The Scythian people represent a civilization in Civilization VI. They are led by Tomyris, under whom their default colors are light orange and dark red.
The Scythians' civilization ability is People of the Steppe, which gives them two units instead of one for each light cavalry unit or Saka Horse Archer they train. Their unique unit is the Saka Horse Archer, and their unique tile improvement is the Kurgan.
Strategy
Scythia under Tomyris is able to quickly field a massive fast-moving and hard-hitting cavalry army. Once their domination machine starts moving, there are few who can hold their ground against a Scythian push.
People of the Steppe
Scythian units and strategy favor early game conquest and exploration. By specializing in Horsemen and Saka Horse Archers early on, and taking advantage of Tomyris' leader bonus to heal rapidly, you can launch a very early offensive and take over a number of cities before the opposition has a chance to build up a force of their own.
In your cities, research Animal Husbandry to take advantage of Pastures as early as possible for sources of 
Horses and place adjacent Kurgans to gain extra 
Faith and 
Gold (keeping in mind you cannot place Kurgans on hills). The Gold will help to maintain the costs of your armies, and the Faith bonus can give an early edge in the religion game. 
Trade Routes to city-states near the enemy will give you an advantage of tactically controlling quick transport to and from locations of convenience, as well as establishing city-state bonuses.
The Scythian unique ability applies to five different units in the game: the Classical Era's Horsemen and Saka Horse Archers, the Medieval Era's Coursers (in Gathering Storm), the Industrial Era's Cavalry, and the Atomic Era's Helicopters. This means that the Scythians' ability to produce massive forces is not limited to the early game. And keep in mind that a Level 5 light cavalry unit gets access to the Escort Mobility 
Promotion, which makes any units in formation with the light cavalry move at the same speed. As this means any support unit or Great General can keep up with the exceptionally fast cavalry, getting at least one light cavalry unit to this level should be a priority. (Note that Saka Horse Archers use the ranged units' promotion table, so they will not be able to get this promotion.)
Killer of Cyrus
Since Scythian units excel at attacking enemy units that are already damaged, it's advisable to use a ranged unit (Slinger, Archer, Saka Horse Archer, etc.) and follow up with melee attacks. Additionally, finishing off enemies should be done by injured units to heal them.
The Saka Horse Archer is a decent tool of Scythia. As they can attack without being counterattacked, multiple Saka Horse Archers can move into position and take down individual enemy units without getting seriously injured. However, due to their short 
Range, their ability to focus fire one unit is limited, and they would have to expose themselves in the process of doing so. They even become less effective when outnumbered. Four to six of them are strong enough to take down early-game cities with no walls without siege support, making them quite efficient at conquering large amounts of land. Be sure to remember that you need at least one melee unit – even a Scout will do – to be able to take the city once its health is depleted.
This ability also has religious implications. Their Apostles are stronger in Theological Combat and can heal 30 hit points when winning. This makes Scythian armies of Apostles surprisingly hard to deal with, even for pure Religious civilizations. The Faith income from Kurgans also gives a hand in making Religious Victory possible for Scythia.
Saka Horse Archer
Compared to an Archer, the Saka Horse Archer has the exact same 
Ranged Strength and 
Combat Strength, but has higher mobility and 1 less Range. Overall, ranged units with 1 Range have very limited scope of use in combat, except for on defense. The purpose of a ranged unit is to focus fire and whittle down enemy units from behind a front line. Ranged units with 1 Range cannot focus fire well and expose themselves with their low Combat Strength to the front line while attacking, making them unreliable since they can be killed off quickly. Also, since Scythia is a pure Domination civilization, there is just no reason for you to play on defense. Things would be slightly better if between the Saka Horse Archer and the Archer, there was only a simple trade-off Range for mobility, but no, the Saka Horse Archer is almost twice as expensive as the Archer to train, and twice as expensive to maintain. If you take into account the fact that you get two of these every time you build one, it is slightly cheaper than an Archer, but will quadruple the maintenance cost. A large number of Saka Horse Archers will create a huge economic burden on your empire, without actually boasting any militaristic prowess on the battlefield. Scythians only have the Kurgan as an extra source of income to maintain a large army, and the Gold bonus of a Kurgan is pathetic, and it is not the type of tile improvement you want to put down everywhere unless you are going for a Religious Victory. This unit is not the backbone in a strong Scythian army, and you should only build this unit only once for Era Scores, and then kill both copies you have to save your Gold, as this unit is definitely not worth the high investment. Archers will be slightly slower than your army of Horsemen, but they can fulfill the exact same job, if not much better with their long Range, for a much lower cost.
Kurgan
Arguably the only unique tile improvement that can compete with the Scottish Golf Course for the title of "the worst unique tile improvement in the game", the Kurgan's usefulness ends as quickly as it is unlocked. It can almost be used well for one purpose and one purpose only: to get a Pantheon without having to run the God King policy card, and that is pretty much it. Both the Faith and the Gold output on this improvement are abysmal. Gold is slightly more useful for Scythia as a Domination civilization, especially when we consider that Scythia will field a massive cavalry army, but a Kurgan only provides 1 Gold, and scales so poorly with further technology research and it can never be a decent source of Gold to pay off the maintenance cost of units in any era. And if you play Religious Scythia, which is possible, you will still have to rely predominantly on your army and conquest for religious conversion, and Holy Site districts and buildings for Faith, since there is absolutely no way this improvement alone can supply enough Faith to pay for the ever-increasing cost of Missionaries and Apostles. Not to mention, for an improvement that does not provide 
Food, 
Production, 
Housing, or any yield that is large enough to be meaningful to the civilization's preferred Victory path, it will be a huge burden for cities if you build too many of this. All in all, just one Kurgan, two if you really want a fast Pantheon, and then you will be better off saving those flat land tiles for Farms. This improvement should only be built on Desert or Tundra where Farms cannot be built (which is pretty weird in itself why Scythia would settle or keep a conquered city on these terrains since they cannot make those cities very bustling or productive), or on tiles adjacent to at least 2 Pastures, because otherwise, it is a waste of a 
Citizen that has to work an improvement that only provides 1 Gold and 2 Faith.
Victory Types
Scythia is overwhelmingly good at a Domination Victory. Considering how powerful cavalry units are in Civilization VI and Scythia's ability to amass them quickly, the Scythian domination machine is difficult to stop. If you want a different gameplay experience, try to push for a Religious Victory. Scythian Apostles are stronger and can heal outside friendly territories, and of course, if your Apostles fail to spread the good words, use your cavalry army to enforce your Religion.
Counter Strategy
Scythia is a very solid Domination civilization thanks to its powerful civilization ability and Tomyris' leader ability, but it also has the worst possible combo of unique unit and unique infrastructure one could ever ask for, so all in all, their two abilities are the only two out the four you need to pay attention to. When you spawn next to Tomyris, immediately beeline for Bronze Working (for Spearmen) and Masonry (for Ancient Walls). Anti-cavalry units are generally underused in Civilization VI, because the unit class they are meant to counter can always outmaneuver them. Therefore, the best way to use Spearmen against Scythia is to surround your cities with fortified Spearmen. Scythia will practically go for their own death if they will just slam their cavalry into your wall of anti-cavalries. If they use Saka Horse Archer to attack, the unit will expose itself to your Spearmen, you can kill it easily thanks to your +10 Combat Strength against cavalry and the Saka Horse Archer's low melee Combat Strength. You can also combine this with ranged units and district defenses to immediately kill a unit within a turn, so that it cannot heal back up.
Different from other Domination civilizations, Scythian prowess is not well sustained if they cannot achieve much in the Ancient Era. This is the only period where the Light Cavalry unit is stronger than the contemporary Heavy Cavalry. Scythia is even worse as a civilization before the release of Gathering Storm, because there is such a huge gap between the Horseman and the Cavalry it upgrades to, rendering the civilization ability useless for almost 3 eras. Even in Gathering Storm, later in the game, you always can build Knights to deal with Coursers and Cuirassiers to deal with Cavalries. Heavy Cavalry units are so much better at direct battles thanks to their Promotions dedicating strictly to combat. Also, it is worth mentioning that since Scythian armies favor quantity over quality, pillaging and plundering their Gold sources are always a good strategy.
Civilopedia entry
The Scythians were a loose (very loose) confederation of illiterate nomad-pastoralists who wandered about the steppes of Central Asia for about a thousand years. Most of what is known of them comes from a handful of ancient “historians” – the likes of the Greek Herodotus and the Roman-Greek Strabo and a few Hindu texts – and that’s not much. At their peak, the Scythians ranged across the whole of the Pontic-Caspian Steppe and beyond, from what is today the Ukraine to the borders of Manchuria. They sat astride the Silk Road, grew wealthy from the slave trade, developed a distinctive artistic style, and left civilization legends of centaurs and Amazons … but not much else.
Modern scholars note that the term “Scythian” was used by ancient writers to refer to a wide range of horse-warriors from the steppes, otherwise unrelated but sharing a few similarities in life-style and language. Herodotus states that the Scythians originated in the eastern steppes where they warred with the closely-related Massagetae, but “with ill success.” Therefore, the Scythian tribes migrated west, crossed the river Araxes, and within 30 years displaced the Cimmerians (who themselves migrated into Assyria and raised hell there). Being masterful horsemen and skilled archers, the Scythian tribes spread out across the region and spent their quality time raiding Macedonian and Persian settlements.
From archaeological evidence found in the great burial mounds, known as kurgans (about the only permanent structures the Scythians built), around 470 BC it appears that the chieftain Ariapeithes (a Greek moniker; who knows what his actual name was) managed to unite a number of the Scythian tribes and proclaimed himself “king.” His successors would rule the confederation until circa 340 BC, when the dynasty was overthrown by the great Ateas (another Greek name). According to Strabo, having united all the Scythian tribes between the Danube and the Maeotian Marshes, Ateas soon came into conflict with Phillip II of Macedonia; in the ensuring war the 90-year-old Ateas was killed in battle c. 339 BC and his “empire” fell apart. A decade later, however, Phillip’s son Alexander was fighting the Scythians again, winning a “decisive” battle at the river Syr Darya to end their depredations along the frontiers so the Greeks could march south and into glory. In the aftermath, the encroaching Celts displaced the Scythians from the Balkans. Guess horse-warriors didn’t do as well in the mountains as on the steppes.
In the meantime, a collection of Scythian tribes (now known as the Indo-Scythians) under the chieftain Maues migrated southeastwards into Bactria, Sogdiana and Arachosia. There they had largely supplanted the Indo-Greeks in the Punjabi and Kashmiri regions by the time of Azes II, c. 35 BC. But, so far as can be determined, he was the last Indo-Scythian king, for soon after his death the Indo-Scythians were overrun by the Kushans; and soon after that, the Parthians invaded from the west and the Scythians disappear from Indian records.
Westward, across the steppes of the Crimea and Ukraine, the remaining Scythian tribes survived relatively unchanged for another three centuries, riding and raiding. And even settling down in places; the city known as Scythian Neapolis (near present-day Simferopol) served as the trading center of the Crimean Scythian tribes. But the expanding Roman Empire would ultimately doom the carefree Scythians. The Goths displaced the Sarmatians from most of the Roman frontier, and in turn the Sarmatians overran the Scythians, although it was more a process of assimilation than conquest. But, in the middle of the third century AD the Goths sacked Scythian Neapolis, officially ending the Scythian civilization. (Although, the Romans and Greeks had the distressing habit of referring to any nomadic steppe people as Scythians, as when Priscus, a Byzantine emissary, continually called Attila’s followers “Scythians.”)
Thus the Scythians disappear from history, leaving behind only mounds of sod scattered all over the steppes to mark their passage. Ranging from small hillocks for the common warriors to the “royal” kurgans that housed the remains of chieftains and great warriors, these tumuli weren’t just piles of dirt and refuse heaped over bodies, but layers of sod built over a central chamber – the sod meant to provide grazing in the afterlife for all the horses buried with the deceased. In one such, archaeologists found over 400 horse skeletons arrayed in a geometric pattern around the deceased chieftain. Nor were only horses slaughtered upon the death of a notable Scythian, but consorts and retainers also had the dubious honor of accompanying the deceased into the afterlife. The largest of these kurgans is the height of a six-story building and over 90 meters across at the base. Quite a feat of engineering for a bunch of unlettered barbarian horsemen.
Herodotus reports that the internment was a spectacle to behold. Mourners would piece their left hand (they certainly weren’t foolish enough to maim their bow-hand) with an arrow, slash their arms and chest, and sometimes even cut off portions of their ears. On the anniversary of the burial a year later, for some chieftains 50 horses and 50 slaves would be killed and gutted, then impaled on upright posts around the kurgan, with the dead slaves mounted on the dead horses. Such ostentatious displays may also have been the basis for – or at least contributed to – the Greek legends of the Amazons. Many of these mounds, as much as 20%, along the lower Don and Volga rivers contain females dressed in battle armor and armed with bows and swords “as though they were men.” While they may not have been real Amazons, it has been speculated that Scythian culture had a place for female warriors, as evidenced by the tales of Tomyris.
If so, they had to be fairly stout-hearted, for the ways of Scythian warriors were horrifying to their more “civilized” neighbors. Unshaven and tattooed, the Scythian mounted archers were usually armed with a short composite bow, firing barbed arrows meant to tear a wound open so it wouldn’t heal. They tipped their arrowheads with a mixture of snake venom, putrefied blood, and horse dung to insure those wounded would die soon enough. According to accounts, after battle the Scythians would drink the blood of their slain enemies, then decapitate these to claim their share of the booty; only those who presented such a grim voucher got a share. While the former practice (drinking blood) wasn’t uncommon among the uncivilized, the latter was certainly a unique way of proving one’s deeds in combat. Scalps from dead enemies adorned bridles and shields and quivers; the skulls of particularly valiant (as Scythians judged valor) enemies were gilded and used as honored drinking goblets.
The Scythians evoked such terror among the Greeks that they are credited with inspiring the myth of the centaurs, four-legged beasts that were deadly archers. So notorious were the Scythian horse-warriors that scholars believe the Biblical prophet Jeremiah was speaking of them when he warned the Israelites that warriors would descend upon them who “are cruel and have no mercy, their voice roareth like the sea and they ride upon horses, every one put in array.” Speaking of which, the Scythians did have a pantheon of gods, but they don’t seem to have been overly faith-ridden. The pronouncement of their gods seem to have been more flexible guidelines than laws scribed in stone.
Of course, it wasn’t all scalps and skulls after a battle; there was the loot. The Scythians acquired gold and silver from their frequent raids on the Persians and Macedonians, as well as in exchange for slaves. Scythian artisans had an eye for design, particularly animals – wolves, stags, griffins, leopards, eagles, and of course horses – locked in deathly combat. Animals of all sorts appear on most of their artwork, pottery, bronzewear, graven idols and the like, often in repose (when they aren’t locked in deadly combat). Both depictions frequently appear on the plethora of broaches, belts, helmets, earrings, necklaces, torques and other trinkets found in the kurgans.
There are many theories (the main product of scholars) concerning the reasons for the decline and disappearance of the Scythians. Some academics suggest that they increasingly began to settle down, marry those from nearby areas, and abandon herding and raiding. A few kurgans dating to the late 3rd Century contain stoves, symbolic of home and hearth; it’s enough to make a true Scythian roll over in their grave. Other theories propose a prolonged drought or equine plague that drove them to settle down. Others posit that the Scythian fondness for alcohol (remember Spargapises?) contributed to their demise, as grazing land was turned to growing grain.
Whatever the truth, the Scythians certainly kept things lively on the steppes, setting a standard for sheer barbarity and bloody-mindedness that late-comers such as the Sarmatians, Huns, Mongols, Timurids and Cossacks could only aspire to match.
Cities
Citizens
| Males | Females | Modern males | Modern females |
|---|---|---|---|
| Argimpas | Agathyrsi | Aabir | Baheejah |
| Arimaspu | Apia | Cheragh | Delkash |
| Artimpada | Artimpasa | Deepak | Fawza |
| Katiari | Enaree | Ghufran | Huzuz |
| Kolax | Hestia | Isar | Khirad |
| Leipoxis | Issedo | Javeed | Lale |
| Scopasis | Kollippi | Mallalai | Nuzha |
| Szererce | Lewlelil | Mujtaba | Parivash |
| Tarxuta | Oirpata | Raafi | Sumera |
| Turxu | Temarun | Warid | Teeha |
Trivia
- The Scythian civilization's symbol is a deer with spiral antlers that gallops to the right, resembling the Deer Plaque, one of the most famous examples of Scythian art.
- The Scythian civilization ability references the Eurasian Steppe on which they lived.
Gallery
Videos
Related achievements
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I Quenched Your Thirst For Blood
Playing as Scythia, recapture one of your founded cities from Persia
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