Rise and Fall is the first official expansion pack for the turn-based 4X strategy game Sid Meier’s Civilization VI from 2016. It introduces new mechanics to the game, like World Eras, Great Ages, Loyalty, Emergencies, and Governors. The expansion pack was developed by Firaxis Games and published in 2018 by 2K Games. It is available on PC (Windows, macOS, Linux).

New leaders, civilizations, and global content

Civilization 6 Rise and Fall introduces nine new leaders and eight new civilizations, each with its own unique abilities, units, and structures, to make the gameplay even more diversified. Among the new civs, there are Korean, Mongolian, Zulu, and Dutch, and some of the new leaders are Chandragupta, Shaka, Robert the Bruce, and Genghis Khan. Additionally, the game received some new world and natural wonders, few new units, three new resources, two districts, and fourteen buildings.

World Eras

The expansion pack introduces the World Eras mechanic, besides the already existing Individual Era achieved by each empire. From now on the world itself can also have its own era, resulting in your empire being in two eras simultaneously – an Individual Era and a World Era. World Era is determined by the progress made by existing empires and it impacts every empire present. For example, techs from before the current World Era are 20% cheaper, making it easier for empires lagging behind to keep up with the progressing world.

Loyalty

One of the new mechanics introduced in the expansion pack is Loyalty. From now on each city has a loyalty score between 0 and 100 which tells how closely the city is tied to the empire. There are a lot of factors determining cities’ loyalty, including the neighboring cities of the same or other civs, the happiness of the citizens, or the presence of the governor in the city. Some buildings and policies also may affect loyalty. Maintain high loyalty, or face the consequences – disloyal cities have penalties to yields and population grows, and if the loyalty drops to 0 the city will revolt, turning into a Free City.

Emergencies

CIV 6: Rise and Fall implements Emergencies system. It is a type of event aimed against empires that may pose a threat to the whole world. An emergency may trigger after launching a nuclear attack, betraying a valuable ally, or after conquering another city while being one of the leading powers in the game. The emergency allows forming a temporary alliance against an unpredictable nation. Members of the emergency treaty are given a special task which needs to be accomplished before the time runs out. If members succeed, they will get powerful bonuses, but if they fail, the nation against which the emergency launched will get them instead.

Reception

Rise and Fall DLC received positive reviews and is considered by some as the „must-buy” expansion pack for Civ 6. Among some of the praised features was Loyalty mechanic which increased the difficulty level in a way balanced enough to not become an annoyance. The newly added features were warmly welcomed because of making the game experience deeper, more complex, and more diversified to some extent, while not requiring to learn to play from scratch.

Key features

• 9 new leaders, 8 new civilizations, 3 additional resources, 8 new world wonders, 14 new buildings, new unique and non-unique units
• From now on the world itself can belong to one of the eras, which is determined by the individual eras of each empire in the game
• Introduction of loyalty – maintain high loyalty in your cities, or they will revolt and break off from your empire
• Recruit and promote governors in cities to bolster loyalty and enjoy additional bonuses
• Emergencies – form temporary alliances against leading nations posing a threat to world peace