Speedrunning leaderboards, resources, forums, and more! 1066: Year of Viking Destiny American Civil War Conquest of the New World (Deluxe) Empires of the Smoky Skies Fall of Rome Into the Renaissance Paradise Found Rise of the Mongols Samurai Invasion of Korea Scramble for Africa Wonders of. So ive got a few AI plyers in a game and the time it takes for my turn again is incredibly long and it just gets longer with the increasing age. It usually takes about 2-3 minutes for my turn to come around again. Im playing with this game installed in an SSD, with 32gb of ram, 6700k processor, 980ti gtx with everything well above spec. Its weird a game like this would run so poorly. Hello I start to play CIV 6 and I see that AI is very slow I wait about few minutes between turns I play on huge map graphic are OK and fast, just turn speed is problem on my PC. My PC is Lenovo ThinkCentre M58 with Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550, 12 GB DDR3, Radeon R9 270 2GB, SSD as OS HDD, Win 10 x64.
Strategy games can be imposing beasts, with layered systems and complex progression. Firaxis’ newly released Civilization VI breaks down barriers thanks to an approach that makes complexity welcoming instead of daunting.
SEE ALSO: 5 major changes that make 'Civilization VI' feel like a better game
Long-time fans will feel at home quickly, despite some major changes. Those who have always toyed with the idea of experimenting with the long-running strategy franchise will find a fantastic introduction in this installment. But in case you need a helping hand, we’ve got you covered with a set of tips to guide you through your first game.
1. Understand the four victory conditions
In every new Civilization game, Firaxis tweaks the ways you’ll conquer the world. There are four core victory conditions in Civilization VI: domination, science, culture, and religious. There is also a quiet fifth option based on score that only kicks in if you reach the year 2050 (500 turns) without a victor.
Domination victory relies on military might. Once you control every other nation’s capital as well as your own, the game is yours.
A science win requires you to research a number of late-game technologies, launch a satellite into space, put a man on the moon, and establish a colony on Mars. Each of these requires special construction projects, with the final step demanding three components that can only be built in cities with a spaceport.
Cultural victories rely on building tourism cache and welcoming foreign tourists. This is generated with open border treaties, archaeological finds, great works of art, holy sites, unique wonders and national parks. The longer the game goes on, the harder this is to accomplish since you need to have more visitors than all of the domestic tourists combined in each of the other civs.
Finally, Civilization VI adds a religious victory for the first time. Your path to victory is through the use of holy sites and religious agents like apostles, missionaries, and inquisitors. You need to convert at least half of every other civilization’s cities to your faith, in order to score this kind of win. Founding a religion in Civilization VI is great fun, because you can call it anything you want.
2. Pick a leader that suits your play style
Once you understand the different ways to win, it’s important to choose one of the 20 leaders that fits your play style.
If you’re new to the Civilization series, we’d recommend a science victory to start with. Culture is tricky, religion will likely send you to war, and domination is harder than it sounds, because big armies need robust infrastructure.
For that reason, you might consider Russia. Peter I (sometimes known as Peter the Great) is a science and culture leech. Trade routes (more on them later) can bring in additional science from any culture that is more advanced than Russia. Just be careful that Peter’s rapid land grabs don’t raise the ire of your neighbors.
Other good options for science victories are Arabia and Saladin (combining faith and technology) and Sumeria and Gilgamesh (whose ziggurats produce additional science along rivers).
Science victories allow you to secure your borders with a modest military while focusing on technologies and district improvements that serve your end game. This is also a great way to experiment with the diplomacy system, as making friends with other leaders will help keep you safe. Using negotiations, you can trade for technologies you’d rather not waste turns researching yourself.
You’ll also want to make sure that your relationships with other civilizations give you access to crucial commodities you can’t harvest on your own. If you need oil or steel, but them isn’t available within your borders, you’ll have to trade for them with other leaders.
A science victory lets you get your feet wet. Next time out, you can be the bully on the block, preach the gospel to the rest of the world or welcome the world’s tourists with open arms.
3. Choose your first city location carefully (but don’t dawdle)
Each Civilization game starts you off with a settler and a soldier. You’ll want to be near water when you put down roots, whether that’s a river or an ocean (definitely the latter if your leader and civ focus on sailing, like Norway and Harald Hadrada or Victoria and England).
Don’t take too long to find the perfect place to found your empire. Get it done in the first two turns unless you’re dropped into a miserable wasteland.
Settling near water is important for any civ to promote population growth. Each new citizen allows you to “work” one additional tile in your borders. You can choose to micromanage the tiles on which your city focuses or let the game deal with that (we recommend leaving that alone until you get comfortable).
It’s important to have a healthy food supply nearby that you can cultivate into farms with builder units later. The best way to determine this is to turn the yield overlay on (and leave it on).
The minimap on the lower left features four icons, choose the one second from the left and enable all three checkmarks (you might later wish to turn off resource icons and grid lines, but the yield icons remain helpful).
Corn represents food, gears represent production and music notes represent culture. For now, focus on food and production, which helps you complete building assignments faster.
4. Know when to send settlers out into the wild
Eventually, you’re going to need more cities. Your population will hit a point at which growth stagnates.
Before you hit that point, build a settler and send them out to found a new home. It’s time to start considering expansion when you hit four or five population, but don’t disrupt your build queue if your current project is almost done.
Be sure to attach a military escort to your vulnerable settlers. You don’t want barbarians or an enemy civilization to capture or kill it. When looking for a good spot, try to nab valuable resources, and settle against rivers, hills or mountains.
5. Diversify your cities
You don’t want carbon copy cities. Each new metropolis should have a role to play in your growing empire.
You can prioritize culture and trade in one and production in another. Your coastal cities can pump out naval units, while a well-fortified, centrally located city can be used to train up military and dispatch them to other areas of your territory.
As you play more, you’ll get a natural feel for how to specialize cities. To start with, just know that some cities don’t need certain districts. If you’re generating gold, there’s no need to focus on production-boosting improvements, for instance.
Don’t take the cookie cutter approach. Trying to do everything in every city is the quickest way to waste time and money. It’s a distraction from pursuing your victory.
6. Don’t ignore your armed forces
Even if you are the most passive leader the world has ever known, you can’t ignore military forces. Eventually, you’re going to find yourself in a situation that requires a sword or gun, and it might be through no direct fault of your own.
Sometimes the AI will settle close to you and get huffy about your naturally expanding borders. Other times, you’ll send an emissary to a city-state and draw the ire of a leader on the outs with that settlement. You don’t always know how leaders will react to your moves, and sometimes, they’ll surprise you with a declaration of war.
You don’t need to biggest, baddest military to force your aggressor to sue for peace. You just need enough units to patrol the borders, rattle their sabers, and scare off anyone who thinks you might be a pushover.
If you do run into a situation like this and navigate it well, you might find your coffers full with your opponent’s gold as they try to extricate from a losing conflict.
7. City-states can be valuable allies
Early on, the first non-barbarians you are likely to encounter are AI-driven city-states. You can be the neighborhood bully and take them by force. Or, if you are looking for a peaceful relationship, you can build trade routes, send emissaries, and foster a relationship.
Every envoy you send contributes to city-state specific bonuses. This helps you target which are most important to your victory condition.
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More importantly, if you’ve got the most influence, you can temporarily command the city-state’s military forces. If you find yourself in a bind, this can be a good way to discourage enemies from stepping over your border.
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8. Make the most of trade routes
Trade routes are your friends. This bears repeating. Trade routes. Are. Your. Friends.
In previous Civilization games, players had to tediously task workers to build roads. It wasn’t enjoyable, and it didn’t always work quite right. In Civ VI, roads between cities are automatically constructed along trade routes.
These speed movement, negating terrain penalties and, in the case of war, getting vital military units to their destination before it’s too late. Trade routes also deliver food, gold, production and culture, giving you a lifeline between your people and allies, or simply moving your domestic goods around the map more easily.
Especially if you’re going for a cultural victory, you’re going to want to send your caravans to as many cities as possible.
9. Make friends, because you’ll definitely make enemies
Unless you set out to rule the world with an iron fist, chances are you’re spending the early game laying the foundation for a game that’s more a race than a boxing match. You might be able to go the whole game without a war, but it’s unlikely. You’re going to piss someone off, and have to rapidly put yourself on a war footing as a result.
Your goal at that point is to make the situation untenable for your aggressor as fast as possible. The best way to do that? Make friends.
Spend some time in the diplomacy menu. Try to negotiate open borders with leaders that aren’t predisposed to warmongering, strike trade agreements, and raise your rapport to the “friendship” level.
![Production Production](/uploads/1/2/9/3/129372838/986337124.jpg)
Once you’ve done that, any AI that declares war on you is going to find themselves with a fight on two fronts. If you do end up in a scrap at that point, chances are your combined might will give you a path to end the conflict in relatively short order.
10. You don’t need every technology
Earlier, we recommended that you specialize your cities. Now, in our final tip, we’re suggesting you apply that same philosophy to your entire empire.
Technologies take time to research. Every time you choose a tech that doesn’t unlock a building, district, or unit that serves the victory you’re pursuing, you’re burning valuable turns (sometimes 40 or 50 of them). Once you learn how to play, you can choose your next tech from a list that appears on the left side of the screen.
When you are getting your Civ legs, open the tech tree every time. Get a feel for what your options are and what they, in turn, make available for research. It’s not only ok to plan out your next three or four choices, but advisable. In fact, if you have a target in mind, you can select it on the tree and the game will research the prerequisites in order without interruption.
Later on, you might find that you need an earlier tech to reach one you need. This is a perfect time for diplomacy.
In addition to units, great works of art, gold and resources, you can request that other leaders impart their wisdom. Sometimes, this is the fastest way to convert your gold surplus into science. There’s no shame in paying for it.
Civilization VI is out today, October 21, for PC.
Winning a Culture Victory is as easy as getting a lot of tourists to visit your civilization, which seems effortless enough. But is it as simple as it seems?
The way to win a culture victory is straightforward on the surface, you need more foreign tourists visiting your civilization than any other civilization has domestic tourists (one single civ, not all of them added together). Wonders, Great Writers, and even Religion can help you obtain this victory, while culture, or war, is the best way to defend against it.
As an example of how to win a Culture Victory, if you’re playing as France and have 100 foreign tourists, and Spain has the most domestic tourists at 120, then you need to get 21 more foreign tourists per turn to win. Domestic tourists are those who are happy to vacation within your borders, foreign tourists are those who come from other countries. I’ve created this guide after spending hours of researching videos and websites, plus I’ve included what I’ve learned as I played the game for a Culture Victory.
Before you even start the game you can give yourself a head start on a culture victory by choosing a leader and civilization that is “Culture Victory” friendly. A “Culture Victory” civilization gets additional help when it comes to gaining culture and tourists.
Canada with Wilfrid Lanier as the leader is a good choice. This leader/civilization combination will generate a lot of additional Culture, making it a good choice for a player with a more defensive style of playing. It has a lot of benefits relating to generating more culture, like Ice Hockey Rinks (+1 Culture for every Tundra, Tundra Hills, Snow and Snow Hills tile it is built next to, and it will provide 4 Culture if it’s built next to a Stadium).
Catherine De Medici of France is a choice to consider. France has the Chateau and it gets +2 culture and +1 appeal. Appeal is good since it will help attract foreign tourists to your civilization. This will give you a more balanced approach since you get some additional Culture and Appeal as France.
If you have an aggressive style Gorgo of Greece is a great choice. She gives her empire added culture for combat victories equal to 50% of the defeated enemy units. Greece also has access to the Acropolis which gives +1 Culture bonus to a City Center if built next to it and +1 Culture for every wonder and district its built next to. If you decide to use Pericles as your leader instead you’ll get a 5% culture bonus for every city-state you are Suzerain of but will lose the 50% culture bonus that Gorgo provides.
Kristina of Sweden gives another balanced approach to a Culture Victory. Sweden gets +2 Culture and +2 Tourism per turn when it builds an Open-Air Museum for each city that has a snow, tundra, desert, plains, or grassland tile, a building unique to this civilization.
Qin Shi Huang of China. This civilization has turned into one of my favorites when playing for a Culture Victory. The unique structure the Great Wall gives additional culture and tourism “as you advance through the technology tree for adjacent segments” and it must be built along the borders of your empire. China gets 60% of a civic unlock for Inspirations versus other civilizations 50%.
Seondeok of Korea gives a bonus in Culture. Korea is a worth considering because once governors are placed in cities Culture output is increased by 3% for every promotion the Governor earns.
Since I like a defensive and counter-attack style of play more than an offensive style I thought China with Qin Shi Huang China as the leader was a good choice. The strength in their cultural income is the Great Wall, which is well-suited for a defensive style of play.
After picking your civilization start the game by being as friendly as you can with everybody since open borders gives you a 25% bonus in tourism. I tend to be more of a defensive player anyway so this fits right in with my typical strategy, which is a Scout, Slinger, and then a Settler. (See my build order page for a detailed look at an early game build order). If you’re pursuing a Culture Victory it’s even more important to build a Scout so you can discover other civilizations. This will allow you to start attracting foreign tourists as soon as possible.
One method to try is to let the game help you plan out your best paths in Technology and Civics research. Start with the end in mind. Since you’re working for a Culture Victory in this game a good place to end up at is Computers in the Atomic Era of Technology. This technology offers several benefits but the 25% boost in Tourism, empire wide, is worth taking notice of. By choosing that technology the game will number all the preceding technologies you need to research to get there in order, plus it will give you the number of turns needed to achieve each one.
You can now scroll backwards to see what additional technologies and civics you’ll pick up on the way and what you’ll be missing out on. This will also enable you to better plan out those Eureka events. Of course, game circumstances, like a hostile AI empire or a necessary ability for your civilization, will force you to deviate from your path occasionally but at least you will have a clear path forward for both Technology and Civic research.
For instance, following this technologic research path rigidly for Computers will mean you totally neglect your military options, a sure path to defeat from someone with a Domination Victory in mind. You could also miss out on abilities and buildings your civilization needs. For example, following this path as China means you’ll miss researching Masonry, which gives access to one of China’s greatest strengths for a Culture Victory, The Great Wall.
While pursuing your optimal Civics and Technology paths you need to keep an eye on the other civilization’s progress toward victory. If someone is close to winning you may need to deviate from your path for a while to stop an upcoming victory by another civilization.
Monitoring any victory progress is easy, click on World Rankings to see an overall list of all the victory conditions and who is leading for each one. Clicking on one of the victory names at the top of the screen will give you more details about that victory condition.
When you view the Culture Victory information screen you’ll get a description of just exactly what it is you’re trying to accomplish, which is having more visiting (foreign) tourists than any other civilization has in domestic tourists. For example, if Egypt has the most domestic tourists at 45 your civilization needs 46 foreign tourists to win a Cultural Victory.
The amount of domestic tourists you have, and other civilizations have, is the number underneath the leader’s name next to the colored suitcase. The highest number, excluding yours, is the number of foreign tourists you need to surpass by 1 to win.
The number of visitors from each civilization is in the “Our Visitors From” column and is next to the brown suitcase and the total number of foreign visitors is in the right hand column labeled “Visiting Tourists.” The first number before the slash is how many you have while the number after the slash represents the number of foreign visitors you need to win.
The Ancient Era is where you lay the groundwork for the type of victory you want. The fortunate thing about a Culture Victory is that a lot of what you do can be used toward a Religious Victory so if you see a good opportunity that causes you to change course it’s easy enough to do without losing any ground. At the start of the game the best approach may vary a little from what you might typically build at first. Build a Monument second instead of a Slinger for defense unless you’re threatened, and then a Slinger for defense and then a Settler. A Monument starts producing 2 Culture right away and with the Rise and Fall expansion it only gives an additional 1 culture instead of 2 but produces 1 Loyalty and another additional Culture if your city has 100% loyalty.
Religion can greatly influence tourist income from other civilizations (if you want to know how to effectively spread religion check out this page). Establish your religion early so you have a chance of getting the Followers Belief of Reliquaries. This belief gives 3 times the Tourism and Faith from Relics. If Reliquaries is already taken the next best thing is Choral Music since it allows Shrines and Temples to give a Culture boost equal to their Faith output, which means more domestic Tourists providing a strong defense against a Culture victory from someone else.
The Worship Belief should be Cathedrals since it gives an extra relic slot and 3 additional Faith. If that’s unavailable Gurdwaras would be good for the additional Faith, Food and Housing they provide (additional Housing only if you have Rise and Fall).
Sacred Places is a great consideration for the Founder Belief if you have Gathering Storm. Sacred Places generates 2 Science, Culture, Gold, and Faith for every city following your Religion that has a Wonder in it. The next best Founder Belief to consider the World Church. It provides 1 culture for every 5 followers of the religion of other civs. If you have Gathering Storm you get 1 Culture for every 4 followers of this Religion instead.
If you have an aggressive playstyle the Enhancer Belief of choice should be Crusade since it gives our military units +10 combat Strength when they are close to foreign cities that follow your religion. If you want to fight a defensive religious war while pursuing a Culture Victory Holy Order would be a good choice, it make Apostles and Missionaries 30% cheaper to buy.
Building Wonders early and often is essential so you can start gaining the +2 in Tourism as soon as it becomes available.
Theater Squares are an important district since they help immensely with a Culture Victory. Great Works provide a lot of Tourism but you need a place to display them in and that’s where Theater Squares come in handy. You can build things like Amphitheaters and Art Museums so Great People have places to create and display their Great Works. The Drama and Poetry civic is needed so putting priority on getting this civic as quickly as possible will pay off when you finally start attracting those great People to your society.
If pursuing a Culture Victory and using Religion you’ll frequently find yourself leading for both victory types but as the game progresses those the commonalities between the two victory types drifts apart making Religion a less important aspect as the game goes on. Focusing on gaining Culture early in the game is arguably not the best strategy to pursue since Tourism isn’t a real factor in the game until much later.
Settling aggressively and building a power base instead of focusing on Wonders and Religion is another path, and probably is a better option to follow for a Culture Victory. Building Wonders at the start probably won’t pay off at first since there is relatively little Tourism going on. The production for building these could be put to better uses instead, like for building up your economy and military.
The Drama and Poetry Civic and Theater Squares are very important for a Culture Victory but so is technological research and economic power. Building a Campus District will give you additional Science points to speed up your technological research. A Commercial Hub gives your economy more gold and just as importantly it gives you another Trade Route and a Great Merchant Point per turn. International Trade Routes are good for helping with Foreign Tourism since traders tell everyone they see how great your civilization is. An international Trade Route give a 25% boost in Tourism from the civilization you are trading with.
Once you have a sound military and economic base it’s time to focus on Theater Squares and Wonders. It’s okay to build a few Wonders in the early game but not at the expense of economic progress.
Tourism from Wonders is simple and straightforward. Any Wonder you build contributes 2 to Tourism and for each Era after it was built it increases its Tourism output by 1. Wonders are unique so it’s always a race when trying to build one. If you lose that race your investment is returned to you in the form of production.
If you established a religion then you will have a Holy City, which is the city in which your religion originated. That city will give you 8 in Tourism. Another Tourism income from religion is Relics. Each Relic gives 8 tourism per turn a well.
Great Works of Writing are an excellent source of Tourism. For each Great Work of Writing you gain 4 in Tourism. Great Works of Writing require you to recruit a Great Writer and you need to have a building available to display the work in. An Amphitheater will give you two slots to display Great Works of Writing, each worth 2 in Tourism and Culture.
Great Works of Music are created by Great Musicians and are displayed in buildings like Broadcast Centers. Coupling Great Works of Music with the Satellite Broadcast card can give a significant boost to Tourism. GreatWorks of Art and Archaeological Artifacts also generate Tourism.
The Seaside Resort generates Tourism that is equal to the appeal rating of the tile. For instance, if you build a Seaside Resort on a tile with a Breathtaking appeal of 5 it will generate 5 Tourism per turn.
National Parks can give a huge Tourism boost but the placement requirements are very strict. National Parks cover 4 tiles and provide tourism equal to the appeal of the 4 tiles it contains. Since the minimum appeal rating of any tile that can be contained in a national Park is 2, that means it can provide anywhere from 8 to 24 Tourism per turn.
- When espionage become available use spies to steal Great Works. It has the double advantage of slowing your opponent down and speeding your progress up.
- Try to keep plenty of woods around, or plant some. That helps with your civilization’s appeal.
- Build Theatre Squares to help attract Great People and to produce culture.
- Remember to get as many open borders agreements as you can. Open borders increases Tourism by 25% from another civilization.
Read about Civ 6 game modes, how to get iron, choosing where to settle, and the Civ 6 review at these pages on my website, just click on the links. You can also use the customized menu at the top of this page to see all the pages that are available for this game.
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