MASTERING the First 10 Turns in Civ 6 | Civilization 6 Guide

Civ 6's first few turns are vital, from what to build first in civ 6, what to research and unlock, where and how quickly to settle your capital city, and how to navigate and explore the dangerous early game world of Civilization VI. In this Civ 6 guide, targeting a range of civ 6 players and hopefully simple enough that it also serves as somewhat of a civ 6 beginners guide to the early game.

00:00 - Intro
00:15 - Where to settle your capital in civ 6
02:30 - Tech tree, what to research first?
04:50 - Build order MATTERS
07:15 - Exploring and Expanding Early
09:25 - Neighbors at War series 2
10:00 - Civics tree
12:15 - Summary!

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[JumboPixel]

ps. ty for watching you're awesome.

[katmannsson]

"No boosts from the scout" is... a very strict use of the phrase. Discover a new Continent, Meet 3 City States, Meet another Civilization, *the countless boosts you can get from tribal villages*. All of these things are Boosts that are most easily done with a Scout.

[donkeykong]

I prefer scouts to open vs slingers. The extra movement makes finding city spots for the future so much smoother, imo. An extra move every turn adds up if I’m hoping to scout out the best area near me before my first settler comes out. I don’t tend to start making a slinger until I find a barb camp or war-happy civ near me.

[cedricgiry]

First time i hear someone NOT recomanding building scout first this is so important for exploration and getting early boosts

[Camptonweat]

You definitely want to be building scouts early on higher difficulty levels. You need to know asap the geography, who your opponents are and where they are, not to mention the bonuses e.g. by popping huts and discovering city states. Scouts are also useful for "shepherding" barb scouts away from discovering your cities, which prevent barb camps from spawning units. Also, I would almost never build a monument in the first 30 turns, settlers/units are way too important.

[RandomGamplaysShoty]

Scouts are also important for golden ages and since I get a lot of era point from discovering stuff (more if you are the first to find it) which u might need if u go dramatic ages

[steveherman]

Nice video. I still think like many others that a scout or two to start a game can be the most beneficial thing. It's a little bit of luck dependent of course. But the first meet of a city state is huge early game. Meeting a culture city state first gives you the same yield as a monument. I'm not saying a slinger is bad, but for example in this video, the slinger at the end of the video is now either dead or completely out of play and can do nothing except retreat back to the capital because the spearman is going to take a whack at him and chase. The slinger will die in 2 hits on harder difficulty. A scout can continue scouting. Even finding a goodie hut providing another scout is extremely useful. Goodie huts provide 1 era score, they can provide early gold (+40 gold is often 8 turns worth), an early pantheon which could become a second settler is huge, the ability to suzerain a city state early for more era score and possibly levy their army if you are attacked, they can provide many many eurekas for science and culture. Plus map vision is supremely helpful. If you want an early golden age and you don't have early UI or UU then it is realy tough without scouts.

Of course a warrior or a slinger can get all these goodie huts as well, but hitting a scout promotion and at times gaining 100% more movement is a big deal. Even finding far away civs results in era score, happier relations because you are far away leading to better trading partners. It really can get the snowball going sooner. You probably aren't running your slingers and warriors halfway across the map because then what's the point? They are no longer able to be used for defense anyway.

Of course scouts can lead to death from an early AI rush :) But I still think you can buy a slinger if you really need it. You can produce warriors within 2 or 3 turns once you hit craftmanship. You can counter an early AI rush if you can see it coming. Slingers are really squishy, more so than scouts even, and work best when nearby another unit. The slinger can draw out the spearman and the warrior (or scout) can sneak into the barb camp making barbarians very easy. The slinger isn't a great scout by themselves. But now you have two units travelling together losing the effectiveness of early scouting.

[maj.kingkong]

Very nice video. Love your take on it and largely agree. I’ve bounced around between scouts, warriors and slingers for first units. The difficulty level is also a big factor. The AI is less aggressive at lower levels and much more as you move up to Deity. Couple things to keep in mind. Using slingers for scouting, if you stumble upon a barbarian outpost the spearman WILL come out to attack you and your slinger doesn’t have a lot of melee strength if he gets the first hit. Best to move one tile at a time to see what’s ahead. A scout or a warrior he will probably ignore. If you explore with your warrior and meet an AI Civ they will be less friendly than if met with a scout (at least on Deity level I believe this is true). I re-roll a lot of games as I’m just playing casually for fun not challenge. Another school of thought is playing the start your given and adapting will make you a better player. Probably true, but can be a grind.

[janolbratowski]

Very helpful tutorial. Although personally I think would work rice tile first. Perhaps I am wrong but I always found growing city faster a much better strategy. Of course the production is smaller at the beginning, but after just few turns you are able to work two tiles, which gives you much better flexibility and allows you to micromanage tiles much more effectively. I am curious, does anyone agree with me or perhaps I am making a mistake assuming my strategy works?

[ThornySubject]

This was very helpful, as I’ve always produced scouts first, which wasn’t the best strategy it seems. I for one, would appreciate you expanding this up to 20 and 50 turns! Also, fwiw I keep trying to get into and like Humankind, but always end up coming back to civ6, especially now that I’ve bought all the dlc :)

[andyblackburn]

Also worth noting that Barbs can't sack your capital. So as long as you haven't built any improvements yet, you are really only defending against nearby civs. If none nearby, no need for a combat unit first. And Warriors can only get you two early boosts (clear barb camp, kill barbs), a Slinger can get you 3 (those 2 and kill a unit with slinger to boost archery). Later, 3 slingers that you upgrade to archers can get you another boost.

But a scout can get you several boosts and era score in the first era and set you up with a golden age. Scouts can discover other civs (writing) and city states (political philosophy), finding natural wonders (astrology), finding a second continent (foreign trade). A good scout can help you boost most of the early tech tree. Plus when you find multiple villages you end up getting a new unit in your capital (usually another scout (scout twice as fast and do a circumnavigation) or builder (another reason builder is almost never in my first two build unless there is a special corcumstance like playing as canada) and often the villages will give you the other boosts you need.

I used to say what is the point of scouts but I've come around. And with slingers I think you have to coddle them early since they need to be adjacent to much stronger enemies that can two-shot them just to do a little damage. Scouts can take a hit better than a slinger with their 15 HP vs a Slinger's 5 HP. I try to never send a slinger out alone. They are needed to get to upgrade to archers. And combat units can farm early xp so that they are highly promoted by the time you upgrade them to swordsmen. So there are legit reasons to go either way. Good on Firaxis for making it such a tradeoff that we're all debating it haha.

[Gingerlion]

Informative video! But for the people who want to start, just go and try things.. have fun! And you dont have to overthink everything.. just enjoy yourself. New people get overwhelmed because they think they have to overthink and strategize everything, but that’s what’s keeping them from trying it! Just have fun! I’m also not a smart strategic guy! (Especially the smart part!!😂) but over the years I learned to enjoy the game in my own way. Its not a job! Its a game! But if you are a pretty smart guy, and you enjoy to really be strategic. Listen to this guys video!

[guiT]

I think my personal play style is quite unique. I like playing for "value" and if possible, without confrontation at all. I like to build a "small" empire - very few cities - usually 4 up to 6, maybe 7 total, but BIG cities with extremely favorable location/strategic positioning and resources. I like to improve all the land I own, build wherever I can, and just enjoy being a super rich, influential, extremely productive, passive-aggressive small nation. For that to happen I usually don't play on hard difficulties and I always toggle NO barbarians. I like to set up a game where my civ has geographical advantage, such as a small islands map to play with Indonesia in civ 6 or polynesia in civ 5. Also, always HUGE map, for me it's a lot of fun.

[elastichedgehog]

2:30 "And if I hover over it I can see... [worked tiles]". Just to note, that's a mod! Definitely worth getting :)

[drunkhealer]

Thank you. Very helpful. Would enjoy seeing a video going over the first 50 or 100 turns.

[andyblackburn]

Scouts are awesome for era score, first envoys, finding the best settling locations, and boosts. Era Score is really important with Dramatic Ages mode. Scouts can find villages that grant units, a population, or gold or other goodies. The map info you get from them is great. They are usually pretty easy to keep alive (they have 15 melee vs slinger's 5) and if you wait too long to build one you'll have to negotiate open borders just to go anywhere. If you get lucky you can get the circumnavigation era score early in the game.

Build order can also depend on the Civ. Canada for example really needs an early builder to make use of a tundra start. I like the Slinger/ Monument / Slinger build. The monument is the early option I always struggle to find the right time to get. I usually go Scout/Slinger or Slinger/Scout and then either another combat unit or the monument.

[koitoy]

Settle on the tea, work the three production tile, aqueduct to the mountain. That would have been my play. I can't remember the placement, but you could have maybe aqueduct from the river if you didn't want to burn the mountain tile from being a holy center or a science district.

[kotorybeusz]

THIS START IS PERFECT
You can turn the river into infinite production and a lot of other district resources

[brucelamb]

For the most part, I would take animal husbandry just to reveal horses because they are great food and production very early on but slightly risky. Probably wouldn't take it if no animals were visible but in this case, there would be an immediate use for it. If wonder is discovered early, than will rush stone hinge for early religion.

[Anthonial_Mjj]

Great video, man. Very informative, plus you have a great, spunky attitude and demeanor. You've got a new regular viewer here!