Millennia - An Early Contender for Game of the Year 2024

Millennia is an incredibly exciting new historical strategy game that blends some very familiar ideas with a lot of intriguing new experiments... And also rebel-aligned volcanoes.
Millennia on Steam (at the time this video was released, the demo was still available) - store.steampow...
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Fanfare for Space, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
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[@verminter]

I look forward to the 9 hour livestream that Claire keeps trying to end starting at the 4 hour mark.

[@bloodyrage82]

🫡

[@KashouWannabe]

In this episode Jon engineers his own Bronze Age collapse.

[@dashiellgillingham4579]

A volcano, internal rebellion, a population exodus from the cities, and barbarian invasions. Yeah, checks out.

[@ojd2296]

...A one way Bronze Age Collapse

[@rathalos1522]

It would have been even worse if someone had entered the Age of Blood instead. Barbarians everywhere!

[@CoryDAnimates]

Half the the team are former Firaxis devs. So the Civ like bones are strong.

[@Petrico94]

It looks ALOT like Civ, even more than Mankind did a while back, but it's different in good ways and uses each resources for interesting choices. Civ feels like you make minor choices on the tech tree and then catch up to have everything, leader builds wonders, this feels like 6 where you can't do everything but you're always spending resources to progress something. Excited to see it develop and what each age has to offer or what the alternate ages and governments can be. One neat thing in Mankind was you were never stuck as The Egyptians Build Wonders but you adapt each age for different bonuses.

[@SLKibara]

To be honest, that's exactly why I dislike 6 over 5. I like being able to have everything

[@Cow-Moth-With-A-CRT-Head]

Looking forward to another run where Jon brings about the Age of Blood

[@xeladas]

One interesting think this does different from Civ is how growth works: in Civilisations your cities take all their excess food put it in a pot and once that pot is full a Pop is created, if there is sickness or whatnot that just means that some food doesn't go into the pot. In Millennia, while yes excess food is very important, it only helps up to a point, once it reaches 200% satisfaction additional food doesn't do anything; additionally, as your cities grow, your people have more needs, like Housing and Sanitation, which also factor into growth rates, and if you fail to meet those needs you get unrest which I believe is why Jon really struggled near the end, his Capital lacked enough housing (which could have been remedied by building Dwellings) stymying it's growth and fomenting rebellion.

[@Dfarrey]

Looking forward to more of this. I like how the forest boxing you in makes early game exploration more difficult. It also makes it more interesting.

[@justincheong]

8:17 Yep, sounds like the British school of exploration there

[@SonesBen]

It's interesting--at first blush, this game looks so much like a Civ VI clone. But then you start playing and realize that all the mechanics under the hood are *very* different. It has some genuinely clever mechanics and some good quality of life improvements. I don't miss workers at all; Production points give you the exact same sort of choices (your ability to build improvements is a finite resource) without the micromanagement. The "Ages" system and research are a huge change from Civ, and I like it a lot.

[@TheRedKing247]

It really manages to fix a lot of fundamental issues with Civ too like dealing with barbarian spam in the early game without screwing up your production, and the infamous stacking issue that has plagued the franchise forever. The systems just all work really well together and give quite a bit more depth than Civ does, without tedious micromanagement like Civ VI did that I didn't personally like.

[@No_Superman10]

I've seen some screenshots of this that really have me interested. I swear I saw a shot of the various ages you can get in the game had stuff like "Age of Aether" and that would be my absolute JAM!

[@MrSilencedGamer]

Really enjoyed what I have played of Millennia so far, but they really gimped themselves with the 60 turn limit. The demo ends just as the game is about to show off the reasons why you should play this instead of civ, I really hope they come out with a better demo soon that truly shows off the unique mechanics that will set this game apart from all the rest.

[@yourethatmantis5178]

Ok so I’ve just played through the demo twice. It’s pretty good. Really captures the whole “just one more turn” feel Civ has. It does feel a bit barebones in places, but I feel like that’s going to change in the full release. A couple nitpicks I have. First, the eras feel like they go by a little too fast for my liking. Like historically, the Bronze Age saw the rise of large complex societies and empires. But in this game you leave the Bronze Age still feeling like you’re in the Stone Age, still getting your act together. Second, there isn’t a whole lot of variation in the cultures you can play. Each one seemingly gets one small unique bonus and that’s it. Germany gets extra production, China gets extra food, America can rush buildings for less money, etcetera. It really isn’t enough to give each culture its own identity in the game or more importantly, it doesn’t encourage the player to play all that differently between each culture. The 4X genre thrives on replayability. Each culture being 95% identical to every other culture only hurts that replayability.

[@David-bf2cg]

Thats because the culture is not important. You dont play as France with unique bonuses, you make your own country that has the name France, Spain whatever, with unique bonuses over the course of the games. Have you seen the different eras and national spirits? Tons of replayability.

[@yourethatmantis5178]

@@David-bf2cg My point is there’s nothing to incentivize you to play differently between cultures. Maybe it’s just a me thing. But I always try to find the objectively best path through the game, the path that offers the best bonuses for the most possible scenarios. So for me, if all the cultures are more or less interchangeable, I won’t have much replay value. Kind of like the policy card system in Civ VI. Yeah there’s technically a hundred-million different card combinations you could make for a hundred-million different ways to play (at least on paper). But I always use the same card combinations every game with slight variations based on the Civ I’m playing. Yet my game as the Aztecs will always be different from any game I play as the Inca. Because I’m incentivized to play more militaristically as Aztecs and turtle more as Inca.

[@David-bf2cg]

@@yourethatmantis5178 You misunderstand. They deliberately made the countries basically similar with inconsequential bonuses so that you can make your own nation. So if you pick the raider national spirit you will automatically play more aggressive and different, then if you picked the naturalist or the Olympic games one. There's where you're important bonuses are. Forget the one you choose in the beginning, it's just so there's something there to make the beginning a bit more different, and you can find tune it. But the rest is which choices you make throughout the game to get different bonuses.

[@yourethatmantis5178]

@@David-bf2cg I think they should look to games like Endless Legend and their custom faction creator. Where you can make your own civilization by assigning it a limited number of traits from a pool of traits. You basically create a foundation for a civilization then build on top of that for the rest of the game. Something like +1 food in the capitol is lame. I get that the idea is have everyone branch out over the course the game. Everyone starts homogenous and ends differently. But if everyone has the same choices and some choices are better than others, then I can’t see there being much variety.

[@David-bf2cg]

@@yourethatmantis5178 Well see when the game comes out, but I have personally noticed that the circumstances dictate a lot of which national spirit I pick, and that they all can be good. I personally hate having to play the entire game as let's say England with queen Victoria and the same bonuses the entire game. Absolutely kills my desire to RP and experiment. I much much prefer this.

[@librarianseth5572]

Day 28 of requesting _Age of Mythology_ Today's book suggestion has more to do with the start of civilizations and the building of something new with the inspirations of the old. It's _Conquistador_ by S. M. Stirling, the tale of a WWII vet discovering a doorway to a world where Europeans never discovered America. As you could expect from a story with that name, things don't go great for many of the natives. It's a fun read full of worldbuilding and thought experiments you'll probably enjoy. Also there's condors, many condors.

[@Skycroft1000]

It's a cool game with several good ideas, and I'm certainly looking forward to it. I do hope they balance the Domains though. The general idea is that you get better at the things you do, but this snowball effect is _much_ stronger for Warfare than the other Domains, to a frankly ridiculous extent. I hope they both nerf warfare XP gains from combat and boost the other Domains, particularly the latecomers. Not by much in the latter case, just a bit of a quickstart. Edit: Bit of a tip. Unless you need the tech _right now_ (which you might) you always want to use Local Reforms on your capital instead of Eureka. Your capital genrates 2 Knowledge by default and Local Reforms boosts that by 50% for five turns... so it gives you the same amount of Knowledge, and also more of everything else.

[@mkaiww]

would love to see a full series when the game releases

[@xionkuriyama5697]

The hardcore Paradox audience was really hating on this game, so it's nice to see people here being more positive about it.

[@bouncyrou1312]

I think it’s because it was teased pretty heavily on a lot of the socials for paradox’s grand strategy games, so people were disappointed when it turned out to be a third party civ-style rts

[@CuriousCauliflowerX]

@@bouncyrou1312 Nah, the game just doesn't look that great visually. But the gameplay seems interesting, so hopefully it does well.

[@majorwesjanson]

The most important question- how much fun is the restart to find the perfect start aspect?

[@LikelyToBeEatenByAGrue]

These games always feel like someone decided to throw every mechanic they can think of into them to see what sticks. Not my thing but I'm glad you're happy.

[@OmnipotentNoodle]

Gigantic dorkazoids like us love complicated management games :^) Im a big fan of Kerbal Space Program, but the stock game is too simple and easy, so I play with big bundles of mods like Kerbalism + a laundry list, or RP-1,,,,, just to give me more stuff to manage ^^

[@LikelyToBeEatenByAGrue]

@@OmnipotentNoodle funny, I really enjoyed that one too. I just played the sandbox. It takes all sorts to make a world and I'm glad that there's games for us all. Sometimes the same one.

[@the_Book_778]

The first time I heard that dog barking noise in the background I thought it was Ted. I'm glad Jon want to bring this back in the future. I would love to see a full or at least a mini-series of this.

[@SithWaterDancer74]

What is it if not Ted? We can't figure it out 😂

[@iamded.]

Damnit, that was great fun to watch but far too brief! I can't wait to sink into a good 6 hour MATN livestream of this game when it releases!

[@brucehilton1662]

Lots of fun! Thanks for this.

[@inkyGhosty]

So far Balatro and Indika are my standouts from the Steamfest, but I'll check this out too. Thanks, Jon.

[@MarquisSmith]

Question for the MATN community - which of these Civilisation style games is the most welcoming for newbies? Last god game I played was Populous on the mega drive. Yeah... I'm old.

[@realCyng]

Civ 5 was my first one and it was pretty newb friendly for me

[@pietincat]

I would personally vouch for Civ VI. It was my first civ game, and now it’s one of my favorite games of all time. Prettier than Civ V, too Edit: if you do get Civ VI, make sure to get at least the Rise and Fall DLC. Gathering Storm is great too.

[@tomwhitfield1601]

For me, I found Civ5 the most accessible but I'm not a big 4x player

[@SLKibara]

@@pietincat I would not say the Civ VI graphics are "prettier"

[@CH-ml4rz]

Civ 6 with no DLC is pretty welcoming I felt. Then I added the DLCs one by one which adds so much gameplay and mechanics.

[@juliajs1752]

The Steam Next fest nearly doubled my wishlist...

[@Falli110]

I find it funny that Jon managed to suffer his own kind of Bronze Age Collapse during this video.

[@meuconmyeuc1337]

That is new beautiful footage you got there, mate. What an amazing world we live on, huh? I look forward to your videos. 😊👍

[@thomasendter6770]

Mechanics sound interesting. It is not just a CIV-Clone.

[@taylorpagani9515]

As much as I love CIV I know it has to be hard to make entertaining for viewers. Loved the video and can't wait to see more!

[@JanusDarke]

I love going Warriors & Age of Heroes in this Demo, the Spartans lay waste to things & the Heroes undertake tasks like Hercules. Age of Blood is just chaos on top of chaos, open warfare to all is gloriously chaotic. I have to admit, this years Next Fest is bloating my Wishlist more than it used to.

[@kdog290]

Explore is warfare, theft is exploring. Got it

[@nregames8447]

A super decentralised playthrough sounds fun! Where you don't integrate at all, but have autonomous communities

[@rathalos1522]

One of the governments unlocked in Age 3 is meant for exactly that.

[@CH-ml4rz]

Played 120 turns today. Pretty good!

[@dwightgodding686]

Jon did much better than I did for the first half of the demo, and then much, much worse. Of course, by the time the full game comes out, I'm sure he'll be piloting his nation through a mistake-free series of glorious ages.

[@Osma777]

First off, thank you for reminding me I wanted to check this out. Secondly, WOW this is obviously still in beta. It is Super Realistic!(TM) by which I mean that the early game is super freaking slow with little in the way of food, and even less in the way of production. I've started and restarted over two dozen times, and it took over 10 games before I realized that clay pits are designed to give you at least SOMETHING in the way of production if you start on the open plains. Paradox going to Paradox, and it took at least 3-4 games before I even STARTED to get my head around all the diffrent systems.... and after a dozen games I realized it was 3:30 am and my brain was SCREAMING that I needed sleep. Sounds about right.

[@Joeybanananas]

Love watching you play strategy games!

[@jansenart0]

Here's the main problem with all civlikes: They all make me want to go back to the best one, Civilization V: Brave New World. I wanted so much to like Old World and Humankind and even CivVI but every time I try them, I think "man, Civ V did all this better". And that was BEFORE the Community Patch.

[@TheRedKing247]

I feel you here as I'm much the same way, but having played the demo I genuinely feel like this game could replace that for me. It's almost like a Civ 5.5 I've found.

[@jansenart0]

Jon, the Civ V Community Patch could use some exposure, and fixed a lot of issues with the game. I'd love it for you to check it out.

[@jaguarstar7426]

I’ve played the demo and this game is honestly immaculate so far

[@vladdracul5072]

First game you ever played?

[@Anthony_Cika]

At 8:40: All of these treasures belong in a museum!

[@nudziciemnie]

I promised myself that as long as I don't finish all the achievements in Civ 5, I won't start a new game of this type. I still had three more to do.

[@gretchman]

Star Control date - 0023. Early contender for game of the year 2024, you say? You know what is a contender for Game of the All-Time? Star Control 2. I'd like to humbly (ever-so-humbly) request that you give it a lil play. It is, in fact, your favorite game, though you may not know it yet.

[@Mysmarttelevision1989]

You got awhile to go. May the fates be kind.

[@jeffjwatts]

Millenia needs some more work. The Raiders path is completely broken and leads to a trivial win. But assuming those kind of issues get cleaned up, it looks like a gem.

[@RocketRoosterFilms]

This video convinced me to get the demo! Good work, Jon.

[@wizlockfnordfinder]

38:00 Oh! OH! So it's the Revolutionary People's Movement that causes the volcanic activity, EH!?😊

[@jasmijnwellner6226]

I'd been playing the demo over and over, glad to see you like it too! Though it was painful to see how you just completely ignored housing and anything giving you improvement point income. I hope the final game does include more early game government types, because only having imperial dynasty and god kingdom felt like such an odd lack of choice compared to the wide variety of national spirits and other choices in the game.

[@LewisBDO]

Is this what Cities Skylines was to Sim City but for Civ?

[@charlesfranks1902]

Wasn't even planning of looking at this but, now, I will give it a shot.

[@annekekramer3835]

The demo is still on steam till tomorrow, be fast.

[@nikoramdorf2886]

I find it hilarious that your plastyle basically resulted in going through a "bronze age collapse" to get to the iron age

[@southend26]

A Brit playing as the Greeks and mistaking India for a bunch of barbarians was truly historic.

[@lasse6435]

Looking forward to more

[@kemperor]

Damn, should have saved the money to bribe the volcano. They are very greedy natural disasters.

[@LarsaXL]

This looks like a mod for Civilization.

[@irecordwithaphone1856]

Great thumbnail

[@mailleweaver]

You need experience doing diplomatic things in order to be allowed to do diplomatic things. Makes as much sense as modern job searches, I guess.

[@sethroelke2311]

Just lie on your resume and say you bribed a volcano.

[@mailleweaver]

@@sethroelke2311 That must be what Japan did to get Mt Fuji to breathe fire on Greece instead of them.

[@Next0gen0]

I literally Just got done playing this demo, lol.

[@armitage1950]

13:36 I’m sorry Jon, what? I have never heard Syracuse pronounced like that. 😂

[@BenderRodriguz]

Ah yes volcanos are very well know shake down artists.

[@brantodb01]

mm yes, I love mana based strategy games /s

[@OddlySpecificGaming]

I think Civ is boring now but I so want to see a full game of this!!! Please don’t just do a livestream let us YT people enjoy!!

[@jeffjwatts]

He can't do a full game, the demo has a 60 turn limit.

[@oliwoodstar]

Waiting nervously to see if Newcastle decide to do anything … interesting.

[@darrenk920]

How long before they discover beer? Asking for a close neighbour…

[@kevind8240]

I probably would have hit the reset button after the volcano tbh 😂

[@longrodvanhugendong3731]

Ahhh yes

[@dungeonmaster201]

Entry 31 / 1230 good ole command and conquer

[@Nigel_The_Crab]

Oh nice

[@LordThunderJunker]

Cool!

[@snippidippi]

Downloaded the demo today but my mouse is drifting as soon as I start the game. Anyone have same problem?

[@hanscakestealer8546]

The glorious age of stone

[@lw.1730]

I haven’t watched much of Jon’s new stuff, I mainly rewatch the Crusader Kings and Total War series. However, when did his voice change so drastically? The inflections are completely different and honestly it’s kinda jarring to me

[@Rijoaoajoo]

bunch of hivemind "literally" thrown in too

[@-Sevo]

Jon falling for the classic food trap. I love it

[@psf03077]

I like the concept but something about the art style is off-putting. I know it will in development, but I'll have to keep an eye out for more.

[@2782Jack]

Whenever I see any game that has a tile system and cities that grow in them I just go back to civ 5 or 6, most of the time these games try and get clever by making the tech tree a deck of playing cards or give a random event for +5% food production but it's all basically civ 5 but with an extra mechanic or two, you're still leading armies, growing cities, and exploring a tile based world in search of wheat or some other resource unless it's on mars or alpha centauri it's mostly the same game

[@monsieurlaguillotine3481]

I've already got Civ 5 and 6. What is really so different from this that I would need to spend money it, when I've already got Civ?

[@TheRedKing247]

I mean why do you need to spend money on any new game when you already have others? You don't. You buy new games for the different experiences they provide, and I can tell you from playing the demo this provides a different enough experience it's worth playing. I mean just go try the demo out for yourself, it's free on Steam.

[@jazzart223]

Five minutes in and... oh, so it's Civ IV + VI. I'm OK with that.

[@jessie699]

Day 31/1230 of requesting Jon play a game nobody will remember, like Majesty: A Fantasy Kingdom Sim.

[@tubeTreasurer]

Oh man I loved that game back in the day.

[@mithkabob]

The charm of Majesty is crazy, I play through the whole game every 2-3 years, really wish someone would make a worthy sequel to it. Every similar game gives the player too much direct control of the units and it just ends up as an awkward RTS instead of a proper sim.

[@fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Interesting flavor. Lots of bits of Endless Legend vibe; though closer to Civ in terms of civs being fundamentally similar but having options; rather than each one being hugely distinct and really weird.

[@ChurroTheViscous]

Do you have to practice to put "a"s after every sentence?

[@speedymccreedy8785]

Game of the Year? With that mobile game combat 'system'. Quite frankly this looks to be beneath paradox. The 'quality' on display here is actually a real worry, and if you give it this much support then you are also responsible for the dumbing down of the whole game industry. Take a stand, demand more sophisticated and much better quality games.

[@CommissarMitch]

I feel this is going to be a Humankind. Fun ideas but no real lasting power.

[@TheMetalfreak360]

I tried the game, and there are some interesting ideas, but really not for me, I despise how it looks for one thing, wish it was more stylized.

[@etherraichu]

I hate Persia in games. Persia in Age of Empires 2 is easily the worst fictional Persia. See its town center gets double hit points of every other town center. So what you can do at the very start of the game is delete your town center, walk across the map to your opponent's base, and build a new town center right next to theirs. They shoot at each other, but because yours has twice as much HP it always wins.

[@tach5884]

You were doing well until everyone died.

[@gilgamecha]

Not sure why this is GOTY material? It just looks like a variant of Civ.

[@vladdracul5072]

True.The demo wasn't as exciting as I'd hoped, and there seem to be too many elements of Civ 6 in it for my taste. I'll keep playing Civ 5 instead.

[@weq3ei8u42]

its just a clickbait title.

[@gilgamecha]

@@weq3ei8u42 agreed

[@nathanieljordan2833]

pls more

[@NYsummertimeCHI]

Please someone make rhye's and fall of millenia mod.

[@AaronCorr]

0:08 "They are not gonna say it out loud but it's Civilization" whelp *slaps knee* that's already not my cup of tea. See you folks tomorrow for Fallout

[@Rijoaoajoo]

looks good except for the mobile game looking combat that shit sucks badly

[@bakan117]

Looks interesting but having Paradox as publisher means this will be probably be a dlc farm mill. Hard pass.

[@ProjectStickman]

Why is John playing at like 480p?

[@CoolStoryBro455]

I want this but with a huge map, npc's, rts segment fully integrated, town/city builder and fps mode

[@matthewknight8850]

Day 0030/1230 of requesting Jon read Macbeth to us with accompanying funny voices for the characters. Knock-off Civilization... Your as beautiful as the day I last saw you.

[@Kackrabe]

I never got the appeal of the n-th reskin of Civilization with a couple new mechanics thrown in.

[@josej-f2j]

"An Early Contender for Game of the Year 2024"... it this a joke??? , it hasnt even been released yet,

[@EpicMuttonChops]

i am deeply disinterested in games like Civ, and whenever you mention it at the start, all my interest just turns off

[@charlesmiv3842]

Why are you so disinterested in games like civ?

[@JoshuaKevinPerry]

​@@charlesmiv3842I've played Civ since it began..it's really low on innovation and action.

[@charlesmiv3842]

@@JoshuaKevinPerry What do you even mean by this? Your critiques are so vague.

[@boredom_proxy]

No combat and 10 GB HDD space need..bored already.

[@charlesmiv3842]

Looks like a mobile game

[@mikerukin1863]

I saw this drop and first though was: no way Firaxis lawyers weren’t going into overdrive

[@IncapableKakistocrat]

Why would they go after this and not the other many civ-likes out there?

[@danielundefined3361]

The game seems competent enough, but I really dislike how they use modern state names in Civ and Civ-likes. Those came about as a result of certain events and people, and if you're starting from the stone age, there is no reason why the names should turn out the same as what we use in the real world today. I feel the same about monuments in Civ, those are incredibly silly. Oh, India randomly built the Eiffel Tower? WHY?? This is the main reason I dislike these games.

[@JimBananas]

I thought the game was about Trumps wife!!

[@NietzscheanMan]

Tribal hut: Leader can share "her" knowledge with you. What are the chances you ran into the one woke tribe of the stone age.

[@borcsokszilveszter2566]

4x or bethesda , come on do something else