With my scouts sent out, I filled my rolodex with other civs and, eventually, the World Congress was established. I was, I confess, hoping for something more like Civilization 5’s Venice, which plays unlike any other civ and never grows beyond a single city, but there is still a hint of that asymmetry. I could even see storm clouds in the fog of war, or at least little drawings of them, so I knew where they were even if I didn’t have cities or troops there at the time.įully settled, the Maori function like most of the other civs, though there remain quirks thanks to some unique abilities, like additional benefits from rainforest tiles and immediately starting with shipbuilding tech. Even when they weren’t affecting me, messages about droughts and storms reached my civilisation, like an ancient Weather Channel. At least that's certainly what I thought as I merrily built next to rumbling mountains filled with scorching lava.Ĭlimate change, arguably the headline attraction, doesn’t start affecting the game until the Industrial era, when civs can start to exploit natural fossil fuels, but that doesn’t mean bad weather and natural disasters can’t kick off at any time. All these places are actually good places to settle near, giving you access to more resources and more fertile soil. Don’t build underneath a volcano, don’t make your home on a flood plain and don’t get a beachfront property. Initially, these threats are unpredictable and unstoppable, but you can avoid them with a bit of common sense. Volcanic eruptions, rivers bursting their banks, rising sea levels-there are quite a few ways for Mother Nature to enact her revenge. Having the extra time to find the perfect home is an even bigger boon given the new threats facing humanity in the expansion. I wasn’t bold enough to wait for more than a handful of turns, but it was enough time to find a nice spot near a natural wonder and several exploitable resources, giving me benefits that most other capitals would have missed. Every turn waited pays dividends, but also comes with some big risks, not least that your entire civilisation could be undone if a barbarian chooses to attack your sole settler. Not only does it start on and have a general affinity with the ocean, it benefits from not settling too early. The Maori civilisation is one of several joining the game in Gathering Storm, but it piqued my interest the most because it promised to break my routine. For maybe the first time in over 20 years, I wasn’t rushing to found my first city. Instead of my settler and warrior appearing right next to a prospective city site, they were in boats, floating in between the map’s chilly southern pole and the tip of the continent to the north. Gathering Storm’s Maori don’t begin a game of Civilization 6 like the other civs. I started my journey through the history of civilisation adrift on the ocean.
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