Once you’ve got the hang of Civilization 6—founding cities, advancing through the tech tree, and aiming for a victory—you start to see that there’s a deeper game to be played. The real path to dominance lies in the subtle maneuvers and clever strategies that go beyond the basics. I’m going to walk you through twelve advanced tactics that have seriously leveled up my own gameplay, turning routine plays into masterful wins. We’ll get into the nitty-gritty of complex mechanics, from manipulating grievances to meticulously planning your industrial zones, giving you the actionable insights to outplay your rivals on the grand stage of history.
Lock in Costs by Pre-Placing Districts
A simple but incredibly effective tactic that’s often missed is pre-placing your districts. The production cost of any district scales up as you research more technologies and civics. But if you place a district “ghost” on a tile, you lock in its current production cost, even if you don’t start building it for another fifty turns. This lets you advance through the tech and civic trees without bloating the cost of your future infrastructure.
For instance, imagine it’s the Ancient Era and you’ve just unlocked Campuses. You spot a perfect +3 location next to a mountain and two rainforests. Even if you need to build a Settler first, place the Campus district on that tile immediately. The cost might be 60 production. If you wait until the Renaissance Era, that same Campus could cost over 100 production. You’ve just saved a huge amount of production for later. This is absolutely critical for key districts like Campuses in a Science game or Holy Sites for a Religious push. It also lets you “reserve” prime real estate, so you don’t accidentally build a farm on a tile that was destined for a game-changing Industrial Zone.
Master Your Governors with Micromanagement
Your Governors are so much more than just passive yield boosters. If you’re strategic about who you assign, where you assign them, and which promotions you pick, you can completely alter a city’s path and even the outcome of a war.
Here’s how to think about some of them:
- Pingala, the Educator: His science-boosting promotions are a must for a Science victory, but don’t sleep on his Connoisseur promotion. In a city with a couple of Theater Squares, the extra culture is a huge help in the early and mid-game. And for any serious Science Victory attempt, his final promotion, Space Initiative (+15% production to space race projects), is non-negotiable.
- Magnus, the Steward: His Provision promotion is a game-changer for early expansion, as it lets you pump out Settlers without losing population. Settle him in your capital and expand rapidly without stunting its growth. Later on, his Vertical Integration ability is a powerhouse. Plan your cities in clusters to feed production from adjacent Industrial Zones into one city, creating a manufacturing beast.
- Victor, the Castellan: Victor is your go-to for defense and offense. His Garrison Commander promotion gives units defending in his city’s territory an immediate +5 combat strength, which can be the difference between holding a city and losing it. When you’re on the attack, move him into a newly captured city to crush loyalty problems and establish a forward base. His Embrasure promotion, which lets a city attack twice, will shred advancing armies.
- Amani, the Diplomat: Her Emissary ability is key for winning over city-states and locking down their powerful suzerain bonuses. For a more subtle approach, her Puppeteer promotion can flip enemy cities by applying immense loyalty pressure. And in a close Culture game, her Affluence promotion can be a fantastic source of tourism from your trade routes.
As a practical example, say you’re playing as Germany and gearing up for a war. You have a cluster of three cities. Put Magnus in the middle one and give him the Vertical Integration promotion. Then, build Industrial Zones in the two outer cities right next to the central one. The production overflow will turn that central city into a unit-producing factory, fueling your war machine.
The Science of War: Promotions and Corps/Armies
Combat in Civ 6 is more than just rock-paper-scissors. To truly dominate, you need to move beyond just having a bigger army and focus on creating elite, highly-promoted units and using the power of Corps and Armies.
Here’s what to focus on:
- Smart Promotions: Don’t just click the first promotion you see. Think about the unit’s job. For Archers and Crossbowmen, Volley (+5 ranged strength) is almost always the best first pick. For melee units, Battlecry (+7 combat strength) is a great choice. Game-changing promotions, like Arrow Storm for ranged units (which allows an extra attack), come later.
- Corps and Armies: Unlocking the ability to form Corps (at Nationalism) and Armies (at Mobilization) gives you a massive power spike. A Corps gets +10 combat strength over a single unit, and an Army gets +17. Rushing these civics can give you a military edge that wins the game.
- The Power of Siege: Don’t neglect siege units. They are absolutely essential for taking down walled cities. A single Battering Ram lets your melee units do full damage to Ancient Walls, while Siege Towers let them bypass walls completely. Later, Catapults, Trebuchets, and Bombards are your keys to cracking heavily fortified cities.
- Combined Arms: A balanced army is a winning army. Don’t just spam one type of unit. Combine melee, ranged, and siege units, and support them with a Great General. Use your melee units to protect your fragile ranged and siege units, and use your ranged units to weaken targets before your melee units move in for the kill.
Imagine you’re about to attack a city with Medieval Walls. Instead of throwing your Knights away, bring two Trebuchets and a Great General. The General’s +5 combat strength and +1 movement make your siege units faster and stronger. Use the Trebuchets to knock down the city’s defenses, then send in your Knights to easily capture it. It’s a much more efficient and surgical approach than a brute-force attack.
The Grievance Game: Justifying Wars and Deceiving Diplomats
The Grievance system is a tool you can use to manipulate the AI, justify your wars, and avoid massive diplomatic penalties.
Here’s how to play the game:
- Understand Grievances: You generate grievances when other civs feel you’ve wronged them. Capturing a city creates a lot of grievances, while breaking a promise or converting a city creates fewer. The goal is to generate as few grievances as possible yourself, while making your target look like the bad guy.
- Create a Casus Belli: A Casus Belli is a justification for war that reduces the grievances you generate. A “War of Liberation,” for instance, lets you free a city-state or a captured city with zero grievances. Always look for these opportunities.
- The Art of Betrayal: Betraying a long-time friend generates a ton of grievances. You can soften the blow by denouncing them first. This starts a five-turn cooldown before you can declare war, which also gives you time to get your troops in position.
- Grievance Decay: Grievances fade over time. If you’re in a long war, keep this in mind. It can be smart to make peace, let the grievances die down, and then renew the conflict later.
Let’s say you want to conquer your neighbor, but they haven’t done anything to you. A surprise war would make the whole world hate you. Instead, try to bait them. Move a few units to their border. If they denounce you, denounce them back. If they declare war on you, you’re the defender, and you’ll generate far fewer grievances when you start taking their cities. Or, if they’ve captured a city-state you’re the suzerain of, you have a “War of Liberation” Casus Belli and can attack with almost no diplomatic penalty.
Optimize Trade Routes for More Than Just Gold
Trade routes are a great source of income, but they can do so much more. I use them to build alliances, boost production, and even spread my culture and religion.
Think about these strategies:
- Internal Trade Routes: Don’t sleep on internal trade routes. Sending a trade route from a new city to your capital can give it a huge food and production boost, helping it get on its feet much faster. Late in the game, with the right policy cards, internal routes to cities with a Government Plaza and Diplomatic Quarter can provide insane production bonuses.
- Trading Posts: Every completed trade route creates a Trading Post. Future trade routes passing through that city get an extra +1 gold. Plan your routes to create a chain of Trading Posts along a single, profitable path.
- The Wisselbanken Policy Card: This Renaissance-era card gives you +2 gold, +1 food, and +1 production for trade routes to allied city-states. If you have a strong network of allies, this can be a massive economic engine.
- Cultural and Religious Pressure: Trade routes spread your culture and religion to their destination. If you’re going for a Culture or Religious Victory, sending trade routes to other civilizations is a must.
For example, if you’re playing as Egypt and aiming for a Culture Victory, don’t just send your trade routes to whoever offers the most gold. Send them to your biggest rival in the culture race. The extra tourism from your trade routes will help you pull ahead and secure the win.
Monopolies and Corporations: Dominate the Global Market
The Monopolies and Corporations game mode adds a whole new layer of economic warfare. You can use it to generate incredible yields and completely wreck your opponents’ economies.
Here’s how to do it:
- Identify Key Luxuries: Scout early to see which luxury resources are abundant in your territory. If you can get a monopoly on a luxury (by controlling at least 60% of it), you’ll get a huge gold bonus for every copy you own.
- Create Industries and Corporations: Once you have a monopoly, you can build an Industry on one of your improved luxury tiles. This gives a city-wide bonus to food, production, science, culture, or faith. Later, a Great Merchant can upgrade an Industry to a Corporation, which lets you create Products.
- The Power of Products: Products are stored in your Stock Exchanges and Seaports and provide a global tourism bonus, making Corporations an incredibly powerful tool for a Culture Victory.
- Deny Resources: By controlling most of a certain luxury, you can deny it to your opponents. This can cause them amenity problems, which hurts their cities’ growth and productivity.
Imagine you’re playing as Mansa Musa and you settle an area with five copies of Diamonds. You improve them all and quickly get a monopoly. You build a Diamond Industry in your capital for a massive gold boost. Later, you use a Great Merchant to create the “De Beers” Corporation, create Diamond Products, and stock them in your exchanges. The tourism you generate will be immense, paving the way for a Culture Victory.
The Science Victory Sprint: From Spaceports to Exoplanets
A Science Victory isn’t just about having high science-per-turn. It’s a late-game race that requires a ton of production and careful project management.
Here’s how to win the space race:
- The Spaceport City: Early in the game, pick your city with the highest production potential and groom it to be your Spaceport city. It needs a high population, lots of mines and lumber mills, and an Industrial Zone with a Factory and Power Plant.
- The Royal Society: This is a Tier 3 Government Plaza building that lets you use Builder charges to boost space race projects. This is a massive production steroid and can shave many turns off your victory. Start saving up Builders with lots of charges in the late game just for this.
- Lagrange and Terrestrial Laser Stations: These late-game projects speed up your Exoplanet Expedition. You need to build several of them to win the race.
- Spy on Your Rivals: Use your spies to sabotage your rivals’ Spaceports. This can buy you the precious few turns you need to win.
Picture this: You’re in the Information Era and have just launched your Exoplanet Expedition, but your rival is only a few turns behind. You have the Royal Society in your Spaceport city and have saved five Builders, each with five charges. You spend all 25 charges on the Lagrange Laser Station project, dramatically speeding up your expedition and securing the Science Victory.
The Nuances of a Culture Victory: Tourism, Appeal, and National Parks
A Culture Victory is about attracting more foreign tourists than any other civ has domestic tourists. This takes a multi-pronged approach that’s about more than just building Theater Squares.
Here’s what to focus on:
- The Power of Appeal: A tile’s Appeal is its “beauty” rating. It’s critical for building National Parks and Seaside Resorts, which both generate a ton of tourism. Plant woods, remove marshes and rainforests (usually), and place Holy Sites and Theater Squares to boost the Appeal of nearby tiles.
- National Park Placement: A National Park has to be a four-tile diamond, with all tiles owned by the same city and having an Appeal of at least “Charming.” Plan your cities and improvements to create as many of these potential park locations as you can.
- Theming Bonuses: Theming your Museums gives you a massive tourism bonus. An Art Museum is themed if it has three works of art of the same type (like all religious paintings) from different artists. An Archaeological Museum is themed if it has three artifacts from the same era but different civs.
- Rock Bands: In the late game, Rock Bands are a powerful tool for generating a burst of tourism. Send them to your biggest cultural rivals. Pick promotions that fit your needs, like “Goes to 11,” which boosts their tourism output at Wonders.
Let’s say you’re in the late game and need one last push for a Culture Victory. You find a large, high-appeal area in your empire. You use Builders to plant new woods on any empty tiles to boost their appeal even more. Then you buy a Naturalist with faith and create a huge National Park, generating a massive burst of tourism that puts you over the top for the win.
The Relentless March of a Domination Victory: Logistics and War Weariness
A Domination Victory means capturing the original capital of every other civilization. This is a long, tough slog that requires smart logistics and careful management of war weariness.
Here’s how to manage your conquest:
- Supply Lines: As you push deeper into enemy lands, your units will be far from your core cities, making it hard to heal and reinforce them. Settle new cities on the front lines, or capture and hold enemy cities to use as forward bases.
- War Weariness: This is a penalty to your amenities that gets worse the longer you’re at war. High war weariness can kill your cities’ productivity. Use policy cards like “Propaganda” to reduce it, and try to end your wars quickly.
- The Power of Pillaging: Pillaging enemy districts and improvements gives you science, culture, gold, and faith. This can help you keep up in tech while you’re focused on war, and it cripples your opponent’s ability to fight back.
- The Late-Game Juggernaut: The Giant Death Robot: The GDR is the ultimate late-game unit. It’s so powerful it can turn the tide of a war all by itself. Rushing to Uranium and the GDR technology can be a great way to close out a Domination game.
Imagine you’re in a long war on a huge continent. Your units are taking a beating and are far from home. You capture an enemy city in a strategic spot. Instead of razing it, you install a governor to keep it loyal and use it as a forward operating base. You can heal your units there and buy new ones closer to the front, allowing you to keep your momentum going.
The Subtle Power of a Religious Victory: Theological Combat
A Religious Victory requires your religion to be dominant in every civilization. This victory type is often underestimated but can be incredibly strong.
Here’s how to win through faith:
- Theological Combat: Your Apostles can fight the religious units of other civs. Winning these battles damages your opponent’s religious pressure in the area and strengthens your own. Use your Apostles to hunt down and destroy enemy missionaries and apostles.
- The Debater Promotion: This gives an Apostle +20 religious strength in theological combat. It’s a must-have for any serious religious game.
- The Translator Promotion: This promotion triples the religious spread from an Apostle in foreign cities. It’s incredibly powerful for converting large, populous cities.
- Religious Alliances: If you form a religious alliance with another civ, your religious pressure will also spread from their cities, making it easier to convert civilizations near them.
Let’s say you’re in a close race for a Religious Victory. Your rival has a ton of Missionaries spreading their faith. You produce a wave of Apostles with the Debater promotion. You use these “inquisitors” to hunt down and destroy the enemy’s religious units. Every victory crushes their influence and boosts your own, letting you turn the tide and achieve religious dominance.
Diplomatic Victory: Master the World Congress
A Diplomatic Victory requires you to get 20 Diplomatic Victory Points. You get these mainly through the World Congress, by building certain wonders, and by winning aid requests.
Here’s how to master diplomacy:
- Generate Favor: Diplomatic Favor is the currency of the World Congress. You get it from your government, certain policy cards, and by being the suzerain of city-states. Maximize your Favor generation to control the World Congress.
- Predict the AI: The AI has predictable voting patterns. They often vote to ban luxuries they don’t have and to boost districts they’re focusing on. Pay attention to their agendas and vote with them to earn Diplomatic Victory Points.
- The Statue of Liberty: This wonder is crucial for a Diplomatic Victory, as it gives you 4 points. Rushing it can give you a huge lead.
- Aid Requests: When a civ is hit by a natural disaster, an aid request might be triggered. If you win by contributing the most gold or faith, you get 2 Diplomatic Victory Points.
Imagine a World Congress session is starting and you have a lot of Diplomatic Favor. You see that several civs are building up their armies. You propose a resolution to ban military unit production. Then you spend your Favor to make sure it passes. You’ve not only slowed down your rivals’ military plans but also earned yourself a Diplomatic Victory Point.
Mastering the Late Game: The Final Push
The late game in Civ 6 can feel like a grind, but you can manage your empire efficiently and close out the game with a decisive win.
Here’s how to finish strong:
- Automation: In the late game, you’ll have a lot to manage. Use city project automation to keep your cities busy, but keep an eye on it to make sure the AI isn’t making bad decisions.
- Future Tech and Future Civic: Once you finish the tech and civic trees, you can research these repeatedly. They give you a small score boost and can be a good source of era score.
- The Final Push: Don’t get lazy in the late game. Know what your win condition is and focus everything on it. If you’re going for a Science Victory, pour all your production into space projects. If you’re going for Culture, send out your Rock Bands.
- Know When to Stop: Sometimes, the most important decision is knowing when you’ve already won. Don’t drag the game out. Once you have a clear path to victory, execute your plan and take your place in history.
As a final example, you’re in the last stages of a Domination Victory with only one enemy capital left. Instead of slowly building a huge army, you rush the Giant Death Robot technology. You build one GDR and use it to conquer the last capital by itself, ending the game quickly and decisively.
Get these twelve tactics down, and you’ll be ready to take on Civ 6 at any difficulty. Mastering this game is all about constantly learning and adapting your strategy. With these moves in your playbook, you’re ready to go out there and make some history.