When you’re playing Civilization 6, nothing matters more than where you decide to plant your cities. That one click on the “Found City” button sets the course for your entire game. It determines how fast you’ll grow, what you can build, how quickly you’ll research, and how strong your army will be. A great spot can turn into a powerhouse that fuels your victory. A bad one will just be a drag on your empire forever.
This isn’t just about settling on fresh water, though. We’re going to break down the real strategy behind city placement, moving from guesswork to a smart, long-term plan. You’ll learn to look at the land and see not just what’s there on turn one, but what it can become by turn two hundred. Let’s get into building an empire that lasts.
The First Turn: Why Moving Your Settler is a Big Deal
The game starts, and your first Settler is ready to go. It’s tempting to just settle right where you are, and honestly, a lot of the time that’s the right call. Every turn you spend moving is a turn you’re not growing, producing, or researching. In the early game, time is everything.
But settling in place just to save a turn can be a huge mistake. The starting locations are random, and the game doesn’t always put you on the best possible tile. You have to do a quick cost-benefit check.
The One-Turn Rule: Here’s a rule of thumb I always use. Is moving one tile worth sacrificing one turn of city development?
- Scenario A: Settle in Place. You start on a Grassland tile (2 Food, 1 Production). It’s okay, but not amazing.
- Scenario B: Move One Tile. Right next to you is a Grassland Hills tile (2 Food, 2 Production).
In this situation, moving is almost always the right move. That extra point of production early on is a huge deal. It means your first scout comes out faster, your first warrior is trained sooner, and your first builder gets to work quicker. The long-term benefit of that +1 Production from the very start easily outweighs losing a single turn.
What about moving two or more turns? This is a much tougher call. You should only think about moving that far if the destination is a game-changer. I’m talking about a spot with multiple luxury resources, a killer natural wonder, or just an incredible mix of food and production tiles. Before you take that second step, be absolutely sure the reward is worth the early-game slowdown.
Freshwater is Everything
Every great city needs water. Civ 6 makes this a core mechanic with Housing. Housing limits how big your city’s population can get. Once you hit the cap, growth stops cold until you build more.
- Freshwater (Rivers, Lakes, Oases): Settling next to fresh water gives you +3 Housing, for a starting cap of 5. This is what you want. It lets your population boom early on without needing to build anything extra. More people means more districts and more tiles being worked.
- Coastal (Ocean): Settling on the coast only gives +1 Housing, for a total of 3. This lets you build a Harbor, which is great, but the slower initial growth can really hold you back.
- No Water: Settling with no water nearby gives you 0 bonus Housing, leaving you with a cap of 2. This is a disaster. Your city’s growth is crippled from the start, and you’ll have to waste time and production building an Aqueduct just to catch up to where a freshwater city starts for free.
The Aqueduct Fallback: The Aqueduct district can fix this problem by providing housing, but it’s a patch, not a plan. It takes up a valuable district slot and costs a lot of production to build. That production could have been a Campus or a Monument in a city that had water from the beginning.
Reading the Land: Understanding Tile Yields
Every tile on the map gives you some combination of Food, Production, Gold, Science, Culture, and Faith. Learning to read these yields is like learning to read the map’s DNA.
- Food: Grows your population. More people = more districts and worked tiles.
- Production: Determines how fast you build units, districts, and buildings. Essential for military and wonders.
- Gold: Pays for unit maintenance and lets you buy things outright.
- Science: Unlocks new technologies.
- Culture: Unlocks new civics, governments, and policies.
- Faith: Used for religion and buying certain Great People.
Terrain and Feature Yields:
| Terrain | Base Yield | Features | Feature Yield Bonus/Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grassland | 2 Food | Woods | +1 Production |
| Grassland (Hills) | 2 Food, 1 Production | Rainforest | +1 Food (removes to reveal Grassland) |
| Plains | 1 Food, 1 Production | Marsh | -1 Food |
| Plains (Hills) | 1 Food, 2 Production | Floodplains | +1 Food (can be damaged by floods) |
| Desert | 0 Yields | Oasis | +3 Food, +1 Gold |
| Desert (Hills) | 1 Production | Geothermal Fissure | +1 Science |
| Tundra | 1 Food | Woods | +1 Production |
| Tundra (Hills) | 1 Food, 1 Production |
When you’re looking for a spot to settle, add up the yields of the first ring of six tiles around it. A location with a good mix of high-food and high-production tiles is a spot with massive potential. Stay away from large areas of flat desert or snow; they’ll starve your city.
Securing Resources for a Strong Empire
Resources are the fuel for your empire, and they come in two types: Luxury and Strategic. Your city placement needs to grab both.
Luxury Resources: These keep your people happy. Things like Diamonds, Silk, and Spices provide Amenities. A happy city gets a bonus to its yields, while an unhappy one gets major penalties. When you’re expanding, look for clusters of different luxuries. Settling a new city just to get a new luxury is a very common and smart move.
Strategic Resources: These are what you need for war and industry. They get revealed as you research new techs and are required for your best units.
- Early Game: Horses (for cavalry), Iron (for swordsmen).
- Mid Game: Niter (for musketmen).
- Late Game: Coal (for factories), Oil (for tanks).
- End Game: Aluminum (for jets), Uranium (for nukes).
Your second and third cities should absolutely be placed to secure these. If you start near a lot of hills, there’s a good chance Iron is hiding there. Settling a city there early is a proactive play to make sure you have what you need for a strong army. Not having Iron or Niter when your neighbor does can be a death sentence.
The Power of the District Triangle
Districts are how your cities specialize, and placing them correctly is a huge part of the game. Most districts get powerful adjacency bonuses for being next to certain things. Planning for these bonuses before you even found the city is how you get to the next level. The goal is to create “district triangles” or clusters where multiple districts boost each other.
Key Adjacency Combos:
- The Industrial Zone: This is probably the most important district for your overall power.
- Best Bonuses: +2 Production from an Aqueduct, Dam, or Canal.
- Good Bonuses: +1 Production from a Strategic Resource, Mine, or Quarry.
- The Dream Setup: Find a spot on a river. Build a Dam. Then place your Industrial Zone next to the Dam, and an Aqueduct next to your City Center and the Industrial Zone. This creates a triangle that gives your IZ a massive starting bonus.
- The Campus: For a Science Victory, you need great Campuses.
- Best Bonuses: +2 Science from a Reef or Geothermal Fissure.
- Good Bonuses: +1 Science for every adjacent Mountain.
- The Mountain Observatory: A spot next to three mountains is a +3 Campus. Find one with two mountains and a Geothermal Fissure, and that’s a +4 Campus. These are the spots that will let you fly through the tech tree.
- The Holy Site: A must for a Religious Victory.
- Best Bonuses: +2 Faith from a Natural Wonder.
- Good Bonuses: +1 Faith for every adjacent Mountain.
- The Commercial Hub: This is your money-maker.
- Best Bonuses: +2 Gold from a Harbor.
- Good Bonuses: +2 Gold from a River.
Always use the map tacks to plan your districts out. It lets you see the bonuses and save the perfect tiles for later.
Thinking Beyond Your First City
A city can work tiles up to three hexes away. When you place a city, you’re claiming those 36 surrounding tiles. This is really important for how you space your cities.
A good rule of thumb is to place cities about 4 to 6 tiles apart.
- Too Close (3 tiles): If your cities are too close, they’ll be fighting over the same tiles. This just makes both of them weaker since they have less land to call their own.
- Too Far (7+ tiles): If they’re too far apart, you leave gaps in your empire that are hard to defend and easy for other civs to settle in. It also makes it harder for buildings with regional effects (like Factories) to boost multiple cities.
The 4-6 tile sweet spot gives each city its own space to grow while keeping your empire connected and defensible. Before you settle, look around and think: where will my next city go? Does this spot make sense for my growing empire?
Natural Wonders: The High-Risk, High-Reward Plays
Natural Wonders are special tiles that give amazing yields. Settling near one can be a game-changer, but it’s often a gamble.
- The Best Wonders: Wonders like Paititi (+3 Gold, +2 Culture to nearby tiles), Torres del Paine (doubles adjacent tile yields), and Mount Roraima (+2 Science, +2 Faith to nearby tiles) are incredible.