I first got into the 4X genre of video games a few years ago with Sid Meier’s Civilization V. I played a ton of that game and experimented with various playstyles to achieve different types of victories. Since then, I waited for Civilization VI to come out with several DLC and discounts before finally picking it up for myself. Civ is a game that I like to play in the winter to relax and stay cozy, and I’ve been playing Civ VI during the winter for the past two years. However, as the title of this post indicates, I have yet to actually finish the game.

Where’s the Fun?

This isn’t due to difficulty or anything like that. I usually just play on the default difficulty, which is notably easy once you understand how the mechanics of the game work. The fact that I can’t finish a game has more to do with how I find the early game far more engaging than the end game. You can certainly disagree with me on this viewpoint. I’ve watched a few streamers show some interesting late-game upsets and events that have motivated me to take it further than the Medieval age. Nevertheless, I can’t help but get the desire to start a new game with a different leader and try out the early eras of that civilization.

I’m not sure entirely why it is the early game calls to me. I think I enjoy the process of exploration the most. I also like the feeling of building things early and getting my civilization going. By the time I’ve gotten to the later ages, the momentum of the game slows down. With the various patches and DLC that have been released for Civ VI, the developers have added a lot of different things to keep the game active and interesting into the late game. This includes the use of governors, natural disasters, diplomatic conventions, etc. Since I’ve engaged with these mechanics more in recent weeks, I’ve certainly gotten further than ever before. Yet, I still feel the desire to just start over by the time I’m creating musketmen.

I had a similar issue when playing Civ V, but I also still managed to push through to the end of the game, even at higher degrees of difficulty. I even managed to achieve victory in almost all the different forms that Civ V provided. It’s odd that a game that has (arguably) older and slower mechanics would manage to keep me interested for longer. There are various mechanics about Civ VI that I like a great deal more than its predecessor. I think that military combat is better, overall. I think the diplomacy mechanics are a little more fleshed out than before. I think the interaction with city-states is simpler, but less of a matter of your economy and more balanced as a result. If I were to narrow down the reason as to why I might have trouble finishing a game, I think I can point to a particular mechanic.

Districts

The primary difference in mechanics between V and VI that has a profound effect on how I’ve played the game has to do with the District mechanic. A significant portion of the strategy of the game is tied to establishing your cities in optimal locations for resources and growth. Perhaps the most important thing to do in order to maximize your cities’ efficiency is to properly plan out how all your districts will sit within the city. Districts are your primary method of acquiring more of a specific resource over the course of an entire game and are paramount to your success in Civ VI. Part of the reason they’re so important is because districts get different types of bonuses to their yields based on what buildings or resources they border, including other districts. This means that once you have the ability to settle other cities, you need to start figuring out how the districts of one city might line up with that of another. It’s fun to place down pins and map out your civilization like a city planner. You have to take into account all sorts of factors like distance from one city to the other, optimal bonus yield arrangements, the types of resources you want a city to focus on, etc.

The problem this creates for me as a player is that I get caught up planning it all out, placing down my districts, but then never seeing them come to fruition. This might be due to the amount of time it takes for them to build. It could also be due to the fact that by the time I’m able to really start going crazy with the city and district placements, the world has become less intriguing or the interactions with other civilizations on the map interfere with the planning. I don’t mean to frame it in a bad light, simply that a vast majority of my enjoyment in Civ VI comes from the early exploration and the city planning, which takes a much lower priority the longer the game goes on.

Pushing Through

I am determined to see a game through to its end. When I first played Civilization V, I was able to quickly latch on to a few specific world leaders due to their playstyle and built-in strategies. There were some that I immediately understood and had a desire to take to the game’s natural conclusion. So far, I haven’t quite found a civilization in Civ VI that I really want to take all the way to the modern age. If any Civ VI players manage to find this post of mine, please provide any suggestions as to what might keep me invested beyond the early game. I’m curious if there are any that can truly awaken my unconscious mind and show me the truth of late-game Civilization VI strategy that will lead me to the nirvana of completion.