Note: This guide assumes you have all game-altering DLC and expansion packs (all Civ packs, Wonders of the Ancient World, Gods & Kings and Brave New World)



The peoples inhabiting what is now Germany two thousand years ago faced the full force of the Roman Empire, and yet they won, inspiring others to break free of the collapsing Western Empire. The Germanic peoples would fight among themselves until the 7th to 8th centuries of the common era, where the Carolingian faction would unify a good chunk of western Europe. But this fragmented, leaving Germany as a large number of states of varying sizes. Centuries later, the Germanic states formed the German Confederation, a weak grouping dominated by the powers of Austria and Prussia. Under Otto von Bismarck, Prussia ousted Austria and hence unified the rest of Germany under their rule. But half a century later, the complex web of alliances in place in Europe pulled Germany into war - the First World War. One that ended not in a victory, but essentially a universal defeat for all sides; a lost generation.

The "victorious" Allies forced Germany to repay the costs of the war, a cost it could not afford. Feelings of humiliation among other factors contibuted towards the rise to power of the ♥♥♥♥ Party. And through their militarism, and expansionism, the deadliest conflict in human history began, on a scale unimaginable. After six years, the Allied nations were able to free Europe - and Germany itself - from the iron grip of the Nazis, and yet the western and eastern Allies would begin to distrust each other, dividing Germany and the world in two in the Cold War. This would continue for over 40 years, until the turbulent years of 1989 to 1991. It was not America or Russia which reunified Germany, but the Germans themselves - in the name of democracy and the rights denied to so many for so long. And now, Germany has grown to become a powerful force in Europe, but this time, not through the brute force that has plagued its past. So, while you may enjoy your moments in power, making use of vast armies to conquer lands and build an empire, remember that, in reality, a civilization built upon the foundations of war and division does not last. A civilization built upon the foundations of peace and fraternity is a civilization which stands the test of time.



Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. Free Great Person for Liberty.)
Meatshield - A unit that can soak up damage on behalf of another. Standard melee units are often good at this job.
Melee Units - Throughout this guide, "melee units" typically refers to all non-ranged military units - whether on the land or sea. "Standard melee units" refer to Warriors, Swordsmen, Longswordsmen, Spearmen, Pikemen, Landsknecht and replacement units for them.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +1 culture for every city for Liberty's opener)
Spotter - A unit which allows a ranged unit (usually a siege unit) a line of sight with its target. Typically, siege units have a higher maximum range than their sight radius, hence the need for spotters.
Tall empire - A low number of cities with a high population each. "Building tall" refers to making an empire a tall one.
UA - Unique Ability - The unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built by one Civilization.
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by Militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Improvements and Great People
Wide empire - A high number of cities with a low population each. "Building wide" refers to making an empire a wide one.

Germany has no start bias.


While you can make use of Germany's Unique Ability very early on, the rest of their uniques take quite a while to arrive - their UB is in the renaissance era, while their UU is the joint-latest in the game, all the way over in the atomic era.

• When defeating a Barbarian unit inside an encampment, there is a 67% chance they will join your side and you will receive 25 gold.
  
  • Most early captured Barbarian units don't need strategic resources (though they're still needed to upgrade them.)
    
  • Unique Barbarian units (including the captured units that don't require strategic resources) count separately for the purpose of the Terracotta Army wonder.
• -25% maintenance cost for all land units

An armoured unit

*Assumes a normal speed game.
**Requires 1 Aluminium resource to upgrade.


Positive one-off changes

• 80 strength, up from 70 (+14%)
  
• 6 moves, up from 5 (+20%)

Building of the Gold line

*Assumes a normal speed game.


Positive changes

• +5% for every trade route your empire has with City-States
  
  • The source of the trade route doesn't matter; every trade route you have with a City-State is worth a 5% production boost in all your cities with Hanses.

Note these scores are a matter of personal opinion based on experiences with the Civilization. You may discover a way of utilising the Civ more effectively in unconventional ways.

Cultural: 6/10
Diplomatic: 7/10
Domination: 10/10
Scientific: 6/10

Aside from the more obvious domination route, Germany has advantages that are good for both level three tenets supporting a diplomatic victory - cheap unit maintenance goes well with Autocracy's Gunboat Diplomacy while the Hanse goes well with Freedom's Treaty Organisation. The very strong production base Hanses offer can help out with launching the spaceship, too, or even some late-game cultural wonders.

This late-game versatility is great for higher difficulty settings in case domination seems unviable. Germany has synergy for all three ideologies, meaning you can switch to the most popular one to avoid unhappiness from ideological pressure.


Overall

The two peaks of military power Germany has, in the early and late-game, mirror the the Shoshone although they have a stronger early-game than Germany, and Germany has a stronger late-game.

Particularly in a more peaceful game, Germany's path of development mirrors Sweden. Both make good use of building tall (Sweden for Great Person Points, Germany for production) and can make a good stab at either diplomacy or domination. Germany's better at domination; Sweden at diplomacy.

Same start bias

Germany's lack of a start bias is shared with America, China, Ethiopia, France, Greece, the Maya, Persia, Rome and the Shoshone.

Similar to the UA

The UA closest to Germany's is that of the Ottomans - instead of converting Barbarians from encampments and getting 25% less land unit maintenance, melee naval units can convert defeated enemy ships and you pay 67% less sea unit maintenance.

For a different Civ which does well destroying Barbarian encampments, look to Songhai. They get triple the normal gold from encampments, among a heap of other bonuses.

Finally, the Zulus have 50% reduced maintenance for standard melee units only. It's double the bonus of Germany, but applies on a lot fewer units.

Similar to Panzers

Panzers are one of the last UUs in the game, along with America's B17s and Japan's Zero.

In terms of actual combat, Panzers are most alike the Comanche Riders of the Shoshone, Austria's Hussars and Poland's Winged Hussars - all of which can use their extra speed to more easily trap enemy units and apply flanking bonuses. They are not the only super-fast cavalry units, but others tend to be used differently.

Similar to Hanses

The closest parallel to the Hanse is probably Austria's Coffee House, both arriving very late by the standards of UBs, being able to be used empire-wide and offering production bonuses.

Germany's UA is divided into two complementary components; one means you can raise an early army without having to build many units at all, and the other cuts the cost of maintaining land units. It may appear to be a very war-focused UA, but there are a few useful peacetime applications, too.


When you destroy a Barbarian unit in an encampment, there's a two-thirds chance you'll receive the unit - at full health - and gain 25 gold. This requires you to actively seek out Barbarian encampments, so it's a good idea to take the Honour Opener. It helps your units fight against Barbarians more effectively, and gives you culture for killing them, so all the better.

Early on in the game, it's a good idea to have at least a Scout in addition to your starting Warrior so you can explore effectively. In the earliest turns, your priority is exploration rather than taking Barbarians so you can grab Ancient Ruins, discover City-States or meet full Civs, as well as finding good future spots to settle. Once you've got a good idea for the surroundings of your capital, then use your units to fight Barbarians.


Above: When capturing a Barbarian encampment, the unit you used to capture it will go into the space where the encampment used to be, whether you capture a Barbarian unit or not (unlike converting units with Privateers, where the Privateer doesn't move into the unit's space.) The unit you capture will appear next to the encampment, instead, or further away if there's something in its way.

Don't worry about entering an empty Barbarian encampment - you'll gain a unit of the same type as the last Barbarian unit you killed in an encampment. As such, you don't have to use melee units to fight and capture Barbarians - ranged units will work too.

To maximise the number of Barbarian encampments spawning, make sure plenty of land is out of sight of any Civ or City-State. Small islands and peninsulas (especially those nearer the poles or with a lack of resources) are particularly good spots, as they're unlikely to be settled for quite some time into the game.

Now, what to do with these units? There's three approaches to take in descending order of risk:

• An early rush - By complementing the Barbarian units you take with plenty of units you've built yourself, and taking advantage of the reduced land unit maintenance cost you have, you can raise a huge army and attempt to take out another Civ early in the game. Scientific Civs or Civs with a strong late-game are a good idea to target so they won't cause trouble for your Panzers later on.
  
• A choke - Send a small force to an enemy to pillage their improvements, capture their Settlers and generally make life hard for them. Giving them a slow start will make them easier to defeat later.
  
• Focus on infrastructure - You can use the units you capture as a defensive army, allowing your cities to focus on infrastructure rather than building more military units. Getting your infrastructure going early will help you get a strong science base, which should lead to you releasing Panzers on the world before most Civs have a proper response.

Eventually, the supply of Barbarians will dry up. Whether you played aggressively or peacefully at first, it's now generally a good idea to play peacefully until Panzers come along. Exceptions to that rule include strong scientific Civs (they tend to be more vulnerable earlier on) and Civs with oil if you lack it yourself.

Scientific technologies should be your top priority until you get to Scientific Theory so you can get a decent technological head start once you launch your late-game wars. Head to Biology afterwards to uncover oil - you'll need it for your Panzers - and then push towards Combined Arms.

Panzers are incredibly effective units when combined with the Autocracy ideology's Lightning Warfare, but they'll need support - bring some front-line units (you'll have plenty of ones you've taken from Barbarians you can upgrade) to fight Anti-Tank Guns and Helicopter Gunships along with either some Anti-Air Guns or Fighters stationed in front-line cities to deal with Bombers.

The high speed and strength of Panzers makes conquests surprisingly rapid. And even if you can't win that way, you can use your large army combined with Autocracy's Gunboat Diplomacy to help win a diplomatic victory.


Germany's land units are cheaper to maintain than any other Civ (except the Zulus' standard melee units.) This means you can support a larger army on the same amount of gold. Combined with the Hanse UB, which encourages you to make plenty of gold and gives you a strong amount of production to work with, the only remaining limitation is strategic resources.

If you do have a tight budget to work with, keep in mind that a 25% reduction in land unit maintenance costs doesn't mean you can support 33% more land units than usual, as the percentage implies, as the maintenance cost for every unit rises the more units you have (including civilian units!) On top of this, unit maintenance costs rise throughout the game, so 30 units at turn 300 is more expensive than 30 units at turn 200.

On the whole, though, this isn't a bonus you have to think too hard about, so long as you focus on land-based warfare. Basically, you'll have a little more free cash to use for supporting more units, bribing City-States or suchlike.

• Don't go straight into fighting Barbarians - explore a little first
  
• Take the Honour opener to help find Barbarian encampments
  
• Try to hold off areas from other Civs so Barbarian encampments can spawn there
  
• Use the captured Barbarians either to early-rush enemies or to take pressure off your cities, so they can focus on getting a good infrastructure
  
• In the mid-game and until Panzers, focus on scientific technologies
  
• Try and seize a domination victory, but diplomacy makes a decent backup thanks to lower land unit maintenance costs, freeing up more money for bribing City-States with.

Germany alone has the ability to convert two unique Barbarian land units - Brutes and Hand-Axes. In this section, I'll cover them as if they're Unique Units in an "At a glance" section to give an idea of what they can do, followed by a brief explanation of their usage.



A standard melee unit

*Assumes a normal speed game.
**Requires 1 Iron resource to upgrade.


Negative changes

• Costs 120 gold to upgrade in normal speed games, up from 80 (+50%)

Positive one-off changes

• Costs 20 production in normal-speed games, down from 40 (-50%)
  
  • This fact is irrelevant to gameplay, as you can't build Brutes, but it explains their higher upgrade cost than normal Warriors.

Usage

Brutes are identical to Warriors in every way except for their higher upgrade cost. 120 gold is rather high considering a new Warrior from scratch costs 200, while buying a Warrior and upgrading it costs 280 gold. If you have some spare production but not much in the way of spare gold, it may be worthwhile to disband Brutes rather than upgrade them when the time comes, and build the new units from scratch.



A standard ranged unit

*Assumes a normal speed game.
**Requires 1 Horse resource to upgrade.
***Once any Civ in the game reaches The Wheel, Barbarians may begin spawning Hand-Axes.


Negative changes

• 9 ranged strength, down from 10 (-10%)
  
• 2 moves, down from 4 (-50%)
  
• 1 range, down from 2

Positive one-off changes

• 9 strength, up from 6 (+50%)
  
• Can receive defensive bonuses
  
• Does not use up all movement points to enter rough terrain
  
  • The rough terrain penalty only applies to Chariot Archers anyway, so upgrading it will still have no penalty.
• Does not require Horse resources

Miscellanious changes

• Counts as a standard ranged unit rather than mounted ranged

Usage

Hand-Axes are like early Gatling Guns. They defend well, but only have an attack range of 1, meaning they have to be kept on the front lines. They're particularly good against Warriors and Spearmen as you'll be hurting them twice for every time they attack you once. They're fairly vulnerable to ranged units, particularly Chariot Archers, as they can fire upon your Hand-Axes without you necessarily being able to attack back.

Despite behaving like a Gatling Gun, Hand-Axes are not on the same promotion line as them, but rather promote into Knights (and eventually Panzers.) Keep in mind most promotions on Hand-Axes don't work on units they upgrade into. However, if you can somehow manage both Logistics and Blitz (requiring at least 8 promotions) then you can have a triple-attacking Panzer later in the game.

Hanses offer two things useful to a late-game warmonger. One, requiring a Market and being a Bank replacement, building plenty will offer quite a bit of gold to your empire, making your cheaper land unit maintenance go even further. The other advantage is the considerable amount of production it can offer, which really lets you churn out Panzers rapidly.


The way the production boost offered by Hanses work is that for every Trade Route you have with a City-State, every city with a Hanse gets a 5% production bonus. If you have no Trade Routes with City-States, therefore, Hanses are no different from regular Banks and as such you're wasting your rather effective UB. Check the World Congress to be certain no-one's trying to ban trading with City-States.

Don't worry about which cities you have trading with which City-States. Any Trade Route between one of your cities and a City-State will provide a 5% production bonus for all your cities with Hanses, regardless of whether or not you've already sent that City-State a Trade Route from elsewhere in your empire, and regardless of whether or not the city sending the route has a Hanse itself.

Thanks to Hanses, trading with City-States essentially acts as a hybrid between sending production via an internal Trade Route and the gold from external Trade Routes. City-State trading often gives less gold than trading with full Civs, but it tends to be more reliable (if you're embargoed for example, you can still trade with City-States unless the World Congress bans that too.)

As for the production, remember unlike internal Trade Routes, the production boost on offer here affects your whole empire rather than just one city, so even if the production boost to a single city is small, over the entire empire it will really add up. For that reason, it's worth just dedicating all your Trade Routes to City-State trading once you've got plenty of Hanses up and running.


On the route to Biology and Combined Arms, you'll pick up every technology that offers a boost to the Trade Route limit except for Penicillin - that's seven routes not counting those from the Colossus and Petra wonders, or a 35% production bonus for cities with Hanses if all those routes are used to trade with City-States.

Here's a list of all the technologies and wonders raising the Trade Route limit:

• Animal Husbandry (Ancient era, 1st column, 2nd column overall)
  
• Sailing (Ancient era, 2nd column, 3rd column overall)
  
• Engineering (Classical era, 2nd column, 5th column overall)
  
• Petra (World Wonder avaliable at Currency, Classical era, 2nd column, 5th column overall)
  
• Colossus (World Wonder avaliable at Iron Working, Classical era, 2nd column*, 5th column overall)
  
• Compass (Medieval era, 2nd column, 7th column overall)
  
• Banking (Renaissance era, 1st column, 8th column overall)
  
• Biology (Industrial era, 2nd column, 11th column overall)
  
• Railroad (Modern era, 1st column, 12th column overall)
  
• Penicillin (Atomic era, 1st column, 14th column overall)

*Has the cost of a technology in this column, but has no previous-column requirements.


Above: My Trade Route limit is currently 8, and I'm trading solely with City-States. I'd have 30 less production per turn as any other Civ in this city at the moment.


Hanses give you excellent production in your cities for building your Panzer army with (or building earlier units in their upgrade line ready for promotion into them.) Aside from that, it's not bad for building spaceship parts with if you need a backup plan of victory if domination won't work, as well as for contributing towards World Congress projects.

Above: Normally the movement limit is 6, but the Autocracy tenet Lightning Warfare has raised it to 7.

It's been a long journey to Panzers, so you may be worried about how you can win the game when there's a relatively short gap between this point and the peaceful victories kicking in. Don't be. Panzers are incredibly fast and strong - in fact, they're the joint-fastest land unit in the game (joint with Helicopter Gunships and the Shoshone's Comanche Riders upgraded to Tanks.)

Before going into war, be sure to grab the Lightning Warfare tenet from the Autocracy ideology. It'll make your battles significantly easier, making your Panzers even stronger in attack, even faster, and allowing them to ignore enemy Zone of Control.


Above: I managed to get hold of a couple of Comanche Riders from a militaristic City-State, and upgrade them to Panzers, giving them 8 moves per turn when combined with the Lightning Warfare tenet. If they had the Mobility promotion as well, they'd move at 9 moves per turn! Of course, this is a rare occurance, but any unique unit on the mounted/armoured promotion line with keep-on-upgrade bonuses is worth prioritising getting hold of for extra-strong Panzers.

Before you launch your Panzer invasions, you may need to bring some units to assist them. Bombers or Infantry will be good for dealing with Anti-Tank Guns, while Fighters or Anti-Aircraft Guns will help see off enemy Bombers. You won't need too many, and if you've played the peaceful phase of your game well enough, you might have enough of a technological advantage not to need them at all (though it's best to build them just in case.)



Above: In one turn, six Panzers took Nobamba from full health to captured, thanks to their high strength, speed and Zone of Control ignoring from the Lightning Warfare tenet.

At 80 strength, Panzers are devastating against all units that come before it. The loose nature of the late-game tech tree means it's possible to launch the attack while other Civs are in industrial or early-modern levels of warfare. Panzers are nearly as good at fighting cities as Artillery (only 5% weaker) and thanks to their high speed and ability to move after attacking, they can carry out hit-and-run attacks on cities, ending their turns out of range of the city's ranged attack.

Of course, Panzers really excel at fighting other units. Use their high speed and Lightning Warfare to surround enemy units and get large flanking bonuses. Then, you can attack them and easily kill them. Any isolated unit you find is vulnerable to this, except perhaps for Giant Death Robots.

If your Panzers get hurt, no problem. Their fast speed makes it easy to pillage lots of tile improvements in a single turn. Each one pillaged restores 25 HP, so in flat land, you can usually get your Panzer up to full health in one turn, even if severely injured.

So, Panzers are fast, strong and can be used effectively both against units and cities. Using this combination of speed and strength, it's very easy to rapidly take unprotected cities and crash right through enemy defences, or take cities full of air units before the enemy Civ even has a chance to withdraw them. This speed should be applied to your whole broader strategy of late-game warfare - just focus on grabbing capitals. The rest doesn't matter - once you have a Civ's capital, you can declare peace with them and move on to the next Civ. If you're fast enough, you should be able to win the game before Helicopter Gunships become too much of a threat.


None.

Panzers are 20% faster than Modern Armour (17% faster with Lightning Warfare,) but Modern Armour is 20% stronger than Panzers are. If you're low on aluminium, you could consider using Panzers as a form of light cavalry and Modern Armour as heavy - the former being better at picking off weak opponents and the latter better for fighting the stronger ones and cities. Generally, though, the increase in strength more than offsets the reduction in speed, so if you do have enough aluminium, go ahead and upgrade the lot.

An interesting point to consider is that Panzers never obsolete, so you can take the hybrid approach of building them, then spending money to upgrade them. This is faster than directly building Modern Armour or Giant Death Robots, and buying them directly in any decent quanitity is prohibitively expensive at this stage of the game.

Germany's Social Policy route is a little more complicated than the average Civ. You should start with Honour's Opener to make fighting Barbarians easier, but after that switch to either Liberty or Tradition. Liberty will be better for grabbing plenty of land for a better chance of getting oil, while Tradition will be better if expansion potential is limited or you want to have strong cities with as much science as possible.

Beyond that point, taking policies from Commerce until the renaissance helps provide a bit of extra cash for maintaining even more units, (or Patronage to help ensure that City-States you're trading with don't end up allied to your enemies or if you just want to go for a diplomatic victory) but once the renaissance comes, switch to Rationalism.


Opener

Honour's Opener reveals Barbarian encampments without you having to look for them yourself, meaning you can reach and capture Barbarian encampments before most other Civs know of them. You can fight Barbarians more effectively, so you can more quickly take the encampment down, and you'll get culture for killing Barbarians, too.

The rest of Honour's policies should be left alone until the late-game, once you've got a level three tenet and Rationalism complete.

Discipline

The Lightning Warfare tenet makes it easy to surround units with Panzers to make use of flanking bonuses, but now, on top of that, they'll get a 15% bonus for being adjacent to other units.

Military Caste

This is an easy way of scraping a little extra happiness and culture - particularly to defend against cultural Civs with.

Professional Army

Panzers never obselete, even though there's two more units (Modern Armour and Giant Death Robots) on the same promotion path. With Professional Army (and maybe the Pentagon as well) you can construct Panzers and then cheaply upgrade them to get them built quickly, but also cost-effectively (compared to buying them directly.)


Opener

Liberty's Opener lets all your cities spread their borders right away, without having to build Monuments, and partially offsets the increased Social Policy cost of having more cities.

Republic

This helps to get your cities off the ground as far as production is concerned. It's minimal in impact on larger cities, but it makes quite a difference earlier on.

Collective Rule

You can use the free Settler and quicker Settler building to grab plenty of land earlier on, increasing the chance of having plenty of oil once you've researched Biology.

Citizenship

At first, you can use the free Worker to help develop your cities faster. Later on, combined with the Pyramids, the increased Worker speed allows you to clean up pillaged lands in just one turn (on normal-speed or faster games.)

Meritocracy

A relatively easy source of happiness. All cities linked to the capital give you a point of happiness, regardless of their status, but occupied cities or those being razed aren't affected by the 5% reduction in unhappiness from population offered here.

Representation

The reduced increase in Social Policy costs from founding new cities makes it that little bit easier to get through Rationalism and other such powerful policies sooner. Plus, you get a Golden Age to help build your infrastructure up or suchlike.

Finisher

Getting a Great Scientist and using it to place an Academy near a National College city is probably your best option here to keep your science generation high. Getting a Great Engineer to rush the Alhambra (or Petra, or the Colossus) is also a viable option, as well as a Great Prophet if you haven't already got a religion and there's still a slot avaliable.


Opener

A lack of early expansion potential? The Tradition tree will be good for getting you off the ground with the cities you have. The Opener makes your cities acquire tiles by culture rapidly, helping you to grab more potential oil tiles.

Oligarchy

Garrisoned units are now free to maintain, meaning you can cut costs even further than your UA already does. After all, you can never have too much gold...

Legalism

Now, your first four cities can automatically spread their borders by culture if they couldn't already, thanks to the free cultural buildings on offer here.

Landed Elite

Landed Elite helps grow your capital tall and strong, making it an excellent city to place the Heroic Epic in (and the Alhambra and Brandenburg Gate wonders, if you can manage them.)

Monarchy

Now, happiness in the capital is much less of an issue, and if early-game gold was a problem, it won't be now.

Aristocracy

Seeing as you'll be playing peacefully for much of the game, you might as well get some good Wonders. Aristocracy makes that easier.

Finisher

You won't have to spend time building Aquaducts in your first four cities if you want to grow them taller, leaving more time for other infrastructure buildings. Increased growth in your first four cities means a higher population sooner, and hence more science.

Opener

Trading with City-States for the production bonuses of Hanses, or raising a large, cheap army which you can threaten City-States with both synergise well with diplomatic level three tenets (Freedom's Treaty Organisation and Autocracy's Gunboat Diplomacy.) Choosing Patronage as your second main tree helps to build on that advantage. Even this Opener is very useful with a reduced influence decay rate (or, in other words, an increased rate of influence gain with either of those two tenets in effect.)

Consulates

Raising the influence resting point for City-States makes it easier to befriend and ally new ones.

Philanthropy

Aside from Treaty Organisation or Gunboat Diplomacy, your main source of influence gain will be via City-State bribes, so a bonus to them is welcome.

Scholasticism

This gives a decent incentive to hold early City-State alliances. Although science matters less to diplomacy than other victory routes, there's little reason why you can't try and get Panzers sooner for a greater impact.

Merchant Confederacy

If you need happiness or don't have Hanses yet, take this last. Otherwise, this helps to compensate for the often lower gold yields associated with City-State trading.

Cultural Diplomacy

More strategic resources and more powerful luxuries from City-States suits an aggressive route very well - more oil means more Panzers (or Battleships, Bombers or Fighters) and more happiness means you can support more conquests. This isn't necessarily at odds with your diplomatic aims - you can raise a strong late-game army to destroy your main competitor for City-State influence.

Finisher

Getting random Great People from allied City-States is very helpful, but more so is the fact you can get Khans or Merchants of Venice from this. Khans with Gunboat Diplomacy can keep up with your Panzers (unlike Great Generals) and help them to heal up quickly, while Merchants of Venice can conduct doubly-effective trade missions with City-States.


Opener

Commerce acts as a stopgap between finishing either Liberty or Tradition, and starting Rationalism. As soon as you're in the renaissance era, switch to Rationalism, but until then, enjoy extra gold from your capital thanks to this Opener.

Mercenary Army

I'm not advocating this policy just because Landsknechte used to be a German UU. I'm encouraging it mostly because it's on the way to Mercantilism, which synergises nicely with Hanses. Still, Landsknechte upgrade to Anti-Tank Guns - available at the same technology as Panzers - meaning you can make good use of their double-gold-on-city-capture ability.

Mercantilism

This is probably as far as you can go in Commerce prior to starting Rationalism. If you've got lots of money from saved unit maintenance and building Hanses everywhere, you'll be rewarded with the ability to buy units and buildings more cheaply (it's particularly good if you lose a Caravan or Cargo Ship going into war and need to replace it quickly.) Additionally, Mints, Markets, Hanses and Stock Exchanges now generate a little science. As you'll want Hanses in pretty much all your cities, that'll generally mean 2 extra science per city (before taking into account modifiers.)

Wagon Trains

An extra supply of cash and cashed saved from halved route maintenance is always useful. The question is, is it more useful than the other Social Policies available to you at the moment? If not, put this to one side for now.

Entrepreneurship

The only time you should really be taking this policy as Germany is if you're done with Rationalism, got a level three tenet and are looking for a good source of happiness, as Entrepreneurship is on the way to Protectionism. The Great Merchant bonuses offered here aren't particularly useful - you're better off focusing on Great Engineers and Scientists instead.

Protectionism

All luxury types are now worth 6 happiness instead of 4, which makes it far easier to support global conquests. On standard map scripts, start locations are always in range of two types of luxuries, typically one of which is common to the region, and one isn't - meaning when you take capitals, frequently you'll get a new type of luxury to partially offset the unhappiness of holding the city.

Finisher

If for some reason you need even more gold, Trading Posts are more effective than before. This goes nicely with Rationalism's Free Thought.


Opener

Enter Rationalism as soon as it's possible. So long as you keep your empire happy, you'll get a global 10% science multiplier.

Secularism

This policy has an immediate effect in increasing your rate of science, so long as you have a few specialists around. Filling some scientist slots isn't a bad idea.

Humanism

And filling some scientist slots is good for making Great Scientists, which this policy improves the generation of.

Free Thought

Universities now offer a 50% bonus to science rather than 33%. Trading Posts also now offer some science, which is useful if you want to increase science generation without growing your cities taller (and hence causing more unhappiness.)

Sovereignity

You'll recover quite a bit of cash out of science buildings, if all the money you've got already thanks to your UA and UB weren't enough already.

Scientific Revolution

Prior to Panzers, getting Research Agreements going should be doable. They create a useful load of science anyway, but combined with this policy, it's even stronger.

Finisher

In the late-game, the technology tree tends to be looser, meaning a free technology can give you more of an advantage. Use it to help push towards Combined Arms or Biology sooner.

Because of the high synergy between Panzers and Lightning Warfare, Autocracy is generally the strongest option if you're heading towards the standard domination victory.

While Order's associated wonder - the Kremlin - offers a huge bonus to armoured unit construction, your production will be good anyway thanks to Hanses, and Autocracy also offers the backup of a diplomatic route to victory. Still, in singleplayer, the AI tends to favour Order, so it's an option if you're struggling for happiness and want to avoid too much ideological pressure.

If a domination victory isn't viable, one option is to take Freedom for the Treaty Organisation tenet. You'll be trading with City-States anyway for Hanse production, so you can get the maximum influence potential out of it.

This guide shows the best choices for the first "inverted pyramid" of tenets (3 from level 1, 2 from level 2, 1 from level 3)


Elite Forces

This closes the strength gap between wounded units and those on full health by 25%. This is highly useful for pretty much any kind of combat, and hence merits being taken.

Fortified Borders

A maintenance-free source of happiness. Goes particularly well with the Neuschwanstein wonder to give Castles worth 3 gold, 2 culture and 2 happiness.

Universal Healthcare

The peaceful stage of your game should have provided you with an opportunity to build a decent number of National Wonders (if not, then Mobilisation or Industrial Espionage are reasonable alternative tenets in this slot.) This tenet gives 1 local city happiness for every National Wonder you have - it probably won't be as effective as Fortified Borders, but happiness is happiness.


Lightning Warfare

Lightning Warfare is crucial to success with Panzers, as it makes surrounding enemy units (and cities) with them so much easier. The increased Great General movement (not enough to keep up with Panzers, but still reasonable) and 15% extra attack bonus for armoured units just makes the tenet even better than it already is.

Third Alternative (Warmongering Germany favoured)

High production and cheaper land unit maintenance leaves strategic resources as your only remaining barrier to building a huge army. This is particularly noticable in the information era when Jet Fighters, Stealth Bombers, Rocket Artillery, Modern Armour and Helicopter Gunships all need aluminium.

Nationalism (Diplomatic Germany favoured)

Further reducing the maintenance cost of units (on top of your UA) means you can have both a large army for Gunboat Diplomacy, and enough gold left over for bribing City-States with.


Clausewitz's Legacy (Warmongering Germany favoured)

The sheer speed of Panzers combined with their high strength and the nature of how late-game units rapidly increase in strength means world conquest in 50 turns isn't that unrealistic a prospect (unless you're on a very large or very watery map.) Time this tenet right - don't just grab it right away without thinking - and only the well-prepared will get in your way.

Gunboat Diplomacy (Diplomatic Germany favoured)

A large, cheap-to-maintain army allows you to pressure City-States for influence gain and to bribe them for influence. Gunboat Diplomacy gains influence faster than Freedom's Treaty Organisation, so you can get a reasonable edge over other diplomatic Civs.


Covert Action

A helpful extra source of influence. Planting Spies in City-States is also useful to prevent coups from other Civs overturning your alliances.

Civil Society

This may seem an odd choice, but growing your cities means you can work more tiles (such as more trading posts) and more merchant specialists for gold.

Avant Garde

Because Great People are always good to have. Take this earlier if you've got plenty of specialists.


Arsenal of Democracy

Although not a ground-breaking source of City-State influence, this nonetheless is one of the few ways you can make use of strong production towards diplomatic victory.

Universal Suffrage

Golden Ages, as the name suggests, are good for making lots of gold. For the greatest potential, make sure cities have plenty of trading posts nearby to switch to once the Golden Age begins.


Treaty Organisation

You should be trading with City-States already, so there's absolutely no extra effort required to make lots of influence out of it.

A decent religion can really help out in Germany's midgame peaceful phase. Don't worry if you don't get one, though, just favour the existing religion that has a Pantheon and Follower beliefs closest to your playstyle.

As usual, this section covers the best non-situational choices from each type of religious belief. Taking a Pantheon which offers some faith is a good idea to help secure a religion, though nearly all faith-giving Pantheons are situational depending on where you start.


Messenger of the Gods

This really helps your science to get off the ground, particularly early on.

Goddess of the Hunt or Sun God (Tradition favoured)

A good way to grow your cities (and hence expand their potential for science) without being useless once you need to hold back city growth, unlike Fertility Rites.

God of Craftsmen (Liberty favoured)

This helps get production off the ground for fairly new cities, though is minimal in impact later on in the game.


Tithe or Church Property

Both of these provide decent sources of cash for buying Research Agreements or suchlike with. Tithe is probably the stronger of the two, as you can get gold from cities that don't have your religion as a majority.

Papal Primacy (Diplomatic Germany favoured)

Combine with Consulates for permanent friendships with City-States sharing your religion. A higher resting point will also make it easier to create alliances later on.

Interfaith Dialogue

Essentially a way of converting faith into some science. To avoid angering anyone prematurely, only convert your own cities, those of Civs without their own religion and City-States.

World Church

Culture is something that's easy to fall behind on if you're not careful. Here's a chance to make up for that a little without too much of an opportunity cost. The other Founder beliefs above are nice, but not considerably better than each other for Germany.


Pagodas (Liberty favoured)

The strongest Follower belief for securing happiness, and is also good for keeping ahead with culture and faith.

Mosques (Liberty favoured)

More faith but less happiness than Pagodas. Good as a backup or as a second Follower belief.

Cathedrals (Liberty favoured)

A backup if Pagodas or Mosques aren't available.

Asceticism

An easy source of happiness if your faith generation isn't that strong, or if you lack a faith building belief.

Religious Community (Tradition favoured)

If you have 15 followers in a city, you can get its production multiplier to 60% by the time Panzers arrive with a Hanse and Workshop without much trouble.

Feed the World (Tradition favoured)

This belief transitions well between the mid-game peaceful phase (where you want to grow your cities taller in order to get science) to the late-game war stage (where you want to hold back city growth to avoid too much unhappiness) as you can shift an extra citizen from working a farm to a mine or suchlike.

Religious Centre (Tradition favoured)

If you've been building your cities reasonably tall, you should be able to have enough followers to make use of the +2 happiness bonus this belief offers, giving you a bigger pool of happiness ready for going into war.


Religious Texts

A means of keeping your religion strong without having to spend a lot of faith.

Itinerant Preachers (Liberty favoured)

Aside from allowing your religion to spread further, this belief also allows cities with your religion to contribute towards religious pressure from further away, meaning the core area of your religion will often have a very high level of pressure.

Religious Unity (Diplomatic Germany favoured)

Strong combined with Papal Primacy. Religious Unity helps ensure City-States follow your religion as long as you have friendly status or better with them, and while they're following your religion, Papal Primacy together with Patronage's Consulates gives you permanent friendly status. Both beliefs back each other up beautifully.

Just War

There's plenty of time to spread your religion to other Civs' cities and make use of Just War's bonus, though you'll probably want decent faith generation so you can ensure some other Civ doesn't convert those cities to their religion.

If you're playing peacefully up to Panzers, you'll have a good opportunity to shape the World Congress your way prior to the war. Note "priority" in this section refers to how high you should prioritise your votes if it comes up, not how much you should prioritise putting them forward.

Arts Funding

Low priority
Vote no

Great Writers, Musicians and Artists aren't as useful to you as Scientists, Merchants and Engineers.

Cultural Heritage Sites

Low-Medium priority
Vote no unless you built a decent number of wonders in your peaceful stage

Embargo City-States

Very High priority
Vote no

This vote will completely shut down the advantages of your UB if it goes ahead. You can't let that happen.

Historical Landmarks

Medium priority
Vote no

International Games

Medium-High priority
Vote no

If it goes ahead, use your strong production to seize the top prize so a cultural Civ doesn't benefit from doubled tourism.

International Space Station

Low-Medium priority
Vote yes

Your production base gives you a good shot and gaining the prize, which isn't just good for scientific Civs.

Natural Heritage Sites

Low priority
Vote no unless you have a Natural Wonder of your own

Nuclear Non-Proliferation

High priority
Vote no unless you have no uranium of your own, another Civ does and they're likely to use it

Scholars in Residence

Medium priority
Vote yes unless you're the leader technologically speaking

Sciences Funding

Medium priority
Vote yes

Standing Army Tax

Medium priority
Vote no unless you feel potential rivals will be hurt more

Thanks to Germany's UA, you can probably handle the effect of increased army maintenance. Whether your potential rivals can is a different matter.

World's Fair

Medium priority
Vote yes

With your strong production base, you should have a decent chance of seizing the cultural bonuses for yourself.

There's quite a lot of time for building wonders as Germany - probably more so than any other warmongering Civ. Playing scientifically in the mid-game should help give you a head start on some wonders, while the strong production base of Hanses makes it even easier to grab some.

Here's a list of the best wonders for Germany, arranged alphabetically in each era. Getting these all will usually not be viable, nor should you blindly attempt that, but you should be able to pick up something good on the long road to Combined Arms.


Pyramids (Liberty Only)

The Pyramids are a famously uncompetitive wonder, so they're not too hard to pick up. Together with Liberty's Citizenship, you can clean up pillaged tiles in a single turn on standard or quick game speeds. That's useful for cleaning up after your Panzers take cities, as they may be pillaging heavily to keep their health up.

Statue of Zeus (Honour Only)

With this wonder, Panzers fight cities more effectively than Artillery - at an effective strength of 92! Relatively few Civs tend to start with the Honour tree, (AI or human,) so the wonder's relatively uncompetitive.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge gives you a good shot at a religion, though like all early wonders, it's a huge setback if you spend ages building it only to fail. It's certainly risky on higher difficulties.

Temple of Artemis (Tradition favoured)

Ignore the tooltip, it's a food bonus - not a growth bonus - on offer here. That's important because not only does it increase the maximum height your cities can reach, but the bonus is still useful once you're at war and trying to limit city growth in order to prevent excessive unhappiness.


Colossus

The Colossus offers an extra Trade Route, which essentially means a 5% production boost to all your cities with Hanses, on top of the gold.

Hanging Gardens (Tradition Only)

If you want to maximise science gain, you'll need tall cities. The Hanging Gardens is excellent at helping out in that respect.

Oracle

A good way to cut through Social Policies early, though there's plenty of classical-era wonders that may be more useful to you.

Petra

Like the Colossus, Petra also gives an extra Trade Route which synergises well with Hanses. In areas with lots of desert hills, Petra creates a very strong production base. Combined with the production multiplier from Hanses, you've got the ultimate city for churning out units or wonders rapidly.

Terracotta Army

Capturing units from Barbarians gives you quite a diversity of units which goes well with the Terracotta Army. Not to mention the fact many Barbarian units, when captured, count separately from generic units (so a captured Barbarian Swordsman and a regular Swordsman both will be duplicated by this wonder.) If you want to launch a reasonably early attack, this will certainly help.


Alhambra

The Alhambra gives all types of new land-based melee units (including your Panzers) the Drill I promotion when built for no XP cost. If you manage to get Brandenburg Gate in the same city (or take the Total War tenet) along with a Military Academy, you can get Panzers straight to Repair or Blitz.

Machu Picchu

Guilds is on the way to Banking, so you don't need to make any great diversion to take a shot at this wonder, though the other two wonders in this era will probably be more effective. Machu Picchu is a decent source of extra gold, in case the masses of gold you may have already wasn't enough.

Notre Dame

10 points of global happiness makes it so much easier to support conquests. The problem is, this is a competitive wonder and is off your main tech path - so it might be one to steal rather than build.


Forbidden Palace (Patronage Only)

Going down the diplomatic route? Or want to ease your unhappiness burden? This wonder can handle both of those.

Porcelain Tower (Rationalism Only)

In this peaceful phase, getting Research Agreements going isn't too hard compared to most warmongering Civs. And the free Great Scientist is nice, too.


Big Ben (Commerce Only)

Got lots of excess gold thanks to having lots of Hanses and low unit maintenance? Big Ben makes it cheaper to purchase items with it.

Brandenburg Gate

Together with a Military Academy, new units start with three promotions. With Alhambra as well, it's four. In addition to that, you receive a free Great General. If you've not been to war yet, that's likely to be your first one, and will help out in the first few turns of Panzer wars.


Neuschwanstein

Neuschwanstein turns Castles from situational defensive buildings to sources of gold, culture and a little happiness. Together with Fortified Borders, Castles generate two points of local city happiness - equivalent to a Colosseum, Zoo or Stadium.

Prora (Autocracy Only)

Here's a more direct source of happiness. You'll also get a free Social Policy, which is good for pushing further in the Autocracy ideology so you can pick up Clausewitz's Legacy around the time you start your Panzer wars.


Great Firewall

One of the strengths of Panzers (like regular Tanks) is that the main counter unit (Anti-Tank Guns) comes at the same technology as Tanks themselves, which is at the opposite side of the tech tree to where most peaceful Civs will be at the moment. As such, it's not too hard to launch Panzers on the unprepared. However, having technologies your rivals don't have makes them prone to being stolen by Spies, so that's where the Great Firewall comes in.

Pentagon

The Pentagon comes at the same technology as Panzers, and it's not a bad idea to hold off upgrading your Landships until the Pentagon is complete - it'll save you quite a bit of money. Use the time to build new Panzers in your other cities.

I've typed a lot about good ways to play as Germany, but now here's a few mistakes to avoid.


Exploring early on gives you gold, (from discovering City-States first,) a good chance of grabbing more Ancient Ruins and a good idea of where strong city spots are. Get to know your immediate surroundings before you start fighting Barbarians.


It's not easy to launch very early attacks (unless you're the Huns) so if you want to use converted Barbarians together with units you built yourself to take down an opponent early on, consider whether that's a realistic move. Especially on higher difficulties, early-game combat is difficult for attacking nations. Don't worry if you can't launch an early attack - just focus your cities on infrastructure and use captured Barbarians as a decent early defensive force.


Trading with City-States gives you both plenty of gold and plenty of production once you've got plenty of Hanses. True, the volume of gold may be lower than trading with full Civs, and internal trading can provide more production to single cities, but the net effect of German trading to City-States is stronger.


There's two main reasons you need to watch your local City-States' loyalties. One, you don't really want to be fighting them off while you're at war. Two, you'll have to rebuild your Trade Routes. It's a good idea to plant Spies in nearby City-States and bribe them in order to maintain an alliance before you start your Panzer wars.


Unless ideological pressure is particularly high, or you want a scientific backup route to victory, you're better off taking Autocracy. Order may have the Kremlin wonder attached to it, which lets you churn out Panzers very rapidly, but Lightning Warfare is much more powerful and you don't have to compete with other Civs to get it. Plus, thanks to Hanses, you have plenty of production for getting lots of Panzers up and running anyway - strategic resources are more of an issue than production is, and Autocracy's Third Alternative helps deal with that.


Yes, Panzers might be the joint-latest UU in the game, but like America's B17s, they're incredibly good at cutting through enemy defences. The nature of the late-game tech tree means many Civs will have defences no better than Infantry (and if you've worked up a tech advantage by this point, probably not even that) so it's not too unrealistic an idea to take every capital under 50 turns - the time it takes for Clausewitz's Legacy to expire.

Germany is strong in the early and late-game, but is particularly vulnerable around the medieval era.


Capturing encampments

For Germany to make full use of their UA, they need to be the ones to take out Barbarian encampments. You can weaken their ability to do that by ensuring you're the one to get the final hit. If you find Germany taking on a Barbarian encampment, try placing a melee unit next to it, ready to take the final hit and take over the camp once it's weakened enough, denying them the opportunity to take it for themselves.

If you're not playing a Civ inclined to fight Barbarians, then you can prevent them spawning by placing units to keep as much land as possible in sight. For maximum impact, plant your units fairly close (but not too close) to German land, so if encampments spawn, they won't be anywhere near them.

Brutes

If Germany manages to capture some Brutes, and you're at war with them, favour killing their Warriors first. In combat, Warriors and Brutes are identical, but Brutes are more expensive to upgrade.

Hand-Axes

Hand-Axes are good against standard melee units, but vulnerable to fast or ranged units. Archers have a higher range than Hand-Axes, forcing them to come towards your Archer to deal any damage, or to pull out. If they follow your Archer, you can lure it into a better-defended position, or into other units you control.

Reduced land unit maintenance cost

The trick here is the mention of "land". Germany's sea and air units are no cheaper to maintain than those of other Civs, meaning they won't emphasise them as much. Having lots of air units is a good way of dealing with Panzers, so there's that, too.


An embargo of City-States completely shuts down the Hanse's unique advantage, but if you don't want to do that, try allying City-States near Germany - if Germany declares war on you, they'll lose plenty of production. Can't afford to do that? You can just plant units in or near those City-States to pillage those Caravans or Cargo Ships if you get attacked.


Panzers are still vulnerable to Anti-Tank Guns and Helicopter Gunships, like regular Tanks, but if you've not researched that half of the tech tree, air units, Infantry, Mobile Infantry and Bazookas work reasonably well, too. Make sure your land units are adjacent to each other to prevent high flanking bonuses causing you problems.

Having a decent navy ready to attack Germany by the sea is useful if you feel they intend to attack you with a Panzer army. Panzers are powerless against naval units, after all. Battleships in particular will be useful due to their three-tile range and indirect fire, allowing them to attack quite a distance inland.


Early-game Aggressors

Germany is likely to have a larger army than most. Consider attacking them a little later in the game (their weakest point is probably in the medieval era) but invading early is still viable. Take plenty of ranged units to deal with their Brutes and Hand-Axes.

Mid-game Warmongers

Germany's at their weakest point in the midgame. Even into the renaissance, Hanses haven't really kicked in yet. There shouldn't be too much of a problem here.

Late-game Warmongers

Ally City-States near Germany or plant units there ready to pillage their Trade Routes as soon as you start a war. It's a good idea to fight them before Panzers are around, but if you can't avoid that, bring Anti-Tank Guns (or Helicopter Gunships) and/or Bombers. Attacking Germany by the sea will be particularly effective.

Cultural Players

Make good use of Bombers to repel potential Panzer attacks - they're at the same technology as Airports so you don't need a great diversion there. Infantry are alright too, but if that's not enough, Combined Arms isn't far from Radar for Anti-Tank Guns, and Computers is just one technology later for Helicopter Gunships.

Aside from that, consider pushing through a City-State embargo in the World Congress. You'll make Germany's UB lose its unique feature, and as an added bonus, it'll be more likely other Civs will trade with you, giving you a tourism bonus.

Diplomatic Players

Allying City-States near Germany will put them off declaring war on you. Don't neglect military technologies, however - City-State alliances are no compensation for having a strong defence. Infantry are on your technology path and will work alright if well-positioned, but you might need to make a diversion to Nuclear Fission for something more effective.

Scientific Players

If Germany intends to make an early rush, you'll probably be the first to know as scientific Civs tend to be more vulnerable earlier on. Getting a few Archers will help there. Much later on in the game, when Germany intends to launch Panzers, making a quick diversion to Computers for Helicopter Gunships will be very effective.

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These guides cover every Civ in the game and can be used as quick reference guides.

• Civ summaries (Gives a brief overview of how each Civ plays)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Compiles the lesser-known features of each Civ)

All 43 Civs are covered in in-depth guides linked below. In brackets are the favoured victory routes of each Civ.

• America (Domination)
  
• Arabia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Assyria (Cultural, Domination and Scientific)
  
• Austria (Cultural, Domination and Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Babylon (Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural)
  
• Byzantium (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Carthage (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Celts (Cultural)
  
• China (Domination)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Cultural)
  
• England (Domination)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• France (Cultural)
  
• Germany (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Greece (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Huns (Domination)
  
• Inca (Scientific)
  
• India (Cultural/Scientific)
  
• Indonesia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Iroquois (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Japan (Domination)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Mayans (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Diplomatic)
  
• Netherlands (Diplomatic, Domination and Scientific)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Cultural)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Domination)
  
• Shoshone (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Siam (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Sweden (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomatic)
  
• Zulus (Domination)