Map (Civ6)

Back to Civilization VI
The map is the world on which a game of Civilization VI takes place. The map consists of a rectangular set of hexagonal tiles, with sections of terrestrial land divided into continents. The map may be generated with various map scripts, and comes in six sizes.

In most cases, the map will be cylindrical with wraparound on an east–west axis, with impassible ice caps at the northern and southern edges. However, there are some map scripts, such as Inland Sea, that do not feature wraparound, with hard borders on all four edges.

Map scripts

Maps can be randomly generated through scripts. These scripts arrange the continental land and open sea into various configurations, with extra settings in Advanced Setup to further modify how land is generated.

Vanilla Civilization VI allows players to choose from eight different types of maps, with more added by DLC and update.

Icon	Name	Added in	Description	Notes	Playable civilizations
	Continents	Civilization VI	A few large landmasses.	Default map when generating a new game.
	Fractal	Civilization VI	Unpredictable map that can result in many or few landmasses.
	Inland Sea	Civilization VI	One large ocean in the center of the map.	No wraparound.
	Island Plates	Civilization VI	Islands ranging from small to large.
	Pangaea	Civilization VI	One massive landmass with surrounding islands.
	Shuffle	Civilization VI	What secrets will this map reveal?
	4-Leaf Clover	Civilization VI	Civilizations start in four balanced regions. The map forces players toward the center.	Sets map size to Tiny. No wraparound. No map customization options.
	6-Armed Snowflake	Civilization VI	Civilizations start in six balanced regions, with City-States on nearby islands. The map forces players toward the center.	Sets map size to Small. No wraparound. No map customization options.
	Earth	Winter 2016 Update	A representation of Earth with resources, terrain, and features reflecting their historic locations.	Sets map size to Standard. No map customization options.
	True Start Location Earth	Australian Summer 2017 Update	Civilizations start at the location of a historic capital on an Earth map.
	Earth Huge	April 2021 Update	A larger sized representation of Earth with resources, terrain, and features reflecting their historic locations.	Sets map size to Huge. No map customization options.
	True Start Location Earth Huge	April 2021 Update	Civilizations start at the location of their historic capital on an Earth map.
	Mediterranean Large	April 2021 Update	A large map of the greater Mediterranean region with resources, terrain, and features reflecting their historic locations.	Sets map size to Large. No wraparound. No map custimizationan options.
	True Start Location Mediterranean	April 2021 Update	Civilizations start at the location of their historic capital on the large Mediterranean map.		Arabia, Babylon, Byzantium, Egypt, England, France, Gaul, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedon, Ottomans, Persia, Phoenicia, Poland, Portugal, Rome, Spain, Sumer
	Archipelago	Rise and Fall	Lots of small islands with a few larger islands.
	Seven Seas	June 2019 Update Added to all rulesets in September 2019 Update	Several large bodies of water surrounded by land. Islands can be found in these waters.
	Small Continents	June 2019 Update Added to all rulesets in September 2019 Update	The world will consist of a few medium landmasses and some smaller islands.
	East Asia	Fall 2017 Update	A representation of East Asia with resources, terrain, and features reflecting their historic locations.	Sets map size to Standard. No wraparound. No map customization options.
	True Start Location East Asia	Fall 2017 Update	Civilizations start at the location of their historic capital on the Asia map.		China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Khmer, Korea, Mongolia, Scythia, Vietnam
	Europe	Rise and Fall	A representation of Europe with resources, terrain, and features reflecting their historic locations.	Sets map size to Standard. No wraparound. No map customization options.
	True Start Location Europe	Rise and Fall	Civilizations start at the location of their historic capital on the Europe map.		Byzantium, England, France, Gaul, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Macedon, Netherlands, Norway, Ottomans, Poland, Portugal, Rome, Russia, Scotland, Scythia, Spain, Sweden
	Continents and Islands	September 2019 Update	A few large landmasses surrounded by islands.
	Lakes	September 2019 Update	A world without oceans, only lakes and inland seas.
	Mirror	September 2019 Update	Randomly generated balanced four-player map ideal for competitive multiplayer matches.	Sets map size to Tiny.
	Primordial	September 2019 Update	A map from an early time with unpredictable continents and islands. More volatile conditions exist with extra coastal lowlands and volcanoes.
	Splintered Fractal	September 2019 Update	A highly random map that will often form thin, snaky continents and islands.
	Terra	September 2019 Update	A continents map where all major civilizations start on the largest continent.
	Tilted Axis	September 2019 Update	A polar centered continents map.	No wraparound.
	Highlands	Byzantium & Gaul Pack	A large region dominated by hills and mountain ranges.	Limited map customization options.
	Wetlands	Portugal Pack	A continents map flooded with rivers and marsh. There are extra Woods, Flood Plains, and Rainforests as well.	Limited map customization options.

Map size

As mentioned above, Civilization VI separates maps into six distinct sizes. The size of a map determines the default and maximum numbers of players and city-states, the maximum number of religions that can be founded, and also the number of natural wonders and continents, as shown in the table below.

Size	Dimensions	Players*	City-States*	Maximum Religions	Natural Wonders	Continents
Duel	44×26	2/4	3/6	2	2	1
Tiny	60×38	4/6	6/10	3	3	2
Small	74×46	6/10	9/14	4	4	3
Standard	84×54	8/14	12/18	5	5	4
Large	96×60	10/16	15/22	6	6	5
Huge	106×66	12/20	18/24	7	7	6

* Default/Maximum values

Regardless of map size, the minimum numbers of players and city-states are 2 and 0, respectively.

Related achievements

Alfred Wegener's Legacy Win a regular game on the Pangaea Map. Alfred Wegener was the first to come up with the idea of plate tectonics and the theory of Pangaea.

Dirty Dozen Win a regular game on a Huge Map. A reference to The Dirty Dozen, a 1967 war film.

Eight is Enough Win a regular game on a Standard Map. A reference to the 1970s comedy-drama series Eight Is Enough.

Four Corners Offense Win a regular game on a Tiny Map. Four corners offense is an offensive stalling tactic in basketball.

Here's Looking At You Kid Win a regular game on a Duel Map. A famous quote from Casablanca, a 1942 romantic drama film.

Island Hopping Win a regular game with a Domination victory on any difficulty with any leader on a Huge Island Plates map. Tactic used by Douglas MacArthur against the Japanese during World War II.

Mare Nostrum Win a regular game on the Inland Sea Map. Latin for 'our sea', it was also a Roman name for the Mediterranean Sea.

Master and Commander Win a regular game on the Archipelago Map. Refers to the Aubrey-Maturin series film of the same name, about combat during the Age of Sail - relevant to the islands present on an Archipelago map.

Riffle and Bridge Win a regular game on the Shuffle Map. The 'Riffle and Bridge' is a complex but impressive method of shuffling a deck of cards.

Six Shooter Win a regular game on a Small Map. A six shooter is a revolver with six cartridges.

Tectonic Shift Win a regular game on the Continents Map. Tectonic shifts are phenomena related to continents.

Ten Commandments Win a regular game on a Large Map. The Ten Commandments are a set of biblical laws that play a fundamental role in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Taste of Victory Win a regular game on the Island Plates Map. A play on the meaning of 'plates', which are used to carry food.

Unique Snowflake Win a regular game on Fractal Map. The Koch or 'snowflake' curve is a famous fractal shape first defined by the Swedish mathematician Helge von Koch.

See also

• Map in other games