The Assyrian people represent the Assyrian Empire and the subsequent Neo-Assyrian Empire, an Antiquity Age civilization in Civilization VII. They are available with the Assyria Pack within the Right to Rule Collection, which was released on July 22, 2025.
The Assyrians' civilization ability is Treasures of Nineveh, which grants a free 
Technology whenever a 
Settlement is captured for the first time. It also allows the generation of 
Codices from conquering after completing the Tupšarrūtu 
Civic but prevents Codices from being awarded for researching Technology. Their associated 
Wonder is Dur-Sharrukin, and their unique assets are as follows:
Intro[]
Siege-towers rumble, and iron swords are sharpened as the Assyrian war machine shudders into motion. Under Ashur’s watchful eye, a new order unfolds upon the sun-baked clay: planned cities, skilled engineers, and the implacable march of boots. Set out upon the world, and tolerate no competition.
Tips and hints[]
Technology Masteries may not grant Assyria Codices, but they will grant Culture with the Birtūtu Civic. Unlock the Tupšarrūtu Civic quickly to get Codices from conquering Settlements instead!
Strategy[]
To make full use of Assyria's mechanics requires an extensive use of both brains and brawn. With a focus on aggressive conquest and intellectual cultivation, you'll want to take whatever opportunities you can to seize the settlements of weaker civilizations or city-states you are not the Suzerain of for the resources, tech and codices they will yield. Pair this civilization with leaders, mementos and other bonuses that increase the yields of Great Works, as well as making sure to build Assyria's unique quarter in whichever city you can manage, and the proof of your military triumph will fuel your civilization's development in more ways than one.
Treasures of Nineveh[]
This is a powerful ability with a significant drawback if you don't prove to be aggressive enough. The knowledge of the world is ripe for the taking, but it requires you to fight for it to reap the maximum rewards. Right off the bat whenever you capture a Settlement for the first time you gain a free technology. Simple but effective, it gets even better once you research the Tupšarrūtu civic that also gives you a free codex when you capture a Settlement the first time. The price of such hard-won knowledge, however, is that you are unable to generate codices through researching technologies, meaning that tech masteries won't grant you the codices you'll need to complete the Science Legacy Path (though they'll still give you other benefits). While codices can be gained through other methods such as some civic masteries, narrative events or a science city-state Suzerain bonus, your most consistent source of codices will be from your initial conquest of Settlements. Therefore, you'll want to time your military campaigns to make sure you have enough manpower and the right civics to get the most out of your efforts. The 30% 
Production bonus to Dur-Sharrukin is also quite useful, considering that it's an early game wonder that provides a bonus to all fortified districts in all Settlements you own, meaning if you spawn next to other aggressive civilizations or independent powers you can build it that much faster to fortify your defenses.
Magarru[]
Assyria's replacement for the Chariot doesn't really offer increased 
Combat Strength compared to other unique units of the same type, nor is it less expensive to produce. It is, however, significantly more mobile, with 4 
Movement instead of the Chariot's 3 and the ability to move after attacking. This makes it a surprisingly good skirmisher for a cavalry unit, as it can ignore the zone of control of enemy units in order to run in to get a hit and then retreat to an optimal position. Invest in the 
Militaristic attribute path and place them in the radius of a 
Commander with the right perks selected, and they can easily run roughshod over improperly defended units.
Turtanu[]
Assyria's unique Commander isn't too much different from a regular Army Commander, since it costs the same to produce and doesn't start with a promotion like Achaemenid Persia's Hazarapatis or Rome's Legatus after discovering the right civic. That said, a +5 bonus to infantry and cavalry units in the command radius when facing districts is nothing to scoff at, especially when it comes to laying siege to cities with lots of walls. Combine these boosted units with effective siege weapons, and fortified districts will quickly fall before your might.
Royal Library[]
Assyria's unique science building has adjacency bonuses for River tiles instead of resources and the standard adjacency for wonders. This makes it function like a slightly better Library, complete with slots for holding the Great Works you'll likely be getting from your military exploits. Make sure to build it in the same spot as the Citadel to construct the Ekallu.
Citadel[]
Assyria's unique production building also acts as a fortified district. It receives a Production bonus from wonders, and if you place it on flat terrain it receives a +2 
Happiness bonus to offset its maintenance. With Production being vitally important in the early game, the Citadel will make sure to help you produce buildings, units, and even wonders that much earlier while also making sure your enemies have to go through an additional hoop before they take your city. Make sure it's built on the same spot as the Royal Library for the Ekallu.
Ekallu[]
Assyria's unique quarter is formed by building a Royal Library and a Citadel on the same tile, and causes all Great Works on display in its city to generate an additional +2 Production each. Stack this with other buildings and wonders with Great Work slots like Libraries and Academies, and fill them with Great Works to turn them into Production powerhouses. This is not only excellent for the Antiquity Age, but also in future Ages where new types of Great Works will be generated and your cities will gain those Production bonuses as well.
Assyrian civics[]
Assyria's unique civics provide assistance in covering areas where the civilization may be lacking, while providing additional bonuses to make your military development, scientific output, and territorial expansion yield greater results. These can range from additional 
Culture through tech masteries, to giving a combat bonus to your Magarru when in a Commander's radius. Your unique civic masteries also help advance Assyria's preferred game plan in the form of traditions that make it easier to construct buildings and wonders that have Great Work slots, grant 
Science to fortification buildings (e.g., Walls and Citadels), and provide 
Food and Production to captured Settlements to get them up to speed. With all of that in mind, even compared to other civilizations it's imperative to research each Assyrian civic at the risk of severely hampering yourself. The Science legacy path in particular is borderline impossible to fully complete if you don't at least get the Tupšarrūtu civic - without it, you won't be able to generate codices from any captured Settlements, and since you can't gain them from completing any tech masteries you run the risk of failing to finish the Great Library Path if you fail to earn them from select civic masteries or narrative events.
Civilopedia entry[]
Ashur is a god, a land, and a city, all in one – the name “Assyria” is a Greek version of “mat Ashur,” or “the land of [the god-city of] Ashur.” It was one of the most significant and forward-looking empires of the ancient world. Its spread extended across Mesopotamia, including brief conquests in (what would become) Persia and (what already was) Egypt.
To begin, we must look at Sumerian history. The Sumerians were a rather mysterious people who appeared at the dawn of cities, possibly from the Indian subcontinent. They built some of the earliest cities in what is today Iraq. Over time, the Akkadians under Sargon rebelled and established an empire over former Sumerian lands, only to falter and collapse around 2150 BCE. The centuries following this fall were dark, with city-states (including Ashur) fighting for supremacy.
Assyria was to rise twice: first in the mid-1300s BCE and later, c. 900 BCE (for reference, this is younger than Egypt, but far older than Greece; at the tail end of Shang China and the rise of Zhou China). Here, we focus on the later Neo-Assyrian Empire.
The names of Sargon II, Sennacherib, Ashurbanipal, and other Assyrian kings are legendary for good reason – these were rulers who expanded the meaning of power across the region. This success was partly owed to a few novel experiments in economy – Assyria early on adopted a form of free trade (trade in Sumeria, by contrast, was managed via temples), but most significant was the development of a standing army. Think of this – soldiers no longer had to think about returning home to their fields at harvest time…meaning that they could sit outside of enemy fields waiting for their opponents to get exhausted. Furthermore, the Assyrians were engineers, having a dedicated engineering corps in the army that could build siege weapons, massive ramps, or other machines to make short work of ancient walls. Finally, the Assyrians were an Iron Age empire – iron is weaker than bronze (depending on its steel content), but could be mass-produced (and was not vulnerable to trade fluctuations; the older Assyrian Empire fell victim to some of the disruptions of the Late Bronze Age collapse). Even little innovations such as the combat boot come from Assyria – in short, the Assyrian army was a war machine.
And it was terrible. Assyrian accounts take particular pleasure in describing the horrors inflicted upon those who stood in their way – flayings, butcherings, and the utter destruction of cities that resisted them. Sennacherib’s conquests into Judah made it into the Old Testament – as Judah rebelled with Egyptian support, Sennacherib responded mercilessly, removing the entire population and torturing the leaders to death. As the captives were led into subjugation in Babylon, accounts report that the Assyrian armies forced them to sing songs of joy. The Biblical account holds that in the following siege of Jerusalem, divine vengeance was inflicted upon the invading Assyrians, though it may simply have been reports that Babylon had rebelled that caused the invaders to retreat.
At home, Sennacherib’s gardens were famous, marvels of hydroengineering that likely were the inspiration behind the “hanging gardens.” This, too, was about power – Assyrian gardens were models of conquest, with the landscape sculpted and fauna selected to reflect those of conquered lands. One could walk through the cedars of Lebanon “at home” and revel in the memory of its subjugation.
Ashurbanipal was the ultimate Assyrian king – meaning “the greatest” (arguably), but also the last (nearly). His father divided the kingdom between Ashur and Babylon for his two sons, but Ashurbanipal’s brother (who received the Babylonian portion) sought to ally instead with the Elamites and take the whole thing. This didn’t go well – Ashurbanipal destroyed his brother and Elam both (as well as conquering Egypt). His conquests were depicted in bas-reliefs complete with images of floating corpses. His cruelty, too, was depicted in the bas-reliefs of his lion hunt, a feat so brutal that the artist carved the animals in the extremity of their suffering, throwing back the image of the proud conqueror king.
Ashurbanipal was not simply a conqueror, though – he was literate, and his library was his pride. He gathered all the texts he could, of all varieties and genres, to preserve the knowledge of his era. Tens of thousands of clay tablets from his collection have survived in the ruins of Nineveh. Indeed, it is from his library that we find the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Assyrian society was multilingual, with Akkadian and Sumerian both present in various forms. Each city had its own patron god, and warfare was thought to be conducted not just between kings, but between these particular gods as well. Upon capture, a city would surrender its patron deity (e.g. Marduk, of Babylon) and the conquering deity might subject the conquered to a kind of ritual humiliation, or simply incorporate that deity in as a lesser member of a pantheon. Vassals, too, might remain or might find themselves replaced by Assyrian nobles – something that bred resentment amongst conquered peoples.
Resettlement was also vital to Assyrian conquest, laying the seeds of cultural shift. As Aramaic speakers were displaced across the empire, Aramaic became a new lingua franca, one that was to survive when the empire did not.
Assyria fell shortly after Ashurbanipal’s reign, though the particular reasons are unclear – signs point to environmental as well as social collapse, and a new Babylon rose in its ashes.
Cities[]
Citizens[]
| Males | Females |
|---|---|
| Arda-Mulišši | Šadditu |
| Sîn-ahu-usur | Libbāli-šarrat |
| Mutakkil-Nusku | Tašmetu-šarrat |
| Tukultī-Ninurta | Sammu-rāmat |
| Aššur-rabi | Ahat-Abiša |
| Šamši-ilu | Zakûtu |
| Adad-nīrārī | Šeruʾa-eṭirat |
| Sîn-nadin-apli | Ešarra-ḫammat |
| Aššur-dān | Ra'īmâ |
| Aššur-etil-ilāni | Muballitat-Sherua |
Age Transition Quotes[]
When age progress reaches 100% or player gets eliminated/retires, one of these quotes will be read depending on the last legacy path completed:
- Culture: "The people of Assyria were content, but yearned for more. They looked to their great works to embolden their spirits."
- Economic: "Many hands and many minds worked to make Assyria prosper. In the end, all contributed, and all benefited."
- Military: "And so Assyria's borders grew far beyond its heartlands. First came the soldiers, and after, the tax collectors. This was what it meant to rule."
- Science: "Assyria was dutybound to protect its descendants' birthright. Epic poetry, ritual hymns, chronicles of rule and conquest--all were preserved in the empire's great halls."
- Defeat: "Neither sword nor coin brought Assyria victory. But its heritage would endure, even when its name would not."
Trivia[]
- The Assyrian civilization's symbol is a depiction of Ashur, the eponymous patron god of Assyria.
- The Assyrian's civilization ability refers to many different treasures the ancient capital of Nineveh had accumulated that were discovered through archaeological digs.
- Assyria is the first DLC civilization to have its associated wonder introduced in the base game instead of the DLC.
Soundtrack[]
| Original Track | № | Based on | Credits | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| "Assyria (Antiquity Age)" | Debke | Composed by Roland Rizzo Sandro Friedrich, aulos, bansuri, ney & zurna Produced by Geoff Knorr and Roland Rizzo |
4:21 |
Gallery[]
.jpg "Assyrian city in-game (Civ7).jpg (5.02 MB)")
.png "Magarru in-game (Civ7).png (917 KB)")
.png "Turtanu in-game (Civ7).png (843 KB)")
.png "Ekallu in-game (Civ7).png (1.03 MB)")
.png "Dur-Sharrukin in-game (Civ7).png (3.91 MB)")
.png "Assyrian Background (Civ7).png (4.25 MB)")
Videos[]
See also[]
- Assyrian (Independent Power) (Civ7)
- Assyrian in other games
External links[]
| Civilization VII Civilizations [edit] | |
|---|---|
| Antiquity |
|
| Exploration | |
| Modern | |
| 1 Requires DLC | |