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 Assyrians!

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.

Assyria does not have a start bias. None of their uniques effect terrain, so this isn't a big deal


When you conquer a City, gain either a Technology already known by the owner and not you or, if impossible, +20 scaling with the city's population and era.

All great works give +3




A support unit









Positive Changes

• +3(Up from +1)
  
• Unlocks at Writing(instead of Philosophy)
  
• Does not require a library to be built
  
• Has 3 Great Works of Writing(Up from 1)
  
• +1 from every 2 citizens
  
• All libraries give +3
  
• Gives a free library to the city it was built in
  
• Comes with the 'Flood Tablet' Great Work of Writing
  
• Every Great Work of Writing you own gives your unit +5 experience when built in any city, to a maximum of 45
  
• When themed, gives +3&

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


Assyria is a very strong offensive civ, in fact pretty much no civ is better at conquering cities in the early game then Assyria. Their UB can allow them to build better new units, which can help defending in a pinch, but ultimately Assyria is pretty weak on the defense.
Their UB incentivizes Assyria to go for great works, however they don't actually have any bonuses to getting them, or any other form of culture or tourism
Assyria's best strength though, is their science. No other civ can beeline quite like Assyria, and they are the best domination focused civ for science, to the point where while they will do war for a significant portion of the game, they are probably better at a science victory then a domination one.
Assyria lacks any bonuses to food, production, gold and diplomacy. Also the nature of having an early UU and the incentive to build an army to go to war as soon as possible makes Assyria bad at founding a religion

That's a big boy

The Siege Tower is probably the most unique unique unit in the entire game. First off is the fact that it isn't actually a military unit, which it does have in common with Mongolia and Venice, however both of those uniques are a replacement for great people, and the Siege Tower isn't even that. It actually replaces nothing. That being said it does occupy a similar role to a great general, and even moreso to the Mongolian UU.


And it can occupy the same space as one too

The Siege Tower gives a massive 40% bonus to attacking cities to all units within 2 tiles of it if the Siege Tower is adjacent to an enemy city. Now that is a bit of a mouthful, but long story short, put your Siege Tower next to a city and it'll go down really quickly. If for some reason getting the Siege Tower directly adjacent to the city isn't an option, 2 tiles away will still give a 20% boost, which is certainly better then nothing. Make sure you treat your Siege Towers similarly to great generals though, as they will get killed if they don't have a strong unit on top of them.



Just as important though is the fact that Siege Towers have Medic I and II. This makes your units adjacent to a Siege Tower heal for 10 extra hp. This means that units will heal as fast in enemy territory as units normally heal in friendly territory. So you can keep your units right in the heart of enemy territory and/or directly adjacent to a city and they will last significantly longer then anyone else. It even makes taking on cities with pretty much only melee units actually somewhat viable.


I used this setup of 4 spearman to pretty much single handedly take out this city, as there were no viable spots to attack with ranged units that weren't swarming with Aztec units. It did take forever but due to medic I was able to whittle the city down

One last important thing to note about Siege Towers is the fact that they do obsolete at Gunpowder. The Siege Tower is actually still pretty much just as useful after they obsolete as they are before, but once you lose it you can't get it back. So while you can make some slightly risky plays with Siege Tower's pre-Gunpowder, you'll want to keep them as safe as possible once Gunpowder is researched


Behind the scenes screenshot of France rudely photo-bombing my attempts to get a picture of the health regen

Assyria is great at capturing cities, which is good as they get more out of conquering a city then almost any other civ.


Note the notification that I just captured a city on the right

Every time you capture a city you get a free tech that the other civ knows. If the other civ doesn't know any techs you don't, you instead get a lump sum of science. This means that as Assyria you can beeline for important military techs, and your conquests will assure you will still get domestic techs.



This means that you should aim to conquer every single city possible as Assyria, as even if they are someone technologically inferior to you, you'll still get a good amount of science. In fact, in a change from the unmodded game, if you conquer a city, it gets reconquered and you conquer it again you get the free tech/science again. So if there is a large enemy army assaulting a city of yours, it might be a good idea to back off a bit, let them take it, then swoop right back in and take it again.



The last minor bonus of the UA is that all great works give +3 science. This isn't massive, but due to your UB (which will be explained in more detail next) you should go for a fair amount of great works. While this means your science will be ok domestically, it is far less then most science civs. To truly stay on top of tech, and to fully utilize all of Assyria's uniques, you want to be at war and conquering cities as much as possible. Even if war against a major civ isn't entirely viable at the current moment, city states are valid targets for conquest.

Assyria's biggest strengths lie in conquering cities. Their UA and UU give bonuses for conquering cities and to conquering cities respectively. The Royal Library helps your armies and science in some different, but definitely still helpful ways.



First off the Royal Library gives a bunch of minor science bonuses. Science scaling off of population in the city it was built, a free library, more science from all libraries and all the normal bonuses of a School of Philosophy. These are all pretty nice, but the most important bonus the Royal Library gives is what it does for your armies. For each great work of writing you own all units get +5 xp when built, up to a maximum of 45. The Royal Library does start with a great work of writing, but 5 xp on it's own isn't a lot. +15 is the amount a barracks gives, which means your units built in a city with no barracks get a promotion. +25 is how much an armoury gives, so new units start with 2 when you don't have an armoury, or 3 promotions when you do. Long story short is that once you get enough works of writing your new units will be able to start with some extra promotions. Getting 4 starting promotions is reasonable with barracks etc. built, which means your melee units can start with march(which combos great with Siege Towers), your ranged units with range, your siege units with volley and siege III, and close to getting range themselves. Make sure you get your great works of writing and you can build a top tier army from scratch.

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

God of War: Lets you get up your army just a little bit faster, plus you can get some faith out of fighting

God of All Creation: A nice bit of extra yields without you having to do anything much yourself. Best on maps of standard size or larger

Goddess of Wisdom: Gives you the extra bit of science you need to beeline early military techs faster


Hero Worship: You already want to be conquering tons of cities, might as well get even more out of it

Transcendent Thoughts: Given Assyria's penchant for beelining, you'll likely advance eras pretty quickly, therefore getting these yields earlier


Cathedrals: Assyria can struggle with gold, being a warmonger with no gold bonus, so this can be a big help

Orders: Combines well with the Royal Library for some truly monstrous new units

Thrift: A nice bit of gold to keep the army rolling


Syncretism: You'll likely have a lot of minority religions in your empire due to all the conquest, so this should be a nice amount of yields

Zealotry: Allows you to really put your faith towards domination


Crusader Spirit: A huge boost to your army strength

Defender of the Faith: A good backup to Crusader Spirit if someone gets it first

Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Assyria should start with Authority to help bolster your warmongering. They should then, interestingly, go Artistry to help generate great works and get more benefits out of them. Finally, it depends where you want to go. If you want to consolidate your conquests for a science victory go Rationalism but otherwise go Imperialism


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 gonna conquer a lot of cities, so this will probably add up to several techs and a few policies

Discipline: Gold and Happiness are both things Assyria will struggle with, and this helps both

Honor: Some extra units here and there, plus they are all stronger. Neat.

Finisher: Free Companies, Foreign Legions and Mercenaries can be useful from time to time, and you'll also get them with more promotions then most. Free Companies in particular are great for Assyria as they give gold from attacking cities.


Opener: Guilds are expensive, but very useful, especially writers for you. Now you should be able to produce them with ease

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt, just keep your guilds up

National Treasure: Extra gold from all the great people you'll have, plus an extra one for free, definitely go for the writer

Humanism: Once you start building up your great works these are some solid yields

Heritage: You might construct the occasional wonder, so this will help sometimes

Cultural Exchange: A bit of culture and production, and if you are so inclined the extra tourism could prove useful for an unconventional tourism pivot

Finisher: Artifacts and landmarks can give some nice yields, so it doesn't hurt to be able to get more


Opener: At this point in the game (depending on the map type you're playing on) your last rivals are likely on different continents, so faster navies and embarked units is great. The extra production is good, and the cheaper upgrades are great.

Colonialism: If you've been doing a good job of conquering your neighbors, you've likely accumulated a good amount of monopolies, which already give great boosts. Why not make them better?

Regimental Tradition: Great Generals and Admirals are very important to keep your army fighting at peak strength, so making them affect more units, and affect them better, is great. Shame it doesn't help Siege Towers

Martial Law: You might have a few puppets by this point, and possibly some happiness issues. This does a bit to make both less of a burden.

Exploitation: Making your military strong is nice and all, but what's the point if your cities can't gain some benefits too? Plus if you have a far away army it isn't as much of a pain anymore to get them upgraded

Civilizing Mission: Gold to support your conquests, production to support your conquered cities, both exactly what you need on the war path.

Finisher: A better navy, less unhappiness, and making your air units more effective on defense are all solid things to have


Opener: Lots of science and a bit of production.

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain this could be only a bit of science or a ton, but overall it's usually worth building these.

Empiricism: Helps prevent other civs from leeching off your science lead

Rights of Man: Little bit of food, better villages, probably the weakest policy in rationalism.

Enlightenment: A free tech and more science is a fantastic bonus. I recommend putting it off till this late because the free tech is likely more useful if you postpone it to when the techs are more expensive

Free Thought: Great Scientists are critical in getting through the atomic and information era, and this makes them better at it.

Finisher: More Great Scientists and more growth.

If you plan to push for a science victory, Order will serve you best, but if you plan to commit fully to domination, Autocracy will work better


Peace, Land, Bread: Being so wide, both poverty and building maintenance are probably a big drain, so this helps both problems and gives some growth

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

Communism: There are some crucial late game science wonders, this makes sure you actually get them


Five Year Plan: Production from tons of sources, a great policy

Resettlement: Even if you've committed to a science win, you will still probably be doing some war, and therefore some razing, this makes it easier to do so.


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


Elite Forces: +15 may not sound like a ton compared to the likely extra 45 you are getting, but it could be enough to push you over to that next promotion where you otherwise wouldn't

Military-Industrial Complex: While you can build units from scratch very effectively, you will still probably have plenty of units to upgrade

New World Order: You're gonna have a lot of cities by now, you absolutely need this.


Lightning Warfare: Better units nearly across the board, can't complain about that

Third Alternative: Unit maintenance could be a big problem for you, this will help


Air Supremacy: Free Airports in every city means that you almost don't need a navy as long as you have a city on every continent. Also makes air units quicker to build if you need to.

Statue of Zeus: Considering your main combat strength early game is against cities, you might as well compound the bonus


Great Wall: A free great general is nice, but the real reason you want this is so someone else can't, as the Great Wall will prove a big hinderance to your conquest of a civ

Oracle: If you've got the downtime for it, the Oracle is always an amazing wonder


Alhambra(Authority Only): Mounted units are perfectly usable by Assyria, and this makes them a good bit stronger


Globe Theatre: A free work of writing and more slots to put them in

Porcelain Tower(Science): You'll have some downtime out of war, and this wonder helps make sure you don't start to fall behind on science when you do

Uffizi: A fair few great works for a solid bit of extra science


Louvre(Artistry Only): 4 great work slots for a lot of extra science

Neuschwanstein: Happiness might be a big issue for you, this should help remedy that


Kremlin(Order Only): Free social policy, always nice

Prora(Autocracy Only): A free policy and a bunch of extra happiness should keep your empire plugging along


Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Makes it a lot harder for spies to leech your tech lead, plus your own spies are better for whatever you need

Pentagon(Imperialism Only): Air units are better, and more plentiful, great for your final late game pushes


CERN: Two free techs to round out the tech tree, great to see

Great Firewall(Science): Prevents other civs from stealing your techs with spies

Hubble Space Telescope(Science): Makes it much easier to build up your spaceships. Very important for you as you have no production bonuses

Assyria plays differently then pretty much any civ, so it is very easy to make mistakes.


Assyria allows for some very interesting strategies, but these interesting strategies are also most of what Assyria has. The ability to beeline military techs without sacrificing domestic ones is a big deal, so use that ability to your advantage, and only research peaceful techs you can't wait for, or if you have no military techs that you can go for


Siege Towers are just like great generals. Treat them as such


If your Siege Tower isn't next to the city you're sieging it is just a medic. That isn't bad, but it is wasted potential.


Unless there is an extremely easy opportunity to grab a city (I can't even think of what scenario would warrant that) there is no reason to go to war before you get a Siege Tower up. They come extremely early, so just beeline military theory and get one up before you even think about going to war.


The Royal Library does make your new units better, but it takes a while to get going. Writing takes a bit to research, then even after building it, it will most likely only give you a measly +5xp. You will have wasted so much potential if you wait for this to come online.


You want to conquer every city possible as Assyria. However if you try to keep every city you will fall apart. Raze almost every city you conquer unless it is a really good city

Assyria combines science and warfare like no other civ. However they are vulnerable to many common warmonger counters, and just like any warmonger, will have very little to build off of once they can't conquer


Assyria's UA does very little for them if they can't conquer cites. So don't give them a good opportunity to conquer any of yours. Don't forward settle Assyria, and make sure any cities near their border are well defended, with plenty of units to protect it. Assyria can take down a city fast but have very little advantages actually fighting. If you can even engage Assyria with an equal force they will struggle, especially if you have even a minor bonus to combat, production or gold.


Siege Towers are the main reason Assyria is a city destroying monster, but Siege Towers are actually pretty vulnerable. They are basically a great general that they want to put right next to your city. Just focus fire on whatever unit is covering the siege tower, then send in a unit to go onto that tile and kill the Siege Tower. Even if that unit is certain to die after, it is a worthy sacrifice, especially if it is after gunpowder. In fact, after gunpowder, if Assyria is an enemy, you should make it a mission to hunt down and eliminate their two Siege Towers, they will struggle a lot once that happens


The Royal Library is a bit of a weird building, but there is sort of something you can do to stop it. Being a national wonder Assyria can only have one of them, most likely in their capital. If you can manage to take down their capital, they will no longer benefit from this, the most important loss being the extra xp. They can build another but they will be down quite a few works of writing. If that isn't an option but you are still worried about it you could send a spy or two to try and steal some great works, thus lowering the amount of xp, but overall that won't make a huge difference


Early-Game Warmongers: Assyria will have a decently sized army, being an early warmonger themselves, but they also lack any real combat advantages outside of sieges. Take on their army, or even just go straight to their cities, and they won't have an amazing answer to you. Just watch out that they don't invade you back, they can likely siege you faster then you can siege them.

Mid-Game Warmongers: Make sure you don't take any cities Assyria can easily get back, you are just handing them science on a silver platter. I recommend using Knights to try and flank their Siege Towers and take them out. While it won't make sieging them that much easier it will make a counter siege from them much less effective.

Late-Game Warmongers: If they've managed to keep their Siege Towers around you now have planes, artillery, and even fast armor units to help take them out. Otherwise, use whatever military advantage you have at this point to beat their armies and you should be good. Just know that each unit they build will be pretty strong, but they lack the gold or production to build them quickly.

Scientific Players: Assyria can rapidly progress through the science tree via conquest, but outside of that hold very little advantages in a science game. The best science producers will still be ahead unless Assyria is conquering extremely rapidly, and many science civs will have better production. So make sure you are outproducing them, both on important wonders, spaceship parts, and units.

Diplomatic Players: The world congress is actually a great way to deal with Assyria. Global Peace Accords will strike a harrowing blow to Assyria's ability to fight. I wouldn't pass Arts Funding though, as it will give them more writers.

Cultural Players: You will likely make a tempting target for Assyria, as you will likely have a few works of writing they want to steal. Make sure your army is up to snuff. Assyria can't build a lot of units but they will be well promoted and up to tech.

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)
  
• 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)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• 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)