Zigzagzigal's Guides - Arabia (GS)

Powerful at science and religion alike, Arabia offers plenty of options. Here, I detail Arabian strategies and counter-strategies.

Introduction

Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

Furthermore, it is written with the assumption you have all Civ 6 content released prior to the Leaders Pass:

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

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

The Leaders Pass is only relevant when playing as or against leaders released in its content packs; otherwise it makes no difference to the game.

Though faith, the arts and the sciences, we have achieved an enviable position in the world, yet this state is threatened by ignorance and blind retribution - the acts of the Crusaders. Let us not return their intolerance with the same, but lead by example. We shall protect the civilians caught in the crossfire and protect their free exercise of faith. Nonetheless, do not see this as a weakness. When our realm is threatened, we shall react accordingly. We have the expertise. We have the faith. And we have determination to protect our golden age.

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

Arabia has no start bias.

Civilization Ability: The Last Prophet

• When the second-to-last Great Prophet is claimed, you automatically receive the final Great Prophet.
  
  • This does not take effect if you earned a Great Prophet previously by any other means.
    
  • This ability reserves a religion for Arabia. If Arabia is eliminated before they can obtain a Great Prophet, there will still be a Great Prophet reserved for Arabia in case they are brought back to the game.
    
  • Founding a pantheon is still necessary to found a religion, as is having either a Holy Site district or the Stonehenge wonder.
• Gain +1 science for every foreign city that follows your religion.
  
  • This is added at the empire level, not the city level, and as such will not be modified by bonuses such as Oxford University or Vizier Saladin's worship buildings.

Sultan Saladin's Leader Ability: The Victorious

• All military and religious units receive +100% flanking and support bonuses
  
  • This results in +4 strength per supporting/flanking unit instead of +2.

Vizier Saladin's Leader Ability: Righteousness of the Faith

• Worship buildings belonging to Vizier Saladin's religion cost 90% less faith to purchase.
  
  • This bonus applies to all cities following Vizier Saladin's religion, regardless of civilization.
    
  • This stacks additively with reductions to faith purchasing costs; for example, the Theocracy government makes Vizier Saladin's religious buildings free to purchase.
• Worship buildings of your own religion provide the city with a 10% boost to science, culture and faith in addition to their normal yields.
  
  • This does not affect cities held by other civilizations.

Note: These bonuses are identical to Saladin's regular abilities for those not using the Great Negotiators Leader Pack.

Unique Unit: Mamluk

A medieval-era heavy cavalry unit which replaces the Knight

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Stirrups Technology Medieval era	Ballistics ** Technology Industrial era	Heavy Chariot (320 10 )	Cuirassier (230 20 )	220 or 880 or 440 *	10	4

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

**If you have insufficient iron, you may continue to train Mamluks even after researching Ballistics.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
50	N/A	4	N/A	2	Deals -85% damage to city walls and urban defences	Ignores Zone of Control Heals every turn regardless of whether it takes an action or not

Positive changes

• Costs 10 iron, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• Heals every turn regardless of whether it takes an action or not
  
  • This does not work when the unit is embarked.

Unique Building: Madrasa

A classical-era Campus building which replaces the University

Research	Prerequisites	Required to build	Cost	Maintenance	Base pillage yield
Theology Civic Classical era	Campus Library	Research Lab	250 or 1000 or 500 *	2	25

*Purchasing this building with faith requires the city to follow a religion with the Jesuit Education follower belief.

Fixed yields	Other yields	Citizen slots	Great Person points	Miscellaneous effects
5 1	The quantity of science produced by the Madrasa's Campus district via adjacency bonuses is also added to faith.	1 Scientist (2 if filled)	1	Rock Bands performing here generate +500

Variable changes

• Requires the classical-era Theology civic instead of the medieval-era Education technology

Positive changes

• Generates 5 science, up from 4
  
• The quantity of science produced by the Madrasa's Campus district via adjacency bonuses is also added to faith.
  
  • This is boosted by any modifiers to the Campus district's adjacency bonus, such as the Natural Philosophy economic policy card.

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
Sultan Saladin	6/10 (Good)	4/10 (Acceptable)	8/10 (Good)	8/10 (Good)	7/10 (Decent)
Vizier Saladin	7/10 (Good)	6/10 (Decent)	5/10 (Decent)	9/10 (Ideal)	9/10 (Ideal)

Culture is a reasonable backup victory route. Arabia's good science yield helps with securing key technologies like Radio and Computers, and getting a head start on certain wonders. Arabia's good faith generation can help with buying Naturalists and Rock Bands, while having a shared religion with another civ can boost tourism. Vizier Saladin has the edge thanks to extra culture and faith from Worship buildings, though Sultan Saladin's advantages in conquests can help in capturing wonders.

Diplomacy is generally a weak path for Arabia, except for how Vizier Saladin's leader ability interacts with the Pagoda worship building. A 90% discount on a building that offers +1 diplomatic favour per turn means you can get a considerable diplomatic favour advantage early in the game. Aside from that, Vizier Saladin has a minor culture advantage that help get to the all-important carbon recapture project faster.

Domination is okay for Vizier Saladin - science and religious advantages can complement warfare - but it's arguably Sultan Saladin's best victory route. Mamluks have a relatively limited window of usage before Pike and Shot and Curiasser units enter the battlefield, require iron, are quite expensive to train or upgrade to, and struggle against city walls - but they have incredible lasting power and can easily flank foes to take advantage of Sultan Saladin's massive flanking bonus. Furthermore, Arabia's science bonuses can help complement a domination game.

Next up is religion. Arabia comes with a guarantee of a religion and a strong faith output (albeit one that takes longer to arrive than it does for some other religious civs). Even if you don't think winning a religious victory is viable, it's worth playing the religious game for the scientific opportunities. Vizier Saladin's cheap and faith-enhancing worship buildings gives him an overall edge in the religious game over Sultan Saladin, though Sultan Saladin can perform effectively where theological combat is common.

Lastly, science. Playing as Vizier Saladin, three out of your four uniques have some kind of contribution to science output, and even Sultan Saladin gets a decent science boost. A lack of production advantages might make it a bit trickier to complete space race projects and certain eurekas, but Arabia is still well-equipped for such a victory path.

Civilization Ability: The Last Prophet

The Arabian civ ability clearly marks out the theme of the civ, combining religious and scientific advantages.

Always receive the final Great Prophet

Arabia can guarantee a religion without needing to make a big initial investment into their faith. This means unlike other religious civs, you can dedicate your earliest turns to more general development.

Some useful things to invest your early production in include:

• Settlers - Settling a few cities early on maximises your empire-wide yields; you'll be able to produce more, research more, and generate more faith later.
  
• Campuses - Getting some Campuses up and running early will help you research key technologies like Stirrups sooner, and they'll be necessary later for your Madrasa UB.
  
• Heavy Chariots - Heavy Chariots can be upgraded to Mamluks for 320 gold and 10 iron. While expensive, it does mean you'll get Mamluks immediately after researching Stirrups rather than a few turns later. Heavy Chariots are also decent defensive units until then.

Of course, you shouldn't neglect other things like Builders and Traders - those three things listed are just things you should emphasise more than you might normally with other civs.

Eventually, another civ will found the penultimate religion, giving you a Great Prophet. However, to found a religion, you need a pantheon and either a Holy Site or Stonehenge. Typically, a good time to build a Holy Site is after your third city is settled, or perhaps later on larger map sizes.

With a religion founded, what beliefs should you take? That will be detailed in full in the Administration section of this guide, but here's a few really helpful ones to consider:

• Cross-Cultural Dialogue - Provides you with science as you spread your religion.
  
• Jesuit Education - Allows you to buy Campus and Theatre Square buildings with faith, allowing you to tie together your religious and scientific advantages very effectively.
  
• Work Ethic - A powerful production bonus for any city with a Holy Site.

+1 science per foreign city following Arabia's religion

Together with Cross-Cultural Dialogue, I'm creating a lot of science from my faith!

Arabia will have a religion of their own every game, while the Madrasa UB (and eventually Vizier Saladin's leader ability) offers plenty of faith. No matter your intended victory route, invest some of it into spreading your religion! The science offered per city is fairly small, but it can add up nicely if you can convert a few civs and city-states.

Conclusion

Religion and its associated gameplay will always be a key part of the game as Arabia, no matter which victory route you take. Arabia has a key advantage that they can get all the benefits of religion without the drawback of needing to invest heavily in it early on. Thanks to the significant faith output of Madrasas, you'll have a strong enough infrastructure to catch up with other religious civs. And if you can't win a religious victory, you can use your religious advantages to strengthen your science.

Unique Building: Madrasa

While getting a guaranteed religion means you can dedicate more resources to other important things early in the game, the Madrasa UB along with Vizier Saladin's leader ability helps to set up the rest of the game with both religious and scientific advantages.

Getting to Madrasas

Unlike regular Universities which are unlocked at the late-medieval Education technology, Madrasas are unlocked at the late-classical Theology civic. This does mean you can potentially build them significantly earlier than other civs can get Universities, though it can be quite difficult to maximise your culture yields when general expansion is a more pressing concern. Consider also that Madrasas are expensive relative to other classical-era buildings, though you could offset that partially by using Governor Magnus (the Steward) and chopping some woods for instant production.

While you could attempt to beeline Theology, it's generally better to pick up Political Philosophy (for a tier one government) first, and perhaps Military Tradition (for the Manoeuvre military policy card, allowing you to train Heavy Chariots faster ready for upgrading to Mamluks later) before heading to it. That'll also allow you enough time for your civ ability to take effect letting you found a religion and get Theology's inspiration boost with it.

Madrasas must be built in cities with a Campus and Library already. It's not a bad idea to start building Campuses in new cities early in the game while the cost of districts is still low, and the science yield could help you unlock things like Mamluks sooner.

An Early, Better University

Universities offer +4 science, +1 housing and a Great Scientist Point. They're reasonable buildings for their time, and any scientific civ will want plenty. The housing boost isn't enough to get cities over the threshold for a new district by itself, but it'll certainly help.

Arabia gets all that, with an extra point of science on top, a whole era early. Depending on how fast you can research and build, that might be 20-40 turns sooner than you're able to build Universities while playing as other civs. Building 2-3 early Madrasas can put you the equivalent of an extra technology ahead of non-scientific civs by the time they reach the Education technology, and the advantage to Great Scientist Points will be helpful, too.

Campus science added to faith

The biggest feature of Madrasas is their ability to add faith based on the adjacency bonus of their Campus. At first, this is useful as an interim source of faith until you have Holy Sites developed, and later on it remains a powerful complementary source of the yield.

To maximise Campus adjacency yields, it helps to first understand all the sources of adjacency bonuses:

• +2 per adjacent geothermal fissure tile (found at continental boundaries)
  
• +2 per adjacent reef (found on the coast)
  
• +2 per adjacent tile of the Great Barrier Reef or Pamukkale natural wonders
  
• +1 per adjacent mountain
  
• +1 if a Government Plaza is adjacent
  
• +1 per two adjacent districts*
  
• +1 per two adjacent rainforest tiles*

*These bonuses do not mix together - having three adjacent districts and three adjacent rainforests will create a +2 adjacency bonus, not the +3 you might expect.

The best locations are usually those with geothermal fissures, reefs or lots of mountains nearby. If you can't find such spots early on, and you don't have any rainforests, try building up a cluster of districts between a few cities so they can all provide adjacency bonuses to each other. Areas without the ideal tiles won't produce so much science (and therefore faith), but at least it'll tend to have more open terrain for your Mamluks to rush through - so it's not all bad.

Natural Philosophy (which requires the late-classical era Recorded History civic) doubles campus adjacency bonuses, by extension also doubling the faith contribution of Madrasas!

This large boost to faith can really make up for neglecting Holy Sites early in the game, allowing you to spread your religion throughout your empire just in time for you to build lots of Holy Sites, Shrines and Temples. You'll need cities with Temples and following your religion to benefit from Vizier Saladin's leader ability and the super-cheap worship buildings it offers. With all that infrastructure in place, you can potentially have some of the game's best faith generation.

Even if religious victory doesn't appear to be an option, you'll want to use at least some of your faith for spreading your religion outside your home territory for the science boost your religion offers. You can also use your excess faith for Great Engineer/Scientist patronage, purchasing military units (with the Grand Master's Chapel Government Plaza building), and purchasing Campus or Theatre Square buildings (with the Jesuit Education follower belief).

Summary

• Work towards the Theology civic as soon as you're done with Political Philosophy.
  
• Madrasas are expensive - get the Jesuit Education belief or use Builders to cut down foliage to get them up reasonably fast.
  
• Get the Recorded History civic soon after Theology so you can use the Natural Philosophy policy card and double the science and faith contribution of Madrasas.

Vizier Saladin's Leader Ability: Righteousness of the Faith (Part 1/2)

With a religion founded and Madrasas built, it's time to build up some Holy Sites and develop them with a Shrine, Temple and finally a worship building. Saladin makes worship buildings extremely cheap to purchase and more powerful, letting you exceed the normal potential of Holy Sites in less time than it takes other civs to complete them.

Worship Beliefs and Buildings

Let's first examine how exactly worship buildings work.

Religions have four different types of belief: founder, follower, enhancer and worship. Religions can have up to four beliefs in total, and no more than one from each category. When you found a religion, you are able to select two. To unlock your last two beliefs, you'll need a Holy Site with a Temple in one of your cities (requiring the classical-era Theology civic). Then, you'll need to purchase an Apostle with faith there. Finally, use their "Evangelise Belief" option.

Worship beliefs determine which worship building may be built in cities following your religion; it's a good idea to favour whichever building is most relevant for your general gameplay. Constructing a worship building requires the city to have a Holy Site with a Temple already, meaning that effectively all worship buildings require you to have the classical-era Theology civic before you can build them. As a consequence, although you can choose your worship building when you first found a religion, you might want to take a more impactful follower or enhancer belief instead, and spend faith on an Apostle for the worship belief as soon as you are able.

All worship buildings cost 190 production (for comparison, Temples cost 120). However, unlike Shrines and Temples, they may also be purchased via faith - this costs 380 faith each time.

Choosing the right worship building

There's a variety of worship buildings on offer, but you can only choose one to incorporate into your religion. Here's a list of them all with notes regarding how relevant they are for Arabia.

Worship Building	Effect	Arabia Notes
Cathedral	3 1	There are only 12 possible Great Works of Religious Art in the game, and they're typically better-suited for Art Museums in Theatre Squares. Arabia has little inclination towards cultural victories, so you're better off picking a different building.
Dar-e Mehr	3 +1 per era since built or last repaired. This faith bonus does not scale with the Simultaneum policy card. Cannot be pillaged by environmental effects.	This has the most faith potential of any of the worship buildings, especially if you can get them built relatively early and avoid pillagers. A bigger faith yield goes nicely with Saladin's 10% faith boost.
Gurdwara	3 2 1	Has some limited synergy with the Madrasa's housing, and can help you on the way to securing more district capacity. This might be helpful if you're cramming cities close together and lack space for farms, but you're often better off with a different worship building. Still more useful than Cathedrals, however.
Meeting House	3 2	Even a little production is useful to have around - especially in newer cities. While not as relevant to Arabia's bonuses as the buildings offering more faith or science, it's not a bad choice in any situation.
Mosque	3 Missionaries and Apostles purchased in this city have +1 spread-religion charge	It helps your faith go much further, but this is a bonus that doesn't scale well to a large number of cities unlike other worship buildings. It's still excellent if you're heading for a religious victory, but if you're after science, you may want something else.
Pagoda	3 1	Sources of diplomatic favour are quite rare, and Saladin's 90% discount will allow you to have quite a considerable edge in the World Congress early in the game - so long as you avoid conquests. Could support a diplomatic victory path as an alternative to religion or science.
Stupa	3 1	A decent worship building on the whole; it can help support potential Mamluk conquests and growing cities quite nicely.
Synagogue	5	A reliably good building for a civ that leans heavily on faith to begin with.
Wat	3 2	The faith/science combination is a great one for Arabia, making this one of the better worship buildings you can select.

Overall, the most appropriate worship buildings for Arabia are the Dar-e Mehr, Mosque, Synagogue and Wat. The Pagoda can be very powerful for an unconventional diplomatic path. The Meeting House and Stupa are less directly helpful but are still useful.

Vizier Saladin's Leader Ability: Righteousness of the Faith (Part 2/2)

Vizier Saladin's Bonuses

Vizier Saladin allows you to purchase your faith building for just 35 faith - or free if you have the Theocracy government. This means all faith buildings will pay for themselves in just 11 turns, and that's before considering their secondary yields or the Simultaneum economic policy card (requiring the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic) which boosts their faith output by up to 100%. As such, any city you have that has a Temple and follows your religion is one in which you should seek to immediately purchase your worship building.

With the building purchased, you'll make +10% faith, science and culture in the city. While a 10% bonus isn't a huge increase to your yields, it works well with the bonus science and faith from Madrasas.

While other civs won't receive the 10% bonus to faith, science and culture, they will get the 90% discount to your worship building. Considering the civs with lots of Holy Sites are likely to be religious civs themselves, and Saladin's worship buildings pay for themselves very quickly, if you're not careful you could end up handing your enemies lots of cheap faith. To minimise this risk, try to spread your religion first to civs that don't have one of their own.

Enter the Dark Age

A classical or medieval-era Dark Age allows you to use the powerful Monasticism wildcard. At the cost of 25% culture in all your cities (which can be partially offset by this leader ability), all cities with a Holy Site will gain +75% science. Arabia's incentive to build both Holy Sites and Campuses can make this worth an awful lot of science!

For the best results, aim for a medieval-era Dark Age. This is easier to achieve if you secure a classical-era Golden Age, but if that's not possible, just try to avoid major sources of era score (e.g. delay training your first Mamluk a bit, let other civs clear Barbarian Encampments instead of clearing them yourself).

Summary

• The Dar-e Mehr, Mosque, Synagogue or Wat are your best choices for worship buildings in most games.
  
• Always buy your worship building when it's available. The faith investment will pay for itself very quickly.
  
• If you can achieve a medieval-era Dark Age, take the Monasticism wildcard for a huge science boost.

Sultan Saladin's Leader Ability: The Victorious

+4 flanking bonus instead of +2 gives me an even bigger edge over the Gauls.

The potential of Mamluks in warfare merits a diversion from Arabia's usual religious/scientific hybrid path. Sultan Saladin however significantly increases Arabia's warfare capabilities, encouraging much more combat than you'd expect when playing as Vizier Saladin.

Flanking and Support Bonuses

Before going any further, it's worth explaining exactly what this ability does.

Any military or religious unit which attacks with melee (in other words, doesn't have a ranged attack), will gain +2 strength against an enemy unit for every other owned unit adjacent to that foe. This is the flanking bonus. If you completely surround a unit, you'll get the maximum flanking bonus of +10. Embarked units do not contribute to flanking bonuses, but can receive them when making an amphibious attack. Aircraft do not contribute to nor receive flanking bonuses.

Sultan Saladin doubles this, so you will receive +4 strength per other unit adjacent to your foe, for a maximum bonus of +20 if you completely surround them.


This tight formation of units ensures they will all receive decent support bonuses if attacked.

Defending military and religious units receive +2 strength per adjacent friendly unit - including embarked land units. This is the support bonus. Aircraft do not contribute to nor receive support bonuses. Sultan Saladin doubles this to +4.

To summarise, maximise your flanking bonuses by surrounding your enemies with your own units, and maximise your support bonuses by clustering your units together.

Sultan Saladin and Warfare

Flanking bonuses are most effectively used by cavalry units, which can evade enemy zone of control to easily surround them. As Arabia has a unique cavalry unit in the Mamluk, it's a good idea to build Sultan Saladin's initial warfare plans around them.

The key things to emphasise early on are science, and to a lesser extent, gold. As detailed later on in the Mamluk section of this guide, you'll need quite a few technologies to unlock Mamluks, so securing good Campus adjacency bonuses will be key. Training some Heavy Chariots for upgrading later is a good idea to save production later.

You can skip building Holy Sites for the time being to emphasise Settlers, science and gold, though it does help to get enough faith to secure the God of Healing pantheon. It greatly enhances the healing capabilities of Mamluks that are near Holy Sites - even enemy ones!

It also helps to secure an early Great General - using the Strategos policy card as soon as you have the Political Philosophy and Military Tradition civics will be a good idea.


Mamluks' high mobility can be used to get huge flanking bonuses with ease!

Mamluks are effective flankers - but they can also perform well in a support role. Move injured Mamluks behind your full-health ones, allowing them to still contribute to your combat strength while they heal up. But for even more effective support, consider bringing anti-cavalry units like Pikemen. With the Square promotion, they'll provide an additional +2 support bonus, meaning an Arabian unit next to it will be six points stronger in defence!

Although Sultan Saladin's strength bonuses are great for clearing out enemy units, they do little to deal with cities - city walls will be quite an obstacle. Surrounding enemy cities with Mamluks to put them under siege will prevent them from healing up, allowing you to whittle down their health over time or simply hold off until your ranged or siege units catch up.

Later on, consider switching to light cavalry to exploit their Double Envelopment promotion. This gives them a +100% boost to flanking bonuses, stacking with Saladin's ability for an impressive +6 strength bonus per unit!

From here, you can carry on with warfare or use your Mamluk conquests to build up a stronger religious base. Your foes later on will tend to have more Encampments and units, making flanking them harder, but Arabia's scientific advantages could help you to maintain a military lead.

Sultan Saladin and Religion

Religious units in theological combat receive flanking and support bonuses just like military units. Saladin increases these as well, meaning if you group your Apostles together they can deal serious damage to enemy religious units.

What sets this ability apart from many comparable religious strength bonuses offered by other civs is how frequently applicable it is. All you need to do is have your religious units in at least pairs and they'll have an edge in combat. Neatly, any city capable of purchasing religious units can buy two per turn, as one will spawn on the Holy Site and the other in the city centre. This makes it easy to keep them paired up as they travel.

Conclusion

The main difference between Sultan and Vizier Saladin is how much emphasis they put on Mamluks and Mamluk warfare. Sultan Saladin should start a game with war in mind, while for Vizier Saladin it's far more optional. Nonetheless, it's still important to consider the religious and scientific advantages as Arabia. Using your conquered cities to boost your science and faith outputs towards a religious or scientific victory is an effective strategy.

Unique Unit: Mamluk (Part 1/2)

Knights are strong, fast and ignore zone of control, though repeated attacks will wear them down. Mamluks don't that issue, letting you train a unit with great persistence on the battlefield.

Preparation

To train Mamluks, you'll need Animal Husbandry, Archery, Horseback Riding, Pottery, Writing, Currency, Apprenticeship and Stirrups - quite a lot of research! That's not to mention Mining and Bronze Working (needed to reveal iron) Writing (needed for Campuses for a decent science output) and Astrology (needed for a Holy Site to found a religion). It's also worth making a detour to Wheel so you can train a couple of Heavy Chariots and upgrade them to Mamluks as soon as you have Stirrups.

Getting some early Campuses built can help you grab some early Great Scientists - the medieval era Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi is particularly useful. He makes military units within his radius heal 20 HP per turn faster - combined with the heal-every-turn bonus of Mamluks, you'll be able to recover from even heavy rounds of fighting! Alternatively, retire him and all your units will heal 5HP per turn faster, and you can use an Apostle with the Chaplain promotion instead for the +20HP/turn healing.

If you intend to use Mamluks against another civ, you'll most likely need some kind of siege support. Crossbowmen are reasonably effective in this role - you'll need the medieval-era Machinery technology for them. You'll also want to figure out who to attack first. Usually, you'll want to go for your closest neighbour - it helps avoid the problem of losing loyalty over captured cities, and injured Mamluks can simply retreat into your own lands to heal up faster. If there's two or more civs close by, consider targeting which ever one has the most Holy Sites - you'll eliminate a religious rival while seizing their faith output for yourself.

Warfare

Mamluks start with 50 strength, which will give them a huge advantage over Swordsmen and other pre-medieval era threats, though their 85% strength penalty against city walls will make them terrible without other units providing backup.

Units heal at the start of your turn. This is important to remember as any Mamluk that's just attacked (and hence lost health) will be at risk of being attacked (and hence losing more health) before they have the chance to recover. Of course, judging when's a good time to attack and when's a good time not to is tricky, but consider these points:

• How many enemies are in the area that could viably attack that specific Mamluk?
  
• If all those units attacked your Mamluk, approximately how much damage would they deal?
  
• If you attacked something with your Mamluk, how much health would it lose in the process? (To find this out, hover over the thing you want to attack - the glowing area on the Mamluk's health bar indicates the average amount of health you can expect it to lose).
  
• And finally, would the amount of health lost from that attack put the Mamluk on a lower amount of health than necessary to survive the enemy counter-attack?

You don't need to worry too much calculating specific numbers - just think of this in approximate terms. Maybe your Mamluk is on about three-quarters health, and you know that attacking a city centre will put them on half-health, and enemy units could put them on less than one-quarter health. Attacking that city might put your Mamluk at risk of being killed before they have a chance to heal! You might want to stop attacking the city for a moment to clean up nearby enemy units.

It also helps to know how much you can expect Mamluks to heal each turn:

• In an owned city centre or district, it's 20.
  
• In friendly territory, it's 15.
  
• In neutral territory, it's 10.
  
• In enemy territory, it's 5.
  
• If the unit has a Medic, an Apostle with the Chaplain promotion, or the Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi on the same tile or an adjacent one, add +20.
  
• If the unit has entered the Fountain of Youth tile at some point, add +10.
  
• If you've retired the Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, add +5.
  
• If you have the God of Healing pantheon, Holy Sites (even if not owned by you) and adjacent tiles add +30.
  
• In a city with Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Laying On of Hands promotion, your units heal completely.
  
• Next to the Dead Sea natural wonder, units heal all their health.

5 health per turn in enemy territory isn't a lot, so it's a good idea where possible to attack cities that border another you currently control so you can retreat injured units there. Alternatively, if your enemy isn't close, pick off one of their weakest cities first so you have somewhere to retreat to. If you can get all the way to the Breakthrough promotion, Mamluks can then, in addition to attacking twice a turn, move after attacking. This can be used to deal damage to enemy units and retreat to friendly lands in the same turn for additional healing.

Aside from direct warfare, Mamluks make decent pillagers. While lacking the ability to pillage cheaply like light cavalry with the Depredation promotion, Mamluks nonetheless can slip past enemy zone of control, pillage enemy improvements and districts, and retreat to neutral or friendly hands to quickly heal up before coming back again. Good strength and mobility makes any Knight a hard pillager to catch, but the ability to rapidly recover from injury makes Mamluks particularly good at harassment strategies.

Unique Unit: Mamluk (Part 2/2)

Defence and Exploration

Mamluks struggle against enemy walls and don't have a huge window of usage before Pike and Shot units arrive, but they can still be helpful even if you're not going on the offensive with them. They heal much faster in friendly territory (especially with Governor Moksha with the Laying on of Hands promotion) and can retreat to the safety of an Encampment or city centre.

Mamluks also make great explorers after you get the Cartography technology and unlock the ability to cross oceans. The good mobility, decent strength and constant healing of Mamluks allows them to fight or evade Barbarians they come across on new landmasses, though be warned they won't heal while embarked.

Obsoletion

Once other civs start getting Musketmen and especially Pike and Shot units, Mamluks are no longer the highly powerful UUs they used to be. It's a good idea to finish off any conquests and switch to a more peaceful approach, emphasising both religion and science.

Further Reading: The Fall of Mamluks

Older guides for Civ 6's Arabia place much more emphasis on Mamluks, and for a good reason - Mamluks were among the most powerful unique units in the game back in the earliest patches of Civ 6. While the core mechanic of Mamluks (a Knight that can heal every turn) hasn't changed, patches and expansions have had the net effect of leaving Mamluks with considerably less power than previously the case.

In the early patches of Civ 6, Mamluks were...

• Much faster to research - You only needed the Animal Husbandry, Horseback Riding and Stirrups technologies. Furthermore, technologies had a fixed research cost, rather than being higher for eras ahead of the current game era, and the Stirrups technology was cheaper to research. Upgrading Heavy Chariots to Mamluks cost only 180 gold each.
  
• Cheaper - They only cost 180 production and 3 gold per turn in maintenance, and had no iron requirement.
  
• Better against walls - They could benefit from Battering Rams and Siege Towers, both of which were unlocked earlier and could function against any kind of walls
  
• Harder to counter - Pikemen cost 200 production and 3 gold per turn in maintenance, did not benefit from the Oligarchy government's strength bonus, had no policy cards to boost their production, had a bigger penalty against Swordsmen/Musketmen and arrived at a dead-end technology. Pike and Shot units did not yet exist.
  
• However, they were slightly weaker at 48 strength rather than 50.

There were some other differences as well, but needless to say, Mamluks in the earliest patches of Civ 6 were devastatingly effective. Byzantium's uniques create an experience somewhat similar to Arabia's original Mamluks in terms of how effectively they can rip down city defences and move to the next city.

Summary

• Don't over-rely on Mamluks - they have a small window of usage before Pike and Shot units come available.
  
• Use Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Laying on of Hands promotion in a city to make Mamluks in the area able to instantly heal every turn.

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

For Vizier Saladin, Classical Republic is a great choice. It gives you plenty of economic policy cards, allowing you to take both Natural Philosophy and Scripture simultaneously for strong faith and science yields. Sultan Saladin will generally prefer the Autocracy government for its more balanced bonuses and policy card slots.

The Ancestral Hall is helpful for early expansion - more cities means more Campuses and Holy Sites and hence more faith. Sultan Saladin can alternatively take the Warlord's Throne to build on his military advantages.

Tier Two

Theocracy is the best choice. Religious units are cheaper, you get an edge in religious combat (very nice if you've been spamming Apostles with all the faith you'll be generating) and it has a decent balance of policy card slots. Vizier Saladin can even buy religious buildings for free with it.

The Grand Master's Chapel lets you use your strong faith output to help keep you defended, while the Intelligence Agency gives you an extra Spy so you can send them on counter-spy operations to preserve your technological advantage.

Tier Three

Democracy is reliably good for religious and scientific games alike due to its good number of economic policy card slots, though if you're specifically focused on science, Communism's direct science boost will be more helpful. If you want to continue on the warpath as Sultan Saladin, take Fascism.

The Royal Society is a must-have for the scientific game as it lets you partially rush space race projects with Builder charges, while the War Department helps if you're aiming for a late religious or domination victory due to the health-on-kills bonus applying for theological combat.

Tier Four

Synthetic Technocracy is ideal for scientific games as its production bonus to city projects extends to space projects. The higher number of economic policy cards makes it a good choice for the religious game as well.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - Mamluks are expensive to train directly, so one possibility is to train Heavy Chariots and upgrade them. However, the more you train, the more their maintenance will drain your coffers and the less able you'll be to afford the upgrade cost. That's where Conscription is useful - by reducing unit maintenance costs, you'll have more gold available for upgrades later. Mamluks also have a high maintenance cost, so it's useful for thatreason as well.

Manoeuvre (Military, requires Military Tradition) - Allows you to train Heavy Chariots faster, which can later be upgraded to Mamluks.

(Sultan Saladin) Strategos (Wildcard, requires Military Tradition) - Securing an early Great General makes your units much more manoeuvrable - and much more able to flank foes.

Classical Era

Natural Philosophy (Economic, requires Recorded History) - Grab this card and don't look back. Double Campus adjacency bonuses will be good anyway, but this also doubles the faith you get from Madrasas.

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Some extra faith for Vizier Saladin's leader ability to build upon.

Medieval Era

Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Gives you a 50% production bonus while training Mamluks.

Renaissance Era

Rationalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - If you get the full bonus, Madrasas produce +10 science each instead of +5. That doesn't affect their faith yield, but that science boost is still good to have.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Vizier Saladin's leader ability encourages you to have a high number of completed Holy Site districts. This policy card can as much as double their faith output. It's still useful for Sultan Saladin as Arabia always benefits from a strong religion.

Modern Era

Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Ideology) - This replaces Natural Philosophy and has all of its advantages, but on top of that it also doubles Industrial Zone adjacency bonuses.

Science Foundations (Wildcard, requires Nuclear Programme) - Rewards you for having lots of Madrasas with extra Great Scientist Points.

Administration - Age Bonuses 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) - Given Arabia's incentive to build both Campuses and Holy Sites, this can be an extremely effective bonus - particularly in the medieval era where you will have had more time to set up the districts. The culture penalty can be partially offset via Vizier Saladin's leader ability.

Free Inquiry (Dedication, Classical to Medieval eras) - Build up Libraries and Madrasas and you'll be rewarded with era score.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Your incentive to spread your religion far and wide makes this a decent source of era score.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Make up for lost time establishing your religion with this Golden Age dedication which makes your Missionaries, Inquisitors and Apostles faster and with more charges.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - An excellent way to channel your faith advantages to general development. Particularly useful if you don't think winning a religious victory is viable at this point.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Atomic eras) - Maximising your Campus adjacency for Madrasa faith? They'll also add production with this Golden Age dedication!

World Congress

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

(Sultan Saladin) Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on Light or Heavy Cavalry or Effect B (Units of the chosen land promotion class lose 5 strength) on Anti-Cavalry

Flanking bonuses are easiest to use with cavalry, so Sultan Saladin is likely to rely on them.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) for Campuses or Holy Sites

It takes a quite a lot of production to complete a Madrasa or Temple, so this resolution should help make that more manageable.

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

Divine Spark - As you'll need to build Libraries to get Madrasas, this is a good source of Great Scientist Points.

God of Healing - Makes Mamluks heal up at super-speed. All they need to do is move next to a Holy Site in friendly terrain and they'll heal 45 health! Even Holy Sites in enemy territory will boost heal rate, so you can get 35HP per turn.

Religious Settlements - Rapid early expansion makes a big difference to Arabia's game, as districts are cheaper the sooner you can start work on them. As such, a free Settler is really helpful.

Religious Beliefs

Note that:

• You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.
  
• The Stewardship Founder belief adds science from Campus districts at the national level, so it won't translate to a faith bonus via Madrasas.
  
• All worship buildings are also discussed in the section for Vizier Saladin's Leader Ability.

Cross Cultural Dialogue (Founder) - Get even more science from spreading your religion around.

Dar-e Mehr (Worship) - Can potentially result in more faith than any other worship building, though you'll need to have it around for at least three eras for that to happen. Vizier Saladin's 10% faith bonus from the building helps you get just a little bit more on top.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Once you have some Holy Sites and Madrasas going, you'll have a great faith output. This belief helps you to rush through future Madrasas in cities less able to build them quickly (in addition to other science and culture buildings, but they aren't as important).

Mosque (Worship) - While the bonus doesn't accumulate well over multiple cities, it's still a very effective boost for religious games and saves a lot of faith, making it worth using.

(Vizier Saladin) Pagoda (Worship) - Being able to get this worship building for such a low price can give Arabia a significant diplomatic favour advantage early in the game, though be warned if you spread your religion to other civs, they can also get this building for cheap!

Papal Primacy (Founder) - This founder belief lets you spread religious pressure to city-states every time you send envoys to them, helping you convert them. That in turn allows you to get bonus science from your civ ability without having to spend faith on religious units.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - Pilgrimage adds +2 faith for every city you convert, helping your religion to snowball in power.

Scripture (Enhancer) - Arabia's high science output and ease in which they can achieve Printing's eureka boost makes it easy to research that technology early and get this belief's full pressure bonus early.

Synagogue (Worship) - A reliably good faith output, making this building one that pays for itself extremely fast as Vizier Saladin.

(Sultan Saladin) Warrior Monks (Follower) - Warrior Monks can receive the Shadow Strike promotion to boost their flanking bonuses by 100%, stacking with Sultan Saladin's bonus for +200%. The catch is that Warrior Monks are less mobile than cavalry, so actually securing these bonuses can be trickier.

Wat (Worship) - If you intend to go for a scientific victory, this will probably be your best choice thanks to its +2 science boost.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Vizier Saladin's leader ability (and Arabia's religion-centric civ ability) encourages you to have lots of Holy Sites; this will give them all extra production.

City-States

Fez (Scientific) - Gain bonus one-off bursts of science for converting foreign cities, on top of your science-per-turn generation!

(Vizier Saladin) Geneva (Scientific) - A great city-state for Arabia to chase due to its ability to magnify your already huge science output. The one downside is the 15% science boost doesn't apply if you're at war, so don't go overboard with Mamluks.

Jerusalem (Religious) - The nature of Arabia's religious focus strongly incentivises you to have a lot of Holy Sites. This bonus helps you maintain religious pressure in your empire, allowing you to use faith for other uses.

Mitla (Scientific) - Increased growth for all your Campus cities basically means increased growth for all your cities considering the importance of your UB.

Nalanda (Scientific) - The Mahavihara improvement combines science and faith, and has its best yields when adjacent to both a Campus and Holy Site. This goes nicely with Arabia's science/faith hybrid strategy.

(Vizier Saladin) Taruga (Scientific) - Builds on the science multiplier from Vizier Saladin's leader ability.

(Sultan Saladin) Wolin (Militaristic) - Sultan Saladin excels at defeating enemy units, and will be rewarded with extra Great General points - rather handy when you're upgrading Mamluks to Cuirassiers and need a more up-to-date general.

Yerevan (Religious) - With the Chaplain promotion, an Apostle can allow Mamluks to heal at a rate of 25HP/turn even in enemy territory. For Sultan Saladin, you can secure Debater-promoted Apostles for easy theological combat.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Sometimes, a religious victory simply isn't possible. The Oracle understands your pain and offers some help. Now, you can use your faith to rush Great People (like those handy Great Scientists and Great Engineers) and use those advantages to get you to an exoplanet sooner.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - Look out for whoever has this wonder when you make your Mamluk conquests. The huge amount of faith it can generate will really help get your religion off the ground.

Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - Two free Apostles will help ensure you can get your religion to a good start despite starting late. It also helps that you'll want Theology early anyway for worship buildings and Madrasas.

(Sultan Saladin) Statue of Zeus (Classical era, Military Training technology) - Anti-cavalry units have access to the Square promotion, boosting their support bonus by +2, stacking with Sultan Saladin's leader bonus for an impressive +6 boost! This wonder makes anti-cavalry units faster to train in future.

(Sultan Saladin) Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - Builds on Sultan Saladin's advantages in flanking-based theological combat - you can use the Gurus to provide extra flanking and support bonuses as well as their +5 strength to adjacent units from the wonder.

University of Sankore (Medieval era, Education technology) - The combined faith and science yields complement Arabia's strengths nicely.

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

Hypatia (Great Scientist) - Extra science is very welcome, and a free Library will save you some precious early production.

Medieval Era

Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Great Scientist) - This Great Scientist has huge synergy with Mamluks, letting them heal 20HP per turn faster if they're adjacent or on the same tile. If your Mamluks are already far away, or you have an Apostle with the Chaplain promotion to accompany them, retire him and enjoy a +5 healing bonus for all units for the rest of the game.

El Cid (Great General) - El Cid can retire to create a Mamluks corps. An early Mamluk corps is pretty tough to beat, but make sure you have another classical or medieval Great General ready if you want to do that, as the bonus from turning one Mamluk into a corps isn't really enough to compensate for the lack of an area-of-effect strength bonus. It'll also cost a massive 8 gold per turn in maintenance, so be sure you can afford that!

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - Basically works like a reversed Madrasa, but that's not the reason I mention her here. Instead, what's important is the +100 faith at a time you may be just starting out with your religion and need all the faith you can get.

Renaissance Era

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - Ideal if you're setting up a new city and need a Madrasa fast. Also makes all Madrasas produce +2 science.

Industrial Era

(Sultan Saladin) Horatio Nelson (Great Admiral) - Permanently increases flanking bonuses for naval units, building on Sultan Saladin's already strong advantage.

Atomic Era

(Sultan Saladin) Georgy Zhukov (Great General) - Permanently increases flanking bonuses for land units.

Counter-Strategies

Arabia is a relatively versatile civ in that their religious and scientific advantages are closely interwoven, allowing them to move from one victory path to another without losing progress, but undermine their religious advantages and they lose much of their general strength with it.

Civilization Ability: The Last Prophet

It's guaranteed that Arabia will get a religion. Even if they're eliminated from the game, the last Great Prophet is still reserved for them. That doesn't, however, mean they'll have the strongest religion. If Arabia gets the last religion, they get the last pick of beliefs. Take the good stuff they're likely to want (e.g. Jesuit Education for example) and they become a lot less of a threat than they could be. If Arabia's last to a religion, they'll also be slow to spread it.

Arabia's science bonus from spreading religions is tied to cities and not population, so Arabia will getting the bulk of that bonus science from small, easily-converted cities. You can engage in a bit of theological combat near smaller border cities to weaken Arabia's religion, but if you really need to set them back, a bit of actual combat will work as well. Condemning religious units reduces their religion's pressure in nearby cities - and hence Arabia's science output.

Sultan Saladin's Leader Ability: The Victorious

Saladin's leader ability is most powerful when he can train lots of units and keep them together. A lone Arabian unit has no combat advantages over that of any other civ, so look out for isolated units to pick off.

Look for the weakest units in Arabia's formations. With the exception of anti-cavalry, light cavalry and Warrior Monks with specific promotions, all units provide the same flanking and support bonuses. This means picking off weak ones will boost your strength against the remaining foes just as much as picking off the strong will.

The most effective units at flanking are cavalry, so bringing anti-cavalry units of your own is a good idea.

With regards to theological combat, his flanking and support bonuses can be overcome with a pair of Debater-promoted Apostles. Use them to pick off his own religious units without the promotion, and soon he'll lose his advantage.

Sultan Saladin's Agenda: Sultan of Egypt and Syria

Sultan Saladin likes civs that have founded a religion, but have not spread it to his cities. He hates civs that spread their religion to his cities.

Civs that haven't founded a religion can ignore his agenda with little trouble. Religious civs may wish to avoid spreading their faith into Arabia until later in the game to minimise the risk of a retaliatory war.

Vizier Saladin's Leader Ability: Righteousness of the Faith

Vizier Saladin's ability is one of the few uniques that can be used for the benefit of other civs. If his religion spreads to your cities, the worship building will be very cheap. If you feel you can take the risk, you can allow one of your Holy Site cities to be converted, buy Saladin's worship building and convert it to a different religion so he doesn't keep the +1 science from Arabia's civ ability. Or, just keep his religion if you want to get on his good side.

Vizier Saladin's Agenda: Ayyubid Dynasty

An computer-controlled Vizier Saladin will like you if you have his worship buildings in your cities, but will dislike you if you follow a different religion to him or declare war on someone following his religion. He also favours acquiring lots of worship buildings in his own empire.

If you're playing a diplomatic, cultural or science game that's not too hard an agenda to meet, but religious players will have to accept they're not likely to get along with him. If you're warmongering and want to target someone following his religion, consider targeting him first if possible. That way, it's less likely you'll be up against a second opponent - and it'll eliminate the risk of Arabia winning a religious victory while you're not looking.

Unique Unit: Mamluk

Invading Mamluks are only slightly better than Knights; they'll heal just 5HP a turn in lands belonging to their enemy. Anything you use against Knights will work just as well against Mamluks. Pikemen will deal more damage against Mamluks than they take, but if you lack the technology for them, you might have to settle for using promoted Spearmen or Horsemen in defensive terrain and pelting them with arrows from Archers in the mean-time.

If the Mamluks have some kind of medic with them, or you're in Arabia's territory, things get a lot tougher. Target individual Mamluks at a time so you can pick them off before they have a chance to heal. If the medic is a promoted Apostle, aim to kill them. Aside from stopping them rapidly healing up Mamluks, it'll also lower Arabia's nearby religious pressure. If the medic is the Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, then all "killing" them will do is send them back to their home territory, but that could still be useful as a short-term measure.

If you're attacking an Arabian city with Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) present (you can tell if he's there if your diplomatic visibility in Arabia is high enough), then assume they have the Laying on of Hands promotion, making their Mamluks in the city's radius heal up to full health every turn. Only fight Mamluks in that city if you can be sure you'll kill them in the same turn - otherwise all you're doing is giving them free experience. Try to take other cities if you can, forcing Arabia to either do without Moksha's healing bonus or else waste time moving him to the new front line.

Once you have Musketmen and especially Pike and Shot units, Mamluks are much less of a threat.

Unique Building: Madrasa

Arabia will get lots of faith both from Campus and Holy Site adjacency bonuses. Something they both have in common is a large boost from being next to mountains. Cut Arabia off from mountains and their religious potential is curtailed significantly (and reducing their science is nice as well). Watch out for reefs and geothermal fissures as well - while they don't boost Holy Site adjacency yields, they do significantly boost Campuses.

Of course, that's often not an option, so consider pillaging with promoted light cavalry units. A Horseman with the Depredation promotion can rapidly pillage a Campus with a Library and Madrasa, getting you plenty science in the process while setting back Arabia's science and faith alike. Considering Arabia's big incentive to develop Campuses early, it makes them a very lucrative pillaging target at that stage of the game - at least so long as you can evade their Mamluks.

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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.

[Centipede]

Your guides are my favourite

[axE]

Thanks!

[Zigzagzigal]

Thanks!

[Juan Sánchez Villa-Lobos Ramír]

Zigzagzigal amazing guides as always!

[Zigzagzigal]

Now updated with Sultan Saladin. He plays pretty similarly to Vizier Saladin but with more warfare.