Total Noob

Hi all. First post and I’m in the middle of my first ever game of and civ.

I watched one vid on YouTube to get to know the idea but I basically have used this first time round as a learning curve. I’m almost at 400 turns and have some observations about what I’ve done/done wrong so would appreciate any advice about those as well as some tips for beginners.

so here are my observations:

I feel like I was doing well in the early part of the game, I was placed at the southern tip of Africa and soo added 2 more cities and then another at the top of Africa. I soon wanted to expand further but started getting denounced all over for one reason or another. I was then attacked to which I defended and decided to re attack one of their cities and was close to conquering, although army was depleated, but they offered peace and I accepted. I assume this was a mistake as I should’ve just took the city. Is this fair?

after that, another country declared war and this time I followed through and took a big city so my empire was expanding. I put more cities in north however another country totally blocked my passage between south and north so decided to attack some cities in order to make access between my northern and southern cities. once I took what o needed I again made peace.

I decided to focus on my military in order to take over more so all my cities were building military. This stopped everything else progressing. I then decided to attack again only this time I was totally in a mess as the opposition were way more advanced than my armies. So how do you manage to keep advancing at a fast pace like the AI does? Should I not be filling my queues in cities and doing things one at a time so that I can develop the army as I go?

after having 2 nations attack me I decided to attack someone else, not fully understanding what a city nation was. They wanted to make peace with me using a Suzerain delegation. In the delegation it said I could enter their border etc yet none of my military are able to enter? Am I reading this wrong?

Like I say, I’ve used this game as a learning curve but feel like I’ve barely touched on anything in the game really. I have a hundred turns left and I’m going to see it out to the end just to see what happens but I certainly won’t be winning. I’m playing on the easiest level so I reckon I’d definitely be wiped out by now if I wasn’t.

Another question, why are you denounced so quickly by everyone? How do you maintain good relations as no one likes me and didn’t even before I started attacking people?

despite all this I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m 35 and haven’t had a game hook me like this since I was a teenager.

many help, pointers, answers, basic strategy welcome.

thanks in advance

 

What Civilization are you playing? Also, welcome to the forums!

 

Sorry I’m playing vi on the PS4

 

Oh England and Queen Victoria

 

Here is an idea of my map (if you can see it)

 

One important thing to know about Civilization 6 is that in nearly every situation, more cities will be better. In this situation, you're a bit crowded out by France to your north. In this situation, you need to settle very aggressively. Since you don't appear to be using any DLC, you can settle as close to other civilizations as you want. At the start of the game, you may want to consider settling a city extremely close to your neighbors, allowing you to claim more land and therefore settle more cities. You should try to be building Settlers until you have no more decent land to settle, or it's about the Renaissance era. Every city can give you a bit more yields, and every bit counts.

The reason you want all those cities is because you want more districts and the buildings inside of them. At the start of the game, you should try to think of what type of victory you want to get and try building districts that help you get that victory. For every victory, there are about two or three key districts that you should aim to build in every single city. For example, if you want a Science Victory, build a Campus in every single city, and probably a Theater Square and a Harbor (Royal Navy Dockyard for England)/Commercial Hub.
Something similar to know is that districts can give you some yields based on where it's built. For example, a Campus can give you some extra science if it's built next to a mountain. In the pictures you have, you seem to be placing the districts in very odd locations. For example, you have a Holy Site that probably could've been placed next to a mountain, and a Commercial Hub that's not next to a river. As you get better, you'll be able to plan ahead where you want to place your districts - it may help to possibly memorize where your districts get their adjacencies from. For the most part, you can simply place the district wherever the adjacency number is the highest and you should do okay.
It should be noted that you should almost never build a Harbor and a Commercial Hub in the same city. One of the largest benefits of those districts is the Trade Route, but you won't get two Trade Routes if you have a Harbor and a Commercial Hub. In general, cities next to the coast should always get Harbors (and possibly cities in lakes), while other cities should build a Commercial Hub.

If you make sure to settle enough cities and build districts well, I'd say that you should be able to beat the Prince AI easily.

As for your question about warfare, I'd say that you should keep on fighting until your opponent gets good defenses (walls, a strong unit, etc.). If the city is at low enough HP and you can take it, you should probably take it. If they're asking for peace, that means that they're scared and think that they'll lose the war - if that's the case, keep on fighting. Once they get reasonable defenses, you can take peace and enjoy having your economy fueled with the money they'll be giving you.
Also, you should always try to keep your army up-to-date. Try to focus your science on military technologies - they're mostly located on the bottom part of the technology tree. Navy technologies are located on the top part of the tree instead. An important district in every Domination victory will be Campuses, and they're one of the key districts you want in every city.
You should always upgrade your army when possible. In your pictures, I see that you have a Catapult, a Bombard, and a Horseman you could upgrade. Use the Professional Army policy card to save some gold when you do so.

I'm not very sure about your problems with the City-State, and I'm a bit confused with your description of what happened. If you're the Suzerain of a specific City-State, you should be able to enter their borders. You won't be able to enter the borders of other City-States, and if you stop being Suzerain, you'll no longer be able to do so.

As for diplomacy, it can definitely be tough to get people to like you. Sometimes you can manage to get an alliance with everybody, while on other games everybody hates your guts. A few easy ways to improve relations is to send a Delegation to them. They will always accept your Delegation on the first turn that you meet somebody, and it gives you a small boost to your relations with them. In addition, you can trade them Open Borders, which gives you another small boost. Also, you can send them a Trade Route, which can likewise give you a small relationship boost. These should be able to make a neutral civ turn friendly, as long as they don't have a reason to hate you.
If you really want somebody to get on your side, you can give them a gift of some gold. The relationship boost is temporary, but once you get to be Declared Friends with somebody, you should be able to keep them on your side.
In addition, you should try to meet other leader's agendas. Every leader has two agendas - one that's specific to the leader, and one that's randomly chosen. If you meet their agenda (for example, making a lot of income for a Money-Grubber leader), you'll get a sizable relationship boost. Otherwise, they'll have a negative relationship modifier.

 

Wow thanks for the feedback. Yeah with regards to my placements. I didn’t really know there were specific places they should go I just thought as soon as they appeared I needed them so just built them. I’ll look at getting more settlers next time and go city crazy ha.

 

Hello.

I’m also completely new to the franchise. I totally feel your pain.

I read somewhere else that one guy’s struggles was leading him to a bit of a dance between a 1:2 ratio of time playing versus time studying all the various systems of the game.

Vets were more or less sympathetic and saying this is pretty much the course... It takes quite a few games to learn the basic game. Then quite a few more to understand synergies and how things tie together.

For example my experiences with Ethiopia this weekend. I read the strategy guide on the fandom app for them, the go to with them is religious/cultural with a fair shot with science as a backup, domination is not shabby but certainly not top priority, with their unique infrastructure and leader bonus...

Anyways, as soon as I breached the political philosophy civic, I went head long into a classic republic full steam ahead, because in my mind I was like pffft I’m not going for domination so who needs military policy cards.

Well by about mid classic era along came barbarians on HORSEBACK!!! And I’m on the lowest AI difficulty!!! Fortunately I literally like maybe 2-3 turns prior had secured my first Iron mine which allowed me to rapidly toss gold at ancient warriors to upgrade to swordsmen and also Fortunately I had some archers which I had trained for a boost and wad able to defend myself... ... but albeit barely!!! I was completely unprepared for this.

So, I did a fair bit of diggin/studying since that seems to be ‘the par’. (1:2 ratio, play-study) For my next game I’m thinking to run Autocracy and optimize it with Bastion and Limes policies. This will optimize the hero unit that saved my sorry butt (the archers) and also speed along walls construction which in the late game will double for a cultural route; Walls generate Tourism via ‘conservation’.

So long story longer, yeah buddy. It’s a super steep learning curve. You’re not alone!!

If your on PS4 drop me an inbox!

 

Yeah I only finished my first game the other day. Fair to say I didn’t win . Loved it though. Going to start another game either tonight or tomorrow and really focus on the technology side of it and not try and add loads of things to my queues as I was finding I ended up with a lot of outdated military etc.

 

I learned a War based turn based game in my childhood that has some transferable skills to civ.

My biggest challenge is coming from the world of C&C, and the Warcraft/Starcraft franchises, ... I’m used to seeing the actual in hand resources you need to exchange for production of a unit. So ya I hear ya about the queues...

The twist of having it all computed in turns and trying to tune “timing” is really what I find the hardest part thus far. It takes the Critical thinking aspect of chess and, My chess game was never that strong.

 

Yeah I used to play age of empires like 20 years ago so it’s a bit different. I’ve found a strategy guid to read before my next game. Not sure if I’m allowed to share it on here or not (mods?)

 

Hi,

When I was 12 I read the whole book along with the 5 CDs of Baldur's Gate after a few unsuccessful games. Then I became OK. ^^ Since then, no game has ever needed me to read documentation... Until Civ 4.
So don't worry, reading a lot is normal to get the game.

Trying to make it short:

1. use the tutorial helper to guide you that girl will provide useful insight + activate all visual indicators like yields, etc.
   
2. each time to see something you don't understand, search for it in the civilopedia, it's a huge documentation
   
3. when you start your game: explore the map, knowledge of the locations is extremely precious - meet civilizations early and be friendly with them, send delegations, build embassies later when unlocked, make friendships and then alliances
   
4. create a lot of settlers (spam settlers as we say) and construct cities not close to your capital, but close to your rivals so that you deny them expanding towards you - THEN you can settle in the middle which you have almost ensured will be yours
5. make districts that can have bonuses only, otherwise look for something else to build, but always try when possible to build taking advantage of potential bonuses - build your military units preferably after an encampment, etc.
   
6. don't use the queue very much, with time passing your priorities will shift, personably I queue 10% of the time max
   
7. when AI is asking for peace, ask for the maximum they are willing to give in exchange, if it's not much, then continue the war (if you are winning it): less cities for them more for you
8. ALWAYS go to check the victory screen to see where you and your competitors are

The game is extremely different from Age of Empires which is real-time and very military-focused.

Let us know during the next game if you have questions! In the easiest difficulty I'm sure you can win it as long as your actions are not random but decisions.

I don't see why you couldn't put any link here.

 

One thing that is noticeable from the map is that your science and culture output seems far below where you would want to be at your stage of the game. For beginner purposes, I think science is the most important. You should build campuses in all or nearly all of your cities, and then build the buildings inside those campuses.

Improving your science is the way to avoid the issue you raised about having your armies be less advanced than the opposition. Warfare in Civ 6 is at least as much about science and technological progress as it is about simply building military units. You can build 20 swordsmen, but if your opponent is already fielding cavalry they only need one or two to carve through your army. So you want to keep progressing in science.

Culture is a little trickier at first because there are fewer avenues to get it. The easiest way is to play wide - as others have said, create a lot of settlers and build a lot of cities early - and then build monuments in each city. Beyond that, once you get your footing underneath you a bit you can start building theatre squares and possibly wonders to help boost your culture.

Also, trade routes are huge - internal trade can help grow your cities (since they will provide food and production), while international trade routes will provide gold and some other smaller bonuses. As England, trade is one of the key areas for you - in your game, it looks like you only have 1 of potentially 8 trade routes active. You want to keep all your trade routes active at all times. With the gold from trading, plus improved science output, you should be able to upgrade your military to the degree that you can prevail in war if needed.

 

Yes, maximazing trade routes is key. Also choose the best trade route from the trade route screen. This way you can identify which route can give you +40 gold/turn and not just 4.

 

You should read this
https://forums.civfanatics.com/resources/industrial-zone-placement-guide.27669/

 

Some tips that I've learned:

1. Diplomacy with the AI is INCREDIBLY important. Send delegations right away, sell them open borders right away, send trade routes to the ones you want to maintain friendships with right away. Declare friendship with any AI that is green and is not a short term war target ASAP. Declared friends cannot declare war on you, so they can't be part of World Congress emergencies or be bribed into a joint war against you. Being friendly will also make favorable trade deals more likely.
2. Trade a LOT. Offer open borders for gold, sell your diplo favor (unless going for diplo win), sell your excess strategic resources (horses, iron, etc). Gold is an extremely important resource. Trading not only maximizes how much of it YOU are able to use, but also takes some from your rivals.
3. It's generally better to try to settle your early cities near the borders of the territory that you want to control. For example if your nearest AI neighbor is 20 tiles from your capital, settle at least a couple of early cities as close to their empire as you can without getting crushed by loyalty issues, then get them growing. Afterwards you can fill in the territory in between. The AI tends to settle their cities near each other and is unlikely to settle into your territory unless they have no other choice. Forward settling also makes it difficult for them to encroach on your territory as they will be surrounded by your loyalty pressure.
4. Before doing a single action in your game, take time to read and understand your civ and leaders unique bonuses, units, buildings and improvements. Try to think about what things need to happen to make those things synergize together, this may lead to you taking a different path than you normally do: I tend to favor domination victories so usually tech towards early military units and resources but if I was playing as Russia I would lean towards getting early Lavras up and running.
5. Be very mindful of which policy cards (and world congress effects) you are running and try to maximize the benefit you get from them until you are ready to switch. For example, when building military units, try to have the appropriate policy cards in place that give production bonuses; once you are done with building your army, swap out the card to something that will benefit your current priority.
6. Be mindful of early defense. When scouting, make sure that you still have at least 1 or 2 units near your empire to fight off any surprise wars and to protect against Barb invasions. Keep an eye on where barb camps pop up and try to get a couple of units out there to take it out before it starts pumping out units to harry your empire. Even if the barbs aren't able to take out your city, they can still pillage improvements and districts, setting you back significantly.