Civilization VI Strategic Resource Guide: Maximizing Your Empire’s Potential

In Civilization VI, strategic resources play a critical role in your civilization’s military and economic development. From building advanced units to powering late-game industries, these resources can greatly influence your strategy and your ability to compete on the world stage. This guide will help you understand how to effectively manage and exploit these vital assets.

Understanding Strategic Resources

Strategic resources in Civilization VI are materials required to train certain military units and to construct specific buildings and improvements. Unlike luxury or bonus resources, which boost your civilization’s happiness and productivity, strategic resources are pivotal for advanced warfare and certain technologies.

Types of Strategic Resources

Strategic resources are divided into different categories based on their usage and era:

• Ancient and Classical: Iron, Horses
• Medieval and Renaissance: Niter
• Industrial and Modern: Coal, Oil
• Atomic and Information: Uranium, Aluminum
• Future: Rare earth elements (added in expansions)

Strategies for Managing Strategic Resources

1. Exploration and Acquisition

• Early Exploration: Use scouts early in the game to identify and claim territories containing vital resources. Prioritize areas rich in resources critical to your planned development and military strategy.
• Settling Cities: Consider settling cities near key resources to ensure direct control and uninterrupted supply.

2. Resource Extraction and Improvement

• Build Improvements: Construct the appropriate improvements (e.g., Mines for Iron, Oil Wells for Oil) to start extracting these resources. Ensure you research the necessary technologies to access these resources.
• Manage Workers: Efficiently manage your builders and workers to prioritize resource extraction, especially when gearing up for military campaigns or industrial expansion.

3. Trade and Diplomacy

• Trade Surpluses: If you have a surplus of a resource, trade it with other civilizations for resources you lack, gold, or favorable diplomatic terms.
• Strategic Embargoes: Use your control over vital resources to influence other civilizations’ capabilities, potentially embargoing critical resources to weaken rivals’ military or economic power.

4. Technological Advancement

• Research Prioritization: Focus your scientific research on technologies that unlock the utilization of strategic resources. For example, researching Combustion allows you to extract and use Oil.
• Boosts and Eurekas: Aim for scientific boosts that expedite research critical for unlocking resource-related technologies.

5. Military Planning

• Unit Production: Plan your military production around the availability of resources. For example, don’t rely heavily on cavalry if you have limited access to Horses.
• Future Needs: Anticipate future resource needs based on your military and technological trajectory, ensuring you’re never caught off-guard without essential materials.

6. Conservation and Sustainability

• Resource Conservation: Later in the game, with expansions like Gathering Storm, resource conservation becomes vital, especially with non-renewable resources like Coal and Oil, which can also impact global warming.
• Alternative Technologies: Invest in technologies and civics that allow for the use of alternative resources or reduce overall dependency, such as adopting Renewable Energy practices to decrease reliance on Coal and Oil.

Conclusion: Strategic Resource Mastery

Effectively managing strategic resources in Civilization VI is a multifaceted endeavor that involves exploration, technological advancement, diplomatic maneuvering, and strategic planning. By securing and intelligently deploying these resources, you can enhance your military capabilities, power your industrial engine, and secure a competitive edge that can lead your civilization to dominate the globe through various ages. Remember, in Civilization VI, as in history, those who control the resources often dictate the terms of engagement and the flow of progress.