[NFP] Which 'X' do you think Civ6 is best at?

[Alaindor]

So, we all know that Civ6 is of the '4X' genre... but which 'X' do you think it is best at? Or which is the one you enjoy the most?

Let me cast my vote as follows:

• eXplore is my favourite: I take great thrills in discovering my neighbourhood, for good or for bad (quickly learned to never set the scout auto-explore option), and gradually shaping the terrain and world around me. Meeting neighbours is always a mixed surprise (Great, my friend Gilga! Oh no, the belligerant Trajan!), and Barbs are a constant fear - it's not whether I'll meet them, it's when. IRL, so to say, the heroes I admire the most are those explorers, who set out in unchartered territory not knowing when and if they'd even come back, discovering the World, and some of them (granted, not all) for sole human progress.

• eXpand is interesting, but I think too powerful in Civ6: it seems as though growing wide is always a better idea than growing tall, I would prefer more variety and alternate strategies where wide would be a bad option to choose over tall.

• eXploit makes me smile... I always think about the balance issues and bugs introduced over the latest patches, introducing more exploits...

• eXterminate I'm not so good at yet... I know a lot of you hate it, but I like the 1 UPT, it gives me a feeling close to Chess and board games, and requires some planning and strategies. Matter of taste, I know.

What are your takes? Did I miss other obvious X'es?

 

[Archon_Wing]

Explore-- It does pretty good with this. Map awareness is rather important. Maybe a B

Expand-- Very poor balance, so a fail here. F

Exploit-- Very good as resources are important and you need the placement for good districts. A-

Exterminate-- War is a disaster when it comes to balance and it is very overbearing. D

 

[Zaarin]

I think Civ6 is clearly best at eXplore and eXploit, and since those are my favorite parts of a 4X game I approve. Certainly not to say either couldn't do with improvement.

 

[Atlas627]

The map matters, making Exploration exciting. It is exciting because of the potential for Expansion and Exploitation, but the actual process of Exploitation is horribly balanced and the Expansion is unwieldy and a pain to manage, since the game is all about quantity, not quality. The Extermination results in the same problem.

 

[steveg700]

Oh, explore. No doubt.

I've played Humankind and The Ancient World this year, and they really don't seem to care about exploration. So dull.

And for me, discovering strategic resources on the map definitely falls under exploration. In Humankind, everything's just...there. Neatly portioned in little regions.

 

[8housesofelixir]

eXplore - Diverse map benefits and beautiful natural wonders.

eXpand - Queuing repeatable projects in 20 cities every turn. As well as watching AI plop down a city in the polar ice.

eXploit - A variety of luxuries and unique improvements.

eXterminate - Queuing repeatable projects in 20 conquered cities every turn, including that city plopped down by AI in the polar ice.

 

[Futumch]

I voted for both Explore and Exploit. As others have mentioned, the other two "X" things are not as polished.

 

[Leah and Rachael]

Thinking about it, I gotta pick the least popular choice.

eXplore: the second-best thing Civ6 is good at, in my opinion. The eXploration is pretty good. There's an incentive to eXplore (clear barbs, discover natural wonders, figure out new settlement spots, pop goodie huts etc... and many boosts are tied to this). One of the closest things we have to a consensus as a community is that the early game is amazing and one of the best things about the early game is the initial eXplorative phase.

eXpand: the OP has two questions - which the game is best at, and which is most enjoyable. This I find most enjoyable. Taking resources, developing cities, and the yield porn!

eXploit: the most optional of the 'X' properties. Whether it be deliberately taking advantage of eXploits and bugs, or utilizing the synergy of different game mechanics... you don't really need to do it to win. But it is quite satisfying to pull off.

eXterminate: in my opinion, this is what Civ6 is primarily built around. So it takes my vote for what Civ6 is best at. It is the easiest Victory Condition to go for, but also the one that you can fall the quickest to. It has the most variety (land military units, naval units, using support units/siege units or both, eXploiting loyalty mechanics, eXpanding through faith or/and religion, levying City States etc...).
Also, the majority of the game's mechanics can be utilized under this banner. It can be quite annoying, though.

 

[Naeshar]

eXplore - Exploring the map is perhaps my favourite of Xs, however in Civ6 it is either very limited to moving actual military around (and faraway without consequences), being blocked and instantly sharing maps with allies (CS). I am always curious about what the map brings, but my immersion is broken by incoherent and meaningless map generation. Quite poor imo.

eXpand - The builder game is good. Planning and growing the empire is fun. Limitation by increasing settler, builder and district cost is terrible. Little options beside building cities and districts, and AI is complaining much. The map feels small for the kind of expansion now that cities are unstacked. Decent

eXploit - This got my vote. Not in the means of what gamers mean by exploits - using the resources is the point. Struggle for access to iron and oil is done well. Gaining luxuries and adjacency bonuses too.

eXterminate - I dont like war. In Civ6 it is either too hard (AI carpetswooping) or too easy (nothing hindering advance beyond first clash). Conquering much has too severe (but illogical) diplomatic consequences. Little options beside war to interact with other players.

 

[lilnev!]

explore - ok to good, map script-dependent. I've been playing huge, high seas, mostly islands and continents. That extends the exploration phase considerably.
expand - best. Setting up new cities is fun, and civ6 provides lots of powerful tools to expand. Decisions about where to settle are some of the most complex and fun.
exploit - good. The management side of the game (tile improvement, districts/buildings) and tech+civic progression isn't perfect, but it does a lot of things right.
exterminate - poor. Build a snowball and grind through endless opposing walls. Ugh.

 

[Uberfrog]

#1 Explore: this is always the best part of Civ 6. The beautiful map, the natural wonders, dynamic feature naming. Exploring is very fun in this game.

#2 Exploit: District adjacencies and unique improvements also work really nicely. There’s a lot of fun to be had planning your cities, and things like the new Preserve district allow some quite satisfying tile yields. See Reddit for endless screenshots of amazing yield synergies.

#3 Expand: This is much better than in Civ 5. New cities are usually beneficial, and trade routes, policies and purchasing allow you to get late game settlements up and running without too much tedium. I wish there were more interesting mechanics around overseas colonies, but the abilities of England, Spain and Portugal are fun to play with. Loyalty can lead to serious frustrations sometimes. Micromanagement is a bit of a downside and late game production queues just consist of city projects. Room for improvement here.

#4 Exterminate: the combat AI obviously makes war a bit of a foregone conclusion. There are fun units and the siege mechanics work quite well, but Conquest victories I always find the most tedious.

 

[aieeegrunt]

eXplore: Ok. Exporing the map is fun.

eXpand: Terrible. There is zero balance or thought at all beyond spamming as many cities as possible and/or blobbing your neighbours as much as possible. The enemy AI seldom pose a challenge. Loyalty is all or nothing and too easily mitigated. A huge step back from previous games

eXploit: Terrible. Minimax your yields and spam as many districts as possible. That’s it. Deep as a puddle.

eXterminate: Easily the worst game in the series. The 1 UPT, low movement allowance, hefty terrain penalties for movement and the stupid LOS system for ranged units with all it’s restrictions makes war a tedious chore. The AI is terrible at it, so it’s a boring chore.

 

[NukeAJS]

In the current version, exterminate doesn't work well.

On the other hand, expand is kinda given.

So yeah ...

 

[Pfeffersack]

Defining "best" as "fun, rich, working mechanics" I'm siding with the majority here (explore/exploit). Exploring feeling so good equals the common expression that Civ(6) stills works best early game - sending out scouts and discovering the map is just so rewarding in each and every sense you can define. Exploit works because of all the stuff Civ offers around harvesting and using the various ressources and mini-games like district puzzling.

Expand on the other hand suffers from a pretty one dimensional ways to do it (crank out settlers) and exterminate...well, we all know the problems around the battlefields in Civ6.

 

[PiR]

Mostly agree with the OP.

I voted eXplore as everyone else and eXpand because although unbalanced (more is always better), it is encouraged and somewhat satisfying to settle everywhere.
eXploit I didn't fully get it before reading the thread, but some of you convinced me it's a good job done.
eXterminate I've enjoyed only a few times.

I think I've enjoyed each of the X at least a few times. But my vote was driven with how much, after long play, I still enjoy each of the X.

 

[aieeegrunt]

Defining "best" as "fun, rich, working mechanics" I'm siding with the majority here (explore/exploit). Exploring feeling so good equals the common expression that Civ(6) stills works best early game - sending out scouts and discovering the map is just so rewarding in each and every sense you can define. Exploit works because of all the stuff Civ offers around harvesting and using the various ressources and mini-games like district puzzling.

Expand on the other hand suffers from a pretty one dimensional ways to do it (crank out settlers) and exterminate...well, we all know the problems around the battlefields in Civ6.

I put eXplore as only being OK because of the enormous luck factor that can badly skew the early game, which is the only part of the game that matters.

I scout south instead of north and find several city states that literally double my faith and gold output while giving me a half cost bonus to the most important civic of the game, while also getting me to the “free settler” pantheon, which is almost a game winner by itself given the Win Harder Snowball effecr of this game.

In a parallel universe I went north and discovered barbs instead and had to focus on military units and my growth was a fraction of what it was in the above scenario

And the difference is literally a coin toss

 

[Socrates99]

IMO eXplore isnt better or worse than previous versions. The game was always about seeking out prime expansion spots and meeting new people. The only thing that might put VI ahead is the eureka/inspiration mechanics. That does provide extra impetus to get out there quick.

eXpand is a breath of fresh air after V's rotten mechanics. Tall v wide is a false choice in a 4X that really only seemed to come to prominence with V. One of the Xs is expand FFS. I wouldn't mind seeing something like corruption come back but I really dont care. Your main roadblock to expansion should always be your neighbors (see exterminate), not an arbitrary game mechanic. VIs subtle increasing costs is plenty for me. The only thing I think I'd like is a little more reward for growing big cities other than "you've built all the useful stuff now crank out a few dozen projects with this highly productive city until the end of the game." Possibly neighborhood buildings that improve percentage output that are unlocked by population thresholds.

eXploit might be my most favorite aspect of VI. Playing the map looking for adjacencies, maximizing tile yields, finding and using resources, using appeal and features to your advantage. VI really put emphasis on finding perfect spots and planning a city from turn one. Previous Civs had you spamming 'X' improvement on 'X' feature with similar buildings in every city. The city planning of VI is my favorite feature by a country mile.

eXterminate...horribly tedious and boring. Rotten AI combat is balanced by hard to crack cities. Half the units are garbage v cities and the AI military is easy to wipe out in the first few turns of a war. So units that are really only good v units have nothing to do but run around pillaging tiles. The AI is never going to be good at using units but it can't even seem to figure out that it needs to ramp up military production while its cities slowly fall one by one. Would it really be hard to have AI build priorities shift when it's in an active war? They're often still building wonders while being manhandled. Even worse, lack of city automation makes late game domination turns long and full of a lot of pointless clicking.