No Barbarians

Who will you meet?

This is a second blog post (the first post in this series is here) about science fiction elements in Civilization VI. I was surprised to learn that one of the ways for a player to win a game of Civilization VI is to attract tourists from other civilizations to come and visit attractions in your cities. This strikes me as an alternate-universe Sci Fi scenario that could involve less mayhem and warfare than a typical game of Civilization VI, so I was eager to try constructing a game with little fighting and creation of as many national parks and museums as possible.

in a game set for "no barbarians"

 No barbarians. After quickly growing tired of the silly antics of barbarians (as discussed previously), I took the option of playing a game of Civilization VI without any barbarians. Sadly, barbarians have been so deeply built into this game that even with the game settings set to "no barbarians" I still got the canned dialog shown to the left.

For this game, I wanted to explore the path to a cultural victory, so I played as England under the leadership of Victoria. I want to experiment with the British Museum, a version of the regular Archaeological Museum that holds more artifacts and allows two archeologists to collect artifacts at the same time.

constructed wonder: Stonehenge

My first serious challenge was discovering that India was right next to me and very aggressive about developing religion. I was not willing to simply adopt the Indian religion, Hinduism, because there are some interesting perks that come along with founding your own religion. I got a Great Prophet by building Stonehenge and that allowed me to quickly establish my own religion.

Continents. This was my first Civilization VI game that was not played on the standard map of Earth. The computer generated a map with continents and I discovered that my civilization began near the northeast corner of a big landmass that consisted mostly of a continent named "Australia". 

Near Agra, the boundary between North America (to the left) and Australia (right) was close to a river.

The "continent" of North America (upper left, beige). English colonies: SpicePearls, OrangePearls and Hors Dymynd.

The English Pantanal (left) near London.

This so-called continent of Australia in my game was nothing like Earth's Australia and the northwest corner of my home landmass was strangely called "North America". The continental boundary partly followed a river that flowed past the Indian city of Agra (see the two images above this paragraph). If Earth has Eurasia, my game had NorAmStralia. I was lucky enough to have a natural wonder (Pantanal) close to London and so I was soon making plans for a Pantanal National Park. 

Natural Wonder

At the far south end of Australia was a second natural wonder, the Giant's Causeway, located close to the Egyptian cities (see the image to the right). I would have had to fight my way through Macedonia and Egypt to access the Giant's Causeway, so I began speculating about the possibility of finding another natural wonder on another continent and not close to some other civilization's cities.

In addition to my civilization (England), the Indians and the Egyptians, the NorAmStralia landmass was also home to the Macedonians. 

Siddhārtha founding my religion at Stonehenge

With Alexander leading the Macedonians, I was soon drawn into a war. 91 turns into the game, India and Macedonia both simultaneously declared war on me. This was particularly annoying because the Macedonians had access to iron and were fielding poweful hypaspists before I could obtain any iron.

In that war, a Macedonian hypaspist quickly eliminated my only scout, but that may have been an act of retribution by the game gods because I never had to train that scout unit: I got it for free near the start of the game when my first warrior unit visited a village that was located close to London. 

Agra, captured from India, complete
with rice fields and a tea plantation.

Actually, the rowdy Alexander provoking the "pacifist" Gandhi to declare war on me may have been a gift from the game gods. The Indian cities did not have strong walls and it might have been possible for me to quickly eliminate India from the game.

India was more interested in spreading Hinduism with their missionaries rather than participating in actual clubs-and-spears warfare; they soon asked for peace after I captured one of their cities, Agra (see the image to the right →).

Time Travel. Before I could conclude the war with Macedonia and its swarm of hypaspists, a City-state also declared war on me. By that point, I was tired of fighting and jumped in my time machine, going back to turn 60, a point in time when I could become friends with Alexander and prevent that war from starting.

The landmass of NorAmStralia

For those players who (like me) dare to turn off the barbarians feature in Civilization VI, I suspect that the game is programmed to replace annoyances from barbarians with annoyances from other sources. Woe be to anyone who wants to quietly play around building tourist destinations... this game is designed to involve lots of mindless warfare. 🙁 I know that there could have been a huge benefit from quickly eliminating Gandhi from the game, but I wanted to confront Gandhi on his own terms, in the realm of theological conflict. If there had to eventually be a big fight with my neighbor Gandhi, I wanted it on my terms, after I had obtained some iron and could field stronger military units.

Early in the game I built a galley and sailed entirely around the absurdly square NorAmStralia landmass (see image to the left), but I discovered no coastal water route linking to another land mass or even a small island. 

future site of Jade National Park?

That sailing journey all the way around my home landmass took about 60 turns and was a complete waste of effort. As exciting as it can be to play a game on a world with a completely unknown geography, it can also lead to many regrets. When I went back in time to chat-up Alexander and avoid having to go to war against him, I also did not bother with that fruitless voyage around NorAmStralia.

 More parks. As shown to the right, there were four map tiles with mountains close to my city of Jadetea. I suspected that this was a potential National Park site, bit it turns out, this was not a location where I could build a park. Can you guess why?

discovering a new landmass

 I had to wait until I obtained the cartography technology before I could cross deep ocean waters and go visit other land masses (turn 176). My scout sailed east and quickly came upon another landmass (see the image to the left ←).

Playing on a world map full of mysterious unknown features can lead to both disappointments and happy surprises. By sailing east, I was expecting to discover a new continent, but NO. Somehow, the computer had decided that this other landmass was simply more Australia. 😦

I have to conclude that the Civilization VI algorithm for dividing landmasses into continents includes some stupid rules such as 1) arbitrarily divide the largest land mass into two continents and 2) if a small landmass is within 7 tiles of another larger landmass, then make it part of that larger continent.

Location of the new landmass to the east; only about seven map tiles from my city Eastport.

Torres del Paine in Australia (Earth's version)

 Two parts of Australia. Almost at once, my scout discovered another natural wonder on this new landmass: Torres del Paine. See the snow-capped mountain in the image to the right. Luckily, this bit of land had not yet been settled by any other civilization and there was an iron resource available there. Note: that's a tribal village in the desert.

As shown in the two images below, this island-like part of the Australian continent was shaped like Earth's Australia. Was this a gift from the game gods to England: a miniature Alt-Australia ripe for settling by forces from London?

A part of the Australian continent: the island of Altstralia. English quadrireme; top left

continent "viewing lens"; my city of Irony was positioned next to an iron resource (click image to enlarge)

Jadwiga from a mod

I also explored to the West from the shores of North America and discovered the location of the Polish cities such as Radom. This new landmass to the west was called Pannotia. The ruler of Poland is Jadwiga. An alternative version of Jadwiga made for a Civilization VI game modification is shown to the left. 

The two wide images below (Figure 1 and Figure 2) show the relative positions of the Polish city Radom (in Pannotia) and the English city SpicePearls (in North America) as well as another natural wonder. Upon contacting Jadwiga, I learned that Poland had several luxury resources not found in Australia or North America. When first offered a chance to trade resources, Jadwiga was not interested in trading with me. I contemplated sending a settler to Pannotia in an attempt to claim some land on that continent, but most of that "New World" was already occupied by cities. 

my Great Admiral, Ching Shih

I was daunted by the long time it would have taken me to send a settler unit from North America to Pannotia.

I suppose I was doing as much oceanic exploring as anyone in the game, but I don't understand why I earned two Great Engineers and a Great Admiral while using a policy wildcard to accelerate production of a Great Scientist. Maybe getting a Great Admiral is a special bonus for England that arrives when you build several Royal Navy Dockyards.

Figure 1. Poland's Tsingy de Bemaraha natural wonder, where plants grow in the tundra.

Australia (left), Pannotia (upper right)

Lucky for me, the fickle Jadwiga soon changed her tune and became much more cooperative in making trade deals. I directed my Empire expansion efforts to the east and abandoned the idea of founding an English city on Pannotia. It was about this time that I got embassies, so maybe that helped change Jadwiga's attitude.

Figure 2. My caravel crossed the western ocean and found the Polish city Radom.

The icy Radom passage. Regular map view.

It is absurd that it would have taken me about twenty turns and a century of game time to send a settler unit from North America to the available coastal land in Pannotia. Imagine if it had taken Columbus 100 years to cross the Atlantic. Such slow travel times are one of the many unrealistic features in Civilization VI that make the game more annoying than fun. 

"strategic view"

When I first checked to see if it was possible to sail to the north of the continent of Pannotia, it looked like there might be an ice cap blocking the waters to the west. The city of Radom had constructed an encampment and a harbor right at the icy northeastern tip of Pannotia.

However, Civilization VI provides several different views of the map. In the "strategic" view (see the image to the left), it was clear that I could sail west of Radom, provided that I had an open borders agreement with Poland. Amazingly, just as I was sailing off to explore the waters south of Australia, Jadwiga obligingly contacted me and offered a trade involving open borders. 

Pedro "the Magnanimous"

My open borders agreement with Jadwiga turned out to be most useful for allowing my scout to move south through Polish territory and reach some additional City-states that are located in southern Pannotia and northwestern Kernorland. 

However, all was not rosy. Somehow my dealings with City-states got me in trouble with Pedro, Emperor of Brazil (see the image to the right). This sort of random temper tantrum and threats issued by other "leaders" is typical of the silly and arbitrary events that have been programmed into the game as "Donald Trump school of diplomacy"™ features that you painfully experience while playing Civilization VI.

Piopiotahi

There was a thin strip of icy water that allows navigation along the northern boundary of Pannotia, and my Caravel also discovered that there is a similar navigable passage to the south of the continent of Kernorland. While searching for a "southwest passage", I found the Piopiotahi natural wonder in the territory of Brazil (image to the left).

Competing for a Cultural Victory: the conditions for world tourism in 1440.

 International Tourism: 1440. Apparently the word "tourist" was first used in print in 1772.  When I founded my city of Irony, I discovered that I had three international tourists visiting England. In 1440, most tourists were domestic, staying inside the borders of their own nation. I had one visitor each from India, Macedonia and Egypt.

1440 AD. Two international tourists at London's Holy Site (2, left) and one at Stonehenge (1, right).

The English religion, AllTogetherNow, has spread to all English cities. (green 🦋)

 Theological Squabbles. It was not too hard for me to spread my religion (AllTogetherNow) to all of my cities and two nearby City-states (see the image to the right). I sent a missionary to "Altstralia" to spread my religion to the distant city of Irony. 

Mostly I use Apostles to spread my religion and fight off swarming missionaries and gurus from India. 

An example of this theological combat is shown below.

Nexus of theological conflict: the borders between England, India and the Yerevan City-state. Two English Apostles confront an Indian Missionary and a Guru. During theological combat, my Apostle (left) almost kills the Guru. My second Apostle finished the job. All I can say to Gandhi is: "Oh well, so much for pacifism".

The future of the English tourism industry?

It seemed strange to me when someone from India was a tourist happily visiting my religious sites in London while at the same time I was involved in theological warfare with the Indian gurus and missionaries. But that was nothing. Even after I started a formal war with India, that tourist from India persistently visited London.

Eventually, I grew tired of Gandhi's religious units spreading Hinduism to my cities. I took that annoying practice as an excuse to start a war with India under conditions that allowed me to experience less war weariness because of Gandhi's egregious religious meddling in my cities. 

The first six Indian cities captured during the war: Agra, Delhi, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Srinagar and Ahmadabad.

3. Southwest Australia

To defeat India, I mostly made use of musketmen and some cavalry units. I also used two bombard units, and right at the end of the war, my first field artillery unit and my Frigate. The Indian army made use of three artillery units which made it tricky to capture three of their cities. As shown in the upper right corner of the image above, my war with India was not popular. 

During the war against India, Alexander graduated form being my friend to asking for an alliance. All the other leaders around the world got mad at me. After accepting the alliance with Macedonia, I was disappointed to find that Alexander was willing to engage in joint warfare against everyone except Gandhi. I'll now have to discover how long it will take for the other leaders around the world to get over my war with India. I might need to experiment with giving bribes (gifts) to get back on friendly terms with other leaders.

the last two battles; antiquity site (lower left)

As shown in the image (3) to the right, above, the last three Indian cities were in the southwest corner of Australia. Mumbai and Madurai were both only population size two and adjacent to desert. Gandhi was very aggressive about asking for peace as I advanced against his last few cities, but he had nothing of significant value to offer me, so I decided to eliminate him from the game. I used my Frigate to bombard Mumbai, weaken its defenses and finally conclude the war which had lasted 150 years of game time. That was more than enough fighting for me in one game, so now it is time to get back to building.

Notice the lower left map tile in the image to the left. I found quite a few antiquity sites in Indian territory that I'm eager to explore with my archeologists.

toy factory

Having now played to the year 1700 AD, I continue to get other types of Great People rather than any Great Scientists. I was amused to get John Spilsbury as a Great Merchant who allowed for construction of a toy factory in London.

Colosseum

Near the end of the war, I managed to complete two more World Wonders. Shown to the left is my Colosseum and Oxford University is shown in the image below. It was a requirement that Oxford University be constructed next to an existing campus district. London's commercial district is also right nearby. Upon completing Oxford University, I got two "free" technologies, the last of which, Flight, should help boost my culture bonuses from tile improvements.

Oxford university (lower left) is next to my campus (blue buildings, right) in London.

Estádio do Maracanã

There are a few technologies beyond flight that make a huge difference for a cultural victory, particularly: computers will boost tourism significantly and online communities boosts the tourism benefits of trade with other nations. There is an atomic era wonder (Estádio do Maracanã) that has big cultural benefits, so my strategy is to keep pressing ahead with my science development in order to win cultural bonuses in the late game. 

I'll be continuing this series of Civilization VI blog posts as I learn more about the fine art of attracting tourists from around the world to my English civilization.

Related Reading: cultural victory

Next: tourism time