Deeply strategic historical games with matches that take several hours to complete, like Civilization 6, aren’t known for their humor.
They’re the realm of history buffs and old-school tabletop gamers who don’t mind staying up until 3:00AM just to finish re-establishing the Roman Empire with historically-accurate borders.
Still, these long games and the intense focus needed to play them are precisely why Civ 6 needs more humor.
It’s a great way to cut the tension and give your brain a brief respite from crunching numbers and making decisions.
Here are some must-try meme mods that’ll make you laugh out loud.
Before we get into the thick of it, let’s try and reclaim some of the humor initially present in Civilization 6.
Before the March 2021 update, some civilization leaders had a non-serious but entertaining agenda based on their romantic interests.
This mod by Sailor Cat brings it back.
Specifically, these agendas were “Flirtatious” and “Curmudgeon,” which makes the AI more interested or disinterested in establishing a good relationship with members of the opposite sex.
I don’t know about you, but I’d laugh my butt off if Pachacuti refused an alliance or even went to war with me because there are firm “no simping allowed” rules in the Mayan society.
Creator AOM brings laughter, merriment, and excellent textiles to your civilization with these new resources.
Due to its role in producing paper, rope, textiles, clothing, and fiber-based products, hemp is treated as a strategic resource – while its more psychoactive cousin is considered a luxury.
The mod takes things one step further with the Shaman’s Visions and God of the Sea pantheons, designed to further improve the yields on your hemp/cannabis plantations.
Once you’ve started getting ridiculous civs like “Minecraft” into your game, you have to go all the way and make the entire geopolitics of your map absolutely absurd.
A great way to achieve this is through Flactine’s Game & Anime City-States, introducing 16 unique independent cities based on your favorite franchises.
Just imagine defending the K-ON! girls from the Aztecs, or levying the forces of Portal’s Aperture Science for your imperial expansion campaign. It’s wild!
Other awesome games referenced in this mod include:
I’ll be the first to admit that Senren * Banka is a pretty low profile game – like most visual novels among Western audiences.
But this custom Civ 6 leader shines bright thanks to its heroine.
Regardless of whether you know the game or not, Murasame is still an adorable anime girl – but that wouldn’t be enough to qualify for this funny ranking.
The real reason Murasame is here is that her leader screen is both animated and fully voiced.
In other words, every meeting you have with Murasame is indistinguishable from a visual novel scene.
Being denounced or praised by a cute anime girl is just a surreal experience in Civ 6, and it can do a lot to lighten the mood during a long, hard-fought match.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert is known as the RTS franchise that made the Cold War funny – and this mod by Flactine is about to make your Civ 6 hilarious.
All it does is introduce a voiced intelligence officer with lines taken straight from Red Alert to narrate your actions and remind you whenever you have new techs, civics, and so on.
You get to choose between the Allied and Soviet narrators from Red Alert 2 and 3, the Empire of the Rising Sun narrator from RA3, and Yuri from RA2.
This is a must-have for fans of the bizarre RTS series who grew up listening to these voices.
Next up, we have a mod that’s at the same time very cool, incredibly complex, and absolutely hilarious.
It’s Stephen’s Earth 2020 scenario, which lets you take control of a modern country and fight for your life in the complex geopolitical landscape of the 21st Century.
The mod includes:
Two map sizes
New techs and civics to match our current dilemmas
And many new units
But most importantly, it also features modern leaders.
That’s where it gets really bizarre.
Can you imagine Boris Johnson calling you up to protest the trade agreement you just closed with Xi Jinping while your friend Kim Jong Un suggests a joint war against Japan?
They’ll yell and move their arms aggressively at the slightest provocation. Calm down, man! I just took your Settler; it’s not the end of the world!
If they could write their own lines, they’d say something like the classic Navy Seal copypasta – detailing how they’d wipe me out with “gorilla” warfare and their entire military arsenal.
This mod by CMDR Sheploo lets them say just that.
The full quote would be a little too long for this brief review – but needless to say, being verbally assaulted like this every time you denounce someone will at least make you giggle. Especially if you forget you installed the mod in the first place.
The truth behind Area 51’s secret military experiments continues to elude even the most fanatical conspiracy theorists and alien abductees out there, and it’ll stay like that for the foreseeable future.
Don’t worry, though.
If you really want to uncover the truth, you can build your own Area 51 in Civ 6 and see what happens!
This mod by JNR introduces Area 51 as a mighty World Wonder unlocked with the Space Race civic.
Once constructed, it grants the player a UFO and some Alien Infiltrators. You can then continue upgrading the wonder and producing more alien units until the inevitable extraterrestrial takeover.
The models are gorgeous, and it all fits Civ 6’s style surprisingly well.
For thousands of years, humans have dominated the Earth, building empires spanning unthinkable expanses of land and recording our leaders in history as the greatest people who have ever lived.
But if some catastrophic event were to give the humble ant a lil’ bit more volume, we’d be toast in a matter of days.
You’ll get to explore the scenario with FP’s Ant Civilization mod, adding a fully-functional giant ant society led by a Queen Ant – much like an actual colony.
The Formicidae Empire boasts powerful production bonuses and unique assets like the Ant Hill military district and the Ant land melee unit that replaces the Scout.
Nelson Chitty is a Venezuelan expat living in Argentina. He’s a writer and translator passionate about history and foreign cultures. His ideal weekend is spent between leisurely playing games of Civilization VI and looking for the next seinen anime to marathon.
