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.
Civ 6 Settler Lens 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. Civ IV: The Barbarian State has conquered Persepolis!!! 2 turns later: The Barbarian State has conquered Parsagadae! 3 turns later: The Barbarian State has conquered Susa!
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).
Civ 6 Better Coastal Cities Mod
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.
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.
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is here, and much like the climate of our planet, everything is about to change. The new expansion pack’s launch brings with it new mechanics involving natural disasters and rising CO2 levels, the return of the World Congress and the Diplomatic Victory, and, as always, a bevy of new civilizations and leaders to help you conquer an ever-changing world.
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm’s new civs and leaders are all really, really, ridiculously fun — but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all equally strong. If you’re looking to spend your weekend getting that first Deity Victory, or just watch your friends’ Civs crumble into the sea, we’ve got you covered.
Here’s Inverse’s ranking of the most powerful new civs in Civilization VI: Gathering Storm.
Ninth Place in Power (Seventh Place in Fun) — Laurier’s Canada
I’m so biased here. I’ve been wanting more Civs that get bonuses for being in Tundra tiles, the most visually appealing and distinct tiles in the game. It’s why Russia has always been one of my favorite Civs in this game. But in comes Laurier with the unprecedented ability to build farms in the Tundra. That rules. These are regions that other Civs avoid, and that you’ll incentivize. And short of spawning next to Russia, you’ll likely be able to forward settle with ease.
The fact that nobody can declare a Surprise War against you rules for a culture-minded Civ like Canada. It means that they’ll have to denounce first, which gives you a few turns warning to get things in order (and stop building amphitheaters) in order to get some military units going. But with no direct boosts to production and a Unique Unit that comes a little too late in the game, you’re a sitting duck for an early Civ. Russia, whose start bias will have them spawning near you often enough, and whose faith and production bonuses will have them pumping out armies fast, will make quick work of you, even with the few turns heads up. Same with any Civ whose Unique Unit unlocks prior to Conservation (too many to name!)
Still, this is one of three new Civs we’re likely going to be seeing the most yield porn from on Reddit. And when you can flex like that, does it really matter that you lost your capital in the Medieval Era?
Eighth Place in Power (Fifth Place in Fun) — Eleanor of Aquitane, France/England
There’s so much to love here for more casual players. Eleanor applies loyalty pressure through her Great Works, and that pressure makes enemy cities join your civilization without first becoming a Free City. Keep a laser focus on buildings with Great Works slots and you’ll be conquering your neighbors’ cities without ever having to build military units (but, you know, you still should.) Move all your Great Works to your civilizations’ expanded borders, and you’ll theoretically be able to keep going, and going, and going. There is maybe nothing more satisfying in this game than watching yourself become the leader in the Domination Victory type — all because you put some artwork in your capital.
On any difficulty King or below, she owns, and that rules. And France’s bonus to Wonder production should allow you to be very competitive on Wonders with the most Great Works slots. But on higher difficulties, Eleanor is going to have issues. As France, she’ll have to wait until the Garde Imperiale to have a powerful Unique Unit. As England, she’ll have access to the Sea Dog, and it’s still unclear whether the long-awaited addition of canals to the game will make naval battle more relevant than it’s been since Civilization VI’s launch. A leader like Gilgamesh or Montezuma could take advantage of those early military weaknesses and punish you. And on higher difficulties, it’s going to be really tough to lock down Wonders for Great Work slots, so you’ll be using military to conquer until you hit museums anyway.
Lastly, there are a few new Civs that feel like Eleanor counters. The Ottomans can use their Unique Governor to remove her loyalty pressure entirely. Phoenician coastal cities on the same continent as their capital are 100% loyal. If either of those cities spawns next to Eleanor, she’s going to have to wait fairly patiently to become competitive. On top of that, Victor the Castellan’s new ability opens all Civs up to some quick protection from her loyalty pressure.
Nevertheless, once she gets going, she doesn’t stop. What we’ll likely see is her power being used defensively, meaning that more militaristic Civs will have to think twice before conquering your cities, lest they immediately switch back to you. That means Pyrrhic victories, where warring Civs lose a lot of units but end up taking your city, are going to look a little more like abject failures.
She’s clearly made to pursue a Cultural Victory, especially as France, but England’s versatile new ability means she should be able to turtle quite nicely and pursue Science or Domination Victories as well.
Seventh Place in Power (Sixth Place in Fun) — Dido’s Phoenecia
I’m torn here. The Bireme, Phoenecia’s Unique Unit, is so much stronger and faster than the Galley. Her ability to move her capital city at will is an incredible defensive maneuver (especially against the Ottomans’ Unique Governor, who must be in a capital city to use his bonuses against your empire). And her 100% loyalty towards coastal cities on her capital’s continent means forward-settling is back, and the exclusive property of Dido!
But while the Bireme is more powerful than the Galley, it’s still a naval unit, which won’t do much for you unless you’re on a water map, or someone else is settling coastal cities that early for some reason.
Still, being able to spam cities everywhere and generate gold fairly quickly is going to allow you to pursue any victory type, and be able to quickly purchase an army to defend yourself against early aggressors with land units.
Sixth Place in Power (First Place in Fun) — Kupe’s Maori
This Civ is so freaking fun, and extremely high risk, high reward. Start in the water with some boosts to sustain the fact that it’ll be a few turns till you found your first city. Sail the world, trying to find a spot for your capital. Pick one, watch it grow, keep exploring.
There’s the potential for huge rewards there — Maori’s boosts to unimproved features will allow your cities — especially your capital — to grow reasonably quickly pretty much anywhere. If you happen to find an island without anyone on it, you’re set, and you can snowball your way to victory. But if you happen to find a land mass with a lot of competition (which seems likely on higher difficulties and a Pangaea map), good luck defending that capital!
This isn’t a perfect comparison, but Maori are to “Gathering Storm” what Spain was to Civ 5. With a little luck, you’ll get a straight shot to a turtled-up Cultural Victory. Without that luck, you’re fairly screwed. This puts them squarely in the middle of the pack for me in terms of strength, because their unique ability can (and, on higher difficulties and pangaea maps, will) also become their greatest weakness. But I can’t think of another Civ in any of the games that’s nearly as fun. You genuinely feel like you’re playing as Kupe. What more could you ask for?
Fifth Place in Power (Ninth Place in Fun) — Mansa Musa’s Mali
There are going to be people who adore Mansa Musa’s Mali. As of right now, I’m not one of them. Still, it’s tough to deny their potential. They’ll be gold (and to a lesser extent, faith) powerhouses, which means they can pursue any victory type. It also means you’ll mostly be buying, rather than building, your buildings and — once you get Reyna and Moksha promoted — your districts, too.
There’s really exciting potential there. Get those Trade Routes going, and watch your coffers fill with gold. Buy armies. Buy settlers. Pop off.
Still. I don’t love the weird nerfs to production, especially when it comes down to Wonders. If I’m in a desert, I want — I deserve — to build Petra. So when I see a Civ who loses one gear of production on each mine, I’m a little miffed.
In “Gathering Storm,” some Unique Units will now require Strategic Resources — and Mali’s Mandekalu Cavalry are among those units. But horses don’t typically spawn in deserts, which means you’ll have a little exploring — and a little trading — to do before you hit that power spike.
But though horses may not spawn in the desert, two other things do: Nubia and Egypt. The former, especially, is a terrifying threat. Amanitore can get districts up very quickly, gets a powerful Unique Unit very early, and that means her military will pose a huge threat to you before you can get your gold network going. Pray you don’t get her as a neighbor, even though your start biases make it a little more likely, because your weird (but, you know, understandable) nerf to production on military units means you’re going to be slow to defend yourself in the Ancient Era.
Fourth Place in Power (Eighth Place in Fun) — Matthias Corvinus’s Hungary
Though just one spot apart in these power rankings, I think there’s a fairly big gap in power between Hungary and Mali. Like many of the new Civs in Gathering Storm, Hungary relies on a little bit of luck — in this case, meeting City States that are spawning a lot of Military Units that you can levy on the cheap, and promote, with your unique ability. That’s likely going to be the case, but other times, it might not be, or your City-State ally gets taken out by an aggressor, or there’s a weird struggle for Suzerain of your next-door neighbor because its unique bonus is just too important to pass up.
Still, when Hungary’s good, it’s very, very good. A few units from some different City-States here and there, and next thing you know, you have the biggest militaristic force in the world seemingly in an instant. That, along with the amenities from its Thermal Bath improvement, lends itself nicely to a Domination Victory, but really a strong mercenary army allows you to pursue any victory type you like. Couple that with a production boost to building districts across rivers from your City Center, and production boosts from Thermal Baths, and this is a Civ that can really do whatever it wants, whenever it wants.
It’s a simple Civ, maybe the most simple Civ of all the new Gathering Storm additions, but it’s so very good at getting the job done. It maybe loses a few fun points in my book, just because it doesn’t seem as integrated into the game’s new mechanics as some of the other Civs, but there’s something to be said about an addition so good, it kind of feels like it’s been here the whole time.
Third Place in Power (Third Place in Fun) — Kristina’s Sweden
Kristina’s Sweden is the Civ that Laurier’s Canada thinks it is. You get a ton of Diplomatic Favor every time you generate a Great Person, which means all those Great Writers that tend to chill around your capital while you wait to build more Amphitheaters will have already served a greater purpose — handing you control of the World Congress. An increase in Great Engineer and Scientist points from Factories and Universities, respectively, means you’ll also get innate boosts to some of the most coveted Great People in the game without having to expend policy slots for it. Those boosts enough would be fairly noteworthy, but the fact that they also make you plow ahead towards a Diplomatic Victory make her just a wee bit overpowered
On top of snowballing her way towards a Diplomatic Victory, she for some reason gets huge help on the way to a Cultural Victory as well. Automatic theming bonuses for Wonders with two or more Great Work spots, or buildings with three or more Great Work spots, means she has two ways to eke out a victory, just in case the World Congress is weirdly competitive.
As a defensive unit, the Carolean rules. The less they move in a single turn, the harder they hit. That means they’re just as good protecting your cities from aggressors as they are pummeling enemy city centers.
The Open-Air Museum Unique Improvement makes for a fun little mini-game for Sweden that’ll see you settling cities on different types of terrains in order to get huge boosts to culture and tourism. The sooner you can build them in the game, the better. But at a certain point, you’re going to have to make the call whether other pursuits are as important as terrain collection. Still, if you can somehow collect all five City Center terrains very quickly, you’ll have tiles in cities with +10 Culture and +10 Tourism. That’s quite a yield.
It’s the Nobel Prize ceremonies that kept this Civ out of the Top 2 for me, as they’re the double-edged sword to end all double-edged swords. It’s great to have them in the game, but if you don’t generate as many Great People as your rivals, you could end up giving them a huge boost to victory. And since so many of the new Civs have Cultural leanings and want Great People (all of them, but especially Canada, Eleanor’s France and England, and Kupe’s Maori), the Oracle wonder is going to be more competitive than it’s ever been. The chance that you’re not going to be the biggest Great Person generator in the world is a very real one. Tread with caution.
Second Place in Power (Fourth Place in Fun) — Pachacuti’s Inca
This Civ is mindblowing. Its abilities to work mountain tiles, pass through mountain tiles early, get huge boosts to food and production through Terrace Farms, and build ranged units that can attack twice a turn make this a genuinely God-Tier Civilization. I’ve never gotten a city to 10-Pop as quickly as I did with the Incas, and while that was also their big strength in Civ 5, here it’s even more important to have high population cities thanks to the fact that District capacity is tied to how many people are living there.
You’ll likely be pursuing Science victories with the Inca, but you can really go in any direction here. Once you find mountains, you’ll have the chance for ridiculously powerful holy sites and campuses. Even if you don’t pursue a Religious Victory, Faith is still a killer currency for infrastructure and military with the right Governors and Government. And with the changes to Moksha, you’ll be able to buy Districts with your religious power as well.
All of this bodes well for the Inca, whose only real weaknesses are a dependency on mountains (which tend to be abundant), the lack of a truly spectacular military unit, and the fact that cities may grow faster than you have the Amenities to support them. That last one is a very issue problem to have.
The second problem is, at least defensively, complemented by the fact that most of your cities are going to be surrounded by mountains anyway, making them tough to conquer. Have fun in space.
First Place in Power (Second Place in Fun) — Suleiman’s Ottoman Empire
My jaw dropped at their bonuses of 50% production towards Siege Units and extra strength to Siege Units, and I don’t think it ever came back up. When they conquer a city (and that’s what you’ll be doing), you don’t lose Population. Cities you conquer have extra Loyalty and Amenities. They can train Janissaries, your strong and cheap Unique Unit that benefits from Oligarchy Stacking, without any fears of losing population.
This is… an unfairly powerful Civ, one that becomes a huge threat to its neighbors at least as early as Mathematics. But that’s not the only trick up Suleiman’s sleeve. He’s the only Civ leader with a Unique Governor, Ibrahim, and that Unique Governor can wreak absolute havoc on the world. Ibrahim’s ability to nullify loyalty pressure completely mollifies Eleanor of Aquitaine’s ability, to say nothing of the fact that he makes any other Civ that much easier to conquer, giving you strength against their military units and districts.
Ibrahim does have his weaknesses, and this is, I suppose, the Achilles Heel of the Ottoman Empire. When you place him in enemy cities, you reap the combat benefits against units and districts there, but you also grant bonuses to production and promotion for military units in that city. When you place him in your own cities, you gain those production and promotion bonuses, but depending on Ibrahim’s promotions, it’s possible that other Civs will have an easier time conquering you.
This is something you’ll have to manage, but it should be easy enough to manage. You could always not play so much with Ibrahim and just use your bonuses to Siege Units, and you’ll still have no trouble conquering the world.
Civilization 6 Capital Cities List
Civ 6’s team likes to say that Civs with no bonuses to any one Victory Type are the most versatile Civs in the game. I think that’s sort of true. But what’s more accurate is that they’re the second-most versatile Civs in the game. Civs with huge boosts to military units — especially military units that can take out cities — are actually the most versatile in the game. Once you’re done conquering, you can either keep conquering some more, or stop with war and start pursuing other victory types. And nobody burns the world down better than Suleiman.
Civ 6 Coastal Cities
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm is available now.