Districts

As we have said before, the rule for each new version of Civilization is that 1/3 stays the same, 1/3 is tweaked, and 1/3 is new. So among things staying the same is the Hexagonal grid first introduced in Civ V, along with the usual roaming tribe in 4000BC. But the handling of terrain that a city can use has changed. The old Big Fat Cross was dropped in Civ V, and replaced with a large Hexagon. And how you use the terrain has changed. In older versions of Civilization, the terrain was mostly used for either farming or mining. It was all about resource extraction, in other words. All of the Buildings you constructed you could think of as abstract, or as all living in the City Center. The only reason you had for making different choices in the Build queue was if you didn’t have enough time or resources to build everything. As a result, many cities looked very similar in what got built. You would put a Granary in each city to help it grow, a Barracks in each to build your troops, a Temple in each city to gather Faith, and so on. There wasn’t much a decision here, or at least not enough to satisfy Ed Beach, the Chief Designer of Civ VI. So he came up with a new land use system involving Districts.

With this system, you had to allocate land in your city for most things you would build. If you wanted to focus on Science, for instance, you would have to allocate a tile to a Campus district. Then, inside this district you could build a Library, a University, an Obervatory, and a Research Lab. But that is the only place they could be built. Furthermore, to prevent you from building every district, they limited the number of districts each city could have based on its population. You can always build one district with a new city, but to build another you need to get to a population of 4, and you get the ability to add a District with each additional increment of 3, so at Population 7, 10, 13 you get the ability to add a District. And these Districts have to be constructed as part of the normal city Build process. So in the above example, you would first have to build the Campus district, and when that was complete you could then build the Library to put inside it. And for both the Districts and the buildings inside of them you need to research certain technologies before they become available to you.

Where to locate your districts becomes an issue as well. First of all, the tiles available to you are also your stock of tiles for building Farms and Mines, so you need to make choices here. Of course, making choices is the basis them of all Civilization games. Then there are the adjacency effects of terrain tiles. Both Campus (Science) and Holy Site (Faith) districts benefit from being adjacent to Mountains, and the adjacency effects are cumulative, so a tile with mountains on 3 sides can have major bonuses. But since this affects both kinds of Districts, again you have to make a choice. If you are aiming at a Science Victory, or a Religious victory, the choice will be easier, but in case you need to choose. As to placing a District, when you decide to build one you will get a highlight on the map of locations that are permissable. But if you have several such sites, you need to choose which one fits your strategy best.

District Types

There are a lot of Districts you can build and listing every one of them here would be tedious. Some are only relevant to late-game situations, others address issues like Housing and Amenities, which we will discuss separately. But there is group of core Districts that every player will need to deal with from the beginning:

• City Center – This is one you get automatically when you build a city, and can hold a Granary, a Monument, a Water Mill, and various levels of Walls, ranging from Ancient to Renaissance.
• Campus – This is the Science district, and is unlocked by discovering Writing. That comes pretty early so you will get this capability quite easily, but if you are going for a Science victory you might want to make a beeline for Writing. Remember that if you go into the Tech Tree you can click on a tech to select it, and the game will automatically research it and all of its prerequisites. This is very handy for simplifying Research choices. As mentioned, an adjacency bonus is +1 Science for every adjacent Mountain, but you can also get #1 Science for every 2 Rainforest or District tiles. Don’t worry about memorizing these bonuses, they will appear on the map when you are selecting a spot to place your District. Campuses contain Libraries, Universities, Observatories, and Research Labs. And the more built up your Campus Disctrict is, the more Great Scientist points you accumulate. If you want a Science victory you should make it a priority to get Camapus districts put down ASAP in at least a couple of cities, since the effects build like compound interest.
• Theater Square – This is the Culture District, and is unlocked by discovering Drama and Poetry. That is a somewhat later tech, use the technique of clicking on it in the Tech Tree to get there quickly if you want to pursue a Culture victory. It contains the Amphitheater, Art Museum, Archeaological Museum, and Broadcast Center. It gives +2 Culture from each adjacent Wonder, and +1 Culture from each 2 adjacent Discrticts. The buildings all have slots for holding Great Works, and generate points for Great Writers, Great Artists, and Great Musicians.
• Holy Site – This is the Religious district, and is unlocked when you discover Astrology, which is a fairly early tech. This district contains Shrines, Temples, and other Worship buildings. It generates Faith, which can be surprisingly useful. Civ VI introduced a new system of relgious warfare and new Religious victory type, but in some circumstances you can use Faith to purchase Units and Buildings, so even if you are not intending a Religious victory you should not overlook it. This district generates Great Profit points. It has adjacency bonuses of +1 Faith from every adjacent Mountain tile, and +2 Faith from every adjacent Natural Wonder, so if you are lucky enough to have a Natural Wonder in your city keep this in mind.
• Encampment – This is the Military district, and is unlocked by discovering Bronze Working, a very early tech. By building an encampment you can build units that start out with higher Veteran status. In Civ VI I like to build one or two of these in my Empire and use them to construct all of my units. Remember, in Civilization you always want to maintain a strong military to deter your rivals. Buildings include Barracks, Stable, Armory, and Military Academy. This District produces Great General points. It has no adjacency bonus, and cannot be built next to the City Center. But it has strong Defense and can function like the City Center in terms of defense and bombardment capabilities. All newly produced or purchased units will appear in this District, not in the City Center as would otherwise happen. I like to build this on land that is otherwise of low value, like a Desert tile.
• Commercial Hub – This is the Commerce district, and is unlocked by discovering Currency. The Buildings you can place in this include the Market, the Bank, and the Stock Exchange. Adjacency bonuses include +2 Gold from an adjacent Harbor, and +2 Gold for each Adjacent river. So if your city includes a river that runs into the ocean, place a Harbor in the right spot and then a Commercial Hub and watch the Gold pile up! The Commercial Hub generates Great Merchant points. In addition, a Commercial Hub gives you one additional Trade Route, another way to generate more cash. As we have seen in this series, in all Civilization games a healthy Treasury is a major part of a successful game no matter what Victory type you are pursuing.
• Harbor – This is the Seafaring District and is unlocked when you discover Celestial Navigation. Buildings in this district include Lighthouse, Shipyard, and Seaport. And if you don’t have a Commercial Hub in the city, adding a harbor can give you one additional Trade Route. Adjacency bonuses include +1 Gold from each adjacent Coastal resource, and +1 Gold from every 2 adjacent District tiles. There is also a bonus of +2 Gold if adjacent to the City Center. This district has to be built in Coastal waters adjacent to Land, but note that the City Center does not need to be on the Coast to build this. You just need to have Coastal Waters available within your city. This district generates Great Admiral points. While this district is important for projecting Maritime power, it is equally useful for generating Gold, reflecting the fact that historically Maritime powers have been the most successful traders and the wealthiest nations.
• Industrial Zone – This is the Production district, and is unlocked when you discover Apprenticeship. Its buildings include the Workshop, the Factory, and the Power Plant. Adjacency bonuses include +1 Production from each adjacent Quarry or Mine, and +1 from each two adjacent Districts. One interesting thing is that some of the prodction bonuses from this district can applly to any City whose City Center is within 6 tiles, so it is possible by careful placement to have one Industrial Zone that benefits 2-3 cities. This district generates Great Engineer points.

These are the major districts you will be dealing with, and note that each one generates Great Person points. But note also that there are 7 of them. You can certainly have a large Empire that contains at least one of each. But to have all of them in one city would require a population of 22, which can happen if you aim for it, but also would mean very little in the way of farming or mining. I have seen expert players do a “one city challenge” where they attempt to win a victory with only one very large city, but I have never been interested in that sort of thing. I play to relax and enjoy myself. And one more thing about adjacency bonuses: you get bonuses even from Districts in a different city. As an example if you place a Commercial Hub from City A next to a Theater Square from City B, both Districts can benefit from the adjacency.