Questions that come up while playing Civ 6 for the first time

[Yell0w]

Hej people,

after a long while I just yesterday got Civ 6 (all DLC + Rise & Fall). I have played Civ 4 and EitB quite a bit and couldn't make the transition to Civ 5. In my opinion this game is still horrible to this day... Anyways I love Civ 6 so far but there are some questions that come with a first play through that I couldn't get answered by looking at the 2 wikis - which brings me to my 1st question: Which of the wikis is better, the civilization.fandom or the civ6.gamepedia one?

I guess I should post my game settings: I went with vanilla rules for my first game. Standard size with the regular number of city states and random AI enemies and Emperor difficulty on a shuffle map with balanced starts (2nd question: Do balanced starts work? Cause my start seems quite a bit better than my neighbors.)
I rolled Scythia and an ungodly good start in Civ 4 terms... which is where I'm coming from (the first tile I worked was 3/2/3 then I added two 4/2 tiles).

Now I'm a bit in met two neighbors founded a Pantheon without really trying and am thinking about if it's really worth sacrificing growth and production for a city district... is it?
Also I took the God of the Open Sky (+1 culture for pastures), because all my cities will have multiple pastures looking at the land around me and I figured early border popping vs two close by neighbors might be great. Just to get an idea of what is important in this game. 4th Question: What are considered to be the top tier Pantheon perks early?

Since I'm in a Civ 4 mindset: Does research or the civ tree work similiar to Civ 4 in where other civs that have researched the tech and you have met will give you a discount. Do prerequisite techs lower the tech cost of the next tech?

I have only researched boosted techs and civics so far since it worked out that way. a 50% boost seems too great to ever pass up, right?

Well I guess that is it for now. Pretty much everything else I found online already but I'm sure more questions will turn up while playing.


Thank you a lot in advance for taking the time and reading/answering my questions.

Yell0w


EDIT: By the way how good is that soundtrack. I spend half an hour in the menu yesterday just getting hyped for my first game by Sogno di Volare. And in game the music so far is awesome as well. I'm really impressed.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Welcome to Civ 6, like you I'm a Civ IV fan who never took to Civ V but who is loving Civ VI.

Answers to some of your questions -

am thinking about if it's really worth sacrificing growth and production for a city district

Districts are definitely worth it but with Scythia perhaps just one Encampment and then get your Horse Archers out and roll the map! Scythia is a very strong early warmonger and in Civ VI you really need to play to your strengths.

Since I'm in a Civ 4 mindset: Does research or the civ tree work similiar to Civ 4 in where other civs that have researched the tech and you have met will give you a discount. Do prerequisite techs lower the tech cost of the next tech?

No bonuses apart from the boosts.

I have only researched boosted techs and civics so far since it worked out that way. a 50% boost seems too great to ever pass up, right?

Basically yes unless there is something you can't do without or will never get the boost for.

Glad you're enjoying the game and hope others will chime in.

 

[Yell0w]

Welcome to Civ 6, like you I'm a Civ IV fan who never took to Civ V but who is loving Civ VI.

Answers to some of your questions -

Districts are definitely worth it but with Scythia perhaps just one Encampment and then get your Horse Archers out and roll the map! Scythia is a very strong early warmonger and in Civ VI you really need to play to your strengths.


No bonuses apart from the boosts.

Basically yes unless there is something you can't do without or will never get the boost for.

Glad you're enjoying the game and hope others will chime in.

Thank you a lot for you quick answers =)

So I ended up building the religious district - which was stupid since even though I was one of the first to pantheon by the time I had put the hammers into a shrine and the project as well there was no GP left to be had. On a positive note I got the hanging gardens which seems to me to be one of the stronger wonders (keep in mind this is my first game, but if HG doesn't go obsolete quick the 15% growth should be great at any stage of the game). Same with an Encampment, I thought I'd do that get some Stables, but it ended up costing me like 10 horse archers so I just switched to full military now and am gobbling up my neighbors.

I read the wiki article and the article on civfanatics about trade but I'm still confused by the simple question: When the trade route 'finishes' does it stay or is it gone? And if it is gone isn't going to be a pain in the ass late game when you got like 10 routes you need to constantly refresh? Honestly so far I've just used it to connect my cities with roads - and I can't see the Trading Post income anywhere.

What do I do with all the faith now that I don't have a religion... my neighbors (pre war) send around tons of missionaries and I opened up my borders but no spread.

I don't know if I have been spending my Gold correctly. So far I've spend half of it on buying tiles and half on buying workers.

Also I'm super confused by when and why I have to unlock policy changes or seeing my government pannel.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

When the trade route 'finishes' does it stay or is it gone?

The Trader will come active and then you can redo the route or do a new one, it can be a pain but you often need to move it for the different yields or to create a food somewhere else.

 

[kaltorak]

As a player who thinks civ4 was the best civ, I wonder why do you like civ6 and not civ5. I transitioned to 5 bc even tho I was losing many things I liked about civ4, the combat with 1upt was just much more engaging than doing stacks of doom. But I finally liked civ5 and put 3k hours into it. I still missed things about 4, but ended likeing 5 a lot. But while I am playing 6, and sometimes enjoying it, I am not getting the 1 more turn feeling I got with previous versions (excepet just after patch or expansions releases ofc). After so long, I have just put 300 hours into civ6, so it doesnt look I will reach the 3k of civ5 by far. civ4 wasnt in steam so I cant say the hours, but many more ofc.

So, as a civ4 lover, what is making you enjoy civ6 more than 5?

 

[Yell0w]

Hmm, so after making war basically the whole world declared on me... after taking 3 or 4 cities - wich is problematic cause once they declare on you you'll not lose the warmonger bonus so now I'm just permanently at war and the one civ who isn't is just running away with the tech. I really got to get used to this non-stack combat system and how much more important terrain and siege weapons are. Not being able to build roads for warfare feels terrible. Also I have a feeling that hammers matter a lot more than they used to, no whipping. I think I went way too food heavy.

Does anyone know a good expert replay on youtube or smth... at best even with commentary - that would be great.

As a player who thinks civ4 was the best civ, I wonder why do you like civ6 and not civ5. I transitioned to 5 bc even tho I was losing many things I liked about civ4, the combat with 1upt was just much more engaging than doing stacks of doom. But I finally liked civ5 and put 3k hours into it. I still missed things about 4, but ended likeing 5 a lot. But while I am playing 6, and sometimes enjoying it, I am not getting the 1 more turn feeling I got with previous versions (excepet just after patch or expansions releases ofc). After so long, I have just put 300 hours into civ6, so it doesnt look I will reach the 3k of civ5 by far. civ4 wasnt in steam so I cant say the hours, but many more ofc.

So, as a civ4 lover, what is making you enjoy civ6 more than 5?

First of all right when I started the game it felt like they put more love into it than in civ 5 - I mean I was in the menu and it felt better than civ 5. So far what seems to have come back is that it's a game about expansion, I think that is the biggest reason. Civ 5 was all about building tall and abusing city states which bored me to tears, also most of the mechanics were to be ignored. Now the mechanics matter, they actually add to the game and you are back to building an empire. I feel like the decisions I make are actually decisions not just picking suboptimal play for the fun of it. Really right now the music Sean Bean and the feeling of love having been put into the game is carrying it. I'll be able to say more after I played a little bit that has to be enough for now.

I've heard the AI is horrendous and that you basically need to play multiplayer after a little while to enjoy the game - which doesn't bother me too much cause that was what I was doing with Civ 4 anyways, but that is a drawback for sure. I don't know if they fixed that in the newest expansion.

It would be really great if some of you could answer a couple more of my questions

Thanks

Yell0w

 

[Yell0w]

One important question. I've heard you should build districts as soon as they come available, not finish them, just start them cause the cost is static once you started building them. Is this still correct or has this been patched out long ago?

 

[Midgardsormr]

Do balanced starts work?

It works, kind of. There's still an awful lot of variation from the random number generator.

am thinking about if it's really worth sacrificing growth and production for a city district... is it?

It depends on your goals. The advice from the top tier speed-running players is to place the districts early but not finish them until the Medieval period, when you use Builders to chop them into existence. That works best in Rise & Fall, where there's a governor who gives insane bonuses to harvesting. Personally, I usually finish either a Campus or Holy Site early to get the State Workforce inspiration. The Holy Site only if getting a religion is important to my game plan. Scythia can be powerful in pursuit of a Religious Victory because of that heal-on-kill ability that works for Apostles as well as military units. But if that's not where you want to put your attention, it's better to ignore the Holy Site. An early Encampment gives an inspiration, too, and Scythia definitely benefits from a stable.

What are considered to be the top tier Pantheon perks early?

Goddess of the Harvest if you have plenty of harvestable resources: Wood, stone, sheep, marsh, wheat, rice, fish, copper. You get faith equal to the regular yields, and the amount goes up over time, so if you wait until Theocracy comes up and you get the ability to buy units with faith, you can instantly raise an army by chopping a few woods or crabs. Earth Goddess is also good—even bigger faith generation but no need to chop. It's also the very first pantheon the AI picks, so you rarely see it.

Failing those two, it's a matter of what you see around you. Divine Spark is nice if you anticipate a focus on Great Person production. The terrain-based ones can be nice, although I wouldn't go for the rainforest one unless you're playing Brazil or Kongo (who like to keep the rainforests around). Bonus culture is very valuable, particularly if you don't plan on building many Theater Squares. Just ignore anything that gives extra food.

When the trade route 'finishes' does it stay or is it gone? And if it is gone isn't going to be a pain in the ass late game when you got like 10 routes you need to constantly refresh? Honestly so far I've just used it to connect my cities with roads - and I can't see the Trading Post income anywhere.

Trading Posts only give you extra gold if they're in foreign cities, unless you're Rome. The routes last for quite a while, and you can always just tell them to repeat their last route, so at most it's a click every thirty turns or so for each route. Traders are valuable to send roads to your enemies. As soon as you (or they) declare war, the Trader will instantly return to the city it's based from, so you can just send it off to build the road while you prepare your forces or attack someone else. The Trader also provides a level of diplomatic visibility and a small combat bonus if you have had a Trader running to another civ and they don't have one to you. (I'm not sure if that's true in Vanilla, but it definitely is in Rise & Fall.)

Don't underestimate the value of a free envoy from sending a Trader to a City State that wants one, either.

What do I do with all the faith now that I don't have a religion

As I mentioned above, get Theocracy and use it to buy units. In the later game you can use it to purchase Great People. I doubt you're aiming for a Cultural Victory, but it can also buy Naturalists, who make National Parks, which generate large amounts of tourism.

I don't know if I have been spending my Gold correctly. So far I've spend half of it on buying tiles and half on buying workers.

Buying workers is definitely a good use. Settlers, too. I frequently save a little to buy some buildings that I want to have but don't want to wait for, like the Stable.

Also I'm super confused by when and why I have to unlock policy changes or seeing my government pannel.

Policies and Government choices will become available any time you finish a Civic. Or you can unlock them with gold if you're desperate to make a change.

I'm just permanently at war and the one civ who isn't is just running away with the tech.

One of the nice things about Civ 6 is it's possible to pursue advancement during a war. Unlike previous versions, your research doesn't necessarily slow down, and if you treat your troops carefully, you shouldn't need to devote all your resources to producing units, even in a heavy war. Take advantage of that heal-on-kill ability that Scythia has! It's incredibly powerful. You should be getting districts in cities you capture from your enemies, and you can further propel your advancement by pillaging mines and luxuries. Scythia's particularly good at that with all those horsemen. Bring a Builder along behind your troops to repair all the stuff you burned during the battle. Repairs don't cost a charge!

Not being able to build roads for warfare feels terrible. Also I have a feeling that hammers matter a lot more than they used to, no whipping. I think I went way too food heavy.

Again, the Traders build the roads, so send them to your enemies. Population isn't as powerful in 6 as it has been in the past, so as long as you have two or three tiles providing decent food, devote the rest of your citizens (and Builder charges) to production tiles.

I've heard you should build districts as soon as they come available, not finish them, just start them cause the cost is static once you started building them. Is this still correct or has this been patched out long ago?

That is still true. The cost is determined by the number of techs and civics you have when you place the district, and it hasn't changed through all the patches and expansions.

 

[Yell0w]

It works, kind of. There's still an awful lot of variation from the random number generator.



It depends on your goals. The advice from the top tier speed-running players is to place the districts early but not finish them until the Medieval period, when you use Builders to chop them into existence. That works best in Rise & Fall, where there's a governor who gives insane bonuses to harvesting. Personally, I usually finish either a Campus or Holy Site early to get the State Workforce inspiration. The Holy Site only if getting a religion is important to my game plan. Scythia can be powerful in pursuit of a Religious Victory because of that heal-on-kill ability that works for Apostles as well as military units. But if that's not where you want to put your attention, it's better to ignore the Holy Site. An early Encampment gives an inspiration, too, and Scythia definitely benefits from a stable.



Goddess of the Harvest if you have plenty of harvestable resources: Wood, stone, sheep, marsh, wheat, rice, fish, copper. You get faith equal to the regular yields, and the amount goes up over time, so if you wait until Theocracy comes up and you get the ability to buy units with faith, you can instantly raise an army by chopping a few woods or crabs. Earth Goddess is also good—even bigger faith generation but no need to chop. It's also the very first pantheon the AI picks, so you rarely see it.

Failing those two, it's a matter of what you see around you. Divine Spark is nice if you anticipate a focus on Great Person production. The terrain-based ones can be nice, although I wouldn't go for the rainforest one unless you're playing Brazil or Kongo (who like to keep the rainforests around). Bonus culture is very valuable, particularly if you don't plan on building many Theater Squares. Just ignore anything that gives extra food.



Trading Posts only give you extra gold if they're in foreign cities, unless you're Rome. The routes last for quite a while, and you can always just tell them to repeat their last route, so at most it's a click every thirty turns or so for each route. Traders are valuable to send roads to your enemies. As soon as you (or they) declare war, the Trader will instantly return to the city it's based from, so you can just send it off to build the road while you prepare your forces or attack someone else. The Trader also provides a level of diplomatic visibility and a small combat bonus if you have had a Trader running to another civ and they don't have one to you. (I'm not sure if that's true in Vanilla, but it definitely is in Rise & Fall.)

Don't underestimate the value of a free envoy from sending a Trader to a City State that wants one, either.



As I mentioned above, get Theocracy and use it to buy units. In the later game you can use it to purchase Great People. I doubt you're aiming for a Cultural Victory, but it can also buy Naturalists, who make National Parks, which generate large amounts of tourism.



Buying workers is definitely a good use. Settlers, too. I frequently save a little to buy some buildings that I want to have but don't want to wait for, like the Stable.



Policies and Government choices will become available any time you finish a Civic. Or you can unlock them with gold if you're desperate to make a change.



One of the nice things about Civ 6 is it's possible to pursue advancement during a war. Unlike previous versions, your research doesn't necessarily slow down, and if you treat your troops carefully, you shouldn't need to devote all your resources to producing units, even in a heavy war. Take advantage of that heal-on-kill ability that Scythia has! It's incredibly powerful. You should be getting districts in cities you capture from your enemies, and you can further propel your advancement by pillaging mines and luxuries. Scythia's particularly good at that with all those horsemen. Bring a Builder along behind your troops to repair all the stuff you burned during the battle. Repairs don't cost a charge!



Again, the Traders build the roads, so send them to your enemies. Population isn't as powerful in 6 as it has been in the past, so as long as you have two or three tiles providing decent food, devote the rest of your citizens (and Builder charges) to production tiles.



That is still true. The cost is determined by the number of techs and civics you have when you place the district, and it hasn't changed through all the patches and expansions.

Thank you very much, that cleared up most if not all the questions I asked so far, again big THANK YOU!

I'm finding it surprisingly hard to find an expert play through. In Civ 4 there were PBEM action reports where people just went to borderline insane depth about every decision, not looking for quite that level but a game where a really good player explains their reasoning.

 

[Midgardsormr]

You're welcome!

Population isn't as powerful in 6 as it has been in the past,

I think I should clarify this statement. Tall cities can be problematic because the return on pop production rises slower than their need for amenities. In Vanilla and R&F wide empires where most cities are size 4-6 are most efficient. Starting at size 3, you need 1 amenity for every 2 pops, but you only get a district for every 3, so two cities of size 4 give you access to four districts and require 2 amenities. To get the same four districts in a single city you need 10 population and thus 4 amenities.

 

[Victoria]

Does anyone know a good expert replay on youtube

Civtrader6 is the only very decent one, and he is a top tier highly skilled player.

A very key point is often there is not one single golden rule to always do x or Y .... even the experts will change their first built unit depending on situation and level played and argue about which is best. There is some key golden rules.
Getting as many eurekas and inspirations as you said, some are normally not worth it... 95% of the time.
Culture is the main push you should go for at the start... in 95% of situations. Feudalism is a very key beeline because it is the eureka for knights which are OP but also multi charge builders.
Chopping is very powerful as is pillaging, try and learn these... look at my signature for a chopping example, it gives other important points.
Rams are very OP in this game, much easier to use than catapults and affect every attacking unit, not just the one stacked.
Selling everything you can early for gold helps get you ahead.
Go wide... 4 cities = 4 campuses which is 4much stronger than 1 large city, huge cities just cause happiness issues.
The best pantheon by far is goddess of the harvest, with that with and golden age monumentality and you will weep with what you can do,

 

[Yell0w]

Another question popped up: I am thinking about settling directly or at least very close to coast so I can use pearls and whales. Now I understand that costal tiles aren't good but this city isn't going to have to work costal tiles/is not going to get that big anyways. Is there any advantage/disadvantage to settling right on the coast except the housing?

 

[kaltorak]

Coast isnt good when there's better. But in civ6 settling anywhere is always good anyway.

 

[Wizard-Bob]

Civtrader6 is the only very decent one, and he is a top tier highly skilled player.

Is he still posting? Last videos of Civ6 I see for him are a year old

 

[Yell0w]

Hej people again thanks for all the answers... I swear I googled this but how do I actually see my district adjacency boni? Thinking about using a card cause I planed well and I don't need anything else for a couple turns at least, but I don't know what it'll do really cause I can't see what adjacency does now.

Civtrader6 is the only very decent one, and he is a top tier highly skilled player.

He seems to re roll starts a lot then scout the map then restart and take all the goody huts meet all the civs and city states he wants etc. I know this is standard for GotM but that is not my playstyle at all, in fact I really don't like it.

So I'm back to reading PBEM's over at Realms Beyond which is, at least in my opinion, the community with the most skilled Civ IV players among other things.

 

[Noble Zarkon]

Realms Beyond which is, at least in my opinion, the community with the most skilled Civ IV players among other things.

You need to look at the Hall of Fame here on CivFanatics then!

 

[Midgardsormr]

how do I actually see my district adjacency boni?

In the City Reports screen. It's in the top bar of the UI somewhere. They've moved it for GS, and I had a UI mod prior, so I don't rightly remember where it is normally. It gives you a spread-sheet of all your cities and their yields, including the adjacency bonus.

 

[Haig]

From two wikis the civilization.fandom.com is the better one.

 

[Yell0w]

You need to look at the Hall of Fame here on CivFanatics then!

=) I really didn't want to start a pissing contest. I am aware that there are/were very skilled Civ IV players here. The difference is in play style. While on CivFanatics people tend to make the best out of a great situation competing over the fastest finish - on Realms Beyond people tend to make the best out of a bad situation often crippling themselves on purpose.

CivFanatics is the biggest most active Civ community with a huge data base and loads of content for which I am grateful and which is why I'm posting here.

 

[Morino1914]

How to spend gold is my biggest problem, but I think culture vs yield is a decider in Gathering Storm. If I’m settling a new city early, buying a monument seems more powerful than buying a builder somewhere. If buying a 2 more yield tile than initially workable is possible then I’ll choose it, I think. If science > culture I’ll usually buy a monument.

Even before this if I’m able to purchase a settler for less than 560 gold I’ll go for it. Unless city population and growth is low all round my empire. Haven’t really bought a settler in my first 2-3 GS games.

Any feedback on this gold spending strategy is more than welcome!