Let's Play: HUMANKIND - Top Difficulty | Part 1 - Setting up the game and the Neolithic Era 

I love watching Humankind gameplay, and you did a really good job with this. I enjoyed the gameplay for 3 primary reasons: 1. You didn't reload (save scum) back to the prior turn after losing that battle with the Mammoth. You lived with the outcome. 2. You chose something new, for the fun of it, playing a culture you've never played before: The Sumerians. 3. You showed me a different playstyle than I've tried myself, by staying a relatively long time in the Neolithic, settling 3 territories, and accumulating a lot of science and culture. Of the 3 reasons, it's 1 and 2 that hooked me, and has me really eager to watch this full series. When I watch someone playing a game of Humankind, it's like watching a story. Choices 1 and 2 above, living with your mistakes/setbacks, and playing with a sense of risk and adventure, help to lay the groundwork, I think, for an exciting story. A story is NEVER exciting when the outcome is certain. Who bothers to read a book if they already know the ending? It's the risk, the real peril, the struggle, the setbacks, the lost battles, the AI surprises, the uncertainty and hardship, that'll make this story a truly engaging watch. And consider me hooked. I can't wait to see the next installment!

this lets play is better than some tutorial videos I've watched

Love the gameplay! Amazing map. For the mammoth fights, make sure you reinforce your units by moving the third unit adjacent before the attack because this gives them one combat strength. I also find that if you can double attack from the high ground in the first turn it's always worth it because the animals tend to move so that they're only exposed to one attack. Having those two attacks means that you can directly get them half HP. If one of the units I'm using has a bonus and the other one doesn't, I always attack with the stronger unit, since the weak one will get attacked by the animal so it needs to not be damaged and defensive, giving it +2 bonus strength and full HP. You have three rounds to finish the kill so playing one round defensive, meaning the first attack is in your favor since your units will have the +1 defensive trait matters a lot.

I just picked the game up on the discount, and these lets plays are great to watch to understand the game better :) I had no idea what I was doing, since this game feels so different from civilization lol. Base game land percentage is 40% btw, which is very little! Lots of water and islands, I think more land based feels better to play, from looking at your lets play.

Thanks for doing this let's play - I'm struggling against Humankind difficulty atm.

got my sub for that arsenal scarf!

I've been having a hard time getting into humankind past the medieval age due to being kinda lost on how to proceed past that point optimally, hoping that watching a somewhat recent playthrough of the game will give me a more concrete idea of how to play it better. Most tutorials don't really get into city management and transition into more war focused gameplay. That or the playthrough is from 2 years ago and that's not too helpful for learning the current state of the game

I think when you settle in the neolithic age, it is more than not settling next to the first settlement. I believe you should be settling as far away as possible.

It hurt me when you did not pick the zhou