Sostratus
Deity
After 4 years under Civ5 BNW's "4 city tradition" thumb, it seems Firaxis has pushed the pendulum too far back, making wide the only way to compete in Civ6. Even though I love wide, expansive empires, I sympathize with those who would like taller play to be at least a little less completely outgunned by wide. I think it is a worthy topic, since besides helping alternate strategies, this could create a strategic choice being growing your core vs your frontier in the midgame.
Now, there's a few big reasons why wide is so good in 6:
Therefore, I think the pathway to making Tall viable (without hammering wide into the ground) is to make the decision of where to allocate production a competitive choice: between settling new cities vs improving what you have.
How can that be done? First, some potential tweaks. Then, perhaps a little red meat.
Tweaks:
-One avenue is to make the district buildings not quite so flat yield. To borrow from myself in another thread, here was an idea for the campus buildings:
-We could adjust the populations at which districts unlock. Currently, the first few are unlocked at 1,4,7,10.
Four citizens is trivial to get, requires only one amenity, and lets you get two districts. That's all the gold from a CH, a trade route, and a victory district for the low low price of having zoo coverage. But I digress; spreading these unlocks out would help.
-Shifting gold from CH to international trade routes. When i have a wide empire, you darn well better bet I'm putting a CH in every city I can. The buildings alone (with Free Market policy) 30 gold, plus the whatever city states are giving you (8 per commercial CS. It adds up quick.) This makes large empires really overpower the little guys, because they swim in cash. There's just no way to specialize and compete. The summer patch buffs to plantations help a little- but if you want gold, you need CH's.
But no one likes just nerfing things all the time, so let me toss out some constructive ideas.
-City center buildings
Despite being the city center, it's in really bad shape right now. There are some 4 non-wall buildings available- monument, granary, sewer, and watermill. This is a big opportunity. The big limitation on tall is usually housing, rather than just food. Buildings like the Hospital and medical lab could make a return- but they might come too late in the game. This would be a good place to drop a couple extra midgame structures. We have a castles tech; perhaps we could throw in a Castle that a city could build, boosting its defense a little and adding some housing. A caravansery to buff trade routes to and from. Maybe an actual growth building, too. (While not necessarily a tall specific thing, it would be nice to see the Civ5 stable, forge, stoneworks, mint, etc make a comeback.) But if we want tall cities in particular to get some boosts, we can focus on their traditional differentiating factors: specialists and +% modifiers.
-specialist citizens
Right now, specialists are really hurting. They barely provide yield. I would like to think that a smaller city with an industrial zone would be a bit behind the efforts of a bustling metropolis devoting 3 citizens to it. Some ideas here include making each level of building improve specialist yield as well. Perhaps +1 from each. So a built out district's citizens will give 5 yields. That's huge for a city that can harness it (and gives us something to do with all these citizens!)
-National Wonders
Speaking of percent modifiers, these bad boys have been conspicuously absent. Ruhr valley kind of hits exactly what an ironworks could be, but it's a world wonder. NWs are perfect for making tall cities relevant- the ol' NC rush was a cornerstone of the tall strats in Civ5. As for what this would look like, I'm envisioning a large structure place right in the center of the district. Most of them have a gap in the middle when fully built out; we could always build over the center+required building anyways. Make them stand out, a bit like wonders (maybe not THAT big.)
Ideas on requirements include having the specialty district+select buildings, and perhaps building a national wonder counting as a district slot. As for benefits, bring back the +4, +50% type bonuses. These serve as force multipliers that wide empires will have a harder time taking advantage of.
-Policy cards
A lot of the above ideas can be taken further with policies. Have you ever noticed that of all the economic cards, they are all wide save the first one you get: God-King? Part of what made tradition so good in Civ5 was that it had some very powerful policies.
We could see more things targeted at large cities. As for what constitutes large at each stage of the game, we have some population and development milestones already in the game. Various civics get boosts from having a city of pop X, which rises over time. We could benchmark policies to that. Or the progression of insulae/medina/liberalism/new deal that is tracked to number of districts built. A card that gives an extra trade route to cities over size 15, or grants +25% of everything to your capital, or a 10% discount in building districts for each district already completed in the city, would be great flavour and help out in building a megalopolis.
For some of the ideas I threw out, we could boost specialists, bring back "universal healthcare" to add a little flavor to national wonders (+1 Amenity, +2 housing?), and even add in a little card to allow luxury amenities be able to stack on cities. So two cities could draw +2 each instead of wasting them.
TL;DR:
How would you like to see them bring a little balance between tall and wide?
Now, there's a few big reasons why wide is so good in 6:
- Removal of per-city penalties
- Districts and buildings give +X yields, not modifiers
- Trade Routes are per city (and much stronger)
- City State 3/6 Envoy bonuses are per district
Therefore, I think the pathway to making Tall viable (without hammering wide into the ground) is to make the decision of where to allocate production a competitive choice: between settling new cities vs improving what you have.
How can that be done? First, some potential tweaks. Then, perhaps a little red meat.
Tweaks:
-One avenue is to make the district buildings not quite so flat yield. To borrow from myself in another thread, here was an idea for the campus buildings:
- Library can stay at +2 (cut the Ancient era some slack!)
- University could be extra X% science from population (to make them viable only for the big cities. Could see Unis as more of an abstract, improving the general knowledge of the populace type deal)
- Research lab could give +Y science to each specialized district in the city. (To really make them attractive in your largest cities, most developed cities. Labs are specialized places; colocation with other sectors is a boon!)
-We could adjust the populations at which districts unlock. Currently, the first few are unlocked at 1,4,7,10.
Four citizens is trivial to get, requires only one amenity, and lets you get two districts. That's all the gold from a CH, a trade route, and a victory district for the low low price of having zoo coverage. But I digress; spreading these unlocks out would help.
-Shifting gold from CH to international trade routes. When i have a wide empire, you darn well better bet I'm putting a CH in every city I can. The buildings alone (with Free Market policy) 30 gold, plus the whatever city states are giving you (8 per commercial CS. It adds up quick.) This makes large empires really overpower the little guys, because they swim in cash. There's just no way to specialize and compete. The summer patch buffs to plantations help a little- but if you want gold, you need CH's.
But no one likes just nerfing things all the time, so let me toss out some constructive ideas.
-City center buildings
Despite being the city center, it's in really bad shape right now. There are some 4 non-wall buildings available- monument, granary, sewer, and watermill. This is a big opportunity. The big limitation on tall is usually housing, rather than just food. Buildings like the Hospital and medical lab could make a return- but they might come too late in the game. This would be a good place to drop a couple extra midgame structures. We have a castles tech; perhaps we could throw in a Castle that a city could build, boosting its defense a little and adding some housing. A caravansery to buff trade routes to and from. Maybe an actual growth building, too. (While not necessarily a tall specific thing, it would be nice to see the Civ5 stable, forge, stoneworks, mint, etc make a comeback.) But if we want tall cities in particular to get some boosts, we can focus on their traditional differentiating factors: specialists and +% modifiers.
-specialist citizens
Right now, specialists are really hurting. They barely provide yield. I would like to think that a smaller city with an industrial zone would be a bit behind the efforts of a bustling metropolis devoting 3 citizens to it. Some ideas here include making each level of building improve specialist yield as well. Perhaps +1 from each. So a built out district's citizens will give 5 yields. That's huge for a city that can harness it (and gives us something to do with all these citizens!)
-National Wonders
Speaking of percent modifiers, these bad boys have been conspicuously absent. Ruhr valley kind of hits exactly what an ironworks could be, but it's a world wonder. NWs are perfect for making tall cities relevant- the ol' NC rush was a cornerstone of the tall strats in Civ5. As for what this would look like, I'm envisioning a large structure place right in the center of the district. Most of them have a gap in the middle when fully built out; we could always build over the center+required building anyways. Make them stand out, a bit like wonders (maybe not THAT big.)
Ideas on requirements include having the specialty district+select buildings, and perhaps building a national wonder counting as a district slot. As for benefits, bring back the +4, +50% type bonuses. These serve as force multipliers that wide empires will have a harder time taking advantage of.
-Policy cards
A lot of the above ideas can be taken further with policies. Have you ever noticed that of all the economic cards, they are all wide save the first one you get: God-King? Part of what made tradition so good in Civ5 was that it had some very powerful policies.
We could see more things targeted at large cities. As for what constitutes large at each stage of the game, we have some population and development milestones already in the game. Various civics get boosts from having a city of pop X, which rises over time. We could benchmark policies to that. Or the progression of insulae/medina/liberalism/new deal that is tracked to number of districts built. A card that gives an extra trade route to cities over size 15, or grants +25% of everything to your capital, or a 10% discount in building districts for each district already completed in the city, would be great flavour and help out in building a megalopolis.
For some of the ideas I threw out, we could boost specialists, bring back "universal healthcare" to add a little flavor to national wonders (+1 Amenity, +2 housing?), and even add in a little card to allow luxury amenities be able to stack on cities. So two cities could draw +2 each instead of wasting them.
TL;DR:
How would you like to see them bring a little balance between tall and wide?