Civilization 6 is the latest title in the long-running historical strategy series, and brings many changes to its classic formula. Probably the most important of these new mechanics in Civ 6 is. The Water Availability Guide is one of the basic Game Concepts in Civilization VI, which contributes to what make cities grow. Increasing your Housing can be achieved by the following: Buildings, Civics, Districts, Tile Improvements, access to water: being next to Rivers, Lakes, Oasis and some Natural Wonders, by building an Aqueduct (which must be placed adjacent to both your city and one of. So coastal cities in Civ 6 are pretty terrible. Water tiles give almost no yield and you can build ships from cities that are settled two tiles inland anyways. That gives you more useful production tiles and a higher chance to get a real housing boost from an aqueduct. Also those cities are not vulnerable to naval attacks. Looking at my topic bio, you might be able to infer a little about my answer TL;DR: Found your capital and one or two other cities. Conquer the rest. Maybe settle a colony or toe-hold on another continent later on.
Strategy games can be imposing beasts, with layered systems and complex progression. Firaxis’ newly released Civilization VI breaks down barriers thanks to an approach that makes complexity welcoming instead of daunting.
SEE ALSO: 5 major changes that make 'Civilization VI' feel like a better game
Long-time fans will feel at home quickly, despite some major changes. Those who have always toyed with the idea of experimenting with the long-running strategy franchise will find a fantastic introduction in this installment. But in case you need a helping hand, we’ve got you covered with a set of tips to guide you through your first game.
1. Understand the four victory conditions
In every new Civilization game, Firaxis tweaks the ways you’ll conquer the world. There are four core victory conditions in Civilization VI: domination, science, culture, and religious. There is also a quiet fifth option based on score that only kicks in if you reach the year 2050 (500 turns) without a victor.
Domination victory relies on military might. Once you control every other nation’s capital as well as your own, the game is yours.
A science win requires you to research a number of late-game technologies, launch a satellite into space, put a man on the moon, and establish a colony on Mars. Each of these requires special construction projects, with the final step demanding three components that can only be built in cities with a spaceport.
Cultural victories rely on building tourism cache and welcoming foreign tourists. This is generated with open border treaties, archaeological finds, great works of art, holy sites, unique wonders and national parks. The longer the game goes on, the harder this is to accomplish since you need to have more visitors than all of the domestic tourists combined in each of the other civs.
Finally, Civilization VI adds a religious victory for the first time. Your path to victory is through the use of holy sites and religious agents like apostles, missionaries, and inquisitors. You need to convert at least half of every other civilization’s cities to your faith, in order to score this kind of win. Founding a religion in Civilization VI is great fun, because you can call it anything you want.
2. Pick a leader that suits your play style
Once you understand the different ways to win, it’s important to choose one of the 20 leaders that fits your play style.
If you’re new to the Civilization series, we’d recommend a science victory to start with. Culture is tricky, religion will likely send you to war, and domination is harder than it sounds, because big armies need robust infrastructure.
For that reason, you might consider Russia. Peter I (sometimes known as Peter the Great) is a science and culture leech. Trade routes (more on them later) can bring in additional science from any culture that is more advanced than Russia. Just be careful that Peter’s rapid land grabs don’t raise the ire of your neighbors.
Other good options for science victories are Arabia and Saladin (combining faith and technology) and Sumeria and Gilgamesh (whose ziggurats produce additional science along rivers).
Science victories allow you to secure your borders with a modest military while focusing on technologies and district improvements that serve your end game. This is also a great way to experiment with the diplomacy system, as making friends with other leaders will help keep you safe. Using negotiations, you can trade for technologies you’d rather not waste turns researching yourself.
You’ll also want to make sure that your relationships with other civilizations give you access to crucial commodities you can’t harvest on your own. If you need oil or steel, but them isn’t available within your borders, you’ll have to trade for them with other leaders.
A science victory lets you get your feet wet. Next time out, you can be the bully on the block, preach the gospel to the rest of the world or welcome the world’s tourists with open arms.
3. Choose your first city location carefully (but don’t dawdle)
Each Civilization game starts you off with a settler and a soldier. You’ll want to be near water when you put down roots, whether that’s a river or an ocean (definitely the latter if your leader and civ focus on sailing, like Norway and Harald Hadrada or Victoria and England).
Don’t take too long to find the perfect place to found your empire. Get it done in the first two turns unless you’re dropped into a miserable wasteland.
Settling near water is important for any civ to promote population growth. Each new citizen allows you to “work” one additional tile in your borders. You can choose to micromanage the tiles on which your city focuses or let the game deal with that (we recommend leaving that alone until you get comfortable).
It’s important to have a healthy food supply nearby that you can cultivate into farms with builder units later. The best way to determine this is to turn the yield overlay on (and leave it on).
The minimap on the lower left features four icons, choose the one second from the left and enable all three checkmarks (you might later wish to turn off resource icons and grid lines, but the yield icons remain helpful).
Corn represents food, gears represent production and music notes represent culture. For now, focus on food and production, which helps you complete building assignments faster.
4. Know when to send settlers out into the wild
Eventually, you’re going to need more cities. Your population will hit a point at which growth stagnates.
Before you hit that point, build a settler and send them out to found a new home. It’s time to start considering expansion when you hit four or five population, but don’t disrupt your build queue if your current project is almost done.
Be sure to attach a military escort to your vulnerable settlers. You don’t want barbarians or an enemy civilization to capture or kill it. When looking for a good spot, try to nab valuable resources, and settle against rivers, hills or mountains.
5. Diversify your cities
You don’t want carbon copy cities. Each new metropolis should have a role to play in your growing empire.
You can prioritize culture and trade in one and production in another. Your coastal cities can pump out naval units, while a well-fortified, centrally located city can be used to train up military and dispatch them to other areas of your territory.
As you play more, you’ll get a natural feel for how to specialize cities. To start with, just know that some cities don’t need certain districts. If you’re generating gold, there’s no need to focus on production-boosting improvements, for instance.
Don’t take the cookie cutter approach. Trying to do everything in every city is the quickest way to waste time and money. It’s a distraction from pursuing your victory.
6. Don’t ignore your armed forces
Even if you are the most passive leader the world has ever known, you can’t ignore military forces. Eventually, you’re going to find yourself in a situation that requires a sword or gun, and it might be through no direct fault of your own.
Sometimes the AI will settle close to you and get huffy about your naturally expanding borders. Other times, you’ll send an emissary to a city-state and draw the ire of a leader on the outs with that settlement. You don’t always know how leaders will react to your moves, and sometimes, they’ll surprise you with a declaration of war.
You don’t need to biggest, baddest military to force your aggressor to sue for peace. You just need enough units to patrol the borders, rattle their sabers, and scare off anyone who thinks you might be a pushover.
If you do run into a situation like this and navigate it well, you might find your coffers full with your opponent’s gold as they try to extricate from a losing conflict.
7. City-states can be valuable allies
Early on, the first non-barbarians you are likely to encounter are AI-driven city-states. You can be the neighborhood bully and take them by force. Or, if you are looking for a peaceful relationship, you can build trade routes, send emissaries, and foster a relationship.
Every envoy you send contributes to city-state specific bonuses. This helps you target which are most important to your victory condition.
More importantly, if you’ve got the most influence, you can temporarily command the city-state’s military forces. If you find yourself in a bind, this can be a good way to discourage enemies from stepping over your border.
8. Make the most of trade routes
Trade routes are your friends. This bears repeating. Trade routes. Are. Your. Friends.
In previous Civilization games, players had to tediously task workers to build roads. It wasn’t enjoyable, and it didn’t always work quite right. In Civ VI, roads between cities are automatically constructed along trade routes.
These speed movement, negating terrain penalties and, in the case of war, getting vital military units to their destination before it’s too late. Trade routes also deliver food, gold, production and culture, giving you a lifeline between your people and allies, or simply moving your domestic goods around the map more easily.
Especially if you’re going for a cultural victory, you’re going to want to send your caravans to as many cities as possible.
Rename Cities Civ 6
9. Make friends, because you’ll definitely make enemies
Unless you set out to rule the world with an iron fist, chances are you’re spending the early game laying the foundation for a game that’s more a race than a boxing match. You might be able to go the whole game without a war, but it’s unlikely. You’re going to piss someone off, and have to rapidly put yourself on a war footing as a result.
Your goal at that point is to make the situation untenable for your aggressor as fast as possible. The best way to do that? Make friends.
Spend some time in the diplomacy menu. Try to negotiate open borders with leaders that aren’t predisposed to warmongering, strike trade agreements, and raise your rapport to the “friendship” level.
Once you’ve done that, any AI that declares war on you is going to find themselves with a fight on two fronts. If you do end up in a scrap at that point, chances are your combined might will give you a path to end the conflict in relatively short order.
10. You don’t need every technology
Earlier, we recommended that you specialize your cities. Now, in our final tip, we’re suggesting you apply that same philosophy to your entire empire.
Technologies take time to research. Every time you choose a tech that doesn’t unlock a building, district, or unit that serves the victory you’re pursuing, you’re burning valuable turns (sometimes 40 or 50 of them). Once you learn how to play, you can choose your next tech from a list that appears on the left side of the screen.
When you are getting your Civ legs, open the tech tree every time. Get a feel for what your options are and what they, in turn, make available for research. It’s not only ok to plan out your next three or four choices, but advisable. In fact, if you have a target in mind, you can select it on the tree and the game will research the prerequisites in order without interruption.
Later on, you might find that you need an earlier tech to reach one you need. This is a perfect time for diplomacy.
In addition to units, great works of art, gold and resources, you can request that other leaders impart their wisdom. Sometimes, this is the fastest way to convert your gold surplus into science. There’s no shame in paying for it.
Civilization VI is out today, October 21, for PC.
There are numerous kinds of terrains and resources in Civ 6. With such a wide variety to choose from how do you know what’s the very best starting point for your fledgling empire? How do you decide?
The best tile to start your first city on is a plains/hill tile, preferably with a luxury resource. When deciding, look for adjacent tiles that have a total of at least 4 resources available and always start your first city next to a freshwater source, preferably a river.
Plains Hills tiles are the best for founding a city. These tiles start with 1 food and 2 production. Any tile a city is started on will always produce at least 2 food and 1 production, no matter what it could produce originally. Starting a city on a plains/hills tile will still force food output up to 2, while leaving the production number alone at an output of 2, starting your empire out with an extra production unit per turn.
If you get lucky enough to find a plains/hills tile with a luxury resource all the better. Founding a city there will give you access to that luxury even if you don’t have the technology for it yet. In the early game you can sell it to the AI for additional income. Once you found that first city you might not have any idea about what to build first. Check out my early game build order page for some help.
Founding cities next to fresh water is extremely important for city growth. One of the best fresh water sources is a river since it gives a +3-housing bonus. Rivers really aren’t individual tiles; they actually flow between tiles. They also give a +5 bonus against melee attacks from the other side of the river.
A good location is one that provides a lot of needed strategic resources and that can provide good adjacency bonuses for districts, like having mountains for bonuses for Campus districts. A good location also needs to have as high a production potential as possible and it will have other bonuses as well, like science, culture, faith, or gold, just to name a few.
Another consideration that can be overlooked is strategic positioning. One good example is a choke point. Controlling one of these with a city can make defending your borders a lot simpler since an enemy must pass through a chokepoint to press the attack, making it easier to concentrate your forces for an effective defense.
Finding all this at the same time only happens in an ideal situation. The best thing to do is to look for a good fresh water source and then look for the most resources available within three tiles.
Consider your civilization’s victory conditions when locating cities. Want a religious victory? Mountains are good for religious victories because of the campus adjacency bonus. A coastline is good for culture victory because of seaside resorts. The thing to remember is what type of victory condition you have in mind and then place your cites in a way that helps that strategy.
Watch for additional bonuses that are unique to your civilization. For example, Mali gains 1 extra gold for international trade routes for every flat desert tile controlled by the city the trade route starts from. This is one of the few times owning desert tiles can be a good thing. Founding cities close to a few desert tiles could fit nicely into this empire’s strategy.
The Netherlands is another example. It gets bonuses for being on rivers so exploring along rivers is a good idea.
Not all civilizations have these bonuses but for those that do it should be exploited.
The first two rings of tiles around the city are important and are the next to most important consideration after fresh water. The first ring of tiles is immediately available, the second ring becomes available as the game goes on, so it’s good to keep any food bonus tiles in the first ring so you can get more growth out of your city early on. Not only do you want to watch for tiles with a bonus, strategic or luxury resource, you also need to consider the total output of the tiles when all the resources are added together. Total yields of 4 or more are the target, more is even better. This applies to both the first and second rings of tiles around the city. The third tile is worth considering but it will take a while for the city to expand enough to use them. By then another empire’s city may have claimed them, making them unusable to you, so they are less important than the first two rings.
If your Settler is not in an ideal location it’s okay to move him up to a certain number of turns. Scout around with your warrior first. Moving your Settler for two turns is okay, 3 turns may be okay if necessary but no more than that. While you’re using turns moving your Settler many other empires have already founded their starting city and ramped up production. Unless you have a really strong starting position after moving that enemy empire’s head start will be very difficult to overcome.
When settling additional cities, most experienced players agree that they should be founded about 4 tiles from each other. “Clustering” them together makes them easier to defend and can provide adjacency bonuses for districts. Having cities a little closer together helps with loyalty and religion as well (loyalty is part of the Rise & Fall expansion, so if you don’t have that expansion you won’t need to worry about loyalty).
And the same as before, you should always be looking for high production tiles and claiming them whenever possible. Knowing the total yields from all the close by tiles is still good to know but that isn’t the only important consideration when starting new cities.
The first thing to remember is that a new city can’t be started within 4 tiles from any other city center. Fresh water sources and plains/hills tiles are still the best location for a city but founding one close to a mountain is another consideration since they give a significant boost to production (+2). They also provide a great natural defense against foreign invasion since they are impassable. The drawback is they yield no natural resources.
Another resource to look for in the early game is horses. Getting access to horses will enable you to build combat units that are faster, making it easier to defend your territory. Another tile type to consider founding a city on is a rice tile. This will produce 3 food for the city, making it a city well-suited for growth. Just like your first city try to keep food bonuses within 1 tile of the city center and strategic resources within 2 tiles.
There is no penalty in Civ 6 for creating new cities. The best rule of thumb is to establish as many as you can adequately defend. Another thing to be careful of is amenities. If you don’t have enough to go around some cities might revolt. Also, try to keep district placement in mind. Try to plan ahead so you can get the maximum benefit from them for all your cities.
It’s not a good idea to settle close to an enemy city unless you have other cities close by to support it. A lone city can easily fall to another empire’s influence. It’s always best to settle cities in groups.
Harbor tiles provide an extra trade route. This typically gives about 2 more food and 2 production early game. These also give 2 gold if next to the City Center and it also provides extra housing.
It takes a Settler start a new city. A Settler can only start one city and is used up in the process, so another Settler will be needed to start another new city. Cities must be founded on land and it has to be accessible. Cities can be placed on any land tile except an Oasis or Natural Wonder. Most of the terrain features will be removed once a city has been placed on the tile.
If a city is built on a tile with a bonus resource, regardless of whether it’s a strategic or luxury resource, the city gains the use of that resource and it’s yields. As previously stated, a city must be at least 4 tiles away from any other City Center.
When scouting around you can use the Settler’s Lens to help find the most suitable tiles for use.
Using this lens will allow you to see what tiles are best suited for cities that are within your line of sight. It can be activated by clicking on the lens icon at the bottom left of the screen and then selecting it from the pop-up menu.
It will highlight tiles in various colors and will also display the bonuses in each tile, if any.
- Red tiles mean the tile can’t be used for settling. It’s either in unusable terrain or too close to another city.
- Dark green tiles are the best since they have access to fresh water and will give a city a +3 housing bonus.
- Light green tiles are coastal tiles. They’ll give a city a +1 housing if used.
- Gray tiles are usable but don’t give any housing bonuses. Their value could line in a possible strategic bonus, like providing a chokepoint.
Clicking on the Settler brings up another useful view. In this view you will see an icon for any tiles your advisor thinks are the best for founding a city, plus a summary of why it is a good tile. A good reference but the advisor doesn’t know what your specific goals are that you have in mind. In the end, it can be used as a sanity check, but your judgment should always prevail.
You can read my Civ 6 review here.
Civilization 6 Capital Cities List
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