Tjuṯa Uluṟu

Game score 492 in my 5th play of the Outback scenario.

This is the second of two blog posts about time travel, teleportation and tourism in the Australian Outback (first post). By repeatedly traveling back in time to 1814 I was able to score over 400 in my 4th and 5th games playing the Outback Tycoon scenario for Civilization VI.

There is no real tourism in the Outback Tycoon scenario. However, you can make money from a national park.

Game #4 with Perth adjacent to Uluru for culture.

Culture. For the fourth time that I played the Outback Tycoon scenario, I decided to make use of the Uluru natural wonder to obtain a boost to my culture and speed advancement through the civics tree. I also had time to built a theater district and amphitheater before completing Perth's commercial district.

Game #4. Cyency Cyty was founded by the Great Barrier Reef for science bonuses.

There are synergies between advancements through the civics tree and advancement through the technology tree, so I sent my second settler west and made a city next to the Great Barrier Reef. As seen in the image to the left, the Great Barrier Reef provides both food and science bonuses. Everything in the game became easier when I received the bonuses from these two natural wonders.

Game #4. Four of my eight cities were in northwest Australia. The city Salty provided a salt luxury resource.

Ironfish, the last of my 8 cities.

The luxury resources from the city of Pyrly Dymynds were pearls and diamonds. I obtained wine from the city of Wyne and both silver and whales from Perth. The city of Salty was founded relatively late in the game and had few resources nearby, but that city was created simply to obtain one more luxury resource (salt). The last settler arrived in 1911 at the end of World War I. Ironfish was founded during turn 48, close to food resources that allowed it to grow to size 5 by the end of the game (turn 60).

Game #4: the rank of Lech Wałęsa

 In the far west, on the opposite coast from Ironfish, my city maned Cyency Cyty grew to size 13 by the end of the game. In my 4th game playing the Outback Tycoon scenario, making use of science bonuses from the Great Barrier Reef and culture obtained from Uluru, I achieved a much better score than in my first three games ("Ivan the Terrible"). However, the score can go much higher if you chop down forests. Still, I was quite pleased with my score of 429 and all trees were kept alive. I lost my explorer unit halfway through the game and I twice had to send my settler from Perth to the east in order to get sugar and gypsum resources. 🙁 A settler unit can spend ten turns of laborious travel reaching the site of a new city only to be instantly teleported back to Perth and have to make the journey a second time. Ow, that hurts! Killing trees (video).

Victory with a score of 429. Cyency Cyty was not very close to my other cities. Wyne: upper right.

Figure 7. Adelaide was founded before Cyency Cyty (founded turn 12), but I was able to push back the border.

Chop down trees for a big production boost.
I don't chop because the trees are so pretty.

The border between Cyency City and Adelaide was contended during most of the game. When I built a commercial district near the border, the border was pushed back, giving me control of the fish resource adjacent to Adelaide. I've included a few more images of my game #4 cities below.....

Portrait of my three eastern cities at the end of game #4.

Pearl harbor. When I built the city Pyrly Dymynds it created a waterway linking the ocean to the pearl lake.

Who would start a new nation here?

In my 4th game of the Outback Tycoon scenario, the location where I built my first city did not look very promising. As shown in the image to the right, there was empty desert near Uluru. However, almost any coastal location in this scenario has food resources in the ocean. There was a whales resource at the position of the boats and I built some Outback Stations in the desert beside Uluru... Perth prospered. 

Given the culture and science bonuses that I received from natural wonders, I was at the end of both the civics tree and the technology tree by the end of the game and imagining the nature of "future technologies" that might have been included in the scenario. I wish I could have launched a rocket into space from the Back of Beyond.

At the end of game #4, I was building an airport for the city of Wyne and dreaming of rockets.

My explorer finds gold on turn #2.

 Game #5. For my fifth game playing the Outback Tycoon scenario, I wanted to make use of all three of the natural wonders that I had located in Australia as a way to boost my culture and science. However, in the Outback Tycoon scenario, culture and science are only tools that are used towards the ultimate goal of making money.

I decided to make my first city in southern Australia, not too far from the Kakadu natural wonder. I was able to discover a gold resource on turn #2 of the game, but once again I lost my explorer quite early in the game. However, due to the wonders of time travel, I was already familiar with the location of important landmarks and resources in Australia, so the early demise of my explorer was no great loss.

Game #5. My explorer arrives from the west at the Kakadu natural wonder. Lower left: tea.

Naturalist in tea

I discovered many tea resources in southern Australia, including one adjacent to Kakadu. I trained two naturalists during game #5. I was tempted to build a seaside resort on a tea resource that was close to my capital city, but I sent that naturalist west to the Great Barrier Reef which was a more scenic location. Units such as the naturalist can move 20 map tiles in one turn when traveling on coastal waters. In game #5, I scattered 5 of my 8 cities all around the coastal fringes of Australia, founding them on the east, south, west and north coasts. Three of my cities were built inland in order to access gold, cotton and mercury. 

Getting my 8th city built was a real challenge with the annoying game software doing everything it could to prevent my settler from reaching the intended destination.

The location of Uluru National Park (white hexes)

My second naturalist was in northern Australia where there was an option to either make a seaside resort on the coast next to the whales resource or the Uluru National Park.

In the Outback Tycoon scenario, national parks earn cash, not international tourists. However, when this scenario was made by the game creators, they did not bother to shut of all of the tourism features.

Uluru National Park in the north. Kakatu was in the south near New South Wales.

I built some mines, Outback Stations and a sheep pasture south and east of Uluru, but I did not add any improve- ments to the map tiles that became part of Uluru National Park. As soon as I built the park, my tourism rate was 21... not bad for a scenario where there is no tourism.

Uluru National Park with  0  international tourists

When viewing the map through the "tourism lens", I could see that both my national park and my seaside resort were recognized and shown as international tourist destinations. However, there is no actual tourism in this scenario. In the real world, tourism to Uluru began about 1936, so I wish international tourism was an actual feature of the Outback Tycoon scenario.

jungle at the site for the seaside resort

I also exper- imented with making a seaside resort in the Outback Tycoon scenario. When my naturalist arrived at the intended site of the resort, jungle was blocking construc- tion.

cleared site, ready for construction

The jungle had to be cleared away, then the seaside resort could be built. This was the first and only time that I cut down trees, giving a big production boost to my nearby city where a Stock Exchange was being built.

The Great Barrier Reef Resort near Fremantle. Commercial district in lower right.

The completed seaside resort looked nice, and was in a prime location to server tourists visiting the Great Barrier Reef. Sadly, with no tourists in the game, all that is left to the imagination.

Related Reading: the start of this series on Civ VI.

Next: Rylla travels back in time to 17th century Australia

The Pinnacles: another world wonder that was seen in another game of Outback Tycoon.

The great Barrier Reef near New South Wales. In this game, Perth grew to size 17.

Time travel: an ancient trader meets a modern trader on the road to York. Click image to enlarge.

Temporal Jump To: More Outback Tycoon in 2022.