Want to take a look at all of your options for glory in Civ 6? Here’s a full list of all 19 civilizations in Civilization 6 , as well as their unique units, districts/improvements/buildings, leader abilities and leader agendas. Just use the Find function to look up the Civ you’re interested in and get to planning your strategy!
For help plotting a winning course, make sure to check out our guides as well:
Civ Ability: Founding Fathers: Earn all government legacy bonuses in half the usual time.
Unique Building: Film Studio: +100% Tourism pressure from this city towards other civs in the Modern era.
Unique Unit: P-51 Mustang: Replaces the Fighter. Gains +5 attack against fighter aircraft, has +2 flight range, and gains +50% experience.
- Ability : Roosevelt Corollary: Units receive +5 Combat Strength on their home continent. +1 Appeal to all tiles in a city with a National Park. Gain the Rough Rider unique unit upon researching Rifling.
- Agenda : Big Stick Policy: Likes peaceful civs that have a city on his home continent. Hates civs starting wars against a city-state or civ based on his continent.
Civ Ability: The Last Prophet: When the next-to-last Great Prophet is claimed, Arabia automatically receives the last one, if they haven’t already received it.
Unique Building: Madrasa: Bonus faith equal to the adjacency bonus of the Campus district.
Unique Unit: Mamluk: Replaces the Knight. Heals at the end of every turn, even after attacking or moving.
- Ability: Righteousness of the Faith: The worship building for Arabia’s religion costs one-tenth the usual faith cost and may be purchased by any player. This building adds 10% to Arabia’s Science, Faith and Culture.
- Agenda: Ayyubid Dynasty: Wants to have his worship building in many cities, and likes a civilization with it. Dislikes civilizations following other religions, or civilizations waging war on followers of his religion.
Civ Ability: Legend of the Five Suns: Spend Builder charges to complete 20% of the original district cost.
Unique Building: Tlachtli: Replaces the Arena. Provides +2 Faith, +1 Amenity from entertainment, +1 Great General point per turn.
Unique Unit: Eagle Warrior: Replaces the Warrior. Has a chance to capture other civilization’s military units by turning them into Builders.
- Ability: Gifts for the Tlatoani: Luxury resources in his territory provide an Amenity to 2 extra cities. Military units receive +1 Combat Strength for each different Luxury resource improved in Aztec lands
- Agenda: Tloatoani: Likes civs who have the same Luxury resources he does and will try to collect every Luxury resource available. DIslikes civs who have a new Luxury resource he has not collected yet.
Civ Ability: Amazon: Rainforest tiles provide +1 adjacency bonus for Campus, Commercial Hub, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts. Rainforest tiles provide +1 Housing for Neighborhoods built adjacent to them.
Unique District: Street Carnival: Replaces the Entertainment Complex district and provides +2 Amenities. Also unlocks the Carnival Project, which grants an additional +1 Amenity when underway and a variety of Great People points once completed.
Unique Unit: Minas Geraes: Replaces the Battleship. STronger than the Battleship, unlocked by Nationalism.
- Ability: Magnanimous: After recruiting or patronizing a Great Person, 20% of its Great Person point cost is refunded.
- Agenda: Patron of the Arts: Likes civs who are not competing for Great People and will recruit Great People whenever possible. Dislikes losing a Great Person to another civ.
Civ Ability: Dynastic Cycle: Gives a bigger boost from Eurekas and inspirations compared to other Civs.
Unique Improvement: The Great Wall, a tile improvement only the Chinese may use. At first, it provides defense and gold bonuses. As time marches on, it provides bonus culture and tourism. Because the Great Wall is a tile improvement, builders will need to be assigned to the Wall to continue expanding it.
Unique Unit: Crouching Tiger Cannon, a high-power short-range unit that doesn’t require specific resources to produce.
- Ability: The First Emperor: When building Ancient and Classical wonders you may spend Builder charges to complete 15% of the original wonder cost. Builders receive an additional charge.
- Agenda: Wall of 10,000 Li: Likes civs not competing for wonders and builds wonders whenever possible. Dislikes losing a wonder to another civ.
Civ Ability: Iteru: +15% Production towards districts and wonders if placed next to a River. Floodplains do not block placement of districts and wonders.
Unique Improvement: Sphinx: +1 Faith, +1 Culture. +2 Faith if next to a wonder. Cannot be built next to another Sphinx, can be built on Floodplains.
Unique Unit: Maryannu Chariot Archer: Replaces Heavy Chariot and gets 4 movement when starting in open terrain.
- Ability: Mediterranean’s Bride: Trade Routes to other civs provide +4 gold for Egypt. Other civs Trade Routes provide +2 Food for them and +2 Gold for Egypt.
- Agenda: Queen of the Nile: Likes civs with powerful militaries, will try to ally with them to avoid military conflicts. Dislikes civs with weak militaries.
Civ Ability: British Museum: Each Archaeological Museum holds 6 artifacts instead of 3 and can support 2 Archaeologists at once. Archaeological Museums are automatically themed when they have 6 Artifacts.
Unique District: Royal Navy Dockyard: Replaces the Harbor. Removes the movement penalty for embarking and disembarking to and from this tile. Must be built on Coast or Lake adjacent to land. +1 movement for all naval units built in Dockyard, +2 Gold when built on foreign continent, +1 Trade Route capacity.
Unique Unit: Sea Dog: Replaces the Privateer. Can capture enemy ships. Cannot be seen unless adjacent to it.
- Ability: Pax Britannica: All found or conquered cities on a continuent other than your home continent receive a free melee unit. Gain the Redcoat unique unit when Military Science tech is researched.
- Agenda: Sun Never Sets: Likes civs from her home continent, wants to expand to all continents. Doesn’t like civs on continents where England has no city.
Civ Ability: Grand Tour: +20% Production toward Medieval, Renaissance and Industrial era wonders. Tourism from wonders of any era is doubled.
Unique Improvement: Chateau: +1 Culture, +2 Culture if next a wonder. +1 Gold if next to a Luxury resource. Can only be built adjacent to Rivers.
Unique Unit: Garde Imperiale: +10 Combat Strength when fighting on your capital’s continent. Great General points for killing Units.
- Ability: Catherine’s Flying Squadron: Has 1 level of Diplomatic Visibility greater than normal with every civ that she’s met. Receives capacity to build an extra Spy with Castles technology.
- Agenda: Black Queen: Gain as many Spies and as much diplomatic access as possible. Does not like civs who ignore these espionage activities.
Civ Ability: Free Imperial Cities: Gives its cities one more District than its population would normally allow.
Unique District: Hansa: An Industrial Zone replacement that gets bonus production if placed next to a Commercial Hub, additional adjacent districts, or resources.
Unique Unit: U-Boat, a modern-era naval unit that has a low production cost and gets a bonus fighting in deep ocean.
- Ability: Holy Roman Emperor: Additional Military policy slot. +7 Combat Strength when attacking city-states.
- Agenda: Iron Crown: Likes civs who do not associate with city-states. Does not like Suzerains of city-states or civs who conquered city-states.
Civ Ability: Plato’s Republic: One extra wildcard slot in any government.
Unique District: Acropolis: Replaces the Theater District. The Acropolis gets higher culture adjacency bonuses for being next to districts, especially the city center. It must be built on a hill.
Unique Unit: Hoplite: Gets a bonus when other Hoplites are adjacent.
- Ability: Thermopylae: Whenever her units are victorious in combat, she’ll accrue Culture equal to 50% of the base strength of the defeated unit.
- Agenda: With Your Shield Or On It: Never gives up items in a peace deal and likes civs who match that approach. Dislikes civs who have capitulated or who have never gone to war.
- Ability: Surrounded by Glory: For every city-state for which Greece is the Suzerain, Greece gets a bonus to their Culture.
- Agenda: Delian League: Likes civs that aren't competing for the same city-state allegiance. Dislikes civs that are directly competing for city-state allegiance.
Civ Ability: Dharma: India gets the follower beliefs of all religions present in their cities, not just the one from their own religion.
Unique Improvement: Stepwell: +1 Food and Housing, +1 Faith if adjacent to a Holy Site, +1 Food if adjacent to a Farm. Cannot be built on hills or adjacent to another Stepwell.
Unique Unit: Replaces the Horseman and gives -5 Combat Strength for all adjacent enemy units.
- Ability: Satyagraha: For each Civ India has met that has founded a religion and is not at war, India gets a significant boost to Faith. Opposing Civs get additional happiness penalties for fighting against Gandhi.
- Agenda: Peacekeeper: Never declares wars for which he can be branded a warmonger, and will try to befriend those who maintain the peace. Hates warmongers.
Civ Ability: Meiji Restoration: All districts get an additional adjacency bonus for being adjacent to another district.
Unique Building: Electronics Factory: Replaces the regular factory in an industrial zone and provides bonus production. It also provides bonus culture to nearby cities, not just its own cities.
Unique Unit: Samurai: Samurai don’t lose combat strength when they take damage.
- Ability: Divine Wind: Land units receive +5 Combat Strength in land tiles adjacent to Coast; naval units receive +5 Combat Strength in shallow water tiles. Builds Encampment, Holy Site and Theatre Square districts in half the time.
- Agenda: Bushido: Likes civs with a strong military and Faith/Culture output. Dislikes civs that are strong in military but weak in Faith/Culture.
Civ Ability: Nkisi: +2 Food/Production and +4 gold from each Relic, Artifact, Scultpure and Great Work of Art in addition to the usual Culture. Receive double Great Writer, Great Artist, Great Musician, and Great Merchant Points. Palace has slots for 5 Great Works.
Unique District: Mbanza: Can only be constructed in Rainforest or Woods. Replaces Neighborhood but is available earlier. Provides +5 Housing, +2 Food and +4 Gold regardless of Appeal.
Unique Unit: Ngao Mbeba: Replaces the Swordsman. +10 Combat Strength when defending against ranged attacks. Can move and see through Woods and Rainforest.
- Ability: Religious Convert: May not build Holy Site districts, gain Great Prophets or found Religions. Gains all Beliefs of any Religion that has established itself in a majority of his cities. Receives an Apostle each time he finishes a Mbanza or Theatre Square district (of that city’s majority religion).
- Agenda: Enthusiastic Disciple: Likes civs that bring Religion to the Kongo. Dislikes civs that have founded a Religion but not brought it to a Kongolese city.
Civ Ability: Knarr: Units gain the ability to enter Ocean tiles after researching Shipbuilding technology. Naval melee units heal in neutral territory. Units ignore additional movement costs from embarking and disembarking.
Unique Building: The Stave Church: Has all the benefits of a Temple but gets an additional faith adjacency bonus from woods.
Unique Unit: The Berserker: Pillaging costs one less movement and the Berserker gets a bonus to attack, but is more vulnerable when defending.
- Ability: The Thunderbolt of the North: All his naval melee units can perform coastal raids. He also gets the Viking Longship: in addition to having the coastal raid ability, it can heal in neutral territory.
- Agenda: Last Viking King: Builds a large navy and respects civs who follow his lead, doesn’t like civs with a weak navy.
Civ Ability: All Roads Lead to Rome: All new cities start with a trading post. New cities within trade route range of the capital start with a road from the capital to them. Your trade routes also earn extra gold for passing through trading posts in your own cities.
Unique District: The Baths: Replaces the Aqueduct and provides amenities and more housing than the Aqueduct.
Unique Unit: The Legion. While it’s more expensive than the Swordsman, it’s also stronger, and can function as a Military Engineer to build forts and roads. Its power is limited, as you can only build a certain amount of them.
- Ability: Trajan’s Column: All cities start with 1 free building in the city center.
Agenda: Optimus Princeps: Tries to include as much territory as possible in his empire. Does not like civs who control little territory.
Civ Ability: Mother Russia: Extra territory upon founding cities. +1 faith and +1 production from tundra tiles.
Unique District: Lavra: Replaces Holy Site. City border grows by 1 tile each time a Great Person is expended in this city.
Unique Unit: Cossack: Replaces Cavalry, is stronger than Cavalry, gains +5 combat strength when fighting in or adjacent to its home territory. Can move after attacking if movement points remain.
- Ability: The Grand Embassy: Receives Science or Culture from trade routes to Civs that are more advanced than Russia (+1 per 3 technologies or civs ahead).
- Agenda: Westernizer: Friendly to those civs that are ahead of him in Science and Culture. Dislikes backwards civs that are lacking in Science and Culture.
Civ Ability: People of the Steppe: Receive a second light cavalry unit or Saka Horse Archer each time you train a light cavalry unit or Saka Horse Archer.
Unique Improvement: Kurgan: +1 Faith, +1 Gold. +1 Faith for each adjacent Pasture. Cannot be built on Hills.
Unique Unit: Saka Horse Archer: Ranged unit with 4 Movement and range of 1.
- Ability: Killer of Cyrus: All units receive +5 Combat Strength when Attacking wounded units. When they eliminate a unit, they heal up to 50 HP.
- Agenda: Backstab Averse: Likes civs who are their declared friend. Hates civs who backstab and declare surprise wars.
Civ Ability: Treasure Fleet: Traders between continents get extra yields. Spain can also combine ships into fleets earlier than other civs.
Unique Improvement: Mission: Provides bonus faith when built on a different continent from the Capital and gives Science if built next to a Campus.
Unique Unit: Conquistador: Conquistadors get a significant bonus when there is a Spanish missionary, inquisitor, or apostle on their hex. If a Conquistador is adjacent to a city when it is captured, that city automatically converts to Spain’s majority religion.
- Ability: El Escorial: Philip’s units get a combat bonus against players following other religions. His inquisitors can also remove heresy one additional time.
- Agenda: Counter Reformer: Likes civilizations who follow the same Religion, and wants his cities to all follow the same Religion. Hates anyone trying to spread their Religion into his empire.
Civ Ability: Epic Quest: Every time you capture a barbarian outpost, you get a Tribal Village reward.
Unique District: War Cart: Suffers no penalties against Spearmen or anti-Cavalry units and gets extra movement if it starts in open terrain.
Unique Unit: Ziggurat: It provides science and culture when adjacent to a river, but cannot be built on a hill.
- Ability: Adventures with Enkidu: When fighting a joint war, Sumeria shares pillage rewards and combat experience with the closest allied unit within five tiles.
- Agenda: Ally of Enkidu: Likes civs willing to form a long-term alliance. Dislikes anyone denouncing or attacking his friends and allies.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally written in 2010 and has not been updated since its original publication.
Civilization 5 Victories
Guiding your chosen people from basic beginnings as a small group of settlers through to world domination is a major challenge. Civilization V is rich in possible strategies and there are many viable paths to success. In this Civilization V victory guide we take a look at all of the victory conditions and explain how to achieve them. Every game plays out differently, and you have the option to pursue various paths to glory, and this is part of what gives Civ 5 such amazing replay value. For an overview of the game check out our Civ 5 Review.
There are basically five different victory conditions which can lead you to a win in Civilization V.
- High Score
- Diplomatic
- Scientific
- Domination
- Cultural
Winning on Points
We are going to kick off with the high score victory which comes about when the game reaches the year 2050 AD and no one has managed to achieve any of the other Civ 5 victory conditions. The civilization with the biggest score wins the game. You’ll find Civilization 5 tips and tricks to help you win on points and in the next four articles we’ll focus on the other specific victory conditions. This is probably the most general guide of the bunch and as such these Civilization 5 tactics should serve you well whatever you intend to do.
Early Expansion and Exploration
In the early part of the game you need to expand as fast as possible and it also pays to explore and reveal as much of the map as you can. You’ll need to wait for your first city to grow before you can get a settler out so build a scout and send your military unit off for a look. It’s a calculated risk to leave your capital undefended in the first few turns and it’s actually a lot less of a risk in Civilization 5 because your city can defend itself by default and enemies can’t just walk straight in and claim it.
In terms of exploration you’re looking for good city spots with plenty of resources and also trying to find ruins which can give you things like cash rewards, military upgrades, and map information. Watch out for barbarian villages and steer clear of them unless they are empty.
You can take different approaches to expansion but quite a nice Civ 5 strategy that seems to work well is to build a settler in each new city. Once you have a settler out of your capital it should focus on growing because it will be the powerhouse of your civilization. The settler should build a new city, spend the few turns while it is growing building a scout or military unit and then get a new settler as soon as possible. If you continue to do this your civilization will grow at a fairly decent rate.
In order to avoid disaster make sure you escort settlers with a military unit because if you leave them defenceless you run the risk of losing them. Any major loss in the early part of the game can be enough to destroy your chances of victory, for example if you lost the first settler you built you might as well start the game again.
