Civilization 6
Introduction
A classic of the “Turn-Based Strategy” genre where you take on the job of a historic ruler to conquer the world. The goal is to become the dominant power on the planet through a mix of exploration, diplomacy, military conquest, and technological advancement.
On the path to victory, you will have to manage resource allocation, build cities, and wage war. It is a rich and diverse TBS capturing all the aspects of a civilization.
Player Mechanics1
- Tile Selection:
MB1/Left Clickto select units and resources. - Resource Allocation: Capital tiles allow you to control city allocation.
- Decision-Making: So many things for you to decide on.
Game Mechanics
Government Policies: Specific unlocks and civilizations in the game give governor tiles for recruiting a Governor to your city. Dynamically affects the game due to how it sets or enhances the game plan of a civilization.
Civic and Tech Trees: Allows players to “invest” turns into unlocking specific technologies on the tree. Each of these technologies and civics is dependent on the type of nation, civilization, and ruler. Tech trees add another layer of dynamism in deciding a game plan.
Eureka: Boosts the tech tree when the player has met certain requirements, like making six farms or killing a barbarian. These boosts are a micro mechanic which can connect to the game plan.
Resources (Faith, Gold, Culture, Science): Incremented counters which can be spent to further the game state. Gold is especially important in the early game as it can accelerate city growth. All of these resources end up as a way to win the game: science, war (gold), culture, and religion.
City-states: Separate cities around the map grant the player’s nation benefits when you complete their missions or send envoys. Again, dynamically impacts the game as the bonuses can grant drastic growth benefits.
Battle: Units can attack other units or cities. Necessary for war. There are many features like terrain bonuses, military buffs, ranged/melee units, and more, which affect how war is done.
Great People: Units can be recruited with “Great People Points” which are awarded through different game mechanics. Again, adds dynamism because these units provide massive boosts.
Districts: Buildings grant specific bonuses and have bonuses based on the tiles around them. It’s one of the more confusing portions of the game plan. At least I have not figured it out because you need to eventually build all of them to meet specific pieces of the plan. In other words, you can’t build one for your win condition and expect it to work.
Wonders: Monuments grant strong and specific bonuses with the trade-off being the high investment cost. There can only be one being built, and if another player builds it, you basically wasted all your turns doing so.
Amenities: Luxury resources which require builders to spend a charge to harvest. These provide +1/2 happiness of a civilization and more if you select perks. High happiness increases the overall resource production of the city. Amenities scale throughout the game, requiring more amenities as your population grows.
Themes and Player Experience
Achievement: In Civ, there is an absolute joy in seeing how you get from 1 settler and 1 warrior to a super advanced death-bot-producing nation. I don’t play only for the victory screen because if winning was my only goal, I wouldn’t have been playing Civ at all2.
Immersion: If you want to experience what it was like for Teddy Roosevelt to build America starting from ancient times, then look no further. Besides the ability to play leaders, the game does well for realism “realism”. Different environmental effects and the routes to victory make the game feel real.
Social Interaction: Some enjoy queuing up a Civ game by themselves against AI and playing it through. I am not one of them. Whenever I play Civ, it is usually in a lobby with other people or when I catch up with my friends. Given my goals, I don’t play to win but play for whichever win condition will be the most fun for everyone.
Conclusion
Turn-based Games are complex. Before my first couple of games and tutorials, I was not thinking about how to pump out settlers in the early games. I am now correctly scouting for the city-state and calculating trade-offs for my culture tempo in relation to my game plan. I am even placing down the markers to plan where my districts should be placed so they have the maximum local tile bonuses.
It is a dark, dark path to enjoying the game.
Good game, should play 10/10.
If you want to play the game: https://civilization.2k.com/