Problem with Liang is that she would be useful in more than one city. If you place her near a volcano or flood plain, then you cannot (most of the time) place her in a coastal. And if you have a volcano/flood plains/whatever city with her in it and displace her to a coastal city, and you have a disaster in the disaster city, it is bad luck. Governor lacks greatly of flexibility, I mean how they act and how they move. In Civ7, I hope their effects to be zonal, like 6/9 tiles from where they are, and they could be anywhere on the map, not just in cities. But even like that, there would still the annoyance to count hexes. Maybe governors should be replaced with global governors that give perks to your civ, like the civics in Civ5. Except none of them would be locked early. That would open up for strong and accessible strategies. In Civ6, there's always a "but" with governors. For example, I use to pick up Magnus with provision first, but I often end up not using him as much as I would like to. After all, building settlers is kind of rare and early. Not sure the one pop spare worth the cost, especially if your city growth overpasses your housing capacity. I guess you have to think about it : 4/5 food tile in your capital ? Several ? Don't go Magnus. Now do you prefer to go Magnus if your city has low housing, or not go Magnus if your city has low housing and high production ? I don't know, because if you have low housing, when you hit the first shreshold of slowdown, you could as well say it's useless to have one more point of population. On the other hand, you can say yourself you will never want to lose one pop because it's long enough to get it. (example : coastal start without FRESH water) These kinds of perks are like thrown in the game without much thinking at start, and it becomes a nightmare to min-max. Exactly like the infinite city sprawl in Civ3, although this was unexpected. Now what's expected is that you can't settle a whole half of the map. No, it's probably not expected either. But it happens. So why not expect ICS (infinite city sprawl) from the start and see what happens ?
I am still learning the governors and generally still learning the game. The way the governors are now are basically like city governors. Perhaps the idea could be expanded into regional governors, or perhaps in Civ 7, you can rank up your Civ leader. Who knows?
As I said, I am still learning. To that end, I wanted to know which civilizations/leaders would be better for tall, to test what I have heard about tall vs wide viability. When I say tall, I mean 50+. A 25 city could be found in a wide empire fairly easily, I think, by the late game. So what about 50+? What does that take and how do the governors help?
First, let me say I have only tested a few games and before I had acquired a better understanding of the governors. The issue is not just food abundance, if you want to grow tall from the beginning. The issue is housing. So, I went through the list of civilizations to see which ones get ways to boost housing and how quick can it be made use of. The Inca, India and the Cree were the ones that I have attempted so far, but others may be viable.
The Inca are very easy to grow tall because their unique terrace farm gives great food and a whole housing. They can also work all of the mountain tiles. They seem like the easiest tall civilization, so far. I just went back a found the save game for that playthrough. My capital is size 45 on deity level on turn 316/500. I am pretty sure I finished the game and the capital was over 50 by then. I either won that game or the computer might have reached a space victory just before me. It was close at least. I had 7 cities total and it seems viable to play them tall.
The Cree were far more difficult, but they can also increase their housing significantly after researching pottery. The Mekewap building gives a whole housing. That's the main thing, but it gives other bonuses. I have not been able to get the Cree up to 50 and after a few attempts, I had moved on to try other things. I think it can be done. As I write this, I am thinking I just need to think a bit more out of the box. The minor bonus is the gold for being next to a luxury, but the only restriction is that they cannot be adjacent to each other. At civil service, I think they give 2 housing. Looking at the Cree's abilities, they are born to play tall. That is the theory.
India was also more difficult. The stepwell gives housing and food, but also faith if next to a holy site. After researching sanitation it become 2 housing. This civ is meant to be very tall too I think.
Playing tall is harder than playing wide in Civ 6 but with certain Civilizations, I think it is doable. I need more practice though.
I have understood the governors a bit better now. Sometimes governors seem better to be moved around and I think they have abilities that shine when doing that, but if you are aiming for very tall cities, their abilities could be seen differently.
Liang
I | Guildmaster | All Builders trained in city get +1 build charge. | - |
II | Zoning Commissioner | +20% Production towards constructing Districts in the city. | - |
II | Aquaculture | The Fishery unique improvement can be built in the city on coastal plots. Yields 1 Food, +1 Food for each adjacent sea resource. Fisheries provide +1 Production if Liang is in the city. | - |
III | Reinforced Materials | This city's improvements, buildings and Districts cannot be damaged by Environmental Effects. | Zoning Commissioner |
III | Water Works | +2 Housing for every Neighborhood and Aqueduct district in this city. +1 Amenity for every Canal and Dam district in this city. | Aquaculture |
IV | Parks and Recreation | The City Park unique improvement can be built in the city. Yields 2 Appeal and 1 Culture. +1 Amenity if adjacent to water. City Parks provide 3 Culture if Liang is in the city. | Reinforced Materials or Water Works |
Liang has two different paths to the level 4 ability. One side speeds up your district building speed and protects your infrastructure. Repairs take time. That side is about time. The other side is mainly about growth. The fishery gives +1/2 housing and you can get an additional +2 for neighborhoods and aqueducts. The housing bonus for the neighborhood is based on appeal. That synergizes with the city parks. If you identify a city location with abundant food, you can place Liang there permanently and try to grow the city very large. It can be done in a coastal city or inland. The city will have many parks and neighborhoods and/or it will have many fisheries. It will have many districts and when not building districts it probably run a city project all the time. That is what the abilities look like, but perhaps this governor is better in a city that has enough population to build all of it's districts and to have the specialists running in all of them and to be working all of the city parks for the +4 culture each.
The level 2 abilities for Pingala are based on population. In my game with the Inca, I did have Pingala in my capital and I was trying for the space victory. I have 248.1 production in that city and her Space Initiative ability adds 30% to space projects.
The level 3 ability for Reyna provides gold based on population however at level 50 city only provides an extra 100 gold. However in a city with a nice harbor and commercial district and as many districts as possible (to make the city attractive as a trade destination -- +3 gold for each route to or through the city), with undeveloped land or one with a preserve and/or a natural wonder so that forestry management kicks in, and with her other abilities, the city could become very valuable. You can run city projects all the time and buy new districts and buildings instead.
I played a practice game with Magnus the other day. I built my first city up and didn't expand until sometime after getting Provision. My capital was 9 or 10 by then. My first governor was Amani with Emissary, to hold the land I wanted to expand to. I was able to do that but had to defend the city state where Amani was posted from two civilizations so I was in a war with two civs. Alexander and Lady Six Sky. They both wanted Amani gone. I did defend successfully and eventually I made six cities around my capital with industrial zones as the first district in range to provide regional bonuses to the capital with Vertical Integration. I did get my production up to 150 but out knocked out of the game, as I was just too far behind. I was just beginning to run the campus city project in 1 turn. That looked like it would get me over 100 great person points per turn. I was at peace but Dido attacked me right after I started to do that and sacked two exterior cities with more advanced units than I had and then pulled back. I retired the game. I need more practice with Magnus structured as the central city in a highly industrialized nation.
The point I am making, is that the governors sometimes seem to make more sense if you imagine they are in a very tall city, but Magnus shines in a highly industrialized area that has many industrial zones. Vertical Integration, I believe, will get the regional bonus from the factory and the oil and nuclear power plants. You could, but don't have to, upgrade from the coal power plant. Coal power plants can give a larger bonus to the city it resides in but doesn't help other cities, as far as I can tell.
edit: On the Inca game that I played. I looked a bit closer. The capital growth is stagnate at 45 and has housing for only 40. I am one turn from completing the Launch Exoplanet Expedition project, but two other Civs are already traveling, but only for a turn or two. I don't remember if I caught them. I look at around at the cities now and probably all 7 cities are not totally necessary. Some of the things I an building are not necessary for what I am doing. I am building the Manhattan project in one for the cities. It was only an experimental game. I did learn that although the Inca are probably the fastest at getting large, I suspected that they might not be the best suited for being 50+. Because of the mountains, I had fewer places to put neighborhoods and housing became a problem.
On the subject of neighborhoods. I felt they are a little bugged, at least the last I checked. I could build more than two neighborhoods in a city, but I could only build 1 food market and 1 shopping mall but in different neighborhoods, I think (maybe I had to choose just 1 building). The 3rd neighborhood and beyond would only provide extra housing. I don't know if it by design but it seems like it shouldn't be. I think you should be able to put one building into all neighborhoods.
edit: I was just starting a game with Poundmaker and I saw that the Mekewap has to be next to a bonus or luxury resource and they cannot be built adjacent to each other. Well, that is probably the reason I was having more difficulty growing tall than with the Inca. Might be better with abundant resources, but I play standard settings so I get a sense of comparison between the civilizations.