Sid Meier’s Civilization VI is a turn-based strategy game that combines all of the world leaders and their respective time periods into one large game of politics. Becoming a leader is tough, and dealing with other countries might explain why some leaders age considerably fast even when they’re only leaders for a short amount of time. However, why play it cool and political when you can be a dictator and take over the world by eliminating all the other leaders? In this guide, we’ll show you how you can beat every leader in the game.
Sid Meier’s Civilization 6 – How To Beat EVERY Leader
Bear in mind that this guide is for single player only. You can use this in multiplayer, but playing against other humans instead of an AI might make things difficult and unpredictable.
You can easily beat Macedon as long as you don’t lose any cities to them and they don’t have any Eureka’s, which heals their units. Focus on attacking them but be smart and don’t leave any cities too weak for them to take.
Nubia has the best Ancient Era defense, so anyone attacking them during said era is going to lose. Wait till the Ancient Era passes and a new era like Medieval or Renaissance, grab some cavalry and take out her archers and the upgrades she has.
Gaul is a very tough leader when in offensive mode, so watch out for them. However, their defensive is pretty weak and you can definitely have a chance when the Renaissance era rolls in.
Vietnam is a civilization you do not want to fight. Instead, make friends with her. If you try to push into her land, the aggressors will definitely destroy you in no time flat.
You can beat the leader Byzantium using spearmen, but do not lose any units to him because he will convert them to his religion. You can lose half your army if you do.
France is strong if they are in the Ancient Era due to the Diplomatic Visibility she’ll have, which gives her extra combat strength. Around the mid to late game is the ideal time to strike. Be extra wary during the Industrial Era arrives, because she’s strong there.
Chandragupta will most likely attack you first, so attack him when he does. You can get a territorial expansion if you do so, plus 2 movement and 5 combat strength.
Egypt is one of the best places to start near because she will most likely do nothing to you. If you send traders to this leader, you’ll get a large amount of food in return. However, make sure your military is up to par with hers because if she sees that you are weaker than her, she’ll attack you.
Same with Chandragupta, wage war with Persia before he does anything, like his Fall of Babylon ability.
Dido is a joke in this game and you can easily defeat this leader if you wanted to. There’s nothing special about her units and it’s almost hilarious how her ability doesn’t seem to have any effect on anyone.
Eleanor is also easy to defeat if you wanted to. However, you can pillage her cities for Great Works that you can use to befriend her in return.
Unlike their WWII counterpart, Germany isn’t much of a threat and you can easily deal with them if you want to, but it’s better for the most part to just leave them alone. Unless they start talking about supremacy and stuff, then you might want to step in before things get bad.
Gandhi in Civilization VI is a warmonger. Unlike his real-life counterpart, Gandhi will wage war against you and nuke you from orbit without you even doing anything. It’s better to take Gandhi out around the mid game or Industrial Era. But if you would rather have a warmongering leader as a best friend, you can befriend him as well.
Mongolia will take any cavalry you have and use them against you. Instead, have spearmen and other range classes ready.
Sumeria will instantly accept you as a friend early on, so do that and you will have Sumeria as an ally as long as you don’t piss the leader off.
Indonesia is pretty tough on an archipelago map. What you do is you run around her and pillage any holy sites she has before she can muster up enough faith for Jong’s.
Taking out Greece is a tactic you should do as soon as the game starts because she’s not exactly going to be doing any damage. The extra combat from the Military Policy card that you receive from Greece will also be useful as the game continues.
Babylon is going to eliminate you if you are near him. There’s no way to beat him early to mid game, but late game is where you should attack. He gets a -50 in Science at that point, so if you have a high enough science, you can take him down.
When fighting against Norway, you must have enough units to defend your coastal tiles. Also have a good navy to defend your coastline.
You don’t have to deal with Japan unless you have to. They don’t fight as much as the others and they tend to focus on themselves. But if you do have to fight, just send a small cavalry to their districts.
Poland isn’t really much of a threat. You can either leave them alone or attack them.
Khmer isn’t much of a threat either. You can easily pillage everything they have and they will slowly dwindle away.
Portugal is only hard to deal with when in an archipelago map, so be careful when he’s around cities because he will have free traders from all of them.
Australia should be left alone until he attacks you. You essentially have to bait him into attacking you so his bonus won’t apply. Take everything he has before making peace.
Sweden will only be a threat if she has a lot of Great Works. If it does happen, declare war and pillage everything she has for the Great Works before making peace.
China isn’t much of a threat, so you can easily leave them alone or take them out.
Kupe is also a civilization that doesn’t seem to know what to do and will get stomped on if they try to attack other civilizations. They will mostly likely get dealt with by other civs, but you can do it too if he attacks you first.
Don’t attack the Mayans within six tiles of her capital. Instead, eliminate her units stationed outside those six tiles, as well as cities. If you do get into those six tiles, she gets a huge combat strength that can easily eliminate any units you send over.
Mapuche is dangerous during the Golden Age. Never attack them and if they do attack you, try to get someone else to attack him while you try to befriend him.
Mali is easy to deal with. Just pillage his Suguba’s and any cities he has in the desert. Better yet, settle in the desert so he doesn’t get to. His bonuses mostly come from the desert, which you are denying him of.
Hungary has two strategies that you can use against them. One is having every suzerain that he does so that he doesn’t attack you with his units. The other is a bit more complicated and requires a lot of envoys. You declare a war on Hungary, he’ll levy his city states units. Take those cities back as your susren and he will have to deal with his own units turning against him.
Don’t fight Ethiopia, it’s not really worth it. You can pillage his cities, but there’s not much you can find that’s valuable.
Same with Aztec, pillage any area he has. But if he does attack you, just have archers and a fortified warrior ready to deal with him.
Kongo is basically a free religion you can acquire if you defeat him, but he’s not really that much of a threat and you can easily forget he’s still around.
The Incans aren’t much of a threat and don’t do much due to their position up in the mountains. Just leave them alone as they’re not doing anything.
Brazil isn’t much of a threat unless they recruit Great People, which his bonus will start activating. To combat that, just recruit more Great People than him.
Pericles isn’t going to be that much of a threat. Just make sure he doesn’t have any susrens.
Russia isn’t going to be a threat unless Putin decided to show up. You can just pillage any cities he have and get away with it.
Spain is pretty tough because they’re kind of everywhere, but you can just run around and pillage any city Spain owns and convert their religion to yours to eliminate their religion bonus.
Just befriend Cree. The bonuses are a great thing to have early on.
China isn’t much of a threat, and you can easily overtake them. But wait till you reach the Medieval Era so you can take the Ancient and Classical Wonders they have.
Scotland must never declare war first, because they get a 2 movement bonus if they do and oh boy do they move fast. Take them out first if you have to.
Arabia is only weak early in the game, so if you’re not going to be able to knock them out in the beginning, then you can’t do much as they are pretty strong.
Korea is pretty tough if you don’t deal with them fast. Pillage their Seowon’s and leave, but watch out for their Hwacha’s.
Zulu is a tough civ, and fighting them can put a dent in your army. But if you have a larger army, then you might have a chance.
Gran Colombia can declare war and attack you within the blink of an eye. It’s crazy how fast he can move. To combat this, have walls and spearmen ready.
Ottomans can be calmed down by doing peace with them. But you can take them by surprise by using cavalry against them.
Georgia can be ignored for the most part as long as you don’t attack her.
America is hard to deal with when Teddy is involved. Best way to deal with him (besides assassinating him but we all know how that worked out) is by having a couple of your allies with you when attacking him.
Rough Rider Teddy, on the other hand, is a beast with that 5 combat. Try to take him out as early as possible to avoid feeling the wrath.
Scythia can be dealt with by having heavy cavalry and other range units. This is because her Saka Horse Archer will attack you. Don’t worry though, they’re not that strong and can probably be taken out faster if they weren’t so many of them.
Rome needs to be dealt with early on. The bonus they receive is crazy and can eliminate other civs if left unchecked. If you survived until late game, then you can deal with Rome since they’ll have no bonuses for Science.
Victoria isn’t tough and can be taken down, unless you’re on an archipelago. If you are though, you’ll need a strong navy army to help combat against her, as well as a land force.
There’s not much you can do with Canada, so if you don’t really want to befriend this leader, just denounce him.
Netherlands can be dealt with easily by pillaging and such, but she’s not going to be much of a threat so you can just easily leave her alone.
