[GS] How do I play this game?

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

The more I play, the more I get lost!

I bought CIV 6 when it came out, then R&F and now GS.

GS is huge! But I don't know how to play somehow. The best trick I know about is to micromanage the worked tiles so to increase the growth and boost the production. Sometimes, I don't know what I need to build, when to create troops, which card to insert...etc

Can someone give some advices?

 

[FlyinPhil]

Get started on settler difficulty and learn the mechanics, then ramp it up from there. Priorities are generally as follows:
1) Defend yourself
2) Explore
3) Develop science
4) Choose a victory condition and play to it
5) ...
6) Profit

 

[Karmah]

If I take your post litteraly, I assume you are beginning. If that is not the case you should elaborate on more specific topics you need help with.
I would not play too low a difficulty, prince or king are easy enough.
I think if I really have to give a very simplistic advice it would be with very crude priiities
Rule 1 : always have an army big enough to defend yourself (so unit first)
Rule 2 : expand to cover all the land that you can, there is no city like more cities (campus asap, other after)
Rule 3 : build a campus everywhere.
Rule 4 : go for the spaceship win.

One last addition, chop to build faster, chop everything.
This very very simplistic but it is gonna work always. Obviously as you get a hang on the game you will leave the training wheels and completely forget those rules as you should

 

[Chefofrats]

I would not play too low a difficulty, prince or king are easy enough.

That is absolutely terrible advice. Those are easy difficulties - if and only if you already know how to play, and the OP is obviously completely clueless. I'm an almost 30 year civ series veteran, and I struggled to win on warlord before I understood how Civ VI works compared to the previous versions.

Play on settler, figure out district adjacencies, especially for campus, as science gives a huge advantage, try to found as many cities as possible, possibly ignore religion on your first try so as it does not distract you.

 

[Aldor]

Go ahead and play on Settler until you understand the basics. At this level you won't have to worry (much) about micromanaging. Your first priorities should be:
- build a warrior or slinger so you can defend against random barbarians
- build a scout so you can explore the surroundings
- look which resources you have in your capital, and which are available nearby. If you mouse over the resource, it will tell you in the tooltip which tech is required to improve it. Go to the tech tree and set out to research those techs. Note that some important strategic resources are not immediately visible though! You need Animal Husbandry to see horses, and Bronze Working to see iron.
- if you have some resources you can improve, start building a worker
- from here on, you can start thinking about expansion: build a settler (but make sure you escort it to its destination)
- when you've built your second city, you can start with improvements in the first one (monument is nice for the extra culture, or go for a holy site if you want to go for a religion)
- I found that a good pattern after that is to alternate between building units and buildings in your cities. Otherwise it's easy to fall into the trap of focusing only on buildings, and suddenly you get invaded and have no army to defend yourself.
- last advice: Have fun!

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

Thanks for all of your replies despite I know some of them quite well already.

But they don't seem to add up to what I am looking for.

I don't know about religion. But don't get me wrong, I appreciate this feature, it's immersive and meaningful. However, a nagging question in my mind: tedious effort required to convert after previous converted cities undone by the adversaries. You can't win the game just by converting cities can you? If so, how do I make good use of religions? I really like to know, please enlighten...

Talking about the tech tree, which one I should go for? I saw some players on youtube, they go directly to Iron from the beginning and ignoring the other. It makes a bit of sense because that leads him to swordman. So, it's all about military buildup right up to the end? If so, no need for the game to have other victory conditions then?

When to create builder is the best? Or settler first to claim more land amid to AI fast land acquisition?

I never use some RED cards nor one of the green cards. For the green cards, I use the one for influencing the CS.

There is no single formulae to win the AI is that right? I really don't like to see there are any coz that will ruin the joy playing the game, would be very boring. But then, if the are limitless ways of winning the game, then what kind of early game choices I should be paying attentions to ?

It's such a tremendously huge game mechanics...are there any guide books?

 

[Aldor]

Religion is optional. You can win by converting all other civs to your religion! For your first games it may be better to go for a science or culture victory however, since the religious victory requires that you play somewhat focused, while for the others you can just play along and they usually happen at some point, at least on Settler level

For the choice of which techs to go for, look at what the game has dealt you. For example, are you close to other civs? Then it probably is a good idea to research military techs, so you can conquer them (or defend yourself if they attack). If you are alone, you can research infrastructure techs first, and rely on archery to fend of barbarians.

The old question, builder or settler first? Again, it depends on the map. If you have a starting location which lets your city grow slowly, a builder may be good to build some farms. If on the other hand you have resources that give lots of food (sugar, wheat on floodplains, ..) then your city will grow quickly and you can do a settler first.

As for civics: A good first goal is to aim for Political Philosophy, which grants you the three early governments (republic, oligarchy, autocracy). Which to choose? Again, look at what your situation is. No other civs around? Go for republic and choose the Colonization (cheaper settlers) and Ilkum (cheaper builders) cards. Also probably Urban Planning card in the wildcard slot for some extra production.
If you have other civs nearby, it may be wiser to go for Oligarchy (or autocracy) and choose the Agoge military card (cheaper archers) to prepare.

Following a fixed way every time is not a good idea in Civ 6. You have to play the map - look around you for resources, potential threats (and opportunities), places to settle...all that will influence how you play and win a game!

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

I am playing Russia, at turn 141, Spain has declared surprise war followed by Japan. The AI is surely better than R&F.

It's really hard to play at King.

I saw one video, he played all the way to victory without vexing anyone and he even made alliance with nearly 5 civs.

How to do that? What should I do to prevent other civ declaring war against me?

 

[MrRadar]

I am playing Russia, at turn 141, Spain has declared surprise war followed by Japan. The AI is surely better than R&F.

It's really hard to play at King.

I saw one video, he played all the way to victory without vexing anyone and he even made alliance with nearly 5 civs.

How to do that? What should I do to prevent other civ declaring war against me?

If you sign a Declaration of Friendship (DoF) with an AI civ, this mutually prevents war between you - neither of you can declare war on the other. For an AI to accept or even propose a DoF, it must be pleased with you - display a smily face. Their attitude is influenced by a number of modifiers, you can check them in the diplo screen under the heart tab. Sending them a delegation or an embassy, giving gifts, playing to satisfy their agendas, having mutual open borders, sending trade routes, fufilling promises made will give you positive diplo modifiers that may make them friendly. But just a smily face means nothing - they will happily gang up on you, if your military might is weak. But once you sign a DoF, you're immune from war with them. Just remember to extend it the turn it expires.

You can also browse the Strategy and Tips section of this forum: https://forums.civfanatics.com/forums/civ6-strategy-tips.540/
You may find an aswer to some of your questions there, just pay attention to the dates, make sure they are talking about GS.

 

[knighterrant81]

You can check the post in my signature. Its a bit outdated (someday I'll get back to it) but should give you some ideas.

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

I lost my religion!
Converted by Tomyris. Every Inquisitor generated belongs to her religion.

How do I restore my original religion now?!

 

[criZp]

I lost my religion!
Converted by Tomyris. Every Inquisitor generated belongs to her religion.

How do I restore my original religion now?!

Religious units will have the religion of the city they are made in.

If you have no cities left with your religion then you're done.

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

I've just merged with one of Tomyris's cities because of a revolts and my espionage. The city just have an "Religious Idol" and no Tomyris' s religion.
How do I make use of this chance to restore my religion?

 

[criZp]

You don't

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

I tried the same game by reloading the Turn #1 file again.

What the new game does gives me a bit of surprise: Tomyris turned more warrior than before and eliminated Cleopatra completely before Turn #150. It seems the same map, same civs...same game parameters yields different outcomes every single time.

One thing I wish that is to bring back the Random straits of Leaders as in Civ IV.

 

[Naokaukodem]

How do I play this game?

On Deity ? I have no clue.

 

[IMACIV6PLAYER]

On Deity ? I have no clue.

Thanks!

I knew back in vanilla Civ 6, any level above King the AI cheats by starting with one more city. That's why I hesitate if I should continue with this game.

But having said that, playing at King with GS, the AI seems quite realistic.

Could someone shed some light on the following topic?

On each AI leader screen that turns up when you click on their icon, it shows many information. One of the tab is about the "Access Level", what kind of information is that? Does it provide what the leader is thinking?

Please also explain how do I earn more Diplomatic votes, thanks!

If I have converted one of the cities of my adversaries by religion, and promise not to do it again, I will gain 30 votes. If I break the promise, will I lose 30 votes?

Can I condemn my ally so that she will lose diplomatic flavour without damaging our allied relationship?

I start a game with the Pangea map with all the other parameters as random including my playing civ. Here is my progress,