Zigzagzigal's Guides - Greece (R&F)

Greece has a good start, very strong culture and is one of the game's easier civs to learn. Here, I detail Greek strategies and counter-strategies - for both Pericles and Gorgo.

Legacy Guide

If you have the Gathering Storm expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.

Introduction

Note: This guide requires the Rise and Fall expansion.

Content from DLC packs (Poland, Vikings, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia) is marked as such.

For centuries our peoples have traded and fought between one another within our own small world, but this state of affairs cannot last. To the east, the vast Persian empire has begun to encroach into our lands. They face localised resistance, but we cannot count on that alone to repel their might. We must band together and put aside our squabbles with each other if we are to survive. And we need a leader to decide our direction - should we pursue a diplomatic path with Pericles and band together as many cities as we can, or pursue Gorgo's path of warfare and take the empire on ourselves?

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. This is not a rating of its power, but rather a general indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, 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 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.

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.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

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). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders. 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.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others, and are hence particularly unique. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

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

Greece has a tier 3 start bias towards desert hills, grass hills, plains hills and tundra hills. This helps increase the odds that you can get a hill next to your Settler's starting location, allowing you to build an Acropolis adjacent to your capital for a strong culture bonus. A hill start is also useful to slow down Barbarians and enemy civs early in the game, so you have time to build Hoplites and have a more effective way to repel foes.

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic

• All governments receive an extra wildcard policy card slot.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermopylae

• Killing military units provides culture equal to 50% of their melee strength.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory

• National culture output increased by 5% per city-state under suzerainty
  
  • This does not take effect until the turn after gaining suzerain status in a city-state.
    
  • This is applied only at the national level, so it affects civic gain and domestic tourist accumulation, but does not affect city tile accumulation nor tourism from terrain after the Flight technology.

Unique Unit: Hoplite

An ancient-era anti-cavalry unit which replaces the Spearman

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Maintenance	Resource needed
Bronze Working Technology Ancient era	Military Tactics Technology Medieval era	None	Pikeman (200 )	65 or 260 or 130 *	1	None

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
25	N/A	2	N/A	2	None	+10 vs. mounted units +10 when adjacent to another Hoplite

Positive changes

• +10 strength when adjacent to another Hoplite

Unique District: Acropolis

A classical-era speciality district which replaces the Theatre Square

Research	Terrain required	Required to build	Base production cost	Maintenance	Pillage yield
Drama and Poetry Civic Classical era	Hills	Amphitheatre Art Museum Archaeological Museum Broadcast Centre	27 * or 108 *	1	25

*All districts increase in production cost over the course of the game. If you have fewer copies of a district in total than the average among all players, it will be 40% cheaper to construct.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. It always costs four times as much gold as it does production, before modifiers to purchasing costs are applied.

Adjacency bonuses	Other yields	Great Person points	Other effects
1 per adjacent district 1 additional for an adjacent city centre 2 per adjacent wonder	None	1 1 1	Enables the Theatre Square Festival city project Domestic trade routes to this city provide +1 International trade routes to this city provide +1 Adjacent tiles receive +1 appeal Receive +1 when this district is complete

Negative changes

• Must be constructed on a hill tile

Positive changes

• -50% production cost
  
• 1 culture per adjacent district, up from 1 culture per two adjacent districts
  
• 1 additional culture from adjacent city centres
  
• Receive +1 envoy when the district is complete

Victory Skew

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.

Leader	Culture	Domination	Religion	Science
Gorgo	8/10 (Good)	8/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)
Pericles	9/10 (Ideal)	6/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)

Overall, Greece is strongest at cultural victories. The Acropolis district offers a cheap source of Great Writer, Artist and Musician points, and both Pericles and Gorgo can produce huge quantities of culture to help you get to key civics. Having an extra wildcard slot allows you to slip in a wonder construction bonus, or (later in the game), a tourism boost.

Gorgo skews a bit less than Pericles towards culture, but more so towards domination. Hoplites are cost-effective early units, and Gorgo's ability to get culture from kills gets her to Oligarchy quickly. Hoplites with Oligarchy and Oligarchic Legacy are both cheap and strong. If Greece falls into a classical-era Dark Age, they can even stack Oligarchic Legacy and Twilight Valour for a huge attack bonus.

An early wildcard allows Greece to pick up the Relevation policy card at Mysticism before any other civ but Poland, giving them a head start on founding a religion. Extra envoys from building Acropolis districts can help maximise faith bonuses from religious city-states sooner, and an extra wildcard helps you fit in more faith bonuses.

Finally, Greece can make a reasonable attempt at scientific victories by exploiting the early availability of Mysticism's Inspiration policy card (for +2 Great Scientist Points per turn), using extra envoys to get science bonuses from scientific city-states sooner and using rapid civic accumulation to unlock corresponding technology boosts sooner.

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic

From the moment you research Code of Laws, to the end of the game, Greece's civ ability will offer your governments an unparalleled level of flexibility. The ability is probably at its most powerful in the classical era, but it will always be helpful.

Starting Out

With Code of Laws researched, you can take any three of Discipline, God-King, Survey and Urban Planning simultaneously. Survey is the most niche bonus, so normally you'll want the other three. While Urban Planning helps your cities develop faster, God-King can help you grab an early pantheon.

Now, there's a few possible directions you can take through the civics tree.

• The religious route - Beeline Mysticism and take the Revelation policy card for +2 Great Prophet Points per turn. Only Greece and Poland can use this card so early, giving you a notable head start on founding a religion! This is a pretty reliable route no matter your leader - though Gorgo might want to take the war route before coming back to this.
  
• The war route - Head to Military Tradition. It enables flanking bonuses - which will really be useful in conjunction with Hoplites. When playing as Gorgo, you should usually take this route first.
  
• The fast government route - Research Craftsmanship for the Agoge policy card, then beeline Political Philosophy to improve your government. Typically the best route for Pericles if founding a religion definitely isn't an option.
  
• The scientific route - A niche strategy akin to the religious route, but resulting in you taking the Inspiration wildcard instead for +2 Great Scientist Points per turn. The idea is to get an early science advantage.
  
• The Acropolis route - A niche strategy of beelining Drama and Poetry from the start to get Acropoles early. This usually isn't necessary, and it does mean delaying getting the handy Agoge bonus among other useful things. Still, getting Acropoles built sooner for early envoys can be effective.

No matter your path, you'll accumulate a bunch of policy cards along the way. If you're not taking a wildcard like Relevation, consider stacking Urban Planning and Ilkum for fast Builders, or Urban Planning and Colonisation for fast Settlers so you can develop you empire faster.

Political Philosophy

The classical-era Political Philosophy civic allows you to use tier one governments.

Gorgo should usually go for Oligarchy. Oligarchy combined with its legacy card gives Hoplites a massive +8 strength boost, and also helps them gain experience faster.


Fall into a classical-era Dark Age? You can stack Oligarchic Legacy and Twilight Valour for a massive +13 attack bonus!

Pericles will usually benefit from Classical Republic the most, though Oligarchy can really help with early Hoplite warfare. With Classical Republic, you can take Republican Legacy, Diplomatic League and Charismatic Leader simultaneously to help gain a lot of envoys and grow strong cities, while still having two economic policy card slots left over.

Having two wildcard slots lets you stack Dark Age wildcards, or Great Person Points bonuses in a manner impossible for most other civs. If you've finished founding cities, stacking Isolationism with Republican Legacy can be a good combination for making your existing cities stronger, as an example.

Tier Two Government Usage

Though the Greek civ ability declines in effectiveness somewhat as the game goes on, there's still distinct ways it can aid you.

For Pericles, it's possible to enjoy the influence gain from the Monarchy government while still having enough policy cards available to compensate for its huge military card skew.

For Gorgo, if you decide not to build on your envoy-accumulation advantages with Monarchy, then you can enjoy Merchant Republic's gold and district production bonuses without having to miss out too much on military policy cards.

Later Usage

There's a lot of powerful economic cards later in the game (Heritage Tourism and Satellite Broadcasts for example, which both offer tourism) and being able to squeeze them all in is a nice little advantage to have.

Aside from simply getting better governments, there's four wonders you can build to earn even more policy card slots:

• Alhambra (medieval-era, requires the Castles technology) - +1 military card slot, +2 amenities from entertainment, +2 Great General points per turn. Particularly useful for Gorgo.
  
• Forbidden City (renaissance-era, requires the Printing technology) - +1 wildcard slot, +5 culture.
  
• Potala Palace (renaissance-era, requires the Astronomy technology) - +1 diplomatic card slot, +2 culture, +3 faith. Particularly useful for Pericles.
  
• Big Ben (industrial-era, requires the Economics technology) - +1 economic card slot, doubles current treasury, +6 gold, +3 Great Merchant points per turn.

The Forbidden City is the most powerful of the four, so it's worthwhile to research Printing relatively early so you can get a good shot at it. With Monarchy, Theocracy or Communism, you'll have three wildcard slots, and with Merchant Republic, Democracy or Fascism, you'll have four. That allows you stack all your legacy bonuses, and often still have a wildcard left over. Alternatively, it lets you mostly ignore the policy card distribution of later governments in favour of the passive bonuses they each offer, seeing as either way you'll get the key policy card bonuses you want.

Conclusion

Greece's civ ability brings versatility, but it also allows the use of bonuses in a situation that wouldn't normally be possible - like taking Mysticism's Relevation wildcard before researching Political Philosophy, or stacking Oligarchic Legacy with Twilight Valour. While there aren't quite so many effective uses for the bonus later on, it still helps you squeeze in one more useful boost while you work your way to victory.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermoplyae

It even works in defence, or against embarked units.

War serves Gorgo well, complementing her aims of victory even if she isn't aiming for a domination win. Every military unit - including Barbarians, embarked units, naval units, air units and so on - that she kills gives her culture. Early on, this gives you an unparalleled ability to zoom through the first few civics. The ability falls behind Pericles' in potential later on, but the early boost will have repercussions for the rest of the game.

Early Usage

Training up a Slinger or two early on can help you fight Barbarians and get culture while you work towards Bronze Working on the technology tree. Don't forget to train a Settler or two - more cities means you can train more Hoplites. After Bronze Working, heading to Archery so you can upgrade your Slingers to Archers isn't a bad idea.

Fighting a lot of Barbarians will help you grab early civics with ease, meaning you can slip in Military Tradition, Mysticism, and still get to Political Philosophy at a fast pace. This ensures you can enable flanking and support bonuses, maybe squeeze in a religion, and not put off Oligarchy's strength boost to Hoplites for too long.

By surrounding Barbarian Encampments with your own units, including at least one ranged unit, you can kill anything that emerges from it without having to destroy it - so long as you ensure that you use a ranged unit to kill any Barbarians that are on the Encampment tile itself. This allows you to get a regular supply of culture from it, and also avoids the era score bonus from clearing the Encampment.

Why would you want to avoid era score? To get a classical-era Dark Age and the powerful Twilight Valour wildcard, which makes your Hoplites attack with +5 strength at the cost of having to heal in friendly territory. Greece is one of only three civs that can stack Twilight Valour with Oligarchic Legacy as soon as both cards are available, but is the only one with a specific unique unit to synergise with that strategy. That being said, you can still perform effectively without a Dark Age, so don't feel you *have* to avoid era score.

Though a Dark Age may be your goal for the classical era, don't hold off wars in anticipation of it. Hoplites adjacent to each other are nearly as strong as Swordsmen for a lower cost, no resource requirement, and an early technology, making them rather effective in early rushes. Things like the Twilight Valour wildcard and Oligarchy can help boost your efforts later.

Later On

Because Gorgo's ability requires you to fight units, and beyond the first few eras Barbarians can be hard to find, you'll want to enter a few wars to keep it relevant. Participating in emergencies can be a good way to enter a war without the associated diplomatic penalties, but regular wars for conquest can work as well.

Though Gorgo won't make your units stronger later in the game, you can still use her huge culture advantages to zoom to key civics that will. Nationalism (industrial era) and Mobilisation (Modern era) will allow you to form corps/fleets and armies/armadas respectively, though be sure you can afford the high production and maintenance costs involved.

On the whole, you'll want to fight civs using individual units rather than corps and armies (as an example, killing two Musketmen units grants ~55 culture, while killing a Musketman corps only grants 32). There's two good ways of checking which civs are likely to have a lot of corps and armies - check their status in the timeline at the bottom of the civics tree, or go to the cultural victory interface and see how many domestic tourists they have (a higher number means their culture output is higher). Alternatively, fight civs with a high number of air units using plenty of Fighters, Battleships and Anti-Air Guns yourself as they cannot be formed into corps.

When you've run out of key late-game civics to research, this ability is only useful if you desperately need more domestic tourists to delay another civ's cultural victory, and even then it'd probably be easier just to try and conquer the cultural civ's lands.

Summary

• Fight Barbarians early on for culture - avoid destroying their Encampments so more can spawn.
  
• Be sure to go to war with Hoplites - if you get a classical-era Dark Age, you can stack Oligarchic Legacy and Twilight Valour for a huge strength boost.
  
• Emergencies can be a good way to fight wars and kill units without diplomatic repercussions.
  
• Try to fight civs that use units rather than corps or armies.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory

5% isn't a lot at this stage of the game, but it's a start.

While Gorgo gets a lot of culture early on, Pericles takes a bit longer for his culture to really start to pour in - but once it does, the yields can be immense. Using Governor Amani (the Diplomat) in a city-state along with an envoy (you can get a free one for researching Mysticism) can make you suzerain of a city-state early on, and start you on the road to getting bonus culture. It won't be a lot, so be sure to settle more cities and build some Monuments.

The Mechanics of City-States

If you're going to become suzerain over city-states, it helps to know exactly how that all works.

When you have at least three envoys in a city-state, and more than any other civ, you get the following bonuses:

• Everything they and their units can see becomes visible to you.
  
• You'll have open borders with the city-state, and can pass through their territory.
  
• They'll join your side automatically in wars.
  
• You can pay gold to levy their army, giving you control of their current units for 30 turns.
  
• You'll get a unique bonus tied to the city-state. For example, Kabul lets your military units gain twice as much experience when attacking.

Whether or not you're suzerain of a city-state, you'll gain bonuses for having envoys present:

City-State Type	1	3	6
Cultural	+2 in the capital	+2 in every Amphitheatre building	+2 in every Art or Archaeological Museum building
Industrial	+2 in the capital when constructing buildings, districts and wonders	+2 in every city with a Workshop when constructing buildings, districts and wonders	+2 in every city with a Factory when constructing buildings, districts and wonders
Militaristic	+2 in the capital when training units	+2 in every city with a Barracks or Stables when training units	+2 in every city with an Armoury when training units
Religious	+2 in the capital	+2 in every Shrine building	+2 in every Temple building
Scientific	+2 in the capital	+2 in every Library building	+2 in every University building
Trade	+4 in the capital	+4 in every Market building	+4 in every Bank building

The question now is: How will you get envoys? There's quite a number of methods:

• You'll passively accumulate influence points over time. Having certain governments or diplomatic policy cards will help you accumulate them even faster. When you hit a particular threshold, you'll gain an envoy that you can send to any city-state. The Monarchy government (available at the medieval-era Divine Right civic) notably makes you gain influence points 50% faster.
  
• City-states will set you little quests to do, such as training a specific unit, sending a trade route and so forth. Completing a quest grants +1 envoy in the city state, and you'll be assigned a new quest in the following era. Be sure to complete all the quests you can before a new era as any you don't complete will stick around (unless they become impossible, such as when a unit obsoletes).
  
• Governor Amani (the Diplomat) grants +2 envoys when present in a city-state. Her Puppeteer promotion allows her to double all envoys present in the city-state she's stationed in.
  
• Many civics grant bonus envoys you can send to any city-state, particularly civics off the main research paths.
  
• The Religious Unity Founder belief adds +1 envoy in a city-state when it first converts to your religion.
  
• The Apadana (Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization Pack) and Kilwa Kisiwani wonders grant envoys when complete - see the administration section of this guide for more information.
  
• Some Great People (mostly Merchants) grant envoys when retired - see the administration section of this guide for more information.
  
• Using Spies in a city-state, you can use the Fabricate Scandal mission to remove envoys from competing civs present there. Assuming you have at least three envoys present in the city, that will help you become suzerain even if you don't have envoys to spare.
  
• Liberating a city-state another civ has captured will immediately grant you three envoys (and therefore suzerain status), and more if you liberate it in later eras.
  
• And lastly, but importantly, Greece gets a free envoy every time they complete an Acropolis district.

Beware of aggressive civs that seek to destroy city-states. A civ that attacks a city-state you're suzerain of can be targeted by the Protectorate War casus belli once you have the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic. Alternatively, if a civ captures a city-state you have envoys present in, it'll trigger a city-state emergency. If you participate in it, you'll have 30 turns to liberate the city-state. Do so, and you'll get a lot of gold, plus extra gold for envoys you have present in city-states.

Pericles' Approach

Maximising your culture and maximising your envoy gain are thankfully intertwined thanks to the Acropolis district and the bonus envoys from certain civics, but you will need to look through all the sources of envoys you can get. Taking both the Diplomatic League and Charismatic Leader diplomatic policy cards once you have Political Philosophy will get you off to a decent start, and later on, use the Monarchy government for its significant influence points boost.

Huge culture gives you a head start on many wonders and archaeology, though don't neglect science - it's needed for key technologies like Flight, Radio and Computers.

Ultimately, Pericles offers a more peaceful approach to Greece than Gorgo.

Unique Unit: Hoplite

Hoplites apart from each other are no stronger than Spearmen, making them vulnerable to Warriors, but sometimes you've gotta risk a unit to save your city.

Hoplites are the backbone of an early Greek army and a viable early unit to rush an opponent with. When adjacent to another Hoplite, they're nearly as strong as Swordsmen but 28% cheaper to build with half as much maintenance, no need for iron and an earlier technology. Mounted units are particularly threatened - Hoplites adjacent to each other can even stand up reasonably well to Knights!

Hoplites are unlocked at the ancient-era Bronze Working technology. To boost the technology, you only need to kill three Barbarians. Be sure to get the Agoge military policy card at the Craftsmanship civic so you can train them faster. The God of the Forge pantheon will also help if you can get it.

Offensive Usage

Take a few Hoplites together with some Archers, and you'll be able to fight other civs reasonably effectively. If enemy promoted Warriors or Swordsmen are causing you trouble, use the Thrust promotion to cancel out their bonus against anti-cavalry. Enemy city walls causing you trouble? Research Masonry and bring along a Battering Ram.

Be careful when attacking and killing enemy units. When Hoplites kill when attacking, they'll occupy the tile the enemy used to take. This may separate them from your other Hoplites, removing the +10 strength boost (not to mention flanking/support bonuses). As such, aim to move your front-line Hoplites first, before moving your second line up to ensure they're still supported.

While your Hoplites are off fighting, try to get to the Political Philosophy government. It'll allow you to use Oligarchy, offering a notable +4 strength boost for Hoplites (and another +4 with the legacy card, though Pericles might want to get the legacy card from Classical Republic instead). The Military Tradition civic will also help as it enables flanking and support bonuses - considering you'll want to keep Hoplites together, you'll be able to reliably make use of those.


Oligarcy, Oligarchic Legacy and Twilight Valour together allows your Hoplites to rip through enemy Archers!

Defensive Usage

If you don't want to fight an early war (whether to save production, because it isn't viable for whatever reason or to avoid the diplomatic consequences) then Hoplites still make decent defensive units against other civs and Barbarians. Having at least three in an area is a good idea - that way, if one is injured, it can retreat while you still have two left providing each other bonuses.

Obsoletion

Once Pikemen arrive, Hoplites have no real combat advantages any more, so don't hesitate to pick up the Military Tactics technology if you need to upgrade your army. Pikemen are alright for their era, though will be very vulnerable to Musketmen once they arrive. Upgraded to Pike and Shot units, they'll again be reasonably effective in warfare until Infantry join the game. Later anti-cavalry units aren't quite so effective for their time, however.

Unique District: Acropolis

Want lots of culture? The bonuses of Gorgo and Pericles not enough for you? This district is for you!

Getting to Acropoles

The Acropolis district is unlocked at the classical-era Drama and Poetry civic. Though it's possible to beeline it, you'll usually want a tier one government first at the very least. You may also want to take a detour to Mysticism to boost your chances of founding your own religion.

Drama and Poetry's boost requires you to build a wonder, which isn't always viable this early in the game - especially given the importance of early expansion. You may be better off just researching the civic without the boost rather than taking the risk.

Positioning

Acropoles, unlike regular Theatre Squares, must be placed on a hill. That's not necessarily a tough requirement in itself as hills are relatively plentiful, but this is complicated by the fact Acropoles gain +1 culture when adjacent to a city centre. As such, you'll want to always settle cities adjacent to a hill if possible - which may involve some tough placement decisions.

It'll be easier to plan around Acropolis districts if they're one of the first districts you build in new cities, though obviously you won't want to neglect other important districts like Campuses and Holy Sites. If you're having trouble working out where you want to place each district, consider using map pins to mark it out.

Acropolis districts gain +1 culture per district adjacent to them, but as with regular Theatre Squares, they get +2 per adjacent wonder. Less productive cities should generally work on the assumption that they're not going to build any wonders - just surround the Acropolis districts in those cities with other districts. You'll have to judge for yourself in your more productive cities if +1 culture now, or the potential of +2 culture later, is better. Either way, you should aim to build at least some other districts adjacent to Acropoles to boost their yields.


An Acropolis adjacent to both a city centre and Government Plaza makes a powerful +4 yield! If you have two or three cities very close together, it may be possible to place a Government Plaza between them, and have two or three Acropoles adjacent to both the Plaza and a city centre.

One side-effect of bonuses of Acropolis districts is that it makes your districts relatively easy to protect with Spies. Position a Spy in an Acropolis, and they'll also protect all the adjacent districts as well - typically including the city centre.

An extra envoy

When you finish constructing an Acropolis, you will gain +1 envoy.

This is very important to Pericles as his leader ability is dependent on being suzerain over many city-states. To make the most of this bonus, try to ensure you have plenty of cities. Try also to keep them close together, so you can more easily make use of Acropolis adjacency bonuses.

For Gorgo, this can be useful for filling out envoy bonuses in city-states. Getting lots of militaristic city-states to three or six envoys can make your unit production very strong in cities with Armouries, while getting the bonuses in trade city-states ensures you have enough money to support such an army. You can also use the envoys to free city-states from your war enemies' suzerainty, granting you era score in the process.

Putting cheaper, stronger Theatre Squares to use

The stronger adjacency bonuses of Acropoles already is great for maximising your civic accumulation, but it also makes it easier to get more out of the Aesthetics economic policy card (requires Medieval Faires, doubles adjacency bonuses), and the Grand Opera economic policy card (requires the industrial-era Opera and Ballet civic, increases the culture yields of Theatre Square buildings if the district has 3+ adjacency and/or 10+ population) for yet more culture! That'll also help you accumulate domestic tourists to help resist the pressures of enemy cultural civs.

Aside from the direct benefits to culture, being able to easily build Acropoles in many cities will give you plenty of Great Writer, Artist and Musician points. More GWAMs means more Great Works, which means more tourism and in turn means a faster cultural victory.

Furthermore, having more Acropoles means you can get plenty of Great Work slots - particularly useful for Archaeological Museums. Because Greece's strong culture can get them to Natural History early, you have plenty of time to steal from the antiquity sites of your own and other civs before they can do the same to you.

Summary

• Try to found cities next to hills if possible for the best Acropolis adjacency bonuses.
  
• Building lots of cities is the best way for Greece to get envoys early on, which is very important for Pericles.
  
• Build your cities close together so you can more easily maximise Acropolis adjacency.

Administration - Government and Policy Cards

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.

Governments

Tier One

Oligarchy is Gorgo's clear choice for government thanks to the substantial strength bonus on offer for Hoplites.

Complement it with the Warlord's Throne for a production bonus in all your cities every time you capture one.

Pericles can do well out of Oligarchy as well, but given his reduced emphasis on war, you'll often get more out of Classical Republic.

As Pericles' ability will be more effective if you can get more envoys, and a key way of getting more envoys is to settle more cities and build more Acropoles, you'll probably want to build the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building to help you train Settlers faster.

Tier Two

Gorgo's options are fairly open here, though Merchant Republic probably has the edge - having three wildcards at once makes it pretty versatile, and the gold and district-production bonuses will be consistently useful.

Gorgo can benefit from any of the tier two Government Plaza buildings. The Foreign Ministry offers a cheap way to get hold of military units you can risk while killing others for culture. The Intelligence Agency can help you defend your Great Works from being stolen, or help you steal more eureka boosts. Finally, the Grand Master's Chapel gives you an alternative way to get more military units and/or faith. Pillaging doesn't create warmonger penalties, so go ahead and do that!

Pericles will want to use Monarchy for the 50% boost to influence point gain, as it'll help you secure more envoys and hence more culture (as well as other yields). It also requires a lot less research than Merchant Republic does, especially if you've been developing a religion.

The Foreign Ministry provides Pericles with a good defensive option in war, but you may want to take the Intelligence Agency instead so you can run more Fabricate Scandal missions to reduce other civs' envoys.

Tier Three

If you're playing as Gorgo and want to continue on the warpath, take Fascism for its powerful military bonuses.

Complement it with the War Department so you'll get health as well as culture from kills.

A culture victory-oriented Gorgo might want to take Communism as it still offers several military slots and good production bonuses, while Pericles might prefer Democracy's extra diplomatic and wildcard slots.

Complement either of those governments with the National History Museum for a helpful boost to your Great Work capacity.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Build Hoplites at a rapid pace, making them particularly cost-effective.

Inspiration (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - A +2 bonus to Great Scientist points which Greece can acquire earlier than anyone else.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - If you're entering an early Dark Age for the Twilight Valour bonus, you may need loyalty bonuses to counteract the extra loyalty pressure you'll receive - especially in captured cities.

Revelation (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - A +2 bonus to Great Prophet points which Greece also can pick up before anyone else.

Classical Era

Charismatic Leader (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - A great choice, especially for Pericles. This will really help you secure more city-state suzerains.

Diplomatic League (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - Good if you're still uncovering new city-states and want to get a good start on gaining envoys with them.

(Gorgo) Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - This bonus makes Governors provide more loyalty - particularly helpful if you entered an early Dark Age for Twilight Valour.

Medieval Era

Aesthetics (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - An Acropolis next to your capital now produces +4 culture, and that doesn't even take into account other adjacency bonuses.

Merchant Confederation (Diplomatic, requires Medieval Faires) - Get quite a generous amount of gold out of all your envoys! Pericles might get more gold out of this, but Gorgo will probably find the gold more useful.

Industrial Era

Grand Opera (Economic, requires Opera and Ballet) - Your high Acropolis adjacency bonuses will make it easier to get the full culture boost from this policy card.

Modern Era

Gunboat Diplomacy (Diplomatic, requires Totalitarianism) - Like Charismatic Leader, but double the effectiveness.

(Gorgo) Defence of the Motherland (Military, requires Class Struggle) - Prevents war weariness in home territory. Seeing as you only need to kill units and not take cities for culture, you can just fight defensive wars and use this card to prevent amenity penalties resulting from that.

(Gorgo) Martial Law (Military, requires Totalitarianism) - Reduces war weariness, making it easier to pursue prolonged wars for culture.

(Gorgo) Propaganda Military, requires Mass Media) - Also reduces war weariness.

Atomic Era

Containment (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - Helps overturn city-states controlled by rival civs by making your envoys count double in city-states whose suzerain is of a different government to you.

Heritage Tourism (Economic, requires Cultural Heritage) - Though useful for any cultural civ, this policy card is even better for Greece due to the high number of Acropoles you'll built allowing you to store more Great Works of Art and Artefacts.

Satellite Broadcasts (Economic, requires Space Race) - Boosts Great Music tourism by 200%. Building a lot of Acropoles should generally mean a higher number of Great Musician Points, and hence Great Musicians, so you should get a little more out of this than many other cultural civs.

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - Essentially the same thing as Aesthetics but with +1 amenity for Stadiums added on top.

Information Era

(Pericles) International Space Agency (Diplomatic, requires Globalisation) - If your culture output is much higher than your science output, this can help close the gap.

Administration - Ages

Age Bonuses

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - If you've been building up your faith infrastructure to take advantage of Greece's good shot at founding a religion, then you can enjoy a huge boost to science from this policy card. The cost is 25% of your cities' culture outputs - Gorgo's bonus circumvents that penalty, but Pericles' one does not.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Dedication, Classical to Medieval eras) - Could be a decent source of early era score if you're developing your Acropoles early on.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Not eating through the civics fast enough? This Golden Age dedication makes inspirations stronger, and gives you culture for every district you have. This is particularly effective for Pericles due to his percentage-based culture modifier.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Greece is unusual among civs as they can stack this wildcard with Oligarchic Legacy and have a unique unit with a strength bonus (the Hoplite) that can really make the most of it. That being said, there's a catch - with this wildcard your units can't heal outside your territory!

(Gorgo) To Arms! (Golden Age, Industrial to Information eras) - If you want to go to war to fight units, the special casus belli on offer here keeps the diplomatic penalties low. That being said, you'll probably get more out of Heartbeat of Steam or Wish You Were Here in a typical game - this is just slightly more synergistic with Gorgo's bonuses.

Wish You Were Here (Dedication, Modern to Information eras) - Greece's incentive to have a lot of Acropoles can mean a lot of Archaeologists later. As such, this dedication can be a reasonable source of era score.

Administration - Religion and City-States

Pantheons

Divine Spark - Good synergy with the Acropolis district, and can also nicely complement Greece's ability to take Relevation or Inspiration early.

God of the Forge - Ideal for getting Hoplites trained quickly, though unlike Divine Spark, it won't help you throughout the rest of the game.

(Gorgo) God of War - If you have a few Holy Sites around, this allows you to gain some faith with your culture when you kill units.

Religous Beliefs

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

Lay Ministry (Founder) - Helps add a little bit more culture from Acropolis districts.

Papal Primacy (Founder) - Helps you spread your religion as you send envoys.

Religious Unity (Founder) - An excellent choice, especially for Pericles. This makes city-states give you an envoy when you convert them for the first time. You don't necessarily need a really strong faith to take advantage of this - just save up for a couple of Missionaries and that should be enough to convert a city.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Allows you to convert excess faith into buildings to fill the Acropolis districts.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - Having a cheap unique district makes it easy to achieve the two districts required to get an amenity out of this.

City-States

Antananarivo (Cultural) - Offers a good boost to culture which Acropoles can make even stronger, particularly considering Acropoles produce three different kinds of Great People. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

(Pericles) Grenada (Militaristic) - If you really want to go all-out on culture yields, Alcazar improvements provide extra culture when worked that Pericles' bonus can add to. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

(Pericles) Kumasi (Cultural) - Even more culture that Pericles' ability can magnify, so long as you don't mind sending trade routes to city-states.

Stockholm (Scientific) - If you have a lot of Acropoles, Stockholm provides a lot of extra GWAM points.

Vilnius (Cultural) - Boosts Acropolis adjacency by up to 150% depending on your highest alliance level. Stacked with Aesthetics, that's a 250% boost. An Acropolis adjacent to a city centre and two other districts could provide +14 culture per turn! And that's a configuration that's easy to achieve in most cities!

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Cheap faith patronage of Great People coupled with lots of Great Person points from Acropoles makes it easier to get hold of lots of GWAMs.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - A very strong wonder for Pericles thanks to the potential envoys, but extra Great Work slots early in the game can be useful for a culture-oriented Gorgo as well. Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - Having lots of Acropolis districts means you could support a lot of Archaeologists later. Letting them slip through the borders of other civs and take their artefacts will help your tourism output.

(Gorgo) Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - Grab an extra military policy card slot and you can have both cards that make it easier to support an army (production bonuses, reduced maintenance, etc.) and ones that make it more effective.

Kilwa Kisiwani (Medieval era, Machinery technology) - Gain +3 envoys, but more importantly, grant bonuses to this city or your empire based on the city-states you're suzerain over. That's a great way to build on Pericles' bonus in particular.

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - Preserves your unique advantage of having a free wildcard slot (by denying this wonder to anyone else) and makes your governments incredibly flexible with up to four wildcard slots by the end of the game. It also lets you more easily stack legacy wildcards and Dark Age wildcards.

(Pericles) Potala Palace (Renaissance era, Astronomy technology) - An extra diplomatic card slot means you can maximise envoy gain without having to use up a wildcard slot.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - There's loads of really good late-game economic policy cards (Heritage Tourism and Satellite Broadcasts in particular are highly important for a cultural victory) so one more slot can do a lot of good.

Bolshoi Theatre (Industrial era, Opera and Ballet civic) - Builds on your existing GWAM generation advantages.

Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic) - Also builds on Great Artist generation advantages.

Broadway (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - More Great Writer and Musician points.

Great People

Medieval Era

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - Triggers the Eureka for Printing, helping you get to the Forbidden City wonder sooner.

(Pericles) Piero de' Bardi (Great Merchant) - +1 envoy.

(Pericles) Zheng He (Great Admiral) - +1 envoy when retired.

Renaissance Era

(Pericles) Jakob Fugger (Great Merchant) - +2 envoys.

Industrial Era

(Pericles) John Jacob Astor (Great Merchant) - +2 envoys.

(Pericles) Simón Bolivar (Great General) - +2 envoys when retired.

Modern Era

(Gorgo) Joaquim Marques Lisboa (Great Admiral) - Reduces war weariness by 25% permanently when retired. Handy for prolonged unit-killing wars.

Atomic Era

Mary Leakey (Great Scientist) - Triples artefact tourism in a city, and also adds a one-off boost of 350 science per artefact present in the city. Greece can get to Natural History early and easily fill up an Archaeological Museum by that point, making it easy to get the full effect here.

Counter-Strategies

Greece is a cultural powerhouse with a pretty strong early-game, but they have an Achilles' heel or two you can exploit.

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic

You can't really stop Greece from making use of an extra card slots, but you can close the gap by picking up bonuses that give you extra card slots yourself. Four wonders (Alhambra, Potala Palace, the Forbidden City and Big Ben) offer you extra slots, and Greece's lack of production bonuses mean many civs have a reasonable shot at getting them before they do.

Otherwise, the bonus is most powerful early on, when it allows them to take wildcards that otherwise wouldn't be possible to take. Greece stacking Oligarchic Legacy with Twilight Valour is particularly dangerous, though mercifully their early-arriving uniques (and the bonus era score they get from building them for the first time) makes it hard for them to fall into a Dark Age too early. If Greece does stack the two, be sure to engage with their units outside their own territory, and try to attack rather than defend - hilltop or garrisoned Archers will be useful.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermopylae

Gorgo won't get any culture from her unique ability if she can't kill anything. Make sure your higher-strength units always have an escape route when fighting her so you can retreat them if necessary. Ranged units with a low melee strength (notably Slingers) won't give her much culture if she kills them, so if given the choice between sacrificing a Slinger or a Warrior, go for the Slinger.

One of the easiest ways to hand Gorgo lots of easy culture is to leave embarked units without escorts. Embarked units can be attacked by naval units without dealing any damage in retaliation themselves, making them easy for her to kill. As such, be sure to invest in a navy of your own.

Once you're able to form corps or fleets, do so. The culture Gorgo gets from killing a corps or fleet is less than the culture she'd gain from killing two of the individual units.

Gorgo's Agenda: With Your Shield Or On It

An AI-controlled Gorgo likes civs that don't concede in wars, and dislikes civs that either haven't fought or have given things up in a peace deal. She's also particularly inclined towards warfare.

If you're a playing a peaceful civ trying to get along with Gorgo, a quick war in the ancient era for a little gold (where you don't suffer any warmonger penalties) removes one barrier to friendship. If she attacks you, just try to push for a white peace (that is to say, where nothing is traded in the peace deal).

Gorgo's tendency to avoid concessions can make her a pretty good military ally. If she's losing, she won't try and hand your opponent huge concessions to get them to stop.

If you're a warmonger, chances are you'll need to finish off Gorgo entirely to keep hold of her cities. Target her core cities first so the rest are easier to clean up later.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory

If Pericles isn't suzerain of any city-states, he won't get his unique culture bonus. You can try competing for the same city-states by maximising your envoy gain (look out for policy cards and civics offering envoys in particular) or using Spies in his city-states with the Fabricate Scandal mission to remove envoys from him.

If you decide to go to war with Pericles, watch out for the high volume of city-state allies you're likely to face. Keep your defences reasonably strong on any side of your empire exposed to a city-state - even one that you're currently suzerain over! You never know when he might flip it to his side...

Another option is to capture one of Pericles' allied city-states, but watch out for the city-state emergency that'll trigger. Ensure any city-states you capture are well-fortified so you can keep hold of them for the 30-turn duration of the emergency, and you'll be rewarded with a generous sum of gold.

Alternatively, letting Pericles get hold of a lot of city-states will give him an immense culture output, which maximises the rate at which he gains domestic tourists. If a different civ threatens to win a cultural victory, that can be a useful move to make.

Pericles' Agenda: Delian League

An AI-controlled Pericles likes civs that aren't competing for the same city-states as him, and dislikes those who are.

If you want to befriend him, you can just stick to city-states he doesn't care about. Civs with lower culture outputs (and hence will get envoys from civics at a slower rate) may also find it easier to get along with him.

Unique Unit: Hoplite

Hoplites are only stronger than Spearmen if key keep together. Keep them apart - such as through limiting their movement via zone of control, or targeting units in the middle of their formation first before taking on the rest - and they'll be easy to beat.

Avoid using Heavy Chariots or Horsemen against Hoplites - Warriors will do the job much more effectively thanks to their intrinsic +10 strength bonus against anti-cavalry units. While 5 points of strength weaker than a Hoplite next to another one, Warriors are a fair bit cheaper to build giving you a pretty equal playing field in a war of attrition. Once you have access to Swordsmen, they'll be even better at dealing with them.

Unique District: Acropolis

If Greece can't settle a city next to a hill, they lose the powerful +2 culture bonus and have to settle for the lesser +1 adjacency bonuses from other districts. Settling cities in a manner that pushes Greece away from hill-heavy spots is a possibility, as is declaring war on them early on and chasing their Settlers away from hills with military units. Of course, that means risking retaliation via Hoplites, so be careful about doing that before you have defences prepared.

Every Acropolis Greece builds means another envoy for them. As such, the more cities Greece can settle (or capture), the more envoys they'll have. If you're serious about competing in the race for city-states, try to limit your expansion.

Once Greece has Acropoles set up, you can expect them to have a strong cultural output (if you're a cultural civ, there's a good chance they'll be leading in domestic tourists as a result, making them a good target for elimination). You can grab some of this culture for yourself by declaring war, getting a fast-moving unit to their Acropolis districts and pillaging them. There'll be one in practically every city, and combined with the Raid policy card (Classical era, requires Military Training) you could leech quite a bit of culture from the Greeks.

Lots of Acropolis districts means lots of Archaeological Museums later on in the game. Once they have Archaeologists, deny Greece open borders so they can't steal your artefacts.

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The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated. You can find these by scrolling to the top of this page, clicking "Zigzagzigal's Guides" and looking near the end of the list of guides. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.

[Yensil]

Looking forward to your views on how Pericles' (or Georgia's) ability to dominate City states affects the diplomatic game...

[[CoH] Joker]

Excellent guide, with lots of tips and ideas to consider.
I'm expecting the others to be just as good.

[CyberGamer15]

Ah ok. Thanks!

I'm looking forward to seeing how these guides will change when they are updated for Gathering Storm.

[Zigzagzigal]

No matter your civ, I think a minimum of 6 cities is a good target to aim for.

A tall empire will probably want 6-8 cities, but that can vary depending on how much space is available, how many spare amenities you have, and how much production you can spare for Settlers among other things.

A wide empire will want as many cities as possible, so long as it doesn't overstretch your amenities. Usually I don't settle new cities beyond the industrial era, but part of the reason for that is a huge number of cities means a lot of micromanagement.

[CyberGamer15]

Hey there!

This guide is very helpful for me whenever I take Greece for a spin, but there is one thing I've been wondering for a while.

I've been trying to figure out a good number of cities for playing both tall and wide, and I'm unsure on how many I should be aiming for, or how quickly/slowly I should be getting them out onto the map.

Any feedback or advice on this would be appreciated, though I play on Prince difficulty, so that might alter things a little.

[Yensil]

So, this might be a change in GS, but I'm playing as Gorgo, and I get the free envoy any time I capture a city with a theater square (presumably, only the first time I capture it, I haven't tested that)

[Zigzagzigal]

Good point; I've added it to the Acropolis section.

[Tunnel_Rhino526]

I find that if you put the government plaza in a Greek city's second ring and you settle a pair of cities carefully close to the plaza, the two new cities can build their acropolises next to the gov plaza in addition to oringinal city. The end result is a total of three acropolises with an adjacency bonus of +4 culture each.

[SugarFree]

nice