how to play tall?

[pietro1990]

Dear forum,

I know civ 7 is out but i still play civ 6 but i was wondering something.

Does anybody know some good strategies to play tall. it seems that to win you need a lot of cities or is that just me?
Are there any strategies for playing tall? Are there certain victory conditions you should pick?

It just seems the tall gameplay in this game isn't there. could you give me some tips on how to play tall?

 

[DeckerdJames]

You need districts to win and their value is magnified by the city states. Pingala and Reyna, the governors, are ideally placed in tall cities. There are uses for tall cities. Even the governor Llang helps a tall city because of the extra housing he can provide, and he can generate culture from city parks. Occasionally you will see an area that has plenty of food, water, and ideal terrain for Llang, but I don't use him much for an inland tall city. I like him for a tall coastal city. Once you get the seaport, the coastal tiles are worth a lot of money.

More often, I think you will occasionally see an opportunity for a tall start. Suppose it is a grassy area and has some high food tiles and you can get a few amenities early on in your capitol. Then you could decide to grow that city, go to craftsman and speed up builders an instead of expanding right away, try to raise your population so that you can claim land around your capitol through loyal pressure.

Look at the abilities of the leaders and civilizations. Some of them have unique improvements that provide housing. These civilizations can go tall earlier and easier if the improvements come early. Poundmaker, for instance.

When you are trying to claim space in the early game, pay attention to locations that are good for tall cities. Sometimes you might settle right on a high food tile and immediately work another high food tile to quickly claim space. Then you can put Pingala in there.

Remember you can have a level 4 governor pretty early if you know which one you want already. All you need is your government plaza built and the first government building which you get at political science. You can get a level 2 governor quickly by rushing state workforce and building the government plaza immediately. That can give you a level 2 Pingala, with researcher or connoisseur.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

It seems that to win you need a lot of cities or is that just me?

It's a lot easier to win going wide but certainly possible to play tall. Civs like Khmer and Scotland work well, take the Audience Chamber and prioritise Governor titles.

 

[pietro1990]

but certainly possible to play tall.

You need districts to win and their value is magnified by the city states. Pingala and Reyna, the governors, are ideally placed in tall cities. There are uses for tall cities. Even the governor Llang helps a tall city because of the extra housing he can provide, and he can generate culture from city parks. Occasionally you will see an area that has plenty of food, water, and ideal terrain for Llang, but I don't use him much for an inland tall city. I like him for a tall coastal city. Once you get the seaport, the coastal tiles are worth a lot of money.

More often, I think you will occasionally see an opportunity for a tall start. Suppose it is a grassy area and has some high food tiles and you can get a few amenities early on in your capitol. Then you could decide to grow that city, go to craftsman and speed up builders an instead of expanding right away, try to raise your population so that you can claim land around your capitol through loyal pressure.

Look at the abilities of the leaders and civilizations. Some of them have unique improvements that provide housing. These civilizations can go tall earlier and easier if the improvements come early. Poundmaker, for instance.

When you are trying to claim space in the early game, pay attention to locations that are good for tall cities. Sometimes you might settle right on a high food tile and immediately work another high food tile to quickly claim space. Then you can put Pingala in there.

Remember you can have a level 4 governor pretty early if you know which one you want already. All you need is your government plaza built and the first government building which you get at political science. You can get a level 2 governor quickly by rushing state workforce and building the government plaza immediately. That can give you a level 2 Pingala, with researcher or connoisseur.

thanks for the reply still missing some penalties for expansion in civ 6

 

[vorlon_mi]

That's an accurate observation -- Civ6 has few penalties for expansion. Civ3 had few penalties for expansion; Civ4 had penalties for expanding too fast (without letting the little ones have time to grow to big ones), but not a penalty for more cities overall. Even Beyond Earth/Rising Tide which is based on the Civ5 engine rewards having more than 10 cities, once you've achieved certain affinity levels.

The only real penalty in Civ6 is trying to settlle a city too close to an opponent's larger city. Loyalty effects will make it hard to hold onto that baby city.
If each new city you found is near to larger cities of your own, then loyalty pressure works for you, not against you.

I alwasy found it interesting that the Civ6 AI tended to settle into relatively compact, 4, 5, or 6 city empires. Some might expand up to 8, some were content with only 3.
I could never see a downside to leaving good land unclaimed. But my instincts were trained on Civ2, Civ3, and Civ4.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Dear forum,

I know civ 7 is out but i still play civ 6 but i was wondering something.

Does anybody know some good strategies to play tall. it seems that to win you need a lot of cities or is that just me?
Are there any strategies for playing tall? Are there certain victory conditions you should pick?

It just seems the tall gameplay in this game isn't there. could you give me some tips on how to play tall?

Victory Types: obviously Domination is off the table, if you want to have a 3-city or 4-city tall empire. I'm not sure that score victory is possible, even with mammoth cities.

Culture victory could be challenging. Yes, you can build some wonders, excavate archological sites, and collect great works. But 4 tall cities means only 4 Theatre Squares, with 12 slots for great works. Building wonders like Hermitage, Bolshoi, Apadana will get you a few more slots. You will definitely need to spam Rock Bands, but it will be an uphill climb if the other civs build up their own culture.

Science victory will also be challenging. To build the Exoplanet Expedition, you need to research nearly the whole tech tree. You'll have 4 campuses, fully equipped, but your science per turn may not be large enough. You would need excellent adjacency for each of your campus districts. You would probably also want to get extra science from attacking and pillaging other civ's campus districts. One spaceport is required; you may want to build more than one to support the accelerator projects.

Religious victory is possble, with a robust faith economy and winning lots of theological combat. Using a smaller map -- fewer civs to convert -- will probably be helpful. An AI with 8 cities who is also spamming apostles from the other side of the world might make this harder.

Diplomatic victory is probably your best option. Building key wonders (like Potala Palace and a well-timed Statue of Liberty), winning any scored competitions, and making nice with neighbors could allow you to win diplomatically. Know the trends for AI voting is also key.