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



I welcome you, aspiring leader of the Swedish nation. With roots in the Vikings of old, the Swedish Vikings travelled east, bringing new settlements and trade across the Baltic Sea and beyond. Over the middle ages, the nation would unite, later joining the Kalmar Union with Denmark and Norway from the late 14th to early 16th centuries. Gustav Vasa, later King Gustavus I, would pull Sweden out the union, strengthen its economy and establish an advanced army. Under Gustavus Adolphus in the 17th century, it rapidly rose to a major European power, and sunk almost as dramatically nearly a century later. For a great length of time, Sweden lagged behind many other nations of Europe and was slow to industrialise.

Sweden would henceforth remain neutral in world affairs - through both World Wars, and the Cold War - but by no means silent. Your people now are progressive and innovative. Your nation's influence spreads far and wide. Sweden today is arguably at its strongest point - leading by example rather than force, it now is one of the most admired nations of the world. Now consolidate the efforts of Sweden. Leave your irremovable mark on the world. Build a civilization that will stand the test of time.



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

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Builder Nation/Empire - A generally peaceful nation seeking victories other than domination. Sweden does well to act this way in the earlier eras of the game.
CS - Short for City-State.
DoF - Short for Declaration of Friendship.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. Free Great Person for Liberty.)
GP - Refers to "Great People" in this guide, rather than "Great Prophet".
GPP - Great Person Points - Used to acquire Great Artists, Engineers, Merchants, Musicians, Scientists and Writers. Sweden gets a 10% boost to these per Declaration of Friendship.
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three Great People who can make Great Works for tourism leading to a cultural victory.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +1 culture for every city for Liberty's opener)
Tall Empire - An empire with a low number of cities with a high population each.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
UA - Unique Ability - The unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
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.
Wide Empire - An empire with a large number of cities with a low population each. An extreme version of this is ICS, or Infinite City Sprawl.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.
ZOC - Zone of Control - A mechanic that makes a unit use up all its movement points if it moves from a tile next to an enemy to an adjacent tile next to the same enemy.

The Swedish have a tundra start bias. This is a fairly poor start bias due to the lack of food and production compared to grassland and plains respectively, though by keeping you away from the equator, it prevents you being sandwiched between warmongering Civs, and gives you a good shot at the Dance of the Aurora Pantheon for strong faith generation.


Sweden's uniques all come into play quite late on. The Unique Ability doesn't really become greatly noticable until the midgame, while one of the Unique Units is from the Renaissance era and the other is Industrial.

• +10% in all cities for every Declaration of Friendship active
  
  • This Great Person Points bonus affects Great Artists, Engineers, Merchants, Musicians, Scientists and Writers, but not Great Prophets, Generals or Admirals.
    
  • Being "friends" with City-States does not count
    
  • This bonus stacks, meaning two DoFs gives a 20% bonus
    
  • The befriended nation also gains +10% in all cities
• Gain 90 with a City-State when gifting a Great Person to them
  
  • As with any unit, there's a three turn delay between gifting the Great Person and you gaining the influence, unless you move the unit into the City-State's territory and gift it directly.
    
  • This 90 is not in addition to the 5 from gifting military units or the Freedom ideology's Arsenal of Democracy tenet's 15 bonus.

A mounted melee unit

*Assumes a normal speed game.


Positive stay-on-upgrade changes

Note: Lancers have the Formation I promotion anyway, which carries over on upgrade.

• 15% combat bonus when sharing a tile with a Great General
  
• If both this unit and a Great General start a turn on the same tile, the Great General can move as much as the Hakkapeliitta can for that turn.

A gunpowder melee unit

*Assumes a normal speed game.


Positive stay-on-upgrade changes

• Heals every turn, even when performing an action (March)

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

Cultural: 7/10
Diplomatic: 9/10
Domination: 8/10
Scientific: 7/10

Having two UUs but also a bonus to Great Person generation means Sweden can push for any victory route. The best course of action is to play peacefully at first, then bring your UUs to a war against a rival for diplomatic victory. Gifting lots of Great People you have stored up to City-States 4-5 turns before a World Leader vote should give you plenty of alliances which other Civs don't have time to deal with.


Overall

Perhaps the Civ most alike Sweden is Germany. Sweden is best at diplomacy first and domination second while Germany is more the other way around, but they nonetheless have somewhat similar playstyles. Both Germany and Sweden see the bulk of their unique strengths come late in the game, so playing peacefully at first is a good idea. Both also benefit from building tall - Germany to maximise production from Hanses and Sweden to maximise Great Person gain.

Same start bias

Russia is the only other Civ with a tundra start bias.

Similar to the UA

Two other Civs have Great Person bonuses in their UA: Babylon (50% bonus to Great Scientist generation) and Brazil (50% bonus to GWAM generation during a Golden Age.)

In addition to those UAs, Austria's Coffee House offers a universal 25% Great Person bonus while Indonesia's Candi replaces the Garden and removes its usual terrain requirements, allowing you to have its 25% Great Person bonus anywhere in your empire.

Similar to Hakkapeliitta

Other uniques that replace the Lancer include the Ottoman Sipahi and Poland's Winged Hussar.

The closest unique to the distinctive advantage of Hakkapeliitta is the unique ability of China, which doubles the strength bonus of Great Generals to all units, not just one.

Similar to Caroleans

Caroleans are the only unit in the game that starts with the ability to heal while moving, but there are quite a few others with bonuses to healing. Probably the closest in function are Aztec Jaguars, Ottoman Janissaries and Indonesia's Kris Swordsmen if they get the Recruitment promotion; all three are front-line units which heal health when they make kills.

Sweden's abilities start later than pretty much every other Civ in the game, but that's part of the point. Lay low and make friends early on, before roaring into action in the later game. The Nobel Prize rewards such a style of play.

For every Declaration of Friendship you have, you get a 10% bonus to Great Person generation, which applies to Great Artists, Engineers, Merchants, Musicians, Scientists and Writers. This makes being nice to other Civs a good idea. Don't settle in their face. Liberate their stupid Workers who wandered into Barbarians. Most importantly, don't start wars. Not until Caroleans, anyway.


Like the post-empire Sweden, neutrality is key. Taking sides early on between two blocs of Civs will result in a lower Great Person generation than you may otherwise have. Try to befriend as many Civs as you can. True, you'll anger some slightly, but playing nice enough should help offset that. As well as you befriending all their friends.

One of the best ways to make friends is a common enemy. Denouncing an unpopular early-game warmongerer could give you a good relations boost with everyone else.

Because Great Person generation relies on specialists in cities, it's a good idea to build tall. This also avoids the anger problems from Civs disliking you settling too near them. Settling cities on rivers or adjacent to lakes will allow you to build Gardens later for even more Great Person generation - rivers are preferable as they carry an International Trade Route gold bonus.

In the Classical era, options for Great Person generation are limited - your two choices are Merchants and Writers. Writer generation is, surprisingly, preferable. That's because generating Great Writers won't raise the cost of your other Great People besides Great Writers themselves, while Great Merchants will raise the costs of future Engineers and Scientists. Great Writers make decent City-State food, but Political Treatises are good too to get through Social Policies faster.

To make the most of your unique units, you'll want them early. Beelining Education after you've got worker technologies and at least a small defence is a good move (making a detour to Construction for Composite Bowmen won't take long) - not only will it help you with science through early Universities, but it crucially offers you scientist slots to generate science and Great Scientists for Academies.


Above: Babylon, you ain't so special.


In the midgame, the Great Person generation bonuses begin to really kick in. After Education, make your way to Metal Casting and you can start making some Great Engineers - the other type of Great Person you'll want to keep rather than feed to City-States. Pick up Astronomy if you haven't already discovered every Civ in the game to get more Declarations of Friendship.

Now, it's the lonely road to Rifling. Luckily, Printing Press is on the way for more GP generation. It's worthwhile making a detour for Banking to get the Forbidden Palace, which will give you extra World Congress delegates. Just be sure you're keeping your tech rate up.


You get 90 influence for gifting a Great Person to a City-State. You only need 60 for an alliance, and the influence is the same no matter the Great Person.

Essentially, you can split your Great People into three categories.

• Category One: Great Engineers, Merchants and Scientists. Don't gift these. Merchants are often better off performing Trade Missions for influence (as you get both influence and gold you can spend on more influence.)
  
• Category Two: Great Admirals, Generals and Prophets. Gift these if you have an excess of them. With excess Prophets, you should use up all but one religious spread, then gift the unit - it'll give just as much influence as an unused Great Prophet will! Captured Prophets of other religions should just be gifted right away.
  
• Category Three: GWAMs. These usually should be gifted to City-States, though Writers can be useful earlier on for a culture boost.

Note: If you get a Khan as a gift from a City-State due to the Patronage finisher, absolutely hang on to it. It'll make your Caroleans near-indestructable later. Merchants of Venice should be used for their double-effect Trade Missions.

Now, just because some Great People are good for gifting to CSs doesn't mean you should do so straight away. Holding on to lots of them will let you unleash a huge influence bomb in the late game that can push you over the edge to diplomatic victory. However, you must take maintenance costs of keeping the units into account.


Above: Welcome to my Great Person farm! Feeding all those Sun Tzus and Mozarts is pretty costly. But when the World Leader vote's incoming, I'll be rich, I tells ya! Rich!

Before the late-game, consider which CSs best suit your situation if you absolutely must gift a Great Person.


Come Caroleans, the armies of Sweden are unleashed upon those far behind in technology.

Now, you may wonder, how is this in any way diplomatic? The answer lies in Great General and Admiral production to feed to City-States. Non-ranged units (so both Caroleans and Hakkapeliitta) gain more XP than ranged units and hence contribute to Great General contribution faster. At this point in the game, you may have not ever actually generated a Great General or Admiral the conventional way, making them quick to produce.

The trick isn't necessarilly in victory, but rather in having a rather messy war involving lots of enemy units being killed. This generates the most XP and therefore the most Great Generals.

Still concerned that it'll anger other nations? The second trick is that usually, by this stage of the game, one Civ in particular will have angered the rest - early warmongers are great candidates for this. Going to war with them should help your relations with everyone else and thus help out at the World Congress. For minimum denouncements from other Civs, don't take capital cities.

A slight alternative course of action (but still effective) is to take on someone good at diplomacy like Arabia or Greece to stop them being so much a threat. It may wreck your reputation, but it'd make victory that little bit easier.


Above: Eventually you'll win 'em back.

Now, that messy war should hopefully bring you plenty of Great Generals and Admirals for even more gifts to City-States when the time comes. Feed them to City-States just before the United Nations calls a World Leader vote, and rivals won't have time to react. Hence, Sweden is a very dangerous diplomatic nation in the right hands, as it can suddenly swing a lot of City-States like no-one else can.

• Build tall
  
• Make friends with as many people as possible before the Industrial era
  
• Get Education early
  
• Generating GWAMs won't hurt. Early Great Merchants slow down Engineers and Scientists, avoid them at first.
  
• After Education, head towards Rifling
  
• Take a detour to Banking to build the Forbidden Palace if possible
  
• Come Caroleans, conduct messy wars with unpopular players to get Great Generals and Admirals
  
• Unleash your excess or "junk" Great People on City-States just before the United Nations calls a World Leader vote

This strategy isn't essential to Swedish gameplay, but could be worth trying out.

Generally, Sweden does best building tall, hence Tradition makes the best opening tree. But consider that just two Social Policies in Honour (the Opener and Warrior Code) will give you a free Great General, which you can gift to a City-State for 90 influence, which is a fairly long-lasting alliance.

If you're going down this route, try gifting the Great General to a religious City-State for maximum effect. It'll quickly get you a Pantheon if you don't have one already, and will help you on your way to an early religion.

Afterwards, switch to the Tradition or Patronage Social Policy trees and play out the rest of the game as normal. On the one hand, you've got a disadvantage in terms of reaching strong Tradition policies early, but on the other hand, gifting a Great General early on really helps you on the way to a religion.

Hakkapeliitta are elite Finnish Lancers, designed to be built in small numbers. That's because their unique benefits require a Great General to be sharing the same tile, not just nearby. The good thing about this is that it doesn't punish you for building tall (and hence having few horse resources.)

Before anything else, let's get the mechanics of how stacking a Great General with a Hakkapeliitta works. The following two screenshots show how the Great General ignores its usual movement limit...



Now, let's get into the detail of how to use these things. Hakkapeliitta are, first and foremost, not your key Unique Unit, but rather there to complement another - Caroleans. (In a similar way to how the Huns have Horse Archers to back up Battering Rams.) Riflemen and hence Caroleans are vulnerable to attacks from Cavalry; having a Hakkapeliitta to back them up helps cover this weakness better than a regular Lancer would due to the 15% bonus from sharing a tile with Great Generals.

The trick of Carloeans and Hakkapeliitta is to get them into formation. A good one is to form a large hexagon - two Siege promoted Caroleans in the front, two more defensive ones to the side, Artillery in the back and a Medic-promoted Hakkapeliitta with a Great General in the middle.


Above: That very formation, brought to you by the magic of screenshots. Face it in the direction of the city you want to take out. Also, yes, that's right, I'm researching Compass this late into the game. That's because I was beelining Dynamite, and because I foolishly forgot about the power of Observatories at Astronomy.

Your Hakkapeliitta will be safe from Riflemen, Zone of Control helps keep your Artillery relatively safe and the Hakkapeliitta-with-a-Medic-promotion will make the Caroleans' heal-per-turn ability even stronger. This formation also allows you to manoeuvre (go British spelling!) any unit to safety behind others if damaged.

Units sharing tiles with Great Generals typically will be the first target for ranged attacks. As the unit retreats to heal, typically they're prone to being killed, possibly costing you a Great General! Hakkapeliitta can withdraw the Great General effectively, especially useful if the war's not going well and most of your Caroleans are dead or near it. After all, that General'll be worth 90 influence later, and you don't want to lose it.




If you manage to get hold of a Khan through the Patronage finisher, it will actually be slowed down to 4 moves, down from 5 if it starts a turn sharing a tile. Then again, it saves the annoying situation of having to click "Do Nothing" every turn.

In addition, the healing ability of Khans don't stack with Medic promotions - it may be best to instead give your Hakkapeliitta Cover promotions to keep it safe from cities and suchlike.


This promotion is kept by all Lancers being upgraded:

• +33% vs Mounted units (Formation I)

And Hakkapeliitta have these as well:

• Share movement with Great Generals
  
• 15% combat bonus if sharing a tile with Great Generals

Unfortunately, Lancers (and hence Hakkapeliitta) upgrade to Anti-Tank Guns, which have only two moves and as such do not boost Great General movement. The 15% bonus could help it defend a little better, but overall, that's not spectacular.


Above: Anti-Tank Guns slow any Khans or Lightning Warfare-boosted Great Generals down considerably.

On the other hand, Anti-Tank Guns in turn promote to Helicopter Gunships, which will make your Great Generals incredibly manoeuvrable if you still feel like going for conquest late in the game rather than diplomacy.

They're the ones healing 25 HP a turn, thanks to the Khan in the middle of the formation.

Don't think for one moment that a promotion any land military unit can earn makes the Carolean a bad UU. No, having all your Riflemen starting with the March promotion ensures they're all of a high standard, and that promotion that would be March can go on something else, like Blitz. Or Medic promotions.

Caroleans are at their best when boosted by things such as Medic promotions. If you place Caroleans, Hakkapeliitta and Artillery in the formation described in the Hakkapeliitta section and give that cental Hakkapeliitta Medic promotions, it makes the Caroleans harder to kill and hence keeps the other units in the formation safer.

If you really want to play your strengths together, try to finish the Patronage Social Policy tree as soon as possible. Allied cities have a chance of giving you Khans! These heal 15 HP a turn extra to your Caroleans, meaning 25 HP a turn in enemy territory or 35 at home. This doesn't stack with Medic promotions. If the Fountain of Youth's in your game, your Caroleans will be pratically invincible.

Even if you don't manage to get a Khan, Medic II on your Hakkapeliitta will give your Caroleans 20 HP a turn in enemy territory or 30 at home.

Caroleans are still good for other reasons. Constant healing means that they're more likely to hit full health and hence be less prone to the Charge promotion. You can heal and pillage in the same turn (or even pillage, move and heal in the same turn) meaning rapid health recovery. And most importantly, the promotion carries over when you upgrade the unit. As such, it's a good idea to build lots of Caroleans when they come, and just upgrade them rather than building new front-line units.

• March (Heal every turn)

Remember that front-line units upgrade rapidly in the Modern era - at the end of it, you'll have Infantry, which are over double the strength of Riflemen! Of course, the chief concern is the cost which could be money spent on City-States, but getting Gunboat Diplomacy in the Autocracy ideology offers you a route to diplomatic victory using those units.

It's off to the Tradition tree to start. Then, complete Patronage followed by either Piety up to Reformation or Rationalism.

Remaining Social Policies should go on boosting Great Person generation. If you think you'll do a lot of fighting but still want a diplomatic victory, get Warrior Code from Honour and Navigation School from Exploration.


Opener

A culture boost will help get some of the earlier Social Policies a bit quicker. Faster expanding borders can save you a bit of gold for whatever you see fit.

Oligarchy

This helps cut the cost of having a defensive force, meaning being near a warmonger shouldn't set you back as much as normal.

Legalism

A bit of a culture boost is useful again, for getting more early policies going.

Landed Elite

This helps make up for the tundra starting bias of your capital. Both food and a growth bonus will aid specialist production.

Aristocracy

If you want a good shot at getting early wonders, grab this sooner. Later on, it'll help out for good stuff like the Leaning Tower and Forbidden Palace, too.

Monarchy

Helps make up for potentially poor income. Also allows you to grow Stockholm tall without much in the way of happiness problems.

Finisher

A handy bonus to city growth, worth finishing the Tradition tree for.


Opener

Besides unlocking the useful Forbidden Palace wonder and letting your alliances last longer, finishing Patronage gives you a shot at obtaining a Khan, which combines nicely with your Caroleans.

The Opener itself slows down influence decay, helping your Great Person gifts to have a greater effect.

Consulates

Starting here means gifting Great People will get you up to 110 influence rather than just 90 - something harder to stop, and with slow influence decay from the opener, should last over the entire length of a World Congress session, maybe two.

Philanthropy

While much influence will be from Ideology level three tenets, (whichever one of Autocracy or Freedom you choose) as well as feeding Great People, you may want to get yourself some City-States before the late game - whether to supply some strong unique units, or Great People with the finisher to Patronage.

Scholasticism

This is one of the only science boosts avaliable before Rationalism, and encourages you to make alliances before the late game Great People-sacrificing festival.

Cultural Diplomacy

A helpful little happiness boost, but also more strategic resources are on offer here.

Merchant Confederacy

A relatively weak policy, but helps with either the Freedom level three tenet Treaty Organisation or the Autocracy tree if you anger too many players late in the game.

Finisher

Remember, no Great People are useless to Sweden. This finisher allows a positive feedback loop - ally City-States and they'll give you Great People you can feed back to them for more influence. Additionally, this gives you a shot at getting a Khan (as they can gift Unique Great People as well) which as mentioned before, lets Caroleans heal super-fast.


Above: You can get Merchants of Venice and their lovely double-yield Trade Missions too.


Opener

Why start late with Piety, you may wonder? Because the main reason you're here is for a Reformation belief that doesn't take effect until the Industrial era. If your religion is very weak, or someone's already taken To the Glory of God before now, go into the policy trees listed later instead.

This opener itself will help get Shrines and Temples up faster, which leaves you more time to build other things.

Organised Religion

If you want to make the most of To the Glory of God, you need lots of faith. This'll help a little.

Religious Tolerance

Try to favour a good faith-generating Pantheon. You want all the Great People you can buy.

Mandate of Heaven

Helps for spreading your religion, (particularly with Just War,) but again, it's all about heading to the Reformation belief.

Reformation

Now, you can use faith to buy Great People effectively with To the Glory of God. The costs for each Great Person are independent of each other, (buying one only raises the cost of itself, not any others,) meaning you could generate an awful lot of them as City-State gifts.


Above: Since entering the Industrial era, I've saved up over 6000 faith. Enough for 540 influence.

Theocracy

A 25% gold bonus for Temples merits building them if you haven't already in many of your cities. After all, more cash means more City-State bribing.

Finisher

The free Great Prophet can help with diplomatic aims either through converting City-States to your religion with Papal Primacy or by being fed to a City-State for that 90 influence (or both - you can still gift a Great Prophet for 90 influence even after spreading your religion using it!) Creating a Holy Site isn't a bad idea, either, as you can use the faith to faith-purchase more Great People later in the game.


Opener

This will help make sure your tech rate doesn't fall behind when you start focusing on military technologies rather than heading to Scientific Theory early.

Secularism

Lots of specialists for Great Person generation? Now they make lots of science as well.

Humanism

Faster Great Scientists - you can make more Academies earlier on, or in the very late game, it's yet another option for feeding City-States with.

Free Thought

While you're here, you may as well pick up a great bonus to science. At this point, ideologies should soon be rolling around so they'll be your priority.

Sovereignty

Get lots of gold freed up from scientific building maintenance, so you can use it for unit maintenance instead.

Scientific Revolution

Civs that are friends with you are less likely to turn on you for going to war, so making further research agreements is still a possibility. Add the Porcelain Tower and you'll always make more science than the Civ you're making the agreement with.

Finisher

Use the free technology to grab an expensive technology you're not already researching.


Opener

Just the opener will do. Three different types of Great People generated faster, without needing any other policies beforehand! A great choice.


Opener

This won't solve any money problems, not by a long way, but it leads into a couple of handy policies, as well as a third interesting option.

Wagon Trains

Extra gold from International Trade Routes helps to cover a downside of tall empires, in that you won't tend to have the biggest diversity bonuses and hence be less wealthy. Plus, half-price route maintenance ain't half bad.

Entrepreneurship

The Great Merchant bonus is the reason for getting this policy. In the late game, you'll get a lot out of them than many other Great People from both influence and lots of gold for more influence. Not to mention the fact your Trade Mission gold yields are doubled!

Mercenary Army

Are Hakkapeliitta obselete, but you want new Anti-Tank Guns or Helicopter Gunships with their bonuses? Get this policy, buy a Landsknecht and promote them - you've got yourself a new Hakkapeliitta, with no movement cost to pillage and double gold on city capture!

There are two routes for Sweden to take here. If you want to use your armies heavily to secure victory, go for Autocracy. If you want to focus on Great Person generation or feel late game wars may not get you very far, choose Freedom. Both let you win by diplomacy, but Autocracy offers domination as well if the ball's rolling.

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


Avant Garde

Together with all the other bonuses you may have picked up, this will help you generate GPs even faster. A strong reason to take Freedom over Autocracy (though Autocracy offers you a better backup route to victory.)

Civil Society

You'll probably have plenty of specialists by now, so halving the food they eat will be of tremendous benefit. Hopefully, you should be able to grow your cities even larger and fill all the specialist slots.

Covert Action

It's often useful to put Spies in more competitive City-States so you can pull of coups, or attempt to counter those of other Civs. In addition to that ability, Spies in City-States gain a burst of influence every few turns for successfully rigging City-State elections; this tenet makes that more likely, therefore making Spies more effective holding alliances.


Arsenal of Democracy

Arsenal of Democracy offers you a way of getting influence with City-States using production (which you probably have plenty of) rather than gold (which you probably lack so much of, not building wide.)

New Deal

You shouldn't be feeding all your Great People to City-States. Notably, Great Engineers and Scientists are good for building Great Tile Improvements with, which New Deal enhances, helping you to keep a slight productive and scientific advantage into the late game.


Treaty Organisation

A tight-knit group of tall-building cities makes it difficult to maintain trade routes with some distant City-States. So, even if you're going down the Freedom route, conquering a city or two might be good as a base for establishing International Trade Routes to some of the more awkward-to-reach CSs.


Mobilisation

To get as many Caroleans as you can, you need more than just production. Churn them out in their masses! Buy them, build them, conquer with them! God with us! Raaggh!

Elite Forces

This tenet makes wounded units a little more resilient, hopefully giving Caroleans time to heal up after taking damage for example.

Fortified Borders or Universal Healthcare

Universal Healthcare is a good choice as early tall-building will give you plenty of National Wonders. Playing defensively early on may mean you have plenty of defensive buildings, which could offer you more happiness. It all depends on what you have already.


Nationalism

You wouldn't want a huge army hurting your finances, now, would you? Nationalism slices the cost of maintaining an army by a third, giving you plenty of cash to bribe City-States.

Total War

All your cities with Military Academies can now churn out units starting with Medic II to help heal up Caroleans or upgraded former-Caroleans. Faster production of units helps, too.


Gunboat Diplomacy (Diplomatic Sweden favoured)

Having a large army goes a long way to help diplomacy with this tenet. You'll need a fair number of units per City-State (which Total War's production bonus helps with, as well as Nationalism's lower maintenance costs) for maximum impact. The cities you can't manage to Gunboat-Diplomacy your way to alliances you can just feed Great People.

Clauswitz's Legacy (Warmongering Sweden favoured)

Although the attack bonus is limited in duration, it's often enough to conquer the world.

A strong religion gives Sweden an edge, particularly in the late-game. You should certainly aim to found one, then reform it with To the Glory of God for more Great People.


Note that highly-situational Pantheons (including most faith Pantheons) aren't listed here, though picking up a faith Pantheon is a good idea to get a religion going more easily.

Faith Healers

Faith Healers is a defensive Pantheon usually, allowing your units to heal very rapidly adjacent to your own cities. But there's another use - healing Caroleans rapidly in cities you capture (so long as they have your religion.) For optimum healing, move your Caroleans near your one of your cities before returning to the front lines.

Dance of the Aurora

You have a tundra start bias. There's generally not much competition for this Pantheon, but you can make more out of it than most. The faith generation may come in handy later if you decide to reform your religion.

Messenger of the Gods

While you won't get an exceptional amount of science out of this Pantheon, getting it denies anyone else it, and the small science boost is a slight advantage to heading to Education and eventually Rifling early.

Fertility Rites

A handy straightforward bonus to growth, letting your cities grow taller earlier. If you have plenty of Deer or suchlike, consider taking Goddess of the Hunt instead.


Papal Primacy

With Consulates in the Patronage tree, every City-State with your religion will be pernament friends with you. When feeding them a Great Person, you'll be up to 125 influence, over double the alliance level and hopefully more than enough to last a round of the World Congress without needing to be boosted some more.

Tithe

Cash is quite a problem for Sweden, needing it to maintain units and buy favour in City-States but lacking much in the way of boosted cash gain. Tithe will get you a fair amount of gold out of your tall cities, as well as City-States you may spread your faith to.

Church Property

Another option for extra gold.


Swords into Plowshares

I'll use the American spelling here simply for the sake of it. This follower belief, like Fertility Rites, will get your cities up to high populations (and hence lots of specialists) quickly.

Religious Community

This'll help to bring your tall cities to very high levels of production, ready to churn out Caroleans like no tomorrow.

Divine Inspiration

If you've built a fair few Wonders, Divine Inspiration offers the potential for lots of lovely faith.

Peace Gardens

As Gardens offer a 25% boost to GP generation, you should build most of your cities in locations able to build them, and hence build them in most of your cities. If you're a bit low on happiness, this offers a decent way to provide some without having to build any new buildings (or buy any with Faith)

Guruship

You'll want specialists rolling sooner rather than later. Guruship can help add to that a little, but it's low priority as far as follower beliefs are concerned.


Note: Reliquary may seem a good idea, but the 50 faith from expended Great People doesn't work on ones gifted to City-States.

Religious Unity

It's best off if you have Papal Primacy here. With a trade route to a City-State, you can really get your religion in quickly even to distant places.

Just War

There should be plenty of time to spread your religion before Caroleans come along. Just War will help your war efforts out, particularly the messier wars that involve fighting other units to generate Great Generals and Admirals.

Religious Texts or Itinerant Preachers

Two ways of spreading your religion without needing to spend faith.


To the Glory of God

Sweden uses this exceptionally well. All Great People are useful to the Swedish as, after all, you can feed any of them to City-States for 90 influence. All of them start at a reasonably affordable faith cost, and you can just go through each Great Person in turn until they're all a bit more expensive, then repeat the cycle again!


Above: 1 turn until the World Leader vote, or in other words, 2 turns until victory. I used up many of my Great People 5 turns before the vote to get alliances that my diplomatic rival Greece couldn't easily overturn. (Remember, they take 3 turns to get to a City-State.) Thanks in part to all the Great People from this belief, I've got surplus I could use if somehow I failed the first time.

Besides having lots of Great People, this belief allows you to get hold of some of the more troublesome specific Great People that City-States may want you to generate. That influence could give you a few free alliances, particularly if you're starting from a high influence resting point from Papal Primacy, a pledge to protect and/or Patronage bonuses.

Charitable Missions

Can't manage To the Glory of God? You can still get a different bonus to City-State influence.

Religious Fervour

Back to British spelling again. If you've got lots of faith but someone else has taken To the Glory of God, this will still let you use faith for something useful - buying Caroleans. Rapid army generation!

The World Congress is important for Sweden, seeing as it'll be the main route to victory. Here's a few important decisions. Not listed depends greatly on the game, and some votes may vary too.


Above: Getting a few City-State allies in time for the Industrial era will help you push forward decisions that favour you. Use your Spies as Diplomats to persuade other players to vote the way you want. (Plus, once you research Globalisation, Diplomats are worth a delegate each.) They may not use many delegates, but remember it means they're not using those delegates against you.

Arts Funding

Low priority
Vote no unless you've generated plenty of Great Engineers, Merchants and Scientists but not many GWAMs

Cultural Heritage Sites

Low priority
Vote yes

Building a few wonders in the early to mid game makes this a worthwhile defence against foreign tourism.

Embargo City-States

Very High priority if taking Freedom
Medium priority if taking Autocracy
Vote no if taking Freedom
Vote varies if taking Autocracy

Diplomatic victory through Freedom relies upon trading with City-States. With Autocracy, a boycott of City-States is less problematic.

Historical Landmarks

Low-Medium priority
Vote yes unless opponents have lots of Landmarks


Above: It's a popular choice at the World Congress because pratically everyone has archaeology sites they can use. Pushing it through is a good filler proposal to get people to like you more while waiting for a better proposal.

International Games

Medium-High priority
Vote yes

International Space Station

Low priority
Vote no

While possible bonuses for Engineers and Scientists are nice, remember that this will help out scientific players more than it'll help you.

Natural Heritage Sites

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

Nuclear Non-Proliferation

High priority
Vote yes unless you have uranium, rivals have nukes and you do not

It's in your best interests to stop Nukes before they start, whether you're heading for diplomacy or conquest.

Scholars in Residence

Medium-High priority
Vote no unless you're behind technologically speaking

Sciences Funding

Low priority
Vote yes unless you've generated a lot of Engineers, Scientists and Merchants already and very few GWAMs

Note the low priority? That's because in the late game, most of your Great People should be saved up for a few turns before the World Leader vote. Hence, it doesn't matter too much which Great People get bonuses to generation.

Standing Army Tax

High priority
Vote no, unless you're using the Freedom tree and are past the age of Carolean/Hakkapeliitta warfare

World's Fair

Low priority
Vote no

Because of the nature of building tall, Sweden is better-equipped to build wonders than most other diplomatic Civs. Wonders here are listed alphabetically in each era, not priority order. Don't try to grab them all - concentrate on the ones that seem to offer the most benefit at the point of the game you're in.

Not listed are theming bonus wonders that come with free GWAMs (e.g. the Louvre.) Although getting 90 influence is useful, focusing on other wonders will typically be a better use of your production.


Note: The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus may seem a good idea, but the 100 gold from expended Great People doesn't work on ones gifted to City-States.

Temple of Artemis

Provides a good food bonus (not a growth bonus as the tooltip suggests) and a ranged unit production bonus. Helps you both build tall and defend well.


Great Lighthouse

It may seem an odd choice in the mix, but the Great Lighthouse will help at naval pursuits, eventually helping to generate Great Admirals. Of course, it's a bit off your early technology path, but if you can manage it, it'll be handy later on.

Great Wall

No land-based enemies want to face the Great Wall. It'll keep your cities well defended for no maintenance cost, allowing you to focus attention on infrastructure rather than units at this stage of the game.

Hanging Gardens (Tradtion Only)

Tall cities can make more specialists, hence more Great People.


Alhambra

With an Armoury, you can get a new unit straight to the Medic II promotion. This is particularly strong with Caroleans' heal-per-turn ability. If you want to take advantage of the culture boost, too, build it in a city with at least one Guild.

Borobudur or Hagia Sophia

A way to spread your religion without having to spend faith - particularly useful with Papal Primacy or Just War.

Machu Picchu

More gold means more City-State influence later on.

Notre Dame (Warmongering Sweden favoured)

10 happiness is often more than enough to support a captured city.


Forbidden Palace (Patronage Only)

As Sweden tends to work best suddenly allying with lots of City-States at once rather than going for long-term alliances, you need all the World Congress delegates you can get. Reduced unhappiness from population is particularly nice, too. A very high priority wonder worth making a quick technological detour for.

Himeji Castle

If you didn't make the Great Wall, here's another defensive wonder you could go for. Helpfully, it's on the way to Rifling.

Porcelain Tower (Rationalism Only)

The free Great Scientist should be used to make an Academy rather than gifted to a City-State. You'll also receive a 50% bonus to science from research agreements and a guarentee that the other Civ will never get more science than you out of them.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Like the Forbidden Palace, this is a high priority wonder. Faster Great Person generation is very useful together with your UA bonus, no matter the GP being generated.


Brandenburg Gate

As an alternative to the Alhambra, (or in addition to it,) this can get a unit straight to Medic II as well, so long as there's a Military Academy in the city. Getting both wonders in the same city could let you build March Hakkapeliitta, Blitz Caroleans or even Mobility Hakkapeliitta so you could withdraw your Great Generals even quicker if needed.


Neuschwanstein

More gold means more potential City-State influence, more culture means you can get through Social Policies offering faster Great Person generation quicker, and more happiness help for supporting conquests.

Prora (Autocracy Only)

Take advantage of Autocracy exclusivity and grab yourself a load of happiness. That is, if you're going down that route.

Statue of Liberty (Freedom Only)

If you prefer to focus more on GP generation than trying to lever a more war-based victory route, Freedom is the better route to take. Specialists becoming more productive is particularly useful, considering the Arsenal of Democracy bonus.


Pentagon

Both your Unique Units carry over all their bonuses when upgraded. Cutting the cost of this will help out in late-game fighting. and free up more cash for bribing City-States. Keep in mind, however, you can get the Globalisation technology and its delegate bonuses without even researching the prerequisites for this wonder.

Sweden is a strange Civ, building tall and going to war and yet heading for diplomatic victory. If you're not prepared, you may make some major errors of judgement.


In the late Classical to early Renaissance eras, Great Person generation bonuses are all you really have. Denouncing players, warring them or any of that denies you a possible bonus. True, players don't like you befriending their enemies, but that should be cancelled out by you sharing friends.


Before the Industrial era, you'll want to use fast GP generation for scientists to get a tech lead. But building tall, you should be able to still fill slots for Artists, Musicians and Writers. The culture is handy for eating through important Social Policies, but more importantly, GWAMs can be generated rapidly and make great City-State food.


If you've got Great Prophet of your own religion, use up all but one charges of spreading your religion, then gift it. You'll get most of the benefit of religious spread on top of 90 influence, making Great Prophets very good to have. Any Great Prophets of other religions you capture should be gifted right away, unless you want a Holy Site up to help the generation of future Great Prophets.


The trick to Sweden's diplomatic victory is that it's sudden and fairly unexpected. Using Great People for influence is a great sudden burst, but unsustainable if you were trying to keep using that for alliances.

Some alliances, however, may be useful for ensuring you have enough World Congress delegates to help skew votes the way you want. Either Treaty Organisation in the Freedom ideology or Gunboat Diplomacy in Autocracy helps to sustain a few, the former limited by International Trade Route limits (as well as the opportunity cost of trading with full Civs) and the latter by unit maintenance costs.


These units are only any better than regular Lancers with a Great General in the same tile. It's not an additional 15% combat bonus from Great Generals, it's a 15% bonus from them sharing a tile.


The main point of warring as Sweden in the late-game is to get more Great Generals and Admirals. For that, you need messier wars involving fighting lots of units. Killing that little America may potentially cost you 10% GP generation, or even more if people start thinking you're a mad warmongerer. Conquering cities makes it more likely people'll think that than killing a few units.

The exception to the focus-on-messy-wars rule is if you need to take out a rival diplomatic player. Out of diplomatic players, Sweden is one of the best at doing that thanks to having two unique units.


Caroleans heal 20 HP a turn on friendly territory. And remember, conquering cities may not be your priority. So long as the enemy doesn't pillage everything, let them come. It'll be easier to kill them for XP that way. Only go for peace when it really looks like they're going to take a city, the war is really angering some of your friends or Great General/Admiral generation has slowed down.


Don't forget that Great Admirals are generated separately to Generals. Plus, because many City-States are on the coast, a good navy will work well for Autocracy's Gunboat Diplomacy. Even if you're going into Freedom, Great Admiral generation will still be useful for City-State gifts.


For maximum effect as Sweden, gift plenty of Great People to City-States just before the delegate numbers for the United Nations is locked in for a World Leader vote. You should have more alliances than most other players know how to deal with. Giving away GPs early reduces the effectiveness of this strategy as you'll have fewer to use.


Unit gifts take three turns to reach the city you gift them to, and you don't gain the influence until they're there. To be on the safe side, either send out your gifts when you're given the 5-turns-remaining message or move those Great People into City-State lands and gift them directly.

Sweden gets going late. Hence, they're incredibly vulnerable early on.


Sweden's UA is one of two (the other being Morocco's) which directly gives players interacting with the Civ a bonus as well as the Civ itself. Befriending Sweden will give you a 10% bonus to Great Person generation. But unless you're Babylon, and can use it to further your Great Scientist aims, consider holding off on friendship unless you're sure you're going to get more out of it. If they're generating 2 GPPs a turn and have four DoFs, (with no other bonuses,) one more will make it 3 GPPs a turn.

Talking up other Civs to dislike Sweden will give them a hard time making the UA work. Bribing someone to go to war with Sweden early on could finish them as a serious contender for victory by both reducing the power of their UA and setting back their infrastructure. However, consider this will set you up against another powerful foe.

Now, on to the 90 influence from Great People part. A good idea is to get Sweden to spend them early. The simplest way is to invade them - they'll want to use up their GPs before you can kill them. However, for those who don't want the risk, find a favourite City-State of theirs (likely to be one bordering one of their cities) and focus attention on gaining influence there. They might just throw everything at it to keep it in control.

Drive players against each other! Rival factions makes life hard for the lay-low-befriend-everyone Sweden of the early game.

To really wreck their playstyle, get the To the Glory of God Reformation belief before them. This is an extreme option but may have to be done if they're a huge threat.


The point about Hakkapeliitta is that you shouldn't expect to face many. If they do have many, it's a waste of resources as they're no better than Lancers without a Great General. In which case, pretty much every Industrial era unit besides Cavalry can take them on, and Musketmen are nearly as strong if you're a bit behind in technology.

Hakkapeliitta, like other mounted units, lack defensive bonuses. Hence, taking them out isn't too hard. If they're running off with a Great General, try to corner them using ZOC to your advantage.


Caroleans only heal 10 health a turn outside their own territory with no other bonuses. They only start really becoming a problem once Medics, pillaging, Khans or that kind of thing gets involved. While it's hard to stop them pillaging, identifying a Medic means you can focus fire on them and hence make them much easier to take out.

While very good for offensive campaigns, Caroleans defend better than they attack, with 20 health per turn rather than 10 in their own territory (or 25 in cities, like any unit.) If you're a late-game warmongerer facing this, be sure to focus fire on one Carolean at a time. Clear out as many Caroleans as you can before taking out cities they're defending.


Got Battering Rams, Horse Archers and not afraid to use them? In the early game, Sweden has no bonuses to defence (or anything much, whatsoever) and thus is one of the most vulnerable Civ in the game to you. Plus, if you take them out early, they won't be there to encourage a round of denouncements against you to try and win friends.


Early-game Aggressors

Easy pickings. They're not going to be too much of a problem to beat.

Mid-game Warmongers

Still not too hard. Don't go overboard with Knights in case they have Hakkapeliitta, and be careful you don't anger too many of their friends.

Late-game Warmongers

Now, be careful. Both Swedish UUs have all their abilities carrying over on upgrade, and an early science focus may make them hard to take out. Try to dismantle other Civs first to weaken their GP generation (you can't befriend a dead Civ, heh) and go in for the kill when the momentum's going strong.

Scientific players

You'll probably have a tech lead over the Swedish. Might be good not to befriend them (unless you're Babylonian) to prevent them getting faster Great Scientists. Still, make sure you've got plenty of other friends around and make sure defences are in place for the late game in case Sweden makes you their target.

Cultural players

Because you can only ever have two Artist, Musician or Writer specialists at a time, the 10% GPP bonus may be fairly useful, but be sure you're the one gaining the most. Generally, Sweden is little threat to you, going a rather different path.

Diplomatic players

Sweden in skilled hands will unleash many Great People into City-State alliances just before a World Leader vote. Your aim, therefore, is to get them to waste Great People early. Ally a City-State right next to their lands. Maybe even park a few units inside to scare them into thinking you're going to launch an attack through there. Compete on the City-States they want, and don't befriend them. Most diplomatic players build wide. You won't be generating many GPPs anyway so they'll find friendship more useful than you will.

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

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

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

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