Domination (Military Victory): Look for civilizations with strong unique units, early-game military advantages, or bonuses to production and strategic resources (e.g., the Zulu for land warfare, Scythia for early rush strategies).
Science Victory: Choose civs that excel at generating science or improving research efficiency, such as civilizations with unique campus adjacency bonuses or special science buildings (e.g., Korea, Babylon).
Cultural Victory: Opt for civilizations that produce extra culture or tourism through their unique buildings, districts, or abilities (e.g., Greece with extra culture from the Acropolis, France for tourism, Kongo for great works).
Religious Victory: Pick civs that have faith-based bonuses, unique temples, or early religious units (e.g., Arabia for religious synergy, Russia for huge faith generation from Lavras).
Diplomatic Victory: Consider civs that can generate large amounts of diplomatic favor, build alliances effectively, or secure city-states (e.g., Canada with diplomatic advantages, Sweden for great people that influence diplomacy).
2. Match Your Playstyle to the Civ’s Strengths
Some civilizations are tailored to specific playstyles. If you’re an aggressive player, go for a civ with military might. If you prefer a “tall” empire of a few highly developed cities, choose a civ with district cost reductions, bonus adjacency, or unique infrastructure. For “wide” players who build many cities, pick a civ that can handle expansion well, such as those with loyalty advantages or cheaper settlers.

3. Consider the Game’s Geography and Map Type
Certain civilizations have environment-based bonuses that shine in specific terrains or map settings:

Maritime Civs on Water Maps: Civs with naval bonuses (e.g., the Maori or the Phoenician Empire) perform exceptionally on archipelago or island maps.
Civs with Desert, Tundra, or Rainforest Bonuses: Some civilizations thrive in unusual terrains, converting what’s usually a disadvantage into a strength. For example, Russia profits from tundra, and Arabia or Mali can benefit from deserts.
Starting Bias: Many civs have a starting bias that places them near certain resources or terrain, giving you a more predictable early game.
4. Leverage Unique Units, Buildings, and Districts
Break down a civilization’s unique elements and see how they integrate into your plan:

Unique Units: A strong early unit can secure your borders or launch a quick offensive. A strong mid- or late-game unit can tip the balance in a stalemate.
Unique Buildings or Districts: If you want to focus on culture, a unique theater square replacement that’s cheaper or provides extra yields is invaluable. If you’re aiming for science, a unique building that boosts research is a clear plus.
Unique Infrastructure or Abilities: Some abilities increase yields from certain improvements, others provide extra policy slots or reduce district costs. Carefully read these abilities to see if they align with your chosen victory path.
5. Factor in Difficulty Level and Opponents
On higher difficulty levels, civs with strong early economies or solid defensive bonuses can help you survive aggressive AIs. If you know which civs your opponents are playing, pick one that counters their strengths. For example, if you face a known warmonger, choose a civ with defensive advantages (like the Inca’s mountain advantage or Ethiopia’s faith-based defense bonuses in Civ VI).

6. Adaptability and Flexibility
If you’re uncertain about which victory you’ll pursue, pick a civilization that offers balanced bonuses applicable to multiple paths. Some civs provide general economic and production advantages that can pivot into different victory types based on the situation (e.g., Germany with its strong industrial base can pursue science, domination, or even culture through robust infrastructure).

India (Gandhi): Bonus faith and religious spread.
Russia (Peter): Extra faith from Tundra tiles and bonus Great Prophet points.
Spain (Philip II): Religious units are stronger in combat, and bonuses to converting cities on different continents.
Focus on Faith Generation
Holy Sites:
Build Holy Sites in your cities as early as possible. Choose locations with adjacency bonuses from mountains and forests.

Shrines and Temples:
Construct Shrines and Temples in your Holy Sites to increase faith generation and unlock religious units.

Pantheon Choice:
Choose a pantheon that aligns with your terrain or strategy:

Earth Goddess (+2 faith from breathtaking appeal).
Religious Settlements (faster city expansion).
Earn a Great Prophet
Great Prophet Points:
Build Holy Sites early and run projects like Holy Site Prayers to accumulate Great Prophet points. Ensure you claim a religion before others.
2. Mid-Game: Spreading Your Religion
Customize Your Religion
Founder Belief:
Choose beliefs that provide bonuses to faith or help spread religion, like:

Tithe: Gain gold for each follower.
Pilgrimage: Gain extra faith for each foreign city following your religion.
Follower Belief:
Select benefits that encourage population growth or infrastructure, such as:

Feed the World: Shrines and Temples provide food.
Religious Community: Housing from Holy Sites.
Worship Belief:
Choose worship buildings (e.g., Pagodas, Mosques) that boost religious unit strength or faith generation.

Build Religious Units
Missionaries:
Use them to spread your religion in nearby cities with little resistance.
Apostles:
Use Apostles for religious combat, spreading religion, and evangelizing beliefs to enhance your religion.
Inquisitors:
Keep some to defend your cities from foreign religions.
Religious Combat
Defend Your Religion:
Use Apostles to engage in theological combat against enemy missionaries and apostles. This strengthens your religion’s presence in the area.
Religious Combat Tips:
Fight in tiles with your Holy Sites for combat bonuses.
Promote Apostles with abilities like Debater (+20 religious combat strength).
City-State Relationships
Faith-Based City-States:
Suzerain city-states like Yerevan (grants Apostles any promotion) to boost your religious capabilities. Send envoys to them early and often.
3. Advanced Religious Spread
Focus on Trade Routes
Use international trade routes to spread your religion passively. The farther the trade route, the better the impact.
Target Weak Religions
Prioritize civilizations without strong religious infrastructure. Convert their cities quickly to minimize resistance.
Leverage Policy Cards
Use religious policy cards to enhance your faith and religious unit effectiveness, such as:
Scripture: Doubles religious spread from Holy Site buildings.
Inquisition: Reduces religious spread of other religions.
Diplomacy
Form Alliances:
Establish alliances to avoid wars that can disrupt your religious campaigns.
Be Cautious:
Avoid spreading religion to civs with strong opposing beliefs too early, as it might provoke hostility.
4. Late Game: Securing Dominance
Build Wonders
Construct wonders that bolster your faith and religious spread, such as:

Mahabodhi Temple: Provides two free Apostles.
Mont St. Michel: Apostles gain the Martyr promotion.
Hagia Sophia: Religious units gain an additional spread charge.
Potala Palace: Adds a diplomatic policy slot for flexibility.
Use Rock Bands (If Culture Victory is a Threat)
If another civilization is pursuing a Cultural Victory, counter them by promoting Rock Bands with religious-related abilities, such as converting cities with a performance.

Maintain Religious Pressure
Religious Bomb:
Use Apostles to create a religious bomb when converting cities under pressure from other religions.
Faith Purchases:
Use faith to buy more missionaries and apostles in cities with Holy Sites.
Convert the Capitals
Ensure every civilization’s capital follows your religion. This is essential to secure a Religious Victory.

5. Countering Opposition
Combat Enemy Religion
Deploy Apostles with combat promotions to eliminate enemy religious units.
Use Inquisitors to remove opposing religions from your cities.
Manage Loyalty
Keep your cities loyal by maintaining happiness and high population growth to prevent rebellion caused by foreign religious influence.
Neutralize Threats
Spy Missions: Sabotage Holy Sites in other civilizations to weaken their faith generation.
War (If Necessary): Use military might to conquer cities resisting your religion and convert them.
6. Final Steps to Victory
Monitor the Religion Victory Screen: Regularly check your progress to ensure all civilizations are on track to follow your religion.
Eliminate Holdouts: Focus your resources on the last few resistant civilizations.
Strengthen Faith Output: Build faith-generating wonders and improvements like Seaside Resorts or Ski Resorts for a late-game boost.
By following these steps and adapting to the game’s dynamics, you can secure a Religious Victory and dominate the spiritual landscape in Civilization VI!

Boost Civics:
Complete civic boosts (Eurekas for culture) to speed up your progress. Examples include meeting other civilizations or discovering natural wonders.

Build Core Districts
Theater Squares:
Build Theater Squares early in your highest population cities. Prioritize adjacency bonuses from wonders, districts, and natural wonders.

Monuments:
Construct Monuments in all cities to increase culture output and accelerate civic research.

Choose the Right Civilization
Select a civ that excels in culture, such as:
Greece (Pericles or Gorgo): Extra policy slots and strong cultural output from city-states.
France (Catherine de Medici): Bonus tourism from wonders.
Kongo: Bonus to Great Works and cultural districts.
Great People
Begin working towards earning Great Writers, Artists, and Musicians. These provide Great Works that generate tourism once their respective slots are filled.
2. Mid-Game: Building Tourism Infrastructure
Wonders and Great Works
Key Wonders:
Build wonders that boost tourism and culture. Prioritize:

Great Library: Early culture boost and slots for Great Works.
Colosseum: Provides amenities and culture.
Taj Mahal: Increases era score, helping maintain Golden Ages.
Hermitage: Slots for Great Works of Art.
Cristo Redentor: Doubles tourism from relics and Great Works of Art.
Great Work Slots:
Ensure you have enough buildings (e.g., Amphitheaters, Museums, and Broadcast Centers) to house Great Works. Use spies to steal Great Works from other civilizations if needed.

Trade Routes and Alliances
International Trade Routes:
Send trade routes to other civilizations to increase tourism pressure on them. The more trade routes, the faster tourism builds.

Cultural Alliances:
Form Cultural Alliances with other civs to reduce loyalty pressure on border cities and improve relations.

Religious Artifacts
Relics:
Generate relics by promoting Apostles with the Martyr ability or finding natural wonders. Relics generate tourism and faith, especially with the Religious Tourism policy card.
Policies
Key Policy Cards:
Laissez-Faire: Boosts Great People points.
Heritage Tourism: Increases tourism from Great Works of Art and Artifacts.
Public Works: Speeds up builders to improve tile infrastructure.
Tile Improvements
Tourism Improvements:
Build improvements like Seaside Resorts and Ski Resorts on high-appeal tiles.
Plant woods with builders to boost tile appeal, especially for National Parks.
3. Late Game: Maximizing Tourism
Technology and Civics
Flight (Technology):
Allows tourism to be generated from culture-producing tiles like wonders and Theater Squares. This is a critical moment to scale tourism exponentially.

Cultural Heritage (Civic):
Unlocks policies that significantly increase tourism from Great Works and artifacts.

Tourism Multipliers
Open Borders:
Maintain open borders with other civilizations to increase tourism by 25%.
Trade Routes:
Continue expanding trade routes to improve tourism influence.
Religious Tourism:
Spread your religion using Missionaries to increase tourism with civilizations following your religion.
National Parks and Resorts
National Parks:
Use naturalists to create National Parks in high-appeal areas. These generate significant tourism.
Seaside Resorts and Ski Resorts:
Place resorts on tiles with high appeal, especially near coasts or mountains.
Broadcasters and Themed Museums
Broadcast Centers:
Build these in Theater Squares to house Great Works of Music.
Themed Museums:
Match Great Works of the same type and era in Art Museums and Archaeological Museums to gain bonus tourism.
4. Counter Opposition
Defend Against Espionage:
Other civilizations will try to steal your Great Works. Build spies and place them in critical cities to prevent theft.

Combat Cultural Pressure:
Use religious units to convert enemy cities or increase loyalty to prevent rebellion in border cities.

Diplomacy:
Maintain good relations with militaristic civs to avoid war. Focus on alliances that boost tourism, like Cultural or Economic Alliances.

5. Victory
Monitor Tourism Numbers:
Regularly check the Tourism screen to track your visitors. Focus on converting the largest civilizations first.
Promote Happiness:
Keep your cities happy with amenities to avoid loyalty loss and maximize tourism generation.
By executing these steps and balancing culture and tourism output, you can steadily attract more visitors, secure a cultural victory, and become the envy of the world in Civilization VI.

Establish a Strong Economy:
Ensure your cities generate enough gold to sustain and upgrade your army. Maintain a balance between military production and infrastructure building.

Secure Resources:
Acquire strategic resources like Iron, Horses, and Oil early. Without these, you won’t be able to produce advanced units like Swordsmen or Tanks.

Spy on Your Enemy:
Use spies to gather intelligence on enemy cities. Knowing troop locations and city defenses is crucial.

2. Build a Balanced Army
Diversify Your Units:
Include melee (Swordsmen), ranged (Archers), siege (Catapults), and cavalry units in your army. This ensures flexibility against different threats.

Upgrade Units Regularly:
As you progress, replace older units with more advanced ones. Keep an eye on promotions to improve unit effectiveness.

Naval and Air Support:
If fighting near coasts or later in the game, build a strong navy and develop air units to dominate multiple fronts.

3. Choose the Right Target
Weaker Civilizations:
Target weaker civilizations or those lagging in military power. Use the Military Strength score in the Diplomacy screen to assess opponents.

Strategic Locations:
Focus on capturing cities with valuable resources, wonders, or those located near chokepoints for strategic advantage.

4. Declare War Strategically
Casus Belli:
Use an appropriate Casus Belli (justification for war) to avoid severe diplomatic penalties. For example:\n – Holy War: Declare against civilizations spreading a different religion.\n – Liberation War: Free a city-state or captured city.\n
These minimize the grievances other civilizations have against you.

Timing is Key:
Attack during windows of opportunity, such as when the enemy is engaged in another war or recovering from a previous conflict.

5. Execute the War
Position Your Troops:

Place melee units near the city center to capture it after the defenses fall.\n – Use ranged units and siege equipment (like Catapults or Bombards) to attack from a distance.\n – Keep cavalry units on the flanks for swift strikes against reinforcements or to pillage enemy tiles.\n\n
Focus on Siege:
Target city defenses first. Use siege units to reduce walls and ranged units to weaken garrisons.

Pillage Strategically:
Pillage enemy farms, mines, and districts to disrupt their economy and heal your units. Prioritize science, gold, and production tiles for maximum impact.

Capture Cities Efficiently:
Avoid spreading your forces too thin. Focus on one city at a time, starting with border cities or key locations.

6. Manage Your Empire During War
Happiness and Loyalty:
Ensure cities are happy by managing amenities to prevent rebellions. Use governors like Victor to stabilize newly captured cities.

War Weariness:
Prolonged wars can cause war weariness, reducing amenities. End wars swiftly or shift focus to peace after achieving objectives.

Diplomacy with Other Leaders:
Maintain good relations with other civilizations to avoid being attacked on multiple fronts. Offer gifts or trade deals to keep them neutral.

7. Transition to Peace (Optional)
Negotiate Peace Treaties:
If the war becomes unsustainable, negotiate for peace on favorable terms. Demand gold, resources, or cities in return.

Consolidate Gains:
After the war, focus on rebuilding captured cities and improving infrastructure to integrate them into your empire.

Defensive Preparations:
Strengthen your borders and rebuild your army to deter potential attacks from other civilizations.

8. Achieve Victory
Domination Victory:
To win through domination, you must capture the capital cities of all other civilizations. Prioritize capitals in your war campaigns.\n\n

Strategic Pivot:
If domination becomes unfeasible, use war gains to pursue alternate victories (e.g., Science or Cultural Victory) by investing in infrastructure and research.

By combining careful preparation, strategic execution, and post-war management, you can achieve military dominance and secure victory in Civilization VI. Adapt your strategies based on the map, your opponents, and the game phase for the best results.