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Friday, February 07, 2025
Civilization VII difficulty and map size
I am on my third game of Civ7, but stopped after the first era change in both previous games. I was looking to fine tune the difficulty level to be challenging, without the AI cheating becoming too frustrating. It turned out that map size has a lot to do with that.
What I tried twice at different difficulty levels was to play Confucius with the Han on a small map. With "small" being actually the medium setting, as there are only tiny, small, and standard map sizes. But Confucius is an expansionist scientist, not a military power. And it turns out that if you don't want to have to fight a lot, you need a standard map size. The AI is pretty good at expanding, and an a small map you quickly get massive diplomatic penalties for settling too close to the others, at which point warfare becomes the only option. On the third run I played a mostly peaceful Confucius on a standard map, and managed to grab a decent chunk of the first continent without upsetting my neighbors too much. I would recommend standard map size if you plan on a peaceful strategy, and small if you prefer war.
What has to be added here is that playing peacefully is significantly harder than warfare. The AI is pretty good at expanding their empires, building up cities, and gathering resources. At higher difficulty levels, keeping up with the Joneses is a real challenge. The tactical AI for warfare is much less good. It isn't totally abysmal, but as player you can do some pretty nifty things with your commanders, and the AI isn't really good at that. I defended cities with a single slinger against bigger armies, because the AI can't master the use of the commander to get a lot of melee units next to the city walls quickly. Also the AI, after not making much progress in their wars and taking a lot of losses, is often quite willing to make peace after 10 rounds, even throwing in a small city as gift.
In summary, my advice would be that if you want to do a lot of warfare, go for a small map and higher difficulty level. For peaceful strategies the standard map and maybe one notch less in difficulty might be the better option.
- posted by Tobold @ 4:58 PM Permanent Link
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Like you, I prefer setting the map to large so that I have a bit of time to stretch my legs before the race starts. But it does need some tuning - I've had more than one play through where I researched currency only to find there were no trading partners within reach (and no visual indication of the merchant reach, natch.)
Also, I'm experiencing this strange ennui around turn 50 where I'm drifting in limbo, unable to tell how I'm doing versus other civs or even my own goals. Sure, I can see a percentage, but that's knowing my current position; I want to know my current velocity.Am I trying to do too many things at once and need to focus, or should I push for a stretch goal?
I never realized how much I depended on the Tech and Culture trees as a measuring stick in Civ 6; by splitting those into separate civ-specific screens, you lose a reliable guide. At the very least they need to put the General and Civ Techs trees on on screen and do the same for the Culture ones.
Otherwise they're going to see a pattern of people restarting with a new leader/civ combo in hope of finding one where the path to success seems more self-evident. That's not a fulfilling outcome.
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Also, I'm experiencing this strange ennui around turn 50 where I'm drifting in limbo, unable to tell how I'm doing versus other civs or even my own goals. Sure, I can see a percentage, but that's knowing my current position; I want to know my current velocity.Am I trying to do too many things at once and need to focus, or should I push for a stretch goal?
I never realized how much I depended on the Tech and Culture trees as a measuring stick in Civ 6; by splitting those into separate civ-specific screens, you lose a reliable guide. At the very least they need to put the General and Civ Techs trees on on screen and do the same for the Culture ones.
Otherwise they're going to see a pattern of people restarting with a new leader/civ combo in hope of finding one where the path to success seems more self-evident. That's not a fulfilling outcome.
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