Most challenging game setup?

[tomekum]

What in your opinion is the most challenging game setup? I am about to win my second game on deity difficulty, this time on pangea map with old world setting, so there are less mountains. Now I am thinking what game setup would increase the difficulty of the game.

One of the setting would be to select more or less leaders (on standard map size). But this could be counter intuitive cause the more AI civs you select the less land they can seize, so the enemies would be smaller and easier to wage wars with. By selecting fewer civs the AI could take advantage of their handicap and settle more cities.

Other setting is the map size itself. I think that playing on smaller maps is easier but at the same time playing of larger maps than standard can be a bit too time consuming. Personally I prefer playing on standard or small maps.

Next up is the speed. I think that quicker game works to the benefit of AI. The longer the game the player have more time to take advantage of current military technology and do a quick rush.

What setting do you use to make game more challenging? No barbarians? Sparse resources? No city states? Pangea or continents?

Edit: Also I did select warmongers on my current games - Monty and Tomirys to be precise

 

[Isengardtom]

I would say
- no barbarians actually makes the game easier
- sparse resources : that impacts the AI as well and will probably cripple them a bit more then you
- no city states. I’d say that definitely makes it harder

- no tribal villages may make the game a tiny bit harder as they can be very helpful early game

 

[tetley]

Land maps. Water maps are pretty easy.

 

[kotpeter]

Huge land map with Korea, Rome, Kongo and Nubia as your rivals (others are random). All settings standard. From my experience Korea always plays into a decent science game, and is hard to get along with; Rome is decent at cultural gameplay; Kongo and Nubia are dangerous early-game rivals (unless you manage to spread your religion to Kongo).

Also, could you share your latest save file where you won? I wanna take a look how you did at that game, just for my own gameplay improvement.

 

[tomekum]

Huge land map with Korea, Rome, Kongo and Nubia as your rivals (others are random). All settings standard. From my experience Korea always plays into a decent science game, and is hard to get along with; Rome is decent at cultural gameplay; Kongo and Nubia are dangerous early-game rivals (unless you manage to spread your religion to Kongo).

Also, could you share your latest save file where you won? I wanna take a look how you did at that game, just for my own gameplay improvement.

Sure. I have won the game with Jadwiga (Deity, small map with Real Strategy AI Mod), but that was my first finished game, so it wasn't that well played. Currently I am finishing the game with Philip II (Deity, standard map and only UI mods).

As for huge maps, I don't know. Standard maps are already too much clicking on later eras. Thanks for the civs suggestions though.

Edit: Unfortunately I don't have last turn savegame from Jadwiga game

Edit 2: I posted my second win with Phillip. I was so close winning domination victory but unfortunatelly science came first

 

[enKage]

Terra, high level sea, marathon speed. Play a civ with no early uniques.
This setup basically guarantees you have 2-3 other civs within ca. 15 tiles from your starting position and that means no tribes for you and a pretty big chance to be declared before you manage to build a warrior. If it is America next door, this is game over.

 

[tomekum]

Terra, high level sea, marathon speed. Play a civ with no early uniques.
This setup basically guarantees you have 2-3 other civs within ca. 15 tiles from your starting position and that means no tribes for you and a pretty big chance to be declared before you manage to build a warrior. If it is America next door, this is game over.

Well, that sounds challenging. Though I think that marathon could be too long for my taste, I'll probably try Epic speed this time. Why terra map? Isn't it easier for the player to colonize new continent in the mid/late game?

 

[Victoria]

Why terra map?

No CS benefits early and civs squeezed together, marathon is a killer speed purely because it takes so long to build units.

 

[bbbt]

Am I getting confused with earlier versions or can you put all the AI civs in one 'team' against you in 6? That would theoretically be the most challenging.

 

[AsH2]

Am I getting confused with earlier versions or can you put all the AI civs in one 'team' against you in 6?

Check out..
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/how-to-form-teams-in-civ-6.639786/#post-15306933
https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/no-teams-in-single-player.600447/#post-15551352

 

[Basajaun]

Terra, high level sea, marathon speed. Play a civ with no early uniques.
This setup basically guarantees you have 2-3 other civs within ca. 15 tiles from your starting position and that means no tribes for you and a pretty big chance to be declared before you manage to build a warrior. If it is America next door, this is game over.

Im not sure if I can do this even with early units. This was on Terra/Deity/Epic speed. 2 turns later my capital was gone
I have even tried with standard sea level and removing a couple AIs, but they always are at my doorstep way too soon, or I am fighting a 50turn war with barbarians while some AI runs away in science/culture, or stomps half the continent with their combat bonuses.
Or both, like one game I had Gengis Khan wiping out Tomyris, Mansa Musa, and Saladin before medieval, and couple of turns later appeared at my doorstep with lvl 2+ tank armies when I just upgrade my crossbowmen to field cannons.

GilgaWHAT

• Basajaun
• Nov 12, 2019

Sub T20 DoW by AI on Deity/Terra

 

[tomekum]

Terra, high level sea, marathon speed. Play a civ with no early uniques.
This setup basically guarantees you have 2-3 other civs within ca. 15 tiles from your starting position and that means no tribes for you and a pretty big chance to be declared before you manage to build a warrior. If it is America next door, this is game over.

I tried such setup:
- continents and islands map / small size
- 2 more civs than on default settings
- half as few city-states than default
- playing as Brasil
- epic game speed
- sparse resources
- deity difficulty

At the beginning it was a bit challenging. First Arabia declared war on me and when I conquered their city it started the emergency. Arabia and Poland voted me out and I had to wage war with both of them. It's 1480AD and I've already wiped out Arabia and Poland and I am leading in science. The AI is too passive for my tastes. It is a challenge at the beginning but in mid game they don't do anything to win. I remember that in Civ 4 (or even 5 with Vox Populi) the AI could start a conquest in mid game and wipe out another big civ. Such dynamic is very fun to watch and the game is challeging to the last turn.

Edit: I also noticed that once the AI gets friendly they will renew the friendship (and alliance) indefinitely, even if they have grievances against me. Such deterministic approach to AI is boring in my opinion.

 

[bengalryan9]

Edit: I noticed that once the AI gets friendly they will renew the friendship (and alliance) indefinitely, even if they have grievances against me. Such deterministic approach to AI is boring in my opinion.

This is not always true. Usually true, maybe, but not always true.

 

[enKage]

I see my favourite settings have some tries

Anyway, the best start I had on terra/marathon/deity was when i already was able to see AI in my starting location even without moving. Instant game over.

The good tip is to prioritise defensive position and pray for Gilgamsh

 

[Pietato]

- no barbarians actually makes the game easier

You lose era points, though. Also barbs have been known to completely mess up the AI.

 

[Basajaun]

I see my favourite settings have some tries

Anyway, the best start I had on terra/marathon/deity was when i already was able to see AI in my starting location even without moving. Instant game over.

The good tip is to prioritise defensive position and pray for Gilgamsh

Yeah, I always play on slower speeds, epic mostly, its where I like the balance between research/production/exploration the most.
I saw Terra recently and I wanted to try that colonizing game. First one I tried with the Maori and settled directly on the new world. Enough barbarians spawned to make the "combats" graph look like I was at war, but I basically took the continent to myself.
Now Im trying with Gilgabro, but I see this setup is too dependent on being lucky. With the spawn, the AIs not finding you before you even built a unit, hoping they go to war with somebody they found sooner etc.
Just the previous game to that screenshot, I had Engleanors 2nd city 4 tiles away from my capital, in turn 5. She says hi 3rd turn. She denounces me turn 4 and says my cities are crap (ehm duh! I just settled hahah). Turn 5 I see 4 of her warriors by my capital ready for some love.
Nah Terra on this setup is so much chaos and rng against you, that defeats the purpose of new world completely. The first civ that starts going the boats route takes a beating, or the initial struggle stretches the catch up phase way too long, and some warmonger landciv is already running away. Plus, good luck finding decent settleable land when you get to new world, the city states have already landlocked most of the continent and all there is left are some coastal cities and some very spread out inner land spots.