Rock Band (Civ6)

Rock Band
Civilian unit of the Atomic Era
Introduced in Gathering Storm
Unlocked by	Cold War
Cost
Faith	600
Faith	600
Stats
Movement	4
Movement	4
Sight	2
Sight	2
Notes
Can perform a rock concert at a valid venue, including at Wonders, at a District with one of the required buildings, or at a special target allowed by one of the band's Promotions. Their Album Sales stat is the expected Tourism strength at their next concert. After performing concerts their Album Sales and Rock Band Level may increase. Must be purchased with Faith. Cannot perform on the same tile twice. Faith cost is progressive.

Back to the list of units

The Rock Band is an Atomic Era civilian unit in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, dedicated to pursuing the Culture Victory. It can only be purchased with Faith and must be named before being able to perform.

• Attributes:
  • Can earn special Promotions.
  • Can sell Rock Albums after successful concerts. Each Album sold increases Rock Band efficiency for the next concert.
  • Can level up. Higher level bands have greater chance to perform good concerts.
• Abilities:
  • Can perform concerts at least once at a variety of venues in foreign civilizations. Each concert applies a Tourism burst (usually to this civilization only).

Mechanics

Selecting a Rock Band highlights all tiles on which it can activate its unique ability, Perform Rock Band Concert. As usual, activating the ability terminates the unit's turn (and possibly its existence). Rock Bands must always perform in foreign lands.

Each performance applies a one-time Tourism pressure burst towards the civilization within whose borders it takes place. The Tourism formula is as follows:

$Tourism = Venue Tourism Value * (1 + (Tourism Bomb Value / 100) + (Album Sales / 100))$

The formula consists of three factors:

• Venue Tourism value (depends on the performance location)
• Tourism Bomb value (depends on the performance tier)
• Album Sales value (depends on Album Sales the Rock Band has accumulated in the past)

Total Tourism value	Venues
1000	World Wonder
1000 (only with promotion)	Natural Wonder, National Park
750 (+250 from T1 building)	Broadcast Center (Film Studio), Stadium, Aquatics Center
500 (+500 with promotion)	University (Madrasa, Navigation School), Shipyard
500 (only with promotion)	Campus, Spaceport, Seaside Resort
250	Amphitheater (Marae), Arena (Tlachtli), Ferris Wheel

In addition to the Tourism burst, each performance has a few possible outcomes:

• It could become the last performance for the Rock Band, after which it disbands and is lost.
• If the Rock Band doesn't disband...
  • ...it will gain Album Sales, a stat that contributes to the expected Tourism of its future performances.
  • ...it may level up and gain a promotion after accumulating enough "experience." The experience per performance is related to performance "Tier," which is randomized and models the quality of that performance. Rock Bands start at level 1 and can be promoted up to level 4, but they will gain only up to three promotions.

Each Rock Band receives a free promotion as soon as it is purchased (although the player cannot promote the unit within the same turn of purchase because purchased units start with no Movement). The Rock Band will have access to three Rock Band Promotions chosen randomly from the table below after it earns a promotion. Having the Hallyu policy card active at the time a Rock Band gains a promotion allows it to access all possible Rock Band Promotions.

A performance by a higher-level Rock Band has a better chance of not disbanding the unit and attaining a higher performance Tier. The probabilities of getting performance tiers are as follows:

Stars	Concert name	Rock Band level with promotions
		Level 1	Level 2	Level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Level 6
6	Legends of Rock	2%	4.9%	9.4%	16.3%	25.9%	37.5%
5	Headliners	8.2%	12.1%	17.0%	21.4%	24.1%	25.0%
4	Rising Stars	18.4%	22.3%	24.5%	25.1%	24.1%	21.3%
3	Opening Act	26.5%	26.2%	24.5%	21.4%	16.7%	11.6%
2	Creative Differences	26.5%	22.3%	17.0%	11.6%	7.4%	4.2%
1	Aging Rockers	18.4%	12.1%	7.6%	4.2%	1.9%	0.5%
Other probabilities
6 and 5	Promotion chance (2 best tiers)	10.2%	17.0%	26.4%	37.7%	50.0%	62.5%
2 and 1	Unit disband chance* (2 worst tiers)	44.9%	34.5%	24.5%	15.8%	9.3%	4.7%

*The game calculates the disband chance based on turn seed, so the probability of a disband is changed every turn.

List of performance tiers

Stars	Concert name	Tier	Album sales	Tourism Bomb	Promotion	Unit dies
6	Legends of Rock	Top tier	200	200	Yes	No
5	Headliners	2nd tier	150	0	Yes	No
4	Rising Stars	3rd tier	100	150	No	No
3	Opening Act	4th tier	50	-25	No	No
2	Creative Differences	5th tier	0	100	No	Yes
1	Aging Rockers	Bottom tier	0	-25	No	Yes

Rock concert disband chance (as displayed in game)

Performance Level	Disband chance
1	50%
2	37%
3	26%
4	16%
5*	9%
6*	4%

*Only achievable with promotions as Rock Band level is limited to 4

Examples

Example #1

A new Rock Band unit (0 Album Sales) performs a concert on a Wonder tile (1000 venue tourism value). Depending on the randomly generated performance tier the outcomes are as follows:

Concert	Total tourism bomb value	Album sales	Other
Legends of Rock	1000 * (1 + (200 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 3000	+200	Unit promotes
Headliners	1000 * (1 + (0 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 1000	+150	Unit promotes
Rising Stars	1000 * (1 + (150 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 2500	+100	-
Opening Act	1000 * (1 + (-25 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 750	+50	-
Creative Differences	1000 * (1 + (100 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 2000	No change	Unit dies
Aging Rockers	1000 * (1 + (-25 / 100) + (0 / 100)) = 750	No change	Unit dies

Example #2

A Rock Band unit with 400 Album Sales performs a concert on an Entertainment Complex tile with an Arena (250 venue tourism value). Depending on the randomly generated performance tier the outcomes are as follows:

Concert	Total tourism bomb value	Album sales	Other
Legends of Rock	250 * (1 + (200 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1750	+200	Unit promotes
Headliners	250 * (1 + (0 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1250	+150	Unit promotes
Rising Stars	250 * (1 + (150 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1625	+100	-
Opening Act	250 * (1 + (-25 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1187	+50	-
Creative Differences	250 * (1 + (100 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1500	No change	Unit dies
Aging Rockers	250 * (1 + (-25 / 100) + (400 / 100)) = 1187	No change	Unit dies

List of Rock Band promotions

Promotion	Effect
Album Cover Art	Performs as if 1 level more experienced on wonder tiles.
Arena Rock	Performs as if 2 levels more experienced on Entertainment Complex district tiles.
Glam Rock	Performs as if 2 levels more experienced on Theater Square district tiles.
Goes to 11	Civilizations within 10 tiles receive 50% of the Tourism from this concert.
Indie	Performing a concert causes that city to lose 40 Loyalty.
Music Festival	Performs at National Parks and Natural Wonders for expected 1000 Tourism and 1 level more experienced.
Pop Star	Earn Gold equal to 25% of the Tourism generated.
Reggae Rock	Performs as if 2 levels more experienced on Water Park district tiles.
Religious Rock	Performs a concert that converts the majority religion of that city to the religion founded by the player.
Roadies	+4 Movement.
Space Rock	Performs at Spaceports and Campuses for 500 Tourism (1000 Tourism if Campus has a University) and 1 level more experienced.
Surf Band	Performs at Seaside Resorts and Harbors for 500 Tourism (1000 Tourism if Harbor has a Shipyard) and 1 level more experienced.

Strategy

Rock Bands' goal is to tour foreign lands and perform concerts there to awe their citizens directly, thus spreading your civilization's fame and advancing its progress towards a Culture Victory. An interesting feature is that they must be named before their first performance. A unique set of Civilization theme-appropriate names was created to make randomly generated Rock Band names interesting, but of course you are allowed to invent your own names.

The impact of a Rock Band unit depends on the number of performances before it disbands, and much less so than on the performance Tier of a single performance. Continuing performance (i.e. survival) of a Rock Band depends on its effective level. Thus it is advantageous to dedicate the first promotion to a venue-specific level upgrade than on the more enticing effects such as Goes to 11 or Religious Rock.

The player can time the purchase of Rock Bands with the turn of policy change, thus enabling the use of Hallyu to let the player choose the promotion most applicable to the situation of their empire.

Civilopedia entry

The form of the rock band came into its present state over the course of the latter half of the Twentieth Century. A rock band consists of a small number of vocalists and musicians (most commonly four, but sometimes numbering more), usually playing electric guitar, drums, electric bass, and sometimes additional instruments such as keyboards, acoustic guitars, tambourine, and cowbell. The cacophony of their “music” is increased by liberal use of amplification devices, a notable contrast from more elegant small ensembles, like the chamber orchestra.

A touring rock band may be accompanied by specialists in construction, electronics, logistics, merchandising, and—should the audience not be impressed by the atonal jangling of the “musicians”—pyrotechnics. The relationship between the roadie caste and the musicians is a complex one whose nuance exceeds the scope of the Civilopedia.

All rock music is too loud.

Gallery

A Rock Band is about to put on a concert

A Rock Band putting on a concert

Performance results popup

Performance results popup with promotion

Related achievements

Hello Cleveland! Perform a Rock Concert in Cleveland. A reference to the rock mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.

One Tree Hill Have one of your Rock Band units perform a concert adjacent to a Maori Pa unique improvement. A song by Irish rock band U2, which took its name from a volcanic peak in Auckland, New Zealand that is an important memorial place for Māori people.

Rock God Have no cities following your religion then convert a city to your religion using a Rock Band unit. A term for a musician talented and popular enough to have a cult-like following.

See also

• Elvis Presley
• Rock 'n' Roll (Civ4)

External links

• Rock Band guide on CivFanatics