When you get right down to it, the clang of the hammer is mightier than the sharpest sword in Civilization 6. Production is the absolute lifeblood of your empire. It’s the engine that powers your rise to the top, whether you’re going for a Culture win, a Science victory, or just old-fashioned Domination. A civilization that can build faster and more efficiently will always have the upper hand. This is how you can transform your cities into bustling hubs of industry, capable of locking down any victory you set your sights on.
It All Starts Here: City Placement and Early Game Moves
Your first few decisions in Civ 6 can define the next thousand years. Where you place your capital and your next few cities is the single most important factor for your long-term production. A poorly placed city will always be playing catch-up, but a well-situated one will become an absolute powerhouse.
Reading the Land
Before you found that first city, take a breath and look at the terrain. Not all tiles are created equal. For a production-heavy start, you’re looking for a few key things:
- Hills: This is your bread and butter for early-game production. A hill gives you +1 production right off the bat, which you can boost with a mine. A city with a lot of hills nearby has a massive head start.
- Woods and Rainforests: While they don’t give you production just by existing, you can “chop” them for a huge one-time production boost (more on that later). Long-term, you can build Lumber Mills on them for steady, reliable production.
- Strategic and Luxury Resources: A lot of these show up on hills and give you even more production once you build an improvement. An Iron mine, for example, gives you production and the iron you need for swordsmen.
- Fresh Water: Always try to settle next to a river, lake, or oasis. This gives you a housing bonus, letting your city grow faster. More people means more citizens to work those high-production tiles. A coastal city has its perks, but you’ll often sacrifice some of that crucial starting production.
A dream start is settling on a plains-hills tile, surrounded by more hills, some woods, a luxury resource, and fresh water.
Your Opening Moves
Your initial build order really sets the pace for the game. You always need to adapt, but a solid opening usually looks like this:
- Scout: Information is everything. A scout lets you see what’s around you, find tribal villages for free bonuses, and meet other civs and city-states.
- Slinger or Warrior: Barbarians are no joke in the early game. You need a basic military unit to defend yourself.
- Settler: Expand, expand, expand. The sooner you get new cities down, the sooner they can start building things and contributing to your empire.
Of course, if you’re surrounded by barbarian camps, you might need to build a second military unit before that settler. Be flexible.
Building Your Engine: Improvements, Districts, and Allies
As you advance through the eras, your production game will evolve. You’ll move from just working tiles to a complex system of improvements, districts, and powerful bonuses.
The Workhorses: Mines and Lumber Mills
Your Builders are the real MVPs of your production engine. Knowing what to build and when is key.
- Mines: The simple mine is the backbone of your production. It starts with +1 production on a hill, but that bonus gets much bigger with techs like Apprenticeship and Industrialization.
- Lumber Mills: Built on woods, these give you a steady flow of production that gets better with new technologies. Deciding whether to chop a forest for a quick boost or build a mill for long-term gain is a critical strategic choice you’ll have to make again and again.
The Industrial Zone: Your Production Epicenter
This district is all about production. Its effectiveness comes down to smart placement and the right buildings.
- Adjacency is Everything: An Industrial Zone gets a massive +2 production bonus for being next to an Aqueduct, Dam, or Canal. It also gets +1 for every two adjacent districts and +1 for each adjacent Quarry or strategic resource. Plan your cities carefully to maximize this. A well-placed Industrial Zone next to a city center, an Aqueduct, and a few mines can give you a huge amount of production from the start.
- The Power of Buildings: The Workshop and Factory are the essential buildings here, each giving a flat production bonus to the city.
- The Regional Effect: Here’s a pro tip: The Factory and, later, the Power Plant have a “regional” effect. This means they don’t just boost the city they’re in—they boost every city center within a six-tile radius. Planning the placement of your first Industrial Zone hub is a game-changer for your entire empire.
Allies in Industry: City-States
Don’t sleep on city-states. Becoming the Suzerain of an industrial city-state gives you incredible bonuses. For example:
- Brussels: Gives you a +15% production bonus when building wonders.
- Mexico City: Its Suzerain bonus makes your Industrial Zone’s regional effects reach three tiles further.
- Auckland: Gives +1 production to all of your coastal tiles, which is a massive boost for any coastal city.
Keep an eye out for these city-states and make them your friends.
The Chop: Your Secret Weapon for a Production Burst
“Chopping” (harvesting woods, rainforests, etc., for a one-time burst of production or food) is one of the most powerful, high-skill moves in the game.
The amount of production you get from a chop depends on the game speed and your technology. This instant injection of production can be used to:
- Rush a Wonder: Snag a competitive wonder like the Pyramids before anyone else can.
- Pump out a Critical Unit: Quickly build a settler to grab a great spot or a military unit to stop an invasion.
- Finish a District: Complete that Campus or Commercial Hub to speed up your victory plan.
The key to amazing chops is timing and the Governor Magnus. His “Industrialist” promotion increases the yield from harvesting by a whopping 50%. A popular strategy is to “pre-chop” a few tiles, leaving the builders with one charge left. Then, move Magnus to the city, and execute all the chops at once for an insane production boost. You can finish even the most expensive wonders in a single turn this way.
But be warned: every forest you chop is one less spot for a future Lumber Mill. You have to weigh the short-term gain against the long-term cost.
Fine-Tuning Your Engine: Policies and Governors
Your government policies and governors are the tools you use to fine-tune your production machine.
Powerful Policy Cards
You should be swapping policy cards in and out of your government as your needs change.
- Early Game: Cards like Agoge (+50% production for early military units) and Corvée (+15% production for early wonders) are fantastic for getting a head start.
- Mid Game: Look for cards like Apprenticeship (+100% adjacency for Industrial Zones) and Serfdom (your Builders get two extra charges). These are invaluable.
- Late Game: Policies like Five-Year Plan (+100% adjacency for Industrial Zones and Campuses) can give you that final push you need to win.
Governors as Multipliers
Your governors have unique abilities that can supercharge your production.
- Magnus, the Steward: As we talked about, he’s the king of the chop. He’s a must-have for that strategy.
- Liang, the Surveyor: Her “Zoning Commissioner” promotion gives a +30% production bonus when building districts in her city.
- Pingala, the Educator: While he’s mostly about science and culture, his “Grants” promotion can help you recruit Great Engineers faster, who can instantly finish wonders and districts.
Production for the Win: How to Adapt for Each Victory
A strong production base is essential for any victory, but how you use it will change depending on your goal.
Domination Victory: The War Machine
You’ll need a massive, modern army. Focus your production on:
- Unit Production: A constant stream of military units is a must. The Encampment district is your best friend here.
- Strategic Resources: You need to control Iron, Niter, and Oil to build your best units.
- Captured Cities: When you conquer an enemy city, you get to use their production. Use it to fuel your war effort.
Science Victory: The Race to the Stars
This victory requires you to complete a series of incredibly expensive space race projects. You’ll need to focus on:
- Spaceports and Projects: You’ll need at least one city with insane production, and preferably more, to build the Spaceport and run the projects.
- Key Wonders: The Ruhr Valley (+20% production in the city, plus more for mines/quarries) and Oxford University are game-changers.
- Balancing Science and Production: Don’t get so focused on science that you forget about production. You need both to actually build the spaceship.
Culture Victory: The Engine of Tourism
This might not seem like a production-heavy victory, but it absolutely is. You’ll need production for:
- Wonder Construction: Many wonders give a ton of tourism. You have to be able to build them faster than your rivals.
- Building for Tourism: You’ll need builders to create National Parks and seaside resorts.
- Key Wonders: The Eiffel Tower (makes all your tiles more appealing) and Cristo Redentor are essential.
Religious Victory: Forging Faith with Hammers
While Faith is your main currency here, you still need production to get it.
- Holy Sites and Buildings: Your Holy Site districts and the Shrines and Temples within them all cost production.
- The Cost of Conversion: Spreading your religion costs Faith, and you generate Faith from buildings that cost production.
- Key Wonders: The Mahabodhi Temple and Hagia Sophia can give you a huge religious advantage.
Diplomatic Victory: Building a Better World
You win this by earning Diplomatic Victory Points. Production is key to winning over the world.
- Aid Requests and Competitions: You’ll often have the chance to contribute production to global projects. Winning these gets you points.
- Key Wonders: The Statue of Liberty and Potala Palace are crucial for this victory.
- Carbon Recapture Projects: Late in the game, you can run projects to reduce CO2, which grants you Diplomatic Favor. These take a lot of production.
Advanced Strategies and Late-Game Power
As you near the end of the game, you can use these strategies to get ahead.
Trade Routes for Production
Don’t forget about domestic trade routes! Sending a trade route from one of your cities to another can provide a lot of food and production to the new city. Use your established industrial hubs to quickly build up your newer cities.
Powering Your Civilization
When you get to power plants, your production can skyrocket. These buildings provide a massive percentage-based bonus to production in their city and all cities in their regional range. You’ll need to manage your strategic resources (Coal, Oil, Uranium) to keep them running, or eventually transition to renewable energy like wind and solar farms.
The Almighty Ruhr Valley
There are a few wonders that are just incredible for production, but the Ruhr Valley is in a league of its own. With its massive percentage-based production bonus, it can single-handedly win you the game. If you have a city with a lot of mines and quarries, make it a top priority to build the Ruhr Valley there, no matter which victory you’re going for.
Mastering production in Civilization 6 is a journey. But if you understand these principles—smart city placement, powerful districts, and strategic use of policies and governors—you can build an unstoppable empire that will stand the test of time. Now go forge that empire.