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 Greeks!

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.

Greece lacks a start bias. This is fine, as none of their uniques care about terrain


City State Influence decays at half and recovers at double the normal rate.

Each City State alliance gives +5% to each friendly and allied unit(up to a maximum of 25%)

City State territory considers your units as friendly




A melee unit



Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (14 instead of 12)
  
• Obsoletes at Gunpowder rather than Steel

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +10%, and +15% per adjacent friendly unit(Unity)
  
• +100% great general generation from combat(Great Generals II)

Positive Changes

• +3 +3 and +3 (up from +2, +0 and +0 respectively)
  
• When a unit defeats another in combat, the city gains +5 border growth. The city also gains
  +25 if the unit was built in this city

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


Greece's best victory route in my opinion is domination. Hoplites form a great early army, and the Greek UA gives solid military bonuses even in the endgame
Culture is actually an unusual but surprisingly effective route Greece can take. Their UB gives one of the earliest tourism boosts in the entire game, allowing them to gain tourism pressure faster then anyone else. Even when not going full in on them though, they still give a decent amount of culture too.
Greece is also very well suited to diplomacy, as they get great bonuses from keeping city states and can keep them better then most. They do lack the gold to invest in diplomatic units though
Greece also lacks any bonuses in growth, production, and science. They also have a busy early game that makes it hard to invest in a religion.

For any other civ this small amount of starting influence would only last 14 turns. For Greece it is twice that

Influence investments go twice as far for Greece. It's a simple bonus to understand and use, and is quite powerful for city state diplomacy. Greece has to spend much less to maintain a city state alliance, allowing them to focus efforts onto more contested ones. It might also allow them to grab some alliances they otherwise wouldn't be able to get without more investment, which is nice for the early game, even more so considering...


Note the bonus from Hellenic League

Most civs who focus on diplomacy tend to be pretty peaceful, but Greece's diplomatic bonuses actually increase their warring potential. Merely getting 2 city state alliances effectively gives all your units an extra promotion. Investing just a bit into city states before your first war will make it much easier, and it will help you well into the endgame. Unlike a lot of city state inclined civs, killing your city state allies is very difficult for your enemies. Not only do you have a much stronger army then many diplomatic civs, so do your city state allies, as they get the Hellenic League bonus too.


You don't have to worry about angering city states in your early exploration as Greece too, which is nice

Make sure to follow the buddy system when using Hoplites

Greece's UA may be the major military bonus for Greece in the mid and late game, but early game, Hoplites are the reason you can dominate early war. Hoplites have a nice strength bonus over normal spearmen, along with a nice promotion giving an extra 10% combat strength, and a further 15% strength per friendly unit they are next to. En masse, Hoplites are going to crush almost any ancient and classical defenses, as they will be stronger then just about anything else, in larger numbers.


I haven't even conquered a single Swedish city yet

The other important thing Hoplites have is great generals II. This means that you are going to get your first great general incredibly early, giving your army a further combat boost. With all of these bonuses, Hoplites are going to be the only units you will need, especially against un walled cities. Even a city with walls is still conquerable with enough Hoplites, although bringing some ranged units won't hurt.

• +10%, and +15% per adjacent friendly unit(Unity)
  
• +100% great general generation from combat(Great Generals II)

It is certainly worth keeping around upgraded Hoplites, however you don't have to stick solely to them. I've found that even with all of the Greek bonuses and Hoplite promotions, Pikemen can still struggle against knights, and you will most certainly struggle against cities without siege units.

The Acropolis is a really strange UB, especially on Greece. However, that isn't to say it is bad.



The thing that best synergizes with Greece's playstyle is that you get 5 border growth in every city with an Acropolis when you kill an enemy unit, and if the city the unit comes from has an acropolis you also get 25 culture. This doubles in the medieval era, and increases by 5 border growth and 25 culture every era after. This means that Greece is actually going to have decently large borders and culture. While I wouldn't recommend postponing your Hoplite wars, I would recommend going straight for Drama and Poetry after you research Bronze Working and then getting up Acropolis's asap.

The Acropolis also gives a bit of extra defense and culture, which is decent, but what is seemingly pretty useless is the tourism. However that tourism is actually extremely powerful if you want to go for a culture victory. For every other civ, the only way to get early tourism besides from great works and religions is from the arena, as it is the only building to give tourism until Hotels in the industrial era. Greece however, can effectively get more than double the tourism of other civs until then, as they can build arenas and the Acropolis. Even without investing any other resources into tourism you might find yourself doing surprisingly well in the tourism game as Greece. While it doesn't do a lot to utilize your other uniques, a potential victory route for Greece is use the infrastructure and lots of cities from early conquest in order to build up massive amounts of tourism pressure earlier then anyone else can. It isn't super helpful if you aren't dedicated to doing a culture victory, but it is interesting and a possible unique way to play Greece.

Greece should start with Authority to support Hoplites and later wars. Most times you will then want to go Statecraft to make sure you can easily get and keep city states, however if you really want to build off of your UBs tourism, then go Artistry. Diplomatic and Culture Greece's will then want to go Industry, however a warfaring Greece will want Imperialism


Opener: Little bit of production to help early unit and building construction, plus easier barbarians and some culture out of them and any other units you kill to boot

Dominance: Get some science out of your kills too, plus the healing will allow your units to stand a bit of a chance at surviving a followup attack after defeating another unit

Tribute: Some extra yields for your cities here and there never hurt

Imperium: You're bound to be conquering a lot of cities, so this will probably add up to several techs and a few policies

Discipline: Gold and happiness are both things Greece has pretty much no bonuses too, so this will help

Honor: Some extra units here and there, fairly likely to be a Hoplite early on, which is pretty nice

Finisher: Quick purchased units can be helpful in certain situations


Opener: Small bit of gold and a few extra yields in the capital can't hurt

Trade Confederacy: Some more influence, and some extra money from trade

Foreign Service: A nice collection of misc. bonuses for getting and having city states

Shadow Networks: A good boost to science that you definitely need

Consulates: Helps give an early leg up in the world congress.

Exchange Markets: An extra trade route that is superior to basically everyone else, and some happiness from your trade routes on top.

Finisher: A few yields every world congress session, not too shabby


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

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt, just keep your guilds up

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

Humanism: Once you start building up your great works these are some solid yields

Heritage: You're going to be building plenty of wonders, get some golden ages out of them

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

Finisher: Even more artifacts and landmarks, awesome to see


Opener: Two free trade routes for more city state pressure and/or more tourism

Free Trade: Extra gold from trade routes is always nice

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

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

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

Protectionism: Some food and science, can't complain

Finisher: You're bound to have specialists somewhere, so this is definitely helpful


Opener: You probably will need to do some conquest overseas, so this will help make sure your navy is up to the task

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: A good bit of yields across the empire.

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

Finisher: Now your navy defends better, and you can use air units to help better defend and stabilize your empire.

No matter the victory route, I believe Greece is best served by Autocracy


United Front: Makes part of Greece's UA somewhat redundant, but this is better then it so...

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

Military-Industrial Complex: Greece has likely been warring since the beginning of the game, and will probably have some very highly upgraded units they want to keep. This makes it affordable to do so

Futurism(Culture): Keep conquering cities and you'll keep building tourism, simple as that


Total War(Diplomacy): Faster unit production, and the easier bullying will help later.

Lightning Warfare: Better generals, gun units and armor units, all of which Greece will likely be using.

Syndicalism(Culture): Make sure you aren't building too many corporate franchises in your territory, and this can bump up your tourism a good bit.

Martial Spirit(Domination/Culture): An amazing bonus to clean up your last conquest or two, but it is a temporary boost. If you still have more then two civs to conquer, it might be better to postpone this, but it is always worth getting when the moment is right.


Tyranny(Diplomacy): Allows Greece to leverage their army into more city state influence, which will in turn make their army better. The cycle continues

Cult of Personality(Culture): Keep a war going for as long as possible, preferably forever, and this will add a ton of tourism.

Air Supremacy(Domination/Culture): 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.

Statue of Zeus: Hoplites are strong enough that enough can even take down a walled city, but this will certainly make it easier to only do Hoplites early on.


Oracle: Can't pass up enough science and culture for almost a full tech and policy

Parthenon: Gives you some more culture and also some science for all of those Acropolis's you're building

Roman Forum: Makes it just a bit easier to get and keep city states


Alhambra(Authority Only): If you want to mix some mounted units with your upgraded Hoplites, this will make them a lot better


Summer Palace: Someone else who gets this wonder can cause serious problems for your city state alliances, but getting this yourself almost guarantees no problems with them

Uffizi(Culture): A good start to getting culture and tourism outside of your Acropolis


Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): Will ensure your dominance over the world congress

Eiffel Tower(Culture): You may find you actually get tourism influence over every civ before you finish 2 tier 3 ideology policies, so this will make sure there's at least less time in between

Louvre(Artistry Only): A hard theming bonus, but well worth it

Neuschwanstein: Happiness might be a problem for Greece. This will help


Broadway(Industry Only): Uffizi: The Musical

Cristo Redentor(Culture): Tourism, along with tourism on what you are already building to get tourism

Prora(Autocracy Only): Will make happiness much less of an issue, and with a free policy on top too.


Pentagon(Imperialism Only): More air units, and better air units, what ain't to love?


CERN: Techs, influence, what else do you need?

CN Tower(Culture): Hopefully you've gotten all your tourism influence by now, but if not, this should do it

Great Firewall(Culture): Another civ getting this wonder could make it much harder to win a culture win, so get it yourself

Greece is a pretty simple civ, however they are being pulled in a lot of different directions. They can make it work, but can also get overwhelmed if you aren't careful


Hoplites are really strong in their own right, you don't need Hellenic league bonuses to make them work. Also they are an early unit, and can rapidly wipe a whole civ off the map if you are quick enough. But take too long and while they are still useful, you won't be able to fight as easily


While Hoplite wars take priority over the Acropolis, you still want it as soon as you can. Every kill without an acropolis is a kill that could've netted some extra culture and border growth


Greek Influence decays at half the rate, you do not have double the influence. You still need to invest enough into city states to make sure they stay allied, and you'll still need to pump a lot into contested city states.

Greece is a terrifying early warmonger, and a flexible but nonetheless strong opponent afterwards. However, the majority of their power falls to one source, city states. While not easy, if you can topple that Greece will find themselves nearly without any bonuses


Once Greece gets a city state ally, they have to do very little to maintain it as long as no other civ tries to contest it. However, when being contested for city state ownership, Greece lacks the gold or production to really stand up to a dedicated swarm of diplomatic units. Hit Greece's city states hard with lots of influence, pick up important diplomatic wonders, and you can rob Greece of their biggest military bonus. Of course while this will spare you their wrath in the mid and late game, early game is a different story


Hoplites are the undisputed kings of the ancient era(perhaps excluding the Persian UU), and their dominance extends into the classical too. Even if Greece can't get any city state allies, Hoplites are still scary. If Greece is a neighbor, I would recommend rushing for medieval units asap. Knights and longswordsman can do a great job. Until then though, you have a tough fight. Walls will allow your cities to last a good bit longer, and your army should mostly consist of composite bowmen, skirmishers, and swordsman. Swordsman will likely still be weaker then Hoplites, but they can buy time for your ranged units to chip away at them.


For most times you face Greece, the Acropolis isn't a massive deal. The border growth and culture is nice but if they are getting a ton off of you it's because they already are beating you in a war. The defense is negligible if you are invading them, maybe it will cause an extra turn before a city goes down. The tourism however, can be a problem. If Greece doesn't really go for a culture win then it doesn't matter, however if they do, the Acropolis is the main reason they can. Try to build up culture buildings to prevent Greece from getting too much influence over you, don't give Greece open borders, and try to prevent them from getting too many cities if at all possible


Early-Game Warmonger: I probably wouldn't attack Greece now unless you have a powerful early game unique unit of your own such as Persia. In fact I'd be ready to go on the defensive if Greece is an early neighbor

Mid-Game Warmongers: Take out former Hoplites, and maybe try and kill a city state or two if it's not out of the way. You will have to put in more effort then normal to do so but it will hurt Greece in the long and short run.

Late-Game Warmongers: At this point Greece probably has more then 5 city state allies, taking out just one or two won't hurt Greece much unless they need that city state to win diplomatically. Just come at Greece with as great a force you can, once you crush their initial forces Greece will probably struggle to reinforce.

Diplomatic Players: The important thing is to not let Greece keep a city state uncontested. They have to put very little resources into a non contested city state, but they don't actually have that many resources to put into city states to begin with. Getting important diplomatic wonders will help a lot

Cultural Players: For most Greeces, just try your best to keep up decent defenses, and perhaps steal some diplomatic wonders and try to contest Greece's city states. For a culture Greece however, they actually shouldn't prove much direct competition, and in fact your mere existence probably makes their life much harder. You'll probably have enough culture to resist their early tourism spike, and probably the production or other tourism bonuses to outcompete them later on

Scientific Players: Early game try your best to get swordsman tech then medieval units. Once that happens you should be pretty safe. Just keep up on military techs and you should completely nullify the advantage of the Hellenic League bonus.

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)
  
• 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)