District Guide for Multiplayer
Hi everyone. Often I see the question of what districts do I need to build to be competitive? Is there a 'build order?" Usually there isn't a set build order since Multiplayer games (and even Single Player to a lesser extent) offer some unpredictable elements as well as map randomness. In general though, there's four 'core' districts you want to have up for most of your cities.
They are (in order of importance):
· Commercial Hub// Harbor
· Campus
· Industrial Zone
· Encampment
In order to be able to build all four districts your city requires a minimum population of 10. Some Civs like Germany ignore these caps or limitations due to their unique Civilization abilities (i.e. Germany can build an extra district than the population cap ignores so Germany can have four to five districts at population 4 instead of 10 not to mention the Hansa is an unique industrial zone district so it doesn’t count towards the population cap)
This is why Germany is a heavily contested pick since they can have their infrastructure up and running a lot faster than other civilizations, in theory.
This, however, is a general district guide for most Civs that have to abide by the district cap rules.
A good rule of thumb when placing districts is being aware of the adjacency bonuses offered to each specialty district. I found the following link to be a helpful guide:
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/ci....png?version=07510f0f43d7188e00e7046c90360dba
Also, it’s wiser to plant your districts down as soon as you can even if you don’t finish building them. District costs scale up depending on how much techs you’ve already researched. The higher the tech, the higher the production cost. In other words as soon as a district you want is available for you to build you should pick a spot for it and plant it down even if you swap production back to something else you want and you finish the district later.
There’s a reason I’ve ranked the districts in order of importance the way I did and I’ll offer a quick explanation as to why.
Commercial Hub/ Harbor are first because of the Trade Routes. More Trade Routes mean more economy and infrastructure such as roads and yields. Internal trade routes offer food and production which is critical for establishing your cities. International trade routes yield gold but gold typically isn’t as important as food and production. I’d recommend running all or most of your trade routes internally for most of the game. Far from not only offering the base gold that commercial hubs and harbors offer, they grant lots of production and food thanks to trade routes and commercial hubs even generate Great Merchant Points and Great Merchants are fairly powerful and some of the most contested Great People. Early in the game internal trade routes will be your main source of bonus production (more so than industrial zones until factories). If you can build both of these districts then I say go for it and prioritize both over other districts first. Again, more trade routes means more production and food for developing your cities and/or making units.
Second, it was a toss up between Campus & Industrial Zone as both are fairly essential to stay competitive. In this instance I rank early game science a little higher than early game production. Production eventually becomes the most important yield but if another player is teched an era ahead of you then you’re probably going to lose. Being able to produce inferior units a little faster usually just means you’re feeding them XP in combat and getting war wariness from losing more units. You could opt to go Industrial Zone before a Campus and that’s still fine but a tad bit more risky IMO. On top of that Campuses are available sooner and your tile improvements plus internal trade routes ought to be able to sustain your production until you develop your Industrial zones with buildings. Slapping a campus down as soon as you can (so long as you already did or started a commercial hub/harbor ) is generally a good choice. On top of that Campus and Industrial Zone districts and buildings generate Great Scientist and Great Engineer Points respectively which are in the top tier of Great People types along with the Merchant and General.
Making its way into district importance is the Encampment and for good reason too. As multiplayer is developing the importance of Encampments is rising at an enormous rate. More and more I’m finding myself having an encampment on my outer cities mandatory and in my inner cities highly recommended. Encampments eliminate the need for two strategic resources to produce a unit that requires a strategic resource. They also offer static defense, some housing, an earned XP boost to your units, production, and Great General Points. You can also construct a Military Academy here which allows you to produce Cores and Armies which can be fairly game changing.
What wasn’t mentioned thus far are Holy Site , Theater Square, and Entertainment Complex . It’s because these districts are not considered ‘core’ to have in all or most of your cities. They are niche, bonus, or specific.
Entertainment Complex is important in so far as you’ll need a couple of these address amenity issues once your cities really start growing and to combat war wariness. The Zoos and Stadiums in these districts offer an area bonus (6 tiles) to spread additional amenities. They are not unimportant for this reason but not vital to establishing your core districts. It’s wise to place your Entertainment complexes on tiles that reach the most cities as possible within 6 tiles of wherever the Entertainment complex is placed. Center of your empire is ideal and these will typically be your largest cities anyways.
Theater Square is probably the least important of the districts as its main purpose is to generate tourism and cultural victories do not factor into many multiplayer games. The bonus culture is nice but not hugely impactful as enough culture can be sustained through population, pantheons, monuments, and policies (Meritocracy). If you’re so far ahead and have a large enough population to sustain a Theater Square then going for it would be less costly. Tourism win isn’t impossible in multiplayer but not likely. Greece has a more flexible option of throwing down some Acropolis because it is a unique district for them, can be built quickly, and doesn’t count against the district cap. Also Germany may have enough room for them as well. In summary, Theater Squares are not essential but could have some use.
And finally I’m saving Holy Site for last. It’s been conventional wisdom that Holy Sites are simply not worth it and too ‘out of the way’ to get up in running early because it sacrifices a slot for a more important district. Furthermore, religion in Civ VI seems mediocre at best and religious victories, like cultural victories, are not likely in a multiplayer setting. That being said, some Civilizations rely heavily on religion to exploit their full potential (Arabia, Russia, Spain, India, and as I’ve discovered recently, America). Holy Sites produce Faith. Faith is a rather weak currency but fairly strong with a viable faith purchasing strategy that Russia currently does best.
Russia has the liberty of spamming their Holy Sites (Lavra) to their hearts content because it a unique district for them so that means it’s cheaper and doesn’t count towards the district limit. If Russia is near tundra and takes the Dance of the Aurora pantheon that’s a lot of faith generation from Lavras.
Other civilizations have to think about where and when to build their holy sites (except Germany to an extent) because of the district cap limits. I have found that building your holy site in your capital or second city first is ideal. You don’t need to spam them throughout your empire like Russia will likely do but if you want powerful religious belief bonuses like Defender of the Faith this will slow you down in terms of Science (I usually sacrifice a campus for a holy site if I must) Take the Wat for your worship belief as it provides 2 science to help make up for some of the science deficit. There is also a Great Scientist, Hildegard of Bingen, that comes in the Medieval Era that allows for the Holy Site’s adjacency bonus to count for a Science adjacency bonus as well. The Wat and Hildegard are at least some compensation in terms of science since you decided to go with a Holy Site. In multiplayer you typically won’t be going religion to convert everyone else for a religious victory but to enhance yourself to win by other means (i.e. Defender of the Faith is excellent for being defensive). Also, the recent patch makes religious pressure better which adds a little value to religion that was desperately needed.
Thanks. The veteran players will probably see nothing new here but I hope this helped someone like me, still learning the game and fresh on the multiplayer scene.
Hi everyone. Often I see the question of what districts do I need to build to be competitive? Is there a 'build order?" Usually there isn't a set build order since Multiplayer games (and even Single Player to a lesser extent) offer some unpredictable elements as well as map randomness. In general though, there's four 'core' districts you want to have up for most of your cities.
They are (in order of importance):
· Commercial Hub// Harbor
· Campus
· Industrial Zone
· Encampment
In order to be able to build all four districts your city requires a minimum population of 10. Some Civs like Germany ignore these caps or limitations due to their unique Civilization abilities (i.e. Germany can build an extra district than the population cap ignores so Germany can have four to five districts at population 4 instead of 10 not to mention the Hansa is an unique industrial zone district so it doesn’t count towards the population cap)
This is why Germany is a heavily contested pick since they can have their infrastructure up and running a lot faster than other civilizations, in theory.
This, however, is a general district guide for most Civs that have to abide by the district cap rules.
A good rule of thumb when placing districts is being aware of the adjacency bonuses offered to each specialty district. I found the following link to be a helpful guide:
https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/ci....png?version=07510f0f43d7188e00e7046c90360dba
Also, it’s wiser to plant your districts down as soon as you can even if you don’t finish building them. District costs scale up depending on how much techs you’ve already researched. The higher the tech, the higher the production cost. In other words as soon as a district you want is available for you to build you should pick a spot for it and plant it down even if you swap production back to something else you want and you finish the district later.
There’s a reason I’ve ranked the districts in order of importance the way I did and I’ll offer a quick explanation as to why.
Commercial Hub/ Harbor are first because of the Trade Routes. More Trade Routes mean more economy and infrastructure such as roads and yields. Internal trade routes offer food and production which is critical for establishing your cities. International trade routes yield gold but gold typically isn’t as important as food and production. I’d recommend running all or most of your trade routes internally for most of the game. Far from not only offering the base gold that commercial hubs and harbors offer, they grant lots of production and food thanks to trade routes and commercial hubs even generate Great Merchant Points and Great Merchants are fairly powerful and some of the most contested Great People. Early in the game internal trade routes will be your main source of bonus production (more so than industrial zones until factories). If you can build both of these districts then I say go for it and prioritize both over other districts first. Again, more trade routes means more production and food for developing your cities and/or making units.
Second, it was a toss up between Campus & Industrial Zone as both are fairly essential to stay competitive. In this instance I rank early game science a little higher than early game production. Production eventually becomes the most important yield but if another player is teched an era ahead of you then you’re probably going to lose. Being able to produce inferior units a little faster usually just means you’re feeding them XP in combat and getting war wariness from losing more units. You could opt to go Industrial Zone before a Campus and that’s still fine but a tad bit more risky IMO. On top of that Campuses are available sooner and your tile improvements plus internal trade routes ought to be able to sustain your production until you develop your Industrial zones with buildings. Slapping a campus down as soon as you can (so long as you already did or started a commercial hub/harbor ) is generally a good choice. On top of that Campus and Industrial Zone districts and buildings generate Great Scientist and Great Engineer Points respectively which are in the top tier of Great People types along with the Merchant and General.
Making its way into district importance is the Encampment and for good reason too. As multiplayer is developing the importance of Encampments is rising at an enormous rate. More and more I’m finding myself having an encampment on my outer cities mandatory and in my inner cities highly recommended. Encampments eliminate the need for two strategic resources to produce a unit that requires a strategic resource. They also offer static defense, some housing, an earned XP boost to your units, production, and Great General Points. You can also construct a Military Academy here which allows you to produce Cores and Armies which can be fairly game changing.
What wasn’t mentioned thus far are Holy Site , Theater Square, and Entertainment Complex . It’s because these districts are not considered ‘core’ to have in all or most of your cities. They are niche, bonus, or specific.
Entertainment Complex is important in so far as you’ll need a couple of these address amenity issues once your cities really start growing and to combat war wariness. The Zoos and Stadiums in these districts offer an area bonus (6 tiles) to spread additional amenities. They are not unimportant for this reason but not vital to establishing your core districts. It’s wise to place your Entertainment complexes on tiles that reach the most cities as possible within 6 tiles of wherever the Entertainment complex is placed. Center of your empire is ideal and these will typically be your largest cities anyways.
Theater Square is probably the least important of the districts as its main purpose is to generate tourism and cultural victories do not factor into many multiplayer games. The bonus culture is nice but not hugely impactful as enough culture can be sustained through population, pantheons, monuments, and policies (Meritocracy). If you’re so far ahead and have a large enough population to sustain a Theater Square then going for it would be less costly. Tourism win isn’t impossible in multiplayer but not likely. Greece has a more flexible option of throwing down some Acropolis because it is a unique district for them, can be built quickly, and doesn’t count against the district cap. Also Germany may have enough room for them as well. In summary, Theater Squares are not essential but could have some use.
And finally I’m saving Holy Site for last. It’s been conventional wisdom that Holy Sites are simply not worth it and too ‘out of the way’ to get up in running early because it sacrifices a slot for a more important district. Furthermore, religion in Civ VI seems mediocre at best and religious victories, like cultural victories, are not likely in a multiplayer setting. That being said, some Civilizations rely heavily on religion to exploit their full potential (Arabia, Russia, Spain, India, and as I’ve discovered recently, America). Holy Sites produce Faith. Faith is a rather weak currency but fairly strong with a viable faith purchasing strategy that Russia currently does best.
Russia has the liberty of spamming their Holy Sites (Lavra) to their hearts content because it a unique district for them so that means it’s cheaper and doesn’t count towards the district limit. If Russia is near tundra and takes the Dance of the Aurora pantheon that’s a lot of faith generation from Lavras.
Other civilizations have to think about where and when to build their holy sites (except Germany to an extent) because of the district cap limits. I have found that building your holy site in your capital or second city first is ideal. You don’t need to spam them throughout your empire like Russia will likely do but if you want powerful religious belief bonuses like Defender of the Faith this will slow you down in terms of Science (I usually sacrifice a campus for a holy site if I must) Take the Wat for your worship belief as it provides 2 science to help make up for some of the science deficit. There is also a Great Scientist, Hildegard of Bingen, that comes in the Medieval Era that allows for the Holy Site’s adjacency bonus to count for a Science adjacency bonus as well. The Wat and Hildegard are at least some compensation in terms of science since you decided to go with a Holy Site. In multiplayer you typically won’t be going religion to convert everyone else for a religious victory but to enhance yourself to win by other means (i.e. Defender of the Faith is excellent for being defensive). Also, the recent patch makes religious pressure better which adds a little value to religion that was desperately needed.
Thanks. The veteran players will probably see nothing new here but I hope this helped someone like me, still learning the game and fresh on the multiplayer scene.
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