8 Civ 6 Tips for the Civilization 6: Gathering Storm Expansion

Gathering Storm is one of the two primary expansion packs for Civilization 6. Players who start playing Gathering Storm, having played Civilization 6, will discover a wide variety of new gameplay features and leaders in that DLC. Thus, Gathering Storm is almost like a new Civ 6 game with the revamped gameplay mechanics it introduces. Here are some tips for playing the Civilization 6: Gathering Storm expansion.

Pay Attention to the Environment

Environmental effects are one of the biggest new gameplay features that Civilization 6: Gathering Storm adds to Civ 6. Gathering Storm includes active volcanoes, river flooding, droughts, and coastal floods triggered by climate change. Those natural disasters can wreak havoc on your civilization if you don’t pay attention to the environment.

Climate change, which causes coastal flooding with rising sea levels, is the most important environmental issue to pay attention to in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm. Try to keep CO2 levels down by converting your power plants to greener nuclear alternatives when you can. Avoid adding districts to tiles at risk of coastal flooding, which can destroy them when it occurs. If the climate screen shows that sea levels will rise in the future, consider building Flood Barriers in coastal cities at risk of flooding.

Boost Your Gold With Rock Bands

Rock Bands are units you can recruit with faith yields in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm. That unit is primarily for boosting tourism. However, an effective Rock Band with the Pop Star promotion can also generate loads of gold for your civilization. With the Pop Star promotion, a Rock Band will amass gold, amounting to 25% of the tourism it generates. That can amount to more than 1,000 gold per turn from a Rock Band with decent album sales.

So, select the Pop Star promotion whenever you can. The options for selecting promotions are variable. However, you can choose from all possible promotions for Rock Bands by selecting the Hallyu policy card.

Appoint the Pingala Governor First

Civilization 6: Gathering Storm includes seven governors, which the Rise and Fall expansion introduced. Pingala is the best governor to appoint first because his promotions are invaluable for cultural or scientific victories. Appointing him will enable you to significantly increase science and culture yields for his city with his Librarian, Connosieur, and Researcher promotions. Then, you can boost his city’s great person points for cultural or scientific victories by 100% with the Grants promotion.

Boost Tourism With Entertainment Districts and Water Parks

Although the Entertainment Complex district has no tourism value in the base Civilization 6 game, that’s not so much the case in Gathering Storm. In Gathering Storm, Entertainment Complex buildings like Stadiums and Arenas generate additional tourism when built in higher population cities (10+) and with the Conservation civic unlocked. So, it’s worth adding a few Entertainment districts to your cities if you’re going for a cultural victory.

I also recommend adding some Water Parks to your cities when playing for a cultural victory, at least. The Water Park is a new district in Gathering Storm with which you can boost amenities and tourism. The Aquarium, Aquatics Center, and Ferris Wheel are three Water Park buildings that will attract more visitors to your civilization when built.

Attack Cities Closest to Your Border When at War

The loyalty gameplay feature in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm takes some getting to grips with for players more familiar with the base game. You can lose control of cities captured in wars when rebellion arises because of lost loyalty in Gathering Storm. To minimize the chances of rebellions occurring, always attack and capture cities closest to your own borders. Then, loyalty pressure from your nearby cities will have more impact on the enemy cities you capture.

Crush Your Foes With the Death Robot

Death Robot is a formidable super unit with which you can crush your enemies in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm. With a melee attack of 130 and a high movement rating, this is the must-have unit for any player going for a Domination Victory. Recruiting a couple of Death Robots is certainly more preferable than using nukes because they don’t destroy captured cities. Plus, they don’t have any negative environmental effects either.

Build Ancestral Hall in the Early Game

The Government Plaza district, for governor buildings, is another new thing you’ll discover when playing Civilization 6: Gathering Storm after upgrading from Civ 6. That plaza enables you to build numerous buildings with unique effects. Every new Plaza building also gives you a governor title for promotion or appointment.

Ancestral Hall is the best Plaza building to build in the early game because it gives you a free Builder unit for every city established. This will save you from recruiting Builders after establishing new settlements. Plus, you’ll receive a 50% boost for Settler production in the city that includes the Ancestral Hall. That effect will enable you to push out Settlers faster for grabbing more open territory during the early game.

Boost Your Economy With Solar and Wind Energy

The solar and wind farm tile improvements introduced in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm are very useful for boosting your economy because they generate gold and production yields. Solar generates +1 gold and +1 production, and each wind farm generates +2 gold and +1 production. Adding many solar and wind farms to tiles can give your economy a significant gold boost and will also increase productivity without any negative environmental effects. So, make the most of solar and wind energy farms.

Civilization 6: Gathering Storm is almost like a whole new ball game for players upgrading from the base Civ 6. Some of the new gameplay features in Gathering Storm, such as loyalty and natural disasters, make the expansion a little tougher. However, that’s balanced with useful new tile improvements, Plaza buildings, technologies, civics, and governors. The tips above will give you a better chance of winning games in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm.