Changes: Chinese (Civ6)

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China

The Chinese people represent a civilization in Civilization VI. Their colors are green (#156C31) and white (#FFFFFF), and they are led by Qin Shi Huang.

The Chinese civilization ability is Dynastic Cycle, which allows Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations to provide an extra 10% of the cost of technologies and civics. Their unique unit is the Crouching Tiger, and their unique tile improvement is the Great Wall.

Strategy

China is a strong, versatile, yet quite complex civilization to master in terms of its gameplay. It has arguably the strongest timing push in terms of rush-building Wonders in the Ancient and Classical Era. This will set the pace for the rest of the game in terms of which direction it wants to go and how fast does it get there. Below is an extensive guide to China's kit.

Summary

Vanilla Civ 6 Notes

Overall, China is a solid, versatile and well-rounded civ. Early Wonder rushes and 4 charge Builders are fun and unique. Combine Monument to the Gods, Autocracy, and Corvee for even faster wonder rushing, and attempt to grab the Pyramids, Stonehenge, Petra, Colosseum and Great Library every game. However, do not panic if you are not able to do so. China's kit functions very well even if you skip a Core Wonder. Although they are useful, missing them is not the end of the world. After the initial Wonder rush phase, China will use the bonuses from its early Wonders, extra tile improvements and enhanced Eureka Eurekas and Inspiration Inspirations to keep its overall Production and Science at the top level. China has a situationally powerful offensive military unit in the Crouching Tiger, but its true strength lies in its ability to play defensively with the protection of Great Wall segments, Forts, Encampments, City Centres and tiles that give defensive bonuses. This Wonder building, Builder oriented, defensive play style is complemented by Autocracy, Monarchy and Communism.

In terms of victory types, China is well poised to pursue any type of victory except for early Domination. One can focus on general development and wait to see if a Science, Religious, mid-to-late game Domination or Cultural Victory is more attainable. Spies can be of great use for stealing enhanced technology boosts and pillaging Spaceports without starting offensive wars deep into enemy territory, which is difficult in Multiplayer games. That is again where Wonder building comes in. The Wonders (listed above in the "Later Wonders To Watch For" section) that give extra Policy slots will allow China offset the lack of Economic, Diplomatic and Wildcard policy slots in her governments. These same Wonders and extra policy slots allow for China to be extremely flexible and adaptive in its play-style, as well as to become a mighty late-game powerhouse to be reckoned with. Lastly, if China can grab Petra with a city with many desert hill tiles, that city is primed to grab the later wonders (as mentioned above) with relative ease as it will have superior Production capabilities.

It must be noted, however, that as far as the mechanics of the civilization's kit go, China is not the easiest of civilizations to pick up and immediately be played at its full potential. Relatively newer players will find that a base threshold of game knowledge is required to play China well, especially with regards to wonder prioritisation, wonder placement, wonder combinations and which wonders (especially the ones from the Ancient to Classical Era) are best under which circumstances. However, the 4-charge builders and Dynastic Cycle are relatively easy to use as they are passive bonuses that work well and reliably in any game - this does make the learning curve easier. The Great Wall segments and the Crouching Tiger will be useful as defence in case China is attacked, making the overall experience of playing China to be the following - Easy to pick up, but hard to master.

Having said that, once you are acquainted with the art of building the appropriate Wonders in the appropriate situations, you will find that China's kit is very flexible regardless of different map types and victory strategies. There will be more on this in the section "Victory Type General Strategies." The main source of this flexibility is her ability to choose and rush Ancient to Classical Era Wonders. For instance, if you start on a water-heavy map, go for Colossus, Great Lighthouse and Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. If you start near a desert heavy area, Pyramids and Petra would be your best options. If you find your cities in close proximity to each other, getting Colosseum would be ideal. If you start near a food-scarce location, get Hanging Gardens. This list is by no means exhaustive as the possibilities are many. The point is that because of the rich diversity of Ancient to Classical Era Wonders, China has the option of grabbing the appropriate Wonders to gain an advantage no matter the circumstances.

Rise and Fall Expansion Notes

With the advent of the Rise and Fall expansion, China has received numerous indirect buffs in her general gameplay.

In terms of Ancient and Classical Wonders: First, there is the addition of the Temple of Artemis as a new Ancient Wonder, which ensures that by building it, one city will potentially be a powerhouse of happy people for at least the early and mid game. This lessens the workload of the Colosseum and allows for its potential placement to be more flexible. Secondly, the buffs to the Great Library mean that China can now build it without having to worry about necessarily building Theatre Square Districts to fill out those 2 Great Works of Writing slots, AND she will receive periodic Eureka Eurekas for the rest of the game.

The addition of the Government Plaza and its respective buildings has also been very kind to China. Ancestral Hall reduces the key weakness of China falling behind in the mid game on land grabbing because she usually has focused so heavily on Wonder building in the early game. The free Builder in every new city and potential for +100% Production (Colonization included) towards Settlers synergises very well with Qin's The First Emperor ability, allowing China to expand horizontally efficiently and effectively. Intelligence Agency is a straight up augmentation of China's already strong espionage potential, and synergises extremely well with the improved Eureka Eurekas from Dynastic Cycle. Alternatively, Grand Master's Chapel works efficiently with the Divine Inspiration Follower Belief, and synergises well with China's tendency to spam Wonders. It allows China to maximise the value of her many Wonders by gaining +4 Faith from each Wonder. She can use the surplus Faith to buy military units as needed. Royal Society allows China to keep her powerful Builders relevant in the late game, and allows them to rush Production of Mars Modules and/or any other District projects to crank out Great People extremely quickly.

The implementation of the Governor system has also been generous to China's play style. Liang's starting title, Guildmaster, is a must-have in every game as it works beautifully with The First Emperor ability, allowing China to get 5-charge Builders straight out of the gate. This further augments her early game ability to rush Wonders and snowball the game from there. Pingala's level 2 title, Grants, can work extremely synergistically with a city that has built the Temple of Artemis because the city has the ability to grow its population much more than normal and thus have the capacity for building many more Districts than its counterparts. This will result in a massive influx of Great People points that can be then doubled by the appointment of Pingala in that city. Moksha, with his Grand Inquisitor, Laying On Of Hands and Patron Saint titles, is an excellent choice to spread and defend your religion if you founded an early religion and grabbed Divine Inspiration as your Follower Belief. Victor further consolidates China's defensive capabilities at all stages of the game, and most of his titles (Redoubt, Defense Logistics, Embrasure and Garrison Commander) work extremely well with China's Crouching Tiger and the Great Wall tile improvement. This will make any attacker think twice before attempting to invade.

Dedications complete the bag of indirect buffs for China. The Golden Age versions of Pen, Brush and Voice, Free Inquiry, Sky and Stars and Bodyguard of Lies all synergise with Dynastic Cycle. Similarly, when in a Golden Age, Heartbeat of Steam complements China's Wonder-building play style, and Monumentality is straight up amazing when combined with Ilkum/Serfdom/Public Works, Pyramids, Ancestral Hall and Liang's Guildmaster title. Exodus of the Evangelists is powerful when combined with Divine Inspiration for both spreading and defence of your chosen religion.

In conclusion, the overall flavour of China's kit has not changed. Rather, it could be said that the possibilities of every aspect of her kit have been greatly augmented instead of being pushed into any particularly new direction.

Gathering Storm Expansion Notes

With the Gathering Storm expansion, China has once again received a set of buffs, both direct and indirect.

Qin Shi Huang's First Emperor ability was directly buffed because it now allows China players to unlock Canals when they research the Masonry Technology. I have reservations about building Canals so early in the game, especially when they are so costly, but they do allow China another strategic option on water-heavy maps. And Canals also improve her trade-route efficiency, so overall this is a positive addition.

The Great Wall's economic bonuses have also been directly buffed with the Antarctic Late Summer Game Update with additional Gold and Culture yields. With the increased Culture, there is extra Tourism which can be helpful for a Culture Victory. This allows the tile improvement to be an excellent source of income, especially in the early-to-mid game, and much more valuable economically. And since disasters can only pillage the Great Wall, China players now save valuable Builder charges when repairing the pillaged Great Wall tiles.

Crouching Tigers and the Great Wall tile improvement have been indirectly buffed because of the way promotions now work for Ranged Units. Since the Great Wall tile improvement now works with the Garrison promotion, all Ranged Units are far stronger when stationed on it. The +10 Combat Strength boost is especially powerful in the early to mid game when the Melee Strength of Ranged Units is still relatively low. On the same note, Crouching Tigers now are even better on defence because of the before-mentioned changes to the Garrison promotion. They now have situationally viable offensive, anti-city-defense capabilities because they get access to the Incendiaries and Emplacement promotions after Garrison. Because of this, they can be legitimate offensive threats if positioned strategically on enemy districts or forts.

With regards to world Wonders, China has received an indirect buff to her gameplay with the introduction of the exceptionally powerful, new Ancient Era Wonder, the Great Bath. It operates as a pseudo-Dam and has scaling Faith bonuses. The massive amounts of Faith you can accumulate with this Wonder work extremely synergistically with the Monumentality Dedication for the purposes of buying Builders, Settlers and/or Traders. It is therefore a Core Wonder because it fits very well into any strategy, be it religious-oriented or not. And since it falls under the category of Ancient Era Wonders, China has a very good shot at grabbing it right after she researches Pottery because of her ability to rush-build Ancient to Classical Era Wonders with Builder charges.

Another indirect but much more situational and unreliable buff is the introduction of Ik-kil, the one tile Natural Wonder that provides +50% Production to producing Wonders and Districts in adjacent tiles. China would do well to prioritise settling near it if it is within reasonable distance of her capital. Its bonuses would allow her to capitalise on her already strong Wonder-building capabilities.

Yet another worthy series of indirect buffs to China lie in the changes to the Governors Liang, Pingala and Victor. Liang's Zoning Commissioner title now comes sooner, which is great for China after the initial Wonder-rushing phase of the game. Her new title, Reinforced Materials, is very relevant every game because it can mitigate damage from Disasters. Pingala's titles, Researcher and Connoisseur, have now been reworked so that they provide consistent, scaling benefits - this is far better than their previous iterations. Also, the Curator title now also belongs to Pingala, thus making him the ideal Governor to have late game if you are going for a Culture or Science Victory. As for Victor, almost all of his kit has been improved, giving him a lot of new versatility. If you want more strategic resources, get Defense Logistics. If you want troops, especially Crouching Tigers, coming out with a free promotion, get Embrasure. If you want newly captured cities to have higher loyalty, get Garrison Commander. If you want more accessible nukes in the late game, get Arms Race Proponent. He is a far superior version of his former self from the Rise and Fall Expansion .

With regards to the new Victory type, the Diplomatic Victory - China has her own unique way of gaining an advantage towards it. The key to this is beelining for the Apadana, and then building as many Wonders as possible in that city for the rest of the game. When complemented with the Monarchy government and Charismatic Leader Diplomatic Policy, this will maximise her Envoy Envoy generation to help secure Suzerain status of many City-States. And since China has always been a strong contender for a Cultural Victory in Civilisation 6, flying through the Civic tree to unlock civics which provide even more Envoy Envoys should be relatively easy for her. All of this would aid her in accumulating Diplomatic Favor to consolidate her political power within the World Congress and, ultimately, achieve a Diplomatic Victory.

In conclusion, with the Gathering Storm Expansion, China has received yet another series of buffs to her gameplay. As a result, her original capabilities as a Wonder-building, Builder-focused, defensive civilisation have all been greatly enhanced.

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 (if the civilization is ahead of you) gain an Eureka Eureka or Inspiration Inspiration. With Dynastic Cycle, this becomes even more valuable, allowing you to more easily keep up in technology and civics.

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 has excellent synergy with wonders that give extra policy slots (ie. Alhambra, Forbidden Palace, Potala Palace and Big Ben), therefore allowing China to fuel powerful spy-oriented policies like Machiavellianism, Cryptography and Nuclear Espionage without having to sacrifice other aspects of her gameplay. This setup allows for what we can call the Sling-Shot-Teching strategy - constantly utilise spies to steal technology boosts from your rivals. Delay building Campuses until after Commercial Hubs, Industrial Zones, and maybe Theatre Square Districts. This effectively allows your rivals to do most of the hard teching for you. This strategy is strong all game, but especially so as you approach the Information Era as most of the technologies in that era cannot be boosted unless by a spy or Great Scientist. 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.

For multiplayer games, it helps if you are well versed in the available technologies. (Civics research tends to be more monotonic.)

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 possible number of charges for Builders in the current game! 4 base charge Builders are multi-purpose, and will be a great asset in every game no matter the starting and surrounding locations. At a basic level, 4 charges means that China can expand both horizontally and vertically quicker than other civilizations. Getting faster and more plentiful tile improvements early on means a boost to Food, Production and Gold in the early game. This will set you up for the rest of the game. This cannot be understated, for 4 charge builders may mean the difference to you getting an extra city to grab that much-needed luxury resource just before it is taken by a neighbouring rival, or it may be the deciding factor to you having more overall cities to work with by the time everyone's territory has covered the map. An extra charge can be used not just for tile improvements, but clearing out more forests and rainforests, which is, in the early game, massive Production boosts to further put you in the lead.

All this works well with the Dynastic Cycle ability of China, because early on, technologies like Irrigation, Masonry and Horseback Riding are all dependent on you constructing specific tile improvements - farms, quarries and pastures, respectively. Similarly, the Inspirations of early civics like Craftsmanship and Early Empire are dependent on tile improvements and relatively high early-game population (which is, again, dependent on a high number of Food-providing tile improvements). As China's improved Builders can net you more of these, this means that there is a knock-on effect of China grabbing more quickly and easily the Eurekas and Inspirations in the early game that are dependent on the construction of tile improvements. This will help you establish an early lead with both the technology and civic trees and set you up for a comfortable mid to late game.

On the subject of tile improvements, if you are facing a threatening swarm of barbarians early game, or if a neighbouring civilization declares war against you, you can also use the extra charge of your Builders to lay down Great Wall segments (more details on this in the section "Great Wall"). This will give you a massive defensive boost in the early game if the situation demands it.

China can also use Builder charges to complete Ancient and Classical era Wonders. She has a unique advantage in rushing Petra, Colosseum, Great Library and the Pyramids since desert tiles do not provide growth or Production until Petra is built. All four wonders happen to be some of the strongest Wonders in game. The only drawback to this is that not every map will fulfil the requirements of Petra and the Pyramids, making this part of Qin's ability reliant on getting a favourable map.

To rush wonders around newer cities, make sure you move Builders and Settlers together (along with your escort military units), bearing in mind that movement in the early and mid game is slow in general.

Breakdown of Ancient and Classical Wonders

China is a nice Wonder collector. Below is a list of Ancient and Classical Wonders and notes for competitive play, compiled in order of usefulness (in the opinion of a player who primarily uses China when playing the game). Competitive play aside, you should look up their effects and see what you personally like.

Questions you might be asking yourself is:

How many Ancient to Classical Wonders should I attempt to rush in a standard game? The answer is it will depend on what victory type you are going for. The number will therefore vary from game to game. That said, a general tip is to be careful to strike a balance between early empire expansion and building Wonders. Don't get so focused on the Wonders that you end up with half the number of cities that everyone else has by the mid-game!
Which Ancient to Classical Wonders should I go for? A. Always rush Pyramids, Stonehenge, Petra, Colosseum, Great Library, Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Temple of Artemis and the Great Bath whenever possible. After that, go for the Great 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.

Notes:

Core = Grab these every game if possible. These are your top priority, consistently game-changing wonders.

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. One of the best Wonders. 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. Prioritise this wonder over all else. The +2 Culture is also useful in the early game to get you faster access to key civics like Games and Recreation for Colosseum and Recorded History for Great Library. If you are a beginner at playing China and don't know the Ancient to Classical Wonders very well, consider rush-building ONLY the Pyramids, and then focus on rapid early expansion (REX) of your empire while taking Ilkum/Serfdom. Another scenario that this strategy would be appropriate for is on a crowded map where your rivals are far too close for comfort. This strategy is simple, powerful and reliable. It turns China into one of the best REX civilisations in the game because of your powered up Builders. The only slight downside to this strategy is that it falls off heavily by the late game, when presumably all improvable tiles have been improved. It would therefore be in your best interests to snowball your lead as much as possible before that happens. Combine with Ancestral Hall, Liang, Serfdom/Public Works and the Golden Age version of Monumentality for maximum results. With the introduction of the new late game improvements in Gathering Storm (such as the Seastead, Wind Farm, Solar Farm etc.), Builders are very much relevant in the late to end game. Therefore, having the Pyramids is a great asset for that phase of the game, especially as China.
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: Core. It'll help you get a fast early religion - the benefits of which I will explain below. In the case of other civilisations, rushing Stonehenge is not recommended in the early game unless you are planning to go for a Religious Victory or build many Holy Sites in your empire. However, in China's case, simply grab Divine Inspiration (more on this below) for your Follower Belief and you'll have +4 Faith from all of your Wonders. Firstly, just Stonehenge itself will already grant you +2 Faith per turn, thus allowing you to quickly grab your Pantheon (take Monument to the Gods - more on this below). By doing this, you get faster access (+15% Production) to more Ancient to Classical Era Wonders, which will, in turn, net you more Faith. This will not only set you up for a very comfortable religious mid-game (if you choose this direction), but you can use the massive amounts of Faith you gain in conjunction with the Golden Age version of the Monumentality dedication () to Faith-purchase Builders, Settlers and Traders. This will help you to 1. rush-build even more Ancient to Classical Wonders and 2. expand and improve your empire very quickly and effectively after you've been using the early game to build Wonders. I honestly think the early investment pays itself off many times over as long as you commit to continually adding to your arsenal of Wonders throughout the game. Later on, when the Monumentality dedication is unavailable, you can always use your extra Faith to purchase Great People, units if you've built Grand Master's Chapel (), or Rock Bands () if you are aiming for a Cultural Victory. Even if you are not planning to win a Religious Victory, having the extra Faith is useful because you can use it defend yourself against rivals spreading their religions to your cities. On Small to Duel-sized maps in Single Player, this is critical because the AI will more than likely win a Religious Victory if you completely neglect Religion. You will only need one to three cities in your empire to have Holy Sites. That way, most of your Faith will be from your Wonders, and you can have your other cities focus on other areas of the game. I cannot stress enough how powerful this can be because Shrines give +2 Faith, and Temples give +4 Faith; Wonders grant +4 Faith ON TOP of their intrinsic bonuses, which is equal to one free Temple or two free Shrines! This offers flexibility to your play-style because you don't necessarily have to mass-build Holy Sites nor use the Scripture and/or Simultaneum Policy Cards to boost your Faith generation. It also frees up your Envoy Envoys for other non-religious oriented City-States if you so choose to. Side-Note: This strategy - spamming Wonders in conjunction with the Divine Inspiration Follower Belief - is especially powerful for civilisations that get Production bonuses towards Wonders - eg. France and Egypt. But I feel that China utilises the Follower Belief best since our kit encourages us to get Wonders early and fast. Having our Faith generation ramped up early sets us up to snowball for the rest of the game. With France, their +20% Production bonus only kicks in with Wonders from the Medieval Era to Industrial Era. With Egypt, it is map-situational since their +15% Production bonus only applies if you build your Wonder next to a river. China is much more flexible in where we can build our Wonders, and we get our Production bonuses through rush-building with Builders right from the start of the game. Final-note: If you do plan on using your Faith to defend yourself against rival religions, a defensive setup that has worked well for me is: Monument to the Gods (Pantheon); Divine Inspiration (Follower Belief); Mosque (Worship Belief); Church Property (Founder Belief); and Holy Order (Enhancer Belief).
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: Core. One of the best Wonders. Having this Wonder available as early as the Pottery technology allows it to be built very early, so by all means, rush it with a second Builder, because it is worth it! It being in the game is an awesome indirect buff to China because we can rush-build it with our Builders, thus pretty much guaranteeing we will be the civilisation to get to it first in most games as long as there are Floodplains tiles near our capital. The fact that it operates as an Ancient Era version of a Dam allows our city (usually the capital, Xian) to grow in population quickly, safely and sustainably near rivers with a lot of Floodplains. The only part where it is worse than a Dam is that it does not prevent Food loss during Droughts. But the most interesting, unique and, more importantly, powerful part of the Great Bath is its ability to grant +1 Faith for every time a tile belonging to this city has been flooded. Note that this includes times that a tile has been flooded PRIOR to the Great Bath being built, meaning you can potentially gain access to the Faith per turn as soon as you finish the Wonder. Also note that the Faith per turn per tile stacks with each flood occurrence, so it is possible to get +5 Faith per turn from each Floodplains tile or more in the mid-to-late game because of this Wonder. This is great for multiple reasons. First, in the early game, aside from the God-King policy, there is no reliable way to quickly accumulate Faith for the founding of a Pantheon unless you settle near a Natural Wonder that provides Faith in its tiles - and being able to do so is rare and unreliable. Constructing Holy Site(s) is another option, although that is slow and costly in the early game in terms of opportunity cost and inefficient if you are not planning to do much with a religion later on. That, or you can hope you meet a religious City-State and be the first to it for that initial envoy, although again, that is unreliable. As long as the tiles have been flooded at least once, the Faith per turn from the Great Bath quickly adds up, allowing you to rocket towards getting the Monument to the Gods Pantheon (+15% Production towards Ancient and Classical Wonders) that will further snowball you towards your other preferred Wonders. This can allow you to forgo God-King in favour of Urban Planning and get the best of both worlds: you getting that crucial extra +1 Production in your Capital in the early game while still having a means to earning Faith later on. After the initial Pantheon has been founded, an ever-increasing influx of Faith has flexible and powerful utility for China. The most obvious path is propelling China towards a Religious Victory. The Great Bath has excellent synergy with the Divine Inspiration Follower Belief, after all. Perhaps less obvious a strategy is that the Great Bath can also be used in incredible synergistic conjunction with the Golden Age version of the Monumentality Dedication to help you purchase Builders, Traders and Settlers with Faith at a 30% discount. In one of my games, I was able to purchase an 8-charge Builder (with the help of The First Emperor, Liang, Pyramids and Serfdom) every turn consecutively for 6-7 turns because of the massive amounts of Faith that was generated by my Floodplains tiles. This then had the snowballing effect of saving me massive amounts of Production and Gold in the mid game since I didn't have to hard build my Builders or spend Gold on them. It also guaranteed that my whole empire got its tile improvements quickly and cheaply. Other than that, the bonus Faith can be used to purchase early Great People that China might not usually have ready access to since we prioritise Wonders over Districts in the early game. If that is a strategy you are prioritising, doing so in conjunction with grabbing the Oracle and Theocracy would be key. Or the Faith can be used with Grand Master's Chapel to buy yourself a huge land army with Faith. Or it can be handy late game when you want to buy Naturalists and Rock Bands with Faith to cement a Culture Victory. All that said, be warned of three potential downsides to beelining for this Wonder in the early game. 1. The bonus Faith yields are dependent on the frequency of the city's Floodplains tiles being flooded, and this is entirely based on luck. Of course, you can always adjust the Natural Disasters slider to 4 when setting up the game to ensure as much flooding as possible, but how much Faith you get and when you get it will always be luck-based. 2. Since this Wonder is unlocked at Pottery, it goes VERY fast. So if you're going for it, be prepared to fully commit to building it because if someone else grabs it before you do, you'll end up with wasted Production which will SEVERELY set you back for the rest of the game. 3. Since this is such an early Wonder, by building it, you have to factor in the opportunity cost of not expanding your empire. So don't be surprised if you suddenly find yourself still at two cities when the other AI or human players have 4-6 cities already. Overall, regardless of the general direction of your play style, the Great Bath should be able to repay itself many times over by the late game because of its scaling Faith generation and Dam-like benefits.
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: Core. One of the best Wonders. Its statistics make me speculate if it was designed specifically with China in mind. The +2 Science, +1 Great Scientist point per turn and +2 Great Works of Writing slots are nice, but its most powerful bonus lies in its ability to provide boosts to all Ancient and Classical era technologies. This means that in planning for the construction of this Wonder, speed is essential. You will want to beeline for Recorded History, construct the prerequisite Campus and Library, and then rush this Wonder with Builder charges. This has direct synergy with Dynastic Cycle because each of the multiple EurekaEurekas you gain are more lucrative, and will thus net you even more Science than other civilisations which build the same Wonder. And since you have the ability to rush the Production of this Wonder, you'll finish it faster than other civilisations, thus ensuring that there will be more remaining technologies for you to boost before you transition into the Medieval Era. The other chief reason why this is a Core Wonder is because of its reliability. Its requirements - flat land adjacent to a Campus with a Library - are relatively easy to meet and not particularly map reliant. So by all means, rush this every game. With Rise and Fall, the Great Library has gotten even better, thus making China's early game potential even stronger. It now receives an additional +1 Great Writer point per turn, and provides a random tech boost after another player recruits a Great Scientist. This is nice because the +1 Great Writer point per turn does help you eventually fill up those 2 Great Works of Writing slots, but you will still need to construct Theatre Square Districts and Amphitheatres to stay competitive for earning Great Writers. Its latter boost means that you'll be receiving a series of Eureka Eurekas for the rest of the game whether you're focusing on Science or not. This, again, has direct synergy with Dynastic Cycle as each Eureka Eureka is stronger for China. Overall, with this expansion's buffs to the Wonder, it is able to pay for itself many times over for the rest of the game, thus making it a top-notch investment in every game. Its flexible utility means that it is an excellent choice no matter which victory you are going for.
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: Core. 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. You can use it to quickly build more Wonders, a lot of Districts, many Settlers and/or Builders or a huge army etc. It allows you great flexibility because of its superior Food, Gold, and Production. On the same note, Petra allows a player (but usually only China) to settle in desert-heavy areas which would otherwise be uninhabitable. In addition, if you can find a place for desert city, you will more than likely also have a place for the Pyramids. Do note that in choosing an optimal city with lots of desert tiles, the city will have little to no yields until you build Petra. The gap between you settling the city and you building Petra will thus be the weak phase for that city and your early game in general. Depending on how contested the map is, it is therefore advisable to improve your "Petra city" only after you are able to build Petra. Doing so will reduce the effects of your weak phase. If there are a lot of desert hills in that city, the payoff is usually worth it by the mid to late game.
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: Core. 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. Note that these bonuses, unlike the bonuses for the Colosseum, only apply to the Wonder's parent city, and is not Area of Effect.
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: Core. One of the best Wonders. The requirement for this wonder (i.e. must be adjacent to an Entertainment Complex district) is relatively easy to meet, so, by all means, plan its optimal placement ahead of time and try to get this wonder every game. The stats have now changed, and the requirements dictate that it has to be built adjacent to an Entertainment Complex district with an Arena. Despite the lowered Amenities Amenities and increased requirements, this Wonder is still core, in my opinion, because of the +2 loyalty. 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. Furthermore, the +2 loyalty may be the deciding factor to you flipping a foreign city to join your empire in the mid-to-late game.
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: Core. I think of this as the Petra of the sea! 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.
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 can be game-changingly useful ONLY if you're confident that the parent city will reliably be building multiple Wonders throughout the rest of the game. The +2 Envoy Envoys per Wonder is extremely powerful for winning over City-States, thus swinging political influence in your favour. This can be a game-changer especially if you're neck-to-neck in terms of military strength on a crowded map. Being the Suzerain of multiple City-States not only gives you all the usual bonuses of being a Suzerain, but effectively cements them as military allies or buffer zones if you go to war with a neighbouring rival. This Wonder is especially powerful in the hands of China as China can rush build multiple Wonders early on, thus having synergy with this Wonder's properties. Combine this with Merchant Confederation, Monarchy and Charismatic Leader for maximum synergy. Additionally, the +2 Great Work slots are a nice bonus if you're going for a Cultural Victory. The reason why this isn't a core Wonder is because not every game will you have a city that is capable of massive amounts of Production AND fit all the map requirements of the Wonders you'll be going for. There is also the variable of desirable Wonders getting taken before you can build them, which makes this a Situational Wonder to grab. Not only that, but other Wonders might have higher priority, so that by the time you're ready to build the Apadana, you would have built most of your target Wonders, thus reducing its effectiveness. The last reason is that there will be games in which you might not be interested in wooing City-States, in which case this Apadana will not be needed. This Wonder is very helpful if you want to win a Diplomatic Victory as China. Refer to "Victory Type General Strategies" section above for more details.
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. Great ONLY if you have a suitably large military already and are seeking to snowball to a mid game domination victory. This Wonder works especially well in augmenting the already strong firepower of Crouching Tigers. A viable mid-game domination strategy is to mass-produce Crouching Tigers, a couple of Catapults, Crossbowmen, Pikemen and Knights, and then rush-build this Wonder with Builder charges. This effectively gives your entire army a free map-wide promotion, making them all more dangerous, resilient, and able to survive till their next promotion when you eventually attack your first target. You can also delay the timing of this Wonder until the time your troops capture your first enemy city - this will effectively provide all wounded units a free promotion and a quick heal so that they can carry on without having to stop and recover. Also great IF you are going for a Cultural Victory. The ability to send your Archaeologists into rival territories without Open Borders is great in the late game when immediately available Artifacts become scarce. In this scenario, you can rush it straight away without building an army first. Combine this with Victor's Embrasure title and you can potentially have a whole army receive two free promotions before any fighting has even begun!
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 Golden Age version of the Monumentality Dedication . The reason that this is a situational instead of Core or great Wonder, however, is because of its map requirement - a desert hill. When I see a desert hill or even a cluster of desert hills, I am usually thinking about placing a Petra Wonder down. Building Jebel Barkal by sacrificing a desert tile is not necessarily a worthwhile trade-off when it can be improved by Petra. That said, if you do find an isolated desert hill and it happens to be in or near the middle of your empire, the +4 Faith area of effect bonus can be great.
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 either by accumulating Great Prophet points or by grabbing Stonehenge. By making them perform the Evangelize Belief action, they can net your fledgling religion two Enhancer Beliefs faster than most other civilizations. In choosing beliefs, a setup that has worked very well for me is the following: (Follower) Divine Inspiration, (Worship) Mosque, (Founder) Pilgrimage, (Enhancer) Holy Order. Grab these whenever possible, and feel free to improvise as appropriate. 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. 1 Culture and 1 Faith is tiny, even by early game standards. -25% Faith costs for Great Persons and +2 Great Person points from districts in the parent city are nice if you have an abundance of Faith, but Great Person points do not kick in until much later in the game since there won't be many districts in the city until later. Also, you'll have to balance the purchasing of Apostles and Missionaries and the purchasing of Great Persons if you are going for a Religious Victory. If you must get this, try to build it with Stonehenge, Jebel Barkal and Mahabodhi Temple to maximise its effects.
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 Core 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.

Turns Needed to Complete a Wonder

Unless a Builder uses up its charges, it can only charge a Wonder once a turn. Once its charges are used up, you can move an additional Builder to charge the same Wonder again in the same turn. This way, you can rapidly rush a wonder by moving in a succession of 1-charge Builders and using their final charge. Because the source of your Builders for rushing wonders with doesn't matter, you can have your entire empire contribute towards the construction of a single wonder!

You can choose to complete as much portion of a given Wonder as you want. It takes 7 Builder charges to fully complete a wonder without any extra boosts. That said, if you take Monument to the Gods as your Pantheon, Autocracy as your early game government, and Corvee as your economic policy, you can boost the amount of Production that each Builder charge is worth. Monument to the Gods gives +15% Production, Autocracy gives +10% Production, and Corvee gives +15% Production - giving a potential total of +40% Production to Ancient and Classical Wonders. This can potentially boost each Builder charge's value to 21% of the Wonder's Production cost, thus allowing you to finish any Ancient to Classical Wonder with as low as five Builder charges BEFORE accounting for any direct input from the city! Therefore, if you don't plan on settling for a while, I would recommend stacking the bonuses to maximise your early game Wonder-rushing potential as China. This is particularly massive when you want to build wonders around new cities which do not yet have many tile improvements.

Also of note is that if a Builder charge contributes more Production than is needed to complete a district, it overflows to the next thing you build, avoiding any being wasted.

Later Wonders To Watch For

The First Emperor bonus no longer applies for Wonders after the Classical Era. Nevertheless, since you are likely in a Wonder collection mode when you play China and also since you are likely to have extra Production capacity due to extra Builder charges, here is a list of later Wonders to watch for. Where appropriate, remember to use Gothic Architecture and Skyscrapers to speed up construction of wonders by 15%.

The key here is to see how you can create combinations with the wonders. The best possible example of a combination is to build Petra on a city with many desert hill tiles, then use this city as your primary Production city to build all of your desired future wonders (shown below). Of particular note is that you can further improve the Production capacity of this city later on if you can build Ruhr Valley. These are just two examples of wonder combinations, and depending on your map, the possibilities are many.

Do note that all the following Wonders are situational in their usage, so it would be counter-productive to try and build all of them as that is far too much Production spent on Wonders. That said, getting Alhambra, Forbidden Palace, Potala Palace and Big Ben every game is highly recommended because of how flexible their bonuses are.

Name	Era	Main Effects
Hagia Sophia	Medieval	(Religious Victory only) +4 Faith and Missionaries and Apostles can use Spread Religion 1 extra time. It must be built on flat land adjacent to a Holy Site, and you must have founded a Religion.
Meenakshi Temple	Medieval	(Religious Victory only) +3 Faith, +2 Gurus. Gurus are 30% cheaper to purchase. Religious units adjacent to Gurus receive +5 Religious Strength in Theological Combat and +1 Movement Movement.
Alhambra	Medieval	(Highly recommended) +1 Military Policy Slot, +2 Amenities Amenities, +2 Great General points per turn and provides the same defensive bonuses as the Fort improvement. It must be built on Hills adjacent to an Encampment.
Mont St. Michel	Medieval	(Religious Victory only) Apostles gain the Martyr ability in addition to a second ability you choose normally. +2 Faith and 2 Relic slots are a bonus. It must be built on Floodplains or Marsh.
Kilwa Kisiwani	Medieval	+3 Envoy Envoys. When you are the Suzerain of a City-state this city gains a +15% boost to the yield provided by that City-state. If you are the Suzerain of 2 or more City-states of that type an additional 15% boost is given to all your cities. It must be built on a flat tile adjacent to Coast. Note: If struggling with gaining enough Envoy Envoys, appoint and promote Amani as necessary. Note 2: Avoid this if you are not interested in wooing the City-states of your particular game. Note 3: This can be a very helpful Wonder if you are already the Suzerain of many city-states. It works well if you're already going for a Diplomatic Victory .
Kotoku-in	Medieval	(Religious Victory only) Grants +20% Faith and 4 Warrior Monks to the city it is built in. Note: Get this for the city that has the most Faith output per turn. I personally have not found much use for the Warrior Monks. Note 2: One possible synergistic combination is to build Kotoku-in in a city that already has the Great Bath and then build a nearby Jebel Barkal for even more Faith.
Forbidden City	Renaissance	(Highly recommended) +1 Wildcard Policy Slot and +5 Culture. It must be built on flat land adjacent to a City Centre.
Potala Palace	Renaissance	(Highly recommended) +1 Diplomatic Policy Slot, +2 Culture and +3 Faith. It must be built on a Hill adjacent to a Mountain. +1 Diplomatic Victory Point.
Venetian Arsenal	Renaissance	Receives a second of the same naval unit whenever you train one and +2 Great Engineer points per turn. It must be built on the coast and adjacent to an Industrial Zone. It cannot be built on a Lake. Note: Get this if you are on a water-heavy map along with Colossus, Great Lighthouse and Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. It has incredible synergy with the following policy cards: Press Gangs, International Waters and Letters of Marque (). If not on a water-heavy map, don't bother.
Statue of Liberty	Industrial	(Diplomatic Victory only ) Grants 2 settlers (). +4 Diplomatic Points when built (). All your cities within 6 tiles are always 100% loyal. It must be built on the Coast (not a Lake), adjacent to land and a Harbour.
Országház	Industrial	(Diplomatic Victory only ) +4 Culture. +100% Diplomatic Favor per turn from starting a turn as a Suzerain of a city-state. It must be built adjacent to a River.
Big Ben	Industrial	(Highly recommended) +1 Economic Policy Slot, +6 Gold, +3 Great Merchant points per turn and doubles current treasury. It must be built on a River adjacent to a Commercial Hub with a Bank. Treasury is increased by 50% instead of doubled.
Ruhr Valley	Industrial	+20% Production in the city; +1 Production for each Mine and Quarry in this city. It must be built along a River adjacent to an Industrial Zone with a Factory. Note: Not essential, but very good to maximise the Production output of your highest or second Production city. Must plan in advance to have a suitable location for this.
Oxford University	Industrial	+20% Science in the city, +3 Great Scientist points per turn, +2 Great Works of Writing slots and awards 2 randomly-chosen free technologies when completed. It must be built on Grasslands or Plains adjacent to a Campus with a University. Note: Not essential, but very good to maximise the Science output of your highest or second highest Science city.
Hermitage	Industrial	(Cultural Victory only) +3 Great Artist points per turn and +4 Great Works of Art slots. It must be built along a River on a non-desert and non-tundra tile.
Bolshoi Theatre	Industrial	(Cultural Victory only) +2 Great Writer and +2 Great Musician points per turn. +1 Great Work of Writing slot and +1 Great Work of Music slot. Awards 2 randomly-chosen free civics when completed. It must be built on flat land adjacent to a Theatre Square.
Cristo Redentor	Modern	(Cultural Victory only) +4 Culture. Tourism output from Relics and Holy Cities is not diminished by other civilizations who have researched The Enlightenment civic. Doubles Tourism output of Seaside Resorts across your civilization. It must be built on Hills.
Eiffel Tower	Modern	(Cultural Victory only) All tiles in your civilisation gain +2 Appeal - Great for increasing the number of suitable coastal tiles for Seaside Resorts, and for increasing the effectiveness of your Neighborhood districts. It must be built on flat land adjacent to a City Centre.
Broadway	Modern	(Cultural Victory only) +3 Great Writer and +3 Great Musician points per turn. +1 Great Works of Writing slot and +2 Great Works of Music slots. 1 Free random Atomic era civic boost - has synergy with Dynastic Cycle. It must be built on flat land adjacent to a Theatre Square.
Estádio do Maracanã	Modern	+6 Culture and +2 Amenities Amenities for all cities in your empire. It must be built on flat land adjacent to an Entertainment Complex with a Stadium. Note: An all-round great Wonder that works well in every situation. Not essential, but extremely useful to have in the late game especially if you have a huge empire.
Sydney Opera House	Atomic	(Cultural Victory only) +8 Culture, +5 Great Musician points per turn and +3 Great Works of Music slots. It must be built on the coast, adjacent to land and a Harbour. It cannot be built on a Lake.

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 possibly relevant. I am thinking of maps with a balanced mix between water and land like fractal or shuffle maps. On most other land-heavy maps, canals are irrelevant since you will not be shuffling many ships around. On water-heavy maps, landmasses are too small that it is easy to go around them, or bodies of waters are already connected. (Read more about using Canals here) Even if you are in a situation where an early naval war is imminent and you need to re-position your ships, canals are a relatively huge cost to your early production. The Production can arguably be used more efficiently on maritime Wonders that can snowball your naval warfare, economy and/or exploration, (ie. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, Great Lighthouse, Colossus) Settlers, Builders, or China's core Wonders (please see above). It is therefore a great pity that Builder charges cannot directly rush-build canals. This means that we have to hard build them until we get Military Engineers. And even then, having it as an option at Masonry is not going to help if aggressive neighbours declare war and come at you with embarked land troops. Producing naval units, or even defending land units like Archers and Spearmen and using Builder charges for the Great Wall tile improvement would be more reliable and viable in such a scenario. Even spending Production on Ancient Walls is a far better idea. I dislike the idea of relying solely on Galleys and and Quadriremes for defence because Galleys cannot attack disembarked land troops and Quadriremes have an attack range of 1, meaning that they cannot reach further inland troops.

That said, it is worth mentioning that the canals have scaled down costs during the early game, so building one in a crucial strategic area of your empire isn't too difficult. Also, they do provide more accessible and lucrative trade routes if you can position your trade routes through your canal(s). This can work well with early construction of a Harbour District (+1 Trade Route if a Commercial Hub has not been already built in that city), rush-building the Colossus (which provides a free Trader and +1 Trade Route capacity) and/or researching the Foreign Trade civic. This can work for your Traders and allow other civilisations to trade with you more efficiently.

Another benefit of unlocking Canals earlier is that it can provide adjacency bonuses to adjacent districts. This is useful on maps where land is scarce and maximising adjacency bonuses for districts like Industrial Zones, Commercial Hubs, Theatre Squares and Campuses can be tricky. Having Canals can somewhat solve this problem. Later on, this will help you get access to the +50% bonus in Policy Cards that require a minimum of +3 adjacency bonus (Rationalism or Grand Opera) or +4 adjacency bonus (Free Market). It should be noted that Canals grant +2 adjacency bonus to Industrial Zones, so it is highly recommended you always build these two districts beside each other.

But on the whole, I have found very little use for canals. They do not impact China's overall play-style much. Think of it as a highly situational buff that can provide a strategic logistical bonus in niche scenarios. It is definitely a positive buff for China, but one that is extremely limited in its potential application.

Great Wall

Defensive Bonus

First of all, Great Wall segments are great for early, accessible defence in a meta where there are lots of civilisations whose kits revolve around early game invasions - Scythia, Aztecs, Sumeria and Mongolia , to name but a few. It can be built by Builders once you've researched Masonry. Occupying units instantly receive +4 Defense Strength and automatically gain 2 turns of fortification, giving a total of +10 Defense Strength. This can be further augmented to +13 Defense Strength if it is built on a hill tile. With strategic placement on tiles adjacent to rivers, assuming you force melee attackers to cross rivers to get to you, you can grant the defender an additional +5 Defense Strength for a grand total of +18 Defense Strength. This is a solid bonus at all stages of the game, but especially great in the Ancient to Medieval Era as no other civilisation (aside from the Romans with their Roman Fort) has access to Forts yet. To illustrate my point, below is a table that details the % increase in Defense Strength for Ancient to Medieval Era units when they move onto a tile with a Great Wall segment (disregarding hills and rivers). For sake of reference, they will all instantly gain the before-mentioned +10 Defense Strength. Also, for simplicity's sake, combat bonuses against other unit-classes will not be included, nor will situational Combat Strength increases from promotions.

% Increase in Defense Strength After Moving Onto a Great Wall segment

Unit	Era	Base Melee Defense Strength	% Increase
Slinger	Ancient	5	200
Scout	Ancient	10	100
Archer	Ancient	15	66
Warrior	Ancient	20	50
Spearman	Ancient	25	40
Heavy Chariot	Ancient	28	36

Catapult	Classical	23	43
Horseman	Classical	35	29
Swordsman	Classical	36	28

Crossbowman	Medieval	30	33
Crouching Tiger	Medieval	30	33
Pikeman	Medieval	41	24
Knight	Medieval	48	21

The bonus +10 Defense Strength is the same as a normal Fort, but without having to research Siege Tactics, which is a technology from the Renaissance Era; instead, Chinese Builders can build Great Wall segments as a tile improvement with their plentiful charges in the Ancient Era. This makes the Great Wall much more accessible than a Fort because it comes three whole Eras earlier AND you can lay down 4-7 of them per Builder without having to build an Encampment, Barracks or Stable, Armory and Military Engineer. Even then, Military Engineers can lay down a maximum of only two Forts per Engineer. This also makes the Great Wall more accessible than the Roman Fort as the Roman Fort only becomes available when the Romans build their Legions in the Classical Era. Even then, the Legions can only build one Roman Fort per Legion.

If you are facing an early push (whether it be from a neighbouring rival or barbarians) at a place where your military is thin, Great Wall segments can be built on-demand to provide defensive combat bonuses. Personally, I have found good use of the Great Wall tile improvement at all stages of the game. Putting one or two down and then fortifying it with units may be the difference between stopping a barbarian horde or not. It also helps when facing against a threatening neighbour at any stage of the game. For example, is Genghis or Tomyris coming at you with an early cavalry army? Station Spearmen on Great Wall segments and laugh maniacally behind your monitor as the invading force gets decimated and the invader begs for peace after his/her futile efforts at conquest.

It can also be placed in newly captured cities to help them not get recaptured. The defensive combat bonus makes Crouching Tigers more flexible. A 1 Range Range unit is typically only useful in Encampments and City Centers, but Great Wall segments allow them to approach the front line more safely. Overall, the Great Wall tile improvement allows you to run a smaller defending army. It makes the value of each military unit more efficient because of its defence-giving properties. This is useful all game, but especially so in the early game when you are focusing your Production on Wonders instead of military units.

It is also worth noting that the usefulness of the Great Wall's defensive bonus scales up exponentially as you go up the difficulty levels in single player, and is consistently great for multiplayer.

For single player, this is because as you go up in difficulty levels, particularly Emperor and upwards, the AI will increasingly like to spam military units and declare early game wars. Players may be surprised by just how much good value they get out of the Great Wall on Immortal and Deity, especially if they are initially outnumbered and outflanked by the AI. It also helps offset the increasingly powerful Combat Strength bonus the AI gets against me as the human player on those difficulties. In such scenarios, the Great Wall has, more often than not, allowed me to successfully defend my cities in the early-game. This then gives me the choice of either forcing the AI to beg for peace with offers of reparation, or building up an offensive army of my own and counterattacking. If the former choice was chosen, the reparations can allow me to snowball my early game further while weakening the AI. That said, on lower difficulty levels (Prince and below), the AI are quite passive and easy to deal with, so it is understandable that the Great Wall's usefulness is minimal under such conditions.

For multiplayer, the Great Wall is, more often than not, a first-rate asset to have since almost everyone is highly aggressive all game. It truly shines when all players are crowded on a land-heavy map (eg. Pangaea), allowing me to get away with building fewer military units while maintaining the strategic advantage of safely rush-building my Wonders in the Ancient to Classical Era.

One final note on the defensive bonus of the Great Wall - it does not count as a Fort despite giving the same defensive properties, so the +10 Combat Strength bonus from the Garrison promotion of Ranged units does not apply. So unless you are certain your defending units will be fighting within Districts (especially an Encampment), it is highly recommended to take Volley and Arrow Storm instead.

With Gathering Storm, the information conveyed in the previous paragraph has been made obsolete. The Great Wall tile now DOES give +10 Combat Strength bonus from the Garrison promotion. This effectively boosts the defensive and offensive capabilities of all Ranged Units that station themselves on it by +20 Combat Strength (this includes the base +10 Combat Strength from the Great Wall tile itself) and +10 Ranged Combat Strength respectively. This is especially great in the early game when Slingers and Archers are so vulnerable to melee attacks. This allows China to be even more powerful defensively against barbarians and aggressive neighbours as soon as she researches Masonry. Most significantly, the changes create new and excellent synergy between the Great Wall and the Crouching Tiger (more on this below in the section "Crouching Tiger").

It is useful then to provide more context through an updated table of the significant strength increases for Ranged Units (up till the Medieval Era) with the Garrison promotion after they have moved onto a Great Wall tile:

% Increase in Defensive and Ranged Combat Strength For Ranged Units With the Garrison Promotion After Moving Onto a Great Wall segment

Ranged Unit	Era	Base Melee Defensive Strength & % Increase	Base Ranged Combat Strength & % Increase
Slinger	Ancient	5 & 400	15 & 67
Archer	Ancient	15 & 133	25 & 40

Crossbowman	Medieval	30 & 67	40 & 25
Crouching Tiger	Medieval	30 & 67	50 & 20

The question then would be what is the easiest way to gain access to the Garrison promotion for your Ranged Units? The answer is the governor Victor's updated Embrasure title - which gives a free promotion to all units trained in his governed city. Another less reliable option would be rush-building the Terracotta Army with Builder charges and giving all existing land units a free promotion.

In summary, the changes that Gathering Storm have brought have greatly buffed the Great Wall's defensive synergy with China's Ranged Units, especially her Crouching Tiger unique unit. As a unique tile improvement, it is much better and more cost effective at its niche specialty - granting accessible defensive power against barbarians and aggressive neighbours.

Additional statistics

As for its second characteristic, the adjacency bonuses to Culture, Gold and Tourism - the Great Wall gets added utility in the late game on top of its still relevant defensive properties. The Tourism boost is useful late in the game if you're aiming for a Cultural Victory because you'll need every bit of Tourism you can get to surpass your rivals. Just remember that researching Castles will grant you the Culture, and Flight the Tourism. Also, the Tourism will only be in effect if your city is working that tile. That said, be prudent in building Great Wall segments - only build them along areas where you might be attacked. Building too many of them will sacrifice too many tiles which could have been used for Food, Production and/or Gold.

The only other tiles where you would want to build a lot of Great Wall segments are on ice or tundra tiles as you cannot build anything else on them. In that sense, otherwise low-yield tiles would at least have some value to them when worked by your cities. This also works on empty desert tiles that have been augmented by Petra, turning the already good tiles into great tiles. By extension of this point, if you can build Great Wall segments on Petra-augmented tiles which are also further powered up by natural Wonders, the yields from those tiles will become truly amazing.

With the advent of Rise and Fall's Golden Age system, the utility of the Great Wall is increased since constructing it early on for the first time grants an instant 4 Era Score. This, especially at the end of the Ancient and Classical Eras, when the prerequisite Era Score for a Golden Age is relatively low, can be the deciding factor between earning an early Golden Age or not. This can snowball China very hard into the middle to late game because of the Golden Age version of the Monumentality Dedication, which, if chosen, can improve China's already powerful Builders (more on this in the Dedications section below). So if you're a few points off getting a Golden Age, by all means, construct a Great Wall tile improvement on the outskirts of your empire. With your plentiful Builder charges as China, this investment is usually worth it.

With the Antarctic Late Summer Game Update, the Great Wall now grants +2 Gold as a base yield, with an additional +2 Gold for each adjacent Great Wall. It also gains +2 Culture for each adjacent Great Wall once you research the Castles Technology. It can only be pillaged but never removed by disasters.

This is a big buff, as you can get a +6 Gold and +4 Culture tile and two +4 Gold and +2 Culture tiles (not counting the base, unimproved yield(s) of that tile) very easily if you lay down at least three sections of the Great Wall in adjacent tiles. The economic benefits are now a legitimate force to be reckoned with, especially in the early-to-mid game if you haven't yet built many Commercial Hubs and Traders.

This will be an especially powerful combination if built on desert tiles in a city with the Petra Wonder, a Wonder which China already has an advantage towards getting through Qin's First Emperor ability. This, with some optimal placement, will yield multiple tiles with +2 Food, +1 Production, +8 Gold and +4 Culture. When worked by the city, this can easily launch your economy forward and allow you to fly through the civic tree quickly.

And because it can only be pillaged and not removed by disasters, this means that we get to save precious Builder charges in the early-to-mid game; charges which could be used elsewhere on Ancient to Classical Era Wonders and other tile improvements. Finally, since there is additional Culture per turn from the Great Wall, the amount of Tourism you can generate if the city works that tile is also proportionately more. This can always help you towards a Culture Victory.

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. However, it has one less Range Range when compared to the Crossbowman. Its superiority in firepower is equivalent to one tech level or a Corps level higher, which is massive. This also means that in terms of raw, base damage output (if one were to take into account both Ranged Combat Strength and Melee Combat Strength), it is the most powerful unit in the Medieval Era, surpassing even the Knight by 2 damage. However, 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 most useful in defensive wars, when placed in 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 are using them on the front line, it is best to limit the exposure of individual Crouching Tigers to enemy melee or cavalry troops through adjacent friendly (melee) units. That, or another way is by placing them on tiles that give defensive bonuses (hills, forests, jungles, adjacent to rivers etc.). This will greatly enhance their survivability whilst allowing them to blast away with their superior firepower. Another tip if you plan on using Crouching Tigers on the front lines is to escort them with some Crossbowmen. This way, you can allow your Crouching Tigers to travel more safely to your destination while your Crossbowmen pick off any enemy units who threaten your Crouching Tigers. Yet another tip is to time your attacks so that you move your Crouching Tigers and fire with them on the same turn - they will do tremendous damage to all Medieval Era units (except for Knights). Of course, if you wage war on a rival who has pre-Medieval Era units, a well-coordinated attack with Crouching Tigers is unstoppable.

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. A tip here would be to get your Builders to construct 6 farms early on in the game to get the Inspiration Inspiration boost (improved with Dynastic Cycle), thus allowing you to get to Feudalism faster and therefore gain quicker access to the Feudal Contract military policy card.

One final note on Crouching Tigers: When you build your first one, all your city defences and encampments (providing that you've built Ancient Walls) will gain its +50 Ranged Combat Strength. This is because the Ranged Combat Strength of your cities and encampments is scaled to the Ranged Combat Strength of your strongest ranged unit. 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.

Overall, the Crouching Tiger is situationally powerful on offence and reliably powerful on defence.

With the changes to the Ranged Units' promotion tree in Gathering Storm, the Crouching Tigers are even better at defence, and make surprisingly powerful pseudo-siege units.

The reason for this is that, as mentioned above, the extra +10 Combat Strength from the Garrison promotion now applies to ALL tile improvements that give defence, and this includes the Great Wall as well, not just Forts and Districts as was previously in Rise and Fall . This makes Crouching Tigers much more dangerous and tougher to take down in the early game if it grabs that promotion and sits on a Great Wall tile. It will effectively have 60 Ranged Combat Strength and 50 Melee Combat Strength, forcing enemies to coordinate multiple attacks on the same turn to take it down. If they don't succeed in killing it quickly, the wounded Crouching Tiger can simply heal up through promotions and become even more dangerous. Of course, putting them in walled-up Encampments is always the safest choice for the Crouching Tigers, but with the changes to the Garrison promotion, they gain more reliable defensive options if they can move onto a Great Wall tile.

At the same time, if strategically moved, Crouching Tigers with the Garrison promotion can beeline for enemy districts and sit there to attack and defend in enemy territory with formidable offensive power. It takes two promotions, Volley and Arrow Storm, to boost their Ranged Combat Strength by +12, and that is only on offence and only against land units. This usually means the Crouching Tigers have to live through their first few battles to get the experience necessary for two promotions, or they have to get help from Victor's Embrasure title and the Terracotta Army. But with one promotion, Garrison, it can get a quick, situational +10 Combat Strength on both offence AND defence against everything, thus making it deadly in the right hands. The only downside to this strategy is that the unit needs to be on a Great Wall tile (or any other tile that gives defensive Combat Strength), Fort or district, so positioning is key.

Why pseudo-siege units, then? After unlocking the Garrison promotion, Ranged Units get access to Incendiaries and later on, Emplacement. Grabbing both can give another +7 Ranged Combat Strength against district defences and +10 Combat Strength when defending against city attacks. This allows the Crouching Tigers to potentially far surpass the Catapult in its ability to siege cities. 50 base Ranged Combat Strength + 10 from Garrison + 7 from Incendiaries - 17 from penalty to Ranged Units against city / district defences means a total of 50 offensive Ranged Combat Strength, thus greatly surpassing (a 43% difference!) the 35 Bombard Strength that Catapults (the only available siege unit of the Classical and Medieval Era) have. On defence, things look even better for the Crouching Tiger as it can get +10 Combat Strength from Garrison and another +10 Combat Strength from Emplacement, thus granting it 50 Combat Strength on defence against city attacks. Again, positioning is key to using Crouching Tigers as pseudo-siege units. If you can sit them on Districts adjacent to a City Centre, two or three Crouching Tigers will melt Walls very efficiently.

It is useful to note that if you do decide to go down the Garrison -> Incendiaries -> Emplacement promotion line, once you upgrade your Crouching Tigers into Field Cannons, they will make excellent secondary siege units with their superior range and fire-power in the mid-to-late game.

Overall, the changes to the promotions in Gathering Storm have buffed both the defensive and offensive capabilities of the Crouching Tiger.

Policy Cards

Vanilla 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. When combined with the four policy card giving Wonders, Alhambra, Forbidden Palace, Potala Palace and Big Ben, you will have even more options for policy cards and thus ensure that your play style is flexible regardless of your circumstances.

And of course, it must be said that these cards are not necessarily what is best for all circumstances. So, by all means, adapt as necessary.

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.
Dynastic Cycle	Cards: Machiavellianism, Cryptography and Nuclear Espionage. Analysis: This is purely to boost the potential of our Spies. Please refer to the section "Dynastic Cycle" for more details. The general idea is to steal as many boosts to technology as possible to make use of our Dynastic Cycle ability.
Wonders	Cards: Corvee, Gothic Architecture and Skyscrapers. Analysis: Get +15% Production towards constructing Wonders. This complements our Wonder building play style well. Note that Corvee only applies to Ancient and Classical Era Wonders, Gothic Architecture only applies to Medieval and Renaissance Era Wonders, and Skyscrapers only applies to Industrial Era Wonders and beyond. It is therefore advisable that when constructing Wonders, you check which Era they belong to and match them with the corresponding policy card. This is so you guarantee you are applying the +15% bonus. Also note that as soon as you research the civic that unlocks the next card, the original card will automatically be made obsolete. For instance, if you research Divine Right, Corvee will be made obsolete by Gothic Architecture. Therefore, if you are a few turns away from finishing an Ancient or Classical Era Wonder, you might want to delay completing research of Divine Right until you have successfully built the said Wonder. With Gathering Storm, the three above policy cards have been streamlined so that each one is inclusive of the parameters of the one that came before it. Ie. Gothic Architecture now applies to Ancient and Classical Wonders as well, and Skyscrapers now applies to ALL wonders. This is good for us as China players since we don't have to actively delay the researching of more advanced civics in order to keep the +15% Production bonus active for the construction of a particular Wonder. So feel free to upgrade whenever the next card is available.
Crouching Tigers	Card: Feudal Contract. 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.

Dark Age Policy Cards

With Rise and Fall, a special mention must be made to Dark-Age policy cards. These are only available if you enter a new Era in a Dark Age. It should be noted that some of these have powerful synergy with China's kit and/or her Wonder building, defence-focused play style. However, they all come at a cost. The following table explains this in more detail, and offers potential ways to avoid or ignore the penalties to these cards.

Name	Availability	Notes
Twilight Valor	Classical to Renaissance Era	Effects: All units gain +5 Combat Strength for all melee attacks, BUT cannot heal outside your territory. Analysis: This is relatively easy to use, because it practically gives our defending troops a free Combat Strength bonus. Just make sure you fight within your empire. Combine it with the Great Wall tile improvement, the governor, Victor, and your Crouching Tigers will shred enemies to pieces.
Isolationism	Classical to Industrial Era	Effects: Domestic routes provide +2 Food and +2 Production, BUT cannot train or buy Settlers nor settle new cities. Analysis: Again, this is relatively easy to use. Simply grab all available land with the help of Ancestral Hall (more on this below in the section "Government Plaza Buildings"), and then reroute your trade routes to domestic cities. This works well in helping China get extra Production which she can use for building Wonders. Keep an eye on your treasury though, as domestic trade routes provide a lot less Gold.
Robber Barons	Industrial to Information Era	Effects: +50% Gold in cities with a Stock Exchange. +25% Production in cities with a Factory, BUT -2 Amenities Amenities in all cities. Analysis: This is slightly trickier to juggle than the above two Dark-Age policies as an empire-wide -2 Amenities Amenities is quite a hit. That said, the bonuses are fantastic, and especially good for Wonder grabbing in the late game as China. Grab this if your cities can still stay at least Content. Build many Zoos and Stadiums to counterbalance this. Beeline for Estadio Do Maracana as the Wonder gives +2 Amenities Amenities for all cities, effectively canceling out the penalty. With the extra Gold and Production, this should not be too hard to accomplish.
Elite Forces	Industrial to Information Era	Effects: +100% combat experience for all units, BUT +2 Gold to maintain each military unit. Analysis: This is actually easy to use because Levee en Masse effectively cancels out the penalty. The bonus is especially good for China because of our Great Wall tile improvement. We can fortify our armies on Great Wall tiles, support them with cheap Supply Convoys and Drones (more on this below in the "Communism" section of "Governments") and quickly rack up combat experience as we successfully defend ourselves. This bonus is also adaptable because our defensive troops, over time, can quickly grow so strong through their promotions that they can reverse their roles and attack any invaders with deadly efficiency. This policy has great synergy with After Action Reports if gaining maximum combat experience is your short term goal.
Collectivism	Modern to Information Era	Effects: Farms +1 Food. All cities +2 Housing Housing. +100% Industrial Zone adjacency bonuses, BUT Great People Great People Points earned 50% slower. Analysis: This has great synergy with the Communism government bonuses and the Collectivization and Five-Year Plan Economic policies. Use the extra Production for building late game Wonders. As there is no way to avoid the penalty, simply take this if you are not interested in the currently available Great People Great People or if you are confident that you will hit your Great People Great People targets regardless of the penalty.

Governments

This section will recommend what governments work best in synergy with China's kit. My recommendations are Autocracy, Monarchy/Theocracy and Communism. The recommended play style is intended to revolve around boosting Production, accumulating highly populated cities, constructing Wonders and bolstering military defence. Some players specifically chose Governments with many Military policy slots to complement the defensive play style. They feel it is necessary, especially at higher difficulties, because the current meta of Civilization VI is for barbarians, AI's and human players (in multiplayer) to invade early and frequently. Then you have all the civilisations which are geared well for early domination - for example, the Scythians, Macedonians and Sumerians in vanilla Civilization VI, the Zulus and Mongolians in Rise and Fall and the Ottomans and Hungarians in Gathering Storm . These civilisations can quite easily steamroll over China if she is unprepared. So although it is tempting to go for as many Economic and Wildcard policy slots as possible with Merchant Republic and Democracy, this has, more often than not, led to me being conquered, especially on Immortal and Deity difficulties. A more economically conservative, defensive play style is therefore suggested here. This play style is intended to keep us safe so that we can build our Wonders undisturbed.

It should also be noted that in the case of China, we have potentially a lot more economic options early on than other civilisations because of our capacity to rush Ancient and Classical Era Wonders. And it is because we are able to grab so many Wonders by the Medieval Era that we can snowball our economy and build even more Wonders, especially the ones that provide extra policy slots - Alhambra, Potala Palace, Forbidden Palace and Big Ben. Basically, our Wonders (and with Rise and Fall, our Governors and Government Plaza Buildings) offset our relative lack of Economic, Diplomatic and Wildcard policy slots from our Governments at all stages of the game.

One way we can use our powerful defensive potential to our economic benefit is to bait rivalling AI into a war of attrition where we have the defensive advantage. Simply garrison up, declare war on them, and use our superior defensive abilities to force the AI into sacrificing wave upon wave of their troops. With this strategy, we aim to exploit the AI's lack of strategy on the battlefield with careful use of our Great Wall tile improvement, the Governor Victor ( only), our Crouching Tigers and our military oriented Governments and policies. This can be done at all stages of the game, but is particularly powerful in the late game when we unlock Patriotic War and Defense of the Motherland with the Class Struggle civic. As the AI sacrifice more and more of their troops against us, they will eventually start begging for peace with increasingly lucrative reparation bills. And once we decide the price they are willing to pay is high enough, we can accept peace deal(s) and basically walk away with a huge sum of Gold and resources that used to belong to the losing AI. Note that this strategy only works if you are confident you can come out on top both militarily and economically in a war of attrition. It can backfire if you engage on someone who is militarily and/or economically far stronger than you. It can also backfire if your cities suffer too much from war-weariness. That said, with the right amount of foresight and micro-management, this can be an extremely powerful strategy at all difficulty levels.

All that said, it would be wise to adapt as necessary to the situation. This is only one possible way to play China. For example, if you want a Religious Victory, Theocracy would be the logical choice. If you want a Culture Victory, Democracy might be more suitable. If you want a Domination Victory, Fascism might be more suitable. This is only a general guideline.

Side-note: The original intention in suggesting this particular set of governments was to synergise with China's kit and in-game play style. The unintended side-effect of adhering to this play style is that it has congruences with China's real life history, economy and politics. So if you are looking to role-play as real life China, by all means, go this route.

With the introduction of tier 4 governments, China has more political options for the end game. After playing with all three of them, I have concluded that despite their plethora of policy slots and powerful advantages, none of them have any direct synergy with China's kit. So pick whichever is most suitable for your desired Victory Type when you get to the end game. General guidelines are: 1. Pick Corporate Libertarianism if you are aiming for a Domination Victory. 2. Pick Synthetic Technocracy if you are aiming for a Science Victory. 3. Pick Digital Democracy if you aiming for a Culture, Diplomatic, or even Religious Victory.

Government	Tier	Notes
Autocracy	1	Effects: Capital Capital receives +1 boost to all yields. The Legacy bonus is +10% bonus Production to all Wonders, with +1% Production for every 20 turns on Standard speed. We still keep the initial +10% bonus Production to Wonders, but the other half of the bonuses has been changed to +1 boost for all yields for each government building and Palace in the city. The Legacy bonus has been changed from extra Production for Wonders over time to an additional +1 boost to all yields in the Capital Capital for each government building and Palace if we adopt Autocratic Legacy. Analysis: This fits China's early game well. +1 boost to all yields in the Capital Capital will help you with training Builders and military units. More importantly, it provides +10% Production to Wonder construction. This will serve us well in the Ancient and Classical Era as we will be building a LOT of Wonders. It can be argued that since we can already rush Wonders with Builders, the +10% Production to Wonder construction is a bit of an overkill. Other players would disagree with this since there are simply so many useful Wonders in the Ancient and Classical Era, and also because China is heavily reliant on getting early game Wonders to snowball the rest of her game. For example, the +10% extra Production may be the difference between us being able to grab four instead of three of our Core Wonders. As such, the legacy bonus of Autocracy (+1% Production towards Wonders for every 20 turns on Standard Speed) is great for complementing our Wonder building play style for the rest of the game. It should also be mentioned that Autocracy gives us two military policy slots. This is useful as China can be vulnerable to large scale invasions early on by barbarians or neighbouring rivals because we are spending so much Production on Wonders and less on military units. The double military policy slots can thus shore up this potential weakness, and be filled as appropriate with Agoge, Discipline, Conscription, Maneuver, Limes, Bastions, Veterancy and/or Maritime Industries. This synergises with the Great Wall tile improvement and bolsters our military defence while we build our Wonders. By getting access to Autocracy, we also unlock Charismatic Leader and Diplomatic League, although you may find little use for this in the early game if you are usually so busy rushing Wonders and using Ilkum, Colonization and/or Corvee. With Rise and Fall, we unlock the Wildcard policy Autocratic Legacy when we build our tier 1 Government Plaza building. Some players have found little use for this. There are so many other more valuable cards at this stage of the game and only one Economic policy slot and one Wildcard policy slot from Autocracy. It is nice though that the +1 boost to all yields can be multiplied if we build government buildings. This further helps us snowball in the early game with Builders and Wonders.
Monarchy	2	Effects: +50% Production toward defensive buildings. +1 Housing for each level of wall. The Legacy bonus is 20% bonus influence points towards Envoys, with +1% for every 10 turns on Standard speed. The initial bonus influence points towards Envoys has been buffed from 20% to 50%. The Legacy bonus has been changed from extra influence points over time to an additional +1 Housing per level of wall if you adopt Monarchic Legacy. Analysis: Monarchy continues the theme of bolstering defence, building Wonders and provides a new theme of highly populated cities. In that sense, the more defensively you play, the more room you give your population to grow. This complements the Great Wall tile improvement, and gradually gives capacity for higher populations. This also gives the player the option to cheaply get Housing without sacrificing a tile for an Aqueduct. The legacy bonus is a nice bonus since you won't have that much room for Economic, Diplomatic or Wildcard policy cards. That way, you can use the increased bonuses from City-States to help shore up the lack of options in your policies. The best part about picking Monarchy is that you also unlock Gothic Architecture by researching Divine Right. This complements our Wonder building play style well while still offering us more policy slots both in peace and in war. With an extra military policy slot and diplomatic policy slot, you have many additional options. Get Chivalry if you want Knights. Get Professional Army if you want to upgrade Archers to Crossbowmen. Get Feudal Contract if you want fast access to Crouching Tigers. Get Charismatic Leader and/or Merchant Confederation if you want to synergise with the Monarchic bonus to influence points and gain Gold from Envoys. China is exceptionally strong in the mid-game with these options, and can defend herself with relative ease as long as she prepares in advance. This will allow her to focus on building her target wonders. You can double the Housing bonus by adopting Monarchic Legacy, a Wildcard policy unlocked by building a tier 2 Government Plaza building. Unfortunately, as with Autocratic Legacy, you may usually be using other, more valuable cards at this stage of the game - Gothic Architecture and Serfdom, for instance. Also, as the Legacy bonus has more than doubled from the original and starting 20% Legacy bonus to 50%, this makes Monarchy much better as you will see more tangible progress in gaining Envoys. Because of the 50% bonus influence points towards gaining Envoys, Monarchy is a viable government to have in the mid-game if you are aiming for a Diplomatic Victory (more on this in the above "Victory Type General Strategies" section).
Theocracy	2	Effects: Can buy land combat units with Faith. All units +5 Religious Strength in Theological Combat. Discount on Faith Purchases (15%, plus 1% for every 15 turns on Standard speed). +5 Religious Strength in Theological Combat. +0.5 Faith per in cities with Governors. 15% Discount on Purchases with Faith. Analysis: If you managed to grab an early Religion with Divine Inspiration as the Follower Belief, this Government choice will be the most efficient option to spend the massive Faith generated by your many Wonders. The +5 Religious Strength in Theological Combat is helpful in defending or spreading your Religion. And since the current Civic tree requires you to go through Divine Right in order to research Reformed Church, you will still have access to the Gothic Architecture Economic Policy Card to help you speed up construction of Wonders. If you do decide to go this route, grabbing Grand Master's Chapel () would be helpful to give you the option of purchasing military units with Faith.
Communism	3	Effects: Land units gain +4 Defence Strength. The Legacy bonus is +10% to all Production in all cities, with +1% for every 20 turns on Standard speed. The +4 Defence Strength to land units has now been replaced with +0.6 Production per Citizen in cities with Governors. The Legacy bonus has now changed from extra Production in all cities over time to an additional +0.6 Production per Citizen in cities with Governors if we adopt Communist Legacy. Also, your empire receives a +15% boost to all Production instead of +10%. The effects have now been changed to +0.6 Production per Citizen in cities with Governors and a flat +10% Science for all cities. Analysis: Communism is the ultimate expression of our established themes of boosting Production, building Wonders, bolstering defence, and getting highly populated cities. The empire-wide +10% boost to all Production is great not only because we get extra Production toward late game Wonders, but because we can quickly build late game Production-oriented buildings like the Factory and Power Plant. This will grant us more Production, thus forming synergy within Communism's own bonuses. The Legacy bonus of +1% Production every 20 turns is the icing on the cake to give extra Production. The +4 Defence Strength to all our Land units is also great since this bonus applies no matter what terrain our Land units are on. This has further synergy with the Great Wall tile improvement, thus granting Chinese armies stationed on Great Wall tiles on hills a total of +17 Defence Strength! The policies that are unlocked with the Class Struggle civic help us do all of the above more efficiently. Collectivization is great for further nudging up the population of cities; and with more Citizens, you can work more tiles and/or employ more specialists to boost your late game yields. Five-Year Plan grants even more Production which you can use for Wonders and Science for faster technological research. Patriotic War and Defense of the Motherland augment our already strong defensive potential. These two policies respectively give our troops better support and negate war weariness from combat within our empire. An example combination of military policies that some players have found extremely effective on defence is Patriotic War, Defense of the Motherland, National Identity, Logistics and (if you grabbed Alhambra) Levee en Masse. With Rise and Fall, Communism has become even better now that we get a +15% Production boost instead of the +10% from the Vanilla game. Once you unlock the Wildcard policy Communist Legacy by building your tier 3 Government Plaza building, you can have potentially +1.2 Production per Citizen in cities with Governors. Just remember to employ as many Governors as possible in your highest populated cities. This gives you further incentive to grow the population sizes of your highest Production cities, as more Citizens equate more Production. Feel free to use Collectivization to help you do this. Because of how potentially powerful this is and as we have now more available policy slots, you may want to take Communist Legacy whenever it is unlocked. It is also worth noting that both Patriotic War and Defense of the Motherland have received indirect buffs. Patriotic War was buffed due to the addition of new and better late game support units, the Supply Convoy and the Drone. The Supply Convoy and Drone work synergistically with the Logistics Military policy. They ensure that your troops are fast, resilient and, in the case of your siege-class units, have better range. Defense of the Motherland was buffed due to the new loyalty system. With the difference in war weariness levels from Defense of the Motherland, enemy rivals face the additional danger of lowered loyalty in their border cities, making it harder to hold onto them, especially so if they are in a Dark Age. Lastly, Five-Year Plan works well with the Heartbeat of Steam dedication to further bump up our Production capabilities in the construction of late game Wonders. The above analysis still stands with the changes to Communism.

Government Plaza Buildings

I have toyed with these, and although it could be argued that every one of the nine buildings can be appropriate in the right situation, here is my take on buildings which have more synergy with China's kit than others.

Name	Tier	Notes
Ancestral Hall	1	Effects: +50% Production towards Settlers. New cities receive one free Builder. Awards +1 Governor Title. Analysis: This fits very well with the fact that our Builders get an extra charge. Because we prioritise Wonders in the early game, by the mid game, we are often behind with grabbing land. This building is the answer. It allows us to very quickly and efficiently expand horizontally. Pair it up with Colonization or Expropriation for +100% Production towards Settlers. Similarly, using Ilkum, Serfdom or Public Works in conjunction with grabbing the Pyramids means that each new city spawns a FREE 5-7 charge Builder! This will save you a surprisingly large amount of Production in the mid-game which you can use elsewhere. This also means that you can use the extra Builder to immediately rush any Ancient to Classical Wonder within the new city's borders, thus ensuring faster and more reliable access to key, map-dependent Wonders like Petra and Pyramids.
Intelligence Agency	2	Effects: +1 Spy and Spy capacity. All Spy Operations have a higher chance of success. Awards +1 Governor Title. Analysis: This fits very well with our Dynastic Cycle ability. Please refer to my comments in the "Dynastic Cycle" section above regarding stealing technologies with spies as China. This building is an all-round buff to that strategy - an extra spy, AND all spy missions get improved success rates for the rest of the game? This is great not just for offensive spy missions, but counter spying as well, especially when you want to safeguard your governors from being neutralised.
Grand Master's Chapel	2	Effects: Grants the ability to buy land units with Faith. Pillaging Improvements and Districts provides bonus Faith. Awards +1 Governor Title. Analysis: This is a great alternative to the Intelligence Agency if you went for an early Religion using Stonehenge (please refer to the above section "Breakdown of Ancient and Classical Wonders") with Divine Inspiration as your Follower Belief. As all your Wonders will be providing +4 Faith, it will be far more efficient to buy your units with Faith. This is great for the following four reasons: Your cities can focus their Production elsewhere. You don't have to slot Military Policy Cards to boost Production of your military units - eg. Feudal Contract, Chivalry, Grande Armee etc. You can use the freed up slots for other utility-based cards such as Logistics, Drill Manuals () or Force Modernization () if you so choose to. You can use this ability just as effectively for both offence and defence. When combined with the Great Wall tile improvement, you can quickly assemble a sizeable army that can attack enemies and hold and defend your cities well. If on the offensive, you can always buy reinforcements with Faith in your newly captured cities. This means that you don't have to hard build your troops nor purchase them with Gold. You also do not have to wait for them to travel to the front lines. This can keep your offensive rolling very efficiently and effectively.
Royal Society	3	Effects: Builders gain the ability to use all their charges to provide bonus Production to a District Project. Once per city per turn. Awards +1 Governor Title. Analysis: This also fits very well with our improved Builders, and as such, works exceptionally well if you are going for a Science Victory. They now can enjoy relevancy throughout the entire game, and can be used to hasten the Production of Mars modules or any other District projects to get more Great People in the late game. This is similar to Qin's The First Emperor ability, but for District projects instead of Ancient and Classical Wonders. Note that the higher the charge count per Builder, the more Production it will contribute to the project. This is where China can shine in the late game because she can potentially churn out 8-charge Builders with Liang, Pyramids and Public Works. If going for a Science Victory, spending Chinese Builders on Mars Modules is essentially a +100% Production (or even higher, depending on the capabilities of your city) towards the Modules. This means that you will only need to build the Spaceport District in one city as you won't ever be behind in Production of Mars Modules in relation to your Science. Finally, do note that when you use a Builder to hurry up Production of a District project, it consumes the Builder unit irrespective of how many charges it has. It is therefore advisable to "queue" multiple Builders on tiles adjacent to the District so that you can consistently rush build once per turn.

Governors

All governors are situational in their usage. That said, here are my top four picks for possible synergies with China's kit.

Name	Notes
Liang	Liang's starting title, Guildmaster, gifts all Builders built in the city she is governing an extra charge. This gives China the ability to pump out 5-charge Builders, 6 with Pyramids, and 8 if adding on top of that Serfdom or Public Works. This is huge in the early to mid game, and still extremely useful in the late game. More charges means potentially more rushing of Ancient to Classical Wonders, and of course, more improved tiles. I appoint her as the first governor of almost every game I play as China simply because of how well her starting title works with China's kit - unless, of course, I get invaded early by a horde of barbarians or a neighbouring rival. In such a case, I take Victor first. The rest of her promotion tree is useful, but somewhat situational. Infrastructure and Zoning Commissioner are great in every game because every city will eventually build its core City Center buildings and Districts. It would be wise to station her in the city you are planning to build your Government Plaza in so that you get the +30% bonus to Production towards it and its respective buildings as well. As for Aquaculture, Amusement and Parks and Recreation, get these if you are near a coastal area with sea resources and you want more food and/or more Amenities Amenities for your city. These are nice to have in the mid to late game, but not necessarily of the highest priority. File:Liang.png In Gathering Storm, Liang has received a rework which, in my opinion, makes her even better than before when employed within China's cities. Major changes are: 1. The removal of the Infrastructure and Amusement promotions. 2. The new level 2 promotions of Reinforced Materials and Water Works. 3. The changing of Zoning Commissioner from a level 2 promotion to a level 1 promotion, although it now only gives +20% Production towards districts in the city instead of +30% . 4. The buffing of Aquaculture and Parks and Recreation. For Aquaculture, if Liang is in the city, all Fishery improvements provide +1 . For Parks and Recreation, all City Parks provide +3 if Liang is in the city. In the majority of my games, I have found that having Zoning Commissioner as a level 1 promotion instead of a less accessible level 2 one means that I can transition more smoothly into building Districts after the initial frenzy of grabbing as many Ancient and Classical Wonders as possible. This will be increasingly useful as the cost of Districts rise as the game progresses. Reinforced Materials is an absolute must as a promotion, especially if you, like me, like to play the game with the Natural Disaster Slider maxed at level 4. It will save you so much repair time and Production over the course of the game with its ability to mitigate damage to improvements, buildings and districts. Of note is that the population of the city can still be cut down despite everything else escaping unscathed. Aquaculture now is much better since the extra +1 makes coastal tiles more workable, thus shoring up some of the lack of Production that coastal cities usually suffer. Water Works gives logical benefits since it follows Aquaculture, and provides additional +2 Housing for every Neighbourhood and Aqueduct District after the city's population has grown huge from the influx of Food from Fishery improvements. The +1 Amenity for every Canal and Dam District is an interesting inclusion in the sense that it has potential synergy with China's ability to build Canals after researching the Masonry Technology. And of course, City Parks are stronger than ever with the new version of Parks and Recreation. It allows a tile to provide +4 Culture per turn when worked on top of the +1 Amenity. These changes overall give Liang more late game scaling. Having her in a city gives ongoing and useful benefits for the entirety of the game, especially with the changes to Aquaculture, Reinforced Materials, Water Works and Parks and Recreation. I would even argue that she is the single best Governor in the game for China in terms of the possible synergy her kit offers.
Pingala	Pingala, unlike Liang, is not a must-have in the early game. In fact, I would argue that the most appropriate time to get him is when you are ready to concentrate on Science and/or Culture. This will usually be in the mid game when the frenzy for grabbing land has subsided somewhat, and you can afford to focus on Campuses and Theatre Square Districts. In such a scenario, Researcher and/or Connoisseur will help you out. His strongest title, in my opinion, is Grants. This can work exceptionally well if you appoint Pingala to the city which generates the most Great People points. This means that all the Great Person point generation in that city will be doubled. This works great with netting more Great People in general, but in China's case, especially well with Great Scientists as most of their bonuses revolve around Eureka Eurekas, thus synergising splendidly with the Dynastic Cycle ability. As for his level 3 titles, Arm's Race Proponent and Space Initiative, I rarely get to use them as the game has usually been decided by the time I get to nukes or Mars modules. That said, if the game has reached that stage, these titles can be the deciding factor to getting faster access to nukes or being the first to win the Science Victory. File:Pingala.png In Gathering Storm, Pingala has also been noticeably improved in what he can provide for a city. In essence, his benefits are now much more consistent and therefore, powerful. The changes are: 1. His starting title, Librarian, now only grants a +15% instead of a +20% increase in Science and Culture. 2. Connoisseur and Researcher have both been reworked to give +1 Culture and +1 Science per turn for each Citizen in the city. 3. The Curator promotion, originally belonging to Reyna, is now a level 3 promotion for Pingala, and replaces Arms Race Proponent. With his reworked kit, Pingala is best utilised in densely populated cities that have many Districts and their respective buildings built already. This would allow the Connoisseur, Researcher and Grants promotions to earn a lot of Culture, Science and Great Person Great People points per turn. It allows his usage to be more accommodating now since you are not forced to build Campus and/or Theatre Square Buildings in order to fully utilise his kit. This has great synergy with China's ability to rush-build Wonders that give extra Food, Amenities Amenities or Housing, or a combination of all three - ie. Great Bath, Temple of Artemis, Colosseum and Hanging Gardens. This would set up the before-mentioned densely populated powerhouse of a city that would then be perfect for employment of Pingala in the mid-to-late game. With him in such a city, he can help catapult China through the Technology and Civics trees extremely effectively. Having Curator as a level 3 promotion now is an excellent and much more thematically appropriate change to Pingala. This can allow him to give you that extra boost to Tourism from Great Works of Art, Music and Writing. This can help you consolidate a Culture Victory if that has been your overall goal for a particular game.
Moksha	File:Screenshot 2020-01-18 at 12.51.58.png Perhaps a not so obvious choice to synergise with China's kit is Moksha. I usually appoint him if I have founded an early religion and grabbed Divine Inspiration as my Follower Belief. He is useful for the spread and defence of my chosen religion. I think of him as the religious equivalent of Victor (please see below). Grand Inquisitor and Laying On Of Hands () are useful, especially if I have stationed Moksha at one of the border cities of my empire where the theological combat is especially fierce. Patron Saint is the other title I might grab to power up my Apostles if I have a surplus of Governor titles or am going for a Religious Victory.
Victor	Victor's synergy with China is relatively straightforward. Redoubt, Defense Logistics and Embrasure can make a city with walls already much harder to capture. The true synergy lies, however, in combining Garrison Commander with the Great Wall tile improvement and the Crouching Tiger. The title grants any unit defenders within the city's territory an extra +5 Combat Strength. This means that a single Crouching Tiger sitting on a Great Wall tile improvement on a hill has 48 Combat Strength on melee defence, and 55 Ranged Combat Strength, which is massive in the early to mid game. And this is before factoring in promotions! It also helps that Victor, unlike the rest of the governors, can be operational within three turns of appointment/reassignment instead of the usual five. This makes his usage in the scenario of a surprise attack much more effective. From personal experience, I have rarely found use for Security Expert and Air Defence Initiative, but I can see how they can be useful as further insurance against enemy spies, aircraft and ICBMs respectively. Ultimately, Victor's addition to the game further augments China's already powerful defensive capabilities to new heights. File:Victor.png As with the other two governors, Victor has also received substantial buffs with the Gathering Storm Expansion. Major changes are: 1. Garrison Commander now also provides your other cities within 9 tiles +4 Loyalty per turn towards your civilisation. 2. Defense Logistics also allows the accumulation of strategic resources in the city to gain an additional +1 per turn. 3. Security Expert has been removed. 4. Embrasure also grants military units trained in this city a free promotion. 5. Pingala's old level 3 promotion, Arms Race Proponent, has become Victor's new level 3 promotion in addition to Air Defense Initiative. With these changes, Victor has added utility on top of his already impressive array of tools for defence. Garrison Commander can now help you hold onto nearby nearly captured cities with its area of effect +4 Loyalty. Defense Logistics allows you to get more strategic resources if building resource-dependent units is what you desperately need. This allows Victor more flexibility as a governor in that he is useful both in peace and in war. With the rework of his Embrasure promotion, Crouching Tigers can potentially arrive on the battlefield with either the Volley or Garrison promotion, thus making them even more situationally powerful, especially in conjunction with the +5 Combat Strength from Garrison Commander. Again, this allows Victor the flexibility of being placed on the outer cities of your empire that need defending or (and equally usefully) be placed in high Production cities elsewhere that can pump out promoted units quickly. In the case of China, you can always build an army with a city that Victor is a governor of, and then rush-build the Terracotta Army for the whole army to be instantly double promoted before they've even fought a single battle! And of course, Arms Race Proponent is an excellent late game promotion if you want to just deliver justice with nukes!

Dedications

As with Wonders, Governor Plaza Buildings and Governors, everything is situational at the end of the day. That said, here are possible synergies that can be found when playing with Dedications as China. Note that the following Dedications will be reviewed in a Golden Age context so that we consider specific elements of their fullest potential.

Name	Notes
Exodus of the Evangelists	Effects: Gain +2 Era Score when you convert a city to your religion for the first time. +2 Movement Movement for Missionaries, Apostles and Inquisitors; newly-trained ones receive +2 Charges. +4 Great Prophet points per turn. Analysis: This can be great if we want to focus on the spreading and/or defence of our religion in the early stages of the game. In Gathering Storm, the surplus Great Prophet points become +4 Faith per turn after we have founded our religion. This complements the already strong Faith generation from the Divine Inspiration Follower Belief that we would want to pick as China. This is another viable option in case we are about to lose our religion to religious pressure from rival religions. Think of this Dedication as the final defence of our religion and use it as such. Alternatively, if you are pursuing a Religious Victory, this would be the logical choice to pick early on.
Pen, Brush and Voice	Effects: Gain +1 Era Score each time you trigger an InspirationInspiration. +1 Era Score for constructing a building with a Great Work Slot. If chosen at the start of an Golden Age, Inspiration Inspirations provide an additional +10% of civic costs. Each city receives +1 Culture for each specialty District. Analysis: This is great for aiding a Cultural Victory. The synergy comes from the fact that picking this in a Golden Age allows Inspiration Inspirations to provide an additional +10% of civic costs, thus doubling the bonus of Dynastic Cycle.
Free Inquiry	Effects: Gain +1 Era Score each time you trigger an EurekaEureka. +1 Era Score each time a Great Person is earned. If chosen at the start of a Golden Age, EurekaEurekas provide an additional +10% of technology costs. Commercial Hub and Harbour District's Gold adjacency bonus provides Science as well. Analysis: This is great for aiding a Science Victory. The synergy comes from the fact that picking this in a Golden Age allows Eureka Eurekas to provide an additional +10% of technology costs, thus doubling the bonus of Dynastic Cycle.
Monumentality	Effects: Gain +1 Era Score each time you construct a new specialty District. If chosen at the start of a Golden Age, +2 Movement Movement for all Builders. May purchase civilian units with Faith. Builders and Settlers are 30% cheaper to purchase with Faith and Gold. Analysis: This is great no matter the intended direction of your game. This will allow our already augmented Chinese Builders to move onto a hill, forest or rainforest or move across a river AND be able to improve the destination tile on the same turn. And of course, it allows them to move to and from cities much more speedily. Later into the game, if extra mobility is desired, you can combine this Dedication with Logistics for another +1 Movement Movement. Combine this with Ancestral Hall for maximum results. As for the reduced purchasing price, this is just a simple and powerful buff no matter how you look at it.
Heartbeat of Steam	Effects: Gain +2 Era Score for each Industrial or later building constructed. If chosen at the start of a Golden Age, +10% Production towards Industrial Era and later Wonders. Campus District's Science adjacency bonus provides Production as well. Analysis: This is a very useful Dedication from the Industrial Era onwards.With our tendencies to focus on Wonder building as China, this has very straightforward and welcome synergy to our play-style in the late game. Combine with Skyscrapers for additional synergy.
Sky and Stars	Effects: Gain +1 Era Score for each Aerodrome building constructed. Gain +1 Era Score each time a Great Person is earned. If chosen at the start of a Golden Age, unlocks the Eureka Eurekas for Advanced Flight, Nuclear Fission and Rocketry if in an Atomic Era. If in an Information Era, it unlocks the Eureka Eurekas for Satellites, Robotics, Nuclear Fusion and Nanotechnology. +100% Combat Experience earned by all Air units. Analysis: The Golden Age version of this Dedication can be very useful for China in the Atomic Era or Information Era if pursuing a Science Victory. This has great synergy with China's Dynastic Cycle ability. If you are going for Air units, grab Their Finest Hour from the Suffrage civic to complement this.
Bodyguard of Lies	Effects: Gain +1 Era Score for each successful offensive Spy operation. If chosen at the start of a Golden Age, Spies take no time to establish presence in a rival's city. Time to complete all offensive missions reduced by 25%. Analysis: This has great synergy with Dynastic Cycle (please refer to the above section "Dynastic Cycle" where I write about stealing technology boosts as China) and the Intelligence Agency (please refer to above section "Government Plaza Buildings"). This is allows China to transition smoothly from a Wonder-rushing and land grabbing early game into an espionage-heavy mid-to-late game.

City-states

As with all aspects in the game, pick and choose which city-states you want to send Envoy Envoys to depending on what your empire most needs in the moment. That said, here are the five city-states that have the most direct synergy with China's kit. If you find them in your game, spare them at least a second thought.

Name	Type	Notes
File:Brussels colored (Civ6).png Brussels	Industrial	Suzerain Bonus: Your cities get +15% Production towards wonders. Analysis: (Highly recommended) This has very straightforward synergy with China's wonder-focused play-style. You will want to build Forbidden City, Potala Palace, Alhambra, Big Ben and Estádio do Maracanã every game, so by all means, gun for this city-state's suzerain bonus. Combine this with Corvee, Gothic Architecture and Skyscrapers to get a total of +30% Production towards wonders.
File:Kabul colored (Civ6).png Kabul	Military	Suzerain Bonus: Your units receive double experience from battles they initiate. Analysis: This can be good for your defending ranged units as they perform ranged attacks on invaders. This is particularly good for Crouching Tigers and crossbowmen that are stationed within City Centers, Encampments or on Great Wall tiles. They will rapidly gain promotions to become extremely deadly units. I like this suzerain bonus because it offers flexibility to our already strong defensive potential as China. Our defensive units can, with extra promotions and the healing these promotions provide, switch to being offensive units that push into enemy territory after eviscerating the initial wave of invaders.
File:Seoul colored (Civ6).png Seoul	Science	Suzerain Bonus: When you enter a new era, earn 1 random Eureka from that era. Analysis: Another straightforward suzerain bonus that synergises with the Dynastic Cycle ability of China. It is good, but not outstanding. Take this if there are no other better options.
File:Vilnius colored (Civ6).png Vilnius	Culture	Suzerain Bonus: When you enter a new era, earn 1 random Inspiration Inspiration from that era. For the highest active Alliance Level all your Theater Square districts receive +50% adjacency bonus. Analysis: Again, a straightforward suzerain bonus that synergises with the Dynastic Cycle ability of China.
File:Armagh colored (Civ6).png Armagh†	Religion	Suzerain Bonus: Builders can construct the Monastery improvement, which provides Faith and heals religious units. Monasteries provide +15 HP healing every turn for friendly religious units. They also gain +1 Faith for every 2 adjacent districts, +1 Housing Housing, +1 additional Housing Housing with Colonialism, and cannot be built next to another Monastery. Analysis: Monasteries are good for China because they provide a much-needed alternative healing zone for our religious units. Because of the sparse number of Holy Sites in our empire (as we derive most of our Faith from our Wonders through the Divine Inspiration Follower Belief), we can run into problems of where to heal our religious units if we do not want them to run all the way back to our couple of Holy Sites. Either that, or if for whatever reason, we do not want or are unable to construct Holy Sites near the edges of our empire. Therefore, it would be wise to build Monasteries near the borders of our empire where most of our theological combat takes place, thus giving our religious units an alternative place to heal. The extra Faith and Housing Housing are nice bonuses in the mid game.

Ik-kil

A special mention must be made to Ik-kil, a Natural Wonder that was introduced in Gathering Storm . It provides +50% Production when producing Wonders (note: ALL Wonders, not just Ancient and Classical ones) and Districts in adjacent tiles. It also provides fresh water. It occupies 1 impassable tile.

This is a Natural Wonder that has amazing synergy with China's kit. If you are lucky enough to find it in your games and within reasonable settling proximity, settle near it, by all means, and enjoy its tremendous boost to constructing Wonders and Districts.

The only possible drawback is that some desirable Wonders may have map requirements that preclude them from being built on tiles adjacent to Ik-kil. If such a scenario arises, I would still make full use of its bonuses to construct Districts.

Counter Strategy

When facing against China (both in single and multiplayer), here are a few tips that can shut her down, or at least, slow her progress:

1. In the early game, try to invade China with as much military power as you can muster. The reasons for this are three-fold:

She will most likely be dedicating a large amount of her Production and Builder charges towards the construction of Wonders, and if she hasn't gotten around to constructing Great Wall segments, she'll be relatively vulnerable to a large-scale invasion. Civilisations that are geared well to exploit this are early-game, military-focused civilisations such as the Scythians, Sumerians and Macedonians.
The defensively powerful Crouching Tigers do not become available until China reaches the Medieval Era, so attacking before they can be built maximises your chances of success against China.
Capturing Builders from China is a great way to impede her momentum. When you capture a Chinese Builder, they will become yours and, assuming they haven't been used yet, they will retain their original 4-charges, making them extremely valuable assets for you instead. Additionally, by capturing Chinese Builders, you will effectively axe her main strength - rush-building Wonders in the Ancient and Classical Era with said Builders. This will further set her back for the remainder of the game.

With Rise and Fall, attacking China in the early game has become potentially much harder if she stations Victor in a key city, and especially so if she adopts Twilight Valour in the Classical Era. However, forcing her to appoint Victor is a win in itself, as this Governor is really weak compared to other ones. That said, it will potentially be also more lucrative because Liang will make any Builders built in her governed city get an extra charge, so capturing these said Builders will be even more to your advantage.

Unfortunately for China, she has new early-game counters with the Rise and Fall expansion. The Mongolians and Chandragupta (the alternate leader of India) can potentially overrun China before she can set up defensively. China would do well to be extra wary when facing off these civilisations, especially if they are close neighbours.

2. In the mid game, you have two options: Attack China before she can snowball further OR rapidly expand your empire to grab land before she can.

In the scenario of attacking China, try to position your ranged units so that they can outrange the 1 Range Range Crouching Tigers. This way, by weakening to taking them out, you'll have a much easier time of broaching the Great Wall segments that'll usually be erected on the borders of China's empire. It will also be prudent to use the Great Wall segments for YOUR benefit. As soon as you eliminate the original defender of that tile, station a durable unit there and it'll gain +10 Defense Strength (an additional +3 if also on a hill tile and +5 if you can force melee attackers to cross rivers to get to you). This will make it easier for you to repeal any counter-attack from China's troops.
In the scenario of you expanding your empire, it will be most effective if you can forward settle your cities as much as possible to block off China from expanding. This is her other weak point in the mid game, because since she rush-built most of her desired Wonders, she will have had less time and resources to expand her empire. The time gap between her finishing her Wonders and her expanding is YOUR window of opportunity to block her off.

At this point of the game, be very cautious of any walled city that is stationed with Victor. His titles, combined with China's Crouching Tigers and Great Wall tile improvements, will make that city a nightmare to take. This will be especially so if, again, she adopts Twilight Valour. Instead, see if you can avoid such cities and invade newly founded cities by China. If she has taken Ancestral Hall as her tier 1 Government Plaza building, every newly founded (and therefore, less well-defended) city will spawn a 5-7 charge Builder. This will mean taking that city will yield even better spoils for you if you can capture the Builder along with the city.

That said, Ancestral Hall also means that China's capability to expand horizontally in the mid-game has substantially increased, which will narrow your window of opportunity to block her off with your own well-positioned cities. The loyalty system will also punish you if you settle too far out now, so an aggressive, militaristic approach to shutting down China will be more advisable at this stage of the game.

In my opinion, the only civilisation that could potentially pose a military threat to China in the Medieval to Renaissance era is the Zulu. Their ability to make corps and armies earlier, combined with the +5 bonus Combat Strength from Shaka's leader ability for all corps and armies, makes them a terrifying sight to behold if they manage to catch China unprepared.

3. Assuming all other factors being equal, if China has been left alone to freely build her Wonders and make use of her Dynastic Cycle ability, she will be extremely powerful economically, advanced technologically and influential culturally in the late game. It will be hard to shut her down at this point, since combined Armies stationed on Great Wall segments are extremely difficult to dislodge. Again, you have two options: Nuke her OR steal boosts and/or Great Works with spies.

Nuking is a viable strategy here because it effectively negates Great Wall defensive bonuses as well as wiping out any defending troops in an instant. There are no ways to stop a nuke at this point of the game's development.
Because China has such a powerful snowballing ability with her Dynastic Cycle, she will most likely be ahead scientifically and culturally. In this scenario, using spies to steal boosts and/or Great Works will be very viable since you will be able to free-ride on her progress without doing as much of the hard work yourself. This will allow you to more easily catch up to her or even surpass her at this late stage of the game.

Consider getting Intelligence Agency to improve your chances of conducting successful spy missions against China. In addition to stealing technology boosts from her, neutralising her established Governors is a great way to slow her down.

If you are considering waging war on her at this point, neutralising Victor wherever he is stationed in her cities will be of high priority, as this will significantly reduce her defensive capabilities, and thus make your war against China easier.

With the Rise and Fall civilisations, Korea stands out as a serious potential rival to China in terms of teching Science. Its entire gear is set up for gaining massive amounts of Science, so the above suggested nuking strategy would work exceptionally well for Korea against China.

Lastly, be wary of the Qin's agenda: Wall of 10,000 Li. The AI likes to hoard as many Wonders as possible for himself, so if you're in a position where you do not want to upset him, avoid building Wonders and focus on other aspects of general development.

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 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: (Pantheon) Monument to the Gods, (Follower) Divine Inspiration, (Worship) Mosque, (Founder) Pilgrimage and (Enhancer) Holy Order. Grab these whenever possible, and feel free to improvise as appropriate. Consider also taking Grand Master's Chapel for your Government Plaza buildings, Exodus of the Evangelists for Dedications, and Moksha for Governors. Also consider getting the Great Bath for its scaling Faith yields.
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. Intelligence Agency and Royal Society from Government Plaza buildings would help here. Use spies frequently for stealing technology boosts. Dedications like Free Inquiry, Sky and Stars and Bodyguard of Lies all work well with Dynastic Cycle to net you even more Science. The Governor Pingala is a must-have. Also remember to use China's exceptional builders to rush Space Race projects. In the late game, use China's plentiful builder charges to quickly cover your empire with all the renewable energy tile improvements - ie. solar farms, wind farms, offshore wind farms etc. This will efficiently and effectively help you power through the final stages of your Scientific Victory.
Cultural	The early wonders (especially Terracotta Army), Dynastic Cycle and later Great Wall segments will give China a cultural edge. 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. National History Museum is a must-have for Government Plaza buildings. For Dedications, take Pen, Brush and Voice, Wish You Were Here and Heartbeat of Steam (for more Wonders) whenever possible. Again, the Governor Pingala is a must-have. Interestingly, Reyna's level 3 title, Curator, also works well here although her other abilities are mostly Gold based. The Curator title now belongs to Pingala, so it makes sense to get him instead of Reyna.
Domination	Building a huge army early and then rushing Terracotta Army can provide a military edge. This will set China up for a mid to late game domination victory. If key strategic points throughout the empire need defending, the player can fortify Crouching Tigers on tiles with the Great Wall improvement, forts and/or encampments. Warlord's Throne and War Department from the Government Plaza buildings will be helpful. For Dedications, To Arms! is your best bet. And of course, the Governor Victor will be helpful in defending key cities from being taken (or re-taken), and for bolstering loyalty in newly conquered cities. For policy cards, take Limitanei and Praetorium as necessary. With the changes to Victor's Embrasure title, it is now possible to delegate your Production of troops to the city governed by Victor, and have your whole army come with out with a free promotion. As mentioned above, rush Terracotta Army and your army will have two free promotions possibly before any fighting has even begun! This can set up a Chinese army to be extremely deadly by the mid-game.
Diplomatic	Beelining for the Apadana and then building as many Wonders in its parent city as possible can give China a diplomatic edge. This will maximise the two extra Envoy Envoys per Wonder bonus. This will allow you to more competently compete for Suzerainty of multiple city-states. Try to grab Mahabodhi Temple for the 2 extra Diplomatic Points. Take Monarchy as your mid-game government and combine it with Charismatic Leader for maximum Envoy Envoy generation. Prioritise maximising Culture adjacency bonuses, Theatre Square Districts and active Alliances to further boost your Diplomatic Favor generation. In the mid-game, aim to construct the Statue of Liberty for the 4 Diplomatic Points and Országház for even more Diplomatic Favor from Suzerainty status of city-states. Other useful but non-essential Wonders that can complement this strategy are Kilwa Kisiwani and the four Wonders that grant extra policy slots - Alhambra, Forbidden City, Potala Palace and Big Ben. If you can grab at least one of these, taking Merchant Confederation will be an excellent choice. Participate in all Disaster Relief events and always aim for the first prize of Diplomatic Points. In the late game, it is recommended to switch to Democracy and Digital Democracy to gain as many Diplomatic Policy and Wildcard Policy slots as possible. Consider grabbing Diplomatic Policies like Gunboat Diplomacy, Containment, Collective Activism, International Space Agency and the Diplomatic Capital Wildcard Policy. Aim for the Seasteads technology and Global Warming Mitigation civic to give you a total of 2 extra Diplomatic Points. Take Amani as one of your Governors and promote her to her Puppeteer title as soon as possible. Sending Envoy Envoys to her governed city-state will have powerful synergy with the Gunboat Diplomacy, Containment and Merchant Confederation Diplomatic Policies. Also consider taking National History Museum as your Tier 3 government building. Overall, China's unique ability to rush-build many Ancient and Classical Era Wonders (especially the ones that grant Great Works slots) will set her up for an excellent Culture and Diplomatic Favor oriented mid-to-late game. As long as you prioritise Theatre Square Districts early on, you should have no problems flying through the civic tree, unlocking increasingly advanced forms of Government and gaining many Envoy Envoys on the way. Make use of the Apadana Wonder and Amani Governor. This will then boost your capabilities to generate Diplomatic Favor and ultimately cement your Diplomatic Victory within the World Congress.
Score	Being a well-rounded civ, China should have no issue with overall scores.

Civilopedia entry

China has contributed much to civilization: paper, the bell, the fishing reel, gunpowder, the compass, the bulkhead, playing cards, the oil well, woodblock printing, silk, the list of Chinese inventions goes on endlessly. China has also given civilization great religions (Confucianism, Taoism, Faism, Yi Bimoism, and others) and great philosophies (mohism, legalism, naturalism, neo-taoism and so forth). Chinese authors such as Shi Nai’an and Wu Cheng’an, artists such as Han Gan and Ma Yuan, composers such as Wei Liangfu and Cai Yan enriched civilization beyond measure. Moreover, China introduced the concepts of slavery, monogamy, espionage, subversion, propaganda, urbanization, lingchi (“death by a thousand cuts”), and more.

The so-called Warring States period (c. 475 BC to 221 BC) saw ancient China composed of seven kingdoms – Qi, Qin, Zhao, Yan, Han, Chu and Wei – at odds with each other … seriously at odds as they fought incessantly. Eventually, the king of the Qin, Ying Zheng, managed the task of unifying China, conquering the last enemy (Qi) and thus proclaiming himself Qin Shi Huang (loosely, “first emperor of Qin”). During his glorious reign, besides burning books and burying alive scholars who disagreed with him – for the Warring States period had given rise to the Hundred Schools of Thought, a distressing collection of liberal philosophies and free thinking – the Qin undertook an extensive road- and canal-building program and even began construction of the Great Wall of China to keep the barbarians out (as it turned out, a futile effort). Although he sought mightily for the fabled elixir of immortality, Ying Zheng didn’t find it – obviously – and he died in 210 BC. He was interred in a massive mausoleum near Chang’an, built by 700 thousand “unpaid laborers” and guarded by the famed Terracotta Army. The Qin Empire lasted only a few years longer.

In 207 BC Liu Bang, a peasant rebel and born troublemaker, aided by the ambitious Chu warlord Xiang Yu, toppled Qin Shi Huang’s inept successor from the throne and established – after doing away with his ally – the Han dynasty. Interrupted only briefly by the Xin dynasty, the Han ruled over an age of linguistic consolidation, cultural experimentation, political expression, economic prosperity, exploration and expansion, and technological innovation. It was a good time, made even better when Emperor Wu shattered the Xiongnu Federation in the steppes and redefined China’s traditional borders. Han traders ventured as far afield as the Parthian Empire and India; Roman manufactured glassware has been found in Han ruins. The Han emperors also scattered agricultural communes of ex-soldiers across the western expanses, so anchoring their end of the Silk Road.

The rise of the commander Cao Cao meant the decline of the Han emperor. In 208 AD Cao Cao abolished the Three Excellencies, the emperor’s top advisors, and took for himself the post of Chancellor. In 215, Cao Cao forced the emperor Xian to divorce his empress and take Cao’s daughter as wife. With prognostications and heavenly signs indicating that the Han had lost the tianming (“Mandate of Heaven”), Xian abdicated his throne in December 220 in favor of Cao Cao’s son, Cao Pi. Pi proclaimed the Wei dynasty … and unified China promptly fell apart.

For 60 years following the Yellow Turban Rebellion – imaginatively labelled the “Three Kingdoms Period” by sinologists – three kingdoms were contenders to rebuild the centralized empire of the Qin and the Han. The three – the states of Wei, Shu and Wu – never quite managed the task; it was left to the Jin to accomplish. Sima Yan forced Cao Huan to cede him the throne of Wei. Following brilliant campaigns, the Wei overran Shu (263 AD) and Wu (279 AD). But the Jin dynasty was seriously weakened by the family squabbles of the imperial princes, and soon enough lost control of the northern and western provinces (henceforth the empire was known simply known as the Eastern Jin), leading to the period labelled the Sixteen Kingdoms (again named by those clever sinologists), which lasted until 439.

Despite some consolidation – brought about by rivers of blood – it was not until 589 that the whole of China was together again under one ruler, the short-lived Sui dynasty. It was followed by the Tang dynasty, which managed to stay on the throne of a unified (more-or-less) China until 907 AD. The Tang was much like the Han administration, emphasizing trade and diplomacy, bringing stability and prosperity. Thus it was that religion and culture flourished. The Grand Canal project begun by the Sui was completed, the Silk Road reopened, and the legal code revised; among other steps, the latter effort expanded the property rights of women and instituted competitive imperial examinations for bureaucrats, along several other innovations. Taxes were standardized based on rank, and the first Chinese census undertaken so everyone paid. Brilliant poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu celebrated the age, setting high standards for Chinese literature for centuries.

But the Tang Empire was struck by a century of natural disasters; floods on the Yellow River and along the Grand Canal followed by widespread droughts brought devastating famine and economic collapse. Agricultural production fell by half, and as usual desperate people turned elsewhere for leadership. Beset by endless rebellions, in 907 the former salt smuggler risen to military governor, Zhu Wen, deposed the last huangdi (emperor) of the Tang. Thus was ushered in the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (the label pretty much says it all) which ended around 960 AD. In the next four centuries, five dynasties would rule reunified (again) China: the Song, Liao, Jin (again), Western Xia and Yuan (established by Kublai Khan after the Mongols slipped past that Great Wall). Each contributed its own technological discoveries, philosophical insights and social advances to the tapestry of civilization. But it is the Ming dynasty that captures the imagination.

Throughout the core of China, there was significant resentment to Mongol rule, exacerbated during the 1340s by famine and plague and marked by numerous peasant rebellions. Obviously, the tianming had been withdrawn from Kublai’s descendants. The poor-peasant-turned-rebel-leader Zhu Yuanzhang (known today as the Emperor Hongwu) proclaimed himself emperor of the Ming in 1368 after capturing Beijing. He’d come a long way; according to legend Zhu was the youngest of seven or eight brothers, several of whom were sold to raise money for the starving family. After the Yellow River flooded out his village and plague killed all his remaining family, he took shelter in a Buddhist monastery, which was destroyed by a Mongol army retaliating against Zoroastrian rebels. Thus, Zhu came to join the rebel movement himself, rising to its leadership by the age of 30. Vengeance begat vengeance.

The Ming dynasty ushered in a glittering age for China. Once secure on the throne Tatzu (an alliterative name for a complex person) instituted a number of policy initiatives. Among the first, a move to limit the advancement and influence of eunuchs in the imperial court, where several had enjoyed great power under previous dynasties (perhaps some of the empire’s later woes could be blamed on their return to influence – establishing a virtual parallel administration). In the social order, four classes were recognized, each with its own rights and obligations: gentry, farmers, artisans and merchants. Later Ming emperors granted ever more benefits to the merchant class, viewing their efforts as generating wealth and taxes for the empire. Besides fighting off the Mongol threat again, wars with Korea and Japan used up a lot of that wealth. And then a cycle of natural disasters struck yet again. By 1640, masses of peasants – starving, unable to pay their taxes, and unafraid of the oft-defeated imperial army – were in rebellion. When it was all sorted out, the Qing (or Manchu) dynasty ruled.

And it did so fairly effectively until the Europeans started making waves. Although the Polos and other occasional visiting traders and adventurers had made their way through China’s back door, the Portuguese arrived by sea in the guise of Jorge Alvares in 1513. Soon enough they had conned the Ming emperor into granting them a trading “enclave” in Macau, with the first governor there taking up his duties in 1557. Meanwhile, under the Qing the economy and government – which wisely tended to avoid foreign adventures – were stable. A high level of literacy, a publishing industry supported by the government, growing cities, and a pervasive Confucian emphasis on peaceful exploration of the inner self, all contributed to an explosion of creativity in the arts and philosophies. Traditional arts and crafts such as calligraphy, painting, poetry, drama and culinary styles underwent a resurgence.

But those annoying outsiders continued to meddle. By the early 19th Century, Imperial China found itself vulnerable to European, Meiji Japanese and Russian imperialism. With vastly superior naval forces, better armaments, superior communications and tactics honed in fighting each other, the colonial powers sought to dictate to the Qing government, dominate China’s trade, and generally do whatever they liked. In 1842 China was defeated in the First Opium War by Great Britain and forced to sign the infamous Nanking Treaty, the first of many “unequal treaties.” A series of such trade treaties ruined the Chinese economy by 1900. Japan, which had quickly modernized and joined the colonial fray, forced China to recognize its rule in Korea and Taiwan. While the Qing remained nominal rulers, the European powers, including Russia, divvied the entire country up into exclusive “spheres of influence.” The United States, meanwhile, unilaterally declared an “Open Door” policy in China.

It was all too much. In 1899 the populist Yihetuan (“Militia United in Righteousness”) launched the Boxer Rebellion in an effort to return China to its own devices. Unfortunately, they lost. In the crushing peace treaty of 1901, the “Eight Nations” (those who had been attacked by the Boxers) forced the execution of all in the Qing government who had supported the Boxers, provided for the stationing of foreign troops in the capital, and imposed an indemnity greater than the annual national tax revenue. The nation plunged into growing civil disorder; in response the Dowager Empress Cixi called for reform proposals from the provincial governors. Although wide-sweeping and innovative, even if successfully adopted, it was too late. In November 1908 the emperor died suddenly (likely from arsenic poisoning), followed the next day by Cixi. In the wake of insurrections and rebellions, in 1912 the new Dowager Empress Longyu convinced the child-emperor Puyi to abdicate, bringing over two millennia of imperial rule in China to an end. And China descended into another period of contending, bloody-minded warlords.

In the 1920s, Sun Yat-sen established a revolutionary base in south China, and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With assistance from the Soviet Union (themselves fresh from a socialist uprising), he entered into an alliance with the fledgling Communist Party of China. After Sun's death from cancer in 1925, one of his protégés, Chiang Kai-shek, seized control of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party or KMT) and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under its rule in a military campaign known as the Northern Expedition (1926–1927). Having defeated the warlords in south and central China by military force, Chiang was able to secure the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the North. In 1927, Chiang turned on the CPC and relentlessly chased the CPC armies and its leaders from their bases in southern and eastern China. In 1934, driven from their mountain bases such as the Chinese Soviet Republic, the CPC forces embarked on the Long March across China's most desolate terrain to the northwest, where they established a guerrilla base at Yan'an in Shaanxi Province. During the Long March, the communists reorganised under a new leader, Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung).

The bitter struggle between the KMT and the CPC continued, openly or clandestinely, through the 14-year-long Japanese occupation of various parts of the country (1931–1945). The two Chinese parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese in 1937, during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), which became a part of World War II. Following the defeat of Japan in 1945, the war between the Nationalist government forces and the CPC resumed, after failed attempts at reconciliation and a negotiated settlement. By 1949, the CPC had gained control over most of China and on the 1st of October that year, Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China.

Emerging triumphant over the Nationalists shortly after World War II, the Communist government spent the subsequent sixty years consolidating power, modernising infrastructure, and improving the lives and education of its vast population, a process which included a number of massive missteps, including the disastrous "Great Leap Forward" and the bloody "Cultural Revolution" which did great harm to its ancient culture. In the past 38 years since Deng Xiaoping's successful economic reforms, China has emerged as a major world power, an economic behemoth which will soon dwarf all other economies including the once unstoppable United States.

China is not without its difficulties, however. Much of its energy is expended simply supporting its huge and growing population base. Pollution is becoming a major problem as more and more factories are built, and more and more automobiles are clogging the bigger cities. Tibet - which depending upon your point of view is either a captive nation or an integral part of China - remains an open wound and major political distraction for China. None of these are insurmountable, though, and China stands poised to dominate the 21st century.

Cities

Main article: Chinese cities (Civ6)

Citizens

Males:

Chen
Fai
Kong
Kuan-yin
Lei
Long
Shaiming
Shen
Shing
Sying

Females:

Chan-juan
Chang
Fang-yin
Huan-Yue
Jiang-li
Li-mei
Ming-ue
Qing-yuan
Shuang
Xin-qian

Modern males:

Bingwen
Changpu
Dingxiang
Guiren
Huizhong
Longwei
Shanyuan
Tingfeng
Yanlin
Zedong

Modern females:

Changying
Daxia
Dongmei
Liling
Meifeng
Mingxia
Mingzhu
Qiaolian
Xingjuan
ZhenZhen

Trivia

A Chinese city appears in the Civilization VI announcement trailer.
The Chinese civilization's symbol is a head of a Chinese dragon that faces to the right.
The Chinese civilization ability references an important political concept in Chinese history.
China is also playable in the Path to Nirvana scenario.

Gallery

Videos

CIVILIZATION_VI_-_First_Look_China — CIVILIZATION VI - First Look China

Related achievements

Crouching Tiger Hidden Cannon

Playing as China, end a turn with 5 Crouching Tigers on Great Wall tiles.

A reference to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a 2000 martial arts film.

Elixir of Immortality

Win a regular game as Qin Shi Huang

A reference to Qin Shi Huang's real life pursuit of eternal life, one attempt at which--pills of mercury--ultimately killed him.

@@ Line 606: / Line 606: @@
 |'''Card:''' [[Feudal Contract (Civ6)|Feudal Contract]].
-'''Analysis: '''As mentioned before, [[Crouching Tiger (Civ6)|Crouching Tigers]] are categorised as Medieval ranged units, so if you plan on building many of these, grab [[Feudal Contract (Civ6)|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 Tiger (Civ6)|Crouching Tigers]] very quickly to defend yourself.
+'''Analysis: '''As mentioned before, [[Crouching Tiger (Civ6)|Crouching Tigers]] are categorised as [[Medieval Era (Civ6)|Medieval]] [[Ranged units (Civ6)|ranged units]], so if you plan on building many of these, grab [[Feudal Contract (Civ6)|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 Tiger (Civ6)|Crouching Tigers]] very quickly to defend yourself.
 |}