Introduction
Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.
It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.
Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia Rise and Fall Expansion
New Frontier content packs
Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal
These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.
Through battle I was granted the inheritance of a would-be empire. A squabble of cities and lordships would be a more apt description, though in diplomacy I have learnt to hide my distain for my rivals. The reality of rule is one of constant compromise; yet the image of rule is one of unbending force. I have won many battles and lost many; gained power and lost it; but my legend has stood the test of time.
How to use this guide
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 if they have one.
The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an 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 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, 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
Glossary
Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.
AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production 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 - 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 (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.
Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.
Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). 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.
GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.
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. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.
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.
Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.
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.
Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. 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, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.
UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "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 trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.
Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.
Outline (Part 1/2)
Start Bias
Germany has a tier 5 start bias towards rivers. The Hansa district gains a +2 adjacency bonus from Commercial Hubs, which in turn gain their best adjacency bonuses when placed next to a river. Dams also provide a +2 adjacency bonus and must be placed next to a river, while Aqueducts offer the same adjacency bonus and are usually placed next to one.
Civilization Ability: Free Imperial Cities
The district limit in all cities is increased by 1.
Frederick Barbarossa's Leader Ability: Holy Roman Emperor
All governments receive an extra military policy card slot.
All military units have a +7 strength bonus against city-states and their units.
This does not apply against levied units.
Outline (Part 2/2)
ElectricityTelecommunications
ApprenticeshipUnique Unit: U-Boat
A modern-era naval raider unit which replaces the Submarine
Research Obsoletion Upgrades from Upgrades to Cost Resource Maintenance
Technology
Modern era
*
Technology
Information era
Privateer
(310 )
Nuclear Submarine
(510 1 ) 430
or
1720 None 6
*If you have no access to uranium, you may continue to build U-Boats even after researching .
Strength Ranged Strength Moves Range Sight Negative Attributes Positive Attributes 65 75 3 2 3 Unable to capture cities
Does not exert zone of control
Deals -50% damage to city walls and urban defences Ignores zone of control
Invisible to other civs unless it's in the sight range of their city centre, Encampment district, Destroyer unit or is adjacent to any of their other units.
May coastal raid, pillaging an adjacent land tile or capturing an unescorted civilian unit
+10 when fighting in ocean tiles
Reveals other naval raider units within the sight radius
Negative changes Costs 510 gold to upgrade to a Nuclear Submarine, up from 410 (+24%)
Positive changes Costs 430 production/1720 gold, down from 480 production/1920 gold (-10%)
Costs 310 gold to upgrade to from a Privateer, down from 410 (-24%)
Does not require oil resources
3 sight, up from 2.
+10 strength and ranged strength when fighting in ocean tiles
This is based on where the defending unit is located.
Unique District: Hansa
A medieval-era speciality district which replaces the Industrial Zone
Research Terrain required Required to build Base production cost Maintenance Base pillage yield
Technology
Medieval era Any passable land tile within your territory
Workshop
Factory
All Power Plants 27 *
or
108 **
or
54 1 25 *All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.
**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.
Adjacency bonuses Other yields Great Person points Other effects 2 per adjacent Aqueduct, Canal, Commercial Hub or Dam
1 per adjacent resource
1 per two adjacent districts None 1 Enables the Industrial Zone Logistics city project
Domestic trade routes to this city provide +1
International trade routes to this city provide +1
Adjacent tiles suffer -1 appeal.
Negative changes Does not provide the usual +1 production bonus from adjacent quarries
Does not provide the usual +0.5 production bonus per adjacent mine or lumber mill
Positive changes -50% production cost
+2 production per adjacent Commercial Hub district
This stacks with the +1 production bonus per adjacent two districts, so a Hansa adjacent to two Commercial Hubs will receive a +5 production bonus. +1 production per adjacent resource of any kind instead of just strategic resources
This includes resources in adjacent coastal tiles
Victory Skew
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.
Leader
Culture
Diplomacy
Domination
Religion
Science Frederick Barbarossa 7/10
(Good) 4/10
(Acceptable) 8/10
(Good) 4/10
(Acceptable) 8/10
(Good)
Germany certainly isn't bad at cultural victories. Strong production helps with building wonders, while an increased district limit means you can construct plenty of Holy Sites late in the game for purchasing Naturalists and Rock Bands.
On the face of it, Germany may seem a terrible choice for diplomatic victory due to their strength bonus against city-states, though this can also be exploited to directly attack and destroy city-states you have no hope of becoming suzerain over. Furthermore, extra district capacity makes it a lot easier to squeeze in the Diplomatic Quarter district as soon as possible, and Germany's incentive to build Commercial Hubs can provide a good source of gold for aid emergencies. That being said, Germany's strong Hansa adjacency bonuses heavily incentivise the use of Coal Power Plants, and their resulting pollution will be a substantial drain on diplomatic favour.
Domination is among Germany's most effective victory routes. Strong production means you can outpace most other civs in sheer quantities of units, while the extra military card slot allows you to use a bigger variety of bonuses. U-Boats can also help with late-game naval supremacy at a low cost and no resource requirement, freeing up more production and oil to use on land or air units.
Religion isn't really a great path for Germany; the main benefit here is the fact you can build Holy Sites and still have a high enough district capacity left for things like Campuses. High production might help you set up Temples faster, but beyond that point, strong production does fairly little for religious victories aside from the odd wonder.
Science is a reliably effective route for Germany. Building a large array of districts and being able to construct things faster make it much easier to pick up eureka boosts, as well as to build Spaceports and space project parts. The main flaw Germany has is the lack of a direct science bonus.
Civilization Ability: Free Imperial Cities
Two speciality districts with just a population of 3. The civ ability increases the potential of what I can do with my cities, while the Hansa district will later help with reaching that potential.
Germany's civ ability is a very simple one: you can build one more speciality district in every city. The maximum number of districts you can build in a city is tied to your population:
Population Limit (Other civs) Limit (Germany) 1 1 2 4 2 3 7 3 4 10 4 5 13 5 6 16 6 7 19 7 8 22 8 9 25 9 10 28 10 11 31 11 11 Note: City Centres, Aqueducts, Canals, Dams, Neighbourhoods and Spaceports do not contribute to the limit. Cities cannot have both an Entertainment Complex and a Water Park.
An extra district per city is mostly useful for new, smaller cities. At just size four, you can have a Commercial Hub, Hansa and Campus in a city; a combination that offers strong production, gold and science. As your cities don't have to be as large to get the benefit large cities of other civs have, this means you don't need to emphasis food or housing as much as other civs do. Smaller cities also are less of a drain on amenities. Nonetheless, it is still useful to have at least a couple of larger cities to handle wonder construction and eventually space projects.
When you found cities, keep them close together. Less room for farms isn't a problem when you can have powerful cities with fewer citizens, and proximity will help you make the most of Hansa districts later.
Having a bigger variety of districts in each city will boost the yields of trade routes sent to them. Campuses, Commercial Hubs, Entertainment Complexes, Holy Sites, Theatre Squares and Water Parks add 1 food each to internal trade routes to a city that contains them, while Encampments, Harbours and Industrial Zones add 1 production each. The Diplomatic Quarter and Government Plaza each add both 1 food and 1 production. Considering your incentive to build a lot of Commercial Hubs to go with your Hansas, you shouldn't have trouble building lots of Markets for trade route capacity.
Increasing the district capacity is also useful for any city-states or other cities you might capture with awkward district choices. While cities lose population when you capture them, the increased district cap means you don't have to wait as long until you can build more useful districts there.
Conclusion
Ultimately, extra district capacity for all cities is helpful no matter your eventual goals for the game, and is particularly easy to use. It's in Germany's other uniques where the real in-depth strategies can be found.
Frederick Barbarossa's Leader Ability: Holy Roman Emperor
Frederick Barbarossa's leader ability carries with it a pair of bonuses which are war-focused, but not necessarily just for those after a domination victory. Through careful use of the extra policy card and strength bonus against city-states, you can make a good start that will aid you no matter your eventual path.
Additional military policy card slot
Early on, having two military policy cards available instead of one allows you to use combinations such as Agoge (+50% production towards melee infantry, anti-cavalry and land ranged units) and Discipline (+5 strength vs. Barbarians), which can be helpful for staying defended. Where this bonus really comes into its own, however, is once you reach the Political Philosophy civic and can start choosing between government types.
An extra military policy card means you can take the housing and amenity advantages of Classical Republic, along with its good array of economic policy cards, and still have a slot specifically for military cards. This becomes really useful at the medieval-era Guilds civic, as it unlocks the Craftsmen military policy card which doubles Hansa adjacency bonuses.
Later in the game, the free card fades somewhat in effectiveness, but it's still nice to have your options open. For more information on good choices of military policy cards, go to the Administration section of this guide.
+7 strength bonus vs. city-states
Thanks for the easy training opportunity!
Introduction
Germany can develop strong cities thanks to the Hansa and the civ ability, but that's not all. By capturing city-states early on, Germany can make their start even stronger while setting back any civ too invested in them. Just a few early Archers and a couple of Warriors can be enough to take out a nearby city-state, giving you a reasonably-developed city without the need to found one yourself or risk a war with a full civ. Even if you don't want to take city-states over, the bonus means their units will be much less of a problem if you're at war with their suzerain.
There are a few negative conquences from taking over city-states, but also plenty of opportunities as well. Consider all of these, and plan accordingly...
Grievances
Declaring war on a city-state and taking it over generates grievances with all civs which have envoys present. If another civ has an excessive amount of grievances with you, you will lose diplomatic favour every turn. Declaring war on a civ which has a lot of grievances with you may initiate a military aid emergency, and may result in that civ getting a lot of money from other nations as a result. Having high grievances while at war with a civ will cause any cities you capture off them to have a significant loyalty penalty, making it hard to prevent them becoming free cities.
Grievances decay at a rate of 10 per turn in the ancient era, 9 per turn in the classical era and so forth, up to just 2 per turn in the future era. As such, if you want to avoid penalties associated with grievances, it's a good idea to attack city-states earlier in the game.
If a civ with the Defensive Tactics civic is suzerain over a city-state, declaring war on it will allow the full civ to use the Protectorate casus belli against you. This notably has no grievance penalties associated with declaring it, which means they'll suffer very little war weariness in a war against you.
Loss of Bonuses
Captured city-states no longer have envoy or suzerain bonuses unless they become liberated again. As such, you should take into consideration which city-states you attack before you do so. A city-state is a better target if:
It is of a less useful type (typically religious city-states aren't very helpful for Germany, so are more useful captured, while industrial city-states should usually be kept alive, and trade and scientific ones to a lesser extent)
It's close to your existing territory
You don't have envoys invested there already (you may want to hold onto envoys rather than spend them at first for this reason)
Its suzerain bonus isn't particularly relevant to you
City-State Emergencies
Taking over a city-state in the medieval game era or later may trigger a city-state emergency against you. This allows other civs which are not friends or allies with you, and have at least one envoy present in the city-state in question, to band together in a war against you.
If at least one other civ joins the coalition, the emergency takes effect until either they liberate the captured city (meaning the coalition wins) or 30 turns pass (meaning you win).
If the coalition wins, each member will receive 100 diplomatic favour, and permanently gain 1 gold per turn for every envoy they have present in a city-state.
If you win, you'll permanently receive +2 gold for all the trade routes you have with city-states, in addition to a one-off bonus of 200 diplomatic favour. As such, taking a city-state over can create quite a nice opportunity for economic development if you can hold on to it for the emergency's duration!
Experience Farming
When fighting Barbarians, once a military unit has reached their first promotion, they'll only ever gain 1XP from future battles. However, when you're fighting city-states, units will receive their full experience regardless of promotion level. As such, declaring war on an unimportant city-state can be a great opportunity even if you can't capture it. Promoting units can be a great way to make your army more powerful without having to invest further production or gold.
Conquering a Foothold
If you're after a domination victory, capturing city-states can be an easy way of providing a foothold onto new continents later in the game - assuming you can take enough loyalty bonuses to prevent it flipping out of your control (your extra military policy card slot will really help). From there, you can build up your army ready to invade civs near the city-state. The U-Boat will help you secure the seas if the war goes badly, so it will be difficult for the other civ to successfully retaliate.
Summary
Use the extra military policy card to improve governments that lack them
Use the bonus against city-states to help expand your empire early on or to gain easy experience for units
Later in the game, the bonus against city-states can help you gain a foothold on new continents - assuming you have enough loyalty boosts.
Unique District: Hansa
The Hansa offers a huge boost to production most civs can only dream of. Even better, the district (like all unique districts) costs only half as much, so even new cities can quickly receive a good production boost.
The Research Path
As Hansas are particularly powerful, it's worthwhile to get Apprenticeship as soon as you can. Considering Commercial Hubs are necessary to produce the best yields out of Hansas, it may be helpful to favour researching Currency before Horseback Riding (both technologies being prerequisites of Apprenticeship).
Here's everything needed for Commercial Hubs:
Pottery
Writing (Eureka: Meet another civ - If this doesn't happen, than that means you've got a nice relaxed early-game where you can freely expand without the risk of war. So either way it's good).
Currency (Eureka: Make a trade route - You'll need the Foreign Trade civic for this; it's not too hard to get this eureka in time though.)
And here's everything else needed for Apprenticeship:
Animal Husbandry
Archery (Eureka: Kill a unit with a Slinger - Training a Slinger first is a good idea to keep Barbarians at bay anyway).
Horseback Riding (Eureka: Construct a pasture - Easy enough; if your capital lacks pasture resources, your second city will usually have some)
Apprenticeship (Eureka: Construct three mines - If you aren't close to achieving that already, train a Builder and send them to some hills to dig mines. Remember that you need the Mining technology for that.)
While you could in theory only research those technologies, Apprenticeship will be a very expensive technology to research this early in the game (especially considering technologies are more expensive to research if they're ahead of the current game era). It's a good idea to take a couple of detours to Builder technologies early on, as the resulting boost to city development will help speed up construction of Campuses and hence your research. As such, a good research order could be:
Animal Husbandry/Mining/other needed Builder technologies
Writing (and prerequisites)
Currency
Apprenticeship (and remaining prerequisites)
Picking up Writing early on means you can get Campuses up faster - the science boost will be helpful for cleaning up the rest of the technologies.
Placement
How you position your Hansas is key to making the most of them. Here's all the adjacency bonuses they can receive:
+1 per two adjacent districts of any type
+1 per adjacent resource of any type
+2 per adjacent Aqueduct, Canal, Commercial Hub or Dam
The last of these is clearly the most important. While other civ's Industrial Zones get similarly strong adjacency bonuses from Aqueducts, Canals and Dams, Germany is unique in getting them from Commercial Hubs as well. Commercial Hubs have much less strict placement rules than the other districts, so by planning carefully you can produce much better yields than you might get for merely looking for resource-heavy spots.
A more straightforward setup is to create a zigzag of Commerical Hubs on a river, then place Hansa districts either side of them. This creates good Commercial Hub and Hansa yields alike! Here's an example.
Aqueducts in this case are placed around the core Commercial Hub zigzag as a complement to those yields.
If you don't mind losing out on some Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses, you can take a different approach - look out for where you'd place Aqueducts, Dams and Canals to maximise Hansa yields, then add the Commercial Hubs afterwards.
By sacrificing a good Commercial Hub spot, and rearranging the city placement slightly, this results in even better Hansas.
For the best yields, it's a good idea to make sure your cities are kept close together to make district adjacency easier. Germany's increased district limit from population means you can cope with fewer farms than most civs, so keeping a compact empire is easier than it is for others. More dispersed cities can't as easily make these powerful Hansa/Commercial Hub formations. If you find yourself having to keep cities apart, you may need to rely on resource tiles to maximise your adjacency bonuses instead.
Keeping cities close together will also be useful later with Governor Magnus (the Industrialist)'s Vertical Integration promotion, which allows one city to benefit from multiple Factories. This will result in an extremely productive city that will be able to manage pretty much anything you want to build there.
Output
Hansas produce masses of production already, but that can be increased further with the Craftsmen military policy card at the medieval-era Guilds civic, or the Five-Year Plan economic policy card at the modern-era Ideology civic - both of which double the adjacency bonus. You can double this bonus again with Coal Power Plants (requires the industrial-era Industrialisation technology).
This production can be put to good use in a variety of ways such as working towards eurekas, training an army, getting wonders constructed and space race projects.
There's one little problem, however. Hansas, being Industrial Zone replacements, may be pillaged by enemy Spies even when you're not at war with any civ. It's a good idea to train Spies of your own to use as counter-Spies. Consider using policy cards such as Cryptography (diplomatic, available at the atomic-era Cold War civic) to help defend against enemy Spies.
Summary Once you're done with Writing, Mining and other Builder technologies, beeline Apprenticeship.
Place your cities close together so you can produce a powerful Commercial Hub/Hansa combination.
You can make a zigzag of Commercial Hubs with Hansas either side of the zigzag for reliably good yields.
Alternatively, position Aqueducts, Dams and Canals first to maximise Hansa bonuses, then fill in the gaps with Commercial Hubs for even more production at the cost of some gold.
Ensure you have good defence against enemy Spies to keep your Hansas safe from pillagers.
Unique Unit: U-Boat
The U-Boat offers all the potential of regular Submarines without some of the usual limitations. It's still a niche unit and typically Germany's weakest unique bonus, but it still has its applications.
Construction
U-Boats require the modern-era Electricity technology to build, which is only two technologies away from Industrialisation (which unlocks Factories and Coal Power Plants for significantly better Hansa production). As U-Boats have no oil requirement, you can completely ignore the need to research Refining first, potentially giving you Submarines far earlier than other civs! Build a couple of Privateers on the way - you'll need two for the eureka for Electricity, and you can upgrade them to U-Boats as soon as the technology is complete.
U-Boats are cheaper to build than regular Submarines, which also reduces the cost to upgrade Privateers to them. Because of their high strength in ocean tiles, you may want to keep them as individual units at first rather than forming fleets or armadas.
Units that consume coal, oil or uranium every turn create pollution, and as such so do generic Submarines. As U-Boats do not consume any resources, they will not contribute to Germany's carbon dioxide emissions and hence won't lead to diplomatic favour penalties or additional progress towards climate change. That being said, the huge production bonuses Germany can get from Coal Power Plants can undermine this advantage.
Usage
The best use of U-Boats is to intercept enemies who are attempting to cross the seas towards your lands. U-Boats can't move particularly quickly, but their high amount of sight and invisibility to most other units means you can make a line of them ready to intercept anything that might try and pass by. This tactic is known as creating a "sentinel net".
I can see the enemy unit, but they can't see me.
The high sight of U-Boats has a few helpful applications, especially with the Observation promotion. You can spy on the coasts of other civs even without an open borders arrangement, and unlike other units that can do something similar, (such as a Carrier with some aircraft stationed on it), U-Boats are invisible unless other Submarines, Destroyers or their upgraded equivalents are nearby. That means you can reveal quite a lot of coast without the other civ becoming paranoid about you having lots of units on their border.
Another thing U-Boats are fairly good for is hit-and-run attacks. Like all naval raider units, U-Boats have the ability to carry out a coastal raid, pillaging an adjacent land tile. They also have a ranged attack that can be rather helpful against land units (use Battleships if you want to deal with city defences). If any enemy forces start looking for your units, retreat them to nearby ocean lands so you have a strength advantage.
Once Nuclear Submarines arrive, consider keeping some U-Boats around for their high amount of sight. Forming fleets or armadas out of them should be enough to keep them safe from stronger units.
Summary U-Boats unlike regular Submarines don't require the Refining technology, so you can unlock them earlier than most civs.
U-Boats are mostly good at intercepting enemy naval units
Position U-Boats spaced out around the sea so you can tell if anything's coming
You can use their high sight to spy on other civs.
Administration - Government
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.
Government
Tier One
Classical Republic is a reliable choice. The Great Person Points bonus goes nicely with Commercial Hubs, Hansas and other districts you build with your enhanced district capacity. Frederick Barbarossa's extra military policy card slot makes up for the lack of intrinsic ones in the government. Alternatively, Oligarchy is an effective choice if you want to dedicate time to conquering city-states early on. Taking a few Swordsmen with Siege Towers can rapidly tear down enemy city defences.
The Warlord's Throne is good if you intend to do a lot of conquest - particularly as Germany's high base production makes the +20% bonus go further. Alternatively, Germany's civ ability and Hansas together allow small cities to achieve a lot more than they would for other civs - something that goes well with the Ancestral Hall building.
Tier Two
Merchant Republic is your best choice. Faster district construction goes well with the civ ability, while you can scrape a bit more gold out of your Hansa-adjacent Commercial Hubs.
Take the Intelligence Agency as your second Government Plaza building. An extra Spy will help keep your Hansas safe from being pillaged.
Tier Three
All three governments can be useful. Communism's science bonus makes it great for scientific games, and Fascism's military bonuses suit a domination game well. Democracy allows you to stretch your Commercial Hub gold further, and as developing lots of Commercial Hubs will result in you having a lot of trade routes, the strong bonuses for trading with allies can be helpful no matter your victory route.
For a scientific victory, you'll want the Royal Society. It allows you to use Builders to partially rush space project parts, saving you a few turns off your eventual victory. For a domination victory, use the War Department for its health-on-kills bonus.
Tier Four
Synthetic Technocracy is ideal. Extra power allows you to make the most of Hansa districts, and the bonus to city projects in particular works for space race projects. For domination games, Corporate Libertarianism is a viable alternative - all the Commercial Hubs you have combined with Hansas will make the 10% production bonus go a long way.
Administration - Policy Cards
Policy Cards
Ancient Era
Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - City-states aren't always in convenient locations for conquest, and once you take them over, you need to have a plan to resist the loyalty pressure of other civs. This loyalty boost will help.
Classical Era
Insulae (Economic, requires Games and Recreation) - Even new German cities can build two speciality districts, and thanks to the Hansa's low cost and production bonus, that can be achieved pretty quickly. The housing bonus is important when you're keeping cities close together and lack space for farms.
Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - A small loyalty boost, and helpfully gives you an early use for a diplomatic policy card slot if you've eliminated all the nearby city-states.
Medieval Era
Craftsmen (Military, requires Guilds) - The most important policy card here (at least, until Five-Year Plan). Doubling Hansa adjacency bonuses makes an already strong production bonus into something truly spectacular - even more so once you start building Coal Power Plants. To make things even better, it goes in a military policy card slot which you already have a bonus copy of.
Medina Quarter (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - An enhanced version of Insulae. You only need a city of size four to be able to build three speciality districts as Germany, so this policy card can go further than it does for other civs.
Town Charters (Economic, requires Guilds) - Doubles Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses - handy as you're likely to have a lot of them to boost Hansas.
Renaissance Era
Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - Expanding into new continents by taking city-states? This policy card will help you secure those cities with some extra loyalty.
Drill Manuals (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Coal Power Plants offer a production yield equal to the base district's adjacency bonus. With the Craftsmen or Five Year Plan policy cards, Coal Power Plants could offer production bonuses of +16 or even higher. However, reliance on Coal Power Plants will obviously consume a lot of coal resources making this policy card useful.
Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - Considering how easy it is to get two districts in a city as Germany, you can essentially think of this as +1 amenity in every city.
Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Aside from being one of the few military policy cards with peacetime applications as it boosts the movement of civilian units, this helps you to be able to compensate for the low movement speed of U-Boats relative to other naval units.
Machiavellianism (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Hansas can be pillaged by other civs even in peacetime by them using Spies. Until the modern era, the best thing you can do is ensure you can train your own Spies quickly for use in counter-espionage.
Industrial Era
Total War (Military, requires Scorched Earth) - The coastal raiding function of U-Boats can be made 50% more effective with this policy card. Look out for Campuses, Industrial Zones and Spaceports in particular; you'll get science for pillaging them.
Modern Era
Collectivisation (Economic, Communism only, requires Class Struggle) - A compact empire with a lot of land covered by districts doesn't have much room for farms. This policy card helps ensure you have enough food despite that.
Economic Union (Economic, requires Ideology) - Doubles Commercial Hub adjacency bonuses.
Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Ideology) - An enhanced version of Craftsmen which also affects Campus districts.
Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - A U-Boat sentinel net can be pretty expensive to maintain, and while having a high number of Commercial Hubs will help offset that, it's still nice to ensure less of the gold is being lost in maintenance.
Martial Law (Wildcard, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Both reduces war weariness and helps keep your cities loyal.
New Deal (Economic, Democracy only, requires Suffrage) - Having a high number of districts per city means pretty much your entire empire can benefit. The housing bonus helps support a more compact empire with fewer farms while the amenity bonus means you don't need to worry too much about Entertainment Complexes.
Science Foundations (Wildcard, requires Nuclear Programme) - Developing Hansas will provide you with even more Great Engineer points.
Third Alternative (Military, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Easy bonus gold and culture for developing your Hansa districts.
Atomic Era
Cryptography (Diplomatic, requires Cold War) - Makes it considerably harder for enemy Spies to pillage your Hansas.
(Scientific) Integrated Space Cell (Military, requires Space Race) - A production multiplier for a civ with high base production, as well as a military policy card with a non-military application. This is great for any game as Germany where you seek a scientific victory.
International Waters (Military, requires Cold War) - Helps you to produce U-Boats even faster.
Information Era
(Domination) Communications Office (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - A Governor with all their promotions can provide +13 loyalty per turn, making it easy to hold onto any city-state you capture late in the game, ensuring you can airlift in your army and start invading new lands.
Future Era
Aerospace Contractors (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Having a lot of developed districts can cost a lot of power late in the game, so it's nice to partially cover that issue with this policy card.
Administration - Age Bonuses And World Congress
Age Bonuses
Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.
Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Need some early era score? Your higher district limit means you can get more era score out of this dedication than most other civs.
Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Got a lot of Commerical Hubs for Hansa adjacency? Enjoy a lot of science on top!
Pen, Brush and Voice (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Alternatively (or additionally if you can achieve a medieval-era Heroic Age), you can take this bonus to get lots of culture out of your many districts.
Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - U-Boats are relatively slow as naval units of its time go without a boost like this one.
Heartbeat of Steam (Dedication, Industrial to Atomic eras) - An easy source of era score as both Factories and all kinds of Power Plant count as industrial-era buildings.
Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Atomic eras) - Build on your production advantages even further with this Golden Age dedication.
Collectivism (Dark Age, Modern to Information eras) - So long as you don't mind losing a few Great People, this Dark Age wildcard offers a massive production bonus by boosting your Hansa adjacency.
(Scientific) Automated Workforce (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - Build on your Hansa production in the space race, at the cost of amenities and loyalty.
World Congress
How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.
Border Control Treaty - Effect A (New districts built by this player act as culture bombs) on yourself
Germany's increased district capacity makes this easier to use.
Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Industrial Zone Sabotage
Prevents your Hansas being pillaged.
Global Energy Treaty - Effect A (50% discount on the production of power plants of this type) on Coal Power Plants
High Hansa adjacency bonuses makes Coal Power Plants ideal for Germany.
International Space Station - Vote in favour if you're after a scientific victory
The potential +40% bonus to space race production works nicely with Germany's strong base production from Hansa districts.
Nobel Prize in Physics - Vote in favour
Germany's incentive to build both Hansas and Commercial Hubs gives you a particular edge in this scored competition.
Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Engineers
Extend your lead on this specific Great Person type.
Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Industrial Zones
Cuts the cost of developing Hansa districts.
World's Fair - Vote in favour
Germany's boosted district capacity makes it fairly likely you'll have an edge at overall Great Person Points generation.
Administration - Religion And City-States
Pantheons
City Patron Goddess - Cities can build their first district faster, which for Germany from the medieval era onwards will usually be the Hansa. Getting to a strong production boost sooner helps to fill up Germany's expanded district capacity.
God of the Forge - Of great help if you want to conquer some city-states early on to expand your empire.
Goddess of the Hunt - A food bonus will be important once you start filling your lands with districts leaving relatively little room for farms.
Religious Beliefs
You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.
Feed the World (Follower) - Keeping cities close together with lots of districts leaves little room for farms, but this belief makes up for it by allowing your Holy Sites to provide food and housing.
Gurdwara (Worship) - Similarly offers food and housing.
Stewardship (Founder) - Although a tricky belief to get a lot out of, the bonus gold for Commercial Hubs and science for Campuses fits well with Germany's high district limit and the synergy between Commercial Hubs and Hansas.
Zen Meditation (Follower) - Getting two speciality districts per city is very easy as Germany, so you can consider this as basically +1 amenity in every city.
City-States
The city-states listed here should generally be spared from early conquests, as well as any industrial city-state, and to a slightly lesser extent scientific and trade ones.
Ayutthaya (Cultural) - Germany's high production and district capacity makes this suzerain bonus a decent alternative source of culture.
Bologna (Scientific) - Having lots of districts could mean a lot of Great People with Bolonga's bonus.
Mexico City (Industrial) - Together with Governor Magnus (the Steward)'s Vertical Integration promotion, you can get a lot of Factories in range of a single city and get an immense amount of production.
Mohenjo-Daro (Cultural) - Positioning cities to maximise Hansa production can be tricky, as you also need to take into account the city's housing. The suzerain bonus on offer here makes that much easier.
Muscat (Trade) - Seeing as you need Commercial Hubs to boost Hansa production, this city-state shall be particularly good at granting you amenities.
Administration - Wonders And Great People
Wonders
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - An excellent wonder for Germany! Germany's emphasis on Hansas means you'll tend to generate a lot of Great Engineers over the course of the game, so giving all of them an extra charge will make them go a lot further.
University of Sankore (Medieval era, Education technology) - Great for a scientific game in particular, the University of Sankore allows you to use all the trade routes from Commercial Hubs in internal trade for extra science.
Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Bonus resources can help to boost the production of Hansas (like all resources), so it's worthwhile to seek a city spot with lots of them. Great Zimbabwe makes a city with a high variety of bonus resources produce a huge amount of gold from trading.
Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Double quantities of naval units means you can get twice as many U-Boats produced in your empire. That's great for setting up a sentinel net to keep the seas visible.
Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Industrialisation technology) - A 20% production boost to a city with already high production will make it amazing for building other wonders, spaceship parts or the like.
Amundsen-Scott Research Station (Atomic era, Cold War civic) - Up to a 20% production multiplier, making your already-strong production output even better.
Great People
Remember that these are only the ones that have particular synergy with German uniques, not necessarily the most effective options.
Medieval Era
Æthelflæd (Great General) - Provides extra loyalty to help you secure a city-state you may have captured.
Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - When retired, your U-Boats will now have a sight range of 4, making them even better at spying on the seas or on other civs.
Rajendra Chola (Great Admiral) - Retiring gives a permanent strength bonus to all current and future naval units, including U-Boats.
Renaissance Era
Leonardo da Vinci (Great Engineer) - All Workshops will now generate +3 culture, which can add up to a lot once you start developing your Hansas.
Mimar Sinan (Great Engineer) - Every Hansa you create will now produce a culture bomb. This lets you take control of all tiles adjacent to the district - even those owned by other civs - so long as they are no more than three tiles from the city centre and do not contain a completed district or wonder.
Industrial Era
James Watt (Great Engineer) - Immediately get a Hansa district to a well-developed standard, as well as permanently increasing the production of all your Factories.
José de San Martín (Great General)- More bonus loyalty to help you secure a captured city-state.
Modern Era
Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Makes one Hansa district especially strong.
(Scientific) Robert Goddard (Great Engineer) - The earliest Great Person offering a bonus to Space Race projects. The 20% production bonus will be very helpful stacked on top of your already-high production.
Togo Heihachiro (Great Admiral) - More loyalty for a captured city-state.
Atomic Era
Chester Nimitz (Great Admiral) - Retire him for a permanent 20% production boost when building U-Boats. Also gives you a free promoted U-Boat!
Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - More housing and amenities without the need for land for farms, Neighbourhoods, Entertainment Complexes or Water Parks!
John Roebling (Great Engineer) - Even more housing and amenities without needing to dedicate precious space.
Sudirman (Great General) - Yet more loyalty to help with a captured city-state.
Information Era
(Cultural) Kenzo Tange (Great Engineer) - Germany's strong Hansa adjacency bonus coupled with the high district capacity means a single city can have a huge overall adjacency bonus. With Kenzo Tange's retirement bonus, that can generate plenty of tourism. Combined with Masaru Ibuka and Jamseth Tata's retirement bonuses, you can build a strong tourism yield even with a weak cultural infrastructure.
(Cultural) Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - Considering the huge volume of Hansa districts you may have by the end of the game, this Great Merchant can be surprisingly powerful for cultural victories even if you weren't originally aiming in that direction.
(Scientific) Stephanie Kwolek (Great Scientist) - A +100% production boost to space race projects makes her a Great Scientist you certainly want on your side, especially when stacked with the high production of Hansas.
Counter-Strategies
Germany has very strong production - especially into the Industrial era when Coal Power Plants come available. Their ability to develop cities is among the best of all civs in the game. Still, there's sneaky ways you can counteract their strengths.
Civilization Ability: Free Imperial Cities
You can't stop Germany being able to build more districts, but what you can do is turn it around into an advantage for you. More districts means more targets for pillaging - light cavalry with the Depredation promotion are particularly good in that role. It also means more targets for Spies. Targeting minor German cities can be a good way of evading their counter-Spies.
If Germany is trying to build a more compact empire to take advantage of district adjacency, it's likely to become dependent on internal trade routes as a source of food - at least until policy cards like Wisselbanken come available and trading with allies becomes an alternative. Again, pillaging can be a great way to go, without all the effort of actually taking their cities over.
Frederick Barbarossa's Leader Ability: Holy Roman Emperor
Perhaps the best way of handling the extra policy card is to pick up an extra one yourself - the Alhambra wonder available at Castles does that. However, not every civ can spare the production (not to mention the wonder being moderately competitive). Instead, just keep in mind that the bonus gives them some extra military flexibility early on, and will fade in power as the game goes on.
As for the bonus against city-states, the first important thing to remember is not to send too many envoys to city-states that border Germany in case they invade. Still, if you send at least one, and Germany takes the city, you'll be eligible to join in a city-state emergency against them. Winning a city-state emergency will grant you a lot of gold, and beng the one to liberate the city-state will immediately make you suzerain with at least three envoys (more in later game eras).
Alternatively, with the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic, Germany attacking a city-state you're suzerain of will allow you to use a casus belli against them with no warmonger penalties!
One possible way of circuventing Germany's bonus against city-state units is to pay some gold to levy their units. For 30 turns, they'll be considered yours, so that +7 strength bonus won't apply. The Foreign Ministry building adds +4 strength to levied units, and also to the military units of all city-states you're suzerain over - that being said, you may want the Intelligence Agency instead for one more Spy to help pillage Germany's Hansas.
Frederick Barbarossa's Agenda: Iron Crown
A computer-controlled Frederick Barbarossa likes capturing city-states, and likes civs who invest a relatively low number of envoys into them. He dislikes other civs being suzerain over or conquering city-states. He will never have the City-State Ally or City-State Protector hidden agendas as they conflict with his main one.
This is a difficult agenda to meet as it essentially rewards you for being behind in something (in this case, envoy acquisition). Nonetheless, you can try sending your envoys to city-states you think Frederick Barbarossa doesn't yet know, or favour maximising envoy bonuses over becoming suzerain of a lot of city-states.
Alternatively, this can help you out if you have a low culture output and hence can't pick up so many envoy-granting civics, as you'll be less likely to have a war declaration from Germany.
Unique Unit: U-Boat
U-Boats, unlike regular Submarines, don't require oil so they can arrive earlier in the game. Still, like regular Submarines, they're slow and not any stronger in shallow water. Ironclads can perform reasonably well against them until you have access to Destroyers.
If you need to cross oceans while at war with Germany, you might want to form some Destroyer fleets or armadas and send one ahead of your main navy to check for U-Boats. Destroyers move much faster than U-Boats and as such can usually escape an ambush if they survive the first turn.
Unique District: Hansa
Hansas are at their strongest when placed in a formation with Aqueducts, Canals, Commercial Hubs and Dams from as many cities as possible. The more fragmented Germany's empire is, the harder it is for them to maximise the production bonus. Settling cities in awkward spots to force Germany to have a splintered empire is one possible method that would help.
Once they're built, Hansas and their buildings give you a base yield of 25 science per pillage, increasing throughout the game. Or, if you'd rather not fight a war, you can sabotage them using Spies! You might not get anything out of sabotage, but setting back a powerful unique district is certainly valuable.
When using Spies against Germany's Hansas, be careful about which cities you target. Go for cities that are reasonably large, but not very large, and you should be able to evade Germany's counter-spies. For their main cities, or one with a Diplomatic Quarter, it'll help to promote your Spies first.
Other Guides
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Gathering Storm
Compilation Guides Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)Individual Civilization Guides America - with persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
America - without persona packs* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
Australia (Domination/Scientific)
Aztecs (Domination)
Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
China (Cultural/Scientific)
Cree (Diplomatic)
Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
France* (Cultural/Domination)
Gaul (Domination)
Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
Germany (Domination/Scientific)
Gran Colombia (Domination)
Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
Inca (Religious/Scientific)
India (Domination/Religious)
Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
Japan (All)
Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
Kongo (Cultural)
Korea (Scientific)
Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
Māori (Cultural/Religious)
Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
Maya (Scientific)
Mongolia (Domination)
Netherlands (Scientific)
Norway (Domination)
Nubia (Domination)
Ottomans (Domination)
Persia (Cultural/Domination)
Phoenicia (Domination)
Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
Rome (Domination)
Russia (Cultural/Religious)
Scotland (Scientific)
Scythia (Domination/Religious)
Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
Zulus (Domination)*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide.
The guide to France does not have two different versions because the Catherine de' Medici Persona Pack only adds an extra optional leader ability and does not change the existing gameplay - as such the guide is perfectly usable by players without it. "Black Queen Catherine" with the Persona Pack is identical to Catherine de' Medici without it.
Rise and Fall
These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.
Vanilla
The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.
Source: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2536738340
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