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 Russians!

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.

Russia has no start bias. None of their uniques rely on any specific terrain so that's ok, and this is certainly a step up from the tundra start they used to have


All strategic resources provide double their normal quantity(This does not include paper)

25% faster border growth

+20 whenever you expand your borders naturally, scaling with era




A mounted ranged unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (35 instead of 33)
  
• Higher ranged strength (44 instead of 41)
  
• Obsoletes at Mobile Tactics rather than Ballistics

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +33% combat strength attacking wounded units
  
• 25% chance to force a unit to retreat after it takes ranged damage. If the unit can't retreat it takes 50% more damage(Withering Fire)

Positive Changes

• +3
  
• Costs 5 maintenance (down from 6)
  
• Costs 800 (down from 1000)
  
• Arrives at the renaissance tech Metallurgy instead of the industrial tech Rifling
  
• Does not require a castle in the city
  
• +1& to all camps, lumbermills, mines, and strategic resources
  
• Enemy units spend 1 extra movement per tile if they move onto a tile worked by this city

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


Cossacks are a strong unit for offense, and the increased resources is good for offense or defense. The Ostrog gives Russia an incredibly strong defense.
Russia lacks any actual cultural or tourism bonuses, however the increased border growth does offset their low culture somewhat.
Russia has strong science from their UA, making science their preferred route. The Ostrog, while coming a bit late compared to most production bonuses, gives bonuses to such a wide variety of tiles it still gives Russia a good advantage.
The Ostrog also gives gold on these tiles, and the extra strategic resources could provide a lot of gold as well. Russia does lack any advantage towards diplomacy though.
Finally, they lack any bonus towards a religion, but their slow early game means it is definitely worth investing in trying to found one.

Above: I've improved 2 iron, yet currently possess 4. Witchcraft? No, Russian

Doubling all strategic resources may seem a simple, but powerful bonus, and it is, but it carries some interesting implications. First and most obviously, you can build more units and buildings requiring resources. Sword units, mounted units, and siege units from the cannon onwards, just to name a few units, all require strategic resources, Generally speaking strategic resource units are the strongest units of their era, but for most civs are somewhat limited by requiring strategic resources. Russia will almost never have to worry about that. Of course, just because you have the resources doesn't mean you have to use them. The AI values strategic resources very highly, especially in the early game, so you can make a ton of money and also get lots of luxuries selling the ones you aren't using, which Russia will likely have plenty they aren't using.

One new thing about strategic resources is if you get 25% of them in the world you get a military bonus(Strategic monopoly), and at 50% you get a domestic bonus(Global monopoly). Most domination civs will get most strategic monopolies after conquering 1 or 2 civs, but Russia can usually get it off of their own land if they just expand a little aggressively early, giving them a leg up in war. It's not even impossible they get a global monopoly without having to conquer, but it is unlikely on larger maps.



Every time any one of your cities expand their borders, Russia gains 20 science, increasing to 40 in the medieval, and by 20 every era afterwards, to a total of 140 in the information era. This is further assisted by Russia gaining 25% border growth in all of their cities. Not only does Russia want to expand quickly to grab up strategic resources, they also want to have a large amount of cities to increase their science output. Russia is incentivized to build very wide.

The Arsenal is a bit of a weird building. It gives insanely strong defensive bonuses, but it comes really late, is very expensive to build, and doesn't offer anything outside of defense. Therefore, you usually only want to build them on cities near an enemy border. The Ostrog eliminates all of these problems and builds on the arsenal's strengths. On top of the arsenal's city strength, hp, and 1 extra city strike range, the Ostrog also makes enemies expend 1 extra movement moving into the cities tiles. The Ostrog comes a bit earlier too, at the renaissance metallurgy rather then the industrial rifling. The Ostrog is even cheaper to build, both production and maintenance wise, and don't even need castles to be built. If all that wasn't enough, they give a bit of base production, as well as production to mines, camps, lumbermills, lumber camps, and all strategic resources


1 gold and 1 production may not seem a massive increase this late in the game, but it is on almost every tile you'd be working for production, and some that you wouldn't even be. Every city should almost certainly have at least 1 tile being improved here

You will want to build these everywhere as fast, turning your cities into impenetrable fortresses of production and gold. If you conquer another city that was well built up, it's even possible you could invest in a ostrog and get one built up while the enemy is still trying to take it back.

The Strategic resource bonus in theory gives some incentive to go to war and maybe even go for domination, but Russia's other bonuses support a more wide turtle playstyle. The Cossack comes to shake things up a little bit. The Cossack comes with 2 powerful promotions. The simpler of the 2 is that they get a 33% combat bonus against wounded units. Basically it's a stronger charge promotion, on a ranged unit. Even 1 health lost is enough for Cossacks to deal a lot more damage.


The unit is an era behind to be fair, but like, damage.

The second promotion, Withering Fire, is basically the Polish UU's Forced Retreat promotion, on a ranged unit. When the Cossack hits an enemy unit, it has a 25% chance to force it to move a tile away. If it can't do that because of having no available tiles, the unit takes 50% more damage. Combined with the 33% bonus against wounded units if you get that it'll probably one shot the unit. Withering Fire is actually probably better then Forced Retreat, because if it triggers, the Cossack isn't forced into a potentially vulnerable position, it stays right where it is. This allows you to more easily pick apart the enemy line.

• +33% combat strength against wounded units
  
• 25% chance to force an enemy Unit to retreat after it takes damage. If the target cannot retreat, it takes 50% more damage(Withering Fire)

Progress may seem the obvious choice for a wide, science civ, but Tradition actually serves Russia better, mostly due to one policy. From there Fealty is a good second choice. Rationalism is the best choice if you wish to continue the science route, but if you want to commit to conquest, Imperialism will work better.


Opener: Extra population is nice, but the culture is great for faster border growth

Sovereignty: The main reason we went tradition. This will mean a massive amount of science for Russia in the long run

Justice: The early production will help with any early wonders you want to build

Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs

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 definitely have some specialists, don't let them hamper growth too much.

Finisher: Get a bit more use out of your great person improvements! Plus hey, a stronger capital never hurt yeah? Have a throne room!


Opener: Monasteries are a solid building, and the cheaper building purchases are nice

Nobility: You don't HAVE to build castles as Russia to build Ostrogs, but castles are good buildings, this makes them even better

Divine Right: More happiness, more culture for having happiness

Serfdom: A little bit of culture and production.

Burghers: More production and a bit less unhappiness.

Organized Religion: If you got a religion this should be solid

Finisher: A few extra yields if you can keep a consistent religion in your cities


Opener: Your Great Generals can do a bit better job keeping up with your Cossacks now. Plus if you need to conquer someone overseas, faster navies can help with that.

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: One thing to note is that this affects camps, which also benefits from Ostrogs. Camp resources aren't everywhere, but you'll be benefiting from an insane deer tile or something somewhere

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

Finisher: A stronger navy, and a new way to use air units to help manage unhappiness.


Opener: Strategic resources have ridiculous yields now, benefiting from this and Ostrogs

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain, observatories could give a lot of science, or not much at all, but they're still worth building regardless

Empiricism: Helps make sure other civs won't leech off your science lead.

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire, you're bound to have a decent amount of villages around.

Enlightenment: Postponing this as long as possible means you're getting a more expensive tech for free.

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good. Religious unrest isn't usually a huge factor towards unhappiness, but every bit counts

Finisher: More Great Scientists, More Growth, All is good in Russia

A science Russia is best served by the Soviets in Order, however a domination Russia will do better with Autocracy


Peace, Land, Bread: Being so wide, both poverty and building maintenance are probably a big drain, so this helps both problems and gives some growth

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

Communism: There are some crucial late game science wonders, this makes sure you actually get them


Five Year Plan: Because your mines and lumbermills needed more production?

Party Leadership: You're bound to have a lot of cities, maybe even some in less optimal positions, so this should help a lot


Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.


Military-Industrial Complex: Russia builds more defensive buildings then most, so this should be a solid amount of science. Oh and cheaper unit upgrades, that's kinda big too.

New World Order: You're gonna have a lot of cities by now, you absolutely need this.

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


Police State: Unhappiness is a going to be a problem, so some happiness is needed, and faster courthouses will help a lot, since Russia usually keeps cities for the extra science.

Lightning Warfare: Faster generals to keep up with your cossacks, plus other better units to support them.


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.

Pyramids: The faster a new city exists, the faster its borders are growing.

Statue of Zeus: You'll probably conquer someone, this will make it go faster.


Angkor Wat: HIGHEST PRIORITY WONDER FOR RUSSIA. This will net Russia a huge amount of science throughout the game. If someone beats you too it, conquer them asap.

Great Library: A free tech is always welcome

Oracle: Almost a free tech and almost a free policy, both great to see.


University of Sankore(Tradition only): Some extra science, you went down tradition after all might as well grab it


Porcelain Tower: Russia's science is a lot more spread out, and not based on normal yields, so this isn't as good for them as it is for most, at least if research agreements are off, but it's still a good boost

Red Fort(Fealty Only): Is this a bit overkill for Russia? Yes, but come on a completely unconquerable city is just hilarious

Sistine Chapel: More culture everywhere means more border growth. Plus you could actually use the culture for policies


Neuschwanstein: A bit hard to build cause of terrain requirements, but the happiness will help a lot


Prora(Autocracy Only): Will help your happiness problems immensely, and a free policy is nice

Kremlin(Order Only): While appropriately Russian, this is inferior to Prora, but a free policy is still a free policy


Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Better spies for you, worse spies for your enemies, all quite useful

Pentagon(Imperialism): Better air units, more air units, what more to ask for?


CERN: 2 free techs to finish your spaceship parts or get the last few unit techs.

Great Firewall(Science): Makes it much harder for other civs to leech off your tech lead

Hubble Space Telescope(Science): Should make building the spaceship a piece of cake.

Russia strikes a great, and relatively simple, balance between science and conquest. However that's not to say there aren't things to look out for.


Happiness is always a factor of course, but other then that there is no reason to not be expanding as Russia. Your science advantage is pretty much gained by expanding, the more cities you have, the more borders are growing, the more science you have.


While you should most certainly do some war with Cossacks, Russia does have other military bonuses. If you see an opportunity for a good war early on, absolutely take it. On the flipside, don't feel like you have to war before Cossacks, you can do other things with strategic resources then build units, and the rest of your bonuses aren't offensive in nature


This especially applies early game, but having more strategic resources does you no good if they are just sitting around. Strategic resources are worth a lot to the ai, make sure you are taking advantage of that.

Russia builds very wide, has a plethora of resources at their disposal, and has some of the strongest defenses in the game once their UB is online. However, Russia can take a bit to get going, and is prone to spreading themselves a bit too thin.


Russia has twice the number of strategic resources, but like any civ, they don't come out of thin air. Pillage a strategic resource tile, and you're hurting Russia twice as much as any other civ. If they are using most of them up, as they likely will be, either through selling or through having a lot of resource units, this will cripple their main military advantage. Russia may be able to build more of these units, but their no better at maintaining them under pressure.

As for their growth and science, each city has only so many tiles it can grow, the less cities Russia has the better, so try to block them off, just be prepared for an invasion eventually


If you are a warmonger, and can't get to Russia before they get Ostrogs, there are still some things you can do. Siege Units pretty much already have a movement penalty in all enemy territory, so they aren't affected much by that part of the Ostrog. The movement penalty also doesn't apply to the sea, so attack from the sea if it is possible. If you aren't trying to conquer Russia, then there isn't much you can do to stop the production and gold the Ostrog gives, since it affects such a wide range of tiles.


Cossacks deal a lot of damage, but aren't too much stronger on defense. A lot of lancers can take them down, although you will definitely need a lot. Landships are definitely the preferred method, they should be able to destroy Cossacks. Ranged units won't do great, since Cossacks can attack, retreat, and possibly even push your unit back, making it even harder to fight back, especially considering they are probably doing more damage then you. Gun units will get crushed as they can't chase them down, but if they can get an attack in it will definitely hurt them.


Early-Game Warmongers: The best time to take out Russia, just cause they have the extra strategic resources doesn't mean they have the production or economy to support every unit they can build with them.

Mid-Game Warmongers: Russia can probably start building a pretty scary army by now with all their resources, not to mention that Ostrogs are a strong defensive option. Invading from the sea is definitely your best option, a land fight on their land is a losing battle unless you have an overwhelming force.

Late-Game Warmongers: Russia will probably be able to fully use all their strategic resources by now. Expect air units, armor units, ranged naval units, and nukes. Air units are a good way to get around the Ostrog movement penalty, and artillery should be useful too. Naval invasions are also good, but given their dependency on resources in the late game, as well as planes being a problem, Russia can likely counter those well too, at least better then the mid game

Scientific Players: Militarily Russia is at their most threatening with Cossacks, rush to get Landships when you have a nearby Russia in the Industrial era. As for stopping science, either just try and use your own bonuses to outcompete, or try to prevent Russia from growing their borders, and use your own tech lead to keep a strong military

Cultural Players: Stealing Angkor Wat will hurt Russia massively. Just be prepared for them to try and take it from you

Diplomatic Players: Try to pass Nuclear Non-Proliferation as soon as you can, Russia can use more nukes then anyone, unless they aren't allowed to build them. Global Peace Accords and Endowment For the Arts hurts them a decent bit too, but probably less then normal warmongers or science civs.

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

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• 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)
  
• Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
  
• The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)