Civilization VI continues to be a great 4X strategy game of the year, and are doing so with the introduction of a new balance patch. A major patch was pushed for Autumn that fixes some bugs (weird scenes appear when an AI declare a joint-war with a civ you haven’t met yet) and added new features (a notifier on a Barbarian Scout that has pinpointed your city location), and the Winter Patch, as it is called, is doubling down on the fixes, some balancing issues as well as the very much needed AI improvements. Check out the full patch notes here.
Alongside the patch, two new pieces of DLC are introduced. Poland returns from its debut in Civilization V Brave New World. The Winged Hussar unique unit is still formidable as ever. The unique building, the Sukiennice gives bonuses to trade routes and their unique ability is to claim lands adjacent to forts and encampments, even taking other civs’ claimed lands. The culture bomb returns!
In addition, one milatray slot from the government is switched to a wildcard slot- making Poland a much more flexible civ. With Jadwiga as its leader, Poland has religious advantages too. Relics have more bonuses- so send those apostles to martyrfom- and any city that lost a tile to forts and encampment will immediately flip to Poland’s main religion. Poland can be aggressive or passive as you like.
The other DLC, Vikings Scenario pack, focuses on the scenarios. Scenarios is a Civ staple that was not included in Civ VI, but has now been introduced as DLC. While the Poland DLC does include a scenario as well, the Vikings Scenario adds a different scenario plus six new city-states and three new natural wonders. Both packs cost RM12 each and available now on Steam.
It may seem weird to charge DLC for new civs and city-states, but for a game like Civ where the focus is the single-player, it works. And for RM12 a piece- which could go even for just a few ringgit if it ever got on sale- it’s cheap to buy in. Plus, the patch also adds one freebie- the Earth Map. So it’s still a good time to check out Civ VI if you’re not interested with the DLCs.