[Vanilla] How to play the early game?

[meurglys]

Used to play civ 5 on immortal a lot but that was a long time ago, i'm new to civ 6. I can't seem to beat emperor though, there's so much stuff i have to focus on in the early game that by the time i get into the late game im hopelessly behind everyone else.

For example, i tried playing as pericles on emperor on a continents map. I tried to do what civtrader 6 did in his video and go for a science victory by focusing on culture first but by turn 100 everyone on my continent declared war on me so i had to build and spend money on units rather than infrastructure, and by the time i got all my universities out around turn 160, china on the other continent had more techs and science per turn than i do. Is pumping out settlers for your first 5 builds not a good idea, and if so how come civtrader6 could do it and win on deity in 150 turns?

 

[Victoria]

I remember a post from @civtrader6 along the lines of peaceful deity is so much luck and he was going back to war.
The playstyle used is to a degree possible but you are understanding he could easily die at the beginning of these games.

So the first thing is you need to be flexible, what is best to do does change due to circumstance and positioning but is also open to debate. It is not that clear cut. You will hear an expert say “anything other than a builder first slows you down” but then you will see the same expert starting with a slinger or a scout. A game you see online has a lot of good luck built in, be very aware of that. For example finding a relic in a goody hut or first to find a religious CS early both give a good chance of getting goddess of the harvest which is OP and seriously speeds up your game. Nearly as important is getting that free envoy in a culture CS. A good player will be ready to get an additional envoy through a civic to use at a culture CS to get that +2 culture.

You have got a key rule, spread like the plague early. Even buying them can help.
But more importantly and most debated is surviving the first 20 turns. If you do not start with a warrior, or at least a slinger, there is risk of you being dead early. This is an issue with deity, you may see a YouTube game that does differently but facts are facts. If you want to have a game as good as what is shown you have to accept losses.

The game is quite complex with subtleties so it takes time to get everything. Civtrader will rightly tell you that the best way to learn is replay a game to see what works best.

Another key thing is culture, get as much as you can early. Aiming for 10 per turn by T25 is good, it is hard to get that much but it is stressing what is key to push. You need to get to Feudalism fast so not only pushing culture but know the inspirations needed to speed up that journey. One useful one is having someone declare war on you gives a defensive tactics inspiration but being attacked before ready slows you down. So it is not a simple choice of always do everything the same way. It depends on your situation.

Being spam attacked by barbs on deity is not nice, must be avoided. Perhaps putting your city on a hill is not always best as the barb scouts can see it from 3 tiles away. But putting on a plains hill gives +1 production early, tricky.

There is a lot to consider, placing but not finishing districts, chopping, pillaging, granary use, monuments, golden ages, units, resources and rushes. Glad to chat about them but too much for a single post.

 

[meurglys]

I remember a post from @civtrader6 along the lines of peaceful deity is so much luck and he was going back to war.
The playstyle used is to a degree possible but you are understanding he could easily die at the beginning of these games.

So the first thing is you need to be flexible, what is best to do does change due to circumstance and positioning but is also open to debate. It is not that clear cut. You will hear an expert say “anything other than a builder first slows you down” but then you will see the same expert starting with a slinger or a scout. A game you see online has a lot of good luck built in, be very aware of that. For example finding a relic in a goody hut or first to find a religious CS early both give a good chance of getting goddess of the harvest which is OP and seriously speeds up your game. Nearly as important is getting that free envoy in a culture CS. A good player will be ready to get an additional envoy through a civic to use at a culture CS to get that +2 culture.

You have got a key rule, spread like the plague early. Even buying them can help.
But more importantly and most debated is surviving the first 20 turns. If you do not start with a warrior, or at least a slinger, there is risk of you being dead early. This is an issue with deity, you may see a YouTube game that does differently but facts are facts. If you want to have a game as good as what is shown you have to accept losses.

The game is quite complex with subtleties so it takes time to get everything. Civtrader will rightly tell you that the best way to learn is replay a game to see what works best.

Another key thing is culture, get as much as you can early. Aiming for 10 per turn by T25 is good, it is hard to get that much but it is stressing what is key to push. You need to get to Feudalism fast so not only pushing culture but know the inspirations needed to speed up that journey. One useful one is having someone declare war on you gives a defensive tactics inspiration but being attacked before ready slows you down. So it is not a simple choice of always do everything the same way. It depends on your situation.

Being spam attacked by barbs on deity is not nice, must be avoided. Perhaps putting your city on a hill is not always best as the barb scouts can see it from 3 tiles away. But putting on a plains hill gives +1 production early, tricky.

There is a lot to consider, placing but not finishing districts, chopping, pillaging, granary use, monuments, golden ages, units, resources and rushes. Glad to chat about them but too much for a single post.

Thanks for the help, this is like my second post here so sorry if I mess up with the formatting or whatever. How are you supposed to get 10 culture by turn 25 if you also have to work on pumping out warriors and settlers, do you build a monument instead or do you hope to find a relic or a cultural city state? And apropos feudalism, what makes it so important? I’ve heard people say not to build much builders until you get the serfdom card from it, so I usually neglect tile improvements save the ones that I can sell stuff from or get eurekas, is this a mistake? Another thing I neglect is granaries farms water mills and industrial zones. They seem like they take too long to pay off and people say you should only grow cities to 7-10 population so housing doesn’t seem too crucial, is this also a mistake?
Also I’m terribly sorry for asking so much questions, but I’m kinda crawling around in the dark with civ 6

 

[Victoria]

I’m terribly sorry for asking so much questions

No you are not, glad to help.
At feudalism your builders get 2 extra chops as you rightly said... and also your chops give better results.. a general when to chop most rule is around this time 80-120.
At feudalism you also get the knight eureka and early knights are a win.
The most culture I have had by then is 13/turn so it is possible.
+2 culture for finding a culturalnCS first ... or sending an envoy / Amani there. You could even get 2 or now envoys are in goody huts even 3 .. it is possible to find 3 putply CS by then.
Settle on some jade and quarry some marble for +1 each.
Monument for +2
Population for +2 perhaps
Pingala you may be pushing to use by then
Natural wonders are not that unusual to help.
.... I remember asking a great player @Lily_Lancer how he got so much in one GOTM and he laughed and said he bought a granary for the natural wonder.
There is another thread in this forum with basically the same questions as you, I have written a lot there, the phases are quite important to get to grips with.
Also read the chop example below my typing by clicking on it. Most of it is still perfectly relevant.
Population 10 is very important for rationalism now, it gives a city +50% science.

 

[Builderphile]

.... I remember asking a great player @Lily_Lancer how he got so much in one GOTM and he laughed and said he bought a granary for the natural wonder.

I don't get this, what did Lily mean when he said "bought a granary for the natural wonder"?

 

[HermannLombard]

There is another thread in this forum with basically the same questions as you.

Do you remember the subject or OP author (for finding it by Search)?

 

[Socrates99]

One thing I might stress when moving from V to VI is that founding religion just isn't as good in VI as it was in V. In V it was essentially like building a wonder. In VI it gives some bonuses but it's mainly just to get a religious victory.

A nonreligious civ still can get a ton of benefit from faith in VI since it's basically just an additional currency. Ignoring religion early on can actually boost your game since you'll be building for science, culture and gold. Theres a reason the Kongo AI can often be one of the most competitive.

Once you get comfortable you can add religion. Just know that once you hit immortal and deity you're going to have to build the district, a shrine and run holy site prayers a couple times. That's a lot of hammers to dump on one thing.

 

[Victoria]

Do you remember the subject or OP author (for finding it by Search)?

Trying to get better at deity, a bunch of questions for people who know more...

 

[HermannLombard]

Trying to get better at deity, a bunch of questions for people who know more...

Ah, thanks! I'm following that thread. I was thinking you were talking about something older . . . of which there must be 100 threads like that!

 

[pkaem]

I don't get this, what did Lily mean when he said "bought a granary for the natural wonder"?

If you have a natural wonder with culture yield in a citys radius and you buy a granary there, you'll have more growth which converts into better culture earlier.