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 Ethiopians!

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.

Ethiopia has no start bias. None of their uniques have any effect related to terrain so this doesn't really matter at all for them


When you complete a policy branch, adopt new beliefs, or adopt your first ideology, receive a free technology

+1 from strategic resources




A melee unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (42 instead of 38)
  
• Obsoletes at Combined Arms rather than Replaceable Parts

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +25% combat strength defending against ranged attacks (Cover I)
  
• +30% combat strength when fighting in the capital. Bonus decays by 3% for each tile away from the capital you are
  
• 25% combat bonus in friendly territory(Homeland Guardian)

Positive Changes

• +2
  
• +25% during a

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


Ethiopia's UU provides a very strong defense once they finally come online, possibly the only defense you'll need for the rest of the game. They lack any defensive bonuses until then though, and they have no offensive boosts to speak of
Ethiopia's UA gives some solid scientific boosts, making it the victory route of choice
Finally, Ethiopia's UB and UA allow you to reliably get up a religion with almost no investment, or get up a religion fast with normal investment, making them a great religious civ.
Ethiopia has no other bonuses to speak of towards culture, gold or growth/production

From turn 0, there it is!

Coming in as the earliest unique building in the entire game is the Stele, and on paper, its bonuses are really small. However, they effectively are in play for the entire game, so its effects compound quickly. Steles give the same faith as a shrine while giving the same benefits of a monument. This means you can still invest in your early infrastructure while still getting a pretty early pantheon and on time religion, or you can still invest in shrines to get a very fast religion. Oftentimes, especially on higher difficulties, you need to get a shrine incredibly early, perhaps even as your first building to even have a chance of a religion, but this comes at the sacrifice of border growth and culture, denying you better tiles and the powerful starting bonuses of the first social policy trees. Ethiopia doesn't have to make that choice.



While great in the early and maybe even mid-game that 2 faith won't help immensely in the late game, however an extra 25% faith during golden ages should help ensure that you are still pumping out faith even in the late game.

Think I was like second or third pantheon, so not too bad against the AI

Ethiopia's UA is a bit of a weird one, but not that hard to understand. Everytime you complete a certain action, you get a free tech. Here are the things that can trigger it

*while it is technically possible to get more then 3(the max is 9), 3 is the most you are reasonably going to be able to get before someone achieves victory


First Religion founded, feels great

This means that there are 8 free techs to be potentially picked up throughout the game, and they mainly come from two sources. Religion and social policies. Ethiopia does have very good faith generation, but don't think it's impossible to get beat out on founding. I would still recommend putting a bit more investment into religion then just Steles. If you are unable to found a religion you lose out on 3 free techs, so better to be safe then sorry. As for culture, Ethiopia has pretty much no bonus to it. Investing a good bit into culture buildings and even wonders is not a bad idea. However you can be slow to finish policies and still get the free techs. You can't be denied finishing a policy or getting a ideology unless you are dead, in which case you have bigger problems then missing out on free techs.



The more minor part of Ethiopia's UA is that strategic resources give 1 faith. This will be another small help towards religion that you don't really need to put much effort into acquiring. I would just try and make sure to get animal husbandry and bronze working up early so you can get the faith from them as early as possible, then you are good to go.


Please ignore the invading Incans, and admire our progress in Progress

Another day, another rebuilding from the Incan invasion

You might find yourself struggling against invasion for the first half of the game as Ethiopia, as your only advantage is your ability to stay on unit tech, and compared to some other science civs you don't actually do that all that well. However, that all changes when the Mehal Sefari enters the picture. Fusiliers are already a pretty solid unit, that can handle both ranged and mounted units quite effectively. The Mehal Sefari turns this to the maximum on defense. It has enhanced base combat strength, Cover I, which is on top of the Field Works that Fusiliers already get, Homeland Guardian, which gives a massive 25% combat bonus in your territory, and finally a 30% combat strength buff if inside of your capital, that decreases by 3% every tile you are away from the capital.


To be fair I've got a lot of anti-warmonger fervor here (I was attacked near constantly this game) and tercios are an era behind but still, that's a lot of damage even with no capital bonus


Cuirassiers are only one tech behind, and yet this one pretty much gets deleted. I don't think cavalry would actually fair all that much better.

• +25% combat strength when defending against ranged attacks (Cover I)
  
• +25% combat strength when in owned territory(Homeland Guardian)
  
• +30% combat strength when fighting in capital, decaying as you move away from it

Mehal Sefari keep all their powerful defensive upgrades, so build a ton when you can, and you won't have to worry about defense for the rest of the game

Ethiopia should start with Progress as it gives them a nice bit of science early and throughout the game. They should then go Fealty to help religion, and then Rationalism to help boost science further


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

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

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

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

Fraternity: Extra food and science, can't complain

Equality: Ethiopia doesn't have too big a problem with happiness, but it can't hurt to do better

Finisher: A bit of extra gold to help keep the empire moving


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

Nobility: Castles are fantastic buildings already, so making them cheaper and better is great

Divine Right: More happiness, more culture for having happiness

Serfdom: A little bit of culture and production, plus much better internal trade routes to enhance growth

Burghers: More production and a bit less unhappiness.

Organized Religion: Extra faith and pressure, good to have

Finisher: Keep on top of converting your own cities and they'll enjoy some decent extra yields


Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too. Happiness should become an issue of the past for you as well. Grow to your heart's content

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain, observatories could give a lot of science, or not much at all, but still, more science is more science

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

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

Enlightenment: Because you need another free tech as Ethiopia yeah?

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good, and less religious unrest isn't bad

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

Ethiopia is probably best served by going Order to boost science and production


Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, plus they'll now give some extra science

Communism: You lack strong production bonuses, and there are some crucial late game science wonders, this will help you bridge the gap.

Hero of the People: Get a scientist to get the last few techs, or an engineer to put towards spaceship parts


Academy of Sciences: Free Research Labs possibly before you have them researched will help push your science up like crazy

Five Year Plan: This is a crazy boost to your production, so go crazy with it.


Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.

Pyramids: A free settler is always great, plus some extra golden age points to get extra faith sooner


Great Library: Why not get another free tech?

Great Wall: Will make it much harder for people to invade

Oracle: Almost a free tech and almost a free policy, which for Ethiopia, is progress towards another free tech

Parthenon: A solid amount of extra culture to help progress through your early policy trees


Borobudur: Makes it much more effective to spread your religion with missionaries.

Karlstejn: Not only are reformation beliefs powerful, they also get you a free tech. Even if you already have a reformation belief it is still worth grabbing this to deny someone else an easier reformation belief

Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Cheaper purchases is great since you lack gold bonuses

Hagia Sofia: Free great prophet to do great prophet stuff with. If you haven't founded or enhanced yet, also enjoy a free tech here


Himeji Castle: Makes it a bit easier to defend for now, and just compounds your UUs bonuses for hilarious results on the defense

Porcelain Tower: A nice boost to science, so put it in your best city for that

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Put this in a frontier or otherwise strategically important city and laugh as the enemy tries to take it

Sistine Chapel: A big boost to culture to breeze through the policy trees


Eiffel Tower: Helps to finish off that last policy tree

Neuschwanstein: Makes your already great castles even better. This can be hard to build though given it has terrain requirements though


Kremlin(Order Only): You're mostly here for the free social policy, which is useful for anyone


Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Makes your spies a ton better on defense and offense, and you also get a small science bump


CERN: Will help accelerate you to making spaceship parts

Great Firewall: Helps make sure others aren't leeching off your tech lead

Hubble Space Telescope: Makes building spaceship parts significantly faster

Ethiopia is a very simple civ, however, they can get locked out of getting a good portion of their bonuses if they aren't careful


Ethiopia's uniques do most of this work for you, however it is still worth noting that you absolutely should found a religion, otherwise you are missing out on 3 free techs. Steles and the faith from strategic resources might not be enough on their own to 100% guarantee founding.


Mehal Sefaris are a very strong defensive unit and can absolutely be your sole defense. However they aren't available until the industrial era. You probably won't survive until then if you don't put something into your military


8 free techs throughout the game is a pretty solid bonus, make no mistake. However, the strongest science civs are probably going to outpace you pretty rapidly if that is all you do. You still need to stay on top of building your science buildings, otherwise you will fall behind

Ethiopia has great, low maintenance faith generation, solid science, and a near unbreakable late game defense. However that is all they have going for them, so it is easy to beat and break them through other means


Ethiopia is going to get 8 free techs throughout the course of the game, and there isn't a ton you can do about it short of killing them. You on your own probably can't stop them from founding a religion. Although that being stated, if you yourself do get up a strong religion, converting Ethiopia can prevent them from getting a reformation belief and deny them at least one tech. What is most important to know about their UA though is that it gives them two notable power spikes. The biggest is in the late classical early medieval as they found, enhance and reform their religion as well as finish their first social policy. There is also a smaller spike sometime around the modern era as they finish their 3rd policy tree and get an ideology. Just note that these periods will be great for Ethiopia and plan whatever counters you have against them around that.

One way you can minorly hurt Ethiopia if you are their neighbor is to grab as many strategic resources near them as you can. Not only are you making their military weaker but they also will have weaker faith generation.


Steles are the earliest building in the game, and as such, you probably won't be in much of a position to do anything about them. The only thing that I can state is that Ethiopia will get less faith out of Steles if they can't build as many. So like any faith based civ, cutting off their expansion will hurt them a lot as faith is largely limited by how many cities you have, and Ethiopia is no different


The best recommendation on Mehal Sefaris is to fight Ethiopia before they come into the picture, but there are some options if that doesn't work out. Mehal Sefaris destroy mounted units and ranged units do pitiful amounts of damage so the only option that can do even remotely ok are fusiliers of your own. They still most certainly lose, but not too bad. If you can get overwhelming force you should be able to take them down. Gatling Guns can actually do an ok job against them once they are unlocked, especially with a line of Fusiliers to protect them. Landships should also do a great job as they aren't mounted units. The best answer though, if possible, is to attack from the sea. Mehal Sefaris can't do anything to ships, and once you capture a city, they lose the massive 25% homeland guardian bonus.


Early-Game Warmongers: Ethiopia should prove almost no threat at this point.

Mid-Game Warmongers: Ethiopia might have a solid bit of a tech lead, but that doesn't actually mean they'll be that hard to beat, as they probably still lack the resources to create much of an advanced army.

Late Game Warmongers: Here is where the troubles start to arise. Mehal Sefari are scary units to attack into, and Ethiopia has the tech to make sure they stay upgraded on time, and they upgrade well. Either attack before them, attack from the sea, or attack with overwhelming non mounted force

Scientific Players: Ethiopia has solid science but lacks production bonuses. If you are a science civ with even a halfway decent production bonus, Ethiopia shouldn't provide much direct competition as you should be able to beat them on making important wonders and spaceship parts

Cultural Players: Despite being a pure science civ, Ethiopia often goes for some wonders normally only wanted by culture players, and they have the ability to beeline the techs for it very well if they want to. If you can manage to take them for yourself though, you will hinder Ethiopia a decent bit, and make them even easier to culturally influence.

Diplomatic Players: Voting for Arts Funding may not actually be a great play as it gives Ethiopia the option for more culture, which still allows them to get more tech, so I wouldn't vote that until the late game where they already have an ideology. Just don't vote up science funding and it'll be alright. If you are willing to take the risk of invasion yourself, Casus Belli could make other civs more inclined to invade them, especially before their UU comes up

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

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
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