Yo, let’s talk about one of the most crucial parts of any Civ 6 game: strategic resources. Seriously, if you want to build a powerful empire that can stand the test of time, you absolutely have to get a handle on managing your Horses, Iron, Niter, and all that good stuff. I’ve seen too many games go south because someone wasn’t paying attention to their resources.
I’m going to walk you through everything you need to know, from the basics to some more advanced tricks, so you can stop scrambling for resources and start dominating every era.
First Things First: How Strategic Resources Actually Work Now
If you’ve played older Civ games, you need to forget what you know. Gathering Storm changed the game completely. It’s not just about having one source of Iron anymore.
Here’s the lowdown on the new system:
- Accumulation: Every turn, any mine or pasture you have on a strategic resource adds a certain amount to your global stockpile.
- Stockpile Cap: You have a limit to how much you can store. To increase that cap, you need to build buildings in your Encampment district.
- Upfront Cost: When you train a unit like a Swordsman, it costs a chunk of that resource right away from your stockpile. For a Swordsman, that’s 20 Iron.
- The Real Kicker – Maintenance: This is what trips people up. A lot of the more advanced units, especially from the Industrial Era on, need a resource per turn to stay effective. A Tank, for example, costs 1 Oil every single turn. If you can’t pay up, your unit gets hit with a huge combat penalty, making it pretty much useless.
This means you can’t just find one patch of Iron and call it a day. You need to think long-term and ensure you have a steady supply to build and maintain your army.
What You Need and When You Need It
The importance of each resource changes as you move through the tech tree. You have to plan ahead.
- Ancient & Classical Eras: It’s all about Horses and Iron. Horsemen are your go-to for early exploration and harassing your neighbors. Iron gives you the mighty Swordsman, which is your key to any early wars. You really want to lock down both of these ASAP.
- Medieval & Renaissance Eras: Iron is still useful for Knights, but Niter becomes the new hotness. You need it for Musketmen and Bombards. If you don’t have Niter when everyone else does, you’re going to have a bad time.
- Industrial & Modern Eras: The game shifts big time with Coal. It’s the first resource you’ll use to power your buildings, giving a huge boost to your industrial zones. For your military, Coal gets you Ironclads and Battleships. Soon after, Oil becomes everything. It’s what you need for the first tanks and airplanes, which completely change how wars are fought. No oil means no real power projection.
- Atomic & Information Eras: The endgame is all about Aluminum and Uranium. Aluminum is essential for a modern air force, which gives you incredible flexibility. Uranium is for the big guns: Giant Death Robots and, of course, nukes. It also powers your Nuclear Power Plants for a massive energy boost.
How to Get the Goods: Securing Your Resources
Knowing what you need is easy. The hard part is getting it.
Settle Smart
The best way to get resources is to own the tiles they’re on.
- Your First City: When you’re picking your starting spot, look for nearby Horses or Iron. It can give you a massive head start.
- Plan Your Expansion: As you explore, make a note of where key resources are. Don’t be afraid to plant a city in a spot that’s just okay in other ways if it gets you a bunch of Niter or Oil deposits. I’ve won games with “resource colony” cities that did nothing but pump resources into my empire. Use the map search feature to highlight what you’re looking for!
Make a Deal
If you can’t settle it, trade for it.
- Trade with the AI: The AI is usually willing to sell you their extra resources. You’ll typically pay some gold per turn for a steady stream of their resource for 30 turns. The price depends on how much they like you and how much they have. If you’re desperate, be prepared to overpay.
- Trade Early: Try to lock in a trade for a resource before you’ve researched the tech that needs it. The AI will jack up the price once they know you’re desperate.
- Play Dirty: On the flip side, if you have a monopoly on something like Niter, you can just refuse to sell it to your rivals, leaving them in the dust. You can even use the World Congress to embargo them and cut off all their trade.
Take It by Force
Sometimes, you just have to fight for what you need.
- Go to War: If your neighbor is sitting on all the Oil you need, a well-planned war to take their cities is a perfectly good strategy.
- Pillage: Even if you can’t take a city, raiding their improved resource tiles can give you a one-time injection of that resource into your stockpile. It’s a great short-term fix if you just need enough to upgrade a few units.
Next-Level Management: The Finer Points
Once you have resources coming in, you need to manage them well.
Build Up Your Encampment
This district is key. It’s not just for training units.
- More Storage: The Barracks, Armory, and Military Academy all increase your stockpile limit for every strategic resource. You’ll need this in the late game for amassing tons of Aluminum and Uranium.
- Get Cheaper Units: Some city-states give you amazing perks. If you’re the Suzerain of Akkad, for example, your melee units don’t cost any Iron to build.
The Power of Magnus
The Governor Magnus is your best friend for resource management.
- Vertical Integration: This promotion is insane. In a city with Magnus and an Encampment, you can build units that require a strategic resource even if you don’t have any. The production cost is higher, but it’s a small price to pay to get tanks when you have no Oil.
Powering Your Empire
In the late game, you need to generate Power for your most advanced buildings.
- Coal vs. Oil vs. Uranium:
- Coal Power Plants: The first power source you get. They’re cheap but burn a lot of Coal and cause a lot of pollution.
- Oil Power Plants: More efficient than Coal, but they still pollute.
- Nuclear Power Plants: Super efficient, giving you tons of power from a little bit of Uranium with no CO2 emissions. There’s a small risk of a nuclear meltdown, though, which can be devastating.
- The Green Choice: Eventually, you can build Hydroelectric Dams, Wind Farms, and Solar Panels. They don’t use resources or pollute, but they depend on the terrain and can be expensive upfront.
- Guns or Butter?: This creates a tough choice. Do you use that Oil for your tanks or to power up your factories? It all depends on your goals. If you’re going for a Science Victory, you need power for the space race. If you’re going for Domination, you need fuel for your army.
A Quick Word on Monopolies and Corporations
If you play with this mode on, it’s mostly about luxury resources, but it has a big impact on your strategy. You can create Industries and Corporations that give you insane amounts of gold. A strong economy means you can just buy whatever strategic resources you’re missing. It makes having good diplomatic relations and a healthy income even more important.
Look, winning in Civ 6 is all about making smart choices. And nowhere is that more true than with your strategic resources. From that very first settler, you should be thinking about where your resources will come from. If you can master the flow of these key materials, you’ll always have what you need to build, expand, and conquer. Now go build an empire that’ll last forever.