David’s Thoughts on Civ VI’s New Frontier Pass DLC 3

My fellow Civilization fans, lend me your ears… er, eyes, I suppose. The time has come once again for those of us who own Civilization VI’s New Frontier Pass to rejoice. It’s been just about two months since the last major, paid DLC that falls under the banner of the New Frontier Pass reached Steam; if you’re keeping score at home, you know what that means.

Yes indeed, the third piece of exclusive DLC has gone live recently. I’m here today to offer my thoughts on it for your benefit, as is my sworn duty as Phenixx Gaming’s unofficial Civilization VI correspondent. I say we waste no time and begin immediately.

As was the case with the two previous paid components of the New Frontier Pass, this third DLC brings to the metaphorical table three major aspects: two new playable Civs (which, by definition, means two new leaders) and a new optional game mode if you’re looking for additional ways to spice things up in your future games. The new Civs in question are Byzantium, led by Basil II, and Gaul, led by Ambiorix.

In addition, the new game mode is known as “Dramatic Ages mode.” This new game mechanic needs the Rise & Fall expansion in order to to function properly. That is another good reason to purchase both expansions in addition to the New Frontier Pass if you can. Some pieces of DLC in the New Frontier Pass also requires the Gathering Storm expansion. These requirements will likely remain in place for the remaining pieces of DLC that have yet to be announced.

If you’re missing either of the expansions and you want to get the most out of the New Frontier Pass, I would recommend perhaps waiting for the next prominent Steam sale. Considering the precedents set by past sales, I’m sure both expansions and the Platinum Edition of Civ VI will be at least somewhat discounted when this year’s Steam Winter Sale rolls around.

I’m going to let you in on a little behind-the-scenes “trade secret” of sorts about the process by which I go about experimenting with new Civilization VI DLC so that I can cover all the new content at least somewhat intelligently in articles such as this. This “trade secret” of mine will probably initially sound like the obvious, logical steps one might take toward writing a piece like this, but I ask that you hear me out.

I typically start out by playing at least one game with each new Civ added in any given DLC pack. Within that first game or two, I always enable the newest game mode so that I can “test the waters,” so to speak, and determine exactly how (if at all) that game mode might force me to alter my normal strategies depending on my chosen Civ. I additionally enable any other combination of previously-added game mechanics I also enjoy, such as the second DLC pack’s Secret Societies mode.

During the process of my first game with a new Civ, I study their strengths in the forms of their unique units, buildings, districts, interactions, and passive abilities before I even load into a game. I then do my best to put those strengths to use while simultaneously shoring up my chosen Civilization’s weaknesses to the best of my ability.

This probably all sounds like what most rational people would do when dipping their metaphorical toes into new content, I know. That’s why I try to shake things up after my first game so as to keep myself on my toes and experiment with new ways to win with a new Civ, perhaps without exploiting its uniqueness.

After I think I’ve established a decent enough grasp of how a Civ is optimally played, I then start another game in which I play as one of my favorite Civs against the newest playable empires. I do this to ensure I at least know something about how to counter, or temporarily cooperate with, the aspects of the newest content should I ever need find myself needing to do so.

Let me provide an example. Based on the time I’ve currently spent playing as both Byzantium and Gaul, in addition to the ways in which each Civ’s unique strengths and weaknesses are factored in, I think I prefer playing as the former of these two given the choice. I would even go so far as to say that Byzantium may even be one of my new favorite Civs to play based on how much fun I’ve had and how much I’ve learned while wearing the crown of Basil II.

That’s not to say I outright dislike playing as Gaul by any stretch of the imagination, however. Leading my people into battle and building up the Gallic empire as Ambiorix is quite enjoyable in its own right. As a matter of fact, the way I’ve found that Gaul is best played is a noteworthy departure from my usual play style. Once I got used to that, I considered it quite a nice change of pace. I think everything I’ve just explained is a decent segue into discussing my actual thoughts on this pair of Civs, so let’s talk details, shall we?

Since I’ve established that I enjoy playing Byzantium as much as I do, I think I shall start by presenting my thoughts on what the Byzantine empire is capable of. With the aforementioned Basil II at the helm, Byzantium has the potential to quite easily strive for victory via religious or military dominance. In fact, its unique units and abilities give you a better chance to try for a mix of both of these victory conditions and allows you to reap certain benefits either way.

You’re going to want to get yourself a Great Prophet and subsequently found a religion as soon as physically possible. You should also focus on fiercely fighting off anyone who tries to wipe out your religion before you can really get it going. It is incredibly unwise to ignore any foreign missionaries or apostles who attempt to sneak into your territory and convert your Holy City. As you might imagine, Byzantium relies especially heavily on spreading its founded religion to as many cities (both domestic and foreign) as possible in short order to maximize the benefits from doing so.

To elaborate, let’s get into Byzantium’s unique units and abilities. This empire’s first unique, non-leader-specific passive ability has three intertwined components. Firstly, this ability grants Byzantium’s units +3 Combat Strength or Religious Strength for each Holy City – that is, the city in which a Civ initially founded its religion – which is converted to Byzantium’s religion. Notably, this includes Byzantium’s Holy City. This gives your units a permanent combat bonus as soon as you found your religion.

Secondly, Byzantium passively receives +1 Great Prophet point per turn from each city under its control which contains a Holy Site district. Of course, these additional Great Prophet points become moot once you actually acquire a Great Prophet; however, this aspect can be useful to help you reach that point in the first place.

Finally, Byzantium’s religion is automatically spread in a considerable amount to every nearby city each time an enemy Civ’s unit or city-state’s unit is destroyed by a Byzantine unit. As an anecdotal example, 250 points of my religion were spread to all cities and city-states within range each time I defeated an enemy unit. This amount may or may not change based on a few factors, such as game speed. I haven’t experimented with whether or not that’s actually the case quite yet.

Byzantium also has access to two unique units, although one of them is inextricably tied to the presence of Basil II. The first of these units is the Dromon, a Classical Era replacement for the Quadrireme naval unit. It has additional range comparatively and receives a particularly hefty bonus +10 Combat Strength against units.

The second unique Byzantine unit is the one that specifically requires the presence of Basil II, and is known as the Tagma. This is a Medieval Era heavy cavalry unit which replaces the Knight in particular. Each Tagma unit grants all land units within one tile of it a bonus +4 Combat Strength or Religious Strength. The Tagma can be produced as soon as Byzantium discovers the Divine Right civic.

Basil II’s unique leader-specific ability ties in quite well with units like the Tagma. I’ll discuss that ability last so that I can go into more detail about why that is. In the meantime, it’s also important that I mention Byzantium’s unique district. This district is known as the Hippodrome. Despite the name, it sadly isn’t a refuge for wayward hippopotamuses that you could amass and subsequently train into unique heavy cavalry units. However, the Hippodrome does mesh quite nicely with that particular class of units.

You see, Byzantium’s Hippodrome is actually a replacement for the Entertainment Complex, of all things. The Hippodrome is cheaper to build, and the base district with no additional buildings automatically provides +3 Amenities as a baseline. That’s not all, though. Whenever you complete construction of a Hippodrome and any subsequent buildings in that district, you’re given a free, era-appropriate heavy cavalry unit. I do genuinely mean “free,” since units acquired this way do not require any gold or strategic resources to create or maintain.

For example, suppose you’re in the Medieval Era, you’ve just developed the Divine Right civic, and you decide to create as many Hippodromes and related buildings as you can. By doing so, you’ve suddenly got yourself a legion of your unique Tagma units that are all completely free of maintenance costs. Later on in the game, the same could be said for Tanks, which won’t even require any Oil to function properly. This is especially wonderful if you don’t actually have any available Oil in your territory.

Virtually everything I’ve said so far interfaces exceptionally well with Basil II’s leader-specific passive ability. I think I’ve kept you waiting long enough, so let me explain why I truly enjoy playing as Byzantium so much. I won’t dare attempt to pronounce or even properly spell the name of Basil II’s leader-specific passive ability, but rest assured that this ability is crucial to achieving military and/or religious dominance as Byzantium.

This ability makes it so that your Light and Heavy Cavalry units always inflict full damage to cities and city-states that are following your religion. Since your religion is automatically spread to nearby cities and city-states in not-insignificant amounts every time you eliminate an enemy unit anyway, it’s not quite as difficult as it might otherwise be to ensure that the cities you want to capture follow your religion.

That’s especially true if your enemy sends out several units at once to try and fight you off. The more of their units you destroy, the more pressure from your religion reaches their cities, thus making it more likely that lengthier battles will fully convert their nearby settlements. You additionally get +5 Era Score when you convert another Civ’s Holy City to your religion for the first time. This bonus Era Score can help you avoid Dark Ages while you’re out conquering anyone who dares declare war on the mighty Byzantine Empire.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that you don’t need to maintain Open Borders agreements with any Civs in order to get units that can spread your religion inside their territory, which makes things even less difficult. Of course, you’ll also get the perks that come from any additional cities beginning to follow your religion regardless of whether or not you’ve incorporated those cities into your empire.

I hope that lengthy explanation serves as a testament to how much I enjoy playing this new Civ. However, we’ve still got a fair bit left to cover in this article, so let me wrap up this section by briefly summarizing my thoughts on this Civ as a whole. I think I’ll do that by sharing what I thought was a particularly amusing anecdote from my first game with them.

By chance, I wound up settling Constantinople right near Swedish territory within the context of this game. Despite Sweden being a more Science-focused Civ, it seemed they thought I was an easy target to be overtaken by their military. Kristina consequently declared a surprise war on me, which she swiftly lost to the might of the Byzantine cavalry.

I made peace with Sweden after capturing a few of their nearby cities, only to later discover that they were now at war with the Dutch. As it happened, Sweden had also recently denounced me. I took advantage of these factors to declare a formal war. Ultimately, to make a long and glorious story short, Sweden remained present in that game just long enough to award me the Nobel Peace Prize. I got quite a few laughs out of that whole set of circumstances, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Let us now move on so that I may offer my thoughts on the second new playable Civilization added in this DLC. Gaul, led by the aforementioned Ambiorix, brings to the metaphorical table two unique passive abilities, a unique unit, and a unique district. The first of these passive abilities, Ambiorix’s leader-specific trait, is known as “King of the Eburones.” It grants Gaul bonus Culture equal to 20% of any non-civilian unit’s cost whenever such a unit is trained.

Gaul’s unique trait which isn’t tied to Ambiorix is called “Hallstatt Culture.” This ability makes it so that each Mine constructed in Gallic territory provides a minor adjacency bonus for all specialty districts, in addition to a Culture Bomb of any nearby tiles that Gaul doesn’t already possess and a bonus +1 Culture. However, in exchange for these bonuses, this trait mandates that specialty districts cannot receive a minor adjacency bonus for being adjacent to another district. This trait also means that no specialty districts can be built directly adjacent to a city center.

Gaul’s unique unit is known as the “Gaesatae.” It’s the first unit you’ll acquire in games you play as Gaul, assuming you typically start your games in the Ancient Era. That’s because the Gaesatae replaces the standard Warrior. The Gaesatae is more expensive to train than the unit which it replaces, but has what I think is quite a useful ability in exchange for this higher upfront cost. This unit gains a bonus +10 Combat Strength when it enters combat against any unit that has a higher base Combat Strength than the Gaesatae. This unit also passively gains +5 Combat Strength against district defenses.

Lastly, Gaul’s unique district serves as a replacement for the Industrial Zone and is known as the Oppidum. The Oppidum is cheaper to construct and is available earlier. Additionally, what I consider to be this district’s most interesting aspect is that it takes a page out of the Encampment district’s book. That is to say, each Oppidum you build has the ability to defend itself with its own ranged attack.

What’s more, you automatically unlock the Apprenticeship technology upon completing construction of your first Oppidum. As if all of that wasn’t enough, all Oppidum districts in your territory also receive a bonus +2 Production if they’re adjacent to a Quarry or an improved strategic resource. I’d say that’s a lot of potential to attach to a single unique district.

In their “First Look” video on Gaul that was uploaded a few days before this DLC pack released, Firaxis will tell you that “Gaul’s focus is on a defensive, Culture- and Production-centered game.” In my (admittedly somewhat limited) experience at the helm of the Gallic Empire, that statement tends to ring fairly true. You’re best off expanding your empire by capitalizing upon the Culture Bombs on nearby territory you’re granted each time you construct a Mine as opposed to expansion via conquest.

Personally, I tend to dislike Civs whose unique units replace troops from the Ancient Era, such as Gaul’s Gaesatae. You see, I exclusively play on Online speed because I don’t want each game to take a millennium and a week. Because of that, I’ve always felt that I hardly get any use out of unique Ancient Era units due to the fact that they’re only viable in an era during which I’m very rarely prepared to put these units to use against anyone except Barbarians. However, the instant +4 Era Score you get from starting with a Gaesatae can be nice, especially if you’re playing with the newest game mode enabled.

That seamless segue leads me to my final talking point for this article. As has been tradition with every major aspect of the New Frontier Pass so far, its third DLC pack brings with it another optional game mode. These modes are added to cater to players who want new ways to be kept on their toes in each game they create. This new gameplay mechanic is known as “Dramatic Ages mode.”

Within Dramatic Ages mode, there are no such things as Normal Ages (except for the first era of a game) or Heroic Ages; that is to say, there are only Golden and Dark Ages. These Golden and Dark Ages are, as Firaxis puts it, “more potent than ever” because of the effects they have on the Civs who either earn a prosperous Golden Age or wind up wallowing in a Dark Age. Allow me to elaborate.

If you’re familiar with the content added in the Rise & Fall expansion, you’ll know that upon the start of any new in-game era, you have the opportunity to make either one or three dedications for the new era based on whether you achieved a Dark, Normal, Golden, or Heroic Age. These dedications may temporarily grant you such bonuses as additional Science or Culture, the ability to purchase Settlers and Builders with Faith, a special Casus Belli that can be invoked immediately after denouncing your intended target for war, or any number of other things.

These dedications do not exist in their traditional form within any games of Civilization VI wherein Dramatic Ages mode is toggled on. That is, you don’t just pick one or three of them from a list of four at the start of each new era and call it a day. Instead, dedications take the form of Wildcard social policies that you can use to your heart’s content in most government types regardless of whether you’re in a Golden Age or a Dark Age.

This means that if your government type allows for it, you can take advantage of multiple dedication bonuses at once rather than the strict limit of one such dedication with which you’d normally have to contend. You also won’t have to swap these policies out at any point unless you want to, provided you manage to maintain a constant Golden Age. This is also true for Dark Age dedication policies, but you most assuredly don’t want to remain in a Dark Age for any longer than you absolutely have to.

That’s because, in keeping with the theme which dictates that Dark Ages are “more potent than ever,” these ages have quite pronounced negative effects upon any Civ unfortunate enough to fail to earn a Golden Age. The most dangerous of these effects is that immediately upon a Dark Age befalling any Civ in a game, a number of that Civ’s cities will become Free Cities. That is, the Civ which ordinarily controls these cities loses their authority over them and will have to reclaim them before another Civ beats them to it. Free Cities can then be captured by any player via military force or loyalty pressure.

The exact portion of a player’s empire which becomes composed of Free Cities at the onset of any Dark Age depends upon the game’s set difficulty. On difficulty settings below 4 (which is called “Prince”), AI players lose more territory from Dark Ages than human players do. On any settings above 4, human players suffer the worse fate in this context. When a given game’s difficulty is set to exactly 4, this risk is equal between human players and AI Civs.

All the normal ways of earning Era Score to work toward Golden Ages are still present. Creating your Civ’s unique unit, building, or district will still net you an immediate +4 Era Score. Wonders like the Taj Mahal also still add onto that where they can. However, with this new mode enabled, you earn an additional +1 Era Score each time you finish researching a Technology or Civic, as well as each time you promote a unit after the first of such occasions.

Honestly, I have mixed feelings about Dramatic Ages mode. In theory, I think it’s a fantastic idea. However, until I’m more familiar and comfortable with working toward Golden Ages in practice, I almost feel forced to stick to lower difficulties to give myself a fair shot. That’s the main thing I dislike about this mode. Having written that thought out, though, I suppose that’s kind of the entire point of Dramatic Ages. All I know with certainty is that I’ll have to keep practicing and experimenting.

There you have it, my friends! In case you’re unfamiliar with how the New Frontier Pass is structured, it will receive new paid DLC every two months until its ten-month lifespan is reached. That means there will be three more major DLC packs as part of the pass. One will release sometime this November, one in January, and the last pack will release in March.

What’s more, in the months during which there isn’t a paid piece of major DLC, there’s usually a free update that may add new things, fix bugs, address game balance issues, or provide other things of that nature. You have my word that I’ll cover each of these upcoming DLC packs as diligently as I can. Until then, if you need me, I’ll be taking one more turn!