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Basics - Ethiopia
By Ryan
Hello, this is a quick video guide of what to expect if you are to pick Ethiopia as your Civilization.
   
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Created by
Ryan
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Category: Characters, Classes, Gameplay Basics, Multiplayer, Walkthroughs
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
14 May, 2013 @ 3:04pm
9 Jul, 2013 @ 2:46pm
4,507 Unique Visitors
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Guide Index
Overview
Video of how to play Ethiopia. 
Victory Conditions 
Social Policies 
Factoids 
Other Basic Guides 
Cont. 
Cont. 
Cont. 
Brave New World Basic Guides 
Comments
Video of how to play Ethiopia.
This will tell you what to expect out of the special units, what to expect out of the playstyle, and what victory conditions to expect to dominate with.

Victory Conditions
Hello, if you really didn't want to watch the video I'll give a quick rundown of what you probably should be thinking if you are randomly paired up with the Ethiopians or are just new to Civilization and think they would be fun to play!


Victory Conditions

  • Cultural
    The best outside of a Diplomatic Victory because of the personality trait. Just about nobody will be able to take you over considering you'll generally have a 20% combat bonus against them. Just stay small and focus on Culture and it should be smooth sailing all the way until you complete the Utopia Project. Just be prepared for wars considering you'll be small and considered "weak" to AI opponents. Highly Recommended.

  • Diplomacy
    Another good option to pursue so as long as you're able to fulfill the needs of the AI players. Most of the time they will attack you on a higher difficulty considering you'll want to stay small. Staying out of combat is probably going to be the best solution at any time as Ethiopia. Recommended.

  • Science
    Considering you will be a tall empire - you'll probably have significant troubles with obtaining science. Sometimes that is not the case but generally it is. This will be a difficult one if you try to pursue it and hopefully your spies are able to steal from others and hold the information that you receive. Not Recommended.

  • Domination
    By far the worst option for the Ethiopians considering you want to stay small. You'll lose the 20% bonus if you are much larger than an aggressive Civilization and will probably be attacked by the aggressor. You'll lose some cities and only make another much stronger in the long run. The special unit you get is more helpful in a defensive way but can be used for an offensive as well. Not Recommended.
Social Policies
Won't get into as depth as the Victory Conditions only because Social Policies can usually go anyway for any Civ and still win. Will only note those that are very important to each Civ.
  • Patronage
    Just as any other Civilization that is primarily Culturally driven - Patronage is where it is at. Why is that? The added benefits from City-States will help boost your empire. The other option you could choose is Piety if you are mixing Religion in with your playstyle. Both are very good for a tall empire. Recommended.
The rest are really up to you on how you're playstyle will be for policies, Tradition for hunkering down with few cities - Honor for cutting down enemies early on - Liberty for expanding like a mad-man but again, that goes for any Civ, not just the Ethiopians.
Factoids
  • Ethiopia is the only African country with its own alphabet.

  • Ethiopia is the only country in the world with 13 months.

  • In Ethiopia time is counted on the opposite side of the clock: 6 o’clock is said to be 12 o’clock, and at 16:00 Ethiopians say it is ’10 o’clock’.

  • Ethiopia is one of only two countries in the world that have never been occupied. (The other one is Russia, in case you are asked). It managed to stay free by defeating the Italians … twice!
7 Comments
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Hip, Slick, and Funky Fresh 5 Feb, 2017 @ 7:34am 
Im pretty sure the Simese, or Thai, have never been ruled hit me up if im wrang:coolthulhu:
SirBudskis 17 Oct, 2016 @ 5:15pm 
I feel ethi is best played wide and fast to maximize the effect of stele. steles>20% combat
Von Harley 22 Nov, 2013 @ 1:11pm 
I think it would have been good if you had mentioned ethiopeas SB. This prety much garenties them a religion.
Z3r0_ 6 Sep, 2013 @ 11:24pm 
I just beat a One-City challenge with Ethiopia (with a cultural victory, naturally); luckily the civs I was up against were mostly the more peaceful ones, and the more aggressive ones were too busy fighting each other. That being said, I had read your guide beforehand and found it quite useful, even though I just barely avoided getting nuked considering that Sweden got the Manhattan Project first, somehow, and was probably going to nuke me if it weren't for the fact that I had chosen the "Archipelago" mape for a reason (separated by water, and he didn't have any carriers to deploy nuclear bombs within striking distance).

On another note, that reminds me, the second time that Ethiopia defeated Italy was in the 30s, with Mussolini in control, despite the fact that Ethiopia had no Air Force to counter the Italian bombers. Hitler probably should have had second thoughts about allying with Italy, but he had to learn it the hard way.
Shenannergans 15 Jul, 2013 @ 1:37pm 
Interesting guide, though I noticed Ethiopian culture victories are almost always close calls. I had 4 policy branches when Korea completed the Apollo project, so I had to pretty quickly shift my focus to attempting a space/diplomatic victory. Still working on this game but the way it's looking, I'm probably going to win a science victory, assuming Korea doesn't first.
Ryan  [author] 28 Jun, 2013 @ 7:27pm 
Agreed, Domination is one the somewhat "more challenging" scenarios to go. If you are playing on a Duel map with only one other person, that other person better hope that they keep in good relations since Ethiopia could actually Dominate them quite well so as long as they keep to one city. Nonetheless, in most common situations, they'll be able to take some Capitals to help them in whichever Victory progress they are going for. Not really recommended to become a bloodthirsty savage though.
Kratos 28 Jun, 2013 @ 5:38pm 
IF you want to try a Domination victory as Ethiopia do not be discouraged guys, like Ryan says his special units i still useful for offense, and just remember that while you will lose your combat bonus once you have more cities than anyone you are fighting, that just means that you have something to fall back on in case you start losing cities.