Zigzagzigal's Guides - Vietnam (GS)

Vietnam uses woods, rainforest and marsh to great effect for defence, yields and offensively. Here, I detail Vietnamese 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.

Brother, do you doubt me? I shall be no slave! Not to the aggressors before us and not to the whims of any man. I wish only to ride the wind and walk the waves, hunt the whales of the eastern sea, clean the frontiers and save the drowning. I shall never submit to this cruelty which stole our lands.

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

Vietnam has a tier 1 start bias towards marsh, rainforest and woods tiles. Vietnamese land-based speciality districts may only be placed on these tiles, though their buildings will receive extra yields according to the feature they're built on.

Civilization Ability: Nine Dragon River Delta

• Land speciality districts may only be constructed on marsh, rainforest or woods tiles, but do not remove the terrain feature.
  
  • Affected districts: Aerodrome, Campus, Commercial Hub, Diplomatic Quarter, Entertainment Complex, Government Plaza, Holy Site, Industrial Zone, Preserve, Theatre Square.
• Buildings on marsh tiles yield +1 production each
  
• Buildings on rainforest tiles yield +1 science each
  
• Buildings on woods tiles yield +1 culture each
  
• May plant woods with the medieval-era Medieval Faires civic, instead of the modern-era Conservation civic.

Bà Triệu's Leader Ability: Drive Out the Aggressors

• All land military, civilian, support and religious units gain +1 movement point if they start their turn on marsh, rainforest or woods tiles. This doubles to +2 movement points in Vietnamese territory.
  
• All land military, support and religious units gain +5 strength when fighting in marsh, rainforest or woods tiles. This doubles to +10 strength in Vietnamese territory.

Unique Unit: Voi Chiến

A medieval-era ranged land unit which replaces the Crossbowman

Research	Obsoletion	Upgrades from	Upgrades to	Cost	Resource	Maintenance
Machinery Technology Medieval era	Ballistics Technology Industrial era	Archer (290 )	Field Cannon (270 )	200 or 800 or 400 *	None	3

*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
35	40	3	2	3	Attacking costs no movement points May move after attacking Unable to capture cities -17 vs. city defences -17 vs. naval units Deals -50% damage to city walls and urban defences Does not exert zone of control	None

Negative changes

• Costs 290 gold to upgrade to from an Archer, up from 250 (+16%)

Positive changes

• 35 strength, up from 30
  
• 3 movement points, up from 2
  
• 3 sight, up from 2
  
• Attacking costs no movement points
  
  • Voi Chiến units cannot attack if they have no movement points remaining.
• May move or perform other actions after attacking
  
• Costs 270 gold to upgrade to a Field Cannon, down from 310 (-13%)

Outline (Part 2/2)

Unique District: Thành

An ancient-era non-speciality district which replaces the Encampment

Research	Terrain required	Required to build	Base production cost	Maintenance	Base pillage yield
Bronze Working Technology Ancient era	Not adjacent to a city centre	Barracks Stable Armoury Military Academy	27 * or 108 ** or 54 **	1	None

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress.

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

Adjacency bonuses	Other yields	Great Person points	Other effects
2 per adjacent owned district This adjacency bonus is added to tourism with the modern-era Flight technology.	None	None	Enables the Encampment Training city project Domestic trade routes to this city provide +1 International trade routes to this city provide +1 Adjacent tiles suffer -1 appeal. Has its own health and defence; automatically pillaged when health is depleted to 0. Gains ranged attack and defensive capabilities from Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance walls as well as urban defences, unlocked at the modern-era Steel technology New land units built by the city spawn on this tile unless already occupied by a unit

Negative changes

• Does not provide 1 Great General Point

Variable changes

• Not considered a speciality district
  
  • As such, mechanics that specifically test for speciality districts do not apply. For example, the Monumentality dedication does not award era score for building Thành districts.
    
  • This also means Vietnam's civ ability does not affect Thành districts.

Positive changes

• Does not count towards district capacity
  
• -50% production cost
  
• +2 culture per adjacent owned district
  
  • Adjacent districts owned by other civs do not count, unlike normal district adjacency bonuses.
• With the modern-era Flight technology, culture adjacency added to tourism.

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
Bà Triệu	9/10 (Good)	4/10 (Acceptable)	9/10 (Ideal)	7/10 (Good)	7/10 (Good)

Cultural victory is a highly effective route for Vietnam to take. High culture yields helps with getting to key wonders and tourism-based policy cards sooner. Each Thành district can generate up to 12 tourism later in the game. Furthermore, being able to stack appeal-boosting districts like Holy Sites or Theatre Squares on woods enables Vietnam to boost tiles to higher appeal levels, allowing for more powerful National Parks and seaside resorts.

Diplomacy is Vietnam's weakest path; their key advantage is a high culture output helping them reach key civics for envoys sooner, new governments for diplomatic favour generation and the Carbon Recapture project for easy diplomatic favours.

Domination is Vietnam's other best victory route. Strength and mobility in marsh, rainforest and woods gives an all-round edge in combat which is particularly useful for fighting off enemy units - especially in freshly-captured cities. The Voi Chiến unique unit is highly effective against units and cities alike - its higher mobility and ability to move after attacking means it can keep out of range from enemy cities. The Thành district, however, has positives and negatives in the domination game. The great downside is its lack of an intrinsic Great General Points output, which can make securing an early Great General fairly difficult - though as the district doesn't count towards the usual district cap, it's easy to ensure lots of cities can create units with boosted XP rates.

Religion is surprisingly powerful for Vietnam thanks to unusual applications of their unique abilities. The civ ability allows you to place districts on top of woods - in turn allowing you to place Preserves there maximising your appeal to adjacent tiles and making it easier to get those tiles to breathtaking status for extra faith via the Grove building. You can also plant woods earlier, allowing you to get even more appeal and hence faith out of Preserves, as well as adjacency for Holy Sites. Alternatively, you can place Holy Sites and adjacent districts on rainforest, and take the Sacred Path pantheon for excellent adjacency bonuses. Furthermore, Bà Triệu's bonuses extend to religious units, which helps somewhat in theological combat but is particularly significant when it comes to getting religious units from your cities to your target. Take the Missionary Zeal enhancer belief and your religious units will be able to zoom through the world!

Finally, Vietnam can make a good attempt at the scientific game, reliant upon rainforests. Vietnamese buildings on rainforest tiles generate extra science, which can add up to quite a lot with enough cities and enough districts. Being able to stack rainforests on districts on the same tile allows Campuses to gain as much science from rainforest districts as you can normally from mountains, giving you more ways to maximise their yields. You can also build Thành districts and their buildings in every city, allowing you to get extra science out of the Military Research policy card later in the game.

Bà Triệu's Leader Ability: Drive Out the Aggressors

Bà Triệu's leader ability allows you to have mobility in terrain that usually doesn't allow for it, achieve even better defences in woods and rainforest and counteract the defensive bonuses of enemies that use them.

Early Exploration

From the start, units that start their turn in woods, rainforest or marsh outside your territory receive +1 movement point. Entering such tiles costs two movement points so this isn't as significant a mobility advantage as some civs like Gran Colombia get, but it nonetheless is really helpful in early exploration. It's a good idea to train a Scout first in your capital, as they can earn the Ranger promotion fairly quickly to ignore the movement cost of woods/rainforest giving them a huge mobility advantage.

This ability is also really useful when taking on Barbarians. Barbarian Outposts on woods or rainforests can be taken out more easily, and if your units become too injured, you can retreat much more effectively. Position your units on woods or rainforest when attacking Barbarian Outposts if possible both for defence and an easier escape. Marsh is less useful as units receive a strength penalty when defending there.

Utility

Bà Triệu's mobility advantages extend to civilian and support units. As units that start on woods, rainforest or marsh receive +2 movement points in friendly territory, this is most notable for Builders though can also save some time for Settlers as well. Builders with 4 movement points can cross a river or enter a woods/rainforest hill tile and perform an action afterwards. This becomes easier to use once you have some roads established on woods/rainforest/marsh tiles.

With the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic, you can take the Logistics military policy card to grant your units +1 movement in friendly territory. This gives Builders a massive 5 movement points per turn when starting on woods/rainforest/marsh tiles!

Defence

Land military units receive a massive +10 strength bonus in friendly woods, rainforest and marsh tiles, which is among the highest unique strength bonuses in the game. While the strength bonus does not extend to open terrain, units can be stationed on nearby suitable tiles to rush into the open terrain if need be thanks to the impressive +2 movement speed advantage.

This advantage is most effective with ranged units. An Archer on such a tile defends as well as a Spearman would, and can attack enemies on such tiles for impressive damage without having to take any from that combat. More significantly, because Vietnamese speciality districts must be placed on woods, rainforest or marsh tiles, your ranged land units can be stationed on them and exploit the Garrison promotion for another +10 strength bonus!

Once you reach the Medieval Faires civic, you can plant woods to get a defensive advantage where you need it in your own territory. Planting woods on the border with a rival civ can be a good way to slow down a would-be invader.

With the Logistics policy card, you'll have as much as a 3 movement point advantage over enemies. This allows your slower units to match or outpace enemy cavalry - particularly useful when using anti-cavalry units against enemies with cavalry.

This ability becomes somewhat less effective late in the game, as air units do not benefit from the ability, and neither do Giant Death Robots, while the latest land ranged unit - Machine Guns - are fairly weak for their era.

Offensive Warfare

Extra mobility and strength in woods, rainforest and marsh aids Vietnam in invading regions which are usually awkward to attack. You can circumvent the defensive bonus enemy units get from defending in woods or rainforest, and position your siege units on woods/rainforest both to stay defended and to more easily retreat thanks to the extra movement points.

With a Great General, units starting in woods, rainforest or marsh will have a minimum of 4 movement points - enough to move and pillage in the same turn. Light cavalry with the Depredation promotion and these stacked movement bonuses can pillage at least three different tiles in the same turn!

If you want to take Vietnam to aggressive warfare, it's a good idea to build it around the powerful Voi Chiến unique unit. Its extra mobility and ability to move after attacking allows it to start their turn in, and retreat into, rough terrain with ease.

Religious Units

As Vietnam must build Holy Sites on woods, rainforest or marsh, and new religious units start on Holy Site districts if there isn't already a religious unit present, your religious units will immediately start with +2 movement points for the turn.

Bà Triệu's strength and speed bonuses apply to religious units. In friendly territory, this can give you a huge edge in theological combat which is particularly helpful for Inquisitors. Once you have the Medieval Faires civic, you can plant woods around city centres on border cities to force enemy religious units to leave themselves vulnerable if they want to convert your cities.

To build on the mobility advantage, take the Missionary Zeal enhancer belief. It allows religious units to ignore the movement cost of terrain and features, allowing you to much more easily end a turn in woods, rainforest or hills, and get the most of your boosted mobility.

Founding a religion isn't essential for Vietnam's game, but with these advantages combined with Preserve districts and early woods planting, you can compete fairly successfully at religion.

Summary

• Train a Scout first so you can get the Ranger promotion quickly
  
• Give defensive land ranged units the Garrison promotion
  
• If you can found your own religion, take the Missionary Zeal enhancer belief.
  
• Use the Logistics policy card to extend your speed advantage in your own territory.

Civilization Ability: Nine Dragon River Delta (Part 1/2)

With a Commercial Hub on rainforest, the city's Market generates +1 science.

Vietnam has much more limited options regarding district placement than most other civs - at least at first. However, this ability eventually pays off with better yields for buildings and the ability to retain woods/rainforest/marsh tiles even with a district on top.

Early Usage

Despite Vietnam receiving a unique Encampment district, it's best to start your game with Campuses, or alternatively Holy Sites if you're heading for a religious victory. Campuses among rainforest tiles are particularly effective as not only will the Campus' buildings generate even more science, but you can build districts on adjacent rainforest tiles to stack two lots of adjacency bonus - Campuses will receive +0.5 science from the rainforest, and +0.5 from the district.

Getting your science to a good start will help you reach the powerful Voi Chiến unit sooner. It also helps to build some Commercial Hubs as upgrading Archers to them is expensive and so is their maintenance cost. Finding an ideal Commercial Hub spot can be tricky as you'll need to find an appropriate tile adjacent to a river.

If you want to push for a religious game and you have plenty of rainforest, take the Sacred Path pantheon so Holy Sites can gain faith from adjacent rainforests. You can then place districts on top of those rainforests, giving Holy Sites an impressive +1.5 faith for every adjacent rainforest district.

If possible, it's a good idea to cluster your districts together so they can surround a Thành district for the maximum adjacency bonus.

Avoid settling in desert or snow regions - they do not have woods, rainforest or marsh and you can't plant woods in them later.

Planting Woods at Medieval Faires

The Medieval Faires civic allows Vietnam to plant woods, opening up a lot more options regarding where to place districts. Medieval Faires is helpfully only one civic after Feudalism, which you need to train Voi Chiến units faster, so getting it quickly shouldn't be too difficult.


Finally, I can place a Campus on this great spot!

Planting woods has a lot of other helpful applications, so it's worth breaking them down:

Defence

Wood tiles cost 2 movement points to enter, and allow you to exploit the bonuses of Bà Triệu's leader ability. Planting woods on your borders with a rival civ will slow down their attempt at an invasion and allow you to kill their units faster.

Keep in mind that woods also block your line of sight and your ranged units' attack range, unless those woods are on flat land and your units are on hills. This becomes less of a problem later in the game with units like Artillery and air units, which can fire over obstacles.

Chop and Regrow

Chopping down old-growth woods provides a one-off burst of production to its city. Vietnam can chop down the old woods and replant them, getting the benefit of chopping the woods down while still getting to keep the woods tile. This should be avoided if you intend to maximise appeal bonuses in a future National Park, as old-growth wood tiles eventually provide more appeal than new woods, but otherwise can be an effective production boost.

Lumber Mills

Lumber Mills on woods tiles generate more production than mines, and unlike mines, they don't generate negative appeal. As such, so long as you can afford the extra Builder charges to plant woods, it's a good idea to favour lumber mills over mines.

Drought Prevention

The Drought natural hazard may appear in open areas with a lack of foliage. By planting woods, you can break up open areas and prevent droughts from starting. While this does increase the risk of forest fires, forest fires can add yields to tiles unlike droughts.

Preserves

The Preserve district's buildings add appeal to adjacent unimproved tiles with sufficient appeal. Maximising appeal is difficult for most civs early in the game as sources of appeal are largely limited to wonders and specific districts like Entertainment Complexes and Canals. For Vietnam, however, you can surround a Preserve with woods tiles to create lots of breathtaking tiles. This can be a decent source of faith for the religious game.

If you plan to build a Preserve district, always place it on a woods tile, as woods provide +1 appeal to adjacent tiles while marsh and rainforest provide -1.

Appeal Stacking

As Vietnamese speciality districts preserve the features they're built on, it is possible to build a Entertainment Complex, Holy Site, Preserve or Theatre Square on a woods tile to stack both the appeal of the districts and the woods. This is particularly helpful for the cultural game, as you can boost the appeal of National Parks and seaside resorts for extra tourism.

Civilization Ability: Nine Dragon River Delta (Part 2/2)

Building Yields

Vietnamese buildings yield +1 culture, science and production when on woods, rainforest or marsh respectively.

Of these, the culture from woods is generally the least powerful bonus but once you can grow woods yourself, it's generally the easiest to achieve. Woods also provide positive appeal unlike rainforest or marsh, so they also have that advantage. More culture means you can get through key civics faster, and combined with the culture from the Thành district, Vietnam can have a strong culture output even without Theatre Squares if need be.

Science from buildings on rainforest tiles is a helpful boost to your technology research speed, though it takes a bit of time to really get going given constructing both districts and buildings early in the game costs rather a lot of production.

Marshes are the rarest feature of the three by far, and their production bonus is particularly helpful earlier in the game where sources of production are more limited.

Harbours and Water Parks cannot benefit from this bonus as they can only be placed on water tiles, though have no additional terrain restrictions compared to other civs. It's a good idea to favour building Commercial Hubs and Entertainment Complexes over them instead, though the occasional Water Park can be useful later in the game for the high amenity area-of-effect their buildings offer.

Miscellaneous Notes

As other civs cannot place districts on woods, rainforest or marsh tiles without removing the features, captured cities will yield less for Vietnam than founded ones - though given other civs are less restricted regarding where to actually place their districts, some captured districts may have better adjacency yields than you can otherwise manage.

Aerodromes must be built on flat land, and as such Vietnam must build them on flat tiles with woods, rainforest or marshes.

Summary

• Build Campuses early to help on the way to Voi Chiến units.
  
• Cluster your districts together so they can surround Thành districts.
  
• You can chop old woods and regrow them for production, so long as you don't mind losing appeal.
  
• Being able to build districts on woods allows Vietnam to get higher appeal tiles than other civs.

Unique District: Thành

The Thành district brings most of the advantages of the Encampment without the need to dedicate district capacity, and offers some excellent culture and tourism yields on top.

Early Usage

You only need the ancient-era Bronze Working technology to build Thành districts, though you should generally go for Campuses or Holy Sites first. The Thành isn't very effective as a city's first district - you can't place them adjacent to the city centre so they'll struggle to yield culture, and their lack of an intrinsic Great General Point means you can end up with a district which isn't actually yielding anything.

Once other districts are built, the Thành can be placed next for them for a strong culture yield, and once the city has Ancient Walls, it can help keep your other districts well-defended. With a Barracks or Stable, you can finally start creating Great General Points, though it can be a challenge to secure a Great General in time for the Voi Chiến unit.

Not a Speciality District

As the Thành is not considered a speciality district, there's a number of mechanics in the game it does not interact with, unlike regular Encampments:

• Governments
  
  • Digital Democracy (Tier Four): +2 culture per speciality district
• Policy Cards
  
  • Insulae (Economic, requires Games and Recreation) - +1 housing in all cities with at least 2 specialty districts.
    
  • Medina Quarter (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - +2 housing in all cities with at least 3 specialty districts.
    
  • Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - +1 amenity in all cities with at least 2 specialty districts.
• Age Bonuses
  
  • Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - 1 era score per new speciality district
    
  • Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - All cities gain +1 culture per speciality district.
    
  • Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Gain +3 gold per speciality district at the destination from international trade routes.
• Religious Beliefs
  
  • Zen Meditation (Follower) - +1 Amenity in cities with 2 specialty districts
• City-States
  
  • Kumasi (Cultural) - Your trade routes to any city-state provide +2 culture and +1 gold for every speciality district in the origin city.
• Great People
  
  • Raja Todar Mal (Great Merchant) - Your trade routes to your own cities gain +0.5 gold for each specialty district at the destination.

The District Expands

The Thành district grows in power as the game develops - you'll be able to place more adjacent districts for even more culture, and you'll be able to get the full benefit of buildings like Armouries and Military Academies. These buildings provide extra production, making them worth building in most cities. You'll also have little trouble training Military Engineers or corps/armies later in the game as most of your cities will be able to produce them.

While Vietnam has a disadvantage to Great General production early in the game, once you have enough cities with Thành buildings, you'll typically build an advantage instead.

Once you have a Diplomatic Quarter district with a Consulate (requires the classical-era Mathematics technology), enemy Spies will be one level less effective when targeting your cities with Thành districts. For Vietnam, this means even minor cities can be hard for enemy Spies to target.

Tourism

The modern-era Flight technology allows Thành districts to add tourism based on their adjacency bonuses, which could be worth up to +12 tourism each! If you're having difficulty surrounding a Thành with other districts, consider building Neighbourhoods as you can build multiple in the same city. Those Neighbourhoods won't necessarily generate much housing as Thành districts produce negative appeal, but the culture and tourism boost can make up for it.

Summary

• The Thành is generally a bad choice for a city's first district - come back to it later for extra culture and so you can complete its buildings.
  
• Surround a Thành district with other districts to maximise culture and tourism yields
  
• If you need Great General Points, be sure to develop your Thành districts with as many buildings as possible.

Unique Unit: Voi Chiến

Although this unique unit does not deal any more damage than the Crossbowman it replaces, the Voi Chiến's excellent mobility and ability to move after attacking means over time the unit can be considerably more effective, providing Vietnam with a significant edge to medieval-era warfare.

Unlocking

You can train Voi Chiến units at the medieval-era Machinery technology. Research Writing first for Campuses so you can maximise your science output, and Archery so you can upgrade Archers to Voi Chiến units as soon as you have Machinery.

Voi Chiến units can't capture cities so it helps to bring along cavalry units for the role. Heavy Chariots will suffice until better options like Horsemen, Coursers or Knights are available - just be sure to keep them out of the way of enemy units until they're ready to capture cities.

The maintenance cost of these units can be quite a problem, so it's worth researching Currency and building up some Commercial Hubs around the time you unlock Machinery.

Getting a Great General in time can be tricky as the Thành district does not provide Great General Points by itself. You'll have to spend production on Barracks or Stables, though at least both buildings provide some production and training a Voi Chiến unit in a city with a Barracks will cause it to gain experience faster.

Combat

Voi Chiến units have extra movement, have no movement cost to attack, and can move after attacking. This allows them to move in range of an enemy city, Encampment or ranged unit, attack it, and retreat out of its range all in the same turn. Aside from preventing your units from taking damage, it also allows more of your units to attack enemy cities in a single turn - particularly helpful for enemy cities with few angles of attack. Remember that your units will still be subject to zone of control, so don't move right next to enemy units or cities.

If all this wasn't enough, Voi Chiến units have extra sight, allowing them to see enemies before they choose to move in for a hit-and-run attack. They also have a bit more melee strength so even if they get caught out and take some damage, they can hold off from resting until their next promotion or pillaging heals them up.

Speaking of pillaging, Voi Chiến units may pillage after attacking, allowing you to deal damage and gain some yields in the same turn. Remember to always attack before pillaging unless the unit has at least four movement points remaining, as otherwise you'll not be able to attack that turn.

Obsoletion?

Although Voi Chiến units obsolete with the industrial-era Ballistics technology, it may be worth holding off from researching it in favour of making Voi Chiến corps and armies. The great mobility of the unit relative to Field Cannons can make them more effective in certain situations, and the ability to move after attacking means their low melee strength is a problem that can be circumvented.

That being said, enemy Cavalry and Curiassiers can be a massive threat as they can ignore zone of control and use their high mobility to catch out Voi Chiến units, while also having enough strength to kill them in two attacks or even one. Beware when using this unit this far into the game!

Conclusion

The hit-and-run capabilities of Voi Chiến units allow them to deal lots of damage with minimal risk to themselves. This gives Vietnam a notable edge as wars go on as you can keep your losses minimal. And even if you don't want to go to war, you can always give them the Garrison promotion and place them on your districts to defend them.

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

Autocracy is a good choice thanks to its balanced array of policy card slots and decent boost to a range of yields. Classical Republic's amenity and housing boost however is really helpful if you're growing cities to boost their district capacity, and from it get more boosted building yields or extra Thành adjacency bonuses.

Take the Warlord's Throne building if you intend to do a lot of warfare, the Ancestral Hall otherwise.

Tier Two

Merchant Republic is a decent choice for most games - faster district production extends to your unique district, and the Exploration civic isn't too far from Medieval Faires which you'll need to plant woods. For a religious game, take Theocracy.

The Intelligence Agency is a decent choice of Government Plaza building. The Consulate building in the Diplomatic Quarter district means all your cities with your unique district will be better-defended against Spies, allowing you to use them more aggressively.

Tier Three

The best choice of government depends on your victory route - Fascism for domination, Communism for science or Democracy otherwise.

Similarly, the best choice of government building depends on your victory route - the War Department for domination or religious games, the National History Museum for cultural games or the Royal Society for science.

Tier Four

Corporate Libertarianism is the ideal choice for domination games, and your ability to build lots of Thành districts, along with your incentive to build Commercial Hubs over Harbours, means Vietnam can get more out of the production bonus than most civs. Synthetic Technocracy is a better fit for scientific and religious games, while either Corporate Libertarianism or Digital Democracy works well for cultural games.

Policy Cards

Ancient Era

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Useful if you intend to train up Archers before upgrading them to Voi Chiến units.

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - Voi Chiến units can be pretty expensive to maintain if you rush to them early on, so cutting the cost down will be very useful.

Strategos (Wildcard, requires Military Tradition) - As the Thành district does not directly provide Great General Points, it may be useful to take this alternative source to secure a Great General in time for Voi Chiến units.

Classical Era

Natural Philosophy (Economic, requires Recorded History) - You can get decent Campus adjacency bonuses by surrounding the district with districts built upon rainforest. This policy card doubles those bonuses.

Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Combined with the Sacred Path pantheon, you can achieve excellent Holy Site adjacency bonuses.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Allows you to build your unique district and its buildings faster!

Medieval Era

Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - Allows you to train Voi Chiến units faster.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Upgrading Archers to Voi Chiến units is expensive, so it helps to halve the cost with this policy card.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Planting woods requires Builder charges, and that can add up to a lot if you're trying to boost the yields of Preserves, make a defensive line of woods, set up lots of lumber mills or remove old woods to replant them for the production boost. As such, extra Builder charges will be very helpful.

Renaissance Era

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Extend your mobility advantage in friendly territory! It's particularly useful for anti-cavalry units as they can keep up with enemy cavalry units.

Religious Orders (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Extends your advantage in theological combat.

Industrial Era

Military Research (Military, requires Urbanisation) - With lots of Thành districts, you can build lots of Military Academies for extra science.

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - More Builder charges for planting woods and the like.

Modern Era

Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Ideology) - An improved version of Natural Philosophy which also doubles Industrial Zone adjacency.

Information Era

Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - Increasing your tourism pressure on other civs makes the Thành district's yields go further.

Future Era

Global Coalition (Wildcard, requires Smart Power Doctrine) - Your own air, sea and Giant Death Robot units don't gain extra strength when fighting in woods, rainforest or marsh tiles, so this policy card can be a helpful way to cover up those weaknesses.

Space Tourism (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Vietnam's high culture output makes this policy card a reasonable way to slow down rival cultural civs from winning the game.

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 (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Combined with Bà Triệu's leader ability and the Missionary Zeal enhancer belief, your religious units can move at immense speed!

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Makes some very fast Builders; great if you need to improve tiles which are spaced apart from each other.

Heartbeat of Steam (Dedication, Industrial to Atomic eras) - As Military Academies count as industrial-era buildings and can be built in practically every city, this dedication is a decent source of era score.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Atomic eras) - Vietnamese Campuses in rainforest district regions can achieve decent adjacency bonuses, which can be added to production with this Golden Age dedication.

World Congress

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

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

With an extra district that doesn't count towards the population cap - and an incentive to surround that district with others, you can get more out of this bonus than most.

Deforestation Treaty - Effect B (Prohibits chopping or clearing features of the chosen type) on woods or rainforest

Aside from denying other civs the production gained from woods or rainforest, it also means they can't cut them down as a way of denying you use of Bà Triệu's leader ability. Marsh is much rarer than woods or rainforest so preventing them being cleared makes little difference.

Military Advisory - Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on ranged land units while Voi Chiến units are relevant

Makes your unique unit even better.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Encampments

Speeds up development of your unique district.

World Religion - Effect A (+10 strength for all religious units of this faith) on your own religion if you've founded one.

Extends your advantage in theological combat.

Administration - Pantheons, Religion and City-States

Pantheons

Earth Goddess - Vietnam has two unique methods to get tiles to breathtaking appeal faster. Firstly, you can stack appeal-boosting districts like Holy Sites on top of woods to grant adjacent tiles +2 appeal, and secondly, you can plant woods earlier than other civs for bonus appeal.

Sacred Path - Vietnam can build districts on rainforest, and the only other civ that can do this (Kongo) is barred from building Holy Sites. This allows you to get +1.5 faith adjacency per rainforest district next to your Holy Site if you have this pantheon.

Religious Beliefs

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

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Powerful in conjunction with Bà Triệu's leader ability. Entering woods/rainforest/marsh tiles will now only cost your religious units one movement point, allowing them to start most turns with boosted movement.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Excellent when combined with Sacred Path, as you can surround Holy Sites with rainforest districts for a huge adjacency yield, and then add it to production.

City-States

Bologna (Scientific) - Thành districts with a Barracks or Stable now produce an extra Great General Point, which helps make up for the lack of intrinsic points the district has. This makes it much easier to secure a Great General in time for the Voi Chiến unit.

Ngazargamu (Militaristic) - With lots of Thành districts, you can cheaply purchase military units wherever in your realm you need them to be.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Allows you to improve Thành districts with faith - including by purchasing walls, which protect both the city centre and the Thành district.

Wolin (Militaristic) - Can help you secure a Great General for the Voi Chiến unit, which can be difficult due to the lack of direct Great General Points from the Thành district.

Administration - Wonders and Great People

Wonders

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Aids in securing an early Great General.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - Once you unlock the ability to grow wood tiles, you'll need a lot of Builder charges to make the most of it.

Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - Gurus can now make adjacent religious units even stronger and faster than before, which stacks nicely with Bà Triệu's leader ability.

Cristo Redentor (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Vietnam can uniquely stack woods and an appeal-boosting district for +2 appeal to adjacent tiles. You can use this to make particularly strong seaside resorts, boosted further with this wonder.

Eiffel Tower (Modern era, Steel technology) - Extends Vietnam's advantages to boosting tile appeal.

Golden Gate Bridge (Modern era, Combustion technology) - Makes the most of Vietnam's means of boosting tile appeal with some very strong National Parks or seaside resorts in the city.

Biosphère (Atomic era, Synthetic Materials technology) - Prevents rainforest and marsh making negative appeal, meaning all your old districts placed upon them will no longer cause trouble for your Perserve, Neighbourhood, National Park or seaside resort placement.

Great People

Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.

Medieval Era

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - With lots of rainforest districts and the Sacred Path pantheon, you can get a good science yield out of this Great Scientist.

James of St. George (Great Engineer) - Allows you to rapidly reinforce three cities with Medieval Walls - particularly powerful in cities with the Thành district.

Modern Era

Alvar Aalto (Great Engineer) - Woods with appeal-boosting districts on top create excellent appeal, boosted further with this Great Engineer.

Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - Enhances the tourism produced by Thành districts.

Atomic Era

Georgy Zhukov (Great General) - Extra mobility for units which start their turn on woods, rainforest or marsh makes it easier to use flanking bonuses, which this Great General enhances.

Janaki Ammal (Great Scientist) - Vietnam's incentive to keep rainforests around means you can get a good science yield here.

Information Era

Charles Correa (Great Engineer) - Even more appeal to stack with Vietnam's wood districts.

Counter-Strategies

Vietnam excels in woods, rainforest and marsh terrain, though is substantially limited without it.

Civilization Ability: Nine Dragon River Delta

Vietnam is restricted to building districts on woods, rainforest or marsh, which can limit their access to good adjacency yields - especially early in the game when they can't yet plant wood tiles. Neither features can appear on desert or snow tiles, so leaving those areas open while settling extensively on woods/rainforest regions can force Vietnam into a weaker start.

If you have the choice, try to settle in rainforest regions before woods as Vietnam's science yield from rainforest buildings will generally be more impactful than their culture yield from wood buildings.

If you have a city at risk of being captured by Vietnam or flipped by loyalty pressure, consider removing the woods, rainforest and marsh - it'll stop them building districts in the new city and also prevent Bà Triệu's leader ability being useful there.

Any Vietnamese cities you capture will retain the districts on top of their features. This allows you to use both the adjacency bonuses (or appeal) of the district and the feature.

Bà Triệu's Leader Ability: Drive Out the Aggressors

When fighting Vietnam, unless you have a woods/rainforest/marsh combat bonus of your own, don't let your units end their turns there. The +5 strength bonus Bà Triệu receives there is more than enough to cancel out the defensive bonuses of woods and rainforest, and makes the penalties for defending on marsh even worse.

Where possible, force Vietnam into open terrain or unforested hills. By ensuring your military units end their turns on open terrain or hills, Bà Triệu must forgo her strength bonus in order to fight you.

If invading Vietnam, attack them from open terrain if possible, and later in the game try to use indirect fire like Artillery, Battleships or aircraft. This circumvents Vietnamese woods or rainforest from blocking your ranged units' attack range.

Bà Triệu's Agenda: Defender of the Homeland

A computer-controlled Bà Triệu likes civs which have never declared war on Vietnam - and never forgives those which have. The longer you stay at an offensive war against Vietnam, the worse this penalty gets.

For peaceful civs, this is a very easy agenda to meet - you don't even have to do anything!

For everyone else, this agenda ensures that if you declare war on Vietnam, you're almost guaranteed to never going to have good relations in the future. As such, if you want to directly declare war on Vietnam, aim to make it a conclusive war. Note, however, that this agenda doesn't inflict any extra penalties for declaring war on a ally of Vietnam, or fighting other civs.

Unique Unit: Voi Chiến

The Voi Chiến's incredible mobility takes it a tough unit to take out, but thankfully its damage output is no better than regular Crossbowmen. Out in the open, Men-at-Arms with the Tortoise promotion can be effective at resisting their attacks. Additionally, Courser units with the Coursers promotion can keep up with the mobility of Voi Chiến units with a decent attack bonus on top.

When playing defensively, remember that Voi Chiến units cannot capture cities, and must be supported with a unit with a melee attack. Tracking down and destroying such units will force Vietnam to retreat or wait for a new unit to get to the front lines, buying you time.

Unique District: Thành

The Thành district will ensure Vietnam's cities will fairly consistently have Encampments present, which can make the cities even harder to invade than Bà Triệu's leader ability already makes it. However, because the districts need to be adjacent to many others for the best yields, Vietnam has an incentive not to place them on chokepoints, where their defensive capabilities are most effective.

Thành districts also don't yield Great General Points, so Vietnam is forced to invest in Barracks or Stables on top of the base district to compete there. This extra production cost can slow the civ down a little bit.

If you want to use Spies against Vietnam, try to pillage their Diplomatic Quarter district. That's because the Consulate building there makes all their cities with Encampments more resistant to Spies - which is to say, nearly all their cities.

Finally, if you capture Thành districts, they'll convert into regular Encampments for you, allowing you to enjoy the benefits of an extra district in a city which may otherwise lack the district capacity, as well as the Great General Point from the base district.

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Gathering Storm

Compilation Guides

• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

Individual Civilization Guides

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

Rise and Fall

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.

Vanilla

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.

[Adi Menayang]

I played Apocalypse Mode with a random leader and got Ba Trieu. I was constantly ravaged by forest fires and spent most of production fixing districts and buildings for the entirety of the game, wasn't really fun lol. This is the only guide online that finally confirmed (or at least, from which I can deduce) that it's only for Ba Trieu's Districts that features don't get removed, I've been avoiding Apocalypse Mode ever since but now I'll give it a try with a different Civ.

[No Daut]

I don't know if this is inadvertent or not (perhaps it's even patched out and I haven't updated recently enough?), but the game seems to be treating the Thành the way it does a workable tile with regards to tourism from culture.

That is to say if you don't have at least one citizen working the Thành district, you won't be getting any of the tourism from culture! I found that out the hard way at the end of my last game when I checked the tourism screen to try and figure out why I was drawing so few visitors relative to what I was expecting.

It's easy enough to manually add one citizen everywhere once you've unlocked Flight, but I feel like that's definitely something that should be noted in the guide!

[Zigzagzigal]

You're right! I've gone through other guides with this information in mind as well.

[WADDLES!]

Old-growth woods don't grant 2 Appeal to surrounding tiles, only 1. Woods, similar to other appeal-boosting districts and features, grant 1 appeal to all surrounding tiles, but not the tile it is on. When Conservation is unlocked, old-growth woods still only grant 1 appeal to surrounding tiles, but now the tile it is on also gets 1 appeal. second-growth woods don't get 1 appeal for the tile it is on, but still grants 1 appeal to surrounding tiles.

[Zyxpsilon]

Thanks a Zillion for finalising each of the default 58 Leaders in such a fantastic summary of every details.

It is now up to me to complete an hybrid set of GFX sheets called; "ZyxZag's Leaders Victory Analytics".

Here's a swift visual hint on things to come with a partial 1900x600 file for CULTURE victory and its related Leaders.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g45rwgqg4x5e1su/ZyxZag--Culture_Panel%28Filled%29.png?dl=0

I'm planning to release all sheets in this Steam Guides system once the format model is clarified.. stay tuned. :)

[greencivil]

Started my first Vietnam game this week -- so grateful that you posted this when you did! If you aren't on 2K's payroll it's their loss lel

[Jac]

Thank you for doing this, Zig. I was looking forward to it.