A Vox Populi(CBP) Guide: America

A guide on how to play America with the Vox Populi (Community Balance Patch) mod. America is all about utilizing the land, by scouting and buying it better than near anyone else. Along with some other bonuses this gives them an interesting and flexible play style

Introduction

These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Americans!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Brief Unique Summary

Start Bias

America has no start bias. Their scouting bonuses might slightly favor having more hills, and their UU favors rough terrain. However the former is minor, and the later UU comes a bit later, so your starting terrain is less important

Unique Ability: Manifest Destiny

Military land units start with the Sentry(+1 sight range) promotion

25% discount when purchasing tiles, and founded cities resets tile costs.

Tile purchases grant +20, scaling with Era, and you can purchase tiles owned by other civilizations(at increased cost)

Unique Unit: Minuteman(Replaces the Musketman)

A ranged unit

Technology	Obsoletion	Upgrades From	Upgrades To	Resource Needed
Metallurgy Renaissance Era	Ballistics Modern Era	Crossbowman (175 )	Gatling Gun (335 )	None

Strength	Ranged Strength	Moves	Range	Sight	Negative Attributes	Positive Attributes
23	31	2	2	2	20% penalty attacking Naval Units	Ignores terrain cost +10% ranged combat strength. 10% ranged combat strength against units above 50 hp(Barrage I) Earn golden age points from defeated enemy units

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (23 instead of 22)
  
• Higher ranged strength (31 instead of 30)
  
• Obsoletes at Ballistics rather than Dynamite

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Ignores terrain cost
  
• +10% ranged combat strength. 10% ranged combat strength against units above 50 hp(Barrage I)
  
• Earn golden age points from defeated enemy units

Unique Building: Independence Hall(Replaces the Royal Collection)

Technology	Population Required	Building Required	Production Cost	City Restriction	Maintenance
Architecture Renaissance Era	40	None	125	None	None

Base Output	Citizen Yields	Specialist	Great Work Slots	Other Effects
2	1 per 4	None	2 art/artifact	+10% cost of adopting policies reduced by 5% Unlocks access to the Smithsonian, West Point, and Hoover Dam mutually exclusive buildings in the modern era Reduces from boredom by 10% in all cities +3 & if themed Production and population requirements increase based on the number of cities you own

Negative Changes

• Has 2 Art/Artifact slots(Down from 3)
  
• +3 & if themed(Down from 4&4)

Positive Changes

• Requires 40 national population to build(down from 45)
  
• Does not require an opera house to be built
  
• cost of adopting policies reduced by 5%
  
• Unlocks access to the Smithsonian Institute, West Point, and Slater Mill mutually exclusive buildings in the industrial era

Brief Unique Summary Part II

Unique Building:Smithsonian Institute

Technology	Population Required	Building Required	Production Cost	City Restriction	Maintenance
Archaeology Industrial Era	None	Independence Hall	1000	None	None

Base Output	Citizen Yields	Specialist	Great Work Slots	Other Effects
2 2 2 Great Scientist Points	None	None	None	costs of tile purchases reduced by 25% in all cities +5 & to all museums and research labs in your empire +2 & for all world wonders Receive a free museum in this city 10% of all produced in all cities is converted to +5 to all landmarks, and +1 to all great works in empire

Unique Building: Slater Mill

Technology	Population Required	Building Required	Production Cost	City Restriction	Maintenance
Industrialization Industrial Era	None	Independence Hall	1000	A city with Fresh Water	None

Base Output	Citizen Yields	Specialist	Great Work Slots	Other Effects
2 2 2 Great Engineer Points	None	None	None	costs of tile purchases reduced by 25% in all cities +5 & to all factories and stock exchanges +2 & to all world wonders Receive a free factory in the city 10% of produced in all cities is converted to +1 trade route capacity All trade units complete their routes 25% faster

Unique Building: West Point

Technology	Population Required	Building Required	Production Cost	City Restriction	Maintenance
Military Science Industrial Era	None	Independence Hall	1000	None	None

Base Output	Citizen Yields	Specialist	Great Work Slots	Other Effects
2 2 5 5 Great General points	None	None	None	costs of tile purchases reduced by 25% in all cities +5 & to all military academies and arsenals +2 & to all world wonders Receive a free military academy in the city 10% of produced in all cities is converted to All siege and naval ranged units receive the splash damage I(Deal 5 damage to all units adjacent to the target within range) promotion

Strategies and Victory Routes

Strategy Ranking

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the American uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking

Offense	Defense	Culture	Tourism	Science	/ Growth/Production	Gold	Diplomacy	Religion
6(7***)/10	5(6***)/10	5(7*)/10	4(5**)/10	4(6*)(5***)/10	7(9**)(8***)/10	5(6**)/10	4/10	2/5

*Ranking if America builds the Smithsonian
**Ranking if America builds the Slater Mill
***Ranking if America builds West Point

America, much like Venice, is difficult to rank due to them only being able to build one of three national wonders. Therefore, they effectively require three different rankings

America's extra sight bonus gives them a solid advantage in combat, having more info on opponents movements and territory is an advantage on defense and offense. Their ability to buy the tiles of other civs could be used to launch an effective invasion with a forward settled city. Building West Point makes their siege and naval range units more effective in general. America should go for domination if they build West Point

Independence Hall makes social policies a little cheaper, which is the main point of getting culture, so that bumps their ranking, but they otherwise lack culture or tourism bonuses. The Smithsonian give a huge bump to culture. Hoover Dam, while not helping culture, is a decent help to tourism with the faster trade routes. America should go for a culture victory if they build the Slater Mill

America is a very strong, probably the strongest production civ in the early game thanks to their UA. It does diminish in strength later in the game however. America normally lacks advantages in science, however both West Point and the Smithsonian give great science bonuses. West Point also gives decent bonuses to production, however Hoover Dam gives even greater production bonuses, making America a production powerhouse. America should go for a science victory if they build the Smithsonian

America actually has no real bonuses to gold generation, however the cheaper tile purchase costs indirectly helps your economy, helping gold to go farther. Hoover Dam does give you a bit of actual economic strength in the late game. Diplomacy is about the only thing America has no bonus in, no matter what national wonder they choose

Technically America has no religion bonuses either, however their high early game production allows them to get up shrines, and perhaps even Stonehenge, more reliably then most.

Unique Ability: Manifest Destiny

On paper, +1 sight doesn't sound like that impactful of a bonus, but it means more than it sounds. +1 sight is actually 100% more tiles seen, assuming nothing is blocked by rough terrain. This is massive in the early game, as it makes scouting much more efficient. You'll find more ruins, and your starting pathfinder will level up faster, getting more promotions, moving faster, seeing even more, etc. You'll also find barbarians quicker, and be able to prevent them from spawning more easily with less units. It also has some solid use for early warfare. You can scout out more of an enemies terrain before the war, giving you a good idea of where to position units, as well as where there units are. It makes it easier to chase down a fleeing unit, as it is less likely to leave your line of sight. The situations it helps may be small in impact but they are numerous. Personally though, while important, this bonus is secondary to the rest of the American UA


If I had the money to buy just 9 tiles I could 1 turn either the pyramids or stonehenge. In other words, every tile bought is 1/9 of the total production cost

Whenever America buys a tile, the city it was bought in gains 20 production, scaling to 40 in the medieval, and increasing by 20 every era after that. At the start of the game 20 production is an extremely large amount. It is probably 2 to 3 times more then your capital's base production depending on it's starting tiles. Combined with the fact that tiles are 25% cheaper to purchase, no civ is more effective at rushing stuff in the ancient era. My personal recommendation as America is to start the game by researching mining, so you can build the Pyramids, buying as many tiles as you can afford whenever you can afford it to speed it along. The Pyramids, among other things, give you a free settler. That is great for any civ, but this is even more beneficial for America, for one simple reason



For every civ, including America, whenever you buy a tile, the cost to purchase the next tile in ANY city increases. This rapidly makes the investment of buying a tile much less worth it, and in the late game buying a tile will cost 100s of gold. Fortunately for America, is that whenever they found a city, the cost to buy tiles is reset to the cost they started the game at.


This includes your capital, amusingly enough

So you now have 2 cities, and your tile costs are now reset, with plenty of tiles most likely still left to buy in your capital. Now what? I'd say you have two good options. Option number 1 is to have The Wheel researched by the time you finish the Pyramids, and immediately after you finish the Pyramids, start building Stonehenge. America is the only civ even remotely capable of building both of those wonders (step aside Egypt) due to their tile purchasing production. However, while you should start building Stonehenge immediately, don't start purchasing tiles for it until after you found your second city, as then the tiles will be cheaper. Option 2 is to have Bronze Working researched by the time you finish the Pyramids, then use your tile purchases to rapidly build up an army of spearman to quickly capture a nearby capital, perhaps trying to get the Statue of Zeus once you have a sufficient army. With America's superior scouting ability, you should easily be able to know if you have a nearby neighbor worth invading, or if you should stick to Stonehenge


Do note you lose some influence in a city state if you buy a tile from them

The final part of the American UA is that you can purchase tiles from other civs, albeit at an increased cost. I think it is at about 7 times the cost of a normal tile, but as tiles have a slightly different base cost based on a number of factors it's hard to say for certain. Early game it would be a huge investment to buy a tile off of another civ, but mid game you should be easily able to do it, especially if you just founded a city to trigger Manifest Destiny. Plan founding your cities around this. Even if you don't want to attack a civ, make sure if a city is near enemy borders they are within 3 tiles of as many resources as possible, even in enemy territory. Of course if you can get the tile before the enemy civ does that is preferable. Not only are the tiles more expensive if owned by someone else, but they won't like you buying their tiles, either causing a 40 influence hit for a city state, or just a negative opinion modifier for a major civ. Try to grab tiles yourself before someone else, but don't be afraid to buy other civ's tiles, it is usually worth it

If you do want to invade a civ though, placing a city next to your invasion point and buying out tiles next to the city to make it easier to invade is definitely a good idea, you could even buy the tiles right next to a city

Unique Unit: The Minutemen

Just a minuteman ready to face the oncoming Aztec forces converging on Atlanta. Oh Civ, you amuse me sometimes

Up to Minutemen, America's only military bonus is to sight. While solid, it doesn't especially help one unit type over another, except perhaps siege. The Minutemen give America a solid direction to go in for mid-game military.



Minutemen ignore terrain requirements. This is very strong for a ranged unit. This allows them to get onto rough terrain and shoot, or to retreat through rough terrain if they are being pressured. This allows them to be much more independent compared to most ranged units. Along with the extra sight it should be easy to position a minuteman exactly where you want them


Note the jungle tile east of the cannon

Minutemen also get golden age points on kills. While on it's own this won't get you a golden age, it certainly helps speed it along. Try your best to have a Minuteman get the final blow on a unit

Finally, Minutemen start with Accuracy I. On it's own this isn't huge, however I believe this might be the greatest bonus the Minuteman has. With an armory, a freshly produced minuteman can start with Accuracy III, 1 promotion away from Range. With a military academy, they can start with Range. Given your extra sight, they don't even need a spotter unlike most units with 3 range. Unlike most unique units, especially ones in the mid-game, you want to build most of your minuteman from scratch instead of upgrading from crossbowman. If you do have any crossbowman/early ranged units, make sure to give them barrage promotions so the Accuracy I isn't wasted on upgrade.

Promotions Kept on Upgrade

• Ignores terrain cost
  
• +10% ranged combat strength. 10% ranged combat strength against units above 50 hp(Barrage I)
  
• Earn golden age points from defeated enemy units

Unique National Wonder: Independence Hall

The Independence Hall is not an especially noteworthy wonder. It is not one you should especially focus on getting in any hurry. You should eventually, obviously, but don't go out of your way for it. The only particular benefit it give over the royal collection is the 5% reduction to social policy cost. That is definitely decent, but there are other things to focus on for America. What's important however, is that building this gives access to 3 mutually exclusive, but much stronger national wonders in the modern era. You might need to go a little out of your normal tech path to do it, but if you weren't already going to grab architecture, wait until just before you get the tech for whatever wonder you're going for

Each of the 3 national wonders share some traits. First, they all arrive in the late industrial, making them some of the latest uniques in the game. Secondly, they all give a 25% reduction to tile purchase costs. Next, they give +5 to two yields, on two buildings, one unlockable in the industrial era, and one unlockable either in the late modern. They also give +2 to the same two yields to all world wonders. Finally, they all convert 10% of the gold output in all cities to another yield

Unique National Wonder: The Smithsonian Institute

The Smithsonian is the best national wonder if you want to take America towards a science victory



The biggest bonus that the Smithsonian gives is that it gives all of your great works +1 science. Along with all of the other bonuses to science from various sources the Smithsonian gives, you'll rapidly catapult through the later era of the game. You gain nearly as much extra culture as well, allowing you to get lots of policies. Both of those boosts I believe makes the Smithsonian best for a science game. However, these are in general pretty flexible, so if a science victory isn't going to work out they should still prove useful no matter what you are going for


Above: 8 culture from yield conversion, the city produces 83 gold, 10% of 83 is 8.3 which would be rounded down in civ v to just 8
Below: It even gives you a free museum in your capital, which gets the extra science and culture

Unique National Wonder: Slater Mill

The Slater Mill is the best national wonder to take America to a culture victory


8 trade routes, soon to be 9. I had snagged Petra this game tbf, but that's more trade routes then pretty much anyone except Carthage and Venice can achieve

The Slater Mill gives a solid amount of production and gold, which gives you a ton of flexibility to do pretty much anything you want. If at this point in the game you still aren't really certain what you want to do for a victory route, Slater Mill is probably your best choice.

The reason Slater Mill favors culture victories a bit though, is the faster completing trade routes. It is a mechanic that is easy to forget about, but every time you complete an international trade route, you gain a lump sum of tourism with every civ you know, as long as you have a caravansary(for land trade) or a harbor(for sea trade) built in the city. By this point in the game, that should be in pretty much every city


The extra production on the buildings and wonder will be quite useful, considering you will have likely built a lot of wonders up to this point, and are poised to build many more

Unique National Wonder: West Point

West Point is the best national wonder for taking America to a domination victory


Good thing this doesn't cause friendly fire...

With West Point, all your siege and naval ranged units get splash damage I. This is probably more useful for your naval units, as they often focus on fighting units, rather then siege which is usually just taking on cities, however even for your siege enemy units are often nearby cities, and you can use this defensively to protect your coast. Weirdly enough, this actually gives America one of the stronger late game navies


Science pre-West Point


Science post-West Point

West Point also gives you a ton of science, helping you stay ahead on unit tech. It also does provide a good backup for a science victory if needed, especially with the extra production

A Note on American Flexibility

While I have stated that I believe each national wonder America can build suits one victory type, it does not push America as strongly as Venice's national wonders do. For example: West Point may favor a domination victory, but if you build it then realize that isn't working, it also gives great science bonuses, giving a good backup. The Smithsonian gives awesome culture, and the free museums is definitely helpful for culture too, so that's a good backup. Hoover Dam is the least flexible of the 3, but the production boosts are great for anything. So just keep in mind that just cause the national wonder you chose fits a certain victory type, if it isn't working, there is usually a good backup.

Religion

Pantheons

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

God of the Open Sky: This is dependent on having lots of pasture resources, but with your terrain grabbing abilities, you likely have some, and if you do, this will cause them to give lots of gold

Goddess of Festivals: Given the amount of land you'll have, you likely have a lot of different luxuries, so this should give tons of gold so you can buy more tiles

God of Commerce: Takes a bit longer to get going then festivals, but gives its money more reliably, and will likely give more in the long run

God of the Sun: Gives less money then commerce or festivals, but gets going a lot faster. Especially worth it if you have a lot of farm bonus resources.

Founder

Holy Law: Should prove a nice boost to your income

Hero Worship: Gives a ton of bonuses if you plan to be doing lots of conquest.

Theocratic Rule: A good backup to Holy Law for a mostly peaceful America

Follower

Cathedrals: A great boost to your income, and even pays you back some of the cost of buying tiles

Mosques: A nice bit of culture to gain from your extra golden ages

Orders: Great choice if you plan to go domination

Teocallis: A good compliment with Orders, and combos well with your minutemen later on, giving a good amount of yields from kills

Stupas: Great choice if you want to get your tourism going early for a culture game

Thrift: A nice bit of gold to keep the tile purchases rolling

Enhancer

Sacred Calendar: A great choice to take advantage of golden ages and get a bit of extra gold too

Zealotry: Allows you to really put your faith towards domination

Universalism: If you can get a really strong religion going, but have a strong religious rival or two, this can net a lot of yields, including gold

Reformation

Crusader Spirit: A huge boost to your army strength

Defender of the Faith: A good backup to Crusader Spirit if someone gets it first

Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Sacred Sites: The best reformation belief for any culture civ. Try to nab lots of follower buildings to compound the effects

Social Policies

If you have don't find any easily conquerable civs early or are just uncertain of your victory path, Progress is great for America to improve all the tiles they are buying. If you do plan to conquer another civ early or if you are confident you're going for domination, Authority will serve you better. For your 2nd tree, Artistry is good if you know you want to go for a culture or a science victory, otherwise Fealty is better. For the final policy, Industry for culture, Imperialism for domination, and Rationalism for science.

Progress

Opener: If at all possible, try to avoid growing your capital much before you get this, you'll get more science that way. The culture you immediately get from this will likely almost be enough for the next policy

Liberty: If you don't have any worker techs yet, it might be a good idea to save this for later, otherwise this makes sure you're improving stuff ASAP

Organization: Faster workers, settlers, and even great people all help infrastructure get built just a little bit faster

Expertise: Faster building construction is great, especially in the early game where production might be sparse.

Equality: More happiness is always welcome, especially if you do some conquering

Fraternity: Little bit of food and science, both good to have

Finisher: A nice bit of gold to support your tile purchases

Authority(Domination)

Opener: Little bit of production to help early unit and building construction, plus easier barbarians and some culture out of them and any other units you kill to boot

Dominance: Get some science out of your kills too. The healing will allow your final kill units to be even better off once they advance forward

Tribute: Technically doubles the amount of production you get from buying tiles, and it even gives you some gold back.

Imperium: You're bound to be conquering a lot of cities, so this will probably add up to several techs and a few policies

Discipline: Happiness might prove an issue for you. So might gold. This helps both

Honor: Should help add some units from time to time.

Finisher: Sometimes a quick purchased unit is exactly what you need. Plus the doubled tribute yields are great for you. Your tile purchases early in the Manifest Destiny cycle might just pay for themselves

Fealty

Opener: Monasteries are a solid building, and the cheaper faith purchases are nice

Nobility: Castles are already a good building. This makes them cheaper and better

Divine Right: More happiness, more culture for having happiness

Serfdom: Better pastures is never unwanted

Organized Religion: If you managed to actually found a religion this is pretty decent, which is decently likely if you managed/decided to get Stonehenge

Burghers: More production and a bit less unhappiness is great to see, although the faster border growth isn't ideal

Finisher: A bit of extra yields if you are on top of spreading your religion

Artistry(Culture)

Opener: Guilds normally take a lot of production, and now they don't!

National Treasure: Take whatever you need, perhaps a GWAM.

Humanism: Should give a decent amount of yields from your great works

Refinement: This should give quite a bit of happiness, which should help offset any conquering you may or may not be doing

Heritage: Should be quite a lot of golden age points

Cultural Exchange: Even more culture from golden ages never hurt.

Finisher: Given you almost certainly have the most land in the world you'll probably have tons of hidden and regular sites to dig up

Industry(Culture)

Opener: Two trade routes are an incredible bonus, as you can generate even more tourism with them

Free Trade: Faster Great Merchants, plus extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing

Division of Labor: Seaports and Train Stations are normally expensive buildings, but now they are in line with other buildings. Also a large boost to your production and gold outputs

Entrepreneurship: Gold and production, the industry tree knows what it wants, and you do too.

Mercantilism: A good bit of extra science and culture. Who ever said Industry was just gold and production? Wait a minute...

Protectionism: Makes your gold go a bit farther and gives you a bit more food and science, can't complain

Finisher: Even more yields out of your probably solid amount of specialists

Imperialism(Domination)

Opener: Your Great Generals are faster, which is always useful whether you need to push or retreat, plus if you need to do some overseas conquering faster boats is very useful.

Colonialism: You'll have lots of monopolies by now, get some more use out of them.

Regimental Tradition: Faster Great General and Admiral generation, as well as making them stronger, good to have on the land or on the sea

Martial Law: You'll definitely have plenty of puppet cities, and conquered ones too. Both of them will be less of a burden now.

Exploitation: Nearly every tile is getting a boost here, awesome to see

Civilizing Mission: Gold from conquering cities, and production in said conquered cities, everything you need to push the front line.

Finisher: A stronger navy, and a new way to use air units to help manage unhappiness.

Rationalism(Science)

Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too.

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain, observatories could give a lot of science, or not much at all. The extra science from great works helps you more then most science civs however.

Empiricism: Helps make sure other civs won't leech off your science lead.

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire

Enlightenment: Taking the tech around this time should mean you can use it to get the modern tech for your national wonder of choice

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good

Finisher: More Great Scientists, More Growth, All is good in America

Ideology

Which ideology you should go is based on your victory route. Freedom is best for culture, Order is best for science, and Autocracy is best for domination

Level 1 Policies(Freedom)

Avant Garde: More great people means more GWAMs means more tourism

Economic Union: More trade routes to synergize with Hoover Dam's faster trade routes

Creative Expression: More tourism, golden age points, and culture. All are welcome

Universal Suffrage: A free golden age and longer golden ages is nice to have

Level 2 Policies(Freedom)

Universal Healthcare: A free hospital everywhere is awesome. Plain and simple

New Deal: Better landmarks and great people improvements, now with added tourism

Capitalism: A lot more happiness as well as gold, both very welcome

Level 3 Policies(Freedom)

Media Culture: An insane buff to your tourism, plus a buff to your already buffed stadiums from Hoover Dam

Treaty Organization: Might as well have a bit more power in the world congress

Level 1 Policies(Order)

Worker's Faculties You mostly want this for the +10% science, but America does sometimes build new cities for Manifest Destiny, so this should help them out too.

Communism: You still probably have lots of wonders you want to build, this will help out with that

Hero of the People: More great people for scientists and engineers.

Level 2 Policies(Order)

Academy of Sciences: Free, buffed research labs is incredible, especially if you have the Smithsonian buffing them further

Five Year Plan: At this point in the game tile purchases aren't enough. You need more production. This is the answer

Level 3 Policies(Order)

Spaceflight Pioneers: More science to get you to spaceship parts, and allowing your engineers to help build them is exactly what you need to finish the game

Level 1 Policies(Autocracy)

Lebensraum: Even more yields from your tile purchases

Elite Forces: Pushes your newly created minutemen to even higher promotion levels, and lets your old ones get their even faster

Military Industrial Complex: America doesn't actually have a great economy, so this discount is huge

Level 2 Policies(Autocracy)

Total War: America will likely build lots of units from scratch, this will help move the military machine along

Police State: America can struggle with happiness, this makes it much easier to maintain

Level 3 Policies(Autocracy)

Air Supremacy: Air units are important for late game conquest. This makes sure you have the upper hand.

Wonders

Ancient Era

Pyramids: America can get this wonder 99 times out of 100, and it plays well to their UA, no reason not to nab it

Statue of Zeus: Useful if you go for the early aggression route

Stonehenge: America is the only civ in the game that has a chance at getting both the Pyramids and Stonehenge, so why not go for it?

Temple of Artemis: Minutemen are classified as archery units, so this will help you produce them later on

Classical Era

Angkor Wat: Technically a double edged sword as it does make the culture cost for tiles cheaper, but the gold cost discount for purchasing tiles is worth it 100%

Great Library: Highly competitive, but by buying tiles America stands a solid chance at grabbing this.

Terracotta Army: On the way to Angkor Wat, and it gives good bonuses for your large amount of land, and also to conquest if you go that route

Medieval Era

Alhambra(Authority Only): America is not a cavalry heavy civ, but there's no reason they can't be.

Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Makes your gold go farther, always a good bonus

Hagia Sofia: America can grab Stonehenge fairly often but other then that they have poor faith generation. A free Great Prophet can go a long ways towards helping your religion if you got one

Machu Picchu: A bit tricky due to placement requirements, but anything that can give America more gold is good

Renaissance Era

Chichen Itza: Get more out of the golden ages provided by Minutemen

Globe Theatre(Culture): The first step towards cultural domination

Leaning Tower of Pisa: More great people is great no matter your goals

Porcelain Tower(Science): A massive boost to your science output

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Put this on a city near an enemy's border, and laugh if they ever declare war

Uffizi(Culture): Another great source of tourism

Industrial Era

Brandenburg Gate: Makes your minutemen that much closer to the higher tier promotions and beyond

Eiffel Tower: Combined with the Independence Hall that's a cool 15% cheaper social policies

Louvre(Artistry Only): America is a bit better then most at getting archaeology sites due to their large amount of territory, so they stand a decent chance at filling this

Neuschwanstein: Especially if you went fealty this is a bunch of good yields

Modern Era

Broadway(Industry Only): Uffizi: The Musical

Cristo Redentor(Culture): With this and Hoover Dam, America has the best Hotels in the game, for whatever that's worth

Prora(Autocracy Only): Tons of happiness to help your conquests along

Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): The production is nice, but the social policy is the important thing here

Kremlin(Order Only): You're mostly here for the free policy.

Atomic Era

Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): A bit more science, but more importantly better spies to protect your cities

Pentagon(Imperialism Only): More, better air units. What's not to love?

Information Era

CERN: Two free techs; useful no matter what you're doing

CN Tower(Culture): More tourism from every source of tourism. Should be the final push to win the game

Great Firewall(Culture/Science): If you're going science, this helps prevent other civs leeching off you. If you're going culture, if someone else gets it they'll be much harder to influence

Hubble Space Telescope(Science): Everything you need to finish off your spaceship

Sydney Opera House(Culture): A Cultural America is ironically not great at getting culture, so this should help the final push to two level 3 policies

Pitfalls to Avoid

America certainly has an odd start, and their game doesn't necessarily get simpler late on. Mistakes abound for a civ like this.

Ignoring Buying Tiles

Buying tiles is your biggest advantage in the early game. But more importantly, the longer you take to buy tiles, the less tiles you'll have as your city expands their borders naturally. Don't just go buying tiles for no reason, but do try to buy as many as you can in every city.

Only Using Gold to Buy Tiles

On the flipside however, buying tiles is important as America, but there are other things to use your gold for, such as upgrading units. Don't be afraid to spend your money, especially after the ancient/classical era. By that point you should have the economy to easily buy lots of tiles and still have money left over

Ignoring Military Until Minutemen

It may be easy to assume that America has no military bonuses until Minutemen. You'd be wrong. The sight bonuses give you a major advantage in knowing what your opponents are doing and are going to do next. Plus your ability to buy other civ's tiles can make for a much easier invasion, without even needed a great general citadel. You don't have to war early as America, but with your unmatched scouting abilities, you should be able to know if it's worthwhile to do so or not

Building Too Many Ranged Units Before Minutemen

Once Minutemen come around they should form the bulk of your army, but Minutemen are best when built from scratch. Your army shouldn't have many archery units before you unlock Minutemen

Ignoring Great Works When You Build The Smithsonian

The Smithsonian gives a science boost to all great works, which can add up to a surprising amount of science. Try your best to get as many as possible earlier in the game

Ignoring Trade Units With Slater Mill

The 25% faster trade units may seem an afterthought on the Slater Mill, but it could yield a lot of extra tourism, but only if you send out your trade routes in the first place

Focusing Too Much on Siege With West Point

Siege units absolutely have a place in the American army, but don't overestimate the effects of splash damage. 5 damage isn't a lot, and your siege units are usually better attacking cities. Plus, you already have great ranged units in the form of upgraded Minutemen, so using siege units as the bulk of your ranged force against units doesn't make much sense.

Washing Washington: Counter Strategies

America is an early game production power house, snatching up tons of wonders and/or pulling together a strong military, scouting and claiming more territory then everyone else. However, outside of their unrivaled land grabbing abilities, America lacks any strong advantages until much later in the game, leaving them a very vulnerable period

Moderating Manifest Destiny

America is going to have the most land in the game, even more then the Shoshone or even the Huns. Once they buy out all the tiles in their cities, they'll start expanding outside of the 3 tile ring. What's worse is that you can't stop this easily with your own cities. If America gets down a city, it will own every tile within 3 tiles of the city. Never forward settle an American city, it will serve you no good. There are a few things that should be noted about founding cities and tile acquisition that can help combat America however. First is that while America will grow tiles outside of the 3 ring faster then most civs, they can't buy those tiles. So your tiles more then 3 away from an American city are safe to buy yourself. Furthermore, while a citadel is useless against America in their 3 ring, it can still be used to grab territory they grew outside of that. Another important note is that a city cannot be founded directly on another civs border. So while if America can get a city near your border it could be a hassle, they can't settle directly on the border. So if there is just one tile next to your border, you can feel safe that America won't slip in and start stealing your land. If there is a tile America could found a city on though, and you have the ability to buy a tile near it, do so.

As for their sight bonus, it's effects are most prominent in the early game. Don't bother to scout near America early on expecting to find a missed ruin. If you're fighting America, just know that they have more knowledge then you do. Sneaking up on America is going to be difficult. However that is all they have at least until minutemen. As long as you have a moderately superior force, it doesn't matter if America is aware of that, you'll still beat them

Running the Clock on Minutemen

Minutemen are very mobile, and compared to most unique units can actually be stronger later in the game, mostly due to them being able to upgrade straight to range when built with a military academy. Their mobility allows them to get into position easier, and avoid fights just as well. Mounted units are your best bet, as they can match them for movement in rough terrain and beat them in open terrain. They are only slightly stronger then a musketmen on the defense, so are still very vulnerable if they can be attacked. Once they upgrade to gatling guns, mounted units will struggle. Use ranged units of your own until you can get armored units. The golden age points on kill is a minor bonus in the grand scheme of things, but do try your best to prevent a unit being killed by a minuteman.

Enslaving Independence Hall

Independence Hall matters very little. America on the whole has poor culture generation, so even with the 5% cheaper policies America will still be behind most other civs. What matters more is the buildings it unlocks later on.

Smashing the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian does best with a slightly taller America to allow them to get lots of great works. Preventing them from growing can hurt their science, but it's harder to do that to America then with most civs, as you can't forward settle to steal their tiles. However, what you can do is steal their dig sites with your own archaeologists

Slicing Slater Mill

The amount of times I wrote Hoover Damn back when it was the Hoover Dam I swear

The thing you can counter most for Slater Mill's bonuses is the faster trade routes. If you can go to war make sure to pillage as many routes as you can. If not, try to sanction them. This will cripple their tourism.

East, North, and South Point

West Point causes America to focus a lot more on Siege, and Naval Ranged units. This means that along with upgraded Minutemen, America will have a mostly ranged army. This makes them highly vulnerable to armor units on land. On the sea, try not to bunch up your navy too much to mitigate the effects of splash damage

Strategies by Style

Early-Game Warmongers: America will know where most of your army are, and will own more territory then most warmongers, making it difficult to heal. I would build up your forces a bit more for America, especially with classical units. America may sometimes build up a solid army of spearman, but usually won't have much of a notable army afterwords.

Mid-Game Warmongers: Pre Minutemen America should be an easy target, but once they get Minutemen they could prove troublesome. Mounted units will be your friend

Late-Game Warmongers: Armored units will be very useful, even more so if America went West Point

Scientific Players: If America is near you early game, get to wall tech fast to hopefully stop their spearman rush. Otherwise, maybe use your tech lead to grab some important classical wonders for America, like Angkor Wat

Cultural Players: You might as well kiss most ancient wonders goodbye, but later on America isn't great at wonder building, so they shouldn't prove too direct competition later on

Diplomatic Players: A sanction can hit America hard given their reliance on gold yet poor economy. Global Peace Accords hurts for similar reason.

Other Guides

Meta Guides

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

Civ Specific Guides: Alphabetized

• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)
  

[lifeordeath2077]

America is now updated to patch 3.9

[lifeordeath2077]

Whoops, thanks for the catch, I did indeed

[lordmaneth]

I think you meant cathedrals here

Follower

Churches: A great boost to your income, and even pays you back some of the cost of buying tiles