The Best Strategy For The Early Game In Civilization 7

Summary

• Choose a leader aligned with your victory goal to maximize strengths.
• Prioritize early exploration to set a foundation for future development.
• Strategically place settlements for growth and defensive positioning.

Having a smooth antiquity age in Civilization 7 requires a solid early-game strategy to set your civilization up for success. Mistakes you make in the early turns are carried with you throughout the rest of the antiquity age, and maybe even further. The initial decisions you make, like selecting the right leader and determining settlement locations, can have a serious impact on your gameplay.

What strategies should you utilize to make sure your civilization isn’t left behind? Here are nine essential early-game strategies that you should keep in mind anytime you start up a new Civilization 7 game.

9

Select A Leader Aligned With Your Victory Goal

Choosing the right leader is exceptionally important for your Civilization 7 strategy. Leaders are no longer bound to specific civilizations, allowing you more flexibility. You can pair any leader with any civilization, creating powerful synergies that align with your desired victory path.

For instance, selecting a leader with scientific bonuses can accelerate technological advancements, paving the way for a Science Victory. This strategic pairing ensures that your civilization’s strengths are maximized from the outset, providing a tailored approach to achieving your specific goals.

8

Prioritize Early Exploration

During your first few turns, your goal will be to explore. You can’t figure out where to found more cities or negotiate with your competitors until you take a look around your area. Scouts can move two tiles per turn and have a higher field of view compared to other units, enabling them to identify resource-rich areas, encounter independent powers, and establish contact with other civilizations.

Early exploration allows you to make informed decisions about expansion, resource allocation, and diplomatic relations, setting a strong foundation for future development.

Civilization 7 is all about adaptability. Don’t get too stuck on a strategy in the beginning.

7

Strategic Settlement Placement

The location of your first city seriously influences your civilization’s growth. Settling near rivers, coastlines, or resource-rich tiles provides immediate benefits such as increased food production, trade opportunities, and access to vital resources.

It’s also important to consider defensive positioning, which can help your city stay safe from potential threats. Balancing these factors helps ensure that you have a prosperous and secure beginner.

6

Balanced Early Production

At the beginning of the game, you’ll want to build all sorts of things, but you’ll only have the production to build a few of them. You’ll have to balance your production queue to prioritize a mix of military units, scouts for exploration, and buildings. You’ll probably find that certain needs pop up, and your original production strategy might need to adjust to meet these needs.

You’ll need to increase your production through strategic buildings while also ensuring that your city is protected from enemies (which tend to show up sooner than you’d think).

When the age changes, you’ll lose some of your units and most of your buildings will become obsolete. Don’t build a bunch of units or new buildings when you only have a few turns left.

5

Early Technology And Civics Research

Your choices of technology and civics in the early game are important. You’ll want to prioritize research that fits with your chosen victory path, as well as immediate needs. For instance, if you want a cultural victory, you’ll have to rush towards founding a pantheon and unlocking wonders. If you want a science victory, you need to rush towards science-producing buildings.

Look on the culture and science trees to see what techs and civics lead to the next, which can help you plan ahead. Sometimes, you need to research something you don’t need for something you do.

4

Engage With Independent Powers

Independent powers are pretty powerful in Civilization 7, but they only last for an age. Befriending them is very straightforward and not too expensive, so you should plan to do so at the first opportunity.

Once you establish a positive relationship, these independent powers will provide trade benefits, special bonuses, and military support. Hostile city-states need to be integrated quickly or destroyed through your military, as they can prove to be a real issue later on.

3

Timely Expansion

You will want to expand your civilization with a settler as soon as you find a nice spot. Other civilizations can move in very quickly, and they won’t be too happy if you decide to settle near them anyway.

There are several different aspects to look at when considering where to put down a new town. For instance, valuable resources, strategic advantages, and potential trade routes are all possible considerations. However, you also need to balance expansion with economic stability. You can also found too many settlements, so you have to consider where you’re settling carefully.

Independent powers can be pretty powerful in Civilization 7. Don’t think that you can ignore hostile city-states.

2

Adaptable Victory Planning

Yes, you should have a victory plan in your head when you start and pick your leader. However, you also need to stay adaptable. Sometimes, it suddenly becomes easier to pursue a different strategy, or another civilization may be ahead of you. For instance, you might get an unlucky draw on artifacts in the modern age, it might be best to pursue a different option.

If you stay stuck on the same path, it’s very easy to get behind. For instance, you may decide to go after an economic victory, but a lack of resources may put a stop to that.

1

Balanced Empire Building

To some extent, you can decide whether to play a “wide” or “tall” empire. However, there are very few situations where sticking strictly to these plans is a good idea. It’s best to have a balanced approach. You want to have advanced cities and several towns for gold production.

Situations beyond your control may also decide what type of game you’re playing. For instance, if the resources are very spread out in your starting area, you may have to found more towns just to access them.