the latest New Frontier , there are numerous things that you need to pay attention to.
From settling locations and first upgrades to units built and upgrades prioritized, there seem to be way too many options and not enough time to follow all of them. In Civilization 6, it is essential to make the right choices to succeed. The complexity of this strategy game can seem daunting at first, but not if you break down some of its mechanics to make things easier to understand.
19 Food and Production
Always Have Sources Of Essential Products
Food and production are the two most essential resources in Civilization 6 that will always be needed. First, food is essential for increasing the population in each city. Each citizen consumes 2 food per turn, and as long as the production is more than the amount of citizens x2, then the city will grow. For example, a city with 10 food per turn can quickly gain up to 5 citizens as long as it stays consistent.
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Production allows building everything faster. The more production a city has, the faster each building, unit, or project will be produced. By always keeping track of each city's food and production you'll be able to plan projects far in advance and complete them in record time as your settlement grows.
18 Enable Yield Icons
Be Aware Of How Much Is Being Made
Probably the first thing to do in Civilization 6 is to enable yield icons from the interface. To enable them, on the bottom left of the screen, right above the minimap, click the second icon from the left-named map options, and then enable yield icons. Now you can see the production and the food offered by each tile and understand why their cities are thriving, or why they aren't.
The food offered and production offered in each tile can be upgraded to increase their yield, but doing so will cost time and resources like any other investment in the game.
If you do not manage the production wisely, you could end up in big trouble with a failing civilization and angry citizens.
17 Explore Areas Carefully
Scout The Paths Of Least Resistance
The early stages of Civilization 6 typically consist of exploring with a small group of fast scouts. It can be hard for beginners to choose a path to travel for the best resources or spaces for expanding their settlements with new cities and districts. One of the best strategies for exploration is to follow the current of rivers or streams to discover larger bodies of water with space around them perfect for settling.
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Checking tiles to see if one you discover is owned by another faction can help you avoid battles too. Larger enemy settlements are usually within three tiles or fewer of the one you find in the Fog of War. Steer clear of fights at first, not only to where hostile forces may come from but to also plan your future builds around that information.
16 Settling Locations
Find The Perfect Place Early
Settling new cities is one of the most important aspects of Civilization 6 and should be done as early as possible. It is essential, at least for the first 4 cities, to choose ideal locations that will help them improve. The best spots could include somewhere with water, an area easy to build on, or a variety of other factors.
Some popular strategies involve placing a city on or near high-yield icons, placing it on top of a luxury resource, or placing it on a hill as a more strategic position that makes attacking the city much harder. Sometimes prioritizing a rare resource can be a good strategy, as your citizens will start gathering it immediately even if it disappears at any point.
15 Pay Attention To Difficulty Level (When Facing AI)
Real Players Vs. The Computer
The AI in Civilization 6 cannot necessarily respond and change to your actions in the same way a group of players would. If you are playing strictly against the AI, you will need to understand what the computer is doing.
They act on if-then protocol, meaning they abide more by cause and effect than your behavior. The AI will assign a difficulty level to each civilization that is acting as your opponent. They will become more difficult by getting bonuses from the AI to make the game more challenging for you. There are eight total difficulty levels, as you can see in the table below.
AI Difficulty Levels |
|
|---|---|
Settler |
No AI Bonuses, Big Player Bonuses |
Chieftain |
No AI Bonuses, Players Get Smaller Percentage Bonuses |
Warlord |
No AI Bonuses, Small Player Bonuses |
Prince (Default Difficulty) |
No Player Bonuses, Very Small AI Bonuses |
King |
No Player Bonuses, Small AI Bonuses & Boosts |
Emperor |
No Player Bonuses, Decent AI Bonuses, Boosts, & Extra Units |
Immortal |
No Player Bonuses, Big AI Bonuses, Boosts, & Extra Units |
Deity |
No Player Bonuses, Godlike AI Bonuses, Boosts, & Many Extra Units |
Basically, the higher the difficulty you look to play against, the more bonuses they will receive and the less you will receive.
14 Build Wide
Construct As Many Cities As You Can
One of the best strategies in Civilization 6 is to build wide, which means to build as many cities as possible. After the first few cities, the settling location doesn't matter; it's all just about getting an extra city. More cities equal faster progression, and there is no setback for having too many of them.
One thing to note is that while building wide is seemingly the rule, there are always exceptions, like the Japanese and the Mayan factions who favor playing tall by building only a few big cities.
that either the AI or other players will be going for the same strategy, so space will be limited as the game goes on. Try to keep settling and do it fast in the beginning.
13 Build Districts
Favor The Strongest Type Of Building
Probably the most important type of building in Civilization 6 is a district, which should almost always be built whenever available. However, each city has a limit on how many districts you can place that grows as more citizens appear in your settlement.
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Cities can place one district when they have 1 citizen, and then gain 1 additional district slot for every 3 citizens (so on 4 citizens the city can build 2, on 7 it can build 3, and so on). Whenever the city's population allows building a district, it is recommended to do so, as they offer significant bonuses.
12 Learn How Adjacency Bonuses Work
Extra Yields For Good Planning
This goes back to planning your districts and ensuring you have the right buildings in the right places. You will want to learn how the various types of terrain affect how much different buildings and game elements work. All 6 tiles around the one that a game element is built on matter. For instance, if you have a Campus, it will grant more Science the more Mountain tiles surround it.
This can also work in reverse, as a Mine gains a bonus from being near other tiles, but those tiles in return lose Appeal. This is another case of keeping your goals in mind and which victory you want to achieve. A Cultural victory will be less possible if Mines are ruining all of your beautiful cities.
Adjacency bonuses can and will change as the game changes. Tiles change as you build on them and new districts will pop up. There are three total ways that the Adjacency bonuses are tracked:
- By District
- By Tile Improvements
- By Appeal
Keep an eye on how all of these work, as you will want to understand it as you build your cities.
11 Choose Wonders Carefully
Create Awe-Inspiring Monuments For Different Bonuses
One of the most game-changing building types is the world wonder buildings. Each wonder can only be built once in the entire match, but only by the player who manages to construct it first. Creating a wonder of the world provides a significant boost for your empire, so they act as a goal worth pursuing during a match.
There are way too many wonders in the game and most of the time they are incredibly expensive to build. It's important for you to only build the ones that you'll need based on your winning condition rather than to show off. If a world wonder isn't needed to secure a win, don't bother wasting resources on its production above other important structures.
10 Find & Build Near Natural Wonders If You Can
Big Bonuses For Unique Tiles
As you explore, you can find Natural Wonders that are separate from the other type of Wonders that you can build. This can be something like Mt. Everest, a National Park, or Crater Lake. They cannot be changed or improved upon, but they do provide several bonuses.
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Firstly, finding them is important for your recon units, as they will earn extra XP for finding something so valuable. However, you will want to incorporate these into your cities where possible, as they will provide huge Appeal bonuses to adjacent tiles as well as Production bonuses depending on what kind of wonder they are.
Build a Preserve near a Natural Wonder to see a large amount of Bonuses get applied to surrounding tiles.
Players will be competing to incorporate these into their cities, as they are extremely valuable. So if you spot one, try to claim the surrounding tiles as quickly as possible while keeping in mind how close you actually want your city center to be to the Natural Wonder.
