Huge gap between King and Emperor difficulty

[Leathaface]

I was playing a game on King there and turn 89 on Epic speed I was leading in science. Meanwhile on my previous game on Emperor I was in the Industrial age and 2 others Civs were in the Information era. Kongo was building a Spaceport while I hadn't yet fully researched Industrialization.

I was last place in Science in my Emperor games and I assume I was last place on turn 89 too. IMO there is too big a difference between King and Emperor. I'd swear I was 2 or 3 difficulties apart.

 

[Archon_Wing]

Kongo

I think that's probably the culprit. Even @ Prince, he always has much more science than the rest.

 

[iammaxhailme]

In civ 5, I thought there was a similar huge gap between Emperor and Immortal.
Now it seems it shifted down one, because I agree with TC, there seems to be a big gap. Every time, in emperor games, I end up getting invaded by people with anti-tanks, cavalry, and field canons right when I start getting crossbows, but I win on king easily every time

 

[Victoria]

The main cause of the gap comes from the second settler they get at the start. Civ is an exponential growth game so starting higher up the curve is strong and better bonuses just push that.The jump between immortal and deity is worse.
Try a scout builder settler start, this is the most efficient way to catch up. Once you have craftsmen build about 6 slingers right away even if playing peaceful as it's so cheap to do and will limit war declarations against you.

 

[kaspergm]

I think that's probably the culprit. Even @ Prince, he always has much more science than the rest.

Agreed, Kongo is almost always ridiculous runaway in the hands of the AI.

When that's said, don't get too freaked out that AI will beeline to information era and start building spaceports. In most cases, they will still be very far away from having researched all the techs necessary for the spaceship because they'll have skipped entire parts of the tech tree.

 

[Horizons]

I regularly play King and only lose now and then. (For example, a culture victory because I've been friends with Gorgo since like forever and then I realize she is making 800 tourism per turn and I can't declare war on her because we're friends lol)

I'm frequently behind in science, and I think this is because of population and not spamming sufficient campuses. But I've found that I can steal my way to a tech victory using spies. I recommend building spies asap and sending them abroad to steal tech. Choose missions with a higher probability of success (e.g. sabotage production) first in order to get promotions and choose 'Ace driver' and 'tehcnologist' whenever possible. Focus on promotions that decrease the probability of your spies being captured or killed first, because they are expensive to rebuild.

Spies are awesome in Civ6.

Addition: oh yes and if you do happen to play peaceful, sign research agreements as often as possible.

 

[Victoria]

'tehcnologist' whenever possible

I have found that it only takes a few successes to get master spy and at that level you do not need Technologist, do a couple of gold runs first and you will be fine.

Having Disguise, Linguist and Ace Driver on your best thief with a quartermaster spy in defense is just awesome. with the 25% less time green card this one spy can seriously damage a leading civ quickly or get lots of techs.

At higher levels I would say Linguist and disguise are more important than ace driver because their value does not diminish. The % chance of escape is pretty high once you are a master spy, its more about pressing next until you get another mission IMO

 

[bladex]

lol i can barely win on king. i tried emperor once i think i lasted about 100 turns before deciding yeah i'm not playing emperor anymore

 

[Horizons]

lol i can barely win on king. i tried emperor once i think i lasted about 100 turns before deciding yeah i'm not playing emperor anymore

Trouble might be if you're building too much and not going military enough. I had the same problem in Civ5. The AI simply beats you to most wonders and can build quicker and support a larger population than you can at the higher difficulties, so your only option is to take to a military solution - essentially, relying on the AI's ineptitude at war. I am still hoping Civ6 can eventually address this and provide other ways to win but at the moment it seems the AI can always support a higher population in the early game so it will always be ahead.

There are expert strategies of course but these almost all rely on certain exploits, at least the Civ5 ones did.

 

[679x]

I was wondering why I struggled so much more on Emperor. I played as England on TSL Earth and did very well on King, but not at all on Emperor.

 

[kaspergm]

Spies are awesome in Civ6.

I agree. Get the card that gives double tech boost on stealing and the card that reduces spy time, get the promotion that reduces time for missions and/or to establish contact, and spies become super effective! I actually tend to favor the promotions that *don't* target specific missions, because a max level spy will have 90 % success even if you don't have the promotion, if you also run the card that increased effective level of your spies and/or have a spy with quartermaster promotion sitting home.

 

[bladex]

Trouble might be if you're building too much and not going military enough. I had the same problem in Civ5. The AI simply beats you to most wonders and can build quicker and support a larger population than you can at the higher difficulties, so your only option is to take to a military solution - essentially, relying on the AI's ineptitude at war.

i know but i want to build a spaceship plus they have info era units when i'm still in the industrial era!

 

[KingCheops]

When that's said, don't get too freaked out that AI will beeline to information era and start building spaceports. In most cases, they will still be very far away from having researched all the techs necessary for the spaceship because they'll have skipped entire parts of the tech tree.

Yeah my one and only Deity game/win I freaked out because Aztecs built a spaceport. I started spamming campus grants and spies to play catch up. 2 turns later I get notification that they just researched Steel. Oh, well then...

 

[Art Morte]

I used to play Civ5 a lot (Civ4 too), until playing on Deity became the only feasible option. So, going to Civ6 I thought "I'm a Civ veteran, I feel I should go Deity straight away, but since it's a new game, let's choose Immortal for the first few games". I was in for a humbling experience, stood no chance of winning those games. So, I started experimenting with the difficulty levels and I did find exactly what the OP did, too; King felt too easy and relaxed but when I switched to Emperor I still hadn't learnt the game mechanics well enough to play Emperor well. In fact, that applies to this day since for whatever reason Civ6 hasn't kept me playing anywhere near as frequently as four and five did.

 

[kaspergm]

Well the problem is the extra settler the AI gets. That is just a HUGE jump. While most other benefits can be scaled pretty smoothly, the difference between starting with one or two settlers is immense, and obviously there are no in-betweens. I do agree that the jump is too big, I can win fairly comfortably on emperor, but I don't like the huge headstart it gives the AI because it cuts you out of religious race and early wonders. Personally I modded out the extra settler, so that is basically the level between king and emperor you're requesting.

 

[ShakaKhan]

Hahaha.... emperor is easy for this reason, King is much harder.

I usually play on immortal, sometimes on Deity for bragging rights (although its less fun because it isn't harder, just fewer options), sometimes on emperor when I want to play loosely and just sandbox it. After reading this post and realizing that the AI only gets one settler on King, I tried playing on that level. I found it to be much harder than the higher, supposedly more difficult, levels because the AI didn't build all the great cities and districts and wonders to steal that I'm used to. Basically I usually start (about the first 50 turns) with two cities, one district, and a small but efficient military. Then by turn 60 or so, I have 6 or 7 cities, most working improved tiles, most with at least one district, probably a wonder, and so on. Playing on King, I found it harder as I couldn't capture the "good" part of my empire.

 

[kaspergm]

I usually play on immortal, sometimes on Deity for bragging rights (although its less fun because it isn't harder, just fewer options), sometimes on emperor when I want to play loosely and just sandbox it. After reading this post and realizing that the AI only gets one settler on King, I tried playing on that level. I found it to be much harder than the higher, supposedly more difficult, levels because the AI didn't build all the great cities and districts and wonders to steal that I'm used to. Basically I usually start (about the first 50 turns) with two cities, one district, and a small but efficient military. Then by turn 60 or so, I have 6 or 7 cities, most working improved tiles, most with at least one district, probably a wonder, and so on. Playing on King, I found it harder as I couldn't capture the "good" part of my empire.

Yes, that would be true if you play as a conqueror rather than a builder, assuming you don't fall prey to an early rush.