You need two MP (Movement Point) to move to difficult ground hexes (hill, forest, jungle, across river), if you cross a plain (costs 1MP), you won't be able to climb the hill or cross the river next to it in the same move. This is a legit change, but it takes time to get accustomed to: one would optimize movements to use the last MP for hills or forest in civ 5. Range units, artillery and naval raiders do not exercize a ZoC (Zone of Control) unless they are promoted to it. ZoCs work the same way as in civ5, except they do not extend across rivers anymore.
You do not need a copy of a strategic resource for every unit you build anymore. Only one copy (two if you do not have a port/encampment) is enough to build any number of units you might need.
Barbarians have changed; there's an official video about this. They now search for your borders with scouts; once the scout spreads the news to the camp, it begins to pop units frantically to take you down. Do not let scout report to their camp, especially in the early game. Also, scout the map and keep an eye on it: once you've explored it, barbarian encampments will show on the map, even under the fog of war (although you're not notified about it). Barbarin encampments within 3 tiles of horses will produce horsemen. Also, encampments will never pop on an hex you can view: they only pop in the fog of war. Some strategically placed scouts can help mitigate the barbarian threat.
Once a city gets walls, you have to attack it in two waves: first take down the walls, then invade. You need melee units to invade (cavalry, infantry) and you can take the walls down either with archers, artillery or by providing your melee units with support (Battering ram or Siege tower), Walls (blue bar) don't heal, but the city recovers hit points (green bar) every turn. Pillaging the city hexes will help you heal your units from time to time. Promotes also heal your units, so consider keeping them at hand until your unit is wounded enough to make the most of it. Finally, note that if you can occupy or have a ZoC over (Zone of Control) all six hexes around an enemy city, the city is considered under siege and won't recover hit points every turn. We don't know yet what happens if one of the hexes is a mountain : does it count ? Do you need ZoC over it ? Please let us know in comments if you know.
Getting the eureka for your dogmas and techs is key: you will save half the time for discovering them. Take them into consideration when you choose your builds and strategy. Most of the time, just doing everything in your power to get your eurekas will carve your path to victory pretty well.
- Explore early to get "one civ", "three city states", "another continent" eurekas.
- Build a slinger to get Archery, three archers for Mechanics.
Once you capture a city, you're only occupying it. If you want to keep it, do not forget to include "cede the city" in your peace negotiations with your foe. If you don't, you will officially be occupying the city and it won't grow anymore. If you take down your foe civilization entirely, you won't have to negotiate for city surrender, of course.
City-states give unique bonuses to their suzerain, so consider concentrating your efforts on one or two city-states to get the suzerain bonus if it is a nice one. Do not bother to get the +3 and +6 bonuses if you do not have multiple districts of the according type. Note you are not required to spend your envoys as soon as you get them: you can keep them for later and wait to discover a city-state that is really worth it.
Changing policies is key : getting the 50% or 100% production bonus for units when you build them, 50% for spies, builders with more shots... policies shift aligned with your strategy is mandatory for a godd optimization. You can start building some builder with the Ilkum policy (build them 30% faster), then stop the build just one turn before its completion, then switch to (or wait for) the Feodality policy and finish the builds: your workers have then been built not only faster, but with more build shots.
Spies should not be ignored. In the long run, you'll be a sitting duck if you don't have some. They protect what you have and can get you some money and cultural artifacts and great works. Note that spies protect adjacent hexes when you use them for defense: another detail that will make you want to pack your most important districts next to one another. Finally if, god forbid, one of your spies is captured, you can negotiate its liberation with the other civ. Do not forget to do it before you actually wipe the civ from the map : you won't be able to get your spy back anymore and it will still use a slot (it's most likely a bug, but that's how it is).
There is a nice simple map that was posted to reddit: ![Image of Districts] (https://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/civ6.gamepedia.com/2/29/District_Cheat_Sheet.png)
This table is more precise (with wonders restrictions)
| District | Restrictions | Adjacency bonuses | Adjacent Wonders | Wonder Restrictions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| City Center | Eiffel Tower | Flat land |
| | | Forbidden City | Flat land
Aqueduct | Adjacent to City Center
| Adjacent to mountain, river or lake
Holy Site | | +½: Woods, Districts
+1: Mountains
+2: Natural wonders | Mahabodhi Temple | Woods
| | | Hagia Sophia | Flat land
Campus | | +½: Rainforests, Districts
+1: Mountains | Oxford University | Grassland or plains
| | | Great Library | Flat lands
Harbor | Coast or lake shore | +1: Coastal resources | Great Lighthouse
| | | Colossus
| | | Sydney Opera House
Industrial Zone | | +½: Districts
+1: Mines, Quarries | Ruhr Valley | River
| | | Venetian Arsenal | Coast
Commercial Hub | | +½: Districts
+1: River, Harbor | Great Zimbabwe | Cattle
| | | Big Ben | River
Theatre Square | | +½: Districts
+2: World Wonders | Bolshoi Theater | Flat land
| | | Broadway | Flat land
Encampment | Not adjacent to center | | Terracotta Army | Grassland or plains
| | | Alhambra | Hills
Entertainment Complex | | | Colosseum | Flat land
Neighborhood | | -1: Swamp, Rainforest
+1: Forest, Coast, Mountain
Aerodrome | Flat lands
Spaceport | Flat lands
Districts (except aqueduct and neighborhood) get more expansive the more you advance in ages. Also, they get more expansive or cheaper depending on how much of them you control compared to the average civ in your game. Note that the cost of a district is set when you first begin production, even if you switch production and return to it later, so a neat trick is to indulge into "district planning" : just clic to build a district and choose the spot and district type as soon as your population limit allows it, then switch to what you actually want to produce. Beware though, once you have committed to build a given district, you can not undo it.
Finally some districts give access to buildings with a "spread" bonus of six tiles: they also give their bonus to any other city within six tiles of the district (9 tiles if you got sovereignty over Toronto):
- The Factory and the Power plant (for the industrial building),
- The Zoo and the Stadium (for the entertainment district).
Happiness is still an issue, as all cities crave for an "amenity" level depending on its population. If you're going tall (few big cities), you do not want to spend a district slot for an entertainment district in every city. The key to amenities is that luxury resources still provide four "happiness" (now amenity) points, but these points are divided among your cities. Hold your cities on a multiple of four (4, 8, 12...) to make the most of it. Of course, exchanging your luxury resources copies for the ones you don't have with other civilizations is still a killer. If you're really tall, you may still need amenity districts, but make sure you build them close to another city (6 hexes or less), so it can enjoy the bonus of zoo and stadium too and keep a district slot for something more serious.
Trade routes have been revamped: a given city always provide the same amount of points and you can start your trade route from any city you like. The route has a 15 hexes range on land, 30 on seas. It also build roads, so every time you get a new city, just build a trade route from there to get a road and a food and production bonus for a good start. Once your merchant comes back, you will have founded a trading post in the target city. They expand your trade routes range (adding another 15/30 hexes) and improve their value (+2 gold): you want your trade routes to get through as many trading posts as possible and reach distant cities to get maximum gold. After some time, you will have built a real trade network around the globe.
Good bye diplomatic victory, welcome religion victory. You will have serious difficulties to convert major religions territory without waging war. On the other hand, a solid religious capacity can speed up your military victory by letting you "own" two or three civs with religion without even having to bother sending your troops. Depending on the size of your map, cultural or scientific victories can be easier to achieve (too many civs to conquer for the other two). Going tall (few big cities) is certainly a good way to go for cultural victory, but there is a fiery debate on whether to go tall or wide (many little cities) for science, as population does not matter as much as it did in civ 5.
The unit auto-selection is a annoying and can lead you to order typos.
Do not hesitate to deactivate it in the UserOptions.txt file by setting AutoUnitCycle 0.
Here is the path on Windows:
My Documents/My Games/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/UserOptions.txt
And Mac OSX if you got it from the App Store:
~/Library/Containers/com.aspyr.civ6.appstore/Data/Library/Application Support/Sid Meier's Civilization VI/UserOptions.txt
or if you got it on Steam:
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Sid Meier's Civilization VI
It was already the case in civ 5, but in 6 turns are really really slow on the default configuration. You may want to activate "fast movement" and "fast battle" in the game options once you've had enough of the superb war animations: it will really speed up the execution time in between turns.
Tested yesterday: There is no ZoC on mountain tiles, and they do not count in the siege formula in any way.