Every other week we will round up the civilizations that developers Firaxis have revealed coming in the upcoming 4X game Civilization VI. While most civs so far has a bonus on a particular stat or yield, the latest two seems to be something a bit more nuanced. Two civilizations that fit this bill so far is the returning India, with good old Mahatma Gandhi returning as their leader, and new addition the Kongo, revealed recently at PAX West.
India is so far the only civ to have a returning leader, with good reason. With Gandhi being popular for the memes it has now sprouted- Gandhi is so pacifist that he will use nuclear weapons to ensure it, a result of a programming error- that he just needs to be in every Civ game to keep the joke running. However, everything about India is a bit different.
India now is more religious in nature, with their ability to receive the founder belief- the biggest bonus bestowed to a religion founder- as long as each city has one follower of the religion. This means India favours a more diplomatic approach- getting more religion from other civs, possibly including their own, is advantageous- but also promotes going tall as it can be hard maintaining all the followers to be in each city.
Gandhi’s ability to gain more faith when in peace with other civilizations with religion while granting an unhappiness penalty to whoever declares war on India plays well with the nature of Gandhi’s pacifism that ironically can be advantageous for war purposes. The Stepwell is India’s unique building that improves housing- increasing the population cap of the city while also providing food and if adjacent to a holy site, provides faith as well. For the unique unit, the Varo, the war elephant that replaces horseman, can reduce adjacent enemy unit’s combat strength, but moves slowly.
With that sort of abilities, India can go for religious victory, or be the warmonger the civ community has now seen their leader as. Don’t forget to have some nuclear weapons standby.
Kongo makes their debut in Civilization with some game-changing abilities as well. Kongo’s specific ability is based Relics, Artefacts, and Great Works of Sculpture. Each of these not only grants Kongo culture, but food, production and gold. Plus, Kongo has bonus points for generating Great Merchants and Great Artists, an advantage that makes them another civ aside from Brazil that specialises on Great People.
Kongo’s leader Mvemba A Nzinga has an ability that allows the Kongo to not build holy sites. Instead, he relies on having religion spread to Kongo as they will receive the founder belief of the major religion throughout its cities! Not only that, a free Apostle- a stronger missionary unit used to spread religion- will spawn every time a theatre district or Kongo’s unique building, the M’banza, is built. Speaking of which, the M’banza replaces the neighbourhood district and provides extra food or gold. Their unique unit Ngao Mbeba can defend better against ranged units, requires no resources, and can see nad go through jungles without movement penalty.
Kongo looks really strong for almost any victory condition, even religious victory despite them not able to found one themselves. All the abilities mesh well despite being one of the more outlandish ones by far.
Civilization VI is coming together nicely with all the civ reveals. It is set for release on October 21 on PC.