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This guide is no longer updated, but will remain for the sake of those without the Gathering Storm expansion.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

The stronger they are, the further they may fall. The powerful become complacent, and ignore the details that may make their realm stronger. So though we must understand them to survive, they neglect to understand us. And in that, we have the advantage. Come - let us end the tyranny of empires.


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.

The Mapuche have a tier 3 start bias towards all types of mountains except snow mountains. This increases the likelihood for them to start near a high-appeal area suitable for Chemamull.

• All units trained in cities with an established Governor present gain experience 25% faster.
  
• Gain +10 strength and religious strength against enemies in a Golden or Heroic Age.
  
  • Your cities can benefit from this when bombarding enemy units.
    
  • The bonus functions against enemy units and cities alike.

• Killing an enemy unit while both attacker and defender are within the corresponding civ's city limits causes the city to lose 20 loyalty.
  
  • This is applied based on where your unit is at the end of combat.
    
  • This works when killing a unit while defending, as well as when killing during an attack.
    
  • This does not apply when capturing civilian units without killing them, but can via actions such as theological combat.
• Pillaging improvements or districts causes the tile's corresponding city to lose 5 loyalty.

A renaissance-era light cavalry unit which does not replace anything.

*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.


Notable Features

• Does not require horse resources
  
• Costs 250 production/1000 gold/500 faith (Knights cost 180/720/360 or 28% less; Cavalry cost 330/1320/660 or 32% more)
  
• Has a maintenance cost of 4 (Knights cost 3 gold per turn, Cavalry 5)
  
• Has 55 strength (medieval-era Knights have 48 strength; industrial-era Cavalry have 62)
  
• +5 strength when fighting within four tiles of friendly territory
  
• Pillaging always costs just 1 movement point
  
  • The Depredation promotion does not stack with this bonus, making it useless for Malón Raiders.

*This yield can only be obtained with the Uluru natural wonder being adjacent (requires the Australia civilization pack) and access to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder (requires the Persia and Macedon civilization pack). Without them, the maximum yield is 13.

Enhancements

*This yield can only be obtained with the Uluru natural wonder being adjacent (requires the Australia civilization pack) and access to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder (requires the Persia and Macedon civilization pack). Without them, the maximum yield is 13.

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.


Culture is the second-best route for the Mapuche. Though this mostly relies on the tourism potential of the Chemamull unique improvement, the tile improvement is particularly strong in that role. Of course, you can also use your military advantages to eliminate civs that accumulate too much culture, lowering the threshold needed to win.

Domination victory is the best option for the Mapuche. The +10 strength bonus against civs in Golden Ages is the biggest unique strength bonus in the game, while Malón Raiders can deal good amounts of damage in their own right. Even entrenched cities surrounded by mountains aren't necessarily safe if the Mapuche can kill enough units to flip them into free cities.

Religious victory can be surprisingly effective as the Mapuche as well. The strength bonus versus civs in Golden Ages works for theological combat - get some Apostles with the Debater promotion and you can kill enemy religious units in just 1-2 hits. To make things even better, killing units in theological combat can lower the loyalty of a nearby rival city - kill at least two religious units in quick succession and the nearby city will suffer yield penalties until it can recover to 75+ loyalty again. These yield penalties will hurt the faith output of the target civ, weakening their potential to react.

Finally, scientific victories are the weakest option for the Mapuche. A good culture output can help you get to wonders like the Great Library sooner, but you're better off going for any other route.

Not feeling so golden now, are you?

Golden and Heroic Ages are normally great moments for civs. Their cities get more loyalty and civs also get to exploit a strong dedication bonus. But for the Mapuche, other civs entering a Golden Age isn't a concern but an opportunity.


You need to be able to start a war at a moment's notice all throughout the game, so preparation is key. Building a few Slingers early on will help to keep you safe from Barbarians, and they can be upgraded into Archers for a more effective force. Getting a Siege Tower along with a couple of melee units like Swordsmen will be useful as well. Of course, while training up an initial army, don't forget general development as well - you'll want to expand to a few cities, improve luxuries, and so forth.

Getting your science generation to a good start will also be a good idea as you'll eventually want to work your way to the renaissance-era Gunpowder technology for Malón Raiders. Thankfully, the Mapuche mountain start bias makes it easier to get a strong Campus or two early on.

Cities with Governors present produce units that gain experience 25% faster - much like the effect from Barracks, Stables or Lighthouses. Though it may be tempting to train a wide diversity of Governors to exploit this effect across multiple cities and also to provide loyalty in a range of captured cities later, there's a trade-off. Liang (the Surveyor) with three additional promotions allows you to create City Parks, a powerful source of tile appeal which works beautifully in conjunction with Chemamull. If you use up Governor promotions hiring new Governors instead of promoting her, it'll take a lot longer until you get access to them.

Later on, you may also want to construct a decent navy for more distant targets. Don't forget to move a Governor to a coastal city so new naval units produced there can also benefit from faster experience gain.



A new game era begins. Indonesia has entered a Golden Age. They're currently my ally, but that will wear off soon enough. Just enough time for me to send my army over.

At the beginning of every game era, you have the opportunity to see which civs have just entered into Heroic, Golden, Normal or Dark Ages. If any civ that still has their original capital standing enters a Golden or Heroic Age, you should aim to start and complete a war with them before the age is finished, if possible. The +10 strength bonus is too good to go to waste, so don't be afraid to denounce allies as soon as the alliance ends, ready for a formal war, if they enter into either age.

You may find that the only civs that have entered a Golden/Heroic Age are far away from your current location. That's still manageable - you'll have enough time to send your forces over, and loyalty problems can be addressed by capturing cities quickly (so they provide positive loyalty pressure to each other) and using Governors.

Usually, you can't win by fighting civs in Golden/Heroic Ages alone. If you've exhausted those targets and still want something to fight, look for civs in Dark Ages. Civs in Dark Ages suffer a loyalty penalty in all their cities, making Lautaro's leader ability more effective.


Reacting to the whims of other civs is all well and good, but a knowledgable player can work out when other civs are likely to hit Golden Ages, and plan accordingly. A skilled player can even help other civs cross the threshold into Golden Ages - but this is a tricky strategy to pull off.

When a civ constructs unique infrastructure (unique building, district or improvement), or trains a unique unit, they gain era score, making them more likely to get a Golden Age in the following era. In particular, civs that have two uniques arriving in the ancient or classical research eras are likely to hit a Golden Age by the time the classical game era starts. Some of the best examples include the Cree, Egypt, Nubia and Sumeria.

Early on, clearing Barbarian encampments near your land is a great way of gaining era score. But nearly clearing an encampment, then letting another civ clear it, can help feed them era score.

As the game goes on, future Golden Ages can become a bit trickier to predict. That being said, it's worth considering that civs that have been through Golden Ages already have higher thresholds for reaching the next, while civs that have been through Dark Ages have lower thresholds for future Golden Ages.

Civs that focus around constructing wonders are likely to enter Golden Ages multiple times, as wonder construction is one of the best ways of gaining era score. China, Egypt and France are notable examples of such civs. By avoiding building unnecessary wonders, you can ensure other civs get more era score out of it. You can always capture those wonders through warfare later.



Even an Apostle defending on a Holy Site isn't enough to stop my super-Apostle.

The strength bonus from Mapuche's civ ability applies in theological combat - the most powerful unique bonus to it in the game. If you want to play the religious game, and you manage to successfully found a religion, this can be quite powerful. Your Missionaries can roam through enemy lands safe in the knowledge they can put up a fight against enemy Inquisitors and Apostles, while your Apostles can do some serious damage to enemy religious units.

To make things even better, other civs will be discouraged from declaring war to clear the religious units, as you can respond with an army with a +10 strength advantage. Even if your army is underdeveloped or a little outdated, you can still pose enough of a threat that civs may not want to risk that.

• Always be ready for war, even if it means backstabbing former allies as soon as the alliance ends - the +10 strength bonus is too good to miss
  
• Be aware of the trade-off between having lots of Governors so more cities may use the experience bonus, or having access to City Parks sooner to complement your Chemamull.

The tooltip's blocking the text, but the city's just lost 20 loyalty.

Lautaro's leader ability is quite a strange one, and can be approached in multiple ways. The most common use for it is to weaken cities before you capture them, reducing their ability to respond to your attack. However, you can also use it to break through heavily-defended cities, or even devastate a civ through theological combat.


Before explaining what Lautaro's leader ability can do for you, it's useful to explain the loyalty mechanic itself. City-states are completely unaffected by the system, but otherwise, every city has a measure of loyalty from 0 to 100.

• Cities with 100 loyalty are at the maximum, and gain +1 culture from Monuments.
  
• Cities from 76 to 100 loyalty have no penalties to yields.
  
• Cities from 51 to 75 loyalty have a 25% penalty to all yields and growth.
  
• Cities from 26 to 50 loyalty have a 75% penalty to all yields and growth.
  
• Cities from 1 to 25 loyalty have a 100% penalty to all yields and growth.
  
• Cities with 0 loyalty will revolt and become a free city. All units within the city's limits will be pushed out. Free cities may be captured by any civ by military means, or won with enough loyalty pressure.

Cities with low loyalty can be quite a burden for an empire, especially in conjunction with negative amenities as the penalties stack. Cities with both low amenities and loyalty can even cost your empire science and culture!

Cities can lose and gain loyalty by a variety of ways. Most methods are applied on a per-turn basis, though cities can't lose more than 20 loyalty per turn by these (to prevent warmongers from instantly losing the cities they capture). There are many things that affect this:

• Pressure from citizens of other cities within 9 tiles. Cities near a lot of large cities owned by other civs may struggle to stay loyal to your own empire, while cities near plenty of large cities owned by you should be fine. The closer cities are to each other, the stronger loyalty pressure they impose on each other.
  
  • During a Dark Age, you will suffer greater pressure from other civs' citizens. During a Golden or Heroic Age, you will place more pressure on other civs' cities.
• The presence of a Governor, which by default offers +8 loyalty per turn.
  
• If the city is occupied and doesn't have a garrisoned unit, it suffers -5 loyalty per turn.
  
• Level of amenities.
  
  • Deficit of 3 amenities or more: -6 loyalty
    
  • Deficit of 1 or 2 amenities: -3 loyalty
    
  • Surplus of 1 or 2 amenities: +3 loyalty
    
  • Surplus of 3 amenities or more: +6 loyalty
• Religion:
  
  • If the civ has founded a religion, but it's different to the majority religion in the city: -3 loyalty
    
  • If the civ has founded a religion and it's the majority in the city: +3 loyalty
• The Colosseum wonder provides +2 loyalty to all cities within six tiles.
  
• The Statue of Liberty wonder makes all owned cities within six tiles always at 100 loyalty.
  
• Various Great People can provide permanent per-turn loyalty for their cities.
  
• Various policy cards can add or remove loyalty.
  
• The Audience Chamber government building makes cities of the civ without Governors lose 2 loyalty per turn.
  
• The Spy mission Forment Unrest reduces a city's loyalty by at least 15 when complete.

Keep your empire compact with plenty of amenities and loyalty won't be much of a problem. Warmongers, however, won't have the luxury of a compact empire and will often struggle to secure amenities. As such, repositioning Governors and capturing cities quickly so they can impose pressure on each other is important.


Now that we've covered what reducing loyalty does, we can consider how Lautaro's leader ability can be a useful tool.

Any city can become a free city if you kill five of its units within the city limits with units of your own within the city limits. This forces the other civ to either reconquer that city (dedicating their precious military resources) or wait for it to flip back into their control - if it's possible. Making a city a free city also pushes any existing military units within the city limits out of them - which can help you make a retreat.

That can be quite hard to achieve, even with fairly well-defended cities or against civs like Scythia or Nubia which tend to have large quantities of units. Thankfully, killing just two units within a city's limits will lower its loyalty below the 76-point threshold and start adding a 25% penalty to all its yields, making this ability still useful. In conjunction with the ability of Malón Raiders to rapidly pillage, you can really soften up a city before you capture it. Killing three units drops a city below the 51-point threshold for a considerably more noticable 75% penalty.

Be careful killing units near cities with both very low health and loyalty - concentrate on capturing the city first instead. Otherwise, the moment the city becomes a free city, your enemy can simply take it back again as it will still be on a low level of health.

In the case of isolated enemy cities, you can drain their loyalty until they become a free city, then leave them alone. They won't flip back to enemy control, so there's no need to commit more units to capturing them. If you're unsure which civ a free city will flip to, a glowing civ icon will appear on the city, representing which civ has the most loyalty pressure on them and is therefore the most likely to win the city.

While this ability mostly applies to conventional warfare, you can do some damage against a religious civ via theological combat as well. Put pressure on a civ by sending Missionaries over to convert some cities, and they should respond with religious units of their own. Then, you can send over Apostles to destroy them. Try to keep the area of religious combat focused so you can kill mutliple religious units in the same area in quick succession. If you engage in theological combat in a rival city surrounded by cities of a different civ, then you may even be able to flip that city, depriving the religious rival of it.


You can also drain the loyalty of a city by pillaging in its area, though this only causes -5 loyalty each time. This is particularly effective with the cheap pillaging functionality of Malón Raiders, and can help for occasions where the city defences are strong but there's few units to fight.

Like the loyalty loss from killing units, this ability can actually be a disadvantage if the city you're targeting is on both low health and low loyalty. If you need to pillage to heal a unit in that scenario, look for a tile outside that city's limits first.


Lautaro's leader ability, much like the civ ability, is most effective against trickier targets and stronger civs. Cutting the loyalty of enemy cities can really hurt their yields, making them easier to take down.

Chemamull set up the possibility of a cultural road to victory for the Mapuche. They have more tourism potential than any other unique improvement (with the possible exception of Persia's Pairidaezas if you can exploit their appeal boost effectively enough). Even before that point, careful management of tile appeal can reward you with huge amounts of culture, helping you unlock useful things like corps and armies sooner.

Tiles need at least 4 appeal before Chemamull can be placed there. Initially, that means seeking out coastal or mountain-adjacent spots, but eventually you can influence it directly. The most effective way to do so is to train Liang (the Surveyor) to the Parks and Recreation promotion and start building city parks. City Parks provide +2 appeal to adjacent tiles, though they cannot be placed adjacent to each other.


Here is a model of how city park and Chemamull placement can work. Obviously, this is an ideal model that doesn't take into account the terrain, the need for food or the placement of districts, but every Chemamull in the image will have at least 6 appeal, and hence 4 culture. You may want to keep sea-adjacent spots free for Seaside Resorts later, which generate more tourism.


This is a more practical example. Note that old-growth woods can substitute for city parks as they provide just as much appeal, and can be improved with a lumber mill to provide a more useful yield than city parks can.

Once a city has enough city parks, move Liang to the next city you want to develop. She doesn't need to be present in a city for city parks to function. To cut back on wasted time, train Builders in advance of her arrival in a city so you can be finished and move her to the next place sooner.

Don't go overboard with Chemamull/city park construction too early. Cities will still need to develop, and aside from tile accumulation, culture won't do much to help there. Instead, you might want to wait a while before you really emphasise them - the gap between Malón Raiders being trained and the Flight technology is a good time to do that. Flight makes Chemamull provide tourism, so you'll definitely want to prepare ahead of that.

The Eiffel Tower wonder (available at the modern-era Steel technology) adds +2 appeal to every tile in your empire. Those 6-appeal Chemamull surrounded by city parks will now be up to 8 appeal, producing 6 culture (and hence 6 tourism with Flight) instead of 4. The Great People Charles Correa and Alvar Aalto can also provide +2 and +1 appeal respectively for every tile within a city's limits - use them on whichever city has the most Chemamull, and enjoy 11-appeal tiles with 8 culture and tourism each. If you have the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus wonder (requires the Persia and Macedon civilization pack) you can use those two Great People twice, bringing you up to 14 appeal.

Finally, this will practically never come up, but the most culture/tourism you can get out of a single Chemamull is 17. It would have to be adjacent to Uluru (+4 appeal; requires the Australia civilization pack), a river (+1 appeal), a combination of five city parks and/or old-growth woods (+10 appeal) in a city affected by the Eiffel Tower (+2 appeal) and both appeal-boosting Great People used twice thanks to the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (+6 appeal), for a total of 23 appeal.

• Early on, well-positioned Chemamull can help you get through civics
  
• Use Liang (the Surveyor) to allow you to place city parks to maximise tile appeal to make Chemamull stronger
  
• Try to build or capture the Eiffel Tower wonder.

Malón Raiders are versatile units which fight well, have decent mobility, and thanks to their cheap pillaging, are good at staying alive.


Malón Raiders become available at the renaissance-era Gunpowder technology. After you sort out necessary early Builder technologies, crucial technologies like Writing and maybe some extras to help with early warfare like Iron Working, you should try and beeline it. As you have to train Malón Raiders from scratch, getting the technology early is important. You'll also want to build a Siege Tower or two to help the units handle city walls. You'll need an Encampment with an Armoury for the eureka for Gunpowder - building it is a good idea anyway as securing a medieval or renaissance-era Great General will make your attack even stronger.

Once you have Gunpowder, set all but your weakest cities to train Malón Raiders so you can get a decent force together quickly. You should be able to get that done before the renaissance game era begins - perhaps significantly before if you can research fast enough.


Malón Raiders have 55 strength at first, but 60 if they're within four tiles of your own land. Obviously that makes them great in defence, but they're also good offensively once you have a foothold in another civ's lands. Against a civ in a Golden Age, they could be up to 70 strength - on a par with Infantry! With siege support (Siege Towers are perfect for the role) you should be able to take down most cities.

The ability of Malón Raiders to pillage for just one movement point is powerful in conjunction with the Raid military policy card (available at the classical-era Military Training civic). That doubles the yield they gain from all pillaging actions, allowing them to fully heal by pillaging farms.


You can get a lot of yields quickly out of pillaging districts, though keep in mind you'll need to repair them later if you intend to keep rather than raze the city. If you're up against a civ with a unique land-based tile improvement, feel free to pillage those as much as you can spare time to do so - they'll be destroyed when you take the city anyway.

Though Malón Raiders can handle Pikemen well, they can have trouble handling Pike and Shot units. The Caparison promotion helps, but that has the problem that the succeeding promotion (Depredation) is useless to them. You could alternatively head down the right-hand side of the promotion tree for Coursers and Double Envelopment; the latter of which doubles flanking bonuses allowing you to surround the Pike and Shot unit and deal good damage.


Malón Raiders will work effectively until AT Guns enter the game, or you unlock Helicopters. Their high mobility, decent strength and ability to pillage quickly for health makes them versatile, and a reliable part of your military for at least two eras.

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

Although the strength bonus doesn't affect Malón Raiders, Oligarchy is still a good choice for the extra experience boost, decent spread of policy card slots and use in early warfare if you want to fight civs in Golden Ages using Swordsmen of your own.

The Warlord's Throne will be the most suitable government building.

Tier Two

Monarchy isn't a bad option. It's quicker to unlock than the other tier two governments, comes at the same civic as the helpful Chivalry policy card, and you can make good use of all the military policy card slots. If you want to try out a religious game, take Theocracy and enjoy your huge advantage in theological combat.

The Grand Master's Chapel government building lets you use the strong pillaging capability of Malón Raiders to grant you faith, which you can then use to buy more of them or to fund Naturalists and National Parks later.

Tier Three

Fascism makes the best use of the Mapuche's wartime bonuses. If you're going for a cultural victory, Democracy may be a more appropriate alternative.

As for your choice of tier three building, the War Department is often your best choice. Cultural players who need more Great Work slots may want to use the National History Museum instead.


Ancient Era

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - The Mapuche should keep a large army throughout the game to be prepared for other civs entering Golden Ages. That can cost a lot to maintain, so this policy card will help.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Want to make use of Chemamull early? You'll probably need extra Builders, so this policy card will come in handy.

Classical Era

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) - Double pillaging effectiveness. Malón Raiders pillaging a Campus with a University can get 150 science in a single turn with this, and farms will heal the units up to full health.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Getting more experience out of units in cities with Governors is one thing, but if you really want to build on that advantage, you'll want well-developed Encampments or Harbours. Encampments and their buildings can be constructed faster with this policy card.

Medieval Era

Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Malón Raiders will be expensive to train without this policy card, so it's a bit of a must-have.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - Your need to be constantly ready for war when a new era arrives means you'll often need to upgrade your units. This policy card will help.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Grant your Builders lots of charges for constructing Chemamull and city parks.

Renaissance Era

(Religious) Religious Orders (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Your religious units will be devastatingly powerful against civs in Golden Ages.

Industrial Era

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Plenty of Builder charges for Chemamull and city parks will be made available.

Modern Era

Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - Support your large army.

Martial Law (Military, requires Totalitarianism) - War weariness is obtained through combat, and is higher outside your own territory. Lautaro's leader ability encourages you to fight a lot of battles in order to kill enemy units. As such, war weariness may be more of a problem than it would be for many other civs. This policy card will help with that.

Propaganda (Military, requires Mass Media) - Also helps reduce war weariness.


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

(Religious) Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Extra movement for religious units makes it easier to use the strength bonus. If you haven't got a religion yet, you also have a chance to grab some bonus Great Prophet Points.

To Arms! (Golden Age, Industrial to Information eras) - If another civ has entered a Golden Age at the same time as you, this is a good dedication to take. You can use the special casus belli without the usual 5-turn waiting period, and enjoy a huge reduction in warmonger penalties and war weariness from that war.

Earth Goddess - You'll want plenty of high-appeal tiles for Chemamull. Add this pantheon and they can start generating faith as well.

God of the Forge - Be prepared for war early on, and you can make the most of the Mapuche civ ability and its +10 strength bonus versus civs in Golden Ages, rather than waiting until the renaissance era.


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

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - The main reason to take this belief is to deny it to anyone else. Defender of the Faith cancels out the Mapuche +10 strength bonus versus civs in Golden Ages.

(Religious) Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - Having strong religious units is one thing, but if you want to use that strength, you'll want your religious units to be more mobile than those of other civs.

Warrior Monks (Follower) - Warrior Monks are often tricky to use due to their relatively low starting strength. The Mapuche civ ability not only can put them up to 40 strength to begin with, but also allows them to gain experience faster to become even stronger. That makes them great units to have around in the time before you can start training Malón Raiders.


(Religious) Armagh (Religious) - After a religious victory? You'll want to engage in theological combat a lot, but that means every now and again you'll have to send your Apostles home to heal up. Armagh makes the process easier thanks to its unique Monastery improvement, which allows religious units to heal up as if it was a Holy Site, and can be placed closer to the front lines. Requires the Vikings scenario pack.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Gain experience even faster.

(Religious) Yerevan (Religious) - Debater Apostles against a civ in a Golden Age can kill most religious units in a single hit. Yerevan guarantees you can always pick that promotion.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - The Chemamull/city park formation requires a lot of Builder charges, and the Pyramids can help you to obtain more.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - Aim to capture this wonder when invading another civ. That way, they lose the loyalty benefits and will be more affected by Lautaro's leader ability.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - Not a bad wonder to capture if you can't build it yourself. By giving you extra charges of Great Admirals, you can exploit the ones that offer bonuses to pillaging trade routes. More importantly, it lets you use the Great Engineers Alvar Aalto and Charles Correa twice, helping you get even more appeal. Requires the Persia and Macedon Civilization Pack.

Statue of Liberty (Industrial era, Civil Engineering civic) - This wonder can be an annoying roadblock to Lautaro's leader ability, as it prevents cities of the same civ within its radius from ever falling below 100% loyalty. Either build it yourself to deny other civs that ability, or aim to capture the city that has built it before you take other cities in the area off the civ.

Eiffel Tower (Modern era, Steel technology) - Bonus appeal to all your tiles means more culture from Chemamull, and hence more tourism.


Medieval Era

Rajendra Chola (Great Admiral) - Better yield for pillaging trade routes lets you make more out of the pillaging capabilities of Malón Raiders.

Renaissance Era

Francis Drake (Great Admiral) - Another bonus to pillaging trade routes.

Industrial Era

Ching Shih (Great Admiral) - The last bonus to pillaging trade routes relevant for Malón Raiders.

Gustave Eiffel (Great Engineer) - Gustave Eiffel arrives just in time for his own wonder at the Steel technology. Use him to rush it to completion and enjoy an empire-wide appeal bonus.

Modern Era

Alvar Aalto (Great Engineer) - Provides +1 appeal to all tiles in their city.

Joaquim Marques Lisboa (Great Admiral) - Permanently reduces war weariness, allowing you to fight more units without causing amenity problems.

Information Era

Charles Correa (Great Engineer) - Provides +2 appeal to all tiles in their city.

Prepare well, and you can counter most of the Mapuche's bonuses - but ignore them at your peril. You could end up facing 70-strength Malón Raiders while you're fielding 36-strength Swordsmen and 40-ranged-strength Crossbowmen if you're not careful.


If you find yourself starting near the Mapuche, pay close attention to your era score. A Golden Age could backfire quite horribly; a +10 strength boost for the Mapuche is basically as if their military is an era stronger. Either hold off from actions that grant you too much era score (e.g. clearing Barbarian encampments, constructing wonders), or build up a large military in anticipation. If you're playing a civ with ancient-era rushing potential (e.g. America, Nubia, Sumeria), you might want to try that against the Mapuche before their +10 bonus can ever come into effect.

The other part of the Mapuche civ ability - the experience bonus for units trained in Governor cities - can be handled later in the game by using Spies to disable their Governors. Target cities with high production or developed Encampment districts for the greatest impact.


This ability is mostly a problem if you allow a lot of units to die in quick succession. Consider keeping your units closely packed so they can provide support bonuses to each other, and using ranged units stationed in your cities and Encampment districts to keep them safe. Having a more compact empire will also make it easier for your cities to regain loyalty rapidly.


A computer-controlled Lautaro likes keeping his cities at a high level of loyalty. He likes civs that do the same, and dislikes civs that don't.

The great thing about this agenda is that every kind of civ can play around it - it doesn't necessarily shut out players of one victory path the way some agendas do. When playing a peaceful game, keep your cities reasonably close together so they can provide bonus loyalty to each other. If you have colonies, conquered cities or highly dispersed cities, you can hire a large variety of Governors to avoid falling into negative loyalty. You'll also want to keep a high level of amenities in your cities for the extra loyalty that offers.


Pikemen with the Echelon promotion can handle Malón Raiders reasonably well assuming you're not in a Golden Age. Otherwise, you'll struggle until you can get hold of Pike and Shot units. If you're close to Mapuche territory during a Golden Age, you might have trouble even then, but once you can form corps with them or train AT Guns you should be fine.


You can't keep unique improvements when you capture them, so pillage them! You'll gain 25 culture a time. Not only that, but pillaged improvements provide negative appeal to adjacent tiles - quite a problem for the Mapuche if they place Chemamull adjacent to each other.

Outside of warfare, you can limit the potential of Chemamull by preventing the Mapuche getting access to sources of appeal. Pushing them to settle floodplains or rainforest-heavy areas instead of mountains or coasts can be useful, as can denying them the Eiffel Tower wonder or the two Great Engineers that offer appeal boosts.

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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.