Zigzagzigal's Guides - Spain (GS)

Spain uses colonies to produce considerable faith and science, and can mix in plenty of conquest, too. Here, I detail Spanish 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.

At home, some still resist against the Inquisition and the one true Catholic faith. Across Europe, heresy has been spreading. And in the New World, our Conquistadors and Missions have a difficult challenge in converting the vast number of heathens present. The world as it stands shall be the ultimate test of Spain's piety, but if we can persevere, the world shall be under one true faith and one true king.

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 (Part 1/2)

Start Bias

Spain has a tier 3 start bias towards geothermal fissures. Geothermal fissures are typically found on the boundaries of two or more continents, and as such Spain will have a good chance of being able to expand into a second continent early in the game. Spain's civ ability and the Mission improvement are considerably stronger when Spain can expand to a second continent.

Note that duel-size maps only have a single continent, and as such, all of Spain's bonuses relating to foreign continents will be useless. Similarly, playing on a small map size with a Continents-style map can make it difficult to find a second continent until quite some way into the game.

Civilization Ability: Treasure Fleets

• Founding or capturing a city on a continent not containing Spain's capital grants a free Builder.
  
  • With the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building, this results in two free Builders.
• Cities on foreign continents gain +25% production towards districts.
  
• Trade routes between cities on the same continent yield +3 gold, +2 faith and +1 production.
  
• Trade routes between cities on different continents yield +9 gold, +6 faith and +3 production.
  
• Can form fleets and armadas with the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic instead of needing the industrial-era Nationalism or modern-era Mobilisation civics respectively.

Philip II's Leader Ability: El Escorial

• All military and religious units gain +5 strength against units and cities of civilizations which have a different majority religion to you
  
  • You receive no bonus against civs with no majority religion, and no bonus if you lack a majority religion.
• Inquisitors receive an additional charge for their Remove Heresy ability (4 instead of 3)
  
• Inquisitors remove 100% of the presence of rival religions when using their Remove Heresy ability, instead of the usual 75%.

Outline (Part 2/2)

Unique Unit: Conquistador

A renaissance-era melee infantry unit which replaces the Musketman

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Gunpowder Technology Renaissance era	Military Science ** Technology Industrial era	Man-at-Arms (190 10 )	Line Infantry (230 20 )	250 or 1000 or 500 *	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 nitre, you may continue to train Conquistadors even beyond researching Military Science.

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
58	N/A	2	N/A	2	Deals -85% damage to city walls and urban defences	+5 vs. anti-cavalry units +10 if a Missionary, Inquisitor, Apostle or Guru occupies the same or an adjacent tile. Converts captured cities to the majority religion in your empire if this unit either gets the last hit on the city or is adjacent to the city when it is captured.

Negative changes

• Costs 250 production, 1000 gold or 500 faith, up from 240, 960 and 480 respectively (+4%)
  
• Costs 190 gold to upgrade to from a Man-at-Arms, up from 170 (+12%)

Positive changes

• Costs 10 nitre to train, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• 58 strength, up from 55
  
• +10 strength if a Missionary, Inquisitor, Apostle or Guru occupies the same or an adjacent tile
  
• Converts captured cities to the majority religion in your empire if this unit either gets the last hit on the city or is adjacent to the city when it is captured.
  
  • This is considered a conversion of an enemy city, and will grant you +3 era score accordingly if it's converted to your founded religion.
• Costs 230 gold to upgrade to Line Infantry, down from 250 (-8%)

Unique Improvement: Mission

Research	Terrain requirement	Constructed by	Base pillage yield
Education Technology Medieval era	Featureless owned land tile	Builder	25

Defensive bonus	Direct yield	Adjacency yields	Miscellaneous bonus	Maximum possible yield
None	2 When located on a continent not containing your capital, additionally yields: 2 1 1	1 per adjacent Campus or Holy Site	A city on a foreign continent with at least one adjacent Mission gains +2 loyalty.	6 4 1 1

Enhancements

Research	Direct bonus	Adjacency bonus	Miscellaneous bonus	New maximum yield
Cultural Heritage Civic Atomic era	2	None	None	8 4 1 1

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
Philip II	6/10 (Decent)	3/10 (Acceptable)	9/10 (Ideal)	9/10 (Ideal)	8/10 (Good)

Culture isn't among Spain's strongest victory routes, but performs reasonably well. Bonus production from intercontinental trade and fast district construction gives you a good head start on Theatre Square production, and from there you can move on to wonders. The strong faith output of Missions can help in purchasing Naturalists for National Parks, or for Rock Bands.

Diplomacy is Spain's weakest victory path. Extra gold from trade routes can help with aid emergencies and military bonuses can be put to work in military emergencies.

Domination is very effective for Spain. Conquistadors together with Philip II's ability gives you a +18 strength advantage over regular Musketmen, which is one of the highest any combination of uniques offers. If your science is strong, Conquistadors will be even more powerful. If it isn't, Mission science should help you to catch up in military technology later on. You can also put Mission faith to good use purchasing units via the Grand Master's Chapel Government Plaza building.

Religion is Spain's other strong route, but comes with a notable catch - their faith output doesn't really take off until the medieval era, and there's no bonuses to Great Prophet generation. Thankfully, the bonuses in the medieval and renaissance eras really help to make up for lost time. Intercontinental trade can help spread your religion while also granting you a lot of money and faith. Conquistadors convert the cities they capture - handing them back in a peace deal allows the conversion of empires without spending a single point of faith. Meanwhile, Missions produce huge amounts of faith when placed on continents outside the one containing your capital. Stronger Inquisitors reduce the amount of faith needed to defend your religion in your own cities.

Finally, Spain is surprisingly effective at science, making it an good backup victory route. Missions can create a decent chunk of science, but that becomes much stronger in the atomic era. Meanwhile, stronger trading across continents helps Spain to develop more productive cities for building spaceship parts with. The high faith output of Missions can be converted into science with the Jesuit Education belief.

Civilization Ability: Treasure Fleets (Part 1/2)

Use the Continents map lens to see specifically where the boundaries of continents are.

Spain's civ ability, along with the Mission improvement, offer huge rewards for settling extensively beyond your home continent. Thankfully, to aid with this, Spain has a geothermal fissure start bias which greatly increases the odds of starting next to a continental boundary.

The Complex Start of Spain

To bring Spain to its full potential, there's a number of things you'll want to sort out:

• Spain's religious bonuses mean early Holy Sites are important for founding a religion.
  
• It's important to get decent science output to get to Missions and Conquistadors at a good pace.
  
• Settling a lot of cities increases your potential faith output, your possible trade route capacity, and increases the chance you'll be able to secure nitre resources ready for Conquistadors.

Thankfully, there's a number of perks Spain has that makes this much more manageable.

The Very Beginning

Start off the game by training one or two units - Slingers are good for defence as they can be upgraded to Archers later, but Scouts or Warriors are fine alternatives. Look out for a continental boundary if possible.

If you start near a continental boundary, research Mining and Astrology. If not, research Astrology and try to settle a city on the coast so you can build up a navy later and set up colonies on new continents. Astrology is needed for Holy Sites - two Holy Sites with Shrines, or two Holy Sites with the Divine Spark pantheon is usually enough to secure a religion. Don't build too many Holy Sites early on - once you have a religion secured you'll need the district capacity for Campuses and Commercial Hubs or Harbours.

Why did I suggest researching Mining? So you can rush Holy Sites in your foreign-continent cities! By getting free Builders in cities you founded on a foreign continent, you can chop down woods or build mines/quarries for extra production, get the Holy Sites up and running sooner, and start accumulating Great Prophet Points sooner. This can help you secure the best religious beliefs!

Time to Expand

Spain does best with a lot of cities, preferably as many as possible not on your home continent. The Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building will be very helpful as it both provides +50% Settler production to its city, and grants all founded cities a free Builder. For Spain, settling cities on a foreign continent will now grant two free Builders! This is a considerable production saving, but also means you can get improved tiles sooner which can make new cities stronger sooner.

Spain's geothermal fissure start bias may result in you having lots of good locations for Campuses, so build them up in cities with the best potential adjacency bonuses. Cities with less effective potential Campus spots can instead work on Commercial Hubs or Harbours for extra trade route capacity. Spain's cities on foreign continents have a decent +25% production bonus to all districts, so getting new cities to start developing them right away can be surprisingly affordable - especially with immediately improved tiles from the free Builders.

And there you have it! A religion, a good science output, and you're beginning to expand your trade route capacity. This will put Spain into a good starting position to make the most of their other bonuses.

Consider the Age Bonuses

If you're likely to enter an early Golden Age or Dark Age, you may want to vary which districts you build as Spain compared to the previously-outlined general strategy.

A Golden Age in the classical or medieval era allows you to use the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication. This makes all Commercial Hubs and Harbours generate science equal to their adjacency yields, allowing you to get both science and trade route capacity from the same district. As such, you'll be able to save the district capacity you would be using on Campuses for other districts - a couple of Encampments can help you secure a Great General ready for Conquistadors, for example. All that being said, you may wish to take the Monumentality dedication instead to help with early expansion thanks to the ability to purchase Settlers with faith.

A Dark Age in the classical or medieval era allows you to use the Monasticism wildcard, which adds a massive +75% science output in any city you own with a Holy Site, at the cost of -25% culture in all cities. If your geothermal fissure start bias has placed you on a continental boundary, you may have some mountain ranges excellent for Campuses and Holy Sites alike. While building more Holy Sites at this stage of the game may mean you neglect trade route capacity for the time being, the tremendous boost to science can really help you on the way to Missions and Conquistadors.

Trade Route Bonuses

Trade route bonuses are typically rather mild to begin with, but Spain makes them significantly better, and absolutely amazing if you can get an intercontinental route early on. Merely trading to another city you own on a different continent is worth at least 9 gold, 6 faith, 4 production and 1 food. Even trading to an owned city on the same continent is a reasonable 3 gold, 3 production, 2 faith and 1 food. You can get similarly good yields trading to other civs if you don't have cities of your own on a foreign continent. Send your first trade route from whichever city is training up Settlers to aid early expansion.

Once you have a few traders, you can send out several from the same city to build up a massive production advantage. This can be helpful for key early wonders (see the Administration section of this guide for a list of the best) or just meeting the requirements of many eureka boosts.

If you don't start near a continental boundary and there's no other civs you can trade with on a foreign continent, this bonus can be a lot trickier to use effectively. You may want to de-emphasise Commercial Hubs and Harbours in favour of Campuses and a few Encampments so you can instead push for earlier and more powerful Conquistadors, as their strengths don't rely on you straddling multiple continents.

Later in the game, stacking intercontinental trade routes from the same city can help with Spaceport construction and space race projects. Combined with science from Missions and good Campus adjacency bonuses from the geothermal fissure start bias, Spain can perform admirably at science if efforts at domination or religion are insufficient.

Civilization Ability: Treasure Fleets (Part 2/2)

Colonial Perks

Spain's incentive to found cities mainly away from their home continent allows you to make use of some powerful additional bonuses.

The renaissance-era Cartography technology unlocks the Casa de Contratación wonder. It makes all cities with Governors present, so long as they're not on your home continent, yield +15% gold, production and faith. This boosts all Spain's special yields from intercontinental trade routes, and makes Mission faith go further.

The renaissance-era Mercantilism civic unlocks the Torre de Belém wonder. Build it, and all cities not on your home continent get the cheapest building they can construct for free. You can plan for the wonder in advance by ensuring your cities have low-cost buildings like Monuments constructed, saving you more production.

The Colonial Offices diplomatic policy card (requires the renaissance-era Exploration civic) grants +15% growth and +3 loyalty for all cities not on your home continent. Make sure you can handle the amenity costs of growing cities when using this policy card! The loyalty bonus stacks nicely with the +2 loyalty bonus Missions can offer to non-home-continent cities - by building a Mission next to the city centre of a freshly-captured city, you can buy more time before it becomes a free city.

Finally, the Colonial Taxes diplomatic policy card (requires the industrial-era Colonial Taxes civic). It provides +25% gold and +10% production to all cities not on your home continent, which combines very nicely with Spain's trade route bonuses.

That aside, as you conquer into new continents you can get some bonus Builders - excellent for repairing any tiles you pillaged or immediately setting up Missions. Building a Mission adjacent to a captured city centre on a foreign continent is an immediate +2 loyalty boost per turn, so it's worthwhile to do so.

Fleets and Armadas at Mercantilism

Fleets are 10 points of strength stronger than single units. In a fight between a regular unit and a fleet, the fleet will on average deal 45 damage and take 20 (in an even fight, the damage dealt and taken averages at 30). Armadas have a strength advantage of 17, and will deal 59 damage while taking 15 on average against single units of the same type.

Spain's early fleets and armadas have one key advantage - it allows you to compete effectively on the seas even if you've been neglecting culture - and given Spain's need to build a range of different districts than Theatre Squares, this is likely to happen. Missing out on corps and armies for a while isn't as bad thanks to the massive strength advantage Conquistadors can secure.

All that being said, forming fleets and armadas is expensive! You'll need to train three copies of a naval unit to form an armada - production you may want to use on Conquistadors or siege support instead. Still, because armadas have a higher base strength and take less damage from fights, they can place a persistent pressure on enemy coastal cities in a way individual cities may fail to do.


You can also secure some easy era score from having the first fleet and armada in the world, assuming other civs haven't taken the Great Admirals which allow forming them early.

If you have a city with a coast-adjacent Industrial Zone and decent overall production (intercontinental domestic trade routes help) consider going for the Venetian Arsenal wonder. It allows its city to churn out double as many naval units - perfect for forming into fleets and armadas. Very few civs will be able to stand up to that sort of naval might, letting your Conquistadors safely cross between continents.

In summary, this part of Spain's civ ability is a somewhat niche bonus which may not see much use in a typical game, but at least takes some pressure off by reducing the need to have a strong culture output.

Summary

• Always try to settle on foreign continents first before settling on your home one.
  
• You can use free Builders to chop woods down to rush your first couple of Holy Sites
  
• Don't build too many Holy Sites early on - just enough to found a religion. Other districts like Commercial Hubs and Harbours are important too!
  
• Use the geothermal fissure start bias for strong Campuses and good early science.

Philip II's Leader Ability: El Escorial (Part 1/2)

The Conquistador has 58 base strength, plus 10 from having a religious unit close by. Add 4 from Oligarchy, 5 from the World Congress Military Advisory resolution and 5 from this leader ability, and those city defences won't last long.

Military Combat Bonus

Philip II offers a +5 combat bonus to all military units (land, sea and air alike) so long as your opponent follows a different religion than you. This might sound an easy bonus to make use of, but remember that "following a religion" is defined as a majority of a civ's cities following one. If it's the case that either you or your opponent have no majority religion, you won't get the strength bonus!

Not having a majority faith will make it harder to use the strength bonus, and will also really mess things up when you're conquering cities with Conquistadors. As such, you'll need to ensure your empire is clearly following the one true faith! Inquisitors are great at that role - use all but one charge on making sure your own cities follow your religion, then keep them for use with Conquistadors.

It is possible to have a target which is already following your religion. If this is the case, the Crusade belief is very powerful, offering a +10 strength bonus near cities of your religion in another civ. This more than makes up for the loss of the +5 strength bonus. Then again, Defender of the Faith (+5 strength near cities you own of your religion) is particularly effective in conjunction with Conquistadors to help you hold onto the cities you capture.

With all that out of the way, let's have a look at what a +5 strength bonus can do. A unit with a strength advantage of 5 will on average deal 37 damage while taking 25 (for reference, a unit with no strength advantage will on average deal and take 30). While not a massive difference in itself, this stacks with the strength bonus of Conquistadors or the strength advantage of forming early fleets/armadas. Conquistadors can get a +18 bonus over generic Musketmen; early armadas can have as much as a +22 strength advantage for a brief time. Be sure to take the Wars of Religion military policy card (available at Reformed Church) as well, for another +4 bonus.

The strength bonus can be pretty amazing offensively once stacked with other advantages, but it's also not bad as a defensive bonus, particularly in the stage after you've founded a religion but before Conquistadors arrive.

Ultimately, so long as you can ensure that a faith is dominant in your empire, the strength bonus is an easy one to use. It can be helpful for Conquistador conquests, or even towards a domination victory.

Inquisitor Charges and +5 Strength for Religious Units

Inquisitors usually have two functions: using up charges to keep rival religions out of your own lands, and fighting rival religious units. Spain adds a third - providing a strength bonus to stacked Conquistadors - and strengthens the other two.

Remember, to obtain Inquisitors you need to found a religion, have a Holy Site with a Temple, purchase an Apostle with faith and use it to launch an inquisition. After that point, you can purchase Inquisitors with faith in any owned city that follows your religion and has a Temple.

First of all, the extra charge. Squeezing one extra charge out of Inquisitors helps make up for the fact you'll usually want to leave the units with one charge left so you can stack them with Conquistadors. The first three charges can be used to ensure that your empire consistently backs the one true faith, so your strength bonus and Conquistadors can still be effective.

Secondly, the extra power for Remove Heresy actions. Eliminating 100% of the religious pressure of rival religions rather than the usual 75% denies rival civs bonuses that work on a per-follower basis like Cross-Cultural Dialogue and World Church, and requires rival civs to put in more effort before they can flip the city back again.

Finally, the strength bonus. As your religious units will only be fighting against units of rival religions, you can almost always use the +5 strength bonus. As strength differences in theological combat work much the same way as they do in regular combat, this bonus is just as useful. It's not just Inquisitors that gain from this - Missionaries, Apostles and Gurus do as well. For Missionaries and Gurus, this is a nice defensive bonus against rival Apostles and Inquisitors. For Apostles themselves, it, stacked with the Debater promotion, can leave rival Apostles on very low health in a single attack.

Philip II's Leader Ability: El Escorial (Part 2/2)

Explaining Theological Combat

The four religious units in the game (Missionaries, Apostles, Inquisitors and Gurus) all can engage in theological combat with those of rival religions. This works like regular combat, but does not require a declaration of war.

• Apostles have 110 religious strength, making them the most powerful of the three and ideal for use offensively - though they're also the most expensive.
  
  • With the Debater promotion, Apostles gain an additional +20 religious strength, which will often be enough to destroy Missionaries in just one hit.
• Missionaries have 100 religious strength, but cannot initiate theological combat; they can only defend.
  
• Inquisitors only have 75 religious strength, but gain a +35 bonus within their civ's lands - regardless of which religion the nearest city follows. This makes them practically useless offensively, but great defensively thanks to them being as strong as Apostles for a lower cost.
  
• Gurus have only 90 religious strength and cannot initiate theological combat, but have three charges that may be used to fully heal itself and adjacent religious units. Be sure to keep them protected as they won't last long in theological combat alone.

There's a variety of modifiers to religious unit strength. Basic ones include:

• The less health a religious unit has, the bigger a strength penalty. This starts at -1 strength between 90 and 99 health, and down to -10 strength between 1 and 9 health. You can heal a religious unit the same way as a military unit if you bring them to a Holy Site.
  
• Religious units defending near a city of their own faith receive a +5 strength bonus
  
• Religious units can fortify, adding a defensive bonus of 3 if the unit has not moved nor performed an action this turn, or +6 for two turns.
  
• Religious units receive flanking bonuses, adding +2 strength per other owned religious unit adjacent to the target.
  
• Religious units receive support bonuses. This only applies when a unit is defending, and adds +2 strength per other owned religious unit adjacent to them.

You can boost religious strength further through these means, in rough chronological order:

• The World Religion World Congress resolution can add +10 strength to all of a specific religion's religious units until the next World Congress.
  
• The Meenakshi Temple wonder (available at the medieval-era Civil Service civic) gives all religious units +1 movement and +5 strength if adjacent to a Guru. It also grants two free Gurus and reduces the cost of future Gurus by 30%.
  
• The Theocracy government (available at the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic) adds a +5 strength bonus to all religious units.
  
• The Religious Orders economic policy card (also available at Reformed Church) also adds a +5 strength bonus to all religious units.
  
• Having a religious alliance of at least level 2 with another civ gives all religious units +10 strength, except when fighting against religious units of the allied civ.

Playing as Spain, you'll also get Philip II's +5 strength bonus to all religious units if you have a different majority religion to their opponent.

Religious units can also impose zone of control on other religious units, slowing their movement if they try to move directly past your religious units. City centres also impose zone of control on religious units, which can make it awkward to manoeuvre past them.

When a religious unit is defeated, all cities within 10 tiles will gain pressure of the victorious religion and lose pressure of the defeated one, at a level comparable to using an Apostle's spread religion charge. If the defeated unit is of a religion with the Monastic Isolation belief, it prevents their religion losing pressure (though the victorious unit will still add pressure for their faith).

Generally, Inquisitors should be used defensively, while Apostles should be used offensively in theological combat, with Gurus providing support to Apostles. Missionaries should usually seek to avoid it in favour of spreading religion via their spread-religion charges.

Conclusion

Philip II's leader ability is simple enough - ensure your religion stays the majority faith in your own land (Inquisitors help), and you'll have a highly versatile strength bonus. Consider holding back on spreading your religion to civs you intend to invade so you can use this strength boost in the tricky early stages of the war.

Unique Unit: Conquistador (Part 1/2)

The sometimes tricky start Spain has is compensated for with the immense firepower of the Conquistador. With a stacked religious unit and Philip II's leader ability, you can have a unit that's nearly as strong as Infantry two eras early!

Preparation

Like all unique units, the sooner you unlock Conquistadors, the more powerful they'll be. You can prepare for Conquistadors by getting the Bronze Working and Apprenticeship technologies reasonably early so you can start training Men-at-Arms ready for upgrading later. Getting to the medieval-era Mercenaries civic allows you to use the Professional Army policy card for half-price unit upgrades, making it much easier to afford that.

You'll also need to track down nitre, so as you work your way to the Gunpowder technology, take Military Engineering before Stirrups to give you time to track the resource down.

Even if you've been neglecting faith as you wait for Missions to come available, you should still be able to get enough faith for a small number of religious units. Use up all but one of the charges of any Missionaries, Inquisitors or Gurus you create so they can be stacked with Conquistadors later. Ensure your empire is clearly following your faith before you start capturing cities with Conquistadors, or you can end up converting cities to the wrong religion.

Also be sure to build some Siege Towers to go with your Conquistadors so they can handle city defences. Once your enemies start building up Renaissance walls, bring along some Bombards or naval ranged units.

In Combat

Conquistadors stacked with religious units and Philip II's civ ability have a +18 strength advantage over Musketmen, which is among the largest unique strength bonuses in the game. A 18-point strength advantage means Conquistadors will on average deal 62 damage while taking 15 from Musketeers. You can also stack the Wars of Religion military policy card and the Oligarchy government or Oligarchic Legacy wildcard for even more strength.

The high strength of Conquistadors means they can handle pretty much anything prior to the modern era, so you don't need to worry about having lots of complexity in your army. Just bring some Conquistadors, religious units and siege support (Siege Towers are typically the best to bring at first, but Bombards are reasonable as well).

Note that religious units cannot make a formation with military units, so you'll need to manually move them every time to keep up with them.

It's important to make sure as many Conquistadors as possible are within a tile of a religious unit. If you don't have many, you can try moving the religious units around various Conquistadors to rotate the +10 strength boost. Be careful moving around cities - religious units will be subject to their zone of control and as such will have their movement depleted if they try and move around them. That can leave them vulnerable if you then successfully kill with the military unit they're sharing tile with, as the military unit will move forward but the religious unit will not.

Converting Cities

If you capture a city either directly with a Conquistador or with the unit adjacent to it when it is captured, you will convert the city to whichever religion is the majority in your empire. Make sure your own religion is predominant in your empire, and you'll get lots of nice benefits!

The most immediately useful benefit is that a city following your religion gets +3 loyalty. That means you'll have more time in control of the city before it flips back to a free city, allowing you more time to capture other nearby cities. Remember to relocate a Governor to a city and leave a garrisoned unit for even more loyalty, and build a Mission adjacent to the city centre if it's not on your home continent.


Converting the city will also grant you +3 era score. Considering this will happen every time you capture a city of a different religion with a Conquistador, you can rapidly gain enough era score to ensure subsequent Golden Ages!

You can also make good use of your religious founder bonuses, such as Tithe, Cross-Cultural Dialogue and World Church. Conquistadors are fairly expensive to maintain in large numbers, so being able to gain more money for every city you capture from Tithe will be very useful. If you have the Defender of the Faith enhancer belief, you'll have a good strength bonus near cities you capture making it hard for your opponents to recapture the city.

If the scientific city-state Fez is in your game, be sure to become suzerain over them, as it'll essentially give you science for every city you capture with Conquistadors!

For cities which have a Shrine already, converting them to your faith allows them to immediately start purchasing Missionaries of your religion. That's helpful if you've gained a bit of faith since the start of the war and need more religious units to support your Conquistadors.

Finally, converting a city can aid religious victory without you having to dedicate any faith to the conversion if you hand back some of the cities at the end of the war. Handing back a city can reduce the grievances you inflicted from taking it in the first place, which can be a good way to ensure you don't attract a huge number of denouncements from the rest of the world. It also means you have fewer cities draining your amenities. This strategy is most effective when used against civs that share your starting continent, seeing as you'll want to keep cities overseas for the maximum amount of Mission faith.

Unique Unit: Conquistador (Part 2/2)

Beyond the Renaissance

The mighty strength advantage of Conquistadors allows them to be effective on the battlefield for quite some time. With a religious unit, they're already stronger than Line Infantry, meaning Spain should put off researching Military Science for longer than most civs. With Philip II's strength bonus, they're only 2 points weaker than Infantry of other civs, which cost 72% more to train, 33% more gold to maintain and cost oil every turn on top.

As a consequence, Spain can continue relying on Conquistadors for quite some time! With the industrial-era Nationalism civic, Conquistadors can be formed into corps for a +10 strength bonus, which keeps them relevant for quite a while longer. The modern-era Mobilisation civic allows forming them to armies for a +17 strength boost. However, there's a catch - because Military Science obsoletes Conquistadors, you can't build Military Academies and therefore can't benefit from the 25% discount to new corps and armies that they offer. As such, Conquistadors cease to be a cost-effective option once forming armies with them becomes a necessity.

Still, that's not to say you should get rid of your Conquistadors. They still have the unique ability to convert cities to your religion, and they don't need to get the last hit on a city to do that. Bringing Conquistador armies alongside your more advanced units is a good idea for that reason. Try to keep them safe from enemy fire, and ensure they're adjacent to a city when you're capturing it.

Finally, upgrading Conquistadors or forming armies with them will free up a few religious units. This can be quite helpful for cleaning up any heresy which might have popped up in your empire while you were conquering cities abroad.

Summary

• Take a detour to Bronze Working and Apprenticeship to train some Men-at-Arms ready for upgrading
  
• Ensure your empire clearly follows your religion before you start taking cities
  
• Bring religious units with one charge left with your Conquistadors, as well as Siege Towers or Bombards
  
• Capturing cities with Conquistadors is a great source of era score and will often secure you an industrial/modern-era Golden Age.
  
• Handing back non-capital cities on your own continent after the war can help with religious victory.
  
• When Conquistadors obsolete, form some into armies and keep them next to enemy cities so you can still convert them through conquest.

Unique Improvement: Mission

In a typical game as Spain, it's a good idea to found a religion, and then put faith generation aside for a while as you settle plenty of cities. But when the Mission improvement arrives, it all changes - it's time to unleash Spain's true religious potential!

Missions unlock at the medieval-era Education technology, though it's often better to go for the renaissance-era Gunpowder technology first to unlock Conquistadors. Earlier Conquistadors are considerably more impactful, while delaying Missions by a few turns isn't as much of a problem.

Basic Yields

Missions on your home continent offer 2 faith, which isn't especially worthwhile by itself - as such, don't bother building Missions there unless you're really desperate for faith. However, on a foreign continent, Missions offer a massive 4 faith, as well as 1 food and 1 production!

The food and production yield of Missions makes them somewhat of a compromise between farms and mines at this point in the game. As such, you can build and work them in huge numbers without neglecting your general city development.

Although Missions cannot be built on floodplains, they can be built on desert or tundra tiles, making some excellent yields with the Petra and St. Basil's Cathedral wonders respectively. Even without those wonders, you can make a city which would otherwise have marginal yields an excellent source of faith.

With all the faith Missions offer, you can spam out Missionaries and Apostles to help with a religious victory, or any religious unit to provide the +10 strength bonus to Conquistadors. Alternatively, the Grand Master's Chapel government allows you to purchase military units with faith for half the cost it would be via gold. You can also use faith to purchase cultural or scientific buildings with the Jesuit Education follower belief, Naturalists for National Parks and amenities as well as tourism, Rock Bands for tourism or even Great Person patronage.

Science Adjacency

Missions yield an extra +1 science per adjacent Holy Site or Campus. This means it's a good idea to build your first Missions around Holy Sites and Campuses before you work tiles elsewhere. If you intend to build either district in a city without good potential adjacency bonuses, you can instead place it somewhere with a lot of potential adjacent Missions.

The science boost is particularly welcome if you exploited age bonuses for science earlier in the game rather than building Campuses (e.g. Monasticism for a classical/medieval Dark Age, Free Inquiry for a Golden Age).The moment you're no longer able to exploit those science boosts, you have a special one of your own to keep your techologies up to date.

Mission Loyalty

The tricky thing about the colonial game is how easily cities become disloyal if you settle or capture close to other civs. Moving a Governor to the city will buy you some time, certain bonuses like the Hic Sunt Draconis Golden Age dedication or Colonial Offices diplomatic policy card add to that, converting the city to your religion helps, and building a Mission next to the city centre buys a little more time.

The +2 loyalty bonus isn't huge, but the more time you have, the more manageable it is to conquer other nearby cities so they can start providing positive loyalty pressure on each other.

Enhancement

With the atomic-era Cultural Heritage civic, the science from Missions increases by two. Missions next to Campuses or Holy Sites yield at least 3 science each. While this is a very late-arriving bonus, Cultural Heritage is a fairly easy civic to beeline and the science should still be greatly useful if you still plan to fight more wars at this stage of the game. Missions on a continent not containing your capital will now be up to 4 faith, 2 science, 1 food and 1 production at a minimum - a very strong overall yield for an improvement with few placement restrictions.

A strong improvement with a good potential science yield, along with Spain's production bonuses via the civ ability and the powerful geothermal fissure start bias can be the basis for a scientific route to victory.

If you want to go down the road to scientific victory from the start, first take the Divine Spark pantheon to help you found a religion and generate Great Scientists faster. Once you have a religion, take the Jesuit Education belief to allow you to buy science builkdings with faith, and stop building Holy Sites - build Campuses, Commercial Hubs/Harbours and Theatre Squares instead. Outside of an initial Apostle to start an inquisition, and an Inquisitor to keep rival faiths out your land, save up faith for religious units to go with Conquistadors. Use them to conquer overseas lands, where you can build Missions. Try to get the Cultural Heritage civic quickly for the strong science boost. Finally, position your trade routes late in the game to ensure your strongest cities are getting even more production from intercontinental trade - that'll help them build Spaceports and get through space race projects.

Summary

• Capture or found lots of cities on continents not containing your capital - when you capture a city that's disloyal, try to build a Mission adjacent to the city centre as soon as possible to buy some time.
  
• Build Missions in huge quantities, except on your capital's continent.
  
• Surround Campuses and Holy Sites with Missions
  
• Missions are generally useful for religious victory, but can help with science as well.

Administration - Government and Policy Cards

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

Governments

Tier One

Oligarchy is a good choice for its legacy card, which adds +4 strength not only to Conquistadors, but also to Caravels. An early Caravel armada can be very powerful. Keep Oligarchy if you're likely to have aggressive neighbours; otherwise consider switching to Autocracy - strong trade routes stacked with Autocracy's bonuses can make an excellent early wonder-building city.

Take the Ancestral Hall building to help you expand your empire and get even more free Builders.

Tier Two

You have a bit of choice here. Theocracy helps you get a lot out of your high faith output for religious and domination victories alike, and also has a good balance between military and economic policy cards. It also boosts the strength of your religious units, which stacks with Philip II's bonus. Merchant Republic however helps you build districts even faster.

The Grand Master's Chapel is a reliably good choice of Government Plaza building. With it, you can purchase Conquistadors for 500 faith each, and get faith from pillaging anything.

Tier Three

If you want to continue down the warpath, Fascism will be effective for its strength bonus. Otherwise, Democracy is a reliable choice thanks to its trade route bonuses - religious victories in particular gain from its higher number of economic policy card slots. Communism's science boost makes it ideal for scientific games, and the unique Collectivisation policy card that goes with it helps boost trade route yields even further.

For domination or religious victories, use the War Department so military and religious units heal from kills. The Royal Society saves some time in the scientific game as you can use Builders to rush space race projects.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Builds on Spain's advantages to trade routes, but it's a good idea not to take this policy card until you have multiple active trade routes as other cards are generally more helpful.

Corvée (Economic, requires State Workforce) - Spain's production bonus for intercontinental trade is very powerful early in the game, so you might want to consider putting that to use in wonder production. This policy card will stretch that production bonus even further!

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - A helpful loyalty bonus once you start capturing cities on other continents.

God King (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - The sooner you can get a pantheon going, the better a shot you have at Divine Spark and hence a religion. It's a shame to miss out on Urban Planning's production bonus, but at least you get a little gold to compensate.

Classical Era

Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - Holding onto captured coastal cities can be tough due to the loyalty pressures, so here's a policy card that helps with that without you needing to use up a precious economic or military card slot.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Makes Encampments and Harbours particulary cheap in foreign-continent cities. Encampments are useful for Great General Points; Harbours for trade route capacity.

Medieval Era

Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - Allows you to train Men-at-Arms faster, ready for upgrading to Conquistadors, or just train Conquistadors themselves faster.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Reducing the cost of unit upgrades will make turning a Men-at-Arms force into a Conquistador one much more affordable.

Retinues (Military, requires Mercenaries) - If nitre supplies are low, this allows you to upgrade Men-at-Arms to Conquistadors for just 5 nitre each, and Trebuchets to Bombards for just 10 nitre each.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Together with Spain's civ ability and the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building, newly-founded cities on foreign continents will begin with a massive 10 Builder charges (or 12 with the Pyramids wonder)! This will be excellent for preparing you for the Mission improvement.

Renaissance Era

Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - Settling extensively on foreign continents will provide you with lots of fast-growing cities! This policy card also boosts your loyalty in cities on foreign continents - that's particularly helpful for conquests.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Strong as Conquistadors are, they're rather slow so the movement speed bonus offered by this policy card is very welcome. It'll also help your Inquisitors catch enemy religious units.

Press Gangs (Military, requires Exploration) - Early fleets and armadas are expensive, so this policy card will help you build the individual ships in a reasonable amount of time.

Religious Orders (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Together with Philip II's ability, you can have a +10 bonus in theological combat; add the Theocracy government on top and you have +15. That's enough to keep your Missionaries safe from enemy Apostles.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Makes trade routes worth even more gold.

Wars of Religion (Military, requires Reformed Church) - Stacked with Philip II's ability, you'll have a +9 advantage over enemy armies which aren't supported by the policy card.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Boosts trade route yields, so long as they're with an ally.

Industrial Era

Colonial Taxes (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - Cash in on all of those cities on other continents with a 25% boost to gold output in all of them. They'll also get a 10% production bonus to help them develop even faster.

Modern Era

Collectivisation (Economic, Communism only, requires Class Struggle) - Internal intercontinental trade now produces masses of food. This allows you to dedicate more tiles and citizens to Missions instead of farms.

Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - A great boost to science, culture and gold which makes intercontinental international trading very lucrative.

Martial Law (Wildcard, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Same effect as the earlier-arriving Propaganda and stacks with it, and adds a loyalty bonus on top.

Propaganda (Military, requires Mass Media) - Keeping your war weariness low is important as it prevents you receiving a penalty to faith output via amenity penalties.

Information Era

Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalization) - Intercontinental trading will now be a spectacular source of gold and production! That's particularly great if you need to fund a war.

Administration - Age Bonuses and World Congress

Age Bonuses

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

Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - If you're in a classical-era Dark or Normal Age, this dedication will help you follow it up with a medieval-era Heroic or Golden Age. Founding a religion causes all your cities with a Holy Site to immediately convert to it, which can instantly grant quite a bit of era score.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - A good choice for a medieval-era Heroic Age in particular as it can help you secure your religion against rivals without you needing to spend too much faith, and you can pick it on top of other, more useful bonuses.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - All your Commercial Hubs and Harbours will now generate science. You'll want to build those districts anyway for trade route capacity, and getting lots of science means you don't have to worry about missing out on Campuses.

Inquisition (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - The science penalty is harsh, but you don't actually need this wildcard for long. Buy an Apostle, switch to this wildcard, launch an inquisition, and switch to a different wildcard like Monasticism. That way, you've unlocked Inquisitors without having to use all the charges of an Apostle.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A must-have wildcard if you fall into an early Dark Age, as it allows you to focus on Holy Sites while still getting the kind of science outputs you'd expect if you built Campuses instead - or you can build both and get Missions and Conquistadors unlocked much sooner.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - An excellent choice for early development as it allows you to purchase Settlers with faith, as well as Builders and Traders.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A great support dedication for a medieval-era Heroic Age as the culture it grants will help you to get to civics like Mercantilism sooner.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - A tricky dedication to use well. If there's strong naval rivals and lots of continents to uncover, this can be a great source of era score. If you've already discovered most of the continents and there's a lack of good naval rivals, pick a different dedication.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Helps you to support settled/conquered colonies with the loyalty bonus and also goes nicely with your early armadas to have a speed as well as strength advantage.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - You'll want to make a lot of trade routes, so here's an easy source of era score.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Intercontinental trade routes can be vulnerable to pillaging, but this bonus allows you to circumvent that problem. Furthermore, international intercontinental trade will generate an awful lot of money.

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.

Deforestation Treaty - Effect A (Clearing features of the chosen type yields gold equal to the production and/or food) on woods or rainforest if you're actively founding new cities

Chopping woods or rainforest with your free Builder (or Builders) is a quick way to develop new cities, and getting gold on top is a nice bonus.

Mercenary Companies - Effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type, is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) on faith if you have the Grand Master's Chapel, or production otherwise.

Halving the faith cost makes Conquistadors cost only 250 faith each. Halving the production cost of units, however, makes it much more affordable to put together some early fleets and armadas.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) for melee infantry, around the time Conquistadors are useful

Conquistadors have a long window of usage so you should be able to get a lot out of this resolution.

Migration Treaty - Effect B (+5 loyalty per turn but -20% population growth in this player's cities) on yourself, if you're conquering into new continents

Take the Colonial Offices diplomatic policy card on top, and the growth bonus mostly cancels out this growth penalty, while the loyalty bonuses stack as if you had a Governor present in every foreign-continent city!

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

An extra trade route means a good boost to production, gold and faith.

World Religion - Effect A (+10 strength for all religious units of this faith) on your own religion

Extends your advantage in theological combat (via Philip II's leader ability) even further.

Administration - Religion and City-States

Pantheons

City Patron Goddess - New cities on foreign continents now get a 50% production bonus towards their first district!

Dance of the Aurora - If you lack mountains or natural wonders, but have access to tundra, you can use this pantheon to get great Holy Sites you can then surround with Missions for extra science.

Desert Folklore - The desert counterpart to Dance of the Aurora.

Divine Spark - A great pantheon for Spain as it minimises the amount of production you need early on to build Holy Sites and Shrines, letting you focus on other things. It'll also be helpful for generating Great Scientists, and the more science you can get early on, the sooner you can obtain Conquistadors and the more effective they'll be.

Monument to the Gods - Spain's civ ability can amount to an impressive early production lead, which this pantheon can help you divert towards wonder construction.

Religious Settlements - A free Settler and with it a great boost to early expansion.

Religious Beliefs

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

Choral Music (Follower) - More culture will help you get to Cultural Heritage sooner, and its powerful science boost to Missions. It's especially useful if you're relying on the Monasticism Dark Age wildcard for science.

Cross Cultural Dialogue (Founder) - A good way to combine your religious and scientific strengths.

(Domination) Crusade (Enhancer) - An excellent choice for war. Philip's unique strength bonus doesn't work against civs that follow your religion, but this belief certainly does. Keep in mind that the strength bonus is tied to the city and the surrounding area, not the civ. You won't be able to use Crusade or Philip's ability in cities that don't follow your religion belonging to civs that do, although you'll be able to use both in cities that follow your religion belonging to civs that don't.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - This belief is powerful in Spain's hands. If you capture a city with a Conquistador, or if a Conquistador is adjacent to the city when you do so, you'll immediately convert the city to your religion. With this belief, it'll also grant your nearby units a +5 strength bonus making it hard for your enemy to take it back.

Holy Order (Enhancer) - Although it doesn't make Inquisitors cheaper, it's still good for spamming affordable Missionaries with, which can support your Conquistadors.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - You'll want lots of Campus districts both for their direct science output and the bonus they offer Missions. Filling the districts can be expensive, but this belief lets you put your high faith output to good use there. This intersection between faith and science can rival that of Arabia.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - As you capture cities with Conquistadors, you'll generate more faith.

Religious Colonisation (Enhancer) - Settling colonies on new continents in order to get strong Missions? This belief will ensure those new cities follow your religion, saving you precious faith you can use on other things. Be careful, however - if they grow too fast and they're not getting religious pressure from elsewhere, they'll end up without a majority religion soon enough.

Religious Community (Follower) - International intercontinental trade routes can be rich sources of gold with this belief!

Tithe (Founder) - Keep the warpath going with a boost to gold output every time you take a city with Conquistadors.

World Church (Founder) - Get more culture per turn as you capture cities with Conquistadors, getting you on the way to the Cultural Heritage civic and the +2 science boost for Missions sooner.

City-States

Akkad (Militaristic) - Allows Conquistadors to deal full damage against city defences without the need for siege support - even Renaissance Walls and urban defences!

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - Intercontinental trade may require trade routes to pass through multiple foreign cities. Getting some extra gold out of the arrangement is rather nice.

Bologna (Scientific) - Helps to improve your chances of founding a religion, much like the Divine Spark pantheon.

Brussels (Industrial) - Useful early on as the wonder construction bonus works nicely with the strong production bonus of early Spanish intercontinental trade routes.

Chinguetti (Religious) - Bonus faith for your trade routes, on top of the faith you already get.

Fez (Scientific) - A very powerful city-state for Spain - converting a city to your religion for the first time (such as via Conquistadors) gives you science based on the city's population!

Geneva (Scientific) - The science multiplier is powerful in conjunction with post-Cultural Heritage Missions.

Hunza (Trade) - Intercontinental trade, as the name suggests, often entails travelling a long way. Hunza gives you extra gold for such long-distance routes.

Jerusalem (Religious) - Capturing cities with Conquistadors may put your religion there, but pressures from a variety of faiths may threaten to reverse that. Jerusalem greatly improves your cities' passive religious spread, allowing you to really reinforce your religious pressure once you take a few cities.

Kumasi (Cultural) - Grants you bonus culture and gold from trade routes with city-states.

Mogadishu (Trade) - Intercontinental trade often requires crossing seas, which can leave your traders vulnerable to Barbarians and other pillagers. Being suzerain over Mogadishu stops this being a problem. No longer will your treasure fleets be left to the mercy of privateers!

Nazca (Religious) - Nazca Lines can only be placed on desert and cannot be worked directly. However, they grant faith, food and production to adjacent tiles. This goes nicely with Missions, making even desert regions excellent for Spanish expansion.

Singapore (Industrial) - Can allow you to get even more production from trade routes.

Valletta (Militaristic) - If you're after a domination victory, this is a great city-state to have under your control. Your high faith output can rapidly secure your newly-captured cities by purchasing walls, and you can also develop cities quickly by buying buildings such as Granaries.

Venice (Trade) - International intercontinental trade can now make massive amounts of money.

Wolin (Militaristic) - Offers an alternative means of getting a Great General without the need for Encampments, allowing you to have Conquistadors with full speed and strength while freeing up district capacity for Holy Sites, Commercial Hubs, Harbours and the like.

Yerevan (Religious) - You can constantly pick the Debater promotion for Apostles, and enjoy winning practically every round of theological combat considering Philip II's leader ability adds strength as well.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Great Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - Every time you settle a city on a foreign continent, you'll get 4 free Builder charges instead of 3. With the Ancestral Hall, that's 8 charges instead of 6.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - In the event you don't manage to found a religion, this is a useful wonder to capture as it allows you to dedicate Mission faith to Great Person patronage effectively.

Stonehenge (Ancient era, Astrology technology) - Although a competitive wonder, Stonehenge is a great wonder for Spain to have if you can afford the risk. Guaranteeing a religion means you don't need to worry about building Holy Sites until the renaissance era.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - Extra trade route capacity means a fair bit of extra food and production, or gold.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - Early Armadas can deal a lot of damage, but they won't do much good if they can't reach your opponents. The bonus movement speed from the Great Lighthouse will help there.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - A strong early source of faith to get your religion off the ground ready for Missions, without the need to invest heavily in Holy Sites.

Machu Picchu (Classical era, Engineering technology) - Spain's start bias increases the chance of starting near a mountain chain. With this wonder, you can get some excellent adjacency bonuses for Commerical Hubs, Theatre Squares and Industrial Zones on top of the usual Campuses and Holy Sites.

Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - Two Apostles for free means you needn't let low faith generation at this stage in the game stop you from having a developed religion.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - Missions can be placed on desert tiles, and on non-home continents this makes a reasonable tile of 1 food, 1 production and 4 faith. With Petra, however, that's 3 food, 2 production, 2 gold and 4 faith - an excellent yield!

Hagia Sophia (Medieval era, Buttress technology) - Extra Missionary and Apostle charges means you can get just as much out of them as other civs, and still have a charge left over allowing the units to provide the combat bonus to Conquistadors.

Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - Can be used to extend your advantage in theological combat.

University of Sankore (Medieval era, Education technology) - Internal international trade can now be a great source of science as well as some bonus faith!

Casa de Contratación (Renaissance era, Cartography technology) - An ideal wonder for Spain, this allows you to get a faith, gold and production bonus on every city on a foreign continent with a Governor. In cities with a lot of Missions or intercontinental trade routes, this goes a long way.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Offers +1 trade route capacity, and makes trade routes from the city exceptionally powerful.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - Missions can be built in tundra tiles - on a foreign continent, the tile will be worth 2 food, 1 production and 4 faith. With this wonder, that's up to 3 food, 2 production, 4 faith and 1 culture, even before taking into account the science bonuses Missions can achieve.

Taj Mahal (Renaissance era, Humanism civic) - Conquistadors grant you +3 era score every time they convert a city as part of capturing it. With the Taj Mahal wonder, that rises to +5. Enjoy your consecutive Golden Ages.

Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Settling extensively away from your home continent? Constructing this wonder will award you a lot of free buildings! Furthermore, this wonder allows you to get more gold out of your trade routes.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Early fleets and armadas are much easier to make use of when you have access to a wonder that makes you produce double as many ships.

Oxford University (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - The science multiplier is the important thing here. If you can capture a reasonably large city on another continent, make sure lots of Campuses and Holy Sites are within range (not just the one of the city itself), build this wonder and construct plenty of Missions - you can then end up with a massive amount of science. It gets considerably better after the atomic-era Cultural Heritage civic.

Great People

Remember that these are only the ones that have particular synergy with Spanish uniques, not necessarily the most effective options. All Great Generals and Admirals can be useful for a domination victory, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Classical Era

Themistocles (Great Admiral) - A permanent boost to naval ranged unit production will be useful later in the game if you want to build Frigate fleets or armadas.

Trưng Trắc (Great General) - Reduces your war weariness. Negative amenities will impact your faith yields and therefore hurt your ability to spread your religion, so being able to fight on with Conquistadors without losing much in the way of faith yields will be useful.

Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - Increases your trade route capacity.

Medieval Era

Æthelflæd (Great General) - Provides loyalty to a city.

Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity.

Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - Also offers an extra trade route.

Rajendra Chola (Great Admiral) - Permanently makes all your naval units gain +3 strength. An early armada could have as much as a 20-point strength advantage now!

Zheng He (Great Admiral) - Extra trade route capacity.

Renaissance Era

Raja Todar Mal (Great Merchant) - Boosts gold from internal trade. This is useful as it allows you to grow your colonies while also having a bit more cash for Conquistador maintenance.

Industrial Era

José de San Martín (Great General) - Provides +4 loyalty for a city.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Great General) - A Conquistador army has enough strength to reliably kill regular Musketmen in a single hit.

Modern Era

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Makes trading more lucrative by offering extra gold based on strategic resources in the destination city.

Togo Heihachiro (Great Admiral) - Provides +6 loyalty for a city.

Tupac Amaru II (Great General) - Lots of Conquistadors for free, even if you've obsoleted them by researching Military Science!

Atomic Era

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - An extra trade route.

Sudirman (Great General) - Provides +6 loyalty for a city.

Counter-Strategies (Part 1/2)

Spain's potential power comes with two key weaknesses. Firstly, if they can't found a religion (or their religion isn't dominant within their home lands), Conquistadors and Philip II's leader ability will be far less effective. Secondly, if they can't easily expand outside their home continent, their civ ability and the Mission unique improvement will be much less effective.

Civilization Ability: Treasure Fleets

Foreign-continent Builders and district construction bonus

When Spain settles a city on a continent other than the one containing their capital, they get a free Builder. If they have the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building as well, they get two. Two Builders cannot end their turn on the same tile, making it fairly likely Spain will end up with undefended Builders - fast-moving units like Horsemen or Coursers can swoop in and capture them.

Pushing Spain into their home continent early on is a good idea if you can manage it. Spain's strength advantages don't come into play immediately, so settling in foreign-continent land near their capital or capturing their new foreign-continent cities should be less risky than it might at first appear.

The district construction bonus means Spanish cities are likely to fill out their district capacity a little sooner than the cities of most other civs. This can make them a little more lucrative for pillaging - much like capturing Builders, Horsemen and Coursers are ideal at this job.

Trade bonuses

Trade between different continents requires there to be Spanish cities on different continents in the first place. If other civs can settle enough land, setting up decent colonies on other continents will be very difficult, leaving Spain with lacklustre cities.

Often, intercontinental trade will require Spain to send trade routes across seas. These trade routes are the most vulnerable to pillaging. Try using Privateers or Submarines as they can pillage without being detected (except by naval melee units) - useful if Spain has a particularly strong navy.

Early fleets and armadas

Early fleets and armadas gives Spain a naval combat advantage for a time, assuming they have the production and/or gold to produce naval units quickly enough. Denying them the Venetian Arsenal wonder might be a good idea to prevent them getting a huge advantage. Once you have the Mobilisation civic, Spain's early armada-building ability is no longer helpful.

If you have to fight Spanish armadas, it may be a good idea to focus fire on one unit at a time. A lost armada represents a huge amount of lost production or gold for Spain. Try to use ranged units like Privateers or Frigates as melee units will typically take too much damage from combat.

Philip II's Leader Ability: El Escorial

Military combat bonus

If Spain's majority religion is present in a majority of your cities, or you control a large empire with a huge range of different religions keeping each other in check, there's nothing to worry about here. If it isn't, you can make use of the Wars of Religion military policy card, made available at the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. The bonus there will mostly cancel out Philip's unique bonus unless he's using the policy card himself. If you're a bit behind the times in regards to civics, you can instead make use of Oligarchy's +4 strength bonus for melee infantry, anti-cavalry and naval melee units as a stopgap measure.

If Spain is using Wars of Religion themselves, make good use of defensive terrain to prevent the strength bonus being too powerful. Promoted units can overcome their strength advantage pretty easily as well, so the bonus usually won't be too much of a problem by itself.

All this trouble, however, can be completely avoided if you attack Spain before religions start spreading. Spain has no combat advantages in the very earliest parts of the game, making a great opportunity for an attack.

Religious bonuses

Philip's strength bonus also applies to religious units, and on top, all his Inquisitors gain an extra charge to remove heresy with, while those remove-heresy charges are more powerful than normal. This makes him particularly effective at defending against enemy religions.

To overcome this, consider using Apostles rather than Missionaries so you can get an edge in theological combat, or bring a Guru or two to help heal them up. This will cost you a lot more faith than it does for Spain, so trying to limit how many Missions they can build away from their home continent will be a good move. Thankfully, pillaging Missions is a great source of faith for you.

Philip II's Agenda: Counter Reformer

Philip II actively will try to stamp out heathen religions in his own lands more than most leaders, and hates those trying to spread heathen faiths into Spain. He likes those that share his religion. He will not have the Intolerant hidden agenda as it overlaps with this main one.

You'll typically get on fine with Philip if you start close by and lack your own religion, as soon enough Spanish Missionaries and Apostles will arrive to convert your cities.

If you have a religion of your own, however, you can expect Philip to usually be hostile towards you. Be careful how you use your Missionaries and Apostles against Spain - it's more likely to provoke a war than it would be against most civs, and Spain has stronger military advantages than most religious civs. A war while you have religious units near Spain's cities could mean a lot of lost units and hence lost faith. To avoid this problem, try to use religious units against Spain at times where it's unlikely to start a war, such as when they're already fighting one against someone else, or if they've just ended a war against you.

Philip II also has a 10% chance of having the Sycophant hidden agenda, which makes him prefer civs in Golden or Heroic Ages and dislike civs in Dark Ages. Civs that build a lot of wonders are likely to do well here, given they are excellent sources of era score and unlike some of the other strong sources of era score (converting cities when at war, building National Parks), don't lean as much on the religious game.

Counter-Strategies (Part 2/2)

Unique Unit: Conquistador

Conquistadors stacked with religious units are scary to face, especially considering Philip's strength bonus on top, and the possibility you're behind in technology.

It helps to plan a defence in advance when dealing with Conquistadors - after all, with Philip II's leader ability they have an 18-strength advantage over regular Musketmen, and a 23-strength advantage over Knights!

If either you or Spain lacks a majority religion, or you both follow the same one, Philip II's strength bonus won't apply. Converting to Spain's religion might be worthwhile if you're a non-religious civ on a larger map size and Spain is a neighbour, but on smaller map sizes that might just hand Spain a religious victory. On the other hand, Spain will find it harder to use their foreign-continent bonuses on smaller map sizes, so it balances out reasonably well.

Another strategy is to research Military Engineering early to reveal nitre, and target any Spanish cities which produce it for pillaging so they can't train new Conquistadors. If they don't have any, settle cities near any free nitre spots if possible.

Conquistadors only reach their full strength if they're kept close to religious units. If you have some Temples of your own, consider using Apostles or Inquisitors to kill their religious units to deny them the strength advantage. Try to use all but one of their charges before doing this, as even if you kill a Spanish religious unit the Conquistador will probably condemn your unit immediately afterwards unless you can quickly move in a military unit to defend it.

Alternatively, if there's only one or two religious units mixed in with Spain's army, it might be a good idea to see if you can quickly destroy the military unit stacked with the religious unit and press the Condemn Heretic button to get rid of it. Although a Conquistador stacked with a religious unit is harder to kill, eliminating the religious unit as quickly as possible will cause you fewer problems later.

Even at full strength, Conquistadors are slow, which allows you to attack them with Crossbowmen from a safe distance. While this won't deal a lot of damage per hit, this can add up with a lot of Crossbowmen without the Conquistadors being particularly able to retaliate. Use terrain and promotions carefully to prevent the strength difference being too harsh.

Curiassiers arrive at the industrial-era Ballistics technology, which is relatively easy to beeline. They have much better mobility than Conquistadors and while they have a strength disadvantage against them, they can deal a hit and take a counter-attack, and still have enough health to flee. Ballistics also allows you to upgrade Crossbowmen to Field Cannons for an even more effective defence.

Unique Improvement: Mission

Missions are relatively late-arriving as faith-based uniques go, and as such Spain has a disadvantage to faith generation relative to other religious civs for quite some time. While this is good news for civs like Russia which aim for an early religious victory, it also can be an opportunity for other religious civs in general.

To make the early-game tougher for Spain, one possibility is starting an early war. This doesn't necessarily mean putting together a huge force to take over Madrid (though it's a good time to do so if you think you can), but rather a couple of fast units to pillage their tiles, capture their civilians and generally be a pest. If you can provoke Spain into building Encampments instead of Holy Sites, you will have successfully set back their religious game even further.

Let's assume Spain will definitely found a decent religion. What now? Well, like Spain's civ ability, Missions depend on Spain being able to settle foreign continents for the best yields. The more land taken on other continents by other civs, the less effective Missions and therefore Spain will be. Even if you can't shut down the entire continent, small coastal colonies which cannot obtain many tiles won't have much space for Missions and hence will have a limited faith output.

Because they'll generally be situated far from Spain's core, Missions are very vulnerable to pillaging. Each one you pillage is worth 25 faith - increasing throughout the game - so you can bring some light cavalry with the Depredation promotion and have a lot of fun.

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*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.

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[Zigzagzigal]

Updated; thanks :)

[Sir Alm]

So, I just noticed, near the top, in the quick overview of Conquistador, You put two Gold Symbols instead of one Production and one gold symbol. Otherwise, great guide, you been helping me since Civ 5

[Xamataca]

Sir, your guides are verbose, detailed and extensive. I can't even fathom the amount of time you did expend making them. Take my award and thank you!