Dutch (Civ6)

The Dutch people represent a civilization in Civilization VI: Rise and Fall. They are led by Wilhelmina, under whom their default colors are orange and blue.
The Dutch's civilization ability is Grote Rivieren, which provides a major adjacency bonus for Campuses, Theater Squares, and Industrial Zones next to a river and causes completed Harbors to trigger a Culture Bomb. In Gathering Storm, they also receive a 50% bonus towards Dams and Flood Barriers. Their unique unit is the De Zeven Provinciën (which replaces the Frigate), and their unique tile improvement is the Polder.
== Strategy ==
Starting bias: Tier 2 towards Rivers, tier 4 towards Coast
The Netherlands is a perfect mixture of a naval empire and a land civilization. They can erect s with high adjacency bonuses next to rivers, reclaim land from the oceans with their Polder and pose a serious threat to every other coastal empire once the De Zeven Provinciën is unlocked.
=== Grote Rivieren ===
==== Major adjacency bonus from rivers for Campus, Theater and Industrial Zones ====
Despite high potential power levels of your unique improvement and unit, this ability is your bread and butter. If properly used, it can reliably turn all of your riverside settlements into bustling scientific and cultural hubs that propel your entire empire forward. With proper planning, these s can be as almost as productive as their unique counterparts of other civilizations.
On a side note, this ability allows your s to have adjacency a lot better than normal, making them easier to unlock their respective Historic Moments, something that other civilizations have more difficulty in achieving, and civilizations with unique s cannot do. 
* Campus
Rivers are easy to find, and 2 extra for every Campus next to a river can be potentially game changing, since among the 3 s affected by this ability, the Campus is the first one to be unlocked. For that reason, this ability has the potential to push the Netherlands far ahead on the scientific track right from the Ancient Era, especially if other pure scientific civilizations are not present, notably Korea, Australia or the Maya. 
To push this potential even higher, keep in mind that occasionally rivers originate from Mountains or Mountain ranges. You can track down the origins of rivers by following the opposite direction of its flow (if you zoom in enough, you can see the flow direction of every river). Campuses adjacent to both rivers and Mountains are commonly found, and can result in strong yields that rival other scientific empires. Even better, sometimes you will even find Geothermal Fissures lying close to rivers or Mountains. Most of the time, rivers connect two bodies of waters: Lakes to Coast, Lakes to another river, or Coast to Coast. Polders allow you to make great use of Lake tiles, so a riverside city with Lakes is your dream city, and coastal cities allow you to build useful Harbors, your unique unit and occasionally provide access to Reefs for even higher Campus adjacency.
* Industrial Zone
This is the reason why the Dutch is skewed heavily toward a scientific victory. Besides a healthy output, rivers also bestow upon the Dutch a huge amount of . The Industrial Zone normally gains major adjacency bonus from Dams and Aqueducts. While there are multiple configurations for Aqueducts (including connecting the City Center to a river), Dams must be built on a Floodplains tile, next to a river. The fact that an Industrial Zone next to a Dam and an Aqueduct already starts with at least 5 , extra from rivers means Dutch Industrial Zones can easily start with at least 7 . The major advantage of a Dutch Industrial Zone over other non-unique Industrial Zones of other civilizations is that normally you have to build a Dam and Aqueduct first, then the Industrial Zone, since low-adjacency Industrial Zones with no buildings are very weak, while the and flood-preventing effects from the other s kick in instantly. With the Netherlands, you can start with a 2 Industrial Zone before building a Dam and Aqueduct, and this little bit of extra starting can help the process go a bit faster.
For average players, Aqueducts are often preferred, since the base cost for Dams is 150% more expensive than a regular . However, the Netherlands receives 50% extra toward Dams, bringing their cost down to the level of a normal .
* Theater Square
The Theater Square is notoriously tough to gain high adjacency bonus on, since they only gain adjacency bonus from wonders and Entertainment Complexes/Water Parks. For the Netherlands, they will have a much easier time generating than an average scientific empire, since their Theater Squares' initial adjacency is always a lot better than normal. You can build a couple of them early on, even when you have no intention for a cultural victory, since the extra will help your scientific empire go a long way. Also, your Polder is unlocked with the Guilds civic. Of course, you can go full cultural with the Netherlands, but it will be a lot less common than the scientific route. Unlike the Campus and Industrial Zone, the Theater Square bonus is more supplemental, and the itself does not need to be present in every city.
==== Netherlands versus Indonesia ====
The Netherlands is an anomaly, since they will deceive you in thinking that they are a maritime civilization who needs to be on the coast or play on a naval map to be effective, but they are truly not. They are a hybrid between a naval and a land civilization, but actually function a lot better on a land map with a lot of river access than a naval map with a lot of small landmasses, limited river access, or with a lot of short rivers that don't allow the construction of a mega complex between cities. After all, there is a reason why they have a tier 2 starting bias toward rivers, but only a tier 4 bias toward the coast. Compare to other pure naval civilizations, they all have at least a tier 2 starting bias toward the coast.
This anomaly can be highlighted when you compare the Netherlands to Indonesia, inarguably a naval civilization. The Dutch toolkits and the Indonesian ones are strikingly similar, although each of the counterparts carries different levels of emphasis. The Dutch civilization ability is their centerpiece and the most reliably one, the Indonesian civilization ability is a lot weaker and purely supplemental, although they both give s more adjacency bonuses. They both have an improvement that can be put on water tiles, and they are both strong in their own ways; however, Kampungs' placement restrictions are loose, allowing for very liberal usage, while the Polders are also strong, but with very strict requirements. Jong and De Zeven Provinciën are both Frigate replacements, and although it seems like the De Zeven Provinciën are more proficient at domination, it cannot be further from the truth (read more at their respective pages). Overall, Indonesia, a representative for a pure naval civilization, is dominantly geared at a life next to the coast, while the Netherlands not necessarily. Dutch Harbors are not better than normal, their improvement cannot be placed with great liberty anywhere on the coast, and their unique unit requires good and for an effective timing push, both of which can only be made possible by riverside cities, not coastal ones. That means the Netherlands cannot compete with equal footing on a naval map against other naval empires, but excels on a land map while others are weak, and is a much more reliable choice on maps with unknown ratio of land versus water (e.g. Shuffle, Fractal, Continents and Islands, Tilted Axis, Wetlands, etc.)
The point here is while all pieces in the Dutch arsenal are quite good, it is surprisingly difficult to leverage all of them with equal focus. Keep in mind that rivers are your best friend, and your civilization ability is the most dependable, so if you have to choose, as difficult as it sounds, prioritize rivers and forgo the coast if you have to. Inland rivers with Lakes are the best city spots for you, but if you have to choose between the two, pick rivers over Lakes. Regarding the coast, if the map generation and the situation are ideal, your De Zeven Provinciën can help you conquer coastal settlements of other civilizations, but if you get zoned out of river access to the edge of the continent, your empire will be significant weakened and it is much harder to claw your way back from there.
==== Harbors trigger a Culture Bomb ====
This is a very minor ability. As explained in great details above, your civilization doesn't have to go on the coast all the time, but your choice for extra s will be Commercial Hubs, which also gains a major adjacency bonus from rivers (unless you have Lake tiles in the city). 
Generally, s that can trigger a Culture Bomb are often placed in the second ring to maximize the number of tiles claimed. However, Harbors gain a major adjacency bonus when adjacent to the City Center, and building the Harbor in the first ring can claim at maximum 3 tiles, as opposed to 5 tiles if built in the second ring. 
Harbors also gain a standard adjacency bonus from sea resources, so this ability is great at grabbing tiles that contain resources without needing you to expend . Nevertheless, for a new coastal city, your first will most likely be the Harbor, and if there are resources next to the Harbor, you probably will buy to improve them to give the city a bit of initial growth and anyway, so very rarely this ability can become meaningful.
==== Bonus toward Dams and Flood Barriers ====
Dams are unlocked with Buttress, a technology on your way to your unique unit. They provide ,, and river flood protection, all of which (especially the latter two) are incredibly useful for a civilization who builds around rivers. Also, as previously explained, this ability goes incredibly well with the buffed Dutch Industrial Zones, turning all of Dutch riverside settlements into bustling production centers. The extra toward Dams is useful, since this 's base cost is 50% higher than a non-unique specialty .
Later in the game, after unlocking Computers, this bonus also applies to Flood Barriers, a City Center building whose purpose is to protect coastal tiles vulnerable to coastal flooding. Since the Netherlands is a scientific, production focused empire, carbon generation is inevitable. This bonus is even more useful when you consider that Flood Barriers get more and more expensive with each tile that can be flooded in the city, and as climate worsens. 
For this reason, the Netherlands should dedicate one slot to an Encampment. Not only higher resource stockpile cap is useful for a scientific empire, the Armory allows you to recruit Military Engineers. They each have 2 charges, and they can spend 1 charge to contribute 20% of the cost of Aqueducts, Canals, Dams and Flood Barriers, all of which are useful for the Dutch, with the Canal being slightly less important. However, with this ability, each Engineer charge contributes 30% of the cost of Dams and Flood Barriers. This is amazing especially for Flood Barriers, since the cost of this building can increase mid-construction, if the climate moves on to a new phase, and there are new tiles being submerged. Since the contribution from Engineers are percentage-based, this increase is disregarded for the most parts.
===Radio Oranje===
With Wilhelmina's unique ability, trade will earn the Dutch more than just monetary rewards: domestic will boost the Loyalty of the cities from which they depart, and international will provide . While the bonus is not too significant and tapers off quickly as the game progresses, it still plays a supplemental role for the Dutch to grab key civics a little faster. Build Commercial Hubs and Harbors in every city to make the most out of this ability. Overall, it is not as bad as Peter's or Gandhi's ability, since you still have full control over it, but it is not something to mount your game on either.
==== Bonus from international s ====
Inarguably the best part of such an underwhelming ability, each international to or from the Netherlands will grant them 2 . The first capacity is unlocked with Foreign Trade, so that should be the civic you research right after Code of Laws. There is an inherent problem associated with this ability: you will have to forgo some and in the early game from domestic s to get , while later on, when international s are much stronger than domestic ones, the becomes much less significant because the amount doesn't scale. The Netherlands, for the most part, don't have a problem with generating , thanks to its civilization ability, and it doesn't have a strong unique unit tied to the civic tree (like Indonesia, Poland or Brazil) that requires heavy investment, so decide for yourself what will be your focus.
The Netherlands will also receive when other civilizations send s to them. Unlike Cleopatra's ability, this bonus is lopsided, the empires that start the s don't receive anything more than normal, so on multiplayer games, they may be dissuaded from doing so. You can try to build the University of Sankore, a very uncompetitive wonder, since it provides extra incentives for other civilizations to send s to you, activating both Wilhelmina's and the wonder's bonuses. Also, occasionally, friendly nearby city-states will also send s to you, granting you extra , so be friendly to them, or try to be their Suzerains if you can (although if they are city-states with terrible bonuses then don't waste your s hoping that maybe they will send you s).
Sending s to other civs will also increase the Netherlands' output, thus giving them an incentive to focus on building Theater Squares and push for a Cultural Victory. If this is the path they choose, they should focus on building Commercial Hubs, instead of Harbors, and save up (or ) to attract Sarah Breedlove in the Modern Era and Melitta Bentz in the Atomic Era - each of them will provide an immensely helpful 25% bonus to the output of all the Netherlands' s. The amount of and from the civilization ability can guarantee the Netherlands stay competitive in the wonder race and defend itself from invaders. 
==== Bonus Loyalty for the origin city when sending domestic s ====
It is incredibly difficult to use it meaningfully, for one, it is too little, and two, Loyalty, in most game settings, is just not a useful bonus. Sometimes, when you settle a city in a region with slight foreign Loyalty pressure, this ability can be used to tip it just over to the positive side, so you don't have to assign a Governor there. The extra and from domestic s also help the city grow a bit faster. However, that is about it, as there are not many other situations where a tiny bit more Loyalty can truly help.
Of course, with the prowess of the De Zeven Provinciën and a favorable map generation, sometimes you need additional Loyalty to hold on to a newly conquered city. The issue here is 2 Loyalty clearly couldn't help most of the time, as it is too minor. Also, when you unlock a new capacity, you want a Trader to start that immediately, so you most likely won't have a lot of Traders sitting around doing nothing but wait for this one situation to be used to strengthen a city's Loyalty. And even that, only 1 or 2 cities can be strengthened with Loyalty this way, as this method's effectiveness is incredibly limited by the number of s you can have.
=== Polder ===
The Dutch Polder in Civilization V and Civilization VI share pretty much the same concept: a robust amount of yields with incredibly strict placement requirements. Civilization VI's interpretation of this improvement pushes it even further toward the two extremes: it has the strictest placement rule in the game, yet it has very high base yields, scale well with technologies and civics, and can easily feed into each other's yields if you manage to build a series of Polders next to one another.
Polders need to be built on Coast or Lake tiles with at least 3 adjacent passable land tiles. Generally, you will have more luck with Lakes than the coast; since Lakes are naturally enclosed bodies of waters, they have an easier time satisfying the rule. Earlier in the game, spend some time exploring your surroundings for potential Polder spots. As your starting bias favors Rivers over both Lakes and Coast, you most likely won't spawn with any such spot in sight. Ideally, you want to put Polders wherever possible, unless that is a spot reserved for a strong Harbor, or used for the Huey Teocalli, since the Netherlands is the only civilization that can take full advantage of Lakes.
To complicate this placement even further, Mountains, in Civilization VI, are a base terrain that is neither land nor water, so Mountains next to the coast and lakes do not count toward the 3-land tile requirement. For this reason, coastal and lakeside Mountains will effectively block Polder placement, especially in enclosed lakes which deceptively look like Polders can be built there.
Fortunately, unlocking Polders requires all the civics you will want to beeline regardless as the Netherlands. In order to reach Guilds, you need Feudalism, something everyone wants to beeline, and Civil Service, the civic that allows Alliances. Considering Wilhelmina puts a heavy emphasis on s, this civic is also critical. On top of that, the Netherlands, with Wilhelmina and their civilization ability, is guaranteed to have a very good early generation.
Always keep this in mind, rivers are the Dutch's best friend, as explained with great details under the Grote Rivieren section. If there is a city spot with both rivers and potential Polders, obviously that spot should be prioritized. If it is a spot where Polders can be built but cannot make use of rivers, there should be more considerations to be had. If it is on the coast where your ships can reach, wait until you unlock your unique unit, it is strong enough to claim it back for you if another civilization settles there. If that spot is beside an inland lake, consider how wide the lake is (how many tile does it contain?), how many Polders can be built, and if they will be next to each other. Remember, Polders are only meaningful when they can be built in great number next to each other, to feed one another additional adjacency bonuses. Don't forget the kinks with Mountains; sometimes, that easily-forgotten rule will tempt you into putting down a river-less city next to a huge lake, and now you have essentially a city that cannot use any of your bonuses.
If there is a river-less spot with a few potential Polders, but those Polders are isolated from one another, you may consider letting it go in favor of other spots. Contemplate this, even the most powerful Polder cities can be individually productive with high growth and , but it is river cities that are both productive (with Industrial Zone complexes) and contribute and toward the advancement of the entire empire. The consistent yield from Polders after Civil Engineering is great, but as a trade empire who will build Harbors and Commercial Hubs in every city, should never be a problem.
The Polder's penalty to applies to all naval units, including embarked units.
=== De Zeven Provinciën ===
Naval ranged units are naturally excellent at besieging, thanks to their mobility, tree, and the fact that they don't receive the 17 Ranged Strength penalty when attacking defensible s (they still receive a 50% penalty against Walls, though). The Frigate, thanks to their of 2, is the first naval ranged unit that can be meaningfully used in combat, and the De Zeven Provinciën is quite an excellent replacement for it.
When attacking defensible s, the De Zeven Provinciën has a massive 12 extra Ranged Strength over the Frigate, coupled with Bombardment and Rolling Barrage, allowing them to quickly shred through Ancient and Medieval Walls, even Renaissance Walls. If the map generation is favorable and if the Netherlands can reach Square Rigging in a reasonable time, this unit can be a monster on the sea. If the Dutch are lucky enough to attract Gaius Duilius or Santa Cruz and form a Fleet or Armada of De Zeven Provinciën, their enemies will need a powerful navy to protect their coastal cities. With a few exceptions, De Zeven Provinciën Fleets or Armadas can bring absolute destruction to any coastal city they can reach, as they can crack open the city defenses in just a turn or two.
However, the De Zeven Provinciën has the same issues as the Byzantine Dromon or the Brazilian Minas Geraes. These 3 naval ranged units are undeniably powerful but not very well supported by other abilities of the civilization. Of course, among these 3 civilizations, the Netherlands fares the best on a naval map, but since the De Zeven Provinciën is not unlocked earlier than its counterpart, in order to have a good timing push, you need to unlock it quickly, which demands sources of that can only be supplied by inland river cities. Not to mention, in order to build De Zeven Provinciën, you need , which is unlocked with Military Engineering, a technology on the opposite side of the tech tree, placing an even heavier emphasis on , if the Dutch wants to use their unit effectively.
The general strategy is still trying to develop a core territory around rivers to maximize , , and , then seek out a spot with both coastal access and river to put down a city. This city will be your main hub of producing ships, with its Harbor and an Industrial Zone complex. Go for Military Engineering first to reveal , then beeline Square Rigging later, so that you can accumulate in the meantime. Due to the obvious offensive nature of this unit, you either aim to conquer with it, or don't care too much about it. On defense, it is nothing more than a slightly stronger Frigate with lower requirement.
Compare to the Jong, the other Frigate replacement, it looks like the De Zeven Provinciën is the better offensive unit thanks to its unique ability, but it cannot be any further from the truth. To put things in perspective, the Jong is vastly superior, thanks to the military landscape and how every other pieces in the Indonesian arsenal gel together to support their unique unit, from the potential extra from religion to unlock it even faster, to the ability to raise a huge army of Jong within just one turn after it becomes available, to the extra Combat Strength and mobility during the conquest. As for the De Zeven Provinciën, there are a lot of moving pieces you have to play around with for the unit to truly shine. Also, the Netherlands works best on maps where there is enough land and river systems for them to build a massive complex connecting multiple cities to fully make use of their civilization ability, and the De Zeven Provinciën, or any naval unit, does not work best on those maps.
=== Victory Types ===
Overwhelmingly, the Dutch are a scientific civilization, poised for a Science Victory with their high and output, as explained in great detail above. They also have a good shot at a Cultural Victory, with their additional bonuses from the civilization ability and Wilhelmina. High and will help them remain well rounded and competitive in the wonder race.
For a more unorthodox victory, the Dutch can make decent attempts at a Diplomatic or even Domination Victory. For diplomatic, their incentives toward trade will keep their treasury healthy, and their high means they will have a good time completing competition projects. However, the Netherlands are not exactly richer than other civilizations who love building Commercial Hubs and Harbors, since their only bonus towards is the Polder, which is unreliable. Also, they want to build Factories and Coal Power Plants everywhere, which will generate carbon. Lastly, a domination victory is something that rests entirely on your unique unit. It is strong enough to carry you for two eras, but if you cannot snowball, then it is hard to reach the finish line, especially on larger maps. Moreover, it requires a lot of luck to have a map with a nice balance of land and water, so that you can still generate and to unlock Square Rigging and Military Engineering with a decent timing, yet still have enough water for your ships to be meaningful.
=== Counter Strategy ===
Like many civilizations (such as Brazil and Arabia), the best way to beat the Netherlands is to, quite literally, avoid doing what they want. Specifically, never trade with the Netherlands if you can help it - their s feed them , so to do so is to hand them a lead in the civic tree. This may cause Wilhelmina to dislike you, but never fear: the De Zeven Provinciën's siege bonus is inefficient for offense unless supplemented by a proper navy, and the AI is bad at naval combat. As long as you take precautions to build up a decent navy of your own, this unit should never threaten your coastal cities.
If you are not worried about the penalties conquest will bring, another good move is to try and deny the Dutch coastal access. Many of their strongest bonuses require either coastal tiles, or s (which are best gained from Lighthouses).
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Cities ==
== Citizens ==
Males 	Females 	Modern males	Modern females
Avo 	Agatha 	Antoin 	Beatrix
Boldewin	Betta 	Bernhardt 	Celeste
Ditmar 	Ermina 	Caspar 	Eveline
Igmar 	Gela 	Dennis 	Kerstin
Johannes	Heiga 	Gijs 	Lieke
Onno 	Imma 	Jean Paul 	Marie-Louise
Paio 	Machtild	Nils 	Nicola
Rette 	Notha 	Pieter 	Ottelien
Sibold 	Olge 	Wouter 	Ulla
Walfrid 	Yolande 	Yves 	Violette
== Trivia ==
* The Dutch civilization's symbol is a bugle-horn, which appears on the royal standard of the Netherlands.
* The Dutch civilization ability references the great geographical, historical, economic and cultural significance of rivers in the Netherlands.
* Before the Dutch civilization was released, the Dutch city of Amsterdam was a city-state. After the Dutch's release, Amsterdam became one of the Dutch cities, and it was replaced, first by Antioch and later by Venice.
==Soundtrack==
== Gallery ==
File:De Zeven Provincien concept art (Civ6).jpg|The De Zeven Provinciën, the Netherlands' unique unit
File:Polder in-game (Civ6).jpg|The Polder, the Netherlands' unique improvement
File:Dutch capital.JPG|Dutch capital in Medieval Era
== Videos ==
thumb|center|300px|First Look: Netherlands
== Related achievements ==
== See also ==
* Dutch in other games
== External links ==
* https://www.civilization.com/news/entries/civilization-vi-rise-and-fall-queen-wilhelmina-leads-the-netherlands
* https://kotaku.com/the-dutch-are-coming-to-civilization-vi-1821168459
* https://www.pcgamesn.com/civilization-6/civ-6-dutch-leader
ru:Нидерланды (Civ6)
Category:Dutch
Category:Civilization VI: Rise and Fall