Gallic (Civ6)

The Gallic people (sometimes Gaulish people or Gauls) represent a civilization in Civilization VI. They are led by Ambiorix, under whom their default colors are dark green and cyan. They are available with the Byzantium & Gaul Pack, which was released on September 24, 2020.
The Gauls' civilization ability is Hallstatt Culture, which makes Mines grant a minor adjacency bonus for all districts, gain extra and Culture Bomb unowned surrounding tiles when built, at the cost of specialty districts not gaining adjacency bonuses from other districts and preventing them from being built next to the City Center. Their unique unit is the Gaesatae (which replaces the Warrior), and their unique is the Oppidum (which replaces the Industrial Zone).
== Strategy ==
Starting bias: Tier 2 towards . , , , , , 
With their first entry into the Civilization franchise, the Gauls can be a formidable early-game conqueror, a mid-game powerhouse, or a turtling late-game cultural and scientific empire; they can truly do it all. Highly versatile, the Gauls under Ambiorix employ a generalist approach to the game that can bring many surprises when playing as or against them.
=== Hallstatt Culture ===
==== Mines receive extra and trigger a Culture Bomb ====
Mines are of huge importance in Civilization VI, as they can be put down on any Hills or Volcanic Soil tile, scale incredibly well into late game and are an invaluable source of all game long. When playing as the Gauls, Mines are even more important than that, as they each give you 1 extra and trigger a Culture Bomb. However, unlike other types of Culture Bomb, Gallic Culture Bombs cannot steal tiles from city-states and other civilizations (as it would be too overpowered otherwise). You have to rely on this ability to quickly claim land and compensate for the fact that the 6 tiles adjacent to your City Center cannot host any specialty s. Ideally, you would like to settle next to a lot of Hills or mineable resources and improve these tiles to expand your cities outward so that you can build s later. These Mines will even supply you with a valuable each, allowing your cities to grab new tiles even faster. The extra per Mine may not sound like a lot, but in the early game, this is a huge bonus that helps you unlock Civics and Policy cards at a much faster rate. Later, when you unlock Flight, these Mines can also contribute a bit of - not a whole lot where you can win a Cultural Victory just based on them alone, but it clearly does not hurt to have a bit more either.
In terms of terrains, the Gauls will perform better on Grassland than on Plains. The main problem with having so many Mines in your territory is the lack of and potential for growth. Gallic cities on Plains tend to grow at a really sluggish pace, which sometimes forces you to forgo tiles in favor of tiles so that your cities can grow a few more Population. Mines on Grassland Hills still have 2 each, which is decent enough for you to grow and benefit from the and bonuses. If you spawn in an area with only Plains, seek out somewhere with more than just Hills and mineable resources, like Plantation resources, Farm resources or Rainforests to provide you some , or else your cities will never be able to have enough Population to build or to work your high Mine tiles. Also, as you would imagine, Gauls thrive in Volcanic Soil, since you have more flexibility in terms of answering the question of Farms or Mines, and you do not even need to unlock Civil Engineering to be able to build Farms on Hills, as long as that those tiles are covered with Volcanic Soil.
==== Mines provide minor adjacency bonus to s ====
With a bit of luck and planning, your can easily produce an extra yield, with a max boost of 3. Obviously, the more hilly an area is, the more opportunities you will have to set up combos. An earlier and easy setup would be to use a 4 tile arrangement, with two mines being flanked by two s (with the ideally placed to gain a boost from terrain features or from their specialized major bonuses). Overall, there is not much to say about this ability, the fact that this replaces the ability to gain minor adjacency bonus from other s is really a step down, since for most parts, you can choose to build a cluster of s but where you can put down Mines is totally map generation dependent. Getting +1 adjacency bonus from this ability is standard, +2 is pretty rare, +3 is borderline unthinkable since that one will have to be completely surrounded by improved Hills or mineable resources. If you are lucky, maybe you get one like that in your entire empire; however, surrounding that completely with Mines means you have to forgo other more potent adjacency bonuses, so it is not even that good of a deal in that rare situation where you find a spot surrounded by mineable resources and Hills. This aspect is quite mediocre, so don't think or rely too much on it, get what you can out of it, there is no need to go out of your way for some minor adjacency bonuses.
==== Specialty s have unique placement rules ====
When playing as the Gauls, you cannot place specialty next to your City Center, so basically the six tiles in the first ring are reserved for tile improvements and Wonders only, making city planning a little bit harder as the Gauls. Note that this restriction is applied to specialty only, which are that have Population requirement, so basically all are specialty districts except for the Neighborhood, Dam, Canal, Aqueduct and Spaceport.
As mentioned above, Gallic s do not gain the typical minor adjacency bonus from other s, it is replaced by being adjacent to Mines. However, specialized major bonuses that certain s have can still apply if the condition is satisfied. They are:
* Theater Square next to Entertainment Complex and Water Park.
* Commercial Hub next to Harbor.
* Harbor next to City Center (by putting down cities next to Harbors of other cities).
* Standard adjacency from being next to the Government Plaza.
Note that, since the Oppidum is a unique , it has its own adjacency rules, so it will not receive major adjacency bonus from the Aqueduct, Dam or Canal. As clarified above, you can still put down cities next to a of other cities in your empire or from other civilizations. However, considering the utmost priority of the Gauls is to settle cities far away from one another to quickly claim lands with their Culture Bomb ability, this practice should be discouraged. Therefore, you should avoid having coastal cities, since your Harbors will always be worse than those of other civilizations. They cannot be built adjacent to their respective City Centers, and the Lighthouse will not grant extra as a consequence.
When conquering cities of other civilizations, the Gauls will keep whatever districts that may be built next to the City Center, but the adjacency bonuses of those districts will be updated according to the Gauls' bonus.
=== King of the Eburones ===
==== Extra when training non-civilian units ====
This ability is the equivalent of the Basilikoi Paides, only this ability applies empire-wide and the value is a little bit lower. Whenever Ambiorix trains a non-civilian unit, which means either a military unit or a support unit, he gains equal to 20% of that unit's cost. This is quite impactful in the early game when you are trying to rush for key civics like Military Tradition (to unlock flanking and support bonus) and Political Philosophy (for Oligarchy), or just to complete Code of Laws quickly to deal with Barbarians more easily.
Bonuses that boost unit production synergize very well with this ability, since it allows you to crank out cheap units much faster while maintaining the same you would receive. Agoge (unlocked with Craftsmanship) is especially helpful, since it boosts production of the Gaesatae and the Archer, bolstering the early military advantage of the Gauls, and only ranged, melee and anti-cavalry units can benefit from Ambiorix's extra Combat Strength bonus. The Statue of Zeus gives a burst of 88 when completed, and a lifetime 50% bonus to the entire empire when training anti-cavalry units. Although Ambiorix does not have any preference for anti-cavalry over melee units, he likes cheap units so he can swarm the enemies with his horde, so this Wonder might be something you would want to consider. God of the Forge is a godlike Pantheon for the Gauls, although it is quite hard to get since this Pantheon is highly contested and Gauls do not have a good early game generation.
Since the time window of Domination for the Gauls is very limited (read more below about the Gaesatae and their Victory Types), the faster you can get your army up and running, the better. Instead of starting with a standard Scout, you may want to start with a Slinger and then a Builder. Use the Slinger to travel with your starting Gaesatae, so that you can try to trigger the for Archery, and this Slinger will give you 7 , which helps with completing Code of Laws early. The Builder is absolutely crucial to trigger of Craftsmanship, which unlocks Agoge, your almighty Policy card. Afterward, you may want to get out a Settler for your second city, and then dedicate all your to train your army of Gaesataes and Archers. Remember, you need at least 3 Slingers (the more the better) before you unlock Archery. (Read more here.)
==== Extra Combat Strength from adjacent units ====
Whenever a Gallic ranged, melee or anti-cavalry unit attacks or is attacked in melee or ranged combat, it gains 2 Combat Strength for every adjacent combat unit (land, sea or air), whether they are allies, enemies or of a third neutral party. Unlike Flanking and Support, this bonus works against defensible districts including defending against city bombardment. Since multiple units may occupy the same tile such as an embarked unit and a Carrier with loaded aircraft, a fully surrounded gallic unit can result in more than 24 Combat Strength, which is huge, especially in the early game when Combat Strength bonus is rare to come by.
Keeping your army tightly packed should be a high priority in battle, as not only do they gain this bonus from Ambiorix, they also benefit from flanking and support bonus, making them hard hitting on offense and very sturdy on defense. Think carefully when you are about to initiate an attack, since even when your units are not in range to deliver damage, they can still contribute a little bit extra Combat Strength if placed next to the units that perform the attack. Ideally, you would want a front line made up of anti-cavalry and melee units, a second line of ranged units and injured units that need to heal up at the back. Also, considering how reliant you are on melee and anti-cavalry units, Battering Rams and Siege Towers should be used up until Renaissance Walls are up, instead of siege units.
=== Gaesatae ===
The Gaesatae is an extremely powerful replacement for the Warrior. Their combat bonus against defenses makes them ideal for an early rush against a neighbor, and their bonus against stronger units will allow that conquest to be drawn out even in spite of a disadvantage. Combined with Ambiorix's bonus towards Combat Strength, the Gaesatae can be quite a menace to deal with in the early game, even for civilizations with strong early unique units like Sumeria or the Aztecs.
The highlight of this unit lies in its 10 Combat Strength bonus whenever it fights a unit with a higher base Combat Strength. This makes it especially strong against Spearmen and Heavy Chariots, whose Combat Strength is high enough to activate their bonus but low enough to have lower Combat Strength after the bonus is factored in; even War-Carts and Eagle Warriors pale in a one-on-one combat against a Gaesatae. It also receives 5 Combat Strength bonus when fighting against defensible s, which will be elevated to 7 Combat Strength if the is garrisoned, thanks to Ambiorix's ability. These two bonuses combined make the Gaesatae a prime unit for early rushes. Beeline for Archery and Craftsmanship at the same time to unlock Archers and the Agoge policy card. The main drawback of the Gaesatae is that its cost is 50% higher than the normal Warrior, so this policy card is vital. Try to get at least 3 Gaesatae and 3 Archers, or you can flexibly lower the number of Archers and train more Gaesatae if the situation calls for it, since these two units have relatively similar cost. Use the Gaesatae as the frontline and try to keep your army close together when your units are carrying out attacks to maximize the horde-based bonus from Ambiorix. However, this rush may not work too well against civilizations with good early , since all your enemies need to do is to train Warriors. Warriors fight Gaesatae on equal footing if you don't take into account Combat Strength from Ambiorix, despite being a lot cheaper.
Before the April 2021 Update, the Gaesatae upgrades into the Musketman, which leaves a gaping void between the Ancient Era and the Renaissance Era in the frontline of the Gallic army, forcing them to train either cavalry units (which don't benefit from Ambiorix's ability), or anti-cavalry (which don't have pre-existing s from fighting earlier). However, this update, despite having no direct changes to Gauls, brought forth a change that shakes up the entire Gallic arsenal. The Man-At-Arms enters the fray at Apprenticeship as an intermediate unit between the Swordsman and Musketman, and the Gaesatae now upgrades into this new unit. What appears to be another weakness of the Gaesatae is that they cannot upgrade into Swordsmen, instead upgrading into Men-At-Arms. And thanks to the Gallic Oppidum, which instantly unlocks Apprenticeship, the Gaesatae will be able to quickly upgrade into Men-At-Arms, way before any other civilizations can, allowing them to extend their militaristic prowess long past the relevancy of the Gaesatae. When combined with Ambriorix's bonus Combat Strength for adjacent units and free upon training a military unit, the Gallic war machine can be unstoppable if they hit all their timing correctly. Due to the obvious lack of income, Gauls may have a hard time pre-building a lot of Gaesatae to upgrade them into Men-At-Arms, so the best way to field Men-At-Arms for Gauls is actually the conventional method. The extra from all the Mines and Apprenticeship, plus the from the Oppidum, makes it an achievable task. Also, every Man-At-Arms trained grants you 32 , coupled with from Mines, helps you reach Feudalism a lot faster than normal, which unlocks Feudal Contract policy card. For more information regarding build order to actualize the Man-At-Arms rush, head here.
Note that the Gaesatae's bonus against units with higher base Combat Strength applies on both offense and defense. Also, the comparison will always be drawn between the Gaesatae's base Combat Strength of 20 and the other unit's base Combat Strength, even when the Gaesatae is defending against a ranged or a siege unit. That is why you should not expect your Gaesatae to be sturdy against Archers' attacks, as they are not any better at defending against Archers than a regular Warrior.
=== Oppidum ===
The Oppidum is one of the most interesting unique s in the game. Arguably its most powerful attribute is that it is unlocked at Iron Working instead of Apprenticeship. Iron Working only requires Mining and Bronze Working in order to research, making it very easy to rush. Contrast this to Apprenticeship which needs 6 other technologies to research. This lets the Gauls get a massive advantage in the early game, perfect for conquest, expansion, or competing for any Wonders you may desire.
Another powerful bonus is that building your first Oppidum immediately unlocks Apprenticeship. While this technology is no longer necessary for building your Industrial Zone, it does give +1 to all of your Mines and unlocks the Workshop. This synergizes extremely well with the Gauls' incentives to build a lot of Mines and piles on to their already very strong early game .
A more niche attribute of the Oppidum is that it gains Outer Defenses and a Ranged Strike like the Encampment. This is by no means weak, but considering you will want to prioritize spots that give the Oppidum a good adjacency bonus, you may not get as much use out of this as you would from a strategically placed Encampment. Ideally, in core cities where you produce military units, you would like both of these districts, and you would like them to be placed in opposite sides of the City Center to shield it from invasion. However, since your Encampment placement is not dependent on adjacency bonuses, strategize where you would place the Oppidum first and then place the Encampment on the other side of the city. Giving Victor the Embrasure title and assigning him to a city would allow it to perform up to 6 Ranged Strikes per turn: twice from the City Center, Encampment and Oppidum.
Despite all of these bonuses, the Oppidum has a large disadvantage in its adjacency rules. The standard Industrial Zone's adjacency rules allow for very consistent high adjacency with use of well placed Dams and Aqueducts. The Oppidum on the other hand, relies much more on luck, requiring either Strategic Resources or , and . This may work out in your favor, but considering you will only be able to see 2 Strategic Resources at the point you start making your Oppida, it may be difficult to find any locations that will give a higher adjacency than 4, while a standard Industrial Zone can easily reach this number by being flanked by well-placed engineering districts.
Overall, beside its defensive capability and the cost discount every unique district has, the Oppidum and its boosting ability does not scale too well into the late game compared to the standard version (and especially not compared to the almighty Hansa), as it is totally dependent on favorable map generation. Take advantage of your spike quickly (when you build the first Oppidum and unlock Apprenticeship), as other civilizations can quickly catch up with you in when they themselves research Apprenticeship.
However, after the April 2021 Update, the major focus of this gets shifted slightly away from being the hub to being the fuse of the Gallic war cannon. With the introduction of the Man-At-Arms at Apprenticeship, the more important responsibility of the Oppidum is now to be the vessel that unlocks this Medieval unit when the game is still in the Ancient Era. You only need three technologies to unlock the Oppidum, Mining, Bronze Working and Iron Working, and that will be the exact first three technologies you research every game. Thanks to the Gallic starting bias, triggering the s for Bronze Working and Iron Working is almost guaranteed every game. For the build order, after the first Scout like normal, get a Builder, then a Settler, and start building military units like Gaesatae or Slingers. After unlocking Bronze Working, put down an Encampment, and after Iron Working, start building your first Oppidum and then go back for Animal Husbandry (to reveal ) and Archery (for Archers). Upgrading Gaesatae to Men-At-Arms in the Ancient Era is costly, especially for a civilization with no extra like the Gauls, so use that to upgrade Slingers into Archers instead. With the generous early from Mines, Apprenticeship and the Oppidum, hard-building Men-At-Arms is not too onerous. With this strategy successfully pulled off, the fact that the bonus of the Oppidum scales poorly as the game progresses hardly matters anymore. Its job is to unlock an incredibly advanced military unit for its time and supply enough of a spike to train some of that unit in a reasonable amount of time, and it exceeds any expectation in fulfilling that role.
Alternatively, a Gaul player can go for a slightly less risky but also less powerful build by waiting on the Oppidum. By detouring for Archery (and perhaps Writing) before Iron Working and doing an early Gaesatae and Archer rush, Gaul can gain some cities and establish dominance in the surrounding area before upgrading to Men-At-Arms. This allows for the Gallic economy to be better prepared for the high and cost of Men-At-Arms while also revealing to allow for better adjacency bonuses on your Oppida. However, holding Men-At-Arms off for too long will have the opposite effect, making the infamous Gallic power spike less effective as other civilizations may unlock other medieval units such as Crossbowmen in the meantime. The best strategy is probably a compromise, researching Archery before Iron Working and taking a few cities from a weaker neighbor before gaining Men-At-Arms, though this will depend heavily on your game.
=== Victory Types ===
Following the April 2021 Update, the Gauls went from being quite generalist to a domination machine, relying on the overpowered Ancient Era Man-At-Arms rush. Further amplified by the boosted provided by the Oppidum, the Combat Strength bonus from horde-based combat style of Ambiorix, the Gauls can be absolutely unstoppable. However, there are other victory paths that can be attempted as Gauls, since they do have bonuses that gear them somewhere else, but none of them come without their own internal issues.
The only victory condition the Gauls do not have any significant bonus towards is Religious. They do not have an easier time in founding a Religion, a bonus towards generating , spreading or defending their Religion. One may certainly argue that their mid-game spike may help with constructing Religious Wonders and buildings, but to be fair, is the king of all the yields, and high helps with anything.
A Science Victory is doable, especially with an emphasis on high , but since the Gauls do not have a method of efficiently generating and most likely will run into low Population issues, they will struggle if there is a pure civilization in the game. If you're dead set on a Science Victory, try settling in Grassland heavy areas on the map to max out growth for cities.
In the early game, they can be conquerors, but their path to a Domination Victory will be incredibly difficult, especially if the map size is big or if the map contains significant bodies of waters. They have to rely on their strong Gaesatae, their early Men-At-Arms, and Ambiorix's unique horde-based ability, which all provide strong spikes of power but do little in the late game. When the ability to build Corps and Armies are unlocked, the horde-based ability becomes clunky, to say the least. Having to move so many units only causes only congestion, since they will inevitably block each other's path and cannot all perform meaningful actions in the same turn.
In terms of a Cultural Victory, while the Gauls have a nice generation and high to build Wonders, their land Appeal will be so dreadful due to all the Mines and Oppida that founding National Parks is completely out of the question. Even the almighty Eiffel Tower has little chance to save them. However, if you manage to get good output, Rock Bands will be your agent of choice. Because of this, if you manage to claim some land in the early game but do not want to win a domination victory, you can try to transition into a Cultural Victory or a Science Victory.
=== Counter Strategy ===
In the early game, a horde of Archers and Gaesatae may easily run over you if you do not prepare well for it. Here is the key to unravel Gaesatae: they fight other Warriors on equal footing, and just as vulnerable against Archers as a regular Warrior. Do not train Spearmen and Heavy Chariots, as they will be easy food for Gaesatae. Archers, overall, are the core to defend against the Gauls in general, as melee units tend to clump up around a Gallic unit, and that unit will receive a bonus in Combat Strength, making it a lot sturdier than normal. Of course, Ancient Walls should be erected early to thwart their advance, and if you spot a Battering Ram, focus fire on the unit protecting it and kill the Ram as soon as possible. When defending from the Gauls, seek to annihilate their Gaesatae completely to prevent them from upgrading into the Gauls' early Men-At-Arms. Just don't think your troubles will end there though, as the Gallic powerhouse can easily spew out more units to take their place. Your saving grace will be more advanced walls and Musketmen, so beeline Castles, Siege Tactics, and Gunpowder. As long as you continue to focus fire their support units, the Renaissance Era will spell the end for the Gallic war machine.
Since the Gauls prefer quantity over quality when building their army, this preference will place a huge burden on their economy. Having no generation bonuses, their investment into war must be met with some degrees of success within a short time frame in order to keep the Domination machine well-oiled. Send your Scouts and a few units to their territory and start plundering s and pillaging -generating improvements, similar to how you deal with Scythia, another civilization with the quantity preference. At least Scythia has the Kurgan to give them some much needed , even though that is a largely terrible improvement; the Gauls have literally nothing, so every time you ruin their sources, it adds a bit of extra pain.
At first glance, Gallic people represent the most defensive civilization in the game, each of their cities can have a total of 3 ranged strikes if it has both an Oppidum and an Encampment (6 strikes if that city has Victor with Embrasure), invading them sounds nearly impossible. However, they are surprisingly susceptible to Spies. A successful Sabotage Production mission can instantly pillage the Oppidum, and since they are de-incentivized to build specialty districts next to one another, counterespionage will be incredibly difficult for them. With the Oppidum pillaged, invading Gallic territory becomes much simpler, since now a huge layer of their defense is removed without any unit cost to your army.
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Cities ==
== Citizens ==
Males 	Females 	Modern males	Modern females
Sudarix 	Boudica 	Jan 	Lore
Atilkoryos 	Dewognata 	Cornelis 	Aya
Axrotalus 	Kunopennos	Matthys 	Mila
Lukotorix 	Luguselwa 	Jakob 	Chloe
Katurix 	Aiias 	Pieter 	Elise
Dubnorix 	Potita 	Gillis 	Clara
Bodyokassos	Vlatucia 	Ghildolf 	Margot
Segomaros 	Adiega 	Willem 	Valentina
Orgetorix 	Diligenta 	Robine 	Marion
Wenikaros 	Aia 	Valentine 	Hanne
== Trivia ==
* The Gallic civilization's symbol is a Celtic shield.
* The Gallic civilization ability is named after the archaeological culture that dominated Western and Central Europe from the late Bronze Age to the early Iron Age and was heavily associated with the Celtic peoples.
* Gaul's city architecture from the Classical to Renaissance Eras has a proportionately higher number of buildings maintain their Ancient Era appearance compared to other civilizations.
==Soundtrack==
== Gallery ==
File:Civ6 Gaesatae In-Game.jpg|The Gaesatae, the Gauls' unique unit
File:Civ6 Oppidum In-Game.jpg|The Oppidum, the Gauls' unique district
File:Gallic Capital (Civ6).jpg|The Gauls' capital in the Medieval Era.
== Videos ==
thumb|center|300px|First Look: Gaul
== Related achievements ==
== See also ==
* Gallic in other games
== External links ==
* https://civilization.com/news/entries/civilization-vi-first-look-ambiorix-leads-gaul/
ru:Галлия (Civ6)
Category:Gallic
Category:Civilization VI: New Frontier Pass