Hello Everyone,

My intention with the first piece of The Amateur Guide, is to breakdown the playable factions into respected information. Also, I will include my take on how they can be utilized to maximum potential. If you find anything that is in need of being included, please feel free to message [GrVo] TriiNitY.

Thank you and I hope this helps!

Country: The United States of America
Leader: George Washington

Unique Unit 1: Minutemen (Replaces Musketman) - Traverses All terrain at cost =1. Travels on roads normally. Free (Drill 1) +20% on Rough Terrain. Gains Golden Age points when an enemy is defeated.
Unique Unit 2: B17 (replaces Bomber) - Free Evasion (reduce damage from intercept by 50%), Free Siege 1 (+33% vs. Cities), +5 Ranged Combat.
Unique Building: None

Unique Ability: Manifest Destiny
All land military units have +1 Vision. -50% cost to purchase tiles.

My Take: A civilization that is underrated, in my opinion for I find it to be lackingin certain areas. As you progress, make sure to exploit the Minuteman and B17's due to their strength militarily. Added vision is both a great defensive and offensive ability. Being able to buy up contested land for cheap has limited usefulness, but can be the difference between getting a good resource and not getting it. Sure, it's not a stand out, but I've had good success using it. The Minutemen gaining the ability to gain Golden Age points is a nice bonus, since America doesn't have much Golden Age Synergy with a conquest/expansion focus, it's not a huge addition. Being expansive is a lot better in Brave New World, which helps America a lot.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: The Arabian Empire
Leader: Harun Al-Rashid

Unique Unit 1: Camel Archer (replaces Knight) -3 Melee Combat Strength,
cannot initiate melee attack. Has ranged attack, Strength 21, Range 2.
No penalty for attacking cities.
Unique Unit 2: None
Unique Building: Bazaar (replaces Market)- +1 luxury resource for
ever improved luxury resource near this city. +2 Gold for each worked
Oil and Oases.

Unique Ability: Trade Caravans Caravans have +50% range. Trade routes spread religion twice as effectively. Oil resources doubled. Keep in mind: longer trade routes give more money, since your resources are likely not present in far away civilizations. Be care of this though due to barbarian influence.

Comments: Exploit trade routes as soon as possible for they are huge economic benefactor.

My Take: The Camel Archer is a very solid unit, since ranged is a tad overpowered in this game. Getting the extra luxury resource with bazaar can be fantastic for trade, and allows you to accrue friends and money faster. Double oil isn't game breaking, since oil units usually come well after a game is decided. He is the guru of trade and money in this game.

Victory Goal: Diplomatic. Rich as it comes, except Venice

Country: Aztec
Leader: Montezuma I

Unique Unit 1: Jaguar (replaces Warrior) +33% strength while fighting in woods or jungle. Heals 25 HP upon defeating an enemy. Double Movement rate through woods and jungle.
Unique Unit 2: None
Unique Building: Floating Gardens (replaces Water Mill)- -1 Maintenance, can be built next to lakes as well as rivers. +15% Food generated by city. +2 Food for each lake tile worked by the city. Floating Gardens +15% bonus is affect by Maritime city-states and food-boosting buildings like the Granary.

Unique Ability: Sacrificial Captives
Receive culture for each enemy unit killed proportional to the killed unit's strength.

My Take: The AI is normally always extremely aggressive and should be wary of possible war. Spam units, find enemies, get culture seems to be the motto. Use your early culture to focus on Honor, which lets you have a stronger military, which lets you get more culture. Barbarians? Sacrifice them to the sun god. Other civs? Sacrifice them to the moon god. City-States? Sacrifice them to Sid Meier. If you aren't at war with someone, you are wasting one of the most fun unique abilities in the game. It's not as good at culture as, say, France, but it isn't too far behind. The key is to invest as much as you can in military abilities in culture. Be very aggressive early, especially since the CPU tends to cave in front of early aggression. Note that with G&K, the ability was kind of nerfed by proxy, in that other civs can kill barbarians for culture via honor Keep your jaguars and upgrade them so they keep their perks.

Victory Goal: Conquest, Culture via Conquest

Country: China
Leader: Wu Zetian

Unique Unit 1: Chu-Ko-Nu (replaces Crossbowman) -4 Ranged Attack. Strength can attack twice during turn.
Unique Unit 2: None
Unique Building: Paper Maker (replaces Library) - +2 Gold. No maintenance cost, so really it's plus 3 gold compared to the Library.

Unique Ability: Art of War
Spawn Rate of Great Generals increased +50%. Chinese Great Generals provide +30% combat bonus within two squares, compared to +15% of normal Great Generals.

My Take: Use the Honor Tree to get a great general, and do whatever you can to build generals quickly. If you can find a good choke point, I have seen a general assisted Chu-Ko-Nu hold off multiple Industrial Age units.Chu-Ko-Nu is also good for bombarding cities early on. With China, just a few front line units can be supported by Generals and Chu-Ko-Nu can be used to destroy everything else.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Egypt
Leader: Ramesses II

Unique Unit 1: War Chariot (replaces Chariot Archer) +1 movement. No horse resource required.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Burial Tomb (replaces Temple) 0 maintenance, +2 Happiness, if city is capture, x2 gold plundered.

Unique Ability: Monument Builders
+20% Production when building wonders

My Take: Even with the Bonus to Wonders, it's never recommended to be building more than one wonder at a time in the early game. Wonders can be very powerful in this game. For it lets you customize your empire. You can focus on wonders that boost great people, military, production, commerce, etc. I would recommend focusing on only one or two types of wonders, since specialization is the name of the game. Burial Tomb is nice if you go for a high population build. I would not exploit the unique unit, considering it's many battle flaws.

Victory Goal: Let what your Wonders built are geared toward.

Country: England
Leader: Elizabeth I

Unique Unit 1: Longbowman (replaces crossbowman) Free Range (+1 range for ranged attack)
Unique Unit 2: Ship of the Line (replaces Frigate) -15 production cost, +7 ranged combat strength, +5 melee, +1 sight.
Unique Building: None

Unique Ability: Sun Never Sets +2 movement to all naval vessels. +1 Spy

My Take: This strict military nation is damn near unbeatable in island style maps. Take advantage of the the usefulness of naval units, and no one can compete with England's Navy. Still, on continent style maps, the only thing England has is Longbowman, which are useful, but not game changing. Your best time to attack is the Renaissance, where you will have the most benefit. If you can be the first to circumnavigate, you will have +3 movement on all other navy. England's biggest weakness is that you more or less have to go military, since they have no Unique Building and their ability is strictly military. On continent maps, you can have trouble in the late game.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: France
Leader: Napolean Bonaparte

• Brave New World France
  
  
  Unique Unit 1: Musketeer (replaces Musketman) - +4 Combat Strength
  Unique Unit 2: None.
  Unique Building: Chateau - Unique Improvement. Must be built next to luxury resource. It may not be adjacent to another Chateau. +1 Gold +2 Culture. Provides +50% defensive bonus to that tile. When flight has been researched, it increases its output to +3 Gold, +3 Culture.
  
  Unique Ability - City of Light Great Work tourism theme bonus doubled in the Capital.
  
  My Take: This can help with culture somewhat, but in my opinion, there are better culture abilities.

• Pre-Brave New World France
  
  Unique Unit 1: Musketeer (replaces Musketman) +4 combat strength.
  Unique Unit 2: Foreign Legion (replaces Infantry) +20% combat strength outside of friendly territory.
  Unique Building: None.
  
  Unique Ability: Ancien Regime
  +2 Culture per city per turn before discovering Steam Power. After Steam Power, you lose all bonus culture per turn.
  
  My Take: Musketeers can dominate the late renaissance period. +4 strength is huge. Foreign Legion will have a huge firepower advantage if you are invading. When it comes down to it, at the beginning of the game, if you are going to focus on culture or military, then stick with it. Use your social policies to align towards that. If you focus on military, there is not a reason to hold off on teching up to Steam Power. If culture is your focus, expand as fast as possible, and use your Musketeers to take weak neighbors. The earlier you expand the better. Basically, military focus France users will want to build up (have a small number of cities optimized for rapid production), culture focus means you want to build out (get as many cities as possible, don't worry about optimizing the cities).
  
  Victory Goal: Cultural, Conquest

Country: Germany
Leader: Otto van Bismarck

• Units Pre-Brave New World
  
  Unique Unit 1: Landsknecht (replaces Pikeman) -50% production cost. (-45 hammers on Standard).
  Unique Unit 2: Panzer (replaces Tank) +1 movement, +10 strength
  Unique Building: None.

• Units/Building Brave New World
  
  Unique Unit 1: Panzer (replaces Tank) +1 movement, +10 strength
  Unique Unit 2: None.
  Unique Building: Hanse (replaces Bank) - +5% Production for each trade route between your civilization and city-states (the trade does not have to originate from the city with the Hanse in it for the bonus).

Unique Ability: Furor Teutonicus
Upon defeating a Barbarian unit inside an encampment, you have a 67% chance to receive +25 gold and a free unit of the same type. Pay 25% less for land unit maintenance.

Comments: Landsknecht costs about half the cost of a pikeman with no penalties. They don't exist in BNW

My Take: It was interesting to see Firaxis take away the Landsknecht. That said, the Hanse is INSANELY good. Easily my personal favorite building. Basically, every city in your civilization that has a Hanse gets +5% production per trade route with a city-state. Let me repeat that. EVERY CITY. Losing Landsknecht dramatically changes mid-game strategy (use numbers to overwhelm vulnerable enemies) to more a long-game approach. Still, the extra 17% chance to convert barbarians ensures your army will not struggle to be big.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Greece
Leader: Alexander of Macedonia

Unique Unit 1: Hoplite (replaces Spearmen) +2 Combat Strength.
Unique Unit 2: Companion Calvary (replaces Horsemen) +2 Combat Strength,
+1 Movement, Great Generals 1 (Combat with this unit produces double Great General points).
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Hellenic League
City-State relations degrade at half the normal rate, and recovers at double rate when the City-State is angry.

My Take: Greece used to be broken when calvary units were OP at launch. Now they are good, but not great. Still, the vast variety of city states gives them a fair amount of options. Great Generals 1 and Great Generals 2 are the same thing, but 2 generates at a higher rate. I think only Samurai have 2. Hellenic League offsets trespassing penalties. Also, for clarity: gifts do NOT give double affections points. Recover strictly means when a city state is mad at you (below neutral). At launch, Hoplite was more expensive to produce. Not anymore.

Victory Goal: Diplomatic, Cultural, Conquest, Science (in that order)

Country: India
Leader: Mahatma Ghandi

Unique Unit 1: War Elephant (replaces Chariot Archer) +14 Production Cost, -1 Movement, +2 Melee Combat Strength, +1 Ranged Combat Strength. No required resource. Doesn't have movement penalties of chariot archer.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Mughal Fort (replaces Castle) -10 Production Cost, +2 Culture. After Flight is research, +2 Tourism to city.

Unique Ability: Population Growth
Unhappiness from population is halved. Unhappiness from number of cities doubled.

Comments: Any city with population 4 or higher benefits from Population Growth due to a net loss of that city's unhappiness.

My Take: With Ghandi, you're goal should be peaceful victory conditions. You should aim for very large cities, trying to turn them into Great People factories (this means committing to wonders early on. If managed correctly, Ghandi can very quickly build up Science, Commerce, and culture. Keep golden ages going longer with Great People sacrifice. I've seen people do really well with Science victory and Diplomatic Victory (via buying off City-States). Cultural victory is doable. Try to avoid war as much as possible, since that means you have to focus on cranking out large numbers of units instead of Great People builders.

Victory Goal: Science, Cultural

Country: The Iroquois Confederation
Leader: Hiawatha

Unique Unit 1: Mohawk Warrior (replaces Swordsman) +33% combat strength in forests and jungles. Do not require iron.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Longhouse (replaces Workshop) -20 Production Cost, +1 Production per forest tile in city's radius. No +10% production for buildings that comes with normal workshop. Gives points towards Great Engineers.

Unique Ability: The Great Warpath
Forests and Jungles in friendly territory behave as roads, for movement. After the Wheel is researched, woods can also function as trade routes.

Comments: Trading Posts and Lumber mills leave the forests they are built intact. So you can improve the tiles and use them as roads.

My Take: You are really at the mercy of the map and other players. As the Iroquois, with proper planning, you can avoid removing forests, focusing on Lumber mills rather than Mines for Production, making sure to leave paths, etc. However, when it comes to attacking other players, those players will usually have removed most forests in their lands, removing all benefits you have. Still, this is a great civilization for early game aggression, since forests will still be around, and that +50% combat with Mohawk Warriors is HUGE at that point. The Longhouse is nice, but I would frequently rather have that +20% building production. Still, being able to get Great Engineers can help you get some good wonders. Also, if you use lumber mills, it's basically +1 Hammer for that mill.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Japan
Leader: Oda Nobunaga

Unique Unit 1: Samurai (replaces Longswordsman) Free Shock 1 (+20% combat in open terrain), Great Generals II (Contributes points to Great General at triple the normal rate)
Unique Unit 2: Zero (replaces Fighter) +33% vs. Fighters. Does not require an oil resource.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Bushido
Combat Strength is not affected by the amount of damage a unit has.

Comments: Bushido isn't as overpowered as it seems, in that a normal unit with 50% health doesn't fight with 50% strength, but somewhat stronger. +1 Culture from each Fishing Boat. +2 Culture from each Atoll.

My Take: I have found that the best way to go is to tech rush Steel and spam Samurai. Once you get a couple Great Generals, Samurai can basically take on the entire world. The longer it takes you to research Steel, the less effective you will be. Bushido makes taking cities easy, since even damaged units do full damage. Bushido isn't as overpowered as you might first suspect, but in the stone age when most battles are one on one without support nearby, it's huge. If you actually get to the point where you have Giant Death Robots, and Bushido' GDR is pretty much unbeatable. Since the AI almost never uses air units, Zero is pretty much worthless. Even in online games, I rarely see someone use air heavily. Even still, your worrying defense isn't fighters, it's bombers.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: The Ottoman Empire
Leader: Suleiman

Unique Unit 1: Janissary (replaces Musketman), Heals 50 HP upon defeating a Non-Barbarian Enemy, +25% Combat Bonus when initiating attack.
Unique Unit 2: Sipahi (replaces Lancer), +1 movement, +1 sight, no movement cost to pillage.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Barbary Corsairs
All naval units have the prize ships promotion (meaning defeated enemies)may join your side. -33% usual cost for maintenance.

My Take: At launch, this civilization was pretty bad. It has steadily gotten better with each major update, and is now a very good invasion civilization. Strict military nation. Janissary is a fantastic vanguard unit.
Nonetheless it still bothers me that this civ has no naval units to pair with the unique ability. The Sipahi is a fantastic harass unit that can force the bulk of your enemy's army away from the relative safety of their city's attack radius.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Persia
Leader: King Darius I

Unique Unit 1: Immortal (replaces Spearmen), +1 Combat Strength, Heals damage at double normal rate.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Satrap's Court (replaces Bank) +2 Happiness, +1 Gold

Unique Ability: Achaemenid Legacy
Golden Ages last +50% more turns. During a golden age, units receive +1 Move and +10% Combat Bonus

My Take: A lot of people love Persia. If you can get a few cities to be Great Artist factories, you can basically maintain a constant golden age, which should be your goal. Persia is countered by Egypt well, since Egypt can rush wonders, which Persia needs to make Great Artist factories. The Immortal is a good aggressive unit that can heal quickly and be back in the fray. Satrap's Court plays perfectly into Darius' Unique Ability, giving you a quick boost of happiness when you use it. Keep in mind, being effective as Persia requires a lot of discipline, making sure to keep an eye on your Golden Age counter while still making sure to have a standing military while balancing wonders. Chichen Itza is, I dare say, a must have. In my view, this civ was wrecked when they changed it so only artists can spark a Golden Age among Great People.

Victory Goal: Kind of like Egypt, you can go different ways with this depending on how your use your Golden Ages. Extra Production means you could go culture, military, or science, extra gold is nice for diplomacy. I most prefer military, since that +1 movement range is useful throughout the entire game.

Country: The Roman Empire
Leader: Caesar Augustus (also known as Octavius)

Unique Unit 1: Ballista (replaces Catapult) +2 Ranged Strength, +1 Melee Strength
Unique Unit 2: Legion (replaces Swordsman) +3 Combat Strength, can construct roads and forts.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: The Glory of Rome
+25% Production towards buildings if they already exist in the Capitol City.

My Take: Glory of Rome is a great ability for managing a large empire. Your goal should be to have a large production powerhouse for a capitol. This will allow you to expand quickly without worrying about having low production cities. Your goal should be to use your expansions primarily for resources. Ballista are a city destroyer in the latter early game. Very powerful at what they do. Legion being able to build roads can keep your workers focused on improvements. Be aggressive in the Classical Age.

Victory Goal: Can go many ways. I personally like Science, since getting libraries, universities, and schools in all your cities give you a massive science bonus.

Country: Russia
Leader: Catherine the Great

Unique Unit 1: Cossack (replaces Calvary) - Receives +33% combat bonus when attacking an enemy who is not at full health.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Krepost (replaces Barracks) - Reduces culture cost to acquire new land by 25% in the city it is built.

Unique Ability: Siberian Riches
Strategic Resources provide +1 production. Horse, Iron, and Uranium plots generate double the output.

Comments: I.e., if a plot of iron typically produces 2 Iron, Russia can get 4 iron out of that same plot.

My Take: If you get an unlucky map generation without much iron and horses nearby, the ability is useful. However, I typically haven't had resource problems, since I usually can't even afford to build units for all my resources. Iron and horses are obsolete in the late game, but Uranium is a game changer. Having two atomic bombs for 1 resource can let you wipe out another country's military very quickly, or destroy its major cities. Still, as I said, you usually won't need the double resources. If you use the Krepost, you can afford to spread your cities out a little more to cover more ground. Support your Cossacks with anything ranged (even horse archers can help in the mid game). The goal is to injure the target, even slightly, then go in for the kill.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Siam
Leader: Ramkhamhaeng

Unique Unit 1: Naresuan's Elephant (replaces Knight) +5 Combat Strength, -1 Movement, +50% Combat Bonus vs. Mounted Units. No Horse Requirement.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Wat (replaces University) - +3 Culture.

Unique Ability: Father Governs Children
Food, Culture, and faith received from friendly city-states increased by +50%

My Take: Plays very similar to India. You should build more trading posts instead of farms and use the money to befriend maritime and cultural city-states. Definitely use the Patronage policy tree. Siam does better on spread out maps since they aren't a military nation. Your goal should be to have a small number of cities with natural chokepoints so you can minimize your army. Keeping your city count small makes cultural victory easier to obtain. If you don't think you are going to make cultural victory in time, build the United Nations, and use your allegiances to try to get a diplomatic victory.

Victory Goal: Cultural, Diplomatic as a fallback.

Country: The Songhai Empire
Leader: Mohammad I Askia

Unique Unit 1: Mandekalu Cavalry (replaces Knight) -10% Production cost. No penalty when attacking cities (all other calvary have -33%).
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Mud Pyramid Mosque (replaces Temple) Zero Maintenence, +2 culture

Unique Ability: River Warlord
All pillaged cities and encampments provide double the normal gold. All land units receive free Amphibious and War Canoe promotions. Amphibious removes all penalties from attack across a river or from the water. War canoes doubles the defense while embarked and increases the sight of embarked units.

My Take: The Songhai spawn bias usually gives you nearby horses. It is very important to have a lot of horses, and get Mandekalu Calvary quickly. Mounted units are overpowered in this game, but are usually weak against cities. The Mandakulu Calvary isn't penalized. (It used to have an additional bonus, but this was patched out). Use this to your advantage and play aggressive. The Mud Pyramid Mosque is a great building, since you can get a lot of culture for free. It's not enough to make Songhai a Cultural contender, but it's great to get some key policies in place. Still the ability isn't very worthwhile. The small gold bonuses are nice for early gold expansion, but isn't extremely helpful in the long term. Being able to have your units not immediately die would be nice if the CPU ever build Navy, which they rarely do.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: The Babylonian Empire
Leader: Nebuchadnezzar II

Unique Unit 1: Bowman (replaces Archer) +2 Melee Combat Strength, +2 Ranged Combat Strength
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Walls of Babylon (replaces Walls) +1 City Combat Strength, -10 Production Cost, city HP+100 (Walls only give +50)

Unique Ability: Ingenuity
Free Great Scientist upon invention of Writing. Produce Great Scientists at +50% the rate.

My Take: The only nation whose ability focuses on Science. Both the Unique Unit and building are early game, which is unfortunate in my mind. But this ability is key. Your goal should be to create farms for Great Scientists. Fight for those wonders accordingly. Also, in the early game, rather than use free techs, Use your Scientists to build Science improvements, since those points will, in the long run, help you improve faster than the early techs. Gods & Kings nerfed the hell out of Babylon by making scientists only give a boost to research.

Victory Goal: Science

Country: The Mongolian Empire
Leader: Genghis Kahn

Unique Unit 1: Keshik (replaces Knight) Ranged Unit (cannot directly Melee) with 16 Ranged Combat Strength, 15 Melee Strength, +1 Movement, Great Generals I (produces Great Generals at double rate), Gain +50% experience
Unique Unit 2: Khan (replaces Great General) +3 movement range, heals adjacent units 15 HP per turn.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Mongol Terror
+30% combat against City-State units and cities. +1 movement to mounted units.

My Take: Strict military nation, don't try to make friends. You want to play very aggressively, taking what city-states you can. Once you have Keshiks and Khans, form battle teams (usually 3 Keshiks and one kahn per team and 2 teams will let you take out quite a bit of enemies). You'll want some infantry and siege units for grabbing the stronger cities. Basically, the only way to defend that rush is for an AI to focus all nearby forces on one unit, since they heal quickly. However, given the ranged combat, they usually won't get close. A good military nation. You really want to spam Keshiks and attack quickly. The longer you wait, the worse off you will be. Very easily countered by Pikeman, so Germany will probably destroy you given half the chance.

Victory Goal: Conquest.

Country: Spain
Leader: Isabella

Unique Unit 1: Tercio (replaces Musketman) +10 Production Cost, +2 Strength, +50% versus Mounted.
Unique Unit 2: Conquistador (replaces Knight): +15 Production Cost No penalty attack cities (Knight has 33% penalty), +2 Vision Range, Embarkation with Defense (x2 defense while embarked). Can found cities on another landmass.
Unique Building: None

Unique Ability: Seven Cities of Gold
Gold bonus when discovering Natural Wonders (larger bonus when Spain is the first to discover a particular Natural Wonder). Culture, Happiness, and all tile yields (production, food, commerce) are doubled on Natural Wonder tiles.

Comments: The Conquistador can only found cities on a different landmass than the capitol. This consumes the Conquistador.

My Take: A Great Civ to use against mounted rushes because of the Tercio. However, the computer usually isn't smart enough to do mounted rushes. Oh well. With 2 Unique Units, this is an aggressive civilization. You definitely want to push during the Renaissance Era to take most advantage of your units.

Victory Goal: Conquest.

Country: The Incan Empire
Leader: Pachacuti

Unique Unit 1: Slinger (replaces Archer) -1 Melee Combat Strength, Can Withdraw to adjacent hex if attacked at melee range. Chance of withdraw is decreased against "fast enemies" (like horseman).
Unique Unit 2: None
Unique Building: Terrace Farm (tile improvement): +1 Food, +1 Food if adjacent to mountain. Can only be built on hills.

Unique Ability: The Great Andean Road
No movement penalty in hills. No maintenance for constructions in hills, half maintenance elsewhere.

Comments: The Terrace Farm is not built in cities. It is basically a more powerful farm on a hill.

My Take: Both the unique unit and unique building are very...well...unique. The Slinger being able to withdraw in the early game means you likely won't get hit by much, since early game is known for wide open combat rather than terrain fighting. Given Incas start bias, the Terrace Farm will usually be useful in your capitol and first expansion. After that, mountains are rare (though not as rare as lakes, making Inca better than Aztec). Low maintenance is very nice.

Victory Goal: Diplomacy

Country: Polynesia

Unique Unit 1: Maori Warrior (replaces warrior). Starts with "Haka War Dance" promotion (any enemy on an adjacent tile receives -10% combat strength). Does not stack.
Unique Unit 2: None
Unique Building: Moai (tile improvement) (+1 Culture) – Requires Construction.

Unique Ability: Wayfinding
Units can embark and move over oceans immediately. +1 Vision Range for embarked units. +10% Combat Strength if within 2 tiles of a Moai.

Comments: Like Inca's Terrace Farm, the Unique "Building" (Moai) is actually a unique tile improvement. The bonus from Moais and Maori Warriors do not appear to stack.

My Take: If bonuses from Moais and Maori Warriors stacked, you could really hold chokepoints well. However, they don't. Way finding is a really nice ability if you want to expand quickly, meaning you have and advantage in resources. Unfortunately, the Unique building, which would lend itself to culture, is offset by the fact that this is an expansionary civilization. Nice early on, but after Astronomy is acquired by others, you lose your advantage.

Victory Goal: Culture

Country: Denmark
Leader: Harald Bluetooth

Unique Unit 1: Berserker (replaces Longswordsman) +1 Move, free Amphibious (no attack penalty when attacking over a river for from the sea.
Unique Unit 2: Norwegian Ski Infrantry (replaces Rifleman) +25% in Snow/Tundra/Hills (unless Forest or Jungle is present) and half movement cost.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Viking Fury
Embarked units have +1 move and only 1 movement cost for moving from sea to land. Melee units are charged no movement cost for pillaging improvements.

My Take: Another strict military nation. Comparing to other Strict Military Nations, these units are a lot more specialized. Vikings could do well on Islands maps due to the advantage of attack via sea (amphibious assaults). Being able to pillage is a double edged sword. Yes, it can weaken your opponent, but if you are trying to capture a city, you are trading a temporary small benefit for a long term cost (at least, until you get workers in).

Victory Goal: Conquest.

Country: Korea
Leader: Sejong the Great

Unique Unit 1: Turtle Ship (replaces Caravel) - +16 Melee Combat. Cannot enter deep ocean tiles. Doesn't have the +1 sight bonus or withdraw ability of the Caravel.
Unique Unit 2: Hwach'a (replaces Trebuchet)- +12 Ranged combat. No Vision Penalty. No Bonus against cities. -1 Melee Combat Strength
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Scholars of the Jade Hall
+2 Science for all Great Person Tile Improvements (including non-Scientist improvements) and specialists. Receive a research bonus towards your current research goal every time a science building or Wonder is built in the capital city.

Comments: Doing some quick math, the Hwacha will do roughly 60% damage to a city of a Trebuchet.

My Take: A small empire with a strong capital city is key. That said the units are, in my opinion, no better and possibly worse than what they replace. The caravel is supposed to be an exploration unit. The Turtle Ship, therefore, delays expansion so you can have a better unit to defend the shoreline, which against CPU, is pretty unnecessary. The Hwach'a is great against infantry, but you lose a seige weapon. Basically, both these units fail to serve the purpose of what they replace.

Victory Goal: Science.

Country: Austria
Leader: Maria Theresa of the Habsburgs

Unique Unit 1: Hussar (replaces Calvary) +1 movement, +1 sight, +50% bonus to flank (that is, attacking a unit already attacked).
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Coffee House (replaces Windmill) - +5% production in addition to +2 production. +25% great people generation. No +10% production to buildings. Can be built on hills.

Unique Ability: Diplomatic Marriage
Can spend gold to annex or puppet an allied city-state that has been an ally for at least 5 turns.

My Take: A great unique unit (though it comes fairly late) and a useful unique building. Diplomatic Marriage is more of an investment. Once you puppet or annex a city-state, you still need to build a courthouse. However, you don't have to deal with espionage anymore, nor do you have to continue spending money to buy loyalty. So useful, but the civ's biggest downfall is a lack of focus. Of course, if you puppet a city state, they no longer vote separately in a diplomatic victory.

Victory Goal: With Great People, really anything except diplomacy.

Country: Byzantine Empire
Leader: Theodora

Unique Unit 1: Cataphract (replaces Horseman) - +3 combat. Can use defensive terrain bonus (Horseman cannot), and only gets penalized 25% against cities (Horseman get 33%). -1 Movement
Unique Unit 2: Dromon (replaces Trimere) - +11 Production. Cannot melee attack. Range Unit with 10 ranged combat strength and 2 range. -2 Direct Combat strength. +50% Strength vs. Naval Units.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Choose one more Belief than normal when you found a religion.

Also, for clarity: Naval combat is reworked in Gods and Kings. In vanilla Civ V, the Trimere is a ranged combat unit. But in Gods and Kings, the Trimere is a direct combat unit. This means that the Trimere cannot fire on ground units. The Dromon, however, can.

My Take: The Dromon is beastly. The Cataphract is quite good. Getting a bonus belief can be game changing. Still, because the Dromon gets +50% against naval, even when it is attacked by Trimeres, it actually has 12 direct combat strength, meaning it has the advantage. I like the idea of religious warfare, if you set your belief perks up correctly.

Victory Goal: Conquest with religious focus.

Country: Carthage
Leader: Dido

Unique Unit 1: African Forest Elephant (replaces Horseman) +25 Production; +2 Combat Strength, -1 Movement. -10% Combat Strength to any adjacent enemy unit. Great Generals 2 (produces Great Generals at, I believe, triple the usual rate). No horse resource required.
Unique Unit 2: Quinquereme (replaces Trimere) - +3 Combat Strength
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Phoenician Heritage
All coastal cities get a free Harbor. Units may cross Mountains after first Great General, but they take 50 damage if they end turn on mountain.

My Take: Free harbor is very nice if you have a coastal capital, or at least a coastal city connected to your capital. It basically allows much quicker colonization. I'm not sure mountains are really common enough to warrant a huge plus to this ability, but it does force your opponent out of defending just key chokepoints in some instances. Unique units aren't exceptional, but aren't terrible either.

Victory Goal: Almost a strict military nation, so I'd say Conquest

Country: The Celts
Leader: Boudica

Unique Unit 1: Pictish Warrior (replaces Spearman) - +20% Combat Strength when outside of friendly lands. No movement cost to pillage. Earns 50% of opponents strength as Faith.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Ceilidh Hall (replaces Opera House) - +3 Happiness.

Unique Ability: Druidic Lore
+1 Faith per city with an adjacent unimproved forest. Bonus increases to +2 in cites with 3 or more adjacent unimproved forests.

Comments: The faith bonus for kills does not preserve with promotion, but the pillage and foreign lands bonus do. Still, faith is kind of the main reason for this unit.

My Take: I'm not a fan of the unique ability, because its usefulness is short lived. That said, it will all but guarantee you getting the first religion. The Pictish Unit has to be in the top 5, if the not the best unique unit in the game. Great for early rushes, and since you can buy units with faith, you can use them to build up your army further. Unique Building is uninspiring, but useful (even though it comes late in the game). To use optimally, I wouldn't use religious happiness bonuses, since you'll get quite a bit from the UB.

Victory Goal: Conquest by religious warfare.

Country: Ethiopia
Leader: Haile Selassie

Unique Unit 1: Mehal Sefari (replaces Rifleman) - -25 Production. +30% Combat Bonus when fighting in Capital. This bonus decreases the further from the Capital you are. Free Drill 1.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Stele (replaces Monumnet) - +2 Faith.

Unique Ability: Spirit of Adwa
+20% when fighting against civilization with more cities than Ethiopia.

Comments: The Stele is better for faith than a shrine, at the same cost and still gives the same culture as an obelisk.

My Take: Used to be my favorite Civ from Gods and Kings. If you are disciplined and keep a small empire, you can be excellent defensively while you focus on a goal of culture. With the Stele you are almost certain to be a religion founder and you'll be able to generate 2 faith and 2 culture for the same cost as someone else who just gets either 2 culture OR 1 faith. Keeping a small tight knit empire can really make your defense strong. One of the best designed civilizations I've seen in regards to synergy. One major problem though is that culture victory now encourages expansion to get those precious archeological dig sites. That really hurt Ethiopia and changed them from very good to kind of bad.

Victory Goal: Culture

Country: The Huns
Leader: Attila the Hun.

Unique Unit 1: Horse Archer (replaces Chariot Archer) - +1 Combat. Free Accuracy 1. No Rough Terrain Penalty (Chariot Archers use up all movement on any single rough terrain). No horse resource required.
Unique Unit 2: Battering Ram (replaces Spearman) - + 19 production. -1 Combat Strength. 33% Penalty when attacked. No defensive terrain Bonus. -1 Visibility. Can only attack cities. +300% against cities.(That isn't a typo. +300%). Free Cover 1.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Scourge of God
Raze Cities at double speed. Borrow City names form other in-game Civs. Start with Animal Husbandry. +1 Production per pasture.

Comments: The Battering Ram is the most specialized unit of all time. Promotion causes you to lose basically everything except free Cover 1. Thus, you only have a short time to take advantage of it.

My Take: Okay, so in early periods, the Battering Ram simply destroys cities. Now, you have to defend it with warriors, but if you get it to an enemy’s city, you win, period. Still, you lose a pretty important unit in spearmen. You can then raze the city quickly to avoid unhappiness. Horse Archer isn't excellent. Starting with Animal Husbandry is actually useful, since the start bias puts horses nearby frequently. I find it very strange though that you start with the ability to find horses when you don't need them for your unique unit. Very low synergy.

Victory Goal: Conquest.

Country: The Mayans.
Leader: Pacal

Unique Unit 1: Atlatist (replaces Archer) - -4 Production, available without researching Archery.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Pyramid (replaces Shrine) - +1 Faith, +2 Science.

Unique Ability: The Long Count
After researching Theology, receive a free Great Person at the end of every 394 years. (Each type of great person can only be selected once).

Comments: Note: it's 394 Years, NOT 394 Turns. Meaning you'll get the great people more often early.

My Take: Rush Theology quickly, and you can get a nice early upper hand. However, because you can't get multiple free Great People of the same type, a lot of specialization potential is wasted. Once you get towards modern times, the Unique Ability becomes 2 steps shy of worthless. Once you leave the ancient era, the unique unit becomes worthless. It would have been fine if Archery was still a dead-end research branch, but now you need it for roads. The Pyramid is very nice though.

Victory Goal: Science, with the right religious focus.

Country: The Netherlands
Leader: William of Orange

Unique Unit 1: Sea Beggar (replaces Privateer) - Free Coastal Raider II (Additional +20% vs. Cities, addition +33% of damage received as gold). Free Supply (can heal outside of friendly territory at 15 hp per turn). Free Prize ships (convert fallen enemies to your side occasionally)
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Polder (a unique improvement, NOT a building) - +3 Food improvement. Can only be built on marshes and flood plains.

Unique Ability: Retain 50% of happiness benefit from a Luxury Resource if you trade away your last copy.

My Take: At first glance this country looks terrible. But look again. Okay, it's still really bad. But look once more. The Sea Beggar is pretty good. A total of +40% damage to cities plus raiding 66% of the damage (since it stacks with Coastal Raider I) and the ability to convert enemies is pretty cool. Polder would be amazing if it weren't for the fact that it can only be built on relatively rare tiles (one of which slows movement speed). The ability is just trash, though. So basically, you have one really good unit, one below average building, and arguably one of the worst abilities in the game.

Victory Goal: Diplomacy if I had to pick one.

Country: Sweden
Leader: Gustavas Adolphus

Unique Unit 1: Hakkapeliitta (replaces Lancer) - 15% bonus with Great General in same tile. Great General that starts stack with this unit gets movement bonus to match this unit.
Unique Unit 2: Carolean (replaces Rifleman) - Free March 1 (Unit heals every turn, even if action taken).
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Nobel Prize
Gain 90 influence with a great person gifted to a City State. When declaring Friendship, gain a 10% boost to Great Person generation. The friend also receives this boost.

My Take: Honestly, I'm wholly unimpressed. Gifting Great People would be nice, except espionage completely prevents holding onto a City-State's trust. So it's not worth losing the great person. +10% for friendship is nice, except no one will give it to you late game, and you actually help your opponents out too. The units are pretty much garbage (Hakkapeliitta is barely better than vanilla lancer, which is a weak unit for the period you get it, and free March is nice but FAR from game changing). Unit has decent ability synergy, but you can only get one bonus per great general.

Victory Goal: Focus your great people generation to science or culture, and go from there.

Country: Assyria
Leader: Ashurbanipal

Unique Unit 1: Siege Tower (replaces Catapault) - +5 Combat. May only attack cities, and must be at melee range. Free Sapper (+50% bonus vs. Cities given to all friendly units within 2 tiles). Free Cover 1 (+33% Defense against Ranged attacks). +1 Sight (which gives it two more sight than the Catapult, which is penalized -1 Sight).
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Royal Library (replaces Library) - Has a Great Work of Writing slot. When this is filled, all units built in the city receive a bonus 15XP.

Unique Ability: Treasures of Nineveh
Steal an enemy technology when taking a city. Can only be used once per city. This does not apply if a city is acquired in trade.

Comments: Once you capture a city once, even if it is recaptured or captured by a different civilization, that city will not give a tech bonus anymore. Royal Library gives no XP boost if the specialist slot is unfilled.

My Take: Sadly, Siege Tower loses Sapper upon promotion. A greater crime hasn't been perpetrated in video games, but it makes sense from a balance perspective. You keep the extra sight and Cover 1 promotions. Royal Library is one of my absolute favorite UBs. Fun to play with this civ.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Brazil
Leader: Pedro II

Unique Unit 1: Pracinhas - Golden Age points when you defeat an enemy.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Brazilwood Camp - Tile improvement can be built on jungle tiles. Yields +2 Gold. Additionally, +2 Culture after Acoustics researched.

Unique Ability: Carnival
Tourism output doubled and spawn rate of Great Artists, Musicians, and Writers 50% faster during Golden Ages

Comments: Note that there are three types of Great Artists, but all of them have increased spawn rates during a Golden Age.

My Take: Just...wow. +100% tourism is just simply insane with a culture bonus In the Unique Improvement. The Pracinhas may not be a great unit in its own right, but it is silly fantastic in Brazil hands. This is BNW's Ethiopia: A civ that capitalizes on changed mechanics to be a fantastic nation. Had a ton of fun making all the other countries wear my blue jeans and listen to my rock and roll. Simply, they are a cultural powerhouse.

Victory Goal: Culture or Diplomacy

Country: Indonesia
Leader: Gajuh Mada

Unique Unit 1: Kris Swordsman (replaces Swordsman)- Receives a random promotion after its first round of combat. See comments for possible promotions.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Candi (replaces Garden) - +2 Faith. Additionally +2 Faith for each World Religion that has at least 1 follower in the city.

Unique Ability: Spice Islanders
First 3 cities founded on a landmass other than the capital receive two unique luxury Resources. These cities cannot be razed, even if captured.

Comments: Candi, like the garden, requires the city to be fresh water adjacent. Capturing a city won't trigger Spice Islanders. You have to found it.

Kris Swordsman promotions

• Good (blue) promotions
  
  Ambition: +50% combat when attacking. -20% when defending. Recruitment: Heals all damage if kills non-barbarian unit.
  
  Heroism: Unit gives combat bonus to nearby units like a Great General.
  Invulnerability: +30% Combat Bonus when defending. +20 Hit Points when healing.
  Restlessness: May attack twice, +1 Movement
  Sneak Attack: +50% flank bonus

• Bad (red) promotions
  
  Evil Spirits: -10% when attacking. -30% when defending.
  Enemy Blade: Takes 20 Damage if Ends Turn in Enemy Territory

My Take: I've never been a fan inconsistency, and there's quite a bit here. Also, map type dependent, so Pangaea kills your Unique Ability. Continents can make it hard if they get developed quickly, but could work. You get a lot of trade power with your resources, since no one else will be able to access them as long as you protect your cities. If you're lucky, you'll be in fantastic shape. If you aren't, you'll be in bad shape.

Victory Goal: Culture or Diplomacy

Country: Morocco
Leader: Ahmad al-Mansur

Unique Unit 1: Berber Calvary (replaces Calvary) - Free Homeland Guardian (+25% combat in Moroccan territory). Free Desert Warrior (+50% combat on desert tiles).
Combat bonus on desert tile. (Unknown if they stack, but I assume so).
Unique Unit 2:
Unique Building: Kasbah - Unique Tile Impovement. Must be built on desert. Provides +1 gold, +1 food, +1 production.

Unique Ability: Gateway to Africa
Receives +3 Gold and +1 culture for each International Trade Route. The owner of the route receives +2 additional Gold.

My Take: Kind of underwhelming. The power reminds me of Sweden, but at least you get a slightly better deal out of it than the other guy. Unique unit is beastly for home defense (because Morocco gets a desert bias). Kasbah is great because it lets you settle places your opponents will try to avoid.

Victory Goal: Diplomacy

Country: Poland
Leader: Casimir III

Unique Unit 1: Winged Hussar (replaces Lancer) - If the defender takes more damaged than the Winged Hussar, it must retreat. If it cannot retreat, the defending unit takes extra damage. Free Shock 1 (+15% combat in open terrain). +3 Combat Strength
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Ducal Stable - (replaces Stable) +15 XP to mounted units built in the city. +1 Gold to worked pastures (in addition to default +1 production). -25% Production Cost (75 hammers on Standard vs. 100 hammers for the stable).

Unique Ability: Solidarity - Receive a free social policy at the start of each new era.

My Take: If I understand the Winged Hussar correctly, it can be used to "push" enemies, which could be useful for freeing up choke points or knocking them off a critical defense tile. The Unique Ability is simply fantastic. You can really get an upper hand on other people early, and late game it can help you land some critical abilities dozens of turns before everyone else.

Victory Goal: Conquest

Country: Portugal
Leader: Maria I

Unique Unit 1: Nau - replaces Caravel. +1 Movement. Gets one time ability to sell its cargo in foreign lands (effectively a trade mission, where the further away you are, the more money you get). Also gives
XP.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Feitoria - Unique tile improvement. Can be built inside the border of city-states. Provides one copy of the luxury Resource of that city-state. This copy cannot be traded. Can only be built on a coast line without a resource. +50% defense bonus. Requires Navigation.

Unique Ability: Mare Clausum
Resource diversity grants twice as much Gold for Portugal in International Trade Routes.

Comments: Razing a Feitoria will lead to war with Portugal. You cannot trade the copy of the luxury you get from the Feitoria, but if you are an ally, you'll get two copies (one to keep from the Feitoria, the other to trade from the ally bonus).

My Take: Money powerhouse that can compete with Arabia. While I think Arabia is better, Portugal will ultimately do better on island maps, where the caravan distance bonus of Arabia is nullified. Pangaea maps will favor Arabia heavily, likewise.

Victory Goal: Diplomacy

Country: The Shoshone
Leader: Pocatello

Unique Unit 1: Pathfinder (replaces Scout) +5 production cost. +4 Combat Free Native Tongue (choose your
Unique Unit 2: Comanche Riders (replaces Calvary) - -25 Production Cost (no decrease in faith cost). Free Full Moon Striker (+1 Movement)
Unique Building:

Unique Ability: Great Expanse Each city starts with 8 additional territory. 10% Combat bonus in own territory.

Comments: Each goody hut reward can only be picked once unless you manage to cycle through the whole list.

My Take: The Pathfinder is an interesting early game unit. The movement bonus is great; the Native Tongue ability can be feast or famine depending on the number of nearby Ruins (though it does let you capitalize on the few you do get). However, you cannot get combat promotions unless you promote to Archer (which makes you lose your strength bonus, as it doesn't preserve). Comanche Rider may not seem overly impressive, but it may be one of the better units in the game. Why? Because the +1 Movement preserves with promotion. Promote it twice, and you can have +1 Movement on tanks. So two units with good uses, but not fantastic. But where Shoshone really shines is in the early game with Great Expanse. With the pathfinder that you start with, you can find the best places to settle early, and the extra territories let you grab better land before your opponent even knows they're in a turf war.

Victory Goal: Directed by the path you take. Mostly Culture or Diplomacy. Conquest is feasible.

Country: Venice
Leader: Enrico Dandolo

Unique Unit 1: Merchant of Venice (replaces Great Merchant) has the ability to purchase a city-state (brought in as a Puppet-city). This consumes the Merchant.
Unique Unit 2: Great Galleass (replaces Galleass) +10 Production cost (translates to 10%). +1 Melee Combat, +2 Ranged Combat. You can melee attack, though I don't see a reason too.
Unique Building: None.

Unique Ability: Serenissima
Cannot gain settlers nor annex cities. Double the normal number of Trade Routes available. A Merchant of Venice appears after researching Optics. May purchase in puppeted cities.

My Take: This is somewhat of a one city challenge country. You can conquer cities, but you cannot annex them, only puppet them. Early on it's hard to get going, but with the start bias putting you on the coast, you'll be raking in the dough later on. Build lots of trade boosters and make sure you get the East India Trading company. I would stay away from the Great Galleass.

Victory Goal: Diplomacy

Country: The Zulu Nation
Leader: Shaka

Unique Unit 1: Impi - (replaces Pikeman) Attack twice when attacking. First attack is ranged, second is melee. The spear throw is not insubstantial. It appears to do roughly 75% of a normal attack. So you're effectively doing tons of extra damage without any downside.
Unique Unit 2: None.
Unique Building: Ikanda - Barracks - Grants units the ability to learn several unique upgrades. Only pre-gunpowder melee units can earn these promotions.

Buffalo Chest gives +10% in Open Terrain, +10% Defense against all ranged.
Buffalo Horns gives +1 Movement, +25% flanking bonus, and +10% against ranged.
Buffalo Loins +10% combat, +25% flanking bonus, and +10% against ranged.

Unique Ability: Iklwa - 50% melee unit maintenance. All units require 25% less XP to promote.

Comments: The combat prediction tool does NOT take Spear Throw into account at this time. In my one play through, new units got Buffalo Chest automatically. Chest is required to get Horns. Horns required to get loins.

My Take: A strict military nation. The Impi + Ikanda are ridiculous, and may very well be the best unit in the game. Absolutely fantastic unit. I really enjoyed my play through with this nation. Impi rush, especially if you build a lot of Ikanda's, is amazing.

Victory Goal: Conquest

I really enjoyed putting this information together and hope it helps with making game-time decisions. Again, I emphasize that if you have any questions or corrections to please let me know.

Good Luck in your conquest to victory!