Wow. Actually saw a television commercial for Civ 7 today.

Sepharo wrote on Feb 11, 2025, 04:01:

Bludd wrote on Feb 11, 2025, 03:31:
i love army/navy commanders, you can pack in your combat units into this commander and move as one towards the front and then unpack and attack and the commander also is the one gaining xp and leveling up so no longer do you have to babysit a certain high-level unit, and the commander cannot "die" if he gets defeated in combat he goes away for x turns and then comes back)

That sounds really good actually.
Babysitting the high-level unit was annoying. And letting your general package up the units sounds like a good compromise between stacks of doom and armys so large that they take forever to maneuver the limited spaces on the board. Also feels like it reflects history better too in a way.

yes and you can get really good upgrades for your commander, like ignoring rough terrain so you can move faster across the map or initiative which lets your unpacked units move and attack the same turn they are unpacked. you can have the commander direct focus fire where all ranged units inside the commanders influence (standard 1 hex radius) all shoot at the same target if they can with a bonus to combat strength or coordinated attack where it is the same for infantry/cavalry. the way combat also works is that when you engage a melee unit with another they face each other and the combat animations persist so now flanking is actually attacking someone engaged in melee from another side and getting a combat strength bonus from that

its really good how they have done it

also there is a little bonus where you can actually stack of doom a sole weak unit if your packed commander meets that unit, you get an overrun ability where you can attack without unpacking. of course does not work on city districts

Bludd wrote on Feb 11, 2025, 03:31:
i love army/navy commanders, you can pack in your combat units into this commander and move as one towards the front and then unpack and attack and the commander also is the one gaining xp and leveling up so no longer do you have to babysit a certain high-level unit, and the commander cannot "die" if he gets defeated in combat he goes away for x turns and then comes back)

That sounds really good actually.
Babysitting the high-level unit was annoying. And letting your general package up the units sounds like a good compromise between stacks of doom and armys so large that they take forever to maneuver the limited spaces on the board. Also feels like it reflects history better too in a way.

having a lot of fun with civ 7, there are a lot of fantastic mechanics and changes that were annoying in 6 but gone in 7 (no builders to micro manage, no huge decisions about plopping down a campus in the "wrong" spot and having anxiety that crippled you in 6 because you felt you made a non-optimal choice)

i love army/navy commanders, you can pack in your combat units into this commander and move as one towards the front and then unpack and attack and the commander also is the one gaining xp and leveling up so no longer do you have to babysit a certain high-level unit, and the commander cannot "die" if he gets defeated in combat he goes away for x turns and then comes back)

i love not having a certain resource (like iron or horses in 6) do not prevent you from constructing a certain unit that would in older games require that resource, instead it makes it so that having these resources buff a unit type, 1 iron gives +1 to combat strength (stacks!) for infantry in antiquity and horses give +1 to combat strength for cavalry

choices are all good and thats a good sign of a great design, you want everything when you get a choice and most things are viable

you dont really notice what civ the other leaders are, you just concentrate on having to face Augustus or Machiavelli or Xerxes or Hatshepsut throughout the ages

there are UI issues for sure, there are certain information that i would love to have and i hope firaxis will soon get the UI ship shape

still an aging 4 player here (modded and total conversion). i skipped 5 and didnt really get on with 6. I cant see me bother with 7 until mega discount.

Not a fan of the single city powerhouses and lack of army options. My most fun 4 games were enormous earth maps.

RogueSix wrote on Feb 11, 2025, 01:18:
I'm sure I will revisit VI one day and give it another shot but as it stands, I could only endure it for ~30-ish hours while I have a lot more hours in V (nothing crazy as I'm not a huuuge Civ fan but substantially more for sure).

My playtimes basically match yours.
I only did one game in Civ 6, but I always put it on longest and then micromanage everything... so it's just been the one game so far.
I dunno if I'll play again, but if I get the urge to do so... Yeah I'd probably load up 5.

Sepharo wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 22:43:

RogueSix wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 22:00:
Yes, the base game. That is their very business model: The actual meat will be in the DLCs. The cheap base game is simply bait.

They did that with 5, not with 6.
6 had all the features of 5 at ship time.
The expansions added extra junk but nothing essential/expected like was done with 5.

Civ5 expansions:
-Religion (Religious victory), Spies
-World Congress (Diplomatic victory), Great Works (Cultural victory), Trade Routes

Civ6 expansions:
-Golden/Dark ages
-Natural disasters

There wasn't really any meat in the Civ6 expansions... unlike Civ5 where you had to get those to really complete the traditional/expected game.

Thanks for the clarification. To be honest, I bought the Civ VI Anthology on sale (after having played at least two free weekends) and just kinda assumed that they did it the same way as with Civ V . For the record, I liked Civ V a lot more than VI. The cartoony style of VI wasn't really my cup of tea and the game just left a poor first impression with the overdone barbarian harassment (barbies need to dial waaaaay back on the amphetamines) and many other questionable design decisions like the annoying World Congress... yes, I know you can turn it off but still... meh.

I'm sure I will revisit VI one day and give it another shot but as it stands, I could only endure it for ~30-ish hours while I have a lot more hours in V (nothing crazy as I'm not a huuuge Civ fan but substantially more for sure).

Haven't been a fan of the Civ games since learning that the computer opponents cheat in so many ways in an attempt to provide a challenge. They start with different units. They ignore rules that the player must adhere to. They've been doing this since 2007 or earlier. That's not very entertaining. Should we expect it to be any different now that there is a "VII" on the "box?"

jdreyer wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 23:04:

Rhialto wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 22:32:
Not something I would look for but I got it for free so eventually I'll take a look. Never played any Civilization before.

How'd you get it for free? New card?

no CPU and Assassin Creed also included when it launches.

Rhialto wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 22:32:
Not something I would look for but I got it for free so eventually I'll take a look. Never played any Civilization before.

How'd you get it for free? New card?

RogueSix wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 22:00:
Yes, the base game. That is their very business model: The actual meat will be in the DLCs. The cheap base game is simply bait.

They did that with 5, not with 6.
6 had all the features of 5 at ship time.
The expansions added extra junk but nothing essential/expected like was done with 5.

Civ5 expansions:
-Religion (Religious victory), Spies
-World Congress (Diplomatic victory), Great Works (Cultural victory), Trade Routes

Civ6 expansions:
-Golden/Dark ages
-Natural disasters

There wasn't really any meat in the Civ6 expansions... unlike Civ5 where you had to get those to really complete the traditional/expected game.

Not something I would look for but I got it for free so eventually I'll take a look. Never played any Civilization before.

For anyone who did buy the game, here is a good tip about Cities and Towns. Seems many are making this mistake and its causing a lot of issues for them while playing.

Key Tips:
1. Stop turning all your Towns into Cities.
2. Specialize your Towns.
3. Focus on keeping your Cities hubs of culture and science.
4. Your first city is supposed to be inefficient, and the game expects it to be.

jacobvandy wrote on Feb 10, 2025, 20:41:
The last one went 50% off in a year... I'm guessing this one will be 75% off by Black Friday.

Yes, the base game. That is their very business model: The actual meat will be in the DLCs. The cheap base game is simply bait.

They will probably also have free weekends relatively soon as they did with Civ VI. Same bait principle.

Take Two are top tier milking pros.

The last one went 50% off in a year... I'm guessing this one will be 75% off by Black Friday.