The Gathering Storm expansion adds even more depth to Civilization VI, offering a wealth of mechanics to explore and master. Whether you’re chasing a specific victory type or simply refining your gameplay, these advanced strategies will help you stay one step ahead of the competition.
1. Leveraging Fourth-Ring Tiles
- Harvesting Resources: While cities can only work tiles within three tiles of the city center, you can still chop or harvest resources in the fourth ring:
- Woods = Production
- Marshes = Food
- Crabs, Copper, Cattle = Gold or Food
- National Parks: Tiles beyond the third ring can be used for national parks, as long as all four tiles belong to the same city. Wide-border cities like a size 29 London can enable this.
2. Strategic Wonder Placement and Border Expansion
- Some wonders, such as Bolshoi Theatre and Mont-Saint-Michel, expand a city’s borders by +2 tiles upon completion.
- Use this to claim high-value resources or tiles otherwise out of reach, saving you gold and builder charges.
3. Optimizing Religious Victory
- Mont-Saint-Michel gives martyr to all apostles—but this removes martyr from the promotion pool, increasing your chance of getting more powerful options like Debater or Translator.
- Holy Site Projects (Holy Prayers) can be chopped for quick Great Prophet points to secure your religion early.
- Overflow Prophet Points convert to faith after recruitment, giving you a boost toward early missionaries or buildings.
- Religious Colonization belief ensures every newly founded city starts with your religion—even enemy cities that flip through loyalty.
4. Great People and Unit Management
- Transfer Great People across cities instantly using the “Transfer to Another City” action—ideal for saving movement and triggering effects where needed.
- Promote While Fortified: Fortify a unit, then cancel the action and promote it. It retains its fortified status and receives the promotion’s healing.
5. Builder Synergies and Chopping Strategy
- Maya + Ancestral Hall: Maya gets a free builder when settling near the capital. With Ancestral Hall, you get twofree builders—an explosive start.
- Magnus Chops: Stack Magnus with Colonization, Agoge, or Ilkum to turn forests and resources into massive production gains.
- Use this method to rush settlers, campuses, or districts.
6. Trading and Diplomacy
- Luxury Swaps: Buy luxuries from AI to boost amenities, then sell your surplus back for gold.
- Gold Per Turn for Lump Sum: Offer GPT in exchange for a lump sum of gold. The Quick Deals mod can help identify fair deals instantly.
- Alliances for Advantage: Trading great works, resources, or strategic items can improve AI relationships and secure alliances.
7. Military and Naval Power Tactics
- Aircraft Carriers: After using their planes for bombardment, aircraft carriers can attack like melee naval units, allowing for efficient city assaults.
- Levy City-State Armies: If a city-state is under threat, levy its units or use your army to physically block enemy access.
8. Exploration Optimization
- Follow Rivers: Rivers always flow toward oceans—use this to locate coastlines when fog of war is heavy.
- Settler Lens: Reveals red tiles within three tiles of existing cities—handy for deducing AI city locations even when hidden.
- Fast Scouting: Prioritize flat terrain to increase movement efficiency during early exploration.
9. Late-Game City Planning
- Settling Late Cities:
- Place near existing Industrial Zones to benefit from factory power radius.
- Chop surrounding tiles to speed up growth and build infrastructure faster.
- Specialization: Tailor new cities for production or science using improvements and policy cards to quickly scale them into relevance.
10. Tactical Micro-Tips
- Breaking a Siege: Even a single unit placed adjacent to a city can lift a siege. Example: Yerevan can be saved by placing one unit to break enemy encirclement.
- Zone Control Awareness: Use terrain and unit placement to maximize defense or prevent enemy movements—especially near choke points.
Final Thoughts
Whether you’re pushing for a cultural, religious, or scientific win—or just surviving in a world of floods and war—Gathering Storm rewards smart planning and creative strategies. Apply these advanced tips to gain a strategic edge and dominate your next game.
If you found these helpful, don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more Civ VI insights. What advanced tricks do you use that we didn’t cover? Let us know!
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