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This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.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

New realms beyond the briny foam await our enlightened hand, yet there are obstacles in our mission to civilise the heathen world. Our rivals in Europe, who fight unceasing wars among each other, and threaten our interal stability. Rabble-rousers in our own country, who would rather see myself deposed than see a secure future. And the unending heathens which forcefully resist our ways. It is time. Prepare the Royal Navy. We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.


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.

England has a tier 3 start bias towards coastal tiles. This makes it fairly likely your starting Settler will be adjacent to the sea. This makes it easier to make use of the Royal Navy Dockyard early on, as well as Sea Dogs later.

• Archaeological Museums built by England have six slots for artefacts, up from three.
  
• Theming bonuses for Archaeological Museums require all six slots to be filled instead of needing three artefacts of the same era from different civs.
  
  • The era or civ does not matter for England; the theming bonus is only achieved when all six slots are filled.
    
  • The theming bonus doubles the culture and tourism output of the artefacts present in the Archaeological Museum, as usual.
• Archaeologists may excavate up to six artefacts, up from three
  
• Cities with an Archaeological Museum may build a second Archaeologist. The two archaeologists are still capped at a maximum of six excavations between them, and using up the last charge on one will remove them both from the game.
  
• All of these changes do not apply for Archaeological Museums originally built by other civilizations, and English Archaeological Museums keep their advantages even if other civs capture them.

• Founding a city on a continent other than the one containing your capital grants you a free melee infantry unit.
  
  • This bonus does not function in duel-size maps as they only have one continent.
    
  • The free unit will be the strongest you can currently construct based on your technology; strategic resource requirements are ignored.
    
  • The free unit will start will full health and can move and fight immediately.
    
  • Cities may be not be captured or received in a deal.
• Constructing a Royal Navy Dockyard in a city on a continent not containing your capital also grants you a free melee infantry unit.

An industrial-era melee infantry 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

• No resource requirement, unlike Musketmen
  
• 340 production cost, 42% higher than a Musketman (240) and 21% lower than Infantry (430)
  
• 65 strength, 10 more than Musketmen and 5 less than Infantry
  
• Maintenance cost of 5, 1 higher than a Musketman (4) and 1 lower than Infantry (6)
  
• +10 strength on a continent not containing your capital
  
  • This bonus is useless in duel-size maps as they will only generate one continent
• Disembarking uses just one movement point
  
  • After disembarking, the Redcoat cannot have more movement points remaining than its limit on land, minus one.

A renaissance-era naval raider unit which replaces the Privateer



Positive changes

• Can capture non-Barbarian naval units when destroying them, if adjacent to them
  
  • The chance of this occuring scales based on the strength difference between the Sea Dog and the unit it defeats. Units with less melee strength are more likely to be captured.
    
  • Captured units will start at 25 health.
    
  • Captured Privateers will not be converted into Sea Dogs.
    
  • Captured unique naval units (e.g. Viking Longship, Minas Geraes) will not revert to their generic counterparts.

A classical-era speciality district which replaces the Harbour

*All districts increase in production cost over the course of the game. If you have fewer copies of a district in total than the average among all players, it will be 40% cheaper to construct.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. It always costs four times as much gold as it does production, before modifiers to purchasing costs are applied.


Positive changes

• -50% production cost
  
• +2 gold adjacency bonus and +4 loyalty per turn when constructed on a continent not containing your capital
  
  • Duel-size maps only have one continent so this bonus cannot be used there.
• 2 Great Admiral Points per turn, up from 1
  
• All naval units built or purchased in this city have +1 movement point
  
  • This is retained when the units are upgraded.

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.


Culture is a very effective victory path for England. Archaeology is already a reliable way to expand your tourism output, and getting twice as many Artefacts per Archaeological Museum and not having to bother with setting up theming bonuses is a great help. Generally, it's a good idea to combine some warfare with culture so you can capture antiquity sites from other civs.

England is also effective at domination. Both Sea Dogs and Victoria's leader ability can secure you a lot of units for free, while Redcoats are very powerful on foreign continents. Extra Great Admiral Points and naval movement from Royal Navy Dockyards will help you obtain naval supremacy, and extra loyalty from Royal Navy Dockyards helps you to retain what you capture.

Religious victories aren't a great route to victory with England. Being able to more easily hold onto foreign colonies does provide you with more cities as bases for your Missionaries and Apostles to spread out from, but generally you're better off going for a different victory path.

Scientific victories could provide a backup victory path if neither culture nor domination are possible. The Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication can make Royal Navy Dockyards provide considerable amounts of science based on their adjacency bonuses, which can be quite a nice leg up earlier on in the game. Royal Navy Dockyards on foreign continents with Shipyards can have pretty decent production yields as well - handy for eurekas and Spaceports.

Let's begin with the most powerful and usually earliest-arriving of England's uniques: The Royal Navy Dockyard. It offers a range of bonuses that will be helpful throughout the game, and will be crucial for speeding up your empire's development ready for Redcoats.


Royal Navy Dockyards arrive at the Celestial Navigation technology. If you start on the coast near at least two sea resources, it's possible to beeline the technology but it isn't necessary to do so. Otherwise, it's often worth going to Writing first for Campuses and the science they offer.

Here's all the technologies you'll need:

• Sailing - Boost: Found a city next to the coast. Thanks to England's start bias, you can frequently achieve this on your first turn.
  
• Astrology - Boost: Discover a natural wonder. A bit luck-based, so you might need to research it without the boost.
  
• Celestial Navigation - Boost: Improve two sea resources.

Position your cities in order to optimise adjacency bonuses. You'll want to always place cities on the coast, with an adjacent lake or coast tile without a reef, and with that tile itself adjacent to as many sea resources as possible. This will allow you to get a +3 adjacency bonus as a minimum in nearly all of your cities, which will be helpful in all manner of ways later on.

Because Royal Navy Dockyards are half the cost of regular Harbours, it makes it easy for England to expand their trade route capacity. Building a Royal Navy Dockyard and a Lighthouse is affordable for pretty much any new city.




A rather helpful bonus - especially early on when naval units are slower - comes with the Royal Navy Dockyard's +1 movement speed bonus to all naval units built or purchased in the city. Early on, you can build a couple of Galleys to start exploring - this will also get you the eureka for Shipbuilding, required for units such as Settlers to embark.



Hey, I've found a new continent! Use the continents lens to work out which areas count as part of the new continent and which won't. Settling cities there will grant melee infantry units via Victoria's leader ability as well as extra gold adjacency and loyalty from Royal Navy Dockyards!

Getting a navy to a new continent can take a while, but the speed bonus should cut the journey time down by a few turns. If you can manage the Great Lighthouse wonder as well, you'll have a +2 naval speed advantage over everyone else. Sea Dogs will find this speed bonus useful to chase down weak enemy ships and to escape from tricky situations, especially once they have the Silent Running promotion allowing them to move after attacking.

Remember, however, that the naval mobility bonus won't affect naval units which were neither constructed nor purchased, such as those obtained from Great People or captured by Sea Dogs.



You too can have districts like this, fuelling your empire's gold and science to an incredible extent! In this case, the district is boosted by the Naval Infrastructure economic policy card for a doubled adjacency bonus, and the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication adds its gold yield to science.

While a few cities settled on your home continent early on will be useful for establishing a base for your empire, for England to achieve its full potential, you'll need to start settling on new continents soon enough.

If you are unable to reach a second continent and you're not playing on a duel-size map (which only ever has one continent), then expand within your home continent, build up Campuses as well as Royal Navy Dockyards, and try to get Cartography sooner rather than later. Its boost requires you to build two Royal Navy Dockyards, which isn't so difficult.

If you can reach a second continent without needing to cross oceans, then you'll be able to put off Cartography for quite a while saving precious science. It might seem strange to put off Cartography as a naval-focused civ, but there's a few tricks that allow you to have a significant naval presence in the time before you get around to the technology. I'll explain those later.

With a new continent spotted, and the Ancestral Hall building complete in your Government Complex, it's time to train up a lot of Settlers to colonise this new land. The sooner you start, the more land you'll be able to get free from excessive loyalty pressures. The Ancestral Hall building allows you to train Settlers faster, and gives new cities free Builders - use them to chop down woods and rainforest, and you can rapidly build your Royal Navy Dockyards.

Royal Navy Dockyards on foreign continents can easily get up to +5 adjacency or even better. That's great in itself, but it becomes really powerful in conjunction with the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication, which grants you science based on those adjacency bonuses. This science bonus will help you work your way to the industrial-era Military Science technology (which unlocks Redcoats) at a rapid rate if you can settle enough cities and build up enough Royal Navy Dockyard. You can use Free Inquiry in the classical or medieval game era (or both), so adjust your strategies depending on what you are able to achieve:

• Classical/Neither - Consider heading to Education first so you can build Universities and maintain a science advantage. Building two Universities is also necessary for the Printing eureka. Going a bit further to Mass Production allows Shipyards for extra production, though they're pretty expensive at first. After that, beeline Military Science.
  
• Medieval/Both - Aside from some important technologies like Shipbuilding, Writing and Archery, you'll want to pretty much beeline Military Science. If you can settle new cities fast enough, you may even be able to get it before the medieval game era ends.

Aside from Royal Navy Dockyards and Lighthouses, you'll want plenty of Monuments in your cities as well. The medieval-era Naval Tradition civic unlocks the Naval Infrastructure economic policy card, which doubles the adjacency bonus of Royal Navy Dockyards - therefore doubling their science from Free Inquiry, or production from Shipyards.

After all the other bonuses, getting two Great Admiral points instead of one might not sound like much, but remember this is in addition to the fact that England should build far more Harbours than pretty much any other civ. It's not inconceivable to produce Great Admiral Points four times as fast as everyone else, giving you the lion's share of Great Admirals throughout the game.

If you can secure both Santa Cruz and Yi Sun-Sin (both renaissance-era Great Admirals), you can get an early Ironclad Armada which complements your Sea Dogs beautifully when picking off weak enemy coastal cities. They're particularly useful if you've been putting off Cartography in order to beeline Military Science. Note, however, that aside from pillaging and promotions, Ironclads cannot heal until you have access to coal.

For more details on the most relevant Great Admirals for England, go to the Administration section of this guide.



Despite settling right next to America's capital, a Governor, a Royal Navy Dockyard, Ferdinand Magellan retired in the city and some small assorted other bonuses are enough for me to maintain loyalty - giving me a great springboard for launching an attack later.

In addition to the great gold bonus, Royal Navy Dockyards in foreign continents add +4 loyalty to their cities. This allows you to maintain colonies that might otherwise be difficult (meaning you can fit in more spots for high-yield Royal Navy Dockyards), and also is a great help in coastal conquests. Any city you capture with a Harbour will have it converted into a Royal Navy Dockyard, and its loyalty bonus in conjunction with a Governor will mean the city won't turn into a free city any time soon.

• Always aim to settle cities adjacent to the sea or a lake so you can get the basic +2 adjacency from having Harbours next to a city centre.
  
• Try to get your first Royal Navy Dockyard early, so you can train a couple of Galleys there and start exploring.
  
• Once you find a new continent, settle it extensively.
  
• Try to get the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication in either the classical or medieval eras so you can beeline Military Science to unlock Redcoats.
  
• If you can get both Great Admirals Santa Cruz and Yi Sun-Sin, you'll have a powerful navy to complement your Redcoats.
  
• With enough stacked loyalty bonuses, you can settle pretty much anywhere on foreign continents.

I had the Warrior stationed there already; the Swordsman is new. I don't even have any iron yet!

Victoria's leader ability can be great for helping you defend new cities without having to dedicate time to building up a new army - well, except in duel maps where there's only one continent and as such it doesn't function. Less time spent training military units means more time to train up Settlers helping you to get even more Royal Navy Dockyards built.


Before going into Victoria's bonus, let's have a look into melee infantry units in general. Melee infantry units are slow, but solid land units which are useful for forming a front line in a war, fighting through rough terrain, or for defending key terrain (such as hills). They're good against anti-cavalry units (Spearmen, Pikemen, Pike and Shot units, AT Crews and Modern AT) and are somewhat vulnerable to cavalry units out in the open, but not to the extent land ranged units are.

Let's have a look at their promotions:



Founding a city on a continent not containing your capital gives you a free melee infantry unit, and building a Royal Navy Dockyard in that city grants you another. You will receive a...

• Warrior if you meet none of the following conditions.
  
• Swordsman if you have Iron Working and none of the following conditions.
  
• Musketman if you have Gunpowder and none of the following conditions.
  
• Redcoat if you have Military Science and none of the following conditions.
  
• Infantry if you have Replaceable Parts but not Satellites yet
  
• Mechanised Infantry if you have Satellites.

Note how Redcoats are included in that list. They're strong units when they arrive, but the production cost and the fact you can't upgrade another unit to them would slow down how fast you can build them. But thanks to this ability, you can get some Settlers ready to found cities on new continents and raise an army quickly! Train those Settlers ahead of time, and escort them to new continents ready to found a city as soon as you research Military Science. Chopping down some woods or rainforest to rush a Royal Navy Dockyard in these newly founded cities will quickly get you a second Redcoat.

Warriors, Swordsmen and Musketmen cannot be upgraded to Redcoats. As such, consider sending some of them back to your home continent to defend.

More details about using Redcoats themselves will be covered in their own section, but one useful thing to know is to hold off researching Replaceable Parts for as long as possible as Infantry are weaker than Redcoats when fighting on foreign continents.

Three things make Redcoats particularly effective - Military Science is an easy technology to beeline, Victoria's leader ability means you can get some for free, and their strength on foreign continents is better than pretty much anything they're going to face for quite some time.


The sooner you can get Military Science, the more powerful Redcoats will be. Settling extensively, building lots of Royal Navy Dockyards, using the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication and using the Naval Infrastructure economic policy card will provide you with masses of science - and you'll need it. Although Military Science has relatively few prerequisites for an industrial-era technology, you won't be able to get most of the eureka boosts along the way, and researching technologies ahead of their current game era increases their costs.

With Military Science, settling cities on new continents and chopping down woods/rainforest to rush Royal Navy Dockyards will get you a a couple of Redcoats a time. This circumvents their high production cost and makes up for the fact you can't upgrade other units to them. Bring along some siege support (a Battering Ram or Siege Tower will do until your opponents have Steel) and you'll be able to really do some damage to opponents who might not even have Gunpowder yet.


Redcoats have 75 strength when outside your capital's continent. That's better than an Infantry unit at a time when you'll be mostly facing Musketmen. If you were fast enough with your beelining efforts, or are fighting against a civ that lacks nitre, the units you face may be even weaker.

However, at home, Redcoats only have 65 strength. That's still good, but their high cost and the fact you can't obtain them by founding cities on your home continent means your defences might be a bit outdated in your homelands. Consider picking up Gunpowder shortly after Military Science so you can at least upgrade your old melee units into Musketmen.



This helpfully provides me with more angles of attack!

As a relatively niche additional bonus, Redcoats can move or fight after disembarking. While Victoria's leader ability makes it possible not to bring an army to a new continent and simply obtain one from founding new cities there, sometimes the land forces in a new landmass are too strong for your new Redcoats to last long. That's where this bonus comes in handy. Escort a group of Redcoats over, and you'll find their ability to move after disembarking helps you slip in more units than usual. This helps with flanking bonuses and to push the front lines of war forwards.

Additionally, cheap disembarking is useful for dealing with cities that are not directly on the coast but are reasonably close. In those cases, you can move from the coast to adjacent to the enemy city in just one turn.


Redcoats remain very useful until Mechanised Infantry become commonplace. It's a good idea to put off researching Replaceable Parts until you no longer are settling any new cities so you can contine to get some for free, though you can continue to train Redcoats until you unlock Mechanised Infantry. Royal Navy Dockyards will provide you with so much gold that upgrading them shouldn't be a problem.

• Beeline Military Science with help from the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication.
  
• Settle at least a couple of new cities on foreign continents after unlocking Military Science for immediate Redcoats.
  
• For landmasses with strong land defences, escort Redcoats over with naval units; their quick disembarkment helps you land them all quicker.
  
• Don't neglect defence in your home continent; Redcoats are less effective there.

Sea Dogs aren't directly any more powerful than the units they replace, but they can potentially help get you a huge navy for free.


Sea Dogs are fairly unusual among unique units as they arrive on the civic rather than the technology tree. Once you have Political Philosophy, Drama and Poetry and Games and Recreation, then you'll need these:

• Defensive Tactics - Boost: Be the target of a declaration of war. This happens pretty often, and if it doesn't, you've probably had a pretty easy start so that'll compensate for the lack of a boost.
  
• Recorded History - Boost: Have two Campus districts. Can be tricky considering how Royal Navy Dockyards and Theatre Squares compete for your district slots.
  
• Feudalism - Boost: Build six farms. Easily done with a couple of Builders.
  
• Civil Service - Boost: Grow a city to size 10. Can be tricky to achieve in time; having a city with plenty of sea resources or room for farms will help.
  
• Medieval Faires - Boost: Have four trade routes active. Easy thanks to the Royal Navy Dockyard.
  
• Guilds - Boost: Build two Markets. You'll have to research without this boost.
  
• Humanism - Boost: Earn a Great Artist. A tricky boost and one you'll often have to do without.
  
• Mercantilism - Boost: Earn a Great Merchant. You'll have to research without this boost.

If you're struggling with any of these boosts but think you may be able to achieve them, it might be a good idea to make a detour to Exploration for the Merchant Republic government. It also offers Press Gangs, which helps you build Sea Dogs faster - helpful considering their relatively high cost.


Privateers are the first naval raider unit, a class that also includes Submarines. They're a bit weaker than Frigates (40 strength and 50 ranged strength vs 45 and 55 respectively) but are invisible to other civs' units aside from naval melee units and those which are adjacent to them. They also have the coastal raid ability, letting them pillage land tiles next to the sea. You can get all kinds of yields out of this (not to mention the fact that pillaging farms heals your unit).

Privateers may attack land units and cities if they're in range. They can't ignore city defences, so it'll take a while to wear them down (unless the city is fairly weak or lacks defences altogether) but they also don't have a penalty against cities like ranged land units do. If your Sea Dogs don't have something better to do, wearing down city defences isn't a bad idea, especially considering they can retreat and exploit their invisibility attribute to make it hard for enemies to retaliate. Make sure you bring some melee naval units as well, or some embarked melee land units, so you can capture the city.

Naval raiders also come with a decent set of promotions. Homing Torpedos gives them a +10 strength bonus against naval units, so your Sea Dogs can take on Frigates more effectively. Silent Running lets them move after attacking, which is great for keeping the unit hidden and avoiding taking damage. Wolfpack lets the unit attack twice per turn, which is extremely powerful combined with high mobility and moving after attacking.


First of all, here's three screenshots showing you how to use the ship-capturing ability:


Your Sea Dog must be adjacent to the naval unit you want to capture. It cannot be a Barbarian unit or an embarked unit. If you set it up correctly and are about to land the killing blow, you should see the percentage chance to capture the unit appear when you hover over it.


It's mine! Forming a fleet or armada with a Sea Dog is a good idea as the capture chance increases the stronger your unit is relative to theirs.


Captured units start with just 25 health, so be sure to get them to your home territory so they can heal!

Okay, with that out of the way, yes, the Sea Dog ability does work. It's just a bit more complicated than the description of the unit in-game suggests. You have to be right up next to the unit you want to capture (giving your Sea Dog's position away) and you can't capture Barbarian naval units.

It's worth remembering that ships you capture won't get the +1 speed bonus from being constructed at a Royal Navy Dockyard because they, obviously, weren't. That means captured ships can lag behind when you're sending your navy to new continents.

What this ability is great for is providing you with naval superiority without you having to spend much production or gold on a large navy (although watch out for maintenance costs!) If your enemy has a strong navy, you can pick off and convert any units that might have wandered off from the pack, or convert one of their front-line naval units and slow them down while they kill a unit they used to own (keep in mind that losing a unit increases your war weariness three times as fast as regular combat). If your enemy doesn't have much of a navy at all, you can use the regular Privateer advantages of coastal raiding and attacking coastal cities without them being able to retaliate.

Eventually, you'll need to pick up the Electricity technology - partly because of the useful Power Plant building and partly because it's on the way to Computers and the doubled tourism output it offers you - making Sea Dogs obsolete. It's not a bad idea to try and form Sea Dog armadas before that point to help for them to be a little more resilient and more likely to capture enemy units. Any Privateers you capture should be promoted to Submarines. Once modern-era naval warfare becomes commonplace, Sea Dogs become fairly ineffective at naval warfare so they should mostly be used for getting the last hit on enemy ships for the chance of a capture.

If a Sea Dog captures a unique unit, it will not revert back to its generic form. That allows you to exploit some of the advantages usually restricted to another civ! Let's go through each of the unique naval units and consider how they can help you.

Norway - Viking Longship

Probably the least useful unique naval unit you can capture, as most of the advantages of Viking Longships are tied to the Norwegian civ rather than the unit itself. Its strength advantage is largely meaningless by the time Sea Dogs are available, and the speed bonus only allows it to match up to a Royal Navy Dockyard-enhanced Galley; not exceed it.

Indonesia - Jong

This fast, strong and early-arriving Frigate replacement is a great target for Sea Dogs to capture - particularly due to its ability to rapidly escort attached embarked units across the map. That can cut time down bringing Settlers or Redcoats to new continents, or get Archaeologists to new antiquity sites and shipwrecks sooner!

Netherlands - De Zeven Provinciën

A decent unit to capture thanks to its strength against district defences. While not as versatile as Jongs or as strong as the mighty Minas Geraes, they're still a fair bit better than your regular Frigates.

Brazil - Minas Geraes

The immense strength of this unit makes it hard to capture, but rewarding if you do. It's strong enough to make mincemeat of city defences, and its long range allows you to deal serious damage to land units which aren't even close by.

Germany - U-Boat

U-Boats have a high sight radius and extra strength in oceans, which makes them good at intercepting enemy naval units crossing between continents. If you can catch them in coastal tiles, they're no harder to capture than regular Submarines.

• Units you capture should be brought to your homelands to heal
  
• If the enemy lacks a navy, just use Sea Dogs to pillage and attack cities with
  
• Form fleets and armadas with Sea Dogs so they can remain relevant for longer.

The science is from the Babylon city-state, which adds +1 science to every Great Work of Writing and artefact - theming bonuses double it!


Really more like a unique building than anything else, England's civilization ability helps you get more out of archaeology giving you an advantage towards cultural victory. Combined with the tourism boost you can gain from trading with a range of different civs, and the high number of trade routes England will end up with from all those cheap Royal Navy Dockyards, cultural victory makes an effective backup path if domination doesn't work out.

Archaeological Museums arrive at Humanism, which is convieniently on the route to Mercantilism for Sea Dogs. You'll need Natural History to acquire Archaeologists and start obtaining artefacts, which is only two civics more, but you'll probably want to take a detour to Exploration for the Merchant Republic government first if you haven't already.

To construct Archaeological Museums, you need Theatre Squares with an Amphitheatre present. You should construct some anyway so you can get to key civics like Mercantilism sooner. There's only so many Artefacts available in the world, so you won't necessarily require Theatre Squares and Archaeological Museums in every city, but the more prepared you are for the moment you can start acquiring Archaeologists, the more artefacts you can grab before anyone else.


Once you have Natural History, antiquity sites reveal themselves and you will unlock the ability to build Archaeologists. Saving up a bit of money to instantly purchase one isn't a bad idea if you don't need the money to buy military units, though at 1,600 gold a time, they're rather expensive! Otherwise, just directly train them - you can get both a free navy via Sea Dogs and army via Victoria's leader ability so your cities will be free to put their production into other things.

Be careful about building two Archaeologists in the same city. Doing that costs twice as much, but you won't be able to use them to extract any more artefacts compared to if you only had one. The main advantage of doing that is to fill up the city's Archaeological Museum faster. Remember that artefacts can only be moved once the museum is full, so if you only use one Archaeologist per city in a competitive race for Antiquity Sites, you may end up with a bunch of museums with four or five artefacts and no theming bonus. It's a rare problem, but one that can occur.

To grab as many artefacts as possible, there's a few things that can help:

• Simply buying them off other civs in trade deals. This can be expensive, but thankfully England tends to have plenty of cash.
  
• Have open borders with other civs or have the Terracotta Army wonder, letting your Archaeologists enter their lands.
  
• Use the Gunboat Diplomacy policy card (requires the modern-era Totalitarianism civic) to give yourself automatic open borders with all city-states.
  
• Invade other countries and take over their cities, giving you access to their Antiquity Sites. You should be engaging in war anyway, so this is a good way to tie together two different aspects of the English civ.

While having double the artefact slots can be useful for increasing your potential tourism output, also of note is the fact English Archaeological Museums automatically theme themselves when full. This can save a lot of trouble when you keep getting artefacts of the same civ or of different eras. More importantly, once you have the atomic-era Cultural Heritage civic and can start excavating Shipwrecks, it's so much less of a hassle to theme them (considering they tend to create artefacts of later eras to those from Antiquity Sites).

There is one downside, however - theming bonuses only apply when you fill all six slots, even if you have three artefacts of the same era and different civs present.


Tourism from artefacts themselves can be boosted in one of two ways, both unlocked in the atomic era:

• The Heritage Tourism economic policy card, available at Cultural Heritage, provides a 100% bonus to the tourism yields of all Artefacts. It also applies to Great Works of Art.
  
• The atomic-era Great Scientist Mary Leakey provides a 200% bonus to the tourism yields of all artefacts. She also provides you with 350 science for every Artefact present in the city you activate her in. A full English Archaeological Museum provides a one-off boost of 2100 science; enough to instantly complete any technology in the game!

These bonuses stack additively with each other and the 100% theming bonus boost, and multiplicatively with other general tourism bonuses (such as the 25% tourism bonus for having a trade route with another civ).

Being suzerain over the Babylon city-state adds +1 science to all artefacts, doubling to +2 if the Archaeological Museum is themed.

Another point worth raising is that Archaeological Museums initially built by other civs are unaffected by England's unique ability, so they will only have three slots and have the usual theming bonus requirement of three artefacts of different civs but the same era. Full Archaeological Museums can swap artefacts, so swap between your captured museums and your English ones to fulfil those theming bonuses if need be.


What makes England's civ ability interesting is that, thanks to its interaction with other uniques, it helps you towards a backup victory path without being a distraction from domination. Sea Dogs come on the same line of civics as Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists, while the ability to obtain free units - both on land and sea - frees up production to build Archaeologists with. As you conquer land, you will gain access to more Antiquity Sites, and the culture from all your artefacts can feed back into war by getting you to useful civics like Totalitarianism sooner.

Ultimately, England's civ ability lets you get more artefacts, sooner, and hence more tourism.

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

Starting with Classical Republic is a good move. Extra amenities will help you handle a growing empire more effectively, the bonus to Great Person Points can increase the odds of you getting some powerful Great Admirals like Santa Cruz and Yi Sun-Sin (or both, for a Ironclad armada in the renaissance era) and the arrangement of policy card slots is good for a peaceful start of the game.

You should definitely take the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building. It not only allows you to train Settlers faster, but gives you free Builders in new cities. You can use those Builders to chop down woods or rainforest to rush Royal Navy Dockyards.

Tier Two

Merchant Republic is ideal. Cheaper districts mean you can get Royal Navy Dockyards in new cities even faster, and the gold multiplier also works nicely in cities on foreign continents.

The Intelligence Agency is useful for helping you either catch up with technologies you missed on a Military Science beeline (more, stronger Spies helps you steal eurekas more effectively), or defend your Theatre Squares from heists.

Tier Three

Fascism is ideal for war-time with a +5 strength bonus to all units. You'll also receive a bonus to unit production, which gives captured cities something helpful to do as your conquests continue. For a peaceful direction, try Democracy - its discount to purchase costs is great given the amount of cash Royal Navy Dockyards can get you.

The War Department is obviously more appropriate to a domination game, while the National History Museum helpfully provides you with a place to put your excess Great Works of Art which you can't put in your Archaeological Museums.


Ancient Era

Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Cheap Royal Navy Dockyards mean you can quickly expand your trade route capacity. Bonus gold per trade route helps you become quite rich even when trading internally.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - The bonuses for founding cities on a foreign continent become more effective the more cities you have there, so getting Settlers up and running faster will be very helpful.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Stacked on top of other loyalty bonuses, this policy card can help you hold onto colonies even right next to other civs.

Maritime Industries (Military, requires Foreign Trade) - Training a couple of Galleys in a Royal Navy Dockyard city will really get your exploration off to a good start.

Classical Era

Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - Another loyalty bonus to help you hold onto colonies.

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) - Rather useful if you have a lot of Sea Dogs as their coastal raid ability will be twice as effective.

Medieval Era

Naval Infrastructure (Economic, requires Naval Tradition) - Doubles Royal Navy Dockyard adjacency bonuses. Shipyards make the adjacency bonus add to production as well, while the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication adds science, so you'll get up to three sets of yields from this policy card.

Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - Having lots of free units means you can easily spare some to boost your cities' amenities in conjunction with this policy card.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Very useful to have in conjunction with the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building, as it lets you get even more out of new cities. You can chop woods and rainforest down to rush Royal Navy Dockyards, and still have Builder charges left over for other things.

Trade Federation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - This can help if you're a bit behind on science and culture, but it requires you to trade internationally instead of using internal trade routes for food and production. For that reason, it's generally useful in emergencies rather than as a policy card for general usage.

Renaissance Era

Colonial Offices (Economic, requires Exploration) - A very helpful loyalty and growth boost for your overseas colonies.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - For your Sea Dogs, this will help build upon their speed advantage that Royal Navy Dockyards already offer them, making it a little bit easier to chase down enemy naval units and capture them. For Redcoats, this saves time when moving on from captured cities to the next target.

Press Gangs (Military, requires Exploration) - Neatly unlocked on the same civic as the Merchant Republic government, Press Gangs helps you construct Sea Dogs significantly faster. Form fleets and armadas with them to help them survive and improve their odds of capturing enemy units.

Industrial Era

Colonial Taxes (Economic, requires Colonialism) - Been settling or conquering cities overseas? Enjoy a 25% boost to gold income. This stacks nicely with other cards such as Naval Infrastructure. You'll also get a 10% production boost, which goes nicely with Shipyards.

Expropriation (Economic, requires Scorched Earth) - If Settlers are cheaper than two Redcoats, it's often still worth settling new cities even this far into the game.

Grand Armee (Military, requires Nationalism) - Helps you train Redcoats faster. It may be necessary to train a few rather than relying solely on the army you get from founding cities and building your UD.

Native Conquest (Military, requires Colonialism) - A fast enough beeline to Military Science means you'll have an army at least one era ahead of the first civs you fight. This policy card allows you to get extra gold from killing their units.

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Useful for the same reason as Serfdom.

Modern Era

Economic Union (Economic, requires Suffrage) - Doubles both Commercial Hub and Royal Navy Dockyard adjacency bonuses. This is great for maximising gold output (especially in conjunction with Colonial Taxes) and can offer some production via Shipyards.

Gunboat Diplomacy (Diplomatic, requires Totalitarianism) - Open borders with all city-states, regardless of standing. This allows you to send Archaeologists in and take their Antiquity Sites and Shipwrecks. Well, they weren't going to use them, were they?

Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - Accumulating lots of units from Sea Dogs and Victoria's leader ability can hand you a hefty maintenance bill. This helps to substantially lessen that.

Martial Law (Military, requires Totalitarianism) - Extra loyalty in cities with a garrisoned unit, helping you to hold onto colonial conquests.

New Deal (Economic, requires Suffrage) - Although the gold cost is harsh, this can still be a useful policy card for England. England tends to be late to Urbanisation so Neighbourhoods may not be fully constructed by this point, making the housing bonus useful, while the amenities help to handle war weariness.

Atomic Era

Heritage Tourism (Economic, requires Cultural Heritage) - Doubles tourism from artefacts (as well as Great Works of Art, but that matters less).

Information Era

Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - Having trade routes with other civs provides a +50% tourism bonus, neatly tying England's civ ability and the Royal Navy Dockyard together.

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

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A crucial Golden Age dedication bonus which makes your considerable Royal Navy Dockyard adjacency bonuses add to science. With enough cities, you can beeline Military Science very early on, allowing you to settle more cities on new continents and get a very powerful army for a low cost.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - The low cost of Royal Navy Dockyards, and the importance of getting lots built quickly, makes this a decent source of era score.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Industrial eras) - A rather powerful dedication for England - it can make holding onto even the most isolated colonies much easier, and makes crossing oceans much faster.

Letters of Marque (Dark Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Losing half of your trade route yields is quite harsh for a civ likely to have a lot of trade routes, but being able to quickly build and move Sea Dogs can help you catch enemy naval units and convert them to your side.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Lots of Royal Navy Dockyards and Lighthouses will mean you'll have plenty of trade routes. As such, this dedication is an easy source of era score.

Wish You Were Here (Dedication, Modern to Information eras) - Extracting artefacts now gives era score every time! In other words, every Archaeologist is worth up to 6 era score.

City Patron Goddess - Useful if you can't get God of the Sea, as it helps you get your first district in cities even faster - such as the all-important Royal Navy Dockyard.

God of the Sea - A reliable choice for a naval-focused civ, offering +1 production to all fishing boat improvements.


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

Jesuit Education (Follower) - This is rather helpful for getting more Archaeological Museums built; use faith to buy the buildings and gold to buy the Archaeologist.

Religious Colonisation (Enhancer) - Cities following your religion gain +3 loyalty. With this enhancer belief, that makes it easier to hold onto new colonies.


Antananarivo (Cultural) - England can produce an awful lot of Great Admirals, and getting a culture bonus from that is useful. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Auckland (Industrial) - Makes coastal cities more productive. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.

Babylon (Scientific) - Grants +1 bonus science for every artefact you collect! That's doubled to +2 in themed Archaeological Museums.

Kabul (Militaristic) - It may seem an odd choice, but consider that units you obtain from founding or capturing cities on other continents won't be constructed in a city with Encampment buildings, and hence won't have the experience bonus they offer.

Lisbon (Trade) - Very powerful for England - it makes your Traders on sea tiles completely safe from pillaging! Considering you may be undertaking a lot of intercontinental trade by the end of the game, that could save a lot of hassle.

Nan Madol (Culture) - Get some bonus culture out of your Royal Navy Dockyards.

Later in the game, when Sea Dogs can win you free naval units and Victoria's leader ability grants you Redcoats, you may have quite a bit of spare production to build wonders with. Shipyards on foreign continents can also provide a lot of production. So, despite England not having direct bonuses to wonder construction, they're certainly not bad at it.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - With this wonder, all your naval units constructed in a city with a Royal Navy Dockyard will have a +2 speed advantage over the units of all other civs. Getting this wonder also denies other civs the opportunity to match your directly-constructed naval units' speed (well, not without a combination of bonuses like the Logistics policy card and a movement-boosting promotion)

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - While you could spend time building this wonder, why bother risking production in the race to build it when you can capture it later? After all, what you'll generally want from this wonder when playing as England is the ability for Archaeologists to enter the land of any civ regardless of Open Border status, something you don't need right away.

Casa de Contratación (Renaissance era, Cartography technology) - Overseas colonies can grant you even more gold and production with this wonder.

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - You may notice England has an unusually high number of effective policy cards around the same time. You may also notice Printing is on the way to Military Science (which unlocks Redcoats) so you can get a head start on building this wonder, and that this wonder offers an extra wildcard policy slot.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - A major reason why picking up Mass Production before beelining Military Science might be worth your while. Every Sea Dog you build constructs two, letting you more easily dominate the seas.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - If you intend to use the Fascism government for its strength bonus, you might have to make some painful decisions about which economic policy cards to drop. Big Ben provides an extra economic policy card slot so the choice is less painful. It also doubles your current treasury, so save up some cash just before you finish it.

Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic) - Given your incentive to build Archaeological Museums, you may struggle to find somewhere to put your Great Works of Art. This wonder will help.

Statue of Liberty (Industrial era, Civil Engineering civic) - Essentially grants you four Redcoats (assuming you have the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building so you can use the free Builders new cities have to chop woods/rainforest to rush Royal Navy Dockyards).


As always, I'm only covering Great People with particular synergy with English uniques. All Great Admirals can be useful in some manner, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Classical Era

Gaius Duilius (Great Admiral) - Save his retirement bonus for when you have your first Sea Dogs. A Sea Dog fleet will have better odds of capturing enemy ships than a single one does.

Themistocles (Great Admiral) - Provides loyalty to a city, helping you secure a colony against foreign pressure.

Medieval Era

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

Irene of Athens (Great Merchant) - An extra Governor title allows you to have an extra Governor to secure loyalty in a colony.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - An interesting Great Admiral to have, Leif Erikson's retirement bonus means you can ignore the Cartography technology in favour of a direct beeline to Military Science.

Renaissance Era

Ferdinand Magellan (Great Admiral) - Provides loyalty to a city.

Santa Cruz (Great Admiral) - You can use Santa Cruz to form a Sea Dog Armada, but consider instead seeing if you can secure Yi Sun-Sin as well. Securing both Great Admirals allows you to form an Ironclad Armada early which will be highly effective for attacking coastal cities with.

Yi Sun-Sin (Great Admiral) - A renaissance-era Ironclad will complement your Sea Dogs very nicely. The combination of the two can pick off some enemy coastal cities while the free melee units you obtain can take the fight further inland. Be aware that the Ironclads will be unable to heal until you have access to coal, (except via pillaging and promotions) so don't go overboard with them.

Industrial Era

Napoleon Bonaparte (Great General) - The irony of Napoleon leading a Redcoat army aside, the two make a powerful combination. Redcoat armies on foreign continents have 92 strength; 2 more than Mechanised Infantry! Just make sure you have a spare renaissance/industrial Great General to provide extra strength and movement to a bigger number of units.

Simon Bolivar (Great General) - Grants loyalty to a city.

Modern Era

Togo Heihachiro (Great Admiral) - Grants loyalty to a city.

Atomic Era

Mary Leakey (Great Scientist) - Not only will you obtain masses of science, but artefacts will henceforth provide three times as much tourism.

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Like Sarah Breedlove, having a trade route with another civ provides an additional 25% tourism bonus against them.

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

England is powerful overseas, but vulnerable at home. Their key bonuses also take a reasonable amount of time to take off, making them often weak in the first couple of eras.


England may get twice as many slots for artefacts, but unless they dedicate production or gold to additional Archaeologists, they aren't any faster at collecting them at first. If you're aggressive with your use of Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists, you can still get a head start against England in the race for artefacts. Grabbing the Terracotta Army wonder for yourself also makes things easier. Getting the atomic-era Great Scientist Mary Leakey and her huge tourism bonus for artefacts will helpfully deny England from getting that.

Alternatively, you can invade England and take those super-museums for yourself. England's defences are likely to be weaker than their offensive power, leaving their homelands a bit more vulnerable than those of most war-inclined civs.


This ability is useless if Victoria can't obtain cities outside her own continent. Warmongers should certainly consider an early rush to take her out before she can do so, while peaceful civs might want to settle in a way that it blocks her routes to new continents.

Victoria has to settle cities or build her unique district to gain free units. That means she'll need to bring Settlers far from her core. Keep an eye on where England's units are heading - there might be an isolated Settler you can capture for youself.

If you're in a war against Victoria and she's gaining units rapidly, use anti-melee promotions as much as possible to counter her army's composition. Avoid using anti-cavalry units too extensively, unless they have both the Thrust and Schiltron promotion.


The sheer strength of Redcoats makes them scary to face in direct combat, but as Victoria's army composition is likely to depend heavily on them, you can give lots of units anti-melee promotions. Field Cannons and Cavalry will be particularly good for this purpose as Redcoats are slow.

If Victoria is likely to invade you from the sea, consider lining your most vulnerable coasts with units (so long as she doesn't have strong naval ranged units like Frigates or Battleships). That stops Redcoats from exploiting their fast disembarkment ability, and also forces into amphibious warfare (for which they receive a -10 strength penalty).

If possible, take the fight to Victoria's home continent. Redcoats have 65 strength there making only three points stronger than Cavalry. They'll be 10 points stronger than Musketmen, but Redcoats are 42% more expensive to train than Musketmen. Musketmen corps are a little more expensive than Redcoats but will be able to fight them on an even footing.


An AI Victoria appeciates peaceful civs that are on the same continent as at least one of her cities. She dislikes anyone who's on a continent she isn't already on, and attempts to expand to all continents.

Victoria's agenda is rather nice if you're playing peacefully and start near her. The relations boost makes it less likely she'll try to rush you, letting you focus more on infrastructure.

If you start on the same landmass but a different continent, Victoria may dislike you at first but switch opinion later if allowed to expand. On the other hand, letting her expand into a new continent gives her extra gold and free units, so you might want to just accept those poor relations and invade England early on. Even just a little pillaging can slow them down.

If you start on both a different landmass and continent, make sure your coasts are reasonably well protected in the event of a naval invasion. Winning her over will be difficult without one of you setting up a city on the other civ's continent, but by this stage of the game it's often not worth it just for that.


Sea Dogs are no better in combat than regular Privateers, so Caravels will be reasonably effective against them. If England pushes towards Natural History early, they'll probably arrive at Nationalism late; you can form fleets to make their job harder still.

If Sea Dogs aren't adjacent to your naval unit when they land the killing blow, they can't convert it. However, if they move adjacent to one of your units, they'll reveal themselves. Moving wounded naval units back may encourage England's Sea Dogs to chase them, and from there you can lead them into a trap (such as a line of Bombards).

Another way to force Sea Dogs to reveal themselves is to place naval units with a gap of two tiles between each one. Sea Dogs moving through the area won't be able to stay invisible (although a loose formation like that does make it easier for Sea Dogs to capture your units).


The obvious thing to say is "just pillage them", but England will often have a strong navy stopping you from doing that. What else can you do? Take the city spots which would have the optimum Royal Navy Dockyard adjacency bonuses (areas on continents England didn't start on next to a river and plenty of sea resources). Those are pretty good city spots for most civs anyway (especially if you're Australia, Indonesia or the Netherlands) so you don't need to go out of your way to weaken England. Even taking other bits of coastline can help; the fewer coastal cities England can build, the weaker their Unique District is.

If England gets a classical or medieval-era Golden Age, they can take the Free Inquiry dedication for a huge science boost. However, at that stage in the game, their navy won't have grown to their full potential power yet, making them more vulnerable to pillaging than they would be later on. You can also try destroying Barbarian Encampments near England so they can't get the era score they would get from destroying them.

Naval units trained in Royal Navy Dockyards are faster than normal, which is something you'll need to be aware of when fighting naval battles against England. Grabbing the Great Lighthouse wonder for yourself allows your naval units to match their speed, but otherwise be aware that English naval units will usually be able to chase yours down. Consider keeping your naval units in groups so your other naval units can cover a weak one's retreat.

England will tend to end up dominating the Great Admirals of the game, giving them another +1 movement speed advantage as well as +5 strength.

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