Civilization VI: Forgo Diplomacy and Wield A Big Stick


Civilization VI:

Even before Districts are built and technology runs amok, the player's civilization encounters other powers. First there are the stationary, stagnant City States. I have despised City States since they were introduced in Civ V. These non-playable single city nations never compete for global control. They are speed bumps and space occupiers. They do nothing except slow down the expansion of civilizations. In Civ VI City States are more frustrating, because it's difficult, if not impossible, to see who they are allied with. While each City State has a Suzerain, it's impossible to know who they will aid in a war. In the middle of some wars, a City State which had joined one side or another, suddenly withdraws from the fighting. I always reduced the number of City States on a map by half.

The problem with City States is a side show to the largest issue. Diplomacy between nations is a disgrace. The issue began with Civilization V which tore apart the useful diplomacy screen of past games. The diplomacy screen of Civ III and IV showed the relationships between every nation (Peace, War, Mutual Protection, Right of Passage, and Military Alliance). Nations built complicated alliances to defend each other and launch attacks. Civ V and Civ VI contain no diplomacy screen. Civ V at least included a drop down diplomacy menu on the main screen to see each nation's diplomatic relations. It didn't provide the easy visualization of III and IV, but at least it was something. Civilization VI doesn't even include an easy way to see the relationships between other nations. The player has to open the diplomacy screen, and then the screen for the particular civilization. On the screen, beneath the enormous portrait of the leader of the civilization, sits a small face icons representing that nation's relationship with every other nation.
The relationship between two nations is expressed with a numeric value. This can be viewed after searching through a handful of diplomacy screens. Diplomacy's most significant issue isn't that it is inaccessible, it's that it is unworkable. Civilization VI added a new system, the casus belli, Latin for “occasion for war”. It's a prominent tool in many Paradox games, like Europa Universalis 4. A casus belli offers a justification for war, allowing a nation to attack another with minimal penalty. Declaring war in Civ VI without a casus belli causes the relationship between the aggressor and all other nations to deteriorate. The CB system is supposed to defray the anger of other nations, but it doesn't work. Every nation either hates every other nation, or will come to hate every other nation. A game of Civilization VI only includes two types of relationships, Friendship and Alliance, or Denouncement and hatred. Once a nation denounces another, which they'll do for any offense, they never stop. It's impossible to recover from a bad relationship with another nation, yet weaker countries repeatedly demand resources. Why would I fulfill their needs, when they despise me?

Another element of Diplomacy is promises. Nations can promise not convert cities of other nations, or settle cities near the borders of other nations. The latter is a difficult promise to keep, because while Civ VI is clear where a nation's borders are, it isn't possible to know how close is too close. No matter how far away one settles a city, other nations becomes upset. By the middle of each game, the Computer AI isn't just mad at the player, but at every other AI controlled nation. In a game with twelve civilizations every one has denounced ten people, allied with one, and remains uncertain about the last. Civilization VI doesn't encourage unity or allow the building of consensus. There are no grand alliances, because everyone hates everyone else. There can be no unified attacks, nor united defenses to prevent aggression of superpowers.

The AI fails to form an alliance to defend against an aggressive nation. This, and the lack of alliances in general, enables the player to depose opposing civilizations one by one. Civilization VI includes five possible victories; Domination, Science, Culture, Religion, and Score. Domination, capturing the capitals of all opposing nations, is a stepping stone to all other victories. Capturing the cities of others strengthens the conqueror, while removing rivals. A Scientific victory, sending a spaceship to colonize Mars, requires extensive scientific research, and a few especially productive cities to produce and launch spacecraft. A Scientific victory seems to take longer than a Domination or Culture victory, but is difficult for other nations to prevent. A Culture victory can sneak up on even the victor. The nation needs to generate enough culture to attract more visiting tourists than they have domestic tourists. Building Culture Districts, Buildings, and Wonders increases a civilizations culture. Once I achieved a Culture Victory the turn before I conquered the final enemy capital. In my Domination victory I was nearing a Culture victory. Religious Victory, which was introduced in Civ VI, requires the laborious task of converting every civilization to your religion. Each civilization follows either the religion they founded, or a religion which controls half of their cities. Converting enemy cities is arduous work. In addition to the gentle pressure of neighboring cities, religious conversion requires building Disciples and Apostles. Like Settlers, the cost of Disciples and Apostles increase with each purchase, and the religious defensive unit, Inquisitors, is cheaper and more effective than the offensive. To achieve a Religious victory I used war to reduce opponents to two or three cities. Then it was possible to convert two cities, achieving an artificial Religious victory, when a Domination victory would have been easier. If the player doesn't achieve any of these victories by the end of the game, the team with the highest score wins.
Winning a game should offer a sense of achievement, but the endings are anticlimactic with a short video as the only reward. The end game is boring as well, because it's obvious, with 100 turns remaining in a 500 turn game, that there's no obstacle to the player's victory. Admittedly, Sean Bean's narration enlivens the ending, and each technology, after he characteristically dies in the opening cinematic. The ending graph ,which previous Civilization games included is small, cramped, and aesthetically bland in Civ VI. More disappointing than the cinematic or graph is the removal of the post game map timeline. This feature used to display a quick history of the world by showing the creation, destruction, and conquering of each city.

Some final advice to make Civilization VI more enjoyable. In Options, Interface, turn Show Yields in HUD Ribbon to always show. A totally non-cheating feature, it shows the player every nations' score, military strength, science per turn, culture per turn, total money, and total faith. Also turn on Quick Combat and Quick Movement, both of which drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a turn.
Finally, Civilization must face the question of Difficulty. Civilization VI offers eight different scales of difficulty. For the first three, the player obtains a few minor advantages in battle. At difficulty four, Prince, the player is equal to the computer. But after that the computer's advantage expands exponentially in Science, Culture, Production, Gold, combat, and starting cities. It would be fair to say, that if each difficulty were graded on a scale of 1 to 100, Settler would be a 5, Chieftain 7, Warlord 10, Prince 15, King 25, Emperor 40, Immortal 60, and Deity 100. These benefits are necessary because the AI, regardless of the difficulty is idiotic, but it's so idiotic it isn't as fun.

In Conclusion, Civilization VI is an acceptable 4X game. It's the leading face of the genre, and the general expectations are higher, but also no one expects astonishing changes to the tried and true formula of Sid Meier's. Like any version the develops changed stuff. Some, like workers, trade, and government were improved. Others, like Districts could use more work. Diplomacy, Happiness, and the AI languished in disrepair. Another disappointing feature of the Civilization series is that the developers continue to tear features out of previous versions, and sell them to the player in expansions. The Diplomatic Victory, World Congress, Global Warming, and Giant Robots, which were all in previous Civ games, are only available with the purchase of expansions. If you've loved the Civilization series you've probably already bought it. If you've never played it, it's worth a look, but avoid the full price tag.

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