It is clear that Civilization VI was on of 2016’s biggest games. Game developer Firaxis got the formula right and delivered what’s arguably the best game of the Civilization series to date, meaning fans of turn-based strategy and newcomers really had a field day playing this one.
Aside from gameplay innovations like the new city districts and the way units like builders now functioned in the game, Civilization VI also offered a large roster of civilizations (“civs” for short) to play as.
These included espionage-focused France and industrial powerhouse Germany. New civs were added to the game in Civilization VI’s expansions, including the Cree, and Sweden in the Gathering Storm expansion.
And now Firaxis will be adding plenty more civs as well as other content to the game via the game’s New Frontier Pass. This features 8 DLC packs which will be released from May 2020 to March 2021, the first of which (“Maya & Gran Colombia Pack”) is already available, while the next (the Ethiopia Pack) is landing this July 2020.
The highlight of this upcoming DLC pack is the new Ethiopia civ, which is led by historical leader Menelik II, who amongst other things kept European invaders at bay and put an end to slavery in the African nation in the early 20th century.
Above all things, Ethiopia is a faith-based civilization in the game. Those who pick Ethiopia will get additional Faith from any resources in a city’s sphere of influence, plus an additional amount from international trade routes originating in resource-rich cities.
This means your Faith score can rack up pretty quickly in the game, so going for a religious victory will make a lot of sense when playing as Ethiopia. However, Ethiopia’s leader special ability can also give a boost to your culture and science output every turn. The more Faith your cities on hill tiles are generating, the greater the boost.
It seems hilly terrain will be pretty important to Ethiopia in Civilization VI then, more so taking into account that Ethiopia’s unique building (the Rock-Hewn Church) must be built on hill titles (or volcanic soil) and provides Faith, plus extra Faith from adjacent hills and mountains.
Also, Ethiopia’s unique military unit (the Oromo cavalry) gets no movement penalty when traversing hilly terrain and boasts better combat strength than the Courser other civs get, which could make it a great defensive unit in the game. Having lots of Oromo cavalry units patrolling your borders and strengthening the defenses of hill-based cities while you go for a religious victory could be a wise course of action when playing as this civ.
There’s another possibility, though, as Firaxis explains in the preview video above, as the extra cultural output from Menelik’s special ability coupled with the fact that Ethiopia can purchase archeologists, naturalists and rock bands using Faith later in the game means going for a cultural victory could also be feasible when playing as Ethiopia in Civilization VI.
Either way, it would be a great thing if playing as this civ is just as fun as playing as the others available in Civilization VI when the Ethiopia DLC pack is released later this month.