Rock Bands in Civilization 6 are a late-game cultural unit designed to boost your tourism and push towards a Cultural Victory. Understanding how to effectively deploy and use Rock Bands can be the difference between victory and defeat. This guide offers key strategies on how to use Rock Bands to maximize their impact on your game.
The Basics of Rock Bands
Rock Bands contribute to your total tourism against specific civilizations, thereby generating foreign tourists. This is critical as the formula for Foreign Tourists from one Civilization equals the Lifetime Tourism Output to that Civilization divided by (the number of civilizations * 200). Therefore, each Rock Band performance is vital in increasing your tourism output.
Strategic Deployment of Rock Bands
- Early Deployment: Send Rock Bands to your closest neighbor as soon as they are unlocked. There’s no advantage in waiting since the tourist victory bar increases every turn. Targeting early can lead to a significant advantage in the tourism race.
- Choosing Targets Wisely: Aim for civilizations with the highest tourism modifiers. Factors like Open Borders and Trade Routes can significantly boost your tourism production. It’s sometimes worth changing your government to mitigate the Different Governments penalty, which can be particularly detrimental at -40%.
- Focus on Major Rivals: Ideally, target the rival with the highest production of domestic tourists. This civilization essentially sets the benchmark for the foreign tourists you need to generate to win. By focusing your Rock Bands here, you can slow their domestic tourist growth and lower the bar for victory.
Maximizing Rock Band Effectiveness
- Promotion Strategy: Choose promotions that increase the band’s experience level and survivability. Options include Glam Rock for performances in Theater Squares and Space Rock for Campuses. If unavailable, Album Cover Art is a solid choice for Wonder tiles.
- Timing Band Purchases: Promotions often overlap for Rock Bands purchased in the same turn. To access a variety of promotions, stagger your purchases. However, be mindful of the exponential cost increase, which may limit your ability to buy new bands frequently.
- Performing on Wonder Tiles: When a band doesn’t have a useful promotion, default to performing on Wonder tiles. These provide the highest tourism value per performance, offering 1000 tourism per show.
Additional Strategic Considerations
- Consider Going to War: While war carries diplomatic penalties, targeting a rival with high culture production and domestic tourist numbers through warfare can sometimes expedite your path to the foreign tourist benchmark, especially if other civilizations generate significantly lower numbers.
- Establishing a Launch Base: Settling or conquering cities on different continents can serve as launch bases for Rock Bands targeting distant rivals. However, weigh this against factors like modifiers, distance, and the diplomatic landscape of your game.
Rock Bands are a powerful tool in Civilization 6 for achieving a Cultural Victory. By strategically deploying Rock Bands, targeting the right civilizations, and choosing the optimal promotions, you can effectively boost your tourism and outpace your rivals in the race for cultural dominance. Remember, the key to maximizing Rock Bands is not just in their use but in the strategic planning behind their deployment and performance locations.