Civilization VI: Platinum Edition (kindly given to me by Pattybean
)
I bought the vanilla game on launch after loving V but I didn't end up putting as much time into VI as I imagined. I played it a bit at launch and sporadically over the years until last year when I started a new single player game and actually finished it. I lost as I was getting to grips with the new expansions (Gathering Storm, and Rise and Fall). I also didn't really plan a path to victory early enough so when I finally tried for one (Diplomatic) I was beaten by a computer player after the other civilizations blocked the World Congress vote that I needed for my last 2 Diplomatic Points.
I began a new game as Cleopatra earlier this year and was gearing towards a Science or Diplomatic victory. I played on Prince difficulty with 7 computer players on the land masses and islands map. I started inland so couldn't really sail very early on but managed to expand to 4 cities soon enough while holding my own against the barbarians.
The Ottomans were on my border so I worked to expand before they did. They weren't happy with this but I was happy with my settlements by the time they asked me to promise not to settle more cities next them. Eventually I settled a couple of new cities in a different continent which turned out to be the same land mass and between the Ottomans and Canada. I ended up with an alliance with Canada for the rest of the game even after I captured one of their cities when pressure from my empire caused it to revolt and I attacked it to capture it
I also tried to develop my science production and diplomatic favour and win events that would give diplomatic points throughout the game to put myself in the best position to win. I wasn't able to found a religion as the other civilizations had founded them all before I could recruit a Great Prophet.
The game ended when I picked up my last 2 victory points in a World Congress competition to reduce CO2 emissions. Luckily, I discovered Carbon Reduction during this which helped me win as I had initially given up on the on the points at stake as I wanted to keep my oil power plants to help production for the space race. My shuttle was less than 20 light years away from victory when I won the Diplomatic Victory so it was very much in the bag
I'll go back to Metroid Dread and some other games for now but will try a few more games of Civ 6 until Civ 7 comes out as well as some expansions. Civ 6 really brings the series forward from Civ 5 as the weather effects and global warming add a new layer of thinking to the game and the city layout makes you think about what you can do with the space you have. Long term, I think that it will still suffer from an AI that isn't as good as a human opponent but it's still a very enjoyable game.