Hi, I'm new to Civ6, but after 5 games. I can beat it on Deity with no struggle. I still don't know some of the basic mechanics, and have only played a few games, so I'd still like to try all the leaders, but the game is so easy that I wouldn't have fun stomping Deity repeatedly 
Artificial "difficulty" like giving the AI even bigger starting starting bonuses, always hating the player, x10 multipliers, etc. are cheap and un-fun ways of improving the computer civs. Civ5 was similar, but the AI wasn't nearly as stupid as Civ5. I <3 <3 <3 the Vox Populi overhaul that made Civ5 2 levels harder, and made the different civs ways more varied, interesting, and balanced. Civ6 has so much interesting stuff, and neat mechanical additions, so I'd really hate to just drop it after a few games. Is there something similar for Civ6 that can bring some challenge and life back into this game for me?
1) Opponents are *way* too easy to conquer. Even the warmongers.
- Fixing production scaling (see below) would help a lot
- Make the AI build about 4x the military
- Make the AI a bit smarter in tactics
- Make the AI plot proper wars they can gain and snowball from, but just slam their units into their closest neighbor's walls and hurt them both
2) The game is over by Renaissance. If you survive the early game, you've either conquered 2+ neighbors, or you build a small defensive army, and the AI is too scared to attack you
- Mostly fixed by fixing them being too squishy
- Make opponents actively team up against whoever's winning, like in Civ4
- Existing catch-up mechanics help
3) Tech scales way faster than production. I focus massively on builders/chopping/production improvements, and even my capitol will never build the majority of buildings. On top of that, unique units are often obsolete by the time they reach your enemy's cities, and almost always obsolete by the end of a war.
- Playing Epic speed can help with unique units, but doesn't help city progress
- New cities should start with free population and/or buildings, starting in the Medieval era and getting bigger bonuses
- On top of better settled cities, production as a whole should be about 1.5-2x what it is now compared to science/civic progress. I suggest keeping the production costs, but slowing science/civic progress down to 50-65% what it is now. I don't need a new tech every 5 turns, and this would solve UU problems, and
4) Balancing problems
- Some civs are totally insane, and some stink. Too much to say in one place.
Some background for those who are interested:
I'm a long time Civ fan, wasn't interested in 1-3 when I was a kid, but 4 was awesome but insanely hard. I didn't like the Stacks of Doom, so even though Civ5 was easier, beating Deity was still a challenge at first, and the combat made it more enjoyable for me. Vox Populi made it the ultimate Civ game in my opinion.
First game, I played Chieftain as Pericles to learn the basics and accidentally won a Diplomatic victory after being 2+ eras ahead of the AI. 2nd game as Gilgamesh, I played Immortal and roflstomped my 2 nearest neighbors with the all-mighty War Carts. 3rd game, I played on Deity with the same strategy and half-conquered 2 opponents while failing to keep loyalty and unable to do anything about their new walls, and then Cyrus back-doored my capital. I had to actually learn how walls and loyalty worked then. After some basic understanding, I played as Cyrus, got some iron, a battering ram, and 6 Immortals, and conquered 2-3 opponents in the Classical-Medieval eras, then with 20+ cities, the rest of the domination was inevitable. Did the same with Montezuma and Gorgo. Eagle Warriors gave me like 50 builders, which is insane, and they stayed relevant without upgrading all through ancient -> classical -> medieval, where the game is either won or lost anyway. Hoplites are 40CS ancient-era cheap swordsmen w 1 maintenance. Beeline brozenworking, build 2, then declare war. Send in another 2-4 hoplites, 2-3 archers, and a battering ram, and you have all the military strength you'll need until the Reneissance era. Their promotion tree stinks, and so do their upgraded versions, so you can throw them away once gunpowder gets into the mix, but the game is over by then since you own > 1/2 of the total cities.
Artificial "difficulty" like giving the AI even bigger starting starting bonuses, always hating the player, x10 multipliers, etc. are cheap and un-fun ways of improving the computer civs. Civ5 was similar, but the AI wasn't nearly as stupid as Civ5. I <3 <3 <3 the Vox Populi overhaul that made Civ5 2 levels harder, and made the different civs ways more varied, interesting, and balanced. Civ6 has so much interesting stuff, and neat mechanical additions, so I'd really hate to just drop it after a few games. Is there something similar for Civ6 that can bring some challenge and life back into this game for me?1) Opponents are *way* too easy to conquer. Even the warmongers.
- Fixing production scaling (see below) would help a lot
- Make the AI build about 4x the military
- Make the AI a bit smarter in tactics
- Make the AI plot proper wars they can gain and snowball from, but just slam their units into their closest neighbor's walls and hurt them both
2) The game is over by Renaissance. If you survive the early game, you've either conquered 2+ neighbors, or you build a small defensive army, and the AI is too scared to attack you
- Mostly fixed by fixing them being too squishy
- Make opponents actively team up against whoever's winning, like in Civ4
- Existing catch-up mechanics help
3) Tech scales way faster than production. I focus massively on builders/chopping/production improvements, and even my capitol will never build the majority of buildings. On top of that, unique units are often obsolete by the time they reach your enemy's cities, and almost always obsolete by the end of a war.
- Playing Epic speed can help with unique units, but doesn't help city progress
- New cities should start with free population and/or buildings, starting in the Medieval era and getting bigger bonuses
- On top of better settled cities, production as a whole should be about 1.5-2x what it is now compared to science/civic progress. I suggest keeping the production costs, but slowing science/civic progress down to 50-65% what it is now. I don't need a new tech every 5 turns, and this would solve UU problems, and
4) Balancing problems
- Some civs are totally insane, and some stink. Too much to say in one place.
Some background for those who are interested:
I'm a long time Civ fan, wasn't interested in 1-3 when I was a kid, but 4 was awesome but insanely hard. I didn't like the Stacks of Doom, so even though Civ5 was easier, beating Deity was still a challenge at first, and the combat made it more enjoyable for me. Vox Populi made it the ultimate Civ game in my opinion.
First game, I played Chieftain as Pericles to learn the basics and accidentally won a Diplomatic victory after being 2+ eras ahead of the AI. 2nd game as Gilgamesh, I played Immortal and roflstomped my 2 nearest neighbors with the all-mighty War Carts. 3rd game, I played on Deity with the same strategy and half-conquered 2 opponents while failing to keep loyalty and unable to do anything about their new walls, and then Cyrus back-doored my capital. I had to actually learn how walls and loyalty worked then. After some basic understanding, I played as Cyrus, got some iron, a battering ram, and 6 Immortals, and conquered 2-3 opponents in the Classical-Medieval eras, then with 20+ cities, the rest of the domination was inevitable. Did the same with Montezuma and Gorgo. Eagle Warriors gave me like 50 builders, which is insane, and they stayed relevant without upgrading all through ancient -> classical -> medieval, where the game is either won or lost anyway. Hoplites are 40CS ancient-era cheap swordsmen w 1 maintenance. Beeline brozenworking, build 2, then declare war. Send in another 2-4 hoplites, 2-3 archers, and a battering ram, and you have all the military strength you'll need until the Reneissance era. Their promotion tree stinks, and so do their upgraded versions, so you can throw them away once gunpowder gets into the mix, but the game is over by then since you own > 1/2 of the total cities.
well.... razing them anyway 
