Zigzagzigal's Guides - Poland (GS)

A complex and versatile civ, Poland offers tools to help with the cultural, domination and religious games alike. Here, I detail Polish 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.

Our Commonwealth enters a brave new world. Although we start in this world anew, we are not yet lost. From humble beginnings, once more shall we trade across the plains, once more shall the Winged Hussars ride on, and once more shall the true faith spread through our lands. But our potential requires the will to achieve it; the ability to balance a myriad of competing pressures, to balance our many strengths. To neglect a part of what we are capable of is to neglect the whole.

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

Poland has no start bias.

Civilization Ability: Golden Liberty

• One military policy card slot is converted into a wildcard slot, assuming your government contains at least one.
  
• Constructing an Encampment district or a fort improvement within your own territory causes a culture bomb, granting you all surrounding tiles.
  
  • Only tiles that are within the workable range of the tile's city will be granted (in other words, they must be within a 3-tile radius from the city centre).
    
  • This includes tiles from other civs, but will incur a diplomatic penalty if you steal tiles off them this way. Taking land from city-states has no penalty.
    
  • Tiles stolen containing non-unique tile improvements will retain them.
    
  • Tiles containing completed districts, wonders or national parks will not be stolen, but incomplete ones will be, destroying them.

Jadwiga's Leader Ability: Lithuanian Union

• Holy Sites receive +1 faith per adjacent district, instead of from every two
  
• Relics provide +4 gold, +2 faith and +2 culture each in addition to their usual yield of 4 faith and 8 religious tourism.
  
  • The faith bonus is affected by the Reliquaries belief but not the Kandy city-state.
• If you take land off another civ's city via a culture bomb, it converts to your founded religion, or the religion that is present in the majority of your cities if you have not founded a religion.

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar

A renaissance-era heavy cavalry unit which replaces the Cuirassier

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Mercantilism Civic Renaissance era	Combustion ** Technology Modern era	Knight (230 10 )	Tank (310 1 )	330 or 1320 or 660 *	10	5

*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 no access to oil, you may continue to train Winged Hussars even beyond researching the Combustion technology.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
64	N/A	4	N/A	2	Deals -85% damage to city walls and urban defences	Ignores Zone of Control Knocks back defeated units when attacking.

Variable changes

• Unlocks at the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic instead of the industrial-era Ballistics technology
  
  • This change means Winged Hussars will benefit from medieval-era Great Generals, but not industrial-era ones unlike generic Cuirassiers.

Positive changes

• Requires 10 iron to train, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• When attacking, if the defending unit deals less damage than the Winged Hussar it retreats one tile either directly or diagonally backwards and the Winged Hussar advances into the space. If the unit can't manage that, it takes extra damage.
  
  • This ability works even for amphibious (embarked vs. land) attacks.
    
  • Units pushed into the coast will embark if possible.

Unique Building: Sukiennice

A classical-era Commercial Hub building which replaces the Market

Research	Prerequisites	Required to build	Cost	Maintenance	Base Pillage Yield
Currency Technology Classical era	Commercial Hub	Bank Stock Exchange	120 or 480	None	50

Fixed yields	Other yields	Citizen slots	Great Person points	Miscellaneous effects
2	+1 unless a Lighthouse is already present in the city Internal trade routes from this city provide +4 each International trade routes from this city provide +2 each	1 Merchant (4 if filled)	1	None

Positive changes

• Internal (domestic) trade routes from this city provide +4 gold each
  
  • This gold yield is not affected by transportation efficiency and hence won't be improved by the trade route crossing lakes, seas, railroads and mountain tunnels.
• International trade routes from this city provide +2 production each

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
Jadwiga	7/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)	8/10 (Good)	9/10 (Ideal)	5/10 (Decent)

Poland has a decent shot at early cultural victories thanks to their incentive to get plenty of relics, bonus to international trade route production (making it easier to get the 25% tourism bonus associated with it) and changes to government policy cards making Autocracy and Monarchy much easier to make use of. Autocracy can be used to help with early wonders, while Monarchy allows you to get more out of walls, which will offer tourism later in the game. The main problem is the reliance on things you can't guarantee on getting; sources of relics aren't reliable while you need the Reliquaries belief and Cristo Redentor wonder along with St. Basil's Cathedral to maximise their tourism.

The diplomacy game isn't bad for Poland. Turning a military policy card into a wildcard makes the Monarchy government (and its handy +50% influence points bonus) much easier to use. Extra gold from Sukiennices and relics helps you win aid emergencies.

Domination is a slightly more consistent path for Poland to take than culture, though you'll need the Crusade belief to bring Poland to their maximum potential. Winged Hussars are very strong when they arrive, decent through the renaissance era and can even perform reasonably well into the early industrial era. Meanwhile, taking land off enemy cities via forts or Encampments can give you an advantage in war - having tiles your units can heal up in closer to the enemy city helps put pressure on them. Converting the city will grant bonus era score, helping you maintain a Golden Age and its loyalty advantages, and converting them in conjunction with the Crusade belief can provide you with a significant strength advantage.

Religious victory, however, is Poland's most effective route. Having a wildcard slot available early in the game allows you to pick up Revelation for a better chance at getting an early Great Prophet. Bonus faith from relics and Holy Sites is useful for the religious game in general, and converting cities via culture bombs can save a significant amount of faith. Converting a military policy card to a wildcard lets you squeeze in more religious bonuses in the Theocracy government. If all that wasn't enough, international trade from Sukiennice cities provides bonus production meaning you can more easily make use of trade-based religious spread.

Science is one of Poland's weaker victory paths, though it's not terrible. Culture bombs can help you take mountains off other civs for better Campus districts, and a good faith output can be used with the Jesuit Education belief to buy science buildings with, while an early wildcard slot can help you use Mysticism's Inspiration policy card (+2 Great Scientist points per turn) earlier than most civs.

Civilization Ability: Golden Liberty (Part 1/2)

Why choose when you can have both?

Poland's civ ability brings gameplay elements normally tied to warfare to be useful for any kind of playstyle.

One military card becomes a wildcard

This aspect of Poland's civ ability can be thought of as a lighter version of Greece's civ ability, and can enable many of the same strategies. However, it comes at the cost of a military card slot.

Starting Out

Once you have Code of Laws, you can have both God-King and Urban Planning at the same time, giving you both decent production and a head start on forming a pantheon. Passing up Discipline does mean you'll have a trickier time with Barbarians, so make sure you don't neglect your military too much as you expand your empire. A few Slingers (which you can upgrade to Archers soon enough) will get the job done.

And expand your empire you should! Winged Hussars are one of the few UUs to arrive on the civics tree, and early in the game, the best way of obtaining culture is to expand your empire and construct plenty of Monuments. Having lots of cities will be great for maximising your faith output as well.

Although you'll want to get to Mercantilism on the civics tree reasonably early, first make a beeline to Mysticism so you can use the Revelation policy card before nearly every other civ. With it and a Holy Site district in one of your cities, you can usually secure one of the first religions without having to spend too much production and time on religious infrastructure early in the game. Be sure to take the Reliquaries and Crusade beliefs - Jadwiga has strong synergy with them both.

Government Choices

Once you reach Political Philosophy, you have a choice of three different governments. Classical Republic is fine due to its bonuses to Great Person Points and amenities. Autocracy neatly grants a boost to all yields in your capital and Government Plaza city, and offers an extra wildcard for Poland relative to Classical Republic.

Once you move onto a new government, Poland is more able to squeeze in the legacy card of the previous government. This is particularly useful during Dark Ages, as it allows you to take a legacy card and Dark Age policy simultaneously, such as Autocratic Legacy and Isolationism.

The second tier of governments comes in the late-medieval or early renaissance eras. All three are of use to Poland; Monarchy's has three wildcards for Poland and is unlocked at the same civic as Chivalry (needed to boost the production of your Winged Hussars) while it has the most wildcard slots, Merchant Republic is a well-rounded government type, and Theocracy works well when playing the religious game.

As for the modern-era governments, Poland's civ ability is a little less impactful by that point, but it's still nice to have greater flexibility than most other civs. With the Democracy government for example, you can take six economic policy cards at once - great for supporting religious development late in the game. Fascism gains a little more flexibility, particularly for times you're out of combat between wars, and Communism gets a policy card arrangement more suited for peaceful play.

Regarding information-era governments, having one extra wildcard on top of all the existing ones makes a relatively small difference, but considering all future-era policy cards are wildcards, the ability could allow you to slip one more in when you otherwise couldn't. Try using Corporate Libertarianism for a domination game - Poland's incentive to build Commercial Hubs and Encampments goes well with the production bonus it offers. With an extra wildcard, it can also work quite well for a cultural game if there's things left to produce like wonders or Theatre Square Performance city projects. For a religious game, take Synthetic Technocracy and use spare city production for Holy Site Prayers projects.

Civilization Ability: Golden Liberty (Part 2/2)

Culture Bombs

Sorry, I need that marsh.

Your neighbours purchasing land too close to you? Or maybe you just want a foothold you can attack them from later? Poland has the solution!

Poland can take land off other civs by constructing Encampments and forts on the edge of your territory, although you can only gain tiles within the workable range of one of your cities that way, and you can't take completed districts or wonders.

Encampments

Until the renaissance era, the only unique culture bomb Poland can activate applies when Encampment districts are finished.

Encampments can't be placed adjacent to your city centre, and you won't gain many (if any) tiles if they're three tiles away from the city centre, so consider going for a spot two tiles away from the centre that'll give you lots of land. Placing Encampments in the second ring of a city's workable area not only gives you the most tiles - it also leaves a gap between the district and your city centre that's perfect for placing a Holy Site. That Holy Site will start with at least a +2 faith yield thanks to Jadwiga's leader ability.

There is a significant catch, however. Poland has a lot of other districts competing for attention, and the culture bomb bonus alone isn't really worth building Encampments for. You'll want Commercial Hubs for your UB, Holy Sites for faith and Campuses for science, so it might be a good idea to only build 1-2 Encampments in your empire prior to the arrival of Winged Hussars. You'll want at least one city with an Armoury so you can train Military Engineers, and you'll want to secure a medieval or renaissance-era Great General to boost your Winged Hussars' speed and strength, but otherwise, you won't need Encampments early on.

Forts

Once you have the medieval-era Military Engineering technology, you can train or purchase Military Engineers in cities which contain an Armoury. With the renaissance-era Siege Tactics technology, those Military Engineers may construct forts. This requires quite a heavy research investment, so once you've got hold of Currency (for Sukiennices) and any useful Builder technologies, focus on getting those two technologies as soon as you can.

Culture bombing with forts can be a powerful tool to grab land you really have no business taking. You can push back the front lines in war, push another civ's city out of natural wonders, get payback for a city buying a luxury tile before you could quite reach it or even destroy another civ's wonder progress by taking the tile!


I own a tile directly next to Paris thanks to fort culture bombs. This offers a safe angle of attack, as my units can heal for 15HP per turn there if they get injured - or to full health with Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Laying on of Hands promotion present in the tile's new city.

An even more powerful use comes with Jadwiga's leader ability, as you can use fort culture bombs to instantly convert cities of other civs. If you can position your Military Engineers so their fort culture bomb takes tiles from more than one rival city, you can get two conversions for the price of one! This helps you get more out of your Military Engineers, especially considering their high initial cost (170 production, or 85 production per charge).

Later in the game, Military Engineers become more manageable in cost, and you can afford to be a little more reckless in your usage. Settling colony cities on foreign continents and taking land off other civs with forts can be very effective. Just be aware that you're not going to win many friends that way.

Further Reading: The Origin of the Culture Bomb

The "culture bomb" terminology used in Civ 6 might be confusing to a player unfamiliar with the series, considering it doesn't actually involve the culture yield.

The term originates from Civ 4. Rather than claiming land on a tile-by-tile basis, cities would expand the radius of their borders once they reached certain culture thresholds. Cities with very high amounts of culture could even flip the tiles of those owned by other nearby civs to their side. Great Artists could be expended to produce a high quantity of culture, which would also rapidly expand the city's borders in the process and could often capture a lot of tiles off other civs. "Culture bombing" became a fan nickname for this function of Great Artists.

In the base game of Civ 5, Great Artists had an ability literally called a "culture bomb" allowing you to expend them to claim all surrounding tiles, including those owned by other civs. While sharing the land-grabbing ability of the Civ 4 counterpart and also being tied to Great Artists, this notably differed by no longer offering you culture.

The Gods and Kings expansion of Civ 5 changed the mechanic of culture bombs, giving Great Generals the ability when they were expended to construct a Citadel (a kind of super-fort) but removing the culture bombing functionality from Great Artists. Poland's culture bombing abilities for Encampments and forts can be considered a successor to this functionality.

Summary

• Take both God-King and Urban Planning once you have the Code of Laws civic finished for both good production and a fast pantheon
  
• Beeline the Mysticism civic for the Revelation wildcard and a much better shot at founding a religion
  
• Build Encampments in a city's second ring to claim more tiles, but avoid building more than a couple early on as you need district capacity for other things.
  
• Use forts to take land in war-time, giving you a tactical advantage.
  
• Try to take the Crusade belief so culture bombing in war is even more effective

Jadwiga's Leader Ability: Lithuanian Union (Part 1/2)

The Reliquaries belief triples faith and tourism of relics - and even applies to Jadwiga's bonus faith, making a very powerful relic indeed!

Jadwiga sets out Poland's advantages to the religious game, which makes it all the more important you found your own religion. Take the Revelation policy card at Mysticism and construct one or two Holy Sites and that should suffice.

Double Holy Site District Adjacency

Most other civs would only get a +2 faith bonus here.

Poland gets as much Holy Site adjacency from other districts as they do from mountains. Although at the very most that's a +3 faith bonus relative to normal (and usually it's only worth one or two extra points of faith), it nonetheless takes a lot of pressure off finding the best spots. Poland should expand rapidly early in the game to maximise Monument culture, and this little bonus means you won't be punished for expanding into mountain-free terrain.

Aside from your first Holy Site or two to ensure you can grab a religion, consider holding off building more until you need additional Temples for relic slots. That's because you'll need some spare district capacity for Commercial Hubs and a couple of Encampments.

If you're not taking the Reliquaries follower belief for better relics, consider taking Work Ethic so your stronger Holy Sites can provide more production as well.

Relic Bonuses

Introduction

Along with Kongo and Sweden, Poland is one of three civs to receive bonuses associated with relics. While Kongo has difficulty generating and storing relics but makes particularly strong ones, and Sweden can double their yields with theming bonuses, Poland falls somewhere in the middle with a range of yields (like Kongo) but no particular disadvantages to generating them (like Sweden).

Amassing Relics

To collect relics, you'll first need somewhere to store them (Temples in Holy Site districts are the easiest option), and to perform any of the following actions to create them:

• Discover one randomly in tribal villages
  
• Be suzerain over Kandy (a religious city-state), then discover a natural wonder
  
• Have an Apostle with the Martyr promotion die in theological combat (the most common method)
  
  • You can guarantee new Apostles get this promotion with either the Mont St. Michel wonder or being suzerain over Yerevan, a religious city-state.
    
  • If neither of those are an option, purchasing an Apostle in a city where Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Patron Saint promotion is present will increase the chance you get to choose the promotion.
• Win a Religious Emergency as a coalition member. Keep in mind that all other members of the emergency will also be granted a relic - you can try trading for it or capturing the city they decide to store it in.
  
• Retire the renaissance-era Great General Jeanne D'arc. Unlike other sources of relics this can only be done once.

After the Mercantilism civic for Winged Hussars, if you have enough spare production and faith, consider heading to Divine Right next for the Mont St. Michel wonder and the guarantee that every killed Apostle creates a powerful relic. By that point, you should have enough religious rivals that theological combat becomes possible.

A unit that dies in theological combat will drop its religious pressure in nearby cities, while the victorious unit gains religious pressure in those cities. As such, try to use up all but one of an Apostle's spread religion charges before you start theological combat to counteract this loss of pressure, and to make the most of your faith.

If no-one is countering your Apostles with Inquisitors or Apostles of their own, try keeping some one-charge Apostles in their territory just in case while you flood their lands with Missionaries. Either they'll have to let you convert their land, or they'll have to start producing religious units of their own. This is a very powerful tactic if you're doing well in both tourism and in progress towards religious victory, as it forces your opponents to help you with one or the other. Having the Crusade belief in your religion will make them think again about taking the third option of declaring war on you.

Watch out for the World Religion resolution in the World Congress. One of the options allows other civs to condemn your religious units even without declaring war. A condemned Apostle will never create a relic.

Relic Rewards

Relics produce +4 faith and +8 religious tourism by default. For Poland, they'll create bonus faith, some culture and gold on top, for a total yield of 8 religious tourism, 6 faith, 4 gold and 2 culture.

The tourism yield of relics is high relative to other sources early in the game, so even though Poland doesn't have an advantage to relic tourism, it's worth keeping it in mind. Relics by default offer +8 tourism, though this is halved against civs not following your religion, and halved again against civs with the renaissance-era Enlightenment civic. Still, with the Reliquaries belief, it's up to +24 base tourism, and if you can secure the St. Basil's Cathedral wonder, all stored in its city are worth a massive +48 tourism. The modern-era Cristo Redentor wonder cancels out the halving of religious tourism against civs with the Enlightenment civic.

Taking the Reliquaries belief also triples relic faith yields - for Poland, this means every single one is worth a massive +18 faith per turn. You can reinvest this faith into additional Apostles, or perhaps into purchasing civilian units (with the Monumentality Golden Age dedication) or military units (with the Grand Masters' Chapel building in the Government Plaza district).


With enough relics, you can build up quite a faith advantage.

Polish relics also offer as much culture as a Monument in a fully-loyal city. For non-cultural games, this allows you to keep up in the civics tree without needing to use precious district capacity on Theatre Squares. For cultural games, it's an extra little help through the civics tree. Generally speaking, it's difficult to use the culture bonus to help you on the way to Mercantilism for Winged Hussars, but these other applications are still helpful.

Finally, Polish relics are worth +4 gold each - almost enough enough to cover the maintenance cost of a Winged Hussar. Together with gold from the Sukiennice UB, you can support a much bigger army than you might otherwise be able to, or else use the excess gold to purchase religious and cultural buildings.

Jadwiga's Leader Ability: Lithuanian Union (Part 2/2)

Culture Bomb Conversions

Two conversions in one go!

Introduction

Every time Poland performs a culture bomb, cities that lose land will be converted to Poland's religion. With the right beliefs, this can be devastatingly effective - especially in war-time.

Causing a culture bomb

Poland has two unique ways to cause a culture bomb - building Encampments and building Forts. But there's a number of alternative methods as well:

• Completing any district if you are the current target of Effect A of the Border Control Treaty World Congress resolution.
  
• Completing Holy Sites if you have the Burial Grounds enhancer belief.
  
• Completing Industrial Zones after activating the renaissance-era Great Engineer Mimar Sinan

To use these culture bombs quickly, use Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to purchase districts with faith, or Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to purchase districts with gold.

Still, on the whole you'll want to use forts as your main source of culture bombs, as they're much cheaper and faster to build.

Conversion

When you culture-bomb cities of other civs, you'll convert them to your religion. This is notable because you don't need to expend faith to do that, and that you can do that effectively even in the middle of a war. Converting a city of another religion in war-time grants you 3 era score every single time, which can secure you a Golden Age quite easily if repeated multiple times.

When bringing a Military Engineer to the front lines, consider bringing a Builder as well in case there's any woods or rainforest you need to remove before a fort can be placed. Though Military Engineers can clear them as well for a build charge, Builder charges are generally less valuable. To save on production, try to build forts so they take tiles from two different enemy cities simultaneously. To work out which tiles belong to what cities, hover over them with your mouse cursor.

Try to get the Crusade belief in your religion. In war, you can construct forts on the front line to push back enemy territory while also giving yourself a powerful strength boost. Winged Hussars boosted by Crusade have an incredible 65 strength, which is better than a Cuirassier!


This city didn't cause much trouble for me.

If you can't manage to get the Crusade belief, Defender of the Faith can be reasonably good as well. Once you've converted a city and captured it, it'll be harder for the other civ to take it back again.

One challenge in warfare is dealing with loyalty pressure from the enemy civ's remaining cities. Thankfully, cities you own following your religion have a +3 loyalty bonus. This means not only will converting cities make them easier to capture, but easier to hold onto as well.

If you're not so interested in war, consider taking the Pilgrimage belief so you all these fort conversions give you extra faith - directly helping your religious aims.

Summary

• You don't need to worry so much about terrain adjacency much when placing Holy Sites; district adjacency is nearly always as good.
  
• Try to get the Mont St. Michel wonder so you can easily obtain lots of relics, and St. Basil's Cathedral and Cristo Redentor to make them even more powerful.
  
• Take the Reliquaries belief to triple the faith and tourism yields of your relics.
  
• Use forts for cost-effective culture bombs.
  
• Use the Crusade belief so culture bomb conversions can give you a huge wartime advantage.

Unique Building: Sukiennice

There are two main types of trade routes: internal and international. Early in the game, internal trade is great for food and production, while international trade is great for gold and also offers tourism and religious pressure bonuses against the target civ. The Sukiennice UB blurs the lines between the two by giving internal trade routes bonus gold, and international routes a reasonable production boost.

Now, this sounds great, but there's a bit of a catch. Trade routes used for the sake of extra production or food are most effective in new cities, but new cities won't have this UB yet. You can try and balance your distribution of boosted routes and routes in new cities, or alternatively use Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion or Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to buy Commercial Hubs in new cities, purchase the Sukiennice as well, buy a Trader and get the new city trading immediately.

Internal Trade

The +4 gold from "other" bonuses is the Sukiennice in action.

Extra gold for internal trade routes is most effective in war-time, where you need gold to support an army but don't necessarily have any good trading partners. You can have the benefits of a strong economy while having trade routes that are safe from pillagers. 4 gold also neatly covers the maintenance cost of a Winged Hussar unit.

If you fall into a pre-modern Dark Age, you may use the Isolationism Dark Age wildcard. It adds +2 food and production to all domestic trade routes but stops you from founding new cities. That's really helpful if you're preparing for war or have already started one.

International Trade

Extra production for international trade routes is good for cultural and religious players alike, and will be great for anyone once the bonuses from trading with an ally come into play from the Civil Service civic onwards.

If you have at least one trade route with another civ, you'll have a 25% tourism boost against them - considering Poland's incentive to get lots of relics, you could potentially win an early victory this way. Normally, cultural civs are somewhat discouraged from international trade at first because it doesn't offer much production, which is crucial for constructing wonders. Poland, however, can trade with other civs and get roughly the same amount of production as they'd get trading internally. Admittedly, the food yields are worse, but the fact you don't need to settle in mountainous areas for good Holy Sites can lead you to plenty of good open land for farms.

For the religious game, international trading can complement your Missionaries, Apostles and culture bombs as a means of providing religious pressure. You'll still have production to help produce your Winged Hussars, districts and Military Engineers with, so you can push for empire development and religious spread at the same time.

With the medieval-era Civil Service civic, you can form alliances with other civs; most alliance types boost your trade route yields for trading with your ally. The Wisselbanken diplomatic policy card (available at the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic) and the modern-era Democracy government both boost your trade yields with allies further by adding extra production and food to them.

Summary

• For warmongers, internal trade will produce enough gold to support warfare.
  
• For cultural or religious civs, you can trade externally for bonus tourism or reliigous pressure, and still receive decent amounts of production.

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar (Part 1/2)

Winged Hussars bring all the power of Cuirassiers half an era early with excellent tactical utility thanks to their ability to knock back defeated foes.

Getting to Winged Hussars

Unusually among UUs, Winged Hussars are unlocked through the civics tree rather than through technology. This means you can be competitive on the battlefield while still having a surprising amount of flexibility over what to research. That being said, you'll want Astrology for a Holy Site, Currency for Sukinniences, Military Engineering for, well, Military Engineers, and Siege Tactics for forts, but keeping to this technology path isn't quite as crucial as it would be if your UU was at the end of it. It also helps to get Stirrups for Knights, allowing you to instantly upgrade them to Winged Hussars once you have the Mercantilism civic.

You'll also need iron to train Winged Hussars - that's revealed at the ancient-era Bronze Working technology. If you've been expanding reasonably quickly early on, you'll usually have a sufficient supply of it.

To maximise your culture output, dedicate a lot of your production early on to training Settlers and then have as many cities as possible building Monuments.

First of all in the civics tree, head to Mysticism so you can use the Revelation policy card. Here's what you need:

• Code of Laws
  
• Foreign Trade (Boost: Discover a foreign continent - Usually not too hard on larger maps or pangaea-type maps, but may prove difficult otherwise)
  
• Mysticism (Boost: Found a pantheon - By taking the God-King policy card after Code of Laws, you can usually get a pantheon in time.)

With that out the way, you'll want to get to Political Philosophy next for a better government. Here's what you need:

• Craftsmanship (Boost: Improve three tiles - Just one Builder will be enough for that)
  
• State Workforce (Boost: Build any district - You'll need at least one Holy Site to found a religion and things like Campuses and Commercial Hubs are good anyway)
  
• Early Empire (Boost: Grow your empire to a population of 6 - If you've not been neglecting expansion, this should be easy)
  
• Political Philosophy (Boost: Meet three city-states - Usually not a problem if you can dedicate at least one unit to exploration)

Next up is getting to Divine Right for the Monarchy government and Chivalry policy card. Getting a tier two government early gives you time to build the Grand Master's Chapel building, which lets you buy units (like Winged Hussars and Bombards) with faith. The Chivalry policy card lets you train Knights faster ready for upgrading to Winged Hussars (gold from Sukiennices helps) or simply train Winged Hussars themselves faster. Theocracy is also on the way, which allows you to build Temples and buy Apostles - and therefore start generating relics. While these two civics aren't on the way to Mercantilism, the detour isn't too long and the benefits should outweigh the drawbacks.

Here's what you'll need for this:

• Drama and Poetry (Boost: Build a wonder - you'll often have to skip this boost)
  
• Theology (Boost - Found a religion - you should be aiming for this anyway)
  
• Games and Recreation (Boost: Discover the Construction technology - Construction is on the way to Military Engineering, though it's hard to research it in time for the boost to Games and Recreation. Consider just researching this all the way if need be.)
  
• Defensive Tactics (Boost: Be the target of a declaration of war - Mainly out of your hands; you might have to hard-research this.)
  
• Recorded History (Boost: Have two Campus districts - Poland can perform well while neglecting science, so you might have difficulty achieving this boost)
  
• Civil Service (Boost: Have a city with at least 10 population - Requires enough food and housing. Internal trade routes can help, but don't be afraid to skip the boost if your cities aren't close enough to size 10.)
  
• Divine Right (Boost: Have two Temples. Two Holy Sites as Poland is usually enough to secure a religion, so there should be two cities primed to start building Temples. You'll need Temples for Apostles anyway)

With that done, there's only a few more civics to Mercantilism:

• Feudalism (Boost: Have six farms in your territory - A couple of Builders can get the job done.)
  
• Guilds (Boost: Have two Markets - Easily achieved given you'll want to build your UB anyway, which replaces the Market.)
  
• Medieval Faires (Boost: Have four active trade routes in your civ. With three Sukiennice buildings, you'll have enough trade route capacity for this; it shouldn't be too hard.)
  
• Humanism (Boost: Generate a Great Artist. You almost certainly won't get this boost, so just ignore it)
  
• Mercantilism (Boost: Generate a Great Merchant. Easily done thanks to your incentive to build Commercial Hubs)

With all that done, you'll be ready to unleash Winged Hussars on the world. You can train them directly (the Chivalry policy card makes them moderately affordable), buy them with faith via the Grand Master's Chapel building, or train Knights earlier on and upgrade them with the help of Sukiennice gold.

By the time you unlock Mercantilism, you shouldn't be far away from Military Engineering and Siege Tactics on the technology tree allowing you to use fort-based culture bombs. It'll also help to research Metal Casting so you can get some Bombards to deal with enemy city walls, given Winged Hussars are very ineffective against them.

The Strength of Winged Hussars

At 64 strength, the only units of the renaissance era stronger than Winged Hussars are Spain's Conquistador and potentially Sweden's Caroleans. That being said, the strength advantage of Winged Hussars won't last long as Ballistics, the technology normally required for them, is a relatively easy technology to beeline so enemy civs will have Cuirassiers of their own soon enough.

Cuirassiers are excellent at breaking entrenched enemy positions down, especially with the Charge (+10 strength versus fortified units) and Marauding (+7 strength versus units in districts) promotions, and Winged Hussars are no different. Alternatively, the other side of the promotion tree offers Barding and Rout, which are a bit less powerful but more versatile. Barding helps your Winged Hussars resist ranged attacks, while Rout makes them stronger against units on less than full health. Barding is particularly useful when sieging down cities as they'll be able to take more hits from city walls and garrisoned ranged units before needing to retreat.

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar (Part 2/2)

Knockback

If a Winged Hussar deals more damage than the unit it's attacking, the unit will either be pushed back a tile or take additional damage. The pushback isn't necessarily directly backwards - sometimes the defending unit will be moved diagonally. You can use this to keep enemy units away from tiles (or civilian units) they're trying to protect, or to push them into a tile that makes them easier to finish off (like open terrain). You can even exploit the fact Winged Hussars ignore Zone of Control to go behind the enemy unit and push them towards your units, allowing you to exploit flanking bonuses for even more damage.

Sometimes pushback can be a problem - pushing back an enemy unit might put them in a more defensive position, or put your unit into a more open one.

Without the Breakthrough promotion, Winged Hussars cannot move after attacking. This is important for the battles where you might not want to occupy the enemy's tile. If the enemy unit has more strength than the Winged Hussar, you should generally be fine, but if not, consider hitting them with ranged attacks instead, or retreating slightly so the enemy units need to come closer.


Pushing an land-based enemy into a water tile causes them to embark, if the civ in question has the ability to do so. Embarked units typically have lower defence than units that aren't embarked, allowing you to follow up with ranged attacks or by attacking those embarked units with naval units. This is particularly effective against ranged units, as they'll be unable to retaliate without spending a turn disembarking.

Speaking of embarked units, Winged Hussars can still provide the knockback effect when embarked and attacking a unit on land. Keep in mind that amphibious attacks have a -10 strength penalty attached to them, and you still need to deal more damage than you take to knock back the targeted enemy. This manoeuvre allows Winged Hussars to push into new continents more effectively than may otherwise be the case, and can also be helpful for pushing enemy siege units away from your naval units.

Knockback is particularly useful against Barbarians. You can use it to keep Barbarians from pillaging key tiles or Traders, and clear Barbarian Encampments with ease - even via an amphibious attack. However, Barbarian Encampments tend to house an anti-cavalry unit, so you may need additional strength (such as by forming the Winged Hussar into a corps) to be able to achieve the knockback effect.

Forming up

Winged Hussars are strong through the renaissance and industrial eras, but Pike and Shot corps and most modern-era units can be a threat.

If you want to carry on using the knockback function of Winged Hussars beyond the industial era, it helps to have as significant a strength advantage as possible - that's where forming them into corps helps. Poland's incentive to get plenty of culture early on will also help on the road to the industrial-era Nationalism civic, which enables the formation of corps. A Winged Hussar corps will have 74 strength, and in conjunction with the Crusade strength bonus will be able to push around Infantry.

The modern-era Mobilisation civic allows you to form Winged Hussars into armies. While this option isn't particularly cost-effective, it helps you retain the knockback functionality for even longer. With the Crusade belief, you'll be able to push around Mechanised Infantry and Tanks.

Once Winged Hussar armies no longer have a strength advantage against enemy units, it's time to upgrade them as their knockback functionality will no longer be functional.

Alternative Strategy: Civic Speedrun

By emphasising culture output above all else early on, Poland can sacrifice some of their overall potential to get even more out of the Winged Hussar unit. This is a risky strategy but one with potentially massive rewards.

Key distinctions of this strategy relative to typical Polish gameplay is:

• Aside from the capital (which will be busy training Settlers), new cities should first build a Monument, and get Holy Sites and Theatre Squares reasonably quickly.
  
• The only research detour on the way to Mercantilism is Mysticism.
  
• Always take Pingala (the Educator) as your first Governor, and give them the Connoisseur promotion.
  
• Your pantheon should either be Religious Settlements or one that directly offers culture.
  
• Your religion should have the Choral Music follower belief rather than Reliquaries, as it produces more culture. Also take the World Church founder belief.
  
• Neglect Campuses. You'll get science once you start conquering.

The flaws of this strategy are the loss of religious and cultural potential by de-emphasising relics, the vulnerability to an early rush by de-emphasising science and the lack of options to deal with enemy city walls.

Summary

• Settle plenty of cities early on and build Monuments for culture
  
• Use Winged Hussars' immunity to zone of control to move around enemy units and then push them where you want them
  
• Form Winged Hussars into corps and armies to preserve their knockback functionality for longer.

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

Autocracy performs well thanks to its decent array of policy cards as Poland, and its handy boost to all yields in your capital and Government Plaza city.

As for Government Plaza buildings, you've got some choice here. The Ancestral Hall helps speed up expansion, allowing you to build more Monuments and hence get to Winged Hussars faster. Alternatively, the Warlord's Throne makes your conquests boost the production of all your cities temporarily.

Tier Two

Monarchy unlocks at the same civic as the Chivalry policy card (needed to train Winged Hussars faster) and has the most wildcards, making it an excellent choice. Theocracy fits a cultural or religious playstyle best.

The Grand Master's Chapel allows you to buy Winged Hussars for 660 faith each (even less with Theocracy) or Bombards for 560 faith, which is a pretty fair cost even if it does mean giving up the potential for a few Missionaries and Inquisitors. You'll also get a bit of faith every time you pillage. The Intelligence Agency may be a more reliable choice if you can't spare the faith for purchasing military units as an extra Spy offers a lot of versatility.

Tier Three

Democracy's trade route bonus works well with the production from the Sukiennice UB. It also offers a huge number of potential economic policy card slots, ideal for cultural and religious games. But if you want to build more wonders, Communism's production and science bonuses are useful for a cultural game. For domination, take Fascism.

Cultural players will want the National History Museum building, while religious players and warmongers will generally prefer the War Department.

Tier Four

Corporate Libertarianism is good for cultural and domination games alike, as Poland's incentive to build both Encampments and Commercial Hubs means you can get a decent production bonus out of it. For a religious game, take Synthetic Technocracy and use spare city production for Holy Site Prayers projects.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Make your trading even more lucrative. Internal trade routes are now worth 6 gold each if from cities with your UB.

God-King (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - You can, and generally should, take both economic policy cards at Code of Laws. God-King can help you to secure an early pantheon. Once you're done with that, switch to something else.

Inspiration (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - Only Poland and Greece can use this card that early, which can be helpful if you want to work towards a couple of early Great Scientists. Still, you're usually better off using Revelation for a Great Prophet.

Revelation (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - Helps you get a Great Prophet without you having to worry too much about Holy Sites early in the game (you'll still need at least one though).

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - There's nothing particularly special about the effect itself for Poland, it's just that you can take both it and God-King at the start of the game so you can both have a nice productive start and be fast to a pantheon.

Classical Era

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Doubles Holy Site adjacency bonuses. Poland gets particularly good Holy Site adjacency, so you'll get more faith out of this than most.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - You'll need Armouries in order to train Military Engineers, but they can take a while to build. This policy card will really help with that. It'll also help if you just want to build Encampments for the culture bomb effect.

Medieval Era

Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Helps cut down the cost of new Winged Hussars considerably. Can also be used to quickly train Knights, ready for upgrading to Winged Hussars later.

Trade Confederation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - Adds some culture and science to international trade routes, to complement the Sukiennice production.

Renaissance Era

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Poland's bonus to Holy Site adjacency from other districts makes it easier to achieve the 3+ adjacency prerequisite for this policy card's full effect - making your Holy Site buildings produce extra faith.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Has great synergy with both the religious and trade aspects of Poland, making all trade routes offer a small amount of faith and a decent sum of gold on top of everything else.

Wars of Religion (Military, requires Reformed Church) - Complement Winged Hussar warfare with a strength bonus against civs following rival religions. If you're culture-bombing to convert 1-2 cities at a time, you generally won't flip the religion of the civ as a whole until they're too weak for you to need the bonus.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Got an ally? Great! Trade with them from a Sukiennice city for at least +4 production, +2 food, and a bunch of other bonuses.

Modern Era

Collectivisation (Economic, Communism only, requires Class Struggle) - Trade internally and you'll get a strong food and production yield as well as gold.

Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - Get even more out of international trade.

Their Finest Hour (Wildcard, Democracy only, requires Suffrage) - Strength bonuses can help extend the time Winged Hussars (and their knockback ability) are relevant for - even if you're just using it to push Barbarians away from your districts.

Information Era

Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - Boosts internal and international trade alike. Your internal routes from Sukiennice cities will produce at least 9 gold, and your external routes from them will produce at least 4 production, alongside a heap of other yields.

(Cultural) Onlne Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - Poland has less trouble switching from internal to international trade than most civs, making it easier to make use of this powerful tourism boost.

Administration - Age Bonuses and World Congress

Age Bonuses

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the Poland's uniques are covered here. Note that Poland's extra wildcard slot makes it easier to use (or even stack) Dark Age bonuses, while the ability to convert cities with culture bombs makes it much easier to achieve the +3 era score bonus for converting an enemy city while at war, in turn making it easier to achieve Golden Ages later in the game.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - While this can be useful if you found an early religion, it's most effective in the renaissance era in conjunction with culture bombing. Culture bomb a civ you're at war with and you could receive +5 era score. Get two cities in a single culture bomb, and you're looking at +10.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Poland's incentive to build a lot of Commercial Hubs can lead to a lot of science with this Golden Age dedication.

Isolationism (Dark Age, Classical to Industrial eras) - Even stronger internal trade routes is quite tempting when you already have the Sukiennice UB, but be sure you've already settled all the cities you need before taking this wildcard.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Got a bunch of early Holy Sites? Enjoy a lot of science as well! Watch out for the culture penalty, however - it'll make you take longer to reach Winged Hussars.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Culture bombing will be a major means in which you'll spread your religion, allowing you to spend faith on other things, such as Settlers, Builders and Traders via this Golden Age dedication.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A substantial boost to culture output which really helps cut down the time needed to reach Mercantilism and hence unlock Winged Hussars.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Winged Hussars are already better-suited for attack than defence, and the +5 attack bonus on offer here only builds on that. Just be sure to retreat any unit that gets too injured.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Poland's incentive to have a lot of trade routes makes this a straightforward source of era score.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - The Golden Age version of Reform the Coinage is very relevant as well. Your traders will be immune to pillaging, meaning you can really make the most of the powerful international trade routes offered.

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 relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Border Control Treaty - Effect A (New districts built by this player act as culture bombs) on yourself.

Jadwiga's ability to convert cities via culture bomb applies to all culture bombs Poland initiates - not just those from forts and Encampments.

Heritage Organisation - Effect A (Tourism from Great Works of this type is doubled) on relics.

A strong boost to relic tourism can really help Poland out in the cultural game, especially if you also have the Reliquaries belief.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on heavy cavalry units if Winged Hussars are still relevant.

Extra strength for Winged Hussars early on makes their huge strength advantage even bigger. With a Great General on top, they'll outmatch Pike and Shot units (and can only fight at a small disadvantage against AT Crews if you have the Crusade belief as well). Later on, it allows Winged Hussars to have a slightly longer window of relevance, as they'll be able to use their knockback ability for a little bit longer.

Sovereignity - Effect A (+100% of the city-states' yield type when sending trade routes to a city-state of this type) on cultural city-states if one is in range.

Every little extra bit of culture can help you get to Mercantilism (for Winged Hussars), Nationalism (for corps) and Mobilisation (for armies) sooner.

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.

An extra trade route means more production or more gold thanks to the Sukiennice UB.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Commercial Hubs, Encampments or Holy Sites. Alternatively, Effect B (No buildings can be created in this district) on Campuses if you're following a very culture-heavy strategy.

The Sukiennice UB, Military Engineers and relics all require you to not only build districts, but develop them with buildings. Speeding that process up will free up production for other uses. Alternatively, you can deliberately slow down the science production of civs by preventing them developing Campuses - this can make Winged Hussars even more powerful by increasing the time until other civs have Pike and Shot units to counter them, though it can also slow down your route to forts or Bombard units.

World Religion - Effect A (+10 strength for all religious units of this faith) on a neighbouring rival religion if there's still potential relics to collect.

By making rival religious units stronger, you can more quickly sacrifice Martyr Apostles for relics. Diverting some diplomatic favour into that option also helps avoid Effect B (All players may condemn units of the chosen religion, and doing so grants 25 diplomatic favor) being targeted at you, which allows other civs to destroy your religious units (and prevent them creating relics) without even going to war with you!

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

City Patron Goddess - Whether it's Encampments, Holy Sites or Commercial Zones you're after, this pantheon will help you get your first district up and running sooner.

Divine Spark - A fairly safe choice which can help you to generate your Great Prophet sooner, and help out with some Great Writers later. Considering you can pick up the Revelation policy card early, the bonus Great Prophet Points on offer here might not be necessary.

God of the Open Sky - Powerful if you start near some pasture resources (Cattle, Sheep or Horses) as the culture bonus helps you on you way to the Mercantilism civic, which unlocks Winged Hussars.

Goddess of Festivals - An excellent choice if you start near some plantation resources (Bananas, Citrus, Cocoa, Coffee, Cotton, Dyes, Incense, Olives, Silk, Spices, Sugar, Tea, Tobacco or Wine), as the culture bonus will help you get to Winged Hussars sooner.

Religious Beliefs

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

Choral Music (Follower) - Of great help when you're on the way to Winged Hussars or the Theocracy goverment, this belief adds culture to your Holy Site buildings based on their faith output.

Crusade (Enhancer) - A spectacular choice as Poland. Because of the way fort culture bombs work, Poland can convert enemy cities without needing to get near them, which is very powerful in wartime. After taking an enemy city, use a fort to culture bomb another enemy city, converting it to your religion and letting you use the +10 strength bonus on offer here.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - A fair bit weaker than Crusade for Poland (unless you're at threat of invasion) but can be effective to stop captured cities flipping back. Remember that you can't convert cities by culture bombs if you own them, so convert them before you capture them.

(Cultural) Jesuit Education (Follower) - A possible backup option if you didn't get Reliquaries. Offers a great way to convert faith into something more directly useful for cultural victory - at least until Naturalists and Rock Bands become available later on.

Meeting House (Worship) - Winged Hussars are expensive and getting more production will help here.

Monastic Isolation (Enhancer) - A helpful belief for a non-warfare-inclined Poland, as any Martyr Apostles you send to die for relics won't hurt the spread of your religion.

Mosque (Worship) - An extra spread religion charge for Apostles lets you get more out of them, which is particularly useful if you're reserving the last charge so they can engage in theological combat.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - Culture bombs let you convert cities at no faith cost, and this belief will make those cities give you faith. Against a civ with a stronger faith output than you, this belief can go far.

Reliquaries (Follower) - An essential pick for cultural and religious Poland players, as it makes relics produce three times the normal tourism and faith.

Warrior Monks (Follower) - Allows culture bombs from the construction of Holy Sites, which gives you another shot at converting rival cities.

Wat (Worship) - Poland has advantages linked to Encampments, Holy Sites and Commercial Hubs alike. By taking the Wat as your worship building, you can get a decent science output even with a low number of Campuses, allowing you to focus more on the districts Poland's best at using.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Boosted Holy Site adjacency can add to production as well!

World Church (Founder) - Bonus culture, helping you get to key civics like Mercantilism sooner.

City-States

Anshan (Scientific) - Add some science to your faith, gold, culture and tourism-yielding relics.

Ayutthaya (Cultural) - A potential source of early culture to help with getting to Winged Hussars sooner.

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - Bandar Brunei helps you get more out of international trade.

Caguana (Cultural) - The Batey improvement is a potential source of culture early on, helping you get to Winged Hussars sooner.

Chinguetti (Religious) - Tie your religious and trading strengths together! This city-state gives you extra faith for trading with cities that follow your religion.

Fez (Scientific) - Get science as you culture bomb! Being suzerain over Fez means as you push further into enemy lands with forts or other means of culture bombing, you'll convert more cities for the first time and hence unlock Fez's science bonus.

Granada (Militaristic) - Need some bonus culture early on? The special Alcázar improvement can help. It even offers some science on top, making it particularly helpful if you've been neglecting Campuses.

Hunza (Trade) - Receive extra gold from trading across long distances - useful for internal and international trade alike.

Kandy (Religious) - Unfortunately the faith bonus to relics doesn't affect Poland's unique boost to relic faith, but you can still gain free relics by discovering natural wonders. If you lose the suzerain status, stop uncovering new tiles until you can get it back again - there's little worse than losing the status, then discovering three natural wonders immediately afterwards.

Kumasi (Cultural) - City-state trading counts as international trade, so Sukiennices will add production to them. Kumasi makes trading to city-states also provide extra culture and gold - the culture's particularly handy early on as you work your way to the Mercantilism civic.

Muscat (Trade) - The Sukiennice UB requires you to construct plenty of Commercial Hubs. Muscat makes Commercial Hubs also grant you amenities, helping you to support conquests or wide expansion.

Ngazargamu (Militaristic) - The city you produce Military Engineers in will also be useful for purchasing Winged Hussars in. Winged Hussars could be purchased in a city with an Armoury for a reasonable 600 gold, or 300 faith with the Grand Masters' Chapel. Poland has advantages in producing both.

Rapa Nui (Cultural) - The Moai improvement can be a good source of culture early on, helping you unlock Winged Hussars sooner.

Samarkand (Trade) - Boosts international trade gold yield.

Singapore (Industrial) - Trading internationally can now grant even more production!

Valletta (Militaristic) - You can use your faith to purchase Encampment buildings with this city-state, helping you get to Armouries sooner, which is needed for Military Engineers.

Venice (Trade) - Get a little more gold out of international trade.

Yerevan (Religious) - An alternative to the Mont St. Michel wonder as a source of Apostles with the Martyr promotion.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

(Cultural) Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - You can turn Poland's strong faith output into GWAMs with help from this wonder. It also helpfully comes at a civic you'll want as soon as possible anyway.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - Extra trade route capacity means more gold or production.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - An excellent way to get your faith output off to a good start without you needing to spend too much time building Holy Sites.

Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - If you're aiming for early Winged Hussars, you'll be late to Theology, so it might be hard getting this wonder. Still, if you manage it, it's great for adding crucial extra beliefs to your religion or (if you get the Martyr promotion on one or both of them), extra relics.

Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - Don't like the lower number of military policy cards in your governments? Get the Alhambra wonder. Your governments will now be as good as Greece's.

(Religious) Hagia Sophia (Medieval era, Education technology) - An extra charge out of Apostles means you can get more out of them before sending them off for theological combat.

Mont St. Michel (Medieval era, Divine Right civic) - A very important wonder for Poland as it makes gaining relics considerably easier. You'll be guaranteed a relic for any future Apostles who die in theological combat.

University of Sankore (Medieval era, Education technology) - Trade internally to this city and not only will you get gold, and production from the Sukiennice UB, but also faith and science.

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - With this wonder, all of your governments will have an incredible amount of flexibility. For religious players in particular, this allows you to hold onto the Theocracy government for longer.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Makes some amazingly strong trade routes.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - Doubles your religious tourism in one city, meaning your relics there will be twice as powerful. Combine it with Cristo Redentor and the Reliquaries belief for the maximum effect.

Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Makes some pretty strong trade routes.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - An extra economic policy card makes it easier to use the Theocracy government for longer without neglecting card slots.

(Cultural) Cristo Redentor (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Particularly useful if you want a cultural victory as Poland, as it removes penalties to relic tourism.

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

Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - +1 trade route capacity, which goes well with the Sukiennice UB.

Medieval Era

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - The sheer variety of districts Poland benefits from makes an expanded district capacity for a city very useful.

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - Your decent Holy Site adjacency bonus can become a small, but useful, amount of science.

Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - Get extra faith for trading with city-states, and +1 trade route capacity.

Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - Another helpful bonus to trading.

Zheng He (Great Admiral) - +1 trade route capacity.

Renaissance Era

Jeanne D'arc (Great General) - Receive a relic when you retire her.

Mimar Sinan (Great Engineer) - Industrial Zones now create culture bombs, allowing you another means of converting neighbouring cities of other civs.

Raja Todar Mal (Great Merchant) - Extra gold for internal trade.

Industrial Era

Ada Lovelace (Great Engineer) - More district capacity to help you make the most of Poland's uniques in a city.

Modern Era

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - More gold for trade routes.

(Cultural) Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - Makes the first international trade route you send to a civ boost your tourism even more.

Atomic Era

(Cultural) Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Another boost to trade route tourism.

Counter-Strategies (Part 1/2)

Poland is a versatile civ, and with the right religious beliefs, extremely effective in war, culture and religion alike. But if they can't get, or can't use their key religious beliefs, they're a much more manageable target.

Civilization Ability: Golden Liberty

Military card becomes a wildcard

Poland's government comes with a little more flexibility than most; wildcard slots can easily flip from offering peaceful to wartime bonuses, while Poland can also more easily stack Dark Age wildcards with each other or government legacy bonuses. Still, Poland has to either pay money or finish a civic to change policy cards, so it's not as if they are completely flexible in the way they use their government.

One of the interesting consequences of this aspect of Poland's civ ability is that they're likely to use fewer military bonuses in their government than another civ would. That can make them vulnerable to invasion in eras where their Winged Hussars aren't a factor.

Culture bombs

If you border Poland, pay attention to where their city centres are relative to your own. Using map pins, you can mark out a line three tiles away from their city centres, giving you an idea of how much land Poland can potentially take off you. Avoid using tile improvements in that area as they could be stolen off you, and don't construct wonders on the Polish border - they might just destroy your progress with a culture bomb.

Culture bombs can destroy incomplete districts and wonders, but they can't take completed ones. A line of districts (Neighbourhoods are especially good in that role) can be a good preventative measure, but make sure Poland doesn't culture-bomb you while you're setting it up.

The most effective way for Poland to culture bomb is via the fort improvement. Forts need Military Engineers, which in turn need Armouries. If you find yourself in a drawn-out war with Poland, targeting their Encampments might help to stop them pushing the front lines into your territory with culture bombs.

Jadwiga's Leader Ability: Lithuanian Union

Holy Site Faith

Poland's improved adjacency bonuses from districts next to Holy Sites makes woods and mountains a little less useful to them relative to some civs, in favour of somewhat more open terrain. That can leave more mountains for you to use, which is great for Campus districts. Speaking of science, Poland has strengths at three different district types but not Campuses, which can lead them to neglect technology.

Relic Bonuses

So long as Poland doesn't have Mont St. Michel nor suzerainity over Kandy or Yerevan, getting relics can be pretty hard for them. The odd Apostle might have the Martyr promotion, but you can try to force them to use their spread-religion charge instead of engaging in theological combat by avoiding keeping religious units too close to them.

Assuming Poland does have suzerain status over Yerevan or the Mont St. Michel wonder, be very careful about killing their Apostles. Keep a close eye on their tourism output (you can find this on the cultural victory progress screen). If Poland's religion is much stronger than their tourism, then feel free to kill those Apostles. If it's the other way around, try to force them to use their spread-religion charges instead.

Relic faith and tourism is boosted considerably with the Reliquaries belief, while the tourism specifically is boosted by the St. Basil's Cathedral and Cristo Redentor wonders. Getting any of those for yourself will deny Poland those advantages.

Conversion from Culture Bombs

If Poland's culture bombs don't take any land off you, they won't convert your city. Completed districts on your border will prevent Poland being able to culture-bomb you, but until late in the game that can be difficult to achieve.

In the case of cities which are near a Polish city and have at least one tile within a three-tile radius of their city centre, don't worry too much about converting them to your faith. Target other cities first; you can come back for those later.

If Poland has the Crusade belief, watch out - a single culture bomb can suddenly make it much harder for you to hold onto your city. Consider keeping an Inquisitor or two around border cities just in case, or at the very least some Missionaries of other religions.

Jadwiga's Agenda: Saint

Jadwiga likes civs that generate a lot of faith, and dislikes those that don't. She won't have the Devout hidden agenda as it overlaps with her main agenda.

Religious civs should find it fairly easy to get along with Poland - at least until you have to start converting their cities.

Cultural civs tend to have the second-highest faith outputs behind religious civs as both Naturalists and Rock Bands require it. Being friendly with Poland later in the game isn't too difficult in that case.

Scientific civs tend to have the lowest faith outputs, and as such you should ensure your defences are up-to-date if you border Poland and are playing that way.

Furthermore, Jadwiga has a 10% chance of having the Sympathiser hidden agenda, making her like civs in Dark Ages more, and civs in Golden Ages less. Early on, this agenda is most often met by civs lacking early unique units or infrastructure, and wonder-building civs typically are less likely to please Jadwiga.

Counter-Strategies (Part 2/2)

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar

Winged Hussars are slightly earlier-arriving Cuirassiers, with an added knockback ability if they can deal enough damage. Cuirassiers already can be unlocked relatively early as their prerequisite technology (Ballistics) is relatively easy to beeline, so you can consider using Cuirassiers of your own to counter their Winged Hussars. Pike and Shot units are an excellent alternative, especially with the Echelon promotion or even the Oligarchy government. Eventually, AT Crewss will provide an even better counter.

When dealing with the knockback ability, make sure that any civilian units are away from your front lines so they don't get captured. Leave some room for your units to retreat if need be so they don't take the extra damage penalty, and make sure your front line is a solid one without gaps partly because of the useful flanking bonuses, but also to stop the Winged Hussars from slipping behind your units and dragging them forward to a more vulnerable location. By having a solid front line, with gaps in the second line, Winged Hussars' knockback ability can actually be a liability for them - they can end up pushing themselves into a situation where they're surrounded by enemy units!


Here's an example. The Winged Hussar has pushed into your front line - leaving them surrounded by your own units and vulnerable to counter-attack.

Avoid placing land units on the coast when fighting Winged Hussars as Poland can force them into embarking, making them less able to counter-attack.

Be aware of strength differences. A unit with more strength than a Winged Hussar usually won't get knocked back, so having fewer-but-stronger units can be preferable to having a higher number of weaker units. Once you can form some corps, do so.

Unique Building: Sukiennice

Sukiennices require Commercial Hubs, so if Poland's pushed to settle coastal areas and end up building Harbours, they'll most likely end up with fewer copies of their UB. Otherwise, the main ways to stop Poland using their UB will be in war - you can pillage their Commercial Hubs or the routes themselves.

That being said, Poland being able to engage in international trade with most of the advantages of domestic trade can make them a decent ally, as they're likely to maintain a trade route with you and hence maximise alliance point bonuses. You can also get yields from Poland trading with you from most kinds of alliance, as well as from some other bonuses like the University of Sankore wonder.

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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]

I don't cover special game modes in these guides as they're not part of the core game. Still, reliable relics looks neat - they're also great for Sweden if you want to get some theming bonuses going in wonders like the Apadana.

[Amazatron]

This guide doesn't look updated to New Frontier Pass. Poland and Kongo benefit greatly from Heroes and Legends mode, as the heroes grant relics upon their first expiration.

This makes early expansion, along with early high-production plays like pantheon adjacency + Work Ethic, even more valuable to Poland. There is another, reliable source of relics in the world! It changes the game something crazy.

I don't know if this was removed from the mode, but at one point this worked and was wonderful.

[Yensil]

It's a good idea to put St. Basil's in the same city as Mont San Michel if possible, to maximize the number of relics benefitting from the double tourism. The Aztecs stole Cristo from me though, and are heading towards a culture victory themselves, so I guess I just have to conquer them....I wonder if I can put wings on tanks somehow...

[Yensil]

So I culture bombed a vampire castle and I guess it's mine now? Even though I'm not in the sanguine pact? Not sure how to test if I'm getting the yields from it.

[moswald71]

thanks

[Zigzagzigal]

Yes!

[moswald71]

Thanks a lot for the guide! One question: Does the Culture Bomb Conversion work vs. City States?

[MeniliteZ]

Thank you so much! I found it!

[Zigzagzigal]

If you go to the Options screen, and click on "Interface", you can then enable the "Show Yields in HUD Ribbon" option. That'll enable the numbers below each leader image. It's really useful for seeing at a glance how strong a civ is.

The first number is the civ's overall score, which can be a reasonable proxy to how powerful the civ is overall. The second number is military power, which is an extremely important metric to keep track of - if your military power is significantly lower than that of neighbouring civs early on, you'll almost certainly be the target of a war.

[MeniliteZ]

What are the numbers below the leader portraits in the screenshots? I don't have those in my games.
Sorry if this has been asked before (I thought I saw it somewhere but can't find it now).

Great guides, I hope you will continue!