Hello dear readers and thanks for joining me here on Shoot the Rookie! Today I have another post in my occasional series, Civilization VI Stories for you. Come join me to find out how my most recent game turned out!
This is my second post in this series, and this one really highlights one of the reasons I started the series in the first place: that every game of Civ has its own story, and each is different to the last.
This time around I played as India, lead by the 20th century figure Gandhi. He was known, both in his day and since his death, for his anti-colonialist achievements and his use of non-violent resistance, so could I build a successful Indian Civilization using the least violence possible? Lets find out!
Game Setup
Difficulty: King
Map Size: Small
Map Type: Island Plates
Barbarians: Normal
AI Civilizations: 5
The Beginning
This was my first time playing on King difficulty and the start gave me a rude awakening. Barbarians came for me, both with boats and land units, before I could even build boats. Although I didn’t have a definite plan at this point, this certainly lead me to building more military units than I would have liked and diverting my production away from more seemly projects. I was still able to expand, adding a second, third and fourth city in the land easily available to me, although early on my nearest neighbour, the well-oiled Gilgamesh of Sumer, had something to say about this!
The Middle
Luckily, the Barbarian assault didn’t last long and I managed to take out the outpost they had nearby. This meant that I could focus on developing my cities and meeting other Civilizations. Those other Civilizations included Greece who were just across the water from me, and after meeting them (and being instantly denounced because apparently Pericles just didn’t like me) I began to realise that I was WAY behind in both Science and Civics.
Ignoring the military option, this left but one route to victory: Religion. Luckily India have some good religion-focused skills and I had been able to found Hinduism fairly early, although I was by no means a religious powerhouse at this point, with both Sumer and France posing significant barriers. I tested the waters tentatively, sending the odd missionary to Sumer, but all this achieved was to piss Gilgamesh off, and soon I managed to annoy France in a similar fashion. Greece however did not have a religion of their own, so it was there that my great conversion would start.
Slowly but surely I continued to expand, adding what would turn out to be my most strategically important city, Agra, on a small island just south of France, and later discovered a beautiful and undeveloped land-mass full of diamonds where I put my final two cities. I even managed to squeeze in a couple of National Parks, because for me it isn’t a proper game if you don’t build one.
The End
Well, yep! I won! But the road to victory was not easy and took a radical switch in strategy to accomplish. After converting most of Greece and England (who also lacked their own religion), I focused on France and Arabia. The latter were initially very against conversion, but since they kinda hated me anyway I kept going with it and they stopped complaining. France were a much harder task, but due to my earlier ‘Holy Sites in Every City’ policy, the religious pressure on them was too great and they caved relatively easily in the end.
Sumer were the main obstacle, and both them and Greece appeared to be striding towards their own victories in different ways. I sent missionary after missionary and apostle after apostle to Sumer, but as soon as I got in there they sent inquisitors and converted their cities back. So instead of building one at a time, I saved up my faith points and launched a combined assault, converting several of their cities in a couple of turns and then victory was mine!
Final Thoughts
This game was tough going and even towards the end I wasn’t sure I would win given the scientific and cultural advancement of some of the other civs. King however seems like a good difficulty level for me, and although I will try the next one up at some point, I feel that this might be where I am most comfortable. The other thing I noticed during this game was just how much a religious victory can feel like a military mobilization. Although I took a non-violent approach (except in response to Barbarian attacks), I still felt as though I was leading an army at the end and that is quite a tough thing to morally reckon with.
So there we have it! My first foray on King difficulty ended in a glorious victory for India. But who should I play as next and what victory conditions should I go for? Let me know your thoughts below in comments and don’t forget to join me next time for more video game and anime nonsense!
Thanks for reading,
Pix1001 x
Shoot the Rookie 
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