Civilization VI: Vanilla

1) A Settler Difficulty Game as Gorgo of Greece with five opponents ending in a Culture Victory
2) A Chieftain Difficulty Game as Trajan of Rome with seven opponents ending in a Domination Victory
3) A Warlord Difficulty Game as Peter of Russia with nine opponents ending in a Religious Victory
and
4) A Prince Difficulty Game as Catherine of France with eleven opponents ending in a Science Victory
(Victories 1-3 were incredibly easy. My victory in game 4 was never contested, but I couldn't conquer the entire map as I did in the first three).

I remember first playing the Civilization series in Jr. High School with a close friend. Since then I've owned, and played every Civ game. I owned Civilization III on a disc (still have it), and played it for hundreds of hours, though pre-Steam, so there is no record of the time spent. I probably played Civ IV a bit less (sixty hours on Steam, but I played this on a disc as well). In the nine years since I purchased V, I played 140 hours, a combination of games with my brother and solo adventures. Civilization V was a step back for the series, except for the change in stacking limits. Previous Civ games allowed the player to stack an unlimited number of units per hex space. The only limit on a nation's army was its economy. The limitless stacks led to massive escalations of force. Civilization V destroyed stacks with one new rule: each space could only contain one military unit. People who didn't play Civilization prior to V will never realize how phenomenally this altered the series. In spite of the better mechanics of III and IV, the elimination of stacking rendered them archaic, unplayable even. Civilization VI crucially retains the stack limit.

During the Summer Sale, Epic Games released Civilization VI for free, presumably with the hope that the lucky consumer would repay the favor by purchasing one or both of the expansions. I didn't fall for their ploy (I bought Ashen instead), so this review is about the vanilla version. Over the course of three articles the topics will include: Expansion, Diplomacy, Districts, Visual Effects, Technology and Policy, Happiness and Luxuries, Trade, Workers, Options, Victory, Endings, the Civilopedia, and Difficulty.

Each game begins with a single Settler (and a warrior), and it's best to begin with the building of a civilization, expansion. Every Civilization game limited expansion in one way or another. Civ III mired cities farther from the capital in corruption and waste. In Civ IV every additional city added additional maintenance costs. Civ V implemented a global happiness for each civilization, compelling the player to remain under a certain population. Civilization VI isn't any different. The developer uses a number of mechanics to slow the player's spread.
The first is the cost of each Settler. Civilizations use Settlers to expand by building cities. Each additional Settler costs more than the previous one. Even in a short time Settlers become costly, making it difficult for new cities on the borders to build them. Instead, the player is compelled to build Settlers in their center core cities, where they'd rather be constructing Wonders or other advanced buildings.

Builders, previously called workers, received significant changes to limit their effectiveness (but also reduce clutter) significant change. In other Civilization games workers improved the terrain near cities, with farms and mines, while removing marshes and jungles. They worked as long as the player wanted, but unless the player manually deleted them they tended to clog up the map by the end of the game. Workers could be automated eventually turning every tile into an improved road (later a railroad). In Civ VI workers only build three improvements before disappearing, which eliminates the clutter. They build all improvements in a single turn. Builders also construct the improvements in the ocean as well, thankfully replacing Civ V's Work Boats. The most ingenious change eliminated the construction of roads for the builders' repertoire. Instead traders build roads (Military engineers do as well).
Trade networks have existed in Civilization since III. They represented the connection between cities, allowing the sharing of strategic and luxury resources. Cities connected by roads, harbors, and airports were part of the network. In Civ VI every city is part of the Trade Network, and cities build Traders. Traders build a trade route from the city they start in, to a destination city chosen by the player. Traders are reminiscent of the Great Merchants in Civilization VI in this way. Trade routes, once established, provide a temporary boost in food, production, gold, culture, science, and/or food, depending on the status of the connecting cities. The bond can also exert religious pressure. But the single biggest early game use of Traders is the creation of roads. Each Trader, as they travel to their destination, builds a road. Since this feature is so important, it's frustrating that placing a new trade route is so difficult. When looking at trade routes, the map shows a multitude of white lines stretching from the starting city to all possible final destinations. These white lines completely cover existing roads, making it impossible to see if the trader will construct one. For anyone seeking to build new roads this is a serious impediment.

Transportation is essential, and Civilization VI is the first to eliminate the upgrade to roads; railroads. Each of the four eras features its own road type. Roads improve automatically from age to age, allowing faster movement, but none are as efficient as the railroads of II, III, and IV. The rails of II and III were absurd; a units moved an unlimited distance as long as it traveled entirely on a railroad. Civilization IV curtailed the abuse slightly, by allowing units to move ten spaces along a railroad for every one unit of movement. Civilization V at least included railroads, though they provided only minor movement bonuses. Civilization VI's slow travel speed, and a lack of early roads, further limits the expansion of the player, both in the beginning and end of the game.

Another change limiting expansion is the curtailment of the luxury system. Every Civilization game included some measure of happiness. Unhappy citizens fomented revolution, or at least sabotaged the production of buildings, soldiers, and wonders. In Civilization II, III, and IV happiness was local. Each city had its own measure of happiness, which could lead to revolt if it was allowed to deteriorate. Civilization V made happiness global for a civilization, but thankfully Civ VI reverted to the prior system. There are a number of methods to increase happiness, and one of them is collecting luxury resources.
In previous versions of Civ, all cities connected to the trade network shared luxury resources equally. Happiness increased by one in every city for each each unique luxury owned by the nation. Civ VI reduces the effectiveness of luxury resources by allowing each unique luxury to only benefit four (or five, or six) cities. For example, pearls are a luxury resource. Owning one boosts the happiness of four cities. Owning a second pearl adds no benefit (though it can be traded to another civilization). Though luxuries are less effective, happiness doesn't seem as critical as previous Civilization games. Over four games not a single city revolted. According to the Civilization Fandom Wiki and CivFanatics discontent doesn't increase at higher difficulties. In all Civilization versions the nation starts with a reserve of happiness. But in I through V that reserve decreased with an increase in difficulty. In Civilization VI, regardless of difficulty, the player starts with the same number of happy citizens. A final problem with luxuries is ease of use. There was no task bar, no obvious method of seeing what what luxuries the player already controls.

One would assume the information contained here about happiness, movement along roads, luxuries, trade, workers, and settlers, comes from within the game itself, but these naive people would be wrong. Civilization has always included a Civilopedia; an encyclopedia of game mechanics. But though it acceptably describes happiness and builders, it barely explains movement. The Civilopedia has no page for luxury resources, only one for resources in general. It includes no examples of resources, no pictures, and no links to other related articles. The resource on trader only describes them “makes trade routes,” and creates roads. Civilization VI doesn't describe what trade routes do, nor does it include a page for them. On the Settler page it includes the introductory cost, but fails to mention the increasing cost. And there is not a single reference to difficulty or how each difficulty level is different from another. Of course there are many more omissions and errors, but the point is, it's a useless resource. It has insufficient descriptions, a lack of links, and missing articles. For anyone hoping to play the game, the internet is the only resource.

As I've been writing this article, I've found it humorous to read Shamus Young's recent review of Civilization VI. He levels the opposite criticism. He critiques the developers for making it difficult to win by playing tall, that is, playing with four to six well developed cities. My thesis isn't that the game prohibits many cities, but that at some point additional cities are a net loss. Yet, I also recognize that this was to some extent true of all past Civ games. I actually agree with Shamus that the new districts (future article), weakens the effectiveness of massive cities. But as someone who always builds as a few dozen cities cities as possible, I'm not compelled to write an article defending the build tall strategy.

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