Civilization VI Best Starting Techs: Kickstarting Your Civilization

In Civilization VI, choosing the right starting technologies can set the tone for your entire game, providing early advantages that can lead to long-term success. The best starting techs often depend on your civilization’s unique strengths, your starting location, and your intended victory path. Here’s a guide to help you decide which technologies to prioritize at the start of your game to maximize your strategic benefits.

Key Starting Technologies

Here are some of the most impactful starting technologies to consider, based on common scenarios and strategic needs:

1. Pottery

• Benefits: Unlocks the Granary, which provides additional food and housing.
• Strategic Advantage: Useful for almost any civilization, Pottery helps support early city growth by increasing your city’s housing capacity and food, which is vital for population growth.

2. Animal Husbandry

• Benefits: Reveals horses on the map and allows you to build Pastures.
• Strategic Advantage: Essential if you have animals near your starting location. It’s particularly important for civilizations that benefit from cavalry units or need additional production and food from improved tiles.

3. Mining

• Benefits: Allows clearing of woods and harvesting of copper. Enables construction of Mines.
• Strategic Advantage: Critical for civilizations that start near hills with resources like copper or need to improve production capabilities early on. Mining accelerates production, which is key for expanding and building early military or infrastructure.

4. Sailing

• Benefits: Allows the building of fishing boats and the Galley naval unit.
• Strategic Advantage: Essential for coastal starts or island maps, where access to water resources and naval exploration/expansion are crucial.

5. Archery

• Benefits: Unlocks Archers, a strong early game ranged unit.
• Strategic Advantage: Highly recommended if you’re in a hostile area or need to defend against early aggression from neighboring civilizations or barbarians.

6. Irrigation

• Benefits: Allows the building of Plantations.
• Strategic Advantage: Important if you start near luxury resources like spices or silk that require Plantations. This can boost amenities, which are crucial for maintaining city happiness and growth.

Factors Influencing Tech Choices

Civilization’s Unique Abilities

Each civilization in Civ VI has unique abilities that can benefit from specific technologies. For example:

• Sumeria (Gilgamesh) benefits from an early focus on military technologies due to their unique War-Cart unit.
• Egypt (Cleopatra) benefits from early River Valley technologies like Irrigation due to their civilization bonuses towards building along rivers.

Starting Biome and Resources

Your starting environment heavily influences your optimal tech path:

• Lots of Forests and Stone: Prioritize Mining to quickly clear these resources and boost your production.
• Rich in Animals and Pasture Resources: Go for Animal Husbandry to maximize the benefits from these tiles.

Planned Victory Type

Your intended victory type can also guide your initial tech choices:

• Science Victory: Focus on technologies that boost science output early, like Writing, after securing basic economic technologies.
• Domination Victory: Prioritize military technologies, ensuring you can defend and expand your territory effectively.

Conclusion: A Strategic Foundation

In Civilization VI, the path you choose at the game’s outset can greatly affect your strategic options and ease of development throughout the game. By selecting the appropriate technologies based on your civilization’s strengths, your surroundings, and your long-term victory goals, you can establish a solid foundation that propels your civilization toward the desired victory condition. Remember, the right start is often half the battle in Civilization VI. Choose wisely and adjust as the world evolves around you. Happy strategizing!