How do you systematically get better?

Not exactly the opposite of play to your strengths, but remember that most methods of making faith (for example) are the same even if you're not a "faith" civ. Faith has many uses and not placing a +4 faith holy site simply because you're not a faith civ is silly.
 
My recommendation: lots of save-scumming. I have autosaves set for every 2 turns, and I manually save several times per era (the new UI that shows the game mini-map on the load screen is a godsend for tracking the progress of my crap-tons of save files!). If something bad happens (like I lose a valuable unit, or an AI surprise war decs me, or another civ beats me to a wonder, or I realize that I mis-timed the adoption of a policy, etc.) I go back a few turns and see what I could have done to avoid that outcome and get a better outcome.

Sometimes, I'll reload a save 5 or 6 times and fail to get the outcome that I want. Sometimes that means I go a few turns further back. But sometimes it also means that I have to accept that I just played poorly and I can't avoid that bad outcome without sacrificing hours of play-time and progress. This helps to teach me when I've over-extended myself, and what moves are worth the risk or the cost. In future games, I try not to repeat the same mistakes again.

Also, this might sound obvious, but: you need to make sure that you're paying attention to the game's rules. There's a lot of nuances in unit movement, zone of control, line of sight, city sieges, and so forth. I've been playing the game since release, and have been writing strategy guides for it (http://www.megabearsfan.net/category/Strategy.aspx/?tag=/Sid+Meier's+Civilization) and participate in a bi-weekly podcast about the game (http://polycast.civfanatics.com/), but I'm still learning things.

Just one example: putting a city into the "siege" state (by surrounding it with your zone of control, so that it can't heal between turns) makes a HUGE difference when attacking a city. (https://steamcommunity.com/app/289070/discussions/0/312265526374151235/) If you're failing to that because you don't know about the siege rules (or you forget to encircle the city before you start attacking it), then you're going to have a harder time. That siege rule is an easy rule to overlook, and I'm sure many players either don't know about it, or forget about it when they try conquering other civs.

On a related note, don't take old assumptions for granted. Throughout my playtime with Civ V and with Civ VI vanilla, I would never settle a city on top of any resource. In previous iterations of the game, doing so would destroy the underlying resource and reduce the tile's yield. I wasn't sure if that would happen in Civ V and VI, so I just never risked it. Then I started watching YouTube let's plays and saw that the general consensus on optimal strategy was to try to settle on a plains hill tile with a luxury on it. You work that tile for free for the entire game and get the full yield. But it was just something that I had never tried because I had assumed that settling on the resource would clobber it.
 
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I am still getting better even now. Primarily now it is the finer points of eurekas and inspirations. When to get them, when not, the power of them is a lot more than I appreciated at first. Because each game is so different the targets change, it’s like a little planning puzzle in each game.
If your culture or science is too fast too early you lose free science/culture opportunity and to a degree value of building culture and science early but there are rewards. I guess it is another reason to expand your cities before growing your culture and science unless you have a more important aim.
 
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I realize one thing I need to do to get better. Play slower. Sometimes I do unit movements so quickly I don't see the path the unit takes, and it takes me in an unintended direction. Just now my unescorted builder ended up right next to a barbarian scout which I didn't intend. I was just going to quickly and not paying enough attention to the unit pathing.
 
I don't play fast but also run into pathfinding problems. The worst is a sailing builder moving 2 spaces but not in a straight line and when the other adjacent tile is land - sometimes the pathfinding shows that it will sail there good and fine, but instead it disembarks!!!
 
Play random leaders for a while. Random maps, too.

Be greedy with your starts. Take your lumps when you’re too greedy — and note what circumstances lead to getting beaten.

Play the bad starts, at least until you beat them on the regular.

Go to war with your unique unit. Even if it’s just a pillaging raid and you play an otherwise peaceful game.

Use map pins to plan districts and city locations. Chop anything on a map pin.

But above all else, make sure you enjoy the game, and don’t be afraid to lose while you’re getting better.
 
Hmmm, I seem to get better in jumps rather than constantly get better. The jumps happeb when i realize to use a mechanic more to my advantage. So I guess my "method" is a lack of method, instead just tinkering with stuff and realizing their potential is my MO. But I dont really care too much about getting better. I often start a game trying to reach some goal that isnt tied to "winning" the game, or more oftently I just play along to have fun. Currently Im playing on emperor and will probably win even if that isnt my goal. I rarely finish games, because if/when Im too far ahed I lose interest.
 
Hello all,

I have played Civ since Civ I came out, but I have noticed that after 30 years I am not really getting better. What are your tips to getting better? I would love to come up with a systematic approach to improving my play.

Thanks!

having fun with the game is way better then beating highest difficulty without a challenge. I’ll rather lower the difficulty by one level then play the same way or stongest leaders because i know what works best. Experimenting with different gamestyles and map layout is fun.
 
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