Tired of civ 6 - what to do?

As the topic says, I recently got very tired of civ and have stopped playing it alltogether for the last month.
I had my hopes up that the new release would make things fun, but unfortunately, no.
Tried out Babylon once, played with the heroes, and with the addition of certain bugs (peace deals especially) the game just seems broken and no longer fun.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I have two friends that I usually like to play cooperative multiplayer games against the AI with.
They still want to play, but I just don't "feel it" anymore, even though I want to!

I like mixing things up once in a while and try new playstyles to not make the game stale, but Babylon just wasn't fun at all - it's broken and very easy to play, hence no fun for me.
Heroes similar just feel gimmicky and not immersive at all, and they also break the game too mcuh (just like secret societies, but they were better implemented overall).
The problem is now that I feel like I've tried it all and played it all, so there are no longer any novel things for me to discover.
Regardless of going for science, culture or domination, the playstyles usually pan out (roughly) the same way.
Playing on Deity, the game usually consists of the same three openers - 2- or 3 city warrior/archer rush down a neighbour, ancestral hall spam settlers, or 2 city religion and continue from there.
After that its building the same districts as usual (depending on victory type), until I catch up to the AI in roughly the Renaissance and cruise into a boring lategame where I just want to "get it over with" so I can win.
Religious victory and Diplo victory are victories I won't even attempt, as they are so ridiculously dull and poorly implemented.

So far I've tried more unusual play styles like Norway pillage economy on islands map (not fun at all, I beat all 8 AIs by the medieval era!), Khmer culture victory with relics (rather fun actually), Eleanor peaceful domination (far too weak of an ability to make it fun really), Byzantium (very refreshing, well done Firaxis even if its OP), BM Teddy culture victory (very refreshing as well, well done Firaxis), and some one city challenges like OCC Ethiopia (was allright).
This is not an exhaustive list of course, but those were my more recent ones that I felt changed up things compared to usual cookie-cutter victory types.

Any tips on trying how to mix it up?
(Preferably a playstyle that is very unique, but still viable on Deity. Preferably with no cheesing/abuse, no self-imposed handicap, and not impossible to pull off on Deity either).

 

I like playing victory types that leaders are "sorta suited for" but not exactly.

For example, Science with Spain. They get a bit of science from Missions, but its a side bonus. Another example is Cultural victory with high-faith (but with minimal direct boosts to culture, wonders, or tourism) civs, like Georgia, who can use the faith to make lots of parks, and easily become suzerain of cultural city-states. Making it into their main bonus can make for an interesting playstyle. Not sure how viable this would be on Diety, I usually play on Emperor, though.

 

If you like BM Teddy I recommend Kupe and try to minimize the districts you place and get as much culture faith and science directly from tiles. So you spam harbors, TS, and ED/Water parks, but restrict or outright ignore Campus and Holy Site spam.

(I play with a self-imposed "No CO2" rule with Kupe as well as no chop and no Magnus. Makes for a very different looking military and landscape. But that's to keep Kupe challenging on Water maps)

Similarly I enjoyed Poland with a religion that has the belief that makes HS do a culture bomb.

Mali was very different too with all my cities in the mid to late game building wonders and projects and not much else. Governors and gold/faith took care of all my build needs. Felt well earned too as the start was really rough.

And for frivolous fun try taking a water civ on a terra map with Dramatic Ages enabled. Settle the New World ASAP and ahead of the AI and play part SimCity part observing the Old World cities like rats in a lab.

 

There are some mods that can shake up the game. My two top recommendations would be City Lights - which is basically an expansion pack wrapped as a mod - and Terra Mirabillis, which has been around forever, but still stands as a must-have mod imo.

 

I recommend Civilizations Expanded. It's a complete overhaul mod that, well, overhauls the Civilizations, Buildings, Districts, and Improvements and makes them all equally overpowered.

I'd also recommend Civitas City-States and JNR's District Expansion Mods. Hope this helps.

 

Take a break from Civ, there is no point in forcing fun. If you want to play something similar there is 5-1 to try out, if not there are plenty of other games.

 

I jumped to another game for a while. Steam has some pretty good offers at the moment. Currently trying out AC Odysseus. I actually enjoy it more than I'd expected.

 

I ended up at this same place back in the summer when somehow the game ended up with vampires. NFP has been a disappointment in a lot of ways especially with the gimmicky game modes. I expected some ideas that were bound to reality and that could help make the UI and AI better. Something for the late game as well a la corporations in Civ4. So, I took a break from Civ for the past 6 months or so. Picked up CK3 and am having some fun with that. And now picked up the HUMBLE EXPLORE & EXPAND BUNDLE for real cheap.

I started playing some Babylon just to see how OP it was. It's ok...

So, basically I have resigned myself to the fact that Civ6 isn't balanced and won't be balanced so I need to lower expectations that I will be challenged.
And then try to enjoy the other aspects of the game and not worry about the AI.

 

Seconding Terra Mirabilis. I think this is one of the three mods I have never turned off since about 2017 (except for the rare custom map playthrough with mod conflicts), the others being "expanded initial vision" and "starting builder".

 

I'm getting predictable at this point, but...have you tried Vox Populi? It's what I've been playing since I got fed up with Civ VI. It's a set of mods for Civ V which completely overhauls the game, rebalances everything, adds a lot of content, and improves the AI significantly.

 

If you’re at the point where you’re regularly winning on deity, including OCCs, it might just be that it’s time to move on. No game can be endlessly challenging if you play it enough. There’s still multiplayer if what you’re looking for is challenge, though I’ve never played multi so don’t know what it’s like. Otherwise the question is can the game still be enjoyable for you without challenge - can you still enjoy trying out new civs, building new wonders, building massive cities, etc.

 

I don't have any specific recommendations off the top of my head, but I'll endorse looking hard at mods. Some of them can really shake things up. And, heck, they're free.

 

Play Civ IV, the last good Civ game.

 

Yep. I agree. Pick up Civ 4 and give that a shot. It's still worth it. It's honestly a great challenge and any time I sit down to play a 4x I pretty much consider 4 to be equal to 6 - and that's without any mods.

Bonus points if you play Civ 4 vanilla, the balance of which is even better than Civ 4 fully expanded.

 

I do think Civ4 gives the biggest challenge over the last several iterations of the game and I love it.
The one thing that I can't get past is going to back to square tiles and not have hexes. Hexes are just so much better

 

I enjoy "Out of the Park Baseball" Perfect Team mode which is free to play after you buy the game for $10 or possibly $5 during the usual sale times. Trying to build a top team without buying points is a nice challenge that should take a couple years to figure out. If you like baseball, that is, (this is a total strategy game, not an arcade game.).

 

As others have said, give it a break for awhile, there are some awesome games out there. I don't know if you have tried the Paradox games, they are incredible. In terms of complexity, they make Civ look like tiddlewinks - IMHO of course!! And they are virtually giving them away on some of these sites that you buy the code from, and Crusaders was free last time i looked. But things like Europa Universal etc you can get most of them for about a pound!!

Fancy a bit of space strategy - Stellaris maybe - I love it! WW2.....Hearts of Iron IV. Want to play a game where you can marry your sister.....try Crusader. As I say, they were giving it away for free, take a look....

Cheers! David

 

This is what I've done for a good while as well. Actually I recently picked Peter for a no-campus science victory because of his bonuses toward "secondary" things I found helpful, like high faith for the Voidsingers' medieval promotion. I would also suggest that OP try things like that, or no-theater square culture victory (although routing that one is probably a little more clear-cut right on the face of it). But as others have said sometimes the best way to rekindle interest in a game or genre is to step away from it until your brain goes "Ooh I wanna do this again" on its own.

Also, I believe I did do culture victory with Georgia on Deity once and it definitely works. Probably moreso recently since stuff like Heroes make it easier to find interesting things to do with all that faith.

 

OMG there are TWO of us! Civ + OOTP fans unite! It really is great for baseball stat nerds.

 

Just to update - I started playing Civ 4 again. Literally a better game.