtns, with Govt Plaza (+1 adj to all adjacent districts), and Holy Site, had +5 or 6 Adj bonus.

It's all how you play the game. Look for adjacency bonus for ANY district! Not all districts HAVE adjacency Bonus outputs, but ALL DO PROVIDE/CONTRIBUTE to that of other districts. Neighborhoods, Airports, Entertainment/Water Park, Space Port, Aqua, Dam, Canals, all do not contribute their own Adj bonus, but all do count as a District, and contribute to that of other Districts Adjacency Bonus.

[Dr.Ange]

The barbarian's technology level is determined by the average level of players in the game. If the barbarian's technology is more advanced than you, it can only prove that you are behind the average development level of all the civilizations. I think you may be simply not familiar with some essentials of the game.
You can do better by adding adjacent bonuses according to specific conditions and flexibly using different regimes and policy cards, or simply watch some instructional videos( I'm not a skillful player, At present, the best I can do is to win without cutting down a tree in monarch difficulty.) Come on, brother, you can do it.