Civ 6 starting location guide

Civilization VI best starting location guide. Best yields and position to settle your first city in. I will thoroughly explain how to get a god-tier first city for your Civilization.

 

Previous steps for newer players

Click on "Show Yield Icons"

show yields civilization 6

Experts already know what yields have every type of hex. If you are newer to Civilization VI or you are like me and just prefer seeing the yield icons, then click on "Show Yield Icons" in map preferences.

 

Use the Settler lense

Settler lense civ 6

Tiles are better or worse to settle depending on water availability, resources and yields. If you're new to the game and don't really want to go in depth about settling yet, the easiest way is learning by using the Settler lense. This lense won't tell you anything about yields, very little about ubication (it will tell you not to settle too close to other cities) and everything about water availability, which is very important.

 

Settle a city in Civ 6: Water availability

Every single civilization on earth started with a city and a river: Rome and the Tiber, Egypt and the Nile, Paris and the Seine and so on. In Civilization VI water availability allows for higher population in a city, which in turns helps a city to have more citizens.

 

 
Location Bonus
Green zone Dark Green: Access to fresh water (river and lakes) +3 housing Housing
Light green zone Light green: Coast tiles without a river or lake. +1 housing Housing
grey zone Grey: Tiles away from rivers, lakes or coast. No housing Housing bonus
red zone Red: Too close to another city, river, lake and mountains.  

 

Settle a city in Civ 6: Yields and resources mechanics

Okay, so depending on the terrain you settle the city it gains yields or not, for exaple if you settle on a hill:

settle yield mechanics civ6

Originally the tile (Hills) had 2 production and 1 food, after you settle it generates 2 food and 2 production. The city improves the tile by 1 food yield.

 

Does it always improve by 1 food?

No, some tiles don't improve at all and others improve production instead of food.

 

City location yields

 
Location Original Yields Yields with a city
Plain Hills 1food yield, 2production civ6 2food yield, 2production civ6
Grassland 2food yield 2food yield, 1production civ6
Grassland (Hills) 2food yield, 1production civ6 2food yield, 1production civ6
Floodplains 2food yield 2food yield, 1production civ6
Rainforest 2food yield, 1production civ6 2food yield, 1production civ6
Desert 0 2food yield, 1production civ6
Desert (Hills) 1production civ6 2food yield, 1production civ6

As you can see the best tiles to settle are Hills, offering 2 food and 2 production once settled. This is 1 extra production when compared to Grassland.

 

Is 1 extra production civ6 production worth it?

Yes, that 1 extra production in your first city is very important as yields are very impactful early game and it will make the difference when competing for a wonder against the IA. Also in a 300 turn game that extra production means 300 extra production without considering bonuses or its snowball nature.

 

What happens if you build a city on a resource in Civ6?

Settling on a strategic or luxury resource is very good, as you will not only gain extra yields once settled, but also will get the resource. In the case of a luxury resource you don't even need its technology to work it if you settle on it. On the other hand, settling on bonus resources is really bad, as although you will get the bonus resource (which isn't worth much anyways) you will not receive bonus yields. It is much better to settle next to a bonus resource than on it.

 

  • Settling on a river tile with Plain Hills and  CitrusCitrus luxury resource on it will make for a godlike city location. Besides the 2food yield, 2production civ6 you would usually get from a city in a Plain Hills you will get 2 extra food from Citrus, resulting in 4food yield, 2production civ6.
  • In the same way if you settle on  Cotton luxury resource Cotton, you will get its 3 gold bonus.
  • Settling on a bonus resource like Rice Rice will negate its 1food yield yield modifiers if you harvested it, but without the benefits of harvesting, making it generally a bad idea settling on a bonus resource unless you have strategic reasons.  

 

 

Settle a city in Civ 6: Surrounding location.

Not only the hex itself where you settle is important, but also its surroundings. You should check for the immediate 2 tiles radius, there should be either good workable yields, wood to chop (yes, chopping wood is good) and/or locations with great adjacency bonuses. More advanced players will settle in strategic locations too, for example to get a chokepoint or a resource.

City surroundings

Besides the 'ok' hex this city is settled on (Floodplains with Amber Amber, which yields 1 extra culture). This city's surrounding tiles are good:

  • Total yields sum in a 1 tile radius is over 20.
  • There is another Amber tile to build a mine on.
  • There are resources in a 2 tile radius.
  • There are forests to chop and marshes to clear, which will give you food and production to complete city projects or grow in population.
  • In a 2 tile radius there is an ok location for a Campus or Holy site. It gives 2 adjacency bonus from Mountains and Rainforests.

 

That's pretty much how you should analyze the surroundings of a starting location. Depending on the map and settings you should also check for things like barbarians, other civilizations and disasters.

 

Settle according to victory conditions:

settle according to victory condition

This is more about your next city after the first one. Notice the Cattle tile surrounded by mountains.

If you see something like this you have to settle a city near it, clear that cattle and make either a Campus or Holy Site. No questions asked. You will get huge adjacency bonus from mountains and get a kickstart in either a science or religious victory. 

 

Settle a city in Civ 6: Locations rated.

 
Location Rating
Fresh water, Plain Hills with either citrusHoney, sugaror spices Godlike
Fresh water, Plain Hills with other luxury resources Very good
Fresh water, Plain Hills Good
Coast, Plain Hills with either citrusHoneysugaror spices Good
Coast, Plain Hills with other luxury resources Medium
Fresh water, Floodplains Medium
Coast Plain Hills Poor
Fresh water, Rainforest Poor
Fresh water, Bonus resource Bad
Desert and Tundra Bad

Keep in mind some of the medium to bad locations sometimes are ok to settle if it's not your first city and/or you have strategic reasons to use them.

 

Settle a city in Civ 6: FAQ.

How many turns should I wait before settling my first city?

Ideally you should settle in the first turn, but if there are better locations it is worth to take some turns. Three turns being the absolute maximum if you intend to settle on a very godlike location (including yields and surroundings). Otherwise taking 2 turns for a good location is ok. 

 

What's the ideal distance between cities?

6 Tiles? No. The ideal distance is around 3 tiles, this way you make better use of the space available and you're able to make good use of district's adjacency bonuses between districts of different cities. There are strategies to get +50 production making clever use of Aqueducts, Commercial Hubs and Industrial Zones.