Chinese (Civ6)/In-depth strategy guide by ThinkingNut

The following guide is being constantly updated by ThinkingNut. ThinkingNut has been playing almost exclusively as China in Civ 6 since the release of the game in late 2016. He plays and wins on Deity difficulty in Single Player and Multiplayer. The guide has been updated for Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm . It has been written with the objective of helping you win at Deity difficulty level.

Introduction

China is a versatile, complex and solid civilization that can, with the right setup and Wonders, effectively go for any of the Victory types and gain an advantage no matter the map conditions.

Qin's First Emperor leader ability boasts the most productive Builders in the game (with their charge count potentially going up as high as 8 per Builder) and the unique ability to rush Ancient and Classical Wonders with Builder charges.

Dynastic Cycle provides an excellent snowballing ability in terms of researching Technologies and Civics for the entire game.

Crouching Tigers provide cheap and powerful defense in the Medieval and Renaissance Era, making China the strongest defensive civilization in the mid game as long as her enemies are on par in the tech tree or behind.

The Great Wall tile improvement functions as a standard Fort in terms of Combat Strength and is unlocked three Eras earlier with Masonry. It provides Chinese units with a very effective defensive option for the entire game. Its potential Gold and, later on, Culture and Tourism yield is an excellent source of income.

Learning how to play optimally as China will take patience and experimentation as she has a relatively steep learning curve. The key is understanding which Ancient and Classical Wonders are appropriate under which geopolitical circumstances. Once you have a solid grasp on this aspect of her kit, the other bonuses are relatively straightforward and simple to use. If you take the time to learn how to play China competently, you will have a competitively viable civilization to take into Deity and Multiplayer games.

Good luck!

Beginner's Mini-Guide To China

If you are fairly experienced at playing Civilization 6 but picking up China for the first time, here are my seven beginner's tips to make your learning curve easier. The idea is to maximize the productivity of your Builders, get as much value as possible from Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations, and protect your empire using Crouching Tigers and the Great Wall tile improvement. Note that these are general tips that work fairly well in all situations. When you get more experienced, learning to adapt these suggestions to your immediate environment will be key so that you leverage the maximum advantage as a China player.

Prioritise rushing the Pyramids with Builder charges. Don't worry about the other Ancient to Classical Wonders until you are more experienced with playing as China.
Get Ancestral Hall () for a free four to seven charge Builder in every newly founded city.
Get Liang's () Guildmaster starting title as your first Governor title every game for the additional Builder charge.
If you go into a Golden Age in the early to mid game, grab Monumentality as your Dedication to lower the Gold / Faith cost of your Builders and increase their mobility.
Try to acquire as many Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations as possible to get the maximum value out of Dynastic Cycle.
Get at least one Crouching Tiger when you unlock them to upgrade the Ranged Combat Strength of your city walls.
Build Great Wall tile improvements if you need fast access to defensive terrain, but don't over-rely on them and neglect to build walled-up Encampments.

For more advanced, in-depth notes and strategies, please see below:

The First Emperor

Overview Of Ability

China's Builders get an extra charge, giving them a total of 4 instead of 3 charges. Combine this later on with the Pyramids, Serfdom and Public Works, and you can potentially have Builders with 7 charges (or 8 in Rise and Fall with governor Liang's Guildmaster title) - the highest number of charges per Builder in the game! They can also spend charges to rush the construction of Ancient and Classical Wonders.

Breakdown Of Ancient And Classical Wonders

How many Ancient to Classical Wonders should I attempt to rush in a standard game? This will vary from game to game. Just make sure you don't sacrifice your early empire expansion too much.
Which Ancient to Classical Wonders should I go for? A. Always rush the Pyramids whenever possible. After that, go for the other Reliably good to Situational (more on this below) Wonders as appropriate. B. As all the Wonders in the game have specific map-based requirements, it would be in your best interests as a China player to learn the said requirements as well as you can. This then allows you to... C. Read the map quickly and accurately so that you can make strategic decisions about which Wonders to build based on what types of tiles and City-States are nearby. Aside from what has already been written in the "Victory Types" section, the general guideline is: For Amenities Amenities, get Temple of Artemis and Colosseum. For water-heavy maps, get Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossus and Great Lighthouse. For desert-heavy areas, get Petra.

Notes:

Core = Pyramids. Grab it every game if possible. This is your top priority, consistently game-changing wonder that complements China's kit excellently.

Reliably good = Get these Wonders if you can manage to juggle your Production between these and general empire expansion. They will heavily reward you if you do.

Situational = Situationally great. Don't bother otherwise.

Avoid = Just don't bother.

Name	Notes
Pyramids¹	Effects: +2 Culture, grants a free Builder and all Builders receive an additional charge. It must be built on a desert tile. Analysis: Core. Has fantastic synergy with the already powerful 4 charge Chinese builder and China's unique ability to rush Ancient and Classical wonders with builder charges. It is by far the best Wonder in the game to complement China's kit, so prioritise this above all else.
Great Library	Effects: +2 Science, +1 Great Scientist point per turn, +2 Great Works of Writing and receive boosts to all Ancient and Classical Era technologies. It must be built on a flat land tile adjacent to a Campus with a Library. +1 Great Writer point per turn, and receive a random technology boost after another player recruits a Great Scientist. Analysis: Reliably good. If you want this Wonder, getting it as early as possible is key to maximise the Eureka Eureka boosts to Ancient and Classical Era technologies. This Wonder is very cost efficient because it remains relevant for the rest of the game by supplying you with occasional Eureka Eureka boosts. It works very well with Dynastic Cycle, and is a key Wonder to get if pursuing a Science Victory.
Petra	Effects: +2 Food, +2 Gold, and +1 Production on all desert tiles for this city. (Does not apply to Floodplains.) It must be built on a desert tile. Analysis: Reliably good. One of the best Wonders. This effectively turns desert hills and any other improvable desert tiles into great power tiles - this works synergistically with Great Wall tiles, and can, if you build strategically, grant many tiles that each yield +2 Food, +1 Production, +8 Gold and +4 Culture ( version only). More importantly, it sets you up for the rest of the game with a powerhouse of a city.
Temple of Artemis	Effects: +4 Food and +3 Housing Housing, and each Camp, Pasture and Plantation Improvement within four tiles provides +1 Amenities Amenity. It must be built on a tile adjacent to a Camp. Analysis: Reliably good. One of the best Wonders. The +1 Amenities Amenity from every camp, plantation and pasture within a 4-tile radius, assuming you strategically place this wonder to maximise its effectiveness, can be game-changingly massive in the early game. Build both this and the Colosseum for maximum synergy. Additional +4 Food and +3 Housing Housing are extra bonuses that sweeten the deal further, and can allow you to quickly grow a city where growth would otherwise be difficult. This Wonder allows you to very quickly grow a city to 10+ population by around the Medieval Era while still supporting it adequately in terms of Amenities Amenities and Housing Housing. Ample scouting is thus required.
Colosseum	Effects: 6 tile ranged, area of effect +3 Amenities Amenities and +2 Culture. It must be built on a tile adjacent to an Entertainment Complex district. +2 Amenities Amenities, Culture and loyalty for every city within 6 tiles. Requires a tile adjacent to an Entertainment Complex district with an Arena. Analysis: Reliably good. One of the best Wonders. This can be the difference between you struggling to keep your cities happy and loyal on a crowded map or not. It also means that you can potentially settle cities further away from your Capital Capital without having to worry as much about the resulting loyalty penalties.
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus²	Effects: +1 Science, Faith and Culture to all Coast tiles in this city. All Great Engineers have an additional charge. It must be built adjacent to a Harbour. Analysis: Reliably good. The +1 Science, Faith and Culture is a very good bonus if your city is surrounded by a lot of Coast tiles, and especially good if there are a lot of sea resources within the city's reach. Combine this with Liang's Fishery improvement to acquire extremely powerful tile yields. Later in the game, Offshore Wind Farms and Seasteads are also viable tile improvements. If the Auckland city-state is in your game, become its Suzerain for even more impressive yields. An additional Great Engineer charge is very unique and useful in the mid-to-late game. I have always found particularly good utility from the Great Engineers that grant Production towards Wonders - Filippo Brunelleschi, for example. Having another charge on those is immensely helpful in helping me grab mid-to-late game Wonders like the Potala Palace and Big Ben. In the late game, if you are aiming for a Science Victory, having another charge on the Great Engineers who speed up Space Race projects (Sergei Korolev and Wernher Von Braun, for example) is game changing as it effectively doubles the value of their abilities. Another good thing about this Wonder is that the AI usually do not prioritise it, meaning that it should still be up for grabs in the Medieval Era.
Great Bath	Effects: +3 Housing, +1 Amenity from entertainment. Floodplains tile along the river containing this Wonder are now immune to Flood Damage. -50% Production and Food yields from Flood Damage. +1 Faith for every time a tile belonging to this city has been flooded. It must be built on a Floodplains tile. Analysis: Reliably good. It functions like a pseudo-Dam and has scaling Faith yields. It provides a lot of flexibility. The extra Faith works well if you are going for a religious strategy. It can also be used in conjunction with the Golden Age version of Monumentality Dedication to purchase civilian units in the mid game. With the addition of the Apocalypse Mode ruleset from the Maya & Gran Colombia Pack (as released on May 21, 2020), the Great Bath's usefulness becomes game-breaking. As long as the map conditions are favourable, China can rush-build it with Builders, and then use Soothsayers to cause flooding on floodplains tiles to activate the Wonder's Faith generation. As there is no limit to how much Faith can be generated per turn per tile, this can easily snowball your Faith generation to massive amounts by the mid to late game. If you are not playing with Apocalypse Mode turned on, the Great Bath becomes a very unreliable Wonder as the amount of flooding in each game is determined by your Disaster Setting and luck.
Apadana²	Effects: +2 Great Work slots and +2 Envoy Envoys per Wonder built in this city. It must be built on a tile adjacent to the Capital Capital city centre. Analysis: Situational. This Wonder is excellent if you plan and are able to build many more Wonders in your Capital Capital. It is a key Wonder if you are planning to go for a Diplomatic Victory as China. More Envoy Envoys means a higher ability to get and maintain Suzerain status with City-States. This potentially translates to more accumulated Diplomatic Favor. The downside to this is that not every starting location will be suitable for a lot of Wonders.
Terracotta Army	Effects: +2 Great General points per turn, all current land units gain a free promotion, and all Archaeologists from the owner may enter foreign lands without open borders. It must be built on Grassland or Plains adjacent to an Encampment with a Barracks or Stable. Analysis: Situational. Get this when you already have amassed a sizeable army. Combine this with Victor's Embrasure title and you can potentially have a whole army receive two promotions without fighting! If you do not care about the diplomatic relations with a certain civilisation and want their artifacts, this would also be a Wonder you'd want.
Stonehenge³	Effects: +2 Faith, grants a free Great Prophet, and Great Prophets may found a religion on Stonehenge instead of a Holy Site. It must be built adjacent to Stone and on flat land. Analysis: Reliably good only when combined with Divine Inspiration as your Follower Belief. Suggestions for a defensive religious setup: Monument to the Gods (Pantheon); Divine Inspiration (Follower Belief); Synagogue (Worship Belief); Church Property (Founder Belief); and Defender of the Faith (Enhancer Belief). Suggestions for a offensive religious setup: Monument to the Gods (Pantheon); Divine Inspiration (Follower Belief); Mosque (Worship Belief); Pilgrimage (Founder Belief); and Holy Order (Enhancer Belief).
Jebel Barkal⁴	Effects: Awards +2 Iron Iron, and provides +4 Faith to all your cities within a 6-tile radius. It must be built on a desert hill tile. Awards +4 Iron Iron per turn. The +4 Faith part stays the same. Analysis: Situational. The double iron or +4 Iron Iron per turn can be essential if you do not have iron and plan to build Knights and Swordsmen. The +4 Faith in a 6 tile radius can be extremely powerful if you're pursuing a Religious Victory. It has excellent synergy with the Grand Master's Chapel and the Golden Age version of the Monumentality Dedication .
Mahabodhi Temple	Effects: +4 Faith and grants +2 Apostles. It must be built on Woods adjacent to a Holy Site with a Temple, and you must have founded a Religion. Grants 2 Diplomatic Points when built. Analysis: Situational. The two Apostles can be useful if you found an early religion. Please see above analysis on Stonehenge for suggested offensive / defensive religious setup. If going for an early religion, grabbing this Wonder also gives your game flexibility in case you want to try for a Diplomatic Victory.
Oracle	Effects: +1 Culture, +1 Faith, patronage of Great People costs 25% less Faith, and Districts in this city provide +2 Great Person points of their type. It must be built on Hills. Analysis: Situational. Not a bad Wonder to have in the mid game if you have an abundance of Faith. Try to build it with Great Bath, Stonehenge, Jebel Barkal and Mahabodhi Temple in conjunction to Divine Inspiration as your Follower Belief to maximise its effects. Don't bother otherwise.
Colossus	Effects: +3 Gold, +1 Great Admiral point per turn, +1 Trade Route Trade Route capacity, and grants a Trader unit. It must be built on the Coast and adjacent to a Harbour. It cannot be built on a Lake. Analysis: Situational. The +3 Gold, extra Trade Route Trade Route and a free Trader is nice and saves valuable Production time. The +1 Great Admiral point per turn is not bad, especially if you also build the Great Lighthouse to stack the points. However, it's not a priority, especially since neither human nor AI players will rush the Colossus early. Its usefulness is further limited by the fact that the player has to build a Harbor first, which requires a city to be settled near or on the coast, as well as a lot of valuable Production to be spent on the Harbor district, especially in the crucial early to mid game where Production should be directed to Settlers, Builders and other more valuable Wonders. The Colossus can be useful on a water-heavy map, but otherwise very much skippable.
Great Lighthouse	Effects: +3 Gold, +1 Movement for all naval units, and +1 Great Admiral point per turn. It must be built on the coast and adjacent a Harbour with a Lighthouse. Analysis: Situational. Extra movement means a more effective naval force. Nice for island maps where you plan on instigating naval warfare. The +3 Gold and +1 Great Admiral point is nice, and works well with the Colossus . If you are building this, build Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Colossus and Great Lighthouse as a trio on water-heavy maps. Useless otherwise.
Hanging Gardens	Effects: Provides +15% growth in all cities, and +2 Housing Housing (since the Summer 2017 Update). It must be built on a tile adjacent to a river. Analysis: Avoid. There are far better uses of your Production in the early game - ie. getting the better Wonders, general expansion of your empire, building districts, training military units to fend off barbarians etc. The +15% growth is nice since it applies to all your cities, and the +2 Housing Housing to this Wonder's parent city is not bad, but what it offers is comparatively minimal in contrast to the instantly powerful and game-changing Pyramids or a well-placed Petra. Even an early Commercial Hub on the said tile adjacent to a river would be more immediately useful for your empire. Ultimately, it's the heavy opportunity cost in China's critical early game that forces this Wonder under the category of "Avoid."
Machu Picchu	Effects: +4 Gold. Mountain tiles provide a standard adjacency bonus to Commercial Hub, Theatre Square and Industrial Zone Districts in all cities. It must be built on a mountain tile that does not contain a Volcano. Analysis: Avoid. The bonuses themselves are decent, but highly dependent on your empire having a lot of mountains in it to be actually worthwhile. Unfortunately, Builders cannot move onto mountain tiles, meaning that they are unable to spend charges to rush-build the Machu Picchu. This forces China to hard build the Wonder like everyone else, which is not optimal at all. I'd much rather spend my precious Production on other more accessible and, more importantly, valuable Wonders in the early game, or even general empire expansion.

¹ Note that the Pyramids add one extra charge for all existing Builders as well. Therefore, if you have a choice when your Pyramids are near completion, shuffle your Builders so that you have as many of them left as possible.
² Available only if you bought the Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack.
³ If you want to collect Stonehenge, if you are playing at the Emperor difficulty level or above in single-player, try to shuffle your maps to get a good suitable position - near some Stone, close to a Natural Wonder and some city-states. The boost to Astrology from a Natural Wonder allows you to research the other techs you need to work tiles and produce military, and city-states alleviate the need for regular Production. If you do sacrifice early Production and expansion, you will lose the later Wonders.
⁴ Available only if you bought the Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack.

Notes On Optimally Rush-Building A Wonder

Builders can only expend one charge a turn on rushing Ancient to Classical Wonders.
You can "queue" a succession of 1-charge Builders to rush multiple times per turn.
The source of your Builders is irrelevant, so you can have your entire empire indirectly contribute to the construction of a single Wonder.
For maximum synergy, grab Autocracy as your Tier 1 government, Monument to the Gods as your Pantheon, and Corvee as your economic policy for a total of +40% Production to Ancient and Classical Wonders. This boosts the value of each Builder charge from 15% to 21%, allowing you to finish any Wonder purely through Builder charges within 5 turns. This is very powerful, especially in new cities with little Production.
Any extra Production from completing a Wonder overflows into the next build order of a city so nothing is wasted.

Unlocking Canals At Masonry

With the Gathering Storm Expansion Pack, The First Emperor leader ability has now the extra bonus of unlocking Canals after researching the Masonry technology.

This is a very situational and niche ability. You have to play on maps where land masses are narrow or snaky enough to isolate bodies of waters from each other for canals to be relevant. The only arguments for building early Canals are for more efficient Trade Route Trade Routes and Canals being a source of district adjacency bonuses. Otherwise, your early game Production would be better spent elsewhere.

Dynastic Cycle

10% extra Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations are great all game, especially in the late game when both technologies and civics are far more expensive. The enhanced boosts allow for China to have great snowballing potential all game. But it would be counterproductive to wait too long for Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations because of the 10% extra. For the most essential tech or civic, plow through without delay.

This bonus proves its own worth if you are considering a Domination Victory strategy. Every time you conquer a city, you gain an Eureka Eureka or Inspiration Inspiration if the enemy civilisation is ahead of you in Technology or Civics. With Dynastic Cycle, this becomes even more valuable.

Last but not least, stealing technology boosts with spies in the mid to late game is even more valuable as China because the Eureka Eurekas get an extra 10% of the technology cost. This strategy gets better the higher you go in difficulty (in single player) because on Immortal and Deity, the AI will almost always be ahead of you in technology until possibly the mid-to-late game.

Great Wall

Defensive Bonus

The Great Wall tile improvement operates as a Fort in terms of granting Combat Strength: +4 Defense Strength and an instant 2 turns of fortification - a total of +10 Combat Strength. Its superior value comes from the fact that it is unlocked three eras earlier at Masonry. It is much more accessible since it is constructed with Builder charges. This gives early game units a much bigger boost in defensive Combat Strength relative to their intrinsically lower Combat Strength. Eg. Archers get a 66% boost in defensive melee Combat Strength because their intrinsic melee Combat Strength is 15. It is an excellent source of early defence against barbarians and any aggressive neighbour.

In Gathering Storm, the Garrison promotion applies to Great Wall tile improvements, so it makes sense for primarily defending Ranged Units to grab this as their first promotion. This boosts the already formidable defensive power of the Crouching Tigers.

The only requirement it has is that the Great Wall needs to be built along the borders of your empire.

One important note is that although the Great Wall is good for providing defensive terrain, it is a complement to walled-up Encampments and not a substitute.

Additional statistics

The Great Wall grants an intrinsic +2 Gold by itself, with another +2 Gold when adjacent to another tile of Great Wall. Once the Castles technology has been researched, an additional +2 Culture is granted per adjacent Great Wall tile. This brings the economic benefits of a Great Wall title up to an impressive +6 Gold and +4 Culture per strip when adjacent to two other Great wall tiles. When Flight has been researched, Tourism is also accumulated.

Although this is an excellent source of Gold and Culture in the early game, it is advisable only to build Great Wall segments along borders where you anticipate an invasion. Building too many of them will sacrifice too many tiles which could have been used for other tile improvements.

A combination that is especially powerful is building Great Wall segments on desert tiles that have been boosted by Petra, tiles which otherwise cannot be improved. This boosts their value to +2 Food, +1 Production, +8 Gold and +4 Culture per tile. I would caution against building Great Wall segments on desert hill tiles as the Production from mines will be a better long-term choice.

If you are lacking 4 Era Score towards a Golden Age or Normal Age, laying one Great Wall tile down grants +4 Era Score.

Final note: Great Wall tiles can be pillaged but never removed by disasters.

Crouching Tiger

The Crouching Tiger is a unique ranged unit that costs 160 Production, 20 less Production than the 180 Production Crossbowman and has +50 Ranged Combat Strength, relative to the Crossbowman's +40 Ranged Combat Strength. Like the Crossbowman, it does not cost resources to train. However, it has one less Range Range when compared to the Crossbowman.

The reduction in Range Range means Crouching Tigers will be exposed to enemy melee units unless placed in defensive structures, which significantly inhibits their use. Crouching Tigers are therefore best employed in defensive wars when placed in walled-up Encampments or City Centers. If neither is available or convenient, ad hoc Great Wall placement can also help the survivability of Crouching Tigers.

If you're planning to mass-produce Crouching Tigers, it is more efficient to adopt the Feudal Contract military policy card as the Crouching Tigers are classified as Medieval ranged units. The +50% Production that is granted with this policy card has synergy with the Crouching Tiger's already lowered base costs.

Final note: When you build your first Crouching Tiger, all your city defences and encampments (providing that you've built Ancient Walls) will gain its +50 Ranged Combat Strength. This, in conjunction with the Great Wall tile improvement and the Bastions policy card, gives China the potential to be the strongest defensive civilization in the game during the Medieval Era. It is a good idea, therefore, to build at least one Crouching Tiger as soon as you unlock it, even if you are at peace, so that you upgrade your cities' and encampments' ranged attacks.

When defending, it is advisable to grab Garrison as your first promotion for even more effective defence.

Policy Cards

This section will recommend what policy cards work best in synergy with China's kit. As such, the recommended play style is intended to revolve around empowering Builders and Spies, constructing Wonders and bolstering military defence.

China's kit	Notes
Builders and Great Wall tile improvement	Cards: Ilkum, Serfdom and Public Works. Analysis: Get cheaper Builders with more charges. This is great for rushing Ancient and Classical Era Wonders and constructing more tile improvements, Great Wall segments included.
Ancient to Classical Wonders	Card: Corvee Analysis: Get +15% Production towards constructing Ancient and Classical Era Wonders. Combine with Autocracy as your Tier 1 government and the Monument to the Gods Pantheon for +40% Production towards Ancient and Classical Era Wonders.
Dynastic Cycle	Cards: Machiavellianism, Cryptography and Nuclear Espionage. Analysis: This is purely to boost the potential of our Spies. The general idea is to steal as many boosts to technology as possible to make use of our Dynastic Cycle ability.
Crouching Tigers	Cards: Feudal Contract, Wars of Religion and Twilight Valor (). Analysis: As mentioned before, Crouching Tigers are categorised as Medieval ranged units, so if you plan on building many of these, grab Feudal Contract to make their relatively low costs even lower. This is great in the scenario of you being attacked as you can crank out many Crouching Tigers very quickly to defend yourself. If you have founded a religion and are going to war, Wars of Religion would be another good mid-game Military Policy Card to bolster the Combat Strength of your Crouching Tigers. If you want extra Combat Strength during a Dark Age, grab Twilight Valor. Just remember to switch out of it once you go on the counteroffensive.

Government

In the early game, I highly recommend switching to Autocracy as your Tier 1 government. The main reason is that it provides +10% Production towards Wonders. As mentioned above, this is purely to help us build more early game Wonders. All other governments are situational.

Government Plaza Buildings

In the early game, I highly recommend Ancestral Hall because it helps us expand horizontally after we have focused on early game Wonders. The free Builder can be augmented by First Emperor, the Pyramids and Serfdom/Public Works to result in a 7 charge Builder in every newly founded city. This allows China's excellent ability to go wide to be on par with Rome, Russia and Phoenicia.

If you are going for a Science Victory, getting Royal Society works exceptionally well with China's Builders. As each Builder charge is worth 2% of a Space Race Project, an 8 charge Chinese Builder can speed up the process by 16% each turn.

All other Government Plaza Buildings are situational.

Governors

I recommend Liang and Victor as the two governors that have direct synergy with China's kit.

Name	Notes
Liang	Her starting title, Guildmaster, gives China unmatched 5 charge Builders in the early game. This will be essential to more effective Wonder-rushing.
Victor	The two titles to look out for are Garrison Commander and Embrasure. Garrison Commander is great with defending Crouching Tigers, and Embrasure has great synergy with the Terracotta Army Wonder to get you double promoted troops.

Dedications

I highly recommend the Golden Age version of Monumentality because it grants extra +2 Movement Movement for our already exceptional Builders and makes them cheaper to purchase via Faith and Gold. All other Dedications are situational.

Playing As China In Multiplayer

Since expanding quickly and playing aggressively is the general strategy in Multiplayer games, here are my three suggestions when playing as China.

For Wonders, prioritise the Pyramids and the Terracotta Army (the latter only if you have a sizeable army amassed already).
All other Production should be channelled towards general empire expansion and infrastructure improvement. As human players are generally more aggressive and less predictable than the AI, focusing too much on Wonders in the early game will more than likely lead you to getting rushed by enemy forces and defeated.
Because of the above, no matter how friendly other players are to you, make sure you prepare well in advance Great Wall tile improvements and fortify with defending troops near your empire's borders.

Victory Types

This section is intended to showcase the versatility of China's kit for all Victory types. Note that these strategies are not set in stone, and are general guidelines that are meant to be adapted to the circumstances of the game.

Victory Type	Notes
Religious	Rushing Great Bath, Stonehenge, Oracle, Jebel Barkal and Mahabodhi Temple can give a religious edge. In choosing beliefs, a setup that has worked very well for me is the following: Monument to the Gods (Pantheon), Divine Inspiration (Follower), Mosque (Worship), Pilgrimage (Founder) and Holy Order (Enhancer). Grab these whenever possible, and feel free to improvise as appropriate.
Scientific	Dynastic Cycle, Great Library and, if the map permits, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus can help China gain a technological advantage as well as massive Production boosts toward Space Race projects.
Cultural	The early wonders, Dynastic Cycle and later Great Wall segments will give China a cultural edge. This will set her up to easily get very high Theater Square adjacency bonuses in the mid-to-late game. Plentiful builder charges will allow China to easily get many Seaside Resorts up and running after she researches Radio, thus giving her a further edge in the late game.
Domination	Build a huge, promoted army from a city utilising Victor's Embrasure title. Then grab Terracotta Army for a second promotion. This allows a Chinese army to be extremely dangerous in the mid game. If lacking iron, grab Jebel Barkal. To maintain a hold on newly conquered cities, fortify with Crouching Tigers and lay down Great Wall tiles as appropriate.
Diplomatic	Beeline for the Apadana and then build as many Wonders in its parent city as possible to give China a diplomatic edge. This will maximise the two extra Envoy Envoys per Wonder bonus and allow you to more competently compete for Suzerainty of multiple city-states. Rush Mahabodhi Temple afterwards in your Capital Capital if you can.
Score	Being a well-rounded civ, China should have no issues with overall scores.

How To Play Against China

When facing against China (both in single and multiplayer), simply invade her with as much military might as you can muster in the early game while she is preoccupied with building Wonders. If she cannot snowball off the early game, she will be crippled for the rest of the game.