Civilization VII

[Syt]

And yeah, I still play on difficulty 3 or 4 (out of 6). It's become a bit of a chillout game for me, so I like to play it casually - though that may be damning the game with faint praise.

I was playing as Macchiavelli last weekend on diff. 4. I was constantly lagging behind other nations in tech or culture, or # of cities but made up for it in trade and managing to stay out of wars the entire game (except one at the start where my opponent was so far away we never even fought).

In modern age as America, though, it was a bit ridiculous. I was focusing on trade. With the Lend Lease tradition you get 25g and 5 influence per trade route, and I had 15 trade routes most of the time, somtimes more, sometimes less. Also, as Macchiavelli you get 50g per age (i.e. 150 in Modern) every time you do a diplomatic endeavor, or double that if they refuse. So I used my influence to open more trade routes, asking for open borders (knowing some would reject), etc. and was constantly raking in cash hand over fist while also quickly racking up Economic Victory points with all those imported goods. And while some nations fought their version of The Great War, I quietly went and founded the World Bank to win while being only #3 power overall.