Civilization VI

[bp9801]

Rome is one to watch for in a session. Not always the best to play as, like you said, but still one to avoid if the AI has it.

 

[bp9801]

[bp9801]

[bp9801]

[AAJoe]

I'm getting pretty excited based on the videos I've seen from Quill and other early players. I finally get the district vs. improvement decision making that will go on. While for the most part it seems there's a "best" play (which means no decision), I've seen at least a few points where you really get to decide from multiple possible angles on how you want a city to grow. That's a huge boon over the old system of "Build everything, everywhere."

 

Russia... has a weird play style by the sound of it.

 

Extra tiles is basically money and maybe a minor boost to resources (if you get 1-2 tiles that you'd normally not be able to use immediately). Odds of it radically impacting your decision making or spending is fairly low... so those bonuses kinda suck. On the flip side they'll have massive territory by mid-game, which means there's likely going to be times you go to war and have an extra turn of the enemy in your territory but not able to pillage your stuff. That's where the real benefit appears to be.

 

The real bonus appears to entirely be their Tundra bonus. That bonus makes Tundra the same as Plains, but with +1 faith. If you value faith the same as food or production, that puts Tundra on par with the two best tiles out there: Marsh and Floodplains. More important, strategically, it means your cities in Tundra areas are worth WAY less when conquered. I doubt the AI will take that into account, but against a human player given the choice between assaulting Russia and getting a bunch of frozen cities and somewhere else, you'd take the latter.

 

There is a catch though, from what I can tell you can't build farms on flat tundra. So this means your frozen cities will want to be hills + forest heavy, ideally with a river. A hill or forest will mean a starting value of 1 food, 2 production (3 with a river for forests), 1 faith. That's pretty massive. That will leave the flat tundra land to become districts, most likely... and probably manufacturing districts since you'll have so many mines.

Short version is everything about Russia appears to be pushing it massively towards huge production values and low population, but massive territorial areas. In the end I bet it will be a surprisingly flexible strategy.

[bp9801]

 

I do agree with Russia. Seems like a potential powerhouse if you build cities correctly with it, and can then strategically sacrifice ones if you're in danger to screw over the AI.

[Guest_Jim_*]

Going to put this here for anyone interested in the game's music:

[bp9801]

[bp9801]

[bp9801]

Want to listen to the soundtrack? Well now you can!

 

[AAJoe]

My review is now live! ... but more important - here's an image.

 

 

http://www.modmic.com/blogs/news/civilization-6-review

[bp9801]

At least they aren't shying away from Gandhi's nuke loving ways.