Any MUST Buy DLC? Or is base game plenty?

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

The price of the game is really nice atm. Are any dlcs a must have or can I enjoy the base game for a really great price?

[Stormwinds]

Gathering Storm at a minimum as it includes all of the gameplay mechanics.

[RTX 5080 FE(Mr Happy)]

Originally posted by Stormwinds:

Gathering Storm at a minimum as it includes all of the gameplay mechanics.

ty

[Catalytic]

With a game like Civ 6, you have to understand that each expansion added new game systems that are totally integrated into the game as a whole. You really need the full game to get the full strategic toolset to play the game.

To be clear, right now, the game is 95% discounted. You can get Civ 6's base game for like $3. If you're not sure you like turn-based strategy games, if you've never picked up another Civ title, if you just don't know, ok, plop down your soft drink's worth of change and try it. Fair enough. You'll get a reasonable introduction to the game for $3 and can decide if it's for you.

But if you want to actually play Civ 6 the way it is designed to be played, with all of the options available to you, you need the DLC. Right now, the entire package is $25. That's lunch for two, these days. From someone who paid full price as they came out, I have gotten well over 2,000 hours of entertainment from the investment. It's a great game. There's tremendous strategic depth and replayability just to try the different victory conditions alone, let alone to try and do it with every civ in the game. I still have yet to complete that task, as long as I've had it. $25 is a huge bargain and if you've played other 4X TBS and liked them, trust me, and spend the $25 to get the full game.

[SlasH]

Since they are on sale, I would recommend Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm.

For details read
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Civilization_VI:_Rise_and_Fall
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Civilization_VI:_Gathering_Storm

Originally posted by SlasH:

There is much replayability even with the base game. But imho Rise & Fall and Gathering Storm add some interesting aspects to the game, like e.g. Great Ages, Loyality, Governors (all R&F), environmental effects (floods, volcanoes, climate change), power and consumable resources (coal, oil), engineering projects (dams, railroads, tunnels) (all GS) along with additional civs, leaders, units, wonders and more. I have the Anthology and I don't want to play without anymore. In addition, a lot of good mods need R&F and/or GS in order to work.

[jmerry82]

The base game is, fundamentally, playable. It's a full game, and if you want to try it out at its currently very cheap price, go ahead.

The two expansions add new game mechanics packaged in "rulesets" and civs/leaders that use them. They're major additions to the game. And those additions are reversible even without going to the mod management menu; you can just select the "vanilla" ruleset to go back to the original if you don't like them. The two expansions together are good for about twice as many options for who to play as the base game.

The other DLCs are individually much smaller - a civ or two here, a few leaders for existing civs there, some new wonders or scenarios or districts sprinkled around - but there are a lot of them. If you have all of them, that's about twice as many options as the base game plus the two expansions.

Of the two main packages beyond just the base game ...
The first package includes both expansions and a number of the early DLCs that added civs. The second package includes everything.

[Merlonlock2727]

Originally posted by jmerry82:

The base game is, fundamentally, playable. It's a full game, and if you want to try it out at its currently very cheap price, go ahead.

The two expansions add new game mechanics packaged in "rulesets" and civs/leaders that use them. They're major additions to the game. And those additions are reversible even without going to the mod management menu; you can just select the "vanilla" ruleset to go back to the original if you don't like them. The two expansions together are good for about twice as many options for who to play as the base game.

The other DLCs are individually much smaller - a civ or two here, a few leaders for existing civs there, some new wonders or scenarios or districts sprinkled around - but there are a lot of them. If you have all of them, that's about twice as many options as the base game plus the two expansions.

Of the two main packages beyond just the base game ...
The first package includes both expansions and a number of the early DLCs that added civs. The second package includes everything.

base game kinda sucks

[jmerry82]

Opinions like that are always subjective.
Here ... well, the thing is, people who like this genre of game tend to like it when the game has more stuff. So if you enjoy the base game, you'll probably enjoy it more with some of the DLC added - especially the two expansions. And if you don't enjoy it, after trying it ... at worst, you spent $3 and a few hours of your time. That's a pretty low risk.