Even with the relatively small sample size that we have thus far, there are already so many exciting changes coming to Civ 7, building upon what Civ 6 and previous iterations had done. Just weeks ahead of its launch, Civ 7 appears to be a crisp, new, and exciting addition to the Firaxis Games franchise. So, whether you were an avid Civ 6 player, or someone coming back to the franchise after some time away, here are the top 5 biggest changes coming to Civ 7 that we are most excited about.
The Top 5 Biggest Changes from Civ 6 to Civ 7 | A completely new Civ experience!
The most note-worthy and gameplay-impacting change in Civ 7 has to be the introduction of the three Ages in the game – the Antiquity Age, Exploration Age, and Modern Age. Now, rather than playing through one long game with a single tech tree like in Civ 6, where players advanced to Ages at their own pace within a game, everyone will be working towards certain tasks to uniformly advance the age. We have the most exposure to gameplay from the Antiquity Age, which roughly spans from early settlement creation up until players would normally begin to assemble naval fleets and travel across oceans.
The Exploration Age spans from that point up until the introduction of railroads, which is one of the marquee advancements of the Modern Age, which will cover the Industrial Revolution, generally speaking. While we have less on these ages from a gameplay perspective, each looks incredibly robust and should serve to give much more structure to your Civ 7 game. Time will tell how this truly plays out, but it is without a doubt a major Civ 7 change from any of the past iterations of the game.
Another landmark change to the Civ franchise comes in the player’s ability to play as multiple different civilizations in one game. Now, to clarify, you will still only play as one leader throughout each game, however, you can pivot and grow into many different civilizations in one game as the diagram above shows. This is going to make for a significant increase in strategy and build-design, but it is going to be strange to see Ben Franklin arriving on my border as Russia (not sure if that is a real possible scenario, but can you imagine?).
Read More: Are there going to be Builders in Civ 7?
We still have yet to see all of what is possible as it relates to this, but it is one of the most significant changes to Civ 7.
Your military should feel much more manageable and easy to transport in Civ 7 thanks to the new mechanics involving Army Commanders. These units have effectively replaced Great Generals and Admirals, but their most significant gameplay feature is their ability to shuttle multiple units around the map, and then disperse them to surrounding tiles. This will make unit management and moving your army around the map incredibly easy and also gives some fun ways to set up coordinated attacks and defenses.
Players can also level these units up through five different skill trees shown in the image above. This begins in the Antiquity Age and progresses through the game, making your Army Commanders a huge priority, both in terms of their survival and getting them experience early on. All in all, these changes should allow for better strategizing and less busy work, two common themes across many of the changes we are looking at.
This is what Deity(Max Difficulty) Civ 7 looks like – Civilization VII Preview
Popular Civ streamer and content creator PotatoMcWhiskey shows off exactly what the new mechanics are between cities and towns in his video above, with the spot timestamped where you can see a town transition into a city. But, in a nutshell, towns in Civ 7 are more easily manageable cities that give players a bit less freedom, whereas cities give players full control but require more management. It costs gold to make a town into a city, which gets less and less expensive the more developed the town has become.
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These are still founded by Settlers, which can now take damage, defend themselves, and cannot be taken over by enemy players. This is a change that I am very excited about for Civ 7, as one of the most frustrating things was losing a Settler to a random Barbarian.
All in all, this is another process that is much more streamlined and seems to be aimed at reducing busy work and unit management, in favor of strategic decision-making.
Image Courtesy of Firaxis Games
Win conditions in Civ 7 now have a Legacy Path track that begins all the way back in the Antiquity Age, versus things that typically only come into play in the late-game. Now, players will not only be able to work towards certain win conditions early on, but doing so can provide nice rewards going from age to age. The flip side of this is the addition of Dark Ages, which come from the inverse – not taking time to invest in one aspect of the game or another.
This incentivizes balance, but also establishing a consistent gameplan and identity that you are going to stick with early on. Between this and all of the other changes listed above, we should be in for a completely new Civilization experience.
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Civ 7’s release is right around the corner, so stay tuned for all of the latest here at The Game Haus. Soon, we will also be launching our new Civ-dedicated YouTube channel, CivHaus, which will go even more in-depth into all of the changes and new gameplay mechanics coming in Civ 7. Stay tuned for more!
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