Those of you familiar with Civilization 5's modding scene will likely know of Gedemon's Yet (not) Another Earth Maps Pack which added planet Earth to the 4X 'em up in varying sizes. Those of you who aren't, know that its Giant Earth 180x96 map was blooming huge. And know that it's now coming to Civilization 6 alongside a new Ludicrous 230x115 map option.
Released last week, the latest of Sid Meier's strategy games is for now without Steam Workshop support but that obviously hasn't stopped modders getting to work. Across both sizes, over 50 civs can be set in YnAEM, and, while the mod is currently in 'alpha 3' state, its creator has put the Ludicrous map through 500 turns in autoplay with 32 civs without issue (Gedemon's build is pretty powerful, mind: i7 4770K CPU, 16GB RAM, GTX 980 ti GPU).
Gedemon does however lead with a warning:
"The giant map is already way above the size of the huge map, it may or may not load on your PC (and will take some time to do so), the Ludicrous map is the max map size before the game refuse to load, and will take more than 4-5 minutes to load (or crash). I'd suggest to lower the textures size in the video option, the game use almost all the 6GB of VRAM of my GPU."
Hitting turn 240, the average turn time was two minutes, while at 470 turn times averaged four minutes. As it stands, true starting locations aren't implemented.
You can play Civilization 6 without ever founding a city not even with your first Settler in the Ancient Era but only kind of. I first tried this without modding Civ 6 at all, hoping that if I acted fast enough, I could level up my starting Warrior by finding settlements, and then successfully siege and take a city-state. This did not work.
As you can see in the screen above, Brussels easily defeated my Warrior, took my Settler, and I lost on turn 16. I hope that's a record. But I was determined to find a way to play Civ 6 without founding any cities, because once I decide on a stupid self-imposed rule there's no giving up. So I allowed myself only a slight change: I modified Eras.xml so that I would start in the Ancient Era with two Warriors and an Archer. I cheated, but only just enough to get off the ground. It's hardly even cheating, if you think about it, but please don't think about it.
Within minutes I had done it: I started a game, and without founding a city I captured a capital, Toronto. This is pretty impressive, considering I didn't cheat even a little bit. Not at all.
You can almost see the Maple Leafs blowing a two goal lead in the third period from here.
As a Canadian, I should probably be offended that Toronto is a city-state and not part of the great Canadian civilization. Really, I'm more bothered that they chose Toronto and not Quebec City or Montreal, both of which have greater history. But who cares: Canada is Aztec country now.
This whole scenario gives me an idea: what about a game where everyone starts with two Warriors and an Archer, but no Settler at all? The only way forward for each civ would be to capture a city-state as its capital. Sounds fun, though I'm doubtful the AI can handle it. I try it anyway.
On first attempt, it doesn't work at all. I forgot that when I conquered Toronto, I was playing as the Aztecs, who have a special Eagle Warrior unit that replaces the Ancient Era Warrior. With two regular Warriors and an Archer, there was no way I could capture a city state: my Archer could only do 15-21 damage per turn, and the city regenerated 20 health per turn. My Warriors, meanwhile, couldn't attack without losing most of their health and needing several turns to heal.
No one can win this battle.
If you're wondering why that image is so orange, I was playing at 1 am (naturally, it's Civ) and forgot I had Flux on. You should use it. But also turn it off for screenshots. Anyway, I went back to mucking with Eras.xml to see if I could start with no Settler, two Warriors, and two Archers to make this work, but no matter what I did Civilization 6 seemed insistent on starting me with only one Archer. Eventually I got frustrated and just pasted a bunch of units in and that's when it decided to work.
That'll do, pig.
Well this is nice, isn't it? I have no problem taking a city-state as my capital with this army: in just nine turns, I capture Nan Madol. Unfortunately, the world rankings suggest my AI opponents aren't so clear on how to proceed. I lead in every victory category because they haven't captured cities. I give it a few more turns, but no luck. I'm the only one who knows how this game is played.
So let's go back to my first game, where everyone started with a Settler but I just chose not to use it. I may be dead broke (units cost upkeep money even if you don't have a city generating gold) but I've captured Toronto, and now I have my sights set on Buenos Aires.
Yes, I will do your city-state quest. That's what this army is for.
Buenos Aries falls easily. I like that unprotected cities aren't a huge deal to take early on in Civ 6. But with all my troops scattered as I seek out new states to conquer, I become worried that I may be subject to the same treatment: my neighbor to the east, Egypt, randomly got in touch to tell me that my army is puny and I'm dumb. Or something like that. The point is that it was rude, and greatly displeased the people of Aztec-Canada.
Without declaring war, Cleopatra beings amassing troops near the border of Toronto. With my starting Settler still nestled in the city which is sort of annoying because it means I can't hide Builders there during wartime I begin moving troops to confront my Egyptian foes. It's time to see if, despite being behind by several turns of production and research, I can make an Ancient Era civilization mine.
The AI Cleopatra isn't exactly subtle about her intentions.
Egypt only has two cities, Shedet and the capital, R -Kedet. I march toward the weaker city of Shedet, and thanks to my Archers and Aztec Eagle Warriors, I capture it without much trouble even before my brand new catapult makes the trek from Toronto. Buenos Aires, meanwhile, is being defended from Civ 6's more aggressive Barbarians by a single Archer, which is a pain in the ass, but I manage to complete the Hanging Gardens there anyway. Things are looking pretty good for my no-city-founding playthrough.
This is what you get for calling my army puny.
I was always irked by how Civilization 5 discouraged conquering with revolts and unhappiness not that bombarding a city with arrows and then marching in with axes wouldn't cause those things, but it was such a pain I typically installed puppet governments or razed cities when what I really wanted to do was expand my empire while keeping it under my creative control. To a degree, I think it was Civ 5's wording that turned me off captured cities didn't really feel like mine, even if I got them up and running again.
I'm glad Civilization 6 simplifies this: Keeping a city no longer suspends its production, instead making it less productive until the war is over and it's negotiated for at the peace table. It's lost a bit of Civ 5's nuance eg, installing a puppet government until the war is over, and then annexing only the best cities when you can afford to buy courthouses to cheer everyone up (when have they ever done that?) but I feel much more encouraged to expand through war if that's what I want to do. And with my rule that I won't found any cities, it's the only way forward.
Instead of settling things at the peace table, though, I've decided to smash the peace table with an axe. Every few turns Cleopatra offers me a deal, even offering to let me keep Shedet, but I ignore her and march toward R -Kedet. Despite all her big talk, she didn't have much of an army at all (this was on Prince difficulty, so not too hard). Egypt falls to the Aztecs.
My civilization at turn 110 with four cities and my starting Settler hanging out in Toronto.
I never took an aggressive approach in Civ 5, preferring to expand on my own and turtle. But I was always annoyed by city-states hogging land I wanted, so much that I started turning them off altogether. Now that early wars aren't quite so much of a drain, though, I'm really enjoying being an all out warmonger in Civ 6. I would make a terrible world leader.
If you want to muck with the starting conditions yourself, it's pretty easy. Find your Civilization 6 install folder, which if it's in Steam's default location will be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI.
From there, navigate to \Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data and find Eras.xml. Make a copy of it to back it up, then open it in a text editor. Scroll down to the 'MajorStartingUnits' section and you'll find a bunch of lines which define which units players start with depending on the starting era, some with extra variables, such as 'AIOnly' which gives the AI extra units at harder difficulties.
If you want to start an Ancient Era game with an archer, for instance, you'd add the line:
I had to do some experimenting because as I mentioned, it mysteriously refused to accept my changes for a while (which probably just means I introduced a typo somewhere), but using the existing lines as examples you should be able to set up any starting units you like. Scroll further in the file and you can define starting buildings, governments, civics, and techs as well.
If I manage to win this game without ever founding a city, I'll let you know. But more likely, because it's what I always do with Civ, I'll get to the Renaissance Era and decide to start over with a new stupid rule.
We're still waiting on word from Firaxis about when we can expect mod tools, but all the loose Lua and XML files hanging out in Civilization 6's directories already give us the opportunity to do some good tweaking. Mostly thanks to the eagle eyes of the Civit subreddit, here are a few ways to customize Civ 6 to your liking and get it running better. (Also read our Civilization 6 review if you haven't already we like it a lot.)
Fix slow loading or freezing
As always, update your video drivers if you haven't recently. But if you've done all the standard troubleshooting and just getting to the Civ 6 main menu is still a long process, or it hangs on the way there, Windows Defender may be causing your grief. It definitely was for me: before I added an exception, loading the menu took ages and it would hang if I alt-tabbed.
To create a Windows Defender exception in Windows 10, open your PC's settings from the Start Menu. Click on 'Update & Security' and then select 'Windows Defender' in the side menu. Select 'Add an Exclusion' and choose to exclude a folder. Select the whole Civilization 6 install folder if it's installed to the default Steam directory, that'll be: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI.
And that's it. If Windows Defender was your problem, the main menu should now load much faster and it ought to be a little more forgiving about alt-tabbing. If that doesn't work, Reddit user LoadTimeshas some other suggestions.
Disable the startup logos
It's easy to disable the main intro video it's in the options menu, under 'Application' but also getting rid of the logo splash screens is slightly trickier. The trick comes from Reddit account Civ6LogoSkip, which is a very specific account to have, but a very useful one to us.
Navigate to \Base\Platforms\Windows\Movies in the Civilization 6 install directory see the fix above if you don't know where to look, or right click on the game in your Steam library, then select Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files. Unfortunately, just deleting logos.bk2 will cause Civ 6 to hang while loading. Instead, we have to replace it with a blank video.
Rename logos.bk2 to something else, and then either make a copy of WipeRight.bik and rename it logos.bk2 to replace the logos with a brief pattern, or (even better) download this blank bik video and use it instead.
Use WASD to control the camera
Reddit user Xacius has the details on this tweak. First, unbind W and A in the settings so you don't accidentally attack when you mean to move the camera. Now navigate to Civ 6's UI directory ([Your Install Directory]\Base\Assets\UI) and open the file WorldInput.lua with a text editor (WordPad works fine). Search for 'DefaultKeyDownHandler' to find the function we want to edit. You'll see four if/then statements which handle input from the arrow keys: Keys.VK_UP, Keys.VK_RIGHT, Keys.VK_DOWN, Keys.VK_LEFT. To add WASD control, we just need to tell it to also check if the WASD keys are pressed.
Here's how the 'if' statements should look when you've edited them:
if( uiKey == Keys.VK_UP or uiKey == Keys.W ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_RIGHT or uiKey == Keys.D ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_DOWN or uiKey == Keys.S ) thenif( uiKey == Keys.VK_LEFT or uiKey == Keys.A ) then
Now find the 'DefaultKeyUpHandler' function and make the same change, save the file and try it out. For more on how to muck with the controls, check out Xacius's comprehensive post.
Increase scroll speed
This is another tweak from Xacius. Open WorldInput.lua (in the folder \Base\Assets\UI) and search for the variable local PAN_SPEED. The line should look like this:
local PAN_SPEED :number = 1;
Just change the number to 2 to get around the map faster.
Change font sizes
Settings for fonts and their sizes are stored in Civ6_FontStyles_EFIGS.xml, which you'll find in \Base\Assets\UI\Fonts. Open the file with a text editor to start mucking with it, but save a backup first. I haphazardly set all the fonts to size 24 or higher and the result wasn't exactly attractive, as expected.
Turn off unit cycling
Unit cycling which automatically swaps focus to the next available unit drives me pretty nuts in wartime, so I was happy to see Reddit user Miramosa's tweak.
The option to turn off unit cycling did make it into the options file, but apparently not into the actual menu. The file you're looking for is UserOptions.txt, which you should be able to find in Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI. Find the line that reads 'AutoUnitCycle 1', change the 1 to a 0, and save.
Enable team multiplayer
As Andy has written about in more detail, there is a way to enable team multiplayer in Civilization 6, even if Firaxis isn't ready to enable it officially. A 2K rep told us that this is "not a feature supported" by Civ 6, and recommends backing up any files you mod.
Team multiplayer is easy to flip on, though. Find the file StagingRoom.lua in your Civilization 6 install directory (it'll be in \Base\Assets\UI\FrontEnd\Multiplayer\) and open it in a text editor. Search for the line 'playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide(true);' and change its value to false. Note that 'playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide' appears other places in the file, but only one is set to true by default, so be sure to find that one. There's a note above it that reads 'IMPORTANT: DISABLING TEAM PULLDOWNS UNTIL DAY 0 PATCH' if you aren't sure. We're our own Day 0 patch!
Civilization 6 is out and it is exceptionally good. One thing it's missing, however, is an option for team multiplayer. But it looks like the feature is coming, based on the findings of this Reddit thread, and more interestingly for the daring (or reckless) among you, there is a way to enable it, to a limited extent, right now.
A number of references to team multiplayer have been found in the game's code, along with a comment in the XML stating, "Important: Disabling team pulldowns until day 0 patch." The general consensus is that the feature was planned and then kiboshed, probably due to some bug that reared its ugly head at the last minute. But you can re-enable it, as instructed in the Civ Fanatics forum, by editing line 1134 ("playerEntry.TeamPullDown:SetHide") in "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization VI\Base\Assets\UI\FrontEnd\Multiplayer\StagingRoom.lua" (or whatever path you use) from "true" to "false."
Even though you can turn it on, you may not want to rush to do so, since team multiplayer clearly hasn't been fully (or even mostly) implemented. According to follow-up comments, civilizations can't share research or technology, and while teammates can see one another's starting locations, areas of the map uncovered after the beginning of the game are not shared. Victory conditions aren't shared either, so it's impossible to achieve a team victory.
And of course there's always the risk of crashes that can so easily arise from this kind of horsing around. "At the moment Team Multiplayer is not a feature supported in Civilization 6," a 2K rep said. "If someone is going to mod any of the game files or XML files to change how features work, this is obviously at their own risk, so always backup the files they re planning to mod beforehand."
I think the "at their own risk" part bears repeating.
Civ 6, as we noted here, is "very moddable," but even so this sounds like one that you might want to stay away from, especially since official team multiplayer support (hopefully in the relatively near future) looks like a sure thing. I won't judge if you just can't wait, though and if you do give it a try, let us know how it goes in the comments.
Major esports organization Team Liquid announced today that it's making a push for the professional Civilization 6 scene with the creation of a new team. It was revealed that well known strategy game player Stephen "MrGameTheory" Takowsky is set to be the team's captain.
Team Liquid co-CEO Steve "LiQuiD112" Arhancet wrote on the organization's website that he started in competitive games with the Civilization franchise, and it was through Civ 4 that got him to pursue esports seriously.
"It was through competing in Civilization IV at the highest level that I found the confidence to jump into the world of esports and leave behind my job in the world of finance," he said. LiQuiD112 continued by talking about the virtues of competitive Civilization before focusing specifically on the player who'll lead the company's team, listing his accomplishments.
"MrGameTheory is a former world champion Civilization player who achieved the rank of #1 on the Civilization Revolution leader board, Civilization IV international league, and Civilization V international league," Arhancet detailed. "He holds the records for most 1v2, 1v3, 1v4, and 1v5 ladder victories in Civilization IV."
In a statement, MrGameTheory said that he's honored to lead Team Liquid's Civilization team and looks forward to "continue [his] contribution to one of the greatest gaming franchises."
"Participating in the competitive Civilization community with Steve Arhancet has been one of the great joys of my life," he wrote. "After we won our first Civilization Championship Cup back in 2007, with a team so small that we could barely participate in two-thirds of the events, I learned that a dedicated group of friends can accomplish the seemingly impossible. Civilization remains the most complicated game in the world, and I am thankful to be part of an organization capable of taking on the challenge."
Team Liquid will announce the addition of two more players to its Civilization 6 team on October 29, while it plans to host "a series of grueling tournaments" to try and find the "most exceptional players in the community." You can read the full post here.
With how long matches go for in the Civilization games, it'll be interesting to see if this esports push will be able to keep viewers invested and awake. As much as I like the idea of competitive Civ, it's definitely not as action-packed as games like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Rocket League, and even League of Legends. Because of this, I have doubts that it'll be able to capture the attention of a wider audience.
In PC Gamer's review, critic T.J. Hafer called Civilization 6 "the liveliest, most engrossing, most rewarding, most challenging 4X in any corner of the earth."
Computer opponents in 4X are usually pretty dumb. When a game like Civilization tries to make them think and act like humans, they re about as convincing as two kids in a big coat trying to pass as Queen Victoria. Civ 6 has avoided this problem by instead focusing on making each AI leader an interesting challenge for a human player to unravel using clever systems like Agendas and the new casus belli civics, creating the most intricate and enjoyable diplomatic climate we ve ever been treated to in single-player Civ.
I talked about how game-changing AI agendas were in my discussion with Tom about the biggest new features, but it bears repeating. In previous Civ games, AI leaders were programmed to act like a friend playing with you on LAN. They d play to win, entertain mutually beneficial alliances, and often backstab you out of nowhere if they felt it would help their chances of victory.
China gets jealous when another civ builds a wonder, so I have to weigh whether the science bonus from the Great Library would be worth the economic cost of a war against them.
When a real player declares a surprise war on you and plunges the world into chaos, it creates an entertaining rivalry. But when a computer player does it, it usually seems unfair especially if you feel like you did everything right to make those duplicitous lines of code like you. We understand people being jerks and betraying us. But we understand pre-coded systems have to have rules. And we want to feel like we have the agency to play by those rules and achieve a desired outcome.
AI agendas fix this by creating a more comprehensible web of relationships with exposed knobs and levers. At the same time, it avoids the trap of making it really easy to stay best buds with everyone forever. China gets jealous when another civ builds a wonder, so I have to weigh whether the science bonus from the Great Library would be worth the economic cost of a war against them. When Germany's Barbarossa calls "dibs" on every city state, I know immediately that we re going to become foes even if we re not in competition for land or resources. I m constantly making interesting decisions between restricting the paths my empire can choose or letting relations with another leader sour. And that s not even bringing the randomized, hidden agendas (which give a new, very important role to the espionage system) into the conversation.
Pete the Great doesn't seem super stoked about this.
Why we can’t be friends
Civ 6 has also followed games like Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis by implementing casus belli: reasons to go to war. These are unlocked by civics on the new, culture-based tech tree, and lessen the diplomatic penalty you get for warmongering if you have a good reason. Unlocking Holy War allows you to rebuke someone who converted one of your cities. Unlocking Colonial War makes any civ a certain number of techs behind you fair game. You don t need a casus belli, but going to war without one requires you to either launch a Surprise War (which is likely to turn the rest of the world against you), or issue a formal Denouncement and wait five turns at which point, your opponent probably knows what s coming and has prepared their defenses.
This system not only creates a context for war and interjects some historical flavor relating to why real-world conflicts break out in the first place, but it weaves in with the agendas to create a web of friends and foes that helps the game of empires feel more complex and realistic. The other leaders aren t trying to act like your flesh-and-blood buddies. They re acting in the way that will give you the most enjoyable, challenging, and interesting experience as the sole air-breather at the table. And that design philosophy is extremely refreshing for someone like me, who spends the vast majority of his time in singleplayer.
As much as some players would like to believe that 4X is about universal symmetry between sides, it s really one of the genre s greatest myths. I d love to see more strategy devs show recognition that single and multiplayer are completely different animals, and AI should be designed around making the former the best experience it can be. What s fun and engaging for a solo conqueror is going to be very different from what makes LAN brawls great. And it s the mark of a great game when each experience is tailored to be distinct, but both perform admirably in their own way.
It's big-budget game season, and you know what that means: driver updates. Both AMD and Nvidia have packaged up new sets of drivers containing optimizations for several newly released and upcoming games, including Battlefield 1, Civilization 6, and Titanfall 2.
AMD released Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.2 for Radeon graphics card owners. The new driver set adds support for all three games mentioned above, plus Serious Sam VR Early Access and Eagle Flight VR.
There's just one new Crossfire profile in the Crimson 16.10.2, that being a DirectX 11 profile for Civ 6. Otherwise, the rest of what you'll find here are a handful of bug fixes. They include:
Fan speed may sometimes remain elevated on select Radeon RX 400 series graphics products even when an application has been exited.
Eyefinity group settings may not be retained after driver upgrade when using AMD CrossFire configurations.
Gears of War 4 may experience an application hang when using select high resolution and quality configurations in some specific game maps.
DirectX12 content may be unable to launch on some older CPUs that do not support popcnt instruction.
Battlefield 1 AMD CrossFire profile updates for game launch.
Moving on to Nvidia, its 375.57 WHQL driver package boasts Game Ready status for Battlefield 1, Titanfall 2, and Civ VI and the same two VR titles, which fall under Nvidia's Game Ready VR designation.
Nvidia's latest driver release also adds an SLI profile for Lineage Eternal: Twilight Resistance and 3D Vision profiles for Civ 6 (marked as "good") and Titanfall 2 (also "good").
Like AMD, Nvidia used the opportunity to fix a small number of issues, though there are only two specific to this driver package. They include:
[SLI, Geforce GTX 980M] Mirror's Edge Catalyst flickers on Ansel UI when image moved with mouse pointer. (Windows 10)
[GeForce GTX 650] Dots on all the characters in Grand Theft Auto 5. (Windows 7 through 8.1)
Update: It seems the original hour and a half video was missing a few songs roughly three hours worth, as the official Civilization YouTube account removed the original video and added a new one that's over four hours long. It also has correct timecodes for each song in the video description, so we've updated the embedded video above to the new version.
Original story: There's a lot to love about Civilization 6 (read our review here), but I came away truly amazed by its music. So amazed, that I made a whole video about how that music evolves through the different game eras. And now, all four versions of each civ's theme song is available to stream for free in one massive video on the official Civilization YouTube channel.
As you get started in Civ 6, I encourage you to keep your ears wide open. Firaxis told me that the music playing during a game is usually a mix of the other AI civ leaders you've met, and the version depends on what era they are in. So if you are in the classical era but meet Germany while they are still in the Ancient era, the Ancient German track will be mixed into the pool of possible music you can hear.
If, like me, you are going to listen to the whole video embedded above at least twice, you'll start hearing how the different themes shift, and then hopefully start recognizing them in the game. I don't believe this is the entire soundtrack (for example, the game's main theme is missing) but it's an impressively large collection. And pretty soon, we'll be able to mod Civ 6 to add our own tracks and make that collection even bigger.
Civilization 6 has had two expansions since 2016, and unsurprisingly that means it's a bigger and better game than it was at launch. Even if there are no more expansions in store for the future, that doesn't mean there's nothing new to check out. The modding community has pulled out all the stops tweaking graphics and gameplay, adding new civs and new units, and even improving the UI.
Here's our definitive list of the best mods for Civilization 6, updated to take 2019's Gathering Storm expansion into account.
Installing Civilization 6 mods
With the addition of Steam Workshop support, installing many mods is easy: simply subscribe to the mod on Steam. Steam will automatically download the mod, which can be enabled or disabled from the 'Additional Content' menu.
Mods that aren't on Workshop can be installed by creating a folder called ‘Mods’ in your Civilization 6 user directory: \Documents\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization VI.
Extract mods to your new Mods folder (with each mod in its own subfolder) and then enable them from the ‘Additional Content’ menu in-game. Some mods may have extra steps, which I’ll describe in their individual entries.
If you want to make changes to Civ 6’s files yourself, the simplest way is to make direct changes to the files in Civilization 6’s install directory (after backing up the originals, of course). First, find Civ 6’s install folder. If you don't know where it is, you can right-click on the game in your Steam library and select Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files. The default install location is Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier’s Civilization 6. Identify the file you want to mess with, save a copy, and go for it—just don’t forget what you’ve changed.
One common criticism of Civ 6 is that it’s a bit too bright and cartoonish, as compared to the more realistic look of previous games in the series. This mod, released by a Firaxis dev, strikes a really nice balance between this Civ’s visual style and that of its immediate predecessor. The saturation has been turned down and almost every basic tile type and decal has been altered in some way. It even adds new, more naturalistic models for ground clutter like trees. Pair this with something like the R.E.D. Modpack (above) to get rid of the Clash of Clans-looking armies and you’re in for a much more immersive, less board game-y feel.
Gathering Storm added labels for major geographic features on the map, which was a really cool touch. But if you play a lot, you’ve probably seen the same ones over and over. Mappa Mundi can basically eliminate that problem forever, adding over 15,000 new names of real world rivers, deserts, mountains, and more. It’s also seamlessly compatible with a lot of the most popular mods that add new civs to the game, so your Taino or Icelandic empire can put their own linguistic stamp on the map.
Gedemon brings us a Civ 6 version of one of our favorite Civ 5 mods. The R.E.D. Modpack rescales units to make them a little more like miniatures, a little less like cartoon giants stomping over the hills. Check out the mod's collection for versions that are compatible with all of Civ 6's expansions.
Graphics mods can make certain things look more realistic, but if you want the world layout itself to feel a bit less game-y, this is the mod for you. In addition to adding more coastal detail to replicate all those little coves, bays, and fjords we expect to see on a globe, it also makes the placement and size of deserts, rainforests, and marshes much more true-to-life. And if you’re all about that Nile Valley life, it improves food placement along rivers running through desert tiles as well. It comes with seven different map scripts, including Continents, Pangea, and Islands.
Yet Not Another Map Pack is another map pack from well-known modder and bundler Gedemon. YNAMP for Civilization 6 includes Earth-shaped maps with the correct start locations for each culture. If you’re tired of playing a landlocked Norway, this is your chance to create a proper Viking empire. The pack also adds new, bigger map sizes (one of which is so big it might take five or so minutes to load).
When starting a game, you’ll have new map types and size options available. Head to the post on Civfanatics for more information on how to use YNAMP, as well as known bugs and issues.
The highest disaster intensity in vanilla Civ 6 is called "Hyperreal." If that’s just not enough for you though, this mod let’s you crank it up to basically Just Plain Ridiculous. The description states that some kind of disaster will happen somewhere on the map just about every turn, and the severe versions are made more common. There is no longer any such thing as a dormant volcano. And in the late game, the number of coastal lowland tiles that can flood from climate change has been increased from the vanilla 33% all the way up to 75%. Mother Nature is coming for you and this time she’s not gonna play nice.
To Hell With The Devil: Religious units fight Rock Bands
This mod is so great we wrote an entire article about it. The premise is pretty simple: Rock Bands, Civ 6’s new, late game "culture nukes," can now engage in theological combat with religious units. For the pious, you can send apostles to keep these long-haired hooligans from corrupting the hearts and minds of your people. For the sacreligious, you can cast down the sanctimonious clerics of the Demiurge and make sure all the world gets to hear your tasty riffs and the good word of our Lord, Satan. This mod is so much fun that I have a hard time playing late game Civ 6 without it.
The struggle of having to tell Victoria you’re not interested in her weird trade proposals constantly is real. This mod forces the AI to give it a rest once in a while, whether it’s pestering you for your gems or begging for their lives in a war. The AI cooldown for trade offers is increased from 10 turns to 50, peace offers in war from 3 turns to 10, and offers of friendship from 5 turns to 30. Maybe now you can finally enjoy some peace and quiet while you plot their ultimate demise.
Adjust starting units, techs, and more
Unfortunately, starting with this many units and no treasury to support them doesn't quite work out.
While I was messing with Civ 6 to try to play a game without ever founding a city, I found that all the player and AI starting conditions are stored in a file called Eras.xml. You ll find it in the Civ 6 install directory, under \Base\Assets\Gameplay\Data.
Using what s there as an example, it s not hard to copy and paste to add starting units, or limit the AI s unit bonuses on harder difficulties. Just make sure you backup Eras.xml before you start tinkering in case you want to revert to the defaults.
The 'Repeat Route' checkbox alone makes Better Trade Screen worth it, but it brings lots of improvements, such as new sorting options to the Trade Overview screen. It's one of those quality of life improvement UI mods we'll keep checked forever.
One of the most poorly-explained mechanics in Civ 6 is the fact that certain districts, like Industrial Zones, grant their benefits to all city-centers within six tiles. (I’ll pause for the gasps of everyone who has played hundreds of hours and still didn’t know that.) What makes it even more annoying is that there isn’t an easy way to figure out which cities are close enough—you have to count out tiles individually while bouncing your cursor along. At least, there wasn’t an easy way until now. This mod adds a tool that makes it very easy to quickly display the range of these effects so you never waste land on a redundant district again.
If you love data visualization and miss the demographic graphs from previous Civs, you’re in luck. CIVIGraphs 2 adds a Civ 5-style demographics panel that lets you see info on things like army size and population for you and all of your rivals over time. Simple, lightweight, but very useful. TPS Report cover sheet not included.
Rise and Fall brought us the concepts of Era Score, Golden Ages, and Dark Ages. But there was one glaring problem: You’re never really told what actions will give you Era Score. So until you memorize all of the mini-achievements that do so, it’s a lot of guesswork and hoping. It can be even harder to keep track of which world firsts are still available. But no more! This mod adds an objective list of ways to earn Era Score, and even lets you know which moments are no longer available once they’ve been claimed by another civ. This makes it much easier to stack up those Golden Ages and let the good times roll.
Australia finally got some representation in Civ 6 after long being the only populated continent to never appear in the series, but they’re represented by the British colonizers that came along pretty recently. This mod adds an Aboriginal Australian civilization, the Anangu, under Tjilpi with two unique units, a unique tile improvement, and bonuses to setting up specialty districts in arid regions akin to their Outback home. They also benefit greatly from finding and building near natural wonders. If you own the Australia DLC, which the mod creator recommends, they will use Australia’s music tracks for added thematics.
Vlad the Impaler leads Romania in this appropriately bloody addition, and he’s all about causing chaos for his enemies. His unique unit is basically a crossbowman with the movement speed of a cavalry unit, which is already pretty crazy. But even more interesting is his unique ability that damages enemy units adjacent to a tile that’s being pillaged and sends out a wave of disloyalty to nearby cities when he captures a city, which can result in a chain revolt if you use it in the right place at the right time. You’ll need to download the Romania civ separately, which gives even more unique bonuses like a free technology for being on the winning side of an Emergency.
"A Song of Ice and Fire:" Rise and Fall of Usurper
This mod adds NINE(!) new civs based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the basis of the television show Game of Thrones. These include Rhaegar Targaryen of the Crownlands, Eddard Stark of the North, Tywin Lannister of the Westerlands, Robert Baratheon of the Stormlands, Mace Tyrell of the Reach, Jon Arryn of the Vale, Hoster Tully of the Riverlands, Doran Martell of Dorne and Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands. Each have unique units and bonuses appropriate to the lore. And yes, of course, you can train dragons.
This is one of the most involved mods I’ve ever seen. It basically takes Civ 6’s gameplay and zooms way in on the Ancient and Classical eras "from the Dawn of Time to the fall of Rome," keeping the same game pace and roughly the same number of civics and technologies to unlock. This sharper focus allows Anno Domini to model things that would normally be outside the scope of a Civ game, including new Historical Moments and new government types.
Sounds cool already, but who can you play as, you might ask? Well, these beautiful, crazy bastards have gone way above and beyond to bring us THIRTY distinct leaders (some being alternates for the same civ), including Ashurbanipal of Assyria, Sargon of Akkad, Hannibal of Carthage, Hatshepsut of Egypt, Arminius of Germania, Boudica of the Iceni, Zenobia of Palmyra, Leonidas of Sparta, Helen and Hector of Troy, four new Roman emperors, and reworked versions of some vanilla favorites like Pericles, Qin Shi Huang, and Chandragupta.
Civilization 6 is the ultimate digital board game. More than ever in the series, the board the world is the soul of every opportunity and challenge. As usual for Civ, I build empires, compete for a set of victory conditions, and fend off warmongering leaders like that scoundrel Peter the Great. But I m also playing for, with, and against the board. Forests and deserts and resource-rich tundras each influence the flow of my civilization, granting us boons and burdening us with lasting weaknesses. Bands of barbarians put my farms in crisis, but also open up opportunities to speed the development of my military techs. The glorious, challenging dynamics that emerge from Civ 6 s redesigned maps left me with no question that the storied series has crowned a new king.
The storied series has crowned a new king.
While Civ 6 is probably the most transformative step forward for the series, its changes shouldn t trip up longtime players too much. There s definitely a learning curve to overcome, but much of what you need to be to be victorious isn t necessary when you start exploring. You still settle cities, develop tiles, train military units, wage turn-based warfare, and conduct diplomacy. It mirrored my memories of past Civs closely enough that hints from the in-game adviser were all I needed to course-correct when something I hadn t seen before came my way.
But there are so many of these new features that it could feel overwhelming at times. The depth and variety of systems resembles a Civ game that s already had two or three expansions added on top from the new Districts that perform specific tasks and spread my cities out into an often messy but somehow pleasing sprawl, to a whole separate 'tech' tree for civic and cultural progress that ties into a sort of collectible card game for mixing policy bonuses to build a unique government. The feature richness averts the common problem with strategy games on day one where I feel I m being sold a platform on which a great game will eventually be built. But I also worry that Firaxis may have sailed a bit beyond the calm waters of accessibility for more casual strategy fans, and any expansions that add major features or new systems could heighten the barrier to newcomers.
Hexistential realities
What binds everything together, though, is the map. I have reservations about the art style I preferred the pseudo-realism of Civ 5, and some of the Civ 6 military units in particular look goofy enough to have fallen out of a freemium mobile game. But the map itself, and its cities, iron mines, and festival squares, is more alive than ever. I was delighted, for example, to discover that I really never needed to pull up an overlay to see which tiles were being worked, because the models and animations do that job for me at a glance.
Unworked fields lie barren, and I could tell how many citizen slots in my commercial district were taken up by the level of bustle occupying its streets. It s a pretty brilliant way of keeping you engrossed and focused on what matters. The tech trees and the leader interaction screen are the only parts of the UI that hide my soaring cities from my view. The latter of the two involves fully animated, 3D representations of everyone from Montezuma to that jerk Peter the Great who thinks his mustache and his science bonus from tundra tiles are so cool, even though they re not and I ve had bombers in range of his second largest city since the Atomic Age, ready to wipe that stupid grin off his face. They re all very well voice-acted, with the return of native language dialogue from Civ 5.
Spending a lot of time staring at hills, valleys, and potential pyramid locations isn t just enjoyable and informative, however. It s critical to getting the most out of the game. Terrain and tile types have always been a factor in Civ, but they re at the heart of nearly everything in Civ 6. With districts and wonders each taking up a whole tile, and being the most powerful tools I had to catapult myself toward victory, city planning became a huge focus of my every move. When I unlocked the ability to build a Holy Site, I had to ask myself if I wanted to nestle it in the middle of all those forested hills to gain bonus faith from the adjacent, natural splendor. If I did, I d miss out on the chance to clear out all the trees later on, plop down an industrial district surrounded with mines, and enjoy a huge boost to my production.
If you build it… (it might be wrong)
There was never a time that I felt I could fill every tile around me with the most obviously correct district or improvement and call it a day. The need for foresight is unending. There are always sacrifices to make, like when I fell behind in culture because my only eligible tile for a theater square was the one I d been saving to build a rocket launch site to clench a science victory. It s a fantastic, richly realized way of forcing difficult decisions at every bend in the river and making sure no two cities you build will ever look or feel the same. It feels like a revelation for someone who s been playing 4X games since before I could see over a car dashboard. The constant planning and trade-offs seem like how this series was always supposed to work, and they inject a layer of variety that made the pull of Just one more turn even stronger than ever.
There s a level of trial and error in this that caused me some legitimate frustration in my first few races to the space age. When everything is fresh and new, you might not realize that you re plopping down a university campus in a place you should have waited to build a neighborhood several centuries later. One late game civic (the cultural equivalent of a tech) unlocks the ability to build National Parks, granting a massive boost to culture but unless you ve been planning where it s going to go from 4000 BC, chances are you ve already destroyed all of the pristine nature required to set one up.
I longed for some kind of city planning utility, where I could mock up where everything was going to go once I d unlocked all the districts and improvements, especially considering some of them get adjacency bonuses for being next to each other as opposed to specific terrain features. If you like to play efficiently, just be aware that you re going to be slapping yourself that you dumped out such a haphazard monument to mediocrity until you have a few campaigns under your belt and understand where to leave or create an ideal space for something important and have the patience to do so.
Worlds of inspiration
The other way the map has become a much more important part of Civ 6 is in how it ties into the tech and civics tree. Every technology and civic has an associated mini objective that will trigger a Eureka moment and pay off half the cost immediately. Founding a city next to an ocean tile sped up my progress toward Sailing. Building three industrial districts with factories jumped me ahead in my quest to embrace communism (Viva la Economic Policy Slots!) These are often tied to having room for specific districts, access to specific resources, or contact with other civilizations. Where I spawned on each map had a significant effect on which techs I could get quickly, and thus which ones I tended to go for first. It also really helps alleviate the feeling of spending several turns waiting for a building or a unit to finish, since I could always be pursuing a Eureka objective for a tech I had my eye on.
It s not all a reinvented wheel, though. The Civ staples of war and diplomacy have returned recognizable, but honed to the sharpest edge we ve ever seen on them. I particularly enjoyed the way AI leaders are now given agendas (one public, and one that must be uncovered through espionage, building a positive relationship, or observing context) that overtly tell you what they like and don t like, and make it theoretically possible to stay on everyone s good side through the whole game if you re willing to jump through a lot of hoops. Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, for instance, wants to kill all city states and hates anyone who so much as lets them borrow a cup of sugar. If you re going for a very pacifist run, you can let that agenda guide your gameplay (ignoring city-states and the benefits courting them can provide), and chances are you won t have pretzel-scented warriors knocking down your door.
In the event that hostilities do break out, Civ 6 has split the difference between 5 s one unit per tile and 4 s Clash of the Doomstacks to reach a happy middle. Support units like medics and Great Generals can attach to and occupy the same tile as a regular combat unit like a pikeman. In the mid and late game, you also gain the ability to combine two combat units into a Corps, and later you can add a third to make an Army, which is are more powerful versions of that unit that only take up a single tile. This adds some new layers and tactics to a model of warfare that could get predictable and repetitive in Civ 5.
Civ's score breathes life into all these conflicts and conferences. Christopher Tin s new main theme, 'Sogno di Volare,' is just as sweeping, catchy, and beautiful as 'Baba Yetu.' I predict it will join his previous Civ effort in the pantheon of the greatest pieces of music written for a videogame, though I suspect it won t spawn as many memes if only because it s more difficult to imitate its soaring, Italian cathedral choir chorus without sounding like an asthmatic screech owl. The real magic happens past the menu screen, however, where each and every civ has a main theme that grows more complex and epic as you progress through the ages. England, for example, begins with a simple, inspirational, and somewhat haunting flute rendition of the medieval folk ballad Scarborough Fair. By the Modern Age, it has exploded into an orchestral and choral celebration of all things English that made me want to sail a ship of the line made of crumpets through the walls of a Spanish fort and unleash the redcoats to toss scalding tea into the faces of their enemies.
When I looked down upon everything I d built as my Mars colonists blasted off to barely snatch victory away from Peter and his doubtlessly mustachioed cronies, every tile struck me with a sense of history. The sprawl of the Dehli-Calcutta metroplex reflected moments from the windows of its skyscrapers. There was the little tentacle I d made by purchasing tiles to get access to coal. There was the 3000-year old farmland I d had to bulldoze to place an industrial-era wonder. And just beside where our first settler had spawned, at the foot of the soaring peaks that had protected us from marauding armies for generations, was the new growth forest I d planted on the site of a former lumber mill to have enough uninterrupted nature for a National Park. For each valley and steppe and oasis, I could tell you why I d developed it the way I did much more meaningfully than Because hills are a good place for mines. As the board shaped my empire, and I shaped it, the history of my civilization and my decisions accumulated and followed me right up to the threshold of the stars. And that, more than anything, is why I ll never need another Civ game in my life besides this one.
