2K and Firaxis Games have announced the first DLC faction coming to Sid Meier's Civilization VI. This time around, we're getting another European faction to throw into the mix; Poland, led by King Jadwiga, the first female king of Poland.
King Jadwiga was a clever ruler that earned the respect of the Polish nobility in the years leading up to her coronation for being a devout Christian and patron of the working class. Her strong belief in the Christian faith led to her being canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church in 1997, hundreds of years after her death. During her reign, she was instrumental in restoring the University of Krakow, which has since gone on to be one of the most important places for Polish culture.
Poland's Unique Ability is Golden Liberty. This ability allows Poland to gain new territory when you build a fort or an encampment and allows you to expand your borders more quickly. It's even possible to steal territory from other civs depending on where you place the buildings.
Players who play Poland will also be able to make use of an additional Wildcard slot, which replaces one of the military slots available for players to use. Jadwiga can also spread religion to nearby cities when stealing terrain with the Golden Liberty ability. Every relic you obtain also gives you bonus Faith, Culture and Gold.
Poland's Unique Unit is the Winged Hussar. These armored cavalry units were usually made up of soldiers from the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth and were mainly used as shock troops to destabilize an enemy force by using a long lance to plow through whatever had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of where that lance was pointed.
Poland's Unique Building is the Sukiennice (bonus points for pronouncing it correctly). These medieval buildings served mainly as trade centers where merchants would sell common and luxury fabrics. In the game, this unique building grants Poland bonus production from trade routes to and from other civs, while giving you more gold for trade routes between cities you own.
Players can also buy a scenario pack centered around Jadwiga. In this scenario, you take on the role as a Polish noble in a 60 turn match where you have to defend Poland, Prague, and Vienna from the invading Teutonic Knights and Ottman Turks.
The second scenario pack that released is centered around the Vikings. This scenario adds a bunch of new city states and natural wonders to the game, each with their own unique bonuses. This pack also includes a 100 turn scenario where you play either as Harald Hardrada of Norway, King Canute of the Danes, or Olof Skotkonung of Sweden. In this scenario, you will invade England, capture Paris, find Vinland with the use of an explorer or skip the city raids and focus on raiding the Mediterranean Sea.
If you don't plan on buying DLC for the game, you won't be left out in the cold. Firaxis Games have also released a big patch they named the "Winter 2016 Update" and adds a bunch of tweaks to the game's mechanics. Full patch notes can be found here but I'll briefly list the most important changes below.
- The heavily anticipated Earth Map has been added to the game. This map places every civ at their appropriate, real-world starting location.
- Religious units can now fortify themselves until they are healed, just like military units can. This will help to get a little more mileage out of your apostles.
- The production cost of wonders has been decreased. Once you reach the Industrial Era building wonders is 10% cheaper. Once you reach the Atomic Era, building a wonder costs 40% less.
- Researching Technologies and Civics has become a little more expensive than it was before. Starting from the Industrial Era, all tech and civic upgrades cost 5% more, all the way up to 20% more expensive in the Information Era.
Have you played the new content in Sid Meier's Civilization VI? Let us know in the comment section below!
