Improvements or districts?

[oPunchDrunko]

I'm not new to Civ, but I'm new to Civ 6. The district system has completely thrown me off. I'm not sure when to build districts or when to build tile improvements. Basically I just need to know if I should build a farm instead of a district or mine instead of a district, etc.

Could you guys give me some tips for this?

 

[rschissler]

Build a Comercial Hub and market first! Gold is huge!

 

[ShakaKhan]

If you're not new to civ but are new to civ6, one of the first things to take note of is that production is now the key resource, not food as in previous civ games. Although you still need positive growth in cities that have room in both the amenity and housing ceilings, higher production is much more valuable. This will help in your assessment of where to place the districts, a flat, unforested tile can only be farmed (unless you have a unique improvement, but that's a whole different discussion) and is consequently better than a hill or a forest.as a tile to sacrifice for a district.

As far as districts vs. improvements, the answer is both. Districts are awesome because they produce yields every turn without having to allocate a citizen to work a tile for it. So if you have a size 1 city and the citizen is working a 2food/1hammer tile, plus the city square tile that is always worked for 2food/1hammer, your city is producing 4food, 2hammers. But, if you had the exact same size 1 city that is working the exact same tile but it also has a commercial hub on a river, the city is producing 4food, 2hammers, and 2 gold. If you have the exact same city working the exact same tile with a riverside commercial hub and 6 envoys with a trade city state, the city produces 4food, 2 hammers, and 10 gold every turn. They are essentially bonus resources.

However, there are two problems with districts. First they are very expensive and the cost escalates in a ridiculous pace. Becoming too invested in district development is the equivalent of being over-invested in wonders in previous civ games. Second, specialists are absolutely atrocious in this game; they're just horrible. You gain the ability to work specialists when you build the buildings in districts (the buildings are pretty good though.) The specialists have yields of just two, and unlike previous civ games there aren't a ton of bonuses that you can get to them as the game progresses. Further, unlike previous civ games, specialists don't accrue great person points, those are accrued from the districts themselves and the buildings that go in them. So you want your citizens to be working the improved tiles (until you run out of good tiles, then you work specialists because they're slightly better than nothing.) But you want the improved tile yields to be supplemented by district yields.

Finally, something that will assist greatly in making your decisions is doing a little homework and looking at the adjacency bonuses for all of the districts and the tile improvements. Having lots and lots of bonus yields from adjacency bonuses are a key factor in being successful in this game. Farms are the only (non-unique) improvement that gets an adjacency bonus. After feudalism, all farms produce +1 food when they are adjacent to 2 other farms. So it's pretty much a consensus that the best placement of farms is in a triangle, so all three get the bonus. But again, food is less important in this game than previous civ games, so you probably only want one, mayyyybe two farm triangles per city. Districts also get bonus resources from different tile qualifications, and you should read what all of them are and factor that in to which district goes in which city.

Have fun!

 

[joncnunn]

To piggy back on the above:
You want to decide as early as practical which tiles you want to have districts so you can place them to lock in the cost but switch to something else until ready for it.
This includes if a city is currently size 4 but about to finish a city, being darn sure to lock in that district before the city shrinks to 3 (preventing a district from being locked in)
This also goes along with cities : You need to also place several cities early so that they can each get a couple of districts built before it becomes expensive.

Treating districts like wonders in previous games is a good idea (as long on previous games you weren't on so high a difficulty level that you couldn't build them at all) ; by the time mid game hits any city building a district whose price wasn't locked in earlier needs an internal trade route for hammers just like a world wonder would just so the district has a shot at paying for itself by the time victory is assured. In fact it is frequently the case that an early world wonder skipped by the AI is actually cheaper to build.

One small correction to the above: some civs have adjacency bonuses to their UIs. (Outback triangle yields extra food & hammer)

I've also noticed a pattern that it's progress thru the civic tree that is slowing down players victories rather than science tree. In part there's some (but it's decreasing as time goes by) over building of campuses; but it's mostly that campuses have more adjacency bonus possibilities than theater squares. Of course either a Commercial District or Harbor (whichever that city benefits most from, usually Commercial District but occasionally it would be the Harbor) should be the very first district built in a city just for the additional trade route unless it's so early you don't have the tech for either of them yet.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

To piggy back on the piggyback:

Remember that a new district is unlocked at 4, 7, 10 pop and so on. But keep in mind that you don't need more than 3 or 4 districts in a single city. Specialization is key if you want a fast victory. So, which districts should you build?

General consensus in this forum is that Commercial Hubs or Harbors are the most versatileones, and should be in a majority of cities. Each city with either one of those nets an additional trade route for your empire, and since 2-3 of them can greatly jumpstart a city or boost production, you want many of them.

Next, you should build your "Victory District". Those are the ones your victory will specialize in. So, Campus for Science and Theatre Square for Culture. Encampments have a mixed opinion around here: they give many small boosts, and some consider those justification enough to be built, while others don't, so it's a matter of personal opinion. Usually, you want at least a couple of Campi, but if not going for culture, Theatre Square might be left aside (you can get culture from other sources).

Now, the Holy Site. This is a special snowflake, because 99% of the time you build them (excluding conquered ones), you want a religion. And for that, you need to be fast. It must be the first district you build (and one of the first things you build in the game). Many times, if you're using Religion, then Commercial Hubs might not be so important, because you can buy units and GP with faith using Theocracy.

You also want an Entertainment Complex here and there for amenities. Same for Industrial Zones, though some people like to build those in every city for the production. In my humble opinion, it doesn't pay itself, but a few are needed for Factories and Power Plants.

Aqueducts are mostl important for non-freshwater cities, or as Rome. For other cities, the housing bonus is quite minor for its production cost.

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Now, we chose what to build, where do we build them?

Theoretically, you want them in places that give most adjacencies. But remember that placing a district will override any tile yields. For example, a Plains Hill might give you 3 food and 1 production, but if you place a Holy Site there, it'll only give faith. Also, production is key: a Campus surrounded by 4 mountains may seem nice, but if it's the only place suitable for a Mine, build the Campus elsewhere.

You can turn the yield override to your favor: Building districts on desert or tundra will grant these useless tiles some yields. More importantly, they don't need to be worked by your citizens, so they become productive without diverting your citizens from better tiles.

A good strategy for placing them is making a triangle with 2 districts and your city, since the City Center counts as a district. This way, both districts will get adjacency bonus.

As a rule of thumb: Place districts in flat terrain and/or where they receive most adjacencies. Hills should be mined, and Woods beside rivers should get a Lumbermill (they receive +1 production in those conditions).