What's the Civ 6 equivalent of National College? (The OP thing to rush ASAP)

[Arms Longfellow]

I've only played 3 complete games so far: Prince, King, and Emperor, in that order. In my limited experience, Classical Republic on the civics front seems pretty damn important to rush in order to unlock all those policy slots. On the science front ... this I'm less sure of. Commerce districts and Industrial districts, outside of any military unit you need to unlock in order to do some early conquest?

 

[Customgoban]

Being Good at civ 6 is all about making tons of cities and putting them in good places. So maybe Early Empire(cheaper settlers) civic. Science is based less on population and more on how many science districts u can make.

A good wonder that will indirectly boost your science is The Colloseum. If you place it well, you can hit 5-7 cities with it, get 20+ culture per turn. This will get you faster access to science civic cards that will multiply your science output, such as Natural Philosophy (2x campus adjacency bonus) and Rationalism (2x science building bonus).

As for districts, Build science districts first if you can get +3 adjacency, otherwise build commercial first. This lets you make trade rout's which will make your cities grow faster. Industrial zones should only be built in cities with lots of mines/quarys. Harbors are also good, their buildings give you food, and each one allows the creation of an additional trade rout.

 

[fortydayweekend]

Yep, Currency and Apprenticeship are the closest NC equivalent as getting them early lets you place Commercial and Industrial districts cheaply. What's important though is teching them before other stuff - not necessarily teching them early in game time.

Anything you need for conquest and amenities comes first though, and Writing.

 

[kamex]

Rush 4-5 Archers and destroy your neighbor and settle wherever you choose in your own time. Or play as Scythia and wipe your entire continent by turn 90 with Horsemen.

 

[Kelmort83]

I feel that early on the Pyramid is something you want to shoot for, 1 charge for Massonry Eureka, 2 charge to chop forest and that benefit your whole empire until the end.

Battering Ram and Ancient wall being the cherry on the sundae.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

Regarding science, you shouldn't blindly beeline a specific tech without considering your circumstances. For example, Scythia should beeline Horseback Riding instead of Currency/Apprenticeship to get their UU. It also depends on the terrain and AI placement. You'd want Wheel and Stirrups earlier if you have iron nearby and a few neighbors in your continent for a Heavy Chariot and Knight rush.

As for Civics, a pretty nice path I like to take is Political Philosophy > Feudalism > 2nd tier government > whatever you need to win (except for Religious victories, where you'd want earlier Mysticism for the Great Prophet card). Civics unlock far less crucial units, districts and improvements, apart from uniques, and is best used as support.

 

[jollywonk]

In terms of science, you must get Universities up, and you really want to hit Enlightenment (double science from buildings) on the Civics tree as fast as you can. To hit Enlightenment as fast as you can, you want to get Meritocracy (+1 culture per district) as fast as you can, with as many districts built as you can (at least 4 cities x 3 districts = 12 culture, more is better).

 

[Customgoban]

I feel that early on the Pyramid is something you want to shoot for, 1 charge for Massonry Eureka, 2 charge to chop forest and that benefit your whole empire until the end.

Battering Ram and Ancient wall being the cherry on the sundae.

Bad advise. Chopping has been hugely nerfed, it will likely be just as effective to improve tiles. Also, you don't want to use the last charge on the worker, since it gains a charge if still 'alive'. Also pyrimids can only be built on desert, which is situational, and the benefit of Pyrimids are only marginally beneficial for civs other than China and Aztecs. Unless you got some sort of God-Capital, pyramids likely wont be worth making until after you have a few settlements made, and the AI will probably have taken it by then.

 

[Abraxis]

Chopping is phenomenal, as is harvesting resources in bad locations.

As for pyramids, they cost 220p, give you 2 culture a free worker, +1 charge to every worker, tourism, and maybe a theatre district adjacency.
A builder and a Monument would cost you at least 110p, build this instead of those and you're spending 110p for +1 bonus charge to every worker and the future tourism. If you're France or (particularly) Egypt, you also gain up to 3 adjacency bonuses for your special improvements (9 culture for France and 3 culture and 9 faith for Egypt). Egypt also saves 15% of the cost, so 93.5p for all these things. Less than two archers. Not bad at all, it's kind of a steal, actually, so long as you can afford to spend those extra 10 or so turns on it. Of course, if you have extra forests and jungles around to chop it out, that is a great option, since you'll be rolling in builder charges afterward anyways it's a pretty solid investment. Now instead of taking the time and production to build yourself a monument and a worker, you have yourself the Pyramids at only the added cost of a few forests (the builder to chop them is almost irrelevant).

 

[Kelmort83]

Everything Abraxis said + doesn't have to be in your capital + civic 15% bonus to wonder + autocraty 10% (+1 x/turn). Make it a solid first item to build in a new proxy city which have some, a lot, or just one desert tile.

+ every 3 charges used after the Pyramid is like a huge hammer discount (the price of a worker)

 

[Customgoban]

Chopping is phenomenal, as is harvesting resources in bad locations.

As for pyramids, they cost 220p, give you 2 culture a free worker, +1 charge to every worker, tourism, and maybe a theatre district adjacency.
A builder and a Monument would cost you at least 110p, build this instead of those and you're spending 110p for +1 bonus charge to every worker and the future tourism. If you're France or (particularly) Egypt, you also gain up to 3 adjacency bonuses for your special improvements (9 culture for France and 3 culture and 9 faith for Egypt). Egypt also saves 15% of the cost, so 93.5p for all these things. Less than two archers. Not bad at all, it's kind of a steal, actually, so long as you can afford to spend those extra 10 or so turns on it. Of course, if you have extra forests and jungles around to chop it out, that is a great option, since you'll be rolling in builder charges afterward anyways it's a pretty solid investment. Now instead of taking the time and production to build yourself a monument and a worker, you have yourself the Pyramids at only the added cost of a few forests (the builder to chop them is almost irrelevant).

Thats a lot of good things, and it is 'nice' to have if you can get it. The OP asked for the Equivalent to National College, something you try to get as early as possible almost every game. Pyramids are situationally strong, but not a must every game.

Chopping is bad, especially early. Pre-Winter patch, a chop would easily finish off most early buildings. Now it only shaves off about 2 turns (online speed). Chopping will be especially weak if you rush the Pyrimids, because you wont have many techs, so the chop yield will be at its lowest. You could change your production from 8-10 with two improvements, which will make the pyramids go up 25% faster. Or you can shave off 4 turns but produce it 25% slower. In a high production cap, you may save 1-2 turns, at the cost of not being able to chop later (for higher value). In a low production cap, you will make it slower.

 

[Abraxis]

Chopping is bad, especially early.

With your puny little 3 charge builders I'm sure it feels that way

Your population is capped, and you will have more open tiles than people to work them for a long time, a lot of those tiles have forests. I understand they're pretty, but it's best to put them to work for you now. You want to sit on empty forests because you'll get more out of them later, I understand that, or you want to work them now because they're giving you production now... okay I'm not talking about those ones, don't chop them. As for the empty ones you're saving for later, generally, you're wrong to do so. Especially this is true for forests you've identified as covering spots for future districts or wonders.
Chopping the forests nets you more yields immediately which you aught to be able to turn to your advantage unless you're just sitting on your laurels wasting your production. Sure eventually you'd be able to work all of them with lumber-mills and that would be so satisfying, but getting an edge in the early game to close that power gap created by the AI's bonuses is crucial.
All you need to know is a builder at this point in the game is worth around 60p, chopping nets a 4 charge builder around 120p. You've doubled that production investment out by throwing away something you weren't using. Never-mind the food you get from Jungles, I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to quantify the value of getting a free citizen. The only time this isn't a smart move is if you don't have the extra forests around to do it, and I hope you don't need me to tell you that in that situation, you shouldn't chop.

 

[Victoria]

While the early governments area no brainer as identified and you pretty much have to go through them anyway the rest is not so cut and dried as the national College was which is good and causes great discussions.

I am with @Customgoban ... the most important thing to aim for is expansion. As many cities as possible by about turn 100.
Phase 2 is then about consolidating your plan by utilizing those cities most effectively.... or just crush everyone if warmongering.

there is no "national College" that suits all Civs and play styles.

 

[Tabarnak]

Multiplayer experience:

I played enough to realize that building early science(from districts) isn't the best way to generate science. Building multiple cities asap is more powerful for the long run. That way it's easier to make eurekas and let you to focus on the meta game instead of science only.

I don't find great scientists being so great i prefer getting more commercial hubs than anything else and get more great merchant instead they are more useful. Trade routes rock in many ways. I count many games where i was first in techs while having a bit less science than the 2nd or 3rd one due to more eurekas achieved. Gold can be used on upgrades for a fast medieval rush if needed.

I find the Colliseum a very good way to boost the whole thing (already said earlier).

With lot of cities the science department will explode when it counts (eurekas seem more difficult to get later on).

 

[FornaxTorak]

Personally I think the NC equivalent is the good old great library. Its relatively easy to get it, even on deity.

- Start off with a monument to get culture going, chose a culture pantheon, and find city states, then beeline for the civic.
- Try to keep your cap able to produce it when it is avaliable, so don't build more then one settler in it to let your cap grow
- Build the campus and library in good time
- Remember you need a flat land next to campus to build it
- Don't spend science to finish that many ancient and classical techs, since you get boosts for every tech from the wonder
- Research the three first, and the science tech, then beeline for tech for industrial zone or something

If/when you succeed in building it, you will most probably be on par (or close to) in science with the AI, even on deity.

This strategy is OP with China, but works for every civ.

 

[joncnunn]

I'd go with the trader unit (internal trade routes) as the OP thing to rush ASAP and therefore the Commerce district in every city + Harbor district in all allowed cities. (With the only thing higher priority having sufficient military to protect the trade routes from barbarians so you don't waste hammers having to rebuild the trader units.)

 

[Jarms48]

I'd go with the trader unit (internal trade routes) as the OP thing to rush ASAP and therefore the Commerce district in every city + Harbor district in all allowed cities. (With the only thing higher priority having sufficient military to protect the trade routes from barbarians so you don't waste hammers having to rebuild the trader units.)

This is my opinion as well. Increasing your trade route cap and building traders is easily the best way to get ahead of the AI in terms of food/production. The Enlightenment civic is also an excellent way to get ahead of the AI, you're going to be building a Commerce district in every city, researching The Enlightenment gives you access to the Free Market policy card which doubles gold output in all Commerce district buildings; that's an extra 15 gold per Commerce district if you have every building.

 

[ShinigamiKenji]

This is my opinion as well. Increasing your trade route cap and building traders is easily the best way to get ahead of the AI in terms of food/production. The Enlightenment civic is also an excellent way to get ahead of the AI, you're going to be building a Commerce district in every city, researching The Enlightenment gives you access to the Free Market policy card which doubles gold output in all Commerce district buildings; that's an extra 15 gold per Commerce district if you have every building.

If you want gold, I recommend going Mercantilism before Enlightenment. The Triangular Trade policy (+4 Gold and +1 Fath per trade route) in this civic applies for domestic trade routes, like Caravansaries. It's so strong that I've never researched Globalization, which obsoletes this policy.

Back to topic, I've been living by the now-classic rule "10 cities in 100 turns". I like having more, if possible. I only build districts outside my core cities after this goal at the bare minimum.

I think the only wonder that qualifies for the "must-have" is the Colosseum. It's the best way to deal with amenities problems until late-game (usually well past Zoos). But then, I don't always build it within 100 turns.

 

[Jarms48]

If you want gold, I recommend going Mercantilism before Enlightenment. The Triangular Trade policy (+4 Gold and +1 Fath per trade route) in this civic applies for domestic trade routes, like Caravansaries. It's so strong that I've never researched Globalization, which obsoletes this policy.

I typically get both.

 

[A+ombomb]

I've only played 3 complete games so far: Prince, King, and Emperor, in that order. In my limited experience, Classical Republic on the civics front seems pretty damn important to rush in order to unlock all those policy slots. On the science front ... this I'm less sure of. Commerce districts and Industrial districts, outside of any military unit you need to unlock in order to do some early conquest?

Economically speaking, commerical hubs/harbors are king, but they also have to be leveraged properly. To do this, you will need 2-3 very large pop cities (16+) with all the district types. These cities at as trade route destinations to make all your other cities better. When you have 10 trade routes going to 1 city, the extra districts is worth 10 food or production, depending on the district type.

I like to build trade routes *out* from a capital prior to having many trade routes and prior to feudalism. Then once the routes refresh, the city is generally size 13 or 16 and ready to roll with routes coming into it.

Meritocracy is extremely good too.

Military wise, field cannons are completely broken if you are ahead of the curve militarily. This doesn't really matter at all vs. the AI since it is so incompetent, but vs. humans a field cannon mass rush (upgrade) is very difficult to beat if not doing the same.