civ 6 a query on increasing science [closed]

civ 6 standard rules.. gilgamesh level 2. large world.. 17 cities turn 385 6 opponents trajan, cyrus, Curtin, movamba, Tomyna and gandhi. I have 4 spys stealing science i am now down to 5th place.. the 6 components have between 4-6 cities each. at this point i have just started to build Spaceports. 3 of my opponents have already launched moon and mars projects... at level 2 i should be developingcities a LOT faster then they are.. and i have 4 times the cities. HOW in the ##$%#$^ are they developing that much faster... i have played civ since civ 2 or 3 started.

More so than prior versions, you really have to pay attention to bonuses you get for each civ, for districts and terrain, etc. Gilgamesh is not all that great for science. The only boost he gets over other civs is that he can build ziggurats next to rivers. This is ok, but not earth shattering.

More important is to look at where you are building your science district. Look for mountains, reefs or other things that give adjacency boosts, and try to keep districts near each other so that they boost each other. Also, don't ignore religion, not only can you choose beliefs that boost science, you can also use faith points to buy great scientists, to boost in other ways.

Spies really don't help much for science. They can give you Eurekas, but those just help with particular techs. I find them more useful for stealing gold, or if you have competition for science victories, for sabotaging everyone else's launches and protecting year own.

But again, the right civ makes a massive difference. For instance, if you pick Korea, and build science districts in all cities next to mines and away for other districts (the opposite of science districts for most civs), a science victory is a cake-walk and you'll be blowing up your neighbors musketmen with giant death robots in no time.