Civilization 6: Time Vampire

Sid Meier's Civilization 6 will suck the time out of you. If you have played any previous games in the franchise you already know this is going to happen. The latest installment is pretty damn good. It's not without it's flaws, but anyone who remembers playing  Civ 5 on initial release will discover a game that is good to play straight out of the box without needing 2 expansion packs to make it a good game.

Welcome to the German capital, an industrial powerhouse.

I will admit, I have struggled in Civ 6 thus far. My strategies are so fixed in Civ 5, having put over 2400 hours in it over that past 6 years, that they just don't work as well in 6. That's my problem, not the game itself since I early on I would ignore the advisers which really do help. I did somehow win a culture victory as the Kongo early on, since I was ignoring the scoreboard and just played. Yay me.


The game is utterly beautiful. I have seen complaints about the graphics being too cartoony, but that is not a big issue for me. I'm not looking for a realistic. This is a fantasy look at world history and the "cartoony" look is perfect for it. I mean when did the ancient Greeks ever go to war with Teddy Roosevelt's America? Fantasy.

Teddy is not happy with me.

The leader animations are great also. My personal favourite is Queen Victoria's nonchalant smile and shrug when you agree to a deal with her. Everyone's personality shines through, and they all have their own agendas. For example, Mvemba a Nzinga of the Kongo will get angry at you if you don't spread your religion to them. Sometimes these agendas can get confusing when leaders will denounce you for seemingly nothing. And with now a selection of 9 differing government ideologies, friends can turn to enemies in a single turn.

The world is mine and I will take it by force.

I like how culture points now go towards it's own civics tree, like science goes towards it's science tree. Earning civics rewards you with cards that can be used to fill out your government tree imparting differing bonuses. It means that in a game that 2 democracies can have differing civics imparting different bonuses. It's a much improved government system from Civ 5's culture policy trees.

Okay and now for the downers. There are a few bugs and AI issues. The AI, well, is kinda bad. Late game I am often using my Infantry to dominate warriors and archers. Whether that civ hasn't had the money or materials to upgrade their units or something else, I don't know.
Also, the AI is supremely good at getting their religions up early. If you want a religion you're gonna have to go for it right away, otherwise you'll more than likely miss out. And since one of the victory conditions is a religious victory, not having a religion means you can't go for it or deny other civs from that victory type.

I have also noticed a few UI bugs. There is a bug that will tell me that a unit needs orders but not centre on the unit I need to give orders to, meaning I have to go through my unit list to find the one that needs the orders. It's happened a few times and can halt the flow of the game. Also, not being able to see what bonuses the wonders impart once they are placed by just putting the mouse over, meaning I have to go to the civilopedia to recheck what it is doing for my city. And the final bug that I have particular issue with is that the game will often switch which unit I am trying to control by whizzing me across the map. It means that sometimes I will accidentally move a unit across the continent rather than attacking the unit right next to them. It's frustrating but I'm sure these things can be patched in the future.

If this is anything like Civilization 5, I am going to be playing this a lot. I am not a good civ player, it's just my go-to game. I am not the one to look to for overpowering strategies to win a single city science victory, I am the guy who just enjoys the experience.

And I love Sean Bean.