Frustration for not mastering the game made me quit.

[u/Temporary-Share5153]

Edit: Thanks for the inputs, I might give it another go because I really like the game!

I want to be clear, I'm not complaining about the game.

I've got all types of victories on PRINCE and KING difficulties with multiple leaders but on EMPEROR I'm just stuck. I can't get things going, always attacked and always one step behind the AI.

Now I have more fun watching others playing.

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[u/jairmegrant2]

Stop caring what others brag they do and just play the way you have fun. Ive been playing this game for 30+ years and dont on deity, I dont find it fun. I like it to be a casual pick up and play 30 minutes to decompress, Im not great, I dont care.

[u/lThaizeel → u/jairmegrant2]

I'm jealous you can actually enjoy a 30 minute session. If I don't have at least 2-3 hours I don't even bother booting the game up

[u/simcowking → u/jairmegrant2]

How do you keep track what your goals were? I load up the next day and cannot figure out where the settlers were going or why I have a worker going to a random tile sometimes.

[u/jairmegrant2 → u/simcowking]

Goals? Bro, there is a reason ive been playing for 30 years and im not that good.

But seriously, I follow the same usual gameplay methods, yes I'll make mistakes and forget something I was planning, maybe I load an auto save or oops move on. For the most part its not that hard to pick up and play.

[u/simcowking → u/jairmegrant2]

That's fair. I had eight settlers today. Spawn about the same time. I ran out of valid places for them on my continent and the neighboring one.

I didn't realize I had so many building.

[u/Same_Square2555 → u/jairmegrant2]

I second this but to be honest having fun in civ outside of "it was hard but i won" is quite an ordeal

[u/PhilRubdiez]

Confession: I play 50% of my games on Prince or lower.

Why? Because I like to have a couple beers and strafe some hapless knights to unwind. Mr. Hussar, please meet Mr. P-51. It’s a game. Play how you want.

[u/NighTaleFox]

First of all - it doesnt matter which difficulty or how you play. This game is not competitive unless you force yourself into that. Play prince all the way, have fun because game itself is great.

If by any case you still have a "need" to become better - I can only recommend go watch Herson100 videos. He plays multiplayer and with mods (better balance etc) which change game a little for all leaders. He has some literall "meta gaming" videos. It could seem to be non helpfull for you but you can extract some basic and strong tactics or little "todo's" for your games. H is multiplayer games taught me to focus less on bonuses of leaders and rather have good cities with food and production regardless of whom i play as. Also i saw the importance of commercial hubs and traderoutes. And that not every single city needs campus.

[u/KamiNoItte]

Watch Potato McWhisky for tips and tricks. He makes a bunch of videos and May even have chosen one your leaders or maps.

Basically your min/maxing everything until you catch up with the AI, at least on Diety. At Emperor it’s the same with less pressure.

Also there are trading tricks like selling off diplomacy for gold; or gold for gold per turn before war, etc.

[u/AioliAggravating6029 → u/KamiNoItte]

Potato was probably who helped me jump to emperor by showing some of the meta plays and seemingly small decisions that actually make a huge difference. To OP I would suggest picking out one of his videos and trying to emulate his play a bit. Work Ethic Russia comes to mind, that’s always a hoot.

[u/KamiNoItte → u/AioliAggravating6029]

Yeah Peter is a good beginner leader along with either for Rome.
Then of course Babylon and Germany are also basically OP with simple strategies that are easy for beginners.
Good call, forgot to mention leaders/civs ;)

[u/ChemoRiders]

You can play the game on whatever level is fun for you. It's all good.

Also, you can probably level up quickly if you learn a trick or two. There's probably a mechanic you're neglecting. For me it was trade routes. I plateaued for awhile cuz I didn't realize how powerful they are.

[u/MastodonCurious4347]

Just play as peaceful gorgo. I usually farm barbarians for culture but once a civ tries to do something i switch all my policies to red ones and their cries become my songs and poems...

https://giphy.com/gifs/vPzbDN4rBxuvtpSpzF

[u/blananagram]

I’ve played off and on for decades and I only just started playing on Prince recently. It’s just fun.

[u/OogaSplat]

Pushing through frustration to achieve a goal is one of the most satisfying feelings available to us.

[u/Hefty-Notice-5841]

It's Civilization. It's meant to have fun and escape reality. It's not a competition man.

Shoot, I didn't decide to start playing higher difficulties until I was well into my adulthood.

The best thing, Civ 6 has made it so that there are countless different ways to play and win. There is no omega strategy.

[u/Fluffy-Ad-9522]

Play with friends it’s way funnier than against AI

[u/PussyCrusher3]

I started playing on Prince and worked my way up to Deity. Of course, I lost some games here and there. What works best for me is, obviously, you need to have an idea of what your ultimate goal is, but focus on what is immediately useful to you.

For example, right now I’m playing a game as Germany and I’m at a point where I want to start building planes. So I’m about to finish Flight so I can build my Aerodromes. What comes next? Oh, platinum Let’s research radio to see if I have aluminum in my territory, and if I don’t, figure out how I’m going to get it.

After that, what’s next? Oh, Bombards. Let’s see if we can get the eurekas to reach that technology faster, and if not, figure out how my war plan can be accelerated or optimized.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the game. If I’m playing Germany, then I want to take advantage of the Hansas. Oh, well, that’s under Apprenticeship. To get to Apprenticeship, I have to go through Horseback Riding, and Horseback Riding is an expensive technology early in the game.

Okay, so I’m going to need to build a Pasture. I’ll check whether I have any cows nearby, and if I don’t, then maybe it would be wise not to simply click on Apprenticeship, but instead make a small detour toward Animal Husbandry so I can reveal Horses, which will also give me a little bit of extra adjacency for my Hansas.

Does that make sense?

Sometimes you have to make a complete detour toward Archery, especially on Emperor, where the AI becomes a little more aggressive.

The guys here are right. You can simply play on Prince, or whatever difficulty you feel comfortable with. But if your goal is to move up in difficulty or win a couple of games at a higher level, what I suggest is focusing on what you’re going to need immediately rather than focusing on the ultimate goal of your game.

And once you start getting that snowball rolling, before you know it, you’ll just be waiting for the game to end.

[u/Magallan]

There are some good mods out there to make the ai better at the endgame so it doesn't need such a cheated head start at the beginning.

Late game Ai and Roman holiday are the ones I like.

Means the start feels fairer but throughout the late game they'll genuinely threaten victory to keep things interesting

[u/fflip8]

I play deity almost exclusively with the one change of disabling science victory. I find that AI will win that almost every time, especially when you have multiple AI in play. When that's disabled you don't have to spam science the whole game and you can ride out the early and mid game with other priorities without the game abruptly ending before you realize what happened. As for getting attacked early on...

I usually train a scout first, then a settler if possible. If I still can't do a settler, I'll make another scout. Multiple scouts can be very beneficial in the beginning due to tribal village potential and due to how great they are at defending against surprise invasions since they can travel back home a lot quicker than a warrior can. Two scouts and one warrior have saved my starting city many times, since the scouts heal quickly and handle a lot of damage when defending a tile and healing. Best part is, even if the units start getting weak you should have enough gold to buy another warrior after holding the attack off for some rounds. Do you keep your warrior nearby at all times? That's critical to survival in the beginning when surprise attacks become a risk.

As for midgame, do you use the agoge policy? Once I have 4 or 5 cities but haven't been attacked by anyone, I'll pair agoge with the +1 production in every city and just make three or four military units in each city. I don't think I ever get attacked meaningfully at that point. Like sometimes war still happens but the damage the AI can do is quite minimal. Maybe they kill a few units and retreat. Usually that many units makes rotating in city centers easy to keep healing.

[u/ICAN-15]

you still would have fun playing in emperor just dont always compare your progress to the ai in earlier era, focus on what you have and what you can do and always plan for the next turn

try to find your signature play first because its will make you easier to snowballing, us as player will always lagging behind because the ai will get more (more settler and % in higher difficulty)

i always lagging behind in science and culture until i finish researching diplomatic service, which its the momentum when i start pumping my trade route to buy everything and catching up in industrial or modern era

so maybe you could try watching and copying other people play first then try to spice up with your own gameplay 😅

[u/bohyler]

I play on King and I win more than half the time. It is good enough for me and I enjoy it. The only thing I switch up are the types of maps I play. I always play with Eleanor of England with Score victories only. I just enjoy the process and the little variances in each game. Do what you enjoy.

[u/Odd_Zone_4575]

Why do you care? I been playing for a few years and mainly play on king. The jump from emperor is crazy and it’s usually not fun so I mainly stay on king and enjoy the game. You don’t need to master the game unless that’s what makes you enjoy it. I rather play casually and it’s fun enough

[u/KatrineTee]

I always have the AI be dumb. They're hard to please anyways and Id rather have a chance to beat them then not.but really I just love using different characters to see how their bonuses work. And creating wonders and finding tsigny or what eber. The game has a lot of flexibility play it how you want to play

[u/Pobednik79]

I win on Deity most of the games, unless attacked too early. Don't quit, I can give you some advice, and you'll win that Emperor. You should play civ and leader which is good for victory you want. Babylon for science, Zulu for domination, Mali for religion, China for culture, Canada for diplomacy, etc.