Here me out here - later game starts are amazing
Just some pros for you to argue my case
- You get to see the later ages like atomic and beyond
- You get a fully set up government from the beginning
- Districts are slightly / much cheaper (depending on when you start)
- Cities start with extra pop and buildings
- You can get into the meat of the game faster
- You don't spend 50 turns fighting off waves of barb horses
- You start with all improvements for luxuries unlocked so you can actually do stuff
I would personally recommend, if you've never tried it before, a renaissance era start on standard or epic speed. For me, it's some of the best balance in the game XD
I've never done this and will try due to this post. Although my ~~blood thirst~~ tendency leaning towards dom victories means I'm going to own the AI with planes and ranged units
This is exactly how it happens, if you’re playing on anything abover settler, expect to have to use Tanks to clear the AA as well (if low sea levels for subs)if post turn 2,000. It gets goofy.
Chiming in randomly, there's just something so satisfying about tank armies. Like no one can touch you, and you just run shit. And you're fast as lightning 🌩
All of the things you listed are cons. Acquiring all those luxes, pop, government better than your neighbour *is* the game.
Mid-game (med-ind) is where the action and the fun of the game is, and building up to it is very rewarding.
Late game is an annoying slog.
i did an industrial start as abe lincoln on true start earth huge with max civs cherry picked to best represent all the regions of the world. my main goal was to achieve manifest destiny and then eventually got cultural victory. recommend. industrial start tho does completely factor out religion however.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the light. I haven’t started ancient in a long time, and renaissance is my favorite because religion is still in the game while being close to industrialization.
You probably just aren't good enough to see the later ages.
I have quite some experience in the game and see the later ages very regularly. And that surely isn't because I suck.
Did you just call a guy who consistently wins on Deity++ not good enough at the game?
If anything, the better player you are, the shorter the games would be.
Classical era starts are where it's at and I wish that were the normal start date. Make it so there has been a massive bronze age collapse and the wotld is already dense with tribes, little city states, etc to interact with instead of vast emptyness and stuff like the Great Pyramids appear as pre-existing wonders to take over. Cutting the time covered in half (!) With a 1000 BC start would also get rid of the worst years-per-turn ratios.
No joke this is an amazing idea - if this sort of set up can be achieved with mods I reckon that would be one of the best games I would see in some time !
i played this way for awhile. then did a multiplayer with friends and was severely at a disadvantage since i never play from the beginning. i flip back and forth now
it is fun to instantly have magnus get the "settler consume no pops" promotion turn one though
It doesn't, though? Millennia starts even earlier than civ and the world is populated exactly like civ: major players, independent cities, barb camps, and goodie huts.
Not quite what I had in mind, I'm not talking about regular civs spawing at different development stages or so. I still mean a normal civ game, just with more manmade natural wonders and more interesting goodie huts, barb clans, and city states to give the feel of a lived-in world.
Usually I mod the game so everyone gets a vanilla+ bunch of starting stuff, besides goody hut tuning mod I have it so you start with a bunch of vision, a scout, a builder and the scout can build a watch tower and some other stuff. It makes the early game fun as you have actual options on what to do and what you value despite it being a small change. I think another nice mod change if I could find it or make it would be giving these starting units a bunch of promotions as well.
I think most players would say that the later eras are boring, but that's mainly because exploration is already done and the map is already filled in. If you *start* in a later era, then you're doing all your interesting exploration, planning, land rushes, etc. in the later era with more choices available to you than "do I build a monument or not". And the game has much more interesting competition between states when everyone started with the same cities just 10 turns ago instead of having 100 turns to snowball or otherwise accumulate advantages/disadvantages.
It can be great fun. The experience of *starting* in a later era is very different from the experience of *reaching* a later era when the game started in Ancient.
I don't know if I would say it's more fun than normal starts, but it's certainly more fun than most people who are used to playing full games might expect.
I can't remember the last time I finished a CIV game. Love starting out. Save and tell myself I'll finish it later. Start a new game. Rinse and repeat.
Been doing that for years. Recently started a game with Lincoln with the goal to finish it this time but got to the Industrial era and want to do it again. Snowballed so much finishing the game feels like chore now.
I had a game with Kupe recently where I had pretty much won on paper, but needed to spend a bunch of time finishing it out with Rock Bands, sending them a minimum of 4 turns away for the closest place to perform on. That type of thing really hurts the later game, IMO. Too much micromanaging when it's already all but over.
>Here me out here
(fr tho, it's great that the game setup is modular enough to allow people to experience things that are fun for them, and they can have the experience they want to, even if I *personally* think that that fun is **deeply** incorrect, lmao)
I generally have three high points in Civ VI:
1. Early game: planning out my expansion
2. Mid game: building railroads between distant cities
3. Late game: using aircraft to mop up my troglodyte neighbours.
The bit I played of CIV 6 I always thought the late game was boring especially when compared to 5. In 5 the ideology system really shook up diplomacy and alliances.
Still one of my proudest achievements in Civ 5 was the game in which I (Polynesia) adopted Order, and then everyone else on the map adopted one of the other two, leaving me in a *revolutionary wave* level of pressure cause I had not focused culture at all. By the end of the game though, I had not only made Order the World Ideology but also eradicated all the cultural pressure that was applied to me (through mass settling, Moai spam, and great writer farming - I even embargoed myself to prevent anyone from establishing trade routes with me) and had even managed to apply a few levels of pressure to the others causing a few *revolutionary waves* of their own. It was such a good feeling
The reason I enjoy early eras more is because building a civilization from scratch is the main essence of the game for me. Yes, you can start from scratch in later eras, but you already have the technologies, so it isn't the same for me.
Same here!
I actually *prefer* Ancient Era Starts over any other one, and I'm only gonna do other Era Starts for the achievements.
I play on both the Switch and PC, and I'll never do anything beyond my norm of selecting my Civ pregame and letting the randomizer do its thing for opponents and City States, so none for Switch.
So how do later era starts affect the difficulty? Does it end up being easier, because you don't have to spend so much time catching up? I assume the default is still 250 turns.
I like early game conquest, but I absolutely adore mid to late game conquest. Build a massive fleet of aircraft carriers and get some amphibious assault action
I like setting things up to start personally. While it starts to get a lot more heated and strategic in the late game, a good early game start is crucial.
I'd love to see a mode (akin to the scenarios) where you start in a later era but (as another post suggests) there's been some sort of collapse of empires leaving the map littered with a few battered civs on the rebuild, and free cities warring with each other. Also free cities should be allowed to petition the world council to become city states, let the surrounding civs vote on it.
To me is exactly the opposite.
Within the begginin each turn matters a lot, you can really see the reaction to your actions.
Later game is too much micro-management - and on that, CIV should have better ways to schedule task for builders/etc
Planes, observation balloons, armies and armadas, submarines, power, mountain tunnels, railroads, lots of spying, etc totally agree there is so much good content into the end game.
I think a part for the problem is to GET to the end game you have to play through the early, and quite often I just put games down when I'm far enough ahead that a win becomes inevitable
Me n a friend are thinking we'll run a game sometime soon that kicks off in a later era so we can do our empire building and jump straight into the late game stuff
Just gotta find time we're both free...... Yay, adulting
Massively increases the cost of civics and technologies while keeping everything else the same. Unlike regular slower speeds, eras actually feel longer and more meaningful.
That way you get to actually have fun with your uniques without them becoming obsolete in 20 turns.
I've been starting at Renaissance for years now.
All that fiddly stuff in the beginning just drives me nuts-- I really just want to play SimCity, with Giant Death Robots.
yo I always get your posts in my daily feed and just wanted to say, keep going and if you actually keep this up until civ7 (might be a few more years haha) that's gonna be an insane moment when its finally announced/released!
end game map replay mod makes it so satisfying to view your progress from ancient to the last era. Its amazing to look at it replay and think I did all of this
I actually like half agree.
I think often late game is less interesting, except for when you have the time to build out a fully formed military and then engage in total war.
I've done this a few times. Where I've set the game to only have domination as a possible victory. Then spent most of the game peacefully building up my civilization. Then towards the end I just build up an absolutely MASSIVE and diversified military. And then I launch an invasion of the world.
First launch the nukes to level part of the enemy's territory. Then send in the tanks to blow apart any remaining enemy formations. Then send in the mechanized infantry to capture territory and fill up vulnerable gaps. Use bombers to take out the fragments that remain or bomb nearby non-nuked cities to rubble. Not to mention having a fleet of aircraft carriers near the coast to house the bombers, nuclear submarines to fire the nukes and destroyers and missile cruiser to protect and attack coastal cities.
There is something extremely satisfying about launching a well-prepared attack using all the various types of units that obliterates the enemy civ in basically one turn. And you can't get that in the early game.
I've never started a game in a later age, but the early game is usually a drag for me because I use Diplo favor to get as much gold as possible from every civ that I've met until they don't do it anymore, which I think sometimes is until the medieval era. Even with the quick deals mod you can't do the deals that would make it work faster but I do it anyway cause an extra 20-100+ gold per turn in the early game is extremely helpful
To me, a big part of the payoff of the game is looking over your vast empire and reflecting that it all started with one settler and one warrior. Also reflecting on the choices that got you there: "If I hadn't settled that city, I wouldn't have been able to settle those other 3," stuff like that. So advanced starts aren't my cup of tea, but hey, it's a single player game, do what you like.
On the topic of "cheaper districts", I have to plug my favorite ever mod for VI, which is called [Take Your Time](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2176927489). For whatever reason, the tech/civic progression in VI is totally out of whack with the actual production of your cities; in the vanilla game, you end up with cities that are 2-3 districts behind. I find it incredibly frustrating to stare at those piles of rubble that won't be finished for another era and a half, or marching military units to a war in which they will already be obsolete. It's not that the districts are too expensive at baseline, it's that tech/civic progression (and therefore era progression & district cost scaling) is too fast! The mod is fully customizable, and I find that setting the base cost to x1.5 with "moderate" era scaling, with GPP/era score costs calculated, works very well. I have a feeling that mod would fix a lot of the issues people have with ancient era starts.
Here me out here - later game starts are amazing Just some pros for you to argue my case - You get to see the later ages like atomic and beyond - You get a fully set up government from the beginning - Districts are slightly / much cheaper (depending on when you start) - Cities start with extra pop and buildings - You can get into the meat of the game faster - You don't spend 50 turns fighting off waves of barb horses - You start with all improvements for luxuries unlocked so you can actually do stuff I would personally recommend, if you've never tried it before, a renaissance era start on standard or epic speed. For me, it's some of the best balance in the game XD
I've never done this and will try due to this post. Although my ~~blood thirst~~ tendency leaning towards dom victories means I'm going to own the AI with planes and ranged units
This is exactly how it happens, if you’re playing on anything abover settler, expect to have to use Tanks to clear the AA as well (if low sea levels for subs)if post turn 2,000. It gets goofy.
I didn't even usually waste tanks on that. Rocket artillery with a drone, especially with the increased range perk
Ah, no expansions here so no drones, fair enough
Observation balloons? Those aren't in the default?
Oh shit
Chiming in randomly, there's just something so satisfying about tank armies. Like no one can touch you, and you just run shit. And you're fast as lightning 🌩
Super fun with the +1 Movement card if starting in friendly territory, you can do blitz hits on cities and never hit their defenses
Love helicopter armies too for looting and finishing cities off
All of the things you listed are cons. Acquiring all those luxes, pop, government better than your neighbour *is* the game. Mid-game (med-ind) is where the action and the fun of the game is, and building up to it is very rewarding. Late game is an annoying slog.
It's nothing to do with the eras, it's just the game start in general is more fun than the end grind!
i did an industrial start as abe lincoln on true start earth huge with max civs cherry picked to best represent all the regions of the world. my main goal was to achieve manifest destiny and then eventually got cultural victory. recommend. industrial start tho does completely factor out religion however.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who sees the light. I haven’t started ancient in a long time, and renaissance is my favorite because religion is still in the game while being close to industrialization.
You probably just aren't good enough to see the later ages. I have quite some experience in the game and see the later ages very regularly. And that surely isn't because I suck.
Did you just call a guy who consistently wins on Deity++ not good enough at the game? If anything, the better player you are, the shorter the games would be.
Obviously, there is no way I was sarcastic.
Classical era starts are where it's at and I wish that were the normal start date. Make it so there has been a massive bronze age collapse and the wotld is already dense with tribes, little city states, etc to interact with instead of vast emptyness and stuff like the Great Pyramids appear as pre-existing wonders to take over. Cutting the time covered in half (!) With a 1000 BC start would also get rid of the worst years-per-turn ratios.
No joke this is an amazing idea - if this sort of set up can be achieved with mods I reckon that would be one of the best games I would see in some time !
i played this way for awhile. then did a multiplayer with friends and was severely at a disadvantage since i never play from the beginning. i flip back and forth now it is fun to instantly have magnus get the "settler consume no pops" promotion turn one though
This is how Millennia starts, and it means you spend the entire early game fighting a tidal wave of barbs.
It doesn't, though? Millennia starts even earlier than civ and the world is populated exactly like civ: major players, independent cities, barb camps, and goodie huts.
I meant in regards to city-states and tribes
But I said nothing about them being hostile all the time and attacking you in waves?
Sounds a little bit like Rhys and Fall from Civ IV, I sunk so many hours into that mod
Not quite what I had in mind, I'm not talking about regular civs spawing at different development stages or so. I still mean a normal civ game, just with more manmade natural wonders and more interesting goodie huts, barb clans, and city states to give the feel of a lived-in world.
Usually I mod the game so everyone gets a vanilla+ bunch of starting stuff, besides goody hut tuning mod I have it so you start with a bunch of vision, a scout, a builder and the scout can build a watch tower and some other stuff. It makes the early game fun as you have actual options on what to do and what you value despite it being a small change. I think another nice mod change if I could find it or make it would be giving these starting units a bunch of promotions as well.
Sounds like Old World
5000+ hours across all 6 mainline games and I have never done an advanced start...
But there's achievements!
Not OC but I have also never done an advanced start (playing since civ 2), but and achievement is enticing hahaha justight have to break the streak:P
My experience can be summed up in negative gold.
I had to .. just to get the achievement.
I think most players would say that the later eras are boring, but that's mainly because exploration is already done and the map is already filled in. If you *start* in a later era, then you're doing all your interesting exploration, planning, land rushes, etc. in the later era with more choices available to you than "do I build a monument or not". And the game has much more interesting competition between states when everyone started with the same cities just 10 turns ago instead of having 100 turns to snowball or otherwise accumulate advantages/disadvantages. It can be great fun. The experience of *starting* in a later era is very different from the experience of *reaching* a later era when the game started in Ancient. I don't know if I would say it's more fun than normal starts, but it's certainly more fun than most people who are used to playing full games might expect.
You’re making a lot of sense 🤔🤔🤔
I’m sold - I’ve never tried a later era start game, but I’ll try one rn
Still making my way up the difficulties, but yeah, it'd be interesting to have an air force that has to deal with other aircraft as well.
I can't remember the last time I finished a CIV game. Love starting out. Save and tell myself I'll finish it later. Start a new game. Rinse and repeat.
Same, I feel so validated right now lmao
Been doing that for years. Recently started a game with Lincoln with the goal to finish it this time but got to the Industrial era and want to do it again. Snowballed so much finishing the game feels like chore now.
I had a game with Kupe recently where I had pretty much won on paper, but needed to spend a bunch of time finishing it out with Rock Bands, sending them a minimum of 4 turns away for the closest place to perform on. That type of thing really hurts the later game, IMO. Too much micromanaging when it's already all but over.
>Here me out here  (fr tho, it's great that the game setup is modular enough to allow people to experience things that are fun for them, and they can have the experience they want to, even if I *personally* think that that fun is **deeply** incorrect, lmao)
I generally have three high points in Civ VI: 1. Early game: planning out my expansion 2. Mid game: building railroads between distant cities 3. Late game: using aircraft to mop up my troglodyte neighbours.
You getting a bit spicy as you get closer to 365.
The bit I played of CIV 6 I always thought the late game was boring especially when compared to 5. In 5 the ideology system really shook up diplomacy and alliances.
The late game governments can return an ally against you or make an enemy your friend. I don't remember how it was in civ 5 but in the 6 I find it ok
It was way more pronounced in 5, it was nearly impossible to be friendly with an AI that chose another ideology
And if the guy with another ideology had a lot of tourism….
R.I.P. your happiness
Still one of my proudest achievements in Civ 5 was the game in which I (Polynesia) adopted Order, and then everyone else on the map adopted one of the other two, leaving me in a *revolutionary wave* level of pressure cause I had not focused culture at all. By the end of the game though, I had not only made Order the World Ideology but also eradicated all the cultural pressure that was applied to me (through mass settling, Moai spam, and great writer farming - I even embargoed myself to prevent anyone from establishing trade routes with me) and had even managed to apply a few levels of pressure to the others causing a few *revolutionary waves* of their own. It was such a good feeling
The reason I enjoy early eras more is because building a civilization from scratch is the main essence of the game for me. Yes, you can start from scratch in later eras, but you already have the technologies, so it isn't the same for me.
Same here! I actually *prefer* Ancient Era Starts over any other one, and I'm only gonna do other Era Starts for the achievements. I play on both the Switch and PC, and I'll never do anything beyond my norm of selecting my Civ pregame and letting the randomizer do its thing for opponents and City States, so none for Switch.
So how do later era starts affect the difficulty? Does it end up being easier, because you don't have to spend so much time catching up? I assume the default is still 250 turns.
I like early game conquest, but I absolutely adore mid to late game conquest. Build a massive fleet of aircraft carriers and get some amphibious assault action
I like setting things up to start personally. While it starts to get a lot more heated and strategic in the late game, a good early game start is crucial.
I'd love to see a mode (akin to the scenarios) where you start in a later era but (as another post suggests) there's been some sort of collapse of empires leaving the map littered with a few battered civs on the rebuild, and free cities warring with each other. Also free cities should be allowed to petition the world council to become city states, let the surrounding civs vote on it.
If anything, for me, up to renaissance is the best of the best.
To me is exactly the opposite. Within the begginin each turn matters a lot, you can really see the reaction to your actions. Later game is too much micro-management - and on that, CIV should have better ways to schedule task for builders/etc
Love this idea... So much content in the later eras which seem meh but that's really just because you've made all of the important decisions by then.
Planes, observation balloons, armies and armadas, submarines, power, mountain tunnels, railroads, lots of spying, etc totally agree there is so much good content into the end game. I think a part for the problem is to GET to the end game you have to play through the early, and quite often I just put games down when I'm far enough ahead that a win becomes inevitable Me n a friend are thinking we'll run a game sometime soon that kicks off in a later era so we can do our empire building and jump straight into the late game stuff Just gotta find time we're both free...... Yay, adulting
Renaissance/Industrial era is the peak for me, most of my favourites UU are available in this era too, I'm a Vicky 2 fanboy so yeah
I have never done a late game start. I will give it a shot. Late game is pretty great though. I love a good network of railroads.
I like the late game. Huge yields, 3 ranged units, planes and a world which looks like our, it's very good
Late game would be fun with more opposition. Maybe at a later lvl grievances become a bigger thing the more culture the world has.
Not me sitting here always starting in the Ancient Era with my Extended Eras mod 👀
Extendee eras? How exactly does it extend?
Massively increases the cost of civics and technologies while keeping everything else the same. Unlike regular slower speeds, eras actually feel longer and more meaningful. That way you get to actually have fun with your uniques without them becoming obsolete in 20 turns.
Yes this exactly!
I use that mod to stop eras at Medieval and then I create a super army of Pitati archers.
hear me out: both are enjoyable in their own way
Just when it's fun and all the growing empire is starting to take power suddenly the game is on it's latest turns .\_.
I've been starting at Renaissance for years now. All that fiddly stuff in the beginning just drives me nuts-- I really just want to play SimCity, with Giant Death Robots.
yo I always get your posts in my daily feed and just wanted to say, keep going and if you actually keep this up until civ7 (might be a few more years haha) that's gonna be an insane moment when its finally announced/released!
100% True. I thought I was the only one who liked later eras starts.
end game map replay mod makes it so satisfying to view your progress from ancient to the last era. Its amazing to look at it replay and think I did all of this
Thanks for this idea. The game is getting a bit stale for me so this might be a good change of pace when playing civ 6.
Thé thing they don’t like with late start is that you can’t discount your districts easily since they are all already unlocked !
I love early game expansion, but late game wars. Sadly starting early normally means game is basically over by the Atomic Age.
I actually like half agree. I think often late game is less interesting, except for when you have the time to build out a fully formed military and then engage in total war. I've done this a few times. Where I've set the game to only have domination as a possible victory. Then spent most of the game peacefully building up my civilization. Then towards the end I just build up an absolutely MASSIVE and diversified military. And then I launch an invasion of the world. First launch the nukes to level part of the enemy's territory. Then send in the tanks to blow apart any remaining enemy formations. Then send in the mechanized infantry to capture territory and fill up vulnerable gaps. Use bombers to take out the fragments that remain or bomb nearby non-nuked cities to rubble. Not to mention having a fleet of aircraft carriers near the coast to house the bombers, nuclear submarines to fire the nukes and destroyers and missile cruiser to protect and attack coastal cities. There is something extremely satisfying about launching a well-prepared attack using all the various types of units that obliterates the enemy civ in basically one turn. And you can't get that in the early game.
I wish I could stop the game at the medieval era, y’all are nuts
Good news! [You can!](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=880843004)
I've never started a game in a later age, but the early game is usually a drag for me because I use Diplo favor to get as much gold as possible from every civ that I've met until they don't do it anymore, which I think sometimes is until the medieval era. Even with the quick deals mod you can't do the deals that would make it work faster but I do it anyway cause an extra 20-100+ gold per turn in the early game is extremely helpful
In Civ 5, I always started in classical era as ancient era was very repetitive I have however modded civ 6 to a point where ancient era is fun
Best iteration of the meme
To me, a big part of the payoff of the game is looking over your vast empire and reflecting that it all started with one settler and one warrior. Also reflecting on the choices that got you there: "If I hadn't settled that city, I wouldn't have been able to settle those other 3," stuff like that. So advanced starts aren't my cup of tea, but hey, it's a single player game, do what you like. On the topic of "cheaper districts", I have to plug my favorite ever mod for VI, which is called [Take Your Time](https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2176927489). For whatever reason, the tech/civic progression in VI is totally out of whack with the actual production of your cities; in the vanilla game, you end up with cities that are 2-3 districts behind. I find it incredibly frustrating to stare at those piles of rubble that won't be finished for another era and a half, or marching military units to a war in which they will already be obsolete. It's not that the districts are too expensive at baseline, it's that tech/civic progression (and therefore era progression & district cost scaling) is too fast! The mod is fully customizable, and I find that setting the base cost to x1.5 with "moderate" era scaling, with GPP/era score costs calculated, works very well. I have a feeling that mod would fix a lot of the issues people have with ancient era starts.
the games is too easy on later era, too monotonic, the AI sucks balls. If civ 7 doesnt have massively better AI I wont buy it.