Zigzagzigal's Guides - Scotland (GS)

Treat your people well and Scotland will excel in pursuits both scientific and industrial. Here, I detail Scottish strategies and counter-strategies.

Introduction

Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

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

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

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

In our past lies fortune and failure. When we were outnumbered, in a time of great need, we triumphed. But when we were encumbered by a time of great greed, we fell; bought and sold by a parcel of rogues. We have never dominated in terms of pure strength, but our achievements from the ancients until this day rest upon an understanding of how to use what we have well. Through reason and determination we rise; but through ignorance and cowardice we fall. It now falls to you to lead Scotland into a new world. Make it count.

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

Scotland has no start bias.

Civilization Ability: Scottish Enlightenment

• If a city is happy (has 3 or 4 surplus amenities), it gains:
  
  • +5% science.
    
  • +5% production.
    
  • +1 Great Scientist Point if it has a Campus district.
    
  • +1 Great Engineer Point if it has an Industrial Zone district.
• If a city is ecstatic (has 5+ surplus amenities) these values are doubled.

Robert the Bruce's Leader Ability: Bannockburn

• The War of Liberation casus belli is available with the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic, instead of requiring the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic.
  
• For the first 10 turns after declaring a War of Liberation, all units gain +2 movement and all cities gain +100% production.
  
  • Declaring a second War of Liberation merely resets the 10 turns; it does not stack nor does it extend it.

Unique Unit: Highlander

An industrial-era reconaissance unit which replaces the Ranger

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Rifling Technology Industrial era	Plastics Technology Atomic era	Skirmisher (390 )	Spec Ops (290 )	380 or 1520 or 760 *	None	5

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

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
50	65	3	N/A	2	Unable to capture cities -17 versus cities -17 versus naval units Deals -50% damage to city walls and urban defences Does not exert zone of control	+5 and when fighting in woods or hills tiles

Positive changes

• 50 strength, up from 45
  
• 65 ranged strength, up from 60
  
• +5 strength when fighting in woods and hills tiles
  
  • This is applied based on where the defending unit is located.
    
  • The bonus does not stack for forested hill tiles.

Unique Improvement: Golf Course

Research	Terrain requirement	Constructed by	Pillage yield
Reformed Church Civic Renaissance era	Featureless land in your own territory, cannot be desert and cannot be within the city limits of a city already host to a Golf Course. A tile containing a Golf Course cannot be swapped between cities.	Builder	Pillager heals 50 health

Defensive bonus	Direct yield	Adjacency yields	Miscellaneous bonus	Maximum possible yield
None	2	1 if adjacent to a City Centre 1 per adjacent Entertainment Complex	2 for the city, even when not worked 1 appeal to adjacent tiles	6 2 * 2

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

Enhancements

Research	Direct bonus	Adjacency bonus	Miscellaneous bonus	New maximum yield*
Flight Technology Modern era	None	None	Culture yield added to tourism	6 6 ** 2 2 **
Globalisation Civic Information Era	1	None	None	6 6 ** 2 2 ** 1

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

**Note that the tourism and amenity yields do not require the improvement to be worked.

Victory Skew

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

Leader	Culture	Diplomacy	Domination	Religion	Science
Robert the Bruce	7/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)	7/10 (Good)	5/10 (Decent)	10/10 (Ideal)

Scotland has some potential in the cultural game. Golf Courses offer a little bit of appeal and tourism, but the restriction to just one per city does make them less effective towards cultural victories relative to most improvements that offer tourism. Still, Scotland's huge production potential, as well as Great Engineer Points, can really help with building wonders.

Scotland's incentive to declare wars of liberation can suit the diplomatic game reasonably well, though keep in mind you only need to declare the war to get the production bonus, while you need to actively liberate cities to get extra diplomatic favour. The best way to use the production bonus is to avoid liberating cities so you can use the casus belli again. Still, Scotland's strong production can be used later for Carbon Recapture projects, and getting extra Great Engineer Points from amenities can be used to circumvent the need for highly-polluting power plants.

Domination victories as Scotland are driven by high production and science. Golf Courses can also provide an easy source of amenities in captured cities, though war weariness will still be a problem. Highlanders are fairly weak by default, though if you can manage to secure the Ambush promotion, they can be pretty serious threats for their time.

Though Golf Courses require the entire line of religious civics, Scotland is not particularly suited to religious victories. The main advantage Scotland has is the extra movement after declaring a War of Liberation.

Scientific victory is Scotland's strongest path. Greater accumulation of Great Scientist and Engineer points complements advantages to both production and science so you can meet the prerequsites for eurekas, research your way through the technology tree quickly and rapidly construct space projects.

Civilization Ability: Scottish Enlightenment

Scotland's civ ability comes into play from the very start of the game, and managing it well will be key no matter which way you want to win.

City Management

In order to get the most out of Scotland's civ ability, you need to have as many ecstatic cities as possible. As cities lose one amenity per two points of population, that means you need four amenities for every city of size 2+, five amenities for every city under size 4+, and so forth to maintain that status.

It's tempting to hold back on expansion early on to get as many cities as possible to ecstatic status, but the Great Engineer and Scientist points from this ability becomes stronger the more cities you have. Instead, a good compromise is to aim to fairly quickly expand to around 6-7 closely packed cities and use the Audience Chamber government building in conjunction with Governors in all your cities for the extra amenities. Improve luxury resources as soon as you can, and trade any excess to other civs in exchange for more luxuries.

Though amenities apply separately per city, because luxury amenities are automatically distributed to favour cities that lack amenities, getting amenities from practically any source will help your entire empire. The only time that's not the case is when a city already has a huge amount of amenities for itself to the point where it doesn't already get any from luxuries.

There's lots of ways of getting amenities other than luxuries, which are mostly covered in the Administration section of this guide. One particularly useful one early on is the Colosseum wonder. If you've positioned your cities close together, you could get 10 amenities or more from it. Even if you fail to get the Colosseum, compact cities can get more amenities out of only a small number of Zoos, Stadiums, Aquariums and Aquatics Centres later in the game, freeing up more production for other uses.

In the renaissance era, Golf Courses can provide an extra two amenities per city you own and don't even have to be worked for those. In the modern era, with the Conservation civic, you can purchase Naturalists with faith, which in turn can create National Parks. National Parks provide two amenities to its city, and one to the four other closest cities, and like Golf Courses, they don't have to be worked for that bonus. With the atomic-era Professional Sports civic, Builders can create Ski Resorts on adjacent mountain tiles, which generate +1 amenity each, also with no need to be worked.

Don't be afraid to settle more cities later in the game if you have a large surplus of amenities (if you have a lot of cities with a surplus of 6 or more, it's a good time to start settling more cities). With just a Campus and an Industrial Zone that city could be producing 3 Great Scientist Points and 3 Great Engineer Points. If you move Magnus (the Steward) to new cities, you can chop down some woods or rainforests and get enough production to get those districts built quickly.

Rewards

Every Scottish ecstatic city grants +10% science and +10% production, with +2 Great Scientist and +2 Great Engineer Points with the respective districts. And that's on top of the regular bonuses for ecstatic cities (+20% growth, +20% non-food yields, +6 loyalty).

With the renaissance-era Great Scientist Ibn Khaldun, non-food yield bonuses in happy and ecstatic cities increase by 20% (not the 40% indicated). This means non-Scottish ecstatic cities are up to a +24% non-food yield bonus, and Scottish ecstatic cities are up to +34% science and production.

Though the science and production bonuses are helpful, it's the Great Scientist and Engineer Points that are the most impactful. A Campus with a Library gains +2 Great Scientist Points, but an ecstatic Scottish city with a Library gets double that. The Scottish advantage relative to other civs may lessen in later eras, but you're still likely to dominate the acquisition of both types of Great People. The Administration section of this guide goes into more detail regarding which types of Great People you'll want to seek the most.

Great Engineers gain an extra retirement charge with the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder, available at the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic. You'll need Defensive Tactics to use Robert the Bruce's leader ability anyway, so it's worth picking it up fairly quickly. This wonder is among the best for Scotland and helps you stretch your Great Engineers significantly further.

Summary

• Don't hold back your early expansion for excess amenities - you can worry about that later.
  
• Beyond early expansion, try to balance your cities at +5 amenities - more is redundant and fewer means a weaker bonus.
  
• If you have huge surpluses of amenities, don't be afraid to settle more cities - it can be an easy source of extra Great Engineer and Scientist Points.

Robert the Bruce's Leader Ability: Bannockburn

Obviously having a production bonus from ecstatic cities isn't enough, so instead of ecstatic cities having a +30% production bonus, why not raise it to 130%? All you need to do is declare a War of Liberation, and enjoy 10 turns of rapid production and fast units.

Declaring a War of Liberation

To use the casus belli, you need the following:

• You need the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic. Considering its prerequisites are Political Philosophy (which you'll want as soon as possible for a classical-era government) and Games and Recreation (which you'll want for amenities), that won't be a problem.
  
• You need to be a declared friend or ally to a civ that's lost a city to another civ that you aren't currently a declared friend/ally with
  
• You must not be in a truce with the target civ (truces last 10 turns after the last war you fought).
  
• If the option doesn't appear, denounce the civ you want to declare war on. The option should appear in the casus belli list.

Actually meeting the criteria can be tough! You need to be able to befriend a civ that has lost cities to another. If this doesn't seem to be happening in your game, you can try and force it with the following setup:

• Build up a reasonable military force - emphasise ranged and/or siege units.
  
• Look for two civs that border each other but are not friends nor allies.
  
• Look at whichever civ is easiest to befriend (for AI civs, Sumeria is the easiest to befriend, otherwise look for easy agendas). Enter a joint war against[/b] them.
  
• Siege down a city of the targeted civ but leave it for the other civ to capture it.
  
• Exit the war, having inflicted relatively few grievances. Wait until you can befriend the civ you previously declared war on.
  
• You may now be eligible for the War of Liberation.

One problem with a War of Liberation is the need for another civ to take cities without eliminating the civ they're taking cities from. A civ that's strong enough to take cities can also be a tough target for a declaration of war, so be prepared!

Using this casus belli tends to be easier on larger map sizes where the chance of finding a civ that's captured cities from a potential ally is higher. It's worth researching the renaissance-era Cartography technology reasonably quickly after Apprenticeship and Education (for Industrial Zones and Universities respectively) so you can meet as many civs as possible and find targets for the casus belli.

Using the Bonus

Though Wars of Liberation are intended to be used for freeing captured cities, you don't necessarily need to do that. You can instead play defensively and use the bonuses to help develop your cities - much like John Curtin's leader ability for Australia. Districts, wonders and projects (especially space projects) are a particularly good use of the production, but it's really up to you.

The movement speed bonus applies to all units, including civilians. This is rather nice if you want to save time improving your tiles.

The moment the production and movement speed bonuses wear off is also the moment you're able to make peace. If you're playing defensively, that's a good idea if possible - you can always use the casus belli again as soon as the truce wears off. However, a smart opponent will know Scotland will suffer in prolonged wars due to war weariness, and as such they may be unwilling to sign a peace treaty. As a general rule, it's a good idea to never declare war on a civ you don't think you can take a city from. With a city taken, you can return it in exchange for a peace deal. If that's not an option, consider using light cavalry to pillage the other civ's luxuries to build upon any war weariness problems they may have. Fight in your own territory if possible - war weariness is doubled when you fight outside your own land.

It is possible to use the bonus offensively - extra movement speed can allow for some rapid conquests, and Scotland's incentive to hoard amenities means you're unlikely to fall into unrest. Earlier in the game, melee infantry units paired with Siege Towers can quickly surround and siege a city. Later on, you can enjoy more mobile Bombards, Artillery, Battleships and so forth to help take down city defences rapidly. High production and fast movement also makes reinforcement easy.

If you intend to go on the offensive with the bonus, be sure to still liberate some cities to offset warmonger penalties. If everyone considers you to be a warmonger, and you can't make any declarations of friendship, you can't use this bonus.

Conclusion

Robert the Bruce's leader ability can give you an incredible amount of production if you can find the right targets to declare war on. Weak civs that own other civs' cities can be targeted with constant declarations of war and peace so you can get as many turns of bonus production as possible.

The catch lies in needing to consider the actions of other civs. If other civs never fight each other, or no civ wants to declare friendship, you won't gain anything here. As such, be loyal to your allies and don't capture too much from your enemies.

Unique Improvement: Golf Course

You don't need to work Golf Courses to get their most important bonus: the two amenities. Of course, the culture is still useful for a civ that may otherwise neglect it, and gold is nice to have around as well, but if you want to maximise city growth or production, being able to benefit from the amenity without having to work the tile is great.

Golf Courses unlock at the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. Scotland isn't very good at the religious game so the civic itself otherwise isn't that useful, but the preceding Divine Right civic unlocks the Monarchy government, which has a reasonable array of policy cards. While you could alternatively head to Exploration for the Merchant Republic government, there's a catch - the Exploration civic obsoletes the Survey military policy card, which provides +100% experience to recon units. If you intend to use Highlanders extensively, you might want to avoid researching Exploration and just settle with the Monarchy government.

The actual yield of Golf Courses other than the amenities aren't very large, even when boosted by a City Centre and Entertainment Complex. As such, you may find it better to position them to make use of their appeal bonus to adjacent tiles, rather than trying to maximise their culture output. Extra appeal could mean extra housing for Neighbourhoods, or it could enable a National Park location that otherwise wouldn't be valid. National Parks are good sources of amenities, so be sure to take that into consideration.

At the information-era Globalisation civic, Golf Courses add +1 housing each, but this bonus arrives so late you'll seldom get much out of it. Neighbourhoods also usually provide more housing than you need by this point.

Ultimately, Golf Courses are basically a free amenity for every city so long as there's a spare land tile, and a straightforward source of appeal for adjacent tiles.

Unique Unit: Highlander

Highlanders are a tough unit to use well. They're expensive, vulnerable in defence and have only a range of 1, meaning it's easy to end up sinking a huge amount of production into them. But train them up, and you could end up with a unit with firepower on a par with information-era units.

Of course, you could just train one Highlander for the era score and skip training them further, given Rifling can be an awkward technological detour when you're focusing on key scientific technologies like Chemistry and Rocketry.

Pre-Building Strategies

The easy way to handle the high cost of Highlanders is to train up a large quantity of Skirmishers beforehand. Upgrading Scouts to Highlanders costs 190 gold each with the Professional Army military policy card, which is certainly a lot nicer than the alternative of training them from scratch.

To make Highlanders have a real impact when they come available, you'll want to level up your Skirmishers as much as possible, preferably to the Ambush promotion. Ambush provides recon units with a massive +20 strength bonus in all situations! However, given Skirmishers have a mere 20 melee strength at a time where Knights can reliably kill them in one hit, this can be challenging!

An easy way to address this problem is to directly declare war on an unimportant nearby city-state (religious ones are particularly good targets as Scotland). You'll be able to get the full amount of experience by fighting them regardless of how much your units are promoted by, unlike fighting Barbarians or free cities.

Furthermore, you can boost the experience rates of recon units by training them in cities with Armouries (and preferably also Military Academies), and by using the Survey military policy card. Note that the Survey military policy card obsoletes if you pick up the Exploration civic, so avoid researching it - use Monarchy as your tier two government instead of Merchant Republic.

Highlanders in Use

To deal with the low melee strength of Highlanders, it's a good idea to form them into corps and armies. That makes them even more expensive, but it'll make them even better in terms of ranged strength.

If you want to use Highlanders defensively, use their decent mobility to hit invading units and retreat. With the Conservation civic, you can use Builders to plant woods providing them with more safe tiles to defend on or attack into.

If, instead, you want to use Highlanders offensively, you'll have to start early - either by training Scouts/Skirmishers up to Ambush ready for upgrading, or by earning experience on Highlanders themselves before too powerful opponents appear. Ambush-promoted Highlanders have 70 melee strength (5 points shy of Infantry) and 85 ranged strength (on par with a Tank). Ambush Highlander Armies have 87 melee strength and 102 ranged strength, which allows them to perform well against anything of the industrial or modern eras.

With the Plastics technology, Highlanders can be upgraded to Spec Ops. Spec Ops are actually weaker when attacking into hills or woods relative to Highlanders, but their greater melee strength, longer range, paradrop ability and ability to attack support units makes the upgrade still worthwhile.

Conclusion

Due to the lack of an associated policy card, Highlanders are the most expensive unique unit in the game. If promoted enough, they can be quite a pain for your opponents to handle, but if that's not possible, don't fall into the trap of relying on them. There's better uses for your production.

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.

Government

Tier One

Classical Republic is the obvious choice - extra amenities, extra Great Person Points and a good selection of policy cards.

As for a government building, the Audience Chamber works well thanks to the amenity bonus it offers.

Tier Two

Monarchy is typically preferred for two key reasons: it unlocks on the way to Golf Courses, and it avoids the need to research Exploration, which obsoletes the Survey policy card. Survey increases the experience gain of recon units (including Highlanders) by a massive 100%. Still, if you don't mind a civic detour and the loss of recon unit potential, Merchant Republic is a reliable choice due to its good selection of policy cards and reasonable intrinsic bonuses.

Scientific civs are vulnerable to Spies, so the Intelligence Agency's extra Spy will be very useful.

Tier Three

Democracy has a good number of economic policy card slots, possible production bonuses from trading with allies, and is required for the strong amenity boost of the New Deal policy card. Alternatively, Communism offers good base production yields which both Scotland's civ ability and Robert the Bruce's leader ability can build upon, as well as a 10% science bonus.

The Royal Society can help save some time late in the game by allowing you to use Builders to rush space projects.

Tier Four

Synthetic Technocracy offers extra power to help with Factories and Research Labs alike, and speeds up Space Race project production.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Survey (Military, requires Code of Laws) - Increases recon unit experience gain by +100%. This is crucial if you want to get Highlanders (or units that can upgrade into them) to the powerful Ambush promotion in a reasonable amount of time. If you intend to use this policy card extensively, avoid researching the renaissance-era Exploration civic as it obsoletes it.

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - The production bonus from this can be magnified with both the civ ability and Robert the Bruce's leader ability.

Medieval Era

Craftsmen (Military, requires Guilds) - Scotland's civ ability encourages you to have a lot of Industrial Zones, while both the civ and leader abilities magnify your production.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Highlanders are expensive, but upgrading Scouts in conjunction with this policy card makes it much more manageable.

Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - Training a few Scouts and/or Skirmishers can make it easy to meet the requirement for this policy card's amenities. You can then upgrade them to Highlanders later.

Renaissance Era

Drill Manuals (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Coal Power Plants typically produce the most production out of the three types of Power Plants, but to make the most of them you'll need plenty of coal, which this policy card aids with generating.

Invention (Wildcard, requires Humanism) - Extends your advantage in Great Engineers considerably, especially considering how many Industrial Zone buildings you'll want to build to take advantage of both the civ ability and Robert the Bruce's leader ability.

Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - An easy source of amenities.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - This policy goes well with Robert the Bruce's leader ability. Strengthening your ties with allies will help you to maintain the friendship or alliance status which in turn allows you to carry on using the War of Liberation casus belli. Furthermore, the production on offer can be boosted further via the ability.

Industrial Era

Force Modernisation (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Cuts the moderately expensive cost of upgrading Scouts and Skirmishers to Rangers.

Public Transport (Economic, requires Urbanisation) - Makes Neighbourhoods a source of extra production which Robert the Bruce's leader ability and the civ ability can magnify.

Modern Era

Collectivisation (Economic, Communism only, requires Class Struggle) - A little extra production.

Defence of the Motherland (Wildcard, Communism only, requires Class Struggle) - Declaring Wars of Liberation, then playing it defensively? Using this policy card, so long as you keep your units within your land, you won't suffer war weariness. That means your opponents can't try and draw out the wars to put pressure on your cities.

Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Ideology) - An improved version of Craftsmen, which also works for Campuses.

New Deal (Economic, Democracy only, requires Suffrage) - Up to two amenities per city, though you have to be in the Democracy government to use it.

Science Foundations (Wildcard, requires Nuclear Programme) - Extends your advantages at both Great Engineer and Scientist points.

Atomic Era

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - An extra amenity for Stadiums.

Information Era

Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - A decent boost to production from trade - combine it with Scotland's production bonuses to get even more out of it.

Administration - Age Bonuses and World Congress

Age Bonuses

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

Isolationism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Though it stops you founding new cities, that might not be a problem if you need to consolidate your amenities. The extra production from this policy can be increased by Scotland's civ and leader abilities.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Modern eras) - Nicely ties together your science emphasis with your production multipliers.

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.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Industrial Zone Sabotage

A pillaged Industrial Zone can't benefit from Scotland's production-magnifying bonuses.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on recon units around the time Highlanders are available

Highlanders are vulnerable in defence, but this helps cover the weakness without making enemy civs stronger as well, as most civs don't use many recon units by this point in the game.

Nobel Prize in Physics - Always vote in favour.

With advantages to generating two of the three Great Person Points covered by this scored competition, Scotland should have an easy time winning or at least getting a good outcome.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Engineers or Scientists

The sooner you get Great Engineers and Scientists, the more impactful their bonuses will be, so even if you're dominating the race for them, there's nothing wrong with speeding up the progress even further.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Campuses or Industrial Zones

As the districts you'll be building the most, it helps to be able to develop them faster.

World's Fair - Vote in favour

Bonuses to two kinds of Great People puts Scotland at a decent advantage here, though beware of civs like Kongo and Russia which have bonuses to three or more types of Great Person Points.

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

City Patron Goddess - New ecstatic cities can quickly contribute to your Great Engineer or Scientist points with this pantheon.

Divine Spark - Want even more Great Scientist Points? Now, ecstatic cities with just a Library will start producing +5 Great Scientist Points per turn!

God of Craftsmen - Bonus production for strategic resources which both the civ ability and Robert the Bruce's leader ability can build on.

God of the Sea - Good for extra production on water-heavy maps which both the civ ability and Robert the Bruce's leader ability can build on.

Goddess of the Hunt - Extra production that both the civ and leader abilities can build upon, so long as you have plenty of camp resources.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - If you have plenty of marsh, oases or desert floodplains, you'll end up with extra production that both the civ and leader abilities can build upon.

River Goddess - Though it does require you to construct Holy Sites, this is the only pantheon to offer amenities. Goes great with the Work Ethic follower belief.

Religious Beliefs

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

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Enjoy playing out Wars of Liberation defensively? This belief will make things much harder for your opponents.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Develop your many Campuses rapidly.

Meeting House (Worship) - Provides +2 production. Both the Scottish civ and leader abilities together could add another +2.2 on top of that.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Declaring a War of Liberation can make your religious units very fast. Combine it with this and they'll be unrivalled in speed.

Stupa (Worship) - Each Stupa building provides an amenity for its city.

Wat (Worship) - Provides a little science the civ ability can build upon.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Can offer some very impressive production yields that both the civ and leader abilities can build upon. Goes great with the River Goddess pantheon.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - Basically the Liberalism policy card, but in religious belief form. It helps generate even more amenities for you.

City-States

Anshan (Scientific) - Rewards you with science for playing certain aspects of the cultural game. This science can be increased with Scotland's civ ability.

Antananarivo (Cultural) - Scotland can be prone to neglecting culture generation, so it's nice to have a suzerain bonus that draws on your good Great Engineer and Scientist generation and helps you to output more culture.

Auckland (Trade) - More production, that both the civ and leader abilities can build on.

Bologna (Scientific) - Even more Great Person Points! Excellent in conjunction with the Divine Spark pantheon.

Buenos Aires (Industrial) - A source of additional amenities.

Cahokia (Trade) - Your first Cahokia Mound in a city adds an amenity, much like a Golf Course would! With the industrial-era Natural History civic, the second one does too!

Granada (Militaristic) - The Alcázar tile improvement adds science based on the tile's appeal which the civ ability can build on. Tiles next to Golf Courses gain extra appeal, so consider placing them next to each other.

Johannesburg (Industrial) - Extra production for cities for every improved resource type they have.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Highlanders have very good promotions, but the challenge is getting there. Being suzerain over Kabul makes that much easier.

Mexico City (Industrial) - Mexico City lets you have good base production and amenities without needing to put in as much of an investment.

Mitla (Scientific) - Ecstatic cities already grow faster, but now ecstatic Campus cities can grow at a particularly fast pace.

Muscat (Trade) - Grants you an amenity for every Commercial Hub.

Singapore (Industrial) - Extra production for trading with a range of civs.

Zanzibar (Trade) - More amenities.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Etemenanki (Ancient era, Writing technology) - As such an early wonder it can be risky to build, but if you have a good floodplain start, you can get a considerable early production and science lead which can be built on further by Scotland's civ ability.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Want to dominate the generation of Great Scientists early on? Build the Oracle and take the Divine Spark pantheon. It also gives you a use for any excess faith you accumulate.

Temple of Artemis (Ancient era, Archery technology) - Can potentially be a strong source of early amenities.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - One of the best early sources of amenities around, and can make happy cities ecstatic.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - A truly excellent wonder, as it gives all Great Engineers an extra charge. For a civ that generates a lot of them, this could go a very long way.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - Cities with lots of desert hills and the Petra wonder are very productive, which Scotland can take to absurd levels. Remember, however, that Golf Courses can't go on desert tiles, so make sure you either have a non-desert tile in range or can cover the lack of the amenity.

Huey Teocalli (Medieval era, Military Tactics technology) - If you find a large lake, this could be worth 4 amenities or more - as much as a luxury resource.

Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - An ecstatic Scottish city with this wonder during a War of Liberation will probably be the world's most productive city.

Estádio do Maracanã (Atomic era, Professional Sports civic) - Two amenities in every city makes it much easier to keep cities ecstatic.

Great People

Classical Era

Hypatia (Great Scientist) - All Libraries create more science, magnified by Scotland's civ ability.

Medieval Era

Imhotep (Great Engineer) - If you didn't start next to the coast, Imhotep's strong production bonus to pre-medieval wonders will help you get the all-important Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder even in a less productive city.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - Crossing oceans sooner helps you find more potential targets for Wars of Liberation, and extra sight in conjunction with a War of Liberation lets you uncover the world's tiles even faster.

Renaissance Era

Ibn Khaldun (Great Scientist) - Boosts the non-food yields of amenities by 20% (not the 40% indicated). Ecstatic Scottish cities now get an impressive +34% bonus to production and science, and +24% to other non-food yields!

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - All Universities create extra science, magnified by the civ ability.

Industrial Era

James Watt (Great Engineer) - Boost Factory production, which both the civ and leader abilities can increase further.

Joesph Paxton (Great Engineer) - Squeeze more amenities out of an Entertainment Complex.

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - One of four Great Merchants offering unique luxuries, and therefore more amenities.

Modern Era

Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - Considerably boosts science from Research Labs, magnified by Scotland's civ ability.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Enjoy more production from a single Industrial Complex's Factories.

Atomic Era

Helena Rubenstein (Great Merchant) - The second of four unique-luxury Great Merchants.

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - Can offer bonus amenities for a city.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - Can offer bonus amenities for two cities.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - The third of four unique-luxury Great Merchants.

Information Era

(Cultural) Jamseth Tata (Great Merchant) - Going off the main route for Scotland? You can get a huge amount of tourism out of all your Campuses.

(Cultural) Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - You can also get a lot of tourism out of all your Industrial Zones.

Counter-Strategies

If Scotland has a good balance of allies and enemies; of peaceful players and warmongers, they are at their strongest. But games where civs are entirely peaceful, or games where all civs refuse to do any dealing with Scotland, will limit their potential.

Civilization Ability: Scottish Enlightenment

It is not the science and production bonuses that are cause for alarm here, but the Great Engineer and Scientist points. If unchecked, Scotland can dominate their generation in a way few civs can.

Thankfully, you can keep it in check even in peace-time by limiting Scotland's access to amenities. Denying them wonders like the Colosseum, Huey Teocalli or Estádio do Maracanã, and denying them your luxuries in trade deals can really help to limit their ability to reach that all-important ecstatic status.

Prolonged wars are another method to reduce Scotland's amenities. War weariness builds up faster in civs that fight outside their own territory and especially when they use units, so try to lure Scotland's units outside their own lands before fighting them for the best effect. Amenity penalties are also higher in non-founded cities, so Scotland will be more vulnerable if they've conquered cities in the past.

Alternatively, getting the Great Library wonder will get you a free eureka every time another civ (including Scotland) recruits a Great Scientist, meaning you can keep up even if Scotland's fast accumulation of them stops you recruiting any of your own.

Robert the Bruce's Leader Ability: Bannockburn

There's a few ways of blocking this ability from ever being used. If Robert the Bruce can't declare friendship with anyone, he won't have access to the War of Liberation casus belli. If civs are entirely eliminated, there's no civ left for a War of Liberation to be used for. If civs never take over cities of other civs (aside from city-states), again a War of Liberation cannot be used.

If Robert the Bruce declares war on you with a War of Liberation casus belli, drag the war out for as long as possible, both to deny him the ability to declare war on you again and to make him suffer war weariness. Play defensively - civs suffer additional war weariness when fighting outside their own territory.

Finally, late in the game you may want to consider pre-emptively attacking Robert the Bruce to discourage him from starting another war with the casus belli letting him get through space projects faster.

Robert the Bruce's Agenda: Flower of Scotland

Robert the Bruce doesn't like to fight neighbours unless they break a promise to him. He dislikes civs that fight his neighbours, and likes those not at war with them.

This agenda can make Robert the Bruce a good neighbour, and possible future ally (so long as you haven't lost any cities so he can't exploit the War of Liberation for production and movement speed). It does however mean warmongers that get too close to Scotland are likely to be on the receiving end of a War of Liberation. To avoid that problem, attack Scotland first before attacking Robert the Bruce's neighbours, so he's in no position to effectively use his bonus.

Unique Unit: Highlander

Highlanders are expensive to train and are weak in defence. Field Cannons or Cavalry are both cheaper and can kill them pretty quickly. Even Musketmen perform reasonably effectively. Target ones with promotions first so they can't get to Ambush. Killing off Skirmishers Scotland trains earlier on reduces the odds of them reaching Ambush by the time they're upgraded.

Unique Improvement: Golf Course

Cities can only host one Golf Course at a time, and their bonus yield from being adjacent to a city centre means there's a good chance you'll find them around there. That's quite useful for sieges of Scottish cities, as Golf Courses heal a unit by 50HP when pillaged.

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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)
  
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• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
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• 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)
  
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• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
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• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
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• Nubia (Domination)
  
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• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
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• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
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• 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.

[legendhz10]

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[Zigzagzigal]

Unfortunately recon units are left out altogether. At least siege units can gain bonus xp via Stables.

[MeniliteZ]

Do Barracks improve Highlanders at all? I think Barracks improve anti-cavalry units even though its not mentioned in the civilopedia, so maybe the same is true of Recon units?

[Yensil]

It doesn't appear to, I experimented a little after asking.

[Zigzagzigal]

I don't think so, but I don't know for sure.

[Yensil]

Does war of liberation proc on cities lost to loyalty pressure? Might be why you couldn't get one.

[Yensil]

The game is currently telling me that survey obsoletes with Native Conquest, in the Colonialism civic. This is presumably a change since you wrote this guide, but it does make Merchant Republic more viable.

[Zigzagzigal]

I tried multiple screenshot games and I just couldn't get a valid target for a liberation war (weirdly, even in one instance where a civ I had befriended clearly had a city taken by another). As such, I don't yet have any Gathering Storm screenshots for Robert the Bruce's leader ability.