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.

Let us not be bound by the actions of others, and let us be free in the ideas of others. There are a myriad ways to lead a life, and not one prison - even that of the crown and the state - should restrain us. The greatest calling is not that of war or a misplaced sense of national glory, but that of the immortal arts.


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.

Sweden has no start bias.

• Every time a Great Person is earned, gain 50 diplomatic favour.
  
• Universities generate +1 Great Scientist Point.
  
• Factories generate +1 Great Engineer Point.
  
• If Sweden is present in the game, starting in the industrial game era the three special Nobel Prize scored competitions may appear to be voted on in the World Congress.
  
  • These function the same way as regular scored competitions in that they must be approved at a regular World Congress session, initiating a 30-turn competition to score the most points for bonuses at the end.
    
  • There cannot be more than one scored competition to be voted on in the same session. As such, a game where Sweden is present tends to result in some default scored competitions appearing later in the game than normal.

Note that all rewards of Great People can only be awarded if there are still Great People of that type available in the game.


*You receive the Gold and Silver tiers of rewards if you placed first in a scored competition. You receive only the Silver tier if you came in the top 25% of scorers, but not in first place. You receive the Bronze tier if you were in the next top 25% of scorers. Scoring in the bottom half of civs or having no score yields no rewards.

• Filling all the Great Work slots of a building with at least three or a wonder with at least two automatically themes it, increasing the Great Works' yields by 100%.
  
  • This includes faith for relics, culture for other Great Works, science for Great Works of Writing, relics and artefacts boosted by the city-state Babylon, and tourism for all.
    
  • The tourism boost stacks additively with other bonuses to Great Work yields. For example, themed relics with the Reliquaries belief will generate 400% of their base tourism.
    
  • However, the other yield boosts stack multiplicatively with other modifiers. For example, themed relics with the Reliquaries belief will generate 600% of their base faith.

A medieval or renaissance-era Government Plaza building which does not replace anything


*This increases over the course of the game.

• Does not replace anything, unlike other unique buildings, but is mutually exclusive with other tier 2 Government Plaza buildings.
  
• Costs 217 production, 25% cheaper than that of other tier 2 Government Plaza buildings (290 production)
  
• Provides +2 Great Writer, Great Artist and Great Musician Points
  
• Has 2 slots for Great Works of Writing, 2 slots for any Great Works of Art, and 2 slots for Great Works of Music.

A renaissance-era anti-cavalry unit which replaces the Pike and Shot

*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. This is not recommended as Sweden as the building is mutually exclusive with Kristina's unique Queen's Bibliotheque.

• 3 movement points, up from 2
  
• +3 strength per movement point remaining when attacking
  
  • Fractions of a movement point remaining count - for example, if the Carolean had 2.7 movement points remaining, they would receive a +8 strength bonus.
    
  • Expanding the movement points of a Carolean (for example, via a medieval or renaissance-era Great General) will increase the maximum bonus from this ability.

*This increases over the course of the game.

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

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.


Sweden's strength at the cultural game is rivalled by few other civs. Kristina's leader ability can help you get a lot more tourism out of your Great Works, while Open Air Museums can be an easy +10 tourism boost in every city in your empire. Notably, these tourism advantages are available earlier than the bonuses for most other civs - extra theming bonuses can be used as early as the classical era while Open Air Museums create tourism right from the early industrial era, rather than the typical requirement of the modern-era Flight technology.

Sweden is also very well-equipped for diplomatic victories. Every Great Person earned is worth 50 diplomatic favour, which especially in the middle eras of the game can give a huge edge in World Congress votes. The addition of the Nobel Peace Prize adds the potential for one more diplomatic victory point - but there's a catch. Nobel Prize scored competitions can mean regular scored competitions (which offer diplomatic victory points) can be pushed back, and Sweden will lose their sources of bonus diplomatic favour once the final Great People are earned - right at the point in the game where diplomatic favour is most important for diplomatic victory.

Domination is a fairly weak route for Sweden. The main advantage Sweden has is the ability to secure enough diplomatic favour to skew the World Congress and stop emergencies against them even when actively generating grievances. The Carolean unit also has the potential for a high damage output, particularly against cities, but is vulnerable to Musketmen and Field Cannons. And the small loyalty boost of Open Air Museums can help with securing captured cities. But the Queen's Bibliotheque does nothing for the domination game unlike the other government buildings of its tier, and putting more production into military units necessarily means less into Theatre Square districts and wonders.

Sweden is surprisingly good at the religious game - if you're willing to take a few risks. By securing a religion with the Reliquaries belief and building wonders you can theme relics in such as the Apadana, Mont St. Michel or St. Basil's Cathedral, you can get six times the base faith yield from relics, or 24 each! This makes Sweden unusually capable at playing the religious game with a low number of cities, as these key theming bonus wonders will be the main source of your faith. You can also use Sweden's diplomatic favour advantages to force through your religion as the World Religion at the World Congress. But with no advantage to founding a religion and a need to build specific wonders before other civs can, Sweden will have a challenge getting to that point.

Scientific victory is a possible backup option if culture and diplomacy aren't working. The main advantages here are the bonus Great Engineer and Scientist Points, though advantages in the World Congress such as being able to prevent Disrupt Rocketry missions can also help.

This early in the game, getting a Great Person grants nearly 17 turns worth of diplomatic favours!

Sweden's civ ability gives you much more control over the World Congress so long as you're competitive in the Great Person game.


To make the most of the Swedish civ ability, you'll want to settle plenty of cities to support plenty of districts. Expanding fairly rapidly with Settlers while ensuring your defences are adequate is a good way to start - the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building will help greatly.

You'll want to have at least one city in all five terrain types (desert, grasslands, plains, snow, tundra) for the sake of the Open Air Museum unique improvement - more details can be found in the appropriate guide section, under the subheading "Settling the Terrain Types". To avoid having to settle an early snow city with poor yields, consider settling cities in higher-yield locations near it so you can impose enough loyalty pressure to prevent anyone settling there before you can.

With a number of cities founded, getting lots of Monuments and some Campuses will be helpful for upping your research rate. You'll eventually want Theatre Squares in every city to maximise GWAM generation, but otherwise, a diversity of speciality districts is useful to ensure you can compete in a variety of Great Person races.


Once you start recruiting Great People, you'll begin to get bonus diplomatic favours. These can be spent in the World Congress to gain extra votes in resolutions.

The World Congress forms at the start of the medieval game era. Every 30 turns, civs will be able to vote on two resolutions that have temporary or permanent effects. These two resolutions have two main options (A and B), which typically have opposite outcomes. Furthermore, resolutions can usually target a specific civ or game mechanic within the A or B options. Every civ has one free vote on each resolution, and can apply additional votes for increasing amounts of diplomatic favour. The second vote costs 10 diplomatic favour, the third costs 20, and so forth.

The outcome of these resolutions is based on whichever column (A or B) and whichever target (in the example of the World Religion resolution, which religion) receives the most votes. If a civ voted for the winning column and the winning target, they'll receive +1 diplomatic victory point! 20 diplomatic victory points are necessary to win the game. If a civ voted for the winning outcome, but a different target, they'll get a 50% diplomatic favour refund. If a civ voted for the losing outcome, they'll get a full diplomatic favour refund.

Outside of regular World Congress sessions, there may occasionally be a vote held among eligible civs to see if an emergency should be initiated. To put an emergency to a vote, 20 diplomatic favours are needed for an aid emergency, or 30 otherwise. Unlike regular World Congress resolutions, not every civ can vote in these. The only options are to vote in favour of the emergency or to vote against - the target is already predetermined.


Sweden's bonus to diplomatic favour can help them avoid being the target of emergencies by voting down these special sessions.

There's three main ways Sweden can get through World Congress sessions:

• Invest a fair amount in every vote to try and win them all, getting both a favourable outcome and the diplomatic victory point in the process. This will most likely require you to abstain from warfare and pollution to avoid associated penalties to diplomatic favour, while being suzerain over many city-states and allied to many full civs.
  
• Vote in favour of the outcomes other civs are likely to support, regardless of whether they help you or not. This is a good way to secure diplomatic victory points on a minimal favour investment, though sacrifices some of the general developmental advantages of the other options and increases the amount of diplomatic victory points going to other civs.
  
• Save your diplomatic favours to focus on outcomes that are directly useful for you. This is a good route if you're not intending on going for a diplomatic victory, as you can still influence some key votes without having to abstain from warfare or pollution.

For a list of the resolutions most useful for Sweden, look at the "Administration - Age Bonuses and World Congress" section of this guide. As a general rule, anything which will help you generate more or better Great Works will be ideal.


While Kristina's leader ability encourages you to generate a lot of Great Writers, Artists and Musicians anyway, making the most of Sweden's diplomatic favour bonus necessarily means you'll need to compete in a wide range of Great Person categories. With a bonus Great Scientist Point from Universities, and Great Engineer Point from Factories, you can be a little more competitive in those categories without needing to necessarily build Campuses and Industrial Zones in every city. The advantage is small, but it's there nonetheless.

Be careful when building up Factories - if you intend to power them for extra production, make sure you're either using a clean source of energy (like Hydroelectric Dams) or can afford the diplomatic favour costs of using a high-pollution source (like Coal Power Plants).

Starting in the industrial game era, a third vote may appear in regular World Congress sessions: whether or not to support a scored competition. If civs vote in favour, it creates a 30-turn competition to score the most points for special rewards. Normally, there are only four scored competitions: Climate Accords, International Space Station, World Games and World's Fair. But if Sweden is present in a game, the number rises to seven with the addition of the Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prize in Literature and Nobel Prize in Physics.

The three Nobel Prize scored competitions may be won by any civ, but Sweden has both advantages in gaining points in them and incentives to win them.


The Nobel Peace Prize is simple enough - score the most diplomatic favour in 30 turns to win. Avoid producing grievances during this time to maximise your diplomatic favour gain (in other words, don't declare wars unless it's to liberate cities). Generating Great People should provide you with enough diplomatic favour to score very highly or win outright, but other options are available too, such as allying with full civs, generating envoys to become suzerain over city-states, winning other emergencies or liberating captured cities.

If you place first in the Nobel Peace Prize competition, you'll receive a diplomatic victory point, Great Musician, Great Scientist, Great Artist and Great Engineer. Thanks to playing as Sweden, that's worth a bonus 200 favour on top! That being said, given that other civs will also be receiving free Great People, this can rapidly exhaust the supply of them in the game leaving you unable to generate more for further favour. On the other hand, this can ensure you maximise your number of Great Works sooner.


The Nobel Prize in Literature is very much inclined towards the cultural game. Winning the emergency is a simple matter of generating the most GWAM points - consider using the Theatre Square Performances city project if necessary for some bonus ones if need be.

Placing first permanently lowers Rock Band prices by 20%, while also increasing album sales by 125. This can be a very powerful source of tourism late in the game, but it's worth explaining how they work.

With the atomic-era Cold War civic, you are able to purchase Rock Band units with faith. Rock Bands can perform in specific tiles (such as Entertainment Complexes and wonders) in foreign lands to produce a heavy amount of tourism against the specific civ.

When a Rock Band perform, there six tiers of performance. The worst two ("Aging Rockers" and "Creative Differences") disband the unit. All the others allow the unit to persist, and increases their "album sales" statistic, boosting the tourism they generate on subsequent performances. The top two ranks ("Headliners" and "Legends of Rock") cause the units to gain a level and a promotion, letting them perform more effectively in future with a higher chance of scoring the best ranks in future.

The tourism value of an album sale is equal to 1% of the target tile's base tourism yield. In other words:

• At a venue worth a base yield of 250 tourism (Amphitheatre, Arena, Ferris Wheel) each album sale adds 2.5 tourism to performances.
  
• At a venue worth a base yield of 500 tourism (University, Shipyard) each album sale adds 5 tourism to performances.
  
• At a venue worth a base yield of 1000 tourism (Wonders or Entertainment Complexes, Theatre Squares or Water Parks with all three buildings) each album sale adds 10 tourism to performances.

As a consequence, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature means at a minimum, your Rock Band performances will generate 312.5 extra tourism more every time. At the highest-yield venues such as wonders, that's 1250 extra a time.


This Nobel Prize is both the hardest for Sweden to win and the one with the least directly relevant rewards, but it can still be worth your while. You'll win the Nobel Prize in Science if you can generate the most Great Engineer, Merchant and Scientist Points in 30 turns. Sweden's extra point bonus from Universities and Factories will help, but you'll probably have to make use of district projects to really maximise your Great Person generation.

Winning the Nobel Prize in Physics provides two free technology boosts, and both Universities and Research Labs will cause cities to generate one more strategic resource per turn from improved strategic resource tiles. This is especially useful for strategic resources like coal, oil, aluminium or uranium which can be consumed in large quantities by units or buildings.


Sweden's civ ability has a lot of moving parts but at its core is rather simple: Settle plenty of cities with plenty of Theatre Squares as well as a diversity of other districts, and you'll get lots of Great People. That will give you a strong advantage at the World Congress, helping you achieve whatever aims you're heading towards.

Kristina's leader ability offers the potential for a huge tourism output before most civs really see theirs take off. Sweden's early cultural victory potential isn't quite as high as the Khmer, but depends less on factors outside your control.


A building that is themed will double the yields of all Great Works housed within it. For most civs, this is restricted to Art Museums and Archaeological Museums, offering a means of getting more culture and tourism out of the Great Works of Art or artefacts housed within so long as they are arranged the right way. Art Museums require three Great Works of Art of the same type (portrait, landscape, sculpture, religious) but of different artists, while Archaeological Museums require three artefacts of the same era but different civs.

For Kristina, Art and Archaeological Museums can be themed by simply filling them, while a range of additional buildings and wonders can be themed:

• Queen's Bibliotheque (Medieval/Renaissance era, Divine Right/Exploration civic, 2 Great Writing slots, 2 Great Art slots, 2 Great Music slots)
  
• Archaeological Museum (Renaissance era, Humanism civic, 3 artefact slots*)
  
• Art Museum (Renaissance era, Humanism civic, 3 Great Art slots)
  
• National History Museum (Modern era, Class Struggle/Suffrage/Totalitarianism civic, 4 slots for any Great Work/relic/artefact)

*Creating artefacts requires the use of Archaeologist units, which in turn require the industrial-era Natural History civic.

• Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic, 2 slots for any Great Work/relic/artefact)
  
• Great Library (Classical era, Recorded History civic, 2 Great Writing slots)
  
• Mont St. Michel (Medieval era, Divine Right civic, 2 relic slots)
  
• St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic, 3 relic slots)
  
• Bolshoi Theatre (Industrial era, Opera and Ballet civic, 1 Great Writing slot, 1 Great Music slot)
  
• Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic, 4 Great Art slots)
  
• Oxford University (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology, 2 Great Writing slots)
  
• Broadway (Modern era, Mass Media civic, 1 Great Writing slot, 2 Great Music slots)
  
• Sydney Opera House (Atomic era, Cultural Heritage civic, 3 Great Music slots)

You may notice with the exception of the Oxford University wonder, all of these are unlocked with the civics tree. Culture and GWAMs come from the same source - Theatre Squares - so keeping up in the civics race shouldn't be a problem.

There are three different ways you can take Kristina's leader ability:

• Playing it Safe - Forgo some early wonders in favour of faster expansion earlier in the game.
  
• Relic Rush - Stack tourism bonuses on relics to achieve a very strong early tourism yield.
  
• Curator Stack - Emphasise a single city for as many Great Work (but not relic or artefact) slots as possible to stack with Governor Pingala (the Educator)'s Curator promotion.

Kristina's leader ability is strongest when you are able to build a lot of wonders, but Sweden's civ ability and the Open Air Museum improvement work better when you have a wide empire with a high number of cities rather than a few strong ones. A good compromise is to have a wide empire with one or two strong cities supported with plenty of internal trade routes, but considering your strongest city early in the game will most likely be tied up with training Settlers, that's not necessarily an option right away.

So, introducing the "playing it safe" approach! Ignore building wonders earlier in the game in favour of expansion until you run out of good spots to expand into. That'll allow you to build a high number of Theatre Squares, and hence generate plenty of GWAMs. You can start building up wonders once you don't need to train any more Settlers.

It's a good idea to build Great Work slot wonders in whichever city has the Government Plaza. That way, you can have the six slots from the Queen's Bibliotheque, four from the National History Museum and more from the wonders all in one city so all those Great Works may benefit from the tourism bonus Governor Pingala (the Educator) with the Curator promotion offers.

Later in the game, be sure to train Spies in less important cities, and send them to defend your key Theatre Squares from enemy Spies' heists.

This approach to the cultural game offers a stronger infrastructure base than the others, allowing you to more easily switch from culture to a different victory path if need be, but it tends to result in slower cultural victories.


Relics are a special kind of Great Work typically created when an Apostle with the Martyr promotion dies in theological combat (that is to say, is killed fighting a rival Missionary, Apostle, Inquisitor or Guru). Unlike other Great Works, they provide faith rather than culture, and provide a strong tourism yield that is halved against opposing civs with the renaissance-era Enlightenment civic.

The idea behind the Swedish relic rush is to stack as many tourism bonuses as early as possible on relics, and win an early cultural victory that way.

The first thing you'll need is a religion with the Reliquaries follower belief. That triples relic tourism from 8 to a massive 24, while also tripling the faith yield from 4 to 12. Working on an early religion is risky for a civ with nothing to help them found one, but at least you can use excess faith to help with Great Person patronage as a backup strategy.

You'll also need at least one city with a Temple so you can start buying Apostles. New Apostles get a choice of three random promotions and get to pick one of them, so most of the time you won't get the Martyr promotion. You can improve your odds with the help of Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Patron Saint promotion (which gives Apostles a second promotion), or guarantee it with either the medieval-era Mont St. Michel wonder (requires Divine Right) or if you're suzerain over the Yerevan religious city-state.

Finally, you'll want to stack the Mont St. Michel and St. Basil's Cathedral in the same city (if your capital has marsh or floodplains, they can have both and the Apadana as well), which should preferably contain your Government Plaza as well. These three wonders can be themed with relics, and have helpful secondary effects as well. Notably, St. Basil's Cathedral increases religious tourism in its city by 100% - including Holy City tourism and relics.


All the bonuses stack for 5x the normal relic tourism yield for a total of 40 tourism each.

Religious tourism is halved against other civs that have the renaissance-era Enlightenment civic, but if you can secure the modern-era Cristo Redentor wonder, that's no longer the case. If St. Basil's Cathedral is in your Government Plaza city, you can also add the National History Museum for four more boosted relic slots.

Even if you don't win an early cultural victory, the sheer amount of faith themed Reliquaries relics offer makes Naturalists and Rock Bands easily affordable.

Note that this entire strategy leans heavily on civics, but not so much on technologies. This allows you to neglect Campuses in favour of Holy Sites and Theatre Squares provided you don't have any threatening neighbours who might take advantage of your technological inferiority.

Governor Pingala (the Educator) with the Curator promotion increases the yield of Great Works of Writing, Art and Music by 100% in his city. To make the most tourism out of that bonus, you'll want as many Writing, Art and Music slots in a single city as possible. Because a Government Plaza with the Queen's Bibliotheque building and the National History Museum will provide a reliable 10 slots in a city (11 if it's your capital), try to get a lot of relevant wonders built wherever your Government Plaza is. Be sure to build an Art Museum in the city rather than an Archaeological one, as Pingala can't boost artefacts.

Getting a lot of wonders built in the same city is tough - you'll need to ensure the city can grow, has plenty of tiles to work and has plenty of internal trade routes originating from it so it can benefit from the production boost. Building up Commercial Hubs or Harbours in other cities for trade route capacity is a good idea, as is swapping tiles to the ownership of the wonder-building city.

Be sure to also pick up miscellaneous boosts to Great Work tourism:

• The renaissance-era Printing technology increases Great Writing tourism by 100%
  
• The atomic-era economic policy card Heritage Tourism (requires the Cultural Heritage civic) increases Great Art and artefact tourism by 100%. (The atomic-era Great Scientist Mary Leakey increases artefact tourism by 200%, though Pingala doesn't affect those)
  
• The atomic-era economic policy card Satellite Broadcasts (requires the Space Race civic) increases Great Music tourism by 200%.

While Kristina offers an easier way to theme Museums, and the potential for a reliable 10 Great Works to be themed via the Queen's Bibliotheque and National History Museum buildings, you'll need to build wonders for the greatest potential.

You can take a risk and try to found an early religion with the Reliquaries belief and build wonders with relic slots, take a slightly lesser risk and try to stack a lot of GWAM slot wonders in a single city to boost with Pingala, or dedicate the early-game to expansion and catch up with wonder-building later. Either way, Sweden can get some pretty impressive tourism yields.

The Queen's Bibliotheque is a very unique building which greatly aids Kristina in her cultural aims. It essentially works as a fourth option for the second tier of Government Plaza buildings, so even though it technically doesn't replace a building (unlike all other unique buildings in the game), it functionally does.


The Queen's Bibliotheque may be built once you have any tier two government (Merchant Republic, Monarchy or Theocracy), as well as a Government Plaza with any tier one building present (Ancestral Hall, Audience Chamber or Warlord's Throne). This produces two possible research paths - you can either use the top half of the civics tree to unlock the Merchant Republic government at Exploration, or the bottom half to get Monarchy at Divine Right or Theocracy at Reformed Church.

As a general rule, it's a good idea to take the Theocracy government if you're taking the relic rush approach to Kristina's leader ability, or the Monarchy government otherwise. Monarchy has great advantages for the diplomatic game and arrives earlier than other tier two governments.

The Queen's Bibliotheque also neatly comes at a 25% reduced production cost relative to other Government Complex buildings of its tier. This is useful if you've been building a lot of wonders in the same city and can't spare so much production.


Building the Queen's Bibliotheque means you can't build any of the other tier two Government Plaza buildings. The huge potential tourism boost makes up for it, but keep it in mind. If you have a lot of excess relic faith, you won't be able to redirect it towards purchasing Caroleans if you don't have the Grand Master's Chapel building, for example.

Still, as with the other tier two Government Plaza buildings, completing the Queen's Bibliotheque will still provide you with a Governor title and your government's legacy card.


Completing Kristina's unique building will provide you with as many Great Person Points as two Theatre Squares, and a massive six Great Work slots. Great Art and Music slots in particular can be scarce at this point in the game, so it can equate to a massive bump in potential tourism yield. Be sure to use Governor Pingala (the Educator) with the Curator promotion in the city for another tourism bonus to all the Great Works.


52 tourism is very strong in the early-renaissance, and could be even better with the right modifiers to Great Work yield!

As an added bonus, the Queen's Bibliotheque isn't prone to Spies stealing the Great Works (unlike Theatre Squares), so once all the slots are filled, you can rest assured your theming bonus is safe.

Caroleans are the odd ones out among Sweden's uniques, as the civ as a whole isn't particularly inclined towards warfare and most of their key research falls in the civic rather than technology tree. Still, Caroleans can offer a good defensive option against warmongers, and has some potential on the offensive as well.


The trickiest thing about using Caroleans is being able to research them in a reasonable amount of time. Metal Casting falls in the middle branch of the technology tree, down a different path to Printing (which doubles Great Works of Writing tourism) and the Education/Industrialisation pathway (offering Universities and Factories respectively, which the Swedish civ ability enhances). As such, you're left with a couple of options: do you unlock Caroleans sooner at the expense of putting off Printing, Industrialisation and other technologies, or later as a last-minute defensive option?

Although the medieval-era Military Tactics technology isn't a requirement on the road to Metal Casting, it is necessary for training Pikemen, which upgrade into Caroleans. It's also necessary if you want to directly upgrade Spearmen to Caroleans.

It's also a good idea to work towards a medieval or renaissance-era Great General if you can ahead of time. Caroleans gain more from a Great General boost compared to most other units, and you'll gain bonus diplomatic favour from generating the Great General anyway thanks to Sweden's civ ability.

Furthermore, if you can pick up the classical-era Statue of Zeus wonder (requires the Military Training civic), you will be able to train all anti-cavalry units (including Caroleans) faster.

Helpfully, Caroleans are one of the few unique units of their era with no strategic resources, so there's no need to search for nitre.



The attack bonus from unused movement makes Caroleans quite well-suited for dealing with cities once their walls are down, or in conjunction with Siege Towers.

Caroleans don't defend any better than regular Pike and Shot units, but have greater mobility (making it easier to chase down cavalry units) or alternatively can elect to attack with remaining movement points for extra damage. This makes them excellent in positions where they can't be easily attacked, such as in a city or Encampment garrison, or on top of a forested hill.

Initially, Caroleans make poor front-line units as it leaves them prone to Musketmen, which have a +10 strength bonus against them and are unlocked earlier. However, once Caroleans gain the Thrust promotion, their weakness to Musketmen is eliminated making them even more versatile. You can guarantee new units get the promotion by training them in a city with Governor Victor (the Castellan) with the Embrasure promotion. With Schiltron on top, the weakness to melee infantry units is reversed in defence, and the strong attack of Caroleans means Musketmen shouldn't be a problem any more.

To maximise the attack of Caroleans, you'll want to stack as many movement bonuses as possible. Here's a few sources:

• Any medieval or renaissance-era Great General: +1 movement.
  
• Logistics military policy card (renaissance era, Mercantilism civic): +1 movement when starting in friendly territory.
  
• Redeploy promotion: +1 movement.

At a maximum, this provides a total of 6 movement points for the unit, or +18 attack strength if the unit hasn't moved! On top of the base strength of the unit and the +5 from the Great General, that puts the Carolean at an impressive 78 strength when attacking at full power. Given that anti-cavalry promotions are typically built around defence, this makes promoted Caroleans versatile in both attacking and defending roles.

If you want to take Caroleans on an offensive war, bring Siege Towers or Bombards, target a cultural rival or a civ with plenty of theming bonus wonders, and don't overextend yourself. Unpromoted Caroleans are very vulnerable to Musketmen, and excessive warfare will cut into your diplomatic advantages.


Caroleans struggle in the modern era - even with Thrust, they'll struggle against Infantry, and even with with Echelon they'll underperform defending against Tanks. As such, once modern-era units enter the battlefield, it's a good time to upgrade the units. Chemistry is not far from the useful Radio technology so upgrading to AT Crews shouldn't be so difficult.


Caroleans are optional, rather than essential units, owing to their awkward technology tree placement and relative lack of synergy with other Swedish uniques. But with the right promotions and movement speed enhancements, they can be powerful and versatile units which attack well, defend well and have good mobility - just beware of the diplomatic penalties associated with warfare.

Open Air Museums are a great bonus source of culture and tourism to complement Kristina's leader ability. Unlike most tourism-based improvements, there's no need to worry about positioning or adjacency bonuses - nearly any free land tile will do. And unlike all other unique improvements that provide tourism, you don't need to research the modern-era Flight technology to benefit from its tourism boost. That can help you accumulate a significantly greater amount of tourism!

Neatly, the Nationalism civic is just two civics away from Humanism, needed for Art and Archaeological Museums, so there isn't any great research diversion needed.


The only requirement Open Air Museums have to achieve their full potential is that you have a city settled in each of the five terrain types (desert, grassland, plains, snow and tundra). It's best to meet this requirement as part of your early expansion efforts to save yourself trouble later, or at least enclose the trickier terrain (like snow) so other civs won't settle it before you have a chance.

Finding specific terrain depends on the map type. In conventional map types (e.g. continents, island plates, pangaea, terra), from north to south, or from the top of the screen to the bottom, terrain is arranged like this:

• Snow
  
• Tundra, with some wooded areas
  
• Plains/Grassland, with some wooded areas
  
• Desert
  
• Rainforest on top of plains/grassland
  
• Desert
  
• Plains/Grassland, with some wooded areas
  
• Tundra, with some wooded areas
  
• Snow

As such, if you start in open plains or grassland, you'll most likely want to expand both to the north and south. If you start near desert, you'll probably want to expand towards the nearest pole (north or south), and if you start near tundra you'll probably want to expand away from the nearest pole (north or south).

Just because you'll want to settle in terrain types that typically have inferior yields doesn't mean you have to make inferior cities. Here's some tips to make better desert, tundra and snow cities:

• Desert - You have three main options here. You can try settling at the edge of a desert so the city still has access to a lot of non-desert tiles and hence decent yields, settling in amongst desert floodplain for a reasonable food yield, or settling in a desert hills-heavy area with the intention of building the classical-era Petra wonder (requires the Mathematics technology) for stronger yields.
  
• Tundra - Settling on the edge of tundra is a reliably good option as you can still access plenty of high-yield tiles. Alternatively, a spot among tundra woods can be reasonably productive with a few lumber mills later on. In theory you could aim for a tundra-heavy spot with the intention of building the renaissance-era St. Basil's Cathedral wonder (requires the Reformed Church civic) later on for stronger yields, but you might want to build that wonder somewhere you can make the most out of the tourism boost it offers.
  
• Snow - Finding a good snow spot is hard, especially on larger map types. Your best option is usually a river mouth near plenty of sea resources. Using Governor Liang (the Surveyor) with the Aquaculture promotion in the city allows you to build fishery improvements to enhance the city's food, housing and production. That being said, if you have a few cities near a snow region, you can wait until later to settle it as your loyalty pressure will prevent other civs expanding there.

No matter your approach, ensure you have all five terrain types settled before you research the Nationalism civic so you can get the best yields right away.


When you're nearing the Nationalism civic, train some Builders so you can get them to build Open Air Museums right away. If you've settled all five terrain types, every one will be worth an instant +10 culture when worked and +10 tourism as well as +2 loyalty even when not worked. This is the only unique tile improvement to provide tourism without needing the modern-era Flight technology, leaving you to be more flexible with your research path if need be.

If at this point you still haven't settled on all five terrain types, you'll most likely need to explore overseas for possible spots. As snow, tundra and desert spots tend to be low on yields, there's often still viable spots to settle some way into the game. Consider forming a cultural alliance with a civ so you can settle those cities without worrying about loyalty pressures. Even if those cities aren't very productive, it's still worth getting all five terrain types for the considerable boost to culture and tourism throughout your empire.


Open Air Museums are an easy source of bonus culture and tourism. There's no tricky placement requirements - all you need to do is ensure you have at least one city founded on each of desert, grasslands, plains, snow and tundra. The loyalty boost is largely too small to be noticable.

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.



Autocracy is a good choice if you intend on stacking a lot of theming bonus wonders in your Government Plaza city, but if you're not trying to build wonders so soon you might find Classical Republic's higher number of economic policy card slots more to your liking.

The Ancestral Hall is a good first choice of Government Plaza building as being able to train a lot of Settlers early on means a lot more tourism later via Open Air Museums. However, if you're intending to build up theming bonus wonders early on, you might get more out of the Audience Chamber's housing and amenity bonus to grow cities.


If you're going for an approach focusing heavily on relics, then Theocracy will most likely be your best choice of government as it's available at the same civic as St. Basil's Cathedral, offers bonus faith. Otherwise, Monarchy's synergy with the diplomatic game makes it excellent.

Obviously go with the Queen's Bibliotheque as your tier two Government Plaza building.


Democracy's high number of economic and diplomatic policy cards makes it ideal for the cultural and diplomatic games alike.

The National History Museum is the obvious choice of tier three Government Plaza building, as you can theme it with any four Great Works.


Digital Democracy offers a high amount of diplomatic policy card slots, and the amenity bonus helps with managing a large growing empire.


Any policy card offering bonus Great Person Points will be useful towards a diplomatic game as an indirect source of diplomatic favour, though ensure you're not missing out on a more useful alternative policy card. Only the Great Writer, Artist and Musician ones will be specifically highlighted here, but they all have their uses for Sweden.


Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - Unless you're after early wonders like the Apadana, you'll probably want to settle new cities rapidly to maximise your potential Open Air Museum yields later.

Corvée (Economic, requires State Workforce) - If you're after the Apadana or Great Library for its theming bonus, this is the policy card you want.

God-King (Economic, requires Code of Laws) - For a relic-heavy approach to cultural victory, securing an early religion is a must. The Divine Spark pantheon is your best bet, but to secure it you'll most likely need the faith from this policy card.


Literary Tradition (Wildcard, requires Drama and Poetry) - Bonus Great Writer Points - useful for Great Works and diplomatic favour alike.


Feudal Contract (Military, requires Feudalism) - Allows you to train Pikemen faster, which can be upgraded into Caroleans later, or alternatively you can use this card to help directly train Caroleans faster.

Gothic Architecture (Economic, requires Divine Right) - Useful for speeding up construction of Mont St. Michel and St. Basil's Cathedral, and helpfully this policy card is on the same research branch as both of them.


Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - If you have to settle overseas in order to get all terrain types settled for the Open Air Museum's maximum boost, the loyalty bonus on offer here will be helpful.

Frescoes (Wildcard, requires Humanism) - Gain +2 Great Artist Points per turn, useful for Great Works and diplomatic favour alike.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Extra movement for Caroleans means a potential +3 attack bonus - or the ability to move further and still preserve a good attack bonus.


Expropriation (Economic, requires Scorched Earth) - Open Air Museums can be an easy +10 tourism in every city you settle, so it can be worth your while to settle more cities even late into the game.

Skyscrapers (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Allows faster construction of any wonder. There's five possible themable wonders from the industrial era onwards, including Bolshoi Theatre, the Hermitage, Oxford University, Broadway and the Sydney Opera House.

Symphonies (Wildcard, requires Opera and Ballet) - Grants +4 Great Musician Points per turn. Keep in mind Great Music is generally the hardest kind of Great Work to get theming bonuses for.


Heritage Tourism (Economic, requires Cultural Heritage) - Bonus tourism for Great Works of Art and artefacts, which goes nicely with Kristina's theming bonuses.

Satellite Broadcasts (Economic, requires Space Race) - Grants +200% tourism for Great Works of Music - a great complement to Kristina's theming bonuses.


Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - While useful for any cultural civ, Sweden's strong tourism output via Kristina's theming bonuses and the Open Air Museum improvement means this can go even further.


Diplomatic Capital (Wildcard, requires Smart Power Doctrine) - As the supply of Great People dries up, you'll need alternative sources of diplomatic favour if you want to keep up in the World Congress. Given Sweden's very powerful culture output later in the game, you should be able to get to Smart Power Doctrine quickly, granting you access to this handy favour boost.

Hallyu (Wildcard, requires Cultural Hegemony) - Won the Nobel Prize in Literature? You can make Rock Bands even better by specifically picking out their promotions, allowing you to maximise their tourism output.

Rabblerousing (Wildcard, requires Information Warfare) - Offers 1 diplomatic favour per turn. Also gives you favour back for reducing the diplomatic victory points of other civs, but that's mainly useful if you're not after a diplomatic victory yourself.

Space Tourism (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Sweden's theming bonuses and Open Air Museum culture results in the civ often having some of the highest numbers of domestic tourists. As such, if you're up against a cultural rival threatening to win the game, take this policy card (and Music Censorship on top if you can stand the amenity loss) and refuse them open borders and trade.

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

Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - If you want a shot at a religion for Reliquaries-boosted relics, and the Reliquaries belief isn't already taken, the +4 Great Prophet boost offered by this dedication could really help.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Taking a relic-heavy approach to Sweden? You'll most likely end up with a lot of excess faith, and given that you won't want to build the Grand Master's Chapel, it helps to have an alternative place to divert it towards.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - If settling overseas to meet the requirements for Open Air Museums, you'll need enough loyalty to keep those cities in your control. This dedication offers a direct loyalty bonus as well as an indirect one (via the population boost).

Heartbeat of Steam (Golden Age, Industrial to Atomic eras) - An extra production boost to industrial-era and later wonders, five of which can be themed thanks to Kristina's leader ability.

Robber Barons (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) - If you can handle the amenity penalty, a great production bonus is on offer for your cities with Factories.

Flower Power (Dark Age, Atomic to Future eras) - A very powerful boost to Rock Band tourism, especially if you've won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Wish You Were Here (Golden Age, Atomic to Future eras) - Though this has no effect on Great Work tourism nor Open Air Museums, the tourism boost to wonders is still relevant as you'll want to build a few for their theming bonus potential. Remember that wonders from earlier eras (e.g. the Apadana) are worth more direct tourism than those from later eras (e.g. the Sydney Opera House).

Disinformation Campaign (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - The science/culture penalty is manageable by this late in the game, and getting diplomatic favour for every Broadcast Tower is a powerful way to tie Sweden's cultural and diplomatic strengths together.


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.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) for Great Work Heists

You don't want to lose your theming bonuses to some annoying enemy Spies.

Governance Doctrine - Effect A (Appointing and promoting the specified Governor type yields 15 diplomatic favour) for Governor Pingala (the Educator)

Pingala is a useful Governor for Sweden due to his powerful Curator promotion (+100% tourism for Great Works of Writing, Art and Music in the city).

Heritage Organisation - Effect A (Tourism from Great Works of this type is doubled) on whichever type of Great Work would generate the most tourism for you

Tourism bonuses to Great Works stack additively rather than multiplicatively, so generally whichever Great Work you have the most copies of is the best option.

Nobel Peace Prize - Always vote in favour unless a diplomatic rival has a clearly stronger generation of diplomatic favour

Sweden's strong diplomatic favour boost for generating Great People makes winning this scored competition easy.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Always vote in favour

It's an easy emergency for Sweden to do well in, and bonus album sales for Rock Bands means a lot more tourism later.

Nobel Prize in Physics - Vote in favour unless you feel other civs have more to gain from it than you do.

This is the hardest of the three Nobel Prize competitions for Sweden to win, and the one with the least relevant bonuses. Still, the extra Great Engineer and Great Scientist points from Sweden's civ ability helps a little and the possibility of two free technology boosts is useful even for a civ like Sweden. Excess strategic resources can be sold for diplomatic favours.

Patronage - Effect A (Earn double points towards Great People of this class) on whichever Great Person type you're most dominant at generating.

Faster Great Person generation will mean more diplomatic favour.

Public Relations - If you intend to go on offensive warfare with Caroleans, choose Effect B (The chosen civ generates 50% fewer grievances, and other civs generate 50% fewer grievances toward this civ) on yourself. Otherwise, this resolution is of low priority.

Caroleans have a potentially strong attack strength which can make them decent in conjunction with Siege Towers or Bombards for taking out enemy cities. But to take enemy cities costs a lot of grievances, which in turn cuts into your diplomatic favours. This resolution will really help with that.

Public Works Programme - Effect A (+100% production towards this project) on Theatre Square Performances

Theatre Square Perfomances produces more overall Great Person Points than any other district project bar Brazil's unique Carnival (therefore helping you accumulate further diplomatic favour), and the produced Great People are useful for Great Works.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Theatre Squares

Faster Theatre Square production means more GWAM points and more Great Work slots, and therefore more tourism.

World Games - Vote in favour if you think you can win the competition.

Scoring top in the World Games grants +2 tourism for every Campus, neatly tying together your bonus Great Scientist Points for Universities with your cultural advantages.

World's Fair - Always vote in favour

The rewards are smaller than some of the other scored competitions, but it's still a great easy source of diplomatic favour that fits the Swedish civ ability neatly.

Divine Spark - An excellent all-round pantheon for Sweden, especially if you're trying to get your own religion. Extra Great Person points means more diplomatic favour down the line.

Monument to the Gods - Can be helpful if you feel you have a shot at the Apadana and/or Great Library wonders.

Religious Settlements - The bonus Settler is helpful for speeding up early expansion - especially if you're trying to still secure an early wonder in among early expansion.


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

Cathedral (Worship) - The religious art slot is helpful as a holding pen for religious Great Works of Art before you have Art Museums built, ensuring you can get more tourism sooner.

Crusade (Enhancer) - If you're going for a relic-centric approach to religious victory, you'll have some spare Apostle charges you can use to spread your religion. Combine that with this belief and Caroleans, and you can take over their lands with ease later.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - This belief's strength bonus allows you to have a decent amount of defence in your own lands without needing to keep up as much in technology. That's helpful considering nearly all theming bonus wonders as well as Theatre Square buildings and the Open Air Museum are on the civics tree.

Holy Order (Enhancer) - Particularly useful for affording your first few Apostles if you intend to generate relics.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - A good backup option if you fail to secure Reliquaries. You'll be able to develop Theatre Squares and Campuses faster for even more Great Person Points.

Meeting House (Worship) - Though the production bonus is small, Meeting Houses can help you if you're building key relic wonders like Mont St. Michel or St. Basil's Cathedral.

Monastic Isolation (Enhancer) - Allows you to lose Martyr Apostles to theological combat without removing your religious pressure.

Pagoda (Worship) - Extra diplomatic favour to build on Sweden's existing advantages, making it easier to dominate the World Congress.

Reliquaries (Follower) - A central component of a relic-heavy strategy as Sweden. Themed relics will now produce 32 tourism each, or 40 with St. Basil's Cathedral.

Sacred Places (Founder) - Building wonders in various cities will produce a great variety of yields.

Work Ethic (Follower) - A useful production boost for theming bonus wonder construction.


Akkad (Militaristic) - Caroleans will be be able to effectively take out city defences without needing siege support.

Anshan (Scientific) - A very effective city-state in Sweden's hands, as the science bonus on offer to Great Works of Writing, relics and artefacts is doubled if they're themed. Securing the Apadana or Great Library and filling it with Great Works of Writing will offer a total of 8 science per turn - rather impressive at this stage of the game.

Antananarivo (Cultural) - Given Sweden's already high culture output and incentive to create many Great People, this city-state's bonus can go especially far.

Bologna (Scientific) - Another excellent city-state for Sweden, as all districts that provide Great Person Points will offer even more. That'll mean a lot more diplomatic favour in the long-run.

Brussels (Industrial) - Better wonder construction means a better shot at key theming bonus wonders like the Hermitage.

Hong Kong (Industrial) - City projects are a good source of Great Person Points, and therefore, via Sweden's civ ability, a good source of diplomatic favour.

Kandy (Religious) - A possible alternative source of relics, and an extra enhancement to their faith output - helpful if you're taking a relic-heavy approach to the cultural game. If you can secure suzerain status over this city-state, found a religion with the Reliquaries belief and build the Apadana wonder, you may well be able to achieve a very strong faith and tourism yield very early in the game.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Got excess faith from relics? You can spend it on city centre buildings now!

Vatican City (Religious) - If you're sacrificing Martyr Apostles for relics, your religion will lose pressure. However, by being suzerain over the Vatican, you can use Great People to return that pressure again.

Yerevan (Religious) - Allows you to guarantee the Martyr promotion for Apostles, helping you get more relics and hence tourism sooner.

Any wonder offering Great Person Points can be useful to Sweden via their civ ability, but only ones with other useful effects on top are covered here to avoid making the list too long.

Oracle (Ancient era, Mysticism civic) - A potentially powerful boost to Great Person Point generation, and an alternative way to spend faith if you're out of relic slots to fill.

Stonehenge (Ancient era, Astrology technology) - It's a huge risk of a wonder to build considering how competitive it is, but building Stonehenge typically means you can get the first religion and guarantee Reliquaries for some powerful relics. It'll also give you 50 diplomatic favour from generating the Great Prophet - rather a lot this early in the game.

Apadana (Classical era, Political Philosophy civic) - The earliest wonder that can be themed, and may host any Great Work. Most effective for Reliquaries-boosted relics, but other options are fine too.

Great Library (Classical era, Recorded History civic) - Themes with two Great Works of Writing, which isn't too hard a requirement to meet. Also grants eurekas when other civs gain Great Scientists, offering some helpful compensation for cases where you can't get them yourself.

Mahabodhi Temple (Classical era, Theology civic) - If you can spare the production, this wonder could potentially be worth up to two relics in addition to the two diplomatic victory points - helpful for cultural and diplomatic aims alike.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - Helps you get more out of your Great Engineers. Ones that offer wonder construction bonuses (e.g. Gustav Eiffel) especially benefit.

Statue of Zeus (Classical era, Military Training technology) - Grants +50% production towards all anti-cavalry units, including Caroleans.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - The Terracotta Army allows you to send your Archaeologists overseas to take artefacts off other civs before they can take them for themselves. It also offers a free promotion to all your units. Spearmen or Pikemen can get Thrust to cover their weakness to melee infantry, ready for upgrading to Caroleans later.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - Particularly helpful if you focused on rapid expansion early on, as you'll end up with a lot of cities growing larger. That'll help all those cities build up Theatre Squares or even other wonders.

Mont St. Michel (Medieval era, Divine Right civic) - A powerful wonder for two reasons: One, it gives all your Apostles the Martyr promotion so you can reliably receive relics from them, and two, filling both slots with relics will theme them, granting you a strong faith and tourism yield.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - While in theory you could place it in your best tundra city for better yields, it's generally best to try and put St. Basil's Cathedral in a city that also has Mont St. Michel and your Government Plaza for the maximum impact. That's because St. Basil's Cathedral increases religious tourism in the city by +100%, meaning the more relics there are in the city, the more tourism you'll get. The wonder also has three relic slots in its own right, allowing you to theme the relics inside for even more faith and tourism. Note that religious art is not affected.

Bolshoi Theatre (Industrial era, Opera and Ballet civic) - Has Great Writing and Great Music slots and can be themed.

Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic) - Has four Great Art slots and can be themed.

Oxford University (Industrial era, Scientific Theory technology) - Can be themed with two Great Works of Writing.

Statue of Liberty (Industrial era, Civil Engineering civic) - Though obviously the main reason to build this wonder is the massive +4 diplomatic victory point bonus, that doesn't have any more specific synergy with Sweden than any other diplomatic civ. What does is the ability to keep nearby cities loyal - that's helpful if you're colonising to make the most out of the Open Air Museum improvement.

Cristo Redentor (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Undoes the effect of the Enlightenment civic, allowing your relics and religious Great Works of Art to exert their full tourism yield.

Broadway (Modern era, Mass Media civic) - Has one Great Writing and two Great Music slots.

Golden Gate Bridge (Modern era, Combustion technology) - An extra 10 tourism for the city that builds it as it doubles the tourism output of Open Air Museums. It also offers a very strong appeal bonus that can help you make some powerful National Parks.

Sydney Opera House (Atomic era, Cultural Heritage civic) - Has three Great Works of Music slots. Together with the Satellite Broadcasts policy card, that amounts to 48 tourism if all three slots are filled.

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. Obviously any Great Writer, Artist or Musician will be useful as well, but it'd be redundant to list them all.


Sun Tzu (Great General) - While you probably won't be building Encampments this early, an extra Great Work of Writing is still useful if you end up recruiting him.


Æthelflæd (Great General) - The loyalty bonus is helpful if you need to hold onto a distant colony for the purposes of getting more out of Open Air Museums.

Imhotep (Great Engineer) - Useful for securing one of the many key early wonders for Sweden.

Isidore of Miletus (Great Engineer) - Due to the way St. Basil's Cathedral and Governor Pingala (the Educator)'s Curator bonus works, it's a good idea to stack a lot of theming bonus wonders in the same city. That's tricky to achieve without help - Great Engineers such as this one offer just that.


Filippo Brunelleschi (Great Engineer) - Offers a boost to a wonder's production.

Giovanni de Medici (Great Merchant) - While you unfortunately can't theme the unique Bank Giovanni offers, it's still useful as a holding pen for Great Works until you can move them somewhere they can be themed, like a wonder.

Isaac Newton (Great Scientist) - Swedish Universities grant more Great Scientist points relative to those of other civs, and now they can generate more science as well.

Jeanne D'arc (Great General) - Produces a relic when retired.


Gustave Eiffel (Great Engineer) - Speeds up a wonder's construction.

James Watt (Great Engineer) - Makes the already-good Swedish factories even better.

José de San Martín (Great General) - Grants +4 loyalty to a city, handy for holding on to a desert/tundra/snow colony.


Albert Einstein (Great Scientist) - A strong boost to Research Labs' science output; with all your boosted Universities you might as well build them as well.

Alfred Nobel (Great Scientist) - Gives you a head start on the recruiting of all future Great People.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Boosts a city's Factory's production, and allows a single powered Factory to reach more cities, meaning you can get a good production yield on many cities at a minimal level of pollution.

Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - While the tourism bonus is useful for any cultural civ, Sweden's strong base tourism output means this tourism modifier can go even further.

Stamford Raffles (Great Merchant) - If you're missing a terrain type for Open Air Museums, you can use Stamford Raffles to annex a city-state instead. Target one that a rival civ has a lot of envoys present in to deny them diplomatic favour.


Mary Leakey (Great Scientist) - Increases artefact tourism yields by 200%.

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Another boost to tourism with civs you have a trade route with.


Jamseth Tata (Great Merchant) - Been building up Campuses for Great Scientist Points? Enjoy +10 tourism from every one of them!

Masaru Ibuka (Great Merchant) - Building up Industrial Zones for Great Engineer Points? They'll now be worth +10 tourism each.

Sweden's strong at the diplomatic game, but even better at culture. Still, they have a relatively weak start with few defensive options making them vulnerable to warmongers.


The fewer Great People Sweden generates, the less diplomatic favour they'll get. Constraining Sweden's expansion, such as by settling cities near them, is a reasonably effective method of reducing their Great Person points generation, and will limit their potential from Open Air Museums later.

While Sweden gets bonus Great Person points from Universities and Factories, the bonus is fairly minor and also pushes them into building districts that otherwise don't have a lot of synergy with their uniques. Of course, science and production from the respective districts and buildings is good for anyone, but the more time they spend building up those districts, the less time they'll spend on expansion, wonder construction or building up Theatre Squares. Outcompeting Sweden in Great Scientist or Great Merchant generation may encourage them to act accordingly and emphasise those at the expense of Theatre Squares and faster GWAMs - costing them potential tourism.

But even if Sweden isn't dominant in Great Person generation, they can still end up producing a lot of diplomatic favours via their civ ability - at least until the supply of Great People runs out at the end of the game. As such, you may want to seek an alternative way of cutting off Sweden's supply of diplomatic favours - one good method is to compete with them for the same city-states.

Sweden's civ ability also offers up possibilities for you via their addition of three extra scored competitions...

• The Nobel Peace Prize is ideal for diplomatic civs, but the Great People on offer can also be good for peaceful cultural or scientific civs so long as they can generate enough diplomatic favour to compete.
  
• The Nobel Prize in Literature is great for cultural civs, especially those with high faith outputs to make use of the enhanced Rock Bands. A cultural Russia has perhaps the most to gain here.
  
• The Nobel Prize in Physics is best for domination civs thanks to the strategic resource bonus, and scientific civs (especially China) will want to go after the two eureka boosts.

Kristina's leader ability offers a strong tourism, culture and potentially faith bonus to Sweden, but only if they can fill all the Great Work slots in a wonder of 2+ slots or building with 3+ slots first. Every GWAM and every wonder with Great Work slots Sweden doesn't get is a potential hit to their yields, so using patronage to acquire GWAMs or building those specific wonders helps set back Sweden without you ever having to go to war. If Sweden can't found a religion (and given their lack of advantages to founding a religion, they may often be unable to) they will struggle to get relics, and if you can beat them to excavating Archaeological Sites (their incentive to make a detour to Nationalism before Natural History helps) then they'll struggle to get artefacts either.

Because two powerful boosts to Great Work tourism - Governor Pingala (the Educator)'s Curator +100% tourism bonus for Great Writing, Art and Music and St. Basil's Cathedral's +100% tourism boost for religious Great Works of Art and relics apply to a single city, Sweden has an incentive to stack a lot of Great Work slots in a single city - typically whichever city also has their Government Plaza. Taking out that city may result in you looting a lot of Great Works - even if you can't hold onto the city for long, you'll have their Government Plaza taken out.

Any of Sweden's Great Works housed in Theatre Squares will be vulnerable to Spies using the Theatre Square Heist mission.


This special tier two Government Plaza building offers Sweden six Great Work slots at the expense of not having a different Government Plaza building. That means Sweden typically won't have the extra Spy and extra Spy effectiveness from the Intelligence Agency, cheaper and more effective city-state levying from the Foreign Ministry nor the ability to purchase military units with faith from the Grand Master's Chapel. In other words, while their GWAM generation and resulting culture/tourism outputs will be higher, Sweden will have one less tool to counter you relative to other civs.

Another consequence of this unique building is that Sweden will most likely end up with a very high number of Great Works in the same city. With a full Theatre Square and the National History Museum, Sweden could have as many as 16 Great Works in the same city by the end of the modern era, and that's even before taking into account wonders. That makes whichever city Sweden builds a Government Plaza in a very lucrative target for conquest, as Sweden will lose a huge heap of their tourism output.


Kristina loves accumulating Great Works, and loves civs that have few of them. She hates it when other civs have a lot of Great Works.

Many cultural civs will struggle to get along with Kristina, but peaceful scientific or diplomatic civs are in with a good shot at an alliance if you don't mind giving a civ with strong diplomatic advantages more diplomatic favour. Alternatively, deliberately generating or capturing Great Works could provoke a denouncement or even a war, causing Kristina to generate grievances which could cause her to lose some of her advantage to diplomatic favour generatiion.

Kristina has a 20% chance of receiving the Great Person Advocate hidden agenda, which will make her emphasise Great Person Points generation and patronage more, in addition to favouring civs who don't compete with her for Great People, while disliking civs who do.


Caroleans are reasonably mobile and strong at attacking, but are no stronger than regular Pike and Shot units in defence, and have an inbuilt vulnerability to Musketmen - at least, until they score a promotion or two. Promoted Men-at-Arms units are another good alternative if you lack nitre.

Your best bet against Caroleans is to use Musketmen and Field Cannons, and where possible ensure there's a gap between your units and theirs. That way, they'll have to move up to your units to attack, losing their attack bonus in the process. Try to target single Caroleans at a time so they can't earn promotions reversing their vulnerability to melee infantry units.

Once you have access to Infantry units or Tanks, Caroleans should generally no longer be a threat to you.


Constraining Sweden's early expansion limits the amount of Great Person Points they can generate, and it also limits their potential to use this tile improvement to its full effectiveness. If Sweden can't settle any desert, tundra or snow cities, all the better (you'll have a hard time stopping them from settling grassland or plains). Prevention in this instance is better than cure - Open Air Museums are tough to pillage as they have no adjacency requirements and few terrain restrictions so Sweden can deliberately position them somewhere secure.

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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.