How to make the game harder?

[Siddharth Venkatesh]

I'll try the Better Balanced Game mod.
The changes also apply to the AI, right? Or only the human player? (edit: yes. the changes seem interesting: https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/discussion/1980274246/1734384427833461418/ )
And does it change the info in the manual/civilopedia and tooltips?

Yes, the mod applies the changes to the AI as well. Sumeria AI won't start with War Carts for example. At some point I should probably run an AI only game to see how the AI deals with the mod. This is definitely not the intended use, but I've been getting a bit burned out on regular civ 6 lately, with the NFP stuff not being that exciting, so it's been fun to explore how the metagame changes with the mod at least. Perhaps eventually, I will find it no harder or even easier than the normal game, but for now, I like the new challenge. Now, if I could only nurse a game through without it crashing every 50 turns.

Another option for difficulty that is a bit artificial is to play with Secret Societies but force yourself to pick Hermetic order, and don't use any extra governor titles till the corresponding societal promotion is unlocked. That's how that mode should have been designed imo, rather than showering you with a crazy amount of early governor titles.

 

[MrRadar]

Good idea! I will try this for the next game: tiny terra, online speed, 5 civs, low sea level. Will report back!
I might edit the XML and bump it up to 8 civs

I don't think adding more AI will further increase the difficulty, try default 4 civs first, including you. On such settings the game will go fast, then you'll know better how to tweak your next game. To become more challenging, AI must have some space where to settle, so stuffing an already cramped map with more AI will prevent them from using their free settlers and even out things for you.

 

[Morgawr]

Shuffle mode + Real Eurekas mod is the answer you are looking for. Has done the trick for me without having to impose any artificial rules. I keep a log of my win rate and these two alone lowered my win rate on Deity from ~40% to ~20%

 

[japanesesamurai]

The real eurekas look interesting. Shuffle mode I didn’t like that much, though, but possibly try it again. Might turn out to be more of a challenge. Although the way the vanilla trees are laid out is a big part of the game

 

[Morgawr]

The real eurekas look interesting. Shuffle mode I didn’t like that much, though, but possibly try it again. Might turn out to be more of a challenge. Although the way the vanilla trees are laid out is a big part of the game

the combination of the two increases the challenge level because you don’t generally know where the techs/civics you want are and cannot beeline. + you can’t get most of the Eurekas because the boosts are much harder with the mod vs the default. That causes you to research most things at full price whereas AI gets their bonuses so gives relative advantage to AI

 

[Shorlin]

Limit your turn times like speed chess is the only way I see to make the game harder.
Not for me though, my brain is too slow.. I can literally spend hours poring over strategy in Civ games.

 

[japanesesamurai]

I don’t play blitz games that much It requires a entirely different strategy.

i will try quick games first and possibly switch to online speed. It will only increase the difficulty if you’re not isolated. On a terra map as someone suggested.

thanks for all the replies, guys!

 

[SuperFly47]

You can handpick your opponents so you're only facing stronger civilizations.

 

[japanesesamurai]

Okay Quick Speed with Korea as a neighbour = almost hardcore difficulty. haha. I got murdered on a naval map playing as England. Korea took London with Caravels, spearmen and crossbowmen. City state with 4 swordsmen razed another city. Korea got 130 science on turn 50 or so. I had 11. Nice one. Lemme try again

 

[japanesesamurai]

PLayed two games on quick speed now and indeed the game is, coincidentally or not, much much harder. The speed of the game is a bit too fast though and it creates a claustrophobic vibe all the way through.
Even though in my last game I had killer Holy Roman factories (screenshot), I still couldn't keep up with Pericles' 500 science per turn.
Because Rome was about to sink I had to research computers too early and so had to ignore pretty much everything else.
This quick speed seems a bit too hardcore for me

Holy Roman factory screenshot (had two more with 12+12). (And yes I built the worst Petra site in the history of Civilization )

Also, strange thing happened twice. I was allied to Mongolia and he offered me 2000 gold + 500 gold per turn (+all of his luxuries) to declare a joint war against Pericles. Is he just a good ally or is the game a bit bugged?

 

[Big Earth]

Sounds like Dramatic Ages will be a more difficult game mode on higher difficulties.

 

[MrRadar]

Also, strange thing happened twice. I was allied to Mongolia and he offered me 2000 gold + 500 gold per turn (+all of his luxuries) to declare a joint war against Pericles. Is he just a good ally or is the game a bit bugged?

Yes, some aspects of trade deals are just bonkers, blatant exploits, joint wars first of all. FXS seems unable to get their trading algorithms right.

 

[Depravo]

I find really hammering alcohol as you play adds a natural 'difficulty curve'.

 

[Siddharth Venkatesh]

Sounds like Dramatic Ages will be a more difficult game mode on higher difficulties.

Dramatic Ages on Online should be a good jump in difficulty. Chaining golden ages on Online speed is reasonably hard.

 

[DeckerdJames]

... without made up rules, like no chopping?
I have been beating deity game after game.
So current game I am Nubia which start with very weak tiles. Desert tiles. I settled and had 0 production from tiles. Like literally zero. Only food and no gold, no faith, no science, no culture. My river flooded 3 times. In total I lost 5 pop during the first 30 turns in the capital. By turn 170, in my capital, I had Great Zimbabwe, Petra, Ruhr Valley, University of Sankore, the Mauseleom, Oracle (only 50 faith/turn but still buying the great great peoples), a **** campus with 0 adjecency, a factory, commercial hub, harbor. I had 1 rainforrest and 1 forrest for chopping. I am popping out builders every turn. I turned a **** capital into a power monster without too much effort. Of course I rushed mathematics and industrialization. But here’s the thing, on turn 120 I had 40 science. I delayed Pingala till turn 70’ish. I invested in a religion because I wanted work ethic for another city.
I declared three times to condemn heretics. I had zero battles. Took no cities. My opponents are not that weak on paper: Persia, Gran Colombia, Kongo, Aztecs. They are doing okay, but no way they’ll win.
Setup: small terra map, standard speed, no special modes, no mods, everything default, diplo victory disabled.
I don’t exploit or game the system. I don’t even research grants project that much either. I don’t trade diplo favors that much either. At least not anymore, it feels a bit cheesy.
I am the suzerain of two cs (production, science yields) out of 9. I don’t have the Kilwa wonder.
Kongo built Oxford. He already has sattelites up and I haven’t researched rocketry yet, but there’s no way he’ll win. I have the highest science per turn without even researching research labs yet. And my capital is just too damn good to not lose.

so, what can I do to make the game more difficult? Because ‘’not rerolling” doesnt appear to do all that much. I am good at this game but no way I am an expert. At all.
Also I often forget to switch policy cards. I often forget to switch civic/tech. I don’t save/load scum. Ever.
In this game I even didn’t have a golden classical age either. I hard built my settlers with provision on Magnus. I have like 7-8 cities

Maybe:

Start a local mutiplayer game. Set it up. I think a larger map would be a bit better because you can have more civs. Set the difficulty of the computer players so that some are deity and some are easier. If they are all deities, they probably balance and check each other to a certain degree. The deity level AI players should have a stronger advantage vs the easier ones meaning that that they may be able to expand through conquest easier.

I have not tried this so if you do, will you let us know how it worked for you? Did any of the civs become superpowers?

 

[Tiger Genocide]

... without made up rules, like no chopping?
I have been beating deity game after game.
So current game I am Nubia which start with very weak tiles. Desert tiles. I settled and had 0 production from tiles. Like literally zero. Only food and no gold, no faith, no science, no culture. My river flooded 3 times. In total I lost 5 pop during the first 30 turns in the capital. By turn 170, in my capital, I had Great Zimbabwe, Petra, Ruhr Valley, University of Sankore, the Mauseleom, Oracle (only 50 faith/turn but still buying the great great peoples), a **** campus with 0 adjecency, a factory, commercial hub, harbor. I had 1 rainforrest and 1 forrest for chopping. I am popping out builders every turn. I turned a **** capital into a power monster without too much effort. Of course I rushed mathematics and industrialization. But here’s the thing, on turn 120 I had 40 science. I delayed Pingala till turn 70’ish. I invested in a religion because I wanted work ethic for another city.
I declared three times to condemn heretics. I had zero battles. Took no cities. My opponents are not that weak on paper: Persia, Gran Colombia, Kongo, Aztecs. They are doing okay, but no way they’ll win.
Setup: small terra map, standard speed, no special modes, no mods, everything default, diplo victory disabled.
I don’t exploit or game the system. I don’t even research grants project that much either. I don’t trade diplo favors that much either. At least not anymore, it feels a bit cheesy.
I am the suzerain of two cs (production, science yields) out of 9. I don’t have the Kilwa wonder.
Kongo built Oxford. He already has sattelites up and I haven’t researched rocketry yet, but there’s no way he’ll win. I have the highest science per turn without even researching research labs yet. And my capital is just too damn good to not lose.

so, what can I do to make the game more difficult? Because ‘’not rerolling” doesnt appear to do all that much. I am good at this game but no way I am an expert. At all.
Also I often forget to switch policy cards. I often forget to switch civic/tech. I don’t save/load scum. Ever.
In this game I even didn’t have a golden classical age either. I hard built my settlers with provision on Magnus. I have like 7-8 cities

Try Lily Lancer's saved Deity game with Hungary, lol. I started it and while it was ridiculous hard at first I haven't bothered finishing it yet.

https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/need-help-on-hungary.650921/

Everyone else hates Lily too much to bother finishing his tough game. If you can do that, I'll give you props.

 

[Quueg]

I’ve found it helps to occasionally poke myself in the eye so that, for a few moments, I can’t see how badly the AI plays the game.

 

[Lily_Lancer]

Because the AI is too weak in Civ6. They used to get 100-150% bonus on gold & production, now they only get 80%, and only 32% for science and culture.

 

[Quueg]

Problem: During war, AI worker moves directly next to my infantry unit and just sits there for several turns until I decide to capture it out of sheer boredom.

Developer Solution: Give AI more free workers.

I can’t believe people keep paying for this. Buying new DLCs that just add a new color of fail just rewards sloppy game design.

 

[japanesesamurai]

So I had a little experiment. Although it ended up being a very boring game. and turned out to be almost impossible to win.

setup:
Continents map (flat, non wrapping world), Size:small, high sea level
Deity
All victories enabled
Two players. Each player starting on a different major continent.
Barbarians disabled
8 city states
Standard speed.

I played as Germany. Opponent: Russia.
The idea was to build a massive army quickly after having Hansas and hubs with Crusade and work ethic as beliefs to invade the opponent with.
But! I think this is imposdible, as Russia will win a culture victory 20 turns after he found you.
Being at war to condemn heretics and to push away rock bands and to avoid trade routes on turn 120 didnt help all that much.
Your Pingala will be disabled every three turns and apostles look like a swarm of ants.
He had multiple fleets of battleships and ironclads while I just had my first Frigate build and finished the ancient walls in the coastal city.
It’s hilarious

Witt this setup, without Barbarians, you really notice the deity bonuses AI gets!

if anyone wants to try it, you can have this setup with the Got Lakes? map script mod.

so but anyway, this is one way to make the game harder