Am I playing this wrong?

[newtociv6]

Newbie here. Why are there policies requiring a governor (democracy in GS) or recommendations about wonders that only apply effects to an area, like Colosseum ("Easily one of the most impactful wonders in the game")?

Playing on prince difficulty I always have like 50 cities in 200 turns and keep growing to 100+. Doesn't everyone play this way? There is simply not enough governor and any wonder that applies area effects seems like a complete waste of production.

 

[pokiehl]

I'm having a hard time grasping your question. You're basically asking why governors and area-limited effects are game mechanics? Broadly speaking, they're mechanics to limit the upside of spamming 50 cities on the map.

If the Colosseum simply applied to all of your cities in the game, it would be absolutely absurdly overpowered. It's already quite strong.

For your other question about why certain policies require certain governments: they made those changes for balance and flavor.

Having 50 cities isn’t playing wrong. The game encourages wide gameplay and barely punishes expansion. That certain bonuses can’t apply to all your cities doesn’t make them bad abilities, and certainly doesn’t undercut the fundamental notion that “more cities = better.”

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Doesn't everyone play this way?

No, to people coming from earlier Civ versions 50-100 cities seems normal but the Civ V meta was a "tall" empire of 4-6 cities. In addition managing that number of cities with Civ VI UI is incredibly tedious so somewhere between 8-16 cities would be typical in VI.

 

[Naeshar]

Doesn't everyone play this way?

Honestly not everybody is a masochist. Managing several cities is enough. I can see how you can get 50 cities on prince, by conquering. Managing them after that is hard.
There is a different way to play as builder where you develop cities in smart way to utilize the regional effects and adjacency. The game is more than slaughter that way.
Also, there is hardly space on smaller maps I use to play for 50 cities.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Newbie here.

Playing on prince difficulty I always have like 50 cities in 200 turns and keep growing to 100+. Doesn't everyone play this way? There is simply not enough governor and any wonder that applies area effects seems like a complete waste of production.

I also play on Prince difficulty, but I use Standard map size. Way too many mountains for me to settle that many cities; you must be using larger maps. In my experience, the AI players also settle 6-8 cities and effectively set a boundary for my expansion. Either you're much more aggressive than me in conquering, or you're not afraid to settle on islands. In my current game, I have maybe 20 cities, about 2/3 founded by me and the rest conquered.

How are you managing the Loyalty challenges? Each time I capture a small AI city, the rest of the AI cities erode its Loyalty so fast I can barely hold it. If you're aggressively taking the other AI cities, yes, I suppose your own loyalty pressure starts to make a difference.

 

[Nikolai II]

Heh, did you go straight from Civ2 to Civ6?

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Heh, did you go straight from Civ2 to Civ6?

I don't know about that - large empires were a part of Civ IV as well!

 

[newtociv6]

I also play on Prince difficulty, but I use Standard map size. Way too many mountains for me to settle that many cities; you must be using larger maps. In my experience, the AI players also settle 6-8 cities and effectively set a boundary for my expansion. Either you're much more aggressive than me in conquering, or you're not afraid to settle on islands. In my current game, I have maybe 20 cities, about 2/3 founded by me and the rest conquered.

How are you managing the Loyalty challenges? Each time I capture a small AI city, the rest of the AI cities erode its Loyalty so fast I can barely hold it. If you're aggressively taking the other AI cities, yes, I suppose your own loyalty pressure starts to make a difference.

I play on huge maps and start rushing settlers in the beginnging while researching religion. Since civilizations are far away from each other there seems to be no need to do anything else at first.

By the time I border others they already lose as I'd have 20 cities at least, unless I start from desert..

 

[DeckerdJames]

I play on huge maps and start rushing settlers in the beginnging while researching religion. Since civilizations are far away from each other there seems to be no need to do anything else at first.

By the time I border others they already lose as I'd have 20 cities at least, unless I start from desert..

What is cool about Prince difficulty is that you don't have to rush your expansion. As you pointed out, even if you don't rush expansion you will still probably have time to expand.