As predicted, Civilization developers Firaxis have begun their drip feed of the new cultures coming to Civ VI in its recently announced expansion, Rise and Fall. First up: meet Queen Seondeok of Korea. She ruled Silla, one of Korea’s three kingdoms, from the year 632 to 647.
Here’s everything we know about Civ 6: Rise and Fall so far.
The Korean unique ability is Three Kingdoms, which causes mines to produce bonus Science, and farms to yield bonus Food, if built adjacent to a Seowon.
That’s Korea’s unique district, and it replaces the Campus. Seowons must be built on hills and grants a huge initial yield of +6 Science, but this is reduced for every district you build adjacent to the Seowon.
The Hwacha returns from Civ V as Korea’s unique unit. It’s a powerful Renaissance ranged unit, but can’t move and attack in the same turn.
Queen Seondeok’s leader ability is Hwarang, and it ties into the new Governors system: all cities with a Governor get +5% Culture and +5% Science.
Finally, Civ VI gets a dedicated science Civ, and they look pretty strong; the Seowon’s +6 Science is huge, especially in the early-game, and assuming a hills start bias, it should be pretty simple to set one up early and surround it with mines for a massive boost to research. A Science lead tends to magnify over the course of the game, so I can see Korea growing to become very hard to stop if not checked. I know who I’m picking for my Deity challenge.
Civ VI: Rise and Fall is due on February 8, and will cost $29.99, €29.99, or £24.99. Here’s the Steam page.