Trajan was one of the great emperors of the Roman Empire. He expanded the Roman Empire to its largest territorial extent with triumphant military conquests, earning the accolade optimus (the best) from Rome’s Senate. Trajan’s Column in Rome is a monument to his greatest victory during the Dacian Wars. You can play with Trajan in Civilization 6 to establish an even greater Roman Empire. That leader offers one of the game’s best unique units, a free building, and significant trading bonuses.
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Trajan’s Bonuses: Trajan’s Column and All Roads Lead to Rome
The Trajan’s Column bonus gives you a free building in all your founded settlements. This free building is always a Monument when you start a game from the Ancient Era, which is the standard start time. It’s not an especially flexible free building bonus since there’s no option for selecting what free building you receive in a founded settlement.
The Monument building in the City Details panel
All Roads Lead to Rome is a Roman civilization bonus for playing with Trajan in Civilization 6. This bonus adds trading posts to all your founded or conquered settlements. Trading posts in Roman cities also generate an additional +1 gold, which boosts trade income.
The Trajan leader info screen
Trajan’s Unique Unit: Legion
Players who play with Trajan in Civilization 6 can recruit the Roman Legion, which is one of the best unique units for the early game. Legion has a melee attack of 40, making it the strongest unit from the Classical Era. This unit also has one build charge, with which you can improve a tile. Note that Iron is a strategic resource requirement for recruiting Legions.
The Legion unit
Trajan’s Unique Infrastructure: Bath
Bath is the unique Roman infrastructure that replaces the Aqueduct when playing with Trajan in Civilization 6. That unique infrastructure is quicker to build than an Aqueduct because its production cost is half as much (18 compared with 36). It boosts housing for cities without fresh water supplies by +6 with a +1 amenity bonus to boost. However, Baths only provide +2 housing for settlements beside rivers and coastlines that have access to fresh water.
The Bath infrastructure
How to Win With Trajan in Civilization 6
Trajan in Civilization 6 isn’t especially strong for any specific victory condition, but that doesn’t mean he’s a poor leader to play with. His Trajan’s Column bonus is most beneficial for obtaining the Culture Victory since it adds free Monuments to your founded cities when playing from the Ancient Era. The +2 culture yields from that free building will give you a headstart on the civic tree, which can be a solid springboard for a Culture Victory when playing with Trajan.
The All Roads Lead to Rome trading bonus offers notable economic advantages that can be useful for all victory conditions. Having trading posts in all your home cities that provide +1 gold when passed en route will boost your trade income. So, you must make the most of this bonus when playing with Rome by recruiting more trade caravans and building Commerce Districts to increase your civilization’s trading route capacity. Also, select route destinations that pass through more of your Roman cities to capitalize on their trade-post gold bonuses.
The Trade Routes details side panel
A strong economy is perhaps most important for pursuing a Domination Victory. Most military units have maintenance costs, and recruiting more of them costs more gold. You also need gold to upgrade your military units to more modern ones over the eras. Thus, the extra gold generated from more lucrative Roman trade can be invaluable for funding military conquests to secure a Domination Victory.
Rome’s unique Legion unit is also good for fighting and winning an early game war, which can get you off to a solid start for a Domination Victory. Make sure you unlock this unit sooner rather than later by researching its Bronze Working and Iron Working technology requirements ASAP. Establish a new settlement beside a source of Iron on the map for Legions if you don’t have access to that resource after unlocking Bronze Working.
The Bath infrastructure improvement makes it easier to sustain faster population growth in your cities with Trajan in Civilization 6 because of the extra housing and amenities it provides. That doesn’t offer any direct victory condition advantages, but every citizen increases science and culture output by 0.5 and 0.2. Thus, 10 more citizens amount to +5 science and +2 culture. So, boost population growth rates by building Baths in cities that need more housing to increase your civilization’s science and culture output. It’s quick to build Baths, and the free Monuments you get in your founded cities also make up for the construction time invested in them.
Overall, Trajan in Civilization 6 is a decent leader choice for winning games through economic might more than anything else. Focus on trading to establish lucrative trade routes that provide more gold to purchase new units and buildings that help you fulfil any victory condition. If all roads lead to Rome in your civilization, you’ll probably emerge victorious with Trajan in Civilization 6, one way or another.
