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 always ruled by the grace of God, and God has never failed me. The accurséd enemies which seek to make Ethiopia a captive as I once was shall crumble against the roof of Africa as all those before them have. My empire, not the empire of arrogant conmen and colonisers shall be the mirror to the future; through God's aid Ethiopia shall endure.


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.

Ethiopia has a tier 2 start bias towards desert hills, grass hills, plains hills and tundra hills. Menelik II's leader ability and unique improvement depend on hill tiles, while the Oromo Cavalry unique unit ignores their movement cost.

• Improved resource tiles each grant their city +1 faith per improved copy of that resource in the city's territory
  
  • As an example, a city with 3 improved wheat tiles and 2 improved fish tiles will yield 9 faith for the wheat, and 4 for the fish.
    
  • Improvements do not have to be worked to provide this yield.
• International trade routes yield +0.5 faith for every resource in the origin city
  
• May purchase Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith

• Cities founded on hills generate bonus science and culture equal to 15% of their faith output
  
• All military and religious units receive +4 strength when fighting in hills
  
  • This strength bonus is determined by the defending unit's location.

A medieval-era light cavalry unit which replaces the Courser

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

• Costs 10 horses, down from 20 (-50%)
  
• 48 strength, up from 46
  
• 3 sight, up from 2
  
• Ignores movement cost of hills

*This improvement generates tourism even when not worked.

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.


Ethiopia's cultural victory potential is very strong, and it's particularly easy for the civ to switch from a religious emphasis to a cultural one if need be. Generating extra culture as you generate faith gives you an advantage to civic research, and that together with extra science can help to provide you with a head start on wonders. Ethiopia's huge faith generation can be put to great use in purchasing Naturalists and Rock Bands - but don't underestimate the ability to buy Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith. You can get a significant head start on artefacts relative to other civs and accumulate a lot of tourism sooner than most. Finally, the Rock-Hewn Church offers an excellent tourism yield, though with the cost of not being as spammable as the likes of the Mapuche's Chemamull or France's Chateaux.

There isn't a lot Ethiopia has to help in the diplomatic game. Extra culture gets you through envoy-granting civics sooner, new governments and the like which can result in more diplomatic favour, and the incentive for international trade can make alliances mature faster.

Ethiopia's domination potential is fairly strong, and relies on the Grand Master's Chapel Government Plaza building to reach its full potential. Together with Ethiopia's strong faith output, it is possible to rapidly produce new military units as you capture cities to keep the momentum going. Gaining extra science and culture from your faith output allows you to keep up in technology more effectively than other domination civs could with a faith-centric strategy. +4 strength in hills mostly cancels out enemy defensive bonuses there, or alternatively can keep units safe from enemy attacks as they invade. Finally, the Oromo cavalry isn't ideal for taking out enemy cities (aside from placing them under siege), but is extremely mobile and ideal for flanking enemy units.

Few civs can match Ethiopia's faith output which makes them ideal at religious victories. Pushing for an early faith infrastructure doesn't slow Ethiopia down the way it can for some religious civs thanks to the extra culture and science yields based on your faith, and the strength bonus on hills extends to theological combat.

Finally, Ethiopia's scientific potential is also strong - particularly if you fall into a classical or medieval-era Dark Age and take the Monasticism wildcard. Gaining 15% of your faith output as science for cities on hills can grant a substantial advantage to science generation, and getting culture on top can aid with civics that offer eureka bonuses. The incentive to settle mountain-heavy areas for the best Rock-Hewn Churches also works well for Campuses. Ethiopia's main weaknesses are a lack of production bonuses, and the need to use extra district capacity for Holy Sites.

+0.5 science from faith! And that's just the start.

If your starting Settler isn't on a hill tile, move them to one and then settle your capital.

With that out of the way, Menelik II's leader ability allows Ethiopia to develop a strong faith infrastructure while still having some of the benefits of Campuses and Theatre Squares. Alternatively, it allows a strong faith output to complement strong culture and/or science to make Ethiopia particularly effective at faith. There's also a useful strength bonus to help you take hill tiles and resist foes who try and take them off you.


Every city you settle on a hill will generate science and culture equal to 15% of its faith generation. At first, this means you can focus on building Holy Sites to help secure a religion without worrying about falling behind in technology and civic research. Typically you'll need at least 4 Great Prophet Points per turn early on to secure a religion, so be sure to train your second Settler quickly so you can get a second Holy Site.

Regions near mountains tend to also have high quantities of hills, and will be ideal for Holy Site adjacency bonuses, Campus adjacency and the Rock-Hewn Church unique improvement. As such, these areas should generally be your main priority to settle. Failing that, look out for hill-heavy regions without mountains. Finally, fill out areas with few hills - even without the full benefits of Rock-Hewn Churches, Ethiopia benefits greatly from having a high number of cities.

Outside of Ethiopia's unique ways of generating faith, covered later in this guide, look out for anything that adds faith at the city level. The Earth Goddess pantheon is an excellent choice for extra faith from breathtaking tiles, and can even boost the tourism yield of Rock-Hewn Churches later in the game. The economic policy cards Scripture (requires the classical-era Theology civic) and Simultaneum (requires the renaissance-era Reformed Church civic) are excellent boosts to your Holy Sites. For a worship building in your religion, take the Dar-e Mehr or Synagogue as they provide the most faith.

With a lot of faith generated, it's time to think about how you're going to spend it. Obviously if you're going for a religious victory then Missionaries and Apostles will be ideal, but for the other victory paths there's plenty of options.

If you get a Golden or Heroic Age in the classical, medieval or renaissance eras you can take the Monumentality dedication and purchase civilian units with faith. Purchasing Settlers is a great way to rapidly expand your empire and boost your potential faith output even more.

Recruiting Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) and giving him the Divine Architect promotion allows you to purchase districts with faith. This is particularly useful once Archaeologists come available as you'll be able to establish them even in new cities at an affordable cost. That's an excellent option for cultural players until you run out of cities to develop Theatre Squares in - then it's a good idea to switch emphasis to Rock Bands.




Units defending in hill tiles receive a +3 strength bonus, making them harder to take out. Menelik II's leader ability, however, cancels out the advantage enemy defenders have while making Ethiopia's own defending units particularly tough to take down.

Early on, this strength bonus is useful for taking out Barbarians. A unit taking out a Barbarian Outpost can attack from a hill tile to reduce the threat of retaliation - particularly handy for units with low defence like Archers.

It can also buy you time against an opponent who attacks you early on, or an enemy with superior technology. An Ethiopian unit defending on hills receives a +7 strength bonus - more if fortified or if the hill has woods/rainforest - which can help you hold off against a foe who's an era ahead. You can also catch out any enemy units who try and pillage your Rock-Hewn Churches, as you'll be able to then fire upon them for decent damage.

This advantage is much less effective for naval units, as it'll only apply to them when attacking land-based units on hills.

This strength bonus also applies in theological combat. When entering rival lands full of Apostles or Inquisitors, be sure to end your own Missionaries and Apostles' turns on hills so they can't be easily killed.

• Settle every city you can on a hill.
  
• Look out for mountain chains as ideal places to settle cities near.
  
• Bonuses that add faith at the city level will also yield culture and science.
  
• Governor Moksha with the Divine Architect promotion will allow your faith to go much further.

Faith from improved fish without the need to work those tiles!

While Menelik II's leader ability provides you with bonuses as you generate faith, Ethiopia's civ ability specifically allows you to generate more. It also offers a surprisingly powerful boost to cultural gameplay later on by allowing you to purchase Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith.


Any resource improved in Ethiopian territory will generate faith, regardless of whether it's worked or not. The faith applies at the city level, so it'll provide extra culture and science via Menelik II's leader ability.

The exact amount of faith is essentially the square of the number of copies of resources improved in the city limits. In other words:


It's clear how quickly this ability can become very powerful in cities with lots of copies of the same resource!

The locations that tend to have the most copies of the same resource are on the coast and on islands, where you can frequently find high numbers of fish. These cities tend to lack good spots for Holy Sites and Rock-Hewn Churches, but getting a lot of faith for just the cost of a few Builder charges makes them worth settling nonetheless.

Otherwise, it's simply a good idea to improve resources quickly, and ensure you can keep training Builders. For the cost of just one Governor promotion, you can move Governor Liang (the Surveyor) over to a city to make all Builders trained there provide an extra charge, which will save a lot of time by the end of the game.



The "+3.5 faith from other bonuses" description includes this unique bonus.

If receiving extra faith simply from improving resources wasn't enough, you can also get a bit of extra faith by sending out trade routes from cities with lots of improved resources. While the yields aren't huge, it's nonetheless a handy little boost when you're trading internationally for gold or the tourism bonus.

This bonus simply applies faith based on the number of improved resources in your city's territory - the type of resource does not matter. This means cities that provide more faith via the other part of this civ ability aren't necessarily the best cities to sent trade routes from.

It can be worthwhile for Ethiopia to build up a few Commercial Hubs and/or Harbours both for this additional faith and to maximise your gold generation. While Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) allows you to purchase districts - including Theatre Squares - with faith, and you'll also be able to purchase Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith, without the Jesuit Education belief you'll have to spend gold to buy Amphitheatres. This means you'll need 600 gold for every Theatre Square you wish to quickly develop in a new city.

With the renaissance-era Humanism civic, an Amphitheatre present in a city and 580 faith (490 with the Theocracy government) Ethiopia can purchase Archaeological Museums in cities. With those present in cities, the industrial-era Natural History civic and 800 faith (680 with Theocracy) Ethiopia can then purchase Archaeologists.

On the face of it, this may seem like a minor benefit, but given faith-purchasing costs half as much as gold-purchasing does, and Ethiopia already gets bonus culture from generating faith, it's possible to get a huge advantage in the Archaeological game.

With the renaissance-era Humanism civic, it's possible to then beeline to Natural History. The inspirations aren't too difficult (recruit a Great Merchant, research Astronomy and build an Archaeological Museum respectively) though you can feel free to skip any of these boosts if you don't think you can get them in time. Save up your faith ready for Natural History, then buy as many Archaeologists as you can.

If you're beginning to run out cities with Archaeological Museums, you can get an Archaeologist in a new city for typically under 2000 faith and 600 gold. Move Governor Moskha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion, buy a Theatre Square with faith, buy an Amphitheatre with gold, and buy the rest with faith.

To grab as many artefacts as possible, there's a few things that can help:

• Have open borders with other civs or have the Terracotta Army wonder, letting your Archaeologists enter their lands.
  
• Use the Gunboat Diplomacy policy card (requires the modern-era Ideology civic) to give yourself automatic open borders with all city-states.
  
• Invade other countries and take over their cities, giving you access to their Antiquity Sites.
  
• Research the atomic-era Cultural Heritage civic, unlocking access to shipwrecks. The civic is easy to beeline and also offers the Heritage Tourism economic policy card for +100% artefact tourism.

Also look out for the city-state Anshan, as being suzerain over it makes all artefacts worth +1 science (+2 in themed museums). Furthermore, the atomic-era Great Scientist Mary Leakey permanently adds a +200% bonus to all artefact tourism.

Ultimately, this ability saves Ethiopia a considerable amount of time in setting up Archaeologists, which can allow you to accumulate a lot of tourism earlier than many civs would manage.

• Coastal and island cities tend to have the most copies of the same resource, and will hence provide lots of easy faith.
  
• Train plenty of Builders so you can keep improving resource tiles as your territory expands.
  
• Use Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Divine Architect promotion to purchase districts with faith, allowing to to buy your way to Archaeologists even in new cities.

The Rock-Hewn Church offers reliably strong faith yields to complement Ethiopia's other advantages, and despite its lack of food or production yields, can be worth working early in the game.


Rock-Hewn Churches come available at the Drama and Poetry civic. It is possible to beeline the civic from the start of the game, but that's likely to be slow. You can alternatively pick it up after researching Political Philosophy for a tier one government.

Look out for any hills or volcanic ash location which is completely surrounded by hills or mountains. Any Rock-Hewn Church built there will provide the full +7 faith yield. As you can't built Rock-Hewn Churches adjacent to each other, it can be worth using map pins to mark out the best spots for multiple ones.

With the Earth Goddess pantheon, tiles with 4+ appeal (breathtaking) provide +1 faith. This typically means that Rock-Hewn Churches surrounded by mountains will be able to generate up to +8 faith per turn. Alternatively, Fire Goddess grants +2 faith to improvements on volcanic ash tiles, potentially resulting in a +9 faith yield, though that situation occurs much more rarely.


Early in the game, it's a good idea to only use your Builder charges on Rock-Hewn Churches with particularly strong yields - start with the 7-faith spots, then work your way down to spots that yield 4 or 5 faith. A hilltop city can gain an extra point of culture and science by working a 7-faith Rock-Hewn Church, which is an effective boost to your early research.

With a few Rock-Hewn Churches and the Ethiopian civ ability, your early faith output is likely to be exceptionally strong. As mentioned earlier in the guide, if you're not going for a religious victory, getting a pre-industrial Golden Age and picking up the Monumentality dedication will be a great use for all this excess faith. To maximise your era score, destroy Barbarian Outposts and build wonders if you can spare the production.




With the modern-era Flight technology, Rock-Hewn Churches provide tourism based on their faith output, even if not worked. If you have the Earth Goddess or Fire Goddess pantheons, extra faith they provide to their tiles can be added to this tourism yield as well!

The inability to place Rock-Hewn Churches next to each other does limit their potential relative to other tourism-yielding unique improvements, but nonetheless the significant tourism boost makes it worthwhile for Ethiopia to work towards Flight reasonably quickly. It's also not far from Radio and Computers, two other technologies which are important in the cultural game.


So long as you can track down hill and mountain-heavy spots. Rock-Hewn Churches are a powerful source of faith even early in the game. Good positioning is important for maximising their potential, but it's a lot easier to manage that than it is for many other unique improvements.

One of the game's most mobile units, the Oromo Cavalry is reasonably versatile, capable of serving in offensive, defensive, Barbarian-hunting, exploration and pillaging roles.


Oromo Cavalry are unlocked at the medieval-era Castles technology. Don't beeline the technology right away - it'll help a lot to get Astrology (for Holy Sites), Writing (for Campuses) and various Builder technologies including Animal Husbandry (which reveals horses) first. It also helps to research Horseback Riding reasonably early if you intend to use Oromo Cavalry extensively, as you can then train up Horsemen ready for upgrading later, saving you time and production.


Oromo Cavalry's high movement and extra strength means only a few of them can help take out threats regardless of where they're coming from. They are vulnerable to Pikemen, but you can try stationing your units on hills for some extra defence, or else you can train some Men-at-Arms to deal with them.

The high sight of the unit makes them great at seeing enemies coming. You can station Oromo Cavalry units in neutral territory between you and a potential enemy to see if they're sending an army over to you, and their exceptional mobility allows them to escape with ease.

Against Barbarian Outposts, it's a good idea to pair up Oromo Cavalry as they tend to produce anti-cavalry units, and having multiple units of your own allows you to use flanking bonuses to cover that issue.




High sight and excellent mobility means Oromo Cavalry are among the most effective explorers in the game. Once you have the renaissance-era Cartography civic and are able to start crossing oceans, send some Oromo Cavalry overseas to explore new territory.


As a light cavalry unit, Oromo Cavalry have access to the Depredation promotion, allowing pillaging to only cost one movement point. This, combined with the ability for Oromo Cavalry to ignore the movement cost of hills as well as zone-of-control, makes the unit exceptional at pillaging mines for gold, and for pillaging farms for health before making a quick escape.

The unrivalled ability for Oromo Cavalry to escape from a difficult situation allows you to make riskier manoeuvres into enemy territory than you might with regular Coursers, though beware of rivers, woods and rainforest which can still get in the way of your unit's moblity. Enemy Pikemen can be a threat in direct battle, but with high mobility and sight, you can often get out of the way before they can deal any damage.

Where Oromo Cavalry struggle is against city defences - you'll need Men-at-Arms with Siege Towers or Trebuchets to deal with those. Those units are considerably less mobile than Oromo Cavarly and are hence more vulnerable.


Oromo Cavalry lose their effectiveness in combat once Pike-and-Shot units enter the battlefield, though they remain an excellent scout until you are able to build aircraft. Once you've uncovered all the land you need to, consider upgrading them to Cavalry.


Oromo Cavalry's greatest asset is its mobility, which its sight bonus helps to complement. While not an essential unique unit to train, and isn't exceptional in direct combat, it is nonetheless a versatile unit which can find a niche in peace and war.

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.



Classical Republic's higher number of economic policy cards is ideal for Ethiopia's early expansion, and for supporting faith bonuses.

Complement it with the Ancestral Hall for faster early expansion - the more cities you have, the more faith you can generate (hence culture and science), and the more Theatre Squares you can build.


Theocracy is ideal regardless of your victory route. Extra faith in cities with Governors can translate to extra culture and science, the discount on faith purchases extends to Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists and the bonus in theological combat goes nicely with the +4 strength bonus in hills Menelik II offers.

The Grand Master's Chapel gives you a great alternative use for your faith, making it an ideal choice for domination games. Still, if you need to keep your faith for religious units, Archaeologists, Rock Bands and the like, consider taking the Intelligence Agency instead - the extra Spy can help defend yourself against Great Work Heists.


Democracy builds on your bonuses for international trade, and its high number of economic policy card slots is great for a religious or cultural game. Scientific players will probably get more out of Communism, and domination-inclined players Fascism.

The National History Museum is great for a cultural game, particularly if you have some Great Artists but nowhere to put their works. For a religious or domination game, the War Department works in regular and theological combat alike. Scientific players should take the Royal Society to speed up the progress of space race projects.


Digital Democracy is typically the best choice for cultural games, and can be useful for religious players as well due to the versatility of extra amenities. Having a good amenity surplus in your cities boosts all yields, including faith, which can add even more culture and science. Synthetic Technocracy is ideal for scientific games, but as it can speed up Holy Site Prayers projects, it's not bad for religious games either. Corporate Libertarianism is a reliable option for domination games.



Caravansaries (Economic, requires Foreign Trade) - Get a little more out of your faith-boosted international trade routes, though typically policy cards like Colonisation are more worthwhile at this early point of the game.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - The best way to maximise your faith output (and therefore your culture/science via Menelik II's leader ability) is to have a lot of cities.

Ilkum (Economic, requires Craftsmanship) - Maximising the faith output you receive from improved resources and Rock-Hewn Churches requires a lot of Builder charges.


Scripture (Economic, requires Theology) - Doubles Holy Site adjacency bonuses, and boosts your culture and science output as a result!


Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) - Allows you to train Oromo Cavalry faster.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) - More Builder charges helps you maximise your faith output sooner.

Trade Confederation (Economic, requires Mercenaries) - Getting indirect culture and science from international trading not enough? Get some direct culture and science too!


Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Aside from making Oromo Cavalry even more mobile in your own territory, this cuts down the time needed for Archaeologists to get to antiquity sites, meaning you can accumulate a little bit more tourism sooner.

Religious Orders (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Builds on your religious strength bonus on hills.

Simultaneum (Economic, requires Reformed Church) - Extra faith (and therefore culture/science) for Holy Site buildings.

Triangular Trade (Economic, requires Mercantilism) - Boost your gold and faith from international trade further.

Wisselbanken (Diplomatic, requires Diplomatic Service) - Trading with allies now provides a decent food and production bonus, mostly eliminating the need for internal trade and allowing you to maximise your faith output.


Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) - Helps you in the task of improving as many resources as possible.


Market Economy (Economic, requires Capitalism) - Even more culture and science from international trade.


Heritage Tourism (Economic, requires Cultural Heritage) - Increases tourism from artefacts by 100%, as well as any Great Works of Art you have.

Music Censorship (Diplomatic, requires Space Race) - Ethiopia's high culture output from Theatre Squares, lots of artefacts and Menelik II's leader ability means that you may often find yourself as the main obstacle to other civs' attempts at cultural victory. If another civ is a serious threat to win that way, consider taking this policy card to stop them sending Rock Bands your way.


Ecommerce (Economic, requires Globalisation) - Extra gold and production for all trade routes.

Online Communities (Economic, requires Social Media) - Trading internationally for extra faith? Great! You can now get extra tourism for doing so as well.


Space Tourism (Wildcard, requires Exodus Imperative) - Helpful for slowing down any other cultural civs' aims at victory.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Ethiopia's strong early faith output makes this an excellent source of era score.

Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - For a religious game, being able to get religious units to where they need to be faster can aid you on the way to a fast victory.

Monasticism (Dark Age, Classical to Medieval eras) - A simply amazing Dark Age wildcard for a civ that can directly gain science from Holy Sites. Monasticism makes all your cities with Holy Sites produce 75% more science, though at the cost of all your cities producing 25% less culture. Even if you're low on Campuses, this will be a great bonus to have.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - The ideal choice for an Ethiopian game where you're not after religious victory. Still, given the advantages to faith you can get by purchasing a lot of Settlers and founding more cities, it can be great even then. Monumentality allows you to convert your huge early faith output into powerful early development.

Reform the Coinage (Dedication, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Ethiopia's incentive towards international trade makes this an easy source of era score.

Reform the Coinage (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - Makes international trade considerably more profitable, while also ensuring no-one can pillage your trade routes and deny you a faith bonus.

Flower Power (Dark Age, Atomic to Future eras) - Ethiopia's cultural game relies heavily on your huge faith output, so stronger Rock Bands will be worthwhile to have.


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 relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Espionage Pact - Effect B (The chosen Spy operation is unavailable) on Great Work Heist

Keeps your Theatre Squares safe.

Heritage Organisation - Effect A (Tourism from Great Works of this type is doubled) on artefacts

Ethiopia's head start at Archaeology can pay off here with an enormous boost to tourism.

Nobel Prize in Literature - Vote in favour

Building a lot of Archaeological Museums will provide you with the GWAM points necessary to win this competition, and the bonuses to Rock Bands will allow your faith to go even further later in the game!

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 yourself or your main trading partner.

Get some extra gold and/or faith out of your international trading.

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

You can buy your way through Theatre Square production, but it's a little harder for Holy Sites. Developing them faster will mean more faith, culture and science.

World Religion - Effect A (+10 strength for all religious units of this faith) on your own religion

Build upon your advantage on hill-based theological combat.

Dance of the Aurora - If you find yourself in a tundra-heavy start, this pantheon allows you to have reliably strong Holy Sites and with it extra culture and science.

Desert Folklore - Got lots of desert around? Get some bonus faith, culture and science with this pantheon.

Divine Spark - Aids with founding a religion, and boosts the generation of Great Writers and Scientists alike. Building Campuses and Theatre Squares allows you to build on the faith/culture advantages of Menelik II's leader ability.

Earth Goddess - A reliably strong pantheon for Ethiopia's game. Not only will the extra faith translate into a little more culture and science, but with the Flight technology, any bonus faith on Rock-Hewn Church tiles will add tourism as well!

Fire Goddess - Rock-Hewn Churches can be built on volcanic soil and will never be destroyed by volcanic eruptions. If you have a lot of volcanoes around, this can be a good source of extra faith, culture and science - and will add extra tourism to Rock-Hewn Churches with Flight.

God of Craftsmen - A backup pantheon if you can't get something more relevant like Earth Goddess. This adds a bit of extra faith (therefore culture/science) to improved strategic resources.

Religious Idols - Extra faith (therefore culture/science) for mines over bonus and luxury resources.

Religious Settlements - A bonus Settler, which is ideal for rapid early expansion, as well as faster border expansion in cities. Faster border expansion means you can improve more resources sooner, and get more faith/culture/science from doing so.

Sacred Path - If you find yourself starting in a rainforest-heavy region, this can lead to stronger Holy Sites with a better output of faith, culture and science alike.

Stone Circles - Extra faith (therefore culture/science) from quarries.


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

Dar-e Mehr (Worship) - Potentially provides more faith than any other worship building, and as a result offers the most potential culture and science. The catch is you need to build it early for the best effect.

Divine Inspiration (Follower) - Extra faith from world wonders, applied at the city level so it can add to culture and science.

Religious Community (Follower) - Boosts the gold from international trade, which goes nicely with Ethiopia's faith bonus.

Reliquaries (Follower) - Relics with this follower belief will provide an impressive 12 faith each, or 1.8 culture and science.

Synagogue (Worship) - Offers a reliably strong amount of faith and therefore culture and science.

Work Ethic (Follower) - Adds a nice extra production reward for you maximising your Holy Site adjacency yields for the faith it offers. Production is something Ethiopia has no direct advantages to, making this a very worthwhile belief to pick up.


Anshan (Scientific) - Extra science for every artefact. Also works for relics and Great Works of Writing.

Bandar Brunei (Trade) - A little more gold as you use international trade routes.

Chinguetti (Religious) - Get even more faith out of trade routes.

Fez (Scientific) - Much like Menelik II's leader ability, Fez allows you to get science out of faith.

Hunza (Trade) - More gold for long-distance international trade routes.

Kandy (Religious) - Relics, particularly with the Reliquaries follower belief, are an excellent source of faith - and hence culture and science, so Kandy's +50% faith bonus for them can go a long way.

Kumasi (Cultural) - Trading with city-states can now offer you a good sum of culture and gold as well as faith.

Mogadishu (Trade) - Keeps your faith-yielding trade routes safe from pillagers.

Samarkand (Trade) - Trading Domes offer extra gold for international trade.

Singapore (Industrial) - Extra production from making international trade routes.

Valletta (Militaristic) - Walls are a source of tourism later in the game, so being able to purchase them with faith can be useful for a cultural game as well as defensively in general.

Venice (Trade) - Extra gold for international trade.

Great Bath (Ancient era, Pottery technology) - This wonder is extremely competitive and hence is hard to build in time, but being able to accumulate extra faith (and hence culture/science) early on is rather useful.

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) - The more resources you can improve, the more faith, culture and science you'll generate. You'll need a lot of Builder charges for that, so the Pyramids wonder is really helpful.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - An extra trade route, and therefore extra faith via the Ethiopian civ ability.

Jebel Barkal (Classical era, Iron Working technology) - Extra faith for all owned cities in range - those on hills will generate a little extra culture and science on top.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - In a very hilly area, you can produce remarkably strong Rock-Hewn Churches.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) - Enables you to circumvent the need for open borders to send your Archaeologists into foreign lands.

Kotoko-In (Medieval era, Divine Right civic) - The 20% boost to faith will also boost the yield of culture and science added by faith.

Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) - Extra strength from religious units adjacent to Gurus goes nicely with Ethiopia's theological combat advantage on hills.

Mont St. Michel (Medieval era, Divine Right civic) - Relics are excellent sources of faith, and are therefore good sources of culture and science for Ethiopia.

Casa de Contratación (Renaissance era, Cartography technology) - Bonus faith for cities with Governors on foreign continents, making the civ ability, and Rock-Hewn Churches and Menelik II's leader ability go further.

Great Zimbabwe (Renaissance era, Banking technology) - An extra trade route and extra gold from trade routes from this city.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - Good for a hilly tundra city as it can make decent Rock-Hewn Church yields.

Torre de Belém (Renaissance era, Mercantilism civic) - Extra gold from international trading.

Hermitage (Industrial era, Natural History civic) - Ethiopia's incentive to build a lot of Archaeological Museums can result in a lack of spaces for Great Works of Art, so it helps to build the Hermitage wonder.

Golden Gate Bridge (Modern era, Combustion technology) - It's hard to find a spot that both allows this wonder and has good Rock-Hewn Church spots, but if you can pull it off you'll have a good boost to tourism.


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.


Marcus Lacinius Crassus (Great Merchant) - Accumulating extra tiles for free allows you to get more resources in a city's territory, and once improved they can produce extra faith. For the best results, acquire resource tiles four or five tiles away from the city centre as you can't normally purchase those tiles, and those resources will still contribute to the city's total when worked.

Zhang Qian (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity.


El Cid (Great General) - An Oromo Cavalry corps has 58 strength, which makes them particularly hard to kill - and a great pillager.

Hildegard of Bingen (Great Scientist) - You're getting science out of Holy Sites anyway, so might as well get even more!

Ibn Fadlan (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity, and extra faith from trading with city-states.

Marco Polo (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity.

Zheng He (Great Admiral) - Extra trade route capacity.


Giovanni de Medici (Great Merchant) - Provides 2 extra Great Work slots which can hold anything. Useful if you've been focusing on Archaeological Museums and lack slots for Great Artists.


John Rockefeller (Great Merchant) - Extra gold from trade routes.

Sarah Breedlove (Great Merchant) - Boosts the tourism gained against civs if you have a trade route with them, something you'll most likely have anyway for the extra faith.


Mary Leakey (Great Scientist) - All artefacts will now yield +200% tourism!

Melitta Bentz (Great Merchant) - Extra trade route capacity and +25% tourism against any civ you're trading with.

Ethiopia is a versatile civ, but relies on hill-heavy spots with a strong faith output to really use that versatility.



Ethiopia's civ ability depends on their ability to get a lot of resources within a single city. If Ethiopia is forced to pack cities closely together, has to settle cities in places where there are few resources, or has cities with a low diversity of resources, their faith yields will be significantly poorer. If settling in a way to deprive Ethiopia of these locations isn't possible, you can also pillage Ethiopia's improved resources to reduce their faith yields. Similarly, their international trade routes can be vulnerable to pillaging.


The ability to purchase Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith can result in Ethiopia making a head start on excavating antiquity sites compared to other civs. If Ethiopia lacks the Terracotta Army wonder, simply denying them open borders will at least keep their Archaeologists out of your own lands. Getting the atomic-era Great Scientist Mary Leakey and her huge tourism bonus for artefacts will deny Ethiopia from getting that.



Any city Ethiopia settles on a hill will generate culture and science equal to 15% of the city's faith output. Of course, if Ethiopia is forced to settle cities not on hills, you can completely deny them this aspect of this leader ability.

Most of Ethiopia's best sources of faith (Holy Sites, Rock-Hewn Churches, improved resources) can be stopped by pillaging them.

Cities stationed on hills receive a strength bonus, which can make Ethiopian cities slightly harder to siege down. Consider bringing an extra siege unit or two when invading them.


The strength bonus Menelik II grants in hill tiles cancels out the defensive bonus your units get for defending in them, so look out for woods/rainforest or river tiles instead if you need extra strength. As this bonus only works if the defending unit is on a hill, you can simply avoid placing your units on hills while fighting Ethiopia and force them to leave the safety of their hill tiles to fight you.


A computer-controlled Menelik II tries to settle on hills where possible. He likes civs that avoid settling near hills, and hates civs that do.

Given hill tiles are a key source of production for most civs, this can be a hard agenda to keep to. The civs with the best chance of meeting this will be those who can compensate for lacking hill tiles (e.g. the Mayans, who don't need mountains for their Campus replacement) or maritime civs.


Oromo Cavalry are extremely mobile but are still vulnerable to Pikemen, and Knights can chase them down on open terrain moderately well. Try to kill Oromo Cavalry in a single turn if possible as their high movement, ability to ignore the movement cost of hills and ability to ignore zone of control makes them prone to escaping.

If Oromo Cavalry get deep into your own territory, consider blocking off exit routes like bridges over rivers, forcing them to take a less direct escape route.


The Rock-Hewn Church can produce a huge amount of faith early in the game, so if you're playing as an opposing religious civ you might want to take more direct action against Ethiopia like declaring war so you can condemn their religious units.

Pillaging Rock-Hewn Churches can be risky as the tiles they're typically placed on (hills) are tiles Ethiopia has a strength bonus in. Consider using fast units (light cavalry with the Drepedation promotion work well) or else ensure there's a minimal risk of being counterattacked before you pillage them.

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• 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.