How to Siege a City - Civ 6 and Zone of Control Mechanics

City Sieges and the dependent mechanic, Zone of Control, are two of the most misunderstood things about Civilization Six. I'm going to explain what Zone of Control is and how it really works.

Zone of Control is an element of combat that has two important affects on the game.

First, it limits troop movement. Second, it allows attackers to put a city under siege.

For troop movement, troops that move into a hex controlled under ZoC by an enemy are not able to move out of that hex on the same turn.

You can tell when your units are moving into a enemy controlled hex by the red markings that appear around a unit when you are moving one of your own.

Note this does not limit attacking, so units that move into enemy ZoC can still attack any hex adjacent to the unit.

For city bombardment, a city that has all surrounding hexes controlled by enemy ZoC is put under siege. This means that the city doesn't heal between turns.

A city is shown to be under siege when it has a red heart by the city name.

Note that Victor has an ability that allows a city to avoid siege, so you might not be able to siege a city under any circumstances if he's in the city.

How ZoC is applied
Melee, Cavalry, and most ship units provide zoc for the hex they are in as well as neighboring hexes. ZoC This allows you to siege a city with as few as two units.

Mountains do not need to be covered, so if a city is backed into a mountain range, you might even be able to siege a city with a single unit.

Units that provide zone of control to neighboring hexes do NOT need to be adjacent to a city to put it under siege. This eagle warrior covers the hex to its right in this view here. You can see that when I move him away, the city is no longer under siege.

You also need to understand that rivers break ZoC. A unit standing next to a river will not have zoc on the other side of the river.

Land units in water will provide zoc for the hex they are in, so it's possible to use them to siege a coastal city. Most ships will provide zoc for the adjacent hex also so these can be a better choice depending on the situation.

Ranged and siege units will ALWAYS provide zoc for the hex they are in, so it is possible to siege a city with 6 archers or catapults. There is also a 3rd tier ability that give ranged units zoc like a melee unit, meaning the archer's zoc will extend to neighboring hexes as well. Siege units do not have this additional ability so those will only ever give zoc for the hex they are in.

That’s everything you need to know. Go forth and siege!

[Cloneee]

Straight to the point, no intro, no bullshit, just pure infomation ❤

[CrisTitanium]

10/10 explaining. Explained in 5 minutes what would take me 15 minutes to dissect and understand from the wiki

[jeremykraenzlein]

One of the toughest cities I ever attacked was built on the coast of an inland lake. Two of it's adjacent tiles were lake tiles, and I had no way to get a naval unit there because it was inland, so to keep that city under siege I had to keep two land units on those two lake tiles.

This city also had built an encampment district on the other side of the lake, so both it and the city could bombard my helpless land units in the water, so they didn't last long.

I eventually did take that city, but it took way too long, setting me back on other priorities and ultimately proving to be more trouble than it was worth.

[budson]

Great explanation. I really dislike some of the CIV 6 contributors who talk incessantly about a subject all the while you are watching them play the game and there is no context between what they are saying and what they are showing while in play. Bravo Matados, please continue this trend.

[Sheepmanthegoat]

Simple, easy, straightforward. Ty very much

[scott]

Thnxs my man. I downloaded the game and learned as I went. This was a HUGE help! Thnxs bud!

[Benzema]

Great video, easy to understand and straight to the point

I had my doubts about this mechanic until watching this video, thanks

[DeckerdSmeckerd]

Good video. Liked it. Worth a mention that calvary can move through zone of control

[NikitaDugin]

You just got a subscriber there. Short, to the point, not waisting my time. Love you, thank.

[kilo]

Amazing vid. I feel so powerful now with this knowledge

[samuelrodrigues]

omg i thought you needed to put units on every 6 sides can you believe??? Thank you for the clear explanation, domination victory here i go

[ChurroTheViscous]

Loved this. Is there a visual indicator a city is under siege?

[ramawee]

In my years playing civs i never know this.... Thanks

[ChromeKnight]

How do I destroy walls efficiently. Spent 30 turns attacking with crossbows

[Lilpiktdude]

Bro i had no idea sieging was even a thing 🥲

[Дмитрий-щсг]

finally! someone explained siege mechanics! thnx