Civilization 6 Game Guide: Dominate the Early Game and Beyond

Welcome, fellow leaders, to the intricate world of Civilization VI! Whether you’re a newcomer eager to carve your mark on history or a seasoned veteran aiming to refine your strategy, this guide is crafted to elevate your gameplay, particularly in the crucial early stages. We’ll break down the essential elements of a successful Civ VI campaign, focusing on the pivotal decisions that will set you on the path to victory. This comprehensive Civilization 6 Game Guide will provide insights and strategies to help you thrive from your city’s founding to establishing a powerful and prosperous civilization.

Laying the Foundation: Founding Your Capital City

The very first decision in Civilization VI – where to settle your capital – is arguably one of the most impactful choices you’ll make throughout the entire game. While the initial instinct might be to rush into settling, taking a moment to survey your surroundings can yield significant long-term benefits. Become adept at using the ‘Y’ hotkey to display tile yields; this is your essential tool for making informed settlement decisions.

• Settle Swiftly, but Strategically: Aim to settle by turn 2 or 3 at the latest. Delaying settlement for too long puts you at a disadvantage, but moving one or two tiles to secure a superior location is a worthwhile trade-off.
• Water is Life: Prioritize settling near a water source, ideally fresh water. Early city growth hinges on food and housing, and fresh water provides a valuable housing boost right from the start. Aim for a city population of 4-5 to achieve self-sufficiency.
• Food and Production Balance: Seek out tiles offering a combination of food and production. 2 food/2 production tiles are excellent starting points. Food fuels population growth, while production is the engine of your early development. Locate these valuable tiles within 1-2 tiles of your intended city center for optimal early access.
• Luxury and Terrain Advantages: Settling directly on luxury resources grants immediate access to them, eliminating the need for early improvements and opening up lucrative trade opportunities with AI opponents. Plains and Hills tiles are also prime settlement locations as they inherently provide 2 food and 2 production for your city center, compared to the standard 2 food and 1 production from other terrains.
• Strategic Foresight: Think beyond the immediate yields. As you scout potential city locations, envision your city’s future development. Identify areas rich in production resources (hills), food sources (rivers, grasslands), and potential district placements. Consider which districts you plan to build in this city and ensure suitable terrain is available.

The Opening Moves: Initial City Builds

With your capital established, the next critical phase involves determining your initial city production. Your choices from the available options – Builder, Monument, Scout, Settler, Slinger, and Warrior (Settlers become available after reaching 2 population) – will significantly shape your early game trajectory. Avoid rigidly adhering to a fixed build order; instead, understand the strengths and weaknesses of each option and adapt your strategy based on your starting situation and immediate needs.

• Builder: A Builder allows you to rapidly improve surrounding tiles, unlocking crucial Inspirations and Eurekas that accelerate your progress in civics and technologies. However, choosing a Builder as your first build leaves you vulnerable to early aggression. This is a “greedy” play, prioritizing long-term development over immediate defense. Consider a Builder start if you are surrounded by easily improvable bonus or luxury resources.

• Monument: Monuments provide a steady stream of culture, a vital resource for early civic progression. Culture unlocks governments and policy cards, which offer powerful bonuses to various aspects of your civilization. Choose a Monument if you lack easily improvable tiles for a Builder and require a culture boost. However, like the Builder, a Monument start is also very “greedy” and generally not recommended, especially for players transitioning from Civ V.

• Scout: Scouts are invaluable for early exploration, revealing the map, discovering natural wonders, tribal villages, and scouting ideal locations for future city expansion. A Scout first can be beneficial if you believe you are in a favorable starting position or only moved minimally before settling. This is a moderately “greedy” play, focusing on information gathering and expansion potential.

• Slinger: Building a Slinger provides essential early game defense and helps you secure the Archery Eureka, accelerating your military technology. A Slinger is a strong choice if you anticipate early threats from barbarians or nearby civilizations, especially when playing at higher difficulty levels. This is a “tempo” play, prioritizing immediate defense and military advantage over purely economic development. “When in doubt, build a Slinger” is a solid rule of thumb for new players or those unsure of their opening.

• Warrior: Similar to the Slinger, a Warrior offers early defense, but with a more aggressive edge. Warriors are superior scouts compared to Slingers and can be used for early offensive rushes against nearby rivals. Choose a Warrior if you need enhanced scouting capabilities or plan for early military action. This is also a “tempo” play, prioritizing military strength and potential early aggression.

Charting Your Course: Science and Culture in the Early Game

In the early game of Civilization VI, Inspirations and Eurekas are paramount sources of both Science and Culture. Focus on activities that trigger these boosts – exploration, building units, improving tiles, and meeting other civilizations – as they provide a significant acceleration to your early game progress. Prioritize these actions over solely focusing on raw Science or Culture generation in your cities initially.

• Culture Focus: Political Philosophy and Governments: Your early civic research should primarily aim for Political Philosophy. Unlocking this civic grants you access to Tier 1 Governments and Policy Cards, which are incredibly powerful tools for customizing and optimizing your civilization’s strengths in various areas.

• Key Early Civics:

  • Craftsmanship (Agoge): Essential for military-focused starts, Agoge provides a crucial +50% production bonus towards melee and ranged units.
  • Early Empire (Colonization): Colonization significantly boosts settler production by 50%, accelerating your early expansion.
  • Political Philosophy (Tier 1 Government): Unlocks your first government and policy cards, enabling significant strategic customization.
  • Military Tradition (Maneuver): If pursuing cavalry units, Maneuver provides a +50% production bonus to light and heavy cavalry.

• Science Focus: Tech Beelining and Early Game Goals: Instead of aiming to research every technology in an era, strategically “beeline” towards technologies that directly support your early game objectives. For instance, if you plan an early cavalry rush, prioritize Horseback Riding to unlock Horsemen quickly.

• Key Early Technologies:

  • Animal Husbandry: Reveals horses (strategic resource) and unlocks early pasture improvements.
  • Mining: Grants access to luxury resources on hills and unlocks early mine improvements.
  • Astrology: Crucial for civilizations aiming for a religious or naval focus in the early game.
  • Bronze Working: Reveals iron (strategic resource) and unlocks early military units like Swordsmen.
  • Archery: Unlocks Archers, a powerful early ranged unit, and is essential for defense and early warfare.

• Civilization-Specific Synergies: Always consider the unique bonuses of your chosen civilization. Prioritize researching civics and technologies that synergize with your civilization’s strengths and unique units to maximize their impact as early as possible. Otherwise, focus on civics and technologies that facilitate early expansion and military development.

Expanding Your Reach: The Imperative of Wide Expansion

Forget the Civ V paradigm of balancing “wide” versus “tall” empires. In Civilization VI, wide is unequivocally the way to go. There is no such thing as having too many cities. Rapid and extensive expansion is the cornerstone of success in Civ VI, providing more land, resources, production, science, culture, and ultimately, more pathways to victory. Aim for a target of approximately 10 cities by turn 100.

• Peaceful Expansion: Settler Spree: Prioritize settler production early and often. Understand and leverage the various boosts that accelerate settler production:

  • Colonization Policy Card (+50% Settler Production): A must-have policy card for peaceful expansion.
  • Ancestral Hall Government Plaza Building (+50% Settler Production, Free Builder with New City): A powerful government plaza building that significantly boosts settler production and provides a valuable free builder with each new city.
  • Magnus with Provision Governor Promotion (No Population Loss from Settler Production): Magnus, with the Provision promotion, allows a city to produce settlers without losing population, further accelerating expansion.
  • Monumentality Golden Age Dedication (Faith Purchase Settlers): During a Monumentality Golden Age, you can purchase settlers with faith, providing an alternative to production-based settler creation.
  • Gold Purchase Settlers: While not a direct boost, accumulating gold allows you to purchase settlers outright, bypassing production time.

  If you can produce a settler in 12 turns or less, it is generally worthwhile to prioritize settler production. Master the art of forward settling – strategically placing cities aggressively close to AI opponents to claim territory and hinder their expansion. This effectively blocks off large areas for your future cities and limits AI growth.

• Expansion Through War: Early Conquest: Early warfare can be a highly effective expansion strategy. While mastering combat tactics and unit composition is crucial, knowing when to strategically disengage is equally important. Ideally, eliminating one or two neighbors completely within the first 50 turns yields a significant advantage, granting you captured cities and vast tracts of unclaimed land. However, this isn’t always feasible or optimal. Don’t force prolonged wars of attrition. The AI often offers substantial peace treaties (tribute) in exchange for peace. Even capturing a single city, or simply pillaging districts and weakening their military, can significantly hinder AI progress, which is often sufficient. Avoid becoming bogged down in protracted sieges that drain your resources and military strength.

  Master the art of the “timing push” – leveraging an advanced unit available earlier than your opponents to launch a decisive attack. Effective early timing pushes can be executed with Archers, Swordsmen, Horsemen, or Knights. Civilizations with unique unit replacements for these early unit types, like Rome or Macedon, excel at early warfare. Upgrading existing units with gold is often more efficient than building advanced units from scratch. Utilize policy cards and great generals to amplify your military strength:

  • Agoge Policy Card (+50% Melee and Ranged Unit Production): Essential for early military production.
  • Maneuver Policy Card (+50% Light and Heavy Cavalry Production): For cavalry-focused timing pushes.
  • Oligarchy Government (+4 Combat Strength to Melee Units): Provides a direct combat strength bonus to melee units.
  • Great Generals (+5 Combat Strength to Nearby Units): Great Generals provide significant combat bonuses to units in their vicinity.

  While siege units in Civ 6 are less potent than in previous iterations, a Battering Ram is essential for quickly overcoming city walls in early sieges.

• Limited Expansion Space: Audience Chamber Strategy: In scenarios with limited land availability due to map constraints, city-state placement, or aggressive AI neighbors, early conquest may not be viable, or a peaceful approach might be preferred. In these situations, the Audience Chamber government plaza building becomes more advantageous than the Ancestral Hall. Carefully plan your city placements, attempting to “wedge” multiple cities into smaller areas rather than sprawling across vast territories with fewer cities. Remember, a city only requires 3-4 strong tiles to be viable. Sometimes, a city’s value lies not in its immediate output, but in its strategic location – providing a place to build a Campus, Theater Square, or claim a crucial resource. Be mindful that the Audience Chamber imposes a -2 loyalty penalty in cities without a governor. While not crippling, it’s a factor to consider when city planning and governor assignments. Don’t limit your city count solely to the number of governors you intend to recruit. Simply be strategic about city placement and governor deployment with loyalty in mind.

District Planning: Specialization and Optimization

As your civilization expands and stabilizes in the mid-game, focus shifts towards developing your cities through districts. Districts are the core of city specialization in Civ VI. For every 3 population in a city, you unlock the ability to construct a new district. District production costs increase over time, but you can “lock in” the current production cost by placing the district blueprint, even if you don’t complete its construction immediately. Districts unlock crucial Eurekas and Inspirations and are essential for pursuing different victory types. Think of districts as valuable “slots” within your cities; avoid placing them haphazardly. Carefully assess your city’s surrounding terrain and maximize district adjacency bonuses.

Resist the urge to build districts too early. Prioritize initial expansion and military security first. Aim to begin district construction around turn 80, but proactively place district blueprints earlier to lock in production costs.

Remember that city-state envoys provide bonus yields to districts. If you have a concentration of a particular district type (e.g., Campuses), seek out city-states that offer bonuses to that district type. While the reverse is less impactful, it’s still a factor to consider.

Here are key districts you’ll likely be placing, if not completing, within your first 100 turns:

• Holy Site: Essential for founding a religion, requiring 1-2 early Holy Sites. They benefit from adjacency to Mountains, Forests, and Natural Wonders. While faith is powerful, building a Holy Site this early represents a significant investment. Religion in Civ VI is not as dominant as in Civ V. Build Holy Sites early only if pursuing a Religious or Cultural Victory, or if you have a specific religious strategy in mind.

• Campus: Campuses are consistently valuable, even if you are not aiming for a Science Victory. Maintaining technological parity with rivals is crucial for military strength and overall competitiveness. Campuses are excellent for triggering the State Workforce Inspiration. They gain adjacency bonuses from Mountains and Jungles. Aim for at least 2-3 Campuses even if not pursuing a Science Victory.

• Commercial Hub: Trade Routes are a significant source of gold in Civ VI, particularly in the mid and late game. Commercial Hubs benefit from adjacency to Rivers and Harbors. Plan to build 2-3 Commercial Hubs before the Medieval Era to establish strong trade networks.

• Encampment: While Encampment buildings are relatively underwhelming, Great Generals, generated by Encampments, are highly valuable. Encampments are not essential but can be beneficial, especially for Domination Victories. They don’t provide adjacency bonuses but act as defensive fortifications for your cities.

• Theater Square: Primarily geared towards Cultural Victories, Theater Squares are still valuable for general culture generation. They gain significant adjacency from World Wonders. Build Theater Squares near Wonders you have built or captured, or if you are pursuing a Cultural Victory.

• Harbor: Harbors provide a valuable trade route capacity. A Harbor and Commercial Hub in the same city grants an additional trade route. Later, Harbors contribute to city production. They benefit from adjacency to coastal resources. Harbors are particularly useful in coastal cities lacking other strong adjacency options and can generate substantial gold.

• Industrial Zone: Industrial Zones unlock later in the game, but their planning should be considered early. While Factories have been nerfed, Power Plants make Industrial Zones more worthwhile (balanced by Climate Change considerations). Workshops are generally weak, but Factories still provide valuable production, particularly in a city with Magnus and the Vertical Integration promotion. Aim for a moderate number of Industrial Zones, primarily to power your late-game production and mitigate power shortage notifications.

Victory Condition: Setting Your Sights

In Civilization VI, establishing a target victory condition early is crucial. Your district building decisions heavily influence your victory path. Each district you place effectively steers you towards a specific victory type. While you can pivot your strategy later, doing so becomes increasingly costly as your cities grow and district slots become occupied. Your initial 50-100 turns should prioritize expansion and establishing a robust foundation – around 10 cities, 4 trade routes, a decent military, a small navy (if applicable), and perhaps a Wonder or two by turn 100. While you might lag behind in specific victory-related areas at this stage, focus on catching up. The most vital step is securing ample cities and territory.

Here are general guidelines for setting up your victory types:

• Domination Victory: Military dominance is paramount. Build a large and diverse army, focusing on your civilization’s unique unit. Utilize your unique unit for your initial timing push. Establish at least two Encampments to consistently generate Great Generals. Be prepared for diplomatic isolation and fortify vulnerable border cities with walls and ranged units. On Continents maps, loyalty can be challenging when establishing footholds on new continents. Population pressure significantly impacts loyalty; conquering multiple cities simultaneously can help mitigate loyalty issues. Maintain aggressive momentum and persevere relentlessly.

• Religious Victory: Faith generation is critical for Religious Victories. Prioritize faith output to purchase Apostles and Missionaries for spreading your religion and engaging in religious combat. Founding a religion is essential; build 1-2 Holy Sites early to secure a Great Prophet. Shrine Prayers can be more efficient for Prophet generation, but Holy Site Prayers offer a faster alternative if needed.

• Science Victory: The formula for a Science Victory is relatively straightforward: maximize city count, build numerous Campuses, enact the Natural Philosophy and Rationalism policy cards, and advance through the technology tree. Late-game production becomes a bottleneck for Science Victories. Seondeok (Korea) is a top-tier science leader due to Seowons and her hill start bias. While Campuses are primary, incorporate some Industrial Zones to bolster late-game production (or explore advanced strategies that minimize Industrial Zone reliance).

• Culture Victory: Culture Victories share similarities with Science Victories. Build a large number of Theater Squares and utilize culture-boosting policy cards. Religion plays a more direct role in Culture Victories compared to Science Victories. Holy Sites contribute tourism, and faith is used to create National Parks and, crucially, Rock Bands. Wonders in Civ VI provide relatively modest bonuses, but they significantly enhance Theater Square adjacency. Focus on building enough Wonders to amplify culture output from your Theater Squares. The specific Wonders you build are less critical than simply building a sufficient number to boost your culture generation.

• Diplomatic Victory: Diplomatic Victory involves building a strong, well-rounded empire, fostering positive relationships with other civilizations, and becoming Suzerain of numerous city-states. Certain Wonders grant Diplomatic Victory Points. Trading for Diplomatic Favor is also possible, although the AI tends to value it highly.

Remember, flexibility is key in Civilization VI. However, effective flexibility stems from understanding your priorities. Hopefully, this Civilization 6 game guide has provided valuable insights to help you prioritize effectively and navigate the complexities of the early game and beyond. Good luck, and may your civilization flourish!