Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Maya & Gran Colombia Pack Review (LextheMighty)
This pack includes two civilizations, two resources, three natural wonders, six city states, two disasters, and a new apocalypse game mode. Many fun additions but nothing game changing.
Maya
The Maya's bonuses are very unique. Finally a civ that specializes in building a tall empire rather than spreading out wide. However, their power is very start dependent. Getting a good start with plantations and no nearby water is necessary to play optimally.
Gran Colombia
Gran Colombia is my favorite civ in the DLC. I was really excited to play as Simón Bolívar. The game I played with them was a challenge even with their ridiculously powerful abilities. I was really hoping Simón Bolívar would receive some sort of liberation bonus, but overall they are just another domination civ. Both of the new civs have an amazing soundtrack. The music keeps getting better with every DLC.
Apocalypse Game Mode
I really like this idea of shaking up the game with optional game-modes. The apocalypse mode is essentially extreme disaster mode. Disasters are much more frequent and deadly. You also get the Soothsayer unit that allows you to spawn natural disasters to hit your enemies. The unit was fun to play around with, but it didn't have a huge impact on the game. It was satisfying though to spawn a flood on an enemy city and take advantage of the weakened walls. What makes the unit stronger is the "appease the gods" competition. You gain score in it by sacrificing units to volcanoes and the winner gets promotions for the soothsayer. What makes the Soothsayer feel odd is that it is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the game and I have not seen the AI use it to spawn disasters yet. The actual "apocalypse" comes too late to have a meaningful impact on the game. Most likely by the time it arrives you will have already won the game. It is a fun new addition to spice up your game, but it does not change as much as it should.
Resources
Honey and Maize. Those are the new resources. They seem to be very common. It is disappointing that these will probably be the last new resources added to civ 6. More variety is always welcomed.
City States
Not much to say about these. I'm glad we are getting more city states with tile improvements. The Batey improvement was very fun to use in my most recent game.
Natural Wonders
The three new natural wonders are all mythical ones: Bermuda Triangle, Paititi, and the Fountain of Youth. I have not encountered any of them in game yet, but I'm interested to see how they play out.
Disasters
Forest fires and meteor showers now appear in all games with this DLC. Forest fires sometimes give forest tiles crazy yields. The meteor showers have been a rare occurrence. They provide a free cavalry unit (for some reason?) that spawns in your capital (rather than where the meteor tile was). Very strange bonus, but it can be useful for exploration in the early game.
Conclusion
The pack is definitely worth it for the extra civilizations. The apocalypse mode is way better than the scenarios that usually come with these types of packs. I can't wait to see what else comes with the New Frontier Pass!
Additional Notes
There are some things I hope to see changed in the next update:
Make the diplomatic favor penalty for occupying capitals decrease over the ages. The new penalty prevents warmongers from having any say diplomatically. They can't ask for promises or vote in the world congress. This would be reasonable if it didn't last the entire game. My early game conquests shouldn't prevent me from interacting diplomatically later.
Make the AI better utilize the Soothsayer. I have not once seen the AI use the Soothsayer to cause disasters. They walk it all around my territory without doing anything with it. Needs fixed.
Decrease the amount of demand messages the AI sends. I've been getting constant messages of trade demands from the AI. Sometimes every turn.