Civilization VII Update 1.3.0 - November 4, 2025

[kent77]

Just made it to Exploration with Tonga (Ibn Battuta) on Deity, standard age length, standard archipelago map, and it was indeed a (fun) walk in the park. I’d revealed pretty much all the map apart from a few inland bits of some distant land islands before the crisis hit, had suzerained most distant land IPs, finished tech and culture trees, and completed 3/4 legacy paths (didn’t finish military one). I played a defensive-only game. Himiko and Xerxes got salty with me because they settled too close to me, but never mounted more than a token offensive force and still traded away their own cities in peace negotiations.
That said: I’m not sure how much this was the AI being weak on an archipelago map (is it? seemed like it anyway) versus Tonga’s powerhouse production plus all the advantages of IPs via cheap influence from Ibn Battuta.

 

[UWHabs]

Just got through most of an antiquity on Tonga, and yeah, they definitely feel strong in their niche. I think the fact that they made water valuable, and then Tonga gets another good bonus to water as well, really gives them some strength. I can settle places where you only get a couple land tiles but you have a lot of water to expand to, and they can actually turn them into a valuable city.

I do think they could probably be delayed a little longer, for sure. Even just if they don't get hurt in deep water at the last step of the civic tree would slow them a little. They certainly really can ramp up their culture output once they get going, and between their other bonuses you really don't even need to stretch them to have a lot of value. Especially once you get the second diplo point and it only costs 68 influence to convert distant lands IP, they can really get them all going.