Civ VI - Wot I Fink

I'm not ready to do a full thing on this but I wanted to talk about it. Maybe ask what the rest of you thought.

I'm liking it quite a bit. Get this: more so than V. V had a few weird ideas that VI morphs to gel better with how I like to play. It'll still kick my arse if I'm not doing things properly but I like how the game has been remoulded into something a little more dynamic and thoughtful than V, which I would often just try to turn into Command and Conquer to get a Domination win. Yes! I am a Warmonger! Fear my random and inexplicable wrath!

VI reworks V's Happiness System
In V, Happiness was an inelegant method of showing that your citizens aren't happy. If you acted like a maniac and didn't feed them or provide them with things to keep them entertained or new and exciting resources to keep them placated like spices or silk weren't being found, they'd get stroppy. Production and almost everything would take a hit and your entire empire would suffer.

I Warmonger to my main method of expanding was to look at what other people had and nick that by stomping on their settlements and running it myself. The issue is that doing so would tank my Happiness more than anything else. Even if I made them a Puppet where they retained autonomy but were still my City, they'd hate me. If I outright annexed them, they'd hate me even more.

V's Happiness system is inelegant because it's a measure from all cities in your empire. If one city is grumpy with you, then everyone is supposed to be unhappy. Because you have one and only bloody one metric that your empire's overall mood is hinged on, it means that your chances of poor production and revolt for a few turns are almost guaranteed. Trying to balance Happiness and Army Production Efficiency just so you can take Cities easier without making an entire empire refuse to work for you and lock themselves in their respective rooms is a time consuming headache that soon turns completely impossible anyway as your Empire grows bigger.

VI gets rid of that. Instead it has an Amenities system that's based on the cities individual needs, not the sum total of everything. A big, bustling city is going to demand more things to keep them interested and entertained, which is what Amenities do. If your citizens are bored and unhappy, they will revolt. On the plus side, you only need to worry about this and this alone. Take over a city? They're OK with it as long as you have silk and crab meat. Of course, you can't ignore it at all, to my detriment in one game. If you are going to have a vast empire, you have to keep them folks placated, upping the demand for new resources so you can trade for ones you don't have or just boost your Amenities score.

For a Warmonger, I have more of a reason than before to take a city for it's pearls or demand furs from them through intimidation. I also have a great reason to get chummy with mercantile Civs before I decide to squash them outright when the actual threat is dealt with. Amenities makes this so, so much easier to handle while I'm out stompin everyone else into the ground. It's great!

VI is Really Pretty
V and IV look fine but I really dig the more cartoony, thicker design of these characters. It looks great on my machine and it's nothing too special. I like the look of the other Civs and how they're designed to look faithful but accentuate aspects of their intended personality. Gilgamesh is pretty aggressive, Harold Hardrada looks nuts, Catherine De Medici of France even gives off a slight 'Spy Mistress' feel with the very pointed face they've given her, suiting France's heavy leaning on both Culture and being kept in the know.

Actually, Civ's themselves are better in VI
I haven't personally play as everyone yet to get a feel for how things work but I love how the AI feels now. It might be a little simple but the one simple change they made makes these guys feel like they have a little more personality: Agendas.

Agendas dictate what a Civ wants and how they'll react to in-game actions. For example, I've played a game as Norway where I've made firm and quick friends with Teddy Roosevelt of America almost as soon as they found me. I was going to wreck everyone else's stuff and I wanted an ally to fall back on if it came to it. That worked out and me and the man that inspired Dr Eggman were pretty chummy.

But then I found someone to beat up on his continent and he didn't like that at all.

Another example is from my game where I'm playing as Queen Victoria of England. Gawd save the Queen! Pip-pip, cheerio, whatto, Oops Mrs Rothchild! How's the Apples and Pears, ect. In that, I've rocketted up the Science chart because what's a Warmonger to do but have the biggest, shiniest gun. I'm currently trying to expand out to the sea and it's garnered a little attention from some new friends. One of which is Zsar Peter of Russia, who absolutely loves me! Why? Because he's inclined to adore anyone that's got a higher Science or Culture Rating than him. I like him, I'll kill him last.

An added twist is the 'Hidden Agenda' all Civs have. Each one has something they're all trying to accomplish too, they just don't say anything about it. You only find out if they get chummy with you and tell you. That's pretty neat, making an encounter with a Civ different every time.

Everyone Starts to Hate Me When I Murder Too Many People
Silly people. I want to conquer everyone. Just give me your cities and there's no need for War!

Warmongering is a little more nuanced now. Yes, hefty penalties are available if you just look at a Civ funny then go break all their things to claim them as your own but there's now ways around it if you want. You gain new policies that allow you to declare Holy Wars or Wars to defend a friend or Reclaim stuff for Allies that don't garner Warmongering Effects at all. If you wanted, you could try to trick people into situations that favour your cause and smack people up but with a better cause than 'This is mine now!'.

Culture works like Science now. I like it.
Culture now drives the development of how your Civ is run. Like Science, which seems somewhat unchanged, now you have policies and styles of government that you swap around to suit your situation, each with bonuses and advantages to spin to your benefit.

A government dictates how many of a type of policy you can enact but each Policy causes a change across your Empire as soon as it's enacted by your government. V had policies act like permanent bonuses that you collected to boost yourself up. Now, policies are like trading cards you swap out or in when you need to for those collections of buffs and bonuses to things like crops or gold or culture or whatever. I like that alot. It's more dynamic and as you unlock better policies as your culture develops, your constantly thinking about how and when you can switch things up to suit your situation. It's dynamic rather than the static string of upgrades V had.

If you go full 'Wonder *squee!*' but find yourself on the receiving end of a beating a few thousand years later, it's not as easy to swap stuff around to produce units to defend yourself.

VI got rid of Build Queues
My cities are only building one thing at a time. It would be nice if I could set them up with a list of things to do then leave them to it, checking up on them once in a while. It's annoying because I liked that feature in V.

OK, a little in depth but that's how I find the game. Mostly positive. It's got it's hooks in me deep. What do you think?