If you have the Rise and Fall expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Rise and Fall expansion.

Note: This guide only covers content released prior to the Rise and Fall expansion. Content from any DLC pack released between the base game and Rise and Fall is marked as such.

To play as the Khmer, you must have the Khmer and Indonesia Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Ready the Ballista Elephants! We have an empire to build. Yet restraint is a virtue; our growing nation's strengths at infrastructure shall make our new cities large and pious, and through our faith we shall inspire the world rather than burn it. For the burden of a king is not to lead the land, but to lead the people.


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 (assuming they have one at all).
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) are inclined towards particular victory routes.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, civic cards, 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 should be given more consideration than they would be for other civs but 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, culture, gold, 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

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Describes bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories and Stadiums (which by default offer production and happiness respectively 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 - The strategy of 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 deviation (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. Unlike unique units, buildings, districts and improvements, civ abilites do not have to be built.

Civic cards - Another name for policy cards; you fill up your government with these for additional bonuses and can switch them for free every time you unlock a civic.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together. This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, maximise the number of copies of the same district in the same area, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out. This is useful if you want to ensure cities have plenty of room for both districts and tile improvements. 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.

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, which like civ abilities do not have to be built. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit on top of the standard one every civ has.

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.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam's program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). If a civilization is not listed as having a start bias there, it does not have one, even if you feel like you keep spawning in the same terrain when playing as that civ.

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 and offers some unique advantages on top. In some cases, there may be minor disadvantages as well, but these are always outweighed by the positive features. All unique districts cost half as much to construct relative to the regular districts they replace.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. Unlike unique buildings or districts, these do not replace a regular improvement. Some require a technology to unlock, and many have their yields improved with later technologies. "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 built by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader. These usually replace an existing unit and offer extra advantages (and occasionally minor disadvantages as well in exchange for bigger advantages).

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

The Khmer have a tier 3 river start bias. This makes it easier to make use of both the Khmer civ ability and Jayavarman VII's leader ability.

• All Aqueducts offer +3 faith and +1 amenity in addition to their normal yields
  
• Farms adjacent to Aqueducts gain an additional +2 food

• Constructing a Holy Site district causes a culture bomb, granting you all surrounding tiles.
  
  • Only tiles that are within the workable range of the tile's city will be granted (in other words, they must be within a 3-tile radius from the city centre).
    
  • This includes tiles from other civs, but will incur a diplomatic penalty if you steal tiles off them this way. Taking land from city-states has no penalty.
    
  • Tiles stolen containing non-unique tile improvements will retain them.
    
  • Tiles containing completed districts, wonders or national parks will not be stolen, but incomplete ones will be, destroying them.
• Holy Sites adjacent to rivers provide +2 food and +1 housing, even when pillaged

A medieval-era siege unit which does not replace anything.

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Theocracy government, which in turn requires the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. This number does not take into account Theocracy's 15% discount on faith purchases.


Notable Features

• Has 33 strength, 10 higher than classical-era Catapults and 10 lower than renaissance-era Bombards
  
• Has 45 bombard strength, 10 higher than classical-era Catapults and 10 lower than renaissance-era Bombards
  
• Imposes zone of control, unlike other siege units
  
• May attack after moving for just 1 movement point
  
  • This bonus functions identically to the Expert Crew promotion, making that promotion useless to Domreys.

A classical-era Holy Site building which replaces the Temple



Positive changes

• 2 relic slots, up from 1
  
• All Missionaries and Gurus trained in this city have the Martyr promotion, granting you a relic if they are killed in theological combat, unless all 24 relics in the game have been claimed already or you have no relic slots to store them in.

In this section, the civ is graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Any score of 3 or above means the civ or leader has some kind of advantage to the victory route above a hypothetical civ with no unique features. A score of less than 2 means some kind of aspect of the civ actively discourages a particular victory route. All values are subjective and may be edited in future.


The Khmer are notable in that their cultural and religious strengths are so closely intertwined that they can push for both victory routes at once. The Prasat UB makes it really easy both to obtain and store relics for a huge boost to early tourism and faith, especially with the Reliquaries belief. Your key challenges will be to find enough enemy religious units for your Missionaries to die in theological combat, and to have enough Prasats to store all those relics. If civs get wise to all that and refuse to kill your Missionaries, just use up the spread-religion charges to play the religious game instead.

Domination is a fine choice as well. Domreys are devastatingly effective against cities; bring along some Knights and you can get some good conquests going. An extra amenity from Aqueducts helps you in supporting those captured cities.

Finally, science is the weakest path for the Khmer. You can use the Jesuit Education belief to convert excess faith into science buildings, and the growth bonuses are nice to have around, but there's nothing directly useful here.

Pushing for an early religion usually has the problem that it comes at the cost of early city development. The Khmer, however, have a couple of bonuses that make pushing for an early religion much easier.


Place Holy Sites adjacent to rivers, and you can enjoy a bonus similar to a Granary. Although you'll be receiving 1 housing and 2 food instead of the 2 housing and 1 food offered by Granaries, the extra food is more useful when you're trying to expand your empire with Settlers early on, and helps you fill your population capacity (with the extra little bit of science and culture that offers) a bit faster.

The hard part of using this ability is the need to position the Holy Site in a way that is adjacent to a river, still gets good adjacency bonuses and won't get in the way of an Aqueduct later. To do so, it's useful to break down each consideration you need to make.

The city location

Usually, you'll want a city located on a river. Alternatively, a city on a lake with a river close by can do, so long as you're willing to spare some gold to buy a few tiles. The best location is where there's plenty of flat grassland, flat plains or farm resources as well as a river, lake or mountain on one side of the city (that's where you'll want your Aqueduct), and mountains next to a river on the other (that's where the Holy Site should go).

Look at the first ring

Aqueducts may only be placed adjacent to a city centre, and must also be adjacent to a river, lake or mountain. Look at the six tiles surrounding your city centre, and consider which tiles meet those criteria. Now, look at those potential Aqueduct spots and the tiles adjacent to them. Potential Aqueduct spots with lots of farm resources or flat grassland or plains will be the best. It might be worthwhile placing a map pin down on those spots to remind yourself to build an Aqueduct there later.

Consider what's left over

Once you know where your Aqueduct is going to go, now it's time to consider the Holy Site. You'll need to place it adjacent to a river for Jayavarman's Leader Ability to take full effect, but you'll also want to look for locations with plenty of adjacent woods, mountains or even a natural wonder. River adjacency is more important than maximising faith; you'll get lots of the latter later via your UB.

Consider the River Goddess pantheon

The River Goddess pantheon adds +1 amenity in every city with a Holy Site adjacent to a river. As Jayavarman's leader ability pushes you to always position Holy Sites in such a manner, this is an easy source of bonus amenities. That's really useful for managing the fast city growth the Khmer have.


When placing a Holy Site, you will obtain all surrounding tiles that are within three tiles of the city centre, including those owned by other civs that don't have completed districts, wonders or national parks present. This is a hard bonus to use well against other players considering how difficult it can be already to find a good Holy Site spot, so just think of it as a few bonus tiles when you're starting out.


The Khmer early game strongly benefits from fairly rapid expansion mixed with Holy Site development. Getting an early religion is important for securing the Reliquaries follower belief, which triples the effectiveness of relics and makes Prasats extremely powerful as a consequence. It's true that you might be a little bit behind on science and culture early on, but the Domrey UU will help you make up for lost time once it arrives.

The Khmer civ ability nicely complements Jayavarman VII's leader ability. Together, they help you create large cities with a good faith output.


Aqueducts arrive at the Engineering technology. Here's what you'll need:

• Mining
  
• Wheel - To boost, you need to mine a resource, such as copper. This isn't always possible in your first city, so don't be afraid to research something else while you wait for the boost.
  
• Engineering - To boost, you need ancient walls in at least one city. These are affordable but require a detour to the Masonry technology.

Beelining Engineering from the start of the game isn't generally a good idea as expansion and Holy Sites demand attention. As such, don't strictly rush those three technologies - take time to pick up whatever other early-game technologies you might need, like Astrology, Writing, Archery, Masonry or so forth. Obviously you won't want to leave it too late, but don't feel obliged to rush right into it.




Khmer Aqueducts should be positioned in a manner where you can maximise your food output. Look for spots surrounded by flat grassland, plains and/or floodplains (though note you can't build Aqueducts on floodplains), or at least a couple of wheat and/or rice resources.

The more farm-worthy tiles you have next to an Aqueduct, the more food you can get out of it - up to +10 at the most. Remember to position extra farms next to those once you have the Feudalism civic; triangles of farms will produce additional food.

The area around your Aqueduct should be the city's breadbasket, providing it with a large share of the food it needs. That gives you a lot of other free tiles for other uses, such as for mines and lumber mills. Or maybe even some national parks and seaside resorts to complement the tourism Prasats will help you acquire?


+3 faith from every Aqueduct is a helpful little bonus that will really help in acquiring the first few martyr Missionaries. Once some start dying in theological combat, your faith output can snowball to an incredible quantity.

The bonus amenity is rather like the one Rome gets from their unique Aqueduct replacement. It nicely complements your food and housing bonuses, and combined with the River Goddess patheon, you shouldn't need to worry too much about keeping your large cities happy.

The Prasat is an incredibly powerful unique building that deserves special attention regardless of your aims for victory. Use it well and you may be able to manage an early cultural victory, or more faith than you'll ever need.


Prasats must be built in Holy Sites with Shrines, and you also need the Theology civic. There's two routes you can take to get to Theology:

• The fast way - Beeline Theology. This depends on you being able to found a religion very early for the inspiration boost. If you can secure the Stonehenge wonder, you can get the Drama and Poetry inspiration as well.
  
• The slow way - Get Political Philosophy first. This is a more reliable method and should probably be done in most games. Getting a classical-era government allows you to pick up the Relevation policy card at Mysticism to help speed up your progress towards founding a religion.

When founding a religion, try to take the following beliefs:

• Reliquaries (Follower) - This makes relics three times as effective, turning the UB from being good to being incredibly powerful.
  
• Monastic Isolation (Founder) - Prevents you losing religious pressure when your Missionaries die.

If you can't manage to pick up Reliquaries, consider Warrior Monks instead to complement your unique unit and go on some conquests, or Religious Community for bonus housing to complement your high food output.


Once you have a Prasat in a city following your religion, buy a Missionary and use all but one charge spreading your religion. If you spread your religion into the cities of a civ which has their own one, you can encourage them to retaliate with Inquistors or Apostles. If they don't have them yet, consider saving up some faith for an Apostle or two of your own to fill out your religion's beliefs in the mean-time.

It might sound strange, but it can be better not to try and build the Mahabodhi Temple wonder. Whichever civ builds it will get two free Apostles, and there's a good chance they'll either use one to launch an inquisition or fill out their religious beliefs making them likely to use their next Apostle for that purpose. By letting another civ get the wonder, you can ensure they're ready to engage in theological combat sooner.

Every Missionary originally purchased in a Prasat city will create a relic if they die in theological combat, but not if they die from being pillaged by military units. Keeping your army reasonably strong (Domreys will help) should discourage the civ from starting a war. If your opponents get wise to your ability to gain relics quickly and avoid theological combat, then you can just use your faith advantages to push towards a conventional religious victory in the knowledge that your Missionaries will be largely safe from harm.

Once you find a religious rival regularly relying upon Apostles or Inquisitors, keep spamming one-charge Missionaries at them. If you can surround their Apostles or Inquisitors, they'll be forced to either engage in theological combat or start a war.


A horrible scenario for a normal religious civ. But a wonderful situation for the Khmer.




Every Missionary dead in theological combat creates a relic worth 4 faith and 8 tourism, or 12 faith and 24 tourism with the Reliquaries belief.

The key thing here is speed. You'll want to be able to kill off Missionaries quickly enough to fill your relic capacity, to meet every civ in the game so you can accumulate tourism against them (or know where they are ready to send Missionaries over to convert them), and to ensure your relic capacity is as high as possible (up to 24 slots, seeing as that's the maximum number of relics in the game).

• Getting Missionaries killed quickly is easy once you find another civ with Inquisitors. Although spamming Missionaries can cost a fair bit of faith at first, once you have a few relics that won't be a problem any more.
  
• Meeting everyone can be tricky. Getting the Cartography technology may be necessary in order to cross oceans and find distant civs. Make sure you get lots of open borders agreements - it'll also offer you tourism bonuses.
  
• Maximising your relic capacity will require up to 12 cities. Consider training some Builders in your more productive cities and chopping down woods or rainforests with them near your newer cities to get Holy Sites built faster.

There's also a few tourism modifiers worth remembering:

• Tourism from relics is halved against civs with the Enlightenment civic, unless you can secure the Cristo Redentor wonder.
  
• Tourism from relics is also halved against civs with a different religion, so you might want to use your excess spread-religion charges converting those with high culture outputs. This allows you to push religious and cultural goals simultaneously!
  
• Having a different government comes with a tourism penalty. This is bigger for later governments.
  
• Sending a trade route to a civ gives you a 25% tourism bonus against them
  
• An open borders agreement with a civ gives you a 25% tourism bonus against them.

For a really fast cultural victory, you'll need to focus your tourism multipliers on whichever civs have the most domestic tourists, especially the common religion, trade route and open borders bonuses.

If you can't manage a fast cultural victory, you can use your excess faith for GWAM patronage (as well as for any other Great People with relevant bonuses) and Naturalists so you can create national parks.


The Prasat lets you get an enormous early faith and tourism output via relics, which is good for religious and cultural victories alike. The more opponents kill your religious units in theological combat, the stronger you get at the cultural game, and the more they hold off, the better you get at the religious game.

The main risk is that the other civ declares war on you, but thankfully you have the Domrey UU to discourage them from doing so.

Come the middle ages, the walls of Khmer's enemies shall fall into rubble. Few cities can withstand the attacks of the Ballista Elephants, and their ability to fire after moving makes it much easier to get more hits on a city.


Domreys arrive at the Military Engineering technology. Although a relatively expensive technology, its eureka - requiring you to construct an Aqueduct - is easy to achieve thanks to the nature of the Khmer civ ability. Unfortunately, Domreys are pretty expensive and have no policy cards helping you to build them faster, nor can you upgrade Catapults into them. Be prepared to set some cities to a production emphasis to help build them at a reasonable rate.

Furthermore, you'll want to complement your Domreys with something with a melee attack so you can capture cities; Horsemen or Knights are good.



Hello walls. Goodbye, walls.

Ballista Elephants have little trouble tearing down enemy defences, and their ability to move after firing lets them move from out of a city's attack radius and hit the city in the same turn, ensuring they don't get hit beforehand and hence can deal maximum damage.

Furthermore, as Domreys impose zone of control, they're harder to flank than regular siege units. Nonetheless, their defensive strength isn't especially high so you should ensure you have an escape route ready - some open land will do.


It's easy for me to retreat to Thebes if things go wrong.

Domreys are exceptionally powerful against cities, but suffer a -17 strength penalty against land units, putting them at only 28. With the Grape Shot and Shrapnel promotions, that strength penalty is removed against land units, putting them on a par with Crossbowmen with the Volley promotion. Still, you may find it more useful to instead start with the Crew Weapons promotion to prevent Domreys being vulnerable to counter attacks. If you need to handle enemy land units, use Crossbowmen, Knights or Warrior Monks.

However, against naval units, Domreys perform very effectively. Their high mobility means you can effectively react to enemy navies rather than having to place them on the coast in anticipation of them.


Going to war can help you secure more cities, and hence more Prasats and relic slots. However, in singleplayer, your reputation as a warmonger may make it hard to get open borders agreements with other civs and the 25% tourism bonus on offer there. Warmonger penalties will erode over time, eventually allowing such agreements to be made once more, but until then you're likely to have trouble.

This means you'll often have to choose between a higher emphasis on warfare, or a higher emphasis on culture. Religious aims can be pursued either way, though beware of retaliatory wars leading to your religious units being pillaged.


Although Domrey corps are as strong as Bombards and have the advantages of being able to move after firing and impose zone of control, they're much less cost-effective. Still, their maintenance is lower and if you have a lot of faith and the Theocracy government, purchasing them won't be a problem.

Come the industrial era, however, and you're going to have trouble if you continue to use Domreys extensively. Cavalry have promotions offering bonuses against siege units as well as having high mobility, 62 strength and the ability to ignore zone of control.

Here are the governments, policy cards, pantheons, religions, wonders, city-states and Great People which have particularly good synergy with Khmer uniques. Be aware that these are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options that you should consider more than usual if playing as the Khmer relative to other civs.


Classical Era Governments

Classical Republic is a reliable choice. Extra Great Person Points will help you found a religion if you haven't already, while the good number of economic policy card slots works well to support a religious game.

Medieval/Renaissance Era Governments

Theocracy will generally be your best choice due to the savings it makes on faith, but the bonus it offers to theological combat can actually be a disadvantage when you're trying to get Missionaries killed for relics. On the whole, though, it's not a significant enough downside to outweigh cheaper faith purchasing.

Modern Era Governments

Democracy's high number of economic policy slots makes it generally the best late-game choice for the Khmer.


Ancient Era

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Helps you get some more farms around your Aqueducts, or to chop down some woods or rainforests to help rush Holy Sites.

Revelation (Wildcard, requires Mysticism) - Getting an early religion is important if you want to maximise your chances of getting the powerful Reliquaries belief.

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - A straightforward production boost which will help you build Holy Sites in new cities.

Classical Era

Insulae (Economic, requires Games and Recreation) - Khmer food bonuses should be complemented with bonuses to housing to create bigger cities.

Medieval Era

Medina Quarter (Economic, requires Medieval Faires) - An even better version of Insulae for some more housing.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Growing cities will need to work a lot of tiles. Serfdom will help with that. You can also chop down more woods or rainforests if you need to get more Prasats up quickly for more relic slots.

Renaissance Era

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Nice if you're still using Domreys and need to get them to the front line sooner, but the main use will be getting Missionaries to rival Inquisitors/Apostles sooner.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - All your Prasats will be making an impressive faith yield, so go ahead and double it with this policy card.

Modern Era

New Deal (Economic, requires Suffrage) - The Khmer civ ability provides the food you need - take this policy and you'll have the housing and amenities you need for large cities as well.

Information Era

Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - While not the only tourism-boosting policy card that's good to pick up, this is the only one that will directly make your relics more effective (in addition to all other sources of tourism).


City Patron Goddess - A useful pantheon when you're trying to grow new cities, as it'll help you build their first district - typically a Holy Site when playing as the Khmer - faster.

Divine Spark - Aside from helping you found a religion faster, this also can give you generate more Great Writers, which helps a little towards cultural victory.

Fertility Rates - While not as strong as many other pantheons on this list, it does build upon the high food output of Khmer cities.

God of Healing - The Khmer are strongly encouraged to build a lot of Holy Sites, and the Domrey is a little more mobile than most siege units allowing it to retreat, heal and get back into the fight.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - A bit situational, but if you can successfully place an Aqueduct next to multiple floodplain tiles, you can end up with decent production as well as a massive food output.

River Goddess - A very dependable choice as the Khmer seeing as you're encouraged to place Holy Sites next to rivers anyway. This, combined with the amenity for having an Aqueduct in a city, should prevent your cities becoming unhappy for quite some time!


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief. Note that the Burial Grounds enhancer belief is useless to the Khmer, as they have that ability already.

Choral Music (Follower) - You'll be building a lot of Shrines and Prasats as the Khmer, so if you can't manage to take the Reliquaries belief, this is a possible option to help boost your civic accumulation considerably.

Church Property (Founder) - The Khmer get little in the way of gold advantages and Domreys can be quite expensive to maintain. As such, this may be a useful belief to take.

(Domination) Crusade (Enhancer) - Once the Khmer have a few relics, your faith output will really take off. That makes it easy to convert a few enemy cities ahead of a Domrey invasion.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - When you send Missionaries to an enemy land, they have three options. Kill your Missionaries (which provides you with relics), leave them alone (which lets you convert their cities) or start a war. This belief makes that last option far less lucrative to your opponents.

Holy Order (Enhancer) - Cheaper Missionaries will help you get your first few relics sooner, and potentially give you a head start on the way to cultural victory.

(Cultural) Jesuit Education (Follower) - Fail to get Reliquaries? Don't worry, you can still push for a cultural victory with help from this belief, which lets you convert faith into cultural buildings. You should exhaust the supply of relics before really using this belief however, as Missionaries tend to be a lot cheaper than cultural buildings.

(Cultural) Lay Ministry (Founder) - A small bonus that gets you a little more culture and faith from converted cities with Holy Sites or Theatre Squares. If you're going for a cultural victory, you'll have a lot of both.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Cuts down the time needed to get Missionaries into rival lands, which means you can get relics a few turns earlier.

Monastic Isolation (Enhancer) - An excellent choice for the Khmer, as all those Missionaries dying to provide you with relics won't ruin your religious pressure.

Mosque (Worship) - Extra spread-religion charges for Missionaries allows you to put more religious pressure on other civs before you sacrifice them for relics. This lets you push your cultural and religious goals at the same time!

Pagoda (Worship) - Some extra housing to go with your high food output.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - If civs kill your Missionaries, you get extra faith from relics. If they let your Missionaries spread your religion instead, you get extra faith from this belief.

Religious Colonisation (Enhancer) - Can save a little bit of time when you're trying to expand your relic capacity by founding new cities. There's better choices of enhancer belief than this one though.

Religious Community (Follower) - More housing to go with your high food output.

Reliquaries (Follower) - The most important belief to take as the Khmer due to it tripling the faith and tourism output of relics. This belief can be your ticket to an early cultural victory, or an unstoppable faith output to help convert the world.

Tithe (Founder) - A decent source of money to help support Domreys.

Warrior Monks (Follower) - One possible backup option if you don't manage Reliquaries. Warrior Monks nicely complement Domreys for some medieval-era conquests.

Hanging Gardens (Ancient era, Irrigation technology) - Extra housing in a city can make it very powerful very early on, and faster city growth in the empire helps you fill up your housing capacity even faster. Like all early wonders, it's a risk to build when you're trying to expand early on.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Good for its bonus to Great Person Points, but cheaper Great Person patronage really makes this useful. The Khmer with the Reliquaries belief can make insane amounts of faith, and this provides you with something to spend it on.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - Growing cities need to work a lot of tiles, and the Pyramids will help you do just that.

Stonehenge (Ancient era, Astrology technology) - Complete this quickly and you can secure the Reliquaries belief, as well as the inspiration for not only Theology, but Drama and Poetry as well, letting you beeline Theology for early Prasats.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - The envoys are nice but you'll usually be after the extra Great Work slots, which can hold relics. Your relic slot limit will often be a major barrier to relic production, so it helps to get all the slots you can. Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization and Scenario Pack.

Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - An interesting one. While getting it means you can fill out your religious beliefs without spending faith you'll need for your Missionaries, on the other hand, letting another civ get it makes them more likely they'll launch an Inquisition sooner, giving you an easy way to sacrifice your Missionaries.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - The Aqueduct adjacency requirement is easy to meet as the Khmer while the population and housing boost can help you support some of the world's largest cities at this point in the game.

Hagia Sophia (Medieval era, Education technology) - An extra charge for all Missionaries means you can spread your religion around more before sacrificing them for relics, letting you further both cultural and religious aims.

Mont St. Michel (Medieval era, Theology civic) - The free Martyr promotion for Apostles isn't much use for you seeing as Missionaries are cheaper and can die in theological combat faster, though getting this wonder does deny other civs the opportunity, helping you get a bigger share of the game's 24 relics. The main reason you should go for this wonder is the extra relic slots - the more slots you have, the faster you can produce relics and the faster you can win a cultural victory.

Cristo Redentor (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Can't win an early cultural victory? You'll certainly want this wonder to ensure your relics continue to have a strong tourism output late in the game.


Kandy (Religious) - Extra faith from relics builds on your already-strong faith output.

Mohenjo Daro (Cultural) - This city-state allows you to place cities away from fresh water to link up via an Aqueduct later. That may help you maximise the number of high-food farms adjacent to the Aqueduct.

Palenque (Scientific) - Faster growth builds on your high food advantage to fill district capacity at a rapid rate. Requires the Vikings Scenario Pack.


Remember that these are only the ones that have particular synergy with Khmer uniques, not necessarily the most effective options. Obviously, all Great Generals and Admirals can be useful for a domination victory, but it would be redundant to list them all.

Renaissance Era

Giovanni de Medici (Great Merchant) - His special bank can hold relics, helping you to maximise your tourism even sooner.

Mimar Sinan (Great Engineer) - Take advantage of your high food output with bonuses to housing and amenities.

Industrial Era

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - The first of four Great Merchants offering unique luxuries, which means more amenities to support your growing cities.

Modern Era

Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - International trade both helps spread your religion and boost your tourism. Sarah Breedlove makes the tourism multiplier even better, helping you make the most of your relics.

Atomic Era

Helena Rubenstein (Great Merchant) - Another unique-luxury Great Merchant.

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - More housing and amenities for a growing city.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - Even more housing and amenities.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - Yet another unique-luxury Great Merchant.

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Enjoy another tourism bonus for trade routes, helping you to make more out of relics.

Information Era

Estée Lauder (Great Merchant) - The final Great Merchant offering unique luxuries.

Left to their own devices, the Khmer can dominate in both the cultural and religious elements of the game. However, they lack defensive advantage and their large cities can make good targets for conquest.


This ability depends on fairly specific city placement to be fully effective. The Khmer need to have a river, mountain or lake a tile away from a city centre, and for that tile to have eligible spots for farms adjacent to it. The simplest way to slowing the Khmer's ability down is to take riverside city spots before the Khmer can. Areas with a lot of hills, desert or tundra can also be bad for the Khmer - Aqueducts can't be built on floodplain, tundra tiles can't support farms and hill tiles can't host farms until quite some time into the game.

Alternatively, take advantage of the tendency for the Khmer to cluster farms in one area when attacking them. Pillaging farms heals up your units by 50 HP, so attacking cities from the direction their Aqueduct is facing may be a good idea if you have the option.


Holy Site Culture Bomb

Although a relatively small bonus, it may still catch you by surprise occasionally. Thankfully, because Jayavarman is strongly encouraged to place Holy Sites next to rivers, you're unlikely to lose land except in the circumstance you have a border with Khmer close to a river. Until the border city already has a Holy Site, avoid using those tiles except for national parks (which are constructed instantly and can't be culture-bombed) or unique improvements (they'll be destroyed if culture-bombed, so the Khmer can't steal them).

Food and Housing

The Khmer will get a strong start to their cities' growth, but on the strict condition that they need a Holy Site adjacent to a river. If they have no river tiles available, they can't use this bonus, so settling some river-heavy areas may be an effective (albeit mean) way to severely curtail their strength.

An encouragement to emphasise early Holy Sites comes at the cost of other districts, which must be put off a little bit. Emphasising Campuses can give you a scientific edge over the Khmer, which can then become a military advantage.


Jayavarman likes civs that have a high average population in each city, as well as lots of Holy Sites. He dislikes civs that seriously lack one of the two criteria.

This is a great agenda for India to meet thanks to their growth and religious advantages, but many other civs may have trouble meeting both objectives. Most religious bonuses are done on a per-city basis, encouraging very wide expansion. Still, cultural civs later in the game might do reasonably well here, seeing as large cities are good for building wonders with and Holy Site faith can help buy Naturalists and rush GWAMs.


Domreys are mostly effective on the attack, and can struggle when the Khmer are in defence. Attacking the Khmer rather than letting them attack you can help ensure Domreys are kept to an area where they're less effective.

Perhaps the best counter to Domreys is Horsemen. They have slightly higher strength in melee combat, are quite a bit cheaper, ignore zone of control and have bonuses that specifically help against siege units. Knights are also good if you can research and train them fast enough. If you lack strategic resources altogether, Crossbowmen may be a reasonably effective alternative.


The Prasat is a potentially monstrous UB that if ignored can spiral out of control and hand the Khmer two different kinds of victory. Thankfully, there's ways to stop it being quite so much a threat.

A general method that may be helpful is to constrain Khmer expansion. Taking up river spots already helps weaken the Khmer civ and leader ability, but if they can't settle many cities, they can't build as many Prasats. As a consequence, Khmer relic slots will be limited, restricting how much faith and tourism they can generate.

If you're going for a religion (especially an early one), grabbing the Reliquaries belief will deny the Khmer it and make them much less of a threat. Placing a wall of Inquisitors along your border with the Khmer will force them to spend faith on Apostles or send their Missionaries elsewhere, depriving them of opportunities to gain relics.

More of a warmonger, or a scientific civ with good military technology? Pillaging the Khmer Missionaries will destroy them without handing Jayavarman precious relics. Yes, that'll start a war, but the Khmer lack unique defensive bonuses making them one of the game's easier targets on the whole.

Playing culturally? Note that as relics don't offer culture, the Khmer are often left with a much slower civic accumulation than you. You can race to The Enlightenment to lower the tourism effect of relics on you, and more importantly, you've got a good shot at beating the Khmer to Mass Media and hence the Cristo Redentor wonder.

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