CIv IV players just started Civ VI looking for guides
- Thread starter Le Singe
- Start date
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- Apr 11, 2011
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- 11,902
Many people have written mini guides for different bits but most stay in threads, the game also has changed a fair amount.
I learnt initially by jumping on Prince and just messin around with a game. It was a great experience.
Civ 6 has some general rules for what is good to do but no hard and fast right way to do it.
Also is is not civ IV... the AI combat is poor so if looking for a challenging wargame you will find it not up to scratch.
However it is a fun different game. Some quick things to keep in mind.
There is no restriction on the number of cities you have so the idea is to get more cities earlier either by settling, conquering or even better both.
From there on in (maybe around T100) consolidate your cities with the districts you want for your victory condition and then push for it or generally have a sandpit building game with variety.
Districts are a key thing. So your science buildings go in a science district (campus) in a hex by themselves within each city. The district build cost increases with the amount of discoveries you have made but once placed the cost does not change. You can only build a number of districts based on the size of your city population. Within each district there are 3 buildings you can get in different phases of the game, for a campus it is library, university and research lab. Each one will give you a certain amount of science. Science city states will buff these figures when you reach 3 and 6 envoys with them and each city state has a special ability bestowed on the suzerain (highest envoys starting at 3)
Population also gives you science and culture and the tech tree tends to give you units and the culture tree policy cards you can use to buff your empire.
Have a play and ask questions or watch a couple of youtubes
I learnt initially by jumping on Prince and just messin around with a game. It was a great experience.
Civ 6 has some general rules for what is good to do but no hard and fast right way to do it.
Also is is not civ IV... the AI combat is poor so if looking for a challenging wargame you will find it not up to scratch.
However it is a fun different game. Some quick things to keep in mind.
There is no restriction on the number of cities you have so the idea is to get more cities earlier either by settling, conquering or even better both.
From there on in (maybe around T100) consolidate your cities with the districts you want for your victory condition and then push for it or generally have a sandpit building game with variety.
Districts are a key thing. So your science buildings go in a science district (campus) in a hex by themselves within each city. The district build cost increases with the amount of discoveries you have made but once placed the cost does not change. You can only build a number of districts based on the size of your city population. Within each district there are 3 buildings you can get in different phases of the game, for a campus it is library, university and research lab. Each one will give you a certain amount of science. Science city states will buff these figures when you reach 3 and 6 envoys with them and each city state has a special ability bestowed on the suzerain (highest envoys starting at 3)
Population also gives you science and culture and the tech tree tends to give you units and the culture tree policy cards you can use to buff your empire.
Have a play and ask questions or watch a couple of youtubes
I'd strongly suggest to read the chopping example in victorias signature. It's for r&f if I remember correctly but the division of the game in three phases is still up to date.
In general, play the map, I had to learn that, there is no "best" BO or sth. like this. Most important things to learn for me was 1) culture early is king 2) it is to rush to feudalism 3) to send magnus on a chopping tour with more efficent workers 4) or push with knights if there is no room 5) the importance of the godess of the harvest plus monumentality golden age 6) chose and strictly prioritize your victory conditon 7) learn about the benifits of some key wonders like pyramids, colloseum and situational christo redentor, big ben, eiffel tower and ruhr valley.
In general, play the map, I had to learn that, there is no "best" BO or sth. like this. Most important things to learn for me was 1) culture early is king 2) it is to rush to feudalism 3) to send magnus on a chopping tour with more efficent workers 4) or push with knights if there is no room 5) the importance of the godess of the harvest plus monumentality golden age 6) chose and strictly prioritize your victory conditon 7) learn about the benifits of some key wonders like pyramids, colloseum and situational christo redentor, big ben, eiffel tower and ruhr valley.
Bibor
Doomsday Machine
I also suggest playing with Gilgamesh (Sumeria) to learn the ropes. Of all the civs, I think he best represents civ6 basics: early unique unit, unique terrain improvement, city state play.
Indeed. Another good one may be Montezuma, he has a remarkable early unit and defends with ease. China has good utility, and both greeks are pretty strong. Mainly by policy slot and the hill bias. Korea if you want science and hills. Hills win games because production is hard to come by.
knighterrant81
Warlord
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2011
- Messages
- 272
You can check out my guide in my signature as well.
- Joined
- Apr 11, 2011
- Messages
- 11,902
You should add that post to the downloads area
Bibor
Doomsday Machine
The only decent guide I can find (sorry folks, personal opinion!) is Civ6trader's youtube Genghis Khan video series for Rise&Fall. He's basically the only one who can teach you "how to think civ 6"
That guy series for vanilla and R&F were kinda impressive. It's a pity he suddenly stopped sharing his knowledge 
Specifically, his Pericles playthrough has inspired my games for a long time
Edit: Chinese players must've probably kidnapped him for the science (joking, no offense)
Specifically, his Pericles playthrough has inspired my games for a long time
Edit: Chinese players must've probably kidnapped him for the science (joking, no offense)
thank you so much to everyone that responded! After playing a bit I have a few questions if anyone knows:
1. The game gives me the option to build a governmental district but keeps warning i can only have one! Which gave me anxiety. Should i just plop one down in my first city or am i looking for or really good location for it.
2. how far apart should i be looking to put my cities? I was trying to keep them sort of far apart to cut down on maintenance by not have too many cities that share tiles, but i notice the AI builds cities way closer together. Which is a more optimal strat.
3. I see you can pass on great people when you get them. Is that something you would ever want to do? Not sure i get that system.
4. I didn't have iron but all of a sudden noticed i could update units as if I had it. I looked at the resource report it was not coming from one of my cities but from a slot at the bottom that said "game play" whats up with that (i find the civilopedia not great for civ6).
5 Governors, should I Jump on them immediately or save them for difficult situations?
6. Should I build as many districts as possible in each city or be more selective? can I set the city to produce research or wealth or does it always have to be making something?
1. The game gives me the option to build a governmental district but keeps warning i can only have one! Which gave me anxiety. Should i just plop one down in my first city or am i looking for or really good location for it.
2. how far apart should i be looking to put my cities? I was trying to keep them sort of far apart to cut down on maintenance by not have too many cities that share tiles, but i notice the AI builds cities way closer together. Which is a more optimal strat.
3. I see you can pass on great people when you get them. Is that something you would ever want to do? Not sure i get that system.
4. I didn't have iron but all of a sudden noticed i could update units as if I had it. I looked at the resource report it was not coming from one of my cities but from a slot at the bottom that said "game play" whats up with that (i find the civilopedia not great for civ6).
5 Governors, should I Jump on them immediately or save them for difficult situations?
6. Should I build as many districts as possible in each city or be more selective? can I set the city to produce research or wealth or does it always have to be making something?
Bibor
Doomsday Machine
Depends on what you're using it for. If you need it quickly, just plop it down wherever and enjoy the 50% faster settlers that come with a free worker.
If you're looking for a longer-term benefit, it's good to know that it counts like a 1.5 adjacency bonus (1+0.5) because many districts grant +1 bonus if adjacent to 2 other districts.
Example, a commercial hub would get +2 adjacency if merely bordering a river, but +4 if adjacent to both the city center, government district and a river (+2 from river, +1 from government plaza, +0.5 from being adjacent to government plaza, +0.5 from being adjacent to city center)
It really depends on what you want your cities to do. I'll have a video ready about this soon
I'm not exactly sure how the system works, tbh.
It might be coming from tiles occupied by cities or districts, from city states or from a wonder. I gather that you aren't playing Gathering Sstorm, then, as you accumulate resources in Gathering Storm (it's not enough to have the resource available).
You kinda need to plan your game in advance. I'll cover it in my video.
Might double some aspects, here is my view.
1) you want it for the governer title and either ancestral hall or warlords throne, depending on your plans to play peacfully or war. A second title is rewarded when you finish the t1 building in it. Note that after you adopt a next level government, you can build the next tier of government building in it. T2 for example offers you enhanced spies or the ability to buy units with faith. Again, take a closer look at the godess of the harvest pantheon. I tend to build mostly a campus district in my first city, or less often an encampment district if I want an early general. This triggers the inspiration for the GD. I found my second city and I settle close. More cities = more of everything, no penaltys and defense, especially early. This is anticipating higher difficulty. I want to harvest a food resource in my 2nd citiy to kick it off and build the GD there. If you can, try to put it down and build the diatricts if your 1st and 2nd citiy around it to make benfit of the adhaceny bonus. But it's more important to get a good city location and locking districts early. Don't worry too much about that.
2) I settle close. Defense, district diamonds, shared farm triangles, more cities.
3) You want to do that if you get one, which does not benefit your victory conditions. There are some exceptionally good ones. For me these are the scientists who give +1 for each libary (you will almost never get him on deity), and two who give +2 for universitys. Others just check if tgey would benefit you.
4) If you settle or put a district on a resource you discover later, you'll get the yield.
5) Magnus is very powerful. Pingala too. Read above why. Magnus for chops, pingala for early culture. A horse or sword rush without +2 Magnus is often not doable imo. Magnus synergizes with godess of the harvest. I remind on victorias chopping example here. Armani can secure you an early golden age via first souzerain area score. You can exploit that to get a classical GA nearly everytime you want it if you go for scout(s), armani, settle a natural wonder, build a ship, +4 adjaceny district and some other tricks. This can really take you off, but needs practise and is more advanced stuff.
6) Chose your victory condition and build only the districts you'll need for it. As mentioned, campuses alot. Most often. I can't speak for religous play and holy districts. I feel like religion is weak and I don't go for it except I want a super early relic based CV, which is something you can have a look at in some weeks. For a science victory you need science (yes, really) but you can't neglect culture as you need to advanced to a t3 government, which allows you to build the t3 building in your government district. One ootion let's you spend workers for production in city project, which is needed to speed up your space ship. There are also boosts for science back in the culture tech three, like the +5% for every city state suzerain bonus. For culture you want theatres to get the writers and a mix of archology and artists. You need solid science here too to not getting killed and boni from computers, printing, radio, steel. You also want commercial hubs with markets because trade routes to other civ's give boni to tourism. You need this to if you plan a domination campaign. After some assaults everyone hates you and you can't trade properly,bit you need money to fuel your army. You want science for advanced units and so on. Test it, try it, you'll see what you need. Industrial districts don't pay off often imo,youll need one with a tile adjacent to a river if you want the ruhr valley wonder. Forget about most of the t3 buildings in the districts. They are expansive and rarely pay bavk the investment. A consideration is to buy research labs with big ben, and have a central power hub.
1) you want it for the governer title and either ancestral hall or warlords throne, depending on your plans to play peacfully or war. A second title is rewarded when you finish the t1 building in it. Note that after you adopt a next level government, you can build the next tier of government building in it. T2 for example offers you enhanced spies or the ability to buy units with faith. Again, take a closer look at the godess of the harvest pantheon. I tend to build mostly a campus district in my first city, or less often an encampment district if I want an early general. This triggers the inspiration for the GD. I found my second city and I settle close. More cities = more of everything, no penaltys and defense, especially early. This is anticipating higher difficulty. I want to harvest a food resource in my 2nd citiy to kick it off and build the GD there. If you can, try to put it down and build the diatricts if your 1st and 2nd citiy around it to make benfit of the adhaceny bonus. But it's more important to get a good city location and locking districts early. Don't worry too much about that.
2) I settle close. Defense, district diamonds, shared farm triangles, more cities.
3) You want to do that if you get one, which does not benefit your victory conditions. There are some exceptionally good ones. For me these are the scientists who give +1 for each libary (you will almost never get him on deity), and two who give +2 for universitys. Others just check if tgey would benefit you.
4) If you settle or put a district on a resource you discover later, you'll get the yield.
5) Magnus is very powerful. Pingala too. Read above why. Magnus for chops, pingala for early culture. A horse or sword rush without +2 Magnus is often not doable imo. Magnus synergizes with godess of the harvest. I remind on victorias chopping example here. Armani can secure you an early golden age via first souzerain area score. You can exploit that to get a classical GA nearly everytime you want it if you go for scout(s), armani, settle a natural wonder, build a ship, +4 adjaceny district and some other tricks. This can really take you off, but needs practise and is more advanced stuff.
6) Chose your victory condition and build only the districts you'll need for it. As mentioned, campuses alot. Most often. I can't speak for religous play and holy districts. I feel like religion is weak and I don't go for it except I want a super early relic based CV, which is something you can have a look at in some weeks. For a science victory you need science (yes, really) but you can't neglect culture as you need to advanced to a t3 government, which allows you to build the t3 building in your government district. One ootion let's you spend workers for production in city project, which is needed to speed up your space ship. There are also boosts for science back in the culture tech three, like the +5% for every city state suzerain bonus. For culture you want theatres to get the writers and a mix of archology and artists. You need solid science here too to not getting killed and boni from computers, printing, radio, steel. You also want commercial hubs with markets because trade routes to other civ's give boni to tourism. You need this to if you plan a domination campaign. After some assaults everyone hates you and you can't trade properly,bit you need money to fuel your army. You want science for advanced units and so on. Test it, try it, you'll see what you need. Industrial districts don't pay off often imo,youll need one with a tile adjacent to a river if you want the ruhr valley wonder. Forget about most of the t3 buildings in the districts. They are expansive and rarely pay bavk the investment. A consideration is to buy research labs with big ben, and have a central power hub.
Bibor
Doomsday Machine
Here's the video, this is part one, fresh out of the oven. Sorry for the flicker, OBS is acting up.
Last edited:
great vid i learned a lot! Are you playing with any UI mods your interface looks much cleaner and slicker than mine and it looks like it is showing in green the tiles being worked which would be super helpful. thanks again.
megabearsfan
Prince
In addition to what's been suggested above, I've written a series of guides for Civ VI. Most of them are leader-specific guides:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/category/Strategy.aspx/?tag=/Civilization+VI
But I also have a few more general guides. I wrote one about the things that I started doing differently after Gathering Storm came out:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2019/02/21/Tips-for-playing-Civilization-VI-Gathering-Storm.aspx
And I also have one from vanilla Civ VI's release about tips for the early game, that should mostly still be relevant to Gathering Storm:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2016/10/26/Civ-VI-exploration-and-barbarian-guide.aspx
These are mostly geared towards new or inexperienced players, so they might be helpful for someone coming into Civ VI from Civ IV. Hope it helps!
http://www.megabearsfan.net/category/Strategy.aspx/?tag=/Civilization+VI
But I also have a few more general guides. I wrote one about the things that I started doing differently after Gathering Storm came out:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2019/02/21/Tips-for-playing-Civilization-VI-Gathering-Storm.aspx
And I also have one from vanilla Civ VI's release about tips for the early game, that should mostly still be relevant to Gathering Storm:
http://www.megabearsfan.net/post/2016/10/26/Civ-VI-exploration-and-barbarian-guide.aspx
These are mostly geared towards new or inexperienced players, so they might be helpful for someone coming into Civ VI from Civ IV. Hope it helps!
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