Things Not To Do

While we listed several tips on what you should do first when you start playing Civilization VI, this page will list some more tips on what not to do so that you don't make mistakes, or even worse, potentially ruin your game.

If you want to see more tips and tricks, then please click here for more! If you have any tips you might want to add, please comment below or edit the wiki yourself.

Don't Try to Be a Jack of All Trades

As we noted in the Things To Do First page, knowing what kind of victory you'll be going for is extremely crucial as without it, you won't be able to know how you're going to actually win! However, many people could think that playing it safe and attempting to go for multiple victories would be the best option, in the off chance that there is another one or more civilization(s) trying to go for the same victory as you, so that you can switch over to a new one as soon as you realize they're going to be doing the same thing.

This is not a good idea, however. First off, you won't know what every single civilization will be going for at the very beginning of the game. You could know what some nearby civilizations are doing, but unless you somehow get to know all civilizations early on, there could always be another civilization doing what you're planning on doing. The only difference is that if you start off without a solid plan and a clear goal, you will most definitely be left behind compared to the civilization that starts immediately.

For this reason, it's highly recommended that while you are building your civilization early on you don't put resources into multiple areas, such as culture, religion, and a dominant military and instead focus on at most two aspects of your civilization, such as simply having a good culture and focus on religion.

Don't Focus On the Ocean

Compared to previous Civilization games, there's not as much control you can really have on the game if you have a very large naval fleet. Being able to control the mainland is much stronger because naval units can only control other naval?units. They have no real effect on mainland units with the exception of ranged naval units that can attack the units near the coast. This means that all you'll be able to truly control while focusing on the ocean are the naval units for trading, other military naval units (which most civilizations will not focus on), and possibly the siege of civilization capitals near the coast. However, if you don't have a strong mainland army to accompany that strong naval army, you won't be able to win the game very easily. It is very important to focus not on the ocean but on a strong mainland military if you wish to control the game through Domination. The ocean is but a means to an end, and should not be your main focus.

However, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't at least have a city that could be built near an ocean. It's not a terrible idea to have at least one, as you will most likely need to expand to another continent in the later parts of the game. If you do decide to build a city near an ocean, be sure to not build it immediately near the coast. You can actually expand your city tiles so that you build your Harbor district three tiles away, so as long as your city is three tiles away from the ocean, you will be able to build the Harbor and not lose any building spots. The above image is a good example of how to not build a city near the coast.

Don't Expand Early

When you first create your capital city in Civilization VI, you will find that it has a fairly small size. You can increase the size of your cities by buying tiles surrounding the tiles that you already own, which you should have a set amount early on. Your first thought when playing the game is that you need to expand your city walls, and that is not a very good idea. Gold early on should be saved and managed for when you actually need it, as there will be times when you will need to buy a unit, building, or district immediately and will have difficulty doing that if you spend money expanding your city as soon as possible.

This is because the price for expanding city tiles is fairly large and the gains for doing so are not very high. The only time you really need to expand your city is when you need to either get the most out of your districts, such as building a Campus district near some mountains, or when you need more space for food production or housing, or if you simply need to get the resources on that tile. Don't play in a rush: Be patient, conservative, and you will find your civilization will have great success.

Don't Move Friendly Units Near Other Civilizations

If you try to move a friendly unit near another Civilization during the game at any point, they will tell you that your units are too close, to which you can reply that you won't do it again or to declare war on them. If you leave them there for too long, they will denounce you for not keeping your promise and you will lose some reputation with them. While you don't necessarily have to care about being denounced as simply only moving your friendly units near their civilization will not end up getting you into a war, it can still ruin reputation that you earned with the civilizations.

In times when you need to move your units through or around a civilization, be sure to bargain with them in the diplomatic menu for open borders. Most of the time, you'll be able to just exchange open borders with them and they'll be fine with it. Other times, you'll need to give them a bit of gold, but it's worth it in the long run.?

Don't Attempt to Conquer City-States

Now, when you first start thinking that you might go for a Domination Victory in which you control all of the civilization capitals, you might think of conquering some city-states early on as they will not be as big as civilizations but they still have a city you could potentially take. However, this is a bad move, as the moment you try and conquer them every single civilization will denounce you and your reputation will go down hard. The only time it's really useful to take out city-states is later on in the game when they either give a very, very large bonus once captured (such as having multiple luxuries) or are allied with another civilization you are planning to take down. Otherwise, most of the time it's better to leave them alone and ignore them.

Don't Buy Units Early

While playing early on, you might think that buying units with gold will save you time when you could be expanding your city instead. While this isn't incorrect, you will be losing out on a ton of gold early on this way, meaning that you won't have any later on for when you actually need it, like an emergency unit or building that you would have to build. It's almost always better to just wait the few turns patiently to wait for your units then. As the game progresses, you can opt to drop some cash on a Builder or a Trader from time to time, but early on all units cost a great deal of gold that just isn't worth saving up gold for to spend on.