The AI question

>Can you set up a stream where you have a negative economy and also maintain a large army and grow
You mean like in the OP screenshot?

Monopoly?

What the fuck are are you talking about?

No because in that picture he still has gold
He's losing it but he's still not at zero while being negative for half the game
So no, not like the OP
What's your reading level at?

Not that user but you can’t just dismiss the numerical boosts because they’re fairly big on higher difficulty settings. Being able to advance the tech/civic trees, make more money and produce units faster, on top of a combat strength boost means they’re doing more in less time, which is essentially cheating- if I maximize solely on production, and can make a unit in 4 turns, it’s essentially cheating if the ai doesn’t even have to prioritize production and can make the same unit in less turns.

In the context of Civ6, it should be hard at whatever victory it's aiming, and have bias toward certain victories based on the civ strengths (Mongolia going for domination victories, Sweden cultural, Korea scientific etc)

The problem with AI regarding combat is that there is absolutely 0 strategic thought: they just throw units at your walls to die, not bothering to protect their ranged and bombardment units, and are incapable of creating a proper navy or airforce. Most games are decided by early AI warrior rush and if you reach walls/archer fast enough to survive, because once you do they're not longer a threat.

A mix of both, have it be like Anno where the opponent you play against has a different approach to things and is more or less competent and more or less aggressive depending on which one it is.

>civ6
there's your problem.
for reals though, you need to prioritize science over everything else.
the person who wins is the person who out-techs everyone else.
>but I play on Diety
there's no winning then. only "defend your 1 city out until the end" due to the AI being so ridiculously overpowered.