Next Action is the most important, learn to use it instead of mouse. Defaults are quite good, but its good to have these on something comfortable: To increase your speed (this is more advanced and not needed, but a good practice) try to use keyboard shortcuts.
On the other hand, mass gold or faith might mean some plan to upgrade or buy units and attack. Science income will help you mid to late game decide on who is strongest. Anything under 60 is a sign of (usually) a weak player who will get killed. anything above 150 at first 30 rounds and you should be cautious. Military score can warn you before an attack or show you a weak player, not prepared to defend. Meaning if someone is using mainly ranged units, their military score will be quite underestimated, so watch out. Military strength is a sum of melee strength of all units. When you meet another civ, the question mark will show civ’s military strength science, culture, gold and faith (also a score, which doesn’t tell you a thing). Note that when someone leaves, his question mark will disappear, but when you meet their civ controlled by AI, it will appear again (showing yields). At start you will see only your civ and some number x of question marks, meaning there is another x players in your game. First it will show how many real people are in the game. Game options -> Interface -> Show Yields in HUD Ribbon
Also people play simultaneously and it is a damn difference if you manage to retreat your units in time, or your enemy will shoot them first. You just can’t compete when your turn takes 1 minute, when other people can do the same in 30 seconds. Game options -> Game -> set Quick Combat and Quick Movement to Enabled. Who knows, maybe someday I will add a water map section. Also note I will assume playing on pangaea map. So just, take from this what you will and try to apply it on your own playstyle. Also Civ is extremely complex game, meaning that any advice or convention has it’s exceptions.
Note I am not a professional in this game.
Although you should have basic knowledge of the game and played some games against AI. This guide should be enough to make you an above average player. So, if you are afraid of multiplayer, don’t be. Also the required experience bar is quite low. Surprisingly, there are still a lot of new people in Civ multiplayer. I will explain a different mindset you need to apply to crush not only bots but also real people. I might touch on leaders from later expansions, as you can choose them in base game lobbies, but that’s about it. This is because a lot of online lobbies still run the base version of the game. In this tutorial I will focus mainly on vanilla civilization.
From basic settings, playing fast and early strategies to strong middle game and late game.
This guide will teach you how to face other players online with dignity and strength. The ultimate guide for Civilization 6 multiplayer base game.