Civilization 6: Gathering Storm adds a new civ that's got a pretty powerful starting advantage: it begins the game at sea.

This starting ability makes sense for the Maori. According to Maori legend, Kupe was a navigator who set sail from his home of Hawaiki sometime in the 10th century and discovered the then-unknown land of New Zealand. Upon returning home, he convinced others to migrate with him to this new land. Sailing, then, was in his blood.

Inspired by the tale of Kupe's discovery of New Zealand, Firaxis created the unique leader ability Kupe's Voyage, which means the civ's starting units begin the game at sea. Not only that, they receive science and culture each turn prior to settling their first city. Once settled, the Maori receive a free builder and extra population in the capital, and the palace receives additional housing and amenities.

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Civilization 6's next expansion, Gathering Storm introduces global warming as its central mechanic, asking players to weigh up the impact their actions have upon the planet. Burning coal or oil may be easier and cheaper than relying on renewable energy, but you'll risk increasing the global temperature through your actions and losing favour amongst the international community.

We asked Firaxis about the responsibility that comes with developing a game about climate change in 2018 and you can read what its developers had to say here.

But we also dug into some of the more granular details of how this expansion works and what to expect when it releases on PC on 14th February, 2019.

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The United Nations published a report last month that warned without drastic reforestation efforts and reductions in carbon pollution by 2030, our planet will soon be facing an irreversible global catastrophe.

And yet, about 300 miles away from where I sit writing this, a company has just restarted gas fracking for the first time since it was banned in the United Kingdom in 2011. Incredibly, this fracking began exactly one week after the UN report made headlines across the globe.

Elsewhere we can see Brazil's next president looking to open up the Amazon rainforest to further deforestation; Norway proposing record-breaking oil and gas exploration in the Arctic; and as the United States recovers from Hurricane Florence and historic wildfires in California, the country looks to a president who's previously claimed that global warming was invented by the Chinese to fool the American manufacturing industry.

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