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

Anyways, without further ado, onto the English!

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

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

England has a coastal start bias. This is great for their focus on naval units from their UA and UU.


+1 for naval and embarked units

Naval unit maintenance reduced by 25%

Foreign Spies operate 25% slower in your cities

Start the game with a spy, all spies are faster and operate at one rank higher then normal




A naval ranged unit


*For England the Ship of the Line has 5 movement, but that is due to the English UA and not inherent to the unit
**The unit has a base 2 sight, but has 3 sight due to Extra Sight(1)

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (28 instead of 25)
  
• Higher ranged strength (38 instead of 35)
  
• Extra Sight(1)
  
• Obsoletes at Electronics rather than Dynamite

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Deals 5 damage to enemy units adjacent to target within range when attacking(Splash Damage)
  
• Deals 5 damage to enemy units adjacent to target within range when attacking(Splash Damage II)

Positive Changes

• +2, &
  
• +25& from spies stealing a great work, stealing a technology, rigging an election, killing an enemy spy, or by constructing a building. Gain +5& from advanced actions. Both scale with era
  
• Has 1 art/artifact slot
  
• Increases city defense by 3
  
• Provides "The Crown Jewels" work of art for free
  
• All Constabularies, Castles and Armories gain +1

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


England is pretty much unmatched in naval warfare, making domination their preferred victory path.
The English UB gives a bit of culture, and better spies can net you some extra great works, but neither are that huge a bonus.
English spies and their UB can net them a solid amount of science, but they lack the production to really leverage it into a science victory, especially since for spies to be working effectively you need to be behind other players in science.
The English UB can net them a good bit of gold, and their spies are just as good if not better at getting city states then they are at stealing techs, making diplomacy a good backup route for England.
Finally England lacks any religious bonuses, but they don't have much to do in the early game and can afford to invest in shrines early.

Right from the beginning of the game, the moment you found your capital, England gains a spy, a more effective spy at that. So for 3 eras of the game, you have an advantage that no one has any method to counter. Early on, I recommend putting your spy in the first city state you find. Early on you can only really steal gold from enemy city's and the amount will be quite small early on. The potential benefits from even just a few city state friendships let alone alliances is greater then the gold you'd be getting. Later on you'll be able to steal from other civs quite effectively, but even then, most of your spies should still probably be focused on city states



England may be great at spying, but their true strength lies on the water. 1 movement may not sound like a huge amount, but it makes a big difference, especially early game. A dromon can move, fire and retreat 2 tiles away out of range of a city, whereas normally it could only move 1 tile away. The bonus becomes a bit less important as ship movement speed increases and once ranged ships can't move after attacking but it still allows your ships to both retreat and chase better then anyone else. This bonus is further assisted by England's reduced naval maintenance cost. This means they can field a larger navy then anyone else, allowing them to use multiple ranged ships to destroy a unit before it can react, or instead they can have more melee ships to increase flanking bonuses, which can be done more easily thanks to having more movement to position with.


I built the Great Lighthouse, allowing Dromons to start three tiles away from a city, move two fire, then move two back all in one turn

The culture is a small buff, but it does effect all of your cities

The Ironworks is already a pretty solid national wonder, and England retains all of its benefits, while also pretty much turning it into a weaker National Intelligence Agency. Enter the White Tower


You even get the yields from building the White Tower itself, which is funny

Every time a spy does a major action, such as stealing a tech or great work, completing a coup or killing a foreign spy, England gains a lump sum of gold and science, and a smaller amount for other minor advanced actions. This is pretty solid, but England also gets these same yields whenever they construct a building in the city with the White Tower. This gives England a very nice buff to both science and gold

Those are the most important parts of the building, but it does offer some new minor benefits as well, such as a free great work and some culture on castles, armories and constabularies in all your cities. England lacks any real benefit to culture otherwise, so while this isn't a huge amount, it will help them get through social policies at a somewhat decent rate.

Gotta find out what this "Line" thing is. Specifically where the top of it is.

As mentioned during the UA portion of the guide, the extra movement is most powerful in the early game, and drops off somewhat in the mid-game. The Ship of the Line makes sure England maintains dominance on the seas.

The Ship of the Line has 2 major and 1 minor thing going for it. The most important thing are its two stacking promotions, Splash Damage I & II. This allows the Ship of the Line to chip away at other enemy units while focusing fire on one unit. Assuming it will take 3-4 shots to take out a unit, you could deal 40 damage to several other units while only attacking one, leaving the rest of the enemy navy, or at least their front line, very vulnerable. This can even work on land units as well, making the Ship of the Line excel even more at tearing up a coastal defense. Ship of the Lines are also significantly stronger then a standard frigate, having a full 3 extra points of both ranged and normal combat strength.

The other minor bonus the Ship of the Line gets is an extra point of sight. It does lose it upon upgrading, but it can still be useful to help avoid an ambush, or seek out a retreating ship. This also helps your Splash Damage, as you can more easily find weak units, and position your Ship of the Line such that the weak unit gets hit by the extra damage, potentially killing them.

• Deals 5 damage to enemy units adjacent to target within range when attacking(Splash Damage)
  
• Deals 5 damage to enemy units adjacent to target within range when attacking(Splash Damage II)

England should start with Authority then go into Statecraft to capitalize on their spies. They should finish with Imperialism to make sure they maintain their naval edge.


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

Dominance: Get some science out of your kills too, plus the healing will allow your units to stand a bit of a chance at surviving a followup attack after defeating another unit

Tribute: Some extra yields for your cities here and there never hurt

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

Discipline: England has some extra cash but unhappiness will be a problem. This will help with that.

Honor: Some extra units here and there, fairly likely to be a naval melee unit, which is pretty nice

Finisher: Being able to rapidly purchase units to defend territory across the sea is pretty nice


Opener: Small bit of gold and a few extra yields in the capital can't hurt

Foreign Service: Yay more spies. The various extra bonuses from city states are great too

Shadow Networks: A good boost to science, but also a really large boost to culture.

Consulates: Helps give an early leg up in the world congress

Trade Confederacy: This helps to make sure you don't have to keep a spy in a city state just to keep over 60 influence

Exchange Markets: An extra trade route, bonus tourism modifiers from having trade routes with other civs, possible monopolies, a fantastic boost.

Finisher: A few yields every world congress session, not terrible


Opener: The English have a large, strong navy, and it just got better

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

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

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

Exploitation: A good bit of yields across the empire.

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

Finisher: Makes your naval units defend even better then they already did.

Whether they plan to go domination or diplomacy, Autocracy is England's best option


Elite Forces: Need some new units? They're better. Have lots of old units? They upgrade faster

New World Order: England needs every bonus they can get to reduce unhappiness, and this is a big one

Military-Industrial Complex(Domination): Cheaper unit upgrades are nice for those last expensive, bulk upgrades

United Front(Diplomacy): Keep at war and city states will be much easier to keep


Commerce Raiders: A little bit of production is nice, but you mainly want this for the better ships, the extra resources is decent if you are keeping up city state allies too.

Lightning Warfare(Domination): Gives you a punch on land to match your dominance of the seas

Total War(Diplomacy): Combines well with United Front to allow you to pump out units for influence


Air Supremacy(Domination): You may have faster embarked units as England but it still takes time to transport an army across the sea. Now it no longer does.

Tyranny(Diplomacy): Even the military you aren't gifting now assists in the Diplomacy game, especially your navy. Just keep a good force near any contested city states and you can really hurt enemy influence

Statue of Zeus: Should help cities go down much faster


Colossus: You're bound to have lots of coastal cities as England, so doing some coastal trading isn't a bad idea

Great Lighthouse: An amazing wonder for England. If you get it no one else's navy stands a hope of ever catching your navy. However, it is just as important that no one else can have this, as if someone else gets this, you suddenly lose your biggest military advantage.

Great Wall: England can be a bit vulnerable on land, this helps mitigate that.


Alhambra(Authority Only): A good bit of culture, and gives you some incentive to make lots of mounted units for your land army


Summer Palace(Diplomacy): Sometimes spies aren't enough and you need to send in diplomatic units. This makes sure they do the best job possible.


Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): Gives you a big advantage in the world congress, whether to secure a diplomatic win or to make sure nothing detrimental passes for a domination game.

Brandenburg Gate: The xp is decent, but you really want the supply limit this wonder gives, you have lots more ships to build.

Neuschwanstein: A bit hard to get due to terrain requirements, but it will help a lot with happiness issues


Prora(Autocracy Only): Helps a ton with happiness problems, plus a free policy on top


Pentagon(Imperialism Only): Air units are pretty useful for England, so being able to make them more efficiently is very useful


CERN: The last few unit techs for a domination game, or a lot of influence for a diplomatic game. Either way you want this wonder.

England seems kinda complicated on paper, but their game plan is actually pretty simple in my opinion. However a disconnect between what England appears to be and what they are can lead to some mistakes.


The Ship of the Line is a great unit, but the military aspect of England's UA is most useful in the early game. No one can use the Dromon or Galleass like England can.


England has a fantastic navy that can conquer pretty much any coastal city. However it can't do a great job at defending it from land. You will need a decent land force to secure a captured city, and to engage any inland cities.


One of the best things spies can do is steal science no question about that, especially given England's relatively weak science. However spies have so much more potential and England is the best civ to take advantage of them, so take advantage


If there aren't any good science civs in your game it isn't out of the question that you could end up ahead of everyone else in science. You might be tempted to then wait to advance to the renaissance to deny others spies for as long as possible. This is not worth it. Your spies still perform better then everyone else, and the longer you take to get navigation the less impactful your Ship of the Line will be.

England has a navy that is second to none, and their spying is near impossible to combat, especially in the early game. However, their navy is not invincible, and while you will struggle to fight the source, you can combat the symptoms spies cause.


Very early on England will have a spy. There isn't anything you can do about this. This will only be an issue early in two cases though, those being if you are a scientific or diplomatic civ. I'd argue it is only more of an issue if you are diplomatic though. A science civ is merely being leeched off of they aren't losing anything. A diplomatic civ however, will be directly competing with England's spies. Early game try to focus your diplomatic efforts on city states away from England. You can overturn England's city states once you have your own spies and better diplomatic units. Later in the game, you can defend against England like you would any other civ using spies. Build constabularies, put a spy in your best science city(usually the capital) and make sure you keep up lots of influence in city states they are trying to flip.

As for their navy, it's cheap and it's fast, but it isn't strictly stronger then normal. If at all possible, grab the Great Lighthouse, and you are on effectively even playing field with England. Even if that isn't an option all hope isn't lost. Put siege units on the coast to pressure any ships England puts nearby, get lots of naval melee units to try and take out their ranged ships, and, most important of all, try to launch a counter invasion over land on England. If you can defend well enough, England will prove no problem to beat on land. Worst comes to worse, you might need to avoid settling any coastal cities if you have an English neighbor, they will prove very easy to defend against if their ships are useless.


The White Tower mostly builds on England already having really good spies. Just try your best to keep their spies from causing too much trouble, and they'll benefit less from this.


The Ship of the Line is a scary strong unit. They can effectively target multiple units at once, they're stronger then other naval ranged units, and faster then all of them too. Try your best to make sure you have lots of siege units on the coast to take them out, and if at all possible, try to surround any Ship of the Line that's out of position with naval melee units. They may defend fairly better then a frigate, but they will still take more much damage then they deal in melee, so several ships with flanking bonuses should hopefully be able to do the job. The best way to deal with them though is to get to ironclads as fast as you can, although they will still do well once they upgrade


Early-Game Warmongers: England might have a pretty decent navy by now, but their land army is probably subpar. If you know England is a nearby neighbor, don't settle any coastal cities so England has no advantage in this war and they should be an easy target.

Mid-Game Warmongers: You will want to try and get a solid navy to fight England now. It will most likely be a losing fight, but you need to hold them off for long enough so your army can take them out.

Late-Game Warmongers: Air units will probably be your best bet to take out England's navy. There is a solid chance England will have some carriers, so try to take those out first so your air units can be effective. Once you have England's navy weakened enough, send in a land force to take out their cities.

Diplomatic Players: England can be a frustrating civ to play against, but it is important to know their spies can only be in so many places at once, and besides spies England lacks any real diplomatic advantage. Use your own bonuses to flip city states fast after England gets a coup on them, and try to keep your influence high in general to make coups less likely

Scientific Players: Science civs usually do well against warmongers, but science is a double edged sword against England, as they can leech off of your tech lead. If England is in the game, try to rush to banking for constabularies, and just make sure you are on top of naval and siege techs to make England have a decently harder time taking you on.

Cultural Players: England may steal a few great works from you, which can be annoying, but there isn't a whole ton you can do about it. As long as you don't have a big science lead that shouldn't be a big issue though. In general there isn't much you can do other then follow the tips above.

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

• Civ Summaries

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