

However, this wrinkle just led me to raze cities to the ground, eradicate their entire civilization, and then resettle the area rather than try to hold them (unless there are some good wonders). Granted, if the real world has taught us much of anything in the past 20 years it’s that holding onto occupied territory isn’t easy and insurgencies are no joke, so I can appreciate the authenticity.
SID MEIERS CIVILIZATION VI FREE
When my burgeoning Indian empire launched a war of aggression against its Aztec neighbors, my army’s momentum was stalled out when some of my newly captured territories quickly rebelled against my large occupying force, turning into an unaffiliated free city and spawning multiple relatively high-tech units. Loyalty also makes a Domination victory dramatically more difficult to manage. It’s not all bad, since the dinky city the AI founds on that one hex of your continent that you didn’t control will probably become yours quickly, but it definitely cramped my style of sealing off encroaching rival settlements. This makes the early-game land grab much more conservative by necessity, since a mistake like that is effectively game-ending. “In one of my early games I had my first colony turn against me within a few turns because it was too close to another civilization, which was apparently extremely enticing. At the same time, you can’t lean on them too heavily because enemy spies can knock out a governor for a few turns. Also, being able to shuffle them around between cities (with a few turns’ delay) where they’re needed is useful, too - passing that huge district-building benefit off while one city works on a Wonder can work wonders.

SID MEIERS CIVILIZATION VI UPGRADE
Choosing which one to upgrade when feels important. Victor the Castellan, meanwhile, focuses on city defense, and Amani the Diplomat can be sent to a city-state to double your envoy count and project more loyalty. Liang the Surveyor starts by giving builders constructed in her city an extra charge, but can be upgraded with abilities like a 30% bonus toward constructing Districts or a unique Fishery improvement that increases food yields on coastal water hexes. The new Governors are another clever addition that allow you to further specialize a city along one of seven different paths. I also like reviewing the timeline of my Era point achievements, complete with illustrations – that’s a cool way to commemorate your nation’s history. That can serve as a powerful comeback mechanic, and I could see intentionally triggering a Dark Age just to get access to these for a time, and then rebounding into a Heroic Age, as a viable strategy. In fact, a Dark Age lets you access some powerful policy cards that also have downsides, like Robber Barons, which gives +50% gold production in cities with stock exchanges and +25% production in cities with a factory, at the cost of two Amenities in all cities. “However, the powers you earn aren’t so strong that a Golden Age will necessarily make a game – you see bonuses like faster-moving and cheaper builders or more potent Inspirations – and a Dark Age’s penalty to your people’s Loyalty point generation isn’t so apocalyptic that it will break you, at least not by itself.
