Any suggestions transitioning from Prince to King difficulty?

[GhostLight]

Very much enjoying Civ6 and all the expansions. Started with the tutorial at the lowest difficulty and have been methodically working my way up. With every difficulty level typically there would be a modest learning curve, but I usually found pay dirt after a couple of attempts.

With the King level, however, I seem to have hit a brick wall, and after numerous tries I'm starting to get frustrated. Even when getting a golden age, I would check the civ score/ranker and typically find myself near the bottom in every category.

Anyway, if anyone has any suggestions please do share.

[weraptor]

You can't expect to be at the top of the score early when the AI gets ahead in the first few turns no matter what you do. Give it some time and you will be on the top, just not early game.

[GhostLight]

@weraptor: Ah, so it could be possible then that I'm throwing the towel in too soon? ty :D

[JUMP'NSHOOTMAN]

If you look here, you can see that King isn't too much of a difficulty jump from Prince:

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

Personally I'd recommend playing a Civ that is straight forward to synergize as well. Incans, Koreans, Russia (especially if you find yourself behind in Science or Culture), Japanese (makes district placement less difficult to mess up, and utilizing the Electronics Factory can be big), Germans (easier Industrial placement, also less punishing if you're still getting used to growing cities), Cree (To a lesser degree but can really help growth and teaching good usage of unique improvements).

In addition, keep learning your social policies/governers, prioritizing a couple early game campuses, and learning about the lesser thought about aspects of the game. Namely Amenities, Housing, and Food production. Also, carefully read your Civilizations bonuses, pull them up in the Civilopedia, since some of the biggest bonuses may not be immediately apparent.

For example: While the Lavra (Russia) is a unique district (which inherently means half production required) giving 1 extra Great Prophet point, it also gives 1 point towards Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. Which is a pretty huge deal so early in the game, and makes it a boon when stacked with other buffers such as the Divine Spark pantheon belief, and Theater Squares.

Here's a couple of vids discussing a few of these topics, not perfect but fairly helpful if you're not too cozy with how impactful these things can be to the growth of your nation:

City Placement:
https://youtu.be/BKZmRBy2QrY

either/and

https://youtu.be/JTVYBA_GCcM

Amenities:
https://youtu.be/I_LH7BdkrWc

Campuses:
https://youtu.be/l-aw6_CPkvI

Beyond that, I'd just say that practice will make perfect, and there's plenty of solid guides here in the community section as well. The one thing I really enjoy about Civ 6 in general is the fact that I'm still learning how to be a more effective player with every new game I start.

[GhostLight]

@Jump.......Thanks man. Although I am certainly well-aware of these concepts, I must confess that I get a bit lazy with my micromanagement at times, especially with stuff like having the right governor at the right city at the right time.

BTW, I read someone's quick guide to playing at Deity level, and two things he mentioned were having a viable military early on (a no-brianer really), and that it's probably best to forget about religion because of the early resource requirements that could be better spent elsewhere, and the fact that with the 7 religion limit, the AI civs will most likely beat you to the punch anyway.

Interesting though how you noted that Prince to King is not a big jump, sure does feel like it to me. Oh well, I will browse through some more guilds, though I must admit I have an aversion to siting through lengthy Youtube vids and would rather skim over a written summary. ;)

BTW, am currently playing the Phoenicians. They have that early navy bonus and shipyards that I really like, not unlike the Byzantines in previous Civs.

[GhostLight]

Come to think of it, as something of an afterthought, the Gathering Storm expansion is rather extensive. I'm thinking now that maybe I should play one or two on Prince until I'm used to the changes.

[GhostLight]

As a followup (and closure I suppose), it took me like 8-9 tries, but I finally have a viable king level game going in the modern era. I give myself about a 60% chance of victory at this point. The reasons for my seeming success now, if I had to hazard a guess, is that the higher up you go in difficulty the more you have to micromanage things and pay attention to detail.

I would also add that I love the Phoenicians, my latest favorite civ faction. Their navy rocks! As a general comment I would say the same thing about Civ6: Gathering Storm as I would about playing Zenobia and the Palmyrians in Rome2: Empire Divided. That is, it's a big huge glorious mess and a wild ride! :D

[Doom monkey]

Honestly, the easiest exploit in the game is how stupid the AI is. Find a neighbor who is relatively easy in the ancient era. Then go snipe one of their workers. Pillage everything and take their cities.

taking cities is cheaper than building settlers and you get to take out an enemy at the same time.

My starting build is usually scout, slinger, warrior, warrior, warrior, warrior. (maybe settler) then archers, archer, etc.

[GhostLight]

People have raged on the Civ AI since time immemorial. For my part I've always found it something of a mixed bag. I will grant you though that a strong military is critical early on at the higher difficulty levels.

That said, one thing I learned in my latest game is that if an AI civ asks you to go to war, decline unless you really want the war. The AI civs seem almost totally inept at alliance wars and leave all the work to you. Worse yet, I've seen cases where you get into an alliance war, only to have the other civ make peace a few turns later and leave you holding the bag. Annoying.

[Doom monkey]

Originally posted by GhostLight:

People have raged on the Civ AI since time immemorial. For my part I've always found it something of a mixed bag. I will grant you though that a strong military is critical early on at the higher difficulty levels.

That said, one thing I learned in my latest game is that if an AI civ asks you to go to war, decline unless you really want the war. The AI civs seem almost totally inept at alliance wars and leave all the work to you. Worse yet, I've seen cases where you get into an alliance war, only to have the other civ make peace a few turns later and leave you holding the bag. Annoying.

One comment I saw was that the AI won't be particularly friendly unless you have a big enough army to hold them off. So having a big army early (especially when they have early bonuses to production at higher levels) is vitally important.

And then if you're forced to build a huge army to keep them from attacking you, why not use it for something?

I mean, you could role play being nice, but why?

And as I've said many times, if they build you a few districts in their capital, it just makes it that much more worthwhile taking it.

[eldiabs]

RNG a good hill city with nearby river and flood plains. Spam warriors from year one until you have enough to take over your nearby neighbors. This will put you ahead of the AI pretty quickly. Everyone will probably hate you, but one or all of them would have surprise attacked you anyway.

[GhostLight]

@Doom monkey & edliabs........Pretty much agree with everything you guys said, especially concerning early knockout blows of your neighbors. I made the mistake one game of not doing that, and needless to say regretted it later.

Anyway, things are looking moderately good in my latest attempt at a king level victory, as I'm about to enter a golden age in the final era. I'm in more or less a three way tie for the space race, and although my production and strategic resources could be better, I think I should be able to win a space race or points race (currently trailing the leader by like 5-10 points) as long as someone doesn't pull a diplomatic victory on me, which could very well happen as I don't fully understand the mechanics of that yet.

BTW, my small to medium sized fleet with carrier totally rocks, although as Doctor Who would say, "Guns and bombs aren't the answer to everything". lol But seriously, this is as true in Civ as it is in real life.

Anyway, really enjoying Gathering Storm and think it was totally worth the price.

[Doom monkey]

If the AI hasn't built any air units, you can pillage them with impunity from your carrier groups. Or just nuke them to try to stay ahead. :)

[jayjum]

I loved Civ since the very first one, I was never a Deity player, I simply wasn't good enough. With that being said, after a short while when Civ 6 first came out, I found myself beating it easily on Deity, so much so I stopped playing 2 years ago.
I started playing again with this new expansion, decided to go King because I had to learn not 1, but 2 new expansions. I really like a lot of what they did in 2 years, but I have to say, King is just so very, very easy. First play through I won diplomatic victory with Maori, this second time with Rome I will easily win Points, or unless I get energetic in the last 30 turns, I will win Domination, easily. My army power is 4 times that of the next closest, my points are more than the next two combined. I don't do the other victories as they are just so easy to focus on and win, I just did diplomatic to get it out of the way.
So overall I am kind of sad that it still seems so very easy, and I have to go Deity just for any kind of challenge is a bit discouraging. I'm not that good of a player. I guess what I'm saying is yes, Prince to King is a piece of cake, don't worry about it. Maybe I have just been shown the matrix, and for some strange reason its very easy for me, I don't want to spoil your experience, so unless you want me too, I will not explain what I do that makes it so easy. It does not involve early wars either.

[GhostLight]

To misquote Arthur Dent from HHGTTG, "This must be some strange new meaning of the word easy that I've not been previously acquainted." lol

But seriously, I was overly concerned about the Incas pulling the rug out from under me with a diplomatic victory, and I noticed a bit too late that Hungary was pulling well ahead of me in the space race (on top of my apparently not fully understanding the new space race mechanic). :(

Oh well, get 'em next time I guess. Still in all, not all that bad considering I was still getting used to all the new stuff in Gathering Storm; I made some modern era mistakes (especially as regards power and strategic resource management) that I will definitely be cognizant of next time.

[GhostLight]

As a followup and closure, I wanted to mention that I finally got my Civ6 win at King difficulty, and what I learned was that not all civs are created equal. I mean, I tried some of my fav civs to no avail, including a close late game loss with the Phoenicians.

I'd never played Germany before and heard good things about them, so I gave them a try and finally hit pay dirt. They had two things that made a huge difference. The first was the extra military policy slot giving an early boost to my military, something sorely needed at higher difficulty levels. The other was the hansa, and that made all the difference in the world. As some game journo's have noted, the critical thing in the civ series has always been maximizing production, and the hansa gives Germany that in spades.

In fact, looking back on this first King level win, it almost felt too easy at times. It seemed every time I turned around I was getting another great person, and successfully completed wonders probably 70-80% of the time, far greater than any previous game I had played at lower difficulties.

Anyway, it was a nice feeling to finally get that elusive king level win, and feel that honor has been satisfied. ;-) That said, the only thing that marred the experience a little was how the AI civs were absolutely abysmal at making war in the modern ages. One time I was targeted for an emergency, and the civs making war on me couldn't manage anything better than sending the occasional one or two units across the ocean which were easily brushed aside. What should have been like WW2 level action was a mere nuisance instead.

On a related note, who needs nukes when you have a good fleet? I was able to raze probably 10-15 enemy coastal cities with my combined arms fleet.