There's a new Civilization out, and with it comes brand-new mechanics and gameplay features to dive into. If you've played previous Civilization games, Civ VI isn't hard to get used to; some players, however, may find the game difficult to understand. Whether you've conquered the world a hundred times over, or are just starting your fifth city, I'll be sharing tips and hints to help you master this brave new world of Civilization.

For Returning Players

Most of you who have played previous Civ games will find familiar features and mechanics returning from previous games. Religion and Trading from Civilization V's expansion packs are base features in the new game, with slight changes based on the new district and "Theological warfare" mechanics. Unit stacking from IV returns, with much less, "Stack of doom," issues due to the new "Corps," and "Army," features. Some of the new features are missing and have been replaced, like global happiness and Amenities; while some have been expanded on, with Casus Belli being introduced in war declarations.

Amenities

Amenities are Civ VI's replacement of global happiness from past games, this time it's on a city-by-city basis. Amenities are also a representation of population for your cities, and are required to grow cities past a certain point. Amenities represent both how many luxuries your citizens have, and how much housing is available to them.

To make your cities happy, and to increase your population, you'll need to focus on luxuries and buildings. Luxury items on the map will increase the amount of amenities you have, along with making sure your city has a fresh water supply. On top of this, farms and districts will provide your citizens with additional amenities, some more focused on housing and entertainment than others.

Failing to provide the required amenities to your citizens will cause a major population growth penalty, and reduction to productivity. Go even further below the required amount, and you will find your citizens revolting against you as rebel units will begin to spawn near unhappy cities.

Declaring War

A new feature in Civ VI is the Casus Belli, adding a new layer to declaring war and the penalties that come with it. Typically in past games, it was considered polite to denounce a civilization before declaring war, and Civ VI makes this even more important by requiring you to wait five turns and give a reason for war to avoid heavy warmonger penalties.

Failing to wait the set amount of turns, or even declaring war without a denouncement, is now considered a, "Surprise War," and will generally make people unhappy with you. With the new Casus Belli mechanic, you can reduce penalties by giving a reason to go to war with a Civ. This can range from protecting another civ or city-state, to declaring a holy war or territorial war to claim a bordering civ's land. These are unlocked with advances in technology and civics, meaning you won't have all the options at the beginning of a game.

Districts

Districts are an almost complete overhaul of city planning and building compared to previous Civ games. Instead of housing all buildings and wonders inside the city, they are now divvied up into unique districts, each taking up an entire hex on the map.

Since Wonders and districts take up entire spaces, city planning is even more important, encouraging more foresight than a typical game. Districts receive bonuses based on their adjacency to other tiles, meaning some spots will give you greater bonuses than others. Many districts receive bonuses for being near mountains, but each district has it's own unique tile influence.

Make sure to build your cities in locations where they can expand, and have a lot of usable tiles. You can't build on mountains or water, but some districts will receive bonuses for being next to these. Other tiles like floodplains and hills might also be avoided for district placement, as they can often serve you better as mines and farms.

Finally, be conscious of adjacency bonuses that may not be available at the beginning of the game. The late-game Neighborhood district benefits greatly from being next to wonders and entertainment districts; science and holy districts also receive an adjacency bonus later on, despite having none initially.

There's a lot of other smaller changes including religion, trading, and city-states, but these should be easy to adjust to if you're and experienced player. There isn't a consensus yet on, "best strategy," but everything is always subject to change, but for everything else, check the Civilopedia!