'Civilization VI' adds Poland to the fray
Playing as Jadwiga sounds like a lot of fun.
Civilization VI was rightly lauded as a return to form for Firaxis following the unfortunate diversion that was Beyond Earth. But, as you'd expect from the first iteration of a complex 4X strategy game, things haven't been perfect. An update last month brought DirectX 12 support and a considerable interface upgrade, along with the standard balancing and AI improvements. This month, the game's developers are adding more features, refinements and, for a price, a new civilization to toy with.
For full notes on what's new, you can head to Firaxis' website. There's no headline item per se, but the addition of an "Alert" action that lets you sleep units until they see an enemy, and killing the bug that had Great Admirals randomly spawning on top of wonders (making them functionally useless). Rest assured there are plenty of balancing, AI tuning, aesthetic and bug fixes that should add some polish to the game.
Speaking of adding polish, a new $4.99 (£4) DLC adds the ability to play as Jadwiga, Poland's Medieval queen. Jadwiga has some interesting abilities, not least of which is the power to steal territory by building encampments or forts. Doing so will also help spread your religion to nearby cities. Sure, it sounds like a very quick way to get someone to declare war on you, but adding a "culture bomb" to standard military buildings is a very interesting mechanic nonetheless. The pack also comes with a 60-turn scenario that will have you defending Poland, Prague and Vienna from invaders.
Firaxis appears to be taking a different approach to updates and DLC this time around, and that's understandable. With Civilization V, it released a game that, while offering many improvements, stripped out much of the functionality of the previous title. That enabled it to release DLC that significantly expanded on the original game. As Civilization VI arrived pretty much feature-complete, it seems the developer is content to just release small iterative updates for now, with fresh scenarios and civilizations appearing as DLC.
