Civ 6 | The Hardest TSL Start In Civ 6? Ursa Loses 12 Times!! #1 - (Deity TSL France Civilization 6)

In this game of Civ 6, we’ll be attempting to win on one of, if not the, hardest TSL starts of Civilization VI - it’s poor old France!
Starting in the middle of an overcrowded Europe, France has England, Netherlands and Spain all sending loyalty issues it’s way - as well as the worst bit of all, GAUL, who are just the absolute worst.
This is one of the hardest games I have ever attempted in Civ 6 - don’t be shy, come to discord and give it a try if you’re into pain!
All maps, mods and tech support on getting these games to work are available on my discord, so swing by!
Make sure you subscribe below so you don't miss more Deity Civilization VI fun!
Subscribe - / @ursaryan
Discord - / discord
Patreon - / ursaryan

[@blakemcsorley4452]

ah, my favorite historical beef: gaul and eleanor of aquitaine

[@UrsaRyan]

Histories original comedy duo

[@blakemcsorley4452]

pretty sure Shakespeare wrote about it

[@Groaker]

Maya are also ridiculous. You are crammed in to a small area, next to the Aztec and Gran Colombia, with no way to stop the loyalty swing because you're already flashing red by the time you get a monument or a builder.

[@ticksunbs4944]

And La Venta and Hunza both spawned on top of you

[@UrsaRyan]

They take tall empire to a whole new level!

[@tippyc2]

Khmer sucks too. Pinned in by Singapore and Ayutthaya, and the only way to expand is north. North straight into Vietnam.

[@hippiblue]

That's the most times I've watched anyone loose at civilization in less than an hour.

[@deankaplan4662]

Groundhog Day 2 lmao

[@nanogalactic6016]

Some TSL starts are nearly impossible without the loyal capitals mod

[@UrsaRyan]

Nearly was all we needed!!!

[@mikol789]

This was so interesting watching you slowly tinker and find the small improvements each time! Super excited to see the rest

[@UrsaRyan]

It was fun, after the pain!

[@paulgaofei]

Wow, a 55 min episode with such a rough start … talk about a labour of love! Respect Ursa.

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers = )

[@EdJamesNice]

As an average Civ 6 sim'ming tourist player, I get bullied quite regularly by the AI. It's nice to see a Tier 'S' player (see what I did there) hitting their ceiling and facing some really difficult similar hurdles, playing it through and showing warts and all with some really great commentary on strategy. This video was so intense and I loved it. I can't wait for Episode #2 - The Galling Gall of Gaul. I love a bit of alliteration I do... And Petra.

[@orarinnsnorrason4614]

Your struggle reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon as a kid, The 12 Labours of Asterix & Obelisk. Where Ceasar was desperately building his forts to hold them off lol.

[@littlefitzy96]

Honestly, every attempt felt like watching a branch of an alternate timeline.

[@UrsaRyan]

I think I must have created FAR too many time lines in the multiverse over the years

[@Dawsonsincedawsonstaken]

I’m commenting to boost the algorithm, I really love these tsl games

[@jeycarl]

"That felt better." We're here with you, love this stuff (especially the "reroll" part which I do myself soooo often... under less stressful circumstances tho lol)

[@jeycarl]

Epic. Well done!

[@UrsaRyan]

haha - cheers! labour of love

[@gchwee83]

Eleanor is OP in the mid to late game. But her early game is so hectic: defence, theatre squares, wonders, economy

[@mirandabee2323]

Probably due to the number of players in the game, you're playing my ideal aesthetic: Eleanor but with lavender territory.

[@jacobmagnuson8245]

Amazing content as always Ursa!

[@maj.kingkong3004]

That was cool. Perseverance pays!

[@Wise_That]

One thing that would have helped you a lot here is the Zone of Control rules. Melee units have a special property that non-cavalry units that step next to them are forced to stop their movement and have to either end their turn or attack the warrior. There were a couple of times where you said "If I end my turn like this, then Gaul will be able to X", when that wasn't true, because the warrior would have stopped enemy movement.

[@UrsaRyan]

it's true, but often city attacks can bend the usual rules - you can often attack from a "blocked" tile into a city even with a defending troop, as we saw from the video a few times. I try to use zone of control when I can, but I'm sure there is always more to spot!

[@nosequecarajo]

HOLY!!! i love this kind of vidoes man!!! you rock!

[@kleozyn4179]

Hey Ursan, i just wanted to thank you for your amazing content! much love from germany for your hard work and the wonderful entertainment!

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers!!! Really appreciate it, glad you enjoy!! = )

[@dagronborm2055]

I always look forward to your videos, thanks for the daily uploads

[@UrsaRyan]

welcome! = )

[@DocNo27]

For the algorithm! Love these TSL games and really appreciate you doing them!

[@hugos1568]

My god well try, you played very serious on this one, congratulations!

[@BigstackMcgee]

I really enjoyed this one - well done ryan!

[@UrsaRyan]

Thanks so much!!

[@McCloudious]

Bravo Ursa! That was tough work but it was so fun to watch!

[@robsanheim6780]

this was great! more of these insane starts with all the failures please

[@ranaraeuchle6485]

I really didn't think it was possible. That's amazing. I'll bet it's also hard to start as Vietnam or Korea considering how many civs are packed into the southeast and east asia part of the map.

[@williampage4623]

can you do a giga naval game with only naval civs (so if they have a unique boat or bonuses from coast eg australia) with a huge map and archipeligo realy fun to do and is difficult if you spawn next to harald but a realy fun one anyway love your videos keep it up

[@nathanfivecoate5848]

Giga naval game with only naval and trade civs

[@dominickfekete3458]

Loving your content Ursa. Always so fun and creative. Discovered you when potato let you use his account and you did that crazy Hungary game! Been obsessed with your content ever since! Keep up the awesome work!

[@UrsaRyan]

cheers!!! really appreciate you sticking around = )

[@dominickfekete3458]

@@UrsaRyan hard not to! It's very entertaining!

[@eduardo3652]

Wow! That wore ME out! Good job Ryan!

[@McAabee]

great episode . good job lad :)

[@lactose_in_tahoe4250]

This was wild can’t wait to see the next episode

[@lukeearthcrawler896]

Brilliant, Ryan! This is my favorite Civ6 video in quite some time. The strategy to trade gpt and then declare war on the AI is a very interesting one. Unorthodox, yes. But quite powerful. Imagine if you can get enough gold for an extra settler or two. My next game I'll do this with the AIs that are not next to me. Kupe can do this with pretty much all AIs, as they can't even enter oceans early on.

[@UrsaRyan]

it is good! typically if you want to exploit this sort of thing, the best way of doing it is to declare joint wars with civs that are willing to give you their entire gold economies - you normally get more that way - but both strategies are good = )

[@feralcatgirl]

my instinctive strategy would just be to run my starting settler to like central asia. no idea how well that would work ofc

[@UrsaRyan]

if you never stop, they never catch up

[@rasdov]

Excited for the creative solutions other players will make. Make sure to make a video dedicated for this ursa! Might try it myself

[@444vito444]

Love your videos, just subscribed!

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers! Glad to have you watching!

[@clinthenness7186]

Man....This is great for a laugh...Never gets old to see again

[@vagag.7320]

this was hella entertaining

[@deankaplan4662]

Wow, I was looking forward to this! I love Eleanor’s playstyle and was just playing tsl uk Eleanor last night. Have never played her as France tho.

[@mattwillis9598]

Nice work, I felt your pain. Makes for good content 😂

[@jacobdhall]

SENDING THE VIBES URSA

[@The0Kuki]

great video :) and one of the best "subscribe" announcments I have ever heard :)

[@UrsaRyan]

thank you!!! XD

[@aidenxokeefe]

This is a great video; such a big difference in your audio quality these days!

[@noahrandolph379]

LFG good work dude

[@ieshi23]

I really enjoyed this episode, it felt similar to seeing someone trying to strategize through pokemon kaizo. And this infuriating video made me appreciate all the effort you put into making these videos, thank you

[@UrsaRyan]

I haven't checked out pokemon kaizo, is that the insane version?

[@ieshi23]

@@UrsaRyan yes. the mechanics are the same as the regular games, but carefully tweaked to be a pain to play through

[@Banchetph]

Love the persistence and perseverance.

[@portland573]

Yeesh, this is a tough one to take on. Very brave Ursa.

[@alexhutchison8447]

I almost didn't subscribe. But then you reminded me. And now I'm subscribed. Also have a like

[@UrsaRyan]

Haha - gotta flog the wares, sorry about that

[@juriskrauklis6412]

Well, that was entertaining, thanks!

[@SweenyMarc]

Fascinating video, I genuinely thought it might be impossible and was on the edge of my seat. There's got to be a short vid supercut of all the defeats!

[@UrsaRyan]

perhaps a short???

[@SweenyMarc]

@@UrsaRyan Exactly. Just the last turn of AI moves before each defeat screen. Bam-bam-bam-defeat! Bam-bam-bam-defeat! Bam-bam-bam-defeat!

[@andrewbunch2394]

Very impressive play there!

[@UrsaRyan]

thanks so much!

[@ophh28]

A true masterclass!

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers! I wouldn't call myself a master though!!!

[@rmerrida]

Man, you was like Dr. Strange looking for that one way out of a million to beat Thanos. 🤔🤔🤔😃

[@tdawgluxor1060]

well done!

[@sharkodile22]

POV: Literally just French history.

[@Bezlonirslair]

That was a crazy start!

[@saurabhmahajan3448]

Great. It must be annoying restarting the game every time, that wait time. Respect. 🙏

[@DavidSmith-mt7tb]

Would it benefit you to declare on THEM? thought I heard that doing so puts them on a defensive footing. I don't remember all the details but I think it makes them less likely to attack cities and easier to get peace with if you kill some units or something like that.

[@UrsaRyan]

I tried, but even if I killed a unit, I could never make the advantage last. Defending proved way more successful

[@joshua2280]

@@UrsaRyan I am actually really impressed with the micro manage you do here. I was watching and trying to calculate what could be done for this early war against a much stronger gaul. That money moving trick was very wise. I don't want to know how many tries you actually needed to find a light in the dark to work towards

[@MrTink_]

Best Civ VI creator out there.

[@UrsaRyan]

awwwww

[@ezz625]

I love this: Its like Edge of Tomorrow, but in civ.

[@UrsaRyan]

I literally can't escape!

[@strikingdummy8001]

This is easily the hardest start I’ve seen in any civ game. Fair play.

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers! Yeah I lost much hair on this one

[@widgetb]

I thought for sure the only hope was moving up to Brittany. Amazing! And hey, France have good cheese. (I'm going now.)

[@JohnnoBogan]

Perfect synergy in fromagery in gameplay too.

[@martingeorgiev6309]

It is very cool to watch super difficult starts - quite refreshing compared to straightforward god starts :P

[@UrsaRyan]

I like to vary them up a bit!

[@winslowgordon2396]

Great game, will give it a try

[@UrsaRyan]

You should!

[@markandwendytimothy5890]

Stunning performance... often failure and how to fix it is far more instructive and interesting than simply winning every time, however difficult the challenge

[@UrsaRyan]

this is so true! defeat is pretty much the best learning curve you can go on

[@Jonnysh]

This feels like a great labour of love

[@UrsaRyan]

man, it really was!

[@Merdam9]

I loves this video

[@Ottocide]

The Court of Love prevails!

[@denisem.1042]

You could call this the glutton for punishment start! 😂

[@czitrom42]

wow, that was extreme!!!

[@refinedbrass]

good vid made me facepalm a lot at some of your tactical maneuvers but over all fun so see you get wrecked so many times

[@UrsaRyan]

Cheers! Yeah I needed a few goes on this one!

[@saketdhodapkar]

Not gonna lie ... This is brutal

[@smurfyjosh]

Wow! Just wow!

[@Domkhxiii]

That was too stressful haha

[@votecthulhu9378]

Love ya Ursa

[@gumbycat5226]

Dear Ryan, The reason why Eleanor starts where she does is because it's in Aquitaine, the English holdings in the south-west of France. If you started as Mary I suspect you'd start where Paris is actually located, and have an even harder time. As Eleanor also, I suspect you have a huge advantage - all you have to do is survive and loyalty will convert your over-crowded neighbours just by maximizing population growth. If you want the hardest TSL start, try the Dutch on a TSL map that puts them on a peninsula surrounded by sea and marsh - I think the huge TSL map will do the trick, even if you just play with the European sector. If you do manage to get the Marsh Pantheon and then even better the Marsh Wonder, it's going to be a fantastic game but the chances are slim.

[@marsman7997]

Going to be good

[@yoanngaben1247]

Ahah a bit late to the party, but your start position is actually Bordeaux, capital of Aquitaine, so it is a nice alternative start. It makes a bit more sense than the Gauls in Auvergne, since Ambiorix represents the Belgian branch of the Gauls

[@JohnDoe-dr9ff]

Units typically prioritize city over other units in most cases.

[@pcscairo]

The fact that it took 2 irl hours to get to turn 25 tho 😭

[@UrsaRyan]

ikr it was painful

[@tuindwergie]

Civ 6 became a puzzle game

[@capt_red_beard]

I’ve tried TSL as gilgabro with Persia next door. Went a lot like this

[@mackycabangon8945]

at least you have warcart UU to somewhat help

[@grubbinvgm]

hell yea

[@craig3895]

This was quite the episode. I was screaming "DECLARE WAR ON ENGLAND!" at my computer for like 5 minutes. I figure you'd have seen it earlier if you didn't love England so much.

[@UrsaRyan]

I was blinded by my own loyalty!!!

[@Lenny533]

Love your content Comeback 17

[@drjonritz]

if you'd crossed the river to build Paris, would Bibrax had flipped sooner? By the coast so there's less terrain to defend?

[@UrsaRyan]

it would have flipped sooner, but the river was the only thing giving me the +5 defence against the Gaul horde - crossing would have been certain death!

[@koitoy2469]

40 minutes in here, so I don't know what the end result is yet. I was wondering, doesn't settling on a hill give the city a better defense bonus to their strength? Could you or do you try settling on the hill next to the horses? Not like fresh water is giving you any help with never getting above to pop anyway.

[@Domkhxiii]

Lovely France colour

[@nidhogg4890]

Anyone know what the “faith mod” is that he mentioned? I’d like to check it out

[@UrsaRyan]

I keep a full list of all mods I use on discord = ) Swing by and check it out! Religions expanded I believe is the one you're looking for

[@spunkymonkey5102]

That’s a lot of damage

[@feralcatgirl]

also i wonder if it would be easier if gaul's tsl was "correct" (aduatuca is in modern belgium) maybe they would attack the netherlands first instead, and give you some more time?

[@tylerwilson8990]

Bro gets more and more depressed as the video goes on. It breaks my heart

[@UrsaRyan]

haha this game was rough!

[@elwwws]

I love every video you post. A subscription a like and a comment aren't enough. I'll see what i can do about getting the family to give some love too

[@UrsaRyan]

awww, cheers! = )

[@skettlez9732]

If you declare war first and hold out for 10 turns no matter what the Ai accepts peace

[@sleepysofabear]

Wahoo!

[@UrsaRyan]

Wahoo!

[@PoggoMcDawggo]

How come the gauls started with more units? Or did they just find more gold and rush infantry the first few turns?

[@UrsaRyan]

Deity

[@whyysobritish1805]

Please try a TSL east Asia with Indonesia and apocalypse mode xD

[@supple7351]

‘being an adult sucks, i’m sure you all understand’ me, 15 - 😁👍

[@UrsaRyan]

me, 30 - still agrees

[@SourceOfBeing]

How much difference does it make if you play on a TSL Europe map rather than a TSL Earth map?

[@UrsaRyan]

huge - the europe map is WAY bigger so the space is much better. teh earth map is very cramped

[@ZDTcko]

i dont have an option for playing this map with more than 10 civs, how can i fix?

[@UrsaRyan]

I use a slightly different version of the map from the Yet Not Another Map Pack Mod - I keep all the details on discord if you ever need them

[@gabrielsd20]

Go Ursa

[@radusadu]

i still dont get how your city was under siege both times when you settled on the wine. shouldnt the river prevent them from having zone of control with just two units? if i understand ZOC correctly, they had to have another unit on the deer tile to put the city under siege, right? can someone explain whats happening?

[@UrsaRyan]

it's threatened areas, so sometimes if an enemy unit is standing further back they can still " threaten " the area in front of them - so in this case they didn't need to be adjacent. Just a trickier way for the river to fall to avoid the siege unfortunately

[@radusadu]

@@UrsaRyan I see. Thanks for the answer!