June 2020 - how is Gathering Storm these days?

[Sherlock]

It's certainly cheaper than it was. I see lots of complaints under 'reviews', people not liking the World Congress, among other things.

Has this been fine-tuned since release? Worth a buy, or better without it?

All comments welcome.

 

[bbbt]

Overall I'd say it's definitely worth it for me - I play with it and enjoy the flow of the game better with it. But I actually find most of the new systems it added pretty meh.

A lot of the changes it made to the some the existing and base game systems were pretty cool, and some of the new Civs are definite highlights.

But in terms of new systems, world congress ranges from unimpactful to annoying. Disasters I'm not super keen on, I feel like often just end up with busy work of repairing things, or you just leave them unimproved. I find rock bands sort of cheesy. Extra late game era doesn't add a lot imho.

Electricity and the new 'green' districts (ala dam, canals) are also unimpactful but fun from a builder sort of view. The naming of rivers and mountains and the like is cool, but that doesn't actually change the game.

 

[Sostratus]

It's certainly cheaper than it was. I see lots of complaints under 'reviews', people not liking the World Congress, among other things.

Has this been fine-tuned since release? Worth a buy, or better without it?

All comments welcome.

It’s an expansion with a lot of great civs in it at the very minimum. I think the new resource + electricity systems are great. I personally enjoy having dams and canals, finally in the game.

The future era I can see being hit or miss but what they really did was add in true “end game” Mechanics- the Giant Death Robot is a super unit designed to break late game domination ties; rock bands are a way to push a culture victory without relying on passive pressure buildup; new cards can dramatically push you to your end game win condition. This imo is an improvement.

I would say if you include the disasters & global warming system, it’s content wise on par with BNW if not greater. I don’t think the balance of the game swung as much as what happened between GK and BNW did for civ5, but in terms of what you get (and don’t forget Those new civs!!) its a lot. Inca and Maori and Mali are all extremely distinct playstyles, for example- I would say in many ways there’s much more “Venice” in this set of civs than what we saw in RF.

 

[AriochIV]

I think the game is definitely better with Gathering Storm. The late game is more playable, and there are several new civilizations with mechanics that really make them different to play.

 

[criZp]

I don't really know. World congress just annoys me, most of the late game stuff feels uninspired (the future era consists mostly of powerful but generic policies, the space victory stuff, and the robot unit with its upgrades), disasters are ok but I don't think they add that much, railroads and canals is something I never actually use.

On the other hand, the added civilizations are some of the more unique and interesting ones. The updated strategic resource system is an improvement, and replacing the warmonger score system with grievances was also a good change.

 

[CrabHelmet]

The new civs are great! The power system is a real improvement, and I like the grievance system (although AI civs could do with being more aggressive and backstab-y for it to be a bit more interesting). The disaster system is... I can take it or leave it. On higher settings I think it makes Diplomatic Victory too easy and often just feels a bit like busywork, on the default 2 it's... there, I guess? Don't feel strongly either way. World Congress is... really terrible and needs a lot of work.

 

[Linklite]

Just finishing my first play through with GS (and R&F too, so I'm not 100% sure which is which, so forgive me if I mix things up).

• I've not played any GS Civs, but looking forward to trying Phoenicia, and Canada is another one I like the look of. The others seem alright. I'm thinking Maori would either be really.good or really bad?
• Making strategic resources countable made me nervous, but didn't actually impact my game. Could just be that I'm a very conservative player, but the only time I actually checked how much I had of anything was when I was about to start making GDRs, so I could figure out how many I could make. I had plenty of uranium for the job.
• The natural phenomena, like droughts etc, I wasn't so keen on. Maybe I just got a bad roll, but out of the dozen or so events, there was one storm, three or four eruptions of Kilimanjaro (in the space of about 50 turns), then the rest were basically a drought hitting the same three tiles over and over. It was just tedious. I'm not a fan (don't really hate it, it's just slightly worse than not bothered either way), however, a second game or so may change my mind.
• The various new buildings were, as someone else put it, largely unimpactful. Canals sounded great, but by the time I could build them, my cities were widespread enough that I didn't need them or I had units in both areas, for example. Perhaps the map was less conducive to them compared to others, though. Another example is the Water Park District. It's basically the Entertainment District that you can build on water from what I could tell (if anyone knows better, feel free to enlighten me). Nice, but not game changing, like most of the new buildings.
• The concept of electricity generation is cool. I think I would get more out of it if I understood Civ mechanics a bit better, I was never sure what the best choice was. However, it's a good mechanic that can spice city design up a bit and gives some need extra value to the Industrial Zone.
• World Congress was interesting. The emergency resolutions sources things up; I'm doing a Domination Victory, and usually at this stage it's a steam roller. The emergency resolutions made it a bit more interesting, or rather it would have, had the AI done anything. Maybe on higher difficulties it would. The various proposals were worthwhile.
• The concept of grievances makes far more sense than warmonger score. This is a significant improvement in my opinion.
• I don't pay attention to wonders apart from a specific few that I like perks of, and also during endgame when my cities have little else to do. None of the new ones caught my eye.
• I've not tried the Diplomatic Victory yet, so no opinion.
• Diplomatic Favour seems like a good concept, but I need to explore it further. It kind of just appeared, so I have little understanding of it and therefore how to use it.
• Late game stuff is much better. Used to get to the end, then it would just basically be rearranging units etc until victory came. Now with extra civics, I think you'll rarely do everything before the end of the game. Additionally, between GDRs and the stacking bonuses for Future Tech and Civics, the game is likely to end quickly. This is a great bonus for me.

That's a pretty comprehensive overview of my initial impressions. I think it's a worthwhile addition to the base game. The only drawback is natural disaster events, but you can tone those down. There is a lot of good that goes with it, and it can make.it.seem like a new game.

 

[Pushead]

I bought Civ 6 and the related DLC around Christmas after having quite a bit of time away from the Civ series. (I played a lot of Civ 4, but lost interest when Civ 5 came around.) I found a few playthroughs on YouTube and it got me interested in the series again. I have very little experience with the vanilla game, but I have played Gathering Storm quite a bit. I find I'm having a lot of fun with it. Whether or not it's worth your money for DLC, I wouldn't want to say.

 

[darkace77450]

It was a mixed bag for me.

• I greatly appreciate the inclusion of the World Congress and Diplomatic Victories, even if I preferred Civ V's iteration of the WC.
  
• The new districts are cool, even if I don't build them very often.
  
• Grievances are a vast improvement over warmonger score.
  
• I could take or leave disasters and power.
• I'm not a fan of global warming.
  
• I hate the Future Era and the prolonged Science Victory.
  
• Many of the new social policy cards unlock far too late to be of any real use.
  
• I enjoyed the Black Death scenario, so much so that I wish plagues (and proper health-themed counterplays) were a mechanic in normal game modes.

 

[fantsu]

Its worth it if you find it cheap and enjoy the game, sure.

 

[Sherlock]

It was a mixed bag for me.

• I greatly appreciate the inclusion of the World Congress and Diplomatic Victories, even if I preferred Civ V's iteration of the WC.
  
• The new districts are cool, even if I don't build them very often.
  
• Grievances are a vast improvement over warmonger score.
  
• I could take or leave disasters and power.
• I'm not a fan of global warming.
  
• I hate the Future Era and the prolonged Science Victory.
  
• Many of the new social policy cards unlock far too late to be of any real use.
  
• I enjoyed the Black Death scenario, so much so that I wish plagues (and proper health-themed counterplays) were a mechanic in normal game modes.

You're got eight bullet points here and four of them are for things you don't like. I think I'll pass.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

I definitely think it's worth it.
I mean I even liked R&F, and this to me is way better.
1. The Civs do feel more unique than ever before.
2. Natural disasters are a thing I didn't think I needed, but I'm fine with it and it interacts with the map.
3. The one good thing from Civ Rev, named features, is included.
4. It does add the World Congress and Diplo Victory, even though it's not everybody's favorite.
5. I might not use Railroads or Canals often but I'm glad they are included.
6. The Future era does prolong the end game, but I don't find it to be a bad thing.

 

[Sostratus]

You're got eight bullet points here and four of them are for things you don't like. I think I'll pass.

No one In this thread is arguing That the game is worse going from RF to GS. There’s also a huge difference between “I don’t like how they implemented this particular thing” and “this particular thing is bad.”
I cannot underscore enough how just the new civs alone are worthwhile if you can get the expansion at a reduced rate.

 

[darkace77450]

You're got eight bullet points here and four of them are for things you don't like. I think I'll pass.

Keep in mine two things. One, mine is just one man's opinion, and others' mileage may vary. The features I didn't care for may have been the best additions to the series in others' eyes, so definitely take others' opinions into consideration. Two, the bullet points aren't weighted equally. For example, my complaint about the new policy cards is a minor one, whereas I feel the grievance system is a huge improvement to the game. I wouldn't say negatives of the former offset the benefits of the latter.