Civilization 6 Walkthrough

This Civilization 6 walkthrough will guide you through the gameplay with strategy tips for the turn-based strategy 4X game on the PC & later Mac.

Let’s start the Civilization 6 walkthrough with an introduction video!


Please note that viewers must be at least 10 to watch, so no harm comes to those with innocent eyes. This game includes Drug Reference, Language, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes.

Table of Contents

Index of Civilization 6 Guides:

Civilization 6 Walkthrough

Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is the next entry in the popular Civilization franchise, which has sold in over 35 million units worldwide, including more than 8 million units of Civilization V.

Originally created by legendary game designer Sid Meier, Civilization is a turn-based strategy game in which you attempt to build an empire to stand the test of time. Become Ruler of the World by establishing and leading a civilization from the Stone Age to the Information Age. Wage war, conduct diplomacy, advance your culture, and go head-to-head with history’s greatest leaders as you attempt to build the greatest civilization the world has ever known.

Civilization VI offers new ways to engage with your world: cities now physically expand across the map, active research in technology and culture unlocks new potential, and competing leaders will pursue their own agendas based on their historical traits as you race for one of five ways to achieve victory in the game.

Key Game Features:

  • EXPANSIVE EMPIRES: See the marvels of your empire spread across the map like never before. Each city spans multiple tiles so you can custom build your cities to take full advantage of the local terrain.
  • ACTIVE RESEARCH: Unlock boosts that speed your civilization’s progress through history. To advance more quickly, use your units to actively explore, develop your environment, and discover new cultures.
  • DYNAMIC DIPLOMACY: Interactions with other civilizations change over the course of the game, from primitive first interactions where conflict is a fact of life, to late game alliances and negotiations.
  • COMBINED ARMS: Expanding on the “one unit per tile” design, support units can now be embedded with other units, like anti-tank support with infantry, or a warrior with settlers. Similar units can also be combined to form powerful “Corps” units.
  • ENHANCED MULTIPLAYER: In addition to traditional multiplayer modes, cooperate and compete with your friends in a wide variety of situations all designed to be easily completed in a single session.
  • A CIV FOR ALL PLAYERS: Civilization VI provides veteran players new ways to build and tune their civilization for the greatest chance of success. New tutorial systems introduce new players to the underlying concepts so they can easily get started.

PC System Requirements:

* Minimum PC Specs
OS: Windows 7×64 / Windows 8.1×64 / Windows 10×64
Processor: Intel Core i3 2.5 Ghz or AMD Phenom II 2.6 Ghz or greater
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Graphics: 1 GB & AMD 5570 or nVidia 450
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 12 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Device
Additional Notes: Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 and 2015 Runtime Libraries, and Microsoft DirectX. And an internet connection.

* Recommended PC Specs
OS: Windows 7×64 / Windows 8.1×64 / Windows 10×64
Processor: Fourth Generation Intel Core i5 2.5 Ghz or AMD FX8350 4.0 Ghz or greater
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Graphics: 2GB & AMD 7970 or nVidia 770 or greater
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 12 GB available space
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible Sound Device

Thanks to 2K Games for the walkthrough videos.

Frequently Asked Questions

THE CIVILOPEDIA

The Civilopedia is an in-game knowledge resource for Civilization VI. You can reach it by
pressing the “?” icon while in game.
The Civilopedia is broken into main sections, each of which is represented by a tab on the top
edge of the screen. Click on a tab to go to that section, then find your specific topic in the lefthand
navigation (nav) column.
The Game Concepts section of the Civilopedia contains a slightly condensed version of this
manual, broken into smaller chunks

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
OS: Windows 7 64bit / 8.1 64bit / 10 64bit
Processor: Intel Core i3 2.5 Ghz or AMD Phenom II 2.6 Ghz or greater
Memory: 4 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 12 GB or more
DVD-ROM: Required for disc-based installation
Video Card: 1 GB DirectX 11 Video Card (AMD 5570, nVidia 450, or greater)

RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
Operating System: Windows 7 64bit / 8.1 64bit / 10 64bit
Processor: Fourth generation Intel Core i5 2.5 Ghz or AMD FX8350 4.0 Ghz or greater
Memory: 8 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 12 GB available space
DVD-ROM Drive: Required for disc?based installation
Video Card: 2 GB DirectX 11 Video Card (AMD 7970 or nVidia 770 or greater)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card

OTHER REQUIREMENTS:
Initial installation requires one-time Internet connection for Steam authentication; software
installations required (included with the game) include Steam Client, Microsoft Visual
C++2012 and 2015 Runtime Libraries, and Microsoft DirectX. Internet connection and
acceptance of Steam™ Subscriber Agreement required for activation. See www.steampowered.
com/agreement for details.
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INSTALLATION

Depending on how you purchased Civilization VI, you have two installation methods
available to you: a physical, box-installation, or a digital install through Steam.
BOX INSTALL
If you purchased a physical copy of Civilization VI, insert the DVD-ROM into your drive.
You will be prompted during the installation to either login to an existing Steam account you
wish to link the game to, or download Steam and create an account. Steam is free to download
and required to play. Follow the onscreen instructions to finish the installation.

STEAM INSTALL

If you purchased the game through Steam’s online storefront, the game will automatically
appear in your Games list. Click on the Civilization VI title to bring up the game page.
Click on the Install button at the top of the page to begin installation.
You can also choose to add a box copy of Civilization VI purchased through a store to your
Steam account. From the Games tab, click on “Activate a Product on Steam…” and agree to
the Terms of Service. Enter your product key into the provided line and click on Next. You
can now download and play your copy of Civilization VI as if you had purchased it directly
from within Steam.
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INTERNET CONNECTION

The first time you play Civilization VI, an active Internet connection will be required. Any
time thereafter, you will not need to have an active connection to the Internet, unless you wish
to play any Multiplayer games.
If you purchased the game through Steam, you’ll also need an Internet connection to
download all the necessary game files.
While not required to play, if you wish to purchase any official DLC or browse for mods, you
will also need an Internet connection.

STEAM

Civilization VI is powered through Steam, an online game platform and distributor. Steam
allows for automated updates, easy access to DLC, and a quick way to join up with your
friends for Multiplayer games.
Steam is required to play Civilization VI, and an Internet connection will be required only
when you first run the game. See the Installation section for more details, or visit http://store.
steampowered.com/ for more information about the service.
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INSTALLATION

Please see the section under Steam Install for information on installing Civilization VI
through Steam.

GAME PAGE

You can access information about Civilization VI from within Steam by navigating to the
Games tab and clicking on the Civilization VI entry from within your Games list. The
Civilization VI Game Page will list information about the game and provide links to the
forums and Steam Support (in case you run into any issues). Your friends who also own the
game will be displayed, and any Achievements you’ve unlocked will be listed.
Click on the Play button at the top of the page to start up the game.

PATCHES, UPDATES, DLC

Steam will check for updates and automatically patch your game if one is found – no more
hunting around on the Internet for the latest update information! You can also purchase
official DLC (Downloadable Content) from within Steam. Make sure to check back often for
the latest information on available maps, mods, scenarios, and new leader downloads.

OVERLAY

You can bring up the Steam Overlay when in-game by pressing Shift+Tab.
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ACHIEVEMENTS

As you play you may unlock Achievements: unique rewards for performing specific tasks.
Some Achievements are easy to earn, like winning the game when playing as Cleopatra.
Other Achievements will require multiple playthroughs, planning, and substantial effort to
unlock. You can view all available Achievements in the game from Civilization VI’s Steam
Game Page.
If you’re playing offline when you fulfill the requirements for an Achievement, the game will
store this information and unlock the Achievement for you the next time you log into Steam.
Check back often on Steam for more Achievements – new ones will become available with
some DLC packs.

THE TUTORIAL

The tutorial is a special game experience designed to help you learn how to play. After
completing the tutorial, you will have learned the basics, but your knowledgeable advisor will
still be around to help you out as you continue to play Civilization VI. You can control how
often your advisor appears in game through the Settings menu.

ACCESSING THE TUTORIAL

After you’ve installed the software, start a game (see next section). On the Main Menu, click
on “Tutorial”.
You’ll see the following menu:

STARTING A GAME

Once you’ve installed the game, double-click on the game shortcut, navigate to your
Civilization VI executable, or find the game through your Steam library to start the software.
After you’ve enjoyed the opening animation sequence (or pressed SPACE BAR to bypass it),
click on the Single Player button on the Main Menu, then click on “Play Now” to begin the
game with our preset default play values. The game will start immediately.
If you’d like to personalize your experience, click on “Create Game” to set the game’s
difficulty, map size, to pick a civilization to play, and so forth. Then click on “Start Game” to
start a game.
These steps will get you playing in a hurry. If you want to know more about your game
options, read on.

THE MAIN MENU
The Main Menu appears after the opening animation. It provides the following options:

SINGLE PLAYER
Click on this to play a single player game. (See below.)

MULTIPLAYER
Sets up a multiplayer game. See the section on Multiplayer Games in the “Advanced Rules”.
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ADDITIONAL CONTENT
Click on this to play a “mod” – a modified Civilization VI world created by the official
Civilization VI team and other fans (or even by yourself)!

TUTORIAL
Click on this to learn to play. We’ll walk you through every aspect of the game.

BENCHMARK
Click on this to view how well your hardware stacks up.

CREDITS
Click on this to view a list of those responsible for making Sid Meier’s Civilization VI.

THE SINGLE PLAYER MENU
This screen is accessible from the Main Menu (see above) and provides the following options:

PLAY NOW
Click on this button to play with the current “default” settings. If you’ve changed the settings
from the default during a game session, any new games started from then on will carry over
those settings.

CREATE GAME
This button brings you to the “Create Game” screen, where you can choose a civilization,
game difficulty, map size, etc. See below.
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THE CREATE GAME SCREEN

This screen allows you to personalize your game according to your specific preferences.

CHOOSE CIVILIZATION
Click on the Civilization drop-down menu to choose a leader and their associated civilization.
The Civilization menu displays all of the leaders/civilizations available. It also displays the
leader’s “trait” (special ability) and the civilization’s unique units and buildings. Scroll through
the list and pick the civilization you want to build and command. At the top of the list is the
“Random Leader” button. Pick this to play a random leader.
Once you’ve made your choice, move on to the next menu to continue customizing
your game.

CHOOSE GAME DIFFICULTY
This allows you to set the difficulty level of the game, from “Settler,” the easiest, to “Deity,” the
most difficult. Difficulty controls a variety of factors, from the smartness of your opponents’
artificial intelligence to the rewards from the tribal villages. See the section on “Difficulty
Levels,” page 19, for more details.

CHOOSE GAME SPEED
This determines the length of turns for various game tasks to be completed, such as
constructing buildings, researching technologies, and so forth. The “Online” level is just that,
and it makes for an extremely rapid and frenetic game. “Standard” is the default pace, and we
encourage it for new players. “Epic” and “Marathon” extend the times it takes to do almost
anything; we encourage that you check these out after you’ve played a few “Standard” Games.
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CHOOSE MAP TYPE
Click on this to choose a map type: you have several available, including a Random Map Type
option.

CONTINENTS
Feels like home. Choose this option to create an Earthlike world, featuring several large
continents and some smaller islands.

FRACTAL
This an unpredictable world may feature many large or small landmasses.

INLAND SEA
Creates a world with one large ocean in the center of the map.

ISLAND PLATES
This world contains many large and medium islands, as well as some small islands.

PANGAEA
This a world generates one huge continent and possibly some smaller islands.

SHUFFLE
This a randomly generated world for those that like to be surprised!

CHOOSE MAP SIZE
Once you’ve chosen the type of world you want to play in, you can then change how large it
spans. There are several map size options. The size of the map you choose also determines
the number of civilizations and city-states appear in the game. Hover your cursor over the
map sizes to see how many civilizations appear in each option. “Duel” is the smallest size and
“Huge” is the largest.
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THE ADVANCED SETTINGS
The Advanced Setup Screen gives you additional customization options when setting up your
game. Access this screen by clicking the “Advanced Setup” button at the bottom of the Create
Game Screen.
From here you can add the exact amount of AI players you wish to play with, change the game
pace, map size, victory types, and many other more minute details. Click “Start Game” when
you’re finished, or “Back” to return to the main Setup Game Screen.

START GAME
Press this button to begin a game with the settings you’ve chosen.

BACK
This button takes you back to the previous “Single Player” screen.

RESET DEFAULTS
This will restore all parameters to their default values.

THE CIVILIZATION VI WEB SITE

The Civilization web site is a valuable resource for game features and tips, developers’ blogs,
community interaction, and modding. Check the website for the latest news, patches and
information on the Civilization VI universe!
WWW.CIVILIZATION.COM

SAVING AND LOADING A GAME

You can save or load a Civilization VI game at any time during play.

SAVING A GAME
To save a game, click on the “Game Menu” button on the upper-right of the main game screen
(or press ESC) and then click on “Save Game” to create a new save game file.

THE SAVE GAME SCREEN
Click on “Save Game” to save the game with the default name, or give it a new name. The
game will be saved and you’ll be returned to your game in progress.

SAVED GAME LOCATION
The games are saved in your Windows My Documents\My Games folder. For example, if your
user name on your computer were johnDoe, your saved games could be found in:
johnDoe\My Documents\My Games\Sid Meier’s Civilization VI\Saves.
You cannot default your game’s save files into other directories.

LOADING A GAME

AT THE START OF A GAME
In the Main Menu, click on “Single Player,” then on “Load Game.” This will take you to the
Load Game screen.
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DURING PLAY
Click on the “Game Menu” button on the upper-right of the main game screen (or press
ESC), then click on “Load Game.”

THE LOAD GAME SCREEN
Once on this screen, click on the name of the save file you wish to load, then click on “Load
Game.” The game will load and you will resume play at the point you saved.

SPECIAL SAVES

AUTO-SAVE
The program automatically saves the game every turn. (You can alter the frequency of these
auto-saves in the Options screen.) To load an auto-save, bring up the Load Game screen, click
on the “Auto-Save” button, then on the auto-saved game you want to play, and then click
“Load Game.” The auto-saved game will load and you’ll resume play at the point of the autosave.

QUICK SAVE
One other save/load option is available to you: “Quick Save,” which is especially useful when
you’re in a hurry. Press F5 to “Quick Save” your game. The game is then saved without
requiring any further input from you. Only one game can be quick-saved at a time: any future
quick saves will overwrite the current one.
Press F6 to load the current quick-saved game.
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GAME DIFFICULTY

The game difficulty determines a number of things, including the starting power of your AI
opponents, the speed at which your civilization grows, and so forth.

DIFFICULTY LEVELS
These are Difficulty Levels in order from easiest to hardest:
SETTLER
CHIEFTAIN
WARLORD
PRINCE
KING
EMPEROR
IMMORTAL
DEITY

EFFECTS OF DIFFICULTY
“Prince” is the middle level. On that level neither you nor your AI opponents get any
particular bonuses. For example, on levels below Prince you get bonuses in unit combat
strength and experience level. Barbarians are less aggressive and not as smart on lower levels,
as well.
On levels higher than Prince, the AIs receive increasing bonuses including bonuses in all
yields, unit combat strength and technology. They may get additional starting units and techs
and also play more aggressively than on lower levels.
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THE GAME OPTIONS SCREEN

The Game Options Screen allows you to change a number of game parameters. Click on a
section name to modify the options from that section.

GAME
The “Game Options” has the following entries:
Quick Combat: This will enable speedy combat animation.
Quick Movement: This will enable speedy unit movement animation.
Auto End Turn: This will cycle the game turn automatically when there are no actions left for
the player to take.
Tuner: This will enable/disable the use of Firetuner
Tutorial: This sets the level of Advisor feedback you would like in your game.
Turns between autosaves: This will set how often you want the game to create a save for you.
Number of autosaves to keep: This sets a maximum number of saves to keep, automatically
deleting the oldest as it creates new save.
Animated Time of Day: This will toggle Animated Time of Day off and on.
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GRAPHICS
The game will automatically select the best graphics options for you when you first start the
game. Should you want to make further adjustments, you can do that in this screen.
GPU Selection: If you have multiple GPU’s in your computer, this will allow you to choose
which GPU the game uses.
Resolution: This displays the available game resolutions.
Window Mode: This allows you to choose whether to play in full screen mode or in a window.
Performance Impact: This slider allows you to set your preferred performance level.
Memory Impact: This slider allows you to set your preferred memory impact level (the more
memory, the better).
Show Advanced Options: Are you a power user? Make adjustments to all the graphics
systems in the game here.

AUDIO
This screen lets you set the volume of various audio streams in the game.
Master Volume: Sets the volume for the entire game.
Music Volume: Sets the volume of the background music.
Sound Effects Volume: Sets the volume of effects – explosions, war cries, etc.
Ambient Sound Volume: Sets the volume of the ambient noise – birds, waves, etc.
Speech Volume: Set the volume of the speech of advisors and other leaders.
Mute When The Game Window Is Inactive: If enabled, sets the volume to zero when the
game is not in focus.

LANGUAGE
This screen lets you set both the written and spoken language in-game.
Display Language: This allows the player to set what language they would like to see when
playing the game.
Spoken Language: This allows the player to set what language they would like to hear when
playing the game.

INTERFACE
This screen lets you configure different interface modes and options.
Clock Format: This will toggle between a 12-hour and 24-hour time format
Start in Strategic View: This option allows you to start the game in strategy view only. This is
excellent for lower powered hardware.
Lock Mouse to Window: Restrict the mouse the game window only when the game is
running.
Scroll when Mouse at Edge: This will enable/disable when the mouse reaches the edge of the
screen the map will scroll in that direction.

KEY BINDINGS
This area allows you to set keybindings for most functions in the game.

APPLICATION
This area allows the user to decide whether the intro cinematic will play or not.

RESTORE DEFAULTS
This will restore all parameters to their default values.

CONFIRM
Click “Confirm” to accept the changes you’ve made on the Options Screen. Some Graphics
changes may require you to restart the game to take effect.
SECTION 2:

THE BASICS

INTRODUCTION
This section of the manual provides an overview of Sid Meier’s Civilization VI, detailing all you
need to get started. When you’re ready, check out the Advanced Rules section for info on late
game tactics, multiplayer, and modding.
Don’t forget to check the in-game Civilopedia, either. See page 7 for more details on the
Civilopedia.

CIVILIZATION VI TURN STRUCTURE

OVERVIEW
Civilization VI can be played in two different turn formats. The standard single-player game
is “turn-based,” (see below), while multiplayer games are played in “simultaneous turns.”

TURN-BASED GAMES
A solo game of Civilization VI is turn-based: you take your turn (move your units, conduct
diplomacy, manage your cities, and so forth). Each of your opponents take their turns, and it’s
your turn again. This continues until someone wins.

SIMULTANEOUS TURN GAMES
A multiplayer game is a “simultaneous turn game.” In this style of game, you and your
opponents take their turns simultaneously. Each player moves their units, conducts diplomacy,
maintains their cities, etc., all at the same time. When everyone is done inputting their orders,
the turn ends and another begins. If you want, you can set up a Turn Timer, which limits how
long players have to input their orders each turn.
Simultaneous Turn games can be a lot of fun, but they are not for everybody. We recommend
that you practice turn-based games in Civilization VI before you jump into a simultaneous
game.

CIVILIZATIONS AND LEADERS

Every civilization in Civilization VI is unique, each having their own “trait,” fighting units,
and infrastructure. A civilization’s leader also has their own special trait—some traits appear
early-on in a match, while others might only show up later.
All of a civilizations’ and leaders’ traits, unique units, and infrastructure are displayed during
game setup when choosing a civilization. You can also check them out in the Civilizations
section of the Civilopedia.
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CIVILIZATION TRAITS
As described above, each civilization has a unique trait, which gives it a special advantage
during a game. These bonuses are powerful and often help with a specific victory type. For
example, France receives extra Tourism for their Wonders, which makes them powerful when
targeting a Culture victory.

LEADER TRAITS
Every civilization has a leader. Some civilizations only have one choice for a leader, while
others have multiple leaders from which to choose. Like civilizations, each leader has a unique
trait. These traits are different from civilization traits and are specific to each leader even
leaders from within the same civilization.

UNIQUE UNITS
Each civilization possesses one or more “unique units.” These units have an array of different
effects, from extra combat strength to additional abilities. These units are only available in
specific eras, and some unique units replace the standard units available to other civilizations.
Some leader traits give additional unique units on top of a civilization’s units.

UNIQUE INFRASTRUCTURE
All civilizations have their own unique infrastructure. This can be in the form of a unique
building, like the American Film Studio, a unique District, like the Brazilian Carnival,
or even tile improvements, like the Egyptian Sphinx. Some of this unique infrastructure
replaces the standard infrastructure in the game (The Carnival district, for example, replaces
the Entertainment district), while other infrastructure is completely unique, like the Sphynx
improvement.

THE ADVISOR

As the leader of a mighty civilization, you have an able Advisor at your side to provide
guidance and advice. She will point out factors that she believes are important or that you
might have forgotten.

CONTACTING THE ADVISOR
During play, the Advisor will appear in “popups” with advice, often providing links to other
information that relates to the current topic. You can follow these links or dismiss the Advisor.
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TURNING OFF THE ADVISOR
You can determine how much assistance you get from the Advisor in the “Game Options”
screen, under the “Game” tab. You can set the advice level to “Familiar with turn-based
strategy”, “Familiar with Civilization”, or “Disabled”. “Familiar with turn-based strategy”
will give advice suited to a brand new player and explains all the basics of the game. With
“Familiar with Civilization”, the Advisor assumes you have played a Civilization game before
and tailors her advice to only highlight the new features that appear in this game. Choosing
“Disabled” disables Advisor popups
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THE INTERFACE

THE MAIN SCREEN
The Main Screen is where you will spend the bulk of your time. Here you move your units,
engage in combat, and build cities.

THE MAIN MAP
The Main Map displays the “known world”: the places you have explored, your cities, the
terrain, resources and improvements within them, your units, and all neutral and foreign lands
that are “visible” to you.

NAVIGATING THE MAIN MAP
There are a number of ways that you can change your point of view on the Main Map:

ZOOM IN AND OUT
Use your mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

RE-CENTER
Click on a City Banner to center your view.

AUTO-CENTER UPON UNIT ACTIVATION
When a unit becomes “active” during your turn, the Main Map automatically centers upon
that unit.

MINI MAP
Click on a space on the Mini Map to center the Main Map on that space.

CLICK AND DRAG
Click and drag anywhere on the map to manually move the map view.

THE MINI MAP
The Mini Map is a much smaller representation of the world, but gives a general overview
of the explored world. As described above, you can re-center the Main Map by clicking on a
location on the Mini Map.

THE STRATEGIC VIEW
Click on the “Strategic View” button to enter Strategic View mode. In this mode, the map and
units are represented in a more simplified and representational manner that some players find
useful. Check it out and see which kind of player you are!

THE MOUSE
Civilization VI is best played with a combination of keyboard and mouse. The mouse is used in
two ways:
LEFT-CLICK: open menus and accept menu choices, “activate” units, and etc.
RIGHT-CLICK: designate the map location when ordering an active unit to move.
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THE KEYBOARD
There are many useful keyboard “shortcut” keys in Civilization VI. Here are some of the
most important:

SHORTCUT KEYS / ACTION – HOTKEY

GLOBAL ACTIONS
Next Action RETURN
Toggle Grid G

LENSES
Appeal 3
Continent 2
Government 5
Political 6
Religion 1
Settler 4
ONLINE ACTIONS
Pause P

UNIT ACTIONS
Attack A
Automate Exploration E
Delete Unit DELETE
Fortify F
Found City B
Move To M
Ranged Attack R
Skip Turn SPACE
Sleep Z
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USER INTERFACE
Open the Civilopedia F9
Toggle City-State Screen F2
Toggle Civics Tree C
Toggle Espionage Screen F3
Toggle Government Screen F7
Toggle Great People Screen O
Toggle Great Works Screen W
Toggle Rankings Screen F1
Toggle Religion Screen L
Toggle Tech Tree T
Toggle Trade Routes Screen F4

FOG OF WAR

In Civilization VI, until you explore the world, the map is hidden in the “fog of war.”
The fog of war is represented by the blank parchment that covers much of the world at the
start of the game. As you move units around, the fog of war will pull back, revealing more of
the world. Once you have uncovered the fog of war from a tile, it does not come back.

THE THREE STATES OF KNOWLEDGE

VISIBLE
If a tile is currently visible to a unit or your territory, you can see its terrain, any improvements
on it, if it is within any borders, whether it is part of a city, and any unit occupying that space.
Subject to technology limitations, you will see the resources in visible tiles as well.

REVEALED
If you have uncovered the fog of war from a tile but cannot see it at the present moment, the
tile will be in “mid-fog” and look like a hand-drawn map. You can still see the terrain in the
tile and any other permanent features like cities or tile improvements that were there, but you
will not see any units on those tiles. You will also not see anything added to the tile after you
lose visibility on it, like new improvements or recently-constructed cities.
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FOG OF WAR
Tiles under the blank parchment of the fog of war are totally unknown to you. You do not
know what kind of terrain is there, who occupies that land, or anything else about the tiles.

WHAT IS SEEN
You can always see everything within your borders plus one tile away from your borders. Most
units can see everything within 2 tiles. Terrain can affect visibility – units behind mountains
and blocking tiles cannot see over them, while units on hills can see over blocked tiles. Certain
promotions will extend a unit’s sight by 1 tile, and a number of mid- to late-game naval units
have extended sight as well.

OBSCURING TERRAIN
Mountains and Natural Wonders are impenetrable: they totally bar visibility of what is beyond
them (except for flying units).
Forests, rainforests, and hills are all “blocking” terrain. Units can see into such tiles, but they
cannot see past them – unless they occupy a hill. Units on hills can see over blocking terrain
into the tiles beyond, unless the neighboring tile has both a forest or rainforest and a hill.

INDIRECT FIRE
Some ranged units are capable of “indirect fire,” which means that they can shoot at targets
they cannot see as long as another friendly unit can see them.

GAME INFO SCREENS

Civilization VI contains the following information screens that contain summaries and
breakdowns of information about your civilization. The screens are accessible from buttons on
the Main Map or via “shortcut keys.”
We’ll start at the top

INFORMATION BAR
The Information Bar is the black stripe across the top of the game that contains important
information like yields (Science, Culture, Faith, Gold, etc.), as well as information about
Resources you currently possess, as well as links to the Civilopedia, the in-game Menu, and
the turn number, date, and time.

TECHNOLOGY TREE BUTTON
This blue button on the top-left panel toggles the “Technology Tree” screen, which displays
a “tree” of all of the “Techs” available throughout the game, as well as your current research
project, and what other “Techs” this research will lead to. See the Technology section for more
details.

CIVICS TREE BUTTON
This magenta button on the top-left panel toggles the “Civics Tree” screen, which displays a
“tree” of all of the Civics available throughout the game, as well as your current Civic research,
and what other Civics this research will lead to. See the Civics section for more details.
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GOVERNMENTS BUTTON
This button on the top-left panel once unlocked by the Code of Laws Civic, toggles the
Governments screen. This screen allows you to view your current Government, assign policies
to your Government, as well as choose a new, more advanced Government as they become
available. See the Governments section for more details.

RELIGION BUTTON
This button on the top-left panel toggles the Religion screen. This screen allows you to view
your current Pantheon and Religion progress, assign Beliefs to your Pantheon and Religion,
and view the details of Religion already founded in the game. See the Religion section for
more details.

GREAT PEOPLE BUTTON
This button on the top-left panel toggles the Great People screen. This screen allows you to
view all the current Great People available in the game, as well as view the archieve of all the
Great People that have been already been claimed. Once you accumulate enough Great People
points in a specific class (Great Scientist points from the Campus district, for example), you
will be able to come to this screen and “claim” that Great Person. See the Great People section
for more details.

GREAT WORKS BUTTON
This button on the top-left panel toggles the Great Works screen. This screen allows you to
view and manage all of the Great Works you’ve created (Great Works of Art, Music, and
Writing, as well as Artifacts and Relics). You can move Great Works to different buildings
to try and achieve theming bonuses based on how you match them up. This screen is very
important to achieving a Culture Victory. See the Great Works section for more details.
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DIPLOMACY RIBBON
This “ribbon” contains portraits of yourself, as well as all the leaders you’ve met during the
game. Clicking on these portraits will bring up that leader’s information panel, which will
allow you to view important information about that leader, as well as interaction options, like
making deals, sending delegations, etc. See the Diplomacy section for more details.

WORLD RANKINGS BUTTON
This button on the top-right panel brings up the “Victory Progress” screen. This shows your
current progress on the various paths to victory available in the game. See the section on
Victory for details.

CITY-STATES BUTTON
This button on the top-right panel allows you to view and manage all the city-states you’ve met
in the game, as well as any bonuses you’ve earned from Envoys, and your Suzerain status (if
you are allied with them). This is also where you go to declare war on a city-states
See city-state section for more details.

ESPIONAGE OVERVIEW BUTTON
This button on the top-right panel allows you to view and manage all of your espionage
activities, manage your spies, and their current status. See the Espionage section for more
details.

TRADE OVERVIEW BUTTON
This button on the top-right panel allows you to view all of your current Trade Routes, as well
as the history of past Trade Routes. See the Trade Routes section for more details.

TERRAIN
In Civilization VI, the world is made up of hexagonally-shaped “tiles” (also occasionally
known as hexes and spaces). These tiles come in a variety of “terrain types” such as Desert or
Grassland and that can include “features” such as Woods. A tile’s terrain and features have
important effects upon movement and the combat that occurs there.

RESOURCES
Resources appear in certain hexes and are the source of food, Production, or gold. Some can
even provide special bonuses to a civilization. Some resources are visible at the start of the
game, while others require the acquisition of specific technologies before you can see them.
See the section on Resources for more details.

TERRAIN TYPES
There are nine basic terrain types in the game, though you might not see all nine
in a given game.

EXPLANATION OF TERRAIN VALUES:
City Yield: This is how much food, gold, or productivity a nearby city can acquire from an
unimproved tile of that type.
Movement Cost: The cost in movement points (MPs) to enter the tile type.
Combat Modifier: The change in attack or defense strength placed on a unit occupying that
tile type.

COAST
Coast hexes are shallow ocean hexes directly adjacent to land and provide food and gold to a
nearby city. Only naval units and “embarked” land units may enter coastal hexes.
Cannot build cities on coasts; only naval units or embarked units may enter this kind of tile.
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DESERT
Desert hexes have multiple uses for a civilization. They may provide religious and yield benefits
depending on the districts and wonders built by the owning civilization. Other features such
as floodplains may also be present on Desert tiles which can increase their value.

GRASSLAND
Generally, grassland produces the most food of any terrain type. Cities constructed near
grasslands will tend to grow faster than cities built elsewhere. This tile’s major drawback is that
there is no defensive bonus for unprepared units.
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HILLS
Hills are, well, hilly. They’re difficult to farm and hard to move through, but they provide good
defensive bonuses and hold a variety of different resources. In addition, units atop hills can see
over “blocking terrain.”
Hills provide increased productivity to a nearby city, as well as important combat bonuses.

MOUNTAIN
Mountains are tall upthrusts of terrain that are impossible for non-flying units to move
through. They may provide fresh water or other adjacency bonuses to districts and cities.
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OCEAN
Oceans are only useful for Food and Gold once the nearby city has the proper technologies to
access them.

PLAINS
Plains provide a combination of food and production to a nearby city. A city surrounded by
plains will grow more slowly than one in grassland, but it will be far more productive
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SNOW
Snow is quite unproductive, offering no food or production benefits to a nearby city.
Of course a snow hex might contain a useful resource, but otherwise they’re just cold
and barren.

TUNDRA
Tundra is partially frozen land found in the world’s colder climates. It is less useful than plains
or grassland, but slightly more useful than Snow. Nobody builds cities in the tundra unless
they’re desperate for resources – or if they have nowhere else to go. The exception for this, of
course, is if the Civ you are playing benefits from Tundra, like Russia.
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FEATURES

Features are elements of terrain or vegetation that may appear atop the hex’s terrain. For
example, a grassland hex might have forest or marsh on it. Features modify a hex’s productivity
and might also alter the amount of “movement points” (MP) a unit expends when entering the
hex. Features may also provide defensive combat bonuses or penalties to a unit occupying the
hex.

FEATURE VALUES
Like terrain, features also have values that determine city yield, movement, and combat.

CONTAMINATION
Contamination from nuclear fallout is a special “feature” (more of an anti-feature, really) that
appears after the nukes have fallen. Fallout badly reduces the output of a tile until it is cleaned
up by a Builder
Fallout must be cleared by a Builder before any Repairs can be made, or Improvements can be
built.

FLOOD PLAINS
Flood Plains are low-lying areas adjacent to rivers. Every year the river floods, providing
natural irrigation and rich nutrients to the land, making Flood Plains incredibly fertile and the
most productive farmland in the world. Ancient Egypt owed most of its wealth and power to
the annual flood of the mighty Nile River.
Flood Plains are only found in Desert tiles bordering a river.
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WOODS
For the early peoples, the Woods were a great source of bounty, providing wood for fire,
tools and shelter, and many animals for sustenance and provisions. As a city grows there is
a great temptation to cut down the Woods for farmland, but a wise leader will always leave
some standing ? for productivity, and to lift their people’s spirits. Furthermore, military units
stationed in the Woods receive a significant defensive bonus.

ICE
Ice is just that: ice. It’s almost entirely useless to civilization. It is impassable and provides no
yields. Stay away from ice.
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RAINFOREST
Dark, forbidding, and deadly to the uninitiated, Rainforests are a rich source of food to those
with the skill and knowledge to live within them. However, Rainforests do not provide much
in the way of materials, and a growing civilization may be tempted to mine them or turn them
into cropland. On the other hand, military units situated in Rainforests receive a significant
defensive bonus. When chopped down, Rainforests tiles become Plains.

MARSH
Although rich in biodiversity, Marshes have little to offer a hungry, growing civilization.
Marshes can be drained or farmed to increase their yield. Note that military units in Marshes
receive a significant penalty when attacked.
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OASIS
An oasis is an especially lush and verdant area within a desert, usually because it sits atop a
source of clean and plentiful water. Oases are extremely valuable resources in an otherwise
barren and lifeless desert, and countless battles have been fought between desert tribesmen
desperate to possess them.
Oases may only be found on Desert tiles.

NATURAL WONDERS
Natural Wonders are the great and glorious creations of nature that awe and inspire us all.
From Crater Lake to the Great Barrier Reef, Natural Wonders display the unmatched beauty
of the natural world.
All natural wonders provide unique benefits to your civilization, and some even have
additional special effects – for instance, fortifying adjacent to the Dead Sea will refill a unit’s
health instantly.

RIVERS
Traditionally, cities are built alongside rivers, and for good reason. Rivers provide irrigation,
improve the farmlands around the city, add bonuses to Commercial districts. A river can be
critical for the growth of a city, as it’s a welcome supply of fresh water.

RIVER LOCATIONS
Unlike other features, rivers run along the sides of the tiles rather than inside them, so rivers
provide their benefits to the tiles/units adjacent to them without taking up valuable room for
production.

OFFENSIVE PENALTY
When attacking across a river, the attacking unit gets a -5 modifier to its combat strength.

MOVEMENT EFFECT
River crossing costs 3 movement points, and units can move again if they have points
remaining. There is no additional cost for crossing a river once a medieval road passes over
the river.

RESOURCES

Resources are sources of food, productivity, or culture, and they can provide special bonuses
to a civilization. Your civilization’s wealth and power will be determined by the number and
kinds of resources you control to a large degree. To utilize a resource, it first must be within
your civilization’s borders, and then you must construct the appropriate “improvement”
in that hex, or found a city on top of it. For example, you must construct the “plantation”
improvement to get the benefit from a “banana” resource.
There are three different kinds of resources: Bonus, Strategic, and Luxury. All three provide
yield benefits to nearby cities, but strategic and luxury resources have additional important
benefits (see below).
While you may not have access to every kind of resource within your own borders, you can
trade for some resources with other civilizations.

BONUS RESOURCES
Bonus resources increase the output of a hex. Bonus resources cannot be traded to other
civilizations.

BANANAS
CATTLE
COPPER
CRABS
DEER
FISH
RICE
SHEEP
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CITRUS
COCOA
COFFEE
COTTON
STONE WHEAT
LUXURY RESOURCES
Luxury resources provide a small bonus to the hex’s output and increase your civilization’s
happiness by providing them amenities when improved. Only one source of a specific luxury
provides amenities, shared with the four neediest cities in your empire. For example, if you have
2 Citrus resources improved around your capital, only the first will be providing amenities to
your empire. You can choose to trade the second Citrus with another civilization for something
else you need, like Gold, or another resource.

DIAMONDS
DYES
FURS
GYPSUM
INCENSE
IVORY
JADE
MARBLE
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MERCURY
PEARLS
SALT
SILK
SILVER
SPICES
SUGAR
TEA
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TRUFFLES
TOBACCO
WHALES
WINE
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STRATEGIC RESOURCES
Strategic resources are not always visible at the start of the game; they may require knowledge
of a particular technology before they appear on a map. For example, researching the Bronze
Working technology will reveal Iron on the map.
Strategic resources allow you to build certain units. When you construct an improvement
on a strategic resource hex, it provides you with that resource.
To produce a strategic resource unit in a city, the player needs 2 of the resource. If the city has
an appropriate military district (Encampment for land units, Harbor for sea units, Aerodrome
for air units), the player only needs 1 of the resource. To purchase a strategic resource unit, the
player needs 2 of the resource.
You can see how many units of each strategic resource you have available on the top of the
main screen.
ALUMINUM
COAL
HORSES
IRON
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NITER
OIL
URANIUM

UNITS

In Civilization VI, the term “unit” refers to anything that can move around the map. There
are a number of types of units in play – land combat units, naval combat units, civilian units,
support units, and the like. Land and naval combat units form the bulk of available units.

CONSTRUCTING UNITS
Units are built in cities. Each unit has a certain “Production Cost” which determines how many
units of Production a city must expend to produce the unit. In addition, in order to construct a unit
your civilization must have knowledge of the requisite technology – for example, you must know
the “Archery” technology to construct Archer units. Some units also require that your civilization
have access to certain resources to construct them (Swordsmen require Iron, for instance).

UNIT CHARACTERISTICS
All units have three basic statistics (“stats”): movement speed, combat strength, and
promotions.

MOVEMENT SPEED
A unit’s Movement Points (MPs) determines how many unhindered tiles a unit can move
through. Most early units have 2 MPs. See the section on Movement for more details.

MELEE STRENGTH
A unit’s Melee Strength (MS) determines how powerful it is in combat. A unit’s combat
strength determines how powerful it is in combat; combat strength is displayed as either melee
strength or ranged strength. The Warrior, The earliest combat unit available, has a Melee
Strength of 20. Non-combat units like Settlers and Builders do not have any combat strength,
so they are defeated, captured or destroyed when attacked by any military unit.
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PROMOTIONS

A military unit may earn “promotions” through advanced training or from hard-won
experience gained through battle.

UNIT SPECIAL ABILITIES

Many units have special abilities granting that unit a unique perk – some do things that other
units cannot do at all. For example, only Settler units can found new cities, and Archer units
can deal “ranged” damage to attack enemies that are not adjacent to them. Check out a unit’s
Civilopedia entry to see its special abilities.

UNIQUE UNITS

Each civilization in Civilization VI has one or more special “unique units” that are in some
way superior to the standard version of that unit. The American civilization, for example, has
a P-51 Mustang and replaces the Fighter unit. The Greek civilization has the Hoplite unit,
which replaces the Spearman unit.
See each civilization’s Civilopedia entry to see its special unit.

UNIT MOVEMENT

Generally, units move from hex to hex, paying the “Movement Cost” required to enter the
new hex. Units are required to have the full allotment of movement points (MP) for a tile
before they can move into it, unless they have not moved yet for the turn; in this case a unit
will always be able to move at least one hex.
Units are subject to “Stacking” limitations – two land combat units of the same class may not
end their turn in the same hex, nor can two civilian units (Settlers, Builders, Great People,
etc.). Most units are limited in where they can move – land units cannot enter mountain
hexes, while naval units cannot enter land hexes. Road improvements speed a unit’s movement
through land hexes.
You can also link up different classes of units in formations on the same hex. For example,
You can have a Warrior (land combat unit) occupy the same hex as a Builder (civilian unit),
and a Battering Ram (support unit).
Check out the section on Movement for details.

UNIT COMBAT

Military units can engage in combat against other units or against cities. Most military units
are “melee units,” meaning that they can attack only enemies in hexes directly adjacent to
them. Other military units are “ranged units,” meaning that they can attack enemies one or
more hexes away.
See the section on Combat for details.

UNIT PROMOTIONS
If a military unit survives combat, it may gain “Experience Points” (XPs), which can be used to
purchase “promotions” for the unit. Promotions may improve a unit’s combat ability in certain
circumstances – say, when defending in Woods – or give it some other advantage in battle.

NON-COMBAT UNITS
There are multiple types of non-combat units: Settlers, Builders, Traders, Religious units, and
Great People. Each is critically important to a civilization’s success. As the name “civilian”
would suggest, these units cannot fight. Each is critically important to a civilization’s success.
As the name “civilian” would suggest, these units cannot fight. If attacked by an enemy
unit while alone in a hex they are automatically captured, sent back to friendly territory or
destroyed. Therefore, it usually makes sense to escort them with a military unit when sending
them out past the city borders.
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LAND COMBAT UNITS
Combat units are divided into several classes with distinct abilities and uses.

RECON UNITS
Recon units are used for exploration and reconnaissance. They tend to have an extended
movement range, and their promotions will afford them terrain, sight, and stealth abilities.
While these units can attack, they tend to be weaker in combat. Recon units include the Scout
and Ranger.

MELEE UNITS
Melee units are land units which can attack enemies in adjacent land hexes. They cannot attack
enemies at sea, nor can they attack enemies more than one hex away. Melee units include
Warriors, Musketmen, Infantry, and more.

RANGED UNITS
Ranged units are units that can attack enemies in adjacent hexes, or in hexes one or more
spaces away. The distance a unit can attack is determined by its “Range” statistic, while the
strength of its ranged attack is determined by its “Ranged Combat” statistic.
Note that Ranged units always employ Ranged combat when attacking another unit, even
if that unit is adjacent. The Ranged unit uses its Melee Strength only when it is defending
against an attack by another unit.

SIEGE UNITS
These are “heavy” ranged units which have a distinct bonus when attacking cities and districts.
Siege units include the Catapult, Bombard, Artillery, and more.

ANTI-CAVALRY UNITS
Anti-Cavalry units are the pike and spear wielding units, which always have a combat bonus
versus both light and heavy cavalry units.

LIGHT CAVALRY UNITS
Units such as the Horseman and Cavalry are considered light cavalry units. These are mounted
flanking units which always ignore zone of control and are the fastest land units in the game.

HEAVY CAVALRY UNITS
Like the light cavalry, these are fast land units that ignore zone of control. These units have
more armor than the light cavalry, and include units such as the Knight and Heavy Chariot.
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NAVAL UNITS
Naval units can move through water hexes and cannot enter land hexes. Depending upon its
type and technological advancement, a naval unit may be limited to travel in Coastal waters,
or it can enter deep water Ocean hexes. There are four types of naval units: Melee, Ranged,
Raider, and Carrier.

NAVAL MELEE
These are basic naval units which can combat against Ranged and Carrier naval units, or may
be used to capture cities. Units such as the Caravel and Galley fall into this class.

NAVAL RANGED
These ranged naval units have a combat bonus against district defenses and include units such
as the Quadrireme and Battleship.

NAVAL RAIDER
With stealth capacity in later eras, and the ability to plunder gold from attacks, this is the
perfect “hit-and-run” unit and includes the Privateer and Submarines.

NAVAL CARRIER
This is a special naval unit that acts as an ocean based mobile airstrip.
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AIR UNITS
Air units are units which, unsurprisingly, travel through the air. They are critically important
in late game matches, as control of the skies can often determine victory or defeat in modern
warfare.

FIGHTER
This combat unit receives a bonus against bomber aircraft.

BOMBER
Acting as a siege unit, this class of aircraft receives a combat bonus against city and district
defenses and can “pillage” improvements.

UNIT ACTION LIST

When a unit is active, it may have one or more “actions” available to it. Click on the unit’s
action icon to order it to perform that action.

Create Escort Formation: Order 2 different unit types to “link” and move as one (military
and civilian, military and support, etc.).
Move to: Order the current unit to move to the selected tile.
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Sleep: Order the unit to remain inactive until the player provides it new orders. It will not
become active again the next turn and must be manually selected.
Fortify: The Unit remains inactive until the player provides it new orders. The unit receives a
defensive bonus.
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Fortify Until Healed: The unit remains inactive until it heals back to full strength. The unit
receives a defensive bonus and heals every turn.
WMD Strike-Nuclear Weapon: Launches a nuclear weapon at the chosen tile. The target
and all surrounding tiles in the radius of the weapon will receive massive damage.
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WMD Strike-Thermonuclear Weapon: Launches a thermonuclear weapon at the chosen tile.
The target and all surrounding tiles in the radius of the weapon will receive massive damage.
Rebase: Order the air unit to rebase to a different city.
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Range Attack: Perform a ranged attack on the selected tile.
Pillage: Order the unit to destroy the improvement on the current tile. The improvement,
road, or building must be repaired before it can be used again.
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Found City: Order a settler unit to found a new city in the current tile. The Settler is
consumed in the process.
Activate Great Person: Activating certain Great People activates the Great Person’s special
ability which varies depending on the Great Person. This consumes the Great Person after one
or more uses.
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Automate Explore: Order the unit to explore uncharted regions of the map. This unit will
continue to move every turn until you cancel its automation.
Cancel: Cancel the last order given to the unit. You may find this to be very useful if you
accidentally queue up the wrong order or actions.
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Wake: Wake up the sleeping unit.
Delete: Permanently delete the active unit and receive a small amount of gold in return.

MOVEMENT

During a game of Civilization VI, much of your time will be spent moving units around the
world. You’ll be marching your military units off to discover the land or to fight with your
neighbors. Your Builders will be moving to new tiles to improve terrain. Your Settlers will be
moving to good locations on which to build new cities.
The following are rules about moving land and naval units. Air units have their own special
rules; since they don’t occur until late in the game, they’re in “Advanced Strategy.”

HOW TO ORDER A UNIT TO MOVE

RIGHT-CLICK
When a unit is active, you can right-click anywhere on the map to order the unit to move
there.
MOVE MODE
You can also click on the “Move Mode” Action button on the unit panel when you have
a unit selected, then left-click on a hex to move the unit.
LEGAL AND ILLEGAL MOVES
If the location is illegal for the unit, you will be unable to issue the order (for example, trying
to move onto a Mountain hex).
If the location is legal, your unit will move to the target hex as long as the unit has movement
points remaining. If the unit is out of movement points, the order will queue until the next
turn, when it will move automatically.
MULTIPLE-TURN MOVE ORDERS
If the unit requires multiple turns to reach the location, it will pick the shortest route and
proceed on its way. It will continue to move each turn until it gets to the assigned spot.
If it becomes impossible for the unit to reach its assigned location ? say, because exploration
reveals that the tile is across the ocean and the moving unit can’t embark, or perhaps because
another unit has sat down in the target location – the unit will stop and request new orders.
You can change a unit’s orders at any time by clicking on the unit and either giving it new
orders, or by clicking on the “Cancel Orders” action.
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MOVEMENT POINTS
All mobile units have a certain number of “Movement Points” (MPs) that they can expend on
movement every turn. Once they’ve expended those MPs, they can’t move any more until the
next turn (except for a few very special units that are carried by other units).
Most early land units have 2 MPs; cavalry and naval units have more.
EXPENDING MOVEMENT POINTS
Units expend MPs to enter tiles. The terrain of the tile a unit is entering determines the MP
cost of the move. In other words, it doesn’t cost anything to leave your current tile; the MP
cost is determined by the tile you’re entering.
See the terrain rules for details on MP costs, but generally, open terrain like Grassland and
Plains costs 1 MP to enter, while Woods and Rainforest costs 2. It also expends 3 MP’s to
cross a river (unless a bridge is there).
Once the unit has expended all of its MPs, or the hex they’re moving into requires more MPs
than the unit has remaining, it must stop moving.
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ROADS
Roads reduce or remove the movement penalty for a unit’s movement cost in friendly or
neutral territory. If the unit moves from one tile containing a road into another tile containing
a road, the unit will expend just a fraction of the normal cost to move. As long as the unit has
any MPs left, it can continue to move along the road.
ILLEGAL MOVES
Certain tiles cannot be entered by certain units. A naval unit can’t enter a non-city land tile,
for example, and a land unit cannot enter a mountain or ocean tile. If a unit can’t enter a tile,
you won’t be able to order it to move there. Sometimes a move is revealed as illegal during a
unit’s move. If that is the case, the unit will stop when it discovers the illegality and wait for
new orders.
STACKING LIMITATIONS
Until the Industrial era, only one of each type of unit class (combat, support, civilian, and
trade) can end its turn in a tile – though a single combat unit with a support unit, and a single
civilian unit can end their turn “stacked” in the same tile.
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A unit may pass through another unit as long as it has enough movement to complete the full
move, and does not end up on top of another unit of the same type.
However, after researching the Nationalism civic, you will able to combine units. For more
information, see the section on Corps and Armies.
MOVEMENT DURING COMBAT
ATTACK ORDERS
Generally, if you order a unit to move into a space occupied by an enemy unit, the unit will
interpret that order as instructions to attack the enemy unit. If the moving unit is non-combat,
the unit will stop and ask for new orders.
ZONES OF CONTROL
Combat units exert a “zone of control” (ZOC) over the tiles around them. When a unit moves
into a tile within an enemy’s ZOC it expends all of its MPs. Cavalry units are the exception, as
they are quick enough to avoid getting locked into ZOC.
NAVAL MOVEMENT
Generally, naval units follow the same rules as land units, except that they move in the water
rather than on land. Early naval units are often limited to coastal waters (those adjacent to land
tiles) and coastal cities. Eventually, you’ll produce naval units that can enter deep Ocean tiles,
and thus explore across the seas. Naval units cannot enter ice tiles.
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EMBARKING LAND UNITS
At the start of the game, your land units cannot enter any water tiles. However, once you’ve
learned the Sailing technology, Builders will be able to move into coastal water tiles–after
Shipbuilding, all units will be able to embark. To embark a unit, order the unit to move out
into the water just as you would on land. All movement points are used by a land unit when
embarking (except when playing as Norway, or when embarking from a Coastal City or
Harbor District).
In the water, the embarked unit is very slow and helpless. It is unable to fight, and any enemy
naval vessel can easily destroy it. It’s critical to accompany embarked land units with a strong
naval defense.
When the unit is adjacent to a land tile, you can order it to move onto dry land.

COMBAT

Combat occurs between two political entities that are at war with each other. A civilization
may be at war with another civilization or with a city-state. Barbarians are always at war with
all civilizations and city-states.
There are four major forms of military combat: melee, ranged, naval, and air combat. The first
two occur throughout most of the game, while air combat does not happen until somebody
discovers flight.
Since it occurs so late in the game, you need not be concerned with how to conduct air combat
when you begin play. Air combat is discussed in its own section in “Advanced Strategy” (see
the Air Combat section).

DECLARING WAR
War against another civilization may be declared in a couple of different ways, or you may find
yourself on the receiving end of an enemy’s declaration.
DIPLOMATICALLY DECLARING WAR
You may declare war on a civilization through the Diplomacy panel (see that section). Declare
war on a city-state by clicking on the city-state’s city or selecting them from the city-state
panel and click the “Declare War” button. There are two types of war declarations: A
“Surprise War,” and a “Formal War.”
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DECLARING A SUPRISE WAR
Declaring a “Surprise War” means you are giving no denouncement, and have no valid reason,
you just really want to attack. Surprise Wars have a higher warmongering penalty than formal
wars, because you’re acting uncivilized. Surprise Wars in the later eras of the game will hurt
you more diplomatically than wars earlier in the game.
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DECLARING A FORMAL WAR
Declaring a formal war by denouncing another civilization first is considered more “civilized”
in the eyes of your neighbors. While they may still consider you a warmonger, the penalty will
not be as severe as a Surprise War.
You can further reduce warmonger diplomatic penalties by having a reason to go to war. For
example, if you’ve been “wronged” by another civilization, you are considered to have a “Casus
Belli,” a justification for war. There are many triggers for this, some of which are having your
cities converted by another’s religion, coming to the defense of a city-state ally,
or perhaps a friend of yours has had cities conquered.
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ATTACKING ANOTHER UNIT
You can order one of your units to attack another civilization’s units. If you are not currently at
war with the civilization you are attacking, a pop-up will appear asking if you want to declare
war on that civilization (or city-state); if you choose to do so, the attack occurs and war is
declared. If you decline, the attack is aborted.
ENTERING A CIVILIZATION’S TERRITORY
Early in the game, units can move freely through a civilization’s territory until they unlock the
“Early Empire” Civic. After that, it’s an act of war to enter a civilization’s territory if you do
not have an “Open Borders” agreement with that civilization. A pop-up will appear and ask
you to confirm your move.
RECEIVING AN ENEMY DECLARATION OF WAR
At any time, another civilization or city-state may declare war on you. If so, you will be
informed by a popup or notification, or by the other leader. See the Diplomacy section for
details.
Barbarians are always at war with you, so you will never get a declaration of war from them.
ENDING A WAR
Wars end automatically when one side has been destroyed because it has lost its last city, or the
combatants can agree to halt hostilities through diplomatic negotiations. You or your opponent
may choose to initiate such discussions. See the section on Diplomacy for details.
Barbarians cannot be negotiated with. You will remain at war with them as long as they
are around.

WHICH UNITS CAN FIGHT

Any military unit may attack an enemy unit. Civilian units such as Builders, Settlers, and
Great People cannot initiate attacks. If attacked while on their own, these types of units are
sent back to their territory of origin. Builders may be liberated by the original owner if they get
captured. Support units, such as the Battering Ram or the Siege Tower cannot initiate attacks,
but they help other units they are grouped with. If attacked while on their own, they are
destroyed. A city may attack an enemy military unit that is within the city’s Ranged Combat
Range and a combat unit may in turn attack an enemy city.
A city may attack an enemy military unit that is within the city’s Ranged Combat Range,
and a combat unit may in turn attack an enemy city.

UNIT COMBAT STATISTICS
A military unit’s combat abilities are determined by its combat statistics. There are five basic
combat stats:
COMBAT STRENGTH
All military units have this stat. Melee units use their Melee strength when attacking or
defending. Ranged units only use their Melee strength while defending.
HIT POINTS
A unit’s health is measured in “Hit Points.” When at full health, all combat units have 100
hit points. As it takes damage, it loses hit points. If a unit’s hit points reach 0, it is destroyed.
Health can be recovered outside of combat.
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RANGED COMBAT STRENGTH
Only units able to engage in “Ranged Combat” have this stat. Ranged Combat strength is
used while it is attacking.
RANGE
Only ranged combat units have this stat. It is the distance, in tiles, within which the ranged
combat unit can attack the enemy, as long as their line of sight is not blocked.
BOMBARD
Only ranged siege units have this this stat. It is the unit’s combat strength when it is attacking
districts. This is different than Ranged Combat Strength.
MELEE COMBAT
Melee combat occurs when a melee unit (any military unit which does not have the ranged
combat or bombard ability) attacks an enemy unit or city. It does not matter if the defender has
ranged combat; as long as the attacker does not have ranged combat the resulting battle will be
melee.
COMBAT STRENGTH
When two units engage in melee combat, the result is determined by relative strengths of the
two units—e.g., if a powerful unit fights a weak one, the powerful unit is likely to do a lot
more damage to its enemy, possibly destroying it altogether.
However, many different factors may affect a unit’s strength in battle. Many units receive
“defensive bonuses” that will increase their melee strength when they are attacked while
occupying Woods or Hills tiles, or if they are Fortified. Some units get bonuses when fighting
other specific unit types—Spearmen get bonuses when fighting mounted units, for example.
Also, a unit’s injuries may reduce its current combat strength. (See the section on Combat
Bonuses for details).
The Combat Information Table (see below) will help you determine the relative strengths of
two melee units during your turn.
MULTIPLE UNITS IN COMBAT
Units receive a “flanking” attack bonus for each allied unit adjacent to the enemy target
unit. Some promotions and social policies give an attacking unit additional bonuses beyond
the basic flanking bonus. These bonuses can be incredibly powerful when enough units are
involved.
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COMBAT PREVIEW
When one of your units is active, hover the cursor over an enemy unit to bring up the “Combat
Preview” and learn of the probable outcome of any battle between the two units. This table
shows your unit’s modified combat strength on the right and your enemy’s on the left. The box
at the bottom of the screen tells you the likely outcome of the battle, and the bars in the center
of the box tell you how much damage each side will take if combat occurs.
INITIATING MELEE COMBAT
The attacking unit initiates the melee by attempting to move into the enemy’s hex. The
attacker cannot engage in melee unless it can enter the defender’s hex. For example, a
Spearman cannot engage in melee combat against a Galley since it can’t enter that space except
when embarked.
To order an active unit to attack, right-click on the target. The active unit will initiate the combat.
MELEE COMBAT RESULTS
At the end of melee combat, one or both units may have sustained damage and lost “hit
points.” If a unit’s Hit Points are reduced to 0, that unit is destroyed.
If the defending unit has been destroyed after melee combat and the attacker survives, the
attacking unit moves into the defender’s hex, capturing any non-military units in that hex. If
the defending unit survives, it retains possession of its hex and any other units in the hex.
Most units use up all of their movement when attacking. Some, however, have the ability to
move after combat if they survive the battle and have Movement Points left to expend.
Any surviving units involved in the combat will receive “Experience Points” (XP), which may
be expended to give the unit promotions.

RANGED COMBAT
Some units, such as Archers, engage in ranged combat when attacking rather than melee
combat. Such units have two distinct advantages over melee units: first, they can attack enemy
units that are not adjacent to them, and second, they do not take damage when they attack.
However, they are weak when attacked by adjacent melee units.
RANGED COMBAT STRENGTH
Any unit that can engage in ranged combat has a Ranged Combat Strength statistic. This
number is compared with the target’s Combat Strength to determine the results of the attack.
To see the potential effects of a ranged attack with the enemy unit, hover the cursor over the
potential target. The “Combat Preview” will appear, showing you the losses (if any) the target
will take from a ranged attack by the active unit.
RANGE
The unit’s “Range” stat determines the distance at which a unit can launch a ranged attack. A
range of “2” means that the target can be in an adjacent tile or one tile distant. A range of “1”
would mean that the target has to be adjacent to attack.

LINE OF SIGHT
Generally, a ranged unit must be able to “see” its target in order to be able to fire at it. A unit
cannot see a target if a blocking object is between the two units, such as a Mountain, Hill, or a
Woods tile. A unit can always see into a tile, even if it contains blocking terrain, but it cannot
see objects in tiles past the blocking terrain. Units on Hills can see over blocking terrain,
unless the blocking terrain contains both Hills and Woods or Hills and Rainforest. Flying
units can see over blocking terrain.
Most units have a line of sight of 2 tiles.
INITIATING RANGED COMBAT
When a ranged unit is active, right-click on the target to commence the attack. Alternatively,
you can click the “Ranged Attack” button and then left-click on the target to attack.
RANGED COMBAT RESULTS
At the end of ranged combat, the target unit may have sustained no damage, some damage, or
it may have been destroyed. Remember that the attacking unit will never suffer any damage
during ranged combat. If the target is destroyed, the attacking unit does not automatically
enter the now-vacant tile, unlike during melee combat.
The attacking and defending units may receive “Experience Points” (XP) as a result of the
combat. See the section on Promotions for details.
COMBAT BONUSES
Units receive a variety of benefits during combat, such as the terrain the unit is occupying,
from fortified, or a variety of other special circumstances. Some bonuses apply only to an
attacking unit, some only to a defending unit, and some might apply to both.
TERRAIN BONUSES
When engaging the enemy, consider the terrain. Defending units get important bonuses for
occupying Woods, Rainforest, or Hills tiles. Attacking melee units are penalized if they attack
an enemy across a river.
See the section on Terrain for more details.
FORTS
Once a civilization has acquired the Military Engineering technology, Military Engineers
can construct the Fort tile improvement in friendly or neutral territory. Forts provide a hefty
defensive bonus to units occupying them. Forts cannot be constructed in enemy territory.
FORTIFICATION
Many units have the ability to “fortify.” This means that the unit creates temporary defensives
within its current location. The unit gains defensive bonuses, which increases every turn for 2
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turns, making it much tougher to kill. However, fortification is strictly defensive—if the unit
moves or attacks, the bonus goes away.
While fortified, a unit will not activate. It will remain inactive until you manually activate it by
clicking on the unit.
Which Units Can Fortify
Most melee and ranged units can fortify. Non-military, mounted, naval, armored, and air
units cannot fortify. These latter units can instead “Sleep,” which means that they will remain
inactive until attacked or you manually activate them, but they do not receive the defensive
bonus.
Fortification Bonuses
The amount of the bonus depends upon the length of time the unit has been fortified. The unit
receives a smaller defensive bonus on the first turn it is fortified and a larger bonus during all
subsequent turns.
NAVAL COMBAT
Like land units, there are military and non-military naval units. The military naval units also
come in the melee and ranged varieties. Attacking with these types of naval units works the
same way as attacking with land units.
There are certain late-era naval units that merit special attention: the Carrier, Missile Cruiser
and the Submarines. Each of these have special abilities. For example, the Carrier can carry
air units, the Missile Cruiser can launch nuclear weapons, and the submarine is invisible to
non-adjacent units.
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CITY COMBAT
Cities are big, important targets, and if fortified and defended by other units, can be quite
difficult to capture. However, doing so can reap rich rewards – in fact, the only way to knock
another civilization out of the game is to capture or destroy all of its cities. Do this to enough
opponents and you can win a mighty domination victory (see the section on Victory).
CITY COMBAT STATS
Garrison Defense Strength
Cities have Combat Strength, just like units. The city’s Combat Strength is based upon
the city’s size, its location (cities on hills receive extra bonuses), and whether its owner has
constructed defensive works within the city, such as walls.
The city’s Strength represents its Combat Strength and Ranged Combat Strength. During
the combat, a city’s hit points may decline due to enemy attacks, but its Combat and Ranged
Combat strengths remain equal to its initial Strength no matter how much damage the city
has taken.
City Health
A city at full health has 200 hit points. As it takes damage, the city’s hit points are reduced. If
a city’s hit points reach 0, an enemy melee unit can capture the city by entering its tile. At this
point, the player can choose to keep the city, or destroy it. Keep in mind that destroying a city
will not be looked upon favorably by other civilizations
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ATTACKING CITIES WITH RANGED UNITS
To target a city with a ranged unit, move the unit so that the city falls within the unit’s range,
then right-click on the city. Depending upon the power behind the attack, the city’s hit points
may be reduced by the attack. (The attacking ranged unit is not damaged, as they do not come
in direct contact with the city.) Note that a ranged attack cannot drop a city below 1 HP the
city must be captured by a melee unit.
ATTACKING CITIES WITH MELEE COMBAT
When a unit engages in melee combat with a city, the city may take damage to its hit points,
and the melee unit may suffer damage as well. No matter how few hit points the city has
remaining, it always defends itself at its full combat strength.
GARRISON UNITS IN CITIES
A city’s owner may “garrison” a military unit inside the city to bolster its defenses. A portion
of the garrisoned unit’s combat strength is added to the city’s strength. The garrisoned unit
will take no damage when the city is attacked; however, if the city is captured, the garrisoned
unit is destroyed.
A unit stationed in the city may attack surrounding enemy units, but if it does so the city loses
its garrison bonus. If it’s a melee attack, the unit may take damage during the combat as if it
were normal combat.
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CITIES FIRING AT ATTACKERS
Once a city has constructed Walls, it will gain a Ranged Combat Strength equal to its full
Strength at the start of combat. It may attack any one enemy unit within that range. Note that
the city’s Ranged Combat Strength doesn’t decline as the city takes damage; it remains equal
to the city’s initial Strength until the city is captured.
HEALING DAMAGE TO CITIES
A city heals a small amount every turn, even during combat, as long as it has a supply line. A
supply line is any hex adjacent to the city that is not within an enemy unit’s Zone of Control. If
your city has a Wall, you can only repair it using the Production menu, and only after 3 turns
of taking no damage.
CAPTURING CITIES
When a city’s hit points reach “0”, an enemy melee unit may enter the city regardless of any
units already inside. When this occurs, the city is captured. The attacker usually has the option
of destroying the city, or adding the city to his empire. Whichever option they choose to
execute, the civilization which loses the city has taken a huge blow. The exception to this rule
is the Capital City of any civilization. The Capital cannot be destroyed, only captured.
See the City section for more details.
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SIEGE WEAPONS
Certain ranged weapons are classified as “siege weapons” – Catapults, Bombards, and so forth.
These units get combat bonuses when attacking enemy cities. They are vulnerable to melee
combat, and should be accompanied by melee units to fend off enemy assault.
Siege weapons are important – it’s challenging to capture a well-defended city without them!
GREAT GENERALS
Great Generals are “Great People” skilled in the art of warfare. They provide combat bonuses
– both offensive and defensive ? to any friendly units within one tile of their location. A Great
General itself is a non-combat unit, so it may be stacked with a combat unit for protection. If
an enemy unit ever enters the tile containing a Great General, the General is destroyed.
A Great General gives a +1 Movement bonus, and a +5 Combat Strength bonus to all friendly
land combat units within 2 tiles of the General. They have an additional one-time “retire”
ability that is unique to each Great General. For example, Sun Tzu creates a Great Work of
Writing called “The Art of War”. Once used, the Great General is expended and is removed
from play.
Great Generals are earned by gaining Great General points. These points are primarily earned
from building Encampment districts, but they can be earned other ways as well. See the
section on “Great People” for more details.
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GREAT ADMIRALS
Great Admirals are “Great People” skilled in the art of naval warfare. They provide combat
bonuses – both offensive and defensive ? to any friendly naval units within one tile of their
location. A Great Admiral itself is a non-combat unit, so it may be stacked with a combat unit
for protection. If an enemy unit ever enters the tile containing a Great Admiral, the Admiral is
destroyed.
A Great Admiral gives a +1 Movement bonus, and a +5 Combat Strength bonus to all friendly
naval combat units within 2 tiles of the Admiral. They have an additional one-time “retire”
ability that is unique to each Great Admiral. For example, Themistocles creates a Quadrireme.
Once used, the Great Admiral is expended and it removed from play.
Great Admirals are earned by gaining Great Admiral points. These points are primarily
earned from building Harbors, but there are other ways to earn points as well. See the section
on “Great People” for more details.
COMBAT DAMAGE
A unit at full health has 100 “hit points” (HPs). When a unit takes damage during combat it
loses HPs, and if it reaches 0 HPs, it is destroyed.
A unit that has taken damage is weaker than a healthy unit, and it is closer to destruction.
Wherever possible, it’s a good idea to “rotate out” damaged units from battle to allow them to
heal up before reentering the fray. This, of course, is not always possible.
EFFECTS OF DAMAGE
A damaged unit is less effective when attacking than a fully-healed unit. The more damaged the
unit, the less its attack – melee or ranged – will damage an opponent. You can see this reflected
in the Combat Preview panel when you select your unit, and mouse-over an target unit.
HEALING DAMAGE
To heal damage, a unit must remain inactive for a turn. The amount of damage that a unit
heals depends upon the unit’s location.
In a City: A unit heals 20 HPs per turn.
In Friendly Territory: 15 HPs per turn.
In Neutral: 10 HP per turn.
Enemy Territory: 5 HP per turn.
Note that certain promotions will accelerate a unit’s healing rate.
NAVAL UNITS HEALING DAMAGE
Naval units cannot heal unless in Friendly territory, where they heal 2 HPs per turn.
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THE “FORTIFY UNTIL HEALED” BUTTON
If a unit is damaged, the “Fortify Until Healed” button appears in its Action buttons. If you
click on this button, the unit will fortify and remain in its present location until it is fully
healed. See the section on Fortifications for details of the defensive benefits of fortification.
EXPERIENCE POINTS AND PROMOTIONS
A unit that survives combat will gain “experience points” (XP). Once the unit has acquired
enough XP, you may expend them to acquire “Promotions” for that unit. There are a large
variety of promotions in Civilization VI. Each gives a unit special advantages in battle.
ACQUIRING XP THROUGH COMBAT
A unit gains XP for surviving a round of combat. The unit doesn’t have to win the combat or
destroy the enemy to get the experience; it accrues each round that the unit lives through.
Generally, units receive XP for being involved in combat with another military unit, and will
similarly receive XP for being involved in combat versus a city.
Barbarian Limitations: Once a unit has reached a certain XP level, it no longer gets any
additional XP for fighting Barbarians.
OTHER METHODS OF GETTING XPS
A unit constructed in an Encampment district containing a Barracks (for regular units),
Stables (for cavalry units), or other military buildings will begin with extra XP as soon as
construction of the unit is completed. The bonus depends upon the buildings constructed
(Barracks, Stables, and Armories all provide their own bonuses). Also, certain governments,
policies, and other special effects may also provide XP to units. Recon units receive XP from
discovering natural wonders while exploring.
EXPENDING XPS
When a unit has acquired enough XP to purchase a promotion, the “Promote Unit” button on
the unit panel will be active (as long as the unit still has movement points left). If you click on
that button, a list of the promotions available to the unit will display. Click on a promotion to
choose it for that unit. The XP are expended and the unit acquires the promotion immediately.
This takes up a turn. After a unit is promoted twice, you will also be able to give it a custom
name by clicking on the “Name Unit” button on the unit panel.
PROMOTIONS LIST
There are dozens of promotions available in Civilization VI. Each class of unit (melee, cavalry,
ranged, etc.), has their own promotion tree dedication them. Some promotions require that a
unit have acquired other promotions before they become available.
If a promotion is available to a unit, it will be listed when you click on the “Promote Unit” button.
See the Civilopedia Section on Promotions for a full list of all promotions.

BARBARIANS & TRIBAL VILLAGES

During the early portion of the game – say, the first 25-50 turns – much of your energy should
be involved in exploring the world. During your exploration you will be encountering tribal
villages and barbarians. Tribal villages are good, barbarians are not.
TRIBAL VILLAGES
Tribal Villages are less civilized than other civilizations, but are friendly nonetheless. Visiting
tribal villages provide a random benefit to the civilization when the unit first enters their tile.
The village disappears after its gifts have been claimed.

VILLAGE BENEFITS

Survivors
The village provides you with a Builder or Trader in your nearest city, or increases the
population of your nearest city.
Science
The village provides your civilization with a free technology (for example, Bronze Working
or Masonry), a technology boost (50% of the needed research towards a technology), or even
multiple technology boosts.
Military
If discovered by a wounded military unit, your unit receives a health bonus. This village may
also provide a free scout or XP to the discovering unit.
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Faith
Depending on your era, the village provides a small, medium, or large amount of faith.
Treasure
The village provides gold to your civilization!
Culture
The village provides a free relic, or one or two free civic boosts (50% of the needed culture
towards a civic).

BARBARIANS
Barbarians are roving bands of villains who hate civilization and everything that goes with it.
They attack your units and cities and pillage your improvements. They’re just not very nice at all.
As your civilization grows, the barbarians become much less menacing, but early in the game
they can be a huge problem.

BARBARIAN OUTPOSTS
Barbarians come from “outposts” that can appear randomly in any tile not seen by a unit. Each
barbarian unit belongs to its own home camp; destroying that camp will stop the spawn of
barbarians in that area.
There are three types of barbarian camps:
Naval
A camp on a coast that spawns naval units.
Cavalry
A inland camp near a Horse resource.
Melee
All other camps.

REWARDS FOR DESTROYING AN OUTPOST
A civilization will earn a gold reward for dispersing a barbarian camp. Additionally, clearing
the outpost will help you work towards the “boost” for the Bronze Working technology,
making it faster to research. There is also the additional benefit of stopping the spawn of more
barbarian units, which is, of course, the primary reward.
NEW OUTPOST
Barbarian camps may spring up in any neutral space which cannot be seen by a civilization’s
city or unit. If you want to keep barbarian outpost from popping up around your civilization,
expand your borders and place units on hills to keep as much terrain in sight as possible.

BARBARIAN UNITS
Barbarian outposts can create almost any kind of unit in the game – from Warriors and
Spearmen to Cannon and Tanks. Barbarians are capable of building units equal to those of the
most advanced civilizations.
Every outpost will first generate a scout that searches for targets. If you’re spotted by a
barbarian scout, it will return to its outpost and begin building units for an invasion or raid.
Watch out, because you’re going to be the next target! If you don’t move fast, you’ll soon see a
party of barbarians at your borders, ready to destroy your improvements or conquer your city.
This is why it’s important to periodically sweep the countryside around your civilization to
destroy encampments before they become a threat.

BARBARIAN NAVAL UNITS
Barbarian encampments on the coastline can create naval units (again, equal to those that can
be created by an advanced civilization). These units will menace your coastline, destroy naval
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improvements, attack hapless land units which stray too near the coastline, or even lay siege to
your coastal cities. It’s important to maintain a navy to keep them off your back, but the best
way to stop these attacks is to destroy nearby coastal encampments.
Warning: If a barbarian ship comes across an embarked unit, it will destroy it!

CAPTURED CIVILIANS
If a barbarian unit comes upon a non-combat unit – Settler or Builder – the barbarians capture
that unit. They will take it off to their nearest encampment, and the unit may be recovered by
any player in the game. Should one of your civilians be captured in this manner, be sure to
pursue and retrieve them before somebody else does!

THE END OF BARBARIANS
Barbarians can remain in the game right up until the end. However, as more territory is
acquired, barbarians will have less land available for their barbarian encampments.
If the entire world is civilized, the barbarians will disappear.

CITIES
Cities are vital to your civilization’s success. They allow you to build units, districts, buildings,
wonders, and projects, and are where your civilization will research new technologies and
civics or gather wealth. You cannot win without powerful, well-situated cities.

HOW TO BUILD CITIES
Cities are constructed by Settler units. If the Settler is in a location where a city can be
constructed, the “Found City” action button will appear. Click on the button and the Settler
will disappear, replaced by the new city.

WHERE TO CONSTRUCT CITIES
Cities should be constructed in locations with plenty of food and production, and with
accessible resources. It’s also critical early in the game to build a city on a hex with access
to water, like a river or coastal hex, as sources of water are very important to a growing
population. Without water, you doom your people to a harsh existence in a small city. Cities
constructed on hills gain a defensive bonus, making it harder for enemies to capture them.
Later in the game, when city settlement locations near water become more scarce due to the
number of cities on the map, you can provide water to a new city by building an Aqueduct
district, provided there are mountains, rivers, or an oasis within 2 hexes of your new city.
Choose your city locations wisely!
There is one main restriction, and that’s that you cannot build a city within 3 hexes of another
city or adjacent to another Civ’s City borders.

THE CITY BANNER
The city banner appears on the Main Map. It provides a useful snapshot of the goings-on
in the city. It displays information about the strength of the city, if it has walls, the amount
of turns left until it grows, what the city is producing, as well as what religion it’s following.
If you click on the city banner of another civilization, you will be taken to that civilizations
diplomacy screen.

THE CITY SCREEN
Click on a city’s banner to reach the city screen. Here, you can “fine tune” your control over
each city. The city screen contains the following elements:
CITY OPTIONS BUTTONS
The top of the lower-right city panel features buttons for “City Details”, “Purchase Tile”,
“Manage Citizens”, “Purchase an item with Gold”, “Purchase an item with Faith”, and
“Change Production”.

CITY DETAILS
This toggles an incredibly helpful panel providing the details for everything in your city,
including Citizens and Growth, Amenities, Housing, Buildings, Districts, Wonder, and more.

CITIZEN GROWTH
This panel displays your population growth, how much food you’ve got coming in, and
how much you’re consuming. Always make sure your people are well fed. If you have more
population than food, your population will start to decline.

AMENITIES
This panel displays how happy your population is, as well as a breakdown of any Amenities.
Happiness measures the contentment of your people in a single city, and is measured by seeing
if the Population of that city has as many Amenities as expected. 1 Amenity is required for
each 2 Population, starting at a Population of 3. A content city will not have any modifier
applied to it, but a happy city will have a 10% growth increase and a 5% yield increase.
Furthermore, an Ecstatic city will have a 20% growth increase and 10% yield increase.
Likewise, having too few Amenities will create displeasure among your Citizens, and the
growth and yields will receive negative modifiers. At the level of unrest, your growth will stop
and you may find rebel partisans in your city.
Amenities can come from a wide variety of sources. Each Luxury resource can contribute 1
Amenity to a city. The number of cities it provides this bonus to vary based on the era for
the resource. The Arena, built in the Entertainment Complex, provides Amenities to its local
city. The Zoo and Stadium also provide Amenities, but regionally. Some wonders also provide
Amenities. Furthermore, there are a few Religious Beliefs and policies that provide Amenities.

HOUSING
This panel displays how much population your city can support. If your population is growing
too close to your housing limit, growth can slow drastically. You can gain more Housing from
many different sources, such as certain buildings, civics, and districts. Additionally, you can
gain housing from farms, access to fresh water, and certain great people.

CITY BREAKDOWN
This panel displays all of the districts, buildings, wonders, and trading posts that are contained
within the city and its surrounding territory.

RELIGION
This panel displays a detailed list of any religion that exists within your city, including your
pantheon and religion, as well as any “intruding” religion.

PURCHASE TILE
The toggles the Purchase Tile lens, which allows you to buy a tile when you can afford it. Click
on this button and it will show you how much the next tile will cost. (Remember that the price
goes up for each tile you purchase. The tiles available for purchase will have symbols, and the
cursor will change to a “purchase tile” cursor. Click on an available tile to purchase it.

MANAGE CITIZENS
This toggles the Manage Citizens lens, which allows you to reassign citizens to different tiles.
See “Your Citizens at Work” below for more details.

PURCHASE AN ITEM WITH GOLD
If you have enough Gold, you can buy a unit or building outright.

PURCHASE AN ITEM WITH FAITH
Certain religious beliefs allow you to buy items with Faith. Jesuit Education, for example,
allows you to purchase Campus or Theater Square buildings with Faith.

CHANGE PRODUCTION
If you’ve changed your mind, or need to reprioritize production due to a change in your
situation, you can do this by clicking the Change Production button. You can also click the
“Producing…” button directly on the city banner as well.
CITY YIELDS
This horizontal bar just below the City Options Buttons, shows how much food, production,
faith, gold, science, and culture the city is producing. Each of these is a radial button that
allow you to “focus” your citizens if you want to prioritize one yield over another. Click a radial
button once to prioritize, click it again to restrict it, and click it a third time to revert it to
default.

CITY TITLE
The city title displays the city’s name. Note the arrows on the left and right edges of the
banner. Click on these to close this city’s City Screen and move to another. You can rotate
through all of your cities in the game using these arrows.

CITY STATISTICS
This shows the current statistics for number of Buildings, number of Religious Citizens,
Amenities, and Housing Capacity.

THE PRODUCTION MENU
This shows the item (unit, building, Wonder, or project) currently under production, as well as
its effects/stats and the number of turns required to complete construction. Click on “Change
Production” to order the city to halt production on the current item and switch to another.
PURCHASE
Click on “Purchase” to order the city to purchase an item. The Purchase Menu will appear:
click on an item to purchase it. Note that the city isn’t purchasing the item it is presently
working on, and after the purchase, the city will continue to construct the item (unless
unable to do so). So for example, if a city is working on an Archer and has 4 turns left and
you purchase another Archer, you’ll get the purchased Archer immediately and the one that’s
under construction 4 turns later – unless, of course, you change production after purchasing
the first Archer.

UNITS IN CITIES

COMBAT UNITS
Only one of each combat unit type may occupy a city at a time (naval, land, or support). That
military unit is set to “Garrison” the city and adds a significant defensive bonus. Additional
combat units may move through the city, but they cannot end their turn there. (So if you build
a combat unit in a city with a garrison, you have to move one of the two units out before you
end your turn.)

NON-COMBAT UNITS
Only one non-combat unit (Builder, Settler, unassigned Trader, or Great Person) may occupy
a city at a time. Others can move through, but they cannot end their move in the city.
SUPPORT UNITS
Only one support unit (Battering Ram, Siege Tower, Anti-Air, etc.) may occupy a city at a
time. Others can move through, but they cannot end their move in the city.
Thus, a city may have at most 3 units in it at the end of a turn: one combat unit, one support
unit, and one non-combat unit.

CONSTRUCTION IN CITIES
You may construct buildings, wonders, or units in a city, but only one can be constructed at a
time. When construction is complete the “CHOOSE PRODUCTION” alert message will
appear; click on this to access the “City Build Menu” and choose the next item to construct.

THE CITY BUILD MENU
The City Build Menu displays all of the units, buildings, and wonders that you can construct
in that city at that time. As your technology and civics progress, new items will be added to
the list, while obsolete items will disappear. Each entry tells you how many turns it will take
until construction is complete.
If an entry is grayed-out, then you are currently unable to construct the item. Roll your cursor
over the entry to see what you’re missing.

CHANGING CONSTRUCTION
If you wish to change what a city is constructing, you may do so on the City Screen, or by
clicking on the icon of the item on the right side of the city banner. The production already
expended on the original item is not applied to the new item; however, it remains “on the
books”, so if you later order that city to resume construction on the original item, you will
continue where you left off.

CONSTRUCTING UNITS
You can build any number of units in a city (as long as you have the required resources and the
unit hasn’t become obsolete). Since you can only have one combat, one support, and one non-
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combat unit inside a city at a time, you may have to move the newly-constructed unit out of
the city immediately after it’s built.

DISTRICTS AND BUILDINGS

In Civilization VI, buildings are no longer trapped in your city center, but may sprawl across
your territory as part of Districts. The map is more important than ever as you are faced with
important strategic placement decisions. Campuses and Holy Sites alike receive special yield
boosts from placement near Mountains (Science for the Campus, and Faith for the Holy Site),
but only the former also benefits from a nearby source of Rainforest.

CONSTRUCTING DISTRICTS
When a city is ready to construct a new item, the city’s “Production Menu” will appear. If a
district is available to be constructed, it will appear on this menu. Click on the district to order
the city to begin construction, opening the district placement lens. Here, you will be given an
overview of the different yield outcomes available on the tiles surrounding your city center so
you can better make a decision about where to place your new district. This lens will also show
you which tiles are unavailable, as some districts have very specific build requirements (for
example, the Encampment cannot be built adjacent to a city center). If you see a great location
nearby, but do not yet own it, you can purchase the tile from within the lens, and then start
construction of the district.

ADJACENCY BONUSES
As mentioned above, every district can receive adjacency bonuses based on where it is placed
on the map.

Campus
Standard bonus for placement adjacent to mountains, and a minor bonus for placement next to
rainforest.
Holy Site
Major bonus for placement adjacent to a natural wonder, a standard bonus for placement next
to mountains, and a minor bonus for placement next to woods.
Commercial Hub
Major bonus for placement adjacent to a river or a harbor, and a minor bonus for placement
next to other districts.
Theater Square
Standard bonus for placement adjacent to wonders, and a minor bonus for placement next to
rainforest or to another district.
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Harbor
Standard bonus for placement adjacent to sea resources, and a minor bonus for placement next
to other districts.
Industrial Zone
Standard bonus for placement adjacent to mines and quarries, and a minor bonus for
placement next to other districts.
Encampment
Cannot be built adjacent to the city center or another Encampment district.
Aqueduct
Must be placed in a single hex between the city center and a water source, which includes
mountains, rivers, and lakes. The target water source may not touch the city center.
Aerodrome
Cannot be built on a hill.
Spaceport
Cannot be built on a hill.

BUILDINGS
After your District has been built, you can begin populating it with buildings. Buildings
can be built through the “Production Menu” similarly to how you build your District. Some
buildings have prerequisites, such as other buildings or technology or civic requirements; these
buildings will not be visible in your Production menu.
You may notice that you have some buildings available to build before you place any Districts,
such as the Monument. These buildings reside in the City Center.

WONDERS
Wonders are a special type of building that fills an entire hex and has a significant impact on
gameplay.

THE PALACE
The palace is a special building. Part building, part wonder, the palace appears in the first
city you build, which makes that city the capital of your empire. If your capital city is
captured, your palace will be rebuilt in another city, making that city your new capital. If you
subsequently retake your original capital, the palace will move back to its original location.
The palace provides a small amount of production, science, gold, and culture to your
civilization, as well as a single Great Work slot.

MAINTENANCE
Most buildings have a per-turn maintenance cost to keep them in prime shape. You can review
the different maintenance costs in the Buildings section of the Civilopedia, or within the
tooltip of each building in the production menu. You can also review the maintenance costs of
all your buildings by mousing over the gold icon at the very top of the screen.

WORKING THE LAND
Cities thrive based upon the land around them. Their citizens “work” the land, harvesting
food, wealth, production, and science from the tiles. Citizens can work tiles that are within
three tiles’ distance from the city and that are within your civilization’s borders. Only one city
can work a single tile even if that tile is within three tiles’ distance from more than
one City.

ASSIGNING CITIZENS TO WORK THE LAND
As your city grows, it automatically assigns its citizens to work the lands around it. The city
automatically seeks to provide a balanced amount of food, production, and wealth. You may
order a city’s citizens to work other tiles – for example, if you want a certain city to concentrate
on generating wealth, or production. See the City Screen section, above.

IMPROVING THE LAND
While certain tiles naturally provide good amounts of food, wealth, and various factors, many
can be “improved” to provide even more. You need to create “Builders” to improve the lands.
Once you have a Builder unit, you can order it to construct improvement, such as farms,
mines, or plantations, to make the land around your cities far more productive. Each Builder
can perform 3 actions (like building an improvement). Some civilizations have special abilities
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that allow your Builders to do more. Builders created by China, for example, have 4 build
actions, and can also contribute production directly to a wonder.
See the section on Builders for more details.

SPECIALISTS
When a city is first created, all of its citizens (population) will work the tiles around the city,
generating food, production, gold, etc. Later on, you can construct districts and buildings
which allow you to reassign some of the citizens to work in the districts as specialists.
For example, the Campus can hold 3 buildings, and you can assign one “Scientist” specialist
for each building you have constructed in the Campus. So if you’ve constructed a Library
and a University, you can assign 2 “Scientist” specialists. (Note that not all buildings create
specialists; see the Buildings section in the Civilopedia.)
There are four different classes of specialists. The type of specialist a citizen becomes depends
on the type of building they are assigned to…

Artist
Artist specialists produce culture and are assigned to culture-related buildings like Museums.
Engineer
Engineer specialists produce production and are assigned to an Industrial Zone district that
contains production related buildings like Workshops and Factories.
Merchant
Merchant specialists produce gold and are assigned to a Commercial Hub district that
contains wealth-related buildings like Markets and Banks.
Scientist
Scientist specialists generate science and are assigned to a Campus district that contains
science-related buildings like Libraries and Universities.
Priest
Priest Specialists generate faith and are assigned to a Holy Site district that contains faithbased
buildings such as Shrines and Temples.

ASSIGNING SPECIALISTS
To assign a specialist, go to the City Screen and click the “Manage Citizens” button.
Then, click on the district Citizen icon to add a specialist. A citizen will be removed from
working a tile and assigned to work in the district. If you click on the slot again, the citizen
will be removed from the building and reassigned to work in the fields.
See the City Screen section for more details on assigning citizens to work tiles and as specialists.

EFFECTS OF ASSIGNING SPECIALISTS UPON CITY OUTPUT
Remember that a citizen working in a tile is generating something for the city–whether it’s
food, production, gold, culture, or science. Once that citizen is assigned as a specialist, they are
not working in the tile, and whatever they were producing will be lost. Therefore, it’s a good
idea to check your city’s food, gold, and production generation after creating specialists to
ensure that your city can afford the output lost.

UNEMPLOYED CITIZENS
If a Citizen is not assigned to work in the fields and is not a specialist, that Citizen is
“unemployed.” They still provide 1 gold to the city, but consume as much food as employed
citizens.

CITY COMBAT
Cities can be attacked and captured by enemy units. Each city has a “Combat Strength” stat
which is determined by the city’s location, size, military units “garrisoned” inside the city,
and defensive buildings such as walls. The higher the city’s defensive value, the harder it is to
capture the city. Unless the city is extremely weak or the attacking unit is extremely strong, it
will take multiple units many turns to capture a city.
See the section on Combat for details on warfare in general.

ATTACKING A CITY
To attack an enemy city, order your melee unit to enter the city’s hex, which will initiate
combat between the unit and the city. Both the unit and the city may take damage. If your
unit’s hit points are reduced to zero, it is destroyed. If the city’s hit points are reduced to zero,
your unit captures the city.

ATTACKING WITH RANGED UNITS
Although you can attack a city and wear it down with ranged units, they cannot capture
cities; you must move a melee unit into the city to take it. Similarly, water and air units cannot
capture a city, though they can wear down its defenses to nothing.
See the sections on Air and Sea combat for more info.

DEFENDING A CITY
There are a number of things you can do to improve a city’s defenses. You can “garrison” a
strong military unit within the city. A melee unit will greatly increase the city’s defensive
strength, while a ranged unit will fire at nearby enemy units.
You may also construct Walls to improve the city’s strength, and allow it to bombard enemy
units. A city on a hill gets a defensive bonus as well.
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No matter how powerful a city is, however, it is very important to have units outside the
city. These units can support the city, attack the enemy units, and prevent those units from
surrounding the city, cutting off your supply line, which will stop the city from healing.
See the section on Combat for more details.

CONQUERING A CITY
When your unit enters an enemy city, you have two choices: you can destroy the city, or annex
it as part of your empire. Be aware that both have potential consequences when it comes to
your relationship with other civs.

DESTROYING THE CITY
If you destroy the city, it’s gone. For good. All of its buildings, wonders, and citizens are
destroyed. Destroying a city, while it may make you feel good, can have dramatic diplomatic
consequences. Your warmongering score is tripled with other civs if you raze a city.
Indestructible Cities
You can’t destroy cities that you created. Also, capital cities cannot be destroyed by anyone.

ANNEXING THE CITY
If you annex the city, you make it a part of your empire. You have total control over the city,
just as if you had constructed the city yourself. The one downside to annexation is that it
increases your warmongering score with other civilizations. For example, in the Classical
era, it only increases a little, as war was a part of life, but in the Industrial era, the increase is
significant, because you’re acting “uncivilized”. The higher your warmongering score, the more
the other civs will not trust you. If your score gets high enough, they may decide to denounce
you, or even take military action against you, so weigh your decision carefully.

FOOD, WATER, AND GROWTH
Plentiful food and water is vital to the rise of human civilization. Early humans had to spend
virtually every waking moment hunting and gathering food for themselves, their families or
their tribe, leaving them little time or energy for other pursuits, such as making cave paintings,
constructing a written language, or discovering muons. Once surplus food and water is
available to a people, anything is possible.

CITIES AND FOOD
A city requires 2 food per citizen (another term for “population”) per turn to avoid starvation.
A city acquires food (as well as production and gold) by assigning its citizens to “work” the
land around the city. The city can work any tile within three spaces of the city that is also
within the civilization’s borders as long as it is not being worked by another city.
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Left to its own devices, the city will assign as many citizens as needed to acquire its food. If
not enough is available, the city will starve, and the city will begin to lose its population until
the city can support itself once more.

MANUALLY ASSIGNING CITIZENS TO WORK THE LAND
You can manually assign a city’s citizens to work specific tiles—for example, you can demand a
city to concentrate its efforts on food to grow its population, or on production or gold instead.
See the City Screen section for more details.

FOOD AND AMENITIES
While you can use Food to keep your population fed and growing, if you are not providing
enough Amenities to keep your people happy, your growth will be slowed, regardless of the
amount of food you’re providing.

GETTING MORE FOOD
Certain tiles provide more food than others, and cities near to one or more of these tiles will
grow faster. In addition, Builders can “improve” many tiles with farms, which increases their
output of food.

BEST FOOD TILES
Bonus Resources
Tiles with “bonus” resources provide a lot of food once a Builder constructs the appropriate
improvement on the resource. These include bananas, cattle, deer, fish, and wheat. See the
sections on Builders and resources for more details.
Oasis Tiles
Oases provide a lot of food, especially when compared with the desert in which they’re usually
found.
Flood Plains
Flood plains provide a lot of food, as floods create fertile lands.
Grassland and Rainforests
These tiles also provide a good amount of food.
Improvements
Builders can construct farms on most available tiles, which improves their food output.

BUILDINGS, WONDERS AND SOCIAL POLICIES
Certain buildings, wonders and policies will affect the amount of food a city produces or how
much it needs in its “City Growth Bucket” to increase (see below).

CITY GROWTH
Each turn, a city’s citizens gather a certain amount of food from the surrounding land, or from
the various sources described above. A city’s citizens have first call on that food, and consume
2 food for each population point (so a city of population 7, it consumes 14 food each turn). Any
food left over is put into the “City Growth Bucket.”

THE CITY GROWTH “BUCKET”
The city growth bucket contains all excess food produced by a city each turn. When the
quantity of food reaches a specific amount, the city’s population (citizens) will increase by 1;
the city growth bucket is then emptied, and the process begins all over again. The amount of
food needed for population growth increases significantly as the city’s population gets larger.
The City Details panel on the City Screen indicates how many turns are left until the
city grows; and the “Food” entry in that box tells you how much food the city is currently
producing each turn.

SETTLERS AND FOOD PRODUCTION
Settlers can only be constructed in cities of size 2 or larger. When completed, the city
population is reduced by 1
.

TECHNOLOGY

Technology is one of the driving forces behind civilization. Technological advances in
agriculture and fishing caused cities to grow and thrive. Technological advances in weaponry
and masonry allowed cities to drive off jealous barbarians seeking to steal their food and
plunder their wealth. And technological advances in medicine and sanitation fought off the
other great threat to civilization – disease.
You acquire technology by accumulating “science,” which represent the amount of science your
civilization possesses. Every turn your civilization generates an amount of science that can be
used for research. Each technology costs a certain amount of science to learn; the more science
you generate each turn the shorter the amount of time it takes to research each technology.

TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

In Civilization VI, each technology you acquire gives your civilization access to an advanced
unit, building, resource, or wonder, as well as other tangible benefits, making your civilization
that much more powerful.
You acquire technology by accumulating “science,” which represent the amount of science your
civilization possesses. Every turn your civilization adds a number of science to its science pool.
Each technology costs a certain number of science to learn; when you’ve accumulated enough
science, you acquire that technology. New tech depletes your science pool, so you must start
accumulating science all over again to save up for the next tech.

WHERE DOES SCIENCE COME FROM?
Science comes from your citizens (the population of your cities). Each turn you get a base
amount of Science equal to the combined population of all of your cities. The larger your cities,
the more science you generate. In addition to the Science generated by your base population,
you gain 2 Science from your Palace. You can earn additional Science by constructing specific
buildings or wonders, or by adopting certain policies

INCREASING SCIENCE AND SPEEDING UP RESEARCH
Here are some ways you can speed up your research (or your acquisition of technology)…

Tribal Villages
Some Tribal Villages will give you new technology. This is not guaranteed, but it’s another
good reason to search them out and claim them before anybody else does.
Trade
Trade routes can yield Science from Scientific city-states, or other civilizations’ cities that
contain Campus districts.
Districts and Buildings
You can construct a Campus district in each city with buildings that increase your acquisition
of science. The Library, for example, gives you +2 science per turn, a great scientist point per
turn, and allows a scientist specialists to be assigned (see the section on specialists for more
information).
Wonders
A number of wonders will greatly enhance your civ’s technology. The Great Library wonder
will award +2 Science per turn, and you receive fee boosts to all Ancient and Classical era
technologies. See the Wonder section of the Civilopedia for more details.
Great Scientist
A Great Scientist, when earned, can provide all sorts of science bonuses, depending which one
you claim. For example, Albert Einstein triggers a boost for 1 random Modern or Atomic era
technology, and also provides +4 science to all your Universities.
Policies
Various policies in the game will award additional Science when applies to your government.
For example, the Military Research policy awards +1 Science to each Military Academy and
Seaport.

CHOOSING A TECHNOLOGY TO STUDY

When you have constructed your first city, the “Choose Research” menu appears and you must
select a technology to study. Eventually, you’ll acquire enough Science to learn that tech, and
the “Choose Research” menu will reappear. You’ll have to decide on the next tech. There are
over 65 techs to study, and if you get them all, you can begin researching “Future Techs” to
increase your game score.

THE RESEARCH CHOOSER MENU
When you need to pick a new technology, the Research Chooser menu appears on the left
edge of the screen. At the top, it displays the technology you’ve just finished learning. Below
that is the “Open Technology Tree” button (more about that later), and beneath that is a
list of the technologies available to you at that time. Each technology displays the number
of turns it will take you to get that tech, as well as icons representing the various buildings,
improvements, wonders, etc. that the technology allows or “unlocks”. You can hover your
mouse atop an icon or technology to learn more info about it.
Click on a tech to choose to research that tech. The Choose Research menu will disappear,
and a large icon will appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, showing you which
tech you are currently researching and how long until completion.
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CHANGING RESEARCH
You can change which tech you are researching at any time. To do so, click on the tech icon
in the upper left hand corner of the screen. The Choose Research menu will reappear, and you
can choose any of the available techs on the list. You can then continue to research the original
tech later at the point you stopped; the previous research, and subsequent turns spent on that
research, is not lost.

WHICH TECHNOLOGIES ARE AVAILABLE
At the start of the game, there are only a few technologies available to research, such as
Animal Husbandry, Astrology, Pottery, Mining, and Sailing. All other technologies have
one or more prerequisite techs that must be learned before they can be studied. When you’ve
learned the prerequisite techs, the newly-available tech will appear on the Choose Research
menu.
For example, the techs of Irrigation and Writing require knowledge of Pottery before they
can be learned. If you choose to study Pottery, that tech will be removed from the Choose
Research menu (because you already know it) and Irrigation and Writing will be added.
There are some technologies that require knowledge of 2 or 3 prerequisite technologies to
unlock. Those techs will not appear until you’ve learned all of the required techs.

THE MIGHTY TECHNOLOGY TREE
To see how all of this works in the game, check out the amazing Technology Tree. It displays
all obtainable technologies and how they each intertwine. Click on a tech to order your
civilization to research it – if your civilization doesn’t know the prerequisite techs, it will
research them first. The Tech Tree will plot the quickest route to the requested tech, and you
will research the necessary precursors in the order it displays.
The Tech Tree can be reached from the Choose Research menu or by pressing the T hotkey.

THE SCIENCE VICTORY
Once you have learned enough technology, you can construct a series of rockets that
culminates in a colony on Mars. If you do this before any other civilization achieves any other
kind of victory, you win a Science Victory.
See the section on Victory for more details about the various ways to achieve victory in
Civilization VI.

CULTURE
Culture is a measurement of your civilization’s commitment to and appreciation of the arts
and humanities – everything from cave paintings to Tiki heads. In this game, culture is the
way that you advance through the Civics tree, which unlocks new policies and governments.
It’s also how you increase the size of your cities’ territories. The more Culture you generate, the
faster your borders will grow.
Most importantly, culture can be another path to victory.

CIVICS AND CULTURE

In Civilization VI, each Civic you acquire gives your civilization access to policies or
governments, as well as certain buildings, districts, and diplomatic advancements.
Like the Tech Tree and Science, you acquire Civics by accumulating culture. Every turn your
civilization adds some amount of culture to its pool. Each Civic costs a certain amount of
culture to learn; when you’ve accumulated enough culture, you acquire the Civic. Once you
earn the new Civic, your pool is depleted and you start accumulating all over again to save up
for the next Civic.
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WHERE DOES CULTURE COME FROM?
Much like other yields, culture comes from a variety of sources:

Buildings and Districts
Beginning with the palace and the monument, there are a variety of buildings and districts
that increase a city’s culture yield. The Theater Square district, for example, can hold multiple
Culture generating buildings.
Wonders
A number of wonders will provide culture to your city.
Policies
Some policies will increase your culture income, such as the Trade Confederation.
Leader Abilities
Some leaders have special abilities that allow them to pull ahead in the culture game quicker
than others, such as Peter the Great or Gorgo.
Natural Wonders
Several natural wonders provide a culture yield.
City-States
All Cultural City-States provide culture when sending them envoys.
Beliefs
Many beliefs provide boosts to earned culture.
Trade Routes
Trading with a civilization that has a theater square will provide culture.

CHOOSING A CIVIC TO STUDY
When you have reached enough culture in your pool to finish your first Civic, the “Choose
Civic” menu appears. You then must select which civic you wish to study next. Eventually
you’ll acquire enough culture to learn that civic, and the “Choose Civic” menu will reappear
for you to choose your next Civic. There are many civics to study, and if you earn them all you
can start on “Globalization and Social Media” to increase your game score
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THE CHOOSE CIVIC MENU
When you need to pick a new Civic, the Choose Civic menu appears on the left edge of the
screen. At the top it displays the Civic you’ve just finished learning (“Code of Laws” is the
first available Civic). Below that is the “Open Civics Tree” button (more about that later), and
beneath that is a list of the Civics available to you at that time. Each Civic displays the number
of turns it takes to acquire that Civic, as well as the icon representing the various governments,
policies, buildings, etc. that the civic allows or “unlocks”. Hover your mouse atop an icon or
Civic to learn more info about it.
Click on a Civic to choose to research that civic. The Choose Civic menu will disappear, and
a large icon will appear in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, showing you which Civic
you are currently researching and how long until it’s completed.

CHANGING RESEARCH
You can change which Civic you are researching at any time. To do so, click on the Civic icon
in the upper left hand corner of the screen. The Choose Civic menu will reappear, and you can
choose any of the available Civics on the list. You can later continue to research the original
civic at the point you stopped; the previous research, and the subsequent turns spent, is not
lost.

WHICH CIVICS ARE AVAILABLE
At the start of the game, there is only one Civic to research, Code of Laws. All other Civics in the
game have one or more prerequisite Civics that must be learned before they can be studied. When
you’ve learned the prerequisite Civic, the newly-available Civic appears on the Choose Civic menu.
For example, the Civics of Early Empire and Mysticism require knowledge of Foreign Trade
before they can be learned. So if you study Foreign Trade, that Civic will be removed from the
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Choose Civic menu (since you already know it) and Early Empire and Mysticism are added.
Some Civics require knowledge of 2 or 3 prerequisite Civics, not just one. Those Civics do not
appear until you’ve learned their required Civics.

THE MIGHTY CIVICS TREE
To see how all of this works in the game, check out the amazing Civics Tree. It displays all
obtainable Civics and how they intertwine. Click on a Civic to order your civilization to
research it – if your civ doesn’t know the prerequisite Civics, it will research those first. The
Civics Tree will plot the quickest route to the requested Civic, researching the necessary
precursors in the order it displays.
The Civics Tree can be reached from the Choose Civic menu or by pressing the C hotkey.

THE CULTURE VICTORY
If you aim to be the cultural epicenter of the world, this is the victory for you. The first
civilization to possess a total number of Visiting Tourists that exceeds the Domestic Tourists
of each other civilization in the game wins the Culture Victory.
Tourism is generated by Trade Routes, shared (or conflicting) late game Governments, open
borders, Great Works housed in your civilization, Relics housed in your civilization, Holy
Sites, National Parks, Artifacts, and wonders.
To See the section on Victory for more details about the various ways to achieve victory in
Civilization VI.

BUILDERS AND IMPROVEMENTS
Builders represent the men and women who build your empire. They clear the Woods or
Rainforests to build the farms that feed your cities. They dig the mines that provide you with
precious gold or mighty iron. They may not be military units, but Builders are important.
A Builder’s improvements can increase the production, gold, and food output of your tiles.
They also provide access to special bonuses provided by certain resources. If you do not
improve your land, your civilization will almost certainly be overwhelmed by more established
civilizations.

CREATING BUILDERS
Builders are built in cities, just like other units.

BUILDERS IN COMBAT
Builders are non-military units. They are captured when an enemy unit enters their tile (they
do not gain experience or promotions). Builders cannot attack or damage other units, so it’s a
really good idea to stack a military unit with a builder if they’re in dangerous territory.
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THE BUILDER ACTION PANEL
When an active Builder is in a location where it can do something – say, build an
improvement, or clear land—the Builder Action Panel is visible. This panel displays all
actions available to the builder at that location. Click on an action to order the Builder to start
building. Builder actions are completed immediately, but builders only have a certain number
of charges (shown on the Action Panel) before they retire.

CLEARING LAND
Once their civilization has learned the Mining technology, Builders can remove Woods from
tiles. Once they have learned Bronze Working, they can remove Rainforest. And once they
have learned Irrigation, Builders can drain Marshes.
Remember, while clearing away terrain to access the resources around a city can be a profitable
tactic, there are some benefits to keeping some of the natural terrain around your city. See
Terrain for more details.

BUILDING ROADS
Builders cannot construct roads. Roads are constructed by Traders to establish Trade Routes
are sent between cities, or by Military Engineers later in the game. Roads can be built in any
terrain and across any features, excluding mountains, Natural Wonders, ice, and water (Ocean,
Lake, or Coast. Roads can be constructed in tiles with resources and/or improvements. Roads
work in conjunction with existing improvements, wonders, etc.
See the section on Roads for more details.

CONSTRUCTING IMPROVEMENTS
Once a civilization has learned the appropriate technology, its Builders can construct
improvements.

WHERE IMPROVEMENTS CAN BE CONSTRUCTED
Improvements can be built only in appropriate locations. For example, farms may not be built
on ice, while mines cannot be built atop Cattle resources. The Builder Action Panel displays
improvements that your civilization has the technology for and are appropriate for the tile the
active Builder is currently occupying.

Airstrip
This modern improvement can be built on any tile without Hills after researching Flight.
Only Military Engineers can build airstrips, which yield two aircraft slots.
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Camp
The camp improvement requires Animal Husbandry; camps may be built on Deer, Furs, Ivory,
or Truffles resources to increases the gold output of that tile.
Farm
The farm is the earliest and most commonly-constructed improvement. All civilizations begin
knowing how to farm. Farm improvements can be constructed in Plains and Grassland, or
atop Rice or Wheat tiles.
Fishing Boats
After researching Sailing, fishing boats may be built on Whales, Fish, Crabs, and Pearls.
Fort
The Fort is a special improvement that is constructed by Military Engineers, after researching
the Sage Tactics, or as the Roman Fort, by the Roman Legions, after discovering the Iron
Working. They provide protection to military units when fighting from within the Fort. The
fort may only be constructed in a friendly or neutral tile atop any resource or terrain, but
constructing a fort atop another improvement will destroy the previous improvement. The
fort is destroyed when a non-friendly unit enters the space, or if the space becomes owned by
another civilization.
Lumber Mill
Lumber Mills increase a Woods tile’s output by 1 production without destroying the Woods
feature. Building a lumber mill next to a river will further increase the tile’s yield by 1
production. This improvement is unlocked by Machinery.
Mine
The mine improvement is acquired when your civilization learns the Mining tech. It can be
used to increase the production output of many tiles, and may be built on Hills or mineral
Luxury and Strategic resources.
Oil Well & Offshore Platform
Oil wells and offshore platforms are modern improvements to oil tiles that increase the tile’s
output by 2 production.
Pasture
Unlocked by Animal Husbandry, this improvement can be built on Cattle, Horses, and Sheep
to increase the tile output by 1 production.
Plantation
This improvement is unlocked by Irrigation and can be built on Bananas, Citrus, Cocoa,
Coffee, Cotton, Dyes, Incense, Silk, Spices, Sugar, Tea, Tobacco, and Wine to increase the
output by 1 Gold.
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Quarry
After researching Mining, you can build a quarry on Gypsum, Marble, or Stone to increase
the tile output by 1 production.
Seaside Resort
The Seaside Resort may be built on Grass, Plains, or Desert tiles without Hills after
researching Radio. They must be a coastal tile that has an appeal of 2 or higher. Resort tiles
provide gold and tourism equal to appeal.

PILLAGING ROADS AND IMPROVEMENTS
Certain units can “pillage” roads, buildings, and improvements, rendering them temporarily
useless – that means no resource, no movement bonus, and so forth. A unit may even pillage
its own civilization’s roads (typically to deny another civ from benefiting from them).

PLUNDER REWARDS
A unit that pillages an improvement may gain a “plunder” bonus based on what was pillaged.
Rewards scale based on game speed and era.

REPAIRING ROADS AND IMPROVEMENTS
A builder may repair a pillaged road or improvement. This takes one turn, but does not
consume a Builder “charge.”
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BUILDER ACTION LIST

Build Farm: Construct a Farm improvement on the current tile. Farms increase the Food
production of the tile. Some resources, like Wheat, require Farms to be built on them before
they can be accessed.
Build Mine: Construct a Mine improvement on the current tile to improve its production.
Some resources, like Iron or Diamonds, require Mines before they can be accessed.
Build Lumber Mill: Build a Lumber Mill on a current tile with the terrain Woods.
Lumber Mills provide extra Production.
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Build Pasture: Construct a Pasture on the occupied tile for resources like Horses and Cattle.
Build Camp: Construct a Camp on the occupied tile to access resources like Furs and Deer.
Build Plantation: Construct a Plantation on the current tile. Plantations are needed in order
to access many Luxury Resources.
Build Quarry: Construct a Quarry on the current tile. Marble resources require Quarries to
be built on them in order to be accessed.
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Build Oil Well: Construct an oil well on the current land tile to access the Oil resource there.
Remove Rainforest: Order the Builder to clear the occupied tile of its Rainforest Feature.
This removes any benefits provided by the Rainforest.
Remove Woods: Order the Builder to clear the occupied tile of any Woods Feature. This
removes any benefits provided by the Woods.
Remove Marsh: Order the Builder to clear the selected tile of any Marsh Feature.
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Repair: Repair any damage caused by unit pillaging. The improvement and any resources on
this tile cannot be utilized until it is repaired.
Delete: Permanently delete the active unit and receive a small amount of gold in return.
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MILITARY ENGINEER ACTION LIST
Build Road: Build a road improvement on the current tile. Roads can be built on any passable
land tile.
Build Airstrip: Construct an Airstrip improvement to provide Aircraft slots.
Build Fort: Construct a Fort improvement to provide combat defenses.

GOVERNMENTS

Governments let you customize your civilization to match your play style. They offer different
combinations of slots that hold different types of Social Policies, as well as offer distinct
bonuses. Each policy type can only be housed in its specific policy slot (military, economic and
diplomatic), with the exception of wild card slots, which can house great person policies or any
other policy type.
Unlocked through the Civics Tree, the available governments will change as you progress
through time. In the beginning, you will have a simple government with only a handful
of slots. But as you reach later eras, more slots in different combinations will be unlocked.
Additionally, Governments have their own special bonuses: for instance, while active, the
Theocracy government allows you to purchase land units with accumulated Faith and offers a
discount on Faith purchases.
Additionally, all Governments have Legacy bonuses that unlock when a Government type
has been active within your empire for a number of turns. For example, though you may have
moved past the Theocracy government long ago, you receive a Legacy bonus of Faith discounts
based on how long that Government was active during your empire’s history.
You may change governments at any time, but it is free on the turn where you have unlocked a
civic. Any other turn, you will have to pay a gold cost. If you choose to revert to a government
you had previously activated, your city will incur Anarchy, losing all yields and government
bonuses for a number of turns.
The Government you establish changes the number of Social Policy slots available for you to
set. Read below for more information.

SOCIAL POLICIES

Social Policies represent the way you choose to govern your people. Will you be an
authoritarian ruler, sacrificing a little freedom for discipline and increased productivity? Will
you organize your civilization to have a strong military, or will you concentrate your efforts
on expanding culture and borders? Do you want to set up your civilization as a monarchy or
democracy?
Social policies have concrete effects on gameplay. Some increase your cities’ production, while
others generate more wealth; still others establish a more effective military. There is no right
or wrong policy in the game, and one policy may be better for a given circumstance or your
personal playing style than another. Try them out and see what works.
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There are 4 types of Policies, each of which may be slotted into a corresponding slot in a given
Government. Slotting these individual policies will give you the benefits described, thus
enhancing your game.

GAINING SOCIAL POLICIES

You can choose to adopt social policies once you have gained enough Culture to unlock your
first Government. Social Policies will be unlocked as you progress through the Civics Tree,
and changing your Government will allow you to slot different combinations of policies to
better suit your play style.
Any time a new Government or Policy is unlocked from the Civics tree, you will have the
opportunity to re-slot or change your Government for free. Otherwise, there will be a cost to
make these changes.

SOCIAL POLICY TYPES
There are 4 different policy types to explore, each attributing to a different style of
government. All types must be applied to an empty slot of the same type in the government,
but a Wildcard slot can house any type of policy.

Military: These policies are best for players who want a strong military on land and sea.
Economic: These policies can increase all sorts of yields, whether through increasing district
adjacency bonuses or reducing costs.
Diplomatic: These policies are best for players with a strong interest in building relationships,
and can help strengthen the bonds with City-States or improve espionage operations.
Great Person: These policies accelerate the rate of Great Person production.
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RELIGION
Religion has returned to Civilization VI. Although similar to the Religion systems of past
Civilization titles, there is now more riding on your religious choices than ever. With the
introduction of the brand new Religious Victory and Theological Combat, you have new and
exciting tools at your disposal to spread your beliefs to other cities and civilizations.

ACCUMULATING FAITH
Faith is the currency of Religion, and may be acquired in a number of different ways:

Civilization and Leader Abilities: Some Civilizations and Leaders have special abilities that
allow you to earn Faith from sources that would not otherwise grant this yield.
Social Policies: Slotting certain policies can yield a passive income of Faith.
City-States: Partnering with religious City-States will allow you to accumulate Faith more
quickly.
The World: Some Tribal Villages award lump Faith bonuses when investigated, and Natural
Wonders can provide Faith yields.
Buildings: The Holy Site and religious buildings (such as Shrines or Temple) are natural
choices to increase your Faith income.

PANTHEONS
Once you accumulate enough Faith, you’ll be prompted to Found a Pantheon, a precursor to
the full-blown Religions founded later. Choosing which Pantheon to found depends on your
short- and long-term goals for your civilization. After earning a Pantheon, you are well on
your way to establishing your Religion.

GREAT PROPHETS
In Civilization VI, you may found your Religion once you have earned (or purchased) a Great
Prophet. Religious buildings will accumulate the Great Prophet Points necessary to bring
this special unit to your civilization. After the Great Prophet has been earned, send the unit
to your Holy Site, and then found your Religion. Great Prophets may also be earned from
Stonehenge.

FOUNDING YOUR RELIGION
After founding your Religion, you will be prompted to choose a name and icon to represent
your beliefs. You may choose a historical religion, or create one of your own!
A newly established religion will consist of two beliefs: a Follower belief, and one of three
additional types of beliefs that can be tailored to your play style. Once your religion is founded,
all of your cities with Holy Sites will automatically convert to the religion.
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Any future Holy Sites built will immediately adopt your religion.
Note: A maximum of 7 religions can ever be created in any game. Try to get one early so you
don’t miss out!

RELIGIOUS UNITS
There are three types of religious “combat” units: Missionaries, Apostles, and Inquisitors.
Religious units may be purchased through your city with Faith and will adopt the majority
Religion of the city in which they are built.
Missionaries may be built in any city with a Shrine, and have the ability to spread your religion
to any City Center in an adjacent hex.
Apostles may be built in any city with a Temple, and are stronger than Missionaries. In
addition to being able to spread your religion to more cities (and remove some of another
player’s religion while doing so!). Apostles possess a special attribute that make them uniquely
powerful in one specific area, such as having more charges to spread or having Medic abilities.
Furthermore, Apostles may initiate Theological Combat against enemy Missionaries or
Apostles. Theological Combat is the best way to defend against other religions trying to spread
across the map.
Inquisitors are special units that are good for defending against other religions in your own
territory. You may gain these units after choosing to launch an inquisition with an Apostle.

CITY-STATES
City-States are the smaller political entities in Civilization VI. They cannot win a game
because they’re not competing against you – but they can greatly assist or impede your progress
towards victory. There are a few options to deal with these city-states. You can befriend them
and gain a number of important benefits, you can ignore them and concentrate on bigger and
more important foes, or you can conquer them and take their stuff. The choice is up to you.

TYPES OF CITY-STATES
There are six different “flavors” of city-states. Each can provide you with different benefits if
you befriend or ally with them.
TRADE
A trade city-state can provide gold to your civilization.
RELIGIOUS
A religious city-state can provide faith to your civilization.
MILITARISTIC
A militaristic city-state can provide production to your army.
SCIENTIFIC
A scientific city-state can provide science to your civilization.
CULTURAL
A cultural city-state can help you improve your culture.
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INDUSTRIAL
An industrial city-state can provide production to your civilization.

COMMUNICATING WITH CITY-STATES
In order to communicate with a city-state, you must find it first. When one of your units
encounters a city-state, the city-state will tell you what type it is (see above), and it will often
give you a gift as well. (This is another good reason to explore the world!)
Once you have met, the city-state may periodically offer you “Quests” (see below). If you want
to get in touch with the city-state, you can click on the city itself, or you can go through the
Diplomacy Panel.

ENVOYS
The bonuses you earn from a city-state depend on how many Envoys you have sent to the citystate.
After earning Envoys, you will be able to choose which city-state to send them to.
If you have multiple Envoys, you may divide them between city-state as you desire. You may
even choose to send Envoys to a city-state you are at war with (unless you were the one that
declared the war originally), potentially changing the city-state’s allegiance in the middle
of a war.
Declaring war directly on a city-state removes all Envoys you had there; otherwise, Envoys
stay in the city-state permanently. Envoys at a city-state are visible to all players, and placing
them may have diplomatic consequences.
The bonuses earned are based on how many Envoys you have present, regardless of who
else has Envoys there. City-states of the same type share the same Type Bonuses. They are
cumulative, so as a player places more and more Envoys in a city-state, they stack with the
bonuses from before.

There are three ways to earn Envoys:
Civics
Some Civics, particularly ones that are not on the “main path” of the tree, award an Envoy as
soon as they are finished. Later Civics will award multiple Envoys.
Quests
City-States can broadcast quests which allow you to earn free Envoys at the City-State. The
number of Envoys rewarded depends on quest type and game progression. Quests are always
assigned to individual players, and only to players that have at least one Envoy already in place.
The type of City-State determines which quests are more likely to be given.
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Governments
Governments, and some policies in a government, contribute “influence points” which award
Envoys to spend once a threshold is reached.

INFLUENCE LEVELS

WAR
While at war with a City-State, your influence will remain negative and they certainly won’t
give you anything. However, a city-state will always accept a peace deal as long as the suzerain
of the city-state is not at war with you.

NEUTRAL
The city-state doesn’t especially like or hate you. You can do quests to receive and send Envoys,
or you can go to war.

SUZERAIN
The civilization with the most tokens on a City-State (must be at least 3 tokens) is considered
that City-State’s Suzerain. There can be at most one Suzerain; ties are not allowed. If nobody
has tokens on a City-State, there is no Suzerain. The Suzerain gets several significant benefits:
Unique City-State bonus. This is a powerful bonus which no other City-State will provide
(ex. Jerusalem acts as a second Holy City for your religion.)
Diplomatic allegiance. The City-State will automatically follow its Suzerain into war and
peace, matching the diplomatic state of the Suzerain.
Military levy. The Suzerain can pay the City-State a sum of gold to gain control of the CityState’s
military units on the map for a limited time.
City-States have limited autonomy. City-states have limited autonomy. They cannot declare
war on a civilization, except indirectly by having a suzerain who does declare war. But they
can always declare war on another city-state. The suzerain is not obligated to follow the citystate
into war or peace.

WAR OF THE CITY-STATES
You can declare war on a City-State at any time. You can do so through the Diplomatic Panel
or by ordering one of your units to attack a city-state’s unit or city. You can offer peace to a
city-state through the Diplomatic Panel or by clicking on the city.

GREAT PEOPLE
Great People are the artists, merchants, engineers, scientists, or warriors who can
singlehandedly change the course of a civilization. In Civilization VI, each Great Person is
an individual with their own name and effect based on their historical influence.
There are many types of Great People, some examples are: Great Artists (or Writers or
Musicians), Great Engineers, Great Merchants, Great Scientists, Great Prophets, Great
Admirals, and Great Generals.

GENERATING GREAT PEOPLE

Great People can be earned by earning enough of the right type of points, and can only
be earned by civilizations (not Barbarians or city-state). Unlike the Civilization V system,
Great People are global: they are visible to all players, and they can be visibly competed
over between all players.

Each type of Great Person has their own points that are tracked separately. Great Scientist
Points cannot count as Great Artist Points, and so on.
The number of points needed to earn a particular Great Person depends on that Great
Person’s era. A Renaissance-era Great Scientist will cost much less Great Scientist Points
than a Modern-era one. These points come from a variety of sources:

Districts
Each district, and the buildings within it, provide points towards its associated Great
Person type. This is the slow, but steady source of points.
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City Projects
This is an active approach for players to aim for a particular Great Person they want
and overtake competing players. For each available Great Person type, any city with its
associated district has access to a special project in its production queue. For example,
when a Great Prophet is available, cities with Holy Site districts can choose “Holy Site
Prayers – 5 Turns” in their production queue. Choosing one of these projects greatly
increases the Great People points for that type once it is completed. These projects also
provide yields when they are underway, and can be repeated multiple times.
Other Bonuses
Points can also be generated through government policies, Wonders, unique civilization
abilities, etc.

USING GREAT PEOPLE

Each individual Great Person has a different effect inspired by history. Most effects are
strongly linked to a particular era of play and are not optimal for use outside of that time.
The effects fall into two broad categories:

Birth Effects
A Birth Effect happens as soon as the Great Person is spawned on the map and do not
need to be activated. These are mostly used for Generals and Admirals (ex. +5 combat
strength for units within 2 tiles of a General).
Action Effects
An Action Effect must be activated by the Great Person by using a “charge” at a certain
location. The number of charges, the type of location needed, and the effect activated will
vary based on the individual. Most individuals only have 1 charge and can only activate
at a district matching its type (ex. most Great Scientists have 1 charge and must use it at
a Campus). Like other charge-based units, the individual will disappear when all charges
are depleted.
Note: The Prophets do not have a different effect, as they can only create a religion.

GREAT GENERALS AND ADMIRALS

The main effect of Great Generals and Admirals is to provide bonuses to military units near
them on the battlefield. Generals and Admirals have this effect by default. Regardless of who
the individual is, all Generals and Admirals provide +1 Movement and +5 Combat Strength
for land or naval military units (respectively) within 2 tiles.
They also have an action which provides a bonus unique to the history of the individual.

Note: Great Generals’ and Admirals’ bonus unique ability is used by retiring the unit.

GREAT ARTISTS
Great Artists, Musicians and Writers are special people who produce Great Works – paintings
or sculptures – that you can house in your civilization to attract tourists.
For more on Great Work storage and Tourism, see the Culture Victory section of the manual.
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GREAT PROPHETS
Great Prophets are a special type of Great Person that are limited from the game’s start, and
are used to found a religion. Great Prophets do not have individualized effects.
Once you have earned a Great Prophet, send them to your Holy Site to found your religion.
For more on this, see the Religion section of this manual.
Great Prophets are no longer available when starting the game in the Industrial Era or later.
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GREAT ENGINEERS
Great Engineers are primarily about buildings, production, and especially Wonders. Many
Engineers will assist in progressing construction of a Wonder much more quickly than
otherwise possible, sometimes triggering a secondary effect as well. Other Engineers use
charges to produce buildings in districts, sometimes above the current tech level.

GREAT MERCHANTS
Great Merchants have a variety of effects, but most are related to gold, trade routes,
or City-States.

GREAT SCIENTISTS
Great Scientists have a variety of possible effects, but many are focused on the triggering of
tech boosts or otherwise speeding scientific advancement. These tech boosts will not stack
with the ones earned from normal play. This means, for example, that you cannot get one
boost on a tech from a Great Scientist for 50% its cost and then boost it with its normally
available game trigger to complete it.

MOVING GREAT PEOPLE
Great People can move about the board like any other units. They are non-combat units,
which means that they cannot stack in a tile with other non-combat units (Builders, Settlers),
but they can stack with one military unit. If an enemy unit enters a Great Person’s tile, that
Great Person is automatically sent back to the user’s territory (the enemy cannot take a Great
Person for their own).

GOLD
Ah, Gold! Gold is the lifeblood of civilizations. It may be true that “money can’t buy you love,”
but it can purchase a submarine armed with nuclear missiles, and that’s not bad.

WHERE TO GET GOLD
Gold comes from a variety of sources. You’ll get most of your gold by working the tiles around
your cities, but other sources are available as well.

TERRAIN TYPES
These tiles provide gold when your citizens work them:
• Coast Tiles
• Some Natural Wonders
• Oasis

IMPROVEMENTS
Some improvements provide gold when worked, such as:
• Camps
• Plantations
• Seaside Resorts

TRADING POSTS
Trading Posts are built in cities along Trade Routes. They provide a gold benefit to the City
that owns the Trading Post as well as the host city.

DISTRICTS AND BUILDINGS
Many districts and buildings increase a city’s output of gold, especially the Commercial Hub
and the buildings it houses.

WONDERS
Some Wonders provide or increase a city’s output of gold, such as the Great Lighthouse
or Big Ben.

TRADE ROUTES
Creating a Trade Route with any city will provide gold, and cities with Harbors and
Commercial Hubs will provide even more.

BARBARIAN ENCAMPMENTS
You earn gold each time you disperse a Barbarian Encampment

TRIBAL VILLAGES
Some tribal villages offer a gift of gold when explored.
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CITY-STATES
A city-state may give you gold later if you befriend it, depending on its type. (See the section
on city-states for details.)

PILLAGE ENEMY IMPROVEMENTS
Pillaging certain enemy improvements and districts will give you a modest amount of gold.

DIPLOMACY
You can negotiate for gold – lump sum or an amount each turn for a number of turns – during
negotiations with another civ.

EXPENDING GOLD
There are a lot of ways to earn gold. Likewise, there are plenty of places to spend it:

UNIT AND BUILDING MAINTENANCE
Units and buildings both have “maintenance costs” that must be paid every turn.
See the individual entries on the units and buildings for specific amounts. (Note that these
maintenance costs are dependent upon the game speed at which you’re playing.)

PURCHASE TILES
You can extend your civilization’s territory by purchasing individual tiles. Go to a City Screen,
and then click on “Buy a Tile.” The map will display all tiles available for purchase. Click on
the tile to expend the requisite gold and purchase the tile. When choosing where to place a
district, you will also have the option to purchase a tile.

PURCHASING UNITS, BUILDINGS, OR WONDERS
You can spend gold to purchase units or buildings in a city. Click on an item (if you can afford
it!) and it will be immediately constructed in the city, with the amount deducted from your
treasury.

UPGRADING OBSOLETE UNITS
Over time, you’ll learn new technologies that allow you to create better military units than
those you previously could. When this occurs, you’ll have the option to “upgrade” the older
units, turning them into the newer, more powerful models. (For example, once you learn
Archery, you can upgrade any Slinger units you possess into Archers.) Each upgrade costs
some gold – the more powerful the upgrade, the more expensive it will be.
A unit must be in your territory to be upgraded. When an upgrade is available for a unit, the
“Upgrade” button will appear in the unit’s Action list.
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DIPLOMACY

You can exchange gold with other civilizations for any number of reasons – trading it
for resources or to get the other civ to make peace with you. Gold is extremely useful in
negotiations.
There are two different ways to exchange gold: flat fee and per turn.

Flat Fee
A “Flat Fee” exchange is just that. You give or receive a one-time lump sum of gold, and then
you’re done.

Per Turn
You can also negotiate an exchange that occurs over a number of turns (usually 30). For
example, you might agree to pay the other civ 5 gold per turn for 30 turns. These agreements
are rendered null and void if the two civilizations go to war.

LOSING A CITY
If a civilization or city-state captures one of your cities, they take some of your gold (as well as
the city).

BANKRUPTCY
If your treasury is at zero and you’re running a negative budget, you will begin to receive a -1
penalty to your Amenities per every 10 Gold you drop below 0. Additionally, at -10 Gold you
will automatically disband a unit, at -20 Gold, two units will be disbanded, and so forth.

AMENITIES
Amenities are like a currency for happiness – the higher your amenities, the more content your
citizens. Additionally, the more amenities you have, the more your citizens will grow and the
better your yields will be. Of course, an unhappy city will not grow very much at all, and you’ll
see a negative impact on your yields.
Amenities are always tracked at a per-city level, and as your population grows you will need to
ensure that your amenities do as well.

POSITIVE AMENITY SOURCES
Luxury Resources: Each Luxury resource can contribute up to 4 Amenities to your empire (1
per city) to the 4 cities that need them most. Distribution happens automatically, as long as the
Luxury resource is improved (a Plantation improvement built on Spices, for example).
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Entertainment: The first building in the entertainment complex district (arena) provides
amenities to the local city. The next two buildings (zoo and stadium) provide amenities
regionally to all city-centers within 6 tiles. Two wonders (Colosseum and Estadio do
Maracena) provide amenities to all cities in a player’s empire.
Religion: Some religious beliefs can increase amenities.
Civics: Some specific social policies will have a positive effect on your amenities when slotted
in your government.

NEGATIVE AMENITY SOURCES
War Weariness: Fighting a lot of wars (especially in the later eras) will trigger war weariness.
Losing units compounds this effect.
Bankruptcy: Not having enough Gold to cover your expenses in a turn will put negative
amenities on all of your cities (as well as forcing some of your military units to disband).

WONDERS
Wonders are the spectacular buildings, inventions, and concepts that have stood the test of
time and changed the world forever. Wonders require time, energy, and effort to complete, but
once constructed, they provide your civilization with many benefits.

CONSTRUCTING WONDERS
Wonders are unique: only one of each can be constructed during a game. For example,
whichever civilization completes the Great Lighthouse first is the only one who can build it.
Wonders tend to be extremely powerful and expensive, as well.

EFFECTS OF WONDERS
A Wonder can have a huge variety of effects. One might greatly increase a city’s productivity,
while another might grant you free technology. A third might give your Builders additional
charges, and a fourth might grant you a significant gold increase.
Check the Civilopedia’s Wonder entries for more details.

CAPTURING WONDERS
If you capture a city, you will capture all of the World Wonders constructed in it.

PROJECTS
Projects are a special kind of construction akin to Wonders in that they perform special
functions unlike other buildings. Some Projects may be constructed only once per civilization,
like the Manhattan Project, or multiple times over the course of the game,
such as the Campus Research Grants.
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Unlike Wonders, which give your civ immediate bonuses upon completion, Projects help
unlock other features or units in the game (like the ability to build nuclear weaponry ), or
are necessary components to complete a Victory. See the sections on the Culture and Science
Victories for more information.
Also, unlike any other production item in a city, Projects cannot be purchased or hurried.

DIPLOMACY
Diplomacy is important in Civilization VI. The world is huge and filled with other civilizations
whose leaders are just as cunning and determined as you are. Some are honest, others are liars.
Some are warlike, others prefer peace. But they all want to win.
You can accomplish a lot through diplomacy, such as gaining allies or isolating your enemies.
You can create defensive and offensive pacts or increase your technological advancements
through cooperative research ventures. You can end wars that are going badly for you, bluff the
credulous, or bully the timid.
It’s a big, tough world out there, and you won’t last long if you automatically attack everybody
you meet. Sometimes it really is better to talk than to fight.

WHO CAN CONDUCT DIPLOMACY
You can speak to another civilization’s leader at any time after you’ve established diplomatic
relations with them. This happens automatically when one of your cities or units encounters
one of their cities or units. (In fact, the desire to establish diplomatic relations is one of the
driving forces behind world exploration.)
Note that another civ may attempt to open negotiations with you as well once you’ve
established diplomatic relations.

INITIATING DIPLOMACY
Once you’ve met another civilization, to initiate diplomacy, click on any leader portrait on the
diplomacy ribbon at the top-center of the screen. The leader will appear, displaying possible
diplomatic options, information about your current relationship, diplomatic visibility level,
their agendas, gossip, and more. If you want to switch to a different leader, you can do so by
clicking on a different leader portrait on the diplomacy ribbon on the left side of the diplomacy
screen.
If you want to speak with a city-state, you can do so by clicking on the city-state menu button
on the top-right of the screen, which will display a full list of all city-states you’ve met.

DIPLOMACY WITH CIVILIZATIONS
When you engage in diplomacy with civilizations, you will have a number of options available
depending on your current relationship.

DECLARE WAR (SURPRISE WAR)
Click on this button to declare war against the civilization. You can use this option to declare
war without warning. This option will have the greatest negative impact on the opinion that
others civs have of your civ (warmonger score).

DECLARE WAR (FORMAL WAR)
Click on this button to declare a formal war. This option requires you to denounce another civ
before declaring war. This option has less of an impact on your warmonger score with other
civs. Additional circumstances can eliminate a negative score altogether, like defending an ally
or targeting a civ who is trying to displace your religion in your own cities.

NEGOTIATE PEACE
If you’re at war with the civ, you can discuss peace.

DEAL
You can negotiate a trade deal with the civilization. Clicking on this button will bring up the
Trade Screen. From here, you can trade, make a demand, or even give a gift.

DENOUNCE
If you are unhappy with another civ, or you are preparing to declare a formal war, you can
denounce them by clicking this button.

SEND DELEGATION
Click this button to send a delegation to another civ. If they accept, this will increase your
diplomatic visibility (access level).

DECLARE FRIENDSHIP
Click this button to ask to make a declaration of friendship. If the other civ accepts, your
relationship will improve, which is also the next step towards an alliance. Additionally, a
positive relationship will give you better terms when negotiating deals.

PROPOSE ALLIANCE
Click this button to propose an alliance. Once an alliance is achieved, you will unlock the
ability to propose Defensive Pacts, and Joint Wars.

PROPOSE DEFENSIVE PACT
Click this button to propose a defensive pact. If either side of the pact get attacked, it will
trigger an automatic declaration of war against the aggressor. Requires an alliance.

PROPOSE JOINT WAR
Click this button to propose a joint war. If they accept, both the player and accepting
civilization will declare war against a common enemy. Requires an alliance.

DISCUSS
This button allows you to open up dialog on possible disagreements between you and the
leader. Depending upon circumstances you may do any of the following:
• Request that the leader stop spying on you.
• Request that the leader not convert your cities to their religion.
• Request that the leader not dig up artifacts on your land.
• Request that the leader not build any more new cities near you.

EXIT
Press this to exit diplomacy with the leader.

THE TRADE SCREEN

The Trade Screen allows you to trade items, or enter into other kinds of treaties. Many options
require knowledge of certain technologies or civics before you use them. If you cannot trade
something, it will not be included in the list of possible trade items. Hover your cursor over a
line to learn more about it.

The Trade Screen is divided into two sides. Your civ’s reserves are on the left side, and the
other civ’s are on the right.

Click on items on your side to offer them to your trading partner; click on items from their
side to indicate what you want in return. You might, for example, offer to them “Open
Borders” (permission for his units to enter your territory) in return for “Open Borders”
(permission for your units to enter his territory).

However, trades do not need to be equal: you can, for example, ask for “Open Borders” in
return for gold, or nothing. If the other civ accepts, you will see a green “Accept Trade” button
appear. If the other civ rejects it (the button does not appear), you can click on “Make this deal
more equitable” to ask what the leader wants. (Note: there are times when the AI will never
give up a certain item, no matter how good your offer.)

Sometimes the other leader will make you an offer. You can accept the offer, make a counteroffer,
or decline it altogether.

Click on the Nevermind button to leave this screen.

OPEN BORDERS AGREEMENT

At the start of the game, all civs have Open Borders by default. Once you have unlocked
the Early Empires civic, your borders will close, and you can enter into an Open Borders
agreement with another civ. (City-States can’t make Open Borders agreements.) While an
Open Borders agreement is in effect, the other civ’s units can enter your territory without
automatically triggering war. If the agreement is mutual, either civ’s units can enter the other’s
territory freely. However, it doesn’t have to be mutual: one civ can grant another Open Borders
without automatically receiving it in return.
An Open Borders agreement lasts for 30 turns. When 30 turns have passed, the agreement
must be renegotiated or it lapses. Any foreign units in a territory when Open Borders expires
are automatically expelled.

DEFENSIVE PACT
Once you have acquired the Mobilization civic, you may engage in a Defensive Pact.
Defensive Pacts are always mutual. If a signatory to a Defensive Pact is attacked, the other
partner is automatically at war with the attacker. There is no requirement for you to stay at war
with the third party.
A Defensive pact lasts for 30 turns. When that time has elapsed, the pact lapses unless it is
renegotiated. The defensive pact is nullified if one of the participants declares war on anybody.

RESEARCH AGREEMENTS
Once you have acquired the Scientific Theory tech, you may engage in a Research Agreement
with another civ that also has the Scientific Theory tech. A research agreement costs each side
gold (if you don’t have the required gold, you can’t be part of an agreement). For the duration
of the Agreement, each civ gets a bonus to its research.
The Research Agreement lasts 30 turns. You must make a new Agreement (and pay additional
gold) if you want to extend it for another 30.

TRADING CITIES
Sometimes, two civilizations can trade a city. Generally, civilizations will not trade cities unless
in dire circumstances or in exchange for huge payouts. You cannot trade your capital city.
City trades are not permanent. After trading the city, the user is able to request it back in later
trade deals.

OTHER PLAYERS
You can ask your trading partner to interact with other civs that you both know. You can also
ask them to declare war with another player.

RESOURCES
Strategic and Luxury resources can be traded between civilizations. The receiving civ is given
all of the benefits of that resource for the duration of the trade (30 turns).

NEGOTIATING WITH CITY-STATES
City-States negotiations are considerably less complicated than civilizations since there are
fewer options. Generally, you can send them Envoys, Levy their Military (if you’re their
suzerain), declare war, or offer peace. Sometimes they will offer quests. See the section on
City-States for more details.

DECLARING WAR
You can declare war on a city-state or another civilization through the Diplomacy Panel or
the City-State panel, or by simply attacking one of their units. You can declare war on a civ by
entering their territory without an Open Borders agreement, as well.
Remember, they can declare war on you in the same fashion.

WARMONGERING
Other Civs will consider a player a warmonger if they do not manage their wars carefully.

NEGOTIATING PEACE
While at war, you can offer to negotiate peace through the Diplomacy Panel. Your opponent
may refuse to negotiate altogether, in which case the war continues.
If it’s willing to negotiate at all, a city-state will always accept an offer of peace without preconditions.
If your opponent is a civilization who is willing to discuss peace, you may negotiate the price
for peace on the Trade Table. Depending upon circumstances one side or the other may give
the opponent gold, treaties, cities, and/or resources in exchange for peace.
Note that your opponent can also offer to negotiate peace. It’s usually a good idea to at least see
what they’re offering before deciding upon your response.
Note: You cannot offer peace until 10 turns after a war was started. Also, once you make
peace, you cannot declare war with the same Civ for an additional 10 turns.

VICTORY AND DEFEAT
There are multiple paths to victory in Civilization VI. You can win through scientific
dominance by becoming the first civ establish a colony on Mars. You can overwhelm the other
civilizations through cultural superiority, or by spreading your religious beliefs to every single
civilization until yours is the dominant religion on the planet. Or, you can employ the everpopular
“crush all of your enemies beneath the wheels of your chariot” tactic and win a mighty
domination victory. Whichever civilization achieves a set of victory conditions first, wins.
It’s important to keep an eye on your opponents’ progress toward victory as you advance your
own civilization. There’s nothing quite as maddening as to be on the verge of capturing your
last surviving enemy’s final capital, only to watch helplessly as they complete their spaceship
and win an upset scientific victory.

CITY-STATES AND VICTORY
City-States cannot win a game of Civilization VI. Only major civilizations can do so.

HOW TO LOSE
There are three paths to failure in Civilization VI:

LOSING YOUR LAST CITY
If you lose your last city, whether to another civilization or an angry city-state, then you
lose immediately. This is quite embarrassing, so don’t let it happen to you, but if it does, be
comforted knowing you’re not the first civilization to be wiped off the map and subsequently
forgotten.

ANOTHER CIVILIZATION WINS
If another civilization achieves one of the victories explained below, game over: you lose. It
doesn’t matter if you were about to achieve your own victory, whoever wins first wins, and
everybody else loses.

2050 ARRIVES
If the year 2050 arrives and nobody has won one of the victories below, the game ends
automatically and the civilization with the highest score wins (see below).

HOW TO WIN
There are several paths to victory available to you in Civilization VI:

DOMINATION VICTORY
If you capture all other civs’ capitals and hang onto your own, you’ve achieved victory.
If you’ve lost your original capital, but still possess other cities, you can still win another type
of victory: culture, scientific, or religious. However, you cannot win a conquest victory until
and unless you recapture your own original capital – this will also prevent another player from
winning a Domination Victory.
Destroying an Original Capital
Simply: can’t be done. A capital cannot be destroyed by any means. It can be captured, but not
destroyed. Dropping a nuke on the city will at worst reduce its population to 1, but the city
will not be destroyed. Accept it and move on. (Remember that you can drive another civ out of
the game by destroying or capturing all of its cities, so you can still wipe your foes off the map
even if you can’t erase their capital from the face of the earth…)
Current Capital vs. Original Capital
If your original capital has been captured, another of your cities will automatically be assigned
as a replacement capital. This city functions in all ways like the original, except that it can be
destroyed, and it does not count towards a Conquest victory.
If you ever retake your original capital, it will resume its leadership position in your
civilization.

SCIENCE VICTORY
The Science Victory is achieved by the first player to establish a colony on the planet Mars.
Once the Space Race is underway and someone has launched their first satellite, all players
will know who is attempting this victory. Players receive bonuses for reaching each milestone
along the way to Victory.
The following steps must be completed in order:
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Launch a satellite into space
Reminiscent of Sputnik in 1957, you can build a satellite to launch into space after researching
Rocketry and building a Spaceport. After completing the Launch Satellite project, your
satellite will be launched: you will be awarded visibility of the entire map.
Land a human on the moon
Just like the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, you can send a human to the moon. This is unlocked
after researching the tech Satellites, and can be built in any city with a Spaceport. Choose to
produce the Launch Moon Landing project to begin this mission. After the rocket has been
launched, you will immediately be rewarded a lump sum of culture.
Establish a colony on Mars
Science fiction for now, perhaps – but in this game, you can be the first to send your people to
Mars. After researching Robotics, Nuclear Fusion, and Nanotechnology, you may build the
Mars Reactor Module, Hydroponics Module, and Habitation Module projects in any city with
a Spaceport. Note that more than one Spaceport means parallel production!
Once every piece is launched, you have won the game!

CULTURAL VICTORY
If you aim to be the cultural epicenter of the world, this is the victory for you. The first
civilization to possess a total number of visiting tourists that exceeds the domestic tourists of
every other civilization in the game wins the culture victory.
Tourists and Domestic Tourists
Tourists are visiting people from other civilizations, however your own civilization also has
a pool of citizens Domestic Tourists which may prefer to stay local rather than be tourists
in other civilizations.
Generating Tourism
Tourists may be drawn to your civilization in a number of ways:
• Trade Routes
• Shared (or conflicting) late game governments
• Open Borders
• Great Works housed in your civilization.
• Holy Cities and Relics housed in your civilization will draw tourists of your religion.
Note that once civilizations reach the Enlightenment civic, their tourism towards relics and
Holy Sites will drop.
• National Parks in your territory (the higher the appeal, the more tourism)
• Finding and housing Artifacts in your civilization.
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• Tourism Boosters
– Great Works of Writing double in Tourism once Printing is invented, and Great Works of
Music triple in tourism if the Satellite Broadcasts social policy is active.
– All tourism yields are doubled once the Computers tech has been researched.
– The Themed Museums also give you a culture bonus.

RELIGIOUS VICTORY
In order to obtain a Religious Victory in Civilization VI, you must make your religion the
predominant religion of every Civilization. While your religion will spread passively simply by
settling near other players, it is your Missionaries, Apostles, and Inquisitors who offer the best
chance at victory.
Through the strategic use of religious units and a strong accumulation of Faith, you will be
well on your way to winning a game of Civilization VI with your religion!

THE END OF TIME
If no one has achieved victory, the game automatically ends on the last day of 2050. The Scores
of all surviving civs will be tallied, and a victor announced. You may continue playing the
game after this point, but victory will no longer be a factor.

YOUR SCORE
In many Civilization VI matches, one of the players will win the game by achieving one of
the possible victories. However, if no one achieves one of these victories by the year 2050, the
winner is determined by the surviving civilization’s “score.”
And if someone does win outright before 2050, their score will determine their place on the
“Hall of Fame” screen. Here’s how scores are calculated:

ELIMINATION
If you are eliminated from the game, your score is zero. (Sorry.)

TIME TO VICTORY
If you achieve victory before 2050, you receive a “score multiplier.” The earlier the victory, the
better.

MAP SIZE AND GAME DIFFICULTY
The size of the map that you play on will determine the Score each civ receives for tiles,
number of cities, and population. The game difficulty you choose will determine the overall
value of all points in the game: the higher the difficulty, the more everything’s worth. (In other
words, winning a crushing victory on the easiest level will probably be worth fewer points than
eking out a marginal victory on the toughest level.)

YOUR CURRENT SCORE
You can see everybody’s current score on the Diplomacy Panel. If you hover the cursor over
your score, you’ll see where your points are coming from.
Note that the Score is not permanent: they can come and go across the course of a game. If
you construct a Wonder, you then get the points for it. But if somebody else captures the city
it’s in, they get those points.

ADVANCED RULES

AIR COMBAT
Air units have become essential components of every military force in the world, starting from
their importance for reconnaissance in the early part of the 20th century, evolving all the way
top strategic bombing and air superiority in the latter half of the century.
Likewise, air power is helpful to victory in Civilization VI.

AIR UNITS
There are three main types of air units in Civilization VI: support reconnaissance, fighters,
and strategic bombers. These can be produced in any city that has built an aerodrome and
researched the prerequisite techs.

SUPPORT RECONNAISSANCE
In the early modern era, observation balloons become available after researching flight,
allowing you to extend your sight radius and increase the effective range of your artillery. Any
artillery units in the same hex as or adjacent to an Observation Balloon gain a +1 attack range.
Attackers will want these observation balloons to be able to attack units and cities from a ‘safe’
distance, and defenders will want these units for the same reason. Observation balloons can
only be destroyed by eliminating the unit with a melee attack or by using aircraft.
FIGHTERS
Fighters and Jet Fighters may intercept incoming attacks, and engage in dogfighting with
other aircraft.

STRATEGIC BOMBERS
Bombers and Jet Bombers do not engage in dogfighting, but are responsible for air strikes,
pillaging the ground beneath them.

AIR BASES
Air units do not move around the map like ground and naval units. They must be “based”
somewhere. The city center can always hold one air unit, but building an aerodrome, airstrip,
or naval carrier can increase your available slots. An aerodrome can have up to 8 slots and an
airstrip 6. The carrier begins with 2, but can gain more through promotions.

COMBAT STATS
All air units have two stats: combat, ranged (Fighter), or bombard (Bomber).

COMBAT
Used in evaluating combat between two air units. Think of this as the ‘dogfighting’ stat.
RANGED
Used in evaluating combat between the air unit and a ground unit or district. Think of this as
the ‘ground strafing’ stat. This stat suffers the same debuff vs. district defenses that land ranged
units do.

BOMBARD
Used in evaluating combat between the air unit and a district or ground unit. Think of this as
the ‘carpet bombing’ stat. This stat suffers the same debuff vs. land units that land bombard
units do.

PATROLS
Fighter aircraft can be deployed to a valid hex within their movement range from a friendly air
base. After it is deployed, the aircraft will begin flying an orbiting pattern around its effective
intercept range (1 hex radius). This should make it clear to both the attacker and defender the
status of the fighters in the patrol state.
The patrol state is continuous, somewhat like the ‘Fortify’ unit operation. Once an aircraft has
been set to patrol it will do so until it is ordered otherwise or it is destroyed.
While patrolling, the aircraft will continue to intercept and defend against multiple attackers.
At any time during the player’s turn, Fighter aircraft can ‘Return to Base’ (station at a friendly
air base) in order to heal. Aircraft stationed at an air base do not intercept attacking aircraft.
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Aircraft can only heal at the end of the game turn when stationed on a city center, aerodrome,
airfield, or naval carrier if they have not been involved in combat (either offensive, or
defensive). Healing is ‘fastest’ on an Aerodrome District, and less so on Airfields and Carriers.
These values can be increased through promotions and/or policies.

AIR STRIKES
Heavy Bomber aircraft cannot deploy on patrols. They are instead considered ‘stationed’ at a
friendly air base, and can carry out attacks from that base.
Unlike fighter aircraft, bombers do not engage in dogfighting; they can only head straight for
their target and attack. However, if there are fighters or anti-air units defending the target,
then combat must be resolved before the bomber reaches the target (in other words, the
bomber must survive any defending fighters and anti-air units). After combat is resolved with
air units and damage is applied, the bomber attack resumes against the district or unit in the
target hex.
Bomber aircraft can ‘pillage’ district buildings and city improvements by attacking them
directly. The effect is the same as a ground unit pillage action with one exception: the
attacking air unit does not get any material reward resulting from the pillage action like a
ground unit would. In order for a pillage to occur, the attacking air unit must be at 50% health
or higher.

INTERCEPTIONS
Fighters and jet fighters can be set to “intercept” enemy air attacks (AA gun and mobile SAM
automatically intercept; they don’t need to be given a special mission). If an air unit tries an
air strike against a target within the range of an intercepting unit, the interceptor will fire on
the attacker and do damage to it. Unless the attacker is killed by the interceptor, the air strike
proceeds.
Only one unit can intercept an air strike; once it does, it cannot intercept any more that turn
(though certain promotions can increase this). So if you’re expecting multiple air attacks on a
target, you might want to pile multiple fighters and AA units on and around that target.

WMDS
WMDs (Nuclear or Thermonuclear) are one-shot weapons. They perform a single air strike
mission against a target, and then, win or lose, they are destroyed.
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NUKES
Nuclear Weapons are extremely powerful weapons. They blow a lot of stuff up and poison
the land and sea. They should only be used as a last resort ? or if you’re absolutely sure that
you’re the only one who has them – because once they start flying, the whole world can quickly
become an extremely unpleasant place to be.
As someone once said, “One nuclear bomb can ruin your whole day.”

CONSTRUCTION AND DELIVERY
There are 2 categories of atomic weapons: the Nuclear Device and the Thermonuclear Device.
Nuclear Devices can be created in any city as long as the prerequisite technology has been
researched, Uranium is available, and the Manhattan Project or Operation Ivy is completed.
There is no limit on the number that a player can build, however Nuclear Devices are expensive
to produce and have a very high maintenance cost. Once a Nuclear Device is created, it is added
to the player’s inventory and can then be used by any unit or improvement capable of deploying
it on the map. This includes Bomber aircraft, Nuclear Submarine. For example, if you position a
Nuclear Submarine off the coast of an enemy, you can launch as many Nuclear Missiles at your
opponent (1 per turn) as you have Nuclear Devices in your inventory.

USAGE
When an atomic weapon is detonated, several things happen to all the hexes within the blast
radius. Citizens “working” the affected tiles are eliminated, units occupying the affected
tiles are destroyed, and all tile improvements are pillaged. Any districts and buildings in the
affected tiles are also pillaged and must be repaired to be used again. All tiles affected are
contaminated with radioactive fallout.

NUCLEAR DEVICES
The first nuclear weapon available in the game, a nuclear device is a very powerful unit that
can quickly alter the world’s balance of power. The damage radius for a nuclear device is 1
tile in every direction outside of the drop zone. Units caught in the blast will be damaged
or destroyed, Wonders, improvements, and districts will be pillaged, and cities will lose
population if hit.
Like ranged units, a nuclear device cannot totally destroy a city. No matter how many times
a city is hit by nukes, it will not be destroyed.
Nuclear devices can be delivered by many different methods, as mentioned above.
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THERMONUCLEAR DEVICES
The second nuclear weapon available in the game, a thermonuclear device is even more
powerful than the older nuclear device. The damage radius for nuclear device is 2 tiles in every
direction outside of the drop zone. Units caught in the blast will be damaged or destroyed,
Wonders, improvements, and districts will be pillaged, and cities will lose population if hit.
Like ranged units, a thermonuclear device cannot totally destroy a city. No matter how many
times a city is hit by nukes, it will not be destroyed.
Thermonuclear devices can be delivered by many different methods, as mentioned above.

CONTAMINATION
After a nuclear attack, fallout will contaminate every tile affected by the blast. Any units that
end their turn in a contaminated tile take 50 damage each turn. Production cannot be applied
to anything in tiles containing contamination, such as repairing buildings and districts. Tiles
that are contaminated cannot be worked by the city until the contamination timer expires or
until the tile is “cleaned.”
Nuclear contamination can be “cleaned” from affected tiles by Builder units. Builder units
that are able to clean contaminated hexes will take less damage if they end their turn in such
a hex. Any city tiles not directly affected by the nuclear blast will still function normally and
contribute to the city’s yield.

CORPS AND ARMIES
If you play deep into the Civics tree, you will have some options that a technology-focused
player will not have. Starting in the Industrial Era after completing the Nationalism civic,
players will be able to unlock the ability to combine multiple military units of the same
type into a single stronger unit. Two military units of the same type will be able to combine
to create a Corps, giving them +10 to their base Combat Strength. After researching
Mobilization, three units of the same type may be combined into an Army, giving +7 to their
base Combat Strength.
Once a Corps or Army has been formed, the units may not be broken apart into individual
units again. The experience and promotions of the highest experience unit is preserved when
creating this type of formation, so it is beneficial to combine rookies with more experienced
units. Naval units may also be combined into Fleets and Armadas.
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MULTIPLAYER CIVILIZATION VI

Multiplayer games let you pit your skills directly against other players rather than against just
computer-controlled AI. Multiplayer games can be accessed from the Main Menu, and can be
enjoyed over a LAN (Local Area Network) with friends or with players all across the globe.

MULTIPLAYER MENU
From the Main Menu, select the “Multiplayer” button to navigate to the Multiplayer games
options screen.

LOCAL GAMES
From here, click on the Local Network game option to browse for available LAN (Local Area
Network) games. A list of available local games will populate the browser view: click on any
of these games to join. If you don’t see any games (or none you’re interested in) you can click
the “Host Game” button to create your own. Click the “Refresh” button to refresh the list of
available games at any time.
When you choose to Host a game, you’ll be taken to the Setup Multiplayer Game screen.
From here you can choose your leader, set the map type and size, and select your game pace.
You can also load a previously saved Multiplayer game (more on that later), or return to the
Browser to see the list of available games again. Click on “Start Game” once you’ve finalized
your selections.

From here you’ll enter the Staging Room where you can see what leaders everyone has chosen
and which players are ready. An AI player will be denoted with the name “AI”, whereas
human players will be denoted using their Steam alias.
Note that if two or more players attempt to select the same civ or leader, the game will change
the duplicated leader’s team color to a new one to avoid any possible confusion. In this way,
two or more (or all) players can play the same civ or leader.
Once all players have clicked “Ready,” the host may click the button “Launch Game” to start
up the game.

INTERNET/STEAM GAMES
Internet Multiplayer games are hosted on Steam through the account the player used during
the game’s installation.

BROWSING FOR GAMES
Internet games provide the option to create your own game or browse for someone else’s
created game. When creating your own game, after setting the options and choosing the kind
of game you’d like to play, Steam will attempt to connect you directly to other players looking
for a multiplayer game.
If a game isn’t available, you can choose to enter the internet game browser or Host your own
game, following the same steps for a LAN game.
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FRIENDS LIST
Your Steam friends list is available to you when hosting a Multiplayer internet game. While in
the Staging Room, you can select a friend from the drop down list and invite them directly to
any game you’re hosting. They’ll receive a notification via Steam’s Overlay.
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CHAT
You can chat with other players both during the setup process and in-game. In the Staging
Room screen, you can type to all players using the chat window at the bottom of the screen.
In-game, you can choose to either chat with all the players or only with a specific one at a time
through private conversations, trades, and alliances. To bring up the chat panel in-game, click
on the “Open Chat” button in the right hand corner of the HUD. You can click on the “Close
Chat” button once you’re done to hide the panel from view.
Voice-Over-IP (VOIP) is provided through Steam’s Overlay feature, allowing you to talk
directly to other players using a microphone.
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HOSTING, SAVING, AND LOADING GAMES
When hosting a game, it’s possible to save your game’s progress and load it up at a later date.
This is especially useful for long-running games that can span longer than a day. From within
the Setup Multiplayer Game Screen, click the “Load Game” button to browse your list of
saved games.
If for any reason you become disconnected while playing a Multiplayer game, the system will
try to reconnect you automatically. If the host of a game leaves (for whatever reason), the game
will attempt to migrate the host controls to a different player.

MODS
Civilization VI has been designed from the very beginning with modders in mind, making
this the easiest and most accessible Civ to mod yet. Even if you aren’t interested in making a
mod (for now), you can quickly find mods other players have created, download, and install
them, all from within the game itself.
From the Main Menu, select the “Additional Content” button to navigate to the Mods Screen
(be sure to accept the EULA on the way). From here you can choose to begin a game using
pre-downloaded and installed mods (more on that later), or browse new available mods.

BROWSING, DOWNLOADING, AND RATING
Click the “Additional Content.” button to bring up the Mods Browser. This will list all of the
mods you have previously downloaded and installed, and whether that mod is currently active.
Click on the “Enable Mod” button to enable or disable a downloaded mod. Yes, you can have
more than one mod active at a time!
Click on the “Browse Workshop” button is pressed, that a Steam Overlay will appear From
here, you can filter available mods by category, search by keyword, or filter by date of upload,
number of downloads, or player ranking.
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Click on a mod to bring up more detailed information, view screenshots, or choose to
download. Downloading mods through the browser is free and anonymous
After playing a mod, you can choose to rate it so that others may be more aware of its
awesomeness. Simply click the “Like” button on any mod’s page to rate up that mod. Rating a
mod is also anonymous and doesn’t require any account information.

XML
The easiest way to get into modding is available to anyone with access to a text editor – if you
can type, you can mod. The game’s XML (Extensive Markup Language) files hold all the
game’s nitty-gritty details, like all of Napoleon’s trade dialogue or exactly how far an Archer
unit can move in one turn. Any of the game’s XML files can be easily changed and updated
from within any text editor, allowing you to make customizations ranging from how much
damage a Warrior can deal to creating whole new civilizations and leaders.

MODBUDDY AND THE WORLD BUILDER
Coming shortly after release, it will be possible to download ModBuddy and the World
Builder, the official modding tools for Civilization VI. This package will allow you to make
custom maps and scenarios, change minute behavior of the game’s AI, and package up
your custom mods so that others can download and enjoy them too. Check back either
on Civilization VIs official webpage or on the Steam game page for more information and
updates.
ModBuddy and the World Builder will be available for download through Steam. Navigate
to the Tools section of the Games tab to download.

Intro: Getting Started

Welcome to the Civilization 6 walkthrough!

Watch the behind-closed-doors theater presentation of Civilization VI. Narrated by Sean Bean.

Up next are First Looks at other civilizations, leaders, features and tips from the developers of Civilization VI. Take one more turn with Civilization VI!

How To Choose a Civilization

The Civilizations with their Leaders listed in alphabetical order:

• America — Teddy Roosevelt
• Arabia — Saladin
• Aztec — Montezuma
• Brazil — Pedro II
• China — Qin Shi Huang
• Egypt — Cleopatra
• England — Victoria
• France — Catherine de’ Medici
• Germany — Frederick Barbarossa
• Greece — Gorgo & Pericles
• India — Gandhi
• Japan — Hojo Tokimune
• Kongo — Mvemba a Nzinga
• Norway — Harald Hardrada
• Rome — Trajan
• Russia — Peter
• Scythia — Tomyris
• Spain — Philip II
• Sumeria — Gilgamesh

In this video guide, we’ll answer one of the most common questions for new players, “How do I know which Civ to choose?” We’ll show you what to look for when you are deciding between which civilization to lead to victory.

How To Take Your First Turns

Find out what to do on your first turns in your quest to build a civilization that will stand the test of time.

How To Explore

In this video, we’ll show you the importance of exploration in Civilization VI.

How To Deal With Barbarians

In this video walkthrough you’re shown how to deal with Barbarians, the first threat to your civilization.

How To Make Diplomacy Work

Next, we’ll show you how to make diplomacy work for you in Civilization VI.

How To Get Help

Shown here is where you to go for help in Civilization VI.

Civilization 6 Walkthrough continues on Page 2 with Part 1: The Developers Show Off Religion.