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Sid Meier's Civilization 6 has thirteen different scenarios that can be played outside of the main game that provide completely new gameplay opportunities for players. Some of these scenarios can be played alone, while others can only be experienced with other players. Scenarios are special game modes in Civilization 6 that limits certain options, such as playable leaders, and changes around the victory conditions. There are additionally much fewer turns in many of the scenarios, with one scenario having the limit of only 40 turns.

While the each of the single player scenarios require expansion packs or DLC, the majority of the multiplayer scenarios come with the base game and can be freely enjoyed with friends. These are, however, the best of all the scenarios currently available in Sid Meier's Civilization 6.

Red Death

Red Death is a battle royale styled scenario that was added for free in the September 2019 update for Civilization 6. It takes place during the post-apocalypse with players controlling unique civilizations not available in any other game modes. These civilizations are:

Cultists
Borderlords
Jocks
Mutants
Doomsday Preppers
Pirates
Mad Scientists
Wanderers
Aliens
Zombies

The Red Death that the scenario is named after is a radioactive mass that is slowly enveloping the world that will damage all units inside it, as well as deal more damage as the game progresses. The game keeps going until there is one player left standing in order to get a spaceship to get off the planet.

What makes this scenario so great is in how it completely changes how one plays Civilization 6, with violence being the only way to secure victory and fragility being constant threat. The unique factions provided by this mode additionally help create the new world ravaged by the nuclear apocalypse and provide interesting gameplay styles.

Outback Tycoon

The complete opposite of the Red Death scenario is the Outback Tycoon scenario available for players that own the Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack. It is a single player scenario where the goal is to create a powerful empire on the Australian continent with no combat at all. Due to the lack of combat, players can sit back, explore, and expand. The goal is to have the most gold by the end of the turn limit, which is 60 turns, or get more gold than the goal before the turn limit is hit. Players can control the following civilizations:

Queensland
South Australia
Victoria
Western Australia

This scenario can also be played with multiple players with up to four players if they want a short and fun game where nobody has to worry about sudden invasions. However, in both single player and multiplayer, there are random encounters that can occur in the outback. Some are positive, such as finding treasure, and some are negative, such as being attacked by Australia's infamous wild life.

Conquests of Alexander

Alexander as a civilization leader in Civilization 6

Conquests of Alexander is a scenario available for players who own the Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack. In it, players control Alexander the Great and the civilization of Macedon as they expand their empire. The goal of the scenario is to conquer all 28 cities on the world map.

One of the biggest obstacles in this scenario is being constantly locked in a war with Persia with the only way of ending it being conquest. However, players also have access to Alexander the Great as a Great General with multiple unique benefits able to be used if he is involved in the capturing of cities. However, players will be defeated if he is killed. When conquering cities, players have a time limit to win depending on the difficulty. This limit can be at most 60 if players are on the Settler difficulty and 37 at the least for Deity.

Global Thermonuclear War

Another combat based scenario is Global Thermonuclear War, which is a multiplayer scenario available for all players in Civilization 6. As the title suggests, players are in the atomic era with gameplay being focused on nuclear weaponry. There are however three different victory conditions thanks to this mode lasting only 50 turns. They are:

Nuking the most city centers by the turn limit
Having the most tanks by the turn limit if no city centers are nuked by the turn limit
Capturing three city-states

Gameplay has additionally changed for this scenario, with nuclear units and devices being cheaper to build and maintain without strategic resources being necessary. There are additionally no tribal villages, no barbarians, and no war weariness. The map also is completely revealed at the start of the game alongside builders having more charges to allow for faster development.

Path to Nirvana

Not a lot of players go for Religious Victories in Civilization 6, but Path to Nirvana allows players to explore this part of gameplay more with the entire scenario being based around it. The goal of the scenario is to generate the most amount of victory points at the end of 50 turns. These points are earned via each point of Faith players generate each turn, each citizen that follows the player's religions, and 20 points per foreign city that follows the player's religion.

There are seven different civilizations that players can choose to control with their own preset civic and religion. They are:

China - Early Empire Civic and Taoism Religion with River Goddess, Feed the World, Pagoda, and Monastic Isolation
Chola - Celestial Navigation Civic and Shaivism Religion with Sacred Path, Linga, Stewardship, and Yoga
Ghaznavid - Celestial Navigation, Currency, and Early Empire Civics and Islam Religion with Desert Folklore, Religious Community, Mosque, and Pilgrimage
Indonesia - Celestial Navigation Civic and Hindu Dharma Religion with God of the Sea, Great Nusantara, Kampung, and Itinerant Preachers
Khmer - Early Empire, Engineering, and Mysticism Civics and Theravada Buddhism Religion with Stone Circles, Dāna, Wat, and World Church
Pala - Mysticism Civic and Mahayana Buddhism Religion with Earth Goddess, Work Ethic, Mahayana Stupa, and Holy Order
Tufan - Mysticism Civic and Vajrayana Buddhism Religion with God of the Open Sky, Zen Meditation, Vajrayana Stupa, and Missionary Zeal