Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

I have as much right to rule as my brother, and if I cannot share his throne, I shall make a greater one. Upon this hill the Phoenicians shall create their greatest work; upon this hill Carthage shall arrive. But our work is precarious - in this new land there may well be new opportunities, yet new dangers as well. As our lives depend upon the survival of Carthage, Carthage must be defended with our lives.


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Phoenicia has a tier 2 coast bias - understandable considering the civ's emphasis on colonisation and naval warfare.

• Start with the eureka boost for the ancient-era Writing technology
  
• Founded coastal cities on the same continent as Phoenicia's capital always have full loyalty.
  
  • This does not apply to cities that are captured, flipped via loyalty, or only adjacent to a lake
• Embarked Settlers have +2 movement points and +2 sight
  
• Settlers pay just one movement point to embark or disembark

• Building a Government Plaza or any of its buildings grants +1 trade route capacity each.
  
• The city with the Government Plaza district gains +50% production when building other districts.
  
• Cities with the Cothon district gain access to the Move Capital city project.
  
  • A city completing the project becomes your new original capital, and your old original capital is treated as an ordinary city. The Palace transfers, as does city-state bonuses, appropriate policy cards, and so forth.
    
    • The only exception is the Casa de Contratación wonder, which considers your "home continent" to be whichever continent had your capital on at time of construction or capture.
      
    • To win a domination victory, a rival civ will have to capture this city instead of the first city Phoenicia founded.
  • The Move Capital project always costs four times as much as regular district projects, and accordingly increases in cost over the course of the game.
    
  • The Move Capital project can be rushed with the use of Builder charges if Phoenicia has the Royal Society building in their Government Plaza district. The Builder will need to move to the Cothon district to add production.

An ancient-era naval melee unit which replaces the Galley

• 35 strength, up from 30.
  
• 4 movement points, up from 3.
  
• Embarked owned traders within 4 tiles cannot be pillaged.

A classical-era speciality district which replaces the Harbour

*All districts increase in cost based on your technological and civic progress. If you have more or the same number of speciality districts as speciality district types you have unlocked and the former number divided by the latter is bigger than the number of copies of this district you have, you will receive a 40% discount.

**Purchasing districts with gold requires the governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion to be present in the city. Purchasing districts with faith requires Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to be present in the city.

• -50% production cost
  
• +50% production when training Settlers in this city
  
• +50% production when training naval units in this city
  
• Naval units recover to full health when healing within this city's limits.

• Buildings in this district have unique graphics.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Phoenicia has a moderate advantage in the cultural game. More trade routes and cities means you can trade internally extensively to stack a lot of production in one city and build up wonders. You can also more easily exploit the +25% tourism bonus for having a trade route with another civ.

Phoenicia can make a decent attempt at a diplomatic game as well. Phoenicia's inclination towards colonisation is good in military emergency situations as they'll be more likely to be near the emergency target, and more likely to be able to act against them. In aid emergencies, gold from Phoenicia's cheap Cothons and extra trade routes should provide an advantage as well.

Domination is Phoenicia's best route, though it is very map-dependent. The strong and mobile Biremes have early rushing potential, while +50% naval unit production offered by Cothons means Phoenicia can dominate throughout the game on water-heavy maps. But that's not to say that Phoenicia isn't good at domination on Pangaea-style maps, either. Being able to settle on coasts right next to rival civs without loyalty pressures can offer a great launchpad for future conquests even where less coastline is available. Cheap Harbours means you can access the gold they offer sooner. And embarked Settlers are excellent at spying on rival territory even in lakes.

A religious victory as Phoenicia relies largely on the Phoenicia's ability to train and move Settlers quickly given most sources of faith are offered on a per-city basis. Phoenicia also tends to have a lot of trade routes which could be used externally for bonus religious pressure.

Phoenicia will find science to be a good backup victory route if domination doesn't work out for whatever reason. Training Settlers faster and faster embarked speed means you can secure more cities, and potentially more Campuses. The cheap Cothon district will add its adjacency bonus to science via the classical and/or medieval-era Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication - with two early-arriving uniques, Phoenicia can either secure a reliable classical-era Golden Age, or deliberately hold off completing them until the classical game era to secure a more powerful medieval-era Golden or Heroic Age. This can get you a powerful temporary edge. Faster building of districts in your Government Plaza city extends to Spaceports, which are otherwise expensive to build, while extra trade routes will be handy for stacking in a city competing in the space race.

Phoenicia is one of the game's best colonisers, but unlike civs like England and Spain, there's a big emphasis upon colonising your own continent - at least, at first.

The Phoencian civ ability offers several tools to help in the colonial game, but relies heavily on the civ's other advantages to really be effective.




The Phoenician alphabet is the precursor of many others, including the Latin, Arabic, Hebrew and Cyrillic alphabets. As a consequence, Phoenicia receives the eureka for Writing from the very start of the game, not having to meet another full civ first.

On a continents or pangaea-style map, this makes little difference as Writing's eureka is among the easiest in the game to unlock. It might mean if you get a free eureka from ancient ruins you have a higher chance of receiving one that would otherwise be harder to obtain.

On island-based maps, this tends to be more effective as you'll often be isolated from other full civs for quite some time. With Writing completed sooner, you can build up Campuses sooner and get a stronger start to your science yield.

Either way, it's still worth researching Writing early. A couple of early Campuses costs relatively little, and will get you through key technologies while you focus on expansion.



Note that it doesn't extend to captured cities - my capital of Sbrt'n is on the same continent as Berlin, but Berlin is still suffering loyalty loss.

Phoenicia is excellent at the colonisation game, and this attribute is a big part of the reason why. Completely ignoring loyalty penalties when founding new cities on your home continent allows you to settle much more coastline early on than most other maritime civs, and can also enable you to exploit forward-settling to some great results.

Forward-settling is the act of deliberately founding a city close to a rival's capital, whether to deny them expansion potential or as a launchpad for future invasions. Forward-settling does tend to come with diplomatic penalties in singleplayer, and the potential of war as the new, vulnerable city might just be taken by your new neighbour.


To keep your new city safe, use the gold you raise from Cothon districts to purchase military units there, or else keep naval ranged units stationed close by to fire on would-be invaders.

Whether you forward-settle or not, it's still a good idea to get a lot of coastline secured so you can build your unique Cothon district in plenty of cities.

Dido's leader ability allows you to move the location of your capital, and with it you can potentially apply coastal loyalty to a different continent. How you can exploit that will be covered in more detail in that section of this guide.



Don't worry, that Barbarian ship can't reach my Settler - and even if they could, my Settler has enough sight to see them coming and enough mobility to dodge them.

As a general rule, Settlers aren't supposed to be left alone. While their sight radius of 3 is higher than most other units, helping them see slower threats before they can reach them, their low mobility and lack of ability to defend themselves makes them vulnerable. Furthermore, the high cost of Settlers makes them unsuited for exploiting their extra sight in a scouting role even when escorted by military units.

But thanks to Phoencia's civ ability, you can get quite a bit more out of your Settlers. Right from the classical-era Shipbuilding technology (which allows you to embark them), they'll be fast enough to keep up with your Bireme units - or faster than Barbarian Galleys - with a sight radius of 5 tiles! This is excellent for evading sea-based threats even when the Settler is unescorted, and together with being able to embark at a low movement cost, the time taken to move from a city that trains a Settler to the location you want to settle their city at is greatly reduced.

Furthermore, embarked Settlers with at least two movement points remaining can disembark and settle a city immediately, allowing them to avoid being captured by land-based Barbarians or enemy units.

But that's not all! The unique Cothon district's production bonus means Phoenicia can train Settlers faster than any other civ in the game. That means you can often afford to spare one for a bit of espionage work. The massive sight radius of embarked Settlers makes them great for exploration - and spying on rival territory. Knowing how strong an enemy army or navy is can help you determine where a good target to attack later.

Be aware that this special functionality of Settlers drops off somewhat in usefulness as the game goes on. Settlers shouldn't be left unescorted once renaissance-era naval units start appearing - Privateers are invisible to them while promoted Caravels can have more mobility than Settlers' sight radius, allowing Settlers to be captured before they can even see anything that can capture them. Their sight radius is still useful for a while longer - at least until air units enter the battlefield.

• Settle extensively along your home continent's coast
  
• You can settle very close to rival civs that share your home continent, then purchase military units there for an easy defensive or invasion force
  
• Embarked Settlers have enough mobility and sight to dodge enemy naval units until the renaissance era, so they don't necessarily need escorting
  
• Embarked Settlers can be used to spy on rival territory.

It's my original capital, but not my original original capital.

Dido's leader ability builds on the Phoenician civ ability and the unique Cothon district to offer even more in the colonial game - including the possibility to move your capital to a new continent and treat your old cities as if they were colonies.


The Government Plaza is a speciality district which can only be built once in your entire civ. Its buildings offer empire-wide bonuses, but you'll have to pick carefully, given that each tier of buildings has a choice of three different ones. Unlike other districts, the buildings for Government Plazas aren't unlocked directly at technologies or civics, but unlocked once you upgrade to a new tier of government.

The Government Plaza is unlocked at the ancient-era State Workforce civic, and the civic's inspiration requires you to have already built another speciality district. This is easily met by ensuring you have a Campus district built already - Phoenicia's free Writing eureka might help with that.

Any civ benefits from building the Government Plaza in a stronger city, as they'll be able to get each tier of buildings complete quickly, ensuring their empire-wide bonuses take effect sooner. Furthermore, the high adjacency bonuses offered by the Government Plaza to other districts suits a city large enough to be able to make full use of that. But for Phoenicia, you'll want to be sure that your Government Plaza city also has access to the sea or a lake. That'll allow the city to benefit from the Settler production bonus of both the Ancestral Hall building and the Cothon district!

That being said, as tempting as it is, don't wait for the Ancestral Hall building to be complete before training Settlers. Expanding quickly early on will pay off later as you'll have more well-developed cities all providing for your empire.

Phoenicia's Government Plaza city will be able to build subsequent districts faster, which means more free production for other uses like training Settlers. It'll also add extra trade route capacity as it develops - this is mostly useful earlier in the game when you can get two points of capacity just from the intial district and the first building. Later on, you'll most likely get far more capacity from building new Cothon districts and Lighthouses.




Dido offers the very distinct ability to move Phoenicia's capital to a different city - at a cost. The new city must have the Cothon district present (so by extension there must be coast or a lake in range of the city), and the project has a very high production requirement - four times that of a normal district project!

Despite this high cost, it's still worth it to move your capital at least once during a game. There's a variety of reasons for doing so:


The Palace and the 1-envoy bonuses offered by city-states adds yields to your capital. But your first city might not be the best-suited to make use of all these yields, especially if a new city has access to modifiers that affect them. For example, a city with the Ruhr Valley wonder can make better use of production from industrial and militaristic city-states.

Capitals also exert more loyalty pressure than other cities - on average, amounting to double the typical output. By moving your capital to a border area, you can prevent that city from flipping while increasing the likelihood it can flip rival cities. In theory, you could repeatedly move your capital to expand via loyalty pressure, but the very high production cost of moving your capital makes it more practical to invest in military units and conquest instead.


The most powerful advantage Phoenicia gets from moving their capital to a different continent is making their old "home" continent be considered "overseas". This allows any bonus that targets cities on overseas continents to target your oldest and most developed cities, giving you much better rewards than might otherwise be the case. Bonuses to look out for include:

• The Hic Sunt Draconis Golden Age dedication (available from the renaissance to modern eras) offers +3 population and +2 loyalty per turn in cities founded on a foreign continent, as well as adding +2 movement points to naval and embarked units.
  
• The Casa de Contratación wonder (requires the renaissance-era Cartography technology) grants +15% production, faith and gold in all cities in a foreign continent with a Governor present. However, what is considered to be "home" and "foreign" continents for the purpose of this wonder is fixed when you complete or capture it, even if you move your capital afterwards.
  
• The Colonial Offices diplomatic policy card (requires the renaissance-era Exploration civic): +15% growth and +3 loyalty for cities not on your original capital's continent.
  
• The Torre de Belém wonder (requires the renaissance=era Mercantilism civic) grants all your cities not on your home continent a copy of the cheapest building they can currently build.
  
• The Colonial Taxes diplomatic policy card (requires the industrial-era Colonialism civic): +25% gold and +10% production in cities not on your original capital's continent.

Colonial Taxes is the most reliable bonus, and considering you should have plenty of Cothon cities by this point in the game, you can get a lot of extra gold on top. Though the production bonus is only 10%, considering how versatile production is as a yield, that goes a long way.


Phoenicia's civ ability gives founded coastal cities on their home continent full loyalty no matter what. This is useful early in the game when locking down a lot of land, but as cities grow, they're more able to place loyalty pressure to support each other, so they won't necessarily need the loyalty bonus any more. That's a great opportunity to move it to a new continent.


To the south and west of Germany, there is unsettled land that could act as a useful operating base for myself. By moving my capital to this continent, I'm able to settle there without having to worry about losing my city.

This ability is most effective in island-heavy and Terra map types. On island-heavy maps, nearly every potential settlement location is on the coast so you can end up with near-immunity to enemy loyalty. On Terra maps, you can lock down much of the New World continent even if competitors are already present. Still, even on Pangaea map types, there tends to be unoccupied terrain near the poles which could potentially host a coastal city to act as a local base of operations to launch attacks from.

Again, remember that this bonus only applies to founded cities, not captured or flipped ones. That means if you intend on moving your capital for loyalty immunity purposes, make sure you're actually settling new cities!

To win a domination victory, a civ needs to hold all the original capitals in the game. But Phoenicia can move the city considered their "original capital" so long as they still own their existing one, forcing warmongers to change their plans on where to target.

Moving your capital to a more defensive position, or a city further from a would-be warmonger can discourage them from targeting you. Try moving your capital to an offshore island - your naval advantages will give you an defensive edge you wouldn't have on a continent. Alternatively, if a very mountainous spot has a nearby lake, you can settle a city, place a Cothon in the lake and move your capital there making it extremely difficult to target.

If you're already at war and need to move your capital quickly, look for a city with a Cothon and a lot of woods and/or rainforest, then move Governor Magnus (the Steward) there. Buy some Builders to quickly clear foliage and rush through the project to completion.

Alternatively, you can try working on a Move City project to near completion in a city ahead of time, then work on something else. Once your capital is under threat, switch back to working on the project so you can complete it just in time.


The Move Capital project can be sped up with use of Builder charges if you have the Royal Society building in your Government Plaza (requires a tier three government - Communism, Democracy or Fascism - which all come at late-modern era civics). You can contribute one Builder per turn to the city's Cothon district, which will consume all their charges to add 2% of the production cost per charge. In other words, with a combination of the Public Works economic policy card and Governor Liang (the Surveyor) in the city, by purchasing Builders, you can move your capital to any city with a Cothon in 9 turns or less.

This might sound good, but remember that building the Royal Society building means forgoing the War Department, which has a much more relevant bonus for a domination game (20 HP healed on kills). If you really desperately need to move your capital this late in the game, consider moving your Traders to the new city and internally trading for extra production.

• Build your Government Plaza in a strong city that can host a Cothon district, and build the Ancestral Hall there so it can more effectively train Settlers.
  
• Don't delay training Settlers ahead of Cothons and the Ancestral Hall - it helps to get a few cities settled early on.
  
• Move your capital around the renaissance era to a foreign continent so you can exploit the Colonial Offices and Colonial Taxes policy cards on your original continent.

Biremes are moderately versatile naval units with a range of helpful functions - all available at an affordable cost. They'll allow Phoenicia to dominate the seas early in the game, while the Cothon district helps Phoenicia to dominate the seas in the rest of the game.


Before I go any further, it's important to note that building Phoenicia's unique unit and district might not be necessarily your best move straight away. That all comes down to how it might affect your ability to secure a strong Golden Age.

In a classical or medieval-era Golden Age, you are able to select the Free Inquiry dedication. This grants you science based on the adjacency bonuses of all your Harbours (or in Phoenicia's case, Cothon districts). Building an early Bireme and rushing a Cothon district can reliably secure you a classical-era Golden Age, but you'll have relatively few Cothons to exploit the bonus.

Instead, by deliberately keeping your era score low through the ancient game era (avoid destroying nearby Barbarian encampments to help with this) and avoiding building a Bireme or Cothon until the ancient game era ends, you can secure a classical-era Dark Age. You can then make use of both uniques to gain enough era score to put yourself on the path to a very powerful medieval-era Heroic Age. The main downside of Dark Ages - a loyalty penalty - is easily circumvented via Phoenicia's civ ability, while a medieval-era Heroic Age could provide masses of science as well as other yields. Plus, a classical-era Dark Age allows use of the Twilight Valour wildcard, which goes well with Biremes.

All that being said, you don't have to take such a course of action. On water-heavy maps, the rushing potential of Biremes is too good to delay, and on any map the sooner you have Cothons the sooner you can use their bonus to Settler training. And being able to get a reliable classical-era Golden Age is still very useful, particularly on smaller maps where an earlier domination victory is more viable.


With all that out of the way, all you need to build Biremes is a coastal city (or a city with a Cothon district) and the ancient-era Sailing technology. You might want to head to Writing before Sailing so you can get a Campus district up, however.

With the Foreign Trade civic, you can take the Maritime Industries policy card for +100% production towards Biremes, and you can get an additional +50% later from Cothons. This makes Biremes cost essentially just 26 production each - cheaper than Warriors even with the Agoge policy card!


With a base movement speed of 4, Biremes are the fastest thing in the sea until the renaissance era. This makes them great at coastal exploration until you can embark Settlers at the classical-era Shipbuilding technology, and still useful beyond that point for escorting Settlers.


Your embarked Trader units within 4 tiles of Biremes cannot be pillaged. That's a fairly niche ability considering Phoenicia's naval supremacy means you can usually destroy enemy naval units before that becomes a problem, though there may be occasions where Barbarians rush past your defences to pillage a trade route even if they get immediately destroyed after.

Even when enemy naval units become more effective, you can keep some Biremes stationed in your cities to protect nearby tiles from pillaging. If you have a string of coastal cities with Biremes inside, your coastal trade routes should be almost completely immune to pillaging!


Biremes have 35 strength, and can get up to 39 with the Oligarchy government. This gives them a considerable advantage over enemy Galleys and Quadriremes, and even a good shot against enemy coastal cities. If the city has walls, bring along Quadriremes as they deal full damage against them.

If you're aiming for a medieval-era Heroic Age, you'll need to enter a classical-era Dark Age along the way. That allows you to pick up the Twilight Valour wildcard, which gives Biremes a +5 attack bonus at the cost of being unable to heal outside enemy territory - something they can't do anyway.

Capturing a coastal city won't last long as you'll lose the city to loyalty pressures, but if the city is on your home continent, you can raze it and resettle it for a spot with maximum loyalty right next to your enemy. The Cothon district makes Settlers more affordable, so this isn't as expensive a strategy as it may at first appear. Otherwise, taking multiple coastal cities simultaneously will allow them to provide loyalty pressure to each other.


Biremes become obsolete in combat and exploration roles once Caravels become available (at the renaissance-era Cartography technology). But they still provide nearby water-based Traders with immunity from being pillaged, and you can keep them safe by placing them in your city centres. As such, consider keeping a few Biremes around if you think enemies pillaging your trade routes is a possible risk.


While dominant in combat on water-heavy maps early on, Biremes are a relatively niche unit otherwise. They're good at exploration for a brief time before embarked Settlers come along, or defending them later, great at combat but restricted by the limited number of targets, and can prevent your Traders being pillaged - until your navy's strong enough you don't need that functionality.

The Cothon district is central to Phoenicia's game. Aside from having all the advantages of a typical Harbour, it also offers a powerful bonus to naval unit and Settler training which allows Phoenicia to settle and conquer their way to a huge empire.


Cothons require the classical-era Celestial Navigation technology, which has a boost requirement of improving two sea resources. That's easy to achieve by researching Sailing around the time of training your first or second Builder.

Harbours provide +2 gold adjacency if next to a city centre, and Cothons are no different. As such, you should aim to settle cities directly on the coast or on a lake where possible. Try to position a city so the Cothon is also next to at least one water-based resource for an even stronger adjacency bonus.

Don't worry too much about founding cities on fresh water. Cothons are cheap to build, and you can follow it up with a Lighthouse building for an impressive +3 housing if it's adjacent to the city centre. That'll also expand your trade route capacity by 1.


Cothons offer a 50% production bonus when training Settlers. This stacks with the Colonisation economic policy card (requires the ancient-era Early Empire civic) and the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building (requires the classical-era Political Philosophy civic) for an impressive +150% production bonus, but only for the city with the Government Plaza. Even without the Ancestral Hall, other cities get a powerful +100% bonus.

Governor Magnus (the Steward) can be granted the Provision promotion and placed in your Government Plaza city so you can train Settlers rapidly without losing any population.

The main benefit of training Settlers quickly is being able to create lots of cities very rapidly. The Phoenician civ ability allows you to settle along the coasts extensively, even close to other civs, so you can get loads of spots where you can build up subsequent Cothons. More Settlers means more Cothons, and more Cothons means more money. And via the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication, that can mean a lot of science, too - especially combined with the medieval-era Naval Infrastructure economic policy card (requires the Naval Tradition civic) which doubles Cothon adjacency.

More cities will also be useful for securing strategic resources like nitre or oil, which are required to train certain naval units.

A secondary benefit for training Settlers quickly is their use in exploration - at least once you have the classical-era Shipbuilding technology. Settlers are sufficiently cheap for Phoenicia that you can spare one for a bit of exploration (or spying on another civ) with their incredibly high sight range before you settle a city with one.


Phoenician cities with Cothons get a 50% bonus to training all naval units. With the appropriate military policy card, that rises to 150%. Cothon cities with the policy card train naval units in 20% less time than non-Cothon cities with the policy card would train them. This means you can get five naval units for every four other civs produce! And that's before taking into account you'll tend to have significantly more coastal cities than other civs which can produce even more naval units.

There's four types of naval units:

• Naval melee - Naval melee units overall defend better than other naval units, and unlike naval ranged and naval raider units, are capable of capturing cities. They're good against naval raiders but weak against naval ranged units. The unique Phoenician Bireme unit is an example of this.
  
• Naval ranged - Naval ranged units have strong firepower, and deal full damage against city defences (much like siege units do on land). They're excellent at clearing out land-based units and, starting with Frigates in the renaissance era, should generally be the bulk of your navy.
  
• Naval raider - Naval raider units lack mobility, but are invisible to most units and can pillage adjacent land tiles. They're decent at dealing with naval ranged units, but are countered by naval melee ones and lack defence against aircraft. If you have a renaissance, industrial or modern-era Dark Age, you can take the Letters of Marque wildcard for +100% production to naval raiders and +2 movement, but the downside (-50% trade route yields) isn't generally worth it.
  
• Aircraft Carriers - These special atomic-era units are capable of carrying two aircraft each, or more with promotions. Given how powerful aircraft are, it's a good idea to have a few in your navy eventually.

While Biremes and Quadriremes can perform reasonably well against enemy cities, navies get better in the renaissance era and even more so in the modern era. That's because of the expanding attack range of naval ranged units. Frigates have a range of 2, allowing you to hit cities a tile inland or have more units contribute to the attack of a coastal tile, while Battleships and Missile Cruisers have a range of 3. Virtually every civ that owns coastal tiles will have a city in range of a Battleship's attack radius, meaning a naval advantage can virtually always help you get a foothold in enemy lands by this point in the game.

Sufficiently experienced naval ranged units can gain the Coincidence Rangefinding, giving them +1 attack range. For Battleships and Missile Cruisers, this often means you can fire from a coastal city to an inland enemy one, given that a four-tile gap is the minimum distance between cities.

With so many cities and so many Cothons, you can generate a lot of gold - use that gold to buy land units in the coastal cities you settle, allowing you to push your attacks further inland. This saves you having to embark military units and bring them on a slow journey overseas.


Naval units healing in the waters of a Cothon city heal to full health, rather than healing 20 HP per turn.

This is most effective defensively. A wall of naval units surrounding a city centre is a huge disincentive to attack it. Any unit that can't be killed in one turn can't be killed at all.

This feature is also useful offensively. Having a coastal city near enemy lands means you have a place for naval units to rest up and heal - but if the city has a Cothon, the naval units have a lot less downtime before being able to get back into the fight. The renaissance-era Logistics military policy card (requires the Mercantilism) civic complements this ability neatly, as it provides units with +1 movement point when starting in friendly terrain - units can heal up, then get back into the fight even faster.

• Settle nearly every city on the coast or a lake so it can get a strong Cothon adjacency bonus
  
• Use the Free Inquiry Golden Age bonus for Cothons in the classical and/or medieval era to provide bonus science.
  
• Faster-built naval units allows you to have a quantity advantage on the seas, and use that to help conquer coastal or slightly inland cities
  
• Use gold from Cothon districts to purchase military units in freshly-captured coastal cities so you can bring the fight inland.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Oligarchy's strength bonus to Bireme units makes it a decent choice, though Autocracy synergises well with Dido's bonuses to your Government Plaza city.

Choose the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building for even faster Settlers in conjunction with Cothon districts, or else the Warlord's Throne for bonus empire-wide production out of your conquests.


Merchant Republic offers a small gold bonus to complement your Cothons and a good balance of policy card slots, but is most importantly on a civic research path you'll want to follow anyway for the Colonial Offices diplomatic policy card.

A good choice of tier two building is the Grand Master's Chapel. While Phoenicia lacks direct advantages to faith generation, conquest will most likely provide you with Holy Sites and a lot of faith with few uses. By allowing the purchase of land military units with faith, you can build up a bigger army in the coastal cities you capture.


Fascism offers a strength bonus and a production bonus, as well as reduced war weariness. All this makes Battleship or Missile Cruiser-led warfare greatly more effective. Democracy's bonuses to trading with allies and discount to purchasing with gold has strong synergy with the economic advantages of Cothons, however, and is the best option if domination victory doesn't look viable by this point in the game.

The War Department builds on that further by allowing units to heal a little every time they score a kill. But consider also the Royal Society - it allows you to rush the Move Capital project, potentially allowing you to complete it in any city in 9 turns or less. If you intend to settle coasts in new continents late into the game, that can be rather powerful.


Synthetic Technocracy is typically your best choice. While Corporate Libertarianism has more military policy card slots, the production bonus is tricky for Phoenicia to use given their emphasis on Cothons over Encampments and Commercial Hubs, both governments have plenty of wildcards, and there's plenty of useful economic policy cards for Phoenica anyway. Synthetic Technocracy notably gives you a 30% production bonus to city projects, including the Move Capital project, and bonus power, which is useful in many ways (such as granting extra amenities to Aquatics Centres, helping you deal with war weariness).

Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Phoenicia's trade route capacity picks up quickly early in the game thanks to Dido's leader ability and the cheap Cothon district speeding up the road to Lighthouses. As such, you can make a fair amount of money off this policy card.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - A very useful policy card in conjunction with the Settler production bonus from Cothons, as cities will have a +100% production bonus towards them.

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) - Having large numbers of naval units can rapidly drain your funds dry. This policy card should help with that.

Maritime Industries (Military, requires Foreign Trade) - Cothon cities can now train ancient and classical-era naval units (including the unique Bireme) in 60% less time than if they had neither the district nor this policy card.


Bastions (Military, requires Defensive Tactics) - When taking a coastal city off another civ, it's a good idea to purchase a land unit there so you can start pushing inland. But if the civ has a strong enough army to immediately retake the city, that unit is lost. By boosting your city's defensive capabilities, this policy card should increase the odds you avoid that city being retaken.

Veterancy (Military, requires Military Training) - Cothons and their buildings can be built faster with this policy card.


Naval Infrastructure (Economic, requires Naval Tradition) - Doubles Cothon adjacency bonuses. Especially strong with Shipyards (for bonus production) or the Free Inquiry Golden Age dedication (for bonus science).

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) - A mass-produced navy costs a lot to upgrade - consider using this policy card to lessen that cost.

Retainers (Military, requires Civil Service) - Phoenicia's emphasis on settling and conquering a lot of cities places a lot of pressure on amenities, so policy cards such as this one will be very helpful. Any military land unit will do for the amenity bonus in garrisoned cities - even Scouts.

Trade Confederation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - Trading externally? You can put your many trade routes to good use with this boost to culture and science.


Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - Moving your capital to a new continent allows all your cities in your old continent to benefit from the growth and loyalty advantages.

Liberalism (Economic, requires The Enlightenment) - Extra amenities to help handle a huge empire.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Naval units can only heal in friendly territory - this movement speed bonus helps get them back into the fight faster.

Press Gangs (Military, requires Exploration) - Cothon cities now have a 150% production bonus to pre-modern naval units.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Adds a reasonable gold bonus to all trade routes, of which you're likely to have many.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Trading with an ally? Get rewards akin to internal trading while getting the full benefits of international trade.


Colonial Taxes (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - A powerful reason to move your capital off your starting continent. All your established cities on your original continent will get +10% production and +25% gold!

Expropriation (Economic, requires Scorched Earth) - Still founding new cities? This policy card goes nicely with Cothons to provide a +100% production bonus to Settlers.

Force Modernisation (Military, requires Urbanisation) - Halves the cost of bringing your large navy up to date.

Military Research (Military, requires Urbanisation) - All Seaports now add +2 science. Given they're a Harbour district building, and you'll have a lot of Cothons by this point in the game, you can get a lot out of this policy card.


Economic Union (Economic, requires Ideology) - Doubles Cothon district adjacency bonuses.

Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) - Helps you afford the maintenance costs of your huge navy.

Martial Law (Wildcard, Fascism only, requires Totalitarianism) - Less amenity loss in warfare is great for a civ likely to have a huge number of cities all draining amenities. Extra loyalty helps you hold onto captured coastal cities.

Propaganda (Military, requires Mass Media) - Like Martial Law, also helps reduce war weariness.


International Waters (Military, requires Cold War) - Any naval unit except Aircraft Carriers can now be built rapidly.

Sports Media (Economic, requires Professional Sports) - Can provide a few more amenities.


Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - Your many trade routes will now offer lots of gold and production.

Strategic Air Force (Military, requires Globalisation) - You can now train Aircraft Carriers faster than anyone else.

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

Free Inquiry (Golden Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A very powerful dedication as it means all your Cothons can generate science. While a modest bonus in the classical game era, it can be huge in the medieval game era as you can stack the Naval Infrastructure economic policy card on top.

Monumentality (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - A good source of era score thanks to cheap Cothons.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - With the Oligarchy government on top, you can get Biremes up to 39 strength when attacking. They can't heal outside friendly territory anyway, so you can ignore the downside.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Phoenicia's large navies can dominate those of other civs, making this dedication a potentially good source of era score. That being said, the Reform the Coinage dedication will generally be better.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Still settling new cities? Enjoy a stronger starting point for them, with bonus population and loyalty. But the main advantage of this dedication is the powerful +2 movement points for naval and embarked units. Faster naval units means you can quickly move from one coastal target to the next, while faster embarked Settlers makes them extremely effective at scouting and reaching new lands to settle.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - With a lot of trade routes, you can get a lot of easy era score out of this dedication.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Immunity to trade route pillaging (at least for a game era) means old Biremes can be promoted to something more relevant to current-era warfare, and extra gold from international trade means you can afford to do that.

To Arms! (Golden Age, Industrial to Information eras) - The Golden Age War casus belli can be declared immediately after denouncing a target, offering you a reliable casus belli you can use to minimise war weariness penalties.

Automated Workforce (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - While the amenity and loyalty losses are harsh, you can use this card temporarily in order to get a boost to the Move Capital project.

Cyber Warfare (Dark Age, Information to Future eras) - Still involved in warfare late in the game? You'll have Giant Death Robots to contend with, which dominate Future-era warfare. Unfortunately, Phoenicia has no advantage to building Giant Death Robots, but you can use cheap Missile Cruiser armadas and this dedication to get just enough strength to be able to survive hits from them - at least until later technologies boost their strength even further.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Border Control Treaty - Effect A (New districts built by this player act as culture bombs) on yourself.

The Phoenician civ ability allows you to settle right next to rival lands, but with this resolution you can start directly taking land off them as well. Consider using Governor Reyna (the Financier) with the Contractor promotion so you can directly purchase districts, maximising the amount of culture bombs you can activate in what little time you have.

Luxury Policy - Effect A (Duplicates of the chosen Luxury resource grant duplicate amenities) on whichever luxury you have the most copies of.

Internal trading and Lighthouses can provide a lot of food and housing respectively to grow cities, while cheap Settlers and naval units for conquest means you can end up with a lot of cities. The combination of the two can be very draining for your amenities. As such, this is a useful resolution to get passed in your favour.

Mercenary Companies - Effect B (Producing, or purchasing military units using the chosen currency type, is -50% of the cost until the next World Congress) on gold or production.

Cutting the production cost of units allows you to train naval units at incredible speed, but cutting the gold cost lets you get more out of money generated from Cothon districts when buying your way to an army in freshly-captured coastal cities.

Trade Policy - Effect A (Trade routes sent to the chosen player provide +4 gold to the sender. The chosen player receives +1 trade route capacity) on either yourself or an ally you trade with extensively.

Either build on your trade route advantages with extra gold for international trade, or an extra trade route for yourself.

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

You'll have a lot of Cothon districts, so now you can get a lot of buildings completed there as well!

World Ideology - Effect A (This government type gains a wildcard policy slot) on your own government

Phoenicia has a particularly large pool of relevant policy cards, so an extra wildcard slot is very helpful.

City Patron Goddess - Lots of new cities means lots of opportunities to exploit the production bonus of this dedication. That being said, you'll save more production if you build a district other than the Cothon first.

God of the Forge - An extra boost to Bireme production, albeit a minor one. God of the Sea will almost always provide a better advantage.

God of the Sea - A reliably strong pantheon for Phoenicia as you're encouraged to settle extensively next to the sea, and it makes up for the relatively low production coastal regions tend to have.

Religious Settlements - The bonus Settler is very useful when developing early on, given the need to spend production on Biremes, Cothons and the Government Plaza.


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

Religious Colonisation (Enhancer) - When settling your many new cities, they can immediately start with your religion! That's especially helpful in conjunction with the Hic Sunt Draconis Golden Age dedication, where new cities start at size 4.

Stupa (Worship) - A source of amenities.

Tithe (Founder) - Having a lot of cities helps this belief to generate a lot of gold.

Zen Meditation (Follower) - Another source of amenities.


Auckland (Industrial) - A huge boost to production in your many coastal cities.

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - You can get a fair amount of gold if you trade extensively with other civs.

Buenos Aires (Industrial) - Some bonus amenities.

Cardiff (Industrial) - Your Cothons can provide you with power via their buildings, allowing you to get the benefits from powered buildings without any additional investment.

Hattusa (Scientific) - Very useful for naval ranged units in particular - beyond Quadriremes, they all require strategic resources.

Hong Kong (Industrial) - Allows you to complete the Move Capital project faster.

Hunza (Trade) - Makes trading acrosss long distances more lucrative.

Kabul (Militaristic) - Naval ranged units with the Coincidence Rangefinding promotion can attack one more tile inland - but it takes a lot of experience to get there. Being suzerain over Kabul will really help.

Kumasi (Cultural) - Makes trading with city-states more lucrative.

Mexico City (Industrial) - You'll tend to have a long and snaky empire due to Phoenicia's emphasis on coastal cities. As such, Entertainment Complexes and Industrial Zones won't be able to reach as many cities via their area-of-effect bonuses. Being suzerain over Mexico City helps account for that.

Mogadishu (Trade) - If you're trading across oceans, Biremes won't be enough to keep your traders safe as they can be easily destroyed by Barbarians. As such, having suzerain status over Mogadishu is a good idea to avoid the risk of embarked Traders being pillaged entirely.

Mohenjo Daro (Cultural) - Being suzerain over Mohenjo Daro allows you to settle right next to other civs on the same continent without worrying about fresh water access.

Nan Madol (Cultural) - A powerful source of culture for coastal cities.

Samarkand (Trade) - Aids your international trade gold yields.

Singapore (Industrial) - If you're trading extensively, Singapore can be a good source of bonus production.

Venice (Trade) - Get more gold out of your international trade routes.

Zanzibar (Trade) - 12 amenities for your empire.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - Phoenicia is particularly well-suited to meet the requirements of this relatively uncompetitive wonder, and you can secure even more trade route capacity from it.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - Extra movement to all naval units, giving Phoenicia an even bigger edge in the naval game.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - Best-used in a city with a lot of reefs and/or coastal resources, this wonder makes their coastal tiles much stronger.

Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) - Phoenicia benefits from a lot of military policy cards but the Merchant Republic government lacks slots for them.

Angkor Wat (Medieval era, Medieval Faires civic) - Angkor Wat is more effective the more cities you have, and Phoenicia's advantages to Settler training means you'll tend to have a lot of cities by this point in the game.

University of Sankore (Medieval era, Education technology) - Trade to this city and you'll get a some faith and plenty of science.

Casa de Contratación (Renaissance era, Cartography technology) - Move your capital away from your starting continent before building or capturing this wonder. Once the wonder is obtained, the cities affected by its yield bonuses will be fixed, even if you move your capital again afterwards.

Forbidden City (Renaissance era, Printing technology) - There's a particularly high number of relevant policy cards for Phoenicia, so this wonder can really help.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - Trading from this city can generate a lot of gold - though the Commercial Hub requirement can be a problem.

Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Be sure you move your capital before completing this wonder for the best bonuses, as it will be far more effective that way. It'll give all your cities not on your home continent a copy of the cheapest building they can struck - your more established cities will gain a lot more free production than the newer cities on other continents could.

Venetian Arsenal (Renaissance era, Mass Production technology) - Build upon your naval unit training advantage with the Venetian Arsenal, which doubles your naval unit output.

Big Ben (Industrial era, Economics technology) - You can save up gold from Cothons and get a large bonus with this wonder, but the bonus economic policy card slot is the better bonus on offer here. With it, you can more easily fit in key policy cards like Economic Union around other useful ones.

Panama Canal (Industrial era, Steam Power technology) - Careful use of the Panama Canal allows your naval units to save time moving from target to target, or allows them to push further inland. Consider rushing this wonder with help from the industrial-era Great Engineer Gustav Eiffel if you need it near a less powerful city.

Statue of Liberty (Industrial era, Civil Engineering civic) - Coastal cities on your home continent are always 100% loyal, but they might not be if you move your capital to a different continent. As such, consider building the Statue of Liberty in a location vulnerable to loyalty pressures to avoid that risk.

Estádio do Maracanã (Atomic era, Professional Sports civic) - A huge empire-wide amenity bonus, which should help you with late-game war weariness.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Gaius Duilius (Great Admiral) - An early Bireme fleet will have an impressive 40 strength - 44 with Oligarchy, or as much as 49 when attacking with Oligarchy and Twilight Valour. Coastal cities without walls will be easily captured - and perhaps razed to the ground to be resettled with a city immune to loyalty pressures?

Hanno the Navigator (Great Admiral) - Create an extremely fast Bireme.

Themistocles (Great Admiral) - A permanent 20% bonus when training naval ranged units, which neatly stacks with the 50% bonus offered by Cothons, and the 100% bonus from the appropriate policy card.

Trưng Trắc (Great General) - Cuts war weariness by 25% for the rest of the game.

Zhang Heng (Great Scientist) - Celestial Navigation and Mathematics are both important technologies for the naval game, so rushing them faster is helpful.


Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - Allows you to take your strong navy across oceans sooner, and also gives you more attacking and retreating angles onto coastal cities.

Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - +1 trade route capacity.

Rajendra Chola (Great Admiral) - Permanently adds +3 strength to all your naval units when retired, meaning you can get an edge in both quantity and quality.

Zheng He (Great Admiral) - An easy source of +1 trade route capacity.


Francis Drake (Great Admiral) - A strong navy can also make a lot of money from plundering enemy naval trade routes.

Raja Todar Mal (Great Merchant) - Gain some gold from internal trading.

Santa Cruz (Great Admiral) - Your earliest shot at an armada. Make your most experienced naval ranged unit into one - that way, they'll soon have the Coincidence Rangefinding promotion and will be able to attack further inland with great power.


Ching Shih (Great Admiral) - Piracy on the high seas will be even more effective.

Horatio Nelson (Great Admiral) - Retire him in a city with a new Cothon and it'll be immediately a lot more productive. Furthermore, you'll permanently get +50% flanking bonuses for naval units, which means your advantage to naval unit production can go even further than before.

Joesph Paxton (Great Engineer) - The extended range for an Entertainment Complex is especially useful if you've been largely settling around the coast of a landmass and otherwise would have few cities in range of the district.

John Spilsbury (Great Merchant) - Bonus amenities, helping to deal with war weariness.


Joaquim Marques Lisboa (Great Admiral) - Permanently lowers war weariness generation by 25%.

John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Boosts trade route gold, and also provides some oil - handy for maintaining units like Missile Cruisers.

Nikola Tesla (Great Engineer) - Expands the range of an Industrial Zone - handy in coastal areas to ensure more than a couple of cities are in range.

Stamford Raffles (Great Merchant) - Need a foothold in a new continent? Stamford Raffles allows you to annex a city-state, and also offers a permanent +10 loyalty boost in that city. That allows you plenty of time to move your capital there.


Chester Nimitz (Great Admiral) - A permanent 20% bonus when training naval raiders, neatly stacking with Cothons and the appropriate military policy cards.

Helena Rubenstein (Great Merchant) - Bonus amenities.

Jane Drew (Great Engineer) - Extra amenities for a city.

John Roebling (Great Engineer) - Extra amenities.

Levi Strauss (Great Merchant) - Yet more amenities.


Estée Lauder (Great Merchant) - Additional amenities.

Phoenicia is great at establishing footholds close to rival lands, settling lots of cities and tends to have a numerical advantage on the seas, but will be vulnerable over land.


If you start on the same continent as Phoenicia, they can settle right next to you without suffering loyalty pressure - but only on the coast. By filling out coastal regions near your capital, you can minimise the possible locations for them to settle. Consider settling a tile or two inland so you can prevent Phoenicia attacking you from the sea as well.

Phoenicia's Settlers are excellent at exploration, which can make the civ a good target for a military alliance (tier 2 military alliances give you shared visibility). Alternatively, if Phoenicia is leaving embarked Settlers unescorted, you can catch them by bringing in naval units from multiple directions. Don't expect to catch them as they disembark, as they're able to disembark and settle a city in the same turn.


Phoenicia will tend to have a lot of trade routes early on, and it's likely at least a few of them will be land-based. These make them vulnerable to pillaging from cavalry units like Horsemen.

Phoenicia's ability to move their original capital can be a pain for warmongers seeking a quick conquest. You can avoid this problem by attacking Phoenicia before they can expand to a second continent, or attacking Phoenicia immediately after they make the move (as it'll take time before they can move it again).

Once Phoenicia moves their capital, it's unlikely to be in the same city as their Government Plaza. That means you're able to capture that city and raze it, cutting the civ off from the associated bonuses.


Dido favours settling coastal cities. She likes civs that settle inland, and dislikes civs that settle on the coast.

Maritime civs will have a tough time getting along with Dido in general, but civs that don't rely so much on the coast can elect to settle a tile or two inland instead for many cities, and keep the number of cities actually on the coast to a minimum.


Biremes are faster and stronger than Galleys, and Phoenicia can build them in large numbers. As such, if you start near Phoenicia you might want to avoid settling spots exposed to the coast. Also avoid improving coastal resources too early so they don't get pillaged.

Promoted Archers are a possible way of handling enemy Biremes, as you'll struggle to beat them on the seas early on. Catapults are even better if you have access to them. Once you have access to renaissance-era naval units, however, Phoenicia's strength bonus is lost.

Biremes can also prevent you pillaging Phoenicia's trade routes, but only within a four-tile radius and only on water tiles. Light cavalry are excellent at pillaging trade routes on land, while traders away from Phoenicia's cities will often be more vulnerable.


The more coastal cities Phoenicia can settle, the more Cothons they'll have. Taking spots near the coast first prevents Phoenicia from getting the coastal cities they want, without being able to attack you with their navy.

Phoenicia's Cothons have three key benefits: faster Settler training, faster naval unit construction, and full healing for naval units.

Faster Settler training means Phoenicia even in peaceful games is able to found more cities than other civs, which in turn typically leads to a huge empire. Such an empire will eventually have trouble with amenities as the cities grow, so if you don't want to fight Phoenicia, you can still weaken them by refusing to trade luxuries to them.

Strong naval production will give Phoenicia an edge on the seas, but not on land. If you don't think you can manage to take on Phoenicia's units on water, you can still build up Siege units as a land-based defence. Consider also placing Encampments on coastal tiles so they can provide an extra ranged attack to combat Phoenicia's navies.

Full healing means if you're taking on Phoenician naval units in their own waters, you need to either pillage the Cothon district or ensure you focus on one unit at a time to destroy them in a single turn.

If you like these guides and want to send a tip, you can click here![ko-fi.com]

• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.