Advanced Tips to Elevate Your Civilization 6 Strategy

Map

• You can find the coast by zooming in to a river and looking at which way the river flows – it always flows towards an ocean.
• Continental borders are marked by mountain ranges and geothermal fissures.
• Building a wonder expands city borders by two tiles.
• Press Alt key on PC while dragging your mouse to rotate the viewing point.
• You can tell where unrevealed cities are located using the settler lens. If a tile is red, but previously appeared as settleable land, it means there’s another city within 3 tiles.
• When exploring at the start of the game, you can get an idea of unrevealed terrain by looking at the appeal of its adjacent revealed tiles.

Military and Combat

• Stables provide 25% xp boost not only to cavalry, but also siege units.
• If AI is building a wonder you covet, then declare war on them and place a unit on the tile where the wonder is being built. It prevents any further construction while the tile is occupied.
• If another civ, who you aren’t at war with, declares war on a city state you are suzerain of, then levy their troops and use them to create roadblocks and chokepoints to prevent AI from attacking it. It is particularly useful if the city state has a good number of troops, is located too far away to use your own units or has favorable terrain surrounded by mountains.
• City defense strength is dependent upon your strongest melee land or naval unit in your civilization. City ranged attack strength is dependent upon your strongest ranged land or naval unit in your civilization.
• Build an encampment two tiles away from an enemy city center, place a ranged unit there and bombard it with impunity.
• Combine units with different promotion trees into one mega Corps or Army.  Another option is to combine a promoted experienced unit with a newly built unpromoted unit into one promoted Corps or Army.
• Use naval raider units (like a privateer) to unlock coastal tribal villages, destroy barb camps, and capture civilian units.
• Stack artillery with the Observation balloon to increase its bombard range.

Diplomacy 

• Improve relations by up to +10 by offering gold to AI. An offer could be gold per turn or lump sum – the relations boost varies, but also degrades over time. Learn more about AI relationship and how to manage it.
• You don’t receive warmonger penalties for razing and taking cities from a mutual enemy. Bribe potential “friends” with cash, diplo points and resources.
• At Level 1 Cultural Alliance, Loyalty pressure does not exist between you or your ally. Use it strategically to settle near your ally without fear of Loyalty loss.
• If you need gold to purchase a unit or a building in a pinch, then you can offer AI gold per turn in exchange for a lump sum. Usually 21 gold for 1gpt (212 gold for 10gpt).
• Gilgamesh, the leader of Sumerian Civ, is the only leader you can declare friendship with as soon as you meet him. He will stay your friend for the remainder of the game, earning his Gilgabro nickname.

Religion 

• It’s much cheaper, more efficient and easier to win a religious victory by saving missionaries’ and apostles’ last charge. Then once you have accumulated a good number of them, send them to combat rival religious units and spread your religion in one “shock n awe” attack. It requires less faith and time than expending all charges per unit.
• Religious combat units (missionaries, apostles, guru and inquisitors) can heal on or adjacent to your own holy sites.
• If you have Holy Sites in multiple cities and religion is founded, it will spread to each of your cities simultaneously and any foreign religion followers will be removed.
• Send Gurus together with your Apostles to act as medics and heal your religious units as they combat the enemy. Learn more about religious victory.

Governors 

• If you moved a governor accidentally, you can return it without penalty in the same turn to the original city.
• Moksha’s Laying On Of Hands title will heal religious units within city limits without a Holy Site.
• Victor’s Embrasure title enables all military units trained in his city to start with a free promotion. But it is not obvious that spies, as well as naval units, also get a free promotion.
• Liang’s Reinforced Materials title prevents improvements, buildings and districts from being damaged by Environmental Effects. However, it does not prevent the population loss from a natural disaster.

City-States 

• Earn 4 envoys with the new city-state you met first with Amani and Diplomatic league policy. Send Amani to establish 2 envoys, then use Diplomatic League policy to send another envoy that will count as 2 resulting in the total of 4 envoys earned.
• City-state borders and city strength depends on the number of envoys sent there from all major Civs. You can help city states’ borders grow to those valuable resources faster by sending them envoys over the max number.
• You can improve the luxury and strategic resources of a city-state and get immediate access to them. It is important to note that you have to be a suzerain to do it.

Great people

• When a Great Person you control is attacked, they do not die or get captured, but simply return to the nearest city.
• They make great scouts.
• Use “Transfer to Another City” action instead of spending movement points to move Great People between city centers.

Military Engineers

• Can repair pillaged improvements without using up a charge, just like Builders.
• Can spend charges on city projects if you have the Royal Society building, just like Builders.
• Have a fixed price, no matter how many you train.
• Attribute to global warming when building railroads. Every piece of railroad burns up one Coal. So if there is flooding, stop building railroads and instead use them to speed up your Flood Barriers.

Civ-specific

• Aztecs eagle warriors, England’s seadogs and Mongolia’s cavalry units have a higher chance of capturing units with lower combat strength, the odds are displayed on the unit combat screen.
• As Spain, get an extra builder with Ancestral Hall when settling a new city on a new continent due to civ’s trait. Add Serfdom policy for +5 charge builder.
• As Maya, get an extra builder with Ancestral Hall when settling within 6 tiles of your capital due to civ’s trait. Add Serfdom policy for +5 charge builder.

Other

• Change ownership of the tiles that have the Temple of Artemis effect with the neighboring cities to distribute amenities.
• Golden Age dedication – Monumentality – allows the use of faith to buy Settlers, Builders, and other civilian units. But it is not obvious that you can buy Archeologists, Spies and Trader units as well.
• By default the competitors’ scores are hidden. But it is very easy to turn it on. Just go to Options, then Interface and select the option to either “always display” or “display on hover” under Show Yields in HUD Ribbon.
• Research Strategic resources only when necessary, so that districts can be placed on the tiles with the best adjacency.
• Aqueducts can also provide +1 amenity if placed next to a geothermal fissure.
• You can still save a valuable flooded tile before it is submerged by rushing the Flood Barrier. Once the barrier is built, it becomes possible to repair improvements, buildings or districts.
• Era score points do not carry over to the next era, so save the actions that earn you points until the next era.
• Scout has a unit action that allows it to pet the dog.