Source: Civilization VI. In a lot of ways, Kongo is sort of the Venice of Civilization 6. What boosts Venice got to its gold-generation, Kongo gets to its ability to generate production and food from specific great works. That means that Kongo wants to pursue a Cultural Victory over its enemies.
Civilization 6 has had two expansions since 2016, and unsurprisingly that means it's a bigger and better game than it was at launch. Even if there are no more expansions in store for the future, that doesn't mean there's nothing new to check out. The modding community has pulled out all the stops tweaking graphics and gameplay, adding new civs and new units, and even improving the UI.
Here's our definitive list of the best mods for Civilization 6, updated to take 2019's Gathering Storm expansion into account.
With the addition of Steam Workshop support, installing many mods is easy: simply subscribe to the mod on Steam. Steam will automatically download the mod, which can be enabled or disabled from the 'Additional Content' menu.
Mods that aren't on Workshop can be installed by creating a folder called ‘Mods’ in your Civilization 6 user directory: DocumentsMy GamesSid Meier's Civilization VI.
Extract mods to your new Mods folder (with each mod in its own subfolder) and then enable them from the ‘Additional Content’ menu in-game. Some mods may have extra steps, which I’ll describe in their individual entries.
If you want to make changes to Civ 6’s files yourself, the simplest way is to make direct changes to the files in Civilization 6’s install directory (after backing up the originals, of course). First, find Civ 6’s install folder. If you don't know where it is, you can right-click on the game in your Steam library and select Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files. The default install location is Program Files (x86)SteamsteamappscommonSid Meier’s Civilization 6. Identify the file you want to mess with, save a copy, and go for it—just don’t forget what you’ve changed.
For help with the more elegant and shareable approach—a mod which can be installed in the Mods folder and toggled in the menu—check out and Gedemon’s .
One common criticism of Civ 6 is that it’s a bit too bright and cartoonish, as compared to the more realistic look of previous games in the series. This mod, released by a Firaxis dev, strikes a really nice balance between this Civ’s visual style and that of its immediate predecessor. The saturation has been turned down and almost every basic tile type and decal has been altered in some way. It even adds new, more naturalistic models for ground clutter like trees. Pair this with something like the R.E.D. Modpack (above) to get rid of the Clash of Clans-looking armies and you’re in for a much more immersive, less board game-y feel.
Gathering Storm added labels for major geographic features on the map, which was a really cool touch. But if you play a lot, you’ve probably seen the same ones over and over. Mappa Mundi can basically eliminate that problem forever, adding over 15,000 new names of real world rivers, deserts, mountains, and more. It’s also seamlessly compatible with a lot of the most popular mods that add new civs to the game, so your Taino or Icelandic empire can put their own linguistic stamp on the map.
Gedemon brings us a Civ 6 version of one of our favorite Civ 5 mods. The R.E.D. Modpack rescales units to make them a little more like miniatures, a little less like cartoon giants stomping over the hills. Check out the mod's collection for versions that are compatible with all of Civ 6's expansions.
Graphics mods can make certain things look more realistic, but if you want the world layout itself to feel a bit less game-y, this is the mod for you. In addition to adding more coastal detail to replicate all those little coves, bays, and fjords we expect to see on a globe, it also makes the placement and size of deserts, rainforests, and marshes much more true-to-life. And if you’re all about that Nile Valley life, it improves food placement along rivers running through desert tiles as well. It comes with seven different map scripts, including Continents, Pangea, and Islands.
Yet Not Another Map Pack is another map pack from well-known modder and bundler Gedemon. YNAMP for Civilization 6 includes Earth-shaped maps with the correct start locations for each culture. If you’re tired of playing a landlocked Norway, this is your chance to create a proper Viking empire. The pack also adds new, bigger map sizes (one of which is so big it might take five or so minutes to load).
When starting a game, you’ll have new map types and size options available. Head to the post on Civfanatics for more information on how to use YNAMP, as well as known bugs and issues.
The highest disaster intensity in vanilla Civ 6 is called 'Hyperreal.' If that’s just not enough for you though, this mod let’s you crank it up to basically Just Plain Ridiculous. The description states that some kind of disaster will happen somewhere on the map just about every turn, and the severe versions are made more common. There is no longer any such thing as a dormant volcano. And in the late game, the number of coastal lowland tiles that can flood from climate change has been increased from the vanilla 33% all the way up to 75%. Mother Nature is coming for you and this time she’s not gonna play nice.
This mod is so great we wrote an entire article about it. The premise is pretty simple: Rock Bands, Civ 6’s new, late game 'culture nukes,' can now engage in theological combat with religious units. For the pious, you can send apostles to keep these long-haired hooligans from corrupting the hearts and minds of your people. For the sacreligious, you can cast down the sanctimonious clerics of the Demiurge and make sure all the world gets to hear your tasty riffs and the good word of our Lord, Satan. This mod is so much fun that I have a hard time playing late game Civ 6 without it.
The struggle of having to tell Victoria you’re not interested in her weird trade proposals constantly is real. This mod forces the AI to give it a rest once in a while, whether it’s pestering you for your gems or begging for their lives in a war. The AI cooldown for trade offers is increased from 10 turns to 50, peace offers in war from 3 turns to 10, and offers of friendship from 5 turns to 30. Maybe now you can finally enjoy some peace and quiet while you plot their ultimate demise.
While I was messing with Civ 6 to try to play a game , I found that all the player and AI starting conditions are stored in a file called Eras.xml. You’ll find it in the Civ 6 install directory, under BaseAssetsGameplayData.
Using what’s there as an example, it’s not hard to copy and paste to add starting units, or limit the AI’s unit bonuses on harder difficulties. Just make sure you backup Eras.xml before you start tinkering in case you want to revert to the defaults.
The 'Repeat Route' checkbox alone makes Better Trade Screen worth it, but it brings lots of improvements, such as new sorting options to the Trade Overview screen. It's one of those quality of life improvement UI mods we'll keep checked forever.
One of the most poorly-explained mechanics in Civ 6 is the fact that certain districts, like Industrial Zones, grant their benefits to all city-centers within six tiles. (I’ll pause for the gasps of everyone who has played hundreds of hours and still didn’t know that.) What makes it even more annoying is that there isn’t an easy way to figure out which cities are close enough—you have to count out tiles individually while bouncing your cursor along. At least, there wasn’t an easy way until now. This mod adds a tool that makes it very easy to quickly display the range of these effects so you never waste land on a redundant district again.
If you love data visualization and miss the demographic graphs from previous Civs, you’re in luck. CIVIGraphs 2 adds a Civ 5-style demographics panel that lets you see info on things like army size and population for you and all of your rivals over time. Simple, lightweight, but very useful. TPS Report cover sheet not included.
Rise and Fall brought us the concepts of Era Score, Golden Ages, and Dark Ages. But there was one glaring problem: You’re never really told what actions will give you Era Score. So until you memorize all of the mini-achievements that do so, it’s a lot of guesswork and hoping. It can be even harder to keep track of which world firsts are still available. But no more! This mod adds an objective list of ways to earn Era Score, and even lets you know which moments are no longer available once they’ve been claimed by another civ. This makes it much easier to stack up those Golden Ages and let the good times roll.
Australia finally got some representation in Civ 6 after long being the only populated continent to never appear in the series, but they’re represented by the British colonizers that came along pretty recently. This mod adds an Aboriginal Australian civilization, the Anangu, under Tjilpi with two unique units, a unique tile improvement, and bonuses to setting up specialty districts in arid regions akin to their Outback home. They also benefit greatly from finding and building near natural wonders. If you own the Australia DLC, which the mod creator recommends, they will use Australia’s music tracks for added thematics.
Vlad the Impaler leads Romania in this appropriately bloody addition, and he’s all about causing chaos for his enemies. His unique unit is basically a crossbowman with the movement speed of a cavalry unit, which is already pretty crazy. But even more interesting is his unique ability that damages enemy units adjacent to a tile that’s being pillaged and sends out a wave of disloyalty to nearby cities when he captures a city, which can result in a chain revolt if you use it in the right place at the right time. You’ll need to download the Romania civ separately, which gives even more unique bonuses like a free technology for being on the winning side of an Emergency.
This mod adds NINE(!) new civs based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the basis of the television show Game of Thrones. These include Rhaegar Targaryen of the Crownlands, Eddard Stark of the North, Tywin Lannister of the Westerlands, Robert Baratheon of the Stormlands, Mace Tyrell of the Reach, Jon Arryn of the Vale, Hoster Tully of the Riverlands, Doran Martell of Dorne and Balon Greyjoy of the Iron Islands. Each have unique units and bonuses appropriate to the lore. And yes, of course, you can train dragons.
This is one of the most involved mods I’ve ever seen. It basically takes Civ 6’s gameplay and zooms way in on the Ancient and Classical eras 'from the Dawn of Time to the fall of Rome,' keeping the same game pace and roughly the same number of civics and technologies to unlock. This sharper focus allows Anno Domini to model things that would normally be outside the scope of a Civ game, including new Historical Moments and new government types.
Sounds cool already, but who can you play as, you might ask? Well, these beautiful, crazy bastards have gone way above and beyond to bring us THIRTY distinct leaders (some being alternates for the same civ), including Ashurbanipal of Assyria, Sargon of Akkad, Hannibal of Carthage, Hatshepsut of Egypt, Arminius of Germania, Boudica of the Iceni, Zenobia of Palmyra, Leonidas of Sparta, Helen and Hector of Troy, four new Roman emperors, and reworked versions of some vanilla favorites like Pericles, Qin Shi Huang, and Chandragupta.
You only need to spend a few minutes with Civilization 6 to notice that things have changed since the last time you danced to this song. Civilization 6 presents a number of new features that can be confusing or overwhelming for even the Civilization veteran, let alone newcomers. Using the tips listed here, you should be able to get your civilization off to the start you need to ensure that you remain competitive as the game moves into its middle and ending stages.
Some of the changes in Civilization 6 are most obvious at the very beginning of the game. What were once called workers in Civilization 5 are now builders in Civ 6, and the way they work is completely different. Now, instead of taking a number of turns to improve a tile around your city, builders will complete the improvement instantly. While that will seem overpowered to anyone who played Civ 5, the trade off is that they’re only good for three improvements before they’re used up.
Because builders can now construct tile improvements immediately, the opening build order changes a little bit. You’ll want to put off producing your first builder a little longer this time around, and instead use the opening 10 or 15 turns to build up your military might. You’ll start the game with one warrior unit, and to complement that, I’ve been starting the game by building a scout and then a slinger.
I’ve found this works fairly well, because by the time that first slinger is done, I’ve been able to explore the area around my starting city with my scout and warrior. That exploration generally gives me enough information to know whether or not I should build another slinger or move onto building a monument next.
The barbarians in Civ 6 aren’t the pushovers you remember in Civ 5. If given the opportunity, they will ruin your day with an appalling amount of efficiency. They also don’t appear to follow the same military upgrade paths that players are forced into, meaning it isn’t uncommon to see barbarian spearmen or horsemen on turn 10.
Also worth pointing out is the fact that your city can’t bombard enemies within your borders until you’ve built Ancient Walls, a technology that’s fairly far off at the beginning of the game. What’s a fledgling civilization like yours to do in the face of such brute power? Fight back! Be aggressive and kill any barbarians you find.
After researching the Code of Laws civic (the first one you’re able to research), you unlock the Discipline policy, which gives your units a +5 attack bonus when fighting barbarians. Enact that policy and take the fight to the hordes that insult your empire with their disregard for law and justice.
If barbarians prove to be more than just an annoyance, research Archery quickly and use those archers to attack barbarian encampments from two tiles away while your warrior units attack from adjacent tiles. On King or Prince difficulty, having a roving band of two archers and one warrior should be enough to clear out most of the barbarian encampments in the area, but be sure to keep your capital city protected while you’re out hunting.
Civilization 6 introduces Districts into the game, which are sort of like super-charged tile improvements that give resource bonuses and allow for special buildings to be constructed. Each District will provide extra bonuses based on what’s around it, and you’re limited in how many Districts you can build by population. In the early game, you’ll likely only have the population to build two or three Districts in a city, so try to decide which ones you want to build and where you want to build them ahead of time.
Try to figure out city specialization vs. civilization specialization too. For instance, if you know you want to pursue a science victory, build a Campus district in every city you control. Then, pick specializations like gold, production, faith, or culture for each city and build the appropriate districts.
Obviously, Districts add a new additional layer to the game and have the potential to be very complex – roughly following these guidelines has worked for me on Civ 6‘s medium difficulties, but don’t be afraid to experiment with Districts to find what works best for you.
In Civ 6, there seem to be far fewer penalties for expanding rapidly than there were in Civ 5. For instance, the research cost of new technologies doesn’t appear to increase with each new city you settle, encouraging you to get out there as scoop up as much land as quickly as you can. If you’re playing on Prince or King difficulty, try to aim for having three cities by turn 60 or 70 and four by turn 100.
Here’s the thing: I’ve noticed that the AI on these difficulties can be very aggressive when it comes to settling new cities, which quickly eats away at your own options for expansion. Get out there and take it before they can. The Colonization economic policy that’s unlocked when you’ve researched the Early Empire civic gives you a 50% boost to the production of Settlers, so if you’ve fallen behind in your plans for expansion, equip that to quickly pump out a couple settler units for some quick expansion.
Civilization 6 also has a few different ways of declaring war on other countries. The easiest way is to declare a surprise war, but that can come with heavy warmonger penalties, which can make the other civilizations in the game dislike you.
If you don’t want to incur a warmonger penalty, you’ll have to first denounce the target of your disdain. After five turns, you’ll have the opportunity to state your Casus Belli, or reasons that justify war, and formally declare war on your enemy. Doing it this way will decrease or eliminate the warmonger penalty from going to war.
However, there is one time where surprise wars are accepted by the other civilizations in the game: the Ancient Era. During the Ancient Era, you’re free to declare a surprise war without incurring any warmonger penalty, so if you see another civilization you think you’re capable of steamrolling, go all out. Just be sure to build that army we talked about first.
Usually, the early game in any Civ match will be shrouded in mystery. It doesn’t necessarily need to be that way in Civilization 6, though. You can now send delegations to other countries from the moment you meet them, and those delegates will give you a feed on what they’re up to.
For instance, your delegates may tell you that two countries have started trading with one another, or that one country just settled a new city. The information you get isn’t always very specific, but some information is better than no information. Having a window into what your competitors are plotting can be a big help, especially in the early stages when everyone is still trying to carve out their territory.
With that being said, you might find it hard to get other civilizations to accept your delegations. I find it’s best to send a delegation right after another civilization has sent one to you. The AI seems to recognize that rejecting your delegation after you’ve accepted theirs is a risky move, and are therefore more willing to welcome the delegates you send.
City-states have changed rather dramatically since Civilization 5. Becoming friendly with a city-state is now a little more complex than just funneling gold their way. Now city-states will have you complete quests to earn envoys, which in turn give you bonuses to faith, gold, production, culture, or science depending on how many you have.
As a bonus, being the first civilization to come into contact with a city-state will automatically grant you one envoy with them, getting the bonuses rolling in immediately. As you discover more city-states, make an effort to complete their quests so long as doing so isn’t a radical departure from your progression plan. If you can manage to complete a handful of city-state quests in the opening turns, the bonuses can have a huge effect on your success in the early game.
Obviously, there are many more ways to get ahead in Civilization 6, but those following these seven tips should set themselves up for a strong mid-game. These shouldn’t be considered a set of hard and fast rules for every game of Civilization 6 you play, as some games will require a completely different strategy. With that being said, be sure to share some tips that have been working well for you down in the comments section.