Are you are struggling with an achievement or do you want to be prepared for a multiplayer game?

Fear not! This guide will examine each and every starting position, and give some pointers, both for singleplayer and multiplayer.

If you are instead seeking basic information and tips, see my other guide:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2874003001

In my view, the game consists of three phases:

Early Game
This phase is focused on expansion. Except for the special first turn, only Flag and Power techs are unlocked.

Your spending is always close to 100% Food.

Mid-Game
In this phase you a focused on unlocking yield techs.

You might buy a unit early for an attack if you see a vulnerable neighbor, but you will need one for defense in due time regardless.

Although you might still be claiming tiles, your Food spending will have decreased significantly in favor of Knowledge.

"Early war" is when you rush Wealth techs and save up Wealth at the expense of the other yield techs.

Late Game
This is by far the longest phase. You have secured your economic foundation and your spending it mostly Power oriented. In this phase you reduce Waste and consider unlocking city yield techs if your population is big enough.

Your situation in a game depends far more on the map and your neighbors than your empire trait.

However, knowing what strategy your empire (and your neighbors) excels at and vise-versa can help you make better informed decisions in your games.

Note that the empire trait determines your starting resources, irrespective of the map.

Empires that can get away with being greedy (sometimes). They generally fare better in early war than other empires.

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Starts with 20 25 30
+ Flags cost 1 less
+ Flag technologies cost 2 less
- Wealth technologies cost 25% more
- Reducing waste cost 30% more

The idea with Expansionist is to expand faster than everyone else and thus secure a heartland with superior yields.

Due to their bonuses, they have the best early game of anyone. This will secure them a tempo advantage which can be used to invest in yield techs or military.

Their strength is also their greatest weakness, since they have no advantage once there are no unclaimed tiles left. Expensive Wealth techs and waste reduction can be very punishing if you haven't managed to secure enough territory.

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Starts with 15 25 30
+ Flags cost 1 less
+ Units cost 20% less
- Wealth technologies cost 25% more
- Reducing waste cost 30% more

The idea with Courageous is to expand quickly and the your cheap units for either defense or offense.

They are like Expansionist except worse at expanding and (sometimes) better at fighting. The potential for an early unit can be used to force your neighbors to invest in military while you keep expanding.

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Starts with 15 30 30
+ Power technologies cost 20% less
+ Units cost 20% less
- Knowledge technologies cost 25% more
- Food technologies cost 25% more

The idea with Militant is to use your military advantage to either fight or deter attackers.

Unlike Expansionist and Courageous, they don't suffer from expensive Wealth techs, so there is nothing in the trait that negatively impacts warfare. The downside is that Knowledge and Food techs are necessary for a mid-game boom, so if they don't use their military advantage they will fall behind.

Use the cheap Power techs to facilitate your expansion, which will also make them easier to defend.

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Starts with 15 30 30
+ New cities don't cost more than previous ones
+ Power technologies cost 20% less
- Growing cities cost 20% more
- Flag technologies cost 2 more

The idea with Imperialist is to use cheap cities and Power techs to defend your territory.

Building cities and unlocking Power techs is the primary way of defending territory in the early game and this is what they excel at.

Survive the early game and boom in the midgame, leading into efficient mid-lategame war.

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Starts with 15 30 40
+ Knowledge technologies cost 25% less
+ Reducing waste cost 30% less
- Flags cost 1 more
- Growing cities cost 20% more

The idea with Bureaucratic is to use cheap Knowledge techs to get their economy going.

They are a bit slow from the start, but once you start getting a significant Knowledge yield they can be very strong.

It is important to secure enough territory to carry you through the mid-game, but this can be difficult depending on your neighbours.

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Starts with 15 25 50
+ Knowledge technologies cost 25% less
+ Wealth technologies cost 25% less
- Flags cost 1 more
- Units cost 20% more

The idea with Scholarly is to use their cheap techs to grow their economy. They are a lot like Bureaucratic, with both upsides and downsides.

If you have a lot of the same terrain, they can fully benefit from their cheap technologies. If you on the other hand have very diverse terrain, it can become very difficult to save up for a military unit.

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Starts with 20 25 30
+ Wealth technologies cost 25% less
+ Reducing waste cost 30% less
- Each new city costs 10 more instead of 5 more
- Power technologies cost 20% more

The idea with Mercantile is to increase Wealth yield and decrease Power waste early.

If they have terrain with high Wealth yields, they can buy units and decrease Power waste very early.

Their primary weakness is their inability to secure territory with Power techs and cities.

Turtle and use big cities to defend your territory.

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Starts with 20 25 40
+ Flag technologies cost 2 less
+ Food technologies cost 25% less
- Each new city costs 10 more instead of 5 more
- Units cost 20% more

Ecological is a weird trait. On one hand they are great at grabbing tiles, but on the other they are terrible at defending them.

Their advantage relies on them having a lot of uncontested land to expand to, since cheap Food technologies take time to pay off.

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Starts with 20 30 30
+ New cities don't cost more than previous ones
+ Growing cities cost 20% less
- Flag technologies cost 2 more
- Food technologies cost 25% more

The idea with Industrious is to survive until the late-game and use lots of big cities to defend your territory.

Their advantages don't become that impactful until their economy has come online. On the other hand, their weaknesses are not that impactful.

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Starts with 20 25 20
+ Growing cities cost 20% less
+ Food technologies cost 25% less
- Knowledge technologies cost 25% more
- Power technologies cost 20% more

The idea with Traditional is to grow your cities early in order to deter attackers.

Their only real advantage over Industrious is that they can expand quicker. After that, they are weaker in every way.

I will only write tips for multiplayer if the maps are suited for that purpose.

Good for multiplayer
China
Ganges
? The Andes
? World
Indonesia
Mediterranean
Asia
Near East
? Sahara
? Mesoamerica

Bad for multiplayer
Greece
Indus Valley
Fertile Crescent
? Agean Sea

Minoans: Ur ded lol

Indus Valley is all about claiming land as fast as possible. The main power is the Harappans, so the other empires should ideally avoid fighting each other.

Harappans - EASY
Being Courageous makes Harappans very good at taking advantage of the great amount of uncontested land. The game plan is simply to expand as fast as possible and making sure to secure as much of the eastern portion of the map as possible.

You should be able to win quite comfortably off the back of your tile yields.








Dholavira - HARD
The game plan is to race the Harappans for the eastern territory. You can benefit from not expanding too far north so that the Mohenjo-Daro is between you and Harappans.

It does not pay off to fight Mohenjo-Daro for the few tiles between you. It is better to cut your losses since weakening them is not necessarily to your advantage.

You should be careful about building cities early on since you are penalized for for each city you build due tot he Ecologicial trait. Build your first city as far east as possible to get that sweet tile discount.




Mohenjo-Daro - HARD
Try to grab a bit of the grassland and river tiles, but your main goal is to secure all of the mountains.

Mountains are perhaps the most powerful terrain in the game since they have the highest Wealth yield and is therefore very flexible. Your opponents will hopefully leave you alone as soon as their borders to the west meet, since fighting there is going to be much more advantageous for them.

Keep an eye out for crown opportunities, since you are in a good position to complete them.

This is my favorite map for multiplayer bar none. The empires are very evenly matched, but each have both advantages and disadvantages. Some benefit from early aggression, while others thrive in the later stages of the game.

Kuru - MEDIUM
In the beginning you have a very even spread of terrain types, making yield techs suboptimal. Furthermore, you start with a size 4 city and is in danger of being cut off from the southern part of the map by Pancala. Flag and power techs are the way to go early on. Just grab as many tiles as possible and make sure to snake southward.

You have more tiles than your opponents available but they are of many different terrain types so you benefit from long games. You should not initiate war unless Pancala is very weak and you can secure a lot of territory by doing so.





Pancala - MEDIUM
Start by prioritizing rivers (flag, knowledge, power techs). Once you have secured them, pivot into grassland.

Since you are Scholarly, the Knowledge and Wealth techs for rivers are very cheap and you can get both very early on. Since you will have 10+ river tiles after a few turns this is significant and can potentially make early war beneficial (probably against Kuru since they also have expensive armies).

Expand to the south and try to branch out so that your neighbors don't get too much land. You should neglect the northern tiles except the ones that benefit from city power (2 tiles out).



Kosala - MEDIUM
Start by investing in rivers since you start with a few and have many to expand to. However, since rivers don't give any Wealth, you have to be aware of what your opponents are doing so you are not caught off guard.

Since you will end up having more forest and mountain tiles than any other types, you should always look at the number of each tile you have (look in the Knowledge tab). The time to unlock on forest and mountain yield techs might come sooner than you anticipate.

Multiplayer
Note that you are very ill suited for getting a 3 Crown Temple of Artemis since you only have five terrain types. Also, you are going to seem threatening so people might gang up on you.

Videha - MEDIUM
You are in a great spot with only one neighbor and a lot of high quality territory. The main danger is early aggression from Kosala, but a lot of the time they will just be focused on grabbing land.

The best strategy is to fully invest in rivers on the first turn unlocking both river flag and Knowledge techs. Then you should focus on claiming the rivers to the east. Make sure to limit Kosala's expansion to the mountains in the north and forests in the south. You should end up with something close to a completely straight border.

Multiplayer
As is the case for Kosala, you have few different terrain types, so Temple of Artemis can be tricky.

Fertile Crescent is dominated by the Babylonians and Assyrians. The Elamites hope to be left alone while the two fight each other, while the Canaanites and Hittites are in a terrible position and are.


Hittites - HARD

The basic idea is to kill off Canaanites while the others distract Babylon.

With the extra land (the westernmost 1/3 of the map) you should have enough to win compete, so you can start focusing on the victory conditions while attacking the stronger of your opponents.

While you are killing the Canaanites, you should start buying desert tiles between them an Babylon, in order to secure the land for further expansion.

There is some RNG involved with how the Canaanites place their first flags. For best chance of victory they shouldn't place a flag on on of the mountains to the north of them in the first turn. And when they later do, it should be on the western of the two mountain tiles. If this happens, you can cut them off entirely from the grassland and plains by using Power techs. Then they will be starved of resources, and killing them is trivial.

Mixtecs:
You are in a bad spot. Make sure to defend from Aztecs, they will be coming after you. It is quite important to reach the grassland on the other coast and build a city there in order to defend those sea tiles with a navy.
The tricky part is managing Zapotecs.

My favorite map by far.

Song is the strongest and Wu the weakest, but if players are experienced they know that and will act accordingly.

Song
Just go all in on grassland. Grassland flag tech -> grassland yield tech -> grassland power tech -> more grassland yield tech -> profit?

Chu
Just lay low in the corner.

Jin
Get two river flag techs, claim the three cheap rivers, and unlock river knowledge and wealth techs on turn one.
From then on focus on rivers until you have spare knowledge and/or food to expand into the mountains.

Aztecs:
Gameplan is to build up and eventually kill Incas.

While your starting economy and your ability to wage war is better than the Incas in the beginning, you will end up with less tiles in the late game.

Incas:
The main idea is just to play passively.

Opener: Unlock mountain Knowledge, and grab a mountain and river tile, allocate Wealth so you have 7 Knowledge next turn in order to grab a flag tech.

You can try to fight Aztecs, but unless they are under heavy assault from Mycenae and/or is a weak player this will be extremely difficult

You goal is to establish "Fortress South America". This involves controlling a 1-layer thick perimeter of sea tiles around your continent. You will usually border both Aztecs, Mycenae and Egypt in the sea. Having an army at your border with the Aztecs and an army on your eastern border is useful for deterring attackers.

If you manage this, you can often achieve victory, or at least second place if you keep an eye out for crown opportunities.


Mycenae:
Aztecs are scary, so you should at most expand to Greenland. Expand east to grab plains and forests if possible. Egypt will be distracted by other empires, so you don't have to fight much on that front.

Harappans:
You need to kill Zhou, simple as that. You need to reach the islands to the south first and cut them off. You can then attack from the mountains. Once they are dead it is a cakewalk.

Egypt:
You will have to fight since you are in the dead center of the map, but this is fine because you will have the biggest economy once you reach the late game.

Opener: It is a bit awkward since you have awful starting tiles.

I find that ignoring the Arabian Peninsula is often a good idea for two reasons.
1. It means that your only land border will be 1 tile wide.
2. It means that Mycenae will have an even longer border with Harappans.

Sea tiles are the most important on this map because there are lots of them, and they lead to everywhere. With big cities, lots of sea Power and a lot of fleets you will be a power to be reckoned with. Place an army or two in North Africa to deter Mycenae.

Zhou.
This is by far the easiest. You have good land, so if you make sure not to border Mycenae, Harappans will be sandwiched between you and be counqured in due course.

Greece is completely dominated by Athens, since they have the islands to the east all for themselves.

Mycenae and Sparta usually kill of Pylos early, and then proceed to fight against each other. Orchomenos and Iolcos both rush west, but tend to become irellevant. Thebes tries to do a bit of island hopping, but will be killed off by Athens relatively early unless Mycenae decides to help.

Athens - EASY
Strategy: Expand eastward prioritizing Islands in the beginning. This will give you enough economy to start snowballing with Sea .

Note that your starting city is size 4! This means that you are relatively safe from early aggression and can secure both Grassland tiles to the north.

First turn: Grab a Grassland and Island tile . Then unclock both Grassland Knowledge and Wealth technologies.

Thebes - HARD
Strategy:

First turn: Grab the Grassland and two Mountains to the north, getting Mountain Flag and Grassland Knowledge techs. Get 19 Knowledge and 9 Food next turn for Mountain Wealth tech and a sea tile.


Iolcos - MEDIUM
Strategy:

Mediterranean is a great map, especially for multiplayer. Most empires have a decent chance of winning, while the difficult empires (Britons, Gauls and Scythians) have a good shot at second place.


Babylonians
Focus on plains, and make sure to get both Knowledge and Wealth yield techs. Since desert tiles are slow to pay themselves off, go after the mountains tiles in the north (and south if you think you can contest the eqyptians.

Cimmerians - MEDIUM
This is a case where you can take full advantage of your empire trait. You should of course grab the immediate Grassland and River , but the main goal is to control the Forest . You can then grow your cities to become the most populous empire on the map. Make sure to take full advantage of the opportunity which gives a free population when growing all your cities.

Since Forests and Rivers only give Food, it is VERY important that you invest your starting resources in a way that allows you to unlock either a Forest Knowledge or Wealth tech on turn 2.

Multiplayer
Once your cities are sufficiently big and you have a couple of forest Power techs, you can start attacking either Scythians or Celts with no risk of serious retaliation or being attacked from behind.

Scythians - HARD
You should start by investing in plains Wealth. Flag techs are not that useful since you have very few expansion opportunities.

You are stuck in the corner so you have to go to war if you want to win, and you have two neighbors: Cimmerians and Hittites. Neither are good victims of conquest, so see how the wind blows. Be careful that attacking Hittites might just end up helping Babylonians to snowball.



Britons - VERY HARD
The main strategy is to expand onto the mainland as much as possible and unlocking Grassland yield techs. Then you should try to attack Gaul very early and hopefully wipe them out. The Celts will usually be distracted by the Mycenaeans and Cimmerians. With the the territory gain from Gaul, you should be able to win.

Multiplayer
Face it, you are not going to win this game, no matter how hard you try. You can attempt an attack on Gaul if they show weakness. Usually it is not possible to defeat them, so your best bet is to build a city on the mainland and grow it to size 4/5 very early using the free population opportunities, making it easy to defend.

Hanging Gardens and Temple of Artemis are the only wonders you have a chance of completing, so focus on decreasing Wealth waste, sit back and enjoy. You should be able to get into the top half if your defense is good enough, and you avoid provoking your neighbors. I have been able to sneak in a 2nd place a couple of times.