Civ 5 Roman Civilization

Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs

Civilization's Leader: Augustus Caesar

Civ Bonus: The Glory of Rome
All Cities get a +25% Production boost to any building that has already been built/purchased in the Capital. Make a Capital with strong Production or buy Buildings, then see those newly unlocked structures go up quickly across your empire. It's an excellent Unique Ability.

Unique Unit: Ballista
Requires Mathematics, replaces Catapult
The Ballista is merely a stronger version of the Catapult, but much stronger. It goes from 8 to 10 Combat Strength which is amplified when attacking Cities and has 8 vs 5 defense against attackers, so they're more durable as well. These do not require any special resource, so it's easy to amass them and have a strong siege engine to bring down your Rivals' Capitals and quickly conquer your Continent. They're still useful when Cities have 20-30 Defense, so long as you protect them with a strong melee and ranged presence. Some of my Ballistae survived well into the future and made wonderful Artillery later in the game.

Unique Unit: Legion
Requires Iron Working, replaces Swordsman
The Roman Legion has 17 vs 14 Combat Strength when compared to a regular Swordsman - a very powerful unit in its time. They are also able to construct Roads and Forts to help your workers improve your Empire and create City Connections. When planning an attack, it's easy to throw up a Fort as a fallback position or even use them on the edge of your empire to help defend Strategic Resources. I found it worth the gold maintenance to use Legion to make roads to lands I was planning to conquer - gonna need them for the City Connection later, anyway!

Strategies/Ideas for playing Augustus Caesar's Rome in Civ 5:
Rome is a rather simple Civilization to play, and for someone looking for early Warmongering without worrying about getting it perfect, is a good Civ to try. Caesar's Unique Ability giving +25% Production to all Cities of any building that has been constructed in Rome means you'll do well with a massive, sprawling empire as I had or a small 3-4 city empire. Wide is absolutely best here - I would go Liberty and spread out to areas that have Iron, then conquer my neighbors. I would not bother with an Honor start here, because both of Rome's UUs are powerful and capable without the bonuses that come there, plus your Civ will have no trouble building new Military Training buildings thanks to Glory of Rome. It was helpful later in the game to help with upgrade costs and let units like Bombers and Battleships gain experience more quickly. You want the money from City Connections, which are easy to get with Legion helping and Liberty will reduce unhappiness passively while giving +1 Happiness per City you connect. Throw up a Colosseum/Courthouse and it's making up for itself.

In my last game with Rome, I lacked Iron so did not get to make maximum use of the Legion until after conquering a Civ that had Iron nearby. From there, it let me gobble up China and take over half of my Continent pretty quickly. Thankfully, the Ballista's higher strength over the Catapult made up for my lack of Legion and worked just fine in combination with Composite Bowmen and Spearmen. That extra strength is amplified by the City Attack bonus, so they are excellent at what they do, along with the perk of them being a little better against regular Units.

My long-term recommendation is to start Liberty so that you can focus on building up Rome and get the free Settler. You are likely to be much luckier than I and locate a spot with Iron with your Scouts and expand quickly so that you can amass an army. If you don't have Iron, go my route and conquer the closest Civ that does. Get buildings like Granaries, Barracks, and a Library in Rome to make these crucial buildings cheaper in Expansions. Take over a Capital or two and go from there - you could switch up to any victory condition, but may well find yourself with the momentum you need to finish the game with a Domination Victory - they are very flexible. If you are able to, take the free Great Person from Liberty and use it to construct Machu Picchu to get more gold from your City Connections. I did max Honor, but I consider a few points in Commerce important to Rome. Reduced road maintenance and purchasing costs in Cities will help a wide empire greatly. Later, get Big Ben and go Order to get dirt cheap purchasing of Buildings in Rome, so your other Cities can then get them constructed fast.

While Warmongers tend to do a lot of Puppeting, I did not like it with Rome. I puppeted until I could get a Courthouse up and eliminate the extra Unhappiness. The conquered Cities can build 25% faster just as your normal Cities and will create buildings you don't necessarily need at the time, running up costs when you want Gold to support a Military. I found it easier to build/buy Courthouses and take control of those Cities. Overall, it helped me with Great Scientist generation later in the game when I wanted to quickly grab Technologies and I was able to switch to Food focus to help them grow and make up for the added Science cost. My plan did not include but a few points in Rationalism and my Rome was Culturally stunted for a time due to a Militaristic focus.

Founding a Religion with Rome isn't necessarily important, for you can easily take over a neighbor's and encourage it throughout your lands. I did get lucky enough to start with many wine resources nearby, so went with the Pantheon to get Culture/Faith from those tiles. Tithe was helpful to Unit Maintenance, and anything that boost Happiness is going to be a boon to you when playing wide. I relied on City-State Alliances to get the bulk of my Culture and Faith, but I was lucky to have a couple of each on my Continent.

I tried Autocracy just because I wanted to see how it would play out to give recommendations for this Guide, and quickly regretted not choosing Order. Freedom is not a very good choice of Ideology for this Civ at all. Overall, the extra Science from Factories will synergize well with Rome's other bonuses, so you have incentive to get production buildings done and have a large empire of highly-developed Cities - spreading the Glory of Rome, the entire idea behind the UA. You will find Five-Year Plan to be an excellent level 2 Tenet, giving you an additional +1 Production for each Mine and Quarry to help make use of Glory of Rome and the Happiness from Production buildings will keep your populace content. Order is the most-oft picked Policy by other Civilizations, so you'll also fit in well and avoid Diplomatic Penalties for that which can compound quickly if you've been Warmongering. Internal Trade Routes get 50% more Food and Production with Iron Curtain, and Courthouses are automatically installed when you capture a city. The drop in price to purchase buildings from Skyscrapers in combination with Big Ben and Commerce's Mercantilism will result in a 73% reduction in building purchase costs - that is HUGE and lets you buy up Research and Production buildings in key Cities. If you finish Commerce for the +2 Happiness per Luxury, you will not be disappointed - in fact, it can help make Warmongering easier by boosting Tourism to other Order Civs and any Civ that has less Happiness. New buildings like Stadiums etc. should go up quickly with Rome, so you can easily keep Happiness stable so long as you don't overreach with your conquest. I highly recommend this Civ to beginners who want to try waging War. The extra Production will help make up for any mistakes you make earlier in the game.

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Gg says...

One of the best things about the legion that people seem to forget is that their combat strength is higher than pikemen. Combined with their lower production cost than the pikemen, and you've got a really powerful unit that can last well into the medieval era

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16th March 2016 4:19pm

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