My Humankind diary: Humankind (beta) play and review

[kcd_swede]

I was honored with a chance to play Humankind (in the almost complete beta version) in exchange for sharing my opinions on the game with everyone here.


Pre-amble: I am not affiliated to any company which is related to this game, a similar game, or any game news website. I didn't get any restrictions what to write, besides a time limit when to post it. I got this game for free though, to write this review.

Spoiler About me :

Hopefully some of you know me as a mapmaker in the Game of the Month series (Civ4 Beyond the Sword), and as a fellow CivFanatic participant in Hall of Fame games and Games of the Month for Civ4 and Civ6 mostly. I have owned and played every variant of Civilization except Civ2. I was still playing every permutation possible in Civ1 . Civ3 was a great improvement, but Civ4 came out shortly after I got into Civ3, so never really looked back after that. Note, I am not an expert gamer... Civilization is the only game/franchise that has kept me gaming. I'm still only fair/mediocre compared to others in the Games of the Month or Hall of Fame.

I have played a few other strategy games over the years that were either too complicated interfaces for my feeble brain, or too easy, or not varied enough to want to play multiple times. I think Civ4 BtS is still my favorite game of all time.

I'm not an expert gamer and have never formally reviewed any game or beta. So as I go through my first game, I'm just going to share thoughts and opinions. I'm not sure about what the makers have already made public, so I won't spoiler their release by attaching any screenshots (if that's why you opened this thread, you need read no further). If you are interested in what impressions Humankind made on a loyal (and monogamous) CivFanatic, read on. My last installment will be no later than Aug 16, as per the instructions I was given. I hope this helps anyone wondering whether the game might be something for themselves or not.

 

[kcd_swede]

Aug 12



I watched the tutorials and played to t7 ancient era. Seems very intuitive, but the advisor pop-ups really help me make sense of what I'm doing, unlike many other strategy games that have taken me eons (if ever) to figure out. It seems like a good level of complexity for a lot of game variation, and gives the "just one more turn..." feeling of Civ. It should feel familiar in terms of resource and city management for any civ player. Maybe too familiar? We'll see when I get into the more complex activities.



Aug 13

Finally completed the Ancient Era at about t80. I have been tech focused for the most part, and seem to be keeping ahead. Extracting strategic resources has proven to be a bottleneck for me, maybe because my cities are so small population. I try to improve growth with food infrastructure, but cities seem to grow to pop 3 one turn, and fall back to pop 2 the next. ”Stability” which is like ”happiness” in Civ, has been fine so that isn't my growth isue. I guess I need to have another look at city management – seems like it is even more an important part of the game than it has been in Civ.



Making new cities is different... first set up outposts, then buy them with enough fame(culture) points to join your empire. I hadn't realized my empire was capped at 2 cities, so my fame production is hurt by having 3 out of 2 cities. Clearly a different strategy than REX is to be preferred, at least with the Babylonian science focused approach I took. Probably different choices on civ type is useful for different type of game focus. Going into the Classical Age, I'm switching to a merchant (money) focus... not sure why that is Mycenae instead of Babylonian now, but its absolutely still the same empire I have been managing, so no big deal.



Met some neighbors, some nice and some not. Found that diplomacy is very complex, but enough of it is obvious (behave like a jerk and you will be treated like one), so I don't focus too much. Early tried a sneak attack which failed miserably (hint: until you figure out how best to manage deployments in a manual battle, its probably advisable to force instant resolution of battles... my battles outcomes were better when handled by the computer, lol). Note, it could get very tedious to do every battle manually if you have the number of battles typically in a game of Civ, but it is probably to be preferred when the odds are evenly matched and you really need to win it.



I finally got a ship out on the sea. Appreciate that it gives a warning that ending 2 consecutive turns in deep water will be ”lost at sea”, and a nice call-back to how galley exploration in the original Civ (I) played out... sometimes worth the risk to get some exploring done. Interestingly, I found 2 ”abandoned ships” while exploring, so now have 3 boats and am starting to see more map. Now... once I figure a way to move my armies across the water, (and increasing my city cap) I'll be king of the world. At least until a neighbor decides to take what I built. Not so likely now that my closest frenemies all switched to nicer (non-expansionist/militarist) types for the new age. This is really an immersive feel like I had with the Sid Meiers Civ some 30 years ago. I'm already sold since I'm sure it'll be a lot of game variety once I stop flailing around and actually can focus on a strategy.

For now, I'm just playing around and having fun.



On to the next age.

 

[kcd_swede]

Aug 15

Still in the Classical Age, turn 140 approximately. Since my last play, I have now completed a world wonder (Temple of Artemis) by combined production in 3 different cities. Not sure what it does for me (besides increasing Fame - which seems to be victory points), but it was nice to see how joined building works. Did it again to make stone circles just because. I have also created an Alliance, which gives a 5% bonus on one of the FIMS (food, industry, money, science) which are the basic resources to manage - I took science.

I have met all other civs. Lots of land to claim, but need a land unit that can move more tha 2 tile per turn over water or I'll just lose it in deep water. I did claim a territory on an island, and having raised my city cap to 5 am converting it to a city. I rewatched the tutorial on city management, so was able to grow better with growth focus in some places. Biggest city is only about pop 5, though. Note, making units of any kind costs population. Buying extractors is way better than building them, so cash is good. I am saving cash to reach an era star to help get me to the next era, though.

I learned why putting an outpost next to Yellowstone natural wonder did not get me Yellowstone in my territory... those dotted lines on the map indicate territories, and you put an outpost inside the same dotted lines as the thing you want, and you then lay claim to it. I was on the wrong side of the line, and when my neighbor claimed the correct territory, I was left with a really terrible city. I should have moved the outpost before making it a city, but too much Civ thinking meant I didn't know or even consider the possibility.

Basically a lot of fun learning that even though the goals are very familiar to an old civ player, the ways to acheive them (both the mechanics and the most effective strategies) leave a lot for me to discover and learn. Honestly, its what I had hoped CivV would have been like. I can easily get hooked on Humankind for sure, even if it doesn't call itself civ. Its almost like someone listened to the wants/complaints from the Civ community.

Oh, I think I am getting better. I've moved up from 3rd (of 7) to 2nd place in Fame. Playing peacefully but thinking I need to gain some fighting experience so... good or bad I'll start some trouble in the next era.

BTW... when the rest of you get going and see how pathetically I am doing for a median difficulty level game, I'll show a screenshot of my totally worthless icebound start position in a later post here. Anybody with any common sense would have re-rolled a new start. But that's not how I roll...

 

[The_J]

I finally got a ship out on the sea. Appreciate that it gives a warning that ending 2 consecutive turns in deep water will be ”lost at sea”, and a nice call-back to how galley exploration in the original Civ (I) played out... sometimes worth the risk to get some exploring done. Interestingly, I found 2 ”abandoned ships” while exploring, so now have 3 boats and am starting to see more map.

Are these abandoned ships like goody huts, or must another Civ have lost these at sea?

Still in the Classical Age, turn 140 approximately. Since my last play, I have now completed a world wonder (Temple of Artemis) by combined production in 3 different cities.

How does that work? Do you set the production simply to the temple in 3 cities, and they work together? Does more cities automatically mean more speed? I'd assume there is also a graphics placed somewhere... to which city is it placed? (you have a screenshot?)

 

[kcd_swede]

Are these abandoned ships like goody huts, or must another Civ have lost these at sea?



How does that work? Do you set the production simply to the temple in 3 cities, and they work together? Does more cities automatically mean more speed? I'd assume there is also a graphics placed somewhere... to which city is it placed? (you have a screenshot?)

About the boats, I wish I knew. There are markers on the map which are unknown curiosities, which I think of as goody huts, and I got 2 abandoned boats. Also got a lots of wrecks or carcasses (giving science and culture or money). There are so many of these about on land and sea that it is a major part of my advancement, not sure if its the low level I playing, or just how exploration is highly rewarded.

I started the Temple in the capitol, where I choose the tile for it and it said like 49 turns to go. When other cities finished their build, I put the Temple in their build queue too, and each new city reduces significantly the number of turns to complete (12 turns by the time city3 got involved, so yeah... its a lot faster if you can spare their prodution. New... once you declare/claim a wonder, nobody else can build it, but you can't claim another wonder until you complete it. Less risk than in Civ to take on a wonder build!

I'll try opening earlier saves and make screenshots tomorrow.

BTW:
Aug 16
Medeival Era started and I choosed militaristic Norsemen... so now my land units can go farther over water and claim some empty territories... but more importantly in 7 turns when I finish the tech for Ballistas, I will try to wage a war and take a city. Best to use the time to use diplo to get my own population's war eagerness up. On the other continent England has already gotten a liege (vassal?) and so is pretty far ahead in fame points. I want me summa dat!

 

[Infixo]

Are these abandoned ships like goody huts, or must another Civ have lost these at sea?
How does that work? Do you set the production simply to the temple in 3 cities, and they work together? Does more cities automatically mean more speed? I'd assume there is also a graphics placed somewhere... to which city is it placed? (you have a screenshot?)

1. Like goody huts. You just find ships on the sea Quite many actually. I built like 3-4 ships and ended up with 20+ just from getting them on the map.
2. Shared projects - basically they appear on each cities list of possibible things to do. So, you can i.e. order 3 cities to work on a Wonder, amd other do their things. Pretty good. Also big projects like space-related are done like this - they are called national projects.

 

[The_J]

New... once you declare/claim a wonder, nobody else can build it, but you can't claim another wonder until you complete it. Less risk than in Civ to take on a wonder build!

but I like my wonders. Gotta get them all. I'm shocked!

1. Like goody huts. You just find ships on the sea Quite many actually. I built like 3-4 ships and ended up with 20+ just from getting them on the map.

That does sound a bit imbalanced, no?

 

[Infixo]

That does sound a bit imbalanced, no?

There is some bug I think that causes curiosities to spawn on seas all the time. It doesn’t happpen on land. Because on average you get like 1 ship in 3-4 curiosities. So this is not bad. But they spawn all the time, so you can just sail and sail and gather ships.
Also, AI wasn’t very active on the sea, unfortunately

 

[lymond]

Land units can spawn from land curiosities as well. Usually warriors early but you can occasionally spawn a more advanced unit.

Curiosities spawn on land and sea quite frequently, but they spawn in fog, so land curiosities tend to decrease over time as the land gets settled and fog removed - although they can still spawn in settled territories where fog remains on the perimeters where districts have yet to be established.

It can certainly be worth backtracking your exploration.

 

[kcd_swede]

I attach a screeshot of a cooperative build of StoneCircles. You can see on the map where it will be placed around Babylon. BTW I declared war on the north and won my first battle, killing 4 units and losing 1. Cool cool cool.

 

[The_J]

I attach a screeshot of a cooperative build of StoneCircles. You can see on the map where it will be placed around Babylon.

Seems like it'd be placed in water...?
Does the first city starting the construction get it?

 

[Infixo]

Seems like it'd be placed in water...?
Does the first city starting the construction get it?

You can place a shared project anywhere, no matter what the city that initiates the construction is.
Anywhere on land in that case. It is not on water

 

[kcd_swede]

I finally went on the offensive. First killed a regiment in a manual battle where I had a big advantage because of reserve units in the deployment area (another army close enough, both my armies having 4 units each. Next, lay siege to the city (like attacking an army you get a deployment stage. Then kept the seige going for 5 turns while my many units built ballista which deploy in the battle space automatically. When I had 4 (out of possible 5) seige units built, I launch the attack, concentrating ballistas on one walled district. They soried and killed 1 ballista, but the walls were down in 3 turns and the horses, swords, and archers cleared out the militias. Battle won, city captured, but no surrender, so its heal and head to Nok now. Lovin' it!