The Civ 6 Alexander the Great era will soon be upon us. Firaxis announced today that Macedonia will be the new civilization coming to the game as part of the Spring 2017 update. Exciting news, given that the studio just announced Cyrus the Great and the Persians will join the game as well. According to the official announcement, Alexander the Great joins Civ 6 accompanied by two unique units, a unique ability, unique building and, of course, a leader ability. All of these unique traits add up to a strategy that favors fast and early conquest.
READ: 'Civilization 6' Persian Spring 2017 Update: Cyrus The Great
Alexander the Great Unique Units: Hypaspist and Hetairoi
The hypaspist replaces swordsmen in Alexander the Great’s army in Civ 6 . Like swordsmen, hypaspists are melee combat units but come with a bonus attack against districts. The Civ 6 trailer above also mentions extra support bonuses for hypaspists but doesn’t give specific details. However, it’s clear the purpose of the hypaspist bonus is to reward players who play aggressively and sack districts to gain culture and science to compensate for the additional military spending.
Alexander the Great’s other unique unit, the hetairoi, replaces the heavy cavalry. It doesn’t get any specific siege bonuses, but instead comes with a free promotion. So you’ll get to choose Charge, which grants a +10 bonus when attacking a fortified defender, or Barding, which gives a +7 defensive bonus against ranged attacks. Both are useful when sacking cities, but if you’re going heavy on the hypaspists it might be better to take barding for your hetairoi so they can draw fire.
Alexander the Great Unique Building: Basilikoi Paides
The Basilikoi Paides is based on a type of academy popular throughout the Macedonian Empire. Seen as a school for royal pages, it housed Macedonian nobles and the captured sons of conquered leaders. Their educations were extensive and, in the spirit of learning-through-force, the Basilikoi Paides in Civ 6 generates science whenever a non-civilian unit is trained in its city, and grants combat bonuses to a handful of unit types. Again, it’s clear the Macedonian playstyle favors early aggression, so you can set to work on forming an army and not fall behind on science and research.
Alexander the Great Unique Abilities: Helenistic Fusion And To The World’s End
Both the unique civilization ability and the leader ability favor Alexander the Great’s fast playstyle. The civ ability, Helenistic Fusion, grants a bonus based on the types of districts in each conquered city. In the video, a large research boost gets granted to the pursuit of Natural History, for example. While players already get bonuses from conquered districts, the additional payoff, coupled with hypaspists’ attack bonus, make warfare especially attractive.
And warfare is attractive to your Macedonian citizens, too. At least, it’s less damaging than with other civs, thanks to Alexander the Great’s leader ability To the End of the World. You can’t conquer the globe without people supporting you, and this ability significantly reduces the war weariness penalty during wartime. This means longer campaigns. There will still be diplomatic consequences to deal with, but if you’re building an empire early it won’t matter if your neighbors don’t like you. They’re next anyway.
Excited for Alexander the Great to come to Civ 6 ? Ready to reignite some Persian grudge matches with Cyrus too? Let us know in the comments!
