When doing a show of power, players don’t even need to perform their actions toward who they are attempting to intimidate. Power plays are often just psychological shows in order to deter others. However, power plays can also just be used to destroy other players with style, and here are the biggest power plays to pull off in a game of Civilization 6.
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Stealing a Great Work with Spies
Great Works are central for players going for a Cultural Victory. The tourism provided by these pieces of writing, religion, art, music, and archaeology is incredibly valuable for culture and infecting all other civilizations with that culture. Since many of these works require a Great Person to create, players either have to invest resources or wait a long time in order to get them.
This is why it is an absolute show of power to steal a Great Work from another player. While the odds aren’t that high, it is possible for spies to steal Great Works from theater districts in other civilizations. Making the spy go on a mission to gain sources beforehand is a great way to increase the odds of stealing. If successful, the player that was stolen from will not be happy about the theft, but the stealing player gets a Great Work essentially for free.
If the player that is stolen from is upset by this, there is no Casus Belli that will justify war over a Great Work, so they will be getting warmonger penalties if they attempt to declare war. If players don’t want the penalties, they can either attempt to steal the Great Work back, but initiating this tactic is definitely a power play.
Settle Close to Another Civilization’s Borders
Players in Civilization 6 like having room to grow their cities and empires. After all, more resources and space for wonders and districts become available with time as the borders slowly expand through the turns. However, other players who have no care for the personal space of other civilizations are absolutely free to settle near other civilizations and block off development from certain areas. Many AI controlled civilizations will not be happy with players settling so close to them and most real players won’t be happy as well. This can provoke other civilizations into declaring war or can just show off the confidence of the settling player.
Sabotaging Districts With Spies
Spies have many uses in Civilization 6 as mentioned before. Other than taking players’ hard earned Great Works, spies can also pillage districts that players desperately need. Like with stealing Great Works, there is a risk factor for failure, but success is usually worth it.
In Industrial Zones, spies sabotaging production will cause the spy to pillage every building inside the district at the same time. This can greatly reduce that city’s production and cause the player who owns that city to devote precious time and resources to repairing everything again.
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Spaceports can also be completely pillaged, causing any Scientific Victory project occurring in that city to be postponed until the district is repaired. Cities with a lot of flood activity can also have their dams pillaged by spies in order to cause a flood in the city.
Go Nuts With Nukes
Nuclear weapons are very controversial in the world, with many people arguing over the morality of them, their effectiveness as deterrents, and whether they should ever be used. However, Civilization 6 doesn’t take place in the real world, so they can be used to just wipe another city off of the face of the map.
Using nukes can bring heavy warmonger penalties and can quickly cause war weariness for the player’s citizens after using them. They also provide a lot of aftereffects that affect the world after the blast. However, they can be the ultimate show of power in any victory condition.
Taking Units From Other Civilizations
Barbarians can be one of the biggest pains during Civilization 6’s early game. They can sometimes completely take down a player’s troops, leaving them defenseless from the very start. What’s worse is that barbarians can steal away precious non-combat units such as builders and settlers. Luckily for players, they can easily recapture them. However, players from other civilizations can also recapture them.
While it may be polite to trade over the captured unit to their original civilization when playing with friends, player don’t actually have to do that. There is no downside to taking units captured by barbarians from other civilizations and just keeping them. While it may upset human players, there really isn’t much they can do about it except create a new unit.
Building Wonders That Other Players Want
There are many different wonders that players can build in their civilizations. Certain players may want to build certain ones depending on their desired victory condition and their starting location. Playing with real people can give players hints on what they might be going for with their civilization. Of course, nothing is like taking a wonder from under their feet, causing them to create a new plan or start yelling over the discord voice call.
There is no way for players to see what other players are producing. If they have visibility on the player’s city, they might be able to see the construction of the wonder if they recognize it, but players often are focusing on their own land and what’s happening in their own territory. Snatching wonders is a great show of power that’s sure to cause discourse.
Civilization 6 is available for iOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
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