Production is a measure of how fast a city can build things like units, buildings, wonders, projects and almost everything else in Civ 6. Everything you build costs a certain amount of production points per turn. The amount of production points you have determines how many turns it will take to build something.
The best source of production is the terrain around your cities. Improving the terrain, for example by building a mine, will increase production even more. Using Builders to improve resource producing tiles is a very effective means to improve production.
Terrain, tile improvements, internal trade routes and policy cards are some of the other best ways to gain and improve production. As your civilization progresses strategically placing Industrial Districts will give a significant boost to production too.
Make sure you have “Show Yield Icons” toggled on when checking for high yield tiles. That’s done with the map options. Just above the mini map is a row of icons. The second one from the right is “Map Options” and clicking it will bring up a list of options for the map that can be turned off and on. Make sure the “Show Yield Icons” box is checked. If it isn’t click on the checkbox to toggle that option on.
How To Increase City Production
The best source of any type of production is the terrain around your cities. Improving the terrain, for example by building a mine, will increase production even more. Builders are the units used to improve tiles and they typically have three charges, meaning they can construct three tile improvements. Tile improvements are one of the cheapest and easiest ways to increase production. If there is a production rich tile just out of reach of a city’s limits, like a stone or ivory tile, you can purchase it for gold, providing you have enough gold to buy it with.
You can get a one-time boost to production by harvesting a resource like a forest, but the consequences are losing the long-term benefits of having a forest close by, like an adjacency bonus for a Holy Site or increased production through technological advancements like lumber milling. I’m always reluctant to harvest something like that unless there is an immediate need for it, like buying a military unit to help fend off an attack.
To find out what a city’s production is you can look at the city’s breakdown list. That’s active at the bottom of the screen when you click on a city’s banner. By hovering the mouse cursor over the production icon, a tooltip appears giving you a breakdown of where all the production is coming from, including any modifiers, the number of trade routes a city has, and income from buildings and worked tiles. You can even choose what type of production you want the city’s citizens to focus on, like Gold.
Industrial Zones
The best district to build for increasing production is an Industrial Zone, or it’s replacement if your civilization has one. Planning out where to place an Industrial Zone can make a huge difference in production. Placing them within 6 tiles of ANY of your cities will boost a city’s production. With effective placement an Industrial Zone give a production boost to several cities and not just one. Getting adjacency bonuses for your Industrial Zones is another key factor to placement, such as having them close to mines.
Policy Cards
Urban Planning is an economic policy card that is a good choice for an all-around production boost, it increases production by 1 in all cities. There are other more specialized policy Cards that provide better boosts but have a limited effect. For example, Feudal Contracts provides a 50% increase in the production of Ancient, Classical, Medieval and Renaissance era units that are meant for melee, ranged, or anti-calvary use.
Production Friendly Leaders and Nations
I’m a firm believer in gaining the most perks I can for whatever my strategy is for a game session. At the start of a game, you have the option of choosing a leader/nation combo that gives production perks. There are several but here are a few of my favorites.
Most experienced players believe Frederick Barbarossa of Germany is the best overall leader/nation when it comes to production. Germany’s version of the Industrial District is the Hansa building. It costs much less when compared to an Industrial District and gets a +2 adjacency from Commercial Hubs, Dams, Aqueducts and Canal Districts as well as a +1-production bonus from adjacent resource tiles. This leader/nation combo also gets a +1-production bonus for every two Districts next to it, making it one of the powerhouse combos for production.
Ambriox of Gaul is a strong, early game production civ. This leader/combo has the Oppidum that replaces the Industrial District. It’s cheaper and Gaul has access to it much sooner than most nations have access to an Industrial District, giving it a potentially strong starting position over the other nations for production. It gets a +2-production bonus from Quarries or strategic resources next to it.
Hammurabi of Babylon has the unique building Palgum. It gives +2 production. The leader Ninu Ilu Sirnum also gives his civilization the bonus of getting the cheapest building for free in that district when a specialty district is constructed for the first time (except for the Government Plaza).
Hojo Tokimune of Japan is worth mentioning because of the Electronics Factory. This factory gives a production bonus to any city center within 6 tiles of it.
If you are the type of player who gets involved in a lot of wars John Curtin of Australia is a good choice. This leader gives his civilization a 100% bonus if war is declared upon his nation or if he liberated a city in the last 10 turns. Australia also gets +1 production for the Outbacks Station. Its output can be increased by advancing through the civics and research trees.
If you’re the type of player who favors Trade Routes Philip II of Spain might be a good choice. This leader/nation combo gets a +1-production bonus for each trade route and if the trade route is with another continent that route gets triple the production bonus. Founding cities on continents other than your own also gives those cities a 25% production bonus, making this an ideal choice for an expansionist style of play. Spain can also unlock the ability to build a Mission, and when built on a continent other than your own, it provides a +1-production bonus.
Use Trade Routes Internally
Sometimes I focus on external trade routes so much so I can be BFFs with another civilization that I forget about my own internal, or domestic, trade routes. Having domestic trade routes in the early game will boost Gold, Food and Production for the originating city, but the benefits of foreign trade routes get better during the mid and late game, so you’ll eventually want to replace them with the more profitable foreign trade routes. There is a side benefit to domestic trade routes as well since roads are constructed between cities with trade routes. This allows units, including military units, to move much faster, which means you can respond to a threat a lot more quickly. You need to build a Trader before you can create a trade route.
Use Builders To Improve Production Tiles
Builders can improve or harvest tiles and improving or harvesting tiles will give a production boost to a city. The only tile improvement available at first is a farm, which obviously increases food income, the rest are unlocked through research with a few unlocked through civics. Building mines is a good improvement that will increase production.
How To Increase Civ 6 Food Production
Just like production the best source of food is tiles. Floodplains and oasis tiles are the best. Once again, Builders are the units you use to increase tile production, providing the proper research has been completed. The earliest improvement is a farm, which increases the food production of any food producing tile. Three adjacent farms give a bigger boost to food production than three separate farms after researching the Feudalism civic.
How To Increase Gold Production
If you’d rather focus on gold production try establishing cities by coastal tiles since they produce gold a lot of times. Another good option in the early game is wiping out a Barbarian Camp. You will oftentimes get a gold bonus for ridding the area of a nuisance like the Barbarians.
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