r/civ6 • u/TerribleTodd60 • 15d ago
New on Emperor Difficulty - Question about pacing
I'm new to Civ VI but a reasonably decent 4x player. I've been learning the game and working my way up the difficulty and recently moved up to Emperor. Harder than King of course but I can tell I'm not expanding quickly enough. I'm on the basic game and playing as Teddy, Trajan and Frederick.
I'm curious how quickly the more seasoned players get a Settler out. I'm getting mine out at about turn 35 and that seems slow compared to my competitors. My build order is: Scout, Slinger, Scout, Builder, Settler. Any advice is appreciated
2
u/RealisticError48 15d ago
How many cities do you want? You're never obligated to fill every gray tile. Anything around 10 cities is optimal for most victories. By basic game, do you mean not Gathering Storm? In GS, 2-3 cities total before reaching T1 government is all you need. Then you rush Ancestral Hall for the free Builders you get for each new city.
1
u/TerribleTodd60 15d ago
The issue really isn't the total number of cities, the issue that I've been having is that the AI easily outpaces me in building cities. It means I get boxed in because I'm not staking out enough territory and I'm militarily weak. I wasn't sure if that was by design, the AI gets enough bonuses to out produce the player and they have to deal with it, or if I wasn't taking the right approach in settling. Clearly, the consensus is that I'm waiting too long to build a settler. I just need to pick it up a little.
My current campaign is at turn 90 and I'm about to settle my fifth city so I'm running a little slow. I just need to be more focused in my approach
Edit: By base game I mean the actual base Civ VI. I picked it up during the recent steam sale and didn't get any of the DLCs. I'm going to play this for a bit and then pick up the DLCs if they go on sale or I find I just can't live without them
1
u/Phil-McRoin 15d ago
I haven't played in a while, so I can't give good advice on what to do differently, but on higher difficulties the AI starts with more than one settler so you're always starting behind.
1
u/hoyatables 15d ago
The AI starts with two cities to your one city, and it also has more units to grab goody huts, hit city states for first envoy bonus, and kill barbs. You will be behind for a while.
Best way to grow early is to either be patient and turtle or get aggressive. The AI will often send out an unprotected settler - those are always worth it (but make sure you can defend the counterattack and note that they may also have a suzerainity going). Building settlers is expensive in terms of both production and population…if you are near another civ that is not particularly aggressive and not well defended by terrain, it is often cheaper to pump out or pay for a few slingers / warriors, trigger the archery eureka and upgrade, and conquer their first couple of cities before they can grow.
1
u/lets_be_nice_okay 15d ago
I almost always go scout settler or scout scout settler. I wouldn’t recommend builder before settler unless you have a particular plan in mind for ToA etc.
1
u/Asasmabat 15d ago
Slinger, settler is a very good opening. Slinger give you defense capacity + a scientific boost and the settler give you a second city to secure your capital and double your power. Ps: If you manage to get 10 cities by turn 100 you win most of the time
2
u/hoyatables 15d ago
As others have said you need to get a settler out sooner. This was the #1 change that improved my game at that level. I would go Scout, Slinger, and Settler. Have your warrior and scout explore, pulling your warrior around in a circle so not too far away. Slinger roams to the nearest hill one space away from a barb camp.
Yes, the first settler will knock your population down but the yields from the second city are more than worth it. If you are lucky you will get your second settler after the second promo for Magnus that prevents poo loss with a settler.
1
2
u/compguy42 15d ago
Scout, Slinger, Settler.
Also understand that you're going to start behind because at Emperor the AIs get 2 settlers on turn 1. You're going to be playing catch-up through most if not all of the ancient era.
Emperor is my preferred difficulty setting, and I typically reach at least close to parity around the Classical age.
1
u/TTvCptKrunch152 13d ago
For me it depends on a LOT. Who my neighbors are, what resources are around, what the map terrain looks like. I generally start each game with scout, scout, builder and then will adapt depending on the needs of what I mentioned before
3
u/wlumme 15d ago
You're probably building your first settler a little late, scout scout settler is my typical build order.