Civilization VI

Running Man wrote:
omni wrote:

Greenmangaming have a 20% off voucher (FEB20) that appears to work with Rise & Fall. Takes it down to £19.99, compared to £21.24 on that Fanatical deal.

Unless the GMG code/deal is UK only, which I doubt.

It does work over here in the colonies, dropping the price to $23.99 USD. That's the cheapest I've seen so far.

Here in the Old Dominion, I'm able to use "EARLYBIRD25" at GMG which is taking it down to $22.49 USD.

The code is meant to take 25% off the Top 5 preorders. Currently that cohort includes FFXV (Windows), Metal Gear: Survive, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and Pillars of Eternity 2, in addition to Rise and Fall.

48 more hours. I am very excited for the launch of this expansion. It is one of the few announced games this year that I am excited for after a packed year last year.

Shaka returns, and he is going to be a worse neighbor than the Aztecs.

Hrm...seems I'll need to play as Shaka just to have Ladysmith Black Mambazo as the background music.

In typical fashion, they've now mailed me a code for 25% off - EARLYBIRD25

Going to see if I can cancel the pre-order and rebuy :p

EDIT: Turns out, you can't cancel a pre-order less than 48 hours before release... so they gave out this code *just* less than 48 hours before release. Well played, GMG. Well played. I'll have to make do with the 22% off I used. RIP 75pence

I used that code as well to pre-order through GMG. $22.50 was enough for me to bite.

Was there/will there be any update to the iPad version because of this release?

They haven't announced anything yet. I believe the iPad still doesn't have the most recent big patch for the base game either.

beanman101283 wrote:

They haven't announced anything yet. I believe the iPad still doesn't have the most recent big patch for the base game either.

I think the official answer is Maybe^tm Soon^tm

Robear wrote:

Was there/will there be any update to the iPad version because of this release?

I'm really hoping this will happen soon. It's been great having it on iPad while keeping an eye on the newborn while he's in the bassinet or the rock n' play.

Aspyr just got the Fall patch done on the 11th - I don't know how much conversion work goes into getting it to the iPad, and they're notoriously tight lipped about it (being sh*t on for porting games to Mac slowly does that, regardless of how good/bad the port is).

I'm guessing they'll announce something soonish. I'm hoping for today/tomorrow since Thursday is the usual iOS release day.

First reviews for the expansion are out, and generally positive.
IGN
Polygon
PC Gamer

Just applied the latest updates to the base game. Looks like units got updated appearances.

"This game will unlock in approximately less than an hour"

I think this and Monster Hunter may we el be my last game purchases this year.

Naturally my time will be in a couple of days since I'm swamped at work and finishing up an Endless Legend campaign.

about 200 turns into an Aztec game on marathon/large, just finished the first era and managed to secure a golden age. I'm liking that system so far.

I'm a little bit disappointed that the expansion didn't include more map scripts

The new features are very cool. My first standard random game I got Japan, and my first age was very dark. Now I am in a heroic age, however. I love little things like how the map desaturates a bit in a dark age and gets super-saturated in a golden age.

Still wrapping my mind around how to exploit loyalty and learning what kinds of things to do to get points towards a golden age. There are a lot of them, but their values vary considerably.

I’m in 125 AD of my first game - playing as the Cree. Maybe it’s my feeble brain, but I think the biggest difference between Civ VI and Civ IV is a general one (besides the actual mechanics). I think in Civ IV there were much fewer moving parts that it was easier to keep track in my head what I wanted to do next, and what my longer term plan was. In Civ VI there are so many little things here and there that make me constantly evaluate what I want to do next that I feel like I’m playing by the seat of my pants. I don’t necessarily think it is a bad thing, just different.

The Era Score has made me change what I was going to do as I scrambled to get the points in the first age to avoid a dark age. Civ VI throws decisions at you pretty frequently. Upgrade a governor or recruit a new one, should I try to trigger a eureka moment, when to get another settler going, where to build districts, and on and on.

The diplomacy AI still seems eratic, I was friendly with both Queen Elizabeth and Saladin with my relations in positive territory. Bam, they both declare war on me and I never see one of their enemy units. Still, I’m enjoying managing my empire.

Did the game say why they were declaring war? This expansion seems to be better in general about telling you why things are happening.

Vanilla CIv VI had a lot less moving parts. They have continually added things, even in the free updates, and I think they've done it without the result being too overwhelming. It's fairly easy to eventually recover from most blunders, and if you poke around enough, you can figure out some of the mysterious bits. The Dark Age mechanic makes the game much more interesting to me in that it is not a given that you will constantly be getting better and better. Some of the Dark Age policies are wack.

Spoiler:

 
IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/919167796977234106/30653702C84CE4C32009751D4D12B31B266E680C/)

BTW, for the curious, this shows the color changes for different ages:

Spoiler:

 

Normal Age

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/919167796977234205/43185D08987C988A395DDCE99B880D805F55AFF6/)
 

Dark Age

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/919167796977233965/0779898667F8671378CB3B3C9632D11434611175/)
 

Golden Age (Heroic - don't know if non-heroic looks different)

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/919167796977234290/9972FFE45BB3E9B6CABF30D3CCBCB617CB2B9C91/)

I think it was just a generic declaration of war, or maybe a surprise war because I don't remember getting denounced. Queen Elizabeth's relation with me was pretty positive. It just seemed kind of random. It was fairly early on in the game though. It's not a good sign that they both declared war and then did nothing to pursue that war.

I don't have the expansion yet, but America just declared a surprise war on me and took my capital. Does that happen often?

Natus wrote:

I don't have the expansion yet, but America just declared a surprise war on me and took my capital. Does that happen often?

In game or real life?

WizKid wrote:
Natus wrote:

I don't have the expansion yet, but America just declared a surprise war on me and took my capital. Does that happen often?

In game or real life?

Please, I can't take the wrenching irony at a time like this...

375 turns in, era points dried up and my golden age is being followed up by a dark age. I think the main difference is the absence of bandit camps popping up, those were a big source of points in the first age.

Suzerain'ed city states have been a huge boon for me, letting me build up my cities while they spam units, twice now I've had two of my neighbours declare joint wars on me only for them to get pounded by the CS troops.

Spain even got one of their cities taken and razed by them, leaving me with a nice empty spot to slide in with a settler.

Not sure how many turns in I am, but I’m liking the additions and tweaks so far. Playing as the Netherlands, whose unique improvement and abilities require some patience to unlock. The game feels a little more polished and informative too, with more advisor pop-ups and better tool tips on UI elements. The British and Georgians share my continent, and they’ve left me alone. Victoria did annihilate the Belgians before I even met them, so she’s certainly going to be someone to watch out for. The governors, like a lot of aspects to the game, require a bit of long term planning to use effectively. It’ll take me a few games I think before I have a good sense of how best to use them. The loyalty system hasn’t yet come into play in a meaningful way, but I’ve been conservative with how far away I’ve built my new cities. There isn’t yet too much pressure on my civilization yet.

robc wrote:

I think it was just a generic declaration of war, or maybe a surprise war because I don't remember getting denounced. Queen Elizabeth's relation with me was pretty positive. It just seemed kind of random. It was fairly early on in the game though. It's not a good sign that they both declared war and then did nothing to pursue that war.

The AI won't always declare war with an intention to take cities. Or anything. I do that, too on occasion. Especially as Persia. I try to keep a small Civ alive just so I can declare Surprise War on them at my leisure. I'm not actually going to attack them or anything. I just want the domestic bonuses.

LarryC wrote:
robc wrote:

I think it was just a generic declaration of war, or maybe a surprise war because I don't remember getting denounced. Queen Elizabeth's relation with me was pretty positive. It just seemed kind of random. It was fairly early on in the game though. It's not a good sign that they both declared war and then did nothing to pursue that war.

The AI won't always declare war with an intention to take cities. Or anything. I do that, too on occasion. Especially as Persia. I try to keep a small Civ alive just so I can declare Surprise War on them at my leisure. I'm not actually going to attack them or anything. I just want the domestic bonuses.

What domestic bonuses do you get for declaring war?

How does Surprise War work?