From King to Emperor - ouch

[aguliondew]

Their is nothing wrong with an earlier scout. Scouts are just useless when it come to war/barbarians and its a sacrificial unit to any other unit. On the plus side you can easily get some early goody huts and scout out your next 2-3 city locations. You can get a slinger instead of a 2nd scout in the hope of killing a barbarian for the inspiration for archery.

 

[tetley]

On lower diff I have not been sacrificing scouts. I coddle them and hand them easy xp with the double xp policy card. Leveling them is not too hard (especially the first level), leveling a lot means they heal a lot, and if you can reach that third promo, you're left with some powerhouse skirmishers that can fly through hills and move after attacking. Terra Cotta might help. However I did play deity on civ5; I know how it is (in civ5 King you could build TC all day, but on deity that was a non-option).

I can try a 3-scout build on King, and see how that works out. Maybe it can scale to higher diff. It could be a holdover from me milking xp in civ5.

 

[ezzlar]

I would say that early greed is what mostly kills you. That would be scout, builder, monument or district. Once you get better you know when you can get away with what.

Also, scouting is good. But if you walk away too far it is easy to get overwhelmed by AI or barbs. I usually circle around my starting position.

The warrior is a lousy scout, doesnt give you eurekas and cant build improvements. But that is the safe unit to pick.

And yes, you will not get so many goodie huts. Maybe miss out on natural wonders. Meet few AIs. And might end up in a dark age.

But it is only the early game where survival is really hard. Once up and running, start to min/max and you will overtake the AI.

 

[tetley]

Even on Pangaea, 3 scouts is more than I would actually scout with. My tactic is to provoke, then fortify. Promoted skirmishers are a lot like horse archers, with really cheap initial build times.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

On all difficulties, I build one scout first and hope I find another in a goodie hut. After that, I'll build a warrior/slinger next, then most-likely a builder if I have not found another civ.

 

[tetley]

Okay, I have tried a 3-scout start as Cree, and tested it with Rome right next door. The problem with it is, scouts do not benefit from Agoge policy card. Warriors do. Now a 2-scout start definitely makes sense with Cree, since their scouts are as strong as warriors. You crank those out ASAP, before you ever get Agoge. Plus with Cree's trade bonus, they may well want to research Foreign Trade before Craftsmanship. Military tradition third either way, which times well with Archery. Then you've got 2 scouts with flanking bonuses which can tank for your ranged (for one turn, at least). Then it's just declare Ancient Age war on your neighbor, play the Survey policy card (double recon xp), and even the second promotion is respectable (can move after attacking). Two scouts had both reached level 4 upon taking Rome. I Golden aged Classical.

Haven't continued playing to find out how good my twin level-4 scouts are yet, but I'll be looking for trouble like a bored LA gang to find out.

 

[Horizons]

The fact that only the early game is a challenge, and that you effectively beat the AI after x turns by following a strict regime, is also pretty discouraging. I'd rather face a decent challenge throughout the game, than be overwhelmed at the beginning and win the entire game if I come out on top in Medieval or Renaissance. I suppose that is just single-player Civ6 for you. Post-patch the AI is far harder as it is not swamping you with catapults that it doesn't use properly. I think it may be above my comfort level at Emperor now.

 

[Ownsya]

The fact that only the early game is a challenge, and that you effectively beat the AI after x turns by following a strict regime, is also pretty discouraging.

Indeed. Some mods have been created to address this specifically. They take slightly different approaches depending on which mod you choose, but generally they try to spread the AI advantages or sustain them through the duration of the game so they can keep up with a good player.

 

[conor83]

Hi guys im playing with real startegy mod(dident try vanilla)and this game is unplayable.Im playing on diety with most agresiv civs.Ai is not build army at all mayby couple of units so i can just build units for lets say 50 turns and then just go and conquer whole world.In my last game i declare war on everybody on my island(4 civs)delate all my units and wait whats gonna happend.Ai dident even come to my city to try attack it for like 50-60 turns.Anybody have same expiriance with the game coz its broken unplayble crap at the moment?

 

[conor83]

I can just add that im expiriance civ player coming from realism invictus(civ 4)and i also played alot of civ 5(with mods)on diety.Is this game that broken(easy)?

 

[Loderingo]

Hi guys im playing with real startegy mod(dident try vanilla)and this game is unplayable.Im playing on diety with most agresiv civs.Ai is not build army at all mayby couple of units so i can just build units for lets say 50 turns and then just go and conquer whole world.In my last game i declare war on everybody on my island(4 civs)delate all my units and wait whats gonna happend.Ai dident even come to my city to try attack it for like 50-60 turns.Anybody have same expiriance with the game coz its broken unplayble crap at the moment?

Did the AI know where your cities were?

In my experience, the AI is very good at early surprise wars now but it first needs to know where your cities are and then decide to attack you.

Quite often when you attack the AI it will try and just peace out as it has other priorities.

In my most recent game, Egypt and the Aztecs surprise warred me. I had a stronger military and could have taken some cities from them but they were a long way away and I had other priorities so I peaced out after 10 turns. You can’t blame the AI for doing the same.

 

[MrRadar]

Anybody have same expiriance with the game coz its broken unplayble crap at the moment?

No, I have the experience of letting my friendship with the neighbouring Mongols lapse and next thing I see is a carpet of their cavalry armies rolling over my countryside, supported by field cannon armies and an occasional bombard corps or army, plus mixed in levied units. And they take my cities in one-two turns. Although, it seems, AI is still reluctant or not focused enough or just not programmed to go for targeted and complete elimination of other AIs or the player, and it lets the taken cities rebel and flip back to the original owner.

Maybe try a few games with no mods, to get the impression?
If the AI is stifled for space, they stagnate and fall back. But if they manage to blob... I'm facing Mongolian GDRs now at t300 on deity, like never before, my coastline is being swarmed and pillaged to oblivion by their nuke submarines, and he nuked my buddy Harald three times already. Nukes targeted the same city three turns in a row, so that's still not ideal, and after capture that city flipped back, so there's still a lot of room for AI improvements. But AI definitely got tweaked for better in some aspects after the September update.

 

[conor83]

No, I have the experience of letting my friendship with the neighbouring Mongols lapse and next thing I see is a carpet of their cavalry armies rolling over my countryside, supported by field cannon armies and an occasional bombard corps or army, plus mixed in levied units. And they take my cities in one-two turns. Although, it seems, AI is still reluctant or not focused enough or just not programmed to go for targeted and complete elimination of other AIs or the player, and it lets the taken cities rebel and flip back to the original owner.

Maybe try a few games with no mods, to get the impression?
If the AI is stifled for space, they stagnate and fall back. But if they manage to blob... I'm facing Mongolian GDRs now at t300 on deity, like never before, my coastline is being swarmed and pillaged to oblivion by their nuke submarines, and he nuked my buddy Harald three times already. Nukes targeted the same city three turns in a row, so that's still not ideal, and after capture that city flipped back, so there's still a lot of room for AI improvements. But AI definitely got tweaked for better in some aspects after the September update.

Hmmm ok i will try without mod.That real startegy mod had some good comments and i known from playing civ 4 and civ 5 that without mod ai is rly bad but mayby thats not the case with civ 6 especially they dident realse DLL source code for the modders so they cant change how the ai behaves.Thx anyway i will try vanilla(no mods)and see how it goes

Did the AI know where your cities were?

In my experience, the AI is very good at early surprise wars now but it first needs to know where your cities are and then decide to attack you.

Quite often when you attack the AI it will try and just peace out as it has other priorities.

In my most recent game, Egypt and the Aztecs surprise warred me. I had a stronger military and could have taken some cities from them but they were a long way away and I had other priorities so I peaced out after 10 turns. You can’t blame the AI for doing the same.

Yes ai knew where my city is it was 10-12 hex away i also notice that ai is building cities in very stupid places and that city going to new owner in couple of turns.They doing that often.Mayby its real startegy mod i try no mods now but i think we need dll source code to make this game a gem

 

[Victoria]

Building your city on a hill may sound defensive but it is an AI beacon.

 

[kb27787]

Building your city on a hill may sound defensive but it is an AI beacon.

So is meeting other civs early (hence my beef with the scout opening). Found on a hill all you want as long as you don't meet anyone. I can't tell how much danger an early scout can bring... if only you had met that civ 10 turns later you'd be safe! etc.

 

[Victoria]

if only you had met that civ 10 turns later you'd be safe! etc.

You just tell them you are not stopping to chat. You do not have to tell them where your capital is.

 

[kb27787]

You just tell them you are not stopping to chat. You do not have to tell them where your capital is.

Then you'd miss the friendly greeting relationship.. Which is as big as the modifier you get from delegations. (+3)

Which I guess is fine if you plan to be hostile eventually but the way diplomacy works currently a DoF means safety for the whole game... For non-domination runs I would prefer to get that DoF as soon as possible.

Greeting + delegation + some horses as gifts (at a later turn number you have more horses to give or sell too) works pretty well for forging early friendships.

 

[Tuvok694]

If king to emperor is "ouch" then what is emperor to immortal? (...)

After this posting I tried about 10 more times on level immortal, but it took me nowhere. If I completely focus on building units at the start, I am so far behind in everything else (science, culture) that it makes no sense to keep playing. If I build only one district, the AI comes with masses and masses of troops and kicks my ass. So thanks for all your friendly and encouraging comments, but everything indicates that Civilization 6 ends for me at level emperor, and I think I can very well live with that.
There's one thing that I do not quite understand: In all those deity-let's-play-videos on youtube, I can see relatively rarely such massive AI-aggression as I experienced them in my futile immortal-attempts.

 

[ezzlar]

You should be lagging at higher difficulty levels. But since you can plan districts, city placements, wage war etc sooner or later you overtake the AI. You dont win on Immortal by being 1:1 with the AI at the end of the Classical Era.

If you didnt manage expansion it might be GG however. This game is so much about infinite city sprawl.

 

[Victoria]

youtube, I can see relatively rarely such massive AI-aggression as I experienced them in my futile immortal-attempts.

They are not going to post ones where they are killed.
What setting do you play with Tuvok?