8 Civilization 6 Tips for Winning Wars

Winning wars can help you win many Civilization 6 games, even when you’re not playing for the Domination victory condition. For example, you can seize invaluable wonders and great works for cultural victories by winning wars against other civilizations. Alternatively, you can prevent other civilizations from winning space races by engaging in victorious wars against them. Here are some Civilization 6 tips for winning more of your wars in Civ 6.

Select the Best Government for War

Selecting the best governments for war will give you military advantages for winning them. Oligarchy is the best tier-one government to unlock and select for winning early-game wars. This government’s effect gives all your land melee units +4 combat strength and 20% combat experience. Plus, it has more military card slots than Autocracy and Chiefdom.

Fascism is the best overall government to select for winning wars in the late game. The fascist effect gives all your military units a +4 combat strength bonus and increases production by 20%. Fascism also has four military card slots, the most of any government, along with two wildcard slots for which you can select military policies.

Unlock Stealth Technology ASAP

Unlocking Stealth Technology will enable you to add Jet Bombers to your air force, which is the best military unit in the game for winning wars. The Jet Bomber has a melee attack of 90 and a bombard rating of 120, enabling it to smash through city defenses in the modern era. So, make sure you unlock Stealth Technology and build a few Jet Bombers for war ASAP. Two or three Jet Bombers make it much easier to capture cities in wars.

You can also equip Jet Bombers with nuclear weapons when you’ve completed the Manhattan Project. Adding some nuclear devices to Jet Bombers can make them almost unstoppable. Capture the cities needed for securing a Domination victory by nuking capitals with Jet Bombers.

Make the Most of Unique Units

All civilizations in Civ 6 have one unique unit for war waging. These unique units are stronger than standard ones from their respective eras. So, try to make the most of the unique units you can by researching their required technology sooner rather than later and adding more of them to your military for fighting wars before they get outdated. These are some of the best unique units for winning wars:

• Cossack (Russia)
• Eagle Warrior (Aztec)
• Redcoast (England)
• War-Cart (Sumerian)
• Minas Geraes (Brazil)
• Legion (Rome)

Focus on Technology

Science is crucial to winning wars in Civilization 6. Fighting wars with more advanced military technology that outclasses what your enemies possess will give you a much better chance of winning them. To ensure you usually have cutting-edge military technology, focus on increasing your civilization’s science research in all ways you can (primarily through building more Campus districts). These are the more important technologies to unlock for your military:

• Flight
• Advanced Flight
• Gunpowder
• Bronze Working
• Steel
• Combustion
• Plastics
• Nuclear Fission
• Horseback Riding
• Military Science

Check the Military Strength of Civilizations

If you select the Show Yields in the HUB Ribbon setting within the Interface options tab, you can view yields for rival civilizations. Hover your mouse cursor over the leader avatar in the hub ribbon to view their yields. Check the military strength yield values shown for civilizations in the hub ribbon to compare them with your own. This red yield highlights the quantitative size of a civilization’s military. Make sure your civilization’s military strength value is higher than any country you choose to declare war against.

Select the Levee en Masse Policy Card

Although the Levee en Masse policy doesn’t offer combat bonuses, it’s still one of the best military cards to select for war. Levee en Masse reduces army upkeep costs by -2 gold per unit. For example, this would amount to -20 cost reduction for 10 military units. This policy can considerably reduce army costs over many turns, enabling you to recruit more units and amass gold for upgrading them when needed.

Build City Walls

Building walls in your cities is one of the most important Civilization 6 tips for winning wars. You can build three tiers of walls, starting from Ancient Walls, that will considerably strengthen your cities’ defenses until Urban Defences make them obsolete in the late game. Aside from enhancing your cities’ outer defensive strength, these walls give you extra attacking options against enemy units that move within range of them. Thus, you can attack and eliminate land and naval units within range of city walls.

Also, note that walls generate tourism with Conservation unlocked. For example, a Renaissance Wall generates +3 tourism (+6 when combined with all others). So, it’s worth building walls for an additional tourism boost in the later game, which can help secure cultural victories.

Place Units on Hills and Woods

Use terrain to your advantage when fighting walls in Civilization 6. Hills and woods are terrains with +3 defensive modifiers. A combined hill and woods tile has a +6 defensive modifier.

Thus, placing your units on hills and woods gives them a defensive advantage. Although they slow unit movement, try to place your units on hills and woods when they’re near enemies that might attack them. This defensive terrain will give them a combat advantage if they come under attack on enemy turns. I also recommend fortifying units on woods and hills for health replenishment when needed.

I almost always win my Civ 6 wars by sticking to most of the Civilization 6 tips discussed above. Admittedly, I’ve never played multiplayer Civ 6 before, but those tips certainly work well in single-player mode, at least. Good luck, and have fun crushing your enemies in Civilization 6!