From Civ V "Immortal" player to CIV VI Mega Noob.

[Silverstar]

Here I am, a player that played civilization games since civ 4 and 5 and just bought civ 6 and is now lost on a desolate island (figuratively speaking)

Atleast, that is how I feel.
You don't have to tell me how to use the Civ (x) "GUI"
I can get my bearing on all the available options, don't worry, I know what services a civilization game offers.
As for Civ 6 that involves new services, I know.

In other words: "Tell me where to click and I have clicked it 1 second thereafter"

It's just that, all civ 4 and civ 5 games strategies are blown straight out of the window in Civilization 6.
I used to play Civ 5 on Immortal difficulty and won science, turn and cultural victories on said difficulty (never completed Deity)
But that is in part due to the fact that I really haven't yet tried to do Deity in the first place

In Civ 6 I started on King difficulty, and guess what, I fail and I have the lowest score on the world rankings.
So, by now you might think I'm lost and I need a civilization overhauling guide. Yes! This is how I feel!

The thing that bothers me mostly is the change of combat tactics. In Civ 5 I found combat to be OP.
Meaning, I had to much combat bonuses that made me destroy barbarian or enemy units far to easily.
This was a common calamity among Civ players who demanded either better AI, or a alternative distribution of combat bonuses.

Civ 6 has done something about this. The fact of the matter is, I don't know how to win most battles with the Civ 6 system, all day long.
Enemy units usually have the upper hand for some reason.That is probably a wrong statement, but it feels like that. Then, can someone tell me all the parameters that involve the outcome of a battle?
I don't even know how to properly setup a battle and what combat strategies to use.

On my last attempt with Norway on King I got declared war by France, England and the Aztects all within about 5 turns and both France and England landed their troops on my shores.

Ofcourse I know this is because I'm in a secure, open location with lots of resources with the enemies capacity to expand limited since I played on a Island map. Which is the reason they all declared war on me early in the first place.

But still, that scenario is impossible, because I have trouble just to stalemate on the basis of score and in battle versus one single country. Not to mention 2 countries at once.
This is because my units either are completely equal or worse in combat.
On that specific savegame I went all out on creating warriors, slingers and archers in the early game and even if I'm going to win that war, I'm going to waste 60+ turns on waging a fullout war without being able to expand myself.

I know all the cultural, science, religion aspects of the game and what not.
But everything in Civ 6 is overhauled, and I feel lost.
I've been watching the tech and civics tree to see what the best strategy would be to accelerate me in a specific direction in either a militaristic, religious, cultural or scientific way.
But everything I tried makes me stall towards that direction relatively speaking on the basis of the amount of turns required to complete (x) versus the other AI civilizations. No matter what road I choose, because by now I seem to get the impression that I play a game, in which I'm a complete noob, whereas I played previous Civ games on Immortal difficulty.

So the question I ask is...

based on what you just heard, what freaking guides do i need to read or which playthroughs on youtube do I have to watch to get a hang on this game?

I hope you guys can help me out, because I love civilization and I don't want civ 6 make me run for the hills.

EDIT:

A more specific question. How do you improve city growth from the early game in terms of working food tiles? All the Tile improvements seem to add production. This is early game talk by the way, I haven't been able to progress much farther due to Civ 6 newishness and difficulty.

Is there a way to improve growth early on? If not! Does this mean that the only strategy is rapid expansion by creating more cities?

 

[chazzycat]

combat isn't really that different, TBH. try to have better units (more advanced tech) than your opponents. Build a good number of ranged units and try to kill enemy units from a distance. Protect your ranged units with meat shields (melee units). If your opponent uses ranged units maybe try to counter with mobility (horses). Spears are pretty bad, don't build those unless your opponent is going horse.

use the terrain. most unit cannot move and then attack rough terrain in the same turn now, so this is where your ranged units should be set up.

strike cities early because they don't shoot on their own now until they get walls or an encampment. warrior rushes are actually viable even on high levels.

check the victory screen domination section from time to time to know how your military power compares to others. If you are lagging, DOWs are guaranteed to come, so build up your forces BEFORE that point.

 

[manu-fan]

Just look at any of the games in the Stories forum. Combat is pretty much the same the as Civ 5. I don't know why you think it's really different. Just get quite a few ranged units and pick off the opposition. Have some strong melee to complement them.

The one thing very different from Civ 5 is that you have to be prepared for an early war. Start getting those Slingers early, and hope you can make them Archers before others decide to take you on.

 

[Onii-chan]

Try watching some Let's Plays by some good YouTuber if you just want a general walkthrough of stuff. Easier to see for yourself than to explain everything in words

 

[stormtrooper412]

well you can or cannot use exploits, but an efficient game will *have* to make you go quite wide, 15+ cities

 

[Mahasona]

My three city empire was just DOW'd by three civs. Driving them off with my warrior and 6 archers was no prob as they seem more stupid than Civ 5.

Defending cities and regular combat works the same as 5, except that promotions heal lots of health. I save promotions for that reason.

Attacking cities is a bit different but that's not what you're asking about.

 

[leon_daking]

combat doesn't seem that different to me, although flanking bonus needs to be unlocked by civic now and seems a bit weaker. units doing less damage the more they are injured is the main aspect i focus on in combat, trying to weaken enemies with my ranged units while the melee units fortify in their way. the ai mostly either pulls back or suicides into them.

as for early city growth, i guess it just depends on your starting location. as long as you always stay ahead in housing and amenities as much as possible, growth should be fast. you can try harvesting nearby resources with your workers if you really want that boost though.

 

[Sascha77]

IMO, the biggest change to the combat-system is the new movement rules. Meaning: Not being able to attack into a rough-terrain tile unless you have full movement-points (as a non-horse unit). And it's not *that* big a change, really - it takes maybe a game or two to get completely used to it.

Conquering cities still seems to follow the same basic pattern as in V: Bring a couple of siege units or lots of archers plus two or three melee-units. At first, stay away from the city to thin out the enemy's army (if he has one), then move in, bombard and eventually take the city. In fact: Taking cities seems easier than in V, since the AI does such a poor job of prioritizing targets when they're defending a city.

In my current Civ V-game, I just followed Augustus' attempt to take a CS and that CS actually repelled his pretty substantial invasion force by concentrating on Rome's ranged units first, depriving him of the ability to soften up the city. I haven't seen behavior like that in VI yet.

S.

 

[Mahasona]

Lack of zone of control makes the biggest difference.

I know archers/CBs can get a promotion to something similar but I'm not sure if it works the same. Anyone tried it out?

 

[Lord Yanaek]

IMO, the biggest change to the combat-system is the new movement rules.

Lack of zone of control makes the biggest difference.

This and that!

The movements play totally different now. Being on hills is even more important (especially for ranged units) as they can't be attacked by melee units unless they begin their turn right at their feet (so you have one free turn to fire at them), OTOH, cavalry (both light and heavy) are very dangerous for archers because not only do they hit harder then warriors (considering early game), but they also ignore ZoC so they can just circle around your warriors and kill archers, and archers die fast to horses!
Also, ZoC works a bit different now and you can't always prevent an enemy melee units from attacking your archers with only 1 or 2 warriors in front of them as i learned the hard way (if they can move 1 tile beside your warrior and end up adjacent to your archer, they can attack the archer rather than the warrior).

Also, King AI has some slight combat boost making them hit (slightly) harder. If they are running Oligarchy and you are not, they will hit quite a lot harder as +5 combat is significant. Oligarchy can definitely help you.
Against barbarians, you have the early military card that gives you +5 str. Even your slingers can tank one hit from barb warriors with that policy if they can fire first (try to wait for barbs on hill or in woods, they are particularly stupid).

 

[Victoria]

Big key point

Get an early slinger to kill a unit to get archery ASAP and get at least 3 archers and something in front of them.
Play on prince first to get used to the movement differences.
The AI has difficulty countering a range 2 unit well and this unit is powerful
Play slow moving forward if advancing and sitting in rough when defending is a huge advantage.

Oh yeah, Cavalry is also a bit OP hence why the something in front bit that loss of ZOC can also surprise you so once again practice on prince first.

 

[Sascha77]

Get an early slinger to kill a unit to get archery ASAP and get at least 3 archers and something in front of them.

Yup. An "army" of two to three archers plus a melee-unit is more than enough to fend off the AI's early aggro. Same goes for barbs, unless you're unlucky and get a camp that's close to your capital and spawns units constantly.

I also agree that the slinger's only real purpose is to trigger the archery-eureka and then to get upgraded to an archer.


S.