Too smart by half - Civ VI

[benvee]

Pretty disappointed....played Civ 1 up to 4 then stepped away for a number of years. At Prince level, I find the computer AI is too smart by half...I guess the programmers think it is cool to have you almost ready for science victory and then have city after city breakout with partisans that cripple/destroy facilities....or in another game...have another civ a half a world away appear from the edges of the map and take out your cities with spaceports. I tried several games focused on combat....boring. Also, replacing building roads and railroads with trade route auto creation....why????

Guess I will check back in a couple of years. Not gonna play a game literally for hours and then have programmers get needlessly cute in the last hundred turns. Got bettah things to do.

 

[criZp]

How is it even possible to lose to normal level civ AI?

 

[Kwami]

Is there a point to this thread?

If you can't play on Prince, then try a lower level until you get better. There's no use whining about it.

 

[leandrombraz]

If you take the time to learn instead of blaming the programmers for your mistakes, the game will be way more enjoyable. Partisans are caused by spies running missions on neighborhoods, so it's a matter of learning how to counterspy. You can use your own spies to counterspy, they will protect the district you put them in and every adjacent district. Now you know that there's a risk to neighborhoods because of spies, so spamming those without further consideration might not be a good idea. If you gonna build neighborhoods, you want to build them close to each other, if possible, so you can cover more than one neighborhood with the same spy. you can also build them close to other districts you want to protect. Your spies get promotions when they complete missions or catch other spies, 3 of this promotions are defensive: Polygraph, Quartermaster and Surveillance. Polygraph is specially useful because it cover all your territory, debuffing every enemy spies. Surveillance is good when your districts in one city are all far from each other, specially useful when going for a scientific victory. Quartermaster just buff all your spies. If that's not enough, you can adopt the Policy State policy. If you have policy state and a spy with polygraph, you're set.

If you show weakness and don't work your diplomacy, you gonna get attacked. Build walls, keep an updated army, make friendships/alliances. If you want peace, prepare for war.


Trade routes creating roads is a matter of taste, I can't help you there. I like it. It add more complexity to trade routes and reduce a bit the micromanaging in early game.

 

[ShakaKhan]

Oh yeah... Partisans! I think they add such a cool element to the game! Check this out - I'm going hardcore for a science victory on emperor - trying to get the earliest time I can. Really min/maxing the hammers and gold that I'm putting in - almost no military or gold production, really heavy on science and hammer production. But I got my 8 or so crossbows on the border, along with a few swordsman... sure I should have upgraded both of them, but my military strength is still 150% of the second strongest guy, and rather spend the gold on the buildings in the districts so I can use the hammers on some wonders that will get things swinging HARD! Modern era and looking at breaking a turn 160 science victory... Then boom! I got 4 partisan infantry running amuck across my lands and have nothing to do about 'em! A game that seemed pretty much decided at turn 75 gets interesting again.

Point is, it's a good balancing mechanic of the game. When you're playing below your level to see how far your min/maxing can take you, there are still some surprises that can come up and turn you mentality of "I've been auto-piloting for the past hour, everything is in place" into "holy bejeezus... whadda I do about this?"

A few questions about the mechanic though. First, what is the spy mission that generates these? I'd love to play on deity as Catherine and mess with Korea in this fashion. Second, when you succeed in spawning partisans, what determines the units that spawn? Is it the current "global era unit", or is it the strongest unit that the target civ has access to? And does class of unit matter? Resource dependency? don't know the specifics of this game mechanic and would like to learn.

 

[MooFreaky]

I guess the programmers think it is cool to have you almost ready for science victory and then have city after city breakout with partisans that cripple/destroy facilities....or in another game...have another civ a half a world away appear from the edges of the map and take out your cities with spaceports. I tried several games focused on combat....boring

Your issue here seems to be that you are unsure of what is going on around you. You are clearly a powerful Civ, which means that people are going to be using spies on you. Even if you aren't super powerful, Civs have enough spies that there will be some in your lands. Rather than simply allowing you freedom to do what you want your rivals are trying to damage you.

It is a cost/benefit system. Do you send your spies out to attack them, or use them for defence? Do you build neighbourhoods everywhere and make yourself vulnerable to partisans (but have higher population potential), do you build them only in a select few cities that can be protected by spies, or do you skip them all together?

Your actions and decisions have pros and cons.

Similarly a rival Civ appearing from another part of the map and smashing you is part of it. You have decided to not go military, so you run the risk of a militaristic Civ knocking you over before you achieve your goals. And even if you are going for a non-militaristic victory, you need to be able to defend yourself. If you see a rival growing that you don't think you can deal with then get involved to stop them. Pay off other civs to declare war, then throw yourself in (and putting in the work to make allies would make this easier).

 

[Victoria]

First, what is the spy mission that generates these? I'd love to play on deity as Catherine and mess with Korea in this fashion. Second, when you succeed in spawning partisans, what determines the units that spawn? Is it the current "global era unit", or is it the strongest unit that the target civ has access to? And does class of unit matter? Resource dependency? don't know the specifics of this game mechanic and would like to learn.

Recruit partisans is the spy mission which can only be performed on a city with a neighbourhood. As I understand it, it creates partisans based on the average tech level and there is a list somewhere of what is creates, just cannot remember exactly what now. Never really looked to deeply at the mechanic because neighbourhoods are not the most necessary districts so people just avoid them.

 

[Archon_Wing]

How is it even possible to lose to normal level civ AI?

I did for my 1st game. True story.

Although I actually tried to learn how game mechanics work afterwards because one is not entitled to win games.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

This sounds like a BSAK error (Between Seat & Keyboard) to me.

 

[kaspergm]

Recruit partisans is the spy mission which can only be performed on a city with a neighbourhood. As I understand it, it creates partisans based on the average tech level and there is a list somewhere of what is creates, just cannot remember exactly what now. Never really looked to deeply at the mechanic because neighbourhoods are not the most necessary districts so people just avoid them.

No matter what one thinks about OPs post, I find it hard to argue other than the fact that most people avoid Neighbourhoods because of, or at least in large part so, the nuisance of the recruit partisans mission goes to show that there is something wrong with design here.

 

[cvb]

neighbourhoods are not the most necessary districts so people just avoid them.

How dare you?!
Methinks neighbourhoods should perhaps domicile health care buildings ... so if you decide to avoid neighbourhoods, you'll invite a lot more much smaller partisans ... aka already showcased, but not yet released stuff ...

.

 

[Victoria]

No matter what one thinks about OPs post, I find it hard to argue other than the fact that most people avoid Neighbourhoods because of, or at least in large part so, the nuisance of the recruit partisans mission goes to show that there is something wrong with design here.

I personally find a sewer is far more effective and cheap and needed for the democracy inspiration and that is the primary reason. It is purely secondary to me that recruit partisans make building this district very unpleasant. I do not believe I am alone in this view. When playing for large cities I will build them regardless of partisans but they are damn annoying

 

[BrotherInJah]

OP never came back to the topic.. it was rant just for rant.. passing through

 

[bbbt]

No matter what one thinks about OPs post, I find it hard to argue other than the fact that most people avoid Neighbourhoods because of, or at least in large part so, the nuisance of the recruit partisans mission goes to show that there is something wrong with design here.

I've had a number of games where I built neighborhoods and never had partisans (I usually play on immortal). All the AI spies are in my capital (or highest gold city) getting caught by my spies trying to steal my gold. It seems like they'd figure out eventually to at least try a different city.

 

[Tabarnak]

It's like saying that you can't finish a marathon under 3 hours after 10 years of inactivity. Dude you are rusted. Take time to learn the game instead.

OP never came back to the topic.. it was rant just for rant.. passing through

Next post in 2025. Take your bets.

 

[gaiko]

Just station effective military units in cities with neighborhoods. Partisans become training fodder. Always try to flip negativity to your advantage.

 

[Tech Osen]

Just station effective military units in cities with neighborhoods. Partisans become training fodder. Always try to flip negativity to your advantage.

The issue is that they spawn and become active before you can react. Killing them is seldom an issue but if you loose traders every time before you can even do anything it gets annoying fast.
On the other hand: I noticed that I haven't had partisans spawn in conquered cities with neighbourhoods even though there has been plenty of opportunity in my last couple of games.

 

[Naeshar]

The issue is that they spawn and become active before you can react. Killing them is seldom an issue but if you loose traders every time before you can even do anything it gets annoying fast.
On the other hand: I noticed that I haven't had partisans spawn in conquered cities with neighbourhoods even though there has been plenty of opportunity in my last couple of games.

It's "lose" not "loose".

Moderator Action: We understood him, please do not correct minor grammar errors. English is not everyone's primary language. leif

The issue is that partisans are considered barbarians, and as such move after major and minor civilizations, while the player is first on the move on a particular turn. So the AI recruits partisans who do their stuff before you can react, however if you do the same to AI, it gets to react on the same turn. Idk how it is between the AIs though... since they almost never build friendly neighbourhoods. A good code is obvious - units created on a turn can't move, but those created outside that player's turn can.

 

[Tarry]

Partizans? I don't build neighbourhoods, never have a problem with them

 

[Tech Osen]

Moderator Action: We understood him, please do not correct minor grammar errors. English is not everyone's primary language. leif

We can only learn from our mistakes if someone points them out.