On Towards the Stars: Game Settings, Terminology, UI
Why are Civ 6 Yield Icons turned off by default?!
[This post is part of a larger strategy guide for Civilization 6]
Off the bat, there are a few things every civ multiplayer player must do.
Turn on yield icons. Go to the bottom left above your minimap, select map settings, and make sure the yield icons option is checked.
Enable fast movement and combat. Go to your settings, it should be in the General menu.
Enable the resource ribbon. Go to your settings, click on game interface, and make sure the ribbon is set to always on.
I also strongly recommend you have the following mods installed:
In particular, BBG meaningfully changes how the game works, and some of my recommendations assume you have BBG installed.
Civ 6 has two expansions and a bunch of leader packs. I have all of them installed, but this guide makes the most sense if you have at least Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm. The expansions come with a lot of additional game modes, such as Secret Societies, Monopolies, Zombies, and Heroes. I play with all of these off.
Generally, I play on quick and Pangea. Some of the timing suggestions in this guide are geared around 'quick', though the underlying ideas should cross apply everywhere. I also generally play with a dynamic turn timer, and simultaneous turns (including during war).
Terminology
A few common words, including slang terms that I use:
Barb(s): barbarians
Goodie Huts: tribal villages
Pop: population, i.e. the number of workers in a city; or referring to a single worker.
Yields: the resources that are on each tile. A combination of food, production, coin, science, culture, and faith.
Working a Tile: getting the yield from a tile because a pop is set to that tile. For example, imagine I have two tiles in my city. One has 5 food, the other has 5 production. If I have a city with only 1 pop, I have to choose between getting 5 food per turn vs getting 5 production per turn.
Hammers: generally a short hand for production, but can be a short hand for ‘investment’ in general, including coin, units, or time.
Basic UI
Civ is a really complex game, with an overwhelming number of menus, options, quests, systems, units, structures… You'll figure all that out in time. To start, you only need to know one thing: the next action button.
The next action button is the big button in the bottom right corner. It is a brilliant piece of game design. That button will open any menu, move your camera, auto-select units or cities, and more. In other words, it takes a massive, complex game and turns it into a series of micro-decisions that can each be made in context. As a result, you-the-player don't have to worry about finding and understanding all of the UX. Just keep hitting the next action button. If it's your first time playing, a) you probably shouldn't be reading this guide, and b) just play a whole game by hitting the next action button and making individual choices.
Eventually, as you play more, you'll learn when to go beyond the next-action button by keeping an eye on things that are in progress and responding dynamically to shifting conditions. But even at the highest levels of the game, this button is vital — so much so that I actually have it bound to spacebar as a hotkey.