Civilization 5 Greece - Leader: Alexander

Civ Bonuses, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Civilization Name:  Greece

Civ Leader: Alexander

Civ Bonus: Hellenic League:
City-state Influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate. Incredibly powerful for getting loads of CS bonuses and votes for a Diplomatic Victory. Hellenic League also allows you to trespass without losing any Influence with City-States, so use their borders to step inside and fortify your units until healed, then go back after those Barbarians again.

Unique Unit: Companion Cavalry (Replaces Horseman):
Requires Horseback Riding Tech, Horse Resource. Upgrades to Knight, Obsolete with Metallurgy
They've got +2 Combat Strength over a Horseman, giving them 14. They're also a bit more mobile, with 5 moves to 4. The Companion Cavalry also come with the Great Generals I promotion, which will cause their battles to generate more experience toward your next Great General. Use these during war and within your own territory for their mobility and strong capacity to knock out units like Archers in a single charge. Like Horsemen, they are awful against Cities so don't bother - use them to roam the enemy's lands (preferably 3 hexes from their Cities) and eliminate their Military so your Hoplites and Archers/Composite Bowmen can bring down the City's defenses.

Unique Unit: Hoplite (Replaces Spearman):
Requires Bronze Working Tech. Upgrades to Pikeman
The Hoplite does not seem very special at first glance, having only 13 Strength to the Spearman's 11, but that is an 18% increase. Hoplites, when deployed early enough with Archers to back them up, can definitely bring down Ancient and early Classical-Era Cities. Identify your targets and the terrain type of the Cities you want to take - hills or flat land, and build their upgrades that direction. If you can get to Shock or Drill II and get them the Ranged Defense promotion, they'll last longer against Cities and help soak up damage.

Strategies/Ideas for playing Greece:
Greece can start Honor and go Warlike thanks to their early-game Unique Units that are quite powerful, but you do not necessarily want to go for a Domination Win with Alexander. It's better to use those abilities to get the land you need, focusing on nearby Civs that are likely to want to War with you later, regardless. I would not pick on City-States - it's much better to have them around. It's very easy to go for a Diplomatic Victory with Alexander because the Hellenic League Ability will let you hold onto and maintain your Alliances with City-States.

My recommended early-game strategy for Greece is to start Tradition or Liberty. Begin with a Scout, then Monument and Worker if going Liberty. Skip the Monument if going Tradition and get the free one for your first Cities. With Liberty, go for the free Settler first. Either way, make or buy a Worker (you want 2 to bloom two cities quickly). Consider a third City if happiness allows it. Don't go out to Settle without a Hoplite or Archer going ahead to protect it from Barbarians. By your third or fourth Social Policy, Adopt Honor to get the Combat Bonus vs Barbarians and culture on kill. This will also allow you to get the Discipline policy and free Great General for when you're ready to War. Both combined will give your Hoplites (primary UU for attacking Cities along with ranged) a total of +30% strength against Cities. You want to skip many techs and focus on getting your Luxuries and Bronze Working so you can make Barracks and give units promotions appropriate for the Cities you'll be taking. You want to begin your attacks before 500 BC on a Standard Game, for many Cities will be resistant to Hoplites by then and you may be facing more dangerous troops like pikemen and crossbowmen, depending on the difficulty.

War is not really necessary, for the Hoplite and Companion Cavalry can be rushed to deal with your Continent's Barbarian problems to build a Military to discourage War and stack bonuses to later help your Civ to bloom. Watch the Diplomatic screen for the crossed swords and flaming building icons and click them to see the location of Barbarian Encampments they want eliminated. Leave Encampments that don't threaten you alone, and wait on City-States to give you Quests. The only time you get Influence for killing Barbarians is when they are inside or next to a City-State's territory, and that is only the Units themselves, not the Encampments. Use your Hoplites to roam the world and exterminate these Encampments and you'll get plenty of allies, quickly. Get Horseback Riding to take you to the Classical Era and unlock Patronage, which you should develop earlier rather than later so that you can begin building high Influence with City-States, making it harder for other Civiliztions to take your Allies. This is where Alexander really shines, for once the Companion Cavalry and Hoplites have done their duty in eliminating Barbarians and capturing Cities for you, you'll want City-States' assistance to build up the Empire you've created.

Hellenic League will help you get the happiness and extra stats you need to grow your empire after the Ancient-Medieval era Combat you should be doing. This Leader Special synergizes amazingly well with even the first bonus from Patronage, bringing the rate of decay down by 25%. Usually, you'd lose 1 per turn. With Hellenic League, it's 0.5. Toss in the first rank of Patronage, and you've got -0.25 for all but Hostile City-States, which degrade 50% faster, but only after your bonuses stack - so any other City-State would degrade at -0.25 for Alexander with Patronage, but hostile would fall at -0.375. With Gold Gifts, the Patronage Tree mastered and the slow CS Influence Decay of Hellenic League, Alexander can easily Ally Greece with every single City-State in the game, but not without angering other Civs. Different Civs react with varying degrees of hostility toward you taking their valuable Alliances. This is one very good reason to snag them early - AI are more angry if you actually steal their position as Ally. Make trades, go for Declarations of Friendship to offset this penalty.

With Alexander, you absolutely want to scout early and meet all City-States you can. Talk to them and Pledge to Protect to raise the minimum influence to 10. This will go at 2/turn because of Hellenic League doubling it. Even better, take the Consulates Social Policy from Patronage, which will raise this resting point by +20 - so with a Pledge, your resting point is 30 and in 15 Turns you would automatically get Friendly with any City-State you are not at War with. Either way, raising these bases before doing Quests will get you Alliances fast, but you will need more Quests to cement them.

It is clear that Alexander is very well-suited for a Diplomatic Win in Civ 5: Brave New World, but his ability to grow a vast empire quickly in the early-game can allow him to catch up to score Cultural or Science Victory. Remember, just because you fall behind in Tech does not mean you can't catch up by building all those Libraries, utilizing specialists, and generating Great Scientists to build Academies in a City with your Scientific National Wonders. They were generating a comparatively low Science-per-turn in the early-game, and a large Civ with plentiful food and good trade practics and diplomacy for Research Agreements can soar ahead in tech by the mid-late game if executed properly.

This is just one example of a strategy one might use with Greece. If you have tips for playing as Alexander in Civ 5, share them below using our Comments form.

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Matt says...

It is counter intuitive, but I actually recommend demanding tribute often in the early game. A couple hoplites in the early game is all it will take to get city states to give in. You'll get that influence back very quickly thanks to the Unique Ability, and it isn't until the late medieval era or early Renaissance where city states really start to get allied. Really, city state alliances won't matter very much until Patronage is opened. I wrote a short strategy in /r/civstrategy about taking advantage of their early game uniques.

Also, another really useful note about city state influence. If they follow your religion, your influence with a city state will decay 25% slower. With the patronage opener and the Unique Ability, there is 0 influence decay.

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26th June 2014 11:31pm

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