Civilization VI: Rise & Fall — The Experience
The London Gaymers ‘Let’s Play’ series is great for helping beginners get into a new game! But after streaming Civilization VI: Rise & Fall for 8.5 hours, I’ve learnt a few things myself too
Firstly, it’s a game I can get lost in… I was never meant to stream for that long, but that “one more turn” fever sort of sets in, and you can get so engrossed in a game that time just flies! A big thank you to those that watched, whether it was the majority of the stream, or you just popped in and out. It was (believe it or not) my first time streaming, so hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did.
The Civ series is a series I’ve played since Civ 1, and I’ve enjoyed watching it grow and evolve. I’ve persuaded numerous other people to pick up Civ at various points, and all of them have loved delving into the game. Civ 6 breaks away a lot from a number of traditional Civ mechanics, and while they, and the art style, have been criticised, this may be my favourite Civ yet (despite the 1000 odd hours I’ve pumped into Civ V!!!)
Secondly, R&F adds a number of great mechanics to the base game, and in my opinion none of them are bad, and if anything they add a lot more substance to the game. I know for a newbie, Civ can seem very overwhelming. There is a lot of information to take into account, and you always kind of have to plan a few turns ahead, and work out exactly what it is you’re going to be doing. Of course this can change as your opponents react to your moves, and try to halter you advance. However, the fact that’s its turn based, means that you can take your time to plan what you’re going to do, and work patiently and methodically in any plans you want to put forward. There are always more than 1 way of looking at a game of Civ, and with so many different types of victory conditions, different Civ, and randomised map generation, it’s great to be able to play the game repeatedly with so many different out comes.
Out of the new features added by R&F, the addition of era scores and the advancement through the ages is probably my favourite. It makes a lot of things more meaningful, and knowing you have to do certain things to get that boost to avoid a dark age, is fun and challenging. The dedications are nice and varied, and help with different styles of play, and even things like the screen colour change is a nice touch. The loyalty system I think we be really fun, especially on Pangaea maps where people are more cramped in together, and will be a fun aspect to multiplayer games where players don’t want to go to war. I’ve yet to explore it too much so far in my own games, but I’m hoping to get to grips with it. The governors is a great edition, and something borrowed from other similar strategy games, which I think has been a long time coming. I like that you can pick and choose them and adapt them your situation, and that there’s no real set order to get them in, and you can’t upgrade them all/get them all.
The diversity and uniqueness of each of the new civilizations that they’ve added is really interesting. This Civilization has the largest number of female leaders, and that’s something that should certainly be embraced. A lot of previous civ games have been quite western orientated, but this one is a lot broader in its source material, and not just in the Civs themselves, but in things like great people too, which has added a whole host of new content to the game.
Civ 6 is quickly growing to become of one of my top played games on Steam, and from everything this expansion has offered, I’ll certainly be looking forward to the next one, whenever that comes out. I’m nearly always up for playing a game, or if there’s any newbies that want some more direct help or guidance, let me know!
I am by no means a Civ expert, but I’m certainly happy to help, and the Civ live-stream was a great opportunity for that. Viewers were able to ask questions via Twitch chat, and I was able to respond while playing. There are many different aspects of Civ that you need to try and take account of at once, and it was good able to go through some of those, and point out the new features, especially to those unfamiliar with the series or the expansion. Giving out tips and tricks from my experience helped others learn, and hopefully improve their strategy the next time they play.
Check out the stream over on twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/229575761
