With base game Civilization going free in the Epic Game Store just like we predicted, players can get their free copy of the game and enjoy a timeless classic that has been reworked to fit with the times. With visual graphics and new gameplay mechanics that will test you city planning and country management, let's take a look at Civilization VI and help you jumpstart your knowledge on the game.
Civilization VI lets you build a civilization starting from the ancient age to the information age with various technologies and civics that unlock new laws into your empire. Build and amass your army to defend against barbarian or attack other civilizations in order to win the game, but if fighting is not your style, make sure to get the great works of writing and art together with your culture to show the world its beauty. Maybe you'd want to go your own way and settle in Mars for a science victory or you want to be the religious leader in the world via Religious Victory. Although, there's a reliable way for a score victory. There are a lot more ways to win in the game so let's get into it.
Starting Out
When starting a new game, you select one civilization from the list of various civs. Each of them has different bonuses and traits that can guide you in choosing a wincon or win condition in the game, some like Tomyris of Scythia has a great way to mobilize quickly and aim for a Domination Victory, while countries like China and Egypt has ways to wonder rush to get the sweet culture and bonuses it has. Whatever, you wish to do in the game, make sure to align your goals with the civ that has that said bonus.
Early Game
Early on, you will be having one settler and one warrior each, find a land that has the most suitable for your capital. Check the unit overview (in the lower right of the screen) to see if it's suitable. It would have +3 if so, or +2, find that and settle. This will make you start researching technologies and civics which unlock new units and buildings. Protect your city and don't just leave it open. Barbarians run rampant in the game that it would lead you an easy GG if you are careless.
The suggested builds in the starting turns of the game is Scout-Scout-Slinger-Builder-Warrior-Monument as it has a strong capability of reconnaissance for tribal villages which gives out a ton of goodies for those who discover it first. From there on out, you build the city with new structures and improvements around it. Make sure you build new settlers to expand your grasp in the lands you own. If in Civilization V, a tall playstyle (few cities, big population) have equal grounds of a wide playstyle (more cities despite fewer population), it does not work at all in Civ VI. Wide is key for victory.
That being said, you should also check your yields in the game. Each piece of land has tile yields which give you either food, production, science, culture or faith. Certain pantheons, traits, bonuses and resources can a tile yield more than what it originally has. We won't go in-depth with that but remember that production is king in terms of yields so you can produce more stuff as you expand your empire.
Mid Game
Perhaps you have made yourself new cities with the ones close to your capital, good, that will set your empire to have a formidable force with strong yields and units to defend your land. Next up to know is districts, once you discover enough technologies, districts will unlock. Districts are powerful tiles that can be built with additional buildings that give better yields as you build more buildings along it. There are various districts such as Campus, Industrial Zones, Commercial Hubs, Theater Square, Encampments, etc. Some of these are specialized by their civs so make sure to check your civ's unique building/district.
But you should not wait for the mid game to build districts, once you have one you should make one so you can turtle your way to faster production, culture and science. Placement is key when establishing districts, some civs have district adjacency in their districts and other districts have special bonus to certain tiles like mountains, rivers, etc. Don't worry, the game will tell you if it has bonuses if you see a +x where x is the bonus number of yields it can do.
Other than districts, make sure that you have established a formidable line of defense in your land, as the game progresses, you will have met a couple of civilization which may prove to be threatening your position. A couple of army and maybe even navy can help you deter enemies. Sign trade agreements for luxury resources and declare friendship and alliances to those who are trustworthy. If you are being backstabbed or threatened, denounce them so that the other civs will be wary of denounced one's action. Basic politics are necessary in the mid game as you try to establish dominance.
Late Game
It's time for the late game, if you're playing this late, then it's almost the end. Late game covers the modern era where infantries stand and technological adaptations are met. Some may even have ideologies such as democracy, fascism and communism that will shape the future of their civ's society. Make sure to check the victory screen to avoid being one-upped by another civilization in other win conditions that you are not vying for. Even if you are aiming for a cultural victory, if another civ won via religion victory, then your efforts are just for naught.
If you aimed for domination, you should be winning if you have obliterated other civs, religious civs should quicken their production of apostles and gurus to avoid being overtaken by another religion. Cultural and Science civs should be racking up their respective yields. Culture Victory requires you to get a huge amount of tourist to win the game so make sure your city is as glorious as ever. While Science Victory makes you rush the space race by Launching a Satellite, Landing a Man on the Moon and Establishing a Martian Colony to show your space prowess. But make sure you live to see your civ win before you get obliterated by the other civs.
Win Conditions
As you can see above, we've been talking about win conditions and whatnot. Win conditions are the ways you can win. Civilization has various ones that lets you dictate how you want to lead the world. Let's do a quick rundown of the various win conditions and see how you can make it to reality in each game.
Domination Victory talks about dominating the world by a single power, ofcourse it's you, unless another conquers you ofcourse. Domination requires a massive army and navy as you will have to make sure that you conquer civilizations before they can react. This is a long and tiring process in my opinion as you will soon gain the ire of other leaders since you are being a warmonger and a future threat in their countries, so prepare for coalitions and counterattacks, but if you survive that, glory only awaits you.
Cultural Victory requires you to have the most beautiful nation, so beautiful that you have attracted tourists and visitors enough for the world to view your empire as a beautiful one, adored by all and therefore precious and protected. Make sure you have a lot of theater districts to show off your art and aesthetic, grab wonders if you can as it can help you attract people especially if it will yield culture and tourism. Check the tourism meter also in upper right section and make sure that keeps getting higher for you to win.
Science Victory leads you to the future of the space race. This is a powerful wincon but tedious in the end. Rushing science by building campuses will boost your science fast enough to outshine any civilizations who try to match you. If you have mountainous areas in your land, make sure to place the campus close to that for additional adjacency bonuses. With high enough science, make sure you are well defended with your advanced troops so no one can stop you from establishing a Martian Colony, that is the end goal. But do not forget that you also need to launch a satellite that will reveal the map and put a man on the moon for you to win the game.
Religious Victory is a new win condition in Civilization and it requires you to have the world's religion spread out to all of the civilizations out there. With everyone believing your faith, you are the revered nation and thus will be indestructible as the people of the other nations will protect you. The goal is simple, spread out your religion as vast and wide and make sure the other people accept it as their own. Be careful though, usually you are not the only one that is spreading, so prepare for theological combat which is another aspect that is new to the game. Make sure to establish a religion early before you can't as there is always a limited amount of religions that can be made, unless you are Arabia, they always have the last prophet.
Well, if you aren't cut out for these, you can always try Score victory. Just gather enough score through various means and by the end if you have the highest score, you win. Simple as that.
Conclusion
While a different take from its predecessor, Civilization VI has a lot going on for them. Once you have the current DLCs, it became so updated with the recent additions such as natural disasters, world congress eventually going to United Nations and more civilizations that has left a mark in the world. Civ VI is the definitive version of all Civilization series and I cannot wait for more to see how they will take it a step further. It is free in the Epic Game Store, so give it a shot!
Civilization VI lets you build a civilization starting from the ancient age to the information age with various technologies and civics that unlock new laws into your empire. Build and amass your army to defend against barbarian or attack other civilizations in order to win the game, but if fighting is not your style, make sure to get the great works of writing and art together with your culture to show the world its beauty. Maybe you'd want to go your own way and settle in Mars for a science victory or you want to be the religious leader in the world via Religious Victory. Although, there's a reliable way for a score victory. There are a lot more ways to win in the game so let's get into it.
Starting Out
When starting a new game, you select one civilization from the list of various civs. Each of them has different bonuses and traits that can guide you in choosing a wincon or win condition in the game, some like Tomyris of Scythia has a great way to mobilize quickly and aim for a Domination Victory, while countries like China and Egypt has ways to wonder rush to get the sweet culture and bonuses it has. Whatever, you wish to do in the game, make sure to align your goals with the civ that has that said bonus.
Early Game
Early on, you will be having one settler and one warrior each, find a land that has the most suitable for your capital. Check the unit overview (in the lower right of the screen) to see if it's suitable. It would have +3 if so, or +2, find that and settle. This will make you start researching technologies and civics which unlock new units and buildings. Protect your city and don't just leave it open. Barbarians run rampant in the game that it would lead you an easy GG if you are careless.
The suggested builds in the starting turns of the game is Scout-Scout-Slinger-Builder-Warrior-Monument as it has a strong capability of reconnaissance for tribal villages which gives out a ton of goodies for those who discover it first. From there on out, you build the city with new structures and improvements around it. Make sure you build new settlers to expand your grasp in the lands you own. If in Civilization V, a tall playstyle (few cities, big population) have equal grounds of a wide playstyle (more cities despite fewer population), it does not work at all in Civ VI. Wide is key for victory.
That being said, you should also check your yields in the game. Each piece of land has tile yields which give you either food, production, science, culture or faith. Certain pantheons, traits, bonuses and resources can a tile yield more than what it originally has. We won't go in-depth with that but remember that production is king in terms of yields so you can produce more stuff as you expand your empire.
Mid Game
Perhaps you have made yourself new cities with the ones close to your capital, good, that will set your empire to have a formidable force with strong yields and units to defend your land. Next up to know is districts, once you discover enough technologies, districts will unlock. Districts are powerful tiles that can be built with additional buildings that give better yields as you build more buildings along it. There are various districts such as Campus, Industrial Zones, Commercial Hubs, Theater Square, Encampments, etc. Some of these are specialized by their civs so make sure to check your civ's unique building/district.
But you should not wait for the mid game to build districts, once you have one you should make one so you can turtle your way to faster production, culture and science. Placement is key when establishing districts, some civs have district adjacency in their districts and other districts have special bonus to certain tiles like mountains, rivers, etc. Don't worry, the game will tell you if it has bonuses if you see a +x where x is the bonus number of yields it can do.
Other than districts, make sure that you have established a formidable line of defense in your land, as the game progresses, you will have met a couple of civilization which may prove to be threatening your position. A couple of army and maybe even navy can help you deter enemies. Sign trade agreements for luxury resources and declare friendship and alliances to those who are trustworthy. If you are being backstabbed or threatened, denounce them so that the other civs will be wary of denounced one's action. Basic politics are necessary in the mid game as you try to establish dominance.
Late Game
It's time for the late game, if you're playing this late, then it's almost the end. Late game covers the modern era where infantries stand and technological adaptations are met. Some may even have ideologies such as democracy, fascism and communism that will shape the future of their civ's society. Make sure to check the victory screen to avoid being one-upped by another civilization in other win conditions that you are not vying for. Even if you are aiming for a cultural victory, if another civ won via religion victory, then your efforts are just for naught.
If you aimed for domination, you should be winning if you have obliterated other civs, religious civs should quicken their production of apostles and gurus to avoid being overtaken by another religion. Cultural and Science civs should be racking up their respective yields. Culture Victory requires you to get a huge amount of tourist to win the game so make sure your city is as glorious as ever. While Science Victory makes you rush the space race by Launching a Satellite, Landing a Man on the Moon and Establishing a Martian Colony to show your space prowess. But make sure you live to see your civ win before you get obliterated by the other civs.
Win Conditions
As you can see above, we've been talking about win conditions and whatnot. Win conditions are the ways you can win. Civilization has various ones that lets you dictate how you want to lead the world. Let's do a quick rundown of the various win conditions and see how you can make it to reality in each game.
Domination Victory talks about dominating the world by a single power, ofcourse it's you, unless another conquers you ofcourse. Domination requires a massive army and navy as you will have to make sure that you conquer civilizations before they can react. This is a long and tiring process in my opinion as you will soon gain the ire of other leaders since you are being a warmonger and a future threat in their countries, so prepare for coalitions and counterattacks, but if you survive that, glory only awaits you.
Cultural Victory requires you to have the most beautiful nation, so beautiful that you have attracted tourists and visitors enough for the world to view your empire as a beautiful one, adored by all and therefore precious and protected. Make sure you have a lot of theater districts to show off your art and aesthetic, grab wonders if you can as it can help you attract people especially if it will yield culture and tourism. Check the tourism meter also in upper right section and make sure that keeps getting higher for you to win.
Science Victory leads you to the future of the space race. This is a powerful wincon but tedious in the end. Rushing science by building campuses will boost your science fast enough to outshine any civilizations who try to match you. If you have mountainous areas in your land, make sure to place the campus close to that for additional adjacency bonuses. With high enough science, make sure you are well defended with your advanced troops so no one can stop you from establishing a Martian Colony, that is the end goal. But do not forget that you also need to launch a satellite that will reveal the map and put a man on the moon for you to win the game.
Religious Victory is a new win condition in Civilization and it requires you to have the world's religion spread out to all of the civilizations out there. With everyone believing your faith, you are the revered nation and thus will be indestructible as the people of the other nations will protect you. The goal is simple, spread out your religion as vast and wide and make sure the other people accept it as their own. Be careful though, usually you are not the only one that is spreading, so prepare for theological combat which is another aspect that is new to the game. Make sure to establish a religion early before you can't as there is always a limited amount of religions that can be made, unless you are Arabia, they always have the last prophet.
Well, if you aren't cut out for these, you can always try Score victory. Just gather enough score through various means and by the end if you have the highest score, you win. Simple as that.
Conclusion
While a different take from its predecessor, Civilization VI has a lot going on for them. Once you have the current DLCs, it became so updated with the recent additions such as natural disasters, world congress eventually going to United Nations and more civilizations that has left a mark in the world. Civ VI is the definitive version of all Civilization series and I cannot wait for more to see how they will take it a step further. It is free in the Epic Game Store, so give it a shot!
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