10 Civ 6 Beginner Tips for the Early Game in Civilization 6

The early game in Civilization 6 amounts to the first 150-160 turns (out of 500). Making a decent start in any Civ 6 game will set you up nicely for victory. When starting a Civilization 6 game, you must strive to establish one of the biggest and strongest empires during those first 150-160 turns, which can be done peacefully. So, the early game is just as important as the late game in Civilization 6, if not more so. Here are some Civ 6 beginner tips for the early game period.

Don’t Ignore Barbarian Camps

Barbarians can be a very big nuisance during the early game, and even beyond that, if you don’t flush out their camps. Nearby camps will pump out more and more barbarian units that will attack your cities. In the worst-case scenario, barbarians can destroy your cities if there are enough of them.

Thus, it’s better to deal with nearby barbarian camps soon rather than later during the early game period. The best way to eliminate barbarians during the early game is to select the Discipline policy card. That card will give you a +5 combat strength bonus when fighting barbarians. When combined with unit promotions, you can flush out barbarians’ camps somewhat more efficiently with that card selected.

Roll Out Settlers

The early game period is the crucial time for expanding civilization. That is the period when most of the map is open territory for establishing cities. So, you must focus on rolling out more Settlers during the early game than at any other time.

To roll out settlers faster, select the Colonization policy card during the early game. That card gives you a 50% production bonus toward Settlers. Thus, selecting that card will give you a Settler advantage over other civilizations.

Build the Ancestral Hall

Ancestral Hall is a Plaza building available in the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions. That is a good building to have for the early game because it gives the city that includes the Ancestral Hall a 50% production increase for Settler units. When combined with the Colonization policy, you can roll out Settlers very quickly from the city that includes the Ancestral Hall.

Ancestral Hall gives all your newly established cities free Builder units. That’s very useful because Builder units are always needed for new cities. Thus, Ancestral Hall will enable you to boost productivity and population growth in newly established cities faster during the early game.

Establish a Pantheon

Even if you’re not bothered about establishing a religion, a Pantheon is always something you should try to claim with faith output during the early game. A Pantheon is a religious structure with a bonus effect for your civilization when claimed. However, they’re only available to claim during the early game. So, build a Holy Site during the early game, if necessary, to ensure you can claim a Pantheon. These are some of the better Pantheons to select during the early game period:

• God of the Open Sky: +1 culture yield for each pasture
• Divine Spark: +1 great person points for Campus, Theater Square, and Holy Sites
• God of the Forge: 25% production bonus for Classical and Ancient era units
• Religious Settlement: Increases border expansion rate by 15 percent

Establish Cities Near Important Strategic Resources

Horses, iron, and niter are three crucial strategic resources for early-game wars. You need horses, iron, and niter to roll out cavalry, Swordsman, and gunpowder-oriented units such as Musketman. So, try to establish cities near iron, horses, and niter during the early game period, even in less appealing map terrain areas.

Configure the Map to Suit Your Civilization

When you first start a Civilization 6 game, you can configure the map to better suit your selected civilization. For example, it’s better to select island-based maps (such as Island Plates) or more coastlines for coastal civilizations such as Japan, England, Maroi, and Indonesia. If you’ve selected a land-based expansionist civilization, such as Rome or Germany, continental maps like Continents or Pangea are better. Players who select more desert-focused civilizations, like Nubia, can select the Hot and Arid temperature and rainfall options in advanced settings to configure the map to include more desert.

Build Ancient Walls

Ancient Walls are crucial defensive structures during the early game in Civilization 6. It’s much harder for any civilization to capture cities that have city walls. Plus, the ranged attack of walls can be invaluable for killing off barbarians that approach your cities. Such walls also last a long time because they don’t become obsolete until you research Steel.

Scout the Map

Early game scouting is important to expanding your civilization for three reasons. Firstly, because revealing the surrounding map faster can help you better plan where to establish future cities. Secondly, because you can find tribal villages that give you all kinds of bonuses. Thirdly, because you can also discover new city-states, enabling you to establish more envoys. So, set aside what available units you have to explore the map as much as possible during the early game. I recommend recruiting a Horseman unit with higher movement for that purpose.

Box in Neighboring Civilizations

When you discover neighboring civilizations on your landmass, try restricting their potential expansion with more strategic settlement placement when possible. You can box in nearby civilizations with more forward expansion by establishing your cities closer to their borders in choke points that will restrict their unit movement. To further box them in, try purchasing tiles in your cities that will block or restrict the movement of their units into more open territory they can claim. NEVER agree to any open borders agreement that completely wrecks this box in strategy.

This box in strategy works better in the base game than Gathering Storm, which includes a loyalty mechanic. Gathering Storm’s loyalty mechanic makes it harder to establish cities very close to neighbors without losing them to rebellions. However, the box-in strategy can still be an effective early-game tactic in Gathering Storm.

Unlock Political Philosophy ASAP

Political Philosophy is one of the most important early game civics to unlock because it gives you a selection of governments. Unlocking Political Philosophy unlocks the Autocracy, Classical Republic, and Oligarchy governments. All of those governments are significantly better than the Chiefdom you start with, enabling you to select four policy cards rather than two. So, Political Philosophy is a civic you should prioritize unlocking in the early game, not least because a requirement for it is Early Empire, which unlocks the Colonization card.

I hope those Civ 6 beginner tips help you start your Civilization 6 games better. Remember that expansion is primarily the name of the game for the first 150 turns. I recommend peaceful expansion over military conquest during the early game if you’re not playing for a Domination Victory. Good luck, and have fun expanding your empire in Civilization 6.