Civilization VI, or Civ 6, is a great game but historical accuracy is not exactly its best feature. However, one could modify the Civ 6 settings and, with some patience, greatly improve this aspect. In this article, we’re going to guide you through a selection of civs, city states, settings and mods to achieve a historical start in the Ancient, Medieval and Modern Era as accurate as possible.
This guide is based on the main game plus the DLCs Gathering Storm and Rise and Fall. All mods and settings have been tested and should be compatible with the mentioned game set-up.
For “Ancient Era” we consider the period that goes from the beginning of the game timeline (4000 BCE) until the year 1 CE. The “Medieval Era” is the period that roughly goes from the V until the XVI Century. As for the “Modern Era”, the period that goes from the XVIII Century until today. The choice criteria is based on the civilizations themselves and not their rulers.
Video by JumboPixel
The Civilization VI Settings for Historical Starts
The first thing to be done is to create a new game. To do so, go to Single Player > Create Game. In the “Create Game” interface, select “Advanced Setup” at the bottom of the screen. This will allow you to see and choose all kinds of Civ 6 settings.
The first five options in the settings should be based on your preferences. As for the Civilizations and City-States slots use the following:
- Ancient Era – Civilizations: 23 | City-States: 18
- Medieval Era – Civilizations: 34 | City-States: 21
- Modern Era – Civilizations: 21 | City-States: 10
From the “CS Selection Usage” option choose “Only Selection”.
Given the high number of players, the number of religions should be set to at least 7. It’s possible to add even more religions with the mod “Tomatekh’s Historical Religions“.
Map Mods and Options
Aside from the mods that add civilizations and city-states, there is at least one more mod that is necessary for a proper historical start called “Yet (not) Another Maps Pack“. This mod allows the creation of “Enormous” maps which are perfect for fitting big numbers of civilizations in a game. Aside from enlarging existing maps, it also comes with a few custom maps that can further enhance immersion.
Among the best features of YnAMP is the True Start Location map option that, as the name suggests, places all civilizations in geographically relevant locations. The only downside of this mod is that maps bigger than “Enormous” are likely to crash in the late game. However, you can use some tweaks to avoid this, located in the mod description.
Another mod that is useful for the creation of realistic maps is PerfectWorld6 which is also contained in our general list of must-have Civ 6 mods.
Civilization VI Settings World Map
Civilization VI Settings for Maps
The choice of the map is kind of personal and mostly depends on your tastes. For pure historical precision, the best option would be “True Start Location Earth Huge”. However, this map is set for 12 players so having double the amount will make the Earth quite tight for many. Eventually, a good alternative is the “YnAMP – Terra Map”, a customizable map that roughly follows Earth’s shape and whose size can be set to Enormous.
The rest of the map options are truly up to you. The easiest and most realistic thing would be to set everything to “Standard”.
Depending on the map you choose, you might get either the “Start position link” option or the “Civilization Placement” option (only with YnAMP maps). The former can be set to either “Cultural” or “Distance Relative” for a more realistic distribution of the civilizations.
In “Civilization Placement” you can choose between “Map Generator”, which randomly places civs on the map, and “True Starting Location”. Selecting the latter unlocks other options that we recommend to configure as follows:
- TSL Replacement Range: High Range
- Enforce TSL: Off
- More Land around TSL: unticked
- Use Leades TSL when available: ticked
- Use Alternate TSL if required and available: ticked
- Allow random placement for civs without TSL: ticked
Civilization VI Settings YnAMP True Start Location
Note that YnAMP maps with the “True Starting Location” option active may create issues or crash on start with some civilization mods. It is recommended to use it only with Vanilla civilizations.
Once all the options are out of the way, it is time to choose the civilization you want to guide and the Era. If you have doubts on which civ to choose, you can have a look at our guide about 6 of the best civilizations to play with.
Ancient Era
Ancient Era Civilizations
Between the base game and the mods, there are 23 Ancient Era civilizations. This number might be heavy on some computers so feel free to reduce it to something more in line with your PC specs. For instance, you could avoid the modded civilizations.
- Alexander – Macedon
- Amanitore – Nubia
- Boudica – Briton (download mod)
- Burebista – Dacia (download mod)
- Chandragupta – India
- Cleopatra – Egypt
- Cyrus – Persia
- Dido – Phoenicia
- Gilgamesh – Sumeria
- Hojo Tokimune – Japan
- Jayavarman VIII – Khmer
- Lautaro – Mapuche
- Mithridates II – Parthia (download mod)
- Muwatalli – Hatti (download mod)
- Oson – Akan (download mod)
- Pericles – Greece (Gorgo is also available but, historically, she wasn’t a ruler)
- Qin Shi Huang – China
- Seondeok – Korea
- Tomyris – Scythia
- Trajan – Rome
- Trisong Detsen – Tibet (download mod)
- Vercingetorix – Gaul
- Zara Yakob – Ethiopia (download mod)
Ancient Era City-States
City-states always played an important role in history, for better or worse. Similarly, also in Civilization VI city-states provide good bonuses, play an important strategical role and can also help with immersion. Here’s our list of 18 Ancient Era city-states.
- Akkad
- Cahokia
- Çayönü
- Chillicothe (download mod)
- Jerusalem
- Kabul
- Knossos (download mod)
- La Venta
- Mogadishu
- Mohenjo-daro
- Mutitjulu
- Mycenae (download mod)
- Nazca
- Poverty Point (download mod)
- Su Nuraxi (download mod)
- Yeha
- Yerevan
- Zafar (download mod)
Civilization VI Settings Ancient Era
Medieval Era
Medieval Era Civilizations
This is the Era with the most civilizations available. Thus, when adjusting the Civ 6 settings, you may want to tweak a few things in order to get the game running smoothly. However, if your computer struggles with games, you should probably reduce or halve the number of civs.
- Ahmad al-Mansur – Morocco (download mod)
- Al-Hasan ibn Sulaiman- Swahili (download mod)
- Catherine de Medici – France
- Chandragupta – India
- Frederick Barbarossa – Germany
- Gengis Khan – Mongolia
- Gitarja – Indonesia
- Hojo Tokimune – Japan
- Jayavarman VIII – Khmer
- Harald Hardrada – Norway
- Jadwiga – Poland
- Kristina – Sweden
- Kupe – Maori
- Mansa Musa – Mali
- Maria Theresa – Austria (download mod)
- Matthias Corvinus – Hungary
- Montezuma – Aztec
- Mvemba a Nzinga – Kongo
- Pachacuti – Inca
- Peter – Russia
- Philip II – Spain
- Poundmaker – Cree
- Qin Shi Huang – China
- Seondeok – Korea
- Ramkhamhaeng – Siam (download mod)
- Robert the Bruce – Scotland
- Saladin – Arabia
- Shaka – Zulu
- Simeon I – Bulgaria (download mod)
- Suleiman – Ottomans
- Trisong Detsen – Tibet (download mod)
- Tamar – Georgia
- Victoria – England
- Zara Yakob – Ethiopia (download mod)
Medieval Era City-States
City-states had their prime during medieval times, especially in Europe. For this reason, we included a big number of them for the Medieval Era start. Here’s our selection.
- Ainu Kotan (download mod)
- Anshan
- Armagh
- Belgrade (download mod)
- Bologna
- Brussels
- Cardiff
- Firenze (download mod)
- Geneva
- Granada
- Kandy
- Lubeck (download mod)
- Mitla
- Muscat
- Nan Madol
- Ngazargamu
- Rapa Nui
- Ternate
- Valletta
- Venice
- Vilnius
Civilization VI Settings Medieval Europe
Modern Era
Modern Era Civilizations
For those who found playing with America, Canada and Australia in Ancient times weird, the following lists will be quite handy. In this case, we recommend setting the number of civilizations to 21 in your Civ 6 settings. However, keep in mind your PC specs and choose less civs if you feel it’s necessary.
- Catherine de Medici – France
- Chandragupta – India
- Frederick Barbarossa – Germany
- Hojo Tokimune – Japan
- John Curtin – Australia
- Kristina – Sweden
- Maria Theresa – Austria
- Mvemba a Nzinga – Kongo
- Pedro II – Brazil
- Peter – Russia
- Philip II – Spain
- Qin Shi Huang – China
- Ramkhamhaeng – Siam (download mod)
- Seondeok – Korea
- Shaka – Zulu
- Suleiman – Ottomans
- Teddy Roosvelt – USA
- Victoria – England
- Wilfrid Laurier
- Wilhelmina – Netherlands
- Zara Yakob – Ethiopia (download mod)
Modern Era City-States
In modern times, city-states lost most of their power. For this reason, the majority of them in this list are there to take the place of small countries or countries that are not present in game. However, if ten are not enough for you, there are plenty of mods that add city-states from all over the world.
- Antananarivo
- Auckland
- Bandar Brunei
- Brussels
- Buenos Aires
- Holy Sea (download mod)
- Hong Kong
- Mexico City
- Muscat
- Oyo (download mod)
Civilization VI Settings US-Canada Border
Conclusion
While we tried to summarize the best mods and settings for a realistic historical start, you don’t have to follow our suggestions literally. There are plenty of other mods that add civilizations and city-states as well as maps and scenarios that cannot be squeezed in one guide. You can find these mods in the Steam Workshop or on websites like CivFanatics and Nexus. So, feel free to explore for yourself and create your perfect scenario.
