If you have the Gathering Storm expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.

Note: This guide requires the Rise and Fall expansion.

Content from DLC packs (Poland, Vikings, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia) is marked as such.

Innovation requires the will to experiment. While the rest of the world attempts to carefully research what came before and see if they can form anything new out of it, China will take bold risks in furthering the causes of science and culture. Out of such innovation comes the Crouching Tiger Cannon, a fine invention ready to protect our ancient wonders against the barbarian hordes that await us beyond the Great Wall. With our external borders secure, we will need to look to our internal defences. Spies will lurk around every corner, seeking to steal our greatest discoveries. Be vigilant, and always ready to act.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is (assuming they have one at all).
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) are inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but rather a general indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these should be given more consideration than they would be for other civs but are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, culture, gold, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Describes bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories and Stadiums (which by default offer production and happiness respectively to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - The strategy of obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that deviation (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost.

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders. Unlike unique units, buildings, districts and improvements, civ abilites do not have to be built.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together. This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, maximise the number of copies of the same district in the same area, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out. This is useful if you want to ensure cities have plenty of room for both districts and tile improvements. Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader, which like civ abilities do not have to be built. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit on top of the standard one every civ has.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam's program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders. If a civilization is not listed as having a start bias there, it does not have one, even if you feel like you keep spawning in the same terrain when playing as that civ.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others, and are hence particularly unique. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district and offers some unique advantages on top. In some cases, there may be minor disadvantages as well, but these are always outweighed by the positive features. All unique districts cost half as much to construct relative to the regular districts they replace.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. Unlike unique buildings or districts, these do not replace a regular improvement. Some require a technology to unlock, and many have their yields improved with later technologies. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be built by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader. These usually replace an existing unit and offer extra advantages (and occasionally minor disadvantages as well in exchange for bigger advantages).

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

China has no start bias.

• All boosts (eurekas and inspirations) complete 50% of the base research cost for their respective technology or civic, up from 40%.
  
  • "Base research cost" refers to the cost of the technology if you are in the corresponding game era. The amount of research gained through a boost is fixed, but it will represent a higher percentage of research if you are in a later game era, or lower if you are in an earlier game era.
    
  • In other words, eurekas and inspirations offer 25% more science and culture respectively than normal.

• Builders have an additional charge (4 by default instead of 3).
  
  • This extra charge is kept if the Builder is captured by another civ.
• Builders can use a charge to contribute 15% of the production cost of a wonder from the ancient or classical era.
  
  • This is affected by modifiers to general production and wonder production.
    
  • This is tied to the wonder's era, not your current era.
    
  • You cannot add a charge to a wonder that is not currently being worked on.
    
  • If you contribute more production via a charge than is needed to complete the wonder, the excess is carried over to the next thing you build.

A medieval-era ranged land unit which does not replace anything

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


Notable features

• Has 1 range; Crossbowmen, which are available at the same technology, have a range of 2.
  
• Has 50 ranged strength; half-way between a Crossbowman (40) and a Field Cannon (60).
  
• Costs 160 production, 640 gold or 320 faith, 11% cheaper than a Crossbowman (180 production, 720 gold or 360 faith)
  
• Costs 260 gold to upgrade to a Field Cannon, 13% more than a Crossbowmen needs (230)

Enhancements

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


Cultural victories work very well as China. Easy construction of early wonders can help you accumulate a substantial amount of tourism (not to mention the Theatre Square adjacency bonuses) while the Great Wall can provide you with some extra tourism late in the game. Finally, faster civic accumulation helps you get to the late-arriving tourism-boosting policy cards like Heritage Tourism sooner.

Domination victories, on the other hand, aren't such an effective option. While Crouching Tiger Cannons are strong for their era, their short range makes them far better-suited to defence. Nonetheless, getting through technologies and civics faster can provide you with a military edge, so China has some advantage at it.

If you want to pursue a religious victory as China, try rushing Stonehenge and taking the Divine Inspiration belief. If you can rush Mahabodhi Temple as well, you can get a mature religion early along with a nice faith output. The problem with this method is it heavily depends on factors outside your control.

Science is the other strong route to take as China. Stronger Eureka boosts means more for scientific victories than stronger Inspirations does for cultural victories, and getting extra Builder charges goes nicely with the Royal Society building to rush space race projects, but on the other hand, the early wonder-building advantages and the Great Wall UI don't offer as much for a scientific game.

Note that the boost as shown on the Eureka dialogue box does not account for China's extra bonus.


Almost every technology and civic has an associated action which causes you to instantly research a chunk of it. If you are in the same game era as the technology, its worth 40% of the progress - making boosts important to the cultural game and even more so for scientific victories. Careful use of boosts can put you ahead of other civs even if your science/culture outputs are somewhat lacking.

For China, chasing up boosts becomes even more important. As a good hypothetical example, imagine the game has just begun, and it takes 10 turns for both China and a competing civ to unlock Sailing. Both civs get the Eureka. China needs only 5 turns to get the technology now, while the competing civ needs 6. China essentially gets a 17% reduction in the research cost, or to put it another way, a 20% science bonus!

Technologies and civics become 20% cheaper if you are in a later game era than their corresponding era (e.g. researching Sailing in the classical era or later). Researching technologies and civics from later eras than the current game era will cause them to cost 20% more, stacking multiplicatively per era. However, the amount of science or culture from eurekas and inspirations respectively is fixed. This means boosts for research of earlier eras will cover more than 50% of the progress for China, but ones for later eras will cover less than 50%.

Here is a table to show what the effective percentage of research is covered by boosts:


Though getting eurekas and inspirations ahead of time won't generate more or less science, they (and by extension the Chinese civ ability) has a bigger relative effect if you avoid researching too far ahead of time. The nature of Qin Shi Huang's leader ability discourages researching too far ahead early on, though later on you may want to consider whether it's better to spread out your research or beeline key technologies.


China's civ ability is particularly strong early in the game, when most eurekas and inspirations are relatively easy to unlock. Many are tied to Builder actions, and the fact you have an extra charge on every Builder helps get you these eureka/inspiration boosts even faster. It gets rather trickier into the middle of the game, where many boosts require use of specific units or unusual research orders. You can try researching technologies or civics to 50% completion and then switch to something else while you try to unlock their corresponding boosts, but this isn't always the best option. If you come across an important technology or civic with a tricky boost (Mass Media is a good example), don't feel you have to wait for the boost - just go ahead and research it.

What to get the boost for and what not to can be a tricky The situation can vary substantially depending on how your game's going, but here are some general points to consider:

• Boosts dependent on Builder actions are generally easy to obtain. Early in the game, if you lack an appropriate resource type for the boost, you can usually settle a new city in range of it. Later on, that's not always possible, so getting the technology/civic without the boost is often a better option.
  
• Boosts dependent on constructing districts or buildings should be given special attention. Try to ensure all your cities have a diverse range of districts between them, and getting these boosts won't be too hard.
  
• Boosts dependent on specific units are fairly awkward, requiring use of production or gold that could go towards development. It's sometimes worth going without the boost.
  
• Eurekas dependent on the civic tree and Inspirations dependent on the technology tree can vary considerably in difficulty, but on the whole if you keep your science and culture outputs reasonably balanced it should make the process much easier.
  
• Boosts dependent on Great People can be tricky and pretty unpredictable. Don't dedicate too much effort to picking them up unless they're Great People you'd want to obtain anyway (e.g. a Great Artist to help with cultural victory)
  
• Boosts dependent on other civs like the ones for Writing and Defensive Tactics are highly unpredictable. Unless they're on an important research path, it can be worth holding off researching them for a while to increase the odds you'll get the boost.

Some boosts you can find sneaky ways around. The Mobilisation inspiration (have three corps/fleets) for example can be worked around by simply training Scout corps if you don't have a sufficient military to achieve that by other means.

There's alternative means of gaining boosts as well, but you typically don't have so much control over them. Here's a list of those methods:

• Randomly from ancient ruins
  
• Various Great People (mostly Great Scientists); see the administration section of this guide for more information.
  
• The classical-era Great Library wonder (available at the Recorded History civic) grants you all ancient and classical-era eurekas and grants you more every time another civ generates a Great Scientist. This is one of the wonders you can rush with Builders thanks to Qin Shi Huang's leader ability.
  
• Having a level 2 or higher research alliance with another civ (requiring the Civil Service civic) will grant a new eureka every 20 turns.
  
• Spies can steal eurekas from other civs via the Steal Technology mission. You unlock Spies at the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic, and can build more with the industrial-era Nationalism civic, the modern-era Ideology civic, the atomic-era Cold War civic and the atomic-era Computers technology. You can build them faster with the Machiavellianism diplomatic civic card, unlocked at Diplomatic Service, and the Intelligence Agency building will both make them more effective and grant another one.
  
• The modern-era Broadway wonder gives a random free atomic-era inspiration boost.
  
• The atomic or information-era Sky and Stars Golden Age dedication grants a set of free eurekas, depending on the era.

Remember that scientific victories benefit from certain late-arriving civics like Space Race, and cultural victories benefit from some late-arriving technologies like Computers. Try to have a good output of both science and culture regardless of which victory route you're going for.

• Avoid beelining more than an era ahead early on to maximise this ability's efficiency.
  
• Look out for as many eureka and inspiration boosts as possible - Spies and research alliances will help.
  
• Keep your science and culture reasonably balanced as eurekas and inspirations often require use of the other tree.

Qin Shi Huang's extra Builder charge is a very straightforward bonus - every Builder can do one more thing, making them more cost-effective. That can help save time with early city development - you can mix improving tiles with chopping down forests to help with both short-term and long-term city potential. Be sure to build on this with further boosts to Builder charges, such as Governor Liang (the Surveyor), the Pyramids wonder or the medieval-era Serfdom policy card, available at Feudalism.


Early-game wonders are often quite a risk to pick up. Dedicating a lot of production early on to something there's no guarantee you'll win (especially on high difficulties) instead of developing your cities can easily backfire. For Qin Shi Huang, however, smart use of Builders can see you secure multiple wonders even on the highest difficulties, setting you up for the rest of the game.

At the start of the game, you should try and expand fairly quickly. 3-4 cities is a good number to have. With the Ilkum economic policy card (available at Craftsmanship) you can affordably get Builders trained even in small cities, allowing your entire empire to contribute towards wonder construction. Just one Builder can cover 60% of the production cost of an ancient or classical-era wonder.

A good trick to speed up construction is to use all but one of the charges on any Builders you have dedicated to constructing tile improvements. That way, when they contribute to wonder construction they will be depleted, freeing up the tile and letting you move another Builder in. This can allow you to contribute multiple charges in a single turn! If you get a one-charge Builder on a wonder surrounded by others (at least five surrounding them must have one charge remaining) you can rush an entire wonder in a single turn.

Another crucial trick you can use to maximise production efficiency is as follows:

1. Set a city to build a Wonder
   
2. Contribute a Builder charge
   
3. Set the city's production to something else
   
4. End turn
   
5. At the start of your next turn, switch production back to the wonder
   
6. Contribute another Builder charge
   
7. Set the city's production back to the other thing
   
8. End turn
   
9. Repeat steps 5-8 until the wonder is complete.

Essentially, it will allow your city to build two things at once.


But why stop at just two items? By switching my city between working on two wonders and a building, I can develop the wonders with Builders while using the city's production to help develop itself. I'm essentially building three things at once!

As Builder charges are almost always cheaper than 15% of the cost of a wonder, it's not a bad idea to use this trick to train Builders in cities that also have wonders in progress.

You can go beyond the normal 15% of wonder costs by using bonuses that boost wonder production (or modifiers to general production, but they arrive too late to be relevant). Key ones include:

• (Pantheon) Monument to the Gods: +15% production boost to ancient and classical-era wonders. This makes every Builder charge worth an extra 2.25% of ancient/classical wonder costs.
  
• (Government) Autocracy: +10% bonus to wonder construction. This makes every Builder charge worth an extra 1.5% of ancient/classical wonder costs.
  
• (Policy Card) Corvée: +15% production boost to ancient and classical-era wonders. This makes every Builder charge worth an extra 2.25% of ancient/classical wonder costs.
  
• (City-State) Brussels: +15% production bonus to all wonders if you are suzerain. This makes every Builder charge worth an extra 2.25% of ancient/classical wonder costs.

The bonuses from Monument of the Gods and Corvée are the best to have around. Brussels won't appear in every game and the suzerain bonus may be hard to secure, while the Autocracy government has an awkward set of policy card slots that the 10% wonder construction bonus doesn't make up for.


Now that the mechanics are out of the way, let's consider the wonders themselves. Here's a list of all ancient and classical era wonders in a rough chronological order.

Stonehenge

Requires the ancient-era Astrology technology.
Must be constructed on flat land adjacent to stone.
+2 faith. Free Great Prophet and may found a religion on Stonehenge.

The temptation of an early free religion is great, but even with China's ability to rush wonders it's a hard one to pick up. Still, if you manage it, you can grab the Divine Inspiration belief and enjoy a strong early faith output.

Hanging Gardens

Requires the ancient-era Irrigation technology.
Must be constructed adjacent to a river.
+15% growth in all cities, and +2 housing in this city.

Requiring two technologies rather than Stonehenge's one, the Hanging Gardens is a little less competitive on higher difficulties - though it can still be a gamble. Larger cities are ideal for building post-classical era wonders.

Temple of Artemis

Requires the ancient-era Archery technology.
Must be constructed adjacent to a camp improvement.
+4 food and +3 housing in this city, in addition to +1 amenity per camp, pasture or plantation within four tiles of this wonder.

A great wonder for developing a strong early city. If you can manage to get it and Petra in a desert hills city, it'll have both the size and production capable of building many post-classical wonders. The technology's also useful for keeping your civ defended, so there's no problem with picking it up early.

Great Pyramids

Requires the ancient-era Masonry technology.
Must be constructed on a desert or floodplains tile without hills.
+2 culture. Grants 1 free Builder, all Builders receive +1 charge.

One of the best early wonders for China, an extra Builder charge will help you build future wonders even faster. The free Builder from this wonder will be enough to help you get 75% of another wonder built, or 90% with Governor Liang (the Surveyor). There is the problem you need to track down desert land, but you'll often be able to get at least one time by your second or third city.

Oracle

Requires the ancient-era Mysticism civic.
Must be constructed on hills.
All districts in this city produce +2 Great Person Points of their corresponding type (Theatre Squares only produce Great Writer Points). Patronage of Great People via faith costs 25% less.

A reasonable wonder which is particularly good in large cities that can support a large variety of districts. China doesn't get any direct bonuses to faith output, so the cheap patronage is a fairly niche bonus.

Great Lighthouse

Requires the classical-era Celestial Navigation technology.
Must be constructed on the coast (not a lake), adjacent to a Harbour district containing a Lighthouse.
+3 gold and +1 Great Admiral Point per turn. All naval units gain +1 movement.

Mainly useful for water-heavy maps. Its relatively high positioning requirements make it a pretty uncompetitive wonder which means you can pick it up some way into the game, if you want to maximise Theatre Square adjacency or something like that.

Jebel Barkal
Requires the Nubia Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Requires the classical-era Iron Working technology.
Must be constructed on desert hills.
Awards +2 iron and +4 faith to all cities within six tiles.

Great in conjunction with the Oracle. China doesn't have a great need for iron or faith, so this isn't the highest priority wonder out there. Petra is much more useful for a city with desert hills.

Colosseum

Requires the classical-era Games and Recreation civic.
Must be constructed on flat land adjacent to an Entertainment Complex with an Arena.
+2 culture, +2 amenities and +2 loyalty to all city centres within six tiles.

A very good wonder to have in the hands of practically any civ, the Colosseum should eliminate any problems you have regarding amenities for a long time. The notable downside is the need to build an Entertainment Complex early in the game instead of something like a Campus or Theatre Square and dedicate further production to an Arena, but that's a pretty small price to pay in the grand scheme of things.

Apadana
Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Requires the classical-era Political Philosophy civic.
Must be constructed adjacent to your capital's City Centre.
+2 Great Work slots of any type, +2 envoys, all future wonders built in this city provide +2 envoys.

Excellent for the cultural players among us who intend to carry on constructing wonders beyond classical-era ones. Even if you're not, some pre-medieval wonders are likely to still be available for construction after Apadana is done. The main problems with this wonder are that it arrives at a civic most civs want to obtain quickly, and that it's very limited in regards to where you can build it - just six tiles at the most are eligible.

Colossus

Requires the classical-era Shipbuilding technology.
Must be constructed on the coast (not a lake), adjacent to a Harbour district.
+3 gold, +1 Great Admiral Point, +1 trade route capacity, gain a free Trader

The Colossus is a fairly uncompetitive wonder and has a rather useful benefit with its free trade route. That can help your smaller cities to grow faster via internal trading, getting you ready for the tougher technology/civic boosts in the middle of the game.

Petra

Requires the classical-era Mathematics technology.
Must be constructed on a desert or floodplains tile without hills.
All desert tiles (except floodplains) in range of the city gain +2 food, +2 gold and +1 production.

A very powerful wonder if constructed in a city with a lot of desert hills, though even flat desert can become pretty decent considering Great Walls can be constructed on desert. Bring a couple of Builders and even a new city can get this constructed in six turns at the most, or seven Builder charges. The main problems are finding an appropriate spot (you won't always start near desert) and getting to Mathematics reasonably quickly (its boost can be quite difficult, requiring three different types of speciality district).

Terracotta Army

Requires the classical-era Construction technology.
Must be constructed on grasslands or plains adjacent to an Encampment district with either a Barracks or Stable.
+1 Great General Points. All current land units gain a promotion. All Archaeologists can enter other civs' territory without open borders.

Mostly useful if you intend to take China to a cultural victory, being able to send Archaeologists to foreign lands without open borders makes it easier to fill Archaeological Museums and get theming bonuses. You probably won't get many free promotions out of this.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus
Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Requires the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic.
Must be built adjacent to a Harbour.
Free Great Admiral, Great Admirals can use their retirement ability an additional time, +1 charge for Great Engineers.

The admiral bonuses aren't particularly useful for China (although getting two eurekas from Grace Hopper instead of one later in the game is nice). The extra Great Engineer charge is far more useful.

Great Library

Requires the classical-era Recorded History civic.
Must be built on flat land adjacent to a Campus district with a Library.
+2 science, +1 Great Scientist Point, 2 Great Works of Writing slots, gain all pre-medieval eurekas, gain a eureka every time another civ gains a Great Scientist.

An extremely powerful wonder if timed right, but has the problem of arriving at a tricky point in the civics tree. Manage your research right and you could gain an enormous amount of science at once. Even if you're doing well in science and can't get many boosts out of it immediately, you can still get further boosts from other civs getting Great Scientists. Consider passing on some that don't offer boosts so you can maximise the quantity you do get.

If those boosts weren't enough, you also get a bit of science, a Great Scientist point and two slots for Great Works of Writing, helping you pursue both scientific and cultural aims.

Mahabodhi Temple

Requires the classical-era Theology civic.
Must be built on woods adjacent to a Holy Site with a Temple, and you must have founded a religion.
+4 faith and +2 Apostles

A tricky wonder to pick up which is pretty competitive in singleplayer, and not particularly synergistic with China's other uniques. Still, if you managed to rush Stonehenge, this wonder lets you fill out all your religious beliefs without you having to spend any faith.


One useful side-effect of getting a lot of early wonders is the ability to maximise culture yields from Theatre Squares. If possible, position your wonders to allow space for future Theatre Squares in between as many as possible, and you'll be rewarded with even faster civic accumulation (not to mention faster city border expansion).

Furthermore, wonders are a great source of era score, granting 4 a time if they correspond to the current (or a later) game era, and 3 if they're of an earlier era than the current game era (e.g. completing the Temple of Artemis in the classical era). This allows China to reliably enter a medieval-era Golden Age, providing a choice of Free Inquiry (for stronger eurekas) or Pen, Brush and Voice (for stronger inspirations).


You can still rush ancient and classical-era wonders later in the game, and combined with the Serfdom economic policy card (available at Feudalism) this becomes even easier; just one Builder can rush 90% of a wonder's progress.

Otherwise, the main use of Qin Shi Huang's leader ability by this point will be more productive Builders. Keep in mind that Builders become more expensive for every one you build or buy, and training many of them early in the game to rush wonders with could make them pretty costly by the medieval era. Again, the Serfdom economic policy card will really help.

Building lots of wonders will reward you with a strong amount of tourism. Wonders produce two tourism each, plus one for every era since the era they first became available. An ancient-era wonder will be worth 9 tourism by the information era (not accounting for multipliers like the doubled tourism with the atomic-era Computers technology) and a classical-era wonder 8.

• Expand to a few cities so they can train Builders and contribute to wonder construction
  
• Strong wonders to aim for include the Temple of Artemis, the Great Pyramids, the Colosseum, Petra and the Great Library.
  
• Builders may be quite expensive by the medieval era; use the Serfdom economic policy card to cut costs.

Crouching Tiger Cannons are a cheap way to keep your cities defended through the medieval and renaissance eras. Their low range makes them poor at offensive campaigns, but their high damage output makes them great at taking down would-be invaders. While they only have 30 defensive strength - the same as a Crossbowman and not particularly high for its era - planting them on Great Wall tiles (preferably those that also are on hills) helps them to take less damage before they have an opportunity to deal some damage themselves.

The attack strength of your cities with walls (or urban defences at the modern-era Steel technology) is tied to the highest ranged strength of any military unit you control. As such, your first Crouching Tiger Cannon will substantially boost your cities' ranged attacks.

The high power and low cost of Crouching Tiger Cannons helps you keep your army small, saving you production that can go towards meeting eurekas or inspirations, as well as gold. However, they have a notable disadvantage of not counting towards the Metal Casting eureka (which requires you to own two Crossbowmen).

Once Field Cannons are unlocked, there's no need for Crouching Tiger Cannons any more. They have both better strength and better range.

It's not just your wonder placement that needs careful planning - the Great Wall unique improvement also requires good positioning. They can only be built on a tile on the border of your land, can't be built in a triangle, and can't be next to more than two other Great Wall tiles. For the maximum yield, you need a Great Wall tile adjacent to at least two others, so it takes three Builder charges just to get a +2 gold yield.

That makes the Great Wall tile improvement sound pretty weak outside supporting some early gold purchasing, but remember that it has another function - providing a +4 strength bonus to units defending there. This is available a full three eras earlier than a fort, and uses a more affordable Builder charge instead of a relatively expensive Military Engineer charge.

Placing a segment of the Great Wall on a chokepoint can keep Barbarians out of your cities and enemy armies away. By having access to a fort early in the game, China can keep a smaller army than most civs allowing you to put more emphasis on wonders and boost accumulation.

Once you've got the Castles technology, working Great Wall tiles becomes much more viable. +2 gold and +2 culture might not make a city grow faster nor be more productive, but for a city that's hit the housing cap and lacks Mines or Lumber Mills to work, it's an alright yield. More culture means faster civic gain, and more gold can be useful for Great Person patronage or buying buildings in new cities among other things. Try to position Great Wall segments three tiles away from a city centre where possible so you don't disrupt adjacency bonuses for other improvements or districts.

With Flight, things get better. Every segment of the Great Wall now produces 2 tourism. Two maximum-yield Great Wall tiles gives you the equivalent tourism of a Great Work of Writing or Music, and more than a Great Work of Art.

If you're going for a scientific victory, you won't get so much out of the Great Wall improvement, so don't go overboard building them. Just place segments in key chokepoints (helping you stay defended) and you can generally leave it at that.

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


Tier One

Autocracy's wonder construction bonus might look tempting, but Classical Republic is generally a better option due to its more suitable array of policy cards.

Though Qin Shi Huang's leader ability does make the Ancestral Hall stronger than it would otherwise be, consider carefully how many Settlers you intend to train after completing the building. The Audience Chamber may be a better alternative, helping your cities to grow and hence build further wonders beyond the first couple of eras.

Tier Two

Merchant Republic is a reliable choice that serves both cultural and scientific victories well due to its good selection of policy cards.

Complement it with the Intelligence Agency so you can steal eurekas from other civs more effectively.

Tier Three

Democracy is a safe choice for both cultural and scientific victories.

A cultural China will want to complement it with the National History Museum, but a scientific-oriented China will prefer the Royal Society. Qin Shi Huang's leader ability means that you'll have more charges on Builders, and hence get more production out of every one sent to rush space projects.


Ancient Era

Corvée (Economic, requires State Workforce) - It doesn't just help you build wonders faster the normal way - it also makes rushing them via Builders faster!

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Faster Builder training means you should be able to squeeze in more wonders.

Inspiration (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - Many Great Scientists offer Eurekas, and some offer Inspirations. A bonus to Great Scientist Points should help you obtain more of them.

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - This policy card in conjunction with Ilkum can be better than Corvée for wonder production speed if your entire empire is producing Builders for your key wonder-building cities.

Medieval Era

Aesthetics (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - Extensive building of early wonders should provide you with some powerful Theatre Square adjacency bonuses. Make them even stronger with this policy card.

Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - If you're really desperate for a quick defence, this policy card can help you get Crouching Tiger Cannons built faster.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - If there's any remaining pre-medieval wonders, just a single Builder can contribute 90% of their production with this policy card, or the full wonder with Governor Liang (the Surveyor). Even if there isn't, Builders might be expensive by this point in the game with all the wonder-rushing you've done, so getting more out of them is a good idea.

Renaissance Era

Machiavellianism (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Faster Spy construction and operations means you can steal more Eurekas from other civs.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Scientific alliances are a great source of eureka boosts - once you reach level 2. This policy card will help you gain alliance points faster and get you there sooner.

Industrial Era

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Builders are now very affordable and come with six charges (seven if you own the Great Pyramids or are using Governor Liang, eight with both). If you're after a cultural victory, now will be a good time to build Great Wall segments ready for Flight to make them add tourism.

Modern Era

Arsenal of Democracy (Diplomatic, requires Suffrage) - Helps you gain alliance points faster, in turn helping you access a tier 2 scientific alliance for its regular free eurekas.

Nobel Prize (Wildcard, requires Nuclear Program) - More Great Scientists means more Eurekas, or perhaps some production bonuses to spaceship parts.

Nuclear Espionage (Diplomatic, requires Nuclear Program) - Stealing eureka boosts is doubly effective, giving you boosts for two technologies rather than one! Enjoy stealing vast amounts of science.

Police State (Diplomatic, requires Ideology) - Reduces your need for defensive Spies, allowing you to be more aggressive with your eureka-stealing. Beware of the amenity penalty, however.

Atomic Era

Cryptography (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - Helps your Spies both offensively and defensively.

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - An improved version of Aesthetics.


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

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A very powerful bonus which makes your eureka boosts worth 60% of the progress to a technology! This is usually the best early Golden Age choice for China, but the others are great for Heroic Ages.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - If you find yourself with a high early faith output and a classical-era Golden Age, this can be potentially even stronger than Free Inquiry, as you can use faith to acquire Builders cheaply, and then use them to rush wonders.

Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - The culture equivalent to Free Inquiry. If you can generate a good diversity of Great People and get a couple of Markets built, you may be able to zoom through the middle of the civics tree, putting you well into the renaissance era before most other civs.

Sky and Stars (Golden Age, Atomic to Information eras) - Grants three eurekas in the atomic era, or four in the information era. Some of those eurekas have no normal means of acquiring them, making this dedication a particularly effective way to save science.

Divine Spark - An all-round useful pantheon which is good for both scientific and cultural playstyles alike.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes or God of Craftsmen or God of the Sea - All three of these pantheons offer a terrain-dependent production bonus, which is useful for training up Builders in lots of cities to support whichever city you have building wonders.

Monument to the Gods - Get more out of rushing wonders, making your already considerable advantage at early wonder-building even better.


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

Divine Inspiration (Follower) - By rushing Stonehenge along with other early wonders, you can get a surprisingly impressive early faith output. In combination with the Oracle, you can use this faith to cheaply acquire Great People via patronage.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - China should aim to balance science and culture output due to quite a few eurekas being dependent on similar-era civics, and quite a few Inspirations being dependent on similar-era technologies. Jesuit Education makes that a little easier by letting you buy Campus and Theatre Square buildings with faith.

Work Ethic (Follower) - A decent production boost that should help with Builder or wonder construction.


Brussels (Industrial) - The bonus extends to Builder charges used to help rush wonders, so it's a very worthwhile suzerain bonus to have.

Stockholm (Scientific) - Unlocking Great Scientists is one of the best ways of obtaining Eureka boosts. Increasing the Great Scientist Point output of Campuses will help with that.

All pre-medieval era wonders are covered in the section on Qin Shi Huang's leader ability. The most useful of those wonders for China typically are the Temple of Artemis, Great Pyramids, the Colosseum, Petra and the Great Library.

(Cultural) Broadway (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Broadway is slightly more useful for China than other civs as the free random atomic-era civic boost will be worth 50% of a civic rather than 40%. While this is the only post-classical era wonder with direct synergy with China's uniques, remember that it's not the only useful one to get.


These are only the ones that have particular synergy with Chinese uniques, not necessarily the most effective options. All GWAMs are important for cultural victory, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Classical Era

Aryabhata (Great Scientist) - Provides three random eurekas from the classical or medieval eras.

Euclid (Great Scientist) - Provides the eureka boost for Mathematics (handy if you want to build Petra) and a random eureka from the classical or medieval eras.

Medieval Era

Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Great Scientist) - Offers one random eureka from the medieval or renaissance eras.

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) - Provides the eureka boost for Printing.

Omar Khayyam (Great Scientist) - Offers two random eurekas and one random inspiration boost from the medieval or renaissance eras.

Renaissance Era

Emile du Chatelet (Great Scientist) - Offers three random eurekas from the renaissance or industrial eras.

Leonardo da Vinci (Great Engineer) - Unlocks a random modern-era eureka.

Industrial Era

Ada Lovelace (Great Engineer) - Unlocks the eureka boost for Computers.

Dmitri Mendeleev (Great Scientist) - Offers the eureka boost for Chemistry as well as a random technology from the industrial era.

James Young (Great Scientist) - Offers two random eurekas from the industrial or modern eras.

Modern Era

Alan Turing (Great Scientist) - Offers the eureka boost for Computers as well as for a random technology from the modern era.

Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - Offers a random modern-era eureka boost.

Alfred Nobel (Great Scientist) - Offers one random eureka boost from the modern or atomic eras.

Robert Goddard (Great Engineer) - Unlocks the eureka for Rocketry. This is notable because Rocketry doesn't have a standard eureka boost.

Atomic Era

Erwin Schrodinger (Great Scientist) - Offers three random eureka boosts for atomic or information-era technologies.

Grace Hopper (Great Admiral) - Offers a random eureka boost from the atomic or information eras.

Information Era

Abdus Salam (Great Scientist) - Unlocks all information-era eurekas.

China can research quickly, defend reasonably effectively and get a lot of early wonders, but there's ways you can try to disrupt that.


It's not easy to slow down Eureka and Inspiration gain, but that's not to say it isn't possible. If China is denied a classical or medieval-era Golden Age, they can't get the extra bonuses from Free Inquiry or Brush, Pen and Voice. Clearing Barbarian encampments before China has a chance, and denying them early wonders are two good ways of doing that - for details on the latter, look at the sub-section on Qin Shi Huang's leader ability below.

In general, eurekas and inspiration boosts reward civs that pay attention to a wide range of gameplay features; the more single-minded a civ is, the harder it is for them to obtain all the boosts. The easiest way to force a civ to push in a specific direction is to start a war, pushing them to emphasise war-time industry at the expense of other districts.

A more reliable method to set China back is to try and ensure they don't get Great People who offer boosts. Keep an eye on the Great Person interface and look for opportunities for patronage.


There's no warmonger penalties for declaring war in the ancient era, and pretty minor ones for doing so in the classical era. With this in mind, you can start a war with China and start picking off their high-charge Builders. Fast units like Heavy Chariots and Horsemen are ideal for this role. Not only will you send China's wonder production back, but you'll also grab some Builders with plenty of charges for yourself.

For medieval-era or later warmongers like Mongolia, China offers a great opportunity - they'll grab a lot of early wonders ready for you to conquer.


A computer-controlled Qin Shi Huang likes civs that have fewer wonders than him, and dislikes those with more wonders than him.

Early in the game, his bonus to wonder construction will usually give you a positive relations boost, but things may get difficult if you're a wonder-builder like Egypt or France, or a wonder-capturing domination civ. If you're one of those two, consider looking elsewhere for alliances. If you're after a scientific or religious victory, however, this isn't a particularly hard agenda to keep to.


Crouching Tiger Cannons pack quite a punch but defend only as well as regular Crossbowmen. Regular Crossbowmen (or even Archers if you're behind on technology) will out-range them, forcing them to either move into the open, retreat, or take damage without being able to react. Knights can also do a lot of damage to them, and even swarms of Horsemen can be okay so long as you can avoid being counter-attacked.


The trickiest part of facing the Great Wall isn't the gold, culture or tourism bonuses, but the early defensive potential. If the Great Wall is well-defended with units, look for another way around, try to use ranged units to pick off the defenders before using a cavalry unit to pillage the tiles, or just slip through their zone of control by using cavalry units.

Note that as with all unique improvements, Great Wall improvements will be removed if you capture the tiles, so you can't keep them for yourself. You might as well pillage the tiles for the free money.

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These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm.

Compilation Guides

• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications
  
• Civ summaries

Individual Civilization Guides

• America (Cultural/Domination)
  
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• China (Cultural/Scientific)
  
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• England (Cultural/Domination)
  
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• Rome (Domination)
  
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• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
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• Zulus (Domination)

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated. You can find these by scrolling to the top of this page, clicking "Zigzagzigal's Guides" and looking near the end of the list of guides. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.