Egyptian (Civ6)

The Egyptian people represent a civilization in Civilization VI. They are led by Egyptian Cleopatra, under whom their default colors are teal and light yellow; Ptolemaic Cleopatra, under whom their default colors are reversed; and Ramses II, under whom their colors are light yellow and purple.
The Egyptians' civilization ability is Iteru, which decreases the build time of wonders and districts adjacent to rivers and grants them the ability to build wonders and districts on Desert Floodplains. In Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, Egyptian units, improvements, and districts are immune to flood damage. Their unique unit is the Maryannu Chariot Archer, and their unique tile improvement is the Sphinx.
== Strategy ==
Starting bias: Tier 2 towards Grassland Floodplains, Desert Floodplains and Plains Floodplains; tier 5 towards Rivers
Egypt under Cleopatra is a wildcard; as they aren't skewed towards any particular victory condition, it is difficult to predict how they will proceed. Whether building up a religious army of Missionaries and Apostles ready to convert the entire world, laying down multiple Theater Squares and wonders for an inexorable Cultural Victory, sending s to improve their economy, or even investing in their powerful but extremely expensive unique unit to take out unsuspecting neighbors, Egypt can do it all. Egypt is a rare cultural civilization that can also be on the offense, and underestimating Egyptian militaristic prowess in the early game can spell doom for most empires.
=== Iteru ===
==== Boosted Production to riverside construction of Districts and Wonders ====
Out of the three Wonder-building abilities (the other two are Qin Shi Huang's and France's), this is the only one that applies all game long, but by no means it is the most impactful one out of the three. A lot of powerful and game changing Wonders are in the Ancient and Classical Era, but during this time there is no one in the game that can compete with Qin Shi Huang in building them. 15% extra is nice, but it is by no means a guarantee you will get the Wonder, especially in the early game when of cities is low and 15% extra means only 1 or 2 more . An extra problem with this ability is that it's restricted to Wonders built on tiles adjacent to a river. Naturally, this means you want to maximize the number of free river tiles, since there are only so many river tiles you can have per city. You may want to look for confluences of multiple rivers or settle next to other sources of Fresh Water, like Lakes or Oases, to free up as many river tiles as you can. This also applies to constructing districts, but unless there's a riverside spot with an outstanding adjacency bonus, river tiles should be reserved for Wonders and Sphinxes only. Sphinxes are the core power of your empire if you want to go on a Religious or Cultural path, and they give their best yields when built next to rivers. Since districts, unlike Wonders, do not have a time limit on when you can build them, and 15% extra isn't that outstanding, they should have lower priority than Sphinxes. That said, this ability is highly synergistic with the Commercial Hub, since this district gains a major adjacency bonus from rivers, and it can be built faster thanks to this ability if placed next to one. Also, Egyptian Cleopatra's ability puts a heavy emphasis on sending s, making Commercial Hubs an even more important district for Egypt under her.
Other sources of extra can stack nicely with this ability, including certain policy cards, the Monument to the Gods Pantheon, Autocracy, the Heartbeat of Steam Dedication, and industrial city-states, particularly Brussels.
Overall, this is niche more than anything. The bonus is welcome but it is not strong enough that you should allow yourself get carried away in constructing Wonders. It surely gives you an edge on the Wonder race, but it is not in any way a definitive guarantee you will get the Wonder, so do not overestimate your power in this aspect.
==== Districts and Wonders can be built on Floodplains (Vanilla and Rise and Fall only) ====
This aspect is just terrible - it hurts you more often than it benefits you. Before the release of Gathering Storm, Floodplains only appear on Desert tiles. These tiles are the only fertile parts in a barren area, as it provides precious 3 and can be improved with a Farm to provide extra and . Naturally, if you spawn on Desert, you do not want to place your Wonders and districts here. Desert cities often struggle with low and , so 15% extra you have towards constructing Wonders and districts is trivial, and you definitely do not want to snuff out the few fertile tiles. 
==== Units and infrastructure immune to Flood damage (Gathering Storm only) ====
This is the turnaround that Egypt direly needed. It catapults Egypt from a mediocre civilization at best to a much more solid standing. Besides Volcanoes, Floods are the most dangerous disaster in the early game, because you have relatively limited options on how to deal with them before unlocking Dams. The other two options are to promote Liang to gain the Reinforced Materials title, which costs 3 Governor titles and can only protect one city, or build the Great Bath, both of which come with huge opportunity costs. Egypt negates this completely, yet is still able to reap the full benefits of settling next to a River. On high disaster settings, Egypt will be constantly rewarded with a stream of extra and just by settling next to a River (something that every civilization except the Maya wants to do anyway) without any worry about the destruction from Floods.
Due to this ability, Dams become much less important when playing as Egypt, but they are not entirely useless. Dams can still house the late game Hydroelectric Dam, which is the best source of renewable energy, and provide major adjacency bonus to Industrial Zones - arguably the most important district in the game when the Industrial Era comes.
=== Mediterranean's Bride (Egyptian Cleopatra) ===
Egyptian Cleopatra's leader ability focuses heavily on sending international s, as it rewards handsomely in . 4 extra early on can effectively double or more than double the original yields. However, this also means that your cities will not receive and from trading internally, which in turn weakens the Iteru ability. This is a tricky balance. Generally, it is still recommended to send internal s from new cities, or cities settling in low yield terrains, like Desert or Tundra, or cities that is currently constructing an important Wonder. Other than that, 4 per in the early game is a lot to pass.
This ability also encourages other nearby empires to trade with Egypt. The extra provided to other civilizations who send s to you provide an important incentive for them to do so, similar to how Sweden works in Civilization V: Gods & Kings or the University of Sankore. Opponents, especially human players, will be much less likely to perform an action that they know will only benefit you. The extra plays well into the previous part of the ability and the Reform the Coinage Golden Age Dedication, setting you up for a huge treasury to use on whatever you feel necessary, as is still one of the most versatile currencies in the game. Last but not least, by making you a valuable trade partner for your neighbors, you are less likely to be targeted for wars.
Once s are unlocked, sending external s provides additional benefits for Egypt, as you gain extra Alliance points from s and can reach level 3 s much more quickly than other civilizations, especially when in conjunction with policy cards. You can gain Alliance points in the following ways:
* 1 point per turn passively from being an ally to a civilization.
* 0.25 points per turn from sending at least one to them (this gets increased to 0.5 per turn under Egyptian Cleopatra).
* 0.25 points per turn from receiving at least one from them (this also gets increased to 0.5 per turn under Egyptian Cleopatra).
* 0.25 points per turn if you have the Wisselbanken or Arsenal of Democracy policy cards (doubled if they have one of these as well).
* 0.5 points per turn if you are an ally of Gilgamesh and you are both at war with the same enemy. (Does not have to be a Joint War).
Under the Gathering Storm ruleset, note that Arsenal of Democracy is not a policy card and its effects are transferred to the Democracy government. Therefore, Alliance points will grow by 0.25 extra if one party has adopted Democracy and by 0.5 extra if both have adopted Democracy.
The first four ways can be done rather easily as Egyptian Cleopatra, provided that your ally isn't too far from you. From the first four ways, Egyptian Cleopatra can gain 2.25 Alliance points whereas a normal leader can only gain 1.75 points. Considering that you need 80 Alliance points from level 1 to level 2 and 160 points from level 2 to level 3, Egyptian Cleopatra can level up s reliably a few turns quicker every game. The best thing is that s are unlocked around the same time the Maryannu Chariot Archer becomes obsolete, so declaring friends with the world when your militaristic prowess wanes is a sound choice!
=== Abu Simbel (Ramses II) ===
Simple and straightforward, but not lacking in power, Ramses II's ability supplies Egypt with plenty of , arguably the most impactful yield in the entire game. Buildings receive 15% of their cost as , doubled to 30% for wonders, and it is very clear why this ability is powerful: it gives you a potent bonus for something you want to do anyway. For example, the Monument costs 60 , which is equal to 9 immediately, as well as the +1 traditionally granted, and an extra +1 when the city is at full Loyalty. While the Monument may not be the first thing built in a city, it is still 11 immediately, which is going to be a massive help in unlocking early civics, especially in reaching Political Philosophy. The bonus for wonders is even better due to Iteru's 15% bonus to wonders next to Rivers. As another example, the Great Bath (the cheapest wonder in the game) has a base of 180; under the effect of Iteru, each point invested will yield another 0.15 , due to it having to be placed next to a River. This both shortens its construction time and grants you 54 , which translates into a free Ancient Era civic (except State Workforce and Early Empire).
Abu Simbel is a great ability for two reasons. Reason 1 is that it never becomes obsolete. You'll be building buildings (and hopefully wonders) throughout the game, and thus it will always be relevant. Even if returns on individual buildings may diminish over time, the number of cities you have producing those building will increase exponentially. 11 Monuments produce 99 with Abu Simbel, equivalent to 1 Aquatics Center, the highest production building in the game. Another example is the Sewer (something you can construct in any and every city in enough time) giving you 30 - that 30 over as few as 5 cities can get you at least on-sixth of the way to any Industrial Era civic. Reason 2 is that it is mandatory. In theory, you can finish a game with no buildings or wonders; in practice, you'll be constructing buildings every time you play. Domination games (though likely unintentional) can give 92 with a Barracks, Armory, and Military Academy from the Encampment; science games give 117 from a fully-developed Campus.
For reasons above, any modifiers towards buildings and wonders are incredible for Ramses II, since those will cut down the construction time yet still grant the same amount of . Note that purchasing buildings also grants , so bonuses towards purchasing are even more powerful. Below are a few modifiers you'll most likely use:
* Constructing wonders and buildings:
** Policy cards towards wonder construction (Corvée, Gothic Architecture, Skyscrapers): 15% extra towards wonders of appropriate eras.
** Monument to the Gods pantheon: 15% extra towards Ancient and Classical Era wonders.
** Egypt's Iteru ability: 15% extra towards wonders when built next to a river.
** Suzerainty of Brussels: 15% extra towards wonders.
** Autocracy government: 10% extra towards wonders.
** Veterancy policy card: 30% towards Encampments, Harbors and their buildings. This is the largest bonus towards buildings, although Encampments and Harbors are not exactly too useful for Egypt.
** Although it doesn't grant bonus , Suzerainty of Ayutthaya gives equal to 10% of the cost when constructing buildings.
* Purchasing buildings:
** Theocracy government: 15% discount when purchasing with . Buildings that can be purchased with are:
*** Theater Square and Campus buildings (if the city is following a religion with Jesuit Education)
*** Worship buildings
*** City Center and Encampment buildings (with Suzerainty of Valletta)
** Democracy government: 15% discount when purchasing with .
* Also, who can instantly build buildings are immensely valuable for Ramses. Those include (the abilities as well as the amount of below is calculated according to the cost in Gathering Storm ruleset):
** Inarguably the most important ones are wonder-building s, namely Imhotep, Isidore of Miletus, Filippo Brunelleschi, Gustave Eiffel, and Shah Jahān.
*** Most notably, Imhotep can be used to build the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus in a single charge, and then regains that charge after the wonder is completed. This wonder is incredibly important for Ramses, who relies a lot on s.
*** Shah Jahān, as outlined in his Strategy section, is an extremely overpowered , since he allows limitless amounts of to be converted into for wonders. With the Mausoleum, he can instantly give you two complete wonders. The most expensive wonder in the game is the Sydney Opera House (1850 ), with the Biosphère and Estádio do Maracanã tying for second place at 1740 ; luckily, all three are useful in a cultural game, and completing the Sydney Opera House and either of the other two wonders will cost 7180 and grant 1077 .
** James of St. George provides 3 free sets of Ancient Walls and Medieval Walls, resulting in 135 in total (180 with Mausoleum).
** James Watt provides a set of Workshop and Factory, resulting in 78.75 in total (157.5 with Mausoleum).
** Horatio Nelson provides a set of Lighthouse and Shipyard, resulting in 61.5 .
** Giovanni de' Medici provides a set of Market and Bank, resulting in 61.5 .
** Hypatia provides a Library, resulting in 13.5 .
** Isaac Newton provides a set of Library and University, resulting in 51 .
As can be seen above, Valletta, Ayutthaya, and Brussels are your number one choices of city-states, so go for them if they are present in your game. If a religion with Jesuit Education happens to spread to your empire, try to establish it in every city. Of course, you yourself can go for a religion, but this isn't strictly necessary because your ability doesn't depend on having one and Jesuit Education tends to be one of the first beliefs chosen. If Vizier Saladin is in the game, do your best to get his religion by founding a city and sending s from this city to his. Saladin's worship buildings receive a whopping 90% discount, even for other civilizations, making this the best exchange for you can ever wish for. (If you have Theocracy, Saladin's worship buildings will be totally free, so basically you'll gain 28.5 per building while investing absolutely nothing.) Moreover, Saladin is likely to choose Jesuit Education as his Follower Belief, so this is a 2-for-1 deal under optimal circumstances.
s - and by extension, Industrial Zones - are crucial to Ramses' success. Compounded with the fact that Egypt loves settling on rivers, building both an Industrial Zone and an Aqueduct (and sometimes a Dam and Canal as well) in your major cities should be a priority. Head here for more inspiration on Industrial Zone formations.
Cultural games are a given under Egypt, but doubly so under Ramses. Abu Simbel gives a strong defense against any other cultural civilization, while the Sphinx after Flight gives +1 and the ability to create strong National Parks after the Conservation civic is discovered, leading to a strong offensive culture as well.
=== Arrival of Hapi (Ptolemaic Cleopatra) ===
==== Food and Culture for resources on Floodplains ====
This is also a relatively simple bonus, and not as dramatic as Ramses II's ability, but it plays well with Egypt's Floodplains starting bias. Any resource tile on a Floodplain will offer an extra 1 and 1 , and it does not even have to be improved to provide this bonus. or will often be found on Floodplains and can be improved from the very start, and doing so provides the for Irrigation which you will need to improve the or that can spawn on Floodplains. A city with multiple tiles on Floodplains can grow very tall, as each of these tiles even without improvement (or flooding yield bonuses!) will offer a yield of 5 ; settling your on such a tile is particularly effective, as its initial growth will be rapid and that will help your foundation for the whole game. Later in the game, s that spawn on Floodplains will also offer 1 and 1 , which means you can keep them on Floodplains and save your Archaeologists for s on other terrain first.
While Egypt's ability will completely mitigate any damage caused by Floods, Floodplains settlements of Egypt still suffer from the same conundrum: very low early game due to a lack of Hills tiles. A city with a lot of Floodplains can receive a lot of extra yields from Floods, but that is entirely dependent on luck. Even on hyperreal disaster setting, there is no guarantee you can gain a meaningful amount of yields from Floods, but they will absolutely suffer from low before the availability of Aqueducts and Industrial Zones. Therefore, playing Egypt in the first two eras under Ptolemaic Cleopatra is a high balancing act in choosing the settling areas. Even the most massive bonuses can be worthless if there are not enough for your Population, so if you have a Floodplains tunnel vision, you can run into problems with unproductive cities with stunted growth due to a lack of .
Etemenanki can be considered when playing as Ptolemaic Cleopatra, since if you put this wonder on a Floodplains tile, it will receive the 15% bonus and it grants to Floodplains and Marshes. However, the synergy between Cleopatra and Etemenanki is often overstated:
* This wonder grants only to Floodplains inside the city, so the amount of gained from this aspect is limited. Not to mention, riverside tiles are common spots for wonders and s, especially when you play as Egypt, so this limited amount of is bound to get even smaller as the game progresses.
* The main selling point of this wonder is 2 to each Marsh tile inside your empire. Although this is an empire-wide bonus, Egypt's incentives to play around Appeal and its nature as a cultural civilization means Marshes will be cleared out a lot.
* Of course, you can consider building this wonder only to get slightly ahead in technologies in the early game, and a little bit of early , but considering how many other powerful wonders exist for Egypt to build in the first 2 eras, Etemenanki should not be a priority. Ptolemaic Cleopatra will typically get more out of the Temple of Artemis, as it will provide the and to support a tall early city (as well as even more ).
==== Extra Appeal for Floodplains ====
Additionally, each Floodplains tile provides +1 to adjacent tiles instead of -1 like any other civ. This is simlar to the Brazilian civ ability with Rainforests, but in some ways better, as Rainforest can be easily removed and is not replaceable when you do, whereas Floodplains are permanent. This ability is ridiculously powerful if you consider it in conjunction with the bonus Appeal from Sphinxes. Currently, after the nerf to the Pairidaeza, the Sphinx is the last civilization unique tile improvement that grant 2 Appeal. That means a Sphinx on a Floodplains tile inside Ptolemaic Cleopatra's territory will grant 3 Appeal to all adjacent tiles, the largest possible Appeal modifier in the game, enough to boost every tile around it to Breathtaking, if your planning is good. 
This makes Earth Goddess, the best pantheon choice by far for Egypt generally, especially so under Ptolemaic Cleopatra. Earth Goddess, after 2 major nerfs, is still, by a large margin, the pantheon with the highest potential for a game-breaking amount of yields. The reason for this is for every other yield-granting pantheon, you depend on what nature gives you. You cannot create spots for more Camps, Pastures, Plantations or Mines over resources (even in Heroes & Legends mode where you can use Maui, whether or not you can get a resource compatible with your pantheon is completely up to chance), but you can always alter Appeal of your empire. With increasingly more ways to alter Appeal and more emphasis on Appeal, especially in a cultural game, this pantheon can make every single tile in your empire yield an extra , resulting in a sky-high upper ceiling that no other pantheons can reach. 
This is obviously impactful late in the game when National Parks enter the equation, but long before that you can leverage that bonus to gain extra from Earth Goddess along with . , and from Preserves with a Grove. That will help even more with building tall cities and accelerating along the civic tree.
=== Maryannu Chariot Archer ===
The Maryannu Chariot Archer is a very powerful early game unit. On flat terrain, its is unmatched by any standard unit of its time and equaled only by the War-Cart and the Saka Horse Archer, neither of which can compete with the Maryannu Chariot Archer's and high Ranged Strength. Its drawbacks are its high and maintenance costs, but a few Maryannu Chariot Archers can form the base of a strong military in the early game.
Despite its classification as a ranged cavalry unit, the Maryannu Chariot Archer can only benefit from the Agoge policy card and its upgrades. In Gathering Storm, it becomes independent, so Egypt can train Heavy Chariots and doesn't have to rely on Warriors as the only frontline option to back up its Maryannu Chariot Archers in the Ancient Era. All the same, melee units also benefit from Agoge, so the Egyptians are advised to slot this policy card as they begin building their army.
In the expansions, the Maryannu Chariot Archer's high cost makes it a unit that the Egyptians will either train once for the +4 Era Score and then ignore, or train in numbers and then go to war to get something out of their investment. A neighboring opponent who hasn't focused on building up his or her empire's defenses will easily fall prey to a few Maryannu Chariot Archers with melee or cavalry support.
=== Sphinx ===
The Sphinx has some of the least restrictive placement requirements of any improvement - any passable land tile is fair game, except for Snow and Snow Hills in Gathering Storm. The Egyptians should build them on tiles that cannot support other improvements, or adjacent to wonders for some extra . Thanks to their Appeal bonus, well-placed Sphinxes can create good spots for Seaside Resorts and National Parks, or increase the yields of those that are already there.
Under the Gathering Storm ruleset, the Sphinx's Appeal bonus increases from +1 to +2. This is equivalent to the bonuses from any natural wonder other than Uluru or the Eiffel Tower, a Modern Era wonder, and it can be built almost anywhere in your empire! Appeal bonuses stack, so a tile adjacent to two Sphinxes will receive +4 Appeal, and Appeal tends to be underrated by players because it can't be seen on the map without its special lens. Therefore, the best pantheon for Egypt under this ruleset is Earth Goddess, since the Sphinx makes it easier than ever to get Breathtaking tiles everywhere. Earth Goddess will generate a huge amount of early on as well as into the mid- and late game, helping you with any victory type you choose.
=== Victory Types ===
The three best victory types for Egypt are Religious, Cultural, and Diplomatic. 
Religious Victory and Cultural Victory tend to go hand in hand. Egypt with the Sphinx will reliably generate a huge amount of if they can choose Earth Goddess as their Pantheon, especially under Ptolemaic Cleopatra due to Floodplains adding rather than removing Appeal. Even if you choose Religious Victory as your primary path, remember to build Theater Squares to have a backup, as Religious Victory has a rather small window of opportunity. , coupled with your high Appeal territory, will yield when you unlock the ability to construct National Parks and Seaside Resorts. Wonder-building is also very much an option, particularly under Ramses II as he can fly along the civic tree by doing so, or Ptolemaic Cleopatra if given the opportunity to grow large riverside cities.
Diplomatic Victory is particularly effective under Egyptian Cleopatra. Her extra can be leveraged to win Aid Requests reliably to earn Diplomatic Victory points. Moreover, she has a lot of incentives to declare friendship and form s with the world, and the ability to level up s quickly can also translate into a large amount of per turn.
Domination Victory can also work for Egypt, if the map is not too large. The problem with going Domination for civilizations with a powerful unique unit like Egypt or the Inca, or even Russia, is that they do not have any militaristic bonuses that help them in war before and after their units become irrelevant. They have to rely solely on a unit within a limited time window to get their Domination snowball rolling, so whether or not they can win a Domination Victory depends a lot on how large the map is (the smaller the better) and how much they can achieve within the time window of their units. For the first playthrough, Domination is not exactly the best choice for someone who is learning and having a first feel of the civilization. 
=== Counter Strategy ===
Everyone loves rivers, but Egypt's love for rivers is on another level. If forward settling to block Egypt's expansion to more rivers turns out infeasible, then remember that their infrastructure tends to be highly concentrated around rivers; Farms, Sphinxes, and districts are all priority pillaging targets. Horseback Riding should be a crucial technology to beeline for if you spawn next to Egypt. Horsemen are naturally good at pillaging (it is light cavalry's job, after all), and exceptionally good at dealing with Maryannu Chariot Archers. These units are so expensive that every time Egypt invests in building one, it would be a huge setback if just one of them gets killed. Horsemen are fast enough to catch up to and quickly kill Maryannu in melee battles. Later in the game, after the Maryannu is obsolete, there is no need to keep harassing Egypt - they are largely not a threat anymore (though you can freely declare war on them if you think they and their infrastructure are getting out of control, since they have no extra defensive capabilities). In the midgame, send them s; the 2 you will receive is arguably better than the 2 they will have from that (unless you have a new city and want it to grow quickly, in which case your or another city you own is a better destination for a ).
== Civilopedia entry ==
== Cities ==
== Citizens ==
Males 	Females 	Modern males	Modern females
Ahmes 	Amaunet 	Abubakar 	Aziza
Apis 	Berenice	Amsu 	Bahiti
Benipe 	Hasina 	Chibale 	Dendera
Canopus	Hatasu 	Gahiji 	Femi
Kames 	Heqet 	Hamadi 	Hehet
Kanebti	Hotep 	Husani 	Kamilah
Nahab 	Layla 	Okpara 	Nakia
Pasupti	Merit 	Rashidi 	Qibilah
Rimes 	Nanu 	Tut 	Sanura
Seker 	Titi 	Zuberi 	Urbi
== Trivia ==
* The Egyptian civilization's symbol is the , a symbol of protection, healing, and royal power in .
* The Egyptian civilization ability is in .
* Egypt is also playable in the Gifts of the Nile scenario.
* Civilization VI marks the first game in the series in which Egypt's primary color isn't yellow.
==Soundtrack==
== Gallery ==
File:Civ6 maryannu chariot archer.jpg|The Maryannu Chariot Archer, Egypt's unique unit
File:Civ 6 Sphinx.jpg|The Sphinx, Egypt's unique improvement
File:Egyptian capital.JPG|Egyptian capital in Medieval Era
== Videos ==
thumb|center|300px|First Look: Egypt
== Related achievements ==
== See also ==
* Egyptian in other games
== External links ==
* http://www.ign.com/articles/2016/05/13/how-firaxis-will-redefine-civilizations-art-style-in-civ-6-ign-first
* http://www.polygon.com/features/2016/5/25/11761306/hands-on-with-civilization-6-as-the-emperor-of-china
de:Ägypten (Civ6)
ru:Египет (Civ6)
Category:Egyptian