Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

Powers shift endlessly; old alliances, new betrayals and futile diplomacy. It's time to cut through this endless back-and-forth and stake our claim in history. Naranjo is strong enough; we can defeat Caracol. We can defeat Ucanal. And yes, with the guidance of the stars we can even defeat Tikal. Our city shall be secure under the protection of her warrior queen.


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 if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an 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 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, 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) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production 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 - 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 (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.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). 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.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

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. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

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.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

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.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. 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, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "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 trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

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

The Maya have a tier one start bias for flat grassland, grassland hills, flat plains and plains hills.

They also have a tier two start bias for citrus, coffee, cocoa, cotton, dyes, silk, spices, sugar, tea, tobacco, wine and incense - all of which are plantation resources.

Finally, they have a tier three start bias to all kinds of desert, tundra and snow (flat, hills and mountain).

This is among the most complicated start biases in the game, though it helps to remember that tier one biases are favoured first, then tier two, and so on. The grass and plains biases ensure you have places for potential farm spots, while the luxury start biases improve the chance of getting extra amenities at the start of the game. The remaining biases are there to reduce the chance of the Mayans starting on the coast, making it easier to fit more cities within range of the capital for Lady Six Sky's leader ability.

• Gain no housing from cities having access to fresh water or coast adjacency
  
  • Aqueducts will always provide the full +4 housing for Mayan cities.
• Farms provide +1 housing and +1 gold on top of their standard yields.
  
• Farms adjacent to Observatories produce +1 production on top.
  
• Cities gain +1 amenity per luxury adjacent to their city centres.
  
  • Cities founded on luxury tiles will not receive this bonus amenity.

• Non-capital cities within six tiles of the capital gain a free Builder when founded.
  
• Non-capital cities within six tiles of the capital gain +10% to food, production, gold, faith, science and culture yields.
  
• Non-capital cities beyond six tiles of the capital have a penalty of -15% to food, production, gold, faith, science and culture yields.
  
• All military and religious units within six tiles of the capital gain +5 strength.
  
  • This is based on where your unit is when combat is initiated.

An ancient-era ranged land unit which replaces the Archer

*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.

• 28 ranged strength, up from 25
  
• +5 strength when attacking units on less than full health

An ancient-era speciality district which replaces the Campus

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.

• Does not gain science adjacency from mountains, rainforests, reefs or geothermal fissures.

• -50% production cost
  
• +2 science per adjacent plantation
  
• +1 science per two adjacent farms

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.


Cultural victory is a fair direction to take the Maya. Bonuses to food, housing and production yields make Mayan cities decent at wonder construction. However, the incentive to pack cities closely together leaves little room for tourism-yielding tile improvements.

Diplomacy is a possible if not exceptional route to take. Extra gold from farms and via Lady Six Sky's leader ability is useful for competing in aid emergencies.

Domination is a reasonable path, particularly on smaller maps. While a 15% yield penalty for distant cities means conquered cities will be much weaker, it's not an insurmountable penalty. Extra gold from farms helps with unit maintenance, and some bonus amenities from luxury adjacency may help manage war weariness slightly. More importantly, the unique Hul'che unit has good early rush potential with an excellent damage output for its price.

Religion is probably the weakest route for the Maya. Faith yields usually scale to the number of cities you have as Holy Site districts are typically the main source of faith. As such, Lady Six Sky's 15% penalty to faith yields in distant cities can be a major limitation. That being said, the Maya can achieve a good early faith output by quickly expanding within six tiles of the capital and enjoying the 10% yield bonus. Extra strength close to the capital works in theological combat, aiding you in securing your religion in your own territory.

Science is by far the best route for the Maya. The Observatory district, while lacking in many typical science adjacency bonuses, has powerful alternatives more easily under your control. Lady Six Sky's leader ability can grant many cities a 10% science boost on top. Finally, larger cities thanks to a 10% food bonus and farm housing are more able to rush through space race projects later in the game - especially with help from the 10% production boost.

A carefully-planned compact empire will grant the Maya rich rewards, and set up an effective, well-defended empire for the rest of the game. By being deliberate and careful with your city positioning early on, you can set up a straightforward game beyond that point.


For most civs, it's best to settle your capital as soon as possible. Lost turns early on can put you at a significant disadvantage throughout the game.

For the Maya, however, you have options.


Founding your capital right away means you can get started with research, city development and the like sooner. I'd recommend this route for less experienced players as it avoids the risk of wasting precious time. Furthermore, starting locations tend to have a good array of resources.


You can take the safe option of settling your capital right away, or you can use a few turns to scout around and look for an area that will maximise the bonuses you can get with Lady Six Sky's leader ability. This is a risky strategy, and one where it helps to be familiar with how terrain looks in the game.

Your starting Warrior and Settler each have two movement points. Your Warrior has 2 sight, and your Settler 3. When uncovering new land, keep them reasonably close together for protection if need be, but spaced apart enough that you can uncover as much land as possible. Move one tile at a time so you know what's coming and can react accordingly.


Terrain blending can indicate where the coast is ahead of time. Also look out for rivers - if you look closely you can see them flow towards the sea. Moving against that stream is useful if you want to reach more inland areas.

Your aim is to reach a spot where as much land as possible is within six tiles of your capital, and preferably not city-states or other civs' original capitals.


Here's an example of a successful application of the risky strategy. Although there are some cities in range of my capital, overall I have a lot of potential spots to settle. It took about 10-15 turns to get to this point, but typically you'll want to found your capital in less than 5 turns to avoid wasting precious time.


Regardless of whether you took the safer or riskier opening strategy, your capital city should start by training at least one Slinger for defence - not only will they be more effective than usual due to Lady Six Sky's strength bonus, but they can also be updated into Hul'che units later. It's a good idea to train a Settler when your capital reaches around size 2 or 3, and then a Builder. New Mayan cities have a mere 2 housing regardless of location making Builders for farms a necessity.

To make the most of Lady Six Sky's leader ability, you'll want to settle as many cities as possible within six tiles of your capital.


This layout maximises the number of possible cities within range of your capital, on a single landmass. You should aim to settle cities in the outer points first (to deny other civs getting those locations) before settling further in. Note that it is possible to settle cities closer together if they are on separate landmasses, though this will severely limit the number of tiles they can each work.


Use map pins to make it clear where the limits of Lady Six Sky's leader ability are.


Then, you can position cities accordingly! City-states and water can get in the way, but you should be able to fit in plenty of cities so long as you keep to the pattern.

If a rival civ settles a city in a way that sets off the pattern, consider attacking them to raze that city. This is best done early on when the Hul'che unit can assist. Rival civ capitals and city-states within range of your capital are good potential targets for early conquest.

With cities positioned and settled, it's time to enjoy a range of bonuses! You'll start with Builders right away so you can build some farms for extra housing and food alike, plantations or other such useful tile improvements.


Food allows your cities to grow, so long as they also have sufficient housing. Mayan farms provide plenty of both, so the food bonus on offer here will mainly be useful for speeding up city growth. Every point of population is worth 0.5 science and 0.3 culture, so bigger cities will aid you in getting through technologies and civics faster.


You'll need plenty of production to train units, construct buildings and wonders, and complete city projects. As the Maya have a flat land start bias, production can be lacking. You may have few hills for mines and/or few woods/rainforests for lumber mills. The production bonus helps to partially account for that.

However, things improve considerably into the industrial era. The Mayan incentive to settle cities closely together means that Factories can offer production bonuses to a lot of cities at once. Position Governor Magnus (the Steward) in your capital with the Vertical Integration promotion, and the rest of your empire will be able to provide it with a lot of production. While your capital does not benefit from the 10% production boost, it's nonetheless typically the best place to put Magnus.


Gold is useful for buying units and buildings, maintaining them, trading with other players, Great Person Patronage and so forth. Thanks to the Mayan civ ability, farms generate gold, which this leader ability will build upon. Generally, the Maya have the biggest advantage in gold yield over other civs earlier in the game.


Faith has a variety of uses, but for the Maya it's largely useful for Great Person patronage or purchasing Observatory district buildings if you have access to the Jesuit Education belief. A bit more faith doesn't make a huge difference for the Maya as the limited number of cities you can fit within range of your capital restricts your competitiveness in the faith game.


Probably the most useful yield to gain a 10% boost to, as science is essential for technological development and therefore for the scientific victory. Observatories are a great source of science already, but this bonus takes it even further!


Getting a 10% culture boost helps with getting through civics, tile accumulation and defence against cultural civs' tourism. It also partially offsets the 25% culture loss if you take the Monasticism wildcard during a classical or medieval-era Dark Age for its huge potential 75% science boost.


In addition to a variety of yields, Lady Six Sky offers a +5 strength bonus to all units within six tiles of your capital. This is excellent in defence against Barbarians and warmongers alike, and can be used to attack the cities of other civs that get too close. It even works in theological combat, so if you have a religion of your own it's easier to keep rival religious units at bay.


While you should typically aim to constrain your expansion to a six-tile radius around your capital, there's circumstances you might want to expand outside it even with the 15% yield penalties:

• Securing key strategic resources
  
• Preventing other civs from settling too close to your core cities (especially Phoenicia, which can circumvent loyalty pressures)
  
• Capturing other civs' cities with the Hul'che UU.

Furthermore, while a 15% penalty to six different yields is quite harsh, you can still benefit from founding new cities outside the range if you focus on key districts like Observatories.


Lady Six Sky's ability is a useful bonus to defence and development. While it requires precise city positioning for its best potential, the benefits of doing so are straightforward and easy to make use of. A little planning in the ancient era will pay off throughout the rest of the game.

An amenity from the jade; housing from the maize farm.

Lady Six Sky's leader ability requires you to carefully position cities closely together to make the most of it. This has two major downsides: one, that cities in such precise locations are likely to struggle to access fresh water, and two, that compact cities have a limited supply of tiles which can make it hard to balance city growth, production and districts.

Thankfully, the Mayan civ ability avoids the first downside and partially covers the second. By receiving a considerable amount of housing from farms instead of fresh water, cities can follow a stricter pattern. This makes it a lot easier to use Lady Six Sky's leader ability. High housing from farms also means you can use just a few along with internal trading to cover city growth needs for quite some time, leaving some land available for other improvements or districts.


Usually, cities start with 5 housing if they are adjacent to fresh water (rivers and lakes), allowing them to grow at full speed until size 4. A coastal city without access to fresh water starts with 3 housing. A city with neither starts with just 2, meaning it'll struggle to grow even slightly.

For the Maya, all cities will start on just 2 points of housing (except the capital, which starts with 3 due to the presence of the Palace). While this means new cities will struggle to grow without support from tile improvements, it also means you don't need to place cities with fresh water access in mind. This makes positioning cities optimally for Lady Six Sky's leader ability easier.

While Mayan cities won't get any housing from direct fresh water access, they will receive the full +4 housing from Aqueducts. This makes them reliably useful districts to build in cities than can handle them.


Farms for the Maya provide +1.5 housing, which is the most of any tile improvement this early in the game. Two farms will provide a new city enough housing to be on par with a new fresh water-adjacent city of another civ. Cities founded within six tiles of your capital will receive a free Builder thanks to Lady Six Sky's leader ability, making it easy to get to that point.

More importantly, once cities are up to at least four farms, they'll start having a notable housing advantage over cities of most other civs. Position these farms around Observatory districts where possible for science adjacency bonuses, but otherwise try to build them in triangles so they will provide extra food with the medieval-era Feudalism civic. Strong food and housing together can allow Mayan cities to grow very large, even with limited space.

Farms become considerably stronger with the modern-era Replaceable Parts technology, which is neatly just one technology away from Chemistry, required for the final Observatory district building. With Replaceable Parts, farms gain +1 food per adjacent other farm, allowing your cities to grow very rapidly.


All Mayan farms provide +1 gold each, which can add up to an impressive gold income early in the game. Good uses for this gold include purchasing plantation resource tiles, potential Observatory spots next to them, upgrading Slingers to Hul'che units, buying and maintaining Hul'che units and buying Builders.

While this bonus is most impactful early in the game, it remains consistently helpful throughout the game to cover unit and building maintenance costs.


Farms adjacent to the Observatory district gain +1 production. This makes these tiles especially valuable to work, and given farms already provide science adjacency for Observatories, this is an easy way to make your cities more productive.


Mayan cities receive +1 amenity per adjacent luxury. While this in theory sounds like a useful bonus to complement farm housing, the importance of packing as many cities as possible within a six-tile radius of your capital makes it difficult to actively play around this bonus. Usually, you'll need to look for other sources to meet your amenity needs, such as trading other civs for luxuries or building Entertainment Complexes.

• Ensure you can get Builders to new cities as soon as possible to build farms so they can grow, aside from the ones that are within range of your capital and get free Builders.
  
• Build Aqueducts if you have room in cities for a reliable +4 housing boost.
  
• Use gold from farms to aid your early development.
  
• Don't worry too much about positioning cities adjacent to luxuries; it's less important than fitting in more cities close to your capital.

Observatories are a reliable source of science which lose the specific terrain-based adjacency bonuses of regular Campuses, but make up for it with two more reliable adjacency bonuses and a halved construction cost. Coupled with Lady Six Sky's 10% bonus science yields, these districts can give you a huge advantage in the scientific game.


Observatories just require the ancient-era Pottery and Writing technologies to build. With a relatively low cost, new cities can afford to build them - though be sure they have enough farms to grow and expand their production or else you'll be waiting a long time.

When positioning Observatories, try to get them adjacent to as many plantation resources as possible. These include:

• Bananas
  
• Citrus
  
• Cocoa
  
• Coffee
  
• Dyes
  
• Incense
  
• Olives
  
• Silk
  
• Spices
  
• Sugar
  
• Tea
  
• Tobacco
  
• Wine

A typical city will be able to get 1-2 plantation resources adjacent to their Observatory.

Sometimes, the best Observatory placement for a city will be adjacent to a spot you'll want to found a new city later. If this is the case, be sure to buy the appropriate tiles and start construction on the Observatory before you found the new city. This is because districts cannot be positioned next to the city centres of other cities, while it is possible to settle a city next to an existing district.


Observatories receive a massive +2 science adjacency yield from plantations. Simply having plantation resources adjacent is insufficient - they need to be improved (requiring the ancient-era Irrigation technology). This means the plantation resource tile needs to be owned by someone first. If you control the tile, you can simply spend a Builder charge on improving it, but if another civ or a city-state controls the tile, you'll need to either wait around until they get around to improving it, culture-bomb the tile off them, or take their city over.

Usually, you won't get more than a couple of plantations adjacent to an Observatory, but a +4 science bonus is very strong early in the game, and you can easily boost it further with farms or districts.


Observatories gain +1 science for every two adjacent farms. While a much smaller bonus than the one for plantations, it is incredibly reliable. Farms can be placed on flat grassland, flat plains or desert floodplain from the start of the game, and thanks to the Mayan civ ability, farms are a great source of housing. Observatories surrounded by farms can have a reliable +3 adjacency bonus, while a city with a mixture of plantations and farms adjacent can viably get adjacency yields of +6.


While Observatories do not gain the same terrain adjacency bonuses as regular Campuses, they do still receive +1 science per two adjacent districts and an extra +1 science if they are adjacent to your Government Plaza.

Receiving science from adjacent districts means you can replace some adjacent farms with extra districts if need be later in the game without sacrificing science, while the new districts can also benefit from being adjacent to an existing district.

As for the Government Plaza, it's best to position it in a spot two tiles away from as many plantation resources as possible. That way, nearby Observatories can benefit from both the powerful plantation adjacency and the Government Plaza adjacency.


With the classical-era Recorded History civic, you can use the Natural Philosophy economic policy card to double the adjacency bonuses of all Observatories. This policy card is so powerful for the Maya it is worth keeping active right up until it is replaced with the superior Five-Year Plan policy card at the modern-era Ideology civic.

If you fall into a classical or medieval-era Dark Age, you can take the Monasticism wildcard for +75% science in all cities with a Holy Site. A medieval-era Dark Age is more effective and easier to achieve for the Maya.

The best way to set up a medieval-era Dark Age is to found plenty of cities in the ancient game era while aiming for a classical-era Golden Age. The more cities you own at the start of a game era, the higher the era score thresholds will be for the next game era. Thresholds also increase every time you enter a Golden Age. Securing a classical-era Golden Age is fairly easy for the Maya as both the Hul'che and the Observatory arrive in the ancient era, allowing you to get plenty of era score from them. Destroying Barbarian Encampments is another good source of era score.

Finally, with the renaissance-era The Enlightenment civic, you can take the Rationalism economic policy card. This boosts the science yield of all buildings in the Observatory district by 50% if the district's adjacency bonus is at least 3 or the city is at least size 10, or by 100% if both conditions are met. Given the strong plantation adjacency bonuses of Observatories and the Mayan civ ability offering lots of housing, this is an easy requirement to meet.

• Position Observatories next to as many plantation resources as possible, then surround them with farms.
  
• Don't worry about replacing Observatory-adjacent farms with districts; the city will get the same adjacency bonus.

The Mayan start is complicated by the need to carefully position in new cities and ensure they have enough housing to grow. Thankfully, the Hul'che unit makes this task a lot easier by being an affordable and effective counter to Barbarians and warmongers.


Hul'che units require just the ancient-era Animal Husbandry and Archery technologies to train. It's a good idea to train a couple of Slingers ahead of time so you can immediately upgrade them once Archery is researched, saving you production.


Hul'che units are slightly stronger than regular Archers on attack, having 28 ranged strength rather than 25. However, against injured units, they have an impressive 33 strength - higher than most ancient-era threats. Within six tiles of your capital, that's raised to 38, outclassing classical-era units.

It's a good idea to keep Hul'che units in pairs so one can get an initial attack on an enemy, and the second can deal massive damage. Injured units lose strength, so the second hit will deal considerably more damage than the first.


A reliable use of Hul'che units is to repel Barbarians and warmongers. Barbarians early on tend to rely on Spearmen, Scouts, Warriors and Archers. With the Discipline military policy card or within six tiles of your capital, Hul'che units can take out any of these in two hits.

Against warmongers, Hul'che are most effective against civs that rely on slower units (e.g. Greece, Rome). Against civs that rely on faster units (e.g. Gran Colombia, Scythia), make good use of rough terrain and safe locations (e.g. behind a lake or garrisoning a city) so your enemy can't exploit the low melee strength Hul'che units have. Keep within six tiles of your capital where possible for the +5 strength boost.


The strong attack of Hul'che makes them great at clearing enemy units, and that can make them suitable for rushing nearby enemies. They'll need support from a unit with a melee attack (e.g. Warriors) to capture cities.

Using Hul'che offensively is useful if you want to weaken a nearby civ, pillage their tiles for yields or go for a quick domination victory on smaller maps, but remember that all cities you control outside six tiles of your capital will have a 15% penalty to all yields. As such, early conquest is less effective for the Mayans than it is for other civs.

As such, you can instead use Hul'che as part of an intimidation strategy. By training a few and declaring war on a civ (or simply moving units close to them), you can encourage them to use precious early production on building up a defence. Your strength bonus near your capital will make retaliation difficult.


While Hul'che are effective throughout the ancient and classical eras, Crossbowmen eclipse them in strength. As such, once other civs reach medieval era technologies, it's a good idea to upgrade your Hul'che units.


Hul'che units are a really effective defensive option which means you can dedicate less production to defence and more to settling all the cities you need early on.

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.



Classical Republic is best due to the handy amenity bonus supporting your growing cities) and the higher number of economic policy cards.

Complement it with the Audience Chamber for even more amenities, or the Ancestral Hall to quickly fill your six-tile radius from your capital.


Merchant Republic's higher number of economic policy card slots and wildcards makes it an ideal choice.

The Intelligence Agency is an ideal tier two government plaza building as the extra Spy can defend your Observatories, Industrial Zones and Spaceports from enemy Spies.


Communism's 10% science boost makes it a great choice, and the production boost based on city population effectively uses one of the Mayan strengths.

Use it with the Royal Society building to save time on rushing space race projects.


Synthetic Technocracy is ideal for the space race; the production bonus for city projects includes space projects, and the extra power allows you to build more Terrestrial Laser Stations.



Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) - Allows you to train Hul'che units faster.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - Training Settlers faster will help you make the most of Lady Six Sky's leader ability sooner.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - The Maya need to build a lot of farms and plantations early on for housing and science respectively. As such, this is a very useful policy card to take.


Natural Philosophy (Economic, requires Recorded History) - A crucial policy card for the Maya, as your Observatory adjacency yields will be twice as strong!


Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - An easy source of amenities for your growing cities.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - Aids in the development of farms, plantations and other important improvements by providing Builders with more charges.


Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment - Bonus amenities; handy for supporting your growing cities.

Rationalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - It's easier for the Mayans than most civs to get both 15+ population in a city and 4+ adjacency bonus for its district adjacency, and as such it's easy to get the full 100% science bonus for Observatory buildings from this policy card.


Five Year Plan (Economic, requires Ideology) - Doubles Observatory adjacency bonuses, plus Industrial Zones on top!


International Space Agency (Diplomatic, requires Globalisation) - Build on your science advantage further with this policy card.


Aerospace Contractors (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Lagrange Laser Stations require aluminium to be built, while Terrestrial Laser Stations require power to be operational. Both speed up your Exoplanet Expedition at the end of the game. This policy card supports the costs of you with both. That's particularly important for the Mayans as aluminium can be in scarce supply in a smaller empire, and Lagrange Laser Stations lack the maintenance requirement of Terrestrial ones.

Global Coalition (Wildcard, requires Smart Power Doctrine) - Combined with Lady Six Sky's leader ability, you'll be particularly hard to attack, letting to focus on things other than building up your military.

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

Free Inquiry (Dedication, Classical to Medieval eras) - A reasonable source of era score as your develop your Observatories.

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - The science bonus you can get from this goes nicely with Lady Six Sky's 10% bonus.

Isolationism (Dark Age, Classical to Industrial eras) - Once you've filled out the appropriate city locations within six tiles of your capital, you won't need Settlers any more. This makes this Dark Age wildcard potentially very effective for the Maya.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - Combined with Observatories, the science bonus you can get from this wildcard is huge.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Allows you to get Builders for a lower gold cost and saves time when getting Builders to new spots to improve. If you have some faith around (such as from Holy Sites built to make use of Monasticism), you can use them to cheaply buy civilian units.

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Atomic eras) - Your strong Observatory adjacency bonuses will be added to production! You can use this production bonus to help you with Spaceports and space race projects.

Cyber Warfare (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - An excellent defensive bonus in conjunction with Lady Six Sky's leader ability, allowing you to focus more on space projects and less on defence.

Sky and Stars (Golden Age, Information to Future eras) - A source of aluminium, useful for building Lagrange Laser Stations. Also offers a set of eurekas which together with the high Mayan science output can allow you to rush through technologies a fair bit faster.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Border Control Treaty - Effect A (New districts built by this player act as culture bombs) on yourself

The Mayan focus on a compact empire means land is in short supply - and you don't want other civs to take land before you can get it. Culture-bombing will help you secure that land for yourself.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Disrupt Rocketry, Sabotage Production or Steal Tech Boost

Steal Tech Boost allows other civs to take your scientific progress for themselves, while Disrupt Rocketry and Sabotage Production will set back your progress in the space race.

International Space Station - Always vote in favour

Having Observatories will make it easier to win this scored competition, and the rewards are significant - including a boost to space race project production.

Migration Treaty - Effect A (+20% faster population growth but -5 loyalty per turn in this player's cities) on yourself

Mayan farms provide lots of housing, but growing cities to match that amount of housing can take a while. This resolution helps speed it up.

Nobel Prize in Physics - Always vote in favour

Having plenty of Observatories will grant you plenty of Great Scientist Points, making it easier to win this scored competition and achieve the technology boost rewards.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on Great Scientists

Builds upon all the Great Scientist Points Observatories generate.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) for Campuses

Makes developing Observatories easy!

Divine Spark - Observatories with Libraries will now grant even more Great Scientist Points.

Fertility Rites - Extra city growth helps you make the most of your cities' housing yields, while the free Builder aids with early farm and plantation development.

Goddess of Festivals - The Maya have start biases towards many plantation resources, and they're useful for Observatories as well. This pantheon makes all worked plantations offer bonus culture!

Religious Settlements - Getting a Settler for free aids you in filling out the six-tile radius around your capital.


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

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Together with Lady Six Sky's leader ability, you can get an impressive +10 strength bonus in territory you own within six tiles of your capital. This will make your cities particularly hard to attack, freeing up production for other uses.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - Lady Six Sky's leader ability offers a little bonus faith, but generally the Maya don't have that much use for it. However, with this follower belief, you can convert faith into Observatory district buildings!

Stewardship (Founder) - Can offer you a little more science from your Observatories.

Stupa (Worship) - The extra amenity goes well with the significant Mayan farm housing bonus.

Wat (Worship) - A bit more science, boosted slightly further by Lady Six Sky's leader ability.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - More amenities for your growing cities.


Bologna (Scientific) - All your Observatories will now grant +1 Great Scientist Point!

Buenos Aires (Industrial) - A source of amenities for your growing cities.

Geneva (Scientific) - Along with Lady Six Sky's science bonus, your cities within six tiles of your capital will have an impressive +25% science modifier!

Granada (Militaristic) - If you can spare some tiles, this improvement offers a source of science which can be boosted further via Lady Six Sky's leader ability.

Mitla (Scientific) - All your cities with an Observatory will grow faster, allowing them to reach their expanded housing cap sooner.

Muscat (Trade) - A source of bonus amenities to support large cities.

Nalanda (Scientific) - The unique Mahavihara improvement provides more science when adjacent to an Observatory.

Taruga (Scientific) - An extra science modifier that can boost Observatory science even further.

Zanzibar (Trade) - Extra amenities.

Etemenanki (Ancient era, Writing technology) - Can make a very powerful science/production city with enough floodplain tiles and your 10% multiplier.

Hanging Gardens (Ancient era, Irrigation technology) - It's generally better to focus your early production on Settlers and Builders as the Maya than to build this wonder, but faster city growth is nonetheless useful for getting cities up to the housing cap sooner.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - Build this in a city that has a lot of farm tiles (or potential farm tiles) in its vicinity, and when it grows you'll be able to support a huge variety of districts for all kinds of Great Person Points.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - For the production investment of the Pyramids, it will pay off with more efficient Builders. Builders are important early in the Mayan game for farms and plantations.

Temple of Artemis (Ancient era, Archery technology) - Excellent for supporting a single city's growth.

Colosseum (Classical era, Games and Recreation civic) - An excellent wonder for the Maya - you'll be able to get a lot of cities in range for the maximum amenity, culture and loyalty boost.

Great Library (Classical era, Recorded History civic) - The Maya have a strong science output but little to help them earn eureka boosts. This wonder aids in convering that downside.

Oxford University (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - Builds on the strong science output of an Observatory, and with two random free technologies you have a chance to avoid some of the trickier eureka boosts.

Ruhr Valley (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - The Mayan incentive to pack cities close to the capital makes the capital ideal for Governor Magnus' Vertical Integration promotion. Add the Ruhr Valley on top, and it can be an incredibly productive city. Alternatively, building the wonder in a different city in range of your capital allows the +10% production boost from Lady Six Sky's leader ability to stack with the 20% from this wonder as well as the extra mine/quarry production.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Aryabhata (Great Scientist) - The Maya have a great raw science output but can be slowed down by missing eurekas. Great People such as Aryabhata circumvent the usual requirements for certain eurekas, saving you precious time.

Colaeus (Great Merchant) - Every continent has a unique set of four land-based luxuries. As the Maya's incentive to settle cities closely together means you'll usually only settle on one continent, being able to secure a luxury from another continent will come in handy for supporting city growth.

Euclid (Great Scientist) - Two eureka boosts.

Hypatia (Great Scientist) - A free Library, and more science for all Libraries. As you'll want Observatories in all your cities, this can be quite a significant advantage early in the game.

Marcus Lacinius Crassus (Great Merchant) - Sometimes, useful plantation resource tiles or strategic resources will be just out of range of any of your cities to purchase, meaning other civs can take them. Marcus Lacinius Crassus, however, can annex tiles up to five tiles away from a city centre, so long as you own an adjacent tile already.

Zhang Heng (Great Scientist) - Three eurekas!


Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Great Scientist) - A eureka boost.

Omar Khayyam (Great Scientist) - Two eureka boosts.


Ferdinand Magellan (Great Admiral) - Another opportunity to secure a luxury from another continent.

Ibn Khaldun (Great Scientist) - Aids a city's growth by adding +2 housing and +1 amenity to an Observatory.

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - A free Library and University, as well as permanently boosting all your Universities' science yields.

Leonardo da Vinci (Great Engineer) - A modern-era eureka boost.


Ada Lovelace (Great Engineer) - Boosts the Computers technology without the need for a tier 3 government.

Dmitri Mendeleev (Great Scientist) - A eureka boost for Chemistry, and a random industrial-era eureka boost.

James Young (Great Scientist) - Two industrial/modern eureka boosts.

Joesph Paxton (Great Engineer) - All cities within the six-tile radius of your capital will be able to be boosted by just a single Stadium, and will gain more amenities from it as well. This allows your entire empire to benefit from just one Entertainment Complex, saving production for use on other things.

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - The first of four Great Merchants offering unique luxuries for bonus amenities.


Alan Turing (Great Scientist) - Offers the eureka boosts for Computers and a random other modern-era technology.

Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - A random modern-era eureka and a permanent boost to the science yield of all Research Labs you own.

Alfred Nobel (Great Scientist) - One random modern/atomic era eureka boost.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Tesla is most effectively used on a city with a Nuclear Power Plant. With your compact empire, you'll be able to extend the production and science bonuses to all your cities with the enhanced range.


Erwin Schrodinger (Great Scientist) - Three random atomic/information era eureka boosts.

Grace Hopper (Great Admiral) - Two free random technologies, which may allow you to circumvent some tricky eureka boosts, or alternatively save a lot of time if used for future-era technologies.

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

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - A significant boost to amenities in a city.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - A reasonable boost to amenities.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - Another unique luxury resource.

Sergei Korolev (Great Engineer) - A significant time saving for space race projects, boosted by Lady Six Sky's 10% production bonus.


Abdus Salam (Great Scientist) - Eureka boosts for all information-era technologies.

Carl Sagan (Great Scientist) - Another boost to space race projects.

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

The Maya have both good defence and a strong science output, though they tend to expand less than most other civs.


Mayan cities start with a pitiful amount of housing, though they also start with a free Builder to make up for that. By attacking the Mayans with fast-moving units, you can capture those Builders or pillage the farms they build. Be sure to move your units out again if they get injured as Lady Six Sky's leader ability (especially combined with the Hul'che UU) will leave your units vulnerable to attack.

Gold from farms will tend to make the Mayans richer than most other civs early in the game. While not an enormous advantage, you need to be aware of their potential to purchase units in the middle of war. To be on the safe side, if you intend to invade the Mayans early on, take significantly more units than you would for most other civs.

Once bomber-class aircraft come available, they are an excellent option for pillaging Mayan farms from a safe distance. Just a few pillages can greatly impact Mayan cities' food and housing yields, potentially causing them to starve and lose population points.


Mayan cities within six tiles of their capital will have 10% more food, production, gold, faith, science and culture, but those outside that radius will have a 15% penalty. By settling cities within 7-8 tiles of the Mayan capital, you deny the Mayans good city locations while also preventing them from easily retaliating with Lady Six Sky's strength bonus.

When attacking the Mayans, try to lure their units outside the six-tile radius of their capital where possible. It might be useful to place map pins on the radius around their capital so you can easily see where the ability's limits are. Keep in mind their strength bonus applies based on where their units are at the start of combat, so you may need to lure ranged units further.


A computer-controlled Lady Six Sky likes civs that are not located closely to her, and dislikes civs that have land or military units close to her land. She will never have the Paranoid hidden agenda as it overlaps with this agenda, nor the Expansionist hidden agenda as it contradicts this one.

While this agenda is very similar to Chandragupta of India's agenda, the difference comes in the impact. Chandragupta is skewed towards war, and Lady Six Sky is less so. Nonetheless, particularly when Hul'che are first available or if Lady Six Sky gains a considerable technological advantage, you should ensure your border cities are well-defended. Hul'che aren't great against city walls, so they will help.

If instead you start far apart from Lady Six Sky, she's a decent candidate for a level 2 military alliance. That gives you shared visibility, which will uncover all the lands and seas she's aware of, revealing more of the map.


Hul'che are devastatingly effective at attacking injured units, but away from the Mayan capital, they defend no better than regular Archers. This makes them susceptible to the attacks of fast units like Heavy Chariots or Horsemen, or units with a ranged attack (like your own Archers). Try to keep injured units away from them where possible.


The main adjacency bonuses Observatories receive (farms and plantations) are based on tile improvements rather than terrain. As such, it is possible to pillage tiles that surround Observatories to weaken their yields - rather useful if you intend to capture the city but want to keep the districts intact.

Consider removing any plantations and farms you may have on the border with the Mayans, as Observatories can gain adjacency bonuses even from the ones of other civs.

Once you have access to Spies, there'll be many potential spots in Mayan land you can steal technologies from, as they'll have lots of Observatory districts. This makes it hard for them to cover every city with counter-Spies.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.