Okay, Ichabod/roland/a newbie who wants to try Civ VI (Ruff? ...:D), here's my Kongo game after my last turn.
I started this game with a bunch of newbies basically in an effort to get more people to play Civ VI multiplayer with. Not everyone had all the DLCs, so after many false starts we settled with plain vanilla game, Fractal start, basically no map balancing. There are six total players: England, Japan, Greece, Germany, Russia, and myself. I took Kongo as a variant play and have been doing my best to not htink about this game at all between turns, so I've just kind of wandered down the tech tree. Oh, and the game speed is online, so everything's cheaper.
We have just hit the Renaissance and, er, I lead in every category except population but it wasn't on purpose. My culture is powered by Nan Madol, although Japan has made noises about murdering it. My science by universities and Isaac Newton. Gold is driven by 4 international trade routes and a natural wonder. Most of Kongo is coastal, along these two narrow peninsulas, with two overseas colonies. We're boxed in by an English colony on the single-tile access to the rest of the map, but that also means we have really good security.
Our only neighbor is the English, who I have sworn off conquering because I want him to play the game and enjoy it. He's backwards but getting the hang - slowly - of the game, but he might go to war over the city of The Lost World at some point. We have an alliance signed last turn, so he can't do anything for 30 turns and you won't be able to attack him, either, in case you abandon my pacifistic foreign policy.
Beyond England is Japan, very competently led by RB's own Grotsnot (PBEM13). It has several wonders, a large empire with good pop, and decent tech rates, but is in a central position and borders Germany, who is psychotic. Japan is probably tied for second with Russia.
In the far northeast of the continent is Greece, a compact little empire with very large cities. He's mostly hampred by his small size, but if he expands again he'll be a decent power. I'd rate him slightly ahead of England, but on the same tier.
South of Greece is Germany, a tiny empire but led by a psychopath who enjoys threatening all his neighbors and communicating mostly through bluster and threats. He and Japan clashed over the city-state of Kandy, which either was annexed by Japan as Weyblon or was razed to settle the dispute, not sure which. He's also approached me about a joint invasion of Russia and is presently threatening Greece (after assuring Greece that it was impossible for him to finish Petra ahead of Germany).
The southeast is dominated by Russia, who is the largest nation in the world and has a massive faith economy. If Kongo doesn't win, I'd bet on Russia this game. He has strong tech, has expanded well, and has a very isolated start with only a small border with Germany and some city-states. Russia is largely terra incognita.
My cities:
The capital city of Congo, mostly driven in the early game by that triple diamond mine. I have very few improvements here, and only two districts, a campus and a harbor. The thick jungle made builder labor largely unnecessary, and I had a VERY rough go with barbs in the early game, spawning at the present city of Prey (I THINK targeted on Liverpool, but got hooked on me instead) and more or less impossible to kill off due to the thick terrain. I lost two slingers and a warrior, at least, to them.
Sphere:
Was going to be part of a 3-city complex with a third city due north, but England forward settled me. Very similar to Congo with most of the city unimproved and only the two districts - the harbor isn't even complete yet.
Andromeda:
A young city that raced to its current size through heavy food surplus. I haven't even finished the first district. I also ahve a locked-in Theater Square to take advantage of Kongo's Nkisi ability.
Prey:
Decent mining city that's also pretty young. Itj ust needs to grow, mostly.
Jurassic Park/Rising Sun/The Great Train Robbery:
Three cities founded around the natural wonder. My third, fourth, and ninth cities, basically. JP and RS are both very strong, GTR needs to grow.
Terminal Man/State of Fear:
Conquered Valetta and a Niter colony, very fresh indeed. The city hasn't even healed yet.
NOt pictured are the colonies of Timeline on the mainland and the Lost World across the strait from Prey, to take the Cliffs of Dover.
On the whole, it's a decent enough empire but could be vastly optimized - something I have been consciously refusing to do. Your goal is to give everyone a fun game, not necessarily to win, so I havne't been going hard for a win condition. If no one else wins, I was going to go for either Tourism (with Kongo) or Science (because why not?).
There is diplomacy, but it can be done with pins on the map (ie see my warrior hanging out near greece for 5 gpt).
I'll post my token below so people can take over.
