Civ VI

What I should have been doing over the weekend: probably Yuletide stuff

What I mostly did over the weekend: dust off Civilization VI.

I'm mostly familiar with version III of the video game, although I've played a couple others briefly. Civ is super alluring because it promises a world with many paths to victory--science! culture! diplomacy! religion--and then just when I'm trying to develop my pacifist utopia, the AI decide to invade me. :( Maybe I need to be better at bribing them, but that also feels a bit dishonorable. NationStates is more my speed.

But anyway, it was a freebie recently, and I picked it up (and then went back to Crying Suns and some other stuff). Finally I finished a normal game, without getting annihilated, although without doing well either. So I've been trying the "scenarios" that come with the game, they're shorter-scale and usually focus on just one or two major mechanics/resources, so it's easier to keep track of what's going on. Still doesn't mean I'm any good, mind you, but it's a thing.

So far, with one playthrough of each (and this is on difficulty level 2/8, where 4 is "normal"):

• Alexander the Great: trying to conquer all the Persian cities in a relatively short time. Difficult. I think in order to produce enough units to storm the board, I'm going to have to keep the cities I conquer. Which in some game modes is dangerous, because you're occupying a city full of angry defeated enemies, that might not be good for morale--maybe it's better to settle your own cities to take advantage of the area. (The "achievement unlocked" for this game was "settle four cities, and name them all after yourself."
• Gift of the Nile: play as either Egypt or Nubia trying to develop culture and religion while dealing with waves of invaders from the northeast. I was Nubia and started more in the desert, which is good for avoiding said invaders. The win condition is to have temples in seven cities. But you can't build settler units in this version, only unlock them through scientific/cultural accomplishments. So you have to conquer at least one other city, either an independent city-state, something that's already been conquered by the invaders, or the rival civ, to even have a chance. Again, this game is a bit warmongery. I came very, very close to winning within the time limit, despite this, and I think I'd have a better strategy next time. Also, as someone who doesn't know a great deal about classical world history, this gives you a nice summary/timeline of events. "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold" okay, that's all I know about Assyria.
• Jadwiga's Legacy: different factions in Eastern Europe trying to hold off waves of "barbarians." Usually barbarians are just "violent outsiders;" in Civ VI, they've gotten smart enough to "send a scout looking for cities, if it makes it back alive, then send waves of armed forces at that city." In this scenario the barbarians have their own identities--there are Swedes in the north and Ottomans in the west, etc.
• Outback Tycoon: different states racing to colonize Australia and make lots of profit thereby. No warfare, just economic competition. And the random chance that you lose a unit to the dangers of the Outback. (There's an achievement for this, too: "Attack of the Drop Bears.") Also, they have a slow, moody, instrumental version of "Waltzing Matilda" in the soundtrack. Very fun. Didn't win, didn't get a good look at my opponents' scores, we'll see how close I come next time.
• Path to Nirvana: East Asian cultures trying to proselytize/spread their religions to others. Again, no direct warfare, but there's a new "religious conflict" mechanic for this game that has units that can preach and fight with others. I was the Tufan people, who practice Vajrayana Buddhism and live up in the Himalayas. Apparently the Himalayas are treacherous enough that no one other than the Tufans wants to cross them, which made things relatively easy for me. So that was my first win!
• Black Death: European countries trying to survive the Black Death. I was Alfonso of Castile and won by going hardcore atheist, down with the church, up with science. So...that probably says something. (Sadly, there is no "Dramatic Irony" achievement for losing a plague doctor unit to the plague.)
• Vikings, Traders, and Raiders: different Norse cultures trying to pillage and plunder their neighbors. You gain the Faith resource by pillaging holy sites in other countries (???) and then can spend that on religious buildings at home, representing the conversion from the Norse pantheon to Christianity (???) I'm not sure how this works thematically, but okay. Also, once you earn a Great Admiral, you send him (or her) west in search of Vinland where they can retire to earn points. You don't start with the ability to build settlers, but you can unlock it. The question I had, playing as Denmark, is "where are they gonna go"--the map is already pretty full of city-states. (I stayed to the north so I never made it far enough inland to pillage the Andalusians or the Byzantines.) Turns out that Greenland and Iceland also exist, and Ireland is not occupied yet, so if nobody sinks you along the way you can send settlers there. (My aunt, who's into genealogy, suspects that our Irish last name may be derived from a Viking battle-cry--if so, art imitates life ;) )

Anyway. I will probably waste lots more time on both scenarios and "normal" games in the midst of all my other projects. But felt like bragging/rambling.