Civ 6 Appeal: What It Does & How To Improve It

Appeal is important mostly for a Cultural Victory, as it affects how much Tourism is earned by National Parks and Seaside Resorts. However, it is also used by Neighborhoods and Preserves to increase Housing in your cities.

In most cases, the Appeal of a tile is affected by its 6 adjacent tiles. The adjacent tile’s terrain, an improvement, a district, and more all affect Appeal. After calculating an Appeal value, a level can be applied to qualify the numbers.

Tip: Press 3 on your keyboard to toggle the Appeal Lens (as shown in the image at the top of the article) or hover over any tile with your mouse to bring up an info box that shows the Appeal Level and Value.

With careful planning, you can ensure your civilization is the most appealing in the world.

Simple Fixes to Increase Appeal

I’ll start off by saying these first few tips are generally best practices for anyone in Civ 6, but if you’re looking for simple and quick fixes to your Appeal problem, here is where I would start.

Fix #1: Remove Barbarian Outposts

First of all, you should never leave a barbarian outpost on your city’s border.

But if for whatever reason there is one there, remove it.

Adjacent barbarian outposts apply -1 Appeal to adjacent tiles.

Fix #2: Repair Pillaged Improvements

If you just finished defending your city from a warmonger civilization or pesky barbarians, you’ll probably have some improvements or districts pillaged.

Pillaged tiles apply -1 Appeal to adjacent tiles.

Buying or producing a builder will let you repair pillaged improvements.

You can repair districts from the production menu.

Tip: Repairing a pillaged improvement does not use a builder charge, so you only need one builder to repair all pillaged improvements. Although using multiple builders will help to speed up the process.

Fix #3: Remove Marshes and Rainforests

After repairing all those pillaged tiles, you can use your builders to clear nearby marshes and rainforests, as these features each apply -1 Appeal to adjacent tiles.

Note: If you are playing as Brazil, DO NOT remove rainforests, as Brazil’s ability changes rainforest features from -1 Appeal to +1 Appeal!

Fix #4: Plant Woods

After unlocking the Conservation civic, builders gain the ability to plant woods.

This is a great way to increase the Appeal of a tile for a National Park. Since woods are considered features, not improvements, they do not break the “no improvements in a National Park” rule.

As an added bonus, the Conservation civic increases the Appeal of “old-growth” woods in your territory by +1 on that tile. The Appeal of surrounding tiles is unaffected (remains at +1).

Old-growth woods are simply woods that have been there since the beginning of the game. As opposed to “second-growth” woods that are planted by builders.

Improvements To Build (and Avoid) For Higher Appeal

Builders can also be used to build improvements on tiles that will increase Appeal.

Many of these improvements are civilization specific. Likewise, some improvements will reduce Appeal.

* Governor Liang will be covered in more detail below.

Note: Instead of a unique improvement when playing as Teddy Roosevelt (Bull Moose), cities with a National Park get +1 Appeal to all tiles.

Tip: Building improvements that decrease Appeal should not be avoided altogether, as they are actually quite useful. I would suggest zoning your cities so that improvements that decrease Appeal are away from where you want to build your National Parks, Seaside Resorts, Neighborhoods, and Preserves.

Districts To Build (and Avoid) For Higher Appeal

If you’d rather, some districts can increase the Appeal of adjacent tiles.

Like improvements, some districts decrease Appeal.

Thankfully, many parallels can be drawn between the improvements and districts that increase and decrease Appeal.

Note: If a civilization has a unique district that replaces a district on this list, the unique district has the same Appeal as the normal district. For example, Germany’s Hansa, which replaces the Industrial Zone, still has -1 Appeal.

Haddington National Park (above) contains a mix of old-growth and second-growth woods (+1 each), and is surrounded by a water park (+1); a holy site (+1); and Scotland’s unique improvement, a golf course (+1). Note that the Aerodrom is two tiles away.

Building Wonders To Increase Appeal

One of the many wonderful things about wonders is that they provide +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles.

There are also a few wonders whose specific purpose is to increase Appeal.

Pictured above: A Neighborhood with Breathtaking Appeal surrounded by woods (+1), an oasis (+1), a Theater Square (+1), and the Eiffel Tower (+1 for adjacency, +2 for effect).

Great People That Increase Appeal

Two Great People can increase the Appeal of tiles in a city.

• Alvar Aalto, a Modern era Great Engineer, whose ability gives +1 Appeal to all tiles in a city.
• Charles Correa, an Information era Great Engineer, whose ability gives +2 Appeal to all tiles in a city.

Note: Each of these Great Engineers only has one charge, so choose wisely which city to retire these Great People in.

Governors That Increase Appeal

If you have the Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions, there are two governors (Reyna and Liang) that can be used to increase the Appeal of tiles.

Reyna, Unimproved Features

Reyna’s Forestry Management, a Level 1 title in the Gathering Storm expansion, applies +1 Appeal to tiles adjacent to unimproved features.

This makes woods and oases very powerful (+2 Appeal) and negates the penalty of rainforests and marshes.

Note: This effect only lasts for as long as Reyna is assigned to the city, so be careful when moving her around.

Liang, City Park Improvement

Liang gives builders the ability to construct City Parks in the city in which Liang is assigned.

However, you need to promote Liang to the Parks and Recreation title, which is a Level 3 title.

While this may take some time to unlock, the City Park is a powerful improvement, providing +2 Appeal. Once you are done building City Parks to improve Appeal, you can move Liang to another city without losing the Appeal in the previous city, unlike with Reyna.

Note: Liang’s Parks and Recreation title does not require the Gathering Storm expansion. Only the Rise and Fall expansion is required.

If you plan carefully, you can combine all of these tips to make your civilization the most appealing, and lead you to victory!