What are the best Civ 6 Civs? We’ve put together a guide that looks at which Civilization VI civs are best at which victory type. We don’t list every civilisation, but we’ve showcased some ‘best in style’ picks for various end game strategies. This is based on the same principle as the best Civ 5 civs guide we also have.
Due to the way Civilization VI is designed you no longer have the highly specific, focused civs of the previous game. Most still tend to favour one area over others, but you’ll often find various civs able to flex into a couple of different victory conditions (with one or two exceptions) which allows for some flexibility in how you play them.
This guide includes civilisations from the base game, as well as interesting new additions from the various Civ 6 DLC options that have been released to date, including the New Frontier Pass. These newer civs tend to have more exaggerated abilities targeting specific victory types. This list reflects the changes that Firaxis incorporated with Civilization 6’s April 2021 balance patch, which included modifications to more than half of existing civs. Credit to boesthius for his post-patch tier list video and to peppermint_butler for his post-patch tier list spreadsheet, both of which provided helpful insights.
These are the best Civ 6 civs:
Best CIV 6 CIVS – DOMINATION VICTORY
A classic route, Domination sees you conquering the world by strength of arms over your less fortunate civilisations. In Civ 6, you fortunately don’t need to conquer an entire civilisation; you just need to control all of the capitals to score the victory. As military might walks alongside a healthy economy and scientific progress, you also need to pay attention to those instead of just spamming military units.
Summary: Early-game rush, land-focused maps
Summary: Late-game surge, defensive bonus, highly adaptable
Summary: Rise and Fall expansion, mid-game, large armies
Summary: New Frontier Pass, religious-based combat bonuses, powerful mid-game
Summary: High-production city-state dominator
Science victories are a staple of the Civ series, always leading to the space race meant to expand civilisation to the stars. Civ 6 has a myriad of ways of accruing science progress.
Summary: Advanced, Religion-combo, adaptable
Summary: Advanced, tundra tiles, trade routes, flexible victory
Summary: Rise & Fall expansion, mid-game, mines, governors, city optimisation
Summary: New Frontier Pass, tall empire, farms & plantations buff, strong early game
Cultural victories can be challenging, as you won’t win until the number of tourists visiting your country is equal to the number of domestic tourists from all other civilisations combined.
Summary: Passive, defensive, large empire, Great Wall of China
Summary: Rise and Fall expansion, mid-game, trade bonuses
Summary: A nature-loving people who exceed at generating statistics without destroying the land.
For the first time in the series, religion is a bona fide victory condition. In order to win, at least half of every civilisation’s followers must subscribe to your beliefs — it may sound simple, but holy wars are a thing now. If you convert another leader’s cities, they can have a casus belli to kick your ass.
Summary: New Frontier Ethiopia Pack, hill-terrain focus, defensive
Summary: peaceful, passive, faith bonuses
Summary: Aggressive, conversion-by-conquest, unit combos
Summary: Rise and Fall expansion, faith production bonuses
Summary: High population cities, high faith output
After a long wait, Diplomatic victories finally made their way back to the franchise with the release of Gathering Storm. Here are the best factions to backstab and cajole your way into victory through the World Congress.
Summary: Gathering Storm civ focused on diplomatically making cold inhospitable climates very hospitable.
This isn’t a victory type, but we’ve thrown it in anyway. The sea is a harsh mistress, but damn, do we love it. Naval warfare is always a nice way to change the pace of a Civ game, and some factions are of course better suited to it than others.
Summary: Overseas expansion, free units, culture options
Summary: Niche, early/mid-game, raiding, domination
Summary: Trade-heavy naval explorer
