Civilization 6 Tips: Big guide for PC, PS4 & Xbox One


In this guide to Civilization 6 you will learn:

  • Which tips will help you get off to the best possible start
  • Why districts are so important
  • Which tricks you have to consider with wars

Choosing the right civilization

The choice of civilization should depend on your preferred play style in Civilization 6. If you like to play aggressively, Scythians or Aztecs are recommended. The former have strong mounted archers and all military units regenerate health points after a unit is taken out. The Aztecs, on the other hand, have a powerful ancient special unit on their side in the form of their eagle warriors, who can convert enemy units into their own craftsmen.

If you are more interested in creating a trading empire to benefit from the high profits later on, the Romans are a suitable choice. Also very interested in trade are the Russians. With their strong territory bonuses, their empire grows faster than usual and trade routes bring more culture and science points.

The Arabs get a great prophet as a gift, which guarantees that they will found a religion, and the Germans come up trumps with better industrial districts.

The diversity between the races is amazing, so you should play each race according to its strengths to take advantage of its full bonuses.

Tips for the beginning: Explore & Settle

In the first 10 to 20 turns of Civilization 6, exploration is hugely important. Find out where you are on the map, what resources are nearby and where you can found a city. To do this, you should train at least one scout and scout in parallel with the mace warrior. Don't move it too far away from the capital, so that it can be used for defense at any time.

For your scout, the more you explore, the faster you'll progress in the technology tree. The so-called "eurekas" shorten the research of new technologies enormously. You get them for various events like meeting city states, uncovering natural wonders or visiting native tribes.

Pretty soon you should build your first settler. Through efficient exploration you will already know where is a good place for your next city.

Keep in mind that the city should only be 5-8 hexes away from your capital. If it's too close, the capital and secondary city will crowd each other and not develop to their full potential. If they are too far apart, you may have problems defending them and not linking the borders. A united empire makes sense for a variety of reasons.

Also, the loyalty of the secondary city suffers if it is too far away. Lack of loyalty can, in the worst case, lead to the city joining another nation that has great cultural influence on it.

Trade & Prepare Wars in Civilization 6

We recommend you explore the trade option as early as possible, even if you are warring. Trade between you and another nation brings food, production and possibly science, culture or faith. With the right government cards, you will benefit from each trade route through additional income.

Trade routes across seas can be explored later.

As a side effect, routes are created between trading cities, allowing all figures to move faster. In this way you create trading posts in the cities, which gives more for routes that pass through an existing trading post. So it makes sense to trade with nearby cities first. This way you will benefit even more later when longer routes are created that go through trading posts.

The good thing about these tips: You can also use routes to prepare for a war. The roads you lay down remain in place even after war is declared, allowing you to move your troops quickly to the enemy.

A route between two of your own cities is also useful, because it increases the food and production of your weaker second city.

Waging war and besieging cities

When diplomacy fails, war is the only option. Preparing for war in Civilization 6 is just as important as the war itself. Look at the relations between nations in the diplomacy window. Your opponent may have allies or close friends who will intervene in case of war and declare war on you as well. In such scenarios, prevent a two-front war.

Subdue a nearby city-state as a sovereign if you have the necessary envoys to spare. You can now use the armies of the city-state for a certain period of time.

Before declaring war, you should move all troops to the borders of the enemy empire to be able to invade immediately. This way, the enemy has only a few moves left to react to an attack. With the help of the city-state army, a two-front attack may even be possible.

At best, your army has some artillery units, so even fortified cities fall quickly. If the city has no walls, ranged fighters and strong infantry are often sufficient. If the city is destroyed, you must annex it with an infantry unit.

However, do not overdo the warlike actions, or you will soon be known as a warmonger. This will make it difficult to find friends or even allies in the future. In the worst case, the other nations will even ally against you and then it usually looks bad.

Civilization 6 Guide: Tips to win wars without violence

As in the predecessor, information about the potential enemy is worth its weight in gold in Civilization 6. Check the progress of the other nation before declaring war. If they run around with muskets while you still have crossbowmen, war is the last thing you want.

Use missionaries to defeat your enemies without violence.

Sometimes the military advantage of a nation is already too big and the chance to catch up is too small. In such cases, it helps to get on good terms with the adversary and defeat him in other ways.

Religion is an excellent way to increase your influence without weapons and gradually convert the cities. Train missionaries and spread them throughout the world. In some cases you will be denounced or even attacked for trying to convert, but taking over entire civilizations through faith is also possible. So the risk can be worth it.

Tips for city and district planning in Civilization 6

As usual in previous Civilization parts, there is more than one victory condition in Civilization 6. You lay the foundation for a science, culture or religion victory by building districts. Depending on the terrain on which a city is located, some districts are more useful than others. This is how you specialize each city.

Start thinking about districts when you found a city.

Each district gets bonuses from the six adjacent hexes. For example, a sanctuary benefits from adjacent natural wonders or mountains. A trade center, on the other hand, gets extra for each adjacent river or harbor. Last but not least, districts also benefit from every other district in the immediate vicinity.

Craftsmen: Short-term boost or long-term returns?

Newly founded cities in Civilization 6 often suffer from slow production and sluggish growth. Therefore, you should help the economy by training craftsmen. These provide for area improvementswhich increases production and food or uses luxury goods.

In the alignment tree, you will speed up the recruitment of craftsmen by 30% if you learn "Craftsmanship" and place it in a free politics slot.

Barbarians like to destroy area improvements - be prepared for that!

For a quick production or food boost, you can also completely harvest resources using craftsmen. This will cause you to lose a forest, for example, and you won't be able to build a sawmill on it afterwards. However, the enormous production boost will help you in the short term. Tricks like this are useful when, for example, you're building a wonder of the world and you're not sure if another player is doing the same thing.

In the long run, "tilling" a resource is more profitable than harvesting it. However, in emergency situations where you need to complete a defense quickly, keep this option in mind.

Government and Politics Cards in Civilization 6

In Civilization 6, your chosen form of government determines which politics cards you can use. Although you can always change the form of government, you should do this as little as possible. This is because every 15 turns that you have the same form of government, you collect legacy bonuses that remain permanent.

Align the government according to your goals - economy, military or faith.

Republic supporters, for example, get one percent more points on major personalities every 15 turns. Therefore, it is very worthwhile to choose a system and then stick with it until you have an evolved form of government to choose from.

As you progress through the game, Civilization 6 will provide you with more and more policy cards. Production bonuses or additional gold are never a wrong choice. However, also think about cards that grant you points on major personalities. If you are in a head-to-head race with another nation, quickly switching to such a card can make all the difference.

More strategy guides at GameZ:

Visit us on Facebook and Instagram and discuss your favorite games with us.