Has Civ6 become 3000 times more difficult?

[Horizons]

On King level, I am getting absolutely hammered with waves of enemy units and can barely keep up with AI teching.

The AI has clearly had some enormous 'boosts' in recent patches.

Do we need to re-evaluate all the strategies that were developed when Civ6 was first released?

I'm getting totally rammed ... different game.

 

[Leyrann]

AI did improve. That said, I was used to playing with AI+ mod, and I haven't had to scale down in difficulty from Emperor.

I do use a mod that reduces AI starting units in exchange for bigger bonuses as the game progresses, however.

 

[HF22]

Not really? Are you trying to play peaceful or something?

 

[Horizons]

Not really? Are you trying to play peaceful or something?

I was trying to and that didn't help. It looks to me now that you either hammer the AI fast and hard or you lose.

 

[Leyrann]

Playing peaceful shouldn't be too hard, I think (I can't resist taking at least a few cities every game), but only as long as you keep a modernized army. You need something close to one unit per city (and early on more) and you need to keep them up-to-date. If you have no horses and/or iron, you'll have to find a workaround, but yeah, it does get a lot harder. I had a game where I was playing somewhat peaceful and had neither horses nor iron, so I had to defend against knights and swordsmen with crossbowmen and heavy chariots. Let's just say it was a nice challenge...

(and then I had niter and proceeded to absolutely dominate the colonial war I got in next)

 

[HF22]

I was trying to and that didn't help. It looks to me now that you either hammer the AI fast and hard or you lose.

That sounds like the problem. If you don't get big fast, it can get tricky, especially since the natural end of the game is quite early (ie AIs can win about what, turn 300 or so on std deity).

 

[LethalLeigh]

I have noticed the AI plays a lot smarter early game but once you get in front and start leading they fall into old habits and don't do much, other then denounce you for the stupidest reason.
That being said I actually got denounce in my last game for a good reason I Capped and occupied one of their allies cities. first time for everything I guess

 

[Horizons]

King difficulty. In the early game the AI spams settlers, units and wonders in endless abandon. Have no idea how to even get to the point of overtaking it now. Its one weakness, stupidity with units, seems to be made up for by the fact that it can always build three units (in addition to its settlers and wonders) before you have time to build even one unit. Unplayable for me now unless there's something I'm missing.

 

[Tuvok694]

@Horizons: I fully agree with you and additionally want to mention the insanely raging barbarians. The first barbarian scout appears mostly in round 2 or 3 and before you have your first slinger, your capital is surrounded by 3 barbarian riders and one horse archer. When you turn off barbarians in the settings before the game, then the AI gets to you even earlier and even harder. Level king is not an option for me any more, I now play on prince.

(And of course all those god-like deity/immortal players will tell us now and here how stupid we are and that the game is still waaay too easy for the "normal" human player...)

 

[Ryika]

(And of course all those god-like deity/immortal players will tell us now and here how stupid we are and that the game is still waaay too easy for the "normal" human player...)

And rightfully so! But it requires paying attention, I guess that's the difference.

Overall, parts of what makes Civ VI have a certain difficulty just doesn't scale well in Civ VI - what you've said about Barbarians is a perfect example for that, although "mostly in round 2 or 3" is most certainly not accurate. This hurts people who want to play fast and without having to think too much, as well as people who are at the upper end of the skill scale.

 

[Herod]

I just won a King game with Australia, I got DOW'd once in the early game but never saw waves of enemy units. Indian Varu were more powerful than my horsemen so I went on the defensive and the AI doesn't cope as well here, they accepted peace quickly which gave me time to build better units and take their stuff. England had redcoat armies more powerful than my tanks so went for Big Ben and bought 10 Bombers with the cash, after that the win was quick.

I use the same strategy as pre patch but the barbs are a bit more aggressive, some well placed encampments usually keep out unwanted guests. I noticed Saladin sent an army to invade me mid-game, the army stopped at my encampment without DOWing me and just sat about. Happy Birthday to me. I destroyed their entire army and they never really recovered.

 

[HF22]

I'm very far from God-like, but deity AI unit levels seem on the low side.

Building three slingers & an extra warrior or two from the start is generally enough to start the snowball. The early barbs become target practice for the archery eukera & some XP, then you go conquer an AI or two with them.

The force you need never actually gets much bigger, even to keep rolling on. A couple of seige units & support units pretty much completes the force until the modern era, just adding green units to convert them to corps / armies when available.

The other thing which seems useful is to take a breather & peace out if an AI techs an era ahead - The city defense becomes too slow to kill with outdated units, & the break helps with WW anyway.

 

[HF22]

Overall, parts of what makes Civ VI have a certain difficulty just doesn't scale well in Civ VI

The difficulty scaling is a real problem. To the extent barbs are the most difficult thing, I suspect they can be harder on lower levels, as there are less AI starting warriors to attract/clear them.

 

[Leyrann]

@Horizons: I fully agree with you and additionally want to mention the insanely raging barbarians. The first barbarian scout appears mostly in round 2 or 3 and before you have your first slinger, your capital is surrounded by 3 barbarian riders and one horse archer. When you turn off barbarians in the settings before the game, then the AI gets to you even earlier and even harder. Level king is not an option for me any more, I now play on prince.

(And of course all those god-like deity/immortal players will tell us now and here how stupid we are and that the game is still waaay too easy for the "normal" human player...)

I'm far from a god-like player, to the point where I even refuse to build the optimal districts in every city and do things like rushing 3 slingers and then upgrading them to archers, but I'm playing Emperor with a mod that improves AI behaviour and a mod that gives AI more over time bonuses (in exchange for fewer starting units), and I don't have that much trouble in the early game. The only thing is to always start with building a warrior and never letting my starting warrior wander too far away, so I can defend against barbs, and being wary of AI units coming towards my capital and immediately building one or two more warriors (again, I don't do archer rushes) if an AI is indeed trying to take me out with an early war.

And after that I tend to either just build stuff up or play specifically to the strength of whoever I'm playing - for example, in the Scythia game I'm playing right now I spammed Saka Horse Archers (and a few Horsemen after I got my second horse pasture up) and just started attacking anyone in sight, helped a bit by two AI's in turn declaring war on me and then watching their cities fall to 4-movement archers chipping away at them 6 times per turn.

 

[Horizons]

I remember a similar situation in Civ5 after it had a few patches. Became unplayable at King level. But I managed to overcome it after watching a few strategy videos on Youtube (specific things that I wouldn't have thought about like beelining to crowssbowmen and building several of them).

I always get depressed personally when I am getting hammered at Civ and can't think of a way to overcome it.

 

[Herod]

Have you tried playing with no barbs? They won't be around to attack and reduce your opponents and you may miss out on XP points but you might find it easier. Playing on a slower speed should make it easier, epic or marathon. And try playing as Germany, that is one of the stronger civ's.

 

[Victoria]

I played peaceful before and after the patch quite heavily. I see harder barbs in a few ways, I see sometimes civs Double up against me harder than before and sonetimes a huge stream of units. Neither has made it much harder IMO.

Instead, turtling now be ones a longer turkey shoot with better experience after. You may have not played paranoid enough before the patch?

 

[Leathaface]

The AI is a good bit more aggressive after the latest patch IMO. It made me build walls in my capital city and not just the cities closest to the enemy.

100% bonus production towards city walls FTW!

 

[Disgustipated]

I play Prince level and it's exactly the same difficulty to me. Barbs are a little tougher though. AI is pretty much the same, but it's more difficult to take advantage of them with trades. They don't offer me as much gold for stuff.

edit: I should go into more detail why I find the game isn't more difficult on normal difficulty. I've played 2 1/2 games post patch. all 3 games I've managed to get out ahead. Although my first 2 games were with strong civs, Australia and Germany. Both on Firaxis version of true start location Earth map. First game was mostly peaceful although I did conquer China's capital, but no other cities were conquered. Everything else was settled by me (I got most of the larger islands, and big chunks of North and South America). Germany was a domination game, so I took nearly every city on the map. Amenities and WW wasn't as big a problem as I thought it would be, but I didn't rush conquering the world either.

My current game I'm playing as Spain. Greece expanded like crazy, but I conquered their 4 cities, and now control all of Europe. I'm planning on a religious victory this game. I usually disable this victory, but I figure as my first "real" game with Spain I should play to their strengths. I founded a religion (although I was closer to failing this than I anticipated), and did use a religious unit along with one of my military units for a little added boost. Most of the cities I conquered have holy sites, so I'm rolling in faith points now. Victory is inevitable.

 

[ShakaKhan]

The difficulty scaling is a real problem. To the extent barbs are the most difficult thing, I suspect they can be harder on lower levels, as there are less AI starting warriors to attract/clear them.

You didn't read the fine-fine print. After installing the latest patch, you have to start games a little differently. Instead of clicking "start game," you have to go to "advanced setup" then scroll down and select "no barbarians." That's how you start new games for the time being...