Welcome to AltChar's beginner's guide to Production in Civilization VI. Here, we'll try to explain the basics you need to know when starting a game of Civ VI and hopefully get you to stop worrying and love the little golden cog.
This guide should help you make sense of a couple of first eras in Civilization VI.
Production is one of the most important statistics in Civilization VI. It is a measure of how many turns it will take for a player to finish producing units, buildings, districts, wonders and complete projects.
A high level of production is not paramount to all victories in Civilization VI but it will make your life a lot easier.
Starting out
So you've spawned onto a map. A good strategy when deciding where to settle your first city is what we like to call "head for the hills". All hills in Civilization VI offer +1 Production. The exception to this is Plains (Hills) which awards +2 Production per tile.
Bear in mind that you don't want to wander with your Settler Unit more than 2 or 3 tiles further from where you've spawned as this wastes valuable turns. If there are no advantageous positions to settle - restart the game.
Firaxis Games
Start making things
After settling your first city you'll need to choose what you want to produce. A Scout is a good choice because this unit can be sent to...well scout out for the location of your next city, meet other civilizations and more.
The more "production-oriented" choice would be the Builder unit. These spawn with the ability to improve tiles three times.
Tile improvements
Many resources grant bonus Production Production yields, with Strategic Resources contributing the most. In the early game these include:
- Deer: +1 Production
- Stone: +1 Production
- Horses: +1 Production
Out of these, Stone and Horses grant additional Production when their tiles have been improved by your trusty Builders.
The Mine is one of the basic tile improvements specifically dedicated to boosting Production Production. You can build your Mines on Resources and Hills of any kind.
Firaxis Games
Other tile improvements also grant Production Production bonuses, albeit less than the Mine. They are also restricted to particular resources and we won't go there today as we're focusing on starting your game strong.
Policy cards
Some early game policy cards that grant Production include:
- Urban Planning: +1 Production in all cities.
- Ilkum: +30% bonus Production towards Builders.
- Agoge: +50% bonus Production towards Ancient and Classical era melee and ranged units.
- Maritime Industries: +100% bonus Production towards all Ancient and Classical era naval units.
- Maneuver: +100% bonus Production towards all Ancient and Classical era light and heavy cavalry units.
- Corvée: +15% bonus Production Production towards Ancient and Classical era Wonders.
- Colonization: +50% bonus Production towards Settlers.
Bonus
If you happen to settle an area with a luxury resource you can improve the tile with the resource and then sell the Luxury to the game's AI. To do this, click on another Civ leader and then "Make Deal". You can next use the gold to buy additional Builder and Trader Units.
The Trader units can be sent on routes that also grant further Production.
That would be all for this guide, see you in the next one.
