Civ 6 Adventure 1 - Egypt (complete)

[Mr. Cairo]

Disclaimer 1: I played about 50 turns of Civ 6 Thursday evening, so I have *some* time with the game before I started this

Disclaimer 2: I'm playing this game on a different pc than usual that has an ultra-wide screen, so my screenshots may not be the easiest to see.

Now that that's done, let's dive in, this report will cover about an hour of playing (NHL Jets vs Oilers Alumni Game is not something to be missed - Gretzky, Messier, Hawerchuk, Selanne and more on the ice at the same time? Not going to miss that.)

Starting Screenshot:

On a river, which I think is automatic for Egypt in Civ 6, that Sugar Flood Plains is five food, definitely worth losing a turn moving the settler. I also turned on yield icons after a couple of turns, which I don't do in Civ 4, but the delay between hovering over a tile and the info coming up is too long.


City founded, working the sugar (of course), afaik culture and science is largely dependent on population, so growing as fast as possible seems to be the optimal strategy early on. Started on a scout, exploring the map seems to be the key to getting a lot of the Eureka bonuses for techs and civics. Unfortunately, the map is far from empty:

A nearby city-state's warrior ended up sniping the kill and the camp from me

I got my pantheon from utilizing God-King, chose the one that gives floodplains and marshes and one other terrain type one production. That made my floodplain Sphinxs give 3 food, 1 hammer, 1 culture, and 1 faith, which seemed pretty good.

Some time later:

That's a lot of warriors, Rome, the barbs aren't THAT bad are they? Oh...

Yup, it was an invasion, somewhere around 10 warriors, they spent a lot of time maneuvering around, until they started to attack the city, effectively rotating injured warriors out, but not pillaging much, most of the tile pillaged tiles improvements seen here were done by a couple of barbs: I severely underbuilt military. Cities not having the ability to attack makes them a lot weaker, and my slinger doesn't do as much damage as I had expected from experience with ranged units in Civ 5. I might be about to lose, very early into the game, although I did manage to get that settler that was about to finish out, dodging barb scouts (still not sure if they'll take undefended civilian units, but better safe than sorry), and settling to the west, halfway between my cap and Washington's cap, who has been very friendly so far.
As I had worried, I simply lacked the units to defend, and the Roman warriors were enough to take my cap

Good thing the AI is messed up, cause as soon as I lost my cap, Trajan made me an offer, giving me a lump sum of gold and some gpt in exchange for peace. I then asked for him to return my cap as well, and he was ok with that, for some reason....   

This was the situation at the end of my first session: 

My cap lost 1 pop from the settler, and one when it was captured (I'm assuming), a bunch of improvements were pillaged and some destroyed, and I'm getting a decent amount of gold from Trajan, and all those Roman warrios are doing a good job of dealing with all the barbs. I'm going to build up some more military, then scouts to do more exploring.

[Mr. Cairo]

So, following Rome's failed attack, The USA and Kongo attacked me, with Washington sending a single slinger that died, then I signed white peace with both of them and Rome became my best buddy. AI decision making is weird in all aspects of the game, although they do appear better militarily, it's still trivialy easy to hold off large armies with small numbers of units, especially now that you can build encampment districts that act like little cities. The USA attacked me again later, must more seriously, and all I needed to defend it was 2 archers and walls that gave both my city and the encampment a ranged attack and protected the archers from melee attacks. I was able to defend my city and get some gold out of Washington when we made peace:

Sorry for the info box

Feeling safe, I went on a wonder spree, getting the Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Great Library (although I got it a little late considering its effects), and most importantly:

I'm liking the wonder animations so far.

I founded a city in the tundra to my south to see if the Natural Wonder there would be worth it, and I guess it was. The city lacks production, but thanks to forest chops, I was able to get out a Theatre district and an Amphitheatre (or whatever building goes in a theatre district), which gave me a quick Great Writer for two Great Works. Other than that, I'm at the point where ANY city is productive. I'm leaning at this point towards a culture victory, although I still have no idea what I need to do to get that.
I did miss out on a Religion, I had the opportunity to recruit a Great Prophet using Patronage (spending faith), but I was going to generate it in 5 turns anyway, so I didn't, and I ended up not getting one at all. Oh well, I thought, surely my neighbors will spread their religion to me, after all, look at all these Missionaries:

But no, they never did spread their religion much, except to my tundra city. Also in this screen, what on Earth is going on with these city placements? Look at Antium and Putioli and then look at the land next door to Rome that has 5(!) wheat resources available. Look at Kongo's cities? What is going on here?

Anyhow, here's my Empire at the end of this session, 121 turns in:

[el_robino]

Holy what!? The AI actually attacked you! AND THEN GAVE YOU YOUR CAPITAL BACK? 



I think this explains some weird stuff I've seen in games where there is a notification saying 'unmet player has been defeated' only for me to later find that civ and that they still have their capital city intact...  Thoroughly confusing   

And I am also surprised to see the AI attack you. I've played through a few games now and a bit of the adventure and have yet to be on the end of a war dec despite weak military + juicy wonder filled cities

[Dp101]

I can't believe that the AI attacked you so early, they only went after me after ~150 turns of denouncements. Maybe Rome had a hidden agenda that made them really hate you? I mean, their regular one wouldn't make them love you, but there must have been something more.

[Mr. Cairo]

I can't believe that the AI attacked you so early, they only went after me after ~150 turns of denouncements. Maybe Rome had a hidden agenda that made them really hate you? I mean, their regular one wouldn't make them love you, but there must have been something more.

Holy what!? The AI actually attacked you! AND THEN GAVE YOU YOUR CAPITAL BACK?    

 

I think this explains some weird stuff I've seen in games where there is a notification saying 'unmet player has been defeated' only for me to later find that civ and that they still have their capital city intact...  Thoroughly confusing   

And I am also surprised to see the AI attack you. I've played through a few games now and a bit of the adventure and have yet to be on the end of a war dec despite weak military + juicy wonder filled cities

I have no idea why they attacked me that early, or why they gave me my cap back. Their hidden agenda is "Devout", and at that time there were no religions, so it can't have been that. And now, we're "Allies", whatever that means. But in general, I have spent far more time at war in this game than at peace. Washington (I don't know his hidden agenda) has never denounced me once, yet has attacked me three times, the second and third time sending dozens of units at me, only for them all to die to my city, encampment, and 3 archers/crossbows.

I haven't reported my last session because there's not much interesting going on. Kongo attacked me after I made peace with USA, this time seriously. But as usual, 3 or 4 higher tech and well-promoted units were enough to see off dozens of the spears and Kongo special's sent my way, and despite at one time occupying five or six tiles around my capital, they never once pillaged anything, and then ended up sending unescorted caravans into the war zone, and most recently an unescorted settler.

Meanwhile, my two allies, England and Rome, are marching massive armies of out-of-date units across my territory, to no purpose but to block the Americans and Kongolese forces from attacking me. Which is probably a good thing for them, as they're coming at me with mostly Classical units against my 2 Musketmen and 1 Cavalry, which together seem to be able to kill an infinite number of lower tech units.

I've built some more wonders and stuff. It's not like I need very many units to defend myself anyway.

I'll post some screenshots after my next session.

Also, where am I supposed to put Religious Great Works? I can't find any mention of them in the civilopedia.

[yuris125]

Religious great works count as art. Great works of art have several subtypes (portrait, sculpture, landscape.. religious is one of them). This is relevant for theming bonuses - you need art of the same type by different artists to get full theming (or something along those lines)

[Mr. Cairo]

Religious great works count as art. Great works of art have several subtypes (portrait, sculpture, landscape.. religious is one of them). This is relevant for theming bonuses - you need art of the same type by different artists to get full theming (or something along those lines)

Ah, thanks for that. Lucky for me that I'm already building an art museum. I think, I haven't played in a couple of days.

I'll try to finish the game tonight.

[Mr. Cairo]

Well, I didn't actually finish the game tonight, but I did get a nice long session in. After adjusting some of the graphics settings and turning on quick moves and combat, I found the whole experience much more enjoyable.

So, on to the game, I didn't take screens during the session, but here is an overview of where I ma now and roughly how I got there:

Notice anything missing? Yup, Rome attacked me, again, using the "Surprise Attack" CB, after moving at least 20 Legions into my territory thanks to an OB we had. The only reason we had the OB was that apparently if an OB agreement ends while another civ has units in your territory, they just get stuck there, blocking tiles. Anyway, by that point I was already at war with Washington again, although this time I started it.

Turns out a "formal War" is not a real CB, at least as far as the Nationalism civic goes. I didn't get the boost and I ended up in a war. But, I had a single Field Cannon Corps sitting in my encampment on the border, 3 tiles from Washington, that is capable of one-shotting any unit the AI has atm. I ended up getting another field cannon corps (upgraded x-bows) and some Infantry, and not only wiped out most of the invading Legions, but also razed that city squished between Thebes and Ra-Kedet. I know have one of those Field Cannon Corps and an Infantry Corps that has a Great General and a Medic attached heading towards Rome itself.

Other tings I learned this session:
Disbanding units gets you gold, something which I now recall reading about, but I had completely forgotten, and came as a complete surprise when I dispanded the pair of caravels I had built to get some Eureka bonus.
Either the Observation Balloon doesn't work, or it doesn't work as the civilopedia would have me believe, as if failed to give my Field Cannons range three, when adjacent or on the same tile.
Hammers are king. I now have an Industry district with Workshop and Factory in each of my cities, and I got the Great Engineer that gives factories +3 hammers. I am also about to build Ruhr Valley in Ra-Kedet.

Here's some more screens:

Going for Culture victory here, I forgot to take a shot of the Culture Victory Screen, but I'm about halfway to having enough foreign tourists. I would like to point out, that three of these things, the relic and 2 of the writings, were not mine, but the Kongo's. In one of the Kongo's periodic wars against me they were attacked by Rome, who wiped out the units near the two Kongo cities on the southern shore of the Inland Sea. I then moved in with a Musket, Cavalry, and 2 X-Bows and took the city. I then offered peace, asking for basically all that Kongo could give me, including their great works/relic in exchange for releasing the city back to them.


I have this many slots thanks to the Forbidden Palace, Potala Palace, and Alhambra. I've built a lot of Wonders this game. About the get the Hermitage too.




Just moseying along these trees, trying to get the Eureka Bonuses when I can, ignoring them when I need to.


So all in all, I am having more fun, although the AI are just as annoying and senseless as they were in Civ 5. They are very aggressive towards me, and their agendas seem to matter little as far as I can make out. Also, the demands they make are still absurd: Rome asked me to move units from his border, despite me not having moved any of my units for the past 10 turns. I said sure and forgot the whole thing, and some turns later, still without me having moved any of my units, I got the notification that I had failed the request. All this despite the fact that we were allied and he had literally dozens of Legions marching through my territory to attack Kongo. The AI in Civ 4 were more logical that this.

More to come tomorrow, or the next day probably.

[Mr. Cairo]

And that is that. Culture/Tourism Victory acheived. I had thought there would be a "Hall of Fame" type page where I could see the victory, and I neglected to take a screen of the victory itself, so eager was I to get on to taking the screens for this report. If anyone doubts the veracity of my claimed victory, my Steam id is Xactilian and the 9 achievements I got on the 28th of October will be evidence enough.

First, some catch-up. I took Rome, decided to keep it, then peaced out Trajan for everything he had. China then attacked me, I wiped out all his units, liberated an English city he took, then captured Beijing, I returned it to him in the peace deal in exchange for everything he had. America eventually peaced out, after losing endless archers, catapults, and chariots. I build a bunch more wonders, the key ones being Christo Redentor (not that the Ai were advanced enough for its effects to matter), the Hermitage, and the Ruhr Valley, which was pretty absurd, as will be seen later. Eventually I just got enough great works and a few seaside resorts, and voila, Culture Victory.

Overview, here's my civ at the end of this game:

Core of the Empire, where most of  my military is stations after returning from China in the north. Thebes is technically my capital, since Ra-Kedet was captured by Rome at the very beginning of the game.

The Eastern lands, showing Rome, which was fairly useless as a city, lacking many improvements and buildings. Also, the new plant was where I planned to chop out a Theatre district and buy up to an Art museum, as I was running out of space for paintings.

Main Cities

The "capital" and the location of then endless war with USA. My main military pump, as well as the location of some of my earlier wonders, as with all my cities, once the Industrial zone was up to Factories, it was finally able to build stuff in reasonable times.



My actual first city, and industrial powerhouse. By this time wonders had blocked most of the tiles I might want to build districts on, so it was just making units and stuff. 100+ hammers is pretty good though, I think.



Tundra-land, the location of my early cultural stuff, and a decent hammer city post-Factory. Also build some Wonders.



Coastal After-thought. Nothing much to say here, kinda middling, again, much better once it got the hammers from the Industrial Zone and its buildings. Getting the second Theatre district here was important. Looking at it, the citizen placement is pretty messed up, but I wasn't really paying attention by the end so minutiae like that.

The Rest



There were a few key civics at this point, especially Cultural Heritage and Suffrage.


I went for Democracy of Communism for the extra Wildcard slots. I wasn't too worried about military at this point, and I had the extra military slot from the wonder anyway. National Identitiy was a left over from the war with China when I had a single Infantry Corps holding off 8-10 knights and crouching tigers. I never saw containment work, I sent envoys to a city-state with a different suzerain than me, and no other civ was Democracy, but it still only seemed to count as 1, so


My Thoughts
UI needs improvement
AI needs to start making sense, their city placement was completely insane, no other way to put it, and they're too easy to bully in peace deals. Also, they were very aggressive in my game, although from what I've heard, that isn't usual.
I like the builders, the districts, the civics tree/government, and the eureka bonuses are interesting.
Next game I'm going to go for a more military route, and try out building a lot more cities.

[Old Harry]

 A monitor you can actually see the tech tree properly on!

Congrats on the Culture win - I started to dabble in that but didn't think to try extorting great works from other civs... will bear that in mind for my next game.