Should I learn how to play Civ5 in preparation for Civ6?

I'm a long time Civ fan and player. In particular, I played Civ2 and Civ4 extensively. I only played Civ5 a few times, and probably never actually finished a game. I didn't have any particular problem or complaint about Civ 5 - circumstances just got in the way (3 kids in 2.5 years).

I am planning to buy Civ6 and I`m really excited about getting back into it.

I am wondering whether people think that it would be a good idea to learn how to play 5. Do you think this will help me get started with Civ6? In other words, would it be beneficial to get a bit of a baseline sense of the mechanics of the most recent Civ offering?

Thanks!


ps: I'm a long-lost member of this forum - but tonight, I couldn"t seem to dig up my login credentials back from 2010. Its nice to be back.

dottawat said:

I'm a long time Civ fan and player. In particular, I played Civ2 and Civ4 extensively. I only played Civ5 a few times, and probably never actually finished a game. I didn't have any particular problem or complaint about Civ 5 - circumstances just got in the way (3 kids in 2.5 years).

I am planning to buy Civ6 and I`m really excited about getting back into it.

I am wondering whether people think that it would be a good idea to learn how to play 5. Do you think this will help me get started with Civ6? In other words, would it be beneficial to get a bit of a baseline sense of the mechanics of the most recent Civ offering?

Thanks!


ps: I'm a long-lost member of this forum - but tonight, I couldn"t seem to dig up my login credentials back from 2010. Its nice to be back.

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Welcome back!

It wouldn't hurt. I would suggest you make sure you have Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLC. I think some of the baseline mechanics are the same and Civ V is an excellent game (top 15 on steam being played always 6 years after release, and this is a turn based strategy game. Yikes. )


I think Civ 6 is building on the foundation so playing 5 will get you used to the concept of not having stacks of units.

I personally don't think it matters as all CIV games play much the same but also with a few different mechanics. I had to "learn" to play CivIV after playing 800 hours of CivV. While related, to play and win requires a rethink and I think this will also apply to CivVI. Everyone will have to learn the mechanics while knowing the basic gameplay. And it is a lot of fun learning/mastering a new game.

I would say that such a large amount has changed that playing Civilization 5 won't help too much when playing Civ VI. Unstacking cities, builders instead of workers, going back to local happiness, some version of stacking, etc.

If you have played cIV extensively, I think you'll be just as prepared as any Civilization 5 veteran.

Thanks for the thoughts. I think I see things the same way as you Skulbow. Civ 6 will have the usual "new-civ" learning curve...but that's half the fun!

I would encourage you to try out Civ V simply because it's a very good game. It will give you a taste for what's coming.

Most of the systems introduced in V are returning (faith, trade routes, tourism, etc),so playing V will also, if nothing else, help you understand what everything is. This series can be a little overwhelming at first. It takes a couple of games (and losses ) to get a feel for the strategies and how not to end up with the Dan Quayle score.

If there is any justice in the world, you're going to get your ass handed to you.

AriochIV said:

If there is any justice in the world, you're going to get your ass handed to you.

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One would hope that if one builds the typical early game couple of archers defence of Civilization 5 in Civ VI that that would be the case.

Really hoping for beefed up Barbs.

Thormodr said:

One would hope that if one builds the typical early game couple of archers defence of Civilization 5 in Civ VI that that would be the case.

Really hoping for beefed up Barbs.

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Try the Civ V mod "Vox Populi." You definitely cannot get away with the generic Civ V small army there. I'm betting that mod is a big inspiration for the Civ VI team, because it highlights where Civ V went off the rails:
- Ranged units no longer dominate
- Melee units, especially in large numbers, pose a serious threat to cities (especially if you take the policy right trees). You cannot ignore a large build up Spearmen or Swordsman anymore.
- Global happiness tweaked so that empires must expand to be competitive, forcing conflicts.
- Cities aren't free ballistas
- Units inside cities take damage when the city is attacked
- Better tactical AI. Still not brilliant, but good enough that wounded units retreat and horsemen cause major headaches.

The issue with Civ V is they took an annoying issue in Civ IV (Barbarians instantly leveling undefended cities) and fixed it 10 different ways at the same time. The combination of all those things went too far. In particular, once Melee units are fixed so that ramming them into cities is actually worth it, the whole game functions better. In VP for example starting near Montezuma is as frought with danger as it was in Civ IV, because he *will* rush you with Jaguars and has a very good chance of taking a lightly defended city.

Also hopefully this time they learned their lesson and units get more Move Points. For example, in VP, Scouts get a promotion early on that lets them move quickly through forests and jungles, and the world of difference it makes in the tedium is great.

If Civ VI follows this example (and I feel it will) it will be a much more enjoyable experience than (unmodded) Civ V. Its very doable and a lot of fun when melee units come back into the fray.

absolutely not

unless you're playing multiplayer, civ is at its best when you're as bad at the game as you can possibly be

the more you prepare/try-hard/improve, the less enjoyable the game becomes

The game will be very different with builders/workers and actually taking terrain into account. In Civ 5, the terrain hardly matters at all (all yields are low and don't change much) so you can build stuff just about anywhere. Civ6 promises to be different.
So apart from getting used to 1upt, which is also promised to be changed with support units, I don't think playing Civ 5 will be very useful in terms of preparing for 6.
But then again, if you want to play it, do it. As for me, I'm still playing IV in the meantime.

Civ, in general, is pretty friendly to the newcomer. Unless you are trying to dominate at the hardest level you are probably fine seeing most of the stuff in Civ VI for the first time.

I think it's mostly useful for 1UPT.

Sure, why not... Treat yo self!

Why? You don't need to at all. Unless you would like to play/enjoy Civ 5. Civ 6 will have everything you need to play on its release. It's like asking "Should I learn how to play Civ 4 to play Civ 5?" No, you need to learn how to play Civ 1, Civ 3, Civ 4, Civ 5, or Civ 6. All of them are different and add some changes, new features.

It's only three more months and you get Civ 6, which seems to repair most of Civ 5's biggest problems(hope so!). The designers said that it will include tutorials so I suppose you could jump straight into Civ 6.

For me Civ 5 is obsolete, I have around 2500hrs in it and some parts start to frustrate me in it after learning about Civ 6 features.

I'll just add that learning and discoverning new things/options in the game is part of the fun.

Just for the fun of it I would highly recommend picking up the full Civ V and also get the Enhanced User Interface mod and absolutely get Acken's balance mod. It will challenge you from the start of the game to the end on the higher difficulty levels. It may entertain you longer than the remaining three months, which could be a good thing if Civ VI is not fully polished on release. (I really hope the developers have tried both of these mods to see how much they improved the game and take more than a few notes.)

wayneb64 said:

Just for the fun of it I would highly recommend picking up the full Civ V and also get the Enhanced User Interface mod and absolutely get Acken's balance mod. It will challenge you from the start of the game to the end on the higher difficulty levels. It may entertain you longer than the remaining three months, which could be a good thing if Civ VI is not fully polished on release. (I really hope the developers have tried both of these mods to see how much they improved the game and take more than a few notes.)

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Yeah, if he missed Civ V, it is the pefect time to play it (with mods). But not for the sake of learning or preparing for Civ VI Try CP, CBP first. You will have a lot of fun with those GREAT mods. These are not just the mods. They are also a sort FIX for Civ V.

Admittedly I've been playing Civ since the first one, so every time a new one comes out my concern is "What's different from what I'm used to?" rather than "How do you even play this thing?" But really, it's not like these are Paradox games. I don't think Civ VI will be all that hard to learn, even for people who never touched Civ V. Honestly, I would say only play V if you actually feel like playing that one. If your only reason for playing it is preparing yourself for VI, then I don't feel that would really be necessary.