In the grand strategy of Civilization 6, few leaders embody the spirit of their nation’s landscape as profoundly as Bull Moose Teddy Roosevelt. While his Rough Rider persona speaks to military might, his true strength lies in a deep, intrinsic connection to the land itself. For players who master the art of environmental stewardship, Bull Moose Teddy transforms from a strong leader into an unstoppable force of culture and science. This guide provides a definitive framework for creating high-appeal cities, leveraging every aspect of Teddy’s abilities to generate staggering yields and secure a decisive Culture Victory. Analysis on forums shows that players who neglect the Appeal mechanic are utilizing only a fraction of this leader’s immense potential.
The Foundation: Understanding Bull Moose Teddy’s Abilities
At the heart of this strategy is Teddy’s unique leader ability, Antiquities and Parks. This ability has two powerful components that work in concert to reward careful city planning.
First, it grants bonus yields to tiles with high Appeal. Specifically:
* +2 Science for each Breathtaking (Appeal of 4 or higher) tile in a city’s borders that is adjacent to a Mountain or Natural Wonder.
* +2 Culture for each Breathtaking tile in a city’s borders that is adjacent to a Wonder or a Woods tile.
This means that a single, well-placed Breathtaking tile can provide a passive income of +2 Science and +2 Culture simultaneously if it meets both conditions—for example, being adjacent to both a mountain and a forest. Many professional gamers suggest that the key to an explosive start with Bull Moose Teddy is to settle your first city in a location that immediately activates these yields. Working these tiles from turn one provides a significant advantage in the early game, accelerating your progress through the technology and civic trees.
The second component of his ability states that all tiles in a city with a National Park gain +1 Appeal. This creates a powerful feedback loop in the late game. As you establish National Parks to generate tourism, the surrounding tiles become even more beautiful, making it easier to create more National Parks and further boosting the yields from your Breathtaking tiles.
Mastering the Art of Appeal: A Tale of Two Landscapes
Appeal is the central mechanic for this strategy. It is a numerical value assigned to every tile on the map, ranging from Disgusting (-4 or lower) to Breathtaking (+4 or higher). Your goal is to manipulate the landscape to maximize the number of Breathtaking tiles within your empire. To do this, you must become a master landscape architect, carefully considering the placement of every district, improvement, and even natural feature.
Positive Appeal Modifiers: Cultivating Beauty
According to the player community, a successful Bull Moose Teddy game begins with a keen eye for tiles that naturally enhance their surroundings.
- Natural Features: Mountains, Coasts, Rivers, Oases, and Lakes are your best friends. Each of these features provides a +1 Appeal bonus to all adjacent tiles. Natural Wonders are even more potent, providing a significant boost to nearby tiles.
- Woods and Forests: Old-growth woods provide +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles. Crucially, once you unlock the Conservation civic, you can use Builders to plant new woods, which also grant +1 Appeal to their neighbors. This is a fundamental tool for transforming mediocre land into a Breathtaking paradise.
- Appeal-Boosting Districts: Certain districts are considered “clean” and enhance the beauty of the surrounding area. Placing a Holy Site, Theater Square, Entertainment Complex, Water Park, Dam, Canal, or Preserve will grant +1 Appeal to all adjacent tiles. The Preserve, in particular, is a cornerstone of this strategy and will be discussed in detail later.
- Wonders of the World: Most Wonders are a boon to their local environment, providing +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles.
- Specialized Improvements: Some unique improvements, like France’s Château or the City Park built by Governor Liang, provide substantial Appeal bonuses to adjacent tiles.
Negative Appeal Modifiers: Avoiding Urban Blight
Just as some features enhance Appeal, others detract from it, creating pockets of urban or industrial blight that can ruin your yield potential.
- Ugly Terrain: Marshes, Rainforests, and Floodplains each inflict a -1 Appeal penalty on adjacent tiles. A key early-game action is often to use a Builder to clear these features from areas you intend to develop for high Appeal.
- Industrial and Military Infrastructure: These are the biggest culprits for lowering Appeal. Industrial Zones, Encampments, Aerodromes, and Spaceports all impose a -1 Appeal penalty on their neighbors. The same is true for improvements like Mines, Quarries, Oil Wells, and Offshore Oil Rigs.
- Pillaged Tiles: A pillaged tile not only ceases to function but also drags down its surroundings with a -1 Appeal penalty until it is repaired.
A popular strategy is to designate certain cities as your industrial hubs, placing all your appeal-reducing districts and improvements there, far away from the pristine cities you are cultivating for yields and tourism.
Strategic City Planning: From Settlement to Sprawling Parks
With a firm grasp of the Appeal mechanic, you can now approach city development with a clear, long-term vision. The game unfolds in phases, each requiring a different focus to maximize your advantage.
The Early Game: Settle for Success
Your first three cities are the most important. When choosing a location, prioritize spots with immediate access to high-appeal terrain. Look for clusters of mountains and woods. A river is a bonus, not just for the housing but for the +1 Appeal it provides to tiles on its banks. If you can settle near a Natural Wonder, you have hit the jackpot.
Once settled, your initial build order should be geared towards unlocking and working your high-yield tiles. A popular strategy is to open with a Scout to explore and identify future city locations, followed by a Builder. Use the Builder not to place mines or farms indiscriminately, but to clear marshes or rainforests that are suppressing the Appeal of otherwise promising tiles.
The Preserve district is non-negotiable and should be one of the first districts you build in your high-potential cities. Its base effect of granting +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles is already valuable. However, its true power is unlocked with its buildings:
* The Grove provides +2 Food, +2 Faith, and +2 Culture to adjacent unimproved Charming or Breathtaking tiles.
* The Sanctuary provides +2 Science, +2 Gold, and +2 Production to adjacent unimproved Charming or Breathtaking tiles.
An unimproved Breathtaking tile adjacent to a Preserve with both buildings will yield a staggering amount of resources, all while simultaneously benefiting from Teddy’s leader ability. For your Pantheon, analysis on forums shows that Earth Goddess, which provides +1 Faith from Breathtaking tiles, is the overwhelmingly superior choice, as it provides the Faith needed to purchase the Naturalists who will establish your National Parks.
The Mid Game: The Green Revolution
As you enter the Classical and Medieval eras, continue to expand, always prioritizing high-appeal locations. This is the phase where you must balance the need for production with the imperative to maintain high Appeal. It is acceptable to build mines on hills to get key districts and wonders built, as you can always remove them later.
The turning point of the mid-game is the discovery of the Conservation civic. This unlocks the ability for Builders to plant new woods. This is your primary tool for terraforming the landscape. You can now take a city with average appeal and, with careful planning and a few Builders, transform it into a Breathtaking masterpiece. Plant woods next to your Preserves, along rivers, and around mountains to stack Appeal bonuses.
During this era, you must also make a concerted push for the Eiffel Tower. Many professional gamers consider this Wonder to be non-negotiable for a Bull Moose Teddy victory. Its effect is simple but game-changing: +2 Appeal to every single tile in your empire. This makes achieving Breathtaking status trivial for well-planned cities and can even salvage cities in less-than-ideal locations.
The Late Game: America’s National Treasure
With the dawn of the Modern Era, your economic and cultural engine is fully assembled. Now it’s time to convert that potential into a tourism machine. Your primary focus shifts to the creation of National Parks.
A National Park requires a Naturalist unit (purchased with Faith) and a very specific set of conditions:
1. It must be placed on a diamond of four land tiles.
2. All four tiles must be owned by the same city.
3. All four tiles must have an Appeal of “Charming” or higher.
4. All four tiles must be unimproved (though they can have roads).
The tourism generated by a National Park is equal to the sum of the Appeal of its four tiles. Thanks to the Eiffel Tower and your careful cultivation of the landscape, your parks will be generating massive amounts of tourism. Remember Teddy’s ability: the first park you create in a city instantly boosts the Appeal of all other tiles in that city by +1, making it even easier to find spots for subsequent parks.
In this era, you also unlock America’s unique building, the Film Studio, which replaces the Broadcast Center. It provides a massive bonus to tourism and, when combined with a city full of National Parks, can single-handedly propel you to a Culture Victory. Finally, don’t forget Seaside Resorts, which can be built on Breathtaking coastal tiles and provide another significant stream of tourism.
The Conservationist Conqueror
Playing as Bull Moose Teddy is a unique and rewarding experience that forces you to see the map not as a collection of resources to be exploited, but as a canvas on which to paint a masterpiece of natural beauty. The strategy is one of patience and foresight. It begins with a single, carefully chosen settlement and culminates in a sprawling network of pristine parks and high-yield cities. By mastering the mechanics of Appeal, prioritizing the right districts and wonders, and strategically shaping the environment, you can build an empire that is not only culturally dominant but also a testament to the enduring power of the natural world. The path to victory is not paved with iron and stone, but with towering forests, majestic mountains, and the enduring legacy of a leader who saw greatness in the untamed wilderness.