These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Egyptians!

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. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
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 and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single 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, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Egypt has a desert start bias. This isn't a great bias, but your UB can mitigate the downsides somewhat


+20% towards building wonders, increasing to +40% during Golden Ages

Artifacts give +5& and Landmarks give +5&




A mounted ranged unit



Misc. Changes
Arrives at The Wheel instead of Animal Husbandry

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (9 instead of 8)
  
• Does not require horses
  
• Obsoletes at Physics rather than Mathematics

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Gain production in the capital when you defeat an enemy unit(Gift of the Pharoh)

Negative Changes
Land trade routes get +2(down from 3)

Positive Changes

• +1
  
• Has an Art/Artifact slot
  
• Receive a free unique Egyptian artifact when constructed
  
• +1& for every 2 desert or tundra tiles worked in this city(up from every 3 tiles)

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Egyptian uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


War Chariots don't give Egypt any military edge, although they might encourage some light warfare.
Egypt generates good culture from their artifacts due to their UB, but their biggest advantage is to tourism due to their UA allowing easy wonders, as well as their early artifacts making Culture the easy victory of choice for Egypt
Egypt's artifacts can give Egypt a surprising science advantage, and while their UB can give them a small growth bonus, it isn't a big deal unless you are in a lot of desert. Their UU can give a mild amount of production
Their UB gives a very minor amount of gold, but again it is quite minor. Diplomatic wonders, particularly the Summer Palace, are essential to a diplomatic victory, and Egypt can get it very easily, giving them a potential advantage in diplomacy.
Finally, while the Egyptian UB gives a small faith bonus, it comes too late to give Egypt an advantage in founding, and it's too small to give them a large amount of faith if they found.

Above: Golden ages give a +20% bonus to all production for all civs, the 40% is what is applied specifically to wonders

Egypt is a fairly straightforward civ on your goal throughout the game. Build wonders. Of course it isn't exactly that simple. For each wonder you build, the cost of future wonders increases based on the wonder's era relative to the era of the wonders you have already built. Specifically...

• For every Wonder of the same Era: 25%
  
• For every Wonder of the previous Era: 15%
  
• For every Wonder from 2 Eras prior: 10%
  
• Wonders 3 eras or more prior: No penalty

Even as Egypt, you need to choose the wonders you build carefully. If you build wonders that don't help you much, it becomes harder to build the wonders you actually want. Egypt can still build wonders far more reliably then other civs though, and it is worth building lots of wonders, as many wonders can be useful to Egypt.



Egypt does have other bonuses in their UA though. Artifacts give extra science and culture. Now this would seem a small amount considering how late artifacts normally come, but for Egypt they get artifacts early due to their UB. The culture is decent, but Egypt will already have a lot due to their wonders, it is the science that is important. You can't build wonders if you don't have the tech to build them. All the production in the world doesn't matter if the wonder gets built before you can even start building it. This bonus makes sure Egypt stays competitive in science, and makes sure they can at least stay ahead of most other cultural civs, who will be the main competition for most wonders.

Finally Landmarks give extra gold and tourism. With how few landmarks you will likely have in an average game, the gold is a very, very minor bonus, but the tourism is pretty good. Like all cultural civs getting archaeology early is very important, and for Egypt it is probably even more so as they get advantages to both artifacts and landmarks, so make sure you get it as soon as possible.


Above: National wonders count as wonders for Egypt's UA. This isn't a huge deal as there isn't as much pressure to build them quickly, but it is still useful.

Normally I put this later in the guide but Wonders are key to Egyptian gameplay, so this section belongs here. Do note that almost any wonder is good for Egypt since culture from wonders can be turned into tourism with hotels, stadiums and airports.


Petra: Depending on how much desert you start near this could be a good bit of gold

Stonehenge: This makes it almost guaranteed you can found a religion, as this gives you a free pantheon and some extra faith to get you right on your way. Highly competitive, but Egypt can build this more reliably then most


Great Library: An early theming possibility plus a free tech which is huge.

Great Wall: Egypt is practically begging to be conquered, building this will severely hamper anyone who wants to do so

Hanging Gardens: Put this in your capital and it will have the population to do pretty much anything

Oracle: Almost a free tech and almost a free policy, full awesome wonder

Parthenon: A little extra tourism is always welcome


Notre Dame: Theming, plus golden ages to build more wonders

University of Sankore(Tradition only): Some science to keep up building wonders


Chichen Itza: Longer golden ages are fantastic, and the lowered unhappiness is very useful. The best wonder for Egypt that doesn't directly give tourism

Globe Theatre: Theming, golden ages, little bit less unhappiness, what else could you ever want?

Himeji Castle: If you haven't been invaded yet it won't be long. You'll need this

Leaning Tower of Pisa: More great people, free great people, great great people

Sistine Chapel: Some theming and a good bit of culture.

Taj Mahal: A ton of Golden age points and a free golden age for more wonders

Uffizi: Because you need more theming in your renaissance wonders?


Louvre(Artistry only): Should be pretty easy to get the theme for since you already have a ton of artifacts.


Broadway(Industry Only): Uffizi but later and for music

Cristo Redentor: A ton of tourism. Priority wonder for any cultural civ

Kremlin(Order Only): You pretty much just want this for the free social policy


CN Tower: More Tourism from every normal source of tourism. Should be a game winner

Great Firewall: You want this to prevent someone else from having this, as if someone else build it they will be much harder to culturally influence

Sydney Opera House: Culture? Sure why not.

I'm getting some Neverending Story vibes from the horse in that marsh, just saying.

War Chariots are a bit of an odd unit. They aren't really strong enough to do any sort of rush with, nor do they carry over any promotion helpful for offense or defense. No what they do is give some utility. For each unit you kill with a unit with the Gift of the Pharaoh promotion, your capital gets production equal to 150% of the defeated units combat or ranged strength(whatever is higher). If you build one or two of them while you don't have any wonders to build, and send them out barbarian hunting, they can net you a decent amount of production. One thing to note is that chariot archers have really low ranged strength, and the War Chariot is no exception, so you will want to send a warrior or something along with them to actually deal damage, and just have the War Chariot finish them off.

• Gives production to the capital when it defeats an enemy unit(Gift of the Pharaoh)

Upgraded War Chariots can actually farm barbarian camps. Basically just don't actually move into a barbarian camp once it is empty, and keep killing the units that spawn. You could also try to use them at war, but usually that involves investing in actually having a strong military, and if you are doing that, you aren't making wonders or infrastructure to make wonders. It can be used against civs who declare war on you, or really weak civs, either just due to a poor start, or having lost a war. Nonetheless, you should do that sparingly as it could easily backfire due to Egypt lacking any real defensive bonuses.

Burial Tombs replace caravansaries, which is a little strange if you think about it. It's like if the post office doubled as a morgue

Wonders are strong, and while there are more cultural wonders then other wonders, there are wonders that help other victory types, so you could argue why is Egypt an obligate cultural civ? The Burial Tomb is why. The biggest bonus of the Burial Tomb is that they come with a art slot, that is automatically filled with an Egyptian artifact. An Egyptian artifact that is giving extra science and culture due to the Egyptian UA. These artifacts are giving you a good amount of tourism early, and they will almost guarantee theming bonuses for your museums later on.

Burial Tombs raise an interesting question though. The Egyptian UA encourages building really tall for lots of wonders, but the Burial Tomb gives more benefit the more cities you have, so what should you go for? Why not both? Have your capital be very strong, plus one or two more cities in a good position as well to either build military or less important wonders, and then just place down lots of smaller cities and build Burial Tombs as soon as you can. Be careful while doing this, as happiness problems could arise, but one thing that can help is that many wonders come with a minor bonus of reducing unhappiness in some form, so Egypt should be able to be a bit more expansionist.

Egypt should take a standard cultural route of Tradition into Artistry and finishing with Industry


Opener: The extra population will help you get more production to build early wonders

Justice: The early production will further help wonder building

Sovereignty: Border expansion is nice, plus this is some artist generation for early tourism

Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs, as well as limit the downtime between having the techs to build wonders

Splendor: I always recommend going Splendor before Majesty because Splendor can give a good amount of culture, getting you to finishing tradition quicker.

Majesty: You'll likely have lots of specialists, so this'll help prevent growth from being too stumped

Finisher: Get a bit more use out of your great person improvements, and the throne room is a good overall boost in the capital


Opener: Guilds are expensive, but very useful. Cheaper guilds and faster great people are a must for any cultural civ.

Humanism: You'll likely have more great works then most at this point, so this is a solid amount of yields

Heritage: You're going to be building plenty more wonders, get some golden ages out of them, so you can build more wonders

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt

National Treasure: Extra gold from all the great people you'll have, plus an extra one for free

Cultural Exchange: Mo Culture, Mo Tourism, Mo Win!

Finisher: Even more artifacts and landmarks, awesome to see


Opener: Two free trade routes is nice to help keep up tourism bonuses

Division of Labor: Seaports and Train Stations are normally expensive buildings, but now they are in line with other buildings. Also a large boost to your production and gold outputs

Free Trade: Faster Great Merchants, plus extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing

Entrepreneurship: Gold and production, the industry tree knows what it wants, and you do too.

Mercantilism: A good bit of extra science and culture. Who ever said Industry was just gold and production? Wait a minute...

Protectionism: More food, production and science, can't complain

Finisher: If you've been building somewhat wide for Burial Tombs, this will help make sure happiness isn't much of an issue.

Egypt actually benefits most from going Order due to building somewhat wide for Burial Tombs


Communism: You certainly don't want anyone having a chance of stealing wonders from you, so get even more bonuses towards wonders

Hero of the People: Egypt may be good at filling any theming bonuses related to artifacts but they still need to fill all the other slots. This should help some with that.

Peace, Land, Bread: Money might start getting tight at this point, and you certainly don't want happiness to be a problem.

Worker's Faculties: A little bit of extra science is always good to see


Dictatorship of the Proletariat: If you can keep your happiness high this is a massive boost to your tourism

Cultural Revolution: If you get lucky and a lot of civs go order this is a huge bonus, but even if that doesn't happen you're still getting a lot of tourism from your great works now.

Five Year Plan: You always need more production, and this is one of the best bonuses around


Spaceflight Pioneers: The science is decent but the main reason you want this is for the better Great Engineer hurrying

Great Leap Forward: Good to clean up the tech tree with.

Egypt seems a simple civ on paper, and while there are certainly more complicated civs, there are still a few things that could trip you up.


The cost of Wonders goes up with each wonder you build. Just 1 wonder pretty much negates Egypt's bonus. You can't build every single wonder, and building wonders that don't benefit you much may cost you one that does.


The capital can only build one thing at a time, and you may have multiple wonders you want to build at once. Build the high priority wonders in the capital, and the less high priority ones in your other cities. The capital may also want to actually build up infrastructure every now and then, so make sure you are keeping up on production and growth buildings at least.


It's good to have a few of these around for the occasional production boost, but they aren't actually strong enough to make up a good military, and if you have to build a good military, you aren't building wonders and the production from War Chariots isn't too helpful.


Egypt needs one or two large cities to build wonders, but the Burial Tomb can net lots of tourism, culture and science. Don't build too wide, as it can cause happiness problems, or anger civs with a stronger military, but it is worth having more cities then just wonder builders


You'll probably have the most wonders in the game as Egypt. That makes you a very tempting target. Either have one city pretty much solely dedicated to military, or just take a break every now and then for some military units.

Egypt can be a frustrating civ due to them building basically every wonder in the game. But why see that as a downside when you can just take all their hard work for yourself?


Egypt is gonna build a lot of wonders. It is really hard to compete with that, it is just not really feasible to make up for their production bonus reliably. That isn't to say you can't build wonders, mainly due to the increased cost Egypt will incur, but you will be at a disadvantage, especially for key cultural wonders. However, the concentration of wonders makes Egypt an incredibly lucrative target for conquest. If you are a Cultural civ without a good production bonus, or maybe even if you are, invest some time into building up an army, let Egypt build some good wonders, then take them out.


War Chariots aren't a huge threat, no more so then normal mounted ranged units. You just need to be careful to not get killed by them. Don't overextend or leave units alone fighting Egypt, or they'll gain production out of it. War Chariots obsolete pretty quickly due to how early they are, so taking out any heavy skirmishers they have will make sure they can't benefit anymore. Alternatively, if you can make sure Egypt gets no horses, sure they can still build war chariots, but they can't upgrade them and they'll be pretty useless.

F in the chat for Songhai no longer being able to get 6x gold from Egyptian cities

Burial Tombs provide some more incentive for trying to take out Egypt. While you can't keep the Burial Tomb and therefore the art slot from it, if you do have a slot of your own you can take the artifact for yourself. The earliest way to get art slots for most civs is castles, so if you can get lots of those, you can get a good bit of tourism, and potential for later theming.


Warmongers: Egypt is a lucrative target throughout the game, just make sure you commit enough to the war to actually take their major cities, specifically their capital, or they might actually gain from the war from killing your units

Cultural Players: Egypt is a tough foe who will probably steal the most important wonders. It is probably a good idea to build up an army to take them out

Scientific Players: Egypt has decent science, but most science civs will still be ahead, so it might be a good idea to build some important wonders before Egypt can get to them.

Diplomatic Players: Don't let cultural heritage sites pass, it will give Egypt a massive benefit. Standard anti-culture play of travel ban and things like that also hurt them.

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
  
• Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• India (Science/Culture)
  
• Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• The Iroquois (Domination)
  
• Japan (Domination/Culture)
  
• Korea (Science/Domination)
  
• The Maya (Science/Domination)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)