Zigzagzigal's Guides - Egypt (Vanilla)

Arguably the game's best wonder builder, Egypt is good at cultural and religious victories alike. Here, I detail Egyptian strategies and counter-strategies.

Legacy Guide

If you have the Rise and Fall expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Rise and Fall expansion.

Introduction

Note: This guide only covers content released prior to the Rise and Fall expansion. Content from any DLC pack released between the base game and Rise and Fall is marked as such.

Egypt's early strength is a great temptation, but one that can cost you dearly. For the more time you spend on constructing great wonders, replacing farms with Sphinxes and building the expensive-but-powerful Maryannu Chariot Archers, the less time you have to prepare for the future. For Egypt to thrive, you shall need to play carefully. Do not overplay your hand, and you shall be rewarded with a great empire of cultural might and piety; one that shall stand the test of time.

How to use this guide

This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is (assuming they have one at all).
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) are inclined towards particular victory routes.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, civic cards, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these should be given more consideration than they would be for other civs but are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies section discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, culture, gold, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Glossary

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Describes bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories and Stadiums (which by default offer production and happiness respectively to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - The strategy of obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that deviation (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost.

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders. Unlike unique units, buildings, districts and improvements, civ abilites do not have to be built.

Civic cards - Another name for policy cards; you fill up your government with these for additional bonuses and can switch them for free every time you unlock a civic.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together. This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, maximise the number of copies of the same district in the same area, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out. This is useful if you want to ensure cities have plenty of room for both districts and tile improvements. Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader, which like civ abilities do not have to be built. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit on top of the standard one every civ has.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam's program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). If a civilization is not listed as having a start bias there, it does not have one, even if you feel like you keep spawning in the same terrain when playing as that civ.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district and offers some unique advantages on top. In some cases, there may be minor disadvantages as well, but these are always outweighed by the positive features. All unique districts cost half as much to construct relative to the regular districts they replace.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. Unlike unique buildings or districts, these do not replace a regular improvement. Some require a technology to unlock, and many have their yields improved with later technologies. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be built by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader. These usually replace an existing unit and offer extra advantages (and occasionally minor disadvantages as well in exchange for bigger advantages).

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Outline

Start Bias

Egypt has a tier 3 start bias for floodplains and a tier 5 start bias for rivers. Note that floodplains can only appear adjacent to a river, so together these two start biases make a river start extremely likely. This helps you make use of Egypt's unique ability. If you end up with a floodplains start, you can often use the Desert Folklore pantheon very effectively due to floodplains being a variant of desert.

Civilization Ability: Iteru

• May construct districts and wonders on floodplains tiles assuming the floodplain is the only feature preventing construction
  
• All districts and wonders construct 15% faster if positioned adjacent to a river

Cleopatra's Leader Ability: Mediterranean's Bride

• International trade routes from Egypt to another civ provide +4 gold each
  
• International trade routes from another civ to Egypt provide +2 gold for Egypt and +2 food for them

Unique Unit: Maryannu Chariot Archer

An ancient-era ranged land unit which replaces the Heavy Chariot

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Maintenance	Resource needed
Wheel Technology Ancient era	Machinery Technology Medieval era	None	Crossbowman (100 )	120 or 480 or 240 *	2	None

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Theocracy government, which in turn requires the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. This number does not take into account Theocracy's 15% discount on faith purchases.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
25	35	2	2	2	Unable to capture cities -17 strength vs. city defences Does not exert zone of control	+2 if starting a turn open terrain

Negative changes

• 25 melee strength, down from 28
  
• Costs 120 production, 480 gold or 240 faith, up from 65, 260 or 130 respectively (+85%)
  
• 2 gold per turn maintenance cost, up from 1
  
• Unable to capture cities
  
• -17 strength vs. city defences
  
• Does not exert zone of control

Variable changes

• Classified as ranged rather than heavy cavalry, providing a different set of promotions and changing which default bonuses/penalties apply to it.
  
• Upgrades to Crossbowmen instead of Knights
  
• Obsoletes at Machinery instead of Stirrups (both medieval-era technologies)

Positive changes

• Has a ranged attack (35 strength, 2 range)
  
• No vulnerability to anti-mounted units (e.g. Spearmen)
  
• +2 movement if starting on flat terrain rather than +1

Unique Improvement: Sphinx

Research	Terrain requirement	Constructed by	Pillage yield
Craftsmanship Civic Ancient era	Any passable land tile without marsh, woods or rainforest, but not adjacent to another Sphinx	Builder	25

Defensive bonus	Direct yield	Adjacency yields	Miscellanious bonus	Maximum possible yield
None	1 1	2 if adjacent to at least one wonder*	1 appeal to adjacent tiles	3 1

*The wonder's owner does not matter.

Enhancements

Research	Direct bonus	Adjacency bonus	Miscellanious bonus	New maximum yield*
Natural History Civic Industrial era	1	None	None	3 2
Flight Technology Modern Era	None	None	Culture yield added to tourism	3 2 2

*This assumes you already have the enhancements of earlier eras.

Victory Skew

In this section, the civ is graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Any score of 3 or above means the civ or leader has some kind of advantage to the victory route above a hypothetical civ with no unique features. A score of less than 2 means some kind of aspect of the civ actively discourages a particular victory route. All values are subjective and may be edited in future.

Leader	Culture	Domination	Religion	Science
Cleopatra	9/10 (Ideal)	7/10 (Good)	8/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)

Egypt is very strong at cultural victories, but the reliance on wonder construction can be a limiting factor. The Sphinx UI adds an alternative source of tourism both directly via its culture yield (which is added to tourism with Flight) and indirectly by the bonus to tile appeal.

Domination can be a possible path via the powerful Maryannu Chariot Archer. Building them is expensive, and they have a major penalty against cities, but they can nonetheless dish out massive amounts of damage with a high level of mobility.

Religion is a powerful option; in addition to the high potential Sphinx faith yield, Egypt's bonus to district construction may aid in constructing Holy Sites, and the bonus to wonder construction aids with wonders such as Mont St. Michel and well as making the most faith out of the Divine Inspiration belief. External trading is a way of spreading your religion, and Cleopatra's bonus gold from doing so makes it easier to make use of that. If you can secure Stonehenge, Egypt's early-game religious potential rivals Russia.

Finally, science is an alright route to take owing to cheaper Campuses and Spaceports as well as the edge to picking up some scientific wonders. It should be considered as a backup route if culture and religion do not work.

Civilization Ability: Iteru

Settling adjacent to rivers is important for any civ to ensure your cities have as much housing as possible, but for Egypt river tiles become even more valuable. Districts become cheaper to build, saving you a considerable amount of production over the course of the game. On top of this, most wonders in the game can be built faster on riverside tiles.

There's two big challenges here:

• There's only so many riverside tiles available, and in the case of floodplains, you'll often want farms there - limiting the number of tiles further
  
• It can be difficult at times to account for both adjacency bonuses/requirements and riverside placement.

The second of these applies on a case-by-case basis, so let's for now consider the availability of riverside tiles. Here's a few strategies you can attempt to maximise the number:

• Look for confluences or branching rivers. If multiple rivers meet in the same area, you can end up with a lot of valid tiles.
  
• Favour settling inland rather than directly on the coast, so more river tiles are in range. You can't get bonuses to Harbour construction and coastal wonders, after all. Build Commercial Hubs if you're after trade route capacity (they're also the only district to get adjacency bonuses from rivers, making them synergise very well with the production bonus).
  
• Consider settling a city a tile away from a river if it means getting a second river within three tiles. You shouldn't try this until you're able to quickly build Aqueducts.
  
• Look for lakes and oases. They can provide the fresh water your cities need without your city using up a riverside tile you could be building a district or wonder on.
  
• Don't use riverside tiles for cheap uncompetitive wonders. That way, you can free up more tiles for more important ones.

Starting Out

There's four main ways to start as Egypt:

• Low risk/reward: Expand fairly quickly and make sure you can secure a Campus district early on. Don't worry about wonders or Holy Sites (assuming a religion is still available) until you've had a bit of time to develop your empire.
  
• Intermediate risk/reward: Again, resist the temptation of very early wonders and instead try to pick up some early Holy Sites so you can secure a religion. You may need to delay wonder-building for quite some time so you can ensure you have Campus districts and other important infrastructure ready.
  
• High risk/reward: Attempt an early rush against an opponent using Maryannu Chariot Archers and Warriors. This will be covered in the section for the UU.
  
• Very high risk/reward: Attempt to rush the Stonehenge wonder. This requires you to have flat land adjacent to stone, and for you to be able to pick up the Astrology and Mining technologies reasonably quickly. Mining isn't a requirement for the wonder, but it allows you to use Builders to improve the stone tile(s) and chop down woods to help speed up production. Once the wonder is built, construct Sphinxes adjacent to it for a huge amount of faith, expand your empire and construct plenty of Holy Sites. From there, you can rapidly spread your religion.

The first two routes emphasise early development over risking wonders, while the second and fourth routes both emphasise obtaining an early religion. The first route generally neglects religion in favour of cultural victory, the fourth route aims for a fast religious victory and the second falls between the two. Maryannu Chariot Archers are the centrepiece of the third start strategy, but are mainly used defensively in the others.

Beyond the Start

No matter how you begin, it's important to remember that you shouldn't go overboard with wonder construction over the course of the game. Favour wonders with more relevant bonuses and if possible, spread the burden of their construction out among your cities.

Look for bonuses to wonder construction to stack with your 15% bonus. Here are them all:

• (Pantheon) Monument to the Gods: +15% production boost to ancient and classical-era wonders. Great if you're rushing Stonehenge, but the loss of Divine Spark may make it harder to found a religion otherwise.
  
• (Government) Autocracy: +10% bonus to wonder construction. This sounds good, but remember that half of Autocracy's four policy card slots are military ones. That means if you take Corvée, you're left with just one slot for any additional economic policies compared to the two you'd have with the Classical Republic government. That being said, you can mix wonder construction with Maryannu Chariot Archer conquests using this government.
  
• (Policy Card) Corvée: +15% production boost to ancient and classical-era wonders. This, along with the other policy card bonuses, is the easiest to pick up giving you a reliable 30% production boost for wonders next to a river.
  
• (Policy Card) Gothic Architecture: +15% production boost to medieval and renaissance-era wonders.
  
• (Policy Card) Skyscrapers: +15% production boost to industrial-era and later wonders.
  
• (City-State) Any Industrial City-State: +2 production in the capital for wonders, buildings and districts with at least one envoy, while every Industrial zone gains +2 with 3 or 6 envoys.
  
• (City-State) Brussels: +15% production bonus to all wonders if you are suzerain, on top of the industrial city-state bonuses. Usually not a hard bonus to maintain if you carefully focus your envoys on the city, but make sure you're not neglecting the envoy bonuses for other industrial city-states.

Monument of the Gods, Autocracy, Corvée and Egypt's ability together makes a 55% bonus early in the game. That sounds great, but remember that actually reaching the wonder's technology/civic is a major part of a wonder race - consider whether you really need more wonder construction bonuses or something to help with city growth/science would be better instead.

If you're going for a religious victory, try to go for wonders like the Mahabodhi Temple and Hagia Sophia. Try to position them apart from each other where possible to maximise the potential Sphinx faith yield. Also try to grab the Divine Inspiration belief for lots of extra faith from every wonder.

If you're after a cultural victory, wonders like the Oracle and Terracotta Army will be helpful if they are still available. Any early wonders that haven't been picked up will still be worthwhile, as earlier wonders generate more tourism later in the game (wonders generate +2 tourism per turn, and +1 per era beyond the wonder's era). You don't need to worry about optimum positioning of Sphinxes; in fact, it can be worth waiting until the modern era (where the Flight technology makes them provide tourism and National Parks provide a means of converting faith into tourism).

Conclusion

Egypt's civ ability is certainly the core of the civ and the unique you should be mainly building strategies around, but you have to remember not to be carried away with wonder construction. Expansion is still important - more cities means more faith, GWAM points and more spots for building wonders. Use your river-adjacent tiles carefully and don't just thoughtlessly fill them with districts (adjacency bonuses are important after all) and wonders.

Cleopatra's Leader Ability: Mediterranean's Bride

Cleopatra's leader ability has two distinct components. The first gives you a bonus when you make use of external trading, while the second incentivises other civs to trade with you while giving you something in return.

+4 gold for external trading

While this benefit might sound strong early on, remember that external trade means you won't be getting the food and production you would be getting from trading internally. Less production weakens your ability to build districts and wonders, thus weakening Egypt's civ ability. Instead, consider the yields other than gold on offer in your destination city.


7 gold and 2 science will give me a lot more at this stage of the game than 1 food and 1 production.

A gold bonus can be great for early development; you can purchase Builders while your cities work on districts, for example; getting tiles improved sooner can compensate for the loss of the food/production from internal trading. Nonetheless, as the game goes on, the +4 gold bonus will have somewhat less of an impact, making internal trade more valuable in comparison.

If you're going for an early rush with Maryannu Chariot Archers, trading with a city-state can be a good way to cover maintenance costs. They're not exactly cheap to maintain, and the Agoge policy card is too important to replace with Conscription.

For religious players, external trade can be a helpful way to spread your religion, though be aware that the destination city will produce a small amount of pressure in your origin city. Stacking multiple trade routes so they all go towards the same city can help you convert it without you needing to commit Missionaries or Apostles.

Once you enter the modern era and receive the strong tourism boosts of the Flight technology, National Parks and Seaside Resorts, external trade becomes very useful for cultural-oriented players. Trading with a civ gives you a 25% tourism bonus against them, and the information-era Ecommerce policy card makes external trade even stronger still. A little late-game cash boost can be helpful for patronage of late-arriving Great People - some of which offer huge tourism bonuses.

2 food for other civs sending routes to you, and 2 gold for you

This is a curious feature of Cleopatra's leader ability which strongly incentivises other civs to trade with you while offering you rewards. Normally, internal trading is the best option for food, but your presence in the game offers an alternative for other civs. If more civs are trading with you, it gives you diplomatic leverage over them; if they declare war, they'll lose their trade routes and the food/gold/other yields with it.

Furthermore, while other civs trading with you unfortunately doesn't activate the 25% tourism bonus against them, they will provide you with 2 gold for every route they send. To maximise the potential of this bonus, you'll need to make your own cities lucrative destinations for trade routes. The best way of doing this is to ensure your cities have as many districts as possible, which in turn requires your cities to be fairly large. Egypt's advantage to district and wonder construction encourages you to build large cities anyway, so this shouldn't be too hard to achieve.

Here's a table showing you how districts present in a city affect trade route yields:

District	Internal trade	External trade
City Centre	1 1	3
Campus	1	1
Commercial Hub	1	3
Encampment	1	1
Entertainment Complex	1	1
Harbour	1	3
Holy Site	1	1
Industrial Zone	1	1
Theatre Square	1	1

Note: Other districts do not affect trade route yields - even Aerodromes, which count towards the district cap.

Not all yields are equal. Civs that aren't after religious victories generally consider faith as one of the least useful yields, for example. Considering Sphinxes offer an alternative (and effective) source of faith, you might want to hold off on building too many Holy Sites once you have a religion founded.

One consequence of having more international trade routes than a typical civ is that you may end up with a lot of roads leading into (and out of) your lands early on. That can make it easier to launch a Maryannu Chariot Archer rush against the other civ, but equally it could make it easier for the other civ to launch an attack against you!

Furthermore, incoming trade routes will provide more pressure in your own lands for the religions of the civs sending you them. While this sounds like a problem, it's easier to clean a rival religion out of your own lands than it is to clean it out of the lands of a third party. As such, it's better for a rival religious civ to send their trade routes to you than a different civ with no religion at all.

Summary

• Just because you have a bonus to external trade doesn't mean internal trade isn't useful; compare them.
  
• The bonus to external trade is generally more effective earlier in the game, to support early rushes and for extra religious pressure.
  
• Make sure you have plenty of districts constructed to maximise the amount of incoming trade routes and therefore gold you receive.

Unique Unit: Maryannu Chariot Archer

Boasting a ranged strength of 35 with a range of 2 and excellent mobility, the Maryannu Chariot Archer is arguably the most powerful military unit of the ancient era. But there's a catch - at 120 production a time, it's twice as expensive as an Archer!

As such, despite the unit's power and versatility, an early rush isn't always the best route to go down. If you want a start with a little less risk, don't feel urged to beeline the Wheel technology and instead think of Maryannu Chariot Archers as an all-purpose defensive unit to be built in small numbers once you have some initial infrastructure off the ground. They can swiftly deal with marauding Barbarians, and with the right promotions, they can even see off medieval-era threats from other civs.

Remember that like regular Heavy Chariots, Maryannu Chariot Archers receive bonus movement if they start on open land (no woods, rainforests or hills). For this reason, you should always try to make sure they end their turn on open land. When you're not at war and there aren't Barbarians incoming, position them on open land close to your cities so they can move in any direction to repel threats.

Using Maryannu Chariot Archers offensively

Maryannu Chariot Archers are as strong offensively as a Swordsman, with double the movement speed in open land, a ranged attack for even greater mobility and with the very helpful advantage of not taking damage when it deals some. Even with the -17 strength penalty against cities, they still have 18 strength against them which is nearly as good as Warriors can manage. If you want to rush an opponent with them, bring along some Warriors or Horsemen so you can get the last hit on a city and capture it.


Maryannu Chariot Archers can retreat and fire in a way that makes it impossible for melee units to be able to catch up, so long as there's river tiles or rough terrain available. That's very helpful for making the most out of them.

If you want a slightly less high-risk strategy, you can use Maryannu Chariot Archers to pillage enemy tiles. Their high mobility, reasonable defence, unit classification (unlike melee cavalry units, they aren't vulnerable to Spearmen) and ranged attack makes them great at this job. Remember that pillaging farms heals the unit, allowing you to cause havoc for quite a while.

Obsoletion

Maryannu Chariot Archers obsolete when Crossbowmen become available, but their high mobility and strength mean they can handle even some medieval-era threats. For that reason, you might want to hold off researching Machinery for a while. Once you start facing large quantities of Knights or stronger units, you should probably think about upgrading them.

Unique Improvement: Sphinx

Having wonders around is nice enough, but Sphinxes make the rewards even greater. Even early in the game, you can end up with a yield of 3 faith and 1 culture, and late in the game, its appeal bonus will be great for making strong Neighbourhoods, Seaside Resorts and possibly even National Parks (though the placement of the latter may be tricky).

How exactly you use the improvement depends on the victory path you're going for.

For Religious Players

Sphinxes for religious players will be mainly useful for their high early faith output. If you can manage to rush Stonehenge and place three Sphinxes around it, you'll have a faith output of 11 per turn (assuming you can dedicate three citizens to the Sphinx tiles). Add a Holy Site and Shrine so you can start buying Missionaries, and you'll be producing 13 faith at the very least, in just one city! This allows you to spread your faith long before other civs are really prepared to deal with it, and can secure you an early religious victory on smaller maps.

Now, for those of us who aren't risking a highly-competitive wonder, consider carefully how you use Sphinxes. A Sphinx that isn't next to a wonder generally isn't worth working unless you're really desperate for culture and/or faith. Even Sphinxes next to wonders can be poor choices earlier on if it means holding off on expansion (more cities means more faith later after all). Still, you shouldn't hold off for too long - the longer you wait to maximise your faith output and start really spreading your religion, the more cities you'll need to convert and the harder existing ones will be to flip.

You can make early Sphinxes more useful via the the Earth Goddess pantheon, which adds +1 faith for tiles of charming appeal or higher (2 or more, in other words). Rather than working the Sphinxes themselves, position them next to tiles you're likely to work which aren't quite at charming appeal.

Constructing more wonders will allow you to get more out of Sphinxes, especially if you build them spaced apart. Get the Divine Inspiration belief in your religion and you'll have an even stronger faith output without needing to dedicate more citizens.

Eventually, it will be time to go all-out on faith generation. Ensure you have lots of Holy Site Buildings and work as many Sphinxes as possible. Falling behind a little in city growth and science won't matter if you're about to win the game.

For Cultural Players

Unless you have a religion of your own, the faith output from Sphinxes won't be greatly helpful for quite some time in a cultural victory path. Great Person patronage is expensive, even with the Oracle wonder - you're usually better-off working food or production tiles at first.

Into the industrial era, however, things begin to change. Sphinxes provide +1 appeal to adjacent tiles, making them handy for boosting the housing you receive from Neighbourhoods even when they're not worked. Planted forests have a similar effect (you can plant forests with the modern-era Conservation civic), but you can't plant forest on desert tiles unlike Sphinxes. Building Sphinxes on your own land just out of range of any city can be useful as well.

The modern-era Flight technology combined with the modern-era Conservation civic makes Sphinxes worthwhile to work in their own right. Flight makes them produce tourism, while Conservation lets you spend faith to buy Naturalists, which in turn can create National Parks for more tourism (as well as amenities).

With the Radio technology, you can use your Builders to construct Seaside Resorts. If you have a wonder two tiles away from sea, you may be able to position adjacent Sphinxes so the coastal land tile adjacent to the wonder can receive a strong boost to tile appeal, and hence Seaside Resort tourism.


An example of what I mean. The positioning of the wonder and Sphinxes add a +3 appeal bonus to the Seaside Resort, on top of the appeal offered by the adjacent coastal tiles.

Miscellanious Tricks

Sphinxes can be used to aid border expansion in new cities that do not have a Monument yet. Building one near a new city and working it for a few turns can be a reasonable way to accumulate some tiles without spending gold. Just make sure that the city has a good supply of food from elsewhere to make up for dedicating a citizen to that role.

Because Sphinxes can be constructed on flat desert tiles, they work very well in a city with the Petra wonder. A Sphinx on flat desert land adjacent to a wonder (such as Petra itself) will be worth 3 faith, 2 food, 2 gold, 1 production and 1 culture!


The stars align and I can add Piopiotahi's adjacency bonus on top. Obviously this is a rare occurance but the lack of tile improvements that can go on flat desert land would make that tile less effective to other civs.

Conclusion

Sphinxes can be used for a considerable amount of faith or to enhance tourism yields, but like all unique improvements that offer neither food, housing or production, you need to be careful not to work them too extensively at the cost of your cities' development. Religious players can usually start working Sphinxes in large numbers much sooner than cultural players, but all Egyptian players should be able to get something good out of this tile improvement.

Administration - Government

The administration section covers the governments, policy cards, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People which have particularly good synergy with Egypt uniques. Be aware that these are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options that you should consider more than usual if playing as Egypt relative to other Civs.

Governments

Classical Era Governments

While Autocracy sounds like an obvious choice due to its wonder construction bonus, consider if you really need the two military policy cards. Those engaged in Maryannu Chariot Archer warfare might find that useful so they can take both Agoge and Conscription.

You may instead be better off with Classical Republic. Amenitites are welcome when you're trying to build large cities to construct wonders with, while the Great Person points aids you in founding a religion.

Medieval/Renaissance Era Governments

Religious players should obviously go for Theocracy. At this point, it's a good idea to go all-out on faith output - work as many Sphinxes adjacent to wonders as you can, and fill your existing Holy Sites.

Merchant Republic is a reliable option for cultural players. Two extra trade routes goes nicely with Cleopatra's ability, and any extra gold you get from that goes further thanks to the discount on gold purchases.

Modern Era Governments

Democracy is generally the best choice when you're playing culturally. You'll want to trade externally for tourism bonuses, and cheap Great Person patronage with gold gives a good use for all that money. Religious players can use the district project bonus to get more faith out of Holy Site Prayers.

Communism may be useful if you're playing culturally and there's still quite a few wonders to grab or you need the extra security the defensive bonus offers.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Yes, it's Agoge and not Manoeuvre you want for Maryannu Chariot Archers. This won't make them cheap as such, but will make them a fair bit more affordable.

Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Need even more money from trade? This is a possibility. Strong early money allows you to purchase Builders and save production for use with other things.

Corvée (Economic, requires State Workforce) - A 15% production bonus to ancient and classical-era wonders, stacking with Egypt's civ ability for a 30% bonus.

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - If you're engaging in an Maryannu Chariot rush, this makes a good second military card once you reach Political Philosophy's governments.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Keeping some Builders around will be of great use when you're building wonders - they can chop down trees for a quick production boost. That's especially important if you're trying to rush Stonehenge. Additionally, faster Builder production is great in general for improving the lands around your cities, promoting city growth and hence the ability to construct wonders.

Classical Era

Insulae (Economic, requires Games and Recreation) - Of great help when you're trying to grow your cities to prepare for more wonder construction.

Medieval Era

Gothic Architecture (Economic, requires Divine Right) - Another +15% wonder production boost, this time for the medieval and renaissance eras.

Medina Quarter (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - An improved version of Insulae.

Meritocracy (Economic, requires Civil Service) - Your wonder production bonus encourages you to have larger cities. Cleopatra's leader ability encourages you to have more districts in your cities to attract international trade. You also have a bonus to district construction. This policy card makes a lot of districts into a lot of culture. Lots of culture means you can get to a lot of good cultural wonders sooner.

Trade Federation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - International trade becomes even more lucrative with this bonus to culture and science. Although the overall boost to yield may be relatively small, it's a fairly easy bonus to make use of.

Renaissance Era

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Double the effect of Caravansaries plus some faith on top.

Industrial Era

Skyscrapers (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - The final of the three +15% wonder construction bonus economic policy cards, this time for industrial-era and later wonders.

Modern Era

Arsenal of Democracy (Diplomatic, requires Suffrage) - Considering international trading gives you better rewards than most other civs, this can be a decent policy card to pick up - so long as you have an ally. The food and production bonus help to make up for not trading internally.

Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - A good boost to international trading in a time where you'll want to switch to a heavy international trade emphasis for the tourism advantages.

New Deal (Economic, requires Suffrage) - As you switch to international trading for the tourism boosts, you'll end up with quite a healthy income. Meanwhile, your cities might be struggling a bit to grow further thanks to limited space for Neighbourhoods or limited amenities. Spend your excess gold on this policy card and you'll be rewarded with strong cities that shall be able to finish off the remaining late-arriving wonders.

Information Era

Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - Makes international trading considerably more effective, giving you little reason to trade internally any more.

Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - A crucial bonus to tourism with all civs you have a trade route with.

Administration - Religion

Pantheons

Keep in mind that while Divine Spark might not strictly synergise with Egyptian uniques and hence isn't listed here, it's nonetheless a reliable way to boost your chances of founding a religion and may often be a better choice than the others here.

Desert Folklore - Egypt's floodplains starting bias makes it fairly likely you'll start near plenty of desert tiles. A well-positioned Holy Site can generate a huge amount of faith from this pantheon.

Earth Goddess - Sphinxes and wonders generate appeal; with this pantheon you can get a lot of extra faith out of that.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - While Desert Folklore can be amazing for religious players, Lady of the Reeds and Marshes is great for those wonder-building cultural players among us. Floodplain tiles already are worth 3 food each, or 4 with a farm, making them typically the first targets for your cities to work. Add on production on top, and your cities will suddenly get a fair bit more productive - all the better to build wonders with.

Monument to the Gods - Seems like an obvious choice, but unlike most pantheons it will obsolete. Furthermore, the more you make use of this pantheon to help build wonders, the more you set back general development goals such as setting up a science infrastructure.

River Goddess - You'll want to grow your cities quickly early in the game, but aside from housing trouble, that could eventually strain your amenities. Take advantage of your fast district construction adjacent to rivers and enjoy some amenities from this pantheon. Remember not to go overboard building Holy Sites - you need other yields as well!

Religious Beliefs

You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Divine Inspiration (Follower) - A civ with advantages to both wonder construction and faith can get rather a lot out of this belief. It's especially good for religious players, but not without merit for cultural games.

(Cultural) Jesuit Education (Follower) - A good option for cultural players who want a means to convert excess Sphinx faith into something more directly useful. Faith purchasing costs half as much as gold purchasing, and nothing costs faith maintenance, so your faith will go further than you might expect.

Meeting House (Worship) - More production means faster wonder construction, which means more faith, which means more of these, and the cycle continues.

Religious Unity (Founder) - If you manage to get the Stonehenge wonder (or otherwise get a strong early religion), this belief will help you convert that into powerful early envoy bonuses.

(Domination) Warrior Monks (Follower) - A moderately fast-moving melee complement for your Maryannu Chariot Archers, albeit one that arrives significantly later.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Egypt's civ ability encourages you build large cities, so Work Ethic's production bonus should provide something more prominent than just a couple of percentage points. That'll be great for building wonders with. If your religion is likely to be weak or your cities are fairly small, take something else instead.

Administration - Wonders

Wonders

Although Egypt has bonuses to the construction of all wonders that are built adjacent to a river (basically any wonder that isn't built on a coastal tile), only wonders of particular synergy with other uniques or with one of Egypt's main playstyles are listed here.

Great Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - More Builder charges means you can improve your growing cities faster and feel less guilty about dedicating charges to the Sphinx improvement. It also looks really good to have the Great Pyramids next to a river with a Sphinx by the side while playing as Egypt, but that's a different matter.

Hanging Gardens (Ancient era, Irrigation technology) - It's pretty affordable, and the growth bonus on offer (as well as the housing) means building the wonder doesn't set back your infrastructure development the way dedicating production to other early wonders can. Most importantly, the growth bonus will help on the way to securing other wonders.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Bonus Great Person Points can up your chances of founding a religion, but more importantly, cheap patronage via faith helps you make more out of Sphinxes if you fail to found one.

(Religious) Stonehenge (Ancient era, Astrology technology) - An early religion combined with Sphinx faith (and perhaps a Desert Folklore-boosted Holy Site) can give you a religious victory fast enough to make Russia envious. The problem is, there's a lot left up to chance. The requirement for Stone means you're not guaranteed to be able to even start building it, and the wonder is extremely competitive in higher difficulty settings and larger map sizes.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - Intend to build a lot of wonders in your capital? This wonder will give you two envoys for every wonder you build there including this one and succeeding ones (though not including any you already have built). More envoys means a variety of bonuses for your empire! Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization Pack.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - An odd choice considering Egypt has no bonus to building it nor Harbour districts, but a free trade route could mean a lot of gold thanks to Cleopatra's leader ability.

(Religious) Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - Nearly as good as Stonehenge for Egypt, and perhaps even better if founding a religion isn't an issue. You'll get lots of faith from the wonder itself, as well as the ability to place up to three Sphinxes next to it for even more faith. Requires the Nubia Civilization Pack.

(Religious) Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology technology) - Two Apostles for free is a great faith-saver, and faith is everything in a religious victory.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - Egypt's floodplains start bias makes it likely you can build this wonder. It makes desert tiles better than grassland or plains in the city, and desert hills become particularly strong. A city that can build this will be great at building wonders for the rest of the game.

(Religious) Hagia Sophia (Medieval era, Education technology) - An excellent choice to help your faith go further.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - A free trade route is very welcome for its synergy with Cleopatra's ability, but consider also the huge amount of gold this wonder can generate in its own right if plenty of bonus resources are near the city. You don't even need international trade to get that money.

(Cultural) Bolshoi Theatre (Industrial era, Opera and Ballet civic) - The placement requirements aren't too hard, the wonder's placement on a dead-end civic makes it relatively uncompetitive, and the bonuses are straightforward things that help towards cultural victory.

(Cultural) Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic) - You have to build this next to a river, so you'll automatically get your 15% production bonus. More to the point, you'll get plenty of Great Art slots and three Great Artist points per turn from this.

Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Industrialisation technology) - A 20% production bonus, and more production on top for mines and quarries makes a city into a wonder-building behemoth - especially if it's also your Petra city. This wonder has to be built next to a river, so you'll have no problem getting your 15% production bonus.

(Cultural) Broadway (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Similar to Bolshoi Theatre, only with better bonuses as far as Great Works are concerned and slightly worse bonuses as far as free civics are concerned.

Eiffel Tower (Modern era, Steel technology) - Sphinxes allow you to boost the appeal of adjacent tiles. Planting forests can also do the same job, but remember that you can't plant forests in deserts. Combined with the +2 appeal boost from the Eiffel Tower, you might actually make some desert locations viable spots for National Parks. Otherwise, enjoy your existing Neighbourhoods, National Parks and Seaside Resorts becoming stronger.

Administration - City-States and Great People

City-States

Amsterdam (Trade) - Makes international trading worth even more money by giving you gold based on the luxury resources the destination city has.

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - If you trade enough internationally to start setting up trading posts in foreign cities, Bandar Brunei will make that more effective by adding additional gold to routes that pass through.

Brussels (Industrial) - Arguably the most important city-state bonus for Egypt to maintain, as it essentially doubles the wonder-building bonus offered by the civ ability. A 30% advantage over all other civs (minus China and France in certain eras) makes wonder races quite a bit less risky.

Kumasi (Cultural) - A city-state with good synergy with both Cleopatra's leader ability and Egypt's faster district construction. Enjoy trade routes that can produce both a lot of gold and quite a lot of culture.

Muscat (Trade) - Due to the way Egypt's civ ability works, you'll want to build Commercial Hubs rather than Harbours to increase your trade route capacity. Free amenities for doing so is very welcome. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Palenque (Scientific) - You should get Campus districts built reasonably early anyway. The extra growth is great for getting your cities ready to build wonders. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Mostly useful for cultural players, this allows you to purchase city centre buildings with faith. Faith purchasing costs half as much as gold purchasing, so things like Granaries can be surprisingly cheap.

Great People

Remember that these are only the ones that have particular synergy with Egyptian uniques, not necessarily the most effective options. Obviously, all Great Writers, Artists and Musicians are useful for cultural victory, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Classical Era

Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - A bonus trade route capacity is nice enough, but Zhang Qian also offers a bonus that works much like Cleopatra's leader ability. Send him over to a city which is likely to grow large (and hence have a lot of districts) and it will be an extremely lucrative target for foreign trade. Every route sent there will give you 4 gold - not bad!

Medieval Era

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - An extra district regardless of population helps you build a stronger city sooner, and attract more international trade.

El Cid (Great General) - A Maryannu Chariot Archer corps has 43 ranged strength - that's stronger than a Pikeman or Crossbowman! With some promotions, the unit will still be good through the renaissance era. Considering no unit of the era has quite as such mobility (I'm including both the movement speed and attack range in that) it will be a great unit to have in your army.

(Religious) Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - Powerful in conjunction with Desert Folklore, Hildegard will make a strong Holy Site into a strong source of science.

Irene of Athens (Great Merchant) - Increases trade route capacity by 1.

Isidore of Miletus (Great Engineer) - The boost to wonder production is particularly useful for wonders you aren't building adjacent to rivers. If Petra isn't built yet, seriously consider using this Great Person to get it up quickly in a desert hill-heavy city.

Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - The same effect as Zhang Qian, only this time, you get a Trader unit for free as well. If you have both Great People, it's probably a good idea to activate them in the same city to make it especially lucrative to foreign trade.

Renaissance Era

Filippo Brunelleschi (Great Engineer) - Can boost wonder production. Again, best-used on wonders not adjacent to rivers (or those that are highly competitive).

Mimar Sinan (Great Engineer) - The more housing and amenities you have, the easier it is to grow cities, and from there the easier it is to construct wonders.

Industrial Era

Ada Lovelace (Great Engineer) - Boosts the district cap like Bi Sheng, and also offers the Eureka for Computers - a crucial technology for cultural victories.

Gustave Eiffel (Great Engineer) - Another boost to wonder construction.

Modern Era

Alvar Aalto (Great Engineer) - A city-wide appeal bonus goes nicely with the appeal offered by Sphinxes.

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Can aid in making your trade routes more valuable.

(Cultural) Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - Trading with other civs will now add another 25% tourism modifier.

Atomic Era

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - Like Mimar Sinan, offers housing and amenities.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - More housing and amenities.

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Trade routes with other civs add another 25% tourism boost. You'll also see your trade route capacity increased by 1, making it even easier to make use of those tourism bonuses.

Information Era

Charles Correa (Great Engineer) - Like Alvar Aalto, a city-wide appeal bonus. This one is doubly effective in comparison.

Jamseth Tata (Great Merchant) - A massive +10 tourism to every Campus you own. Your fast district construction should make it easy to get them up in every city if you haven't already.

Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - Gain +10 tourism for every Industrial Zone you control.

Counter-Strategies

If Egypt spends too much time focusing on their wonder-building capabilities, they will fail. If they spend too little time on it, they will not reach their true potential. Throw Egypt off balance and they will be a manageable opponent to defeat.

Iteru

To state the obvious, the most effective way of dealing with a bonus when constructing on river-adjacent tiles is to make sure Egypt gets as few of them as possible. Putting a bit more effort into early expansion is one possibility, but simply purchasing river tiles if your cities are near to theirs is another viable method.

Because Egypt is encouraged to place districts next to rivers, good pillaging targets will often be concentrated together. With some cavalry units such as Horsemen, you can have fun ripping apart Egypt's infrastructure while giving yourself lots of nice yields.

Cleopatra - Mediterranean's Bride

Isn't this nice - a unique ability that can give their opponents more than they get! +2 food for trading with Egypt is a really good bonus, and one that outshines the +2 gold they'll be receiving. Often, this will make trading with Egypt a better option than internal trade (at least, until the production yields start getting good). This only really becomes a concern for you if lots of civs are trading with Egypt - they might all get a bit of food, but Egypt will be getting a large combined stack of cash.

Now, for all the goodies you'll be getting, remember that trading extensively with Egypt essentially gives them control over your economy. If they decide to declare war on you, you'll suddenly be losing a lot of gold and well as food. In singleplayer, this means you need to take account of...

Cleopatra - AI Agenda (Queen of the Nile)

Cleopatra likes civs with strong armies and dislikes those with weak ones. Remember that quantity is generally more important here than quality. For warmongers who aren't yet going to war extensively enough to annoy all the civs in the game, this can make Cleopatra a reasonable trading partner. For other civs, her being annoyed at you might be a good indicator that you need a better defence. It's all to easy to focus all your energies on constructing buildings and districts while neglecting the fact every other civ could wipe out yours in a few turns.

If you want to please Cleopatra quickly, build a few low-cost units. Units from older eras are cheaper to maintain so you don't have to worry about ruining your economy in the process.

Maryannu Chariot Archer

The main weakness of the Maryannu Chariot Archer is their high production cost. The more Egypt build, the more they're setting back their infrastructural development. As such, try to kill them quickly and don't let them escape.

How can you do this? Try building some Horsemen, or even Heavy Chariots. They have enough mobility to catch up to Maryannu Chariot Archers, and can quickly get to promotions to make fighting them easier (Heavy Chariots can use Barding for better defence against them, while Horsemen can use Coursers for improved combat capability against them in general). Once you have Knights, Maryannu Chariot Archers are pretty much toast.

Don't bother using Spearmen against Maryannu Chariot Archers unless you don't have anything stronger or have a unique variation. Maryannu Chariot Archers count as ranged units so they're not vulnerable to Spearmen, and Spearmen generally aren't mobile enough to catch them up.

If for some reason Egypt's actively attacking your cities with the units, remember they have a -17 strength penalty against cities and cannot capture them. Pick off their melee units, and they'll never be able to take the city. Egypt can't build regular Heavy Chariots, so they won't have a fast melee-attacking unit to get the last hit on cities until Horsemen become available.

Sphinx

The fewer wonders Egypt builds, the less they get out of Sphinxes. As such, any tactic that weakens Egypt's civ ability is also good for weakening Sphinxes.

As a religious player, remember that every Sphinx you pillage is worth 25 faith. Bring some Horsemen, Knights, Cavalry or other such fast units, declare a holy war and you can tear up Egypt's religious infrastructure while boosting your own.

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Compilation Guides

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• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Domination/Scientific)

[Burya Zheleznaya]

Abraxis, I think you are right... Egypt is not a religious civ in any practical reckoning. I am getting my a** kicked trying to Religious Win single player. First game Standard Map, Prince. China wiped my capital by 1000 BC. Restarted on Small, Prince. I didn't quite beeline to Stonehenge but built it. I managed the first religion w/ Stonehenge, but still trailed JAPAN from the beginning. I finally get to within 5 points, then suddenly Japan jumps 20 piety!!?? Not even a religious civ!!!! What's the deal? Small map, Prince, or both? I chose Work ethic instead of Divine inspitation. My stone was nowhere near river... No bonus. No site suitable for Mahabodi so i have no hope to catch up. WTF?

Continued below...

[Burya Zheleznaya]

I thought small map to make it easier (less cities to convert). But that is horribly wrong, i think, with Egypt. I've played CIV since Civ 1. I always play Prince level. Even when i get a little behind I can catch up with AI and win. But this is ridiculous. It's worse than 'raging hordes' settings on earlier versions. Maybe I should have directly beelined Stonehenge, and ignored Hanging Gardens.

[Eriksoln]

I'm playing Egypt for the first time. I fell for the temptation of a chariot rush. I've already taken two other civs off the map completely (Georgia and Khmer, with Khmer falling in the Ancient era). Now I have a huge expanse of land with tons of luxury resources to expand into . I'll be going for a domination victory it seems.

[Zigzagzigal]

Main changes from the Autumn 2017 patch relevant to Egypt:

- Some new useful beliefs, notably the Earth Goddess pantheon (+1 faith for all charming or better tiles)

- Trade routes produce religious pressure now

- Lots of other miscellanious religious changes

[Zigzagzigal]

(Last post of a series, read them bottom-to-top)

I expect Egypt's a civ that performs quite a bit differently in multiplayer to singleplayer, part of that being the lack of huge AI starting bonuses. It's a pain that most of the game's wonders are in the first two eras, as most of them tend to be very competitive in singleplayer. China can produce them fast enough to circumvent that issue, but a game as Egypt can be quite a gamble.

[Zigzagzigal]

(Continued from previous post)

Now, having said all that, I think I prefer to take Egypt to a cultural victory simply because the start as Egypt is messy enough already without trying to juggle a religion as well. Out of all the civs I've played, I'd say Egypt has the hardest learning curve. But that's not to say they're bad at religion at all, it's just tricky. Complexity and effectiveness aren't necessarily the same thing, after all.

You mentioned about attracting trade routes to your lands, and it reminded me that incoming trade routes can be a decent way of providing roads to your cities, which can speed up an early rush (both for you and them).

[Zigzagzigal]

(Continued from previous post)

There is a problem, though. Unless you're playing on large map sizes, religious civs without a bonus to Great Prophet output are disadvantaged, and if you don't get early Holy Sites, you're locked out of the victory path. You can avoid that by pinching them off other civs or building Stonehenge, but that's risky. Yes, getting early Holy Sites means no early Commercial Hubs, but it could also mean a victory several eras earlier (a renaissance-era religious victory instead of an atomic-era cultural one, for example).

(Continued in next post)

[Zigzagzigal]

I'm of the view that any civ with a strong faith output is good for religious victories (Norway and the Aztecs are notable cases where their unique faith bonuses are too poor relative to their combat advantages). Considering the faith emphasis of Sphinxes, and the downplaying of wonders in cultural victories relative to Civ 4 or 5, I would say they are designed with religious victory in mind as well as culture. Indeed, Egypt in Civ 4 and Civ 5 Gods and Kings had a religious sideline in amongst their wonder-centric bonuses, it's just this time there's a victory route for it.

(Continued in next post)

[🍣]

(Due to character limit I've had to break up my post, read them in sequence top to bottom)

Egypt is not a religious civ. I have been playing Egypt since release, only experimenting and testing theories with other civs. I have plenty of experience with Egypt, and religion has always been the major "Should I?". All that piety is alluring, and I don't want to say you absolutely shouldn't because Egypt more than any other is about adaptation, and even with that asside, play the game as you like.

Buuuuuut, you shouldn't :)
They weren't designed for it, and you'd be better off not.

[🍣]

There is just so much to do early, yes you can go for Stonehenge if you roll stone and have a better shot than most, but you'll still lose if China is on the map, then where are you? And if you want to do it the hard way, then kiss all your early game steroids goodbye, you've just sacrificed everything for a religion.