Zigzagzigal's Guides - Greece (GS)

Greece has a good start, very strong culture and excellent diplomatic potential as well. Here, I detail Greek strategies and counter-strategies - for both Pericles and Gorgo.

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.

For centuries our peoples have traded and fought between one another within our own small world, but this state of affairs cannot last. We must band together and put aside our squabbles with each other if we are to survive. And we need a leader to decide our direction - should we pursue a more diplomatic path with Pericles and band together as many cities as we can, or pursue Gorgo's path of warfare?

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 (Part 1/2)

Start Bias

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

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic

• All governments receive an extra wildcard policy card slot.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermopylae

• Killing military units provides culture equal to 50% of their melee strength.
  
• All units gain +1 strength per military policy card in your government.
  
• Grievances created against Gorgo decay at double the usual rate.
  
  • This is technically part of Gorgo's agenda, but it does function even if Gorgo's Greece is controlled by a human player.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory

• National culture output increased by 5% per city-state under suzerainty
  
  • This does not take effect until the turn after gaining suzerain status in a city-state.
    
  • This is applied only at the national level, so it only affects civic gain and domestic tourist accumulation.

Outline (Part 2/2)

Unique Unit: Hoplite

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

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Bronze Working Technology Ancient era	Military Tactics Technology Medieval era	None	Pikeman (240 )	65 or 260 or 130 *	None	1

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

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
28	N/A	2	N/A	2	Deals -85% damage to city walls and urban defences	+10 vs. cavalry units +10 when adjacent to at least one other Hoplite

Positive changes

• 28 strength, up from 25
  
• +10 strength when adjacent to at least one other Hoplite

Unique District: Acropolis

A classical-era speciality district which replaces the Theatre Square

Research	Terrain required	Required to build	Base production cost	Maintenance	Base pillage yield
Drama and Poetry Civic Classical era	Hills	Amphitheatre Art Museum Archaeological Museum Broadcast Centre	27 * or 108 ** or 54 **	1	25

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.

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

Negative changes

• Must be constructed on a hill tile

Positive changes

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

Victory Skew

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

Leader	Culture	Diplomacy	Domination	Religion	Science
Gorgo	8/10 (Good)	7/10 (Good)	8/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)
Pericles	9/10 (Ideal)	8/10 (Good)	6/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)

Cultural victory is a great path to go down with either leader. The Acropolis district offers a cheap source of Great Writer, Artist and Musician points, and both Pericles and Gorgo can produce huge quantities of culture to help you get to key civics. Having an extra wildcard slot allows you to slip in a wonder construction bonus, or (later in the game), a tourism boost.

Diplomacy is also very effective, mostly due to the free envoys you can receive when completing Acropolis districts. As Pericles is less inclined towards warfare than Gorgo, and gets an extra incentive to secure suzerain status, he skews more towards the route than she does. Gorgo also has the disadvantage that other civs generate fewer grievances against her, so they won't lose as much diplomatic favour for warmongering and she's less likely to be able to initiate emergencies against them.

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

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

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

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic (Part 1/2)

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

This section will outline some of the strategies that can be done with an extra wildcard slot, but if you want more general information on the policy cards with the best synergy with Greek uniques, head to the Administration section of this guide.

Starting Out

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

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

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

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

Tier One Government Usage

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

Gorgo should usually go for Oligarchy. Oligarchy gives Hoplites a handy +4 strength boost, and also helps them gain experience faster. If you fall into a classical-era Dark Age, you can add Twilight Valour for a +5 attack bonus on top.

Pericles will usually benefit from Classical Republic the most, though Oligarchy can help with early Hoplite warfare. With Classical Republic, you can take Diplomatic League and Charismatic Leader simultaneously to help gain a lot of envoys, while still having two economic policy card slots and a wildcard left over, plus Classical Republic's always-handy inherent bonuses.

Having two wildcard slots lets you stack Dark Age wildcards, or Great Person Points bonuses in a manner impossible for most other civs. You could, for example, unlock the Republican Legacy wildcard, switch to a different government, and stack the Isolationism Dark Age wildcard with it. This is an effective combination for growing cities, though it comes at the cost of not being able to settle new ones.

Tier Two Government Usage

As the game goes on, getting a bonus wildcard makes a slightly less significant difference - but it's still a powerful bonus to have! For example, it's possible to enjoy the influence gain from the Monarchy government while still having enough policy cards available to compensate for its huge military card skew.

Pericles can make particularly good use of extra influence points (and therefore envoys) from Monarchy for securing suzerain status over many city-states. However, Merchant Republic's production bonus for districts helps with Acropolis construction, and therefore envoy generation that way.

For Gorgo, Monarchy's high number of military policy cards and wildcards coupled with its envoy accumulation bonuses work nicely.

From the medieval to industrial eras, there's four wonders that you can build or capture for even more policy card slots:

• Alhambra (medieval-era, requires the Castles technology) - +1 military card slot, +2 amenities from entertainment, +2 Great General points per turn, offers +4 defence for its tile. Particularly useful for Gorgo.
  
• Forbidden City (renaissance-era, requires the Printing technology) - +1 wildcard slot, +5 culture.
  
• Potala Palace (renaissance-era, requires the Astronomy technology) - +1 diplomatic card slot, +1 diplomatic victory point, +2 culture, +3 faith. Particularly useful for Pericles.
  
• Big Ben (industrial-era, requires the Economics technology) - +1 economic card slot, increases current treasury by 50%, +6 gold, +3 Great Merchant points per turn.

The Forbidden City is the most powerful of the four, so it's worthwhile to research Printing relatively early so you can get a good shot at it. Alhambra is generally the lowest-priority of the four for Pericles, but second only to the Forbidden City for Gorgo.

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic (Part 2/2)

Tier Three Government Usage

Branching off from the modern-era Ideology civic are three different civics that each offer a government: Class Struggle offers Communism, Suffrage offers Democracy, and Totalitarianism offers Fascism. They all also come with unique policy cards that can only be used in their corresponding governments, so it's worth examining each of these governments more closely:

Communism

• Slots: 3 military, 3 economic, 1 diplomatic, 1 wildcard (2 for Greece)
  
• Main/Legacy Bonus: +0.6 production per citizen in cities with Governors
  
• Secondary Bonus: +10% science in all cities
  
• Unique Wildcard: Defence of the Motherland - No war weariness for combat in your territory. +100% production towards all support units.
  
• Unique Economic Policy Card: Collectivisation - All domestic trade routes yield +4 food and +2 production.

Communism is best-suited for scientific games, and domination to a lesser extent. It has fewer wildcard slots than other tier three governments, but its inherent bonuses (along with its unique economic policy card) are versatile, don't rely on the actions of other civs and are useful in times of peace and war alike. Gorgo might find this government useful to support a compromise between her different strengths - it has nearly as many potential military cards as Fascism but also comes with economic support.

Democracy

• Slots: 1 military, 3 economic, 2 diplomatic, 2 wildcards (3 for Greece)
  
• Main/Legacy Bonus: Trade routes with an ally offer +4 food and +4 production each
  
• Secondary Bonus: -15% gold purchase cost.
  
• Unique Wildcard: Their Finest Hour - All units gain +5 strength when fighting in or adjacent to owned territory.
  
• Unique Economic Policy Card: New Deal - All cities with at least 3 speciality districts gain +4 housing and +2 amenities.

The ideal choice for Pericles and fine for a culture or diplomacy-oriented Gorgo. New Deal together with the intrinsic bonuses makes city growth much faster - ideal for building wonders or developing Acropolis districts.

Two diplomatic policy card slots means you can stack Gunboat Diplomacy and Containment once you have the atomic-era Cold War civic, without needing to use any of your precious wildcard slots.

Democracy also has the highest number of economic policy cards of any tier three government. That makes it easy to squeeze in tourism-boosting cards like Heritage Tourism, Satellite Broadcasts and Online Communities.

Fascism

• Slots: 4 military, 1 economic, 1 diplomatic, 2 wildcards (3 for Greece)
  
• Main/Legacy Bonus: All military units gain +5 strength. Receive -15% war weariness
  
• Secondary Bonus: +50% military unit production
  
• Unique Wildcard: Martial Law - Receive -25% war weariness. Cities with a garrisoned unit gain +4 loyalty.
  
• Unique Military Policy Card: Third Alternative - Research Labs, Military Academies and all Power Plants grant +4 gold and +2 culture each.

Ideal for a domination-inclined Gorgo but offers little if you're not actively pursuing warfare. The large unit production bonus and reduced war weariness allows you to play a bit riskier than normal in your attempts to kill enemy units for culture, as losing units won't cost you as much production nor as many amenities. Third Alternative helps you support the cost of units, and the small culture boost helps complement the culture from Gorgo's leader ability.

Fascism's high number of military policy card slots typically makes it hard to fit in general economic boosts - especially if you're using wildcards for Martial Law and Oligarchic Legacy. Greece's civ ability perhaps helps here more than the other tier three governments for this reason.

Tier Four Government Usage

The late-information era offers three new governments, notable for their high number of wildcard slots and having inherent penalties as well as bonuses. The high number of wildcard slots helps prepare you for future-era policy cards, which are all wildcards.

For a peaceful game, Digital Democracy offers a good number of diplomatic policy card slots as well as a decent amenity boost. For domination, Corporate Libertarianism offers production bonuses and a more military policy card slots, but at the cost of science. Synthetic Technocracy is an alternative for a domination game, offering free clean power (useful in conjunction with Factories for making your cities productive) and a higher number of economic policy card slots.

However, you might want to consider a fourth option as Greece - keeping your tier three government! Having an extra wildcard slot means you can still squeeze in a couple of future-era bonuses if need be, while still enjoying the relatively more powerful intrinsic bonuses of tier three governments - as well as their unique policy cards. While you will produce slightly fewer influence points (and therefore envoys), the loss isn't too severe if you're getting plenty from other sources.

Conclusion

Greece's civ ability is versatile and allows you to pursue any playstyle more effectively, but it also allows the use of bonuses in a situation that wouldn't normally be possible - like taking Mysticism's Revelation wildcard before researching Political Philosophy, or being able to support multiple future-era policy cards without taking a tier four government. It's strongest earlier in the game, but always useful to have around.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermoplyae

It even works in defence, or against embarked units.

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

Gorgo also has another bonus which, unlike the first, grows in power throughout the game: every military policy card you have in your government adds +1 strength to all your units!

Early Usage

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

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

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

Why would you want to avoid era score? To get a classical-era Dark Age and the powerful Twilight Valour wildcard, which makes your Hoplites attack with +5 strength at the cost of having to heal in friendly territory. That being said, you can still perform effectively without a Dark Age, (especially as a Dark Age makes holding onto captured cities harder) so don't feel you have to avoid era score.

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


The Oligarchy government has two military policy card slots, and two wildcards for Greece - allowing a +4 strength bonus on top of its intrinsic +4 bonus to anti-cavalry, melee infantry and naval melee units.

Later On

Gorgo's culture bonuses are somewhat less impactful in later eras of the game as civic costs rise faster than unit strength, but the strength bonuses will grow as you can host more military policy cards. Good choices of government for Gorgo include Monarchy, Fascism and Corporate Libertarianism, while the Alhambra and Forbidden City can give you more policy card slots on top.

That being said, don't overuse military policy cards at the expense of more useful ones. Some policy cards like Natural Philosophy (which doubles Campus adjacency bonuses) can add a lot more in the long-term than a military policy card you've only taken for the +1 strength bonus. It's also a good idea to reconsider your policy card choices when you're not actively at war.

You can use Gorgo's culture-on-kills to zoom to key civics to complement the domination game. Nationalism (industrial era) and Mobilisation (modern era) will allow you to form corps/fleets and armies/armadas respectively, though be sure you can afford the high production and maintenance costs involved. The Fascism government (requires the modern-era Totalitarianism civic) offers a +5 strength bonus to all units. The Global Coalition wildcard (requires the future-era Smart Power Doctrine) offers +7 strength to all units in owned territory.

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

Even if you run out of new civics to research, killing units for culture still has its uses as every time Future Civic is researched, you gain +1 Governor title and +50 diplomatic favour. The Governor titles in particular are very useful for late-game warfare in conjunction with the Communications Office diplomatic policy card, which makes Governors provide an extra +1 loyalty to their cities per promotion they have. This makes holding onto captured cities easy.

Double decay rate for grievances against you

Anyone generating grievances against Gorgo will see them decay twice as fast, which means that other civs are less likely to cross the grievance threshold allowing Gorgo to call a military aid emergency, and Greece will have fewer opportunities to declare war or take cities without generating new grievances.

Keep in mind, however, that grievances do not decay between civs if they are actively at war with each other, so if a civ is permanently at war with Greece, they'll never get any benefit from this.

Summary

• Fight Barbarians early on for culture - avoid destroying their Encampments so more can spawn.
  
• Be sure to go to war with Hoplites - if you get a classical-era Dark Age, you can stack the Oligarchy government and Twilight Valour for a huge strength boost.
  
• Don't overuse military policy card slots; a huge science bonus can mean a lot more in the long-term than +1 strength, for example.
  
• Try to fight civs that use units rather than corps or armies for the best culture outputs.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory (Part 1/2)

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

While Gorgo gets a lot of culture early on, Pericles takes a bit longer for his culture to really start to pour in - but once it does, the yields can be immense.

To become suzerain over a city-state quickly, recruit Governor Amani (the Diplomat) and move her to a city-state. Then, add an envoy either by completing the city-state's quest, or by using the free envoy you receive for researching Mysticism). This initial culture boost is small, so be sure to settle more cities and build some Monuments.

The Mechanics of City-States

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

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

• Everything they can see becomes visible to you.
  
• You'll have open borders with the city-state.
  
• They'll join your side automatically in wars.
  
• You can pay gold to levy their army, giving you control of their current military units for 30 turns. This cost is reduced by 50% if you have the Foreign Ministry building in your Government Plaza district, and the building also offers +4 strength to all levied units.
  
• You'll get a unique bonus tied to the city-state. For example, Kabul lets your military units gain twice as much experience when attacking.
  
• You'll gain +1 diplomatic favour per turn, or +2 with the Országház wonder (requires the industrial-era Sanitation technology).

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

City-State Type	1	3	6
Cultural	+1 in the capital and every Amphitheatre building	+2 in every Art Museum, Archaeological Museum and Consulate building.	+3 in every Broadcast Centre and Chancery building
Industrial	+1 in the capital and cities with a Workshop when constructing buildings, districts and wonders	+2 in every city with a Factory or Consulate when constructing buildings, districts and wonders	+3 in every city with a Power Plant or Chancery when constructing buildings, districts and wonders
Militaristic	+1 in the capital and every city with a Barracks or Stables when training units	+2 in every city with an Armoury or Consulate when training units	+3 in every city with a Military Academy or Chancery when training units
Religious	+1 in the capital and every city with a Shrine building.	+2 in every city with a Temple or Consulate	+3 in every city with a Worship building or Chancery
Scientific	+1 in the capital and every city with a Library building.	+2 in every city with a University or Consulate	+3 in every city with a Research Lab or Chancery
Trade	+2 in the capital and every city with a Market or Lighthouse	+4 in every city with a Bank, Shipyard or Consulate	+6 in every city with a Stock Exchange, Seaport or Chancery

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

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

Beware of aggressive civs that seek to destroy city-states. A civ that attacks a city-state you're suzerain of can be targeted by the Protectorate War casus belli once you have the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic. Alternatively, if a civ captures a city-state you have envoys present in, it'll trigger a city-state emergency. If you participate in it, you'll have 30 turns to liberate the city-state. Do so, and you'll receive a permanent bonus of gold for every envoy you have present in city-states, as well as a one-off bonus of 100 diplomatic favour.

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory (Part 2/2)

Pericles' Bonus

The bonus gets quite considerable later in the game.

As Pericles offers a +5% culture boost for every city-state he is suzerain over, you'll want to become suzerain over as many city-states as possible as early as possible, while having a decent culture output for the bonus to magnify.

Thankfully, the Acropolis district helps with both. Try to settle lots of cities early on, settling adjacent to hills where possible. If neighbouring civs object to your rapid expansion and try to declare war on you, Hoplites and Archers together will help keep them at bay for an affordable cost. More cities means more Acropolis districts, which means more envoys.

To really dominate city-states, however, you'll need more than Acropolis districts. Taking both the Diplomatic League and Charismatic Leader diplomatic policy cards once you have Political Philosophy will get you off to a decent start, and try to complete as many city-state quests as possible before a new game era starts.

Cultural Dominance

Pericles has perhaps the highest potential culture output of any leader in the game, once plenty of Acropolis districts are built and you're suzerain over plenty of city-states. While fairly slow to get going, the cultural advantage is often notable around the time you pick up a tier two government.

Having a head start to civics later in the game gives you a head start on plenty of wonders. If you're going for a diplomatic victory, building the Statue of Liberty will help with that. For a cultural game, wonders like Bolshoi Theatre and Cristo Redentor are helpful. Strong civic gain can also get you to Natural History (for Archaeologists), Cold War (for Rock Bands), Environmentalism (for the +25% tourism boost), Global Warming Mitigation (for an easy source of diplomatic favour) quickly alongside other useful things.

Remember not to neglect science - in a cultural game, Radio and Computers are important technologies, and useful wonders can be found at Steel (the Eiffel Tower) and Combustion (the Golden Gate Bridge). For a diplomatic game, the Sanitation technology comes with the crucial Országház wonder.

Late in the game, Pericles' huge culture advantage also is important as he'll often have the highest number of domestic tourists, making him the main barrier to other civs winning a cultural victory. To strengthen this defence, try to deny cultural rivals things that would give them a tourism bonus, such as open borders or trade routes.

Conclusion

Though Pericles has a slower start than Gorgo, he offers a more peaceful approach to the game with great potential. Regardless of whether you're aiming for a cultural or diplomatic victory, you should aim to win over as many city-states as possible, and the huge culture output will help either way.

Unique Unit: Hoplite

Hoplites are a cost-efficient option for early combat - whether to repel Barbarians, enemy civs or even for launching early rushes against other civs. When adjacent to another Hoplite, they're stronger than Swordsmen but 28% cheaper to train with half as much maintenance, no need for iron and an earlier technology. Mounted units are particularly vulnerable - Hoplites adjacent to each other can even stand up to Knights!

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

Offensive Usage

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

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

While your Hoplites are off fighting, try to get to the Political Philosophy government. It'll allow you to use Oligarchy, offering a notable +4 strength boost for Hoplites. The Military Tradition civic will also help as it enables flanking and support bonuses - considering you'll want to keep Hoplites together, you'll be able to reliably make use of those. If you fall into a classical-era Dark Age, you can add Twilight Valour on top for a +5 attack boost.

Defensive Usage

If you don't want to fight an early war then Hoplites still make decent defensive units against other civs and Barbarians. Having at least three in an area is a good idea - that way, if one is injured, it can retreat while you still have two left providing each other bonuses.

Barbarian Encampments early in the game tend to spawn with a Scout and a Spearman. Two Hoplites together can easily kill a Scout, and with the Discipline policy card, can take out a Barbarian Spearman at full health. Barbarian Warriors are a bit more of a problem for Hoplites without the Thrust promotion - that'll often take three or even four hits.

While Hoplites are fairly versatile as defensive units, don't count on them alone to fend off enemy civs. Hoplites are slow and may struggle to chase down enemy Archers - Archers of your own or cavalry units will help. Still, their cost-effectiveness means you can spend less production early on securing your defences, and more on early expansion. More early expansion means more Acropolis districts, and therefore more culture and envoys.

Obsoletion

Once Pikemen arrive, Hoplites have no real combat advantages any more, so don't hesitate to pick up the Military Tactics technology if you need to upgrade your army. Pikemen are alright for their era, though will be very vulnerable to Musketmen once they arrive. Keep upgrading your anti-cavalry when you can and they can stay relevant on the battlefield.

Unique District: Acropolis

For cultural and diplomatic games alike, the Acropolis district is powerful - and extra culture and envoys at an affordable cost is good for other victory routes, too.

Remember that Acropolis districts must be positioned on a hill. It's a good idea to always settle cities adjacent to hills where possible to make the most of the district.

Getting to Acropoles

The Acropolis district is unlocked at the classical-era Drama and Poetry civic. Though it's possible to beeline it, you may also want to take a detour to Mysticism to boost your chances of founding your own religion, followed by picking up Politicial Philosophy for a tier one government. If you intend to go to war with Hoplites, don't forget you need the Military Tradition civic for flanking and support bonuses.

Gorgo can usually get through all those civics quickly thanks to her leader ability, but Pericles should invest in a couple of Monuments early on to help with that.

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

Positioning

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

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

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

Consider carefully where you put your Government Plaza district. If you have two or three cities very close together, it may be possible to place a Government Plaza between them, and have two or three Acropoles adjacent to both the Plaza and a city centre. As an Acropolis adjacent to both a city centre and Government Plaza makes a powerful +4 culture yield, this arrangement can give you a powerful advantage in the race for civics.

Positioning Acropolis districts next to city centres and other districts also makes them easy to protect with Spies. Position a Spy in an Acropolis, and they'll protect all the adjacent districts as well!

An extra envoy

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

This is very important to Pericles as his leader ability is dependent on being suzerain over many city-states. To make the most of this bonus, try to ensure you have plenty of cities. Try also to keep them close together, so you can more easily make use of Acropolis adjacency bonuses. Building lots of cities can anger other civs, but thankfully the Hoplite unit will aid your defensive efforts.

For Gorgo, this can be useful for filling out envoy bonuses in city-states. Getting lots of militaristic city-states to three or six envoys can make your unit production very strong in cities with Armouries, while getting the bonuses in trade city-states ensures you have enough money to support such an army. You can also use the envoys to free city-states from your war enemies' suzerainty, granting you era score in the process. Securing suzerain status over city-states near enemy lands is also useful as it allows you to levy their units, providing you with an affordable temporary army to distract your foes.

Aside from these benefits, being suzerain over city-states grants diplomatic favours every turn. For Pericles, this can support a diplomatic victory route effectively as an alternative to culture. Gorgo can use these favours to vote down emergencies targeting her, or sell them for gold or strategic resources. Either way, these favours will be useful for pushing through favourable World Congress resolutions as well.

Putting cheaper, stronger Theatre Squares to use

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

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

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

Summary

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

Administration - Government

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

Governments

Tier One

Oligarchy is a great choice for Gorgo thanks to the substantial strength bonus on offer for Hoplites. Pericles might want to take Classical Republic instead to complement his more peaceful playstyle.

For Gorgo, complement Oligarchy with the Warlord's Throne for a production bonus in all your cities every time you capture one. As for Pericles, his ability will be more effective if you can get more envoys, and a key way of getting more envoys is to settle more cities and build more Acropoles. As such, you'll probably want to build the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building to help you train Settlers faster.

Tier Two

Monarchy's 50% boost to influence point gain, bonus diplomatic favour and high number of wildcards makes it complement both leaders nicely. It also requires a lot less research than the other tier two governments do.

Greece's strength at accumulating envoys makes the Foreign Ministry building a decent choice - especially for Gorgo, who can use the cheap, strong levied units for some quick extra power in war. Alternatively, The Intelligence Agency can help you reduce other civs' envoys via the Fabricate Scandal mission, defend your Great Works from being stolen, or help you steal more eureka boosts.

Tier Three

Democracy is ideal for a peaceful game thanks to its high number of economic and diplomatic slots. If you're playing as Gorgo and want to continue on the warpath, take Fascism for its powerful military bonuses and higher number of military policy card slots, or possibly Communism to compromise between peace and war.

For a peaceful game, complement your government with the National History Museum for a helpful boost to your Great Work capacity. If you want to engage in plenty of warfare, take the War Department so you'll get health as well as culture from kills.

Tier Four

Greece's bonus wildcard can make it viable to stick with a tier three government even into the future era. Even though you'll have fewer policy cards, tier three governments tend to have better intrinsic bonuses, as well as powerful unique policy cards.

Still, if you need more policy cards or want the extra influence points a tier four government offers, you have reasonable options. For a peaceful game, take Digital Democracy for its handy amenity boost and higher number of diplomatic policy cards. For domination as Gorgo, Corporate Libertarianism can host 9 military policy cards, though you'll most likely want to dedicate at least one wildcard slot to Fascism's legacy card.

Administration - Policy Cards

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Allows you to train Hoplites at a rapid pace, making them particularly cost-effective.

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

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

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

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - If you're ever unsure what to put in your extra policy card slot, Urban Planning is reliably useful. You'll always be able to get something out of bonus production.

Classical Era

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

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

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

Medieval Era

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

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

Industrial Era

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

Modern Era

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

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

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

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

Atomic Era

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

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

Music Censorship (Diplomatic, requires Space Race) - Greece's high culture ouput (especially under Pericles) typically makes the civ a key block on rival cultural civs' chances of a cultural victory. Take this policy card to make it even harder for them.

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

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

Information Era

(Pericles) Collective Activism (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - Makes getting through late-information-era and future-era civics super fast.

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

Future Era

Diplomatic Capital (Wildcard, requires Smart Power Doctrine) - Greece's high culture output allows you to reach this policy card early, giving you a great advantage in the World Congress.

(Gorgo) Global Coalition (Wildcard, requires Smart Power Doctrine) - Gorgo's domination strategy relies on a high culture output to get to key late-arriving policy cards sooner. This card is a good example, offering a powerful +7 strength boost in friendly territory, allowing you to more easily hold onto cities you capture.

(Gorgo) Integrated Attack Logistics (Wildcard, requires Information Warfare) - Another card useful for Gorgo's warfare, this gives extra mobility in enemy lands.

Non-State Actors (Wildcard, requires Cultural Hegemony) - By giving all your Spies the Smear Campaign promotion, they can perform the Fabricate Scandal mission more effectively - extending your envoy advantage in city-states.

Rabblerousing (Wildcard, requires Information Warfare) - The +1 diplomatic favour is helpful in a diplomatic game, but where this policy card really shines is when you're leveraging your diplomatic favour against rival diplomatic civs. Greece's advantage to envoy generation means you'll usually have a few city-states you're suzerain over, and hence a healthy supply of diplomatic favour.

Space Tourism (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Greece's high culture output makes them a tough civ for other cultural civs to overcome. Taking this policy card will make things even harder for them.

Administration - Ages and World Congress

Age Bonuses

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Diplomatic) Disinformation Campaign (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - Greece's high number of Acropoles will mean a high number of Broadcast Centres, and via this Dark Age wildcard, a lot of diplomatic favour.

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.

A good way to ensure your Acropolis districts will reliably have owned tiles next to them, which allows you to reliably surround them with other districts or wonders.

City-State Emergency - Always vote in favour unless you're very unlikely to win.

Winning city-state emergencies gives you gold per turn for every envoy you have at a city-state. For Greece, that's potentially a lot of money.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Fabricate Scandal or Great Work Heist

The former can cost you precious envoys, while the latter can cost you precious Great Works - particularly a problem for diplomatic and cultural games respectively.

Heritage Organisation - Effect A (Tourism from Great Works of this type is doubled) on whichever Great Work is making you the most total tourism.

Having lots of Acropolis districts means plenty of GWAM points, and plenty of places to put Great Works.

Nobel Peace Prize - Vote in favour

Greece's envoy bonuses usually results in them being suzerain over a few city-states, giving them a diplomatic favour advantage. This helps give you a good shot at winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Vote in favour

Building plenty of Acropolis districts means plenty of GWAM points, giving Greece a good shot at winning this competition.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Writers, Artists or Musicians

Build on your GWAM generation advantages.

Public Relations - Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) if you're playing a domination game.

This is a good way of Gorgo putting a diplomatic advantage (from being suzerain over many city-states) to good use. Reducing grievance generation reduces the risk of being targeted by an emergency, and will also minimise loss of diplomatic favour.

Treaty Organisation - Effect A (Double diplomatic favor earned from being suzerain of a city-state of this type) on whichever city-state type you are suzerain over the most copies of.

Extend your advantage in diplomatic favour generation.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) for Theatre Squares.

Allows you to develop your Acropolis districts with ease.

World Ideology - Effect A (This government type gains a wildcard policy slot) on whichever government type you intend to use the most prior to the next World Congress session.

Be unparalleled in your government flexibility. Particularly effective if you're using a government that might be hard for others to use (e.g. Monarchy due to its lack of economic card slots, or a government of a tier higher than anyone else is using).

World's Fair - Vote in favour if you have a strong overall Great Person Points output.

Acropoles generate three different types of Great Person Points, making Greece decent at this specific competition.

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

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

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

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

Religous Beliefs

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

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

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

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

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

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

City-States

Akkad (Militaristic) - Early warfare with Hoplites becomes a bit easier if you're suzerain over Akkad, as you won't need any siege support.

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

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

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

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

(Pericles) Rapa Nui (Cultural) - Moai provide another source of culture that Pericles' leader ability can magnify.

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

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

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

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

(Pericles) Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - While not a key wonder for Pericles, getting extra culture which can be boosted further with Pericles' leader ability is still helpful.

Statue of Zeus (Classical era, Military Training technology) - A permanent +50% boost to anti-cavalry units is rather handy if you're still producing Hoplites at this point in the game.

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

(Gorgo) Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - Grab an extra military policy card slot and you can have both cards that make it easier to support an army (production bonuses, reduced maintenance, etc.) and ones that make it more effective. And, of course, it increases your potential strength bonus by 1.

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

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - Preserves your unique advantage of having a free wildcard slot (by denying this wonder to anyone else) and makes your governments incredibly flexible with up to four wildcard slots by the end of the game. It also lets you more easily stack legacy wildcards and Dark Age wildcards, and allows Gorgo to use another military policy card for an extra +1 strength.

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

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

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

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

Országház (Industrial era, Sanitation technology) - Crucial for a Greek diplomatic game, but useful anyway, this wonder doubles the diplomatic favour you receive from being suzerain over city-states.

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

Sydney Opera House (Atomic era, Cultural Heritage civic) - More Great Musician points.

Great People

Classical Era

(Gorgo) Trưng Trắc (Great General) - Prolonged wars - such as those fought to kill units for culture - can be draining on amenities thanks to war weariness. As such, reducing war weariness is useful.

Medieval Era

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - Provides you with the eureka for Printing, helping you get to the key Forbidden City wonder sooner.

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

Renaissance Era

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

(Pericles) Zhou Daguan (Great Merchant) - +3 envoys at a specific city-state.

Industrial Era

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

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

Modern Era

(Pericles) Matthew Perry (Great Admiral) - Makes you suzerain of a city-state while removing the envoys of other civs from it.

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

Atomic Era

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

Information Era

Kenzo Tange (Great Engineer) - Grants tourism in a city based off its district adjacency bonuses. Particularly effective with a strong Acropolis district.

Counter-Strategies (Part 1/2)

Greece has a powerful culture output and good diplomatic potential alongside a pretty strong early-game, but they have an Achilles' heel or two you can exploit.

Civilization Ability: Plato's Republic

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

Otherwise, the bonus is most powerful early on, when it allows them to take wildcards that otherwise wouldn't be possible to take, like Revelation or Inspiration, or to fit in multiple infrastructure or war bonuses.

Gorgo's Leader Ability: Thermopylae

Strength from military policy cards

Gorgo's diplomacy screen will show you which government she's currently using. She can get up to a +4 strength bonus from Oligarchy, +5 from Monarchy, +6 from Fascism and +9 from Corporate Libertarianism, assuming she doesn't also have the Alhambra or Forbidden City wonders.

Now, you can use Gorgo's ability against her by finding information you wouldn't normally have! Select one of your units, and hover over one of hers to see how much strength her unit has and where it's coming from. The number shown based on military policy cards slotted will tell you precisely how many military policy cards Gorgo has in her government! If the number is unusually low, she might not yet be inclined towards starting a war.

If Gorgo depends too heavily on military policy cards, she'll likely have fewer economic and diplomatic cards, and possibly wildcards as well. This can give you the edge in a wonder race against Gorgo, as the opportunity costs of using a wonder-construction policy card are greater to her.

Culture from kills

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

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

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

Grievances decay against Gorgo faster

This attribute is officially part of Gorgo's agenda, but it actually applies even if Gorgo is being controlled by a human player. Any grievances you generate for Gorgo will decay twice as fast. This is particularly helpful if you've been fighting her, as once you declare peace your penalties to diplomatic favours will decay faster. In singleplayer, generating fewer grievances for Greece allows you to keep good relations with them more easily.

Gorgo's Agenda: With Your Shield Or On It

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

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

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

Gorgo also has a 10% chance of having the Sycophant hidden agenda, which makes her prefer civs in Golden Ages and dislike civs in Dark Ages. Conquest is a decent source of era score, and she doesn't especially mind warmongers, so she can be a good friend in a domination game.

Counter-Strategies (Part 2/2)

Pericles' Leader Ability: Surrounded by Glory

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

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

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

Alternatively, letting Pericles get hold of a lot of city-states will give him an immense culture output, which maximises the rate at which he gains domestic tourists. If a different civ threatens to win a cultural victory, leaving him to dominate city-states can be a useful move to make. Of course, that makes him more of a threat in the diplomatic game, so consider saving up diplomatic favour to vote to reduce his diplomatic victory points to avoid that problem.

Pericles' Agenda: Delian League

An AI-controlled Pericles likes civs that aren't competing for the same city-states as him, and dislikes those who are. He won't have the City-State Ally hidden agenda as it overlaps with his main agenda.

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

Unique Unit: Hoplite

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

Avoid using Heavy Chariots or Horsemen against Hoplites - Archers are a better option. Anti-cavalry units, unlike melee infantry, don't have a promotion helping them defend against ranged units.

Swordsmen are slightly stronger than Hoplites in formation when the two fight, and Men-at-Arms absolutely crush Hoplites.

Unique District: Acropolis

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

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

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

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

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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.

[puchatekxdd]

Hey man, just a word of appreciation, these guides are amazingly in depth, thank you for your work!

[Zigzagzigal]

Military cards do regardless of which slots they're in. I should clarify that in the Outline section.

[MeniliteZ]

Question about Thermopylae:
Do the Military Cards need to be slotted into Military Card slots to give the strength increase to units?
I'm wondering if Military Cards in Wildcard slots also increase the units' strength.

[Zigzagzigal]

Guide updated to the new patch, though because I'm going through these guides relatively quickly, I might have missed some things here and there. Gorgo's new strength bonus is decent, but not overwhelming, and has some interesting trade-offs. The buff to Hoplites, however, makes them nearly on a par with Legions for strength but available much earlier. They're quite a threat!

[CyberGamer15]

No problem! It's indeed fixed up.

[Zigzagzigal]

Thanks! Should be fixed now.

[CyberGamer15]

Here's the exact line I found. It might just be a leftover from before Sweden was added into the game, but I thought to mention it.

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

[CyberGamer15]

Nice guide! I am hoping to try Greece out soon, as they look like an interesting civ to play as.


I just wanted to mention that in the Administration-City State section of the guide, it mentions how Stockholm can be useful in giving you lots of extra GWAM points, but the City State that's shown beside is Bologna.