First game playing Civ VI, got wrecked fast.

[JBryan314]

I’ve been playing Civ V for years on Prince mode. I just started VI with GS. I used the same usual setup I’ve been doing on V.

10 Civs, I played this game as Teddy. Prince difficulty, marathon pace, I met Spain, the Sumerians, and Persia. I noticed that Gilgamesh built units way faster than I did. Aside from playing marathon pace, it takes forever to build units and builders and everything else compared to the opponents, it seemed. Early on in the game, Gilgamesh had like 5-6 war carts and invaded with a surprise attack and took my capital in two turns with no resistance. My warrior had no effect, my two archers had no effect.

I prioritized buildings mostly, like I did in Civ V. I only had two warriors and two archers. I had also only build two builders by this point as well. I was around turn 180-200. Do I need to switch focus to more military units? In Civ V I could get through 200 turns on Prince difficulty with only a spearman and a few archers, and I was safe enough. But now I have other Civs denouncing me because they say my people are lazy and unworthy. What the hell? Gilgamesh takes my capital because he thinks my people are lazy?

I sense that my focus from Civ V (buildings, research, a few early wonders, some religion, with just a handful a military units until gunpowder) needs to shift, because I haven’t been blown out like that in years and years.

 

[Citron]

How many cities did you build ?

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

I prioritized buildings mostly, like I did in Civ V. I only had two warriors and two archers. I had also only build two builders by this point as well. I was around turn 180-200. Do I need to switch focus to more military units? In Civ V I could get through 200 turns on Prince difficulty with only a spearman and a few archers, and I was safe enough. But now I have other Civs denouncing me because they say my people are lazy and unworthy. What the hell? Gilgamesh takes my capital because he thinks my people are lazy?

Unlike Civ5, Civ6 doesn't have a supply limit where the maintenance of each unit increases for every unit that exceeds the limit. For another thing, Ancient Era Warriors do not cost Maintenance in Civ6 (Archers and Spearmen I believe cost one gold each). So you should be able to support a larger army than you could in Civ5

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Also, Gilgamesh is a tough cookie in the Ancient Era with his ability to rush powerful war carts. On the bright side, he is very easy to befriend, and once befriended he usually sticks by your side no matter what you do to the rest of the world (so long as you remember to renew your DoF once it expires)

 

[JBryan314]

How many cities did you build ?

I had two at the time.

 

[JBryan314]

Also, Gilgamesh is a tough cookie in the Ancient Era with his ability to rush powerful war carts. On the bright side, he is very easy to befriend, and once befriended he usually sticks by your side no matter what you do to the rest of the world (so long as you remember to renew your DoF once it expires)

Easy to befriend? Dude crapped straight in my mouth around turn 100 and called my people unworthy. Lol. Bastard got mad quicker than Genghis Khan in Civ V.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

Turn 100? You should be BFFs within 20 turns of meeting him

 

[JBryan314]

Turn 100? You should be BFFs within 20 turns of meeting him

Dude hated my ass from the jump.

Probably going to knock it down to warlord while I learn the new stuff. AI Civs still attack me on warlord, right? I’m not trying to make it too easy.

 

[vorlon_mi]

AI will attack you if you have few cities and a small military. I usually build 3 slingers which get upgraded to archers. Build more cities to claim some more land. Not sure that Marathon pace is the best for learning the game.

 

[Naeshar]

I’ve been playing Civ V for years on Prince mode. I just started VI with GS. I used the same usual setup I’ve been doing on V.

10 Civs, I played this game as Teddy. Prince difficulty, marathon pace, I met Spain, the Sumerians, and Persia. I noticed that Gilgamesh built units way faster than I did. Aside from playing marathon pace, it takes forever to build units and builders and everything else compared to the opponents, it seemed. Early on in the game, Gilgamesh had like 5-6 war carts and invaded with a surprise attack and took my capital in two turns with no resistance. My warrior had no effect, my two archers had no effect.

I prioritized buildings mostly, like I did in Civ V. I only had two warriors and two archers. I had also only build two builders by this point as well. I was around turn 180-200. Do I need to switch focus to more military units? In Civ V I could get through 200 turns on Prince difficulty with only a spearman and a few archers, and I was safe enough. But now I have other Civs denouncing me because they say my people are lazy and unworthy. What the hell? Gilgamesh takes my capital because he thinks my people are lazy?

I sense that my focus from Civ V (buildings, research, a few early wonders, some religion, with just a handful a military units until gunpowder) needs to shift, because I haven’t been blown out like that in years and years.

First of all, welcome to Civ6 and consider this a reminder that it is a completely different game, despite the name. Especially when you start with GS already.

I have no experience on Marathon speed, but you should be at about turn 55-65 on standard, at which point I dont have built much more units than you either, but probably more cities and builders, since builders use up their charges. If you were fine dealing with barbarians, those four-five units should be enough to deter an invasion force, but it is true, that donkey carts are strong and easy to build.
The point "my people are lazy and unworthy. What the hell?" is related to low production in your cities overall, and they had Industrious agenda, respecting production, the exact wording is a banter. Sooo yeah. Terrain and improvements (mines) matter a lot. You probably didnt need to build many buildings (like granary) early, when their main benefit doesnt matter (housing when not near the limit).

But the main quirk about Gilgamesh is that you shall ask him for friendship on the turn you meet him and all will be fine. Hes good to his friends.

 

[Smellincoffee]

But the main quirk about Gilgamesh is that you shall ask him for friendship on the turn you meet him and all will be fine. Hes good to his friends.

And if loses a friend, he'll go on an epic quest to find the secret of immortality. But agreed, starting WITH Gathering Storm is....fun. My first GS game had a flood almost immediately.

 

[Vandlys]

Dude hated my ass from the jump.

Probably going to knock it down to warlord while I learn the new stuff. AI Civs still attack me on warlord, right? I’m not trying to make it too easy.

Gilgamesh has this strange quirk (bug/feature?) where you can just ask him to declare friendship on the first turn of meeting him and he'll accept. You don't even have to send him a delegation or anything.

 

[JBryan314]

Oh wow. So Gilgamesh is a good dude like that. I’ll remember that for next time. I have turned the speed to epic speed now instead. Seems to be better.

 

[JBryan314]

So as far as this being a totally different game, I’m going to have to learn a lot of new strategies. I’m still tempted to build the scout, and then the monument and then granary. So I’ve been told the way forward is to actually build a scout, a slinger, a builder, and then possibly even another slinger, before anything else. When do I need to start building buildings like the monument and granary? And when is the right time to start on these districts? Districts is something I’m struggling to get used to because I’m not sure of how important and helpful each new thing is.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Districts: The short answer is: no big hurry. Let your cities grow, while building units and builders. Larger cities build everything faster.

Longer answer: First, you need to research the techs to unlock them. The first two districts (Holy Site and Campus) are unlocked fairly early. For any cities founded after you've unlocked them, you will see the districts you can build as choices in your build queue.

Cost of districts: The costs of each settler increases, the more that you build. That is, more production is required or more gold, if you're purchasing them. In a somewhat similar fashion, the production cost of a district is not the same at all points in the game. Each city may build a district when it has reached certain population/size: 1, 4, 7, 10 are the first few.
A useful tactic when founding city is to "place" a district, to lock in its production costs. While the production queue is open for the city, select a district. Look at the potential locations, noticing especially any adjacency bonus. The best site for a campus, for example, might be on a tile that your city can't reach yet / outside the first ring.

• If you can place it in the first ring, then do so by picking that hex. You may see a little animation. You may now choose something else to build, or swap the order in the build queue for buildings (monument, granary, walls) or units that you want to build first.
• If you want to place it in the future, deselect it and use the map tacks to mark the best spot, for later turns.

Build order: I hate having barbarians harass my cities. My first few builds in the game are almost always slingers and warriors. One must research certain techs to improve luxuries, e.g., mining, irrigation, so I often delay my first builder until I have something useful for it to do. Scouts move faster, but they can be fragile. I will build one to go looking for city states, but not usually more than one. Getting a second city up, a third, and using the first trader to build the roads are usually more urgent.

 

[Citron]

Granaries aren’t very valuable and you would be better off not building them unless you need extra housing

 

[vorlon_mi]

Granaries aren’t very valuable and you would be better off not building them unless you need extra housing

Agree. By the time your cities get to size 6 or 7, you may want the extra housing to keep growing.
But granaries don't need to be one of your *early* builds. Civ6 changed the mechanics for how cities grow; not just food but also housing.

 

[Snowygerry]

That's incredibly unlucky imho.

In a dozen games or so I only once saw a coordinated AI attack using its unique unit like this, I got lucky and the Persian army of elephant riders passed by my borders to attack a rival up north.

There have been early surprise attacks, but they were usually provoked either by having a low military count, or leaving a worker undefended, they could be easily defeated by archers + melee.

I did find that the AI is more aggressive when they run out of land to peacefully expand, maybe the 10 civs on a map make them more aggressive ? Some are bound to end up in close contact.

 

[Bonyduck Campersang]

In a dozen games or so I only once saw a coordinated AI attack using its unique unit like this, I got lucky and the Persian army of elephant riders passed by my borders to attack a rival up north.

Persia doesn't have elephants?

---

 

[Snowygerry]

Sorry - maybe India ? They sure had elephants, lots of them, my archers watched in awe as they marched by...

Edit, It was these guys I think :

Varu (Civ6)

Back to the list of units The Varu is a unique heavy cavalry unit of the Indian civilization in Civilization VI. Attributes: Ignores enemy zone of control. Reduces the Combat Strength of adjacent enemy units by 5 ( non-cumulatively; cumulatively under other rulesets). The most important aspect...

civilization.fandom.com

Quite fast too - didn't notice that at the time :

Once a War of Territorial Expansion is declared (one of the easier Casus Belli to satisfy), it moves as fast as the standard Horseman, and its 40 Combat Strength and ability to weaken surrounding enemies make it the strongest military unit on the field.

That's something that often happens in Civ 6 and may surprise the beginning player, abilities of leaders and units, but also city states combine to produce serious and unexpected results, and with so many civs on a map it is hard to keep track of everything going on imho.