This is one of the few times owning desert tiles can be a good thing. For example, Mali gains 1 extra gold for international trade routes for every flat desert tile controlled by the city the trade route starts from. Watch for additional bonuses that are unique to your civilization. The thing to remember is what type of victory condition you have in mind and then place your cites in a way that helps that strategy. A coastline is good for culture victory because of seaside resorts. Want a religious victory? Mountains are good for religious victories because of the campus adjacency bonus. The best thing to do is to look for a good fresh water source and then look for the most resources available within three tiles.Д¬onsider your civilizationвЂ™s victory conditions when locating cities. Controlling one of these with a city can make defending your borders a lot simpler since an enemy must pass through a chokepoint to press the attack, making it easier to concentrate your forces for an effective defense.ДЇinding all this at the same time only happens in an ideal situation. A good location also needs to have as high a production potential as possible and it will have other bonuses as well, like science, culture, faith, or gold, just to name a few.ДЄnother consideration that can be overlooked is strategic positioning. They also give a +5 bonus against melee attacks from the other side of the river.ДЄ good location is one that provides a lot of needed strategic resources and that can provide good adjacency bonuses for districts, like having mountains for bonuses for Campus districts. Rivers really arenвЂ™t individual tiles they actually flow between tiles. One of the best fresh water sources is a river since it gives a +3-housing bonus. Civ 6 City Location ConsiderationsДЇounding cities next to fresh water is extremely important for city growth. Check out my early game build order page for some help. Once you found that first city you might not have any idea about what to build first. In the early game you can sell it to the AI for additional income. Founding a city there will give you access to that luxury even if you donвЂ™t have the technology for it yet. If you get lucky enough to find a plains/hills tile with a luxury resource all the better. Starting a city on a plains/hills tile will still force food output up to 2, while leaving the production number alone at an output of 2, starting your empire out with an extra production unit per turn. Any tile a city is started on will always produce at least 2 food and 1 production, no matter what it could produce originally.

These tiles start with 1 food and 2 production. Plains Hills tiles are the best for founding a city.

When deciding, look for adjacent tiles that have a total of at least 4 resources available and always start your first city next to a freshwater source, preferably a river. The best tile to start your first city on is a plains/hill tile, preferably with a luxury resource. With such a wide variety to choose from how do you know whatвЂ™s the very best starting point for your fledgling empire? How do you decide?

There are numerous kinds of terrains and resources in Civ 6.

Civ 6 settling on a resource