I'm a peaceful player. Civ 7 is making me learn to enjoy war.

[Navelgazer]

So, I first got into this series in Civ4, and while I've been pretty obsessed with it ever since, one major aspect that I've never really gotten into is the Military side of things. I don't think I've won, or even seriously pursued, a military victory since Civ4, and I tend to take it as a point of pride to be able to make it through an entire game without ever getting into a war. I've generally found the military side of things to be kind of tiresome, and that it distracts me away from the building I'd rather be doing. I tend to focus on gold, science and culture, with the idea that, usually at least, if I get DOW'ed then I can levee or spam-purchase units where I need them in order to hit back hard and fast and end the war as soon as possible, hopefully with a new city in my empire for my troubles. But I never seek it.

And I still largely play that way, but Civ7 is bringing me around on the benefits to fighting, for a couple of reasons:

1. You got BERT in my Civ! There are a number of things from Beyond Earth: Rising Tide which it appears that Firaxis has salvaged for the Civ7 design (which is great for me, as I adored BERT and wish that it had been successful enough to get more love and attention than it did.) The Diplomacy mechanic is a big one, with different leaders having different proposals that they may spend influence to propose, and influence being a key economic currency. Civ has taken a lot of this, and added the relationship modifiers to supported proposals, allowing you ways to bounce back from hostile statuses. But also, BERT AI civs weren't afraid to go to war quickly and for fun and profit, and would also be willing to make peace quickly as well. With these mechanics in Civ7, along with the "reconciliation" endeavor, warmaking doesn't feel like something I'm going to be stuck dealing with for a hundred turns and then still having uninvolved civs hating me for hundreds of years later.

2. Commanders found the sweet spot. I know some folks still miss the stack of doom. I do not. It was an incredibly dull way to deal with warfare, and the change to the hex-grid and one-unit-per-tile combat helped a lot to make things more interesting and make both offensive and defensive use of the terrain. But 1UPT also led to carpets of doom which dragged the game down considerably and made movement feel impossible and overly micromanage-y. Commanders work as an elegant solution to find the perfect middle ground, for me. Well, they're not perfect - I think they suffer from some UI issues that I'm hoping will be fixed going forward, like a lot of things in this game - but packing up units, moving them quickly and compactly, and unpacking them where you want them to fight is great. Consolidating experience around an "officer" figure who can't perma-die is also a wonderful choice, allowing you (or me, anyway) to feel more confident being a bit more aggressive.

3. War Support. I love this mechanic. I tend to focus hard on influence anyway, because gobbling up city-states is a solid strategy if you can do it, but there comes a point where there are no more to grab, and only so much that you can spend your influence on while it stockpiles, and being able to spend it on making your wars go easier is beautiful. And even if you're not at war, you can use it to swing the tide of your neighbor's wars! Amazing!

Finally, and this is I guess part of point 1, after playing around on Governor difficulty long enough to get a feel for things and moving up in the difficulty now, I've found that even just on Viceroy, war is pretty much impossible to avoid. If there hadn't been so many quality of life improvements in terms of how war plays out, I think that would have put me off the game pretty fast. As is, it actually makes it more exciting for me, which is as it should be.

 

[agamemnon_of_the-bronze_]

So, I first got into this series in Civ4, and while I've been pretty obsessed with it ever since, one major aspect that I've never really gotten into is the Military side of things. I don't think I've won, or even seriously pursued, a military victory since Civ4, and I tend to take it as a point of pride to be able to make it through an entire game without ever getting into a war. I've generally found the military side of things to be kind of tiresome, and that it distracts me away from the building I'd rather be doing. I tend to focus on gold, science and culture, with the idea that, usually at least, if I get DOW'ed then I can levee or spam-purchase units where I need them in order to hit back hard and fast and end the war as soon as possible, hopefully with a new city in my empire for my troubles. But I never seek it.

And I still largely play that way, but Civ7 is bringing me around on the benefits to fighting, for a couple of reasons:

1. You got BERT in my Civ! There are a number of things from Beyond Earth: Rising Tide which it appears that Firaxis has salvaged for the Civ7 design (which is great for me, as I adored BERT and wish that it had been successful enough to get more love and attention than it did.) The Diplomacy mechanic is a big one, with different leaders having different proposals that they may spend influence to propose, and influence being a key economic currency. Civ has taken a lot of this, and added the relationship modifiers to supported proposals, allowing you ways to bounce back from hostile statuses. But also, BERT AI civs weren't afraid to go to war quickly and for fun and profit, and would also be willing to make peace quickly as well. With these mechanics in Civ7, along with the "reconciliation" endeavor, warmaking doesn't feel like something I'm going to be stuck dealing with for a hundred turns and then still having uninvolved civs hating me for hundreds of years later.

2. Commanders found the sweet spot. I know some folks still miss the stack of doom. I do not. It was an incredibly dull way to deal with warfare, and the change to the hex-grid and one-unit-per-tile combat helped a lot to make things more interesting and make both offensive and defensive use of the terrain. But 1UPT also led to carpets of doom which dragged the game down considerably and made movement feel impossible and overly micromanage-y. Commanders work as an elegant solution to find the perfect middle ground, for me. Well, they're not perfect - I think they suffer from some UI issues that I'm hoping will be fixed going forward, like a lot of things in this game - but packing up units, moving them quickly and compactly, and unpacking them where you want them to fight is great. Consolidating experience around an "officer" figure who can't perma-die is also a wonderful choice, allowing you (or me, anyway) to feel more confident being a bit more aggressive.

3. War Support. I love this mechanic. I tend to focus hard on influence anyway, because gobbling up city-states is a solid strategy if you can do it, but there comes a point where there are no more to grab, and only so much that you can spend your influence on while it stockpiles, and being able to spend it on making your wars go easier is beautiful. And even if you're not at war, you can use it to swing the tide of your neighbor's wars! Amazing!

Finally, and this is I guess part of point 1, after playing around on Governor difficulty long enough to get a feel for things and moving up in the difficulty now, I've found that even just on Viceroy, war is pretty much impossible to avoid. If there hadn't been so many quality of life improvements in terms of how war plays out, I think that would have put me off the game pretty fast. As is, it actually makes it more exciting for me, which is as it should be.

good post. i just played my first game on governor. machiavelli Rome, Spain, France. completed military legacy path all three ages and built operation ivy . i was at multi front war most of the game. commanders are really convenient for organizing your armies, ESPECIALLY as they grow larger and larger. by the modern age i had probably 50 guard imperiale in a massive two front operation against Amina and Harriet, and commanders were a great way to organize the fronts and absolutely essential to prosecuting these large drawn out wars.

 

[marius_kaparius]

I agree, the reduced clicking has made me engage with the military aspect of the game a lot more. The Influence system has solved one of the things I liked least about Civ 6, the fidgety proposal system with other civs.

 

[Evolena]

I think it's the first time I've used an Aircraft Carrier (is that even the correct name? I'm so not interested in military units...), and I've enjoyed playing with my Air Units (still need to learn to use Fighters) while in Civ VI I try to avoid war and creating/upgrading units alltogether in the end game!

 

[Mr Jon of Cheam]

It's the best version of military that Civ has ever had. Unfortunately the AI still struggles with it, but it's a lot of fun.

 

[evonannoredars]

Cliffs and navigable rivers also make it so much more interesting, I love defending with ranged units from on top of a cliff or sending ships up a river to harass land units trying to cross it.

 

[stealth_nsk]

I managed to avoid wars on both Viceroy and Suzerain when playing really peacefully. But war is quite fun, so I'm leaning towards it as well.

 

[Groff]

Another player who enjoys a more peacful style of play.

Second game, I notice France and Greece are the best of buddies and suddenly moving military units suspiciously close and around me. I build a few military units just in case.

Both declare on me and appear to send everything they have at me.
If you’ve ever seen a boat being sent off, with a bottle smashing into thousands pieces, that’s exactly what happened to France and Greece.
Followed by France losing a town and Greece being wiped off the face of the world.

The war felt good, felt like I had room to respond.

 

[thecrazyscot]

I'm dipping my toes into Deity after easily winning 3 games on Immortal, and boy is it tougher.

Started with Trung Trac-Rome and quickly got 4 settlements. Xerxes-Persia was to my east, Tecumseh-Egypt to my west. Set up a decent relationship with Xerxes despite forward settling him to get some nice resources when Tecumseh surprise attacked. It was a pretty far frontier, so I sent my 2 Commanders marching. An epic siege of Tecumseh's capital Waset ensued and lasted until the end of the age. Napoleon, like the ass he is, forward settled Waset in the middle of the siege...so closely he disrupted my siege works. I had to set up an open borders treaty just to restore my line.

Tecumseh was clearly getting squeezed elsewhere, so turned out he didn't have any other cities. He brought all his armies home and I kept reinforcing my Commanders to continue through the meatgrinder. Districts changed hands multiple times.

The attrition was manageable until Xerxes surprise attacked my lightly garrisoned towns on my eastern flank. Ravenna fell quickly. The soldiers I'd allocated for Waset turned around and went east. I couldn't recapture Ravenna, and another town was in imminent danger. A chariot carpet of death proved to overwhelm even my legions.

Then the crisis struck. Ravenna revolted against Xerxes and asked to rejoin Rome. Yes, thank you.

Then I promptly sold them out back to Xerxes for a peace deal. I had nothing but a few wounded legions between Rome and the chariots.

My forces in Waset had been whittled down to just a handful, but Tecumseh finally ran out of defenders. Wiping him out ended the age.

I got the first legacy point in each category - a measly 4, less than half the current leader.

I would be in a better position if I'd been able to pull my Commanders out and settle towns with them - Waset ended up with a level 9 and a level 11 commander for me.

Went Mongolia for Exploration. But the transition script must have bugged, because while I kept my Commanders I didn't have any soldiers

I rushed a small army of Keshigs and Coursers and rushed Xerxes. Took back Ravenna and another settlement, but DANG those Chevalers are little horsey tanks. I managed to throw enough guys at him to make him sue for peace and get me another town... Just after Napoleon surprise attacked. Rush everybody back west!

I just know another war with Xerxes is coming. My infrastructure is quite underdeveloped with my having to focus on troops exclusively for a long time. If I can get some breathing space from Napoleon I should be able to focus on a siege of Xerxes' large capital.

Whew - this Deity AI is keeping me on my toes and the resulting wars are super intense and fun. Can't remember the last time I lost, well, anything to the AI. The Commanders are a blast, and I love how regular troops are so much more disposable, resulting in much more intense conflicts.

 

[Methos]

I'm assuming it's because I'm still playing on Viceroy, but I have yet to get into a war with another civ. Granted, I work my influence like crazy to keep others from dow'ing on me. The combat system I do like a lot over the previous editions.