To show some general goals to achieve for everyone to help you keep your game play flowing here are some of my general goals

Goal 1: Defense/Offense

When I load into a game my first questions will always be what technology I'm going for to raise my City Defense and defend, both against the inevitable barbarian hoard that Civilization VI is famous for as well as the ever present possibility of attack from neighboring Civilizations.

• Bronze Working

Bronze Working is high on your priorities because it reveals Iron, which you need to upgrade into Swordsmen. Also you need Bronze Working to get a Great General through the Encampment District which will boost the power of troops in the corresponding eras with the Great General's area of effect

As previously mentioned though, most the most important factor of getting Bronze Working is that you're revealing Iron on the map which allows you to plan your next moves accordingly

• Iron Working

Strengths of Iron Working:

1. Upgradable. You can upgrade from a cheaply produced unit -- Warriors -- into Swordsmen for on the spot defense against a surprise attack or to conduct your own surprise attack
2. Scales into the mid game with Oligarchy and Oligarchic Legacy
3. Naturally strong against Ranged units due to the Melee Class promotion line and naturally strong against terrain based defense systems such as rivers
4. Extremely likely to get a Great General to back them up

Weaknesses of Iron Working:

1. Low mobility
2. You're not guaranteed to have Iron to upgrade/produce Swordsmen as you cannot see Iron from the beginning of the game

Iron Working is one of the strongest early technologies specifically because of the Combat Strength of the units it unlocks. Swordsmen are at 36 Combat Strength which is the highest Combat Strength any unit of the classical era (excluding Unique Units).

This is in itself reason to rush for Swordsmen but there's more. Because of its positioning on the technology tree you're naturally incentivized to get a Great General to go along with your Swordsmen which will boost their Combat Strength by another +5, and their movement by +1

Additionally, when you get to Oligarchy your Melee class units (which includes Swordsmen) will receive an extra +4 Combat Strength, when you construct your Government Plaza and your choice of the T1 Government Plaza District Building while running Oligarchy, an additional +4 more Combat Strength: So 36 + 5 + 4 + 4 a whopping 49 Combat Strength before upgrades and support/flanking bonuses -- That's as strong as Knights

While all of this is amazing there's yet another reason to rush for Swordsmen, the nail in the coffin if you will -- Swordsmen are the only unit of the Classical Era which you can pre-build (upgrade into using Gold) -- What this means is that you can compile all of your resources up to that point in the game into Combat Strength. Your Gold, Production, Science, everything will be directly converted into a military force to be reckoned with.

• Horseback Riding:

This tends to be a second pick after Iron Working, mostly due to the inability to pre-build Horsemen. If you're going to be going for Horseback Riding to produce your defense you're going to need to get the Maneuver Civic Card located in Military Tradition because you're going to have to hard build every single one of these you want.

The Strengths of going for Horseback Riding

1. Highly Maneuverable with 4 movement speed in comparison to Swordsman's 2
2. You can do an Archer Spam while waiting for the technology for defense/offense and then back it up with Horsemen as a final blow
3. You will have vision of Horses at the beginning of the game so you can plan around them accordingly

The Weaknesses of going for Horseback Riding

1. You cannot pre-build this unit
2. This is actually extremely easy to counter with a spam of a cheaper unit, Spearmen as long as the Spearmen have Oligarchy/Double Oligarchy
3. You are unlikely to get a Great General
4. Not affected by Oligarchy/Oligarchic Legacy

• The Wheel:

You're going to want to go for the Wheel if you do not have access to either Iron nor Horse resources, also it's quite strong to help deal with a Archer spam push as Heavy Chariots are extremely cheap to produce, are highly mobile, come early, and naturally counter archers

Also rushing for Heavy Chariots can be extremely powerful if you have a Mining Resource within your capital's borders because the push will come at a point in the game where people have not yet established their defenses and it takes far longer to get to Iron Working for Swordsmen and Horseback Riding for Horsemen

• Archery:

Archer spam is one of the most annoying strategies to deal with in Civilization VI. The main weakness of Archer spam is that if you defend properly it will fall flat on its face, also it's extremely easy to counter archer spam with your own archer spam due to the cheapness of the technology and its position on the tech tree but it also leads into Horseback Riding so if you're planning on going for Horsemen over Swordsmen archer spam is quite powerful

Goal 2: Income

Okay so your army is up, you can defend if necessary or attack if that is your wish but that leaves you with a bit of a problem: Gold. You're going to be strapped for gold at this point due to the maintenance cost of your armies and any districts you've produced and perhaps wish to keep producing.

• Irrigation:

This is likely the best source of early gold because you can get +2 gold per plantation to maintain your armies, if you have 2+ Plantations this is the best option you have to support your armies

• Religion:

Getting out a Holy Site and grabbing Church Property is amazing if you do not have the time to produce many districts but need some gold quickly, simply grab The Cardinal Governor -- Moksha to spread it and if you wish you can invest into the Holy Site more later

• Commercial Hubs:

This is the most obvious source of Gold and is the best long term but it will take a long period of time to both get to the technology as well as to get these districts online in your empire

Goal 3: Infrastructure

Apprenticeship vs Machinery

Districts/District Buildings

End