Best Basic Tips

1: GET A PANTHEON...NOW!

Pantheons are SOO strong and getting the first one can mean A LOT. They stay with you for the whole game and make your life SUPER easy so get one by ANY means necessary (you need 12 faith on Online speed) so spend 12 turns with GOD KING, get an Envoy into a Religious City State, work a tile with Faith Yields or get a "Goodie Hut"

Generically useful Pantheons

• Goddess of Harvest: Provides Faith equal to the yields of any resource harvested
• Open Sky: +1 culture from pastures
• God of the Forge(Usually banned in Multiplayer): +25% production towards ancient/classical units
• Oral Tradition: +1 culture from Banana, Citrus, Cotton, Dyes, Silk, Spices, and Sugar Plantations.
• Divine Spark: +1 great person point in 3 districts
• Earth Goddess: +1 Faith per appeal on charming or better tiles
• City Patron Goddess: +25% Production towards the first district you produce
• Lady of the Reeds and Marshes: +1 Production on Mashes and Floodplain Tiles
• God of the Sea: +1 production for each upgraded Sea Resource
• Dance of the Aurora: Adj bonus for tundra(holy sites)
• Goddess of Healing: All Holy Sites will heal any of your adjacent units +30 per turn when healing

2: Melee + Ranged units first

These two types are the best units. Every other unit type is a niche unit specific to a certain situation.

Ranged Units:

• (early can be made in 1-2 turns in any city 4 pop or higher, requiring only 12.5 hammers to make in one turn with AGOGE), they take no damage when attacking, They cost little/no maintenance

Melee Units:

• These are the most versatile units in the game because they’re going to be useful in any situation and you can pre-build them. Also there are multiple ways to boost their combat effectiveness with Civics and Civics Cards.
• Also likely the most important aspect of the Melee Class is that while lacking in Movement speed you can make up for that with their required technologies passing through the technologies by which you obtain Great Generals.
• As a third note of import, These two units both benefit from the same Civics card, as does Anti-Cavalry which means you can produce a diverse army without worrying about if you can swap your cards out to produce them efficiently.

3: Armies Matter… A LOT

• This isn't Civilization V. No more slinger vs the world ;(
• You NEED between 3-5 ranged units for early defense and barb clearing, defense vs other civilizations ESPECIALLY since early walls damage plain sucks.
• You NEED 1-3 anti cavalry for barb horsemen and for defending your strategic resources from highly mobile Cavalry-Class units
• You NEED to have the latest era unit available as soon as possible to help defend your cities(the ability to upgrade a unit into a Swordsman for example)
• The reason for this is City Combat(Defence) is equal to the Combat Strength of the Highest military Melee(as opposed to ranged not the class sub-type) unit that you have produced and so the walls are FAR more resilient
• You NEED support siege units for aggression vs cities of foes who have upgraded their units to higher eras and have built walls: Swordsmen/Horsemen/Knights
• If you have level 4 Light cavalry then you can use them as escorts for these units to have them as mobile as horse units while you use the rest of your units to tear cities down!

4: Commercial Hubs / Harbors First

• These are the only 100% one or the other in every city. The extra trade route you get from building your market or lighthouse giving you the yields of a free tile AND roads between all your cities/enemy cities so these should in general be your first district(s) in EVERY city AFTER your initial expansion excluding your capital (in which an encampment should always be first)

5: Trade Is Your New God

CENTRALIZED TRADE(amazing late game):

• Make all trade routes go from your CAPITAL to EXPANSIONS for a MASSIVE 30+ pop, 100+ production capital

DECENTRALIZED TRADE(amazing early game):

• Make all your trade routes go from your EXPANSIONS to your capital OR Foreign Cities for a little production/growth or gold/science/culture/hammers everywhere.
• You can easily get 10-15+ science/culture early when using Decentralized Trade + TRADE CONFEDERATION

6: Perpetual Expansion

• The Terms Wide/Tall Do Not Apply To Civilization VI! So Do Not Use Them--More cities is ALWAYS better
• You should be in a state of perpetual expansion in Civilization VI always looking for new territory to expand to for the following reasons

1. New/unique luxuries
2. More territory
3. Infrastructure (roads)
4. To simply to deny all of the above to other people

Remember the more cities you have the more trade routes you can support you can use these routes to massive effect for production, growth, science, gold, spreads religion. W.E. you need or want trade routes will work for you

It's also important to note that there's not nearly as harsh a penalty for having a ton of cities especially when compared to Civilization 5

As a final note: if you cannot expand due to neighbors then it’s time for war. Also consider any cities within 12 tiles (or three expansions) of your capital your land

7: Explore as Much as Possible

Stay away from the poles with scouts [No not Jadwiga] because they contain tons of barbs. Explore manually and move one tile at a time.

Avoid all barbarians like the plague with your scouts as Recon units die easily and their only real purpose in the early stages of the game is to fog-bust not fight barbarians.

Your goal is to find ALL the other Civilizations for trade and specifically their capital for spies (free gold/works/Technology Boosts) later, also you want to find ALL the city states to maximize the bonuses you can get from quests.

Scouting out the map tells you when a barbarian encampment spawns so that you can kill it before it starts spamming units into your cities

Gives you VITAL information on where you should expand such as: Choke Points vs nearby enemies/Civilizations, Luxuries, City States, Natural wonders.

8: Specialize Cities if Possible

Do not neglect to get at least one district of each type as terrain allows you don't NEED to have every district type in one city BUT you need to have at least one or two in each. For example in a city with mountains in reach get a commercial hub and a campus; in a city without mountains look for a spot with 3+ adj on a industrial zone or = for another district.

You want your cities to specialize until high pop for the best yields since districts are at a premium

My reasoning for this is that even if you were making between 100-150 science per turn at turn 70 because you have 7-10 cities with a Commercial Hub + Campus in all cities it's not going to do you much good if you can't produce units to defend them since you've got neither the culture for % bonus civic cards nor the production to back the later era units excluding of course timing pushes.

9: Pay Attention to Great People

Look at the great person screen EVERY turn!

This is a simple way to see what everyone is doing and what they are focusing on EVEN if you have not met them

Get at least one Great General from the Classical/Medieval/Renaissance eras.

This is the era that generals will have the most impact in: the units from this era have VERY low mobility: Pike-men, X-bows, Musketmen and Pike and Shot that +1 movement means the world when fighting in hilly areas allowing them to be competitive versus the all mighty Cavalry spam that so many fall to also these units are relevant for a VERY long period so get one general to effect this era

DON'T LET PEOPLE LOCK YOU OUT OF CLASSICAL GREAT GENERALS

Another SUPER important reason to pay attention to great people. If someone starts getting great people points towards generals early then they can get MULTIPLE generals. The first THREE Great Generals are the most powerful Great People in the game! If a player invests quickly enough and locks 1 out then not only does their potential power spike dramatically but the chances of YOU getting YOUR Classical Great General and so your early game war/defense potential drops DRAMATICALLY

10: Kill City States

Not sure why people do not do this as much as possible the bonus you'd get from a city state is less than what you're going to get from that city by capturing it, also you're DENYING the bonus to other players so unless you've got a city state near you which is vital for the success of your game plan (Kabul for war, Granada for defense, Mohenjo-Daro because you have no fresh water /ETC) If it's anywhere near your main city (say within around 12 tiles of your capital) you're better off just capturing it to get the free district and yields as well as any luxuries/strategic/bonus resources in the area and you basically get free bonuses and upgrades for fighting them.

11: Stick to Leader’s Agenda

This is a super easy way to improve: just read up on a leader's lore and play accordingly:

Playing America? You get a +5 bonus for all combat on your continent so why not expand to control that whole continent since it's going to be super easy to control it?

12: War Early or Use Timing Pushes

•War early if possible•

Since walls melt like butter and many players do not build the necessary units to defend versus early aggression also it's important to remember that pre-turn 50ish you do not face penalties for warring so why not kill the city of someone who forwards you? Also, if you’ve got a strategic resource early, say double Horses and your neighbor does not then you can easily steamroll that person and use them to springboard your game

•No extended wars•

(opposite of using timing pushes):

The last thing you want to do is get caught in an extended war where your Amenities and Loyalty will drop the longer you’re fighting someone. Ideally after you declare war you’ll have an advantage enough that the war will be decided within 10 turns

NEVER fight an extended war without a VERY valid reason since weariness applies a - % modifier to yields in your cities

•Timing Pushes•

Stockpile around 200-600 gold early and build between 5-10 units of one type then upgrade/attack as soon as you have the required tech and charge!

Build units (Usually chariots/archers/warriors) get the tech for the next unit (knights/x-bows/swordsmen) and use gold to upgrade them.

Done correctly you will have a window of 3-10 turns to attack and CRIPPLE your opponent: Target their weaker units so they cannot be upgraded into the same era units you have, PILLAGE their Strategic resources so they do not have the option to upgrade into the next era and finally take their cities

13: Get as Many Amenities(Luxuries) as Possible

Via either actually owning your amenities(luxuries) or trading for them you want to get ALL of the amenities(luxuries) types if at all possible.

You can also get them by being Suzerain of a City State so pay particular attention to getting Suzerain on CS that have amenities(luxuries) on other continents using the Governor Amani

Just like the -% modifier having + amenities(luxuries) gives you a + modifier towards ALL your yields as well, also it makes it to where your cities can grow larger so you want as many as possible!

Each Amenity will grant Three Loyalty which will keep your empire from converting to your neighbor’s

14: Get a Religion

Why would you not do this? You don't need to get the first one or even a good one but by simply having a religion you can get some sweet bonuses (such as +2 gold per city) and deny someone else a victory type in the process.

Arguably, even more impactful from a Religion is going to be the Apostles and their promotions: You can use them to fund unit upgrades with the Indulgence Vendor promotion, you can use them to hold the line with the Chaplin promotion and arguably even more powerful, you can use religious units to ignore other Civilizations' borders and scout out their territory and beyond their territory

You can round your Civilization out using religion to fit your specific needs in EACH game: did you start on a MASSIVE continent and so your amenities(luxuries) are limited to 4? Get the amenities options in religion. There is so much that a well tailored religion brings to your table so pay attention and specialize it!

So pop down one holy site and invest into this powerful aspect of the game.

15: Civic Cards

The transition from Civilization 5 to 6 can be frustrating and this is something that most people will neglect

Look at your civics cards EVERY time you complete a Civic "Tech" heck check them before you end EVERY turn!

Try to "min max" by only focusing on one thing while using a certain civic card otherwise put them on something that will affect you permanently.

Ex: don't use AGOGE expanding or building districts rather use DISCIPLINE or CONSCRIPTION to either maintain a standing army or fight off Barbarian hordes.

16: Chop EVERYTHING That Yields Production

So the main difference here is what can I get now versus what will I get over the next 50 turns… Will I even survive for the next 50 turns? In Civilization VI chances are you’re going to benefit more from harvesting/chopping everything that yields production and gold as soon as possible because you can then use those yields to snowball into further ahead of your adversaries. While there are some (if few) exceptions to this rule when in doubt, chop