Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – Basics – Arabia (Gathering Storm)

Before you read…

 
THIS GUIDE ASSUMES YOU HAVE ALL THE DLC, UP TO THE NEW FRONTIER PASS! 
 
At most, you must have Gathering Storm, and Rise and Fall as this guide will be covering mechanics and strategies only viable in the most recent one. If you do not own these, you may continue to read. But just know you will not understands bits of this guide, due to the game being completely different than vanilla. 
 
Aside from that, continue reading on, and enjoy the guide! 
 
 

Introduction

 
Being capable of balancing both science and religion, is no easy feat. But for you, Saladin, it is one that you’ve taken the time and thought to accomplish and gain mastery of. Always curious, thirsting for knowledge. But with how much faith your people have put in you, they know you will guide them through the journey into the unknown, and returning with answers to life’s greatest questions. Will your lengthy quest end, with your civilization standing the test of time, along with the answers you seek? 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Civilization Bonuses

 
Leader bonus 
 
Righteousness of the Faith – The worship building for your religion can be purchased in faith by any player, for one-tenth of the original cost. As a bonus, the building in question adds 10% to your science, culture, and faith output in your cities. 
 
Civ Bonus 
The Last Prophet – No matter what, Saladin will ALWAYS receive the final Great Prophet, if they haven’t already acquired one. Every city owned by another civilization (including city states), gives +1 science to the player. 
 
Unique unit 
 
Mamluk – A unique medieval era unit which replaces the knight. This unit heals at the end of every return, no matter what actions are taken. 
 
Unique building 
 
Madrasa – A building that can be constructed on campuses that can be built to award faith equal to the campus’ adjacency bonus. 
 
 

Overview

 
Arabia is one of the civs given to players at the very beginning of Civ 6’s life. He is a very viable civ, capable of playing safely and into various other victory types. Being able to produce a lot of science, and make an economy revolve around a lot of faith, or most popularly: faith AND gold. This makes anyone playing Saladin, able to build and upgrade their cities, build units and all their buildings very fast. An economy like this pays itself off, as anyone with a lot of gold in their treasury can buy a market and bank, to increase the gain of gold per turn, which leaves room for the player to focus on constructing other buildings worth the time and production to complete. 
 
Though despite being a very good civ to play as, he is not without his fair share of weaknesses or faults. But he comes with many strengths as a result. 
 
Strengths 
 

• Always available for a religious victory, as you’re always granted the last great prophet. 
   
• The discount on your chosen worship building makes them very cheap. Sometimes to the point of being worth 0 faith, making them free, and easy to build via purchasing with faith. 
   
• The Madrasa is available for building in the classical era after Theology is researched, making it much earlier to build than the University, which is only buildable after Education is researched in the medieval era. 
   
• Mamluks can be used in a rush by pre-emptively building Heavy Chariots, and then upgrading them to rush, raid or pillage enemy cities nearby. This is especially complimented by their constant healing, making them tough to kill when they preform their hit and run attacks. 
   
• Faith and gold can be used together or interchanged to act as your economy on the fly, making Saladin able to buy whatever he may need. In the right circumstances, faith and gold can be used to even rush out districts like the spaceport and even more holy sites and commercial hubs, making an even stronger economy. 
   
• Madrasas and the worship building chosen provide a high science output, helping Arabia research faster towards the mid-game, and helping them go to a science victory if the situation calls for it.

 
 
Weaknesses 
 

• Playstyle is relatively predictable, making it easy to predict and think ahead if you have a Saladin player in your game. 
   
• To be the most effective, the player is best off putting a campus and holy site in most, if not ALL their cities, leaving little variety in terms of districts in Arabian cities. 
   
• Mamluks are expensive to buy, and require lots of gold if the player is planning a rush, even when upgrading from Heavy Chariots, as well as have had an increased production cost in the expansions. 
   
• Mamluks being knight replacements, are still highly vulnerable to long range poke spam from units like Crossbows, and especially towards Pikes. 
   
• Battering Rams in the expansions no longer can be used with Mamluks to speed kill cities, as they stop working past ancient walls and don’t provide the attack bonus to cavalry.

Victory Recommendations and Strategies

 
Science 
 
Whilst not a bad choice for science, Arabia isn’t the best. But with the bonuses from your Madrasas, worship buildings as well as your religion can help you get far, especially in maps where no other religious civ is present. Should you encounter leaders such as Basil II or another Saladin, this one is a good plan to fall back on, should you or another leader lock one or the other out of winning a religious victory. Recommended. 
 
Religion 
 
DEFINITELY the victory you want to aim for. This victory is always viable, as you’re guaranteed a prophet, meaning you’ll always have a religion. From there, you can begin your religious conquest in reaping the rewards in your civilization’s bonus. With faith being produced, this can be your economy for even military units as well as buildings and districts, making you a fast builder. Whether you want the rewards to help you in your colonization on Mars, produce things generally faster, or become the one true religion, faith and thus the religious route always has your back. Highly recommended. 
 
Diplomatic 
 
If you don’t mind being peaceful, or your Mamluks simply weren’t cutting it, this route is very good as well. Become friends with those around you, and get your income of diplomatic power rolling in with your districts and wonders. Though if you want this path to work, it’d be most effective if you can get your hands on the Mahabodhi Temple, Potala Palace, and the Statue of Liberty wonders, as these give you points along with the votes of your declared friends. Doesn’t hurt to have this, should you be insistent on peace. Vote smart, and you’ll be fine. Recommended 
 
Cultural 
 
While you may have bonuses to culture, they’re far less powerful than what you achieve towards science and faith. At most, the culture will aid you in getting through the civics trees fairly quickly, but tourism is not something you generally want to focus on with the Arabians, given how much they simply excel in other areas. Somewhat recommended 
 
Domination 
 
If we were talking base game, then the Mamluks would single handedly aid Arabia in being highly dominant in the mid-game war scene. However, the expansions have since nerfed the tactic of using Battering Rams and Knights (in this case, Mamluks), making this tactic less viable as it now only applies to melee and anti-cavalry units. With your Mamluks, you’ll be able to pillage and harass, should you want to slow down another player, but don’t expect to take over cities single handedly with them, unless you find newly built cities without walls constructed. Not recommended 
 
 

Religion

 
Since Arabia always gets a religion of their choice (assuming its not taken by anyone else), there’re various beliefs you can acquire to compliment your playstyle with the Arabians. Take a look at the recommendations below, for which optimal playstyle you desire. Just know that since Arabia doesn’t excel at domination like they used to, that the religions will be more so geared towards the science, cultural, and religious victories. 
 
Recommended Follower Beliefs 
 
Divine Inspiration – With the various wonders you’ll be building in your games, the +4 faith from each wonder will quickly add up and strengthen your faith economy. Just beware of any civs in your game that specialize in building wonders, as the bonus of this belief will be squandered, and could simply be used on something better in your scenario. 
 
Work Ethic – Since you’ll be building holy sites in most if not all your cities, the production can pay off. Just make sure to save spots for future sites, that way you can get the most out of the adjacency bonus for your faith and production, which will help out in the long run. 
 
Religious Community – Not only will this grant you more gold from your international trades, but once you begin exerting your religious pressure to other cities, these trades will help you in your religious victory. Just be sure to build and expand upon your holy sites as quick as you can to get the maximum benefits out of your trading. 
 
Recommended Worships 
 
Meeting House – +3 Faith AND +2 production? Sign me up! The production will help with building anything faster, including any space race projects in the events you want to win via science. 
 
Pagoda – Having been buffed in the expansions, this building is now WAY better, and helps big time in getting a diplomatic victory. More diplomatic favor, means more voting power, especially in the early stages of Congress where your friends will almost always vote with you. 
 
Wat – Should you want a faster time getting through the game’s tech tree, the extra science will help out. As much of a good alternative as this may be, the Meeting House is usually better since the production can be used on fleshing out your campuses. 
 
Recommended Founder Beliefs 
 
Tithe – With how much faith you’ll be making for apostles, missionaries as well as other religious units, you can not only spread your religion, but strengthen your gold economy whilst doing it. This will help out big time with quickly speed building your districts and cities, especially if you know war is coming and need a way to spam units. 
 
Pilgrimage – If you’re going a very pure religious war route, this is the one to go for. +2 faith to every city following your religion just makes it easier for you to buy more apostles, missionaries, and inquisitors for spreading your religion across the map. 
 
Stewardship – Gold is king, and science is great! You can never have too much of either, and improving an already great statistic is great! 
 
Recommended Enhancers 
 
Holy Order – Apostles are expensive to buy, even if its only just a couple. So discounting them for a religious victory is great, especially with their strength in theological combat. Definitely good in combination with Pilgrimage. 
 
Scripture – A slow, but sure way of spreading your religion, especially if being pushed back by any other religious civs. Personally, there’re few reasons to pick this over Holy Order, but its still not that bad of an alternative to use. 
 
Religious Colonization – Its more useful than it sounds, as it can save charges as well as slow down other religious civs trying to take you by storm with their religion, but Holy Order still proves to be better in the long run, especially with a faith economy like Arabia’s. 
 
 

Governments and Policies

 
These matter, especially for your income, and the early game. Here is what I see as the best way to go about your governments and policies in the early, middle, and late-game segments of your Civilization 6 experience. 
 
Early 
 
Government: N/A 
 
Military: Discipline 
 
Economic: Urban Planning 
 
Being the very beginning, barbarians will ALWAYS be a problem to you and other civs. So the extra strength will help out in the beginning. Being guaranteed your own religion also means you don’t need to rush out in order to get a prophet, as you’re always given the last one as Arabia. So with this, you can use your economic policy card to build up your capital, and try building 1-2 new cities whilst doing so. 
 
Middle 
 
Government: Autocracy or Classical Republic 
 
Military: Conscription 
 
Economic: Caravansaries 
 
Diplomatic: Charismatic Leader 
 
Wildcard: Corvée/Colonization/Merchant Confederation 
 
Autocracy will help with grabbing or cleaning up any early game wonders you may need, whilst also using its policy card slots to get a lot of gold. Even if not going to war, Conscription will save you gold when you build any units to help defend your cities, in the case of being victim to a war by another civ. Colonization can be ignored, if you already have a few cities up, and aren’t in a rush to expand, especially if you don’t have any neighbors to worry about. 
 
If you want more focus on science or even culture, Classical Republic is a good alternative to get those great people faster to help speed you along with the tech and civics trees. In that case, Corvée can be slotted into the Economic slot, with Conscription in the Wildcard slot. The preference is up to you. 
 
As for Charismatic leader, this card goes in hand with Merchant Confederation, turning one envoy into many, several future ones, whilst getting paid gold that is equivalent to the amount of envoys in the city states in your game. A good combination for any civ, not just Arabia. 
 
Corvée helps even more with wonder clean up, as it stacks with Autocracy’s boosts. Gothic Architecture’s not too far down the civics tree, so getting that to eventually replace Corvée will be very needed for the later wonders, especially if you’re going with Divine Inspiration in your religion. 
 
Late 
 
Government: Theocracy or Merchant Republic 
 
Military: Levée en Masse 
 
Economic: Free Market/Rationalism/Skyscrapers 
 
Diplomatic: Charismatic Leader and/or Merchant Confederation 
 
Wildcard: Theocratic Legacy 
 
Go Theocracy for a more religious type game, as well as a faith-based economy. Merchant Republic is for more gold, which can help with buying things you need in other cities, namely ones without Moksha present since a city with him in it allows the player to buy things with faith. But only do this if you have a stable enough faith economy. Otherwise, switch out Moksha for Reyna in whatever city needs it. But at some point, you’ll want BOTH governors. 
 
Levée en Masse is simply a better Conscription, for a higher reduction in maintenance cost. More gold is saved, and improves that economy. 
 
Free Market increases gold yields in commercial hubs, especially in cities settled on coasts where a harbor and commercial hub can be put together for higher adjacency bonuses. What is there not to love with more gold? 
 
Rationalism helps increase the effectiveness of buildings + adjacency bonuses in campuses. However, this also increases your faith economy, as the Madrasa’s benefits with adjacency bonuses, stacks with this policy card. 
 
Skyscrapers is simply if you’re dominating in the wonder building department, and want to ensure you can get as many more wonders as possible, especially those ones that award diplomatic points, as well as faith (and that’s not even including the faith bonuses from wonders granted by your religion!) 
 
Merchant Confederation and Charismatic Leader are simply too good to pass up. More influence points, means more envoys. More envoys, means more gold. Its fool proof, and its more gold per turn by simply just leaving the two cards in their own policy slots. 
 
 

Governors

 
With Arabia, there are three governors you’ll want to appoint in your game. Those would be Pingala, Moksha, and Reyna. 
 
 
Reyna – She will namely be gotten for your gold economy. Improving the adjacency of both commercial hubs and harbors, both of which are already good districts for any civ to have! If used in a highly populated city (likely your capital), she can make you more gold per turn based on the citizen population where she is assigned, as well as make trades more favorable towards you if the city is surrounded by other cities. With constant trades happening to cities in which the trade passes through the city, a huge chain of trades can add a LOT of gold, especially when you’re using your gold to get markets and traders out asap. Should you ever find yourself with a lot of points to spend, they’ll be put to good use on Reyna, no matter what order of promotions you go with when using her. 
 
 
Moksha – Basically a faith-based version of Reyna, which is PERFECT for Arabian players. He can be put into cities to exert more religious pressures to cities nearby, by assigning him to a city on the frontline to where you’re pushing your apostles and missionaries to speed up the conversion process. Laying On Of Hands is great for super aggressive religious civs trying to convert you, as it’ll make your units tougher to kill, which will definitely make it harder to convert the city. Just beware of any spies later on in the game that try to neutralize him, as the tide of theological battle can quickly shift into an enemy’s favor. Citadel of God also compliments this, as losses in theological combat don’t effect his assigned city, and any buildings built there convert 25% of the production used to build them, into faith, which can be used for even more apostles and missionaries. Don’t sleep on Moksha, especially as Arabia, he’ll prove to be a helpful ally in your religious conquest. 
 
 
Pingala – What’s so bad about having more science and culture? That’s what I thought. In Arabia’s case, you mainly want to appoint him for his bonus to your science in combination with your campuses and Madrasas. Depending on what your situation is, he can either be put into your second most populated city, or interchanged with Reyna to be put in the capital once your gold economy is high enough. If you’re not planning on winning via culture, do NOT get the Curator promotion, as this will be wasted, and could be used on another governor. Other than that, this person is useful to have in any civ, just for the bonus to culture + science, which will help with getting through the civics and tech tree. And in the event of a science victory, a massive +30% production to all space-program projects, which is really helpful towards the end of the game. 
 
 

Last minute tips and closing thoughts

 
Before we end off on this guide, here are a few tips to try and ensure you get the best game and experience with the Arabians: 
 

• It may help to purposely let yourself go into a dark age, and then claim your wonders as well as great works + other means of era score, as to score an early and easy heroic age. A dark age towards the end of the game may also help, as the Monasticism policy card will add a massive +75% science boost to any city with a holy site, should you plan on doing space race projects. Automated Workforce can also be used, albeit in the form of +20% production towards these projects. 
   
• If any player or civ is insistent on not letting you into their borders, you can use an apostle or any religious unit (minus a prophet and inquisitor) to go into the territory and scout. Just beware of any possible religious units by them or other civs. This can help you know if a military war is on its way, what wonders they’re building, what their theological strength is, as well as where they’re expanding if you happen to see any settlers being built. 
   
• When going for a diplomatic victory, be careful towards the end of the game, as even your declared friends will vote for you to lose diplomatic points just to stop you from taking the win. Their votes however, are still fairly predictable in other categories. If you’re a few points short, you can carefully predict what they’re voting for, and vote against yourself to squeeze out an extra point. This is especially helpful if you’re stuck on the last 1-2 points, as it is a smart but great move to use, should you be very close to this victory type, as you’re likely to be peaceful, thus generating a lot of favor in conjunction with your government plazas. 
   
• Do NOT sleep on military, especially against domination civs like the Ottomans and Zulu. If you’re caught with your pants down, you WILL pay the price, and it can very much easily cost you the game. At the very minimum, have a decent ranged unit garrisoned in each of your cities with the Volley and/or Garrison promotions. If that isn’t enough to scare off the AI, you’ll have a strong faith and gold economy to be able to buy whatever you’ll need, including even walls!

 
 
Other than that, I hope this guide helps you, and thank you for reading this way through! There will eventually be more guides to come, and since I am starting with this game, I could use any and all feedback from you guys here. If there’re any mistakes, or suggestions you wish to see to be taken into consideration, please comment down below, and I will see what I can do. I hope you enjoyed my content! 
 

This is all about Sid Meier’s Civilization VI – Basics – Arabia (Gathering Storm); I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!