Both V and VI took important steps in a different direction from IV. The folks here who love IV disagree with that direction.
I have had fun with V, and I got VI on a sale -- up to Gathering Storm, not the new DLC.
Before the last expansion pack, the collective wisdom here on V that one set of choices for the Social Policies/Virtues was optimal. The Global Happiness mechanic had counter-intuitive effects (people were more unhappy as your armies conquered more cities?? Really?). Combat had its own quirks -- surround a city with ranged/siege, bombard it until redline, take it with a single land unit -- that are not much weirder than "suicide catapults". Moving a "carpet of doom" is much more tedious than build a "stack of doom". Some things I enjoy are the customizable religions with different beliefs and the use of faith as another form of currency; I like that land units can "swim" rather than consciously loading them onto transport boats. The last expansion pack made some changes that allow a player to dig out of a happiness hole. But to your point,
@Tuscarora87 , Civ V has few knobs to turn for a player to min-max the production, economy, or science in the empire. The Victory Conditions -- especially the military-related ones -- are fundamentally changed. Fun can be had, but it is not a continuation of Civ IV thinking.
Civ VI went even further in the direction of breadth and variety. The developers want players to use different strategies for the Romans, for the Indians, for the Americans, for the English. Social policies/virtues are no longer a ratchet -- invoke once, keep forever -- as they were in V. One has a number of slots for active policies, with many choices to put "cards" in those slots. The choices increase as you move along the social policy tree, analogous to the tech tree for scientific research. Cards can be swapped, similar to changing Civics in Civ IV. Combat is still 1UPT (mostly) and manually moving your forces is still tedious. Improving one's territory is more complex than IV; many more choices than simply cottages or farms. Cities are augmented by districts that are placed on tiles outside the city center. Religions are still customizable. The UI is clunky, and it's hard to find the information you want on the screen, unlike the BUG/BULL/BUFFY advances. They changed the happiness mechanic so that wide play is encouraged again. Fun can be had, but it is even further from a continuation of Civ IV thinking.
I want real strategy, not watered down simulators of various unrelated aspects. Civ4's underlying math, I mean, tension between vertical and horizonal growth is unmatched. Min-maxing, resource conversions, reaching breakpoints, exploitations of mechanics and behaviors, everything is interconnected, meaningful...
