New Frontier Pass Modes

A distinctive feature of the New Frontier Pass is the introduction of eight new game modes.

I have tried them all and won at least one game with each except the Zombie Defense mode. That one was so weird in that it was virtually constant combat because each time you killed a zombie, eventually it would respawn again. In addition, each unit killed – whether your own or of an AI civ or city-state that was at war – eventually returns as a zombie thereby increasing the number to deal with. Since I am not a great fan of continuous combat, I ended up just quitting that game. Maybe someday I will try again, but not anytime soon. For gamers who like playing for domination wins and relish the combat, this mode probably is an enjoyable challenge, but for me, it was just not fun.

The game modes are not exclusive – one can use one or more simultaneously.

The two I have enjoyed the most and use together almost every game I play now are ‘Monopolies and Corporations’ and ‘Barbarian Clans’. I like the former because it enhances the gold per turn production significantly (among other things) and I always seem to need more gold! The latter I really like a lot because Barbarian Camps not destroyed eventually evolve into new city-states. That expands the number of possibilities for trade routes and suzerains as the game progresses, both of which make a Diplomatic victory easier to achieve, and that has become my favorite way to play. Another side-effect of the larger than normal number of city-states is the probability that Valletta is one of them is greatly increased. Valletta is by far my favorite city-state to have as a suzerain because of being able to buy city projects, including flood barriers later in the game, with faith.

For a challenge with some unpredictability, the ‘Tech and Civic Shuffle’ mode can be added. It changes the sequence of the techs and civics in a random shuffle with all techs/civics in a given era all mixed up so planning ahead for boosts (Eurekas in the tech tree or Inspirations in the civics tree) is much more difficult. I will play this occasionally just for variety.

I don’t particularly like the other four modes much, so rarely play with any of them on anymore.

‘Apocalypse’ mode makes play more chaotic in the late game due to intensified disasters, comets especially. One comet can actually destroy a complete city if it happens to hit the city center.
‘Dramatic Ages’ mode is a little too dramatic for me. After the initial Ancient Era as a Normal Age, you are either in a Dark Age or a Golden Age, depending on how successful you have been in navigating the current age challenges. Special policy cards for each type of age help some to mitigate the issues that arise, but not enough as far as I’m concerned.
‘Heroes & Legends’ can be interesting because the characters are useful in unique ways for various aspects of the game. When I choose to use this mode, I try to get Hercules because of his ability to complete districts, even ones just started. That is a very powerful dynamic. The down side of this mode is recruiting a hero or legend takes city production time that many times I prefer to devote to other needs.
‘Secret Societies’ is a bit too much fantasy to my liking. I also do not like having to use Governor slots to advance the chosen society.

For more detail about all of the modes, visit the game modes page of the Civ Wiki.

I suspect for most Civ VI players, myself included, the introduction of the modes has made the game more interesting to continue playing. The variety they offer keeps the game somewhat fresh, although whether one uses any of the modes or not, no two play-throughs are at all alike.

Probably one reason I keep playing!

New Frontier Pass Civs & Leaders

Over the course of several months from May 2020 through April 2021, nine new leaders and eight new civilizations were added as part of the New Frontier Pass. In addition, two Persona Packs were added in July 2020.

Eight of the new leaders came with their new civilizations, but the ninth, Kublai Khan, was added as a second leader option for either China or Mongolia.

In the Persona Packs, the developers introduced two new options each for Theodore Roosevelt and Catherine de Medici. Roosevelt becomes either Teddy Bull Moose or Teddy Rough Rider, and Catherine becomes either Black Queen or Magnificence. Unless one plays with the original (Standard Rules) version of Civ VI (not Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions), these personas replace the original Teddy and Catherine.

A full outline of the New Frontier Pass expansion, including a listing of the new civs and leaders, is available at the Civilization Wiki website, a site I highly recommend for all kinds of detailed information about the game.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have played and won at least five games with each of these leaders. Some unique attributes make them all interesting to play, and some even feel over-powered at times. Although I’ve enjoyed them all as I played them, I cannot say any of them have become real favorites yet. I think it will take more intentionally playing to exploit their attributes than I did so far. I tend to play a style that favors diplomacy and not all of the new leaders or personas are as well suited to that as they might be to another focus.

For anyone who is interested in a detailed analysis of Civ VI leaders and suggestions for how to play with or against a particular leader, I recommend the excellent Zigzagzigal’s guides found on Steam.

New Frontier Pass Intro

So many things have changed in the last two and a half years that there are many topics I could write about, but first I will pick up where I left off – writing about Civ VI.

Over that span of time, I have downloaded and installed all the various game updates and patches as soon as they were released. Several of them were sorely needed fixes. I bought each of the first two expansions as soon as they were available, but was slower to get the DLC (Downloadable Content), although eventually bought them to have the full set.

I also immediately bought the last expansion – New Frontier Pass – when it launched. The final update of that expansion was April 2021 and at that time the developers said it was the last change they would make to Civ VI. We have not even seen any bug fixes since, so it is likely they are working on Civ VII now. (I wonder, has the recent release of competitor game ‘Humankind’ put any pressure on the developers to get a Civ new version out sooner?)

I believe earlier versions of Civilization (I through IV) had an original release followed later by some major expansions and several more minor updates. My first experience with the Civilization franchise was with Civ V and I know that was the case for it. This time, after two expansions, Firaxis introduced the idea of a ‘pass’ to have access to a series of new content updates over about ten months. It felt kind of weird buying a package of unknowns, but I decided to take the chance and do so rather than waiting until the end to see if buying all the new items was worth it. I have to say, I’m glad I did. The various new items have provided many hours of fun game-playing and learning.

Concurrent with the release of the New Frontier Pass, beginning in May 2020, Firaxis also released free monthly updates for all Civ VI owners. I won’t attempt to go into any detail on the content of those, but interested gamers can find more here.

In the next few posts, I will write more about the New Frontier Pass, the civilizations and leaders added bi-monthly, and the new modes introduced. I have played them all and definitely have some opinions to share.

Just for the record, I have now played and won at least five games with each civilization leader in the entire Civ VI series. At some point, I decided to take on the challenge of winning at least one game with each leader at each of the five highest levels: Prince, King, Emperor, Immortal, Deity. The lower levels are too easy to bother with. Even though I had won games at various levels before an official record was being kept by the game, I actually decided to “start over” with the original and early DLC civs so I would have an easy-to-access record of my progress using the Hall of Fame feature that was added to the Gathering Storm expansion. If I recall correctly, that came with the September 2019 update, when they moved “Additional Features” to a sub-menu on the main page.

As of today, I have 521 overall wins playing Civ VI:

Original Release – 50 wins
Rise and Fall Expansion – 23 wins (51 through 73)
DLC (from early through Rise and Fall) – 11 wins (74 through 84)
Gathering Storm Expansion – 142 wins (85 through 226)
New Frontier Pass – 234 wins (227 through 521)

Here is a screen shot of the total play time.

(Achievements have not been a high priority for me, especially since many of them are won through playing the various scenarios, which I do not enjoy playing much.)

By now, it may be obvious that the pandemic and my self-quarantining meant a good deal of time being spent playing Civ VI!

First Diplomacy Victory

After several attempts to do so, I finally won a game through Diplomacy.

The earlier attempts were helpful in learning what to do and not to do, as well as what the AI civs will do to prevent you from winning once you reach 8 out of the 10 Diplomatic Points needed for a Diplomatic Victory.

Interestingly enough, my success was with the Inca led by Pachacuti. I had thought Canada with Wilfrid Laurier, or France with Eleanor of Aquitaine would be the best new civs for achieving a Diplomacy victory, but as I got deeper into the game, I decided that the Inca are well suited for this type of victory pursuit.

It was a fun game, maybe one of the most enjoyable in the series of playing each of the new civs in Gathering Storm for the first time. Avoiding wars, achieving and keeping five alliances, and focusing on diplomatic favor provided a somewhat unique approach for me, but it paid off.

I was attacked fairly early in the game, lost a city, then regained it before settling the war; that turned out to be the only war of the game for me – a defensive war, so not a problem from the diplomacy point of view.

I went into the game knowing I would most likely need to build the Statue of Liberty wonder, because it provides 1 Diplomatic Point upon completion, and Diplomatic Points are difficult to earn. Even though I had only one port city, I was able to do so.

Another important source for those points is Aid Requests from other civs after they have experienced a natural disaster of some sort. In my previous games, I had the disaster intensity set at the default of 2. In those games, I had few opportunities to win the points through Aid Requests because there were so few serious disasters and the AI civs did not request any aid. This time I set the disaster intensity to the maximum of 4. It made a significant difference in the number of opportunities and as a result, I was able to win the game on turn 389 without relying only on the late-game options.

There are two late-game ways to earn guaranteed Diplomatic Points – researching the Seastead tech, and discovering the Global Warming Mitigation civic. I did research the Seastead tech, which gave me an important point – my ninth. The final and winning point in this game came as a result of winning an Aid Request just a few turns before I would have completed discovery of the civic.

One other way to earn Diplomatic Points is through Climate Accords in the World Congress, but I was never offered that option in this game.

Mid-to-later game options for essentially buying Diplomatic Points using Diplomatic Favor are presented as World Congress opportunities. Each time it comes up as a choice, 2 Diplomatic Points are at stake. I was able to win these points three times using a large amount of Diplomatic Favor. The first time was only by one vote, but the other two were not close. If another opportunity had come up after I already had 8 points, all the AI civs would have ganged up on me and voted for me to lose 1 point. That happened to me in another game, putting me too far away to win via Diplomacy and I had to settle for my backup option in that game, Culture.

In the Inca game, I was working on Science as my backup win option if Diplomacy failed again, but it was not necessary this time.

I had so much fun with this game, I think I will be choosing to play to win via Diplomacy regularly.

Wins With All Gathering Storm Civs

A little over a month after its release, I have completed my goal to win a game playing each of the new civs and leaders in Gathering Storm. I played all at Prince level of difficulty, standard game pace, standard map size, and beginning in the Ancient era. All but two were set at the default level of 2 for disaster intensity. The map types varied to take advantage of the strengths of the civ/leader.

Playing all the leaders and civs meant learning quite a bit more detail about the changes in Gathering Storm, as well as the unique strengths and weaknesses of the civ and leader. I found each to be strong in different ways and well worth playing again. As I look back on all ten games, I realize I won three each through Science, Culture, and Domination, and the final one through Diplomacy.

My original plan was to go through the civs in alphabetical order by their leader name, but for some reason I did not have the Inca and Pachacuti on my “list”, so I ended up playing him last. It turned out to be good, because after trying to win a Diplomatic Victory a couple of times (with Canada and France/Eleanor) and failing, having to settle for Culture victories, I was finally able to win via Diplomacy with the Inca. I will be writing a separate post about that game and win strategies.

The record for shortest game so far is a Domination win on turn 228 playing the Ottoman Empire with Suleiman. I think it helped to be on a Pangaea map as building a navy and time for sea travel was not a factor, but this is an overpowered civ.

Not surprisingly, the Maori with Kupe is quite strong on an Archipelago map, in this case resulting in a Domination win on turn 335.

Hungary with Mattias Corvinus was dominant due to their ability to levy city-state troops and upgrade them without cost. Result: Domination win on turn 356.

Mansa Musa of the Mali is fun to play because of the huge accumulation of gold and faith. It made winning by virtually any method viable, but I chose Science and won on turn 449. I enjoy getting deep into the late game that is inevitable when pursuing a Science victory.

In my next post, I’ll say more about the effects of a higher disaster intensity level, but as a result of what I learned so far, I think from now on, I will be playing with the disaster intensity level set at the maximum of 4. Watching Mabozir’s series of play-throughs, where he always sets the level at the maximum, I’ve seen the effects of the worst, and in most cases, the ultimate benefits outweigh the negatives.

In the two games I played at level 4, disasters were a major problem a few times, especially one tornado damaging 11 tiles (five districts!), killing 3 population, and otherwise creating havoc, but I’m learning how to mitigate natural disasters and the eventual improvement of tiles makes it worth it in the long run, even if it takes a number of turns to fix the districts and buildings damaged.

While watching Marbozir videos, I learned of a very useful mod, Concise UI. I used it in the last four games I’ve played. The first two games I used the original version, but that is now obsolete. The last two games were using the updated version with the core module and several add-ons. In those last two games, I discovered one glitch I think was caused by one of the add-ons: the Statue of Liberty reverts to the old version providing two settlers upon completion instead of 1 Diplomatic Point. In the game I discovered this, the one point not gained meant not winning a Diplomatic Victory. In the last game played, I believe I found the culprit add-on (by replaying from the turns just before completion of the wonder several times) and was able to get the correct result for the wonder. My next game will probably either confirm that as the problem or I will need to look for another solution.

In summary, I have found Gathering Storm to be engaging and fun to play. I now plan to try some of the civs and leaders again at higher levels of difficulty.

Gathering Storm First Review

Introductory Thoughts

The eagerly awaited expansion for Civilization VI arrived as announce on February 14, 2019. I’ve now played three complete games, and finally am starting to get a better feel for all the changes.

Simply put, I really like this expansion!

All the changes from previous versions appear to have been well thought through. They add significant complexity while enhancing enjoyment, especially in the late game.

Weather incidents, natural disasters, and global warming add new dimensions that have intriguing upsides as well as negative consequences. Having a choice on the disaster intensity level for natural disasters is another new wrinkle. There are four levels, with the default being 2. So far, I have played only the default level, but eventually will try the others.

While there are several technical changes and fixes to the user interface, I found the build queue in each city production screen the most practical and found myself using it almost constantly.

The new civs and leaders are all very strong.

Once again, my goal is to win a game playing each of the new civs. More or less arbitrarily, I’ve decided to just work alphabetically as the leaders are listed in the game itself. (When starting a new game and selecting the civ, they are listed by leader name.)

That means my first three games were Dido of Phoenicia, Eleanor of Aquitaine (England), and Kristina of Sweden. In the 2^nd game, I opted for England with Eleanor this time. (One of the new features, never before done in any of the Civ games, is one leader for two different civilizations. Historically, Eleanor was queen of France and also England depending who she was married to at different times, so one can choose either of those civs when selecting her as the leader.)

Game 1: Phoenicia (Dido)

With Dido, my plan from the outset was to try to balance Science and Culture per turn and decide later which to focus on as a victory condition. Eventually I settled on going for a Science victory, so I could learn the changes to pursuing that victory condition.

Dido (Phoenicia) Game Play settings:

Start Era: Ancient Era
Difficulty Level: Prince
Game Pace: Standard (500 turns)
Map Type: Continents
Map Size: Standard
Disaster Intensity: 2
Other Civs: Random, turned out to be (in order I met them)
- Inca
- France
- Hungary
- Maori
- Mali
- Sweden
- Ottomans

After muddling along and learning from a number of mistakes that slowed me down, I finally was able to win with Dido by completing the final space project on turn 426.

Game 2: England (Eleanor of Aquitaine)

This one was different from the start, in that I intended to go for a Culture victory.

Eleanor (England) Game Play settings:

Start Era: Ancient Era
Difficulty Level: Prince
Game Pace: Standard (500 turns)
Map Type: Continents
Map Size: Standard
Disaster Intensity: 2
Other Civs: Random, turned out to be (in order I met them)
- Australia
- Mongolia
- America
- China
- Canada
- Phoenicia
- Japan

Again, I balanced Science and Culture in the early game. I focused on getting as many Wonders as I could, expecting they would lead to the Culture victory. Unfortunately, I ended up with fewer Theater Districts and more Campuses and try as I might, the Culture victory was elusive. For a while, I had viable options for winning with Culture, Science, Points and even Diplomatic, but was too impatient to wait out a Points victory and settled for another Science victory, this time at turn 404.

I learned some important strategies for better use of Diplomatic Favor and earning/buy Diplomatic Points that will certainly be helpful when I decide to focus completely on a Diplomatic victory. I also learned how to use some great late game options, including Rock Bands, that makes it more important to develop Faith throughout the game to have enough for obtaining them.

Ultimately, it appears to win in Gathering Storm, one cannot ignore any of the aspects of the game. It is important to have at least minimal growth in everything.

Without being aware of it early enough, I was the world’s major carbon producer (over 50% of total, mostly coal use, but also some oil use). That became a detriment for Diplomatic Favor and by the time I realized how to do some mitigation, it was too late to have a big enough impact.

Game 3: Sweden (Kristina)

Determined to achieve a Cultural victory, from the very beginning all choices were made to optimize Culture as well as Science, as Kristina has unique abilities related to both.

Kristina (Sweden) Game Play settings:

Start Era: Ancient Era
Difficulty Level: Prince
Game Pace: Standard (500 turns)
Map Type: Continents
Map Size: Standard
Disaster Intensity: 2
Other Civs: Random turned out to be (in order I met them)
- Canada
- Mongolia
- Maori
- Japan
- Khmer
- Georgia
- Mapuche

This time, the plan worked very well. Culture Victory came on turn 351, substantially sooner than the other two games. Kristina is overpowered if focused on enhancing Culture and building Wonders, especially those with Great Work slots.

My location on the map helped as well. I was able to settle a number of cities, while eventually defeating Mongolia to add several more cities and keep a major portion of the continent in my possession. Only Canada and Mongolia were originals on the continent, with the Maori the only civ to settle a few cities on the continent later.

Hat Tip to Helpful Videos

Before the official release of Gathering Storm, the Firaxis developers posted weekly videos featuring one of the new Civs and highlighting many of the changes and additions to the game. These were not only extremely helpful in learning the new aspects of the game, but were also quite entertaining.

One other “go to” YouTube site for game play explanations and play throughs is Marbozir. His entertaining videos using the pre-release version in advance of February 14 (and since, actually) have been terrific tutorials while seeing how a full game develops beginning to end.

I highly recommend both if you are just digging in to Gathering Storm (or Civ VI for that matter).

Next Up Kupe of the Maori!

Mild Disappointment

I suppose it might be a little too soon to complain about the next Minecraft update, but that won’t stop me.

The Minecraft team announced late last September that the next version of the Java Edition (1.14, Village and Pillage) would be released “early in the new year”, but no more announcements since. All we have seen is brief blurbs on some of the new features, but much of that is not really new information for me.

Here we are in late January, just a week from February, and by now I was expecting at least some announcement on the projected release date. Truth be told, I was really hoping for early to mid-January for it to be available, but…

So far, I have yet to try any of the 1.14 snapshots as I did with the 1.13 Aquatic Update. I’m thinking I may try the latest one sometime in the next few days while I wait.

To offset some of the disappointment with Minecraft, February 14 is rapidly approaching. That is the announced date for the release of the Civ VI second major expansion, Gathering Storm.

Over the last several weeks since they announced the date, they have gradually introduced some of the new civs that will be included. More are yet to come. (Their marketing team knows how to build the enthusiasm!)

Meanwhile, after taking a couple of months off, I have been playing the Rise and Fall version to get re-acquainted with the intricacies of the game so I can focus on learning all the new things when Gathering Storm is released.

I’m pretty sure they will not offer any discounts between now and then for the new expansion, but I still am likely to wait until the release date to buy it, just in case.

Goal Accomplished: Win with all DLC Civs

Yesterday I won with the final civ of the downloadable-content (DLC) civs. It happened to be Poland (Jadwiga). A few weeks ago, I bought all the DLC on special and that presented a new challenge – win a game with each of the new (to me) civs.

In an earlier post, I mentioned I had bought Nubia (Amanitore) quite a while ago and already played and won a game (Culture) with that civ, so that left six civs from the DLC group.

Macedon (Alexander) was the first one and it turned out to be a pretty overpowered civ for a Domination victory. It took me just 321 turns on Standard Pace to clean up the map (Pangaea). With cities never incurring war weariness, you can be at war almost perpetually.

With the other four, I ended up winning through Science. Even though I tried for other victory types, especially a Religious victory with Poland, but apparently my general style of play leads more often than not to me choosing Science.

Just for the record the rest of the DLC are:

Persia (Cyrus)
Indonesia (Gitarja)
Khmer (Jayavarman VII)
Australia (John Curtin)

Civ VI Sale

This past Thursday the Civ franchise announced a 67% off sale on Civ VI just for this weekend. That is about as good as it gets, so I recommended my son take the plunge and get it now for his daughter. Firaxis, owner of the games, finally is providing a Deluxe version, a little higher cost, but includes all the downloadable content (DLC) released to this point and probably all future DLC. I anticipate they will buy the Deluxe version.

As a result, I decided to buy all the DLC I don’t have yet at 33% off, so I will be able to play multiplayer games with anyone who wants to use one of those civs.
Side benefit challenge: I now have several more civs to learn and play, once again with the goal of winning a game with each one.

Civ V and Civ VI

As I wrote in the earlier gaming overview post, my motivation in recent years for sophisticated computer gaming has come as a part of interacting with my grandsons. In October 2015, my introduction to 4X (“eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, eXterminate”) strategy games began with the acquisition of Civilization V, then available in its final expansion version with a package deal to get all previously released content. My youngest grandson was deep into the game and convinced me it would be a good one for my interests, and of course he was looking for someone to play multiplayer with as his brother was still resisting buying it.

Since then I’ve logged many hours of playing that game, setting as a goal to win at least one game using each of the forty-three civilizations/leaders. Sometime along the way, I did accomplish that. Youngest grandson liked the Shoshone (Pocatello), so whenever we played multiplayer he would choose that civilization. Oldest grandson, after he finally bought it, tended to prefer Germany (Bismarck), I think at least in part because he was studying German in school, but also because of its unique units and powers. I never settled on just one civ. I was not enamored with the Domination victory option; I tended to prefer the Diplomacy, or more often, Science victory options. That meant I often played as Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar), Korea (Sejong), or Poland (Casimir III).

Early on, after learning the basics playing in multiplayer mode with a lot of help from my experienced grandson, I played quite a lot on my own to get better at it so I would not hold them back. While doing so, I began to thoroughly enjoy all aspects of the game, not the least being all the history learned, by reading the Civ V Wiki and in game information.

When we played in multiplayer mode we played as a team most of the time, but as we all became better players, we eventually played every man for himself. Only once did I win a game with both grandsons playing every man for himself!

I had enjoyed Civ V so much, I watched in eager anticipation for the release of Civ VI, which came in October 2016. In fact, I ended up buying it on the pre-release deal so I could get the Aztec civ immediately upon release. Those who did not buy pre-release, had to wait a few months to get the Aztec civ, although it was free then for them.

After playing Civ VI for a while on my own, I convinced the boys to buy it as well so we could play in multiplayer mode. This time I was ahead in knowledge of the new game.

It is quite different in several ways from Civ V. At first, I did not like the graphics look at all. I have since gotten used to it, but still would prefer a different basic look. The original version of Civ VI needed some work, and I and the grandsons did not like it as much as we did Civ V. Even so, I kept playing the game and again set the goal to win a game with each civ. I did so with the civs that came with the original game before the first expansion release.

In February of this year, the first expansion, Rise and Fall, was released and it had several significant improvements, especially in diplomacy. Several new civs were added at that time, so I had a new goal to win with each of them (accomplished). In the process I have decided the Zulu (Shaka) civ, followed by the Mapuche (Lautaro) are my favorites to play. I now like Civ VI more than I did at the beginning, especially after the Rise and Fall expansion and the Spring 2018 update that had more improvements, although I am looking forward to the next expansion. I have read nothing about it yet, which probably means it will be quite a while before it is released. The first expansion was released well over a year after the original version, so if they are on that kind of schedule, it will be spring or summer 2019.

So far, I have bought only one of the individually available downloadable content civilizations – Nubia. I probably would not have even done that, but youngest grandson had read up on it and liked its capabilities, so he bought it. When we first tried to play together after he bought it, we learned to play a multiplayer game using Nubia, all human players had to have it installed, so I succumbed and bought it. In principle, I do not like the idea of having to pay for each new civ so tend to avoid almost all downloadable content. Maybe the next expansion version will be offered as a package deal to get all the civs released to date. We shall see.

Even as I wait for the next iteration, I continue to play Civ VI Rise and Fall. While I definitely prefer Science, and most of my wins are in Science, I have won at least one game with each victory condition. I find Religion the most difficult and have only tried to win using that as my aim a few times, winning just once. Fairly early in the mid-game, one usually needs to pick a victory condition to pursue. Simultaneously trying for both Culture and Science has not worked out well for me, so Science tends to be my choice.

As far as map configurations go, I’ve tried most but tend to prefer Pangaea, Continents, and Fractal, unless I am playing as a civ that excels in naval operations, such as Norway, when Island Plates is the best choice. Occasionally I will use Shuffle and let the map be random just for variety. I have won at least one game on each primary map type, as well as each map size. On size, I tend to almost always play Standard now.

Except for the goals of winning with each civ, each map type and size, in Civ VI I have generally not been actively pursuing the Steam Achievements. I just take them as they come. In Civ V, I was actively working at getting all the achievements, but only unlocked less than half of the 286 possible. Ironically, I have already unlocked 55% in Civ VI, but almost certainly more will be added to the current 191 possible as new civs become available.