[GS] A new player in Civilization 6. The difference in difficulty between the Prince and the King.

[Oldlamehand]

Its definitly possible. I do it all the time on emperor. I don't like managing too many low pop cities, I'm more the tall player. I also dislike war, which is why I stay on emperor. On higher you often need to go to war to remain competitive.

Without concrete screenshots of your game (or even on which turn you won), it's difficult to give any advice. But when you struggle on King, I'm just gonna throw these ideas/suggestions around; specificly for a science victory:

-Are you making optimal use of the eureka's and inspirations to progress to the trees? Are you wasting turns on hard research?
-Are your districts decently placed with adejency bonusses?
-Are you spending enough gold? Gold in your account does nothing. you're best of spending it on builders, or things that give you eureka's. Only exception is later in the game when you save up to buy a spaceport instead of building it.
-Likewise, are you making enough money? Trade routes are very powerfull in the game and need to be prioritised. Also, AI's tend to overpay for luxuries at times.
-Speaking of AI, how are you handling them? Although a science victory is an internal victory, that doesnt mean they can't be usefull with research alliances. Unless you really agitate them, I find it fairly easy to befriend most AI's.
-A science victory is also about production. Do you prioritise it in the city with your spaceport? Preferably you also have the ruhr valley there, along with an encampment.
-Are you making good use of the policy cards and swap them around when needed?
-Although you don't need a religion, you'll probably be able to get one on king. At the very least you should go for a pantheon that is usefull (divine spark for example)
-Also, because you are going for science, don't neglect culture. you need it for powerfull new governments and policies.
-Are you befriending and making use of the city states?

Well, it was my second game on king difficulty. Before I played the prince difficulty and only a few times. So I'm not saying that what I'm doing is optimal.
If it is possible to get eureka for some technology, I try to get eureka. But not at all cost. Sometimes going for eureka would mean postponing important technology too much.
I'm trying to have a lot of trade routes and campuses. In the beginning, I choose trade routes that help build important roads, and later I switch to trade routes s that are more profitable.
I always try to give districts at least a +2 science/gold/production bonus, but it's not always possible.
And of course I use alliances.
In the last game, I soon eliminated two opponents, but I had an alliance with two of the three remaining for most of the time
And of course, cities with spaceport were my most productive cities.
As for the city-states, the ones that are close I have conquered. I hate being at war with an AI opponent who suddenly moves 8 envoys to a city-state with which I'm neighboring.
But if any city-state that lies further away has a good bonus, I'm trying to take advantage of it.

 

[Disgustipated]

I didn't even think the ai was able to win on King difficulty. Aside from diplomatic victory which the AI can get fairly easy it you are on high disaster setting or apocalypse mode. I often disable diplomatic victory so I can play longer games. If you aren't careful they can get a religious victory, but usually only if you are conquering the world, and not paying attention that the ai has converted half your cities.

I play King for a relaxed role playing game where I can build lots of wonders. I like this level because it doesn't feel like the ai is cheating. It's usually pretty easy, only ran into trouble once with Rome nearby. Trajan will almost always surprise war you early. I knew that, but still underestimated him.

I can usually go half the game without building my primary district for victory. My last game as Babylon I went nearly 2/3 of the game before building a single campus district. Of course almost all of my tech was coming from Eurekas.

The easy way is to knock out one of two neighbors. Victory will come very easy. But even a pacifist no capture cities game is viable. You just have to be a little more focused. Even if you don't have room to expand beyond 10 cities you should win with decent planning.

The other easy way is a super early campus with good adjacency. It's easy to get out ahead. Once you get ahead, you never lose the lead. At least it's never happened to me.

And if you go super aggressive and pound the ai hard, I find they (I'm referring to the remaining living civs) don't know how to react to this. It's a cakewalk at this point. The hardest one will be the first. But nearly everyone has a weakness. Even Gilgamesh can be picked off with archers.

 

[HiRezAudio]

Its definitly possible. I do it all the time on emperor. I don't like managing too many low pop cities, I'm more the tall player. I also dislike war, which is why I stay on emperor. On higher you often need to go to war to remain competitive.

Without concrete screenshots of your game (or even on which turn you won), it's difficult to give any advice. But when you struggle on King, I'm just gonna throw these ideas/suggestions around; specificly for a science victory:

-Are you making optimal use of the eureka's and inspirations to progress to the trees? Are you wasting turns on hard research?
-Are your districts decently placed with adejency bonusses?
-Are you spending enough gold? Gold in your account does nothing. you're best of spending it on builders, or things that give you eureka's. Only exception is later in the game when you save up to buy a spaceport instead of building it.
-Likewise, are you making enough money? Trade routes are very powerfull in the game and need to be prioritised. Also, AI's tend to overpay for luxuries at times.
-Speaking of AI, how are you handling them? Although a science victory is an internal victory, that doesnt mean they can't be usefull with research alliances. Unless you really agitate them, I find it fairly easy to befriend most AI's.
-A science victory is also about production. Do you prioritise it in the city with your spaceport? Preferably you also have the ruhr valley there, along with an encampment.
-Are you making good use of the policy cards and swap them around when needed?
-Although you don't need a religion, you'll probably be able to get one on king. At the very least you should go for a pantheon that is usefull (divine spark for example)
-Also, because you are going for science, don't neglect culture. you need it for powerfull new governments and policies.
-Are you befriending and making use of the city states?

I agree utterly with all of the above - these are great things to remember and will undoubtedly help.
Science win on 10 cities is very doable on Emperor - you will need to properly plan your cities though, making sure you are not building more districts than you require (for example, an industrial Zone buildings will affect all cities within 6 tiles radius, more than this if you get certain GE's but that cannot be relied upon), make sure your economy is able to support your civ too - build Harbours in all coastal cities & commercial hubs in all non-coastal cities for the trade routes which are hugely important, make sure you have a happy civ for the science/culture boosts (and on the flip side, also making sure you avoid the penalties for negative happiness). You only need one major spaceport for the projects but you may want extras for building the LaGrange stations to speed the win up later. Do not neglect spies either - build these as soon as you can & steal money with them to level them up, and when the counterspy promotions happen get that spy to protect your spaceport.
Try to make friends with the AI - a declared friend cannot surprise war you - and be careful over alliances, as you cannot steal cash from an ally.
Treat Gold as mobile production that can be used anywhere in your empire too (see the above comment about spending it too, as it does you no good to just hoard it. I often use the gold stash for crash building things like Shipyards & factories/Coal Power Plants etc) - an international trade route that gives 10+ gold is far superior to a local one that gives food/production, plug in your trader bonus cards where you can & for your 3rd level government choose communism as it gets you a very important science & production boost over democracy, which is a culture victory government.
Emperor level should be winnable every time you play, regardless of starting location.