Self Imposed Difficulty Settings

[fortydayweekend]

The more I think, the more I like it. That defining battle in the Algedi River Valley was just awesome. The picture shows how the valley is truly surrounded by high ground, and how an inferior force (although with more numbers, but still inferior to the Mongolian hordes) correctly positioned commanding that high ground can defeat the enemy. The Mongol army fought well, which is the cherry on the top, not blunders, not a big mistake, they did what they could given that they had to fight from the river banks up... they went for one flank, the weakest one on the South of the Valley, but that was where the Zhou legacy cavalry was concentrated, so numbers prevailed there even if the hordes did more damage overall. When they were weakened by assault after assault trying to get out of the valley, the Praetorians came down from the hills and finished them.

In civ 6, this whole battle would have been a hill across a river, and 2-3 units exchanging shots, one of them an archer or crossbow from behind, and the AI would have suicided its units against that single hill. How can some people try to argue that such a "battle" is better than what I just lived, is beyond me.

Good work, @Catoninetales_Amplitude et al, good work. I can only imagine what these moments will be like once you start adjusting the details, rebalancing, and making the AI even stronger. Kudos!

Your AI persona just wiped out half my army with one of those surprise reinforcement attacks. Had to adjust my strategy on the fly but I had brought too many ta-seti archers and not enough swords, and his promachoi broke through and were making mincemeat of my archers. Only a last minute intervention by 2 Gothic cavalry and having a more defensible hill to retreat to saved me from disaster.

Some good tense moments in this game for sure.

Civ6 combat is a joke. Civ4 was good but a lot of micro to watch some numbers change. Games like Age of Wonders have great combat but it gets too time consuming. I love the balance of combat:building in HK and all the weird combos and battles that come out of the units and terrain.

 

[fortydayweekend]

Finished my first "random culture" game. RNG gave me Nubians, Goths, Byzantines, Edo Japanese, Persians, Americans.

It was interesting having eras with trash EQs and having to build up Industry and Science using normal quarters. Money I had a ton of right from the start and 4 saffron made food easy. Definitely a fun way to play if you're sick of Egypt/Persia/Khmer/boredom.

Also added a "10 turns in neo" rule which works pretty well I think, it's enough time to get a few pop, scout out the area, set up a couple of outposts, and kill a mammoth or 2. You feel like you're on the clock but there's time to get the essential things done without having a crazy head start (although science star is not always possible).

Also didn't take any AI cities (territory and independent cities were fair game).

Pretty straightforward T188 Mars win, had to wait a while for the AI to catch up and give me the 3rd oil.

 

[Aristos]

@fortydayweekend So that nasty AI-ristos let you win in the end?

 

[fortydayweekend]

@fortydayweekend So that nasty AI-ristos let you win in the end?

Yep, I let him keep his cities and he slowly came to accept my religion (he took over as leader eventually) and let me buy all his resources.

 

[Aristos]

Yep, I let him keep his cities and he slowly came to accept my religion (he took over as leader eventually) and let me buy all his resources.

So, he took over your religion, you mean...

 

[SuperFly47]

Trying playing without trading for luxuries. Missing the bonuses from trading makes your economy significantly weaker. Stability becomes a much bigger challenge without the stability that luxuries provide.

 

[NombreyApellido]

STAB from luxes is ok but considering they're 4 a piece when a quarter brings - 10 seem rather weak

but if you get the wondrous bonus, particularly through the hanging gardens, you're set for the full run regarding stability and get HUGE yields from say dyes or silk

manufactories are incredibly powerful

conquering cities and liberating them for luxury purchase is my preferred way with the current silly city cap

 

[Taefin]

Trying playing without trading for luxuries. Missing the bonuses from trading makes your economy significantly weaker. Stability becomes a much bigger challenge without the stability that luxuries provide.

I do like my starts where very little trading happens, and I agree it makes stability sticky, especially when civic osmosis strikes.

 

[DrCron]

After trying the Olmecs for the first time on HK difficulty, I find they are, right now, sort of low key increasing the difficulty, since they essentially have a nerfed archer. With war in early classical being so common, and the archer being such an important unit, playing with this crap EU felt like a bit more challenging. Not much of a change, but interesting, since you have to find a way around it.