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

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Chinese!

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

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

China has an avoid hills bias. This helps the placement of their UI, but might hurt your already somewhat weak production


Creating Great Works or gaining cities grants +1& to all of your cities. This also starts We Love the Empress Day in all of your cities. These bonuses decline by 50% every era

We Love the Empress Day provides +10%




A ranged unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher ranged strength (20 instead of 19)
  
• Obsoletes at Dynamite rather than Metallurgy

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• 25% combat strength when in or adjacent to a city. Deal 5 damage to all enemy units adjacent to target unit within range(Siege Volleys)

Positive Changes

• +1
  
• +1 per 4 citizens
  
• +10% during We Love the Empress Day

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


China has a lot of incentive to go to war due to their UA, and their UU is solid, although a bit more useful on defense then offense. Nonetheless, Domination is their preferred victory type
China doesn't really have any bonuses towards culture or tourism, but they are encouraged to get lots of great works due to their UA, so between that and their good growth, a Culture Victory is a good backup route
Speaking of, China's UA gives them a high population, but wide empire. They lack any real advantages towards science to leverage this towards, but it is still a great boost
China also get's lots of gold due to both their UA and UB. This is great to support armies, but they lack any diplomatic bonuses to also leverage it into.
Finally, while they lack any religion bonuses, their early expansion and wide empire does mean China can get a good religion going if they can get it founded.

Right when you found your capital, the Mandate of Heaven will trigger, giving your capital 1 food and 1 gold more then normal. Even in a really bad start (I mean just look at the image above I started next to a snow hill) this means your capital should thrive. Especially considering that every city obtained thereafter will give more food and gold. This counts if you found or capture a city, however if you capture a city, lose it then recapture it you won't gain Mandate of Heaven again. For great works however, China has to create them themselves, stealing or conquering great works doesn't work.

The somewhat unfortunate thing about China's UA is that every time you advance an era, the food and gold in your cities decrease by half(rounded up). This means that to really keep up your bonuses, you need to be founding, conquering, and creating at a rapid pace. I wouldn't say it's worth it to try to delay advancing an era, especially if it delays an important tech. However it is not a bad idea to plan around it. For example, limit your expansion in the ancient era to just taking spots rival civs might try to take, and get to writing quickly for your UB. Once you hit classical, start founding as many cities as possible, even cities in less then optimal spots are probably worth it for China. Happiness is going to be a big issue for China, it might be a good idea to limit the growth of your lesser cities if happiness becomes a problem.

The last thing to note for the UA is that it triggers a 6 day We Love the Empress Day(WLTED), and that these give their city +10% growth whenever they happen. Really as any civ you should always try to keep on top of getting luxuries to trigger WLTED and China has a little bit more reason to do so if they find a lull in getting Mandate of Heaven triggered, although hopefully this is few and far between.


Above: The yields I had in my capital at the beginning of the Classical. While you might find a noticeable decline in power when this happens, just remember it is still a bonus you have that no one else does, and you can always recover it

China's UA does give a good amount of gold, but having to support both a large army and a wide, high population empire could still prove a drain to the coffers. Enter the Paper Maker


Above: Please ignore the invading Spanish army, and note the 25% gold we get from We Love the Empress Day. 15% of that is due to religion, but still, 10% is nothing to scoff at.

The Paper Maker's bonuses may seem small on paper, but they make it work by building off of the Chinese UA really well. WLTED is pretty easy to trigger as China, so this means the 10% gold is almost permanent. The Paper maker also gives +1 gold per 4 citizens, and hey, it just so happens that China has some of the strongest growth bonuses in the game. Libraries are a fairly cheap building, and while they won't be the first thing a new city builds, it isn't a huge investment for them to do so quickly, and Paper Makers encourage this even more. Get them up quick on all of your cities and enjoy lots of gold, and a good bit of science as a side effect of them being library replacements.

The Cho-Ko-Nu is a bit of a weird unit. They are marginally stronger then a crossbow but their big benefit is their unique promotion, Siege Volleys. This gives the effect of Splash Damage dealing 5 damage to all enemy units adjacent to the target that are also in the Cho-Ko-Nu's range.


Above: It looks like the splash damage is on the city but it is actually on the settler inside of the city

This is decent, but what's important is that it also makes the Cho-Ko-Nu 25% stronger both on offense and defense whenever they are adjacent to or in a city center. While you could try and push Cho-Ko-Nus directly up to an enemy city, they are still ranged units, even with a 25% bonus, they are weaker then any melee units they are likely to come against with the exception of pikemen. This bonus is better used to secure a captured city, or to defend your own lands. It might be possible to have a Cho-Ko-Nu use this bonus against an enemy city while being next to a friendly city if they get the range promotion, but this isn't always going to happen


Above: While I'm not shooting at Toledo in this shot, this Cho-Ko-Nu does have range and can actually hit Toledo while being next to Shanghai. Also that poor spearman

Cho-Ko-Nus are pretty solid, and with enough of them you can probably afford to ignore siege units, but you will probably still want a solid amount of non Cho-Ko-Nu units, if not next to a city they are pretty much normal crossbows with Splash Damage, which isn't that big a deal.

25% combat strength when in or adjacent to a city. Deal 5 damage to all enemy units adjacent to target unit within range(Siege Volleys)

China should go Tradition into Artistry to maximize the amount of great works they are getting. However to capitalize on their conquest they should finish with Imperialism


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

Justice: The early production will further help whatever you're building

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

Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs, as well as get you to writing quicker

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

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

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


Opener: Guilds are expensive, but very useful. You'll want them online ASAP as China.

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt, especially with how wide you'll probably be by now

National Treasure: Extra gold from all the great people you'll have, plus an extra one for free. Make sure to have this be a GWAM of some sort, most likely a writer.

Humanism: You'll probably have a solid amount of great works, get some more yields out of them.

Heritage: You're probably gonna build some wonders, might as well get some golden ages out of them.

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

Finisher: Archaeologists do count as creating a great work, so more dig sites is great for China


Opener: If you need to get somewhere overseas now you can do it just a little bit faster

Colonialism: You'll have lots of monopolies by now, get some more use out of them.

Regimental Tradition: Faster Great General and Admiral generation, as well as making them stronger, good to have on the land or on the sea

Martial Law: You'll definitely have plenty of puppet cities, and conquered ones too. Both of them will be less of a burden now.

Exploitation: Some extra yields on almost every tile of the empire, and the expanded upgrade positions has some niche use

Civilizing Mission: Gold from conquering cities, and production in said conquered cities, everything you need to push the front line.

Finisher: Solidify your naval power, and have a new way to use air units to help manage unhappiness.

If you plan to continue the World Conquest, Autocracy is the clear choice, but if you want to consolidate and go for a Culture Victory, Order will work better


Peace, Land, Bread: If you've been doing lots of conquering, both poverty and building maintenance are probably a big drain, so this helps both problems and gives some growth

Hero of the People: More Great Works is always good to see.

Communism: You lack strong production bonuses, and there are some crucial late game culture wonders, this will help you bridge the gap.

Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, plus they'll now give some extra science


Cultural Revolution: Should prove a massive boost to your tourism, especially if lots of people went order

Dictatorship of the Proletariat: If you can get your happiness up, this is the bonus that will win you a culture victory

Five Year Plan: Any production China can get is quite welcome, and this is pretty much the best production bonus in the game


Iron Curtain: You'll probably still be conquering at least a little at this point, so this will help that from hurting your happiness much

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


New World Order: Not only will you have lots of cities, you'll likely have several large ones, so any unhappiness reduction is a must

Elite Forces: New units start better, old units get better quicker, all you could want for a world-conquering force

Military-Industrial Complex: You'll have a fair few former Cho-Ko-Nus to upgrade, and while you definitely have the gold to do it, it doesn't hurt if it's cheaper


Police State: Happiness is going to be really hard to manage, you need every bonus you can get

Total War: Faster unit production to keep your army in the game


Air Supremacy: Free Airports in every city means that you almost don't need a navy as long as you have a city on every continent. Also makes air units quicker to build if you need to.

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: You're going to trigger We Love the Empress Day a lot, get some more stuff out of it

Pyramids: A Free Settler means free Mandate of Heaven

Statue of Zeus: You probably won't build much siege as China, this will help make sure you don't notice


Parthenon: A Free work is good to see, and you'll need someplace to store your later works

Terracotta Army: You'll have lots of tiles to improve and lots of units to kill. This helps both


University of Sankore(Tradition Only): While you do need to be careful about what techs you are getting as China, you certainly don't want to fall behind in science


Chichen Itza: Should help a decent bit in managing unhappiness

Globe Theatre: You will probably be working lots of GWAM slots, might as well get some golden ages while you're at it

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Free GWAM for more Mandate of Heaven.

Uffizi: Free Artist, more Madate of Heaven, more places to store art, all great things


Brandenburg Gate: A little extra xp is always nice

Louvre(Artistry Only): This is pretty much 3 free Mandate of Heavens, which is awesome

Neuschwanstein: A bit hard to build, but will help with happiness a lot


Cristo Redentor(Culture): A massive bump to tourism, from things you are already building for tourism. Even more beneficial to China then most given how wide they are

Empire State Building: Another GWAM to add to the pile, as well as some gold.

Prora(Autocracy Only): A massive help to happiness, and a free social policy on top

Kremlin(Order Only): Far inferior to Prora, but a free social policy is still a free social policy


Pentagon(Imperialism Only): Makes your air units a lot better out of the gate and much faster to make.


CN Tower(Culture): Tons of tourism from every conventional source of tourism. Should be the final push you need to win

Great Firewall(Culture): If someone else builds this it will make a culture win much harder, so build it yourself to prevent that

Sydney Opera House(Culture): Just in case you influence everyone and don't have all your social policies yet

China builds wide without being great at managing happiness, goes to war without the strongest military, and creates great works with little bonus to tourism. With such flaws, it is easy to make mistakes with China.


Managing happiness is key to China's gameplay. If you are close to being unhappy, set most if not all cities to avoid growth until you can get it in check. Even when happiness is in check, keeping some cities on avoid growth at most if not all times is not a bad idea.


You get the Mandate of Heaven when you capture a city, it says nothing about keeping them. Unless the city is really well built and/or has wonders, you should raze everything you conquer. Even if the city is in a good spot, found your own there for another Mandate of Heaven boost.


While you should first settle the good spots, bad city spots still give Mandate of Heaven. There are only 2 reasons you should stop founding cities. Reason One is happiness problems, and Reason Two is if there are no more spots on the map to settle.


Creating Great Works is a great way to get Mandate of Heaven, probably even better then founding cities as they don't hold as many downsides. The faster you are generating GWAMs the better.


Cho-Ko-Nus are strong, probably the strongest unit in the game, in certain situations. Without being positioned next to a city they only perform marginally better then a basic crossbow. You will want a good mix of other units, mainly mounted and/or melee units. You can probably get away without siege as Cho-Ko-Nu should do well enough at taking down cities.

China has strong growth, strong gold, and will probably snatch up all the land around them and be hungry for more. However, as much as China wants to conquer, I'd argue they aren't very good at it.


China is going to expand rapidly, no matter what you do, China has incentive to expand even into less optimal spots, and it isn't worth it to you to try and take it from them. However, you can try to take the good spots for yourself. Of course China will try to conquer them, but they'd try to conquer you anyways. Make sure you build up solid defenses, it isn't out of the question China might try to attack before their UU, but most likely you will have some time as they will probably prefer to peacefully expand as much as they can before war.


Paper Makers are going to make China a good bit of money, but their effectiveness is somewhat tied to their UA. The better the UA is being utilized the better Paper Makers will perform. So just try and make sure China can't get too many cities, and Paper Makers won't be as effective


Cho-Ko-Nus are a bit of an odd unit. Sometimes they can be pretty much the strongest unit in the game, and other times they are no better then a generic unit. It is all about positioning. If China has Cho-Ko-Nus stationed near one of their own cities, don't engage their army, force them to come to you. Only engage a defending city adjacent Cho-Ko-Nu once you have a clear path to them and can do so with overwhelming force, preferably with mounted units. If China decides to throw caution to the wind and charge Cho-Ko-Nus right into your cities, make sure to punish them for it and kill them fast. They may be vulnerable but they will do a lot of damage if you don't deal with them.


Songhai is actually perfectly poised to take advantage of China's flaws. China expands really wide, meaning Songhai has more cities and therefore more gold to gain. Their UU also comes at the perfect time, being a knight replacement, so China will be hard pressed to fight it at that point, even with Cho-Ko-Nus


Early-Game Warmongers: This is the best time to take out China, but it won't be too easy. Even if they don't have a huge army they will probably be able to purchase something decent. China's cities will probably be more developed then you'd expect for being so wide, so it'll be a great jumping off point for your infrastructure. Just don't bite off more then you can chew for happiness

Mid-Game Warmongers: Cho-Ko-Nus are pretty tough on defense, so if you do want to invade China during this point of the game, you'll have to be careful. Longswordsman, or Longswordsman upgraded into Tercios are probably your best front line, as although knights could rush Cho-Ko-Nus, if China has any sort of defense protecting their ranged units knights will be mowed down. Make sure you surround a Chinese city once you start your siege to prevent any Cho-Ko-Nus from getting strong shots on your units.

Late-Game Warmongers: Siege Volleys is still a pretty strong promotion, but if you have armor units that ignore ZoC as well as air units to snipe China's ranged units, it shouldn't be too hard to deal with.

Cultural Players: China will probably have pretty weak culture, and shouldn't prove an issue going against. Their production is also pretty weak so building important wonders should hinder their cultural aims. Just make sure they aren't about to turn around and invade, and if they do, be ready for it.

Scientific Players: China is a bit odd in a warmonger in that they don't necessarily want to get a lot of science, so it should be easier then most warmongers to keep ahead on unit tech.

Diplomatic Players: China is probably teetering on the edge of being unhappy for most of the game. Banning their luxuries will hurt them even more then most warmongers. On the flip-side though, they can probably actually afford it if you pass Global Peace Accords. It still isn't a bad idea but it won't hurt as much for China. Passing Science Funding will though, as it'll give them less GWAMs

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

• Civ Summaries

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