So I'm brand new to civ 6

coned

Chieftain
Joined
Nov 16, 2018
Messages
11
But not the series as a whole. I've played 2-5 for hundreds of hours, but dont have a good enough laptop to run this one well.

So any general tips I should know/would be helpful for new mechanics or features? I've got the "new to civ 6" tutorial on, but still looking for some tips/tricks.
 
Barbarians are a real menace in Civilization VI. Keep an unit closeby to defend your first two cities against them or at least until you have walled them. Make sure you destroy their camps near your cities because they will pillage your trade routes.

Also, range units are the best against the AI.
 
To add to Boccages post, do not let barbarian scouts get away. They can cause you major headaches later on.

Cities do not start with walls, so conquest is much easier this time around. Wide play dominates. You can go tall but wide is considered better by most.

The AI is still quite poor when it comes to combat but can still overwhelm you on higher difficulties.
 
Should I go against early barb city with spearman holed up with slinger then? Having one present on turn 25. :)
 
Oh man, I didn't know about the scout thing. TWO got away cause I didn't think they were a huge issue.

I'm glad I'm not too far in yet. Barbarians were always something I mostly ignored in previous games so I'm happy to know to actually pay attention to them while I'm still around turn 20.
 
Should I go against early barb city with spearman holed up with slinger then? Having one present on turn 25. :)
Yes. Two units against a barbarian encampment should be good unless a scout spotted a civilization and came back to the camp to alert them, then the camp will have spawned 3-4 units against whom 2 units is not enough (until you have an archer). Also the policy card that gives you bonus against barbarian units is a must if you really want to engage barbs early on.
 
Yes. Two units against a barbarian encampment should be good unless a scout spotted a civilization and came back to the camp to alert them, then the camp will have spawned 3-4 units against whom 2 units is not enough (until you have an archer). Also the policy card that gives you bonus against barbarian units is a must if you really want to engage barbs early on.

Phew, then I got lucky. Scout ran away towards the camp, and I followed, so there is just this single guy present. Not sure if fog busting is even a thing in this one yet. :D
Thanks for the warning.
 
Barbarians are a pest (but I like this feature a lot) at the start of the game. Even though you are careful, sometimes you can't help but end up with trashed mines and fields.

Like in my game. While my slinger and warrior were busy taking out a barbarian encampment just north west of my capital, my scout discovered a new encampment. This camp was somewhat far to the east of Rome, but it was swarming with barbarian units because the Greeks (Gorgo) had a city closeby and they had scouted it. Once I discovered the camp, they attacked my scout and, I quickly retreated to my capital. But the whole barbarian army followed my scout (instead of sieging the closer Greek city). I had to rush my warrior and slinger back to my capital, but my salt mine was already trashed.

rUyU2Mq.jpg
 
I'm new to the game and the only one I have played was Rev on 360.

Boy is this game a bit overwhelming. I'm over 200 turns at the moment and my capital has 13 people but I think I'm seriously lagging behind in everything: science, production and culture - and I don't even pretend to understand what faith is good for.

But I just can't get much done. And tbh, I haven't even thought about winning, I'm just trying things out and see where it leads.

I have only four cities of which one was captured. Maybe too few?

This game is going to take a while to learn.
 
I recommend to produce four units early on, that will be plenty enough to kick the barbarians out whenever they come, and you can make short process of their camps.

Faith is used for buying religious units (if you have a religion), or for grabbing great people (you can also do this with gold). in the late game faith is also used to make naturalist-units, who establish national parks (for amenities and tourism). Tourism is needed to win cultural victories, while amenities are mostly to keep your cities loyal (also give other small yield bonuses).

You can completely ignore faith/religion and still do fine in the game. Especially because the computer players are never able to win a religious victory on their own.
 
Thanks for the tips! Honestly, I'm pretty clueless. I checked what other civs were getting and it was ~200 science against my 50 and the same with the rest. Excepr for faith which I had at +400 but no great prophets left. :D

I think I'm stopping at turn 250 and starting a new game with my vast acquired knowledge.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, that I got but when I came to realise I would need one to found a religion, they were all taken already. There were other great people tho
 
I never pay attention to faith. I know how it works, but you have to rush to found a religion at the start and to do so, you need one of the religious-leaning civilization. Then you can start spreading it.

But I never do. It really is not necessary unless you want to win a religious victory.
 
Basically religion in Civ VI works in steps. Accumulate enough faith (I recommend the policy starting out that gives you 1 faith per turn; it only takes about 10 or 20 faith if I recall correctly) and you'll be prompted to found a Pantheon. It's tempting to get extra build speed for Ancient/Classical Wonders or the Divine Spark which gives you Great Scientist and other points every turn, but occasionally it may be more advantageous to utilize the features around your city/empire (such as Dance of the Aurora if you have a lot of Snow tiles).

Next up, Great Prophets let you found a religion. You'll normally need a Holy Site District (when he appears you'll walk him over to the District and use his power) and enough accumulated Faith before one shows up, but you can get a Great Prophet automatically if you build Stonehenge (and it's a good way to found a religion and get a jump on the rest of the pack).

The next (and last) steps involve adding an additional two Religious bonuses, which are activated by building Apostles. You can't purchase Apostles with Faith until you have at least one Temple, and each one gives you the opportunity to add an additional bonus from the remaining pool of available bonuses. After this, Apostles, like Missionaries and Gurus, can be used to spread your religion around your empire and other cities and Civs.

The one thing about religion in Civilization that's important to remember is that, even if you're not going for a Religious Victory, the bonuses you can get (such as unique buildings like Wats that give you extra Science and Faith each turn, or bonuses to Gold, Science, Culture, and even Attack or Defense in certain situations) can make it well worth your while. It's also worth noting that the AI will, if given the chance, snap up the most choice of the pickings if you don't get to them first, so if you're going to pursue Faith at all you should definitely push hard from the outset of the game.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but beyond those early turns getting your bonuses established, it's pretty easy to let Faith become an afterthought in Civ VI. As others have said, it's probably nigh impossible for the AI to win a Religious Victory (and I don't even want to think about what it would take to do the feat yourself with all the opposing Apostles, Missionaries, etc. getting spammed everywhere), so after that you'll best be served focusing on other things like Science, Culture, and so on. In fact, you may never need to build more than one Holy Site; since Districts are tied to city population, it's a much better idea to build Campuses, Theater Districts, and other Districts that give you stacked bonuses toward a Victory type from then on.

One more little tip: you can manage the focus of each individual city in your empire (such as Gold, Production, Science, Culture, etc.) by tapping the Directional Pad to cycle through the little buttons in each category on your City screen. You can have the city focus more on one or two specific areas or even ignore one entirely (no idea why you'd ever want to do that, though). It's more intuitive with a mouse on the PC, but once you get the hang of it the Pro controller does well enough. Anyway, this can help you build stuff a bit faster or research Science faster or even provide more food for your citizens should you get an alert the city isn't providing enough food for them (another way to alleviate this is to make a Trade Route with another of your cities to get food to them).

Anyway, that's enough typing for awhile. Hope this can be of help.
 
I recommend to produce four units early on, that will be plenty enough to kick the barbarians out whenever they come, and you can make short process of their camps.

Faith is used for buying religious units (if you have a religion), or for grabbing great people (you can also do this with gold). in the late game faith is also used to make naturalist-units, who establish national parks (for amenities and tourism). Tourism is needed to win cultural victories, while amenities are mostly to keep your cities loyal (also give other small yield bonuses).

You can completely ignore faith/religion and still do fine in the game. Especially because the computer players are never able to win a religious victory on their own.


amenities are worrying me so far. i don't really "get" what they are or how to earn them and i'm worried about my cities kicking me out. i've been bringing in luxury resources which are helping, but...yeah. new mechanic i don't "get" yet.
 
Basically religion in Civ VI works in steps. Accumulate enough faith (I recommend the policy starting out that gives you 1 faith per turn; it only takes about 10 or 20 faith if I recall correctly) and you'll be prompted to found a Pantheon. It's tempting to get extra build speed for Ancient/Classical Wonders or the Divine Spark which gives you Great Scientist and other points every turn, but occasionally it may be more advantageous to utilize the features around your city/empire (such as Dance of the Aurora if you have a lot of Snow tiles).

Next up, Great Prophets let you found a religion. You'll normally need a Holy Site District (when he appears you'll walk him over to the District and use his power) and enough accumulated Faith before one shows up, but you can get a Great Prophet automatically if you build Stonehenge (and it's a good way to found a religion and get a jump on the rest of the pack).

The next (and last) steps involve adding an additional two Religious bonuses, which are activated by building Apostles. You can't purchase Apostles with Faith until you have at least one Temple, and each one gives you the opportunity to add an additional bonus from the remaining pool of available bonuses. After this, Apostles, like Missionaries and Gurus, can be used to spread your religion around your empire and other cities and Civs.

The one thing about religion in Civilization that's important to remember is that, even if you're not going for a Religious Victory, the bonuses you can get (such as unique buildings like Wats that give you extra Science and Faith each turn, or bonuses to Gold, Science, Culture, and even Attack or Defense in certain situations) can make it well worth your while. It's also worth noting that the AI will, if given the chance, snap up the most choice of the pickings if you don't get to them first, so if you're going to pursue Faith at all you should definitely push hard from the outset of the game.

I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but beyond those early turns getting your bonuses established, it's pretty easy to let Faith become an afterthought in Civ VI. As others have said, it's probably nigh impossible for the AI to win a Religious Victory (and I don't even want to think about what it would take to do the feat yourself with all the opposing Apostles, Missionaries, etc. getting spammed everywhere), so after that you'll best be served focusing on other things like Science, Culture, and so on. In fact, you may never need to build more than one Holy Site; since Districts are tied to city population, it's a much better idea to build Campuses, Theater Districts, and other Districts that give you stacked bonuses toward a Victory type from then on.

One more little tip: you can manage the focus of each individual city in your empire (such as Gold, Production, Science, Culture, etc.) by tapping the Directional Pad to cycle through the little buttons in each category on your City screen. You can have the city focus more on one or two specific areas or even ignore one entirely (no idea why you'd ever want to do that, though). It's more intuitive with a mouse on the PC, but once you get the hang of it the Pro controller does well enough. Anyway, this can help you build stuff a bit faster or research Science faster or even provide more food for your citizens should you get an alert the city isn't providing enough food for them (another way to alleviate this is to make a Trade Route with another of your cities to get food to them).

Anyway, that's enough typing for awhile. Hope this can be of help.

Great explanation on how religion works here, AtlantisAuthor. A good read for all beginners.
 
amenities are worrying me so far. i don't really "get" what they are or how to earn them and i'm worried about my cities kicking me out. i've been bringing in luxury resources which are helping, but...yeah. new mechanic i don't "get" yet.
you get info on amenities in the population tab in the city details (click on a city and then there should be some button to open the city details)

city details.jpg
 
amenities are worrying me so far. i don't really "get" what they are or how to earn them and i'm worried about my cities kicking me out. i've been bringing in luxury resources which are helping, but...yeah. new mechanic i don't "get" yet.

With my 106 turns of knowledge ( :D I know), amenities are like like happiness in IV limiting your city maximum size pretty much. I found out that putting your envoys (3 on standard settings) in some distant city states you can obtain few luxury items that'll take care of that amenity problem pretty well. Just explore a bit and find them first, and civics you get handle the rest. Trading for luxury resources could work also, AI seems to hate me, so I'm not sure how often that can happen. :)
 
Amenities can be offered in multiple ways; the Entertainment Complex and its stackable buildings (as well as the Water Park District in Rise and Fall) boosts city Happiness. But it's also important to harvest Luxury resources with your Builders, which differ from regular or "Bonus" resources by actually adding to your city's Happiness. Here's a partial list of Bonus versus Luxury resources:

Bonus, Strategic, and regular resources that add food, material, and other things essential for growing your population and developing more advanced military and other capabilities):

Copper
Stone
Lumber
Sheep
Cattle
Horses
Rice
Wheat
Hunting Camp
Fish
Crabs
Iron
Niter
Coal
Oil
Aluminum
Titanium
Uranium


Luxury resources that can add Happiness (count as Amenities):

Gold
Silver
Marble
(This is a huge advantage for building Ancient and Classical Wonders, so if you see this near your starting city, research Mining fast and have a Builder build a mine there)
Salt
Mercury
Dyes
Jade
Coffee
Tea
Spices
Grapes
Cotton
Whales
Sea Turtles
Elephants
(Ivory)
Truffles (They have a Wild Pig icon)

One VERY important thing: make certain you have at least one EXTRA remaining Luxury resource being harvested in your empire before offering it for trade with other Civs. If you trade away the last copy of a resource (which lasts for 30 turns), your citizenry no longer has access to it themselves. For example, if you have three Grapes (Wine) currently being harvested (meaning you've built Plantations on three Grapes tiles), you should only use two as potential trade items; keep the last one for your own citizens. Always try to make trades that add a Luxury resource you don't currently have access to whenever possible.

Lastly, a couple of other ways to gain Amenities are to build certain Wonders (example: the Colosseum), to discover Natural Wonders (examples: Mount Everest and Yosemite), and to create National Parks.

You an create a National Park when a Natural Wonder is within the territory of one of your cities...but there is a very specific way it has to happen. A National Park consists of four contiguous UNDEVELOPED hexes including the Natural Wonder (some of these include multiple hexes, but you'll need at least one extra besides those), arranged in a 2X2 or "diamond" pattern. So if you build a city near a Natural Wonder, examine the area closely and decide ahead of time which four hexes to leave alone (in other words, don't create a mine, pasture, District, or anything else in that area; you may have as many as three undeveloped hexes if the Natural Wonder is only one hex in size, for instance). Then when it's time and you can recruit a Naturalist, you can establish your park and yield nice bonuses for your Civ.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom