Most victories in Civilization 6 happen because players find an amazing advantage early in the game. Whether you start next to the optimal Natural Wonder for your victory condition or a horde of barbarians, you have to make the best of the situation (especially with the new options available in the Frontier Pass). For leaders with narrow paths to a win, this can make or break the endgame by the time the Ancient Era passes.
If you’re tired of feeling like you messed up from the start in Civilization 6, we have a guide that solves your problems. If you want to claim bragging rights over friends or an absurdly aggressive AI, these proven strategies can make that happen for you. Before you get lost in another long series of “one more turns,” read this guide to improve your next run at worldwide domination.
Updated April 24, 2022, by Avery Lawrence Feyrer: Civilization 6 presents a multitude of ways to achieve success. Whether you choose to walk a path of science or war, building the best civilization is the ultimate goal. We’ve updated this post to offer more early game strategies to help you on your way toward greatness.
13 Build Cities Quickly
Building cities increases your civilization’s overall production output and is the foundation for creating a long-lasting civilization. From the beginning, it might seem difficult or possibly unnecessary to have multiple cities during the Ancient Era, but this tends to be a mistake for many players.
The general rule of thumb is to have three cities built by turn 50; having three cities will allow you to create an early stranglehold on the surrounding area to further expand your empire later on and provide a solid process for creating units or structures. Depending on where each city is located, you can designate one city for the mass production of army units to protect your borders and seek out barbarian camps, while the other cities focus on constructing World Wonders and basic buildings to grow the city.
12 Live Down By The River
Despite the negative association with living “down by the river,” it’s undeniably a winning strategy in Civilization 6. Settling cities along these streams provides freshwater for continuous growth and the option to build a Water Mill.
Production for your earliest cities is a precious commodity, so you have to take advantage of anything you can from the start. Most buildings can’t provide this in the early game, which makes this even more crucial.
11 Plan Your District Layout Early
After you’ve had enough experience with the game, your favorite World Wonders and paths to victory start to come into focus. If you find yourself wanting to build The Pyramids, you know that you’re going to need a free desert tile eventually.
There’s nothing worse than wanting to build a critical district or World Wonder, only to realize that you don’t have space. Plan early, often, and always with your chosen winning condition in mind.
10 Identify Your Winning Strategy
While some leaders have obvious victory paths, you might surprise yourself with the victories you can achieve even with a less-than-ideal starting position. Sometimes you have to create your synergy by taking advantage of Natural Wonders or a wealth of resources and luxuries.
If an obvious, albeit difficult path presents itself, you ignore it at the risk of missing your victory condition. Don’t allow yourself to get stuck in the same routines, or you may lose the ability to see the proverbial forest from the trees.
9 Utilize Special Abilities
Each leader possesses special abilities to assist them in building their civilization. Failing to utilize these abilities can lead to a frustrating experience, so be sure to research what exactly each leader specializes in and lean into it. When choosing a leader, always analyze what abilities they have at their disposal to secure an early advantage.
Two leaders that have overpowered attributes are Gilgamesh of Sumeria and Peter of Russia. The Sumerians thrive in battle and because of their Epic Quest ability, you’ll receive a Tribal Village reward for every captured barbarian camp. If you choose the Russians, their Mother Russia ability rewards newly created cities with an extra territory tile. The extra territory tile might not sound like much, but you’ll quickly realize how vast your empire will grow because of it.
8 Expand, Expand, Expand
It’s natural to become obsessed with maximizing the yield of every tile, but you might do so at your peril. Even if you don’t play a leader that encourages aggressive expansion, you may ruin your chance at victory without enough cities to generate an advantage over your opponents.
Find a way to juggle creating World Wonders, protecting your borders, and expanding up to your neighbor’s doorstep. They’ll complain at first, but if you play your diplomacy cards the right way, you can avoid war in most scenarios. If you don’t maximize your real estate early, you may find yourself overrun anyway by a massive army or a surprisingly fast science victory by an opponent.
7 Pursue Barbarians
It’s tempting to get lost in your early game plans and ignore the bands of barbarians near your civilization. The problem, however, is that those occasional scouts sometimes turn into waves of military units ahead of your current technology.
No matter what difficulty you prefer to play, it’s worth your time to seek out the barbarian camps and destroy them. Not only do you eliminate local threats, but you get points for your Era Score as well.
6 Take Advantage Of City-States
City-states aren’t just good for trolling Pericles or conquering. They’re also a potential source of early game advantages. In Civilization 5, you could throw money at them to gain their loyalty. In Civilization 6, you’ll need to throw legions of envoys and/or complete quests for them.
If you’re the first to meet a city-state, you automatically gain 1 envoy to send their way. The boosts to your victory condition, leveraging militaries, and trade from the start can give you an edge over the leaders nipping at your heels.
5 Build A Standing Army
Civilization 6 players often dream about a legion of Giant Death Robots, but you have to start somewhere before you get to units only available in the late game. Building a standing army early not only protects you from aggressive neighbors, but you can earn Era Score points with them also.
As you chase down barbarians or take advantage of certain policies, your army can support more than securing the homeland. If you neglect to dedicate resources to military units early, you may find yourself imperiled in more ways than one (or overwhelmed by a nasty zombie apocalypse).
4 Send Delegations
With an empire to build and enemies to thwart, it’s easy to forget about the delegation system, especially during your first few runs. Even if you’ve turned off the Diplomatic Victory condition, you can handicap your ability to reach a successful endgame by ignoring this part of the game.
These early diplomatic efforts will help you understand what your rivals are doing and get you a jump start toward a Science Victory. You’ll have to wait for better intelligence through spies, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept mystery during the early turns.
3 Build Mines And Lumber Mills
Nothing kills a game faster than cities that don’t hold their end of the production bargain. Anemic growth and productivity mean you may have a frustrating time building World Wonders fast enough.
It’s frustrating to see high numbers to produce basic units or buildings, but it can also tank any win condition in a hurry. Make researching this tech a top priority, or you’ll suffer the indignity of waiting for 30+ turns for a granary.
2 Reset The Map
No matter what anyone tells you, the starting position can make or break a civilization. Whether you’re positioned in a corner of a continent near the ocean or smack dab in the center surrounded by farmlands, utilizing the surrounding area is imperative toward ultimate success. But what if you start in a less desirable location? Simply reset the map.
There’s no shame in resetting the map for a better starting position. While some positions can be worked with, others can be detrimental to your experience. Building cities and expanding your civilization is of huge importance, but would prove nearly impossible if your starting position is on the coast. Instead of wasting turns walking to a more lucrative location, just reset the map and try again.
1 Avoid Surprise Wars
You don’t have to worry about this so much until the Ancient Era ends, but starting surprise wars afterward may cost you dearly. Warmonger penalties can result in severe diplomatic ramifications for ages (literally) that make most win conditions difficult to achieve. If you insist on pursuing a Domination Victory, don’t miss our guide on how to conquer a civilization.
Put some patience in your pocket before you unleash that fancy new standing army of crossbowmen. You’ll be thankful later for avoiding conflict altogether because it’s one of the top ways to become the richest empire. Denounce your targets and wait for 5 turns, so you can pick the Casus Belli with the lowest penalty.
NEXT: Civilization 6 Tier List: The Best Civ 6 Leaders
