(Civilization 6 Guide) A Complete Guide To DOMINATE Early Wars In Civilization 6

[@underruu]

As someone who has never played civ (or any game similar to it) I can say your videos have helped a lot. That being said I still haven't gotten up passed prince difficulty

[@TheCivLifeR]

it takes time tbh, I rly appreciate the support!

[@marinewillis1202]

Don't feel too bad. I tend to stick to the lower difficulties also just because I don't like to beeline towards things and take my time enjoying and expanding and not just going for the quick win. I like to get to the modern techs to try out all the units and toys. For me its fun to see how epic I can make my empire. I like to colonize islands and other areas sort of like the Europeans did in our history.

[@morty908]

@@marinewillis1202 I like that aspect of lower diffs too, but hate that I know I can't lose. Civ needs to do a much better job balancing those two interests. There's no in between difficulty for me where I am challenged and building my empire with flexibility. It's just early war into winning on higher diffs every time.

[@Ranyanya]

Don't worry, after 30 years I'm stuck on Emperor on my own, I can beat the game on higher difficulties only with some tips from experts ;-)

[@vitormiranda1408]

if u wanna play good civ watch ffa streams instead of a guy that only plays against Ai

[@LokiLaughs2]

Horsemen are for pillaging. A small number of 2 promotion units with 1 movement pillaging is essential to catch up to the most powerful civ on deity.

[@elit.671]

Exactly. You can pillage so much money/culture/faith with a few horseman in the middle of a war then fill up their health by pillaging a farm 👍

[@nunyabizznez2805]

I'm new to the game. In other games, horses are for killing fleeing wounded enemies to keep them from healing up and rejoining the fray. Is that not the case here?

[@LokiLaughs2]

@nunyabizznez2805 Scythians who heal from a kill are good at that, but fast calvary units are less powerful than other options for purely killing. Districts are extremely expensive to repair. Improvements don't take a builder charge and are easily repaired. There are era policies that double pillaging bonuses. Most importantly pillaging doesn't cause grievances to build up. I highly recommend promoting fast calvary into pillaging.

[@nunyabizznez2805]

@@LokiLaughs2 not for killing healthy units, for finishing off mostly dead units before they can get away. I noticed barbarians rarely run and frequently attack even when they have no chance at winning, so this tactic isn't important against barbarians at all, but I think I've seen the ai retreat and heal up. Another use I've found for them is encircling and pinning units. Get in position and fortify up and then let your archer and/or shock troops do their job iv relative safety. Wounded scouts can easily be run back to safety to heal up and then rejoin the fight fairly easily. The only real issue I've had with scouts is diving to deep and then getting surrounded on trapped in bad terrain, but that can happen to any unit, and scouts are the cheapest to lose this way. In fairness, I'm trying to find uses for this otherwise pretty weak unit. So far I haven't had more than 2 in any game, but when I don't get them, I seem to miss out on a lot of boosts.

[@LokiLaughs2]

@nunyabizznez2805 A big issue you will run into on higher difficulty levels is the grievance system. There will be a set number of cities you can keep during a war without suffering warmonger penalties. Pillaging doesn't build of grievances and it can produce massive yields when doubled through a policy card. After you've defeated another civilization rather than accumulating a huge number of grievances just get to pillaging everything then accept peace. Light calvary can pillage a district multiple times in a single turn. They are absolutely necessary to plunder a defeated opponent as fast as possible without building up grievances.

[@dylanvansill2764]

Watching you grow quickly is insane man. Few weeks ago I swear you only had 1k subs. Keep up the great content!

[@TheCivLifeR]

Appreciate it!

[@ashleygilvin8705]

You’ve really helped me improve. I got the game two weeks ago and I used to turtle up in a shell and barely settle but these great videos helped me.

[@TheCivLifeR]

Glad I could help!

[@marinewillis1202]

Thats the way I play lol. I like to expand to natural choke points so I can have clear defined borders.

[@zeaol]

I never knew that about rivers breaking zone of control and exactly when a city is placed under siege. Good stuff to know!

[@11williams]

I usually build a horseman as a “scout” because of the 4 movement. This is useful for far goody huts and you don’t have to worry as much about dieing if you get swamped from Barbs.

[@cteal2018]

I like 1 or 2 later for raiding and looting.

[@nunodasilva5449]

@@cteal2018 and to capture workers/settlers. I think that what we both mentioned is the use of them.

[@mmccarthy9458]

Rome is really good for the legion rush and early war. Another overlooked perk of Rome is the free road to the capital while waging war to get those legions in the right position.

[@breakmanradio2530]

Plus you don't need to build monuments, so that's great for early war. It's not THE BEST for domination victories but the automatic roads just make the game much easier imho. That is, less things to worry about early on in the game.

[@arran10]

This is so interesting from a total war player who just started paying civ 6. I didn't know that you could develop peacefully in the early game so I just end up always going to war prior to turn 40. Surprisingly this works really well.

[@hoddo33]

Great video with some interesting tactics. Really impressively fast decision making too. Interesting pronunciation though. I loved Borjoe :) Those cities are pronounced bor-doh, mar-say and t-buh-lee-see

[@noahmilich4699]

Love the vid. We need you to get 100 million subscribers by the end of the year. Totally will 100% happen. You should try gilgamesh with a matterhorn and continent border spawn. (Ealry domination with war carts is op)

[@TheCivLifeR]

ayy appreciate it and like the idea!

[@gordanarajevac6312]

There is an interesting strat where you play a civ which has some commercial hub and domination bonuses (f.e the ottomans) and you sim up spam cities with holy sites and commercial hubs and pic voidsingers and wait for the tier 2 government and build grandmaster chapel and spam buy units

[@TheCivLifeR]

great strat tbh, ill use it next week

[@HrRezpatex]

Some times it is nice to have a fast unit that can stand out of the range until it is safe to go strait in and take the city.. I do not build many of them, but i love them when i starts attack that will take 4-5 cities within short time.

[@originstories]

I took Information Age Egypt 9 cities in 3 turns in my last war. Hit the capital and it's neighbor with nukes to decapitate the air force, hit everything else with jet bombers, guided missile cruisers, and destroyers/tanks to deal the final blow. Immensely satisfying. I waited as long as I could but they forced my hand when they simultaneously finished researching Nuclear Fusion while cementing an alliance with my next door rival India.

[@iforeplay]

Great video man Can you make a video on how to approach Mid & Late game war please. Cause that’s where me and most players struggle the most

[@TheCivLifeR]

appreciate it! And ya Im planning on making those videos as well

[@marinewillis1202]

Agreed. The mid and late game warfare is A LOT harder than early game.

[@brbqsauce]

5:41 Wisdom for aeons to come. Had I game during which I had only one tile of niter out of all possible resources.

[@jyutzler]

If you have no iron and the AI is right next to you (closer than France in this video), a spearman rush is still viable. It isn't ideal because spearmen don't benefit from a great general but they still work fairly well until the AI gets crossbowmen.

[@TheCivLifeR]

if they ai get swords though your screwed, even warriors would be a struggle tbh

[@jyutzler]

@@TheCivLifeR Archers and horsemen to deal with the swordsmen and warriors. It's also why the Big Mac strat is so important - eliminate their free units.

[@alexyang8440]

@@TheCivLifeR I noticed at least two benefits of having at least 1 spearman early on.. whereas warrior gives 20 str. for garrisoning a city, a spearman gives 25, so might be better for early defense. also their +5 melee bonus promotion, which is the second benefit, makes them a good contender in not only melee against warriors in early game. which make the spearman (maybe just 1 or 2) a good support to have as early in the game as possible. (also against horsemen, another early game threat) but as you said, they are pretty much obsolete once others upgrade into swordsmen. which is why I try to pick one up from a barb clan as soon as possible. finally, I try to have at least 1-2 of each unit type so that I can aim to have a well-promoted unit of them in the later game. a spearman rush, however, is something I have never considered, considering one normally needs to have bronze working to make them anyway and they are so expensive. can't have too many cheaply from barb camps though. the +10 defense promotion against melee too also speaks for itself.

[@alexyang8440]

just a quick tip on getting other civs to join a war for 1 diplo. ask for gold too. helps me to make a nice boost of early gold, esp. for early war rushes. been a Civ addict since Civ 1, so this game is the love/hate of my life. so I totally get your 'civlifer' name. ^^

[@TheCivLifeR]

good point

[@nunyabizznez2805]

As a fellow follower of the franchise since civ 1, I think the series topped out at 4 (although corporations broke that game as well). I'm starting to play civ 6 again now with a new goal to just appreciate this game for what it is rather than compare it to previous editions and the table top games I played before even civ 1 came out. It seems they wanted to take an already complex game and see how extreme they could take it.

[@unHolyEvelyn]

I've found that listening to Sugaan Essena is a very good way to get into the spirit of this game.

[@Ace1Yoda]

I been winning on king with Shaka. Mostly cultural or religious tho

[@matiasrodriguez3389]

Your videos are the best man!! they are great they are short they are good

[@TheCivLifeR]

Glad you like them!

[@gustavinus]

Dunno man. Most times moving the governor helps. Many times all we need is to hold the city for 2 or 3 extra turns, until we get another bigger city nearby.

[@theemperorofdrifts5854]

In multiplayer i always rush horsemen, swordfights and bowmen with one or 2 battering rams. Because at this time i have enough units and attack my first opponent they usually have not build a good amount of units and they just lose. But you know. Playing online means you also play with a bunch of plebs a lot

[@zb3485]

man, the vids are crazy good...not to mention funny

[@alphatucana]

Great guide... but I think you managed to pronounce every city's name incorrectly except Paris and La Rochelle. I'm guessing geography wasn't a strong subject, besides mathematics... LOL!

[@markcharles6744]

Okay education police...

[@Mikey-uj3dc]

Triggered old man

[@braurio]

🤓 you prnounthed the cities wong

[@johnsonjunior547]

To be fair, I'm pretty good at geography but can't pronounce a lot because I've only ever read them. Books and maps don't generally provide pronunciation audio.

[@alphatucana]

@@johnsonjunior547 Better to have read them anyway, of course.

[@poelover2024]

How to play early war as hammurabi? Slinger kill something giving me Archer. 3 Archers giving me crossbows. It's 30 turns to make crossbowman... I can't play?

[@ppp45690]

I play immortal and I always end up winning if I have a strong early war. I like to start with 2x slinger then my 1st settler. But when the AI do an early rush, it's just ridiculous how more advance they can be so early.

[@jessebammann4947]

Hey so your "bic mac" strategy is actually a real war tactic called the hammer and anvil

[@eddierazor5145]

Hi, i have had troubles with implementing the "bic mac strat" i get the ai to declare war on our neighbor and they never seem to move their troops to attack. i have also tried this with a 2nd tier military alliance to view their troops and they never seem to do anything for me. am i doing this wrong?

[@jyutzler]

What the other AI does is hard to predict but any amount of help can make a difference. Just dividing the AI's attention can help.

[@StoicDivinity]

oh France, even in my games, they're the first ones always taken down 😂

[@jamesclouse9947]

That's just Hollywood bullshit

[@DaOskii]

If you settle on top of a resource does it get worked?? Like them spices

[@TheCivLifeR]

yessir

[@alexyang8440]

except wheat and bananas, as far as I can tell.

[@jyutzler]

Let's be specific. If you settle on a resource, you gain the benefit of that resource. However, you do not gain the improvement that would go on that resource (mine/quarry/farm/plantation/pasture).

[@williambreeze2659]

Thanks sir!

[@Quantum3ntity]

that's fine

[@shaunantoniuk8843]

how did you go from 2.5 to 5.8 culture in 1 turn at turn 19? i know you finished monument but isn't that just 2 culture?

[@jyutzler]

the other was due to increased population in Marseille and Paris

[@kingkaishow]

I love your channel so much. I play on xbox. Is there any way I can post a game play and you watch it tell me what i do wrong because I am smashing the game beginning and toward the middle after a war I lose direction.

[@chrisking3537]

thats fine

[@viktorvarga449]

Damn son you ruthlessly butcher those french city names :D, Pierre will have a heart attack if he watches this.

[@TheCivLifeR]

lmao

[@cedricgiry4556]

How lucky are you? Not a single barbarian camp to bother you with units spawning every turn and settling right on iron with a second source 2 tiles away... not to mention you are the civ to meet 2 cultural city states which is a highway to fertility rites I never get such starting conditions

[@FlaviusAspra]

It's because he restarts and shows just the lucky ones.

[@nunyabizznez2805]

​@@FlaviusAspra I've seen a few of his vids, and he's clearly a restart spammer. Not that I'm not. I'm not good enough to start in a tundra.

[@robinwells5343]

Great video

[@TheCivLifeR]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Cba409]

I only have the base, vanilla game. And Horsemen can use siege towers. I always make horsemen.

[@redfella1527]

Georgia's theme is the only thing the did right with that civ

[@TheCivLifeR]

the theme is fire, the rest of the kit is a dumpster fire

[@deadshotdaiquiri_4217]

@@TheCivLifeR Her unique unit is decent

[@tomsetberg4746]

Don't you build horsemen in your domination victory mistakes video?

[@matthewdancz9152]

I am curious, why didn't you take the nearby city states, or choose Victor as your first governor for your advanced cities loyalty problems? Is that because the plan isn't to continue down the path of a domination victory as the game progresses, or to keep the victory type options open? I haven't played and won on Deity difficulty yet, but I have used early war strategies for a domination victory on Emperor difficulty where I took over the closest city states and used Victor to help control the loyalty pressure of enemy cities, and it was effective enough that I'm going to try it again on Immortal difficulty with some streamlining refinements to the technologies I research first. I figure conquering the city states during a domination victory is a solid plan, because the enemy will probably be able to utilize the city states bonuses earlier than I will for their victory conditions, and those significant bonuses can allow the AI to run away from me. Especially science city states, because falling behind in science has been a guaranteed loss on any difficulty. Not to mention they are a potential threat should the AI become suzerain of a city state within my area. Pillaging enemy tile improvements and districts gives my empire tremendous boosts, and significantly reduces the enemies ability to effectively launch a counter attack. I humorously call it the Narcy strat because it relies on tearing the opponent down and pooping on their improvements rather than making my own empire good enough to compete. A lot like a narcist, hence the name.

[@unitet-6906]

First that won't work as well on Immortal and Deity difficulties because city states start with Ancient Walls. You can get a Battering ram of course but that will take more time and more ressources. Next city states troops are usually harmelles as they manage to be even dumber than ai players' troops. Walls and an archer or two are usually enough to hold them off. Unless you neglict your militaryn, but there's a simple fix to that : don't. Also don't forget that city states bonuses scale really well in the late game. And last but not least, just like the ai players, they always settle in the worst possible spots, while giving you a bunch of grievances that wil turn ou into public ennemy n°1 for the rest of the game , so you're better off taking another player cities to take him out of the race right away than taking city states that most of time aren't worth the trouble. Here hope I could help :D

[@jyutzler]

@@unitet-6906 Yeah I pretty much agree with this. City-states should only be taken out if you don't have a better target. I agreed with the bit about Victor though.

[@johnirby8847]

Beat Deity a few dozen times with the weakest/highest war weariness civs in the game and you'll roast multiplayer players like nothing.

[@yearnrommel711]

you showed a lot of things that one shouldnt do, so thats good i guess

[@gtaakuma4514]

I thought that horsemen were good for dealing with enemy infantry

[@kayscruffy8845]

Why can I never buy faith units ie missionaries like ever I don't know if the game is broken or what because it seems everyone else has them

[@wolfgamer-lq5rs]

you need a shrine for that

[@jlabour114]

Do you have a religion?

[@Genghiskoz]

What happens if u try to be peaceful with everyone?

[@combustible8464]

When the free city has more military than you: 🗿

[@ethanwmonster9075]

If your not careful non-civ entities like barbs, free cities will out tech your units.

[@flaggy185]

"Why You never build horsemen" Byzantium: *Bro wtf*

[@hakeemblake3653]

Idk if you are scythia and you use horseman you get 2

[@elephantparade2152]

Just archers.... many many archers. And a couple of melee

[@elephantparade2152]

Go full agincourt

[@John-wl9pg]

Where do you get your mods? They look very useful!

[@ryanmoore3369]

Tomyris can kill everyone with horse men early game if you spawn on 2 horse tiles . Someone set the world record with this strat sooo

[@TheCivLifeR]

you definitely can but this is more meant to be a guide for people who arent really advanced in the game and walls can cripple you

[@ryanmoore3369]

@@TheCivLifeR facts

[@connerSphotography]

@@TheCivLifeR I agree with the walls big time there is many times I am pushing a super early war just for the AI to get off ancient walls making my horseman and spearman defunk. They have to retreat and wait for archers and battering rams so annoying lol.

[@connerSphotography]

@@TheCivLifeR if I feel like early war nowadays I go Gilgamesh but even now I wanna restart I feel like I could’ve did my war better and lost less war carts

[@gustavinus]

You .. raised .. Stonehenge ...

[@aaronolmstead4210]

Good vids, but you say "if there is no iron or horse", as if that isn't the nearly always the case. I've restarted probably 20 games in a row, only once or twice was there horses (like 20 moves away adjacent to enemy city). Like this game does not want players to get those. How about video of how to wage war without those?

[@vorname1485]

try to be as fast as possible - noooo?! try not to lose units - noooooooo?!

[@gustavinus]

what what? horseman is awesome... LOL

[@pbraganzify]

Had to dislike... it's Mar-SAY, not Mar-SEE-EL. Other than that, great video

[@nunyabizznez2805]

Dislikes have the same effect as likes (adds to the algorithm), just doesn't show up in the public statistics.

[@exilenl]

Right. The thumbnail says never build horsemen and then you say build horsemen or swordsmen...

[@amelia_727]

Wow!

[@TheCivLifeR]

appreciate it!

[@SkynetNeuralink]

Well i need to find someone new to explain the game to me. I'm ps4 user. No mods.

[@AntonioGarcia-wn7ut]

Anybody trying to play civ 6 seriously but not trying super hard ? I like trying but I don’t like when people chop trees armies just for the memes

[@luisgutierrez8047]

Gee no wonder you rate her so low. Did not use any of her strengths AT ALL. Like levying units then using that faith to buy missionaries for crusade. Or getting some cheap walls so you don't have to worry about barbs

[@TheCivLifeR]

wanted it to be a all encompassing guide not using any abilities

[@luisgutierrez8047]

@@TheCivLifeR ah ok

[@Schody_lol]

17:21 XD

[@bluedonkey180]

I still don’t understand why not horsemen

[@TheCivLifeR]

horsemen cant attack walls, if the ai gets walls (happens a lot on deity) then your screwed

[@Arezoo298195]

@@TheCivLifeR they’re good for taking out crossbow men and trebuchets but then you have to retreat quick to not lose them. But you’re attacking before the AI has those yet so I guess not useful for you.

[@bluedonkey180]

@@TheCivLifeR I love spearmen I always build them and then upgrade to pikemen. Also scouts, I love those

[@JayJay-wf2oe]

@@TheCivLifeR But they can also pillage effectively to lower city defense. I run horsemen on deity with no problem. Against city defense I'd say just let catapults handle it.

[@VitorEmanuelOliver]

The city of Boar Joe

[@tomfriesejr]

"Big Mac Strategy" is such a terrible name that it might be a great name. I mean... why would you call it that, and not address the fact that there's middle bun and 2 patties in the Big Mac? The Whopper Strat or Hamburger Strat seems like it makes more sense. Having said all that, I think you should keep calling it the Big Mac Strat.

[@6184aabbcdefg]

wow this is so close, almost fail

[@TheCivLifeR]

lol I never didnt have it

[@andreastom1755]

@@TheCivLifeR bro what, if you had one swordsman less you wouldn't have gotten it. all your units were at like 25 hp when you killed last france city. Slightly more greed in producing swordsman or one bad decision would have lost you the war.

[@gregoryhanserd9311]

You should have destroyed the city the first time.

[@TheCivLifeR]

true tbh

[@krisrodgers1147]

Don’t know why I read that as horse semen

[@TheDarkChemicalBond]

I like your videos, but the pronunciation was killing me. It's pronounced "Mar-sigh", not "Mar-see-elle." :) Awesome vids, though.

[@lurgutrenalpak8398]

I read that as Horse semen. FYI

[@darrenmurray861]

Brother, your pronunciation of French cities makes me cringe 😬 Other than that, great informative video

[@Nerdcrusher]

Bored Joe?

[@anilkarakaya9343]

Hot guys play tamar

[@seankim382]

666 likes at the time of posting this comment

[@TheCivLifeR]

lol

[@Multibomberable]

Terrible guide, even worse execution

[@connerSphotography]

Terrible comment, even worse execution.

[@marcoswillianl]

Very good but man, this loyalty mechanic is so bad and anti-fun.

[@TheCivLifeR]

ya loyalty is pretty bad, but it stops civ 6's biggest problem (unchecked expansion)

[@jyutzler]

I disagree, it is the only thing that makes it challenging. You actually have to think strategically.

[@noahmilich4699]

You could always install a mod that gets rid of it. There are a lot of good mods out there, but loyalty is a pretty big factor of the game so yeah its your choice.

[@marcoswillianl]

@@jyutzler This is just a stupid mechanic put in the game because they can't make a proper AI that actually defend itself well and make adequate units to counter the player, don't fool yourself.

[@jyutzler]

@@marcoswillianl False. In the base game and previous versions, there was no penalty to founding a city right in the middle of someone else's empire. It drove me nuts. (Older versions didn't even have national borders but at least that was eventually fixed.) If you declared war, you were branded a warmonger. Now that garbage city would immediately flip so you can capture or raze it. If you like the base game, no one is stopping you from playing it. I think it is an inferior game. Managing era score and loyalty is part of the challenge.