Could use help as possible new player to Civ 6

[Buckeye]

Hello All,

I am looking to get into a new complex game and after doing my research it looks like this game could be right up my alley. I also was considering Stellaris but that seems just a tad too difficult to get started. For reference I have never played Civ before and the most 4x experience I have if you want to consider this 4x is Tradewars 2002, I played that at a high level during the glory years. I have a few questions if anyone would be kind enough to help a new player ready to jump into this game with both feet!

1- I am basically just interested in Multiplayer. Is this a good game for that?
2-Should I just go right to Civ 7? It looks like most people prefer Civ 6 for now. Will there still be people playing civ 6 for awhile or will I end up needing to learn civ 7 after I put hours into civ 6?
3-If money wasn't an object what is the easiest/best way to get everything I would need to play in Multiplayer Civ 6 matches? I have no idea about base game vs DLC content as I am new to this. Should I just buy the entire package at the front end?
4-Any general suggestions or tips to get started would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance to any help given!

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Multiplayer is pretty good, but it takes a while to play a game obviously.
I personally play with friends (over several nights for one game if needed, via saves) and stay out of public lobbies, so my experience is based more on that.
Mostly because I dont like "online" as a speed setting to begin with (the fastest speed setting).

Civ 7 looks like a massive flop at the moment, both based on the ratings and the playercounts as "objective" metrics.
I would stay away from it until firaxis fixes that game, which by the looks of it should probably take at least a year due to how fundamental much of the problematic gameplay is.
It would probably be a shame to ruin your first experience with civ (which is an excellent franchise) by the dumpster fire that is civ 7 atm.

Just get the entire package off of steam if you want the full game.
Sales are obviously when you should be striking for the entire package, but make sure you get at least the Gathering Storm expansion if you don't care about the minor DLC.

A general tip would be to play some single player on a low difficulty first, just to get the basic hang of the game.
You can be overwhelmed quite quickly by all the information thrown at you, and especially in multiplayer this is frowned upon (or more commonly, they put a timer on your turn which is not gonna go well for you).

 

[Pengwin7]

^Oberin has given me great info in another thread.
So great to have CIV players still around to provide advice to Civ6.

I opened up gaming time in Jan 2024 and decided to give Civ6 a try on my PS4.
Reviews on metacritic (my go-to-site) suggested it was great strategic game.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI Reviews

Civilization VI offers new ways to interact with your world, expand your empire across the map, advance your culture, and compete against history’s greatest leaders to build a civilization that will stand the test of time.

www.metacritic.com

I think I got every portion of it for under $100.

Since getting it... prob 4-5 hours per day after work days (M-F)...
And then up to 8 hours each weekend.
I've just love the game so, so, so much.
[My wife & kids thinks it is absolutely nutty... "Still playing THIS game?"... yes... yes...]

The replay-value is super HIGH.
I've honestly never played a game ever, with such high replay value.

There are 5 different win conditions - and you can honestly play half (50%) of a game and pivot from one to another.


As for multi-player, I haven't tried it... but the learning curve is STEEP in this game.

I can't imagine anybody could possibly getting good AND having fun (at same time) thru Multi-Player... because any mis-steps are going to lead to people taking advantage of your weaknesses... and then (as a 'pattern recognition' person)... you are going to compensate for those with some, potentially, non-ideal 'fix'. For example, you start by building too many wonders - some other person comes in and just dominates your cities with units. So you think "Oh, I should build units and go after other people". Except you do that only to find out that they know how to 'defend' and now you have a bunch of military units and nothing to do with them. (From what I've heard in Multi-Player - early war is just a no-no... because you don't develop your cities enough... but if you develop them too much, without military - then somebody will swoop in and just take what you worked on.)

I agree single player is a good start. And then a transition to multi-player: with at least some 'base' towards a yourEmpire vs MilitaryUnits balance.
Though - when I started I watched a lot of 'generally helpful' videos (Potato McWhiskey) with some non-ideal strategies that don't scale well to top levels (build Campuses, try to get some 'Great Scientists'... build Wonder "X"... a lot of that doesn't transition well to "Deity" - the top level - if you plan on being a 'TOP LEVEL PLAYER'. Campus/GreatScientists/ManyEarlyWonders - all trash can... in Deity for probably 3/5 win conditions: Culture/Religion/Diplomatic).


Overall though - I don't think you can go wrong with 'trying' out this game.
If you like strategy games - Chess, Tetris, Plants vs Zombies, Tower Defense games... this one fits - but on a much more expansive & adaptable level.

There are honestly thousands (btw the 70+ leaders, 5+ victory conditions, 10+ maps) ways to have a game 'go'. And being able to 'read what the game has to offer' - talking each individual map load - takes a lot of skill... and can be a lot of fun.


Good luck, have fun - let us know how it goes.
I'm still a "NOOB" for enjoyment - being just 1.5 years in... and I don't see any end to tiring of this game!

 

[Buckeye]

Thank you guys for the replies! To be clear I definitely plan on learning the game through single player first, but my ultimate goal is to play multi player.

One follow up question, do I need all the DLC for multi player, or does it depend on what the host has?

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Thank you guys for the replies! To be clear I definitely plan on learning the game through single player first, but my ultimate goal is to play multi player.

One follow up question, do I need all the DLC for multi player, or does it depend on what the host has?

I dont think you need DLC other than the expansions, but I'm a bit unsure about the new frontier pass.
As long as the host plays without any of the special modes enabled, you should be able to join that though.

If you intend to play multiplayer eventually, you might want to play on online speed, as a big portion of multiplayer lobbies play on online speed.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Welcome to CivFanatics, @Buckeye !!

Civ6 is one of the most popular games in the Civ franchise; it is probably a good game to start with.
Sooner or later, yes, I expect people will embrace Civ7. It's very early days. I'm enjoying it, warts and all, but it is not a good place to START your journey with 4x games.

You should get both expansions (Rise and Fall, Gathering Storm), as they include key game features that future multi-player games will have.
These include governors, tweaks to the victory conditions, and the full list of policy cards.

One of the DLC packs, "New Frontier Pass," added some optional game modes. Some of them can be fun, but they would be distracting as you learn the game.
Check for Steam sales to buy the base game and expansions.

I play at a lower difficulty level than many players here; I am not trying to play optimally.
Consider watching some of the "Let's Play" YouTube videos as a way to get the overall picture -- how eXplore, eXpand, and eXploit fit into your early game, and when to begin eXterminating. In your first 50 turns or so, the biggest threats will likely be the barbarians who show up to attack your builders and newbie troops. You will work to figure out a balance between expanding -- building more cities -- and exploiting, that is, improving the land.

For better or for worse, the AI players in Civ6 do not often attack your cities after turn 100 or 120. Yes, you can improve your skills at attacking *them*, but you may not really learn the best ways to defend until you're playing multi-player. You may put one unit in a city. If it is a ranged unit, it can shoot at attackers safely. Once you build walls, your city itself can take 1 defensive shot. That shot gets stronger as your walls improve and as your military might increases.

Happy Civving!

 

[Oberinspektor Derrick]

Civ6 is one of the most popular games in the Civ franchise; it is probably a good game to start with.
Sooner or later, yes, I expect people will embrace Civ7. It's very early days. I'm enjoying it, warts and all, but it is not a good place to START your journey with 4x games.

I dont wanna be a negative nancy here, but the player count for civ 7 is nothing short of a disaster.
For the 3 months it has been out now, it has been the consistently least played civ title out of civ V, VI and VII.
Civ V released in 2010 and civ VI in 2016, so this is really bad, and I'm not sure if they can turn it around like they did with civ V and VI.
Those games (despite early problems) sitll had more players on release than civ VII has now.
I hope civ VII improves, but I'm really worried that the problems it has are too severe to fix.

 

[vorlon_mi]

I understand; I've read the player statistics on many of the Civ7 forums.

I enjoy playing Civ7; I also enjoy playing Beyond Earth, which was abandoned after only one expansion.
While I am worried that Civ7 could suffer the same fate as BE, my opinion is that it's too soon to tell.

I don't believe that anyone on the forums has good data on the number of players on consoles.
I do agree that the PC players are lower than expected in the first 3 months.
I respect the opinions of other players who feel -- as you do -- that the problems are severe.
I know many fervent fans of Civ3 and Civ4 who refuse to play Civ6; I know that Civ6 found favor with thousands of new fans,
both on consoles and on PC. I bought Civ7 knowing it would be a fundamentally different game. Those differences seem to be a "bridge too far" for many fans.

I am reserving judgement on Civ7 until 12 months after launch.

 

[Konspiratsia]

dont be afraid to learn the basics on the easier levels below level 4