Emperor Augustus, you forged an empire from the remnants of a shattered republic. To find balance between a newfound imperial cult and old senatorial traditions, and to quash rebellions from former allies while writing laws of succession, are no small feats. It is thanks to your legacy that Rome is still remembered, enjoying two centuries of relative peace after Julius Caesar's death. As you have said towards the end of your life, you have played the part well—and we applaud you.

Now is the time to create another new Empire, rich in culture and tradition, holding on to vast territories, and concentrating undying loyalty from your citizens. Imperator Caesar Augustus, will you don the laurels of triumph again? Will you build a Civilization that you believe in?

Starting Bias: None
Attributes: Cultural, Expansionist

NOTE- While playing as Augustus, you can initiate the Cultural Exchange and Farmer's Market Endeavors with other players thanks to the Cultural and Expansionist Attributes.

Unique Ability (1): Add +2 production in the Capital for every Town
Unique Ability (2): Can purchase Cultural Buildings in Towns
Unique Ability (3): +50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns (33% discount)

AI agenda: “Restitutor Orbis”- Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for each City (excluding the Capital) in other players' empires, and decreases by a Medium Amount for each Town.

Playing as Augustus unlocks the following civilizations: None




(*Note that these scores are subjective and based on personal experiences with the leader in singleplayer mode. 10= leader/civ has an insurmountable advantage over other leader/civs in a particular victory path, 5= leader/civ does not provide any bonuses to a particular victory path, 0= victory path is essentially disabled by choosing leader/civ)

Culture 10/10- Augustus' allows towns to have the cultural output of cities by allowing direct culture building purchases in towns. This in a way creates a "best of both worlds" where your towns continue to contribute gold and food to the empire, instead of costing a large amount of money to turn into a city and then having to build the cultural buildings from scratch. Especially in the Exploration and Modern Era, Augustus can provide some of the highest culture output amongst all leaders as he gains more settlements. He also has a decent production bonus to help build many wonders.

All of Augustus' bonuses ultimately lead to a very early Cultural Victory in the Modern Age. Augustus is likely the first one to unlock the Natural History and Hegemony civics which grants Earlier access to artifacts. A strong production in the Capital also helps with recruiting Archaeologists and building the World’s Fair.

Military 8/10- Augustus does not provide direct military bonuses other than a general production boost only in the capital. A true military-focused leader would provide Unit Combat Strength, Commander Promotions, or War Support—but there IS strength in numbers. Especially in the earlier Ages, it is mostly the choice of civilization Augustus chooses that grants him the military power, rather than Augustus himself. With the right civilization choice (e.g. Rome, Greece), a high culture output can let you adopt policies and traditions that increase combat strength. In general, a solid foundation in science is more important than culture for domination victories, since powerful Unique Units and upgrades are unlocked by the Technology tree rather than the Civics tree. Some technology Masteries also provide combat bonuses directly to units as well.

The later Ages are where Augustus’ high culture output truly shines for domination. In the Exploration Age, Augustus will unlock civics that increase settlement limits at a very fast pace, allowing the domination machine to run without pause. In the Modern Age, Augustus will likely unlock Ideologies before any other player, which can aid with progressing through the Military Legacy Path quickly.

Economic 7/10- Augustus provides a significant benefit in the Modern Age because you can simply purchase rail stations, ports, and factories in your towns with a 33% discount, rather than trying to build them from scratch in your cities. The goal is to have essential infrastructure in
a few settlements as quickly as possible, so you can have a head start in the Economic Victory Legacy Path. (NOTE- After version 1.1.1 updates, the gold cost of rail station, ports, and factories rose drastically, so this is not as strong as a strategy anymore—especially because his purchase discount only applies to towns, not cities. I decreased the ranking from 9/10 to 7/10.)

Science 7/10- Culture tends to fuel science more than science does to culture. Especially in the Exploration and Modern ages, it is critical to progress through the civics tree quickly to unlock policies that boost specialist yield bonuses. Augustus also encourages capital-centric gameplay—a highly populous and productive capital helps with completing Space Projects. All of his bonuses for science victories are mostly indirect, though; Augustus notably struggles with providing enough science by having lots of specialists.

Before we begin discussing Augustus’ unique abilities, we need to discuss the different types of settlements first.


One of the biggest changes in Civilization 7 is the introduction of towns as opposed to cities. Some of their properties include:

• Towns do not have a “production queue”. All production in towns are converted into gold (think taxes).
  
  
• Towns can only have Warehouse Buildings (Granary, Brickyard, etc), Religious Buildings (Altar, Temple), Fortifications (only in the center of the town), and Modern Age Industrial buildings (Port, Factory, etc).
  
  
• Despite being able to create a “quarter,” they cannot house specialists.
  
  
• Towns solely focus on growing itself until it hits population 7.
  
  
• Once you hit population 7, you can choose to leave the town to continue to grow, or choose any of the town specializations. These specializations add food, production (=gold), defense, science/culture, happiness, influence, or other Age-specific bonuses to the town.
  
  
• Whichever specialization you choose in a town, the town settlement will then send all their food to nearby cities, as long as they are connected by roads or by coastal improvements (e.g. fishing quay).
  
  
• Only when the town is “connected” by a road to a city will the town start sending food. (see Roads section)

Most of the time in a playthrough, towns will be your major source of food and gold. Meanwhile, your cities will focus on housing specialists and specialty buildings, creating production, science, and culture while consuming food and gold generated by towns.


Note that cities are created by converting towns into cities, using money. The cost of city upgrades:

• Increase with the number of cities you already have, and
  
• Decrease if the town you are converting has a higher population.

The settlement connection mechanic is somewhat opaque and unintuitive, but crucial nonetheless to understand for your cities to get the maximum food benefit. Here are some of the rules of settlement connections:

• Land connections are automatically created whenever you settle a new town within range of the nearest settlement. This will be visualized on the map with a road between the two settlements.
  
  
• The maximum distance of land connections in each Age are (in tiles):
  
  Antiquity

  Exploration

  Modern

  Land Connection:

  10

  15

  20
  
  
• Only one land connection is made to the nearest settlement (town or city) when you settle a new town.
  
  
• The distance is calculated as the absolute distance between the two settlements, regardless of mountains or other features. However, if there is a tie between two or more settlements regarding distance, the route that does not require crossing a navigable river will be chosen.
  
  
• If there is still a tie, the city will be chosen over a town. If both settlements are towns, the town that was settled earlier will be chosen. If both settlements are cities, the city that was settled later will be chosen.
  
  
• If you settle a town outside the land connection range for the era you are in, it will become a standalone settlement with no connections. The worst thing you can do in the Antiquity Age is to settle your second settlement far away inland from your capital, and then your third settlement close to your second settlement. If this happens, the third settlement will be connected to only your second settlement, and your capital won’t be connected to either town.
  
  
• When a town is connected to multiple cities, the food will be split evenly between the connected cities. (a town producing 60 food connected to three cities will provide 20 food to each city)
  
  
• If a town is not directly connected to a city, (i.e. city <-> town #1 <-> town #2), it will NOT send food to the city, even if that town is within range.

• Sea connections are automatically created when two settlements are within range (see below) and both have a fishing quay.
  
  
• However, if there is a land connection within range, the land connection will always be created first (since it will be automatically created before you purchase a fishing quay to start the sea connection).
  
  
• The maximum distance of sea connections in each Age are (in tiles):
  
  Antiquity

  Exploration

  Modern

  Sea Connection:

  30

  45

  60
  
  
• Sea connections have no immediate visual indicator on the map, but you can check on the city demographics menu of a city to see if it is receiving food from the other settlement.
  
  
• Sea connections will always prioritize the nearest city.
  
  
• Interestingly, if you settle two settlements in succession on the same island, a road will appear between the two settlements, but by building the fishing quay you will still be able to send food to the nearest city.
  
  
• Same as land connections, when a town is connected to multiple cities by sea, the food will be split evenly between the connected cities.

With that out of the way, let’s discuss Augustus’ actual unique abilities.

Add +2 production in the Capital for every Town. If you change Capitals during age transitions, the production bonus will move to the new Capital.


Settle, settle, and settle. Normally towns do not provide production to cities, but Augustus defies this rule. It also does not matter how far the towns are away or if they aren’t connected. It’s +2 production in the capital for every town. It may not appear to be a lot, but it scales quite well as the Age progresses. In the Modern Age where you have 20+ towns, it will be a +40 production bonus in your capital. Knowing that end-game city production increases up to 100-120, this is a 30-40% increase.

To maximize this bonus, Augustus players may opt to over-settle at times, over the settlement cap. Each settlement above the cap provides -5 happiness to all settlements (up to -35), and any settlement with negative happiness has the risk of revolting during Age Crises towards the end of each age—but as long as you keep all the settlements above zero happiness, you will get away with over-settling with no penalty. You merely have to choose policies, buildings, and resources carefully.

The question that naturally follows next is the number of settlements you should be aiming for. This is especially important in the Antiquity Age, when your land mass is limited (without Faraway Lands) and there is a race to grab as much land on the home continent among the leaders.
The maximum settlement cap in the Antiquity Age is typically 7—with the exception of the Aksum and Khmer civilizations who have 6, and the Persia and Rome civilizations who have 8. Here is the list of game features that provide increased settlement caps:

Ageless

• Corona Civica (Augustus Memento Level 2): +1 settlement limit per age, but +50% cost to convert towns into cities.
  
• Military Leader Attribute Tier 3, Option 3: adds +1 to settlement limit (can unlock immediately at game start if playing as Ibn Battuta)
  
• Military Leader Attribute Tier 5, Option 3: adds +1 to settlement limit (likely not possible at the beginning of the game)

Antiquity

• Age Start: You start the game with a settlement cap of 3, unless you have any of the ageless bonuses above.
  
• Irrigation (Technology): +1 settlement limit
  
• Entertainment (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Organized Military (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Civilization-specific Civics: adds up to +2 settlement limits depending on your choice of civilization (Aksum and Khmer: 0, Persia and Rome: 2, the rest: 1).

Theoretical maximum: 11 (8 + 3 for ageless options). Realistically, you are aiming for 7-8 in most situations.

Exploration

• Age Start: You start with a settlement cap of 8, unless you have achieved a higher settlement cap in the Antiquity Age (if so, that number will carry over).
  
• Fealty (Legacy Option): adds +2 to settlement limit. Unlocked by earning at least 9 Pax Imperatoria points in the Antiquity Age.
  
• Feudalism (Technology): +1 settlement limit
  
• Society II (Civic, Mastery): +1 settlement limit
  
• Colonialism II (Civic, Mastery): +1 settlement limit
  
• El Escorial (Wonder): +1 settlement limit, +3 relic slots, +4 happiness on cities within 7 tiles. Unlocked with Colonialism II (Civic Mastery) or New World Riches II (Spain-specific).
  
• Social Class (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Sovereignty (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Imperialism (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Civilization-specific Civics: adds up to +4 settlement limits depending on your choice of civilization (Abbasid and Inca: 0, Norman: 2, Mongolia: 4, the rest: 1).

Theoretical maximum: 24

Modern

• Age Start: You start with a settlement cap of 16, unless you have achieved a higher settlement cap in the Exploration Age (if so, that number will carry over) PLUS an arbitrary bonus that appears to be based on the number of unsettled tiles on the world map.
  
• Mass Production (Technology): +1 settlement limit
  
• Urbanization (Technology): +1 settlement limit
  
• Globalism (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Nationalism (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Hegemony (Civic): +1 settlement limit
  
• Civilization-specific Civics: adds up to +1 settlement limit depending on your choice of civilization (Buganda, Japan, Mexico, Siam: 0, the rest: 1).

Theoretical maximum: 30+

To take Augustus’ production bonus to the extreme, it is possible to have only one city (capital) with all other settlements being towns. (If you choose Carthage as your Antiquity civilization, you will be forced to play a 1-city game anyway due to its civ ability)

Generally, however, it is advised to have at least 2-3 cities starting from the Antiquity Age. This is because with only one city, it is….

• Impossible to finish the Science Legacy Path: The maximum Codex Slots you can have on your capital is 8. (Palace = 1, Library = 2, Academy = 3, Nalanda Wonder = 2) You need to display 10 Codices to finish the Legacy Path in Antiquity, so this is not enough. More on the Catherine guide about displaying Great Works.
  
• Very difficult to finish the Economic Legacy Path: You will need to assign 25 resources total in your empire. Since towns can generally hold only one resource, the rest will have to be placed in your capital. Unless you somehow own at least 4-5 camel resources (which add +3 resource slots to a city), your capital alone will not be able to handle that many resources. More on the Amina guide about allocating Resources.
  
• Somewhat difficult to finish the Cultural Legacy Path: You may not have real estate or meet the terrain requirements for seven wonders in one city.
  
• Most importantly, your science and culture will suffer: The vast majority of your science and culture comes from Specialists, who are exclusive to cities.

Note- For the Military Legacy Path, not settling too many of your own cities can be good since conquered settlements count as 2 Pax Imperatoria points. You will need a highly productive capital than can create all the units you need by itself (which Augustus helps with significantly).



Since the average number of settlements you will have towards the end of the Antiquity Age is 7, it will typically be a 3-4 split or a 4-3 split between cities and towns. Of note, builds that focus on having more cities are called "wide" builds, whereas builds that focus on fewer cities but with higher populations are called "tall" builds. These are terminologies that date back to the earliest iterations of the Civilization Franchise, so we will continue this tradition and keep things consistent.



In the Antiquity Age, typically the Wide builds of 5-2, 6-1, or even 7-0 ("all cities") are considered better than Tall builds, assuming you are playing peacefully and simply want to maximize science and culture. This is because settlement growth slows down significantly after a "true population" of 10 (your population minus the number of buildings). At this point, it is often preferable to stop growing any of your settlements and turn them into cities such that they can contribute more to science and culture by producing quarters and housing 1-2 specialists. (for further discussion about Wide vs Tall play, please refer to the Ashoka, World Renouncer guide).

In a vast majority of games, however, you will simply not have enough gold to turn all of your towns into cities. Furthermore, towns supply valuable food and gold to your empire's entire network, while cities drain them rather quickly. Furthermore, if you are planning to maintain a large army for conquest, you will need to spend lots of gold for unit maintenance and upgrades. Therefore there are situations where a 2-5 or 3-4 split ("Tall Build") can be more preferable.

Augustus is a very unique case: he can play a 2-5 or 3-4 Tall game while essentially having the cultural output of Wide builds—because he can purchase culture buildings directly in towns (see Unique Ability- 2 section). He also decreases clutter by helping you focus on the production queue of fewer cities.

Here are some of the example builds that Augustus may take in the Antiquity Age:


Build 1: The Power Trio. This is a straightforward 3-4 build, where you are turning your first two settlements (other than your capital) into cities. This is somewhat natural because your earlier settlements have time to grow to a robust population, which means great food generation and production as soon as they are upgraded to cities #2 and #3. If you have gold, it may be reasonable to turn a fourth settlement into a city, creating a 4-3 build.



Build 2: The Warmongerer's Build. This is a build for people who don’t plan to build more than 1 settler and simply continue a linear path of conquest, keeping most of the towns and cities earned in the process. Typically you will turn conquered ex-capitals into your own cities, because they already have a great amount of infrastructure.



Build 3: The Extreme Tall Build. This is a 2-5 build that focuses on creating a mega-capital by connecting it to the maximum number of towns possible. In this build you will attempt to quickly purchase Granaries and Fishing Quays in towns to maximize the food that is being supplied to your Capital. The purpose of building such a capital is to later have a city that can hold many specialists and finish key projects quickly.



Build 4: The Balanced Tall Build. This is a 2-5 build where you have a second city that can be as productive as your capital, so you attempt to connect an equal number of towns to each city. Later on, it is likely best to turn the center town into city #3, once you have achieved satisfactory growth in your first 2 cities.


^Example of Augustus with a 2-5 build. The numbers in green indicate the order I have settled these towns/cities. Later I do turn the center town (settlement 2) into a city, making it a 3-4 build.


The same principle applies to the Exploration and Modern Ages, but you have somewhat less incentive to turn as many towns into cities. It is often better to have just a handful of highly productive cities in strategic locations, each of them supported by 2-3 towns (typically with sea connections). This is because specialists become much more valuable in the later ages (with more civics and technologies boosting their yields/increasing their slots), and you need growth in your cities to obtain more of them. In fact, some of the scientific and cultural Leader Attributes explicitly reward you for having fewer cities (for more discussion about this, refer to the Confucius guide). The general approach to towns vs cities in the later eras is to:

1. Keep all of your cities in the previous ages as cities (you will need money to convert them to cities at the beginning of the age)
   
2. Also, turn inland towns that aren't providing much food into cities. They will contribute much more by having powerful later-era buildings that provide science, culture, and gold—and can also potentially house 2-3 specialists.
   
3. Keep Distant Land (especially island) towns as towns. Seaside towns tend to have great food generation and it is easier to connect multiple of them into one city. Especially as Augustus, the towns that were not turned into cities still provide a small production boost (+2) in your capital.

The best way to leverage Augustus’ production bonus is to take a careful balance between the number of cities and towns. The production bonuses scale quite well as you progress to the Exploration and Modern Ages.

Can purchase any cultural building in towns, including Unique Buildings. This does NOT include other types of buildings that only provide culture as an adjacency bonus.


This is arguably one of the most powerful cultural bonus in the game—because it arrives so early in the game and has no drawbacks. As mentioned in the “Towns vs Cities” section, normally towns can only have warehouse buildings (Granary, Brickyard, etc), religious buildings (Altar, Temple), and fortifications (any type of wall, but only in the “city center”).
On top of this, Augustus legalizes a whole list of cultural buildings that can be purchased in towns. Below is the full list as of Version 1.1.0.

• Monument (Antiquity Age): +2 Culture, +1 Influence. (being able to purchase this searly is a strong bonus. Influence is the yield that is hardest to come by.) +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Hawilt, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Amphitheater (Antiquity Age): +4 Culture, +10% Production towards Wonders. +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Mastaba (Egypt Unique): +3 Culture, +1 Gold Adjacency with Desert tiles and Wonders
  
• Parthenon (Greek Unique): +4 Culture, +2 Influence if placed on rough terrain. +1 Culture Adjacency with Wonders.
  
• Kiln (Exploration Age): +3 Culture, +10% Production towards Wonders. +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Pavilion (Exploration Age): +5 Culture, +1 Happiness on Quarters in this settlement. +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Casa Consistorial (Spain Unique): +5 Culture. +1 Culture Adjacency per Quarter and Wonder.
  
• Candi Bentar (Majapahit Unique): +5 Culture. +1 Culture Adjacency with Coast, Navigable River, or Wonders.
  
• Bailey (Norman Unique): +4 Culture. +1 Culture Adjacency with Medieval Walls or Wonders.
  
• Museum (Modern Age): +5 Culture, 3 Artifact slots. +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Pavilion (Exploration Age): +6 Culture, +3 Influence. +1 Culture Adjacency with Mountains, Natural Wonders or Wonders.
  
• Jardin à la Française (French Empire Unique): +5 Culture. +1 Happiness Adjacency with Culture buildings or Wonders.
  
• Portal de Mercaderes (Mexican Unique): +5 Culture. +1 Gold Adjacency with Gold buildings or Wonders.
  
• Catedral (Mexican Unique): +5 Culture. +1 Happiness Adjacency with Culture buildings or Wonders.

List of generic cultural buildings with their respective effects. CREDIT: reddit u/Karuw (see footnote- 1)


As long as you have enough money, you will be able to get 25 culture per town from generic buildings alone. Depending on your Civilization choices, you can also get up to an additional 19 culture per town from Unique Buildings. That is a frightening amount of culture, especially when you can have 20+ towns by the Modern Age. And we haven’t even considered the adjacency bonuses yet. Towns near mountain ranges especially tend to have high culture output, because each mountain tile provides +1 culture adjacency bonus to regular cultural buildings (not Unique ones).

Furthermore, all cultural buildings, Unique or not, get adjacency bonuses from Wonders. The most populous and highly productive cities tend to be surrounded by towns (see Section “Unique Ability- 1”) and by building Wonders near the border between cities and towns you can boost culture adjacency bonuses in both cities AND towns.

^Civ 6-esque adjacency shenanigans


In the above example I have the Petra and Oracle wonders next to each other, near the border between Athens (capital city) and Knosos (town). When I purchase the Bailey building in Knosos, I now have an option to place it next to the two wonders in Athens, providing +2 extra culture (1 adjacency for each wonder) on top of the base +4 culture the Bailey building provides (therefore a total of +6 culture). If you are familiar with Civ 6, this is a very similar concept/mechanic as “Industrial Cores”—where you sandwich Industrial Zones in between Aqueducts, to get maximal amounts of production from adjacency bonuses.
(Who needs specialists when buildings provide this much culture alone? Take that, Confucius)


Adjacency bonuses usually disappear when you move from one age to another, but the best thing about Unique Buildings is that they are ageless and will retain any adjacency bonus they had from the previous age. Your creative placement of Wonders and Unique Buildings in the Antiquity and Exploration Ages will help you start the Modern Age with egregiously high amounts of culture. It’s oftentimes 2-3 times more than any of your rivals, even at the highest difficulties.

Now what do you do with all this culture? WIN. A strong culture game directly helps you win at least three out of the four major victory conditions:

• Cultural: The rush for 15 artifacts becomes very easy when you can unlock the three key civics for Cultural Victories, the Natural History I, Natural History II (Mastery), and Hegemony civics faster than anyone else. Each of these civics allow you to reveal Artifact locations, or help you obtain Artifacts from Natural Wonders (Natural History II). The best thing about being the first person to unlock these civics is that YOU get to be the one that controls the tempo of the Culture Game. The earlier you know where Artifacts are, the easier it is for your Explorers to reach them before your rivals.
  
  In order to reveal artifact locations, you have to “study” at a Museum (click the vase with a magnifying glass icon). This action does reveal artifact locations in a continent to all players, so your rivals will also instantaneously know where the artifacts are. This is usually not an issue—by unlocking the Natural History civic extremely early, you will have unlocked Explorers earlier and had time to build more of them compared to your rivals. If this “info leak” concerns you, you can deliberately postpone studying at Museums until you have built/purchased enough Explorers. Because you are the first one to unlock key civics, you are also the one who chooses whether to begin the artifact rush for everyone else or not.
  
  
• Science and Military: A strong cultural output helps you unlock the Political Theory civic, which in turn unlocks Ideologies. Any ideology can be useful, but Communism tends to help with Science Victories by adding +3 science and +3 food to all of your specialists, while Fascism tends to help with Military Victories by adding +3 production and +3 gold to all of your specialists. Democracy helps you unlock the Hegemony civic marginally earlier for Culture Victories, but does not help with other types of victories as much.

Leverage the powerful cultural bonus (perhaps the strongest in the game) that Augustus provides. You can lay down a solid foundation of culture output in the earlier ages by settling many towns and purchasing cultural buildings on the best tiles. Culture output from Unique buildings persist between age transitions, so prioritize them. Use this culture to win the game in the Modern Age extremely early, before other players can even conceptualize their victory paths.

+50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns (=33% discount). Note that this bonus only applies to Towns.


Getting extremely high culture output from towns is only possible if you have the money to purchase all those culture buildings. Luckily, Augustus can do it at a discount. If you have Gold resources, you can get even more discounts—every gold resource adds another +20% gold towards purchasing buildings.

NOTE: The wording for Augustus’ Leader Ability is somewhat confusing—50% increased gold towards purchasing buildings means that your 1 gold is worth 1.5 gold for this circumstance. So this actually makes the building cost to be reduced to 67% of normal (1/1.5 = 0.666…), which equates to a 33% discount. Normally, the conversion rate between production and gold in the Antiquity and Exploration Age is 1:4 (on standard speed). For example, a 90 production building such as an Altar will cost 360 gold to purchase with gold. Augustus reduces this to 1:2.6 in towns. This further decreases by 20% with every Gold resource you have. For example, if you have 3 Gold resources (+60% gold towards purchase), the production:gold ratio now becomes 2.6/1.6 = ~1.6 with Augustus.


In order to spare the readers of all the math, here is a table of reference, only for Warehouse, Happiness, Culture, and some Modern Age Industrial Buildings—the things you can buy in Towns as Augustus.


*Discounted to 300 (baseline) gold during Age Crisis
**Can only be purchased during crisis
Note 1- Above table is assuming standard speed. Online = x0.5, Quick = x0.66, Standard = x1, Epic = x1.5, Marathon =x3
Note 2- The game deliberately avoids consecutive 6's in the cost numbers and replaces them with 64 and 664. The game also always rounds down to the nearest even number after calculating the bonuses. If the in-game value and your expected value don’t exactly match, this is the reason.


A measly 200 gold is a bargain for buildings that give you +4 culture or higher per turn. The advantage here is cost-effectiveness: the cost of upgrading towns into cities continue to rise with the number of cities, so it is a lot cheaper as Augustus to purchase cultural buildings in towns rather than turning the towns into cities and then waiting for them to produce cultural buildings. For example, towns cost a whopping 1000 gold (on Standard speed) to be converted into cities in the Antiquity Age if you already have 4 or more cities—instead, you can spend 400-600 gold (or possibly cheaper) as Augustus to purchase 2-3 cultural buildings in your towns, to get the same culture output as you would for a city. Plus, you can avoid waiting for the new city to produce all those buildings from scratch. Essentially, Augustus' strength is to save time and money while racking up culture points quickly. (Even if production in brand new cities can be boosted by Camel-Gypsum Touring, it will take ~10-20 turns to build everything you need. I will provide a further description of the "Camel Touring" strategy in the Ashoka, World Renouncer guide).

In order to maximize this bonus and ensure every single town has the infrastructure you’d like, Augustus players should actively seek out Gold resources on the map. You can settle near them and improve them yourself, or obtain them by trade.

In the Modern Era, the ability to purchase Factories, Rail Stations, and Ports cheaply in towns instead of having to build them from scratch helps Augustus have a head start in the Economic Victory Legacy Path. You can also get Museums for a discount in a few towns to help with cultural victories, but your money should really go to purchasing Explorers, which are very expensive and the earlier you get, more impactful.


Augustus’ towns can reach maximal impact thanks to cheap building purchases. Seek out Gold resources to go even beyond.

*NOTE: general strategies for each Civilization will be covered in separate Steam Guides. This section details the Civilization’s unique bonuses as it relates to the Leader’s Ability.

**SPOILER ALERT: if you wish to discover powerful Civ synergies and overall strategies on your own, please skip this section.


Reminder—The goal to satisfy all Legacy Path requirements in the Antiquity Age is toamass 10 codices (Science), build 7 wonders (Culture), house 25 resources (Economic), and score 12 settlement points (Military; 1 point for your own settlements, 2 points for conquered settlements).

Augustus is a flexible leader that is good at every type of victory, but he is especially phenomenal at Cultural Victories. The best way to maximize your long-term culture gain is to choose Antiquity Age civilizations that offer cultural Unique Buildings that you can purchase not only in your cities but also your towns. But first, let’s talk about….

Rome is the “default” civilization for Augustus—a historically accurate choice, and a great strategical choice if you wish to utilize military might in your gameplay.

• The Legion unit is the main source of Rome’s power. It gets a +2 combat strength bonus for every Tradition in your government—for a total of +8. This essentially nullifies the combat bonus that the Deity AI receives. (EDIT: As of version 1.1.1, this has been nerfed to +1 combat strength bonus per Tradition, for a total of +4). A fully powered Legion unit is stronger than any of the units of the same time period (except Hoplites), so top priority is to have lots of culture to unlock all four traditions quickly.
  
  
• Augustus might assist with getting traditions quickly, but Rome’s own bonuses are typically enough to get enough culture—whether it’s through the Cursus Honorum Tradition (which provides culture equal to 25% of the production value of an infantry unit) or the Forum unique quarter (which provides culture and gold equal to the number of traditions in your government). So it’s usually not necessary to purchase culture buildings in towns necessarily if you are trying to launch an attack with full-powered Legions.
  
  
• Another reason why Augustus does not optimally synergize with Rome is because he does not provide much early game Science to unlock Legions quickly. You will likely have to prioritize the Writing technology for Libraries, rather than the Masonry technology for Monuments, which conflicts with Augustus’ powers to purchase cultural buildings early. It also doesn’t help that the Writing technology is a pre-requisite for the Bronze Working technology (which unlocks Legions), while the Masonry tech isn’t. Therefore, if the goal is to unlock Legions quickly, you will likely postpone unlocking the Masonry tech and as a result you will not be able buy cultural buildings in towns yet (can’t purchase something that hasn’t even been invented!). Some of Augustus’ potential is wasted here.
  
  
• Augustus does help with producing units quickly through his production bonus for every town. Even a single town that provides +2 production can make a big difference in the early game. This is further enhanced by Rome being one of the two civilizations alongside Persia that gets two civics that increase settlement limits (Civis Romanus II and Senatus Populusque Romanus) instead of one—as of Version 1.1.0. The ability to have more towns means more production bonus with Augustus.

Augustus, however, pairs exceptionally well with the following Civilizations:

Egypt is an excellent strategic choice—perhaps a match made in heaven—as well as a historically accurate choice (Augustus is really the one that helped Cleopatra “embrace the asps,” leading the formal annexation of Egypt into Roman territory). Augustus becomes the best wonder-builder in the game with the help of the Egypt civilization.

• Egypt’s Mastaba unique building can be purchased in towns because it is a culture building. As explained in the “Unique Ability-2” section, you can get very high cultures in every town with careful placement of these buildings.
  
  
• Note that the Mastaba building provides gold adjacency bonuses. The other Egyptian unique building, Mortuary Temple, also provides +4 gold. In addition, the Necropolis unique quarter (obtained by building Mastaba and Mortuary Temple in the same tile) provides +100 gold every time a Wonder is built in the city. The triple gold bonus between these unique buildings provides you with immense amounts of money, with which you can even buy EVEN MORE buildings in towns. It is a shame that the Mortuary Temple is considered a Gold building and thus cannot be purchased in towns (and thus no Necropolises in towns)—but this is a powerful enough bonus already. In short, while playing as Augustus/Egypt, culture leads to more gold, and gold leads to more culture in towns.
  
  
• It is important to note that Augustus is a fantastic Wonder-builder, as much as or even better that Hatshepsut. See “Similar Leaders” Section.
  
  
• Most Antiquity Wonders are unlocked by the civics tree rather than the tech tree. For building Wonders, even better than high production is the ability to unlock these wonders before any of your opponents.
  
  
• The Medjay unique unit is also an amazing defensive unit. They get +3 combat strength in friendly territory and +6 combat strength when it’s stationed inside a settlement in friendly territory—and you don’t have to pack your government with Traditions to get this bonus like with Legions. Augustus’ production bonus helps you change from Wonder-hoarding mode to military production mode at a flip of a switch—you can train lots of Medjay units while not sacrificing your city development.

Greece is also an excellent strategic choice, as well as a historically accurate choice. Greece in the hands of Augustus becomes an extremely dangerous diplomatic player with no rivals.

• Augustus helps you purchase monuments (+2 culture, +1 influence) as well as the Parthenon unique building (+4 culture, +2 influence if built on hills) in every single town. Influence in general is the most difficult yield to obtain (compared to science, culture, gold, etc). Playing with double or triple the influence of your rivals means that you can achieve whatever diplomatic action you would like.
  
  
• Greece also has the Xenia, Polepnnesian League, and Delian League traditions that give you a discount to influence cost for city-state befriending, sanctioning, and initiating endeavors, respectively. More influence, but less cost. Sounds fair..
  
  
• Oftentimes you don’t even have to settle any new towns after your initial 2-3; you can simply integrate nearby city-states into your network.
  
  
• To get the influence from the Parthenon building, it needs to be built on hills. Make sure your towns are placed next to a tile with “Rough Terrain” so that it can have easy access to that tile.
  
  
• You can also use the Hoplite unit offensively—they not only get a +2 combat strength bonus when next to each other, but also get +1 combat strength with every city-state you are suzerain of once you unlock the Agoge II civic mastery. Since Augustus helps you win the diplomatic game so quickly, you can get Hoplite strength bonuses that almost match that of Legions!

Carthage is also an all-around fantastic choice for Augustus, but especially if naval warfare interests you.

• The Gaulos Tradition decreases gold cost of buildings near coast or navigable rivers by 20%. The Suffetes Tradition also increases gold and food yields by 20%, for mining towns and fishing/farming towns respectively. These two traditions are excellent for Augustus to keep while he pursues a Tall playstyle with lots of towns.
  
  
• A unique power of Carthage is the ability to rapidly expand—whenever you build a settler (Colonist), you get a second one. This means that while others are supplying food to their capital by two towns, you can have four instead plus also enjoy a +8 production bonus in your capital. (Note- not easy to fit four land connections to the capital on land, but on naval maps, much easier—see “How many towns vs cities?” section)
  
  
• In return, you are blocked from turning any of your towns into cities and can only have your capital—but who needs other cities when your capital is growing twice as fast? the answer is probably yes, again refer to “How many towns vs cities?” section, but Carthage has ways to get around it. More in the Carthage guide.
  
  
• The Shipsheds II civic increases the range for naval units from 1 to 2. This causes a dramatic increase in the number of naval units that are able to simultaneously bombard enemy land units and cities. A city that can only be attacked by 1-2 boats can now be bombarded and obliterated by 5-6 boats. Even in land-heavy maps, a ludicrously strong naval support can help your land units to clear out enemy units and defenses while taking far less damage in the process.
  
  
• The Numidian Cavalry is an exceptionally strong unit for its time. It is stronger than a fully powered Tier 2 Legion, and stronger than a Tier 3 Legion if you have at least 4 or more unique resources assigned in your capital. Since they cannot be produced and can only be bought, it’s difficult to have them in large numbers—it is great for defensive purposes but can be used as a brutally efficient unit-killer for offense as well.

Reminder—The goal to satisfy all Legacy Path requirements in the Exploration Age is tohave 5 districts with total 40 or higher yields each (Science), house 12 relics (Culture), score 30 treasure fleet points (Economic), and score 12 settlement points from distant lands (Military; 1 point for your own settlement not following your religion, 2 points for conquered settlements or settlements converted to your religion, 4 points if both apply).

Exploration Age civilizations that synergize well with Augustus typically 1) appreciate the strong cultural output they inherit from the Antiquity Age, or 2) provide unique cultural bonuses that Augustus can capitalize on for even stronger culture output in towns in the Exploration Age.

The Spain civilization allows you to run a strong Culture-Gold engine much like Egypts’ and also provides additional bonuses to distant land settlements.

• The Casa Consistorial (“CC”) unique building provides a baseline of +5 culture, but it gains additional culture near to quarters or wonders. If you would like to maximize this bonus, consider prepping the adjacent quarters beforehand, in the Antiquity Age. Augustus’ discount to building purchase in town helps a lot with this. You could put two warehouse buildings together, or you could pair your Unique building with a Monument or Altar.
  
  
• The Casa de Contratación (“CdC”) building provides +5 gold, increased with coast or navigable river adjacencies. You cannot buy these in towns since it is not a cultural building. In cities, however, a good location to put the CdC will likely also be a good location for the CC—for maximum yields from the Plaza unique quarter. Since you unlock CC first before CdC, it is important to consider good CdC locations when you make your decision where to put the CC.
  
  
• The Plaza quarter (created by CC + CdC) provides additional gold per every settlement in Distant Lands. A strong Plaza helps you with fulfilling the Science Legacy Path in the Exploration Age where you need districts with total 40 or higher yields each.
  
  
• The strong Gold bonus the Spain civilization provides ultimately helps you with buying even more buildings in towns, similar to Egypt.
  
  
• Spain’s naval warfare bonuses are exclusively unlocked by the Civics tree, so inheriting an already strong culture output from the Antiquity Era helps. A strong navy will in turn help you acquire many Distant Land colonies, which will provide even more production in your capital, thanks to Augustus’ ability. This will also help you produce Conquistador units quickly, for further random bonuses activated in Distant Lands.

If you played as Greece, Rome, or Carthage, you will naturally unlock Spain. This is likely the best way to unlock Spain—the other unlock condition is by losing a settlement to an opponent and then reconquering it, which is easier said than done.


If you would like the highest culture output in the Exploration Age with some support for specialists, look no other than the Majapahit.

• Out of all cultural unique buildings in the Exploration Age, the Candi Bantar building is the easiest one to obtain maximum adjacency bonuses, because it receives adjacency bonuses to coast and navigable river tiles, of which there are typically plenty of. The Nusantara civic of the Majapahit gives a happiness adjacency bonus on top of this.
  
  
• The Gamelan civic also increases culture on tiles with multiple buildings from the era—I recommend purchasing the Temple with the Candi Bantar building in each of your towns to get the maximum benefit.
  
  
• The Subak tradition furthermore provides +1 culture and +1 production on marine tiles, which helps with very productive cities in the Modern Age, ready to tackle any large construction project.

You can unlock the Majapahit by playing as the Khmer or Maurya civilization in the Antiquity Age, or by 1) improving 3 pearls or 2) having at least 3 naval trade routes. These tend to be easy to accomplish.


The Normans also provide a fair amount of culture and a strong gold bonus. They also provide a strong defense and is reasonable at conquest.

• The Bailey building provides +4 culture, increased with adjacent Medieval Walls or Wonders. As Augustus, you can purchase both Medieval Walls and the Bailey building to provide extra culture and some defense.
  
  
• One of the Normans’ greatest strength is the Domesday Book civic (ooh, scary…). This civic permanently adds +2 Gold to every farm. You are generally encouraged to build farms in towns to send more food to cities anyway, unless you are trying to obtain particular resources in the town’s perimeter. As Augustus, you can purchase food warehouse buildings (Granary, Gristmill, etc) quickly to trigger as much growth events as possible to maximize the number of farms in each town. This can potentially earn you much more gold compared to Spain, at least from towns.
  
  
• If you have went on a fair amount of conquest in either the Antiquity or Exploration age, you will be able to add another +4 culture to every settlement that was not founded by you, by adopting the Bayeux Tapestry civic.

The Norman civilization is naturally unlocked by playing as either as Greece or Rome in the Antiquity Age. Alternatively, you can unlock it by improving 3 Iron resources (encouraged to strengthen your infantry units anyway—each copy provides +1 combat strength to infantry unit) or by building 5 walls (which is easy with Augustus since he can purchase them cheaply in Towns).


Lastly, there is no civ better than the Abbasids that can turn a gold and cultural advantage into a scientific advantage (other than the Mayans).

• With the City of Peace tradition, all buildings that Augustus has purchased in towns get +1 science adjacency bonus next to the town hall. If you managed to surround your towns in the Antiquity age with buildings, this can provide up to 12 science per town (although you likely did not have enough money to purchase 12 buildings in all of your towns).
  
• The Compendious Book Tradition further adds +4 science to each town. No questions asked.
  
• With Augustus, you will unlock the extremely powerful House of Wisdom wonder very early. This wonder provides science as well as 3 free relics. You will be getting this wonder reliably early with Augustus and it should be built in every Abbasid gameplay.

You will unlocking Abbasids if you started the Antiquity Age with the Egypt or Persia civilizations. You can also unlock them by improving 3 camel resources (note- importing them doesn’t count).

Reminder—the Modern Age is where you typically choose a single victory path to pursue, unless you wish to have a try at multiple paths simultaneously. The Legacy Path requirements in this age are: research the Flight, Aerodynamics, and Rocketry technologies and finish their respective space projects (Science), obtain the Natural History and Hegemony civics and obtain 15 artifacts (Culture), score 500 Railroad Tycoon Points by building Rail Stations and Factories (Economic), and gain 20 Ideology Points (Military; more points with ideologies).

If you purchased lots of Unique Buildings in the earlier ages as Augustus, you will likely start off the Modern Age with a sizeable culture lead. You probably do not need more culture, but if you wish…


The Mexican civilization offers numerous different ways to obtain culture and rush through the Modern Age civics tree.

• Did you ever wonder if you could get a unique quarter in every one of your towns? Mexico will allow it. Mexico has two cultural buildings, Catedral and Portal de Mercaderes, both of which can be purchased in every town as Augustus. They respectively get Adjacency bonuses from culture and gold buildings, which you likely built plenty of. The two of them together become the Zócalo unique quarter, which additionally provides +2 culture for every Tradition slotted into the government. If you went the Rome -> Norman -> Mexican pathway, you can have up to 13 traditions. So as Augustus/Mexico you can add a total of +36 culture per each town, on top of already what is being given from previous eras.
  
  
• Mexico also gets a unique government type, “Revolución”, which provides a 30% boost to culture with celebrations. It is designed so that you can go through Mexico’s civic tree quickly to unlock the other “Plans”: Iguala, Ayutla, and Tuxtepec, which can unlock additional celebration effects in military production, influence, and science.

The French Empire civilization offers culture but also immense flexibility from the very beginning of the game.

• Choosing a government type at the beginning on the Modern Age as the French does not mean much, because you can choose from any celebration effect between Authoritarianism, Bureaucratic Monarchy, and Elective Republic. This fits very well with Augustus who tends to use a strong cultural output to fuel any type of victory.
  
  
• As with all other culture buildings, you are able to purchase the Jardin à la Française building in all of your towns as well.
  
  
• The Garde Imperiale unit gets boosted combat strength next to Commanders, and with the Grande Armeé II Civic mastery, they get additional bonuses to strength per adjacent unit. If you have been playing an infantry-heavy game since the Antiquity/Exploration Age, the French Empire will help you continue the momentum by continuing the upgrade the infantry units to something truly ferocious.

The Great Britain civilization offers a fast track to Cultural victories, and also helps immensely with Economic victories.

• Did you by any chance need more discounts for buildings? Great Britain offers a 20% discount on both gold and purchases. (+25% gold towards purchase = 20% discount) Purchasing key buildings, especially the Museum is now very feasible.
  
  
• The Antiquarian unique unit provides extra culture whenever an excavation occurs; this will help you get to the Hegemony civic quicker. With the Society of Antiquaries unique civic, these units will also move faster as well. This is critical since you want to beat your rivals to Artifact Sites for excavation.
  
  
• Lastly, Both traditions of East India Company and No External Allies provide more Gold in Towns. The East India Company tradition is especially powerful, since it provides +3 gold PER building in towns. The hard work you put in as Augustus really pays off here.

You will gain many attribute points if you dutifully finish all your Legacy Path missions. Typically, the choice you will have to make is between spending your Military Legacy Path points for Military vs Expansionist Attributes, and your Culture Legacy Path points for Cultural vs Diplomatic Attributes.


Augustus benefits immensely from the Economic Attribute bonuses. Military Attributes can provide minor bonuses especially if you plan on some conquest, but the Expansionist Attributes are generally more helpful for Augustus to build a large capital. Augustus also benefits somewhat from the Science Attribute points, especially for infrastructure-related attributes. Between Cultural and Diplomatic attributes, I would argue Diplomatic is more helpful since Augustus can get plenty of culture from other sources.


Economic Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on importing many resources and putting them in cities, whereas the right side of the tree focuses on making sure each town is filled with resources. But Augustus’ best path is in the middle, for bonuses that apply to all situations. Specifically, the most beneficial Attributes are:

• Economic Attribute Tier 2, Option 2: +2 Gold per every Tech and Civic Mastery completed in an Age. Given that Augustus has a great advantage in culture gain, you will have many Civic Masteries completed. This can provide you with a fair amount of gold.
  
• Economic Attribute Tier 3, Option 2: +15% Gold towards purchasing in all settlements. EVEN cheaper building purchases, nice.
  
• Economic Attribute Tier 4, Option 2: If you are playing peacefully and like having alliance with others this is also a reliable boost to your gold income.

Expansionist Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on big cities with many specialists, whereas the right side of the tree focuses on creating many productive towns. Augustus synergizes with both sides. Since the Tier 5 Expansionist attributes are extremely powerful, it is likely best to choose either the left or the right side of the tree such than you can get to the Tier 5 bonuses quickly. Some of the notable Attributes:

• Expansionist Attribute Tier 2, Option 2: +1 food per age on Warehouse buildings. This is especially powerful with Augustus, due to his incentive to purchase many buildings in towns.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 3, Option 2: Gain +1 Population in towns, new towns start with an additional population—Growth events are hard to come by as you progress through the game. Depending on which tile you choose for your towns to expand to, you can get +4-5 food or +4-5 gold bonuses in each town. You can also use this to quickly claim tiles that you plan to use, especially for adjacency bonus purposes. This is also very helpful to get your towns to population 7, which is when it can specialize and start sending food to cities.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: 25% food refund when city adds a specialist. Essentially, another +25% growth boost for the next growth event if you placed a specialist for the current one—this can help with your science since Augustus heavily relies on a high population and specialist for his science progression due to lacking any direct science bonuses.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 4, Option 2: +15% yields in Towns with a Specialization, or +30% in Distant Lands. Your towns should spend most of its time specializing and sending food to cities after Population 7 anyway, so this is essentially a flat % bonus.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 5, Option 2: +1 food in cities per Town. If you have 20 towns in the Modern era, that’s +60 food in each city. This is a powerful bonus that rewards aggressive expansion.
  
• Expansionist Attribute Tier 5, Option 3: +1 settlement limit. Another way to increase settlement limits, but Option 2 is far more powerful and should be prioritized (unless you are suffering from massive unhappiness from over-settling)

Military Attribute Tree—The Military Attribute tree is most helpful if you are planning on waging wars—even if you are playing peacefully, some of the attributes can be helpful.

• Military Attribute Tier 3, Option 3: +1 Settlement Limit. This is good if you want to settle just one more settlement on a good strategic or resource location, or if you gained an extra settlement or two during a peace deal. It comes reasonably fast unlike the Tier 5 Expansionist Attribute (Option 3) that essentially does the same thing.
  
• Military Attribute Tier 3, Option 2: -1 Gold maintenance cost for units. Especially helpful if you want to play a military game while not missing out on Augustus’ building purchase benefits.

Scientific Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on infrastructure, while the right side of the tree focuses on increasing science yields directly. Augustus benefits from the right side of the tree.

• Scientific Attribute Tier 2, Option 1: +15% production towards constructing buildings. This does not make purchasing buildings any cheaper in towns, but it does help with building them in cities. It is on the path to more powerful bonuses.
  
• Scientific Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: +20% gold and happiness towards maintaining buildings. This is very helpful for Augustus players who try to maximize the # of buildings in towns.
  
• Scientific Attribute Tier 4, Option 1: +1 Science on Specialists, +2 if you have 3 or fewer cities. This is helpful since Augustus tends to struggle with science in the mid game, and also potentially reward you further if you maintain a Tall build (see "How Many Towns vs Cities?" section) throughout the game.

Diplomatic Attribute Tree—The left side of the tree focuses on maximizing happiness and golden ages, while the right side focuses on gaining more influence. Either side is good, but the left side of the tree might help you especially if you plan to over-settle.

• Diplomatic Attribute Tier 1, Option 1: +1 happiness per age on the palace and city halls.
  
• Diplomatic Attribute Tier 2, Option 1: +1 happiness in settlement for each resource assigned to them.
  
• Diplomatic Attribute Tier 3, Option 1: +50% Celebration length. Depending on your type of government, you can use +20% food, science, culture, or something else. If in doubt, food always helps.

Augustus tends to synergize excellently with the mementos that he himself unlocks:

• Corona Civica (Augustus level 2): +1 Settlement Limit per Age, but +50% cost to Convert Towns into Cities—the downside is rather minimal, compared to the immense benefit Augustus can get from each Settlement.
  
• Breastplate (Augustus level 5): +2 Food per Age in Towns. Direct food bonuses tend to be far more helpful than percentage-based growth benefits, especially in the early game.
  
• Clipeus Virtutis (Augustus level 9): +1 Production in the Capital for every Town. With Augustus, this is +3 production per town.

A few other Mementos can be helpful—

• False Beard (Hatshepsut level 5): +2 Culture on Wonders—this is likely unnecessary given Augustus’ already sky-high culture output, but if you plan to build many Wonders, this will increase your culture gain by a small amount, leading you to unlock even more Wonders early. Sometimes you do need every culture that you can get your hands on, especially for highly competitive Wonders such as the Petra or Angkor Wat.
  
• Chalcedony Seal (Xerxes, Achaemenid level 9): +1 Culture and Gold for Unique Buildings and Improvements.
  
• Bicorne Hat (Napoleon level 5): +1 movement to infantry units. Especially helpful if you are playing as Rome or Greece that has help focus on infantry units.
  
• Chakra (Ashoka, World Renouncer level 2): +1 Food in the Capital Capital for every 5 excess Happiness Happiness. You essentially get to use Ashoka’s key unique ability, which is helpful to build your large capital.
  
  
• Attribute point-providing mementos, especially Complaint to Ea-nasir (Economic Attribute) and Groma (Expansionist Attribute) can be helpful given Augustus’ synergy with those attribute trees.
  
• When in doubt, the Corpus Juris Civilis memento is always versatile and helpful—start with 1 extra social policy slot.

Civilization 7 encourages wonder-building, and any wonder can provide a great beneficial effect to your empire. As explained in the Civ Synergies (1) section, Augustus may be one of the best, if not THE best, wonder-builder in the game. You will likely be able to build whatever wonder you’d like, as long as you unlock them early enough. But here are some of the wonders that are particularly synergistic with Augustus:

Antiquity Age

Great Stele

• Effect: +200 Gold every time a wonder is completed in this settlement, including the Great Stele.
  
• Terrain requirement: Flat Tile
  
• Unlocked by the Writing tech, or by playing as Aksum and unlocking the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea civic

Building this wonder early means that your capital can focus on churning out wonder after wonder, while the gold rewards can be used for building purchases in your towns.


Pyramids

• Effect: +1 gold and +1 production on minor and navigable river tiles in this settlement.
  
• Terrain requirement: On Desert and adjacent to a Navigable River.
  
• Unlocked by the Masonry tech, or by playing as Egypt and unlocking the Light of Amun-Ra civic

This is unlocked with the same tech that unlocks Monuments, which should be prioritized for Augustus. It provides a straightforward +1 production and +1 gold bonus to all river tiles. Note that the bonus applies to BOTH minor and navigable river tiles.


Petra

• Effect: +2 gold. +1 gold and +1 production for every Desert tile in this Settlement.
  
• Terrain requirement: On desert
  
• Unlocked with the Code of Laws civic.

As tradition goes in the Civilization franchise, the Petra remains a consistently powerful and high priority wonder. In Civ 7, this is especially highly competitive since it is unlocked with the Code of Laws civic, which the AI tends to prioritize to unlock Traders. If you are in a location with many desert tiles, absolutely attempt to build this wonder.

Exploration Age

House of Wisdom

• Effect: +3 science. +3 Relic. +2 Science on Great Works. Has 3 Great work slots.
  
• Terrain requirement: Adjacent to Urban tile
  
• Unlocked by the Society II (Mastery) Civic or by playing as Abbasids and unlocking the Al-Jabr II (Mastery) Civic.

One of the most powerful wonders in the game. Augustus especially struggles with science, so this wonder provides a much welcomed boost.


Shwedagon Zedi Daw

• Effect: +4 science. +2 science on all Rural tiles in this settlement that have at least 1 happiness. +1 Wildcard Attribute Point.
  
• Terrain requirement: Adjacent to a Lake.
  
• Unlocked by the Education technology.

This is unlocked with the same tech that unlocks Universities, which is reasonably early. There is a choice to make whether you want Shipbuilding or Education first in the Exploration Age—you may not have the bandwidth to prioritize this wonder. Ideally this should be built in City #2 or #3 where you have enough rural tiles that weren’t overtaken by urban quarters. Given the ridiculous amount of science that this wonder can potentially provide, it may be worthwhile to plan your city locations in the Antiquity Age with this Exploration Age wonder in mind. The Wildcard attribute point is also extremely helpful—typically a good use for it is for Expansionist attributes.

Modern Age

Oxford University

• Effect: +4 Science. Grants 2 free technologies. +1 Wildcard Attribute point.
  
• Terrain requirement: Next to a district tile
  
• Unlocked by the Academics technology.

A fairly good wonder to get an early boost in science (a bulk boost by unlocking technology is typically better than small amounts of increased science per turn). Unlocked very early in the Modern Age, and helps you get to key technologies like Combustion and Urbanization. The Wildcard Attribute is also very helpful.

Augustus unlocks the following Narrative Events (attribute point rewards will be underlined due to their high value):

Antiquity Age- Classical Republic is typically the superior choice to further exploit the Culture and Production bonuses that Augustus provides. Oligarchy’s 30% production for buildings tend not to be as useful, as your focus is on purchasing buildings. Despotism is best if you are aiming for a Legion rush.

Exploration Age- Plutocracy is typically the best choice that provides +20% gold or +30% production towards Overbuilding. If you are planning to settle many Faraway Land towns and spread your religion, Theocracy is best. Feudal Monarchy will trigger an extra narrative event (see Narrative Events (2) section).

Modern Age- Bureaucratic Monarchy is the most helpful to further assist with buying buildings in towns, especially if you are aiming for an Economic Victory. However, if you plan to win an early culture victory, Elective Republic may be best for its +20% culture and +20% science bonus.

Ideologies-
If you are seeking a peaceful cultural victory, No ideology (neutral) is a valid strategy to avoid having your relationship statuses degraded. Whether adopting Democracy decreases your turns to get to the Hegemony civic (the most crucial civic for Culture Victories) is rather complicated. The general rule of thumb is that if your culture per turn is less than 500 at the time you unlock ideologies or less than 13 times the number of specialists in your empire, consider adopting Democracy to get to Hegemony quickly. If interested, the math is down below.

X=Culture per turn at the time of finishing the Political Theory civic
Y=Number of specialists in the entire empire at the time of finishing the Political Theory civic
You need total 15000 culture to unlock Hegemony. If you take a detour to unlock Democracy, you need an additional 2750 culture.

A = Number of turns required to unlock hegemony = 15000/X
B = Number of turns required to unlock hegemony after democracy is unlocked and +3 culture is added to each of your specialists = 15000/(X+3Y) + 2750/X

If you solve for X that makes B < A, you get X < ~13.4 * Y.

An argument for Democracy can also be made for Military Victories, due to the happiness bonuses it provides. If you already did a lot of conquest in the earlier era and have lots of military units, then the only limiting factor is likely happiness, if you are precariously close to the settlement limit. The happiness bonus can counter this somewhat, and also the increased culture can help you unlock civics that provide you +1 settlement limits.

Alternatively, Fascism would a great choice for the production and gold bonuses. If you are needing to produce more units and/or infrastructure at this time, it is likely the superior choice for Military or Cultural Victories.

Hatshepsut has a similar focus on production and wonder-building in cities, but Augustus tends to fair better, at least in the capital. Especially in the early game, Hatshepsut’s 15% production bonus does not mean much when the base production of the capital itself is quite low. Assuming a base production of 20 in your capital, Hatshepsut will provide a mere +3 production. Augustus can provide much more—two towns provide +4 production, three towns provide +6 production, and such. In general, flat bonuses tend to be more impactful in the early game, while percentage bonuses tend to be more impactful in the late game. Ultimately the trade-off between choosing Augustus vs Hatshepsut can be summarized as: Augustus provides a superior amount of production but only in the capital, while Hatshepsut provides a lesser amount of production to buildings/wonders only but in all cities next to navigable rivers.

Ashoka, World Conqueror also has a production focus in cities as well as any settlements that you did not establish yourself. Ashoka tends to be a much more fantastic leader for Military victories than Augustus, thanks to a direct combat strength bonus against walled district during celebration. Ashoka cannot hope to match Augustus’ culture output, however.

Himiko, High Shaman is also known for her high culture output—a 20% bonus at baseline that increases to 40% during a celebration. This tends to be much more powerful in the later Ages, when her base cultural output is stronger. In the earlier Ages, Augustus’ ability to purchase mass amounts of culture buildings in towns tend to outperform.

Augustus’ main source of power is his towns. In the Antiquity Age, one of the best ways to limit his ability is to aggressively counter-settle against him to deny good settlement spots. Especially settling near key resources such as Gold, Silver, and Camels and denying him access to those may help (although the Augustus player can always attempt to get some by trading). War is also a good way to take a lot of settlements away from him, esepcailly in the later Ages. Unlike leaders such as Harriet Tubman or Trung Trac, Augustus does not provide direct defensive bonuses, so no need to fear. Augustus will be marginally better at producing lots of units, but sometimes it proves difficult for an Augustus player to balance between unit production, wonder production, and building production.

If you are playing singleplayer and you would like to be on AI Augustus’ good graces instead, you can try have multiple non-capital cities and limit town settlement, to satisfy his agenda “Restitutor Orbis.” As long as you do not aggressively settle, AI Augustus tends to be rather peaceful with his neighbors.

1 https://www.reddit.com/r/civ/comments/1ikmwah/quick_guide_to_culture_buildings_in_civilization/ Accessed 3/13/2025

Builders Series

• Confucius and Introduction to Specialists
  
• Augustus and Introduction to Towns
  
• Ashoka, World Renouncer and Introduction to Happiness
  
• Pachacuti and Introduction to Urban Planning

Warlords Series

• Napoleon, Revolutionary and Introduction to Infantry Warfare
  
• Ashoka, World Conqueror and Introduction to Siege Warfare
  
• Charlemagne and Introduction to Cavalry Warfare

Tacticians Series

• Trung Trắc and Introduction to Commanders
  
• Simon Bolivar and Introduction to War Support
  
• Xerxes, King of Kings and Introduction to Empire Management

Negotiators Series

• Benjamin Franklin and Introduction to Endeavors
  
• Himiko, Queen of Wa and Introduction to Endeavors (2)
  
• Tecumseh and Introduction to City States

Traders Series

• Amina and Introduction to Resources
  
• Xerxes, the Achaemenid and Introduction to Trade Routes

Strategists Series

• Machiavelli and Introduction to Levies
  
• Harriet Tubman and Introduction to Espionage
  
• Napoleon, Emperor and Introduction to Sanctions

Explorers Series

• Ibn Battuta and Introduction to Leader Attributes
  
• Isabella and Introduction to Natural Wonders
  
• Jose Rizal and Introduction to Narrative Events

Polymaths Series

• Lafayette and Introduction to Traditions
  
• Friedrich, Oblique and Introduction to Military Planning
  
• Friedrich, Baroque and Introduction to Military Planning (2)

Patrons Series

• Hatshepsut and Introduction to Wonders
  
• Catherine and Introduction to Great Works
  
• Himiko, High Shaman and Introduction to Celebrations
  
• Ada Lovelace and Introduction to Masteries

This guide is an homage to Zigzagzigal’s Guides to Civilization 5 and Civilization 6. Thank you Z for guiding all of us.