If you have the Gathering Storm expansion, click here for the updated guide.

This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.

Note: This guide requires the Rise and Fall expansion.

Content from DLC packs (Poland, Vikings, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia) is marked as such.

In our past lies fortune and failure. When we were outnumbered, in a time of great need, we triumphed. But when we were encumbered by a time of great greed, we fell; bought and sold by a parcel of rogues. We have never dominated in terms of pure strength, but our achievements from the ancients until this day rest upon an understanding of how to use what we have well. Through reason and determination we rise; but through ignorance and cowardice we fall. It now falls to you to lead Scotland into a new world. Make it count.


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. This is not a rating of its power, but rather a general indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these 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.

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.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

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). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders. 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.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others, and are hence particularly unique. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district 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.

Scotland has no start bias.

• If a city is happy (has 1 or 2 surplus amenities), it gains:
  
  • +5% science.
    
  • +5% production.
    
  • +1 Great Scientist Point if it has a Campus district.
    
  • +1 Great Engineer Point if it has an Industrial Zone district.
• If a city is ecstatic (has 3+ surplus amenities) these values are doubled.

• The War of Liberation casus belli is available with the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic, instead of requiring the renaissance-era Diplomatic Service civic.
  
• For the first 10 turns after declaring a War of Liberation, all units gain +2 movement and all cities gain +100% production.
  
  • Declaring a second War of Liberation merely resets the 10 turns; it does not stack nor does it extend it.

An industrial-era reconaissance unit which replaces the Ranger

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.


Positive changes

• 50 strength, up from 45
  
• 65 ranged strength, up from 60
  
• +5 strength when fighting in woods and hills tiles
  
  • This is applied based on where the defending unit is located.
    
  • The bonus does not stack for forested hill tiles.

*Note that the amenity yield does not require the improvement to be worked.

Enhancements

*This assumes you already have the enhancements of earlier eras.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Scotland has some potential in the cultural game. Golf Courses offer a little bit of appeal and tourism, but the restriction to just one per city does make them less effective towards cultural victories relative to most improvements that offer tourism. Still, Scotland's huge production potential, as well as Great Engineer Points, can really help with building wonders.

Domination victories as Scotland are driven by high production and science. Golf Courses can also provide an easy source of amenities in captured cities, though war weariness will still be a problem.

Though Golf Courses require the entire line of religious civics, Scotland is not particularly suited to religious victories. The main advantage Scotland has is the extra movement after declaring a War of Liberation.

Scientific victory is Scotland's strongest path. Significantly greater accumulation of Great Scientist and Engineer points complements advantages to both production and science so you can meet the prerequsites for eurekas, research your way through the technology tree quickly and rapidly construct space projects.

Scotland's civ ability comes into play from the very start of the game, and managing it well will be key no matter which way you want to win.


In order to get the most out of Scotland's civ ability, you need to have as many ecstatic cities as possible. As cities lose one amenity per two points of population starting at size 4, that means you need four amenities for every size 4+ city, five amenities for every size 6+ city and so forth to maintain that status.

It's tempting to hold back on expansion early on to get as many cities as possible to ecstatic status, but the Great Engineer and Scientist points from this ability becomes stronger the more cities you have. Instead, a good compromise is to aim to fairly quickly expand to around 6-7 closely packed cities and use the Audience Chamber government building in conjunction with Governors in all your cities for the extra amenities. Improve luxury resources as soon as you can, and trade any excess to other civs in exchange for more luxuries.

Though amenities apply separately per city, because luxury amenities are automatically distributed to favour cities that lack amenities, getting amenities from practically any source will help your entire empire. The only time that's not the case is when a city already has a huge amount of amenities for itself to the point where it doesn't already get any from luxuries.

There's lots of ways of getting amenities other than luxuries, which are mostly covered in the Administration section of this guide. One particularly useful one early on is the Colosseum wonder. If you've positioned your cities close together, you could get 10 amenities or more from it. Even if you fail to get the Colosseum, compact cities can get more amenities out of only a small number of Zoos, Stadiums, Aquariums and Aquatics Centres later in the game, freeing up more production for other uses.

In the renaissance era, Golf Courses can provide an extra amenity per city you own and don't even have to be worked for you to gain those amenities. In the modern era, with the Conservation civic, you can purchase Naturalists with faith, which in turn can create National Parks. National Parks provide two amenities to its city, and one to the four other closest cities, and like Golf Courses, they don't have to be worked for that bonus.

Don't be afraid to settle more cities later in the game if you have a large surplus of amenities (if you have a lot of cities with a surplus of 4 or more, it's a good time to start settling more cities). With just a Campus and an Industrial Zone that city could be producing 3 Great Scientist Points and 3 Great Engineer Points. If you move Magnus (the Steward) to new cities, you can chop down some woods or rainforests and get enough production to get those districts built quickly.


Every Scottish ecstatic city grants +10% science and +10% production, with +2 Great Scientist and +2 Great Engineer Points with the respective districts. And that's on top of the regular bonuses for ecstatic cities (+20% growth, +10% non-food yields, +6 loyalty).

Though the science and production bonuses are helpful, it's the Great Scientist and Engineer Points that are the most impactful. A Campus with a Library gains +2 Great Scientist Points, but an ecstatic Scottish city with a Library gets double that. The Scottish advantage relative to other civs will lessen in later eras, but you're still likely to dominate the acquisition of both types of Great People. The Administration section of this guide goes into more detail regarding which types of Great People you'll want to seek the most.

• Don't hold back your early expansion for excess amenities - you can worry about that later.
  
• Beyond early expansion, try to balance your cities at +3 amenities - more is redundant and fewer means a weaker bonus.
  
• If you have huge surpluses of amenities, don't be afraid to settle more cities - it can be an easy source of extra Great Engineer and Scientist Points.

Obviously having a production bonus from ecstatic cities isn't enough, so instead of ecstatic cities having a +20% production bonus, why not raise it to 120%? All you need to do is declare a War of Liberation, and enjoy 10 turns of rapid production and fast units.


To use the casus belli, you need the following:

• You need the classical-era Defensive Tactics civic. Considering its prerequisites are Political Philosophy (which you'll want as soon as possible for a classical-era government) and Games and Recreation (which you'll want for amenities), that won't be a problem.
  
• You need to be a declared friend or ally to a civ that's lost a city to another civ that you aren't currently a declared friend/ally with
  
• You must not be in a truce with the target civ (truces last 10 turns after the last war you fought).
  
• If the option doesn't appear, denounce the civ you want to declare war on. The option should appear in the casus belli list (you don't have to wait 5 turns like you do with a formal war).

The problem with a War of Liberation is the need for another civ to take cities without eliminating the civ they're taking cities from. A civ that's strong enough to take cities can also be a tough target for a declaration of war, so be prepared!


Though Wars of Liberation are intended to be used for freeing captured cities, you don't necessarily need to do that. You can instead play defensively and use the bonuses to help develop your cities - much like John Curtin's leader ability for Australia. Districts, wonders and projects (especially space projects) are a particularly good use of the production, but it's really up to you.


The movement speed bonus applies to all units, including civilians. Rather nice if you want to save time improving your tiles.

The moment the production and movement speed bonuses wear off is also the moment you're able to make peace. If you're playing defensively, that's a good idea if possible. However, a smart opponent will know Scotland will suffer in prolonged wars due to war weariness, and as such they may be unwilling to sign a peace treaty. As a general rule, it's a good idea to never declare war on a civ you don't think you can take a city from. With a city taken, you can return it in exchange for a peace deal. If that's not an option, consider using light cavalry to pillage the other civ's luxuries to build upon any war weariness problems they may have. Fight in your own territory if possible - war weariness is doubled when you fight outside your own land.

It is possible to use the bonus offensively - extra movement speed can allow for some rapid conquests, and Scotland's incentive to hoard amenities means you're unlikely to fall into unrest. Earlier in the game, melee infantry units or cavalry paired with Siege Towers can quickly surround and siege a city. Later on, you can enjoy more mobile Bombards, Artillery, Battleships and so forth to help take down city defences rapidly. High production and fast movement also makes reinforcement easy.

If you intend to go on the offensive with the bonus, be sure to still liberate some cities to offset warmonger penalties. If everyone considers you to be a warmonger, and you can't make any declarations of friendship, you can't use this bonus.


Robert the Bruce's leader ability can give you an incredible amount of production if you can find the right targets to declare war on. Weak civs that own other civs' cities can be targeted with constant declarations of war and peace so you can get as many turns of bonus production as possible.

The catch lies in needing to consider the actions of other civs. If other civs never fight each other, or no civ wants to declare friendship, you won't gain anything here. As such, be loyal to your allies and don't capture too much from your enemies.

You don't need to work Golf Courses to get their most important bonus: the amenity. Of course, the culture is still useful for a civ that may otherwise neglect it, and gold is nice to have around as well, but if you want to maximise city growth or production, being able to benefit from the amenity without having to work the tile is great.

Golf Courses unlock at the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic. That's quite an awkward research path considering Scotland isn't very good at the religious game, but unless you're starved for amenities, you should be able to put it off for quite a while. Get Exploration first if you intend to use the Merchant Republic government.

The actual yield of Golf Courses other than the amenity isn't very large, even when boosted by a City Centre and Entertainment Complex. As such, you may find it better to position them to make use of their appeal bonus to adjacent tiles, rather than trying to maximise their culture output. Extra appeal could mean extra housing for Neighbourhoods, or it could enable a National Park location that otherwise wouldn't be valid. National Parks are good sources of amenities, so be sure to take that into consideration.

At the information-era Globalisation civic, Golf Courses add +1 housing each, but this bonus arrives so late you may never even get the chance to use it. Neighbourhoods also usually provide more housing than you need by this point.

Ultimately, Golf Courses are basically a free amenity for every city so long as there's a spare land tile, and a straightforward source of appeal for adjacent tiles.

Highlanders are a tough unit to use well. They're expensive, vulnerable in defence and have only a range of 1, meaning it's easy to end up sinking a huge amount of production into them. But train them up, and you could end up with a unit with firepower on a par with information-era units.

The easy way to handle the high cost of Highlanders is to train up a large quantity of Scouts beforehand. Upgrading Scouts to Highlanders costs 265 gold each with the Professional Army military policy card, which is certainly a lot nicer than the alternative of building them from scratch.

To deal with the low melee strength of Highlanders, you'll want to form them into corps and armies. That makes them even more expensive, but it'll make them even better in terms of ranged strength.

If you want to use Highlanders defensively, use their decent mobility to hit invading units and retreat. With the Conservation civic, you can use Builders to plant woods providing them with more safe tiles to defend on or attack into.

If, instead, you want to use Highlanders offensively, you'll have to start early. They can struggle to survive from attacks from even a renaissance-era military, but train them up enough and you can get the spectacular Ambush promotion. Ambush-promoted Highlanders have 70 melee strength (on a par with Infantry) and 85 ranged strength (10 points better than a Machine Gun). Ambush Highlander Armies have 87 melee strength and 102 ranged strength, which allows them to perform well against practically anything.

With the Plastics technology, Highlanders can be upgraded to Spec Ops. Spec Ops are actually weaker when attacking into hills or woods relative to Highlanders, but their greater melee strength, longer range, paradrop ability and ability to attack support units makes the upgrade still worthwhile.


Due to the lack of an associated policy card, Highlanders are the most expensive unique unit in the game. If promoted enough, they can be quite a pain for your opponents to handle, but if that's not possible, don't fall into the trap of relying on them. There's better uses for your production.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.


Tier One

Classical Republic is the obvious choice - extra amenities, extra Great Person Points and a good selection of policy cards.

As for a government building, the Audience Chamber works well thanks to the amenity bonus it offers.

Tier Two

Merchant Republic is a reliable choice due to its good selection of policy cards.

Scientific civs are vulnerable to Spies, so the Intelligence Agency's extra Spy will be very useful.

Tier Three

Democracy is a great source of base production, which can be magnified by both the civ and leader abilities. Communism also offers a lot, and the greater number of military policy slots available may be more appropriate if you intend to actively fight your liberation wars.

The Royal Society can help save some late-game production by allowing you to use Builders to rush space projects.


Ancient Era

Urban Planning (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - The production bonus from this can be magnified with both the civ ability and the leader ability.

Medieval Era

Craftsmen (Economic, requires Guilds) - Scotland's civ ability encourages you to have a lot of Industrial Zones, while both the civ and leader abilities magnify your production.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Highlanders are expensive, but upgrading Scouts in conjunction with this policy makes it much more manageable.

Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - Training a few Scouts can make it easy to meet the requirement for this policy card's amenities. You can then upgrade them to Highlanders later.

Renaissance Era

Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - An easy source of amenities.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - This policy goes well with Robert the Bruce's leader ability. Strengthening your ties with allies will help you to maintain the friendship or alliance status which in turn allows you to carry on using the War of Liberation casus belli. Furthermore, the production on offer can be boosted further via the ability.

Modern Era

Arsenal of Democracy (Diplomatic, requires Suffrage) - Like Wisselbanken, but with even better yields.

Defence of the Motherland (Military, requires Class Struggle) - Declaring Wars of Liberation, then playing it defensively? Using this policy card, so long as you keep your units within your land, you won't suffer war weariness. That means your opponents can't try and draw out the wars to put pressure on your cities.

Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Class Struggle) - An improved version of Craftsmen, which also works for Campuses.

New Deal (Economic, requires Suffrage) - Up to two amenities per city, though at a cost of 8 gold every time it applies.

Atomic Era

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - An extra amenity for Stadiums.

Information Era

Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - A decent boost to production from trade - combine it with Scotland's production bonuses to get even more out of it.


Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

Isolationism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Though it stops you founding new cities, that might not be a problem if you need to consolidate your amenities. The extra production from this policy can be increased by Scotland's civ and leader abilities.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Modern eras) - Nicely ties together your science emphasis with your production multipliers.

City Patron Goddess - New ecstatic cities can quickly contribute to your Great Engineer or Scientist points with this pantheon.

Divine Spark - Want more Great Scientist Points? Now, ecstatic cities with just a Campus will start producing +4 Great Scientist Points per turn!

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - If you have plenty of marsh, oases or floodplain, you'll end up with extra production that both the civ and leader abilities can build upon.

River Goddess - Though it does require you to construct Holy Sites, this is the only pantheon to offer amenities.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Enjoy playing out Wars of Liberation defensively? This belief will make things much harder for your opponents.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Develop your many Campuses rapidly.

Meeting House (Worship) - Provides +2 production. Both the Scottish civ and leader abilities together could add another +2.2 on top of that.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Declaring a War of Liberation can make your religious units very fast. Combine it with this and they'll be unrivalled in speed.

Stupa (Worship) - Each Stupa building provides an amenity for its city.

Wat (Worship) - Provides a little science the civ ability can build upon.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - Basically the Liberalism policy card, but in religious belief form. It helps generate even more amenities for you.


Antananarivo (Cultural) - Scotland can be prone to neglecting culture generation, so it's nice to have a suzerain bonus that draws on your good Great Engineer and Scientist generation and helps you to output more culture. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

Auckland (Trade) - More production, that both the civ and leader abilities can build on. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

Babylon (Scientific) - Rewards you with science for playing certain aspects of the cultural game. This science can be increased with Scotland's civ ability.

Buenos Aires (Industrial) - A source of additional amenities.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Highlanders have very good promotions, but the challenge is getting there. Being suzerain over Kabul makes that much easier.

Mitla (Scientific) - Ecstatic cities already grow faster, but now ecstatic Campus cities can grow at a particularly fast pace. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

Muscat (Trade) - Grants you an amenity for every Commercial Hub. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

Toronto (Industrial) - Toronto lets you have good base production and amenities without needing to put in as much of an investment.

Stockholm (Scientific) - Even more Great Person Points! Excellent in conjunction with the Divine Spark pantheon.

Zanzibar (Trade) - More amenities.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Want to dominate the generation of Great Scientists early on? Build the Oracle and take the Divine Spark pantheon. It also gives you a use for any excess faith you accumulate.

Temple of Artemis (Ancient era, Archery technology) - Can potentially be a strong source of early amenities.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - One of the best early sources of amenities around, and can make happy cities ecstatic.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - A truly excellent wonder, as it gives all Great Engineers an extra charge. For a civ that generates a lot of them, this could go a very long way. Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization Pack.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - Cities with lots of desert hills and the Petra wonder are very productive, which Scotland can take to absurd levels. Remember, however, that Golf Courses can't go on desert tiles, so make sure you either have a non-desert tile in range or can cover the lack of the amenity.

Huey Teocalli (Medieval era, Military Tactics technology) - If you find a large lake, this could be worth 4 amenities or more - as much as a luxury resource.

Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - An ecstatic Scottish city with this wonder during a War of Liberation will probably be the world's most productive city.

Estádio do Maracanã (Atomic era, Professional Sports civic) - Two amenities in every city makes it much easier to keep cities ecstatic.


Classical Era

Hypatia (Great Scientist) - All Libraries create more science, magnified by Scotland's civ ability.

Renaissance Era

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - All Universities create extra science, magnified by the civ ability.

Industrial Era

James Watt (Great Engineer) - Boost Factory production, which both the civ and leader abilities can increase further.

Joesph Paxton (Great Engineer) - Squeeze more amenities out of an Entertainment Complex.

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - One of four Great Merchants offering unique luxuries, and therefore more amenities.

Modern Era

Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - Considerably boosts science from Universities, magnified by Scotland's civ ability.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Enjoy more production from a single Industrial Complex's Factories and Power Plants.

Atomic Era

Helena Rubenstein (Great Merchant) - The second of four unique-luxury Great Merchants.

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - Can offer bonus amenities for a city.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - Can offer bonus amenities for two cities.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - The third of four unique-luxury Great Merchants.

Information Era

(Cultural) Jamseth Tata (Great Merchant) - Going off the main route for Scotland? You can get a huge amount of tourism out of all your Campuses.

(Cultural) Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - You can also get a lot of tourism out of all your Industrial Zones.

If Scotland has a good balance of allies and enemies; of peaceful players and warmongers, they are at their strongest. But games where civs are entirely peaceful, or games where all civs refuse to do any dealing with Scotland, will limit their potential.


It is not the science and production bonuses that are cause for alarm here, but the Great Engineer and Scientist points. If unchecked, Scotland can dominate their generation in a way few civs can.

Thankfully, you can keep it in check even in peace-time by limiting Scotland's access to amenities. Denying them wonders like the Colosseum, Huey Teocalli or Estádio do Maracanã, and denying them your luxuries in trade deals can really help to limit their ability to reach that all-important ecstatic status.

Alternatively, getting the Great Library wonder will get you a free eureka every time another civ (including Scotland) recruits a Great Scientist, meaning you can keep up even if Scotland's fast accumulation of them stops you recruiting any of your own.


There's a few ways of blocking this ability from even being used. If Robert the Bruce can't declare friendship with anyone, he won't have access to the War of Liberation casus belli. If civs are entirely eliminated, there's no civ left for a War of Liberation to be used for. If civs never take over cities of other civs (aside from city-states), again a War of Liberation cannot be used.

If Robert the Bruce declares war on you with a War of Liberation casus belli, drag the war out for as long as possible, both to deny him the ability to declare war on you again and to make him suffer war weariness. Play defensively - civs suffer additional war weariness when fighting outside their own territory.

Finally, late in the game you may want to consider pre-emptively attacking Robert the Bruce to discourage him from starting another war with the casus belli letting him get through space projects faster.


Robert the Bruce doesn't like to fight neighbours unless they break a promise to him. He dislikes civs that fight his neighbours, and likes those not at war with them.

This agenda can make Robert the Bruce a good neighbour, and possible future ally (so long as you haven't lost any cities so he can't exploit the War of Liberation for production and movement speed). It does however mean warmongers that get too close to Scotland are likely to be on the receiving end of a War of Liberation. To avoid that problem, attack Scotland first before attacking Robert the Bruce's neighbours, so he's in no position to effectively use his bonus.


Highlanders are expensive to train and are weak in defence. Field Cannons or Cavalry are both cheaper and can kill them pretty quickly. Even Musketmen perform reasonably effectively. Target ones with promotions first so they can't get to Ambush.


Cities can only host one Golf Course at a time, and their bonus yield from being adjacent to a city centre means there's a good chance you'll find them around there. That's quite useful for sieges of Scottish cities, as Golf Courses heal a unit to full health when pillaged.

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These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm.

Compilation Guides

• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications
  
• Civ summaries

Individual Civilization Guides

• America (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Arabia (Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Brazil (All)
  
• China (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination)
  
• France (Cultural)
  
• Georgia (Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Domination)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated. You can find these by scrolling to the top of this page, clicking "Zigzagzigal's Guides" and looking near the end of the list of guides. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.