Sometimes it’s hard to know exactly what you’re getting in an expansion pack, especially when it’s a game as broad as Civilization VI. But fear not, because the developers are here with a new trailer to explain the new features in Rise And Fall to us poor settlers still struggling to research pottery. Why is clay so bloody hard to understand? Seriously though, let’s dive into the new features:
Great Ages: Making good leadership decisions is now even more important than ever before. If you’re a good leader who gets ahead of the pack you’ll be able to trigger a golden age for your people. However, if you’re not making savvy decisions then you can trigger a dark age, during a dark age your cities may revolt or declare independence. Entering a golden age directly from a dark age will trigger a heroic age where you can choose three dedications instead of the usual one. This ties into our next new feature.
Dedication: Every era transition you’ll have to make a dedication to your people. These can range from reforming your coinage, growing your military, or exploring, amongst other things. Do well and dedications during a golden age will provide powerful advantages to your civilization during the era.
New Policies: New dark age policies can help you get through the troubled times. For example you could institute an Inquisition which will improve religious combat strength of all religious units but lower all your cities science output by 25%. Other new policies include Monasticism (double science in cities with a holy site but -25% culture in all cities), Twilight Valor (+5 combat strength for all units while making a melee attack but cannot heal outside of your territory), and Isolationism (+1 trade route capacity, domestic routes provide +2 food and production but you can’t train or buy settlers). These can help make it easier to enter a golden age directly from a dark age when the era changes, which are the above mentioned heroic ages.
Great Moments: A new timeline will allow you to view your civilization’s great moments. These include things like founding a religion, being the first to attack a barbarian camp, or finding a natural wonder. Great moments contribute towards your era score, and thus help you get into a golden age.
Loyalty: Loyalty must now be encouraged. If a city’s loyalty falls too low they may declare their independence. Any city that leaves a civilization becomes a free city which desires their independence but may be brought into another civilization if they raise loyalty with that city.
Governors: There will be seven unique governors which help you maintain loyalty but also bend the rules of the game via their abilities, which are unlocked by spending governor titles. When assigned to a city these governors not only improve loyalty but their abilities also come into effect – these may be things like all builders getting an extra build charge, +30% construction towards districts, or even a unique improvement becoming available for that city. Governors aren’t always available and are unlocked via the civics tree which awards governor titles which you can then spend on recruiting a new governor or upgrading an existing one.
Enhanced Alliances: Alliances are being reworked; the longer an alliance lasts the greater the benefits you’ll receive. It looks like you’ll earn alliance points over time and at certain amounts you’ll rise to the next level of rewards. Diplomacy is no longer about stealing all your neighbours sugar and horses before declaring war.
Emergencies: Certain events will now trigger emergencies, for example converting or conquering a city state, or launching a nuclear attack. All civilizations not allied with the instigator will receive a prompt to join or reject the emergency, which consists of a goal the other nations must accomplish in order to earn a reward. However, if they fail, the instigator will be rewarded instead. One example visible in the trailer shows that a holy city was converted to an enemy religion, other nations receive an emergency prompt to convert it away from the new religion to receive a relic as a reward, but if they fail the instigator’s religion exerts even more pressure in nearby cities. These objectives are constrained by a time limit.
New Leaders and Civs: There’ll be a handful of new leaders to pick from including; Genghis Khan (Mongolian), Poundmaker (Cree), Queen Wilhelmina (Dutch), Tamar (Georgian), Seondeok (Korean), and Chandragupta (Indian, new leader for an existing Civ).
New Wonders: A host of new wonders will be available to both build and discover in Rise and Fall including: the Matterhorn, Eye of the Sahara, Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and The Statue Of Liberty. They’ll each have their own gameplay uses too.
New Units: There will not only be new unique units for the new Civs but also new global units spread throughout the eras. These will include; Pike And Shot as an anti-cavalry unit, Drones, Supply Convoy, and Spec Ops.
Rise and Fall certainly looks like it’s going to turn Civilization VI into a more dynamic game from turn to turn with all these new additions. You also don’t have to wait that long to get your grubby, pottery-less mitts on it because Rise and Fall is set to launch on 8 February 2018.
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