Zigzagzigal's Guides - Sumeria (GS)

With all of Sumeria's uniques unlocked at the start of the game, Sumeria is well-positioned to have the strongest start of any civ. Here, I detail Sumerian strategies and counter-strategies.

Introduction

Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

The quest for immortality is the greatest of all pursuits. Shall immortality come from shows of strength, from rage against the gods, from fierce rivalries and war? Perhaps not. Perhaps immortality rests in legacy, in leadership, building a civilization to 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 if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an 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 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, 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) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production 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 - 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 (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.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). 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.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

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. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

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.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

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.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. 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, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "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 trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

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

Outline

Start Bias

Sumeria has a tier 3 start bias towards river tiles. This improves the odds you can have Ziggurats with the best possible yields immediately, while also helping you to get as much housing as possible in your capital.

Civilization Ability: Epic Quest

• Destroying a Barbarian Outpost grants rewards as if you visited a tribal village, in addition to the usual rewards.
  
• -50% cost to levy city-state military units

Gilgamesh's Leader Ability: Adventures with Enkidu

• When at war with a common enemy, Sumeria shares pillage rewards and combat experience with the closest unit of the other civ within five tiles, and vice versa.
  
  • This does not apply when fighting Barbarians.
    
  • Units you have levied from city-states are considered to belong to you for this purpose.
• Any civ at war with an ally may be targeted for a declaration of war without inflicting grievances
  
• When you and an ally are both at war with the same civ, gain +0.5 alliance points per turn and +5 strength when fighting the common enemy.
  
  • The strength bonus stacks with a military alliance for a total boost of +10.

Unique Unit: War-Cart

An ancient-era heavy cavalry unit which does not replace anything

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
None	Stirrups ** Technology Medieval era	None	Knight (240 20 )	55 or 220 or 110 *	None	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.

**If you have insufficient iron, you may continue to train War-Carts even after researching Stirrups.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
30	N/A	3	N/A	2	Deals -85% damage to city walls and urban defences	Ignores Zone of Control +1 if starting on open terrain No vulnerability to anti-cavalry units.

Notable features

War Carts have the following negative change relative to Heavy Chariots:

• Costs 240 gold to upgrade to a Knight, up from 220 (+9%)

And the following positive changes:

• Available from the start rather than requiring the ancient-era Wheel technology.
  
• Costs 55 production, 220 gold or 110 faith, down from 65, 260 or 130 respectively (-15%)
  
• 30 strength, up from 28.
  
• 3 movement points, up from 2.
  
• No vulnerability to anti-cavalry units.
  
• No maintenance cost

Unique Improvement: Ziggurat

Research	Terrain requirement	Constructed by	Base pillage yield
None	Flat tile in your own territory, with no features present (other than floodplain).	Builder	50

Defensive bonus	Direct yield	Adjacency yields	Miscellaneous bonus	Maximum possible yield
None	2	1 if adjacent to a river	None	2 1

Enhancements

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

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

*Note that the tourism yield does not require the improvement to be worked.

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	Diplomacy	Domination	Religion	Science
Gilgamesh	6/10 (Decent)	7/10 (Good)	9/10 (Ideal)	4/10 (Acceptable)	8/10 (Good)

Cultural victories as Sumeria rest mainly on the culture (and therefore tourism) potential of Ziggurats, though strong early science and culture is also great if you want a stab at early wonders - early wonders are worth the most tourism, after all.

Unusually for a civ with a lot of war-focused bonuses, Sumeria fits the diplomatic game effectively - though many of Sumeria's bonuses build upon playing diplomatically rather than necessarily making them stronger at the diplomatic game. Tribal village rewards can occasionally grant envoys, half-price levying of city-state units incentivises being suzerain over city-states (a great source of diplomatic favours), Gilgamesh's sharing of experience and pillaging rewards works brilliantly as an emergency member, extra alliance points means more diplomatic favour sooner, and culture from Ziggurats helps with getting to key civics for more envoys. And even if you want to rush with War-Carts, grievances are low in the ancient era so they'll fade by the time the World Congress is in play.

Domination is Sumeria's strongest route. Aside from the immense rushing potential of War Carts, Sumeria also has incentives to pair up with other civs or city-states when carrying out wars and decent science to keep their military up to date. The main thing that holds them back is their fairly niche combat advantages beyond the time War-Carts are effective.

Religion isn't really a great path for Sumeria to follow, but they do have a couple of small advantages to their credit - getting tribal village rewards from Barbarian encampments can provide a helpful early boost to faith, and culture from Ziggurats can get to certain civics like Theology faster. You'll be better off going for any other victory route.

Science is a strong route for Sumeria. Ziggurats can offer a lot of science if constructed in large quantities, and receiving tribal village rewards from Barbarian Encampments can be a great source of eurekas. The downside is that the civ has little to help them get through the space race.

Unique Unit: War-Cart

In the earliest turns of the game, War-Carts are near-unstoppable. They're fast, powerful, affordable and without an easy counter. You might as well start the game by training a couple right away and use them to explore and kill some Barbarians. Their high speed may even get you a few first-discovery envoy bonuses from city-states.

Clearing a Barbarian Encampment gives you the inspiration for Military Tradition, which in turn offers the Manoeuvre policy card, allowing you to train War-Carts even faster.

Don't just spam War-Carts - training a Settler reasonably early and setting up a second city will give you a second source of War-Carts, allowing you a bigger potential army for a small investment.

Once you find another civ, bring some War-Carts over (preferably at least four) and consider starting a war. Even though you might not get the bonuses from starting a joint war, you can worry about that later. For now, just ram your War-Carts into their cities and enjoy a good-sized empire without having to train any Settlers. If loyalty is a problem, keep some War-Carts near the disloyal city so you can immediately recapture it if it flips to a free city (free cities tend to have very low defence).

The biggest weakness of War-Carts is that they're not very mobile in rough terrain, which can make them prone to Archer attacks. For this reason, it may be useful to scout out an area before you attack it so you know the best path for them to take.

Be sure to use some War-Carts to chase Barbarian Encampments even when you're at war. A few extra Barbarian Encampments destroyed could mean an extra envoy, more gold, or other useful things that are worth the cost of the unit.

War-Carts continue to be very effective until Swordsmen and Horsemen become commonplace or cities start building walls, but even then their low cost makes them quite spammable. Once you see Pikemen, Knights or Crossbowmen, however, it's probably time to think about upgrading them. Science from Ziggurats and extra eurekas from destroying Barbarian villages will help you cut down the time needed to reach Stirrups.

Conclusion

War Carts are pretty much a one-size-fits-all military unit that allows you to dominate the ancient era. While dominant in the ancient era, don't overrely on them as your enemies get stronger.

Civilization Ability: Epic Quest (Part 1/2)

They may be Barbarians, but they know how to party.

The Sumerian civ ability comes with two distinct components - getting tribal village rewards from Barbarian encampments and half-price city-state unit levying. The two can support each other - levying city-state units can help you destroy encampments while gold from destroying encampments can help you pay for levying city-states, but largely these bonuses should be considered separately.

Tribal village rewards from Barbarian encampments

You can do more than just conquer with your War-Carts - they're also good for exploring with. You can find tribal villages and enjoy a variety of rewards, and you can also track down Barbarian encampments to destroy as well. This variety of rewards will really help your early game to get off to a powerful start.

To find Barbarian encampments, discover as much land as you can and pay attention for when a Barbarian encampment spawns - there'll be a special sound that plays when that happens assuming it's in land you've uncovered. Barbarian encampments can only spawn in land out of sight of any units, so be sure to keep moving your War-Carts and avoid revealing too much of the map at once.

Remember that in addition to tribal village rewards, you'll also get gold which scales based on both game speed and difficulty settings. This steady influx of gold is usually enough to cover any maintenance expenses you might have early on. Furthermore, while regular tribal villages only offer 1 era score if entered in the ancient era, destroying Barbarian encampments offer 2 era score (3 if it's within six tiles of one of your cities) and provide era score until the renaissance game era!

Even in war-time, dedicating a small number of fast units to taking out Barbarian encampments can get you a lot of rewards. So long as there's still Barbarians left in the world, keep taking them out!

Late in the game, Barbarian encampments will mostly be found on remote islands. Naval raider units are great for dealing with those as they're invisible to most units (so they won't get injured), have a ranged attack and the coastal raider ability, letting them destroy an empty Barbarian encampment.

Tribal Village Rewards

Tribal Villages (and Barbarian encampments for Sumeria) offer a random reward from a set list. First, it randomly chooses from one of seven categories (culture, diplomacy, gold, faith, military, science and survivors; there's an even chance for all seven) and then it chooses from a specific reward among them. Some rewards have set prerequsites; if you don't have them, you will receive a different reward from the same category, or reroll the reward entirely if all from the same category are invalid. Note that if you haven't founded a city yet, you can only get bonuses from the military category.

The "weights" in each of these following tables represent how likely you are to get the specific reward. Using that, it's possible to calculate the odds off getting each individual reward, assuming you have all prerequisites. Meeting all prerequisites is actually uncommon, so these probabilities in practice vary slightly. Percentages may not add up to exactly 100% due to rounding.

Category	Reward	Prequisites	Weight	Probability
Culture	One relic	Must have at least one Great Work slot that can hold relics	15	2.1%
Culture	Two inspiration boosts	Turn 30 or later	30	4.3%
Culture	One inspiration boost	None	55	7.9%
Diplomacy	One Governor title	Turn 30 or later	15	2.1%
Diplomacy	One envoy	Disabled if the map starts with no city-states.	40	5.7%
Diplomacy	20	Turn 30 or later	45	6.4%
Gold	120	Turn 40 or later	15	2.1%
Gold	75	Turn 20 or later	30	4.3%
Gold	40	None	55	7.9%
Faith	100	Turn 60 or later	15	2.1%
Faith	60	Turn 40 or later	30	4.3%
Faith	20	Turn 20 or later	55	7.9%
Military	20 strategic resources	Must have revealed any strategic resource (e.g. Animal Husbandry for horses). Grants you the most advanced strategic resource you have revealed.	20	2.9%
Military	20 XP	None	20	2.9%
Military	Recover all health	Unit has less than 100 HP	25	3.6%
Military	Free recon unit in one of your cities	With Plastics, grants Spec Ops. With Rifling but not Plastics, grants Rangers. With Machinery but not Rifling, grants Skirmishers. Otherwise, grants Scouts.	35	5.0%
Science	1 free technology	Turn 50 or later	15	2.1%
Science	Two eureka boosts	Turn 30 or later	30	4.3%
Science	One eureka boost	None	55	7.9%
Survivors	Free Trader in one of your cities	Turn 15 or later and must have at least 1 spare trade route capacity	25	3.6%
Survivors	Free Builder in one of your cities	None	35	5.0%
Survivors	+1 population for one of your cities	None	40	5.7%

Civilization Ability: Epic Quest (Part 2/2)

While many of the best bonuses take some time to arrive, that doesn't mean you should hold off on destroying Barbarian encampments. Taking them out now will still grant you a reward, and Barbarians may very well return in the same area later anyway. It's also a good idea to take out Barbarian encampments quickly to stop other civs taking them. Barbarian encampments continue to be common far beyond the point where you'll generally be discovering new tribal villages, so Sumeria can really make the most of the stronger bonuses on offer here.

Half-price city-state levying

If you are suzerain over a city-state, you may levy their units. You can become suzerain over one city-state early on easily by sending Governor Amani (the Diplomat) to a city-state and sending one more envoy, or by liberating a captured city-state from another civ. Levying city-state armies allows you to take control of all their units for 30 turns as if they were your own. You won't get any additional ones that they build during that time, though the ones you do get will be maintenance-free. The cost scales with how powerful the forces are.

For Sumeria, this option costs half as much. City-state armies tend not to be especially up-to-date, but they often make up for it in numbers. Levied units can act as fodder to distract the enemy while your key siege units take on city defences. Don't worry about losing them - it's not like you'll be keeping them for very long, anyway.

Levying city-state units can also be a good option if you're suzerain over one far from your homelands and there's a Barbarian Encampment near them you want to take out.

Once you have a tier two government (Monarchy, Merchant Republic or Theocracy), you may build the Foreign Ministry building. This halves the cost of levying city-state units again, and adds +4 strength to all levied units, providing you with a potentially very effective force for a very low cost.

Summary

• Hunt down Barbarian Encampments whenever you're not at war, and even when you are, try to spare some units.
  
• Liberate city-states where possible - they can be a great source of a cheap army later.

Unique Improvement: Ziggurat

While your War Carts fight Barbarians and other civs, get some Builders and construct some Ziggurats by riversides. They might not offer food, production or housing (so be careful not to work too many at once), but instead you can get both science and culture.

More science obviously means faster research of technologies, which is good for keeping your military up to date. The bonus is particularly strong early in the game, and can make the transition from War Carts to Knights fairly seamless (other than the need for gold and iron to upgrade them, but destroying Barbarian Encampments will help). The science boost also neatly complements the eurekas you may be getting from Barbarian Encampments.

The culture output will help you with civics, but remember that culture can also aid with a city's accumulation of tiles. That can save you some gold on tile purchases over the course of the game. With the Flight technology, you'll also get some tourism, which helps towards cultural victory if you want to go down that route.

As all you need for a Ziggurat to achieve its full yield is for it to be next to a river, don't worry too much about replacing one with a district if you want to maximise its adjacency bonus. You can always place it somewhere else. Science and culture are yields that mostly work on an empire-wide basis, so a replacement Ziggurat needn't even be in the same city.

If a city has a particularly high number of river tiles with a three-tile radius of its city centre, consider using Pingala (the Educator) in that city for a 15% boost to science and culture, helping you stretch Ziggurat yields a little bit further. Later on, you can also use the medieval-era Kilwa Kisiwani wonder for a chance at a 15% boost to science and/or culture, the industrial-era Oxford University wonder for a 20% science boost, and/or the modern-era Broadway wonder for a 20% culture boost.

For an even bigger science increase, consider aiming for a medieval-era Dark Age for the Monasticism wildcard. It offers a 75% science boost to all cities with a Holy Site (you will have probably captured some off other civs in War-Cart conquests) at the cost of -25% culture in all cities. Though theoretically you can use this card in the classical game era, the nature of Sumeria's uniques makes it extremely hard to achieve a Dark Age that early.

Summary

• Ziggurats are mostly useful for early science.
  
• Don't work too many at once or you'll hurt your city growth.
  
• Look out for science or culture multipliers that can stretch the yields further.

Gilgamesh's Leader Ability: Adventures with Enkidu (Part 1/2)

Not my turn, not being attacked. Still get experience.

While War-Carts are great for conquering foes even alone, Gilgamesh's leader ability encourages you to group up with another civ for conquest or diplomatic ends.

Common war bonuses

Jumping on a war bandwagon allows you to exploit a civ's weakness, and forming a joint war against a civ can also be a great way to overpower them. So long as there's another civ or city-state on your side of a war as Sumeria, you'll also find war to be more profitable for both of you.

Getting another civ on your side

The most reliable way to start a war with at least one other faction on your side is to be suzerain over at least one city-state. Remember that levied units count as yours for the purpose of shared experience or pillage yields, so be careful how you use that feature!

An alternative method is to start a joint war. In singleplayer, consider looking for a leader with a pro-military agenda like Alexander, Cleopatra or Gorgo to join you. Alternatively, in singleplayer or multiplayer, pair up with a civ good at pillaging (e.g. Mapuche, Norway) or a civ good at gaining experience (e.g. Inca via their UU, Scythia via their large cavalry armies). Later on, forming a military alliance with a civ will grant you both a +5 strength bonus when you're both at war with the same civ - a rather handy boost that goes well with this leader ability.

A third method is to declare war on someone who's already at war. The problem with that route is it's often harder to take cities from such wars, as at least one of the factions involved was already prepared for war (if they're on your side, they may take cities before you can, and if they're against you, they're a tougher target).

A fourth method is to join in an emergency involving warfare, such as a city-state emergency. If other civs are interested, then you can work together, share rewards, avoid some grievance generation and even potentially get diplomatic favours at the end of it.

Experience and pillage rewards are not tied to the conquest of cities. That's important because it allows you to enjoy the benefits of this leader ability without having to concede cities to the other civ involved. Let the other civ do the difficult fighting, then sweep in and take the city for yourself. If the civ you're fighting alongside has a problem, you can declare peace with the common enemy and declare war on them. Alternatively, let them have a few unimportant cities so they can remain a useful ally - but if you go down that route, you may have to consider a victory path other than domination.

Using Rewards

When you earn experience or pillage a tile improvement, the reward is also shared with the closest unit within five tiles so long as they're at war with the same civ as you. Aside from finding a civ to join in war, the next difficulty is getting within five tiles of them. Early in the game, War-Carts should be fast enough to find where your friend is. Later on, a level two military alliance will reveal the location of all their units.

Every area your ally is fighting more than a simple 1v1 fight, you should aim to have a unit present. That way, you can soak up experience and pillaging rewards even if you're unable to contribute much directly there.

As for pillaging, consider carefully what you pillage in range of the other civ:

• Farms, fisheries, fishing boats, seasteads, Entertainment Complexes and Water Parks are the most notable examples of improvements and districts that provide health to units when pillaged. That makes them great targets as they'll help your ally out in the current war without giving them a long-term advantage.

• Camps, mines, oil wells, offshore oil rigs, pastures, seaside resorts, improvements that offer power, Campuses, Commercial Hubs, Harbours, Industrial Zones, Neighbourhoods, and Spaceports produce gold when pillaged. Usually, letting your friend get a little bit of gold won't be a problem considering there's a good chance it'll be diverted back into the war effort.

• Plantations, quarries, Government Plazas, Holy Sites and Theatre Squares produce faith when pillaged. Sumeria has relatively few uses for faith, so consider leaving such improvements and districts alone.

• Unique improvements typically offer pillage yields based on their main yields:
  
  • Ones that are food or amenity-based usually heal your unit up when pillaged (Dutch Polders notably offer faith instead).
    
  • Ones that are science-based offer gold.
    
  • Ones that are culture-based offer faith.
  Because you won't keep them when you capture the city anyway, pillaging them has a lesser drawback than normal.

Gilgamesh's Leader Ability: Adventures with Enkidu (Part 2/2)

Declare war on an ally's enemy for no warmonger penalties

A simple enough bonus: if a declared ally (requires the medieval-era Civil Service civic) is under attack, you can declare war on their attacker for no warmonger penalties. So long as you don't take any cities in that war (aside from liberations), you'll have a war without any grievances while you can still sweep up the nice pillage rewards.

It's tempting just to immediately declare war on a civ that's attacking your allies, but consider putting in a little time to position your units right next to their lands. When you have no warmonger penalty for starting a war, it's you and not them who gets to decide where the war starts and under whose terms.

+5 strength for common wars with allies

Being at war with the same target as an ally gives you a +5 strength bonus to all units when fighting against that target, rising to a massive +10 boost with a military alliance. Remember not to be too greedy with conquests when using this bonus, or else you may have difficulty forming new alliances in future. Keep an eye on the grievances your allies have with you (if any), and consider liberating a few cities to keep them in check.

Alliance points from common wars

If you're getting involved in joint wars with your allies, you might as well try and strengthen that alliance for the good yields high-level alliances offer - as well as the bonus per-turn diplomatic favour.

To get alliances to level 2 and 3, you need a total of 80 and 240 alliance points with your ally respectively. You gain alliance points by the following means:

• +1 per turn you're allied to the civ
  
• +0.5 per turn if they're Suleiman of the Ottomans and have Governor Ibrahim (the Grand Vizier) with the Khass-Oda-Bashi promotion present in your capital.
  
• +0.25 per turn for having at least one trade route with them (0.5 if they're Cleopatra of Egypt)
  
• +0.25 per turn if they have at least one trade route with you (0.5 if they're Cleopatra of Egypt)
  
• +0.25 per turn if you have the Wisselbanken policy card (diplomatic, requires the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic respectively)
  
• +0.25 per turn if they have the Wisselbanken policy card
  
• +0.5 per turn for playing as Gilgamesh of Sumeria and you're both at war with the same foe.

Alliance points are tied to the alliance - not each civ - so both you and the other civ will reach a level 2 or 3 alliance at the same time. This means that not only will it be more lucrative for you to make alliances, but it'll be more lucrative for other civs to make alliances with you.

Conclusion

Gilgamesh basically has two ways of using his leader ability: the nice way, and the mean way.

The nice way involves sharing the benefits of wars with allies. Be loyal to friends, and let them have a share of the cities. Alternatively, get together with other civs in emergencies to take down dangerous opponents. This works well for a diplomatic or scientific approach to Sumeria.

The mean way involves flipping allegiances, sniping cities before your temporary "friends" can take them for themselves, pillaging the districts of any city you can't take for yourself and generally using the bonuses as selfishly as possible. You won't get to take advantage of the alliance point or common-war strength bonus, but you will have a lot more flexibility to use the other bonuses.

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 works well even despite the fact the +4 strength bonus doesn't apply to War-Carts. The experience boost has good synergy with Gilgamesh's leader ability, ensuring you're getting equal or more experience from joint wars as the other civ is. Furthermore, if you end up with a load of Warriors or Swordsmen by levying city-state units, the strength bonus will come in handy.

Complement this with the Warlord's Throne building. It provides a 20% production bonus in all your cities for five turns after taking a city - something you should be doing a lot early in the game.

Tier Two

Monarchy is a good choice due to its 50% bonus to influence point generation, which helps you secure city-state alliances, as well as its balanced policy card arrangement.

The Foreign Ministry is an effective choice for a Government Complex building. In conjunction with Gilgamesh's leader ability, it makes it extremely cheap to levy city-state units, and gives those units a +4 strength boost as well.

Tier Three

If you're still going to war, Fascism offers plenty of bonuses to fit that. Otherwise, use Communism for a scientific game or Democracy to for diplomacy.

The War Department is your best choice of tier three government building for a domination game, and the Royal Society will cut a few turns off launching the spaceship. For a diplomatic game, the War Department is preferable if you're still involved in joint wars.

Tier Four

Corporate Libertarianism is best for a domination game and Synthetic Technocracy for a scientific game. As for diplomacy, Digital Democracy is good if you're not still getting involved in joint wars, or Synthetic Technocracy if you are, given it offers a good versatile bonus without the strength penalty Digital Democracy has.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Discipline (Military, requires Code of Laws) - As long as there's Barbarians left in the world, your quest will be to track down their evil Encampments and destroy them. This strength bonus will really help with that.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - The more Ziggurats you build, the fewer Builder charges you have left over for other improvements. Take this policy card and you don't have to worry so much about that.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Keeping hold of cities you capture very early on can be difficult, so it may be necessary to use this policy card for a little extra loyalty.

Manoeuvre (Military, requires Military Tradition) - Get War-Carts up at a rapid rate. If you're playing multiplayer, now's the time to apologise for the devastation you're about to unleash.

Classical Era

Charismatic Leader (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - The more city-states you're suzerain over, the easier it is to use Gilgamesh's leader ability.

Diplomatic League (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - City-states need just three envoys for you to become suzerain over it, assuming no competition. This policy card essentially cuts it to two.

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) - If you're in war to profit rather than to conquer, or simply want to share the rewards of pillaging with your friends, this policy card will help out with that.

Medieval Era

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - By the time they obsolete, you'll have a very large number of War-Carts. Take this policy card, and you can much more affordably upgrade them into Knights.

Retinues (Military, requires Mercenaries) - If you lack iron but need to upgrade War-Carts, this policy card will help.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Any places you conquered can now be more rapidly developed the way you want it - with lots of Ziggurats.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Want to develop alliances even faster? This policy card will help with that.

Industrial Era

Total War (Military, requires Scorched Earth) - When it comes to ripping apart the livelihood of a nation, we all need to learn to share. Increase your pillaging rewards, and your friends will thank you. See, when we share, everyone's happy!

Atomic Era

After Action Reports (Military, requires Rapid Deployment) - Gain experience at a faster rate with this policy card, helping you get new units up to the standards of your highly-promoted older ones sooner.

Administration - Age Bonuses and World Congress

Age Bonuses

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

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Tribal villages and Barbarian Encampments can sometimes be a source of eureka boosts, and you can make those even stronger.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Getting a classical-era Dark Age isn't really viable as Sumeria, but a medieval-era Dark Age is possible. Build Ziggurats in any cities with Holy Sites you've captured, and enjoy a huge boost to science.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Tribal villages and Barbarian Encampments can sometimes be a source of inspiration boosts, and you can make those even stronger.

Elite Forces (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - Gain experience even faster from your allies' warfare - though make sure you have enough cash to cover the high cost.

Sky and Stars (Golden Age, Information to Future eras) - If your closest units to your war-allies are air units, they can gain even more experience. Also enjoy a selection of eurekas to complement Ziggurat science.

World Congress

How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

City-State Emergency - Vote in favour if you think at least one other civ will

A city-state emergency is an easy way to get into a common war with another civ, allowing you to enjoy lots of experience and pillaging rewards.

Mercenary Companies - Effect A (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type costs 100% more until the next World Congress) on production or any other yield you think other civs are likely to use.

The trick here is to use upgraded ex-War-Carts or levied city-state units to fight, while your opponents struggle to put together a defence.

Military Emergency - Vote in favour if you think at least one other civ will

Another good option for starting a war alongside another civ.

Public Relations - Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) on yourself.

This allows you to take more in warfare without jeopardising your alliances.

Trade Policy - Effect A (Trade routes sent to the chosen player provide +4 gold to the sender. The chosen player receives +1 trade route capacity.) on yourself

Encourages allies to send trade routes to you, increasing your alliance point generation.

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

God of the Forge - Produce War-Carts at even faster rates.

Initiation Rites - Sumeria's civ ability encourages you to take out Barbarian Encampments. This pantheon makes it even more rewarding by offering faith and a full heal every time.

Religious Beliefs

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

Religious Unity (Enhancer) - Gives you a head start on becoming suzerain over city-states.

City-States

Akkad (Militaristic) - City-states love to train melee infantry units, and if you're levying them to help out in wars, it's nice to be able to take out cities easily with them.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Gain experience faster, and share it with your friends! Note that this bonus only applies to battles you initiate, so you won't get any more XP from battles your nearby friends initiate.

Taruga (Scientific) - Taruga can magnify the science output of Ziggurat-heavy cities.

Wolin (Militaristic) - Helps you gain Great Generals as you fight, ensuring that once you upgrade War-Carts to Knights you'll have a speed and strength boost ready.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Etemenanki (Ancient era, Writing technology) - Floodplain Ziggurat tiles in this city will provide an impressive early science yield, with culture and production on top. It'll probably be hard to build the wonder yourself, but certainly look to capture it if you can.

Great Bath (Ancient era, Pottery technology) - You'll want to capture rather than build this wonder given how early it arrives. Avoiding flood damage keeps the city's Ziggurats safe, and gaining extra faith on those tiles over time makes them even better.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - Getting extra Builder charges means you can get Ziggurats built without neglecting to improve key resources.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - A source of envoys to help you secure suzerain status over city-states, allowing you to levy their units later.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - You might have quite a lot of War-Carts by this point, so all the free promotions from this wonder will be quite powerful. Not just in terms of making the units stronger, but also by allowing all your units to heal 50 health from applying a promotion.

Kilwa Kisiwani (Medieval era, Machinery technology) - Aside from helping you secure suzerain status over a city-state with the three envoys it grants you, this wonder also offers a 15% science boost if you're suzerain over a scientific city-state, or a 15% culture boost if you're suzerain over a cultural city-state - either one of which is great if you can build this wonder in a city with a lot of Ziggurats. If you're suzerain over at least two city-states of the same type, the 15% bonus becomes empire-wide, potentially giving you a considerable science and/or culture advantage.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - Got a tundra city with a lot of rivers? Building this wonder there will result in the city having a lot of good Ziggurat spots, with better yields than grassland or plains, and some bonus culture on top!

Országház (Industrial era, Sanitation technology) - If you're aiming to be suzerain over city-states anyway for the cheap levying, it helps to also get much more diplomatic favour from them.

Golden Gate Bridge (Modern era, Combustion technology) - Can grant a little more tourism from Ziggurats in the city.

Amundsen-Scott Research Station (Atomic era, Rapid Deployment civic) - A final science multiplier to help maximise the science you're gaining from Ziggurats.

Great People

Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.

Classical Era

Boudica (Great General) - Sometimes a Barbarian Encampment can be a little too much to handle - bring along Boudica and she can simply convert all the heathens (clearing the camp in the process if she's next to it).

Trưng Trắc (Great General) - Prolonged joint wars can strain amenities, so reducing war weariness at this early point in the game can be helpful.

Medieval Era

Himerios (Great Admiral) - Helps a naval unit gain experience faster - useful if they're near a war ally.

Piero de' Bardi (Great Merchant) - +1 envoy. Getting more envoys means you can be suzerain over more city-states; that goes well with Gilgamesh's leader ability.

Renaissance Era

Jakob Fugger (Great Merchant) - +2 envoys.

Zhou Daguan (Great Merchant) - +3 envoys in a specific city.

Industrial Era

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

Laskarina Bouboulina (Great Admiral) - Makes a naval unit gain experience faster.

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

Modern Era

John Monash (Great General) - Makes a land unit gain experience faster.

Matthew Perry (Great Admiral) - Secures you suzerain status over a city-state, regardless of how competitive it is.

Atomic Era

Sergai Gorshkov (Great Admiral) - Makes a naval unit gain experience faster.

Information Era

Clancy Fernando (Great Admiral) - Makes a naval unit gain experience faster.

Vijaya Wimalaratne (Great General) - Makes a land unit gain experience faster.

Counter-Strategies

The frightening early power of Sumeria makes a difficult foe to face, but beyond that point, Sumeria can be a manageable opponent.

Civilization Ability: Epic Quest

Tribal village rewards from Barbarian encampments

Put simply, the fewer Barbarian encampments Sumeria destroys, the fewer rewards they receive. There's a few ways to achieve this:

1. Take out Barbarian encampments before Sumeria can reach them. This requires you to be able to commit some moderately fast units. Consider leaving Sumeria to do the hard work of fighting Barbarians, so you can get the last couple of hits.
   
2. Settle as much land as possible so Barbarian encampments won't appear, or you can block Sumeria off from potential Barbarian encampment spots.
   
3. Keep as much land visible as possible - land that's under the visibility of any civ or city-state will not spawn Barbarian encampments. This is also a good strategy for making sure you know when enemy armies might be approaching your cities.

Half-price city-state levying

The easiest way of stopping Sumeria from levying city-state units is to directly declare war on the city-states in question, then either kill all their units, or capture the city. Keep in mind, however, Sumeria will get a Protectorate casus belli against you if you do that after they have the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic, and taking the city might cause a city-state emergency against you if you have insufficient diplomatic favour to vote it down.

If you notice any of Sumeria's units having a +4 strength boost from being levied, that means Sumeria took the Foreign Ministry Government Complex building instead of the others of the same tier. While that does mean they can levy city-state armies at a low cost, it also means they won't be enjoying the bonus Spy from the Intelligence Agency, which can make them more vulnerable to Spies than many other science-oriented civs.

Gilgamesh's Leader Ability: Adventures with Enkidu

Getting along with Gilgamesh not only avoids the prospect of being on the receiving end of War-Cart armies, but also allows you to share the spoils of war. You might want to consider sending a joint war proposal early on or a friendship request to ensure you're on the same side in early conflicts - this can help buy you time to build up better defences.

If you are fighting side-by-side with Sumeria, you'll get to share experience and pillaging rewards. Even if you don't want to commit to the war, you can always send a Scout or cavalry unit over and keep a safe distance from the actual fighting so you can benefit from pillaging rewards without much risk.

If you can secure an alliance with Sumeria, any time you're in a common war with them you'll gain bonus alliance points. Again, you don't strictly need to commit to these wars unless they're defensive in nature. If your alliance is a military one, then both you and Sumeria will receive a useful +5 strength boost for being in a common war as well.

If you're playing as a militaristic civ opposed to Sumeria, consider attacking them directly before you attack any of their allies. They have some incentives to protect their friends, but their friends don't have so much of an incentive to protect them. That being said, fighting Sumeria while they are allied to another civ will put you against Sumeria's +5 strength bonus so be prepared to take more units than usual.

Gilgamesh's Agenda: Ally of Enkidu

Gilgamesh in AI control is extremely easy to befriend (often at neutral diplomatic status and even sometimes unfriendly, he'll accept declaration of friendship requests). Those friendships are easy to keep as he has a relations boost with declared friends on top of the default one. However, he hates those who denounce or declare war on his own friends and allies.

Aside from warmongers, pretty much anyone can get along with Gilgamesh. That really helps if you want to secure an alliance later, or just have a reliable trading partner.

If you're playing against Gilgamesh, it may be a good idea to attack him directly before you declare war on his allies - they're less likely to support him than vice versa.

Furthermore, Gilgamesh will never have the Darwinist agenda, so he's won't be inclined to like civs at war.

Unique Unit: War-Cart

If Sumeria starts near you, drop everything and prepare your defences. War-Carts are among the trickiest foes to fight in the game and it's better to slow down your start than to lose it all by being unprepared.

Once you have Horsemen or Swordsmen, you should be fairly safe. But until then, you've got quite an uphill struggle. Warriors have a 10 strength disadvantage against War Carts, though if you place them on rough terrain, and consider their lower production cost relative to War Carts, it gets a bit more manageable.

Archers offer a reasonable option once you have them. Their promotions against land units help against War-Carts (unlike anti-cavalry bonuses like the ones Spearmen have) and they cost about the same so you don't need to worry too much about being disadvantaged in an attrition war.

Remember that expansion is still important. If you can't make new cities, eventually Sumeria will overwhelm you with the combined production of multiple cities. Expanding into rough terrain is a good idea, as War-Carts perform less effectively there.

Ultimately, the best strategy against War-Carts (aside from preventing there being a war in the first place) is slowing the war down. The slower Sumeria's war is, the more time you buy yourself and the better chance you have of getting a unit that can resist them more effectively. Sometimes, distraction tactics can help. Sparing a Scout to run into their lands and pillage their improvements can encourage Sumeria to keep some War-Carts at home and not right on your capital's doorstep. Luring Sumeria into a Barbarian encampment might distract them by encouraging them to finish it off rather than fight you.

Unique Improvement: Ziggurat

The lovely thing about Ziggurats is they're so great for pillaging. They have to be constructed in open land, making them really accessible, and they give you gold each time. You don't keep unique improvements when you capture a city, so go ahead and burn them down.

If you want to go on a pillaging spree against Sumeria, a good time to start is once War Carts start becoming outdated. Horsemen are good pillagers, though they only have a 6 strength advantage against War Carts. Knights can resist them much more effectively.

Assuming you can't burn them down, consider that Sumeria's high science comes at the cost of working other improvements. That can result in them having relatively low production, so they might not be as competitive in wonder races as you might immediately think.

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Gathering Storm

Compilation Guides

• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

Individual Civilization Guides

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

Rise and Fall

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.

Vanilla

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.

[Zigzagzigal]

The issue with that is it requires using precious district capacity on Holy Sites at the expense of more directly relevant districts. It also tends to result in poor Holy Site adjacency bonuses as riverside spots seldom have the best yields. Still, the pantheon works very well for the Khmer.

[Starkman Jones]

Seeing as it was recently buffed and Sumeria has a strong bias to rivers - would River Godess pantheon be a solid choice for them? It helps their early cities grow bigger which can support more Ziggs for more Science and Culture