I just came back after a long hiatus (Back then I had part 2 of New Frontier Pass) but I think this mode is a REALLY BAD IDEA.
1) I ALWAYS get a golden age, at least in the Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance. I usually just kind of dick around instead of focusing on a specific victory condition, and typically wind up so much better then all the other players (I usually play Immortal) That I might wind up just waiting around or even building cities for them in the later stages of the game. Then, in the late game, I'll decide how I want to win.
You could argue that dark ages in the later game would spice things up, but not really. Free Cities are easy to capture. Heck, I typically sell an early city that I don't like much to the AI for massive gold, and they just lose it due to loyalty pressure, but they keep paying me. They even transfer great works there if it has the facilities and then you got them for free. If you play anything less then Immortal or Deity, you won't after learning this trick.
2) AI DOES NOT ATTACK FREE CITIES. I don't know if this has been changed with this mode, but judging from the comments it has not. The AI will not attack a nearby Free City, I have tested this exhaustively, I've even beaten them down, crushed their units and defenses, and see the AI move troops right next to one, but they will not capture it. The AI needs to declare war or be in war, unless the target is barbarians. Since you can't declare war against Free Cities, the AI will simply not interact with them at all.
The whole Free City phase was initially designed to flip due to loyalty, so they probably felt it wouldn't matter if the AI was capable of going to war with them and capturing them through force. It's really only there to punish the warmongering player who doesn't know what they're doing. No one even considered that a free city could exist in the middle of nowhere, because one assumes if the nearby pressure exists to create a free city, then it will also fix the problem and return the captured city to it's original owner. They did NOT consider what happens if you leave the free city alone and raze down all the surrounding cities. In that case, just let the bored warmongering player do whatever he wants with the city.
SO... Unless this mechanic has been completely overhauled, this is too much of a burden for the AI and only fun for less experienced players. That is what I was trying to figure out by reading this tread, but from the looks of things it was not.
Having me in a Golden Age every turn, and most of the other AI players lose their cities, and be unable to get them back is way too much of a handicap for the already impoverished AI. The AI for this game is so bad, they don't even capitalize on what makes their civilization good. Especially warmongers. Gran Columbia is a grand disappointment, their +1 movement is perfect for war, but they won't build their game around it. Persia should NEVER denounce/formal war, and start wars at the drop of a hat if you do something like move an unguarded settler through their land, but they won't. The AI for the early Civ 1 and Civ 2 games would start a war if you so much as brushed up to them with a weakened unit.
I would actually play Civ 5, more then Civ 6, because Civ 5 had a pretty decent AI that was more capable of wars, and it was interesting to see how the maps would develop and who would be left standing. I was so burned out back then that I lost interest despite new content coming out.
That being said, it does interest me to have options other then Monumentality two or three times in a row, but Monumentality is just too good that it outshines everything else. It can even be profitable if you settle cities and sell them to other players. All you need is a Settler, a Builder, and a little bit of tile buyer so that you've improved some resources, and the nearest AI will tend to pay handsomely for it. If Yerevan isn't in the game, this is how you win religious victory. You gift the other players cities that you've built and converted to get majority religion in every civilization.
No one ever goes to war with me, expect maybe in the early game. I might not always have much of an army, but go ahead and invade the guy sitting on 20k gold; and I'll pull out a world class army in a matter of turns.
SO LET ME ASK ALL OF YOU THIS:
Have you EVER seen the AI conquer a Free City or even attack it? Comment if you have.
