Civ 6: Gathering Storm: release date, new civs, climate change, and World Congress

Everything we know about the new civs and systems coming to Civilization VI

Revealed in November with a new trailer and a round of interviews, Gathering Storm is the next expansion for Civ 6. It’s due for release in mid-February next year, and as with its predecessor, Rise and Fall, you can expect a steady drip, drip of new civ and content reveals in the intervening weeks.

When those reveals occur, we’ll drop them right here, along with everything else we know so far about what developer Firaxis is calling “the largest expansion ever developed for the series”. We’ve scoured the internet to bring you all the latest on new civs, new game systems, and new global content – meaning new units, wonders, districts, and more.

Gathering Storm has an ecological theme, adding natural disasters, carbon emissions via coal-burning power plants, and modelling their consequent impact on our planet’s climate. Unless you plan on using the new, map-altering engineering projects to mitigate said impacts, international cooperation is needed. Thus the World Congress makes its welcome return – and with it, the diplomatic victory. Read on for all the details about how this will work.

CIV 6 gathering storm RELEASE DATE

The Civilization VI: Gathering Storm release date is February 14, 2019. It will cost $39.99, €39.99, or £34.99.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm NEW CIVS

Gathering Storm will add nine new leaders and eight new civs to Civilization VI, and the official reveals have begun.

CIV 6 GATHERING STORM Phoenicia

  • Leader: Dido
  • Leader UA: Founder of Carthage:  Allows you to move your capital to any city with a Cothon by completing a unique city project. in addition, Dido gets an extra trade route for the Government Plaza district and each of its buildings, as well as +50% production towards all districts in the city where the Plaza is located.
  • Civ UA: Mediterranean Colonies: grants +2 movement and sight range to embarked settlers, and means that all coastal cities on the same continent as your capital will always be 100% loyal. To mark Phoenicia’s invention of the alphabet, they start with the Eureka moment for Writing, saving you some early Research points.
  • Unique units: Bireme: Replaces the Galley and is faster and stronger than it. Plus, Traders within four tiles of a Bireme cannot be plundered.
  • Unique building: Cothon: Replaces the Harbour, can be built on any lake or coastal tile, grants +50% production toward all naval units and Settlers, and enables naval units within the city’s borders to heal completely in a single turn.

CIV 6 GATHERING STORM Ottomans

  • Leader: Suleiman
  • Leader UA: Grand Vizier:  Unlocks a unique Governor called Ibrahim, who has a bespoke promotion tree and is the only Governor who can be established in another Civilization.
  • Civ UA: Great Turkish Bombard: +50% production toward all siege units and gives them +5 combat strength against district defences. Cities you conquer won’t lose population, and will even get amenity and loyalty bonuses while under Ottoman control.
  • Unique units: Barbary Corsair: Replaces the Privateer, can be built earlier, performing coastal raids does not cost any movement points, and it remains invisible unless enemy units are adjacent to it. Janissary: a Musketman replacement that is stronger, cheaper, and starts with a free promotion. however, Janissaries will consume a population unit in the city they are constructed in, unless trained in a conquered city.
  • Unique building: Grand Bazaar: This replaces the Bank in the Commercial Hub, but unlike the Bank it contributes to amenity points and buffs how much of your city’s key strategic resource you harvest.

civ 6 gathering storm sweden

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Kristina
  • Leader UA: Minerva of the North:  Allows Kristina to construct the Queen’s Bibliotheque building in the Government Plaza, and buildings with at least three Great Work slots and Wonders with at least two Great Work slots are automatically themed when all of their slots are filled.
  • Civ UA: Nobel Prize: When earning a Great Person, Sweden receives additional Diplomatic Favor. Sweden gets extra Great Engineer points from Factories and extra Great Scientist points from Universities. Unlocks three unique World Congress competitions in the Industrial Era if Sweden is in the game.
  • Unique unit: Carolean: Anti-cavalry unit unlocked in the Renaissance era. Replaces the Pike and Shot, has faster movement, and receives additional Combat Strength for each unused Movement point.
  • Unique building: Queen’s Bibliotheque: Constructed as a second tier building within the Government Plaza, where it provides two Great Works slots of Writing, Music, and any type of Art. Awards a Governor Title once completed.

civ 6 gathering storm mali

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Mansa Musa
  • Leader UA: Sahel Merchants: International Trade Routes grant Gold for each flat Desert tile within the originating city’s borders, and Sahel Merchants unlocks an additional Trader slot whenever Mali enters a Golden Age.
  • Civ UA: Songs of the Jeli: Provides City Centers with additional Faith and Food for every adjacent Desert and Desert Hills tile. Mines provide less Production to the city, but grant additional Gold output. Mali may purchase Commercial Hub district buildings with Faith, but suffer an overall Production penalty when constructing buildings or training units.
  • Unique unit: Mandekalu Cavalry: This Medieval-era unit replaces the Knight and prevents Mali Trader units from being plundered, as long as they are on a land tile within four tiles of a Mandekalu Cavalry unit. Combat victories provide Gold equal to the unit’s base Combat Strength.
  • Unique District: Suguba: This replacement for the Commercial Hub allows Mali to purchase Units, Buildings, and Districts at a reduced cost, with either Gold or Faith. Also provides additional Gold for adjacent Holy Sites, tiles containing a River edge, and bonus Gold for every two adjacent District tiles.

Civ 6 Gathering Storm Inca

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Pachacuti
  • Leader UA: Qhapaq Ñandomestic trade routes generate +1 food for each mountain in the origin city. Qhapaq Ñan is also an improvement that builders can place on mountains, and enables teleportation between Qhapaq Ñan improvements through the mountain range.
  • Civ UA: Mit’a: citizens can work mountain tiles. Mountains provide +2 production.
  • Unique unit: Warak’aq: medieval era recon unit. Can attack twice if it hasn’t spent all its movement.
  • Unique improvement: Terrace Farmcan only be placed on hills. Provides +1 food, and +1 food for each adjacent mountain. Provides +2 production for adjacent aqueducts, and fresh water for the local city.

Civ 6 Gathering Storm Canada

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Wilfrid Laurier
  • Leader UA: the Last Best Westenables you to build farms in tundra, and tundra hills after civil engineering. Snow and tundra tiles yield double consumable resources, and can be purchased for less.
  • Civ UA: Four Faces of Peace: Canada can’t declare wars on city-states, and can’t declare, or be targeted by, surprise wars. Gain +100% diplomatic favour from completing emergencies or competitions in the World Congress, and gain one diplomatic favour per 100 tourism.
  • Unique unit: Mountielight cavalry that can establish national parks. Gets a combat bonus when fighting near national parks, which is stronger if they’re owned by Canada.
  • Unique improvement: Ice Hockey Rinkmay only be built in tundra or snow, and only once per city. Provides appeal, and amenities, plus culture based on adjacent snow and tundra tiles. Provides tourism after flight, and production and food after professional sports. Provides culture if adjacent to a stadium.

Civ 6 Gathering Storm Maori

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Kupe 
  • Leader UA: Kupe’s Voyageyou start at sea. To keep you from falling behind, you get bonus science and culture until you settle your first city, which will spawn a free builder, and gain bonus population, housing, and amenities.
  • Civ UA: Mana: you get the sailing and shipbuilding techs from the start of the game, plus bonus movement and combat strength for embarked units. You also get bonus production in woods and rainforests, and bonus food from fishing boats.
  • Unique unit: ToaClassical era melee unit which can construct the Pa, a defensive structure that gives combat bonuses for allies occupying it. Toa also debuff adjacent enemies’ combat strength.
  • Unique building: Maraereplaces the amphitheatre. Provides culture and faith to nearby tiles with passable features, as well as tourism once you’ve researched flight.

Civ 6 gathering storm hungary

YouTube Thumbnail
  • Leader: Matthias Corvinus
  • Leader UA: The Raven King: awards two envoys when levying troops from a city state, levied troops get extra movement and combat strength, and can be upgraded at no cost of gold or resources. Also grants a second unique unit, the Black Army, light cavalry that gains bonus strength from adjacent levies.
  • Civ UA: Pearl of the Danube: districts and buildings are built faster if across a river from a city centre.
  • Unique unit: Huzsar: Industrial era light cavalry that gets a combat bonus for each active alliance.
  • Unique building: Thermal Bath: replaces the zoo. Provides amenities and production to every city centre in its range, as well as extra amenities and tourism with a geothermal fissure in the city borders.

Those are all the formal reveals for now, but there are other clues. Some assets that were pretty clearly from the new expansion leaked onto Reddit early in November, while another tranche claimed to have revealed all the new civs. All the reveals so far have tallied with this second leak, so it seems to have been accuate.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm World Congress

The World Congress, a traditional Civilization feature that has been absent from Civ 6 so far, finally returns in Gathering Storm. This is the forum for discussing global affairs with other leaders, and which has the power to change the rules of the game by passing resolutions. Firaxis says it wants to add more flexibility this time, so though you should expect a similar number of resolutions to Civ 5, there’s more scope to tweak them.

Each resolution has a positive and a negative aspect. The deforestation treaty, for instance, can either punish or reward you for exploiting the planet’s rainforests. You’ll also have a greater choice of targets – which luxuries to ban, which city-states to embargo, which Great People to cultivate, et cetera (though the first two of these points were in Civ 5 too).

YouTube Thumbnail

Rise and Fall’s Emergencies system has also been folded into the World Congress. While ‘normal’ World Congress sessions will meet periodically to settle resolutions like the above, an extraordinary session will be called whenever an Emergency event occurs. The congress will then vote on whether or not to trigger the relevant emergency action. This means you can potentially vote down an emergency that would otherwise punish you for pursuing your strategy of, say, nuking everyone, but to vote down an emergency, you need favour.

Diplomatic Favour is a new yield and the currency of the new World Congress, much like delegates in Civ 5. There are loads of sources – keeping diplomatic promises, liberating civs and city-states, and it can be traded on the deal table. You’ll also get one favour per turn if you’re Suzerain of a city-state, so rather than getting all their delegates at once by simply buying them off before a big vote, you’ll have to cultivate your relationship with them over time.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm Diplomatic Victory

Alongside the World Congress, the Diplomatic Victory is also back in Civ’s next expansion. Once again, you’ll need to convince the congress to declare you World Leader (or a similar title – we don’t know if it’ll change in Civ 6).

The difference this time is that the World Leader vote isn’t won all at once – you’ll instead need to win several motions, each of which will give you a certain number of points toward the diplomatic victory, as will certain other prestigious achievements, such as hosting the World Games. But, since every motion in the congress now has a negative version, the flipside of the World Leader proposal enables other leaders to dock you points if you behave undiplomatically between sessions.

The World Leader proposal unlocks in the Modern era, and will be voted upon in “most sessions” of the congress – presumably in addition to other proposals. From that point on, you’ll need to show sustained diplomatic leadership to win points (and not lose any) until you finally cross the winning threshold. Then you click ‘one more turn’ and nuke everyone.

Civ 6 Gathering Storm natural disasters

A slew of natural disasters are being added to the game to wreck your cities. Confirmed so far are volcanoes, floods, droughts, and four types of storm that will vary by environment, including hurricanes, blizzards, and sandstorms.

Wary of how annoying it can be when games throw setbacks at you that are outside of your control, Firaxis says it doesn’t want to make these disasters feel too arbitrary. The UI will make it clear when there is some risk of disaster in an area – floodplain tiles, obviously, are liable to flooding – and it’s your choice entirely to to build a city on the slopes of a volcano. You’ll also be able to mitigate some of these risks with new engineering projects and by taking care of the planet (see below).

Related: Sharpen your tactics with the best strategy games on PC

And there is some upside. Both volcanoes and floods will leave refreshed, fertile ground in their wake – but if you want to make use of it to grow food, you obviously run the risk of the disaster recurring.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm City power

Gathering Storm will introduce the concept of electricity to your cities. Come the Industrial era, you’ll be able to add a coal power plant to your industrial zones, and many of the more powerful late-game buildings from that point on – such as the Research Lab – will benefit from power.

Note we say ‘benefit’, not ‘require’ – Firaxis say these buildings will still provide yields if your cities aren’t powered, but they’ll be much weaker than they are even now.

Powering your cities is thus a requirement if you want to stay competitive, but a tweak to strategic resources is going to make this a challenge. Some power plants will now consume a number of such resources each turn. That would be pretty harsh under the current system, where simply having access to a resource unlocks a unit. Gathering Storm will once again treat resources like stockpiles: “you’re actually going to be counting numbers in terms of iron, horses, coal, oil, and so forth”, say Firaxis, but the system is “even more granular” than Civ 5 since power plants will actively burn through your stockpiles. Coal and oil power plants are both confirmed, and a nuclear plant feeding on uranium seems pretty likely.

If you’d rather save that uranium for nuclear weapons, some power plants  offer renewable energy. Screenshots have essentially confirmed wind farms, solar power plants, hydroelectric dams, and possibly others. Most of these are districts or tile improvements, rather than buildings added to the Industrial zone, meaning they’ll compete for the already hotly-contested map space around your cities in the late-game.

As another incentive, renewable power also tends to be clean. Because pollution and emissions are about to become a consideration.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm Climate Change

Gathering Storm will model climate change. Those aforementioned coal power plants will spew carbon into the atmosphere, and you’ll be able to track global emissions via a new climate screen. As this continues, the buildup of CO2 will cause a greenhouse effect and warm the planet, which has wide-ranging implications.

The risk of certain natural disasters, such as floods and hurricanes, will increase. Let things get really bad, and the ice caps can melt, leading to rising sea levels (veteran civ players may remember this from Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri).

Climate change is still politically contentious (regrettable, given that it isn’t scientifically contentious, but there we are), but Firaxis says it isn’t sending a message here. Strategically, rising sea levels may suit you, if a rival power has settled near the coast when you haven’t.

If you decide that taking care of the planet is in your interest, though, then you’ll want to upgrade your power plants as quickly as possible. Coal plants give off the most CO2, while oil pl ants offer only a slight improvement. We’re guessing that most of the renewable plants will be carbon neutral, and Firaxis says the new Future era (see below) will offer carbon capture technology that can actively extract CO2 from the atmosphere.

Civ 6 gathering storm future era

To fully model the effects of climate change, Firaxis says it had to extend the game out to “at least” 2050. Accordingly, there’s a new Future era following the Information era, and you can get a taste of its pristine white aesthetic at the end of the reveal trailer.

The Future era will include “speculative” technologies such as carbon recapture and seasteading – moving some of your population out to seaborne habitats, which you can see in some of the early screenshots. To simulate the uncertainty of future discoveries, Firaxis says the placement of Future era techs is random and will vary by playthrough. This adds a little uncertainty if you’re chasing down the final few techs for the science victory, in that you’ll have to check the tree and plan your priorities each time.

Speaking of which, the science and culture victories have been tweaked so they will run out to 2050 and be roughly as difficult as the others (but you’re still chasing tourists and spaceship parts). Playing coy, Firaxis adds that it has used the Future era to consider what governments and military forces might look like in 30 years. A recent dev stream revealed that Giant Death Robots will be returning in Civ 6 Gathering Storm as a late-game unit. These massive mechs boast a few tricks on top of being ridiculously powerful in combat, for example, leaping over mountains of lakes.

CIV 6 gathering storm canals and engineering projects

We’ll be able to alter the world map in more ways than just rising sea levels and melting ice caps, and some of these new engineering projects will enable you to mitigate the impact of such natural disasters.

The one that’s got Civ fans really excited is canals, with which, Firaxis confirms, you’ll be able to create channels for your naval units to cut across landmasses. In the right situations this will have huge strategic advantages for trade and military expeditions – think what Panama and Suez offer in the real world. No more settling useless cities on the single tile that links two huge oceans!

We also know that we’ll be able to build dams as early as the Classical era, and that they’ll help defend your cities against flooding. Later in the game, cities with dams will be able to build hydroelectic power plants, offering a clean source of energy.

Other engineering projects either confirmed by Firaxis or visible in these early screenshots include bridges and tunnels – enabling your infrastructure to overcome mountains and rivers – and the return of railways, which should slash travel times within your empire if they function anything like the way they used to.

CIV 6 Gathering Storm NEW UNITS, WONDERS, DISTRICTS, AND MORE

Firaxis claims that Gathering Storm will be the “largest expansion ever developed for the series,” adding tons of new global content. That will include:

  • 15 new units (compared with just four in Rise and Fall)
  • Nine new buildings
  • Five new districts
  • Two new city sets
  • Nine new techs
  • Ten new civics
  • Seven new World Wonders
  • Seven new natural Wonders

We can make some guesses about a few of these items – ones based on the early screenshots you’ll see throughout this article are obviously pretty confident, while ones based on the key art and the trailer are less clearly in the game. We’ll indicate if and when they’re officially announced, but for now, these are mostly speculative.

Civ 6 gathering storm districts or improvements

  • Canal – visible in a screenshot
  • Dam – visible in a screenshot
  • Flood barrier – visible in a screenshot
  • Ski resort – visible in a screenshot
  • Solar power plant – visible in a screenshot
  • Wind Farm – screenshots show both land-based and sea-based versions

CIV 6 Gathering Storm NEW World WONDERS

  • Cahokia – bit of a guess based on a screenshot
  • Chocolate Hills – guess based on the key art
  • Delta Works – a series of Dutch flood defences, visible in the trailer
  • Golden Gate bridge – visible in a screenshot and the key art
  • Machu Picchu – in the trailer
  • Panama Canal – from the trailer, and the long canal in a screenshot

That’s about the extent of our certain (or semi-certain) knowledge so far, though there’s lots more speculation on the Civ subreddit. If you’d like to get this information from its original source, much of it comes from our interview with lead designer Ed Beach and lead producer Dennis Shirk, and from the initial Civ 6: Gathering Storm announcement.

Read more: Conquer all the worlds with the best 4X games on PC

We will, as promised, update this article as Firaxis drops new information over the course of the Gathering Storm marketing campaign, so check back regularly for all the latest.