Antananarivo

Strategy guide

Every Great Person you have ever earned — including ones spent long ago — permanently raises your Culture by 2%, capping at +30%. The bonus snowballs on its own as the game progresses; all you have to do is keep claiming Great People of any type, even ones you would otherwise pass on.

Best civs & plans

Strongest for Great-Person-heavy culture games — Kongo, Brazil and Sweden stack Great People quickly and convert the bonus into a serious Culture multiplier by mid game.

Envoy plan

Because the multiplier is counted from every Great Person you have ever recruited, the envoys are worth sending earlier than the raw percentage suggests: a suzerainty taken in the classical era is already sitting at several percent by the time the bonus matters, while one taken in the Renaissance starts from wherever your total happens to be. Antananarivo is cultural, so the one-envoy reward already buffs Amphitheaters and the three-envoy reward adds Culture to museums, which culture-focused players build anyway. Push to six only if the Chancery tier fits your Diplomatic Quarter plans. Expect competition from AI civs with strong Great Person generation; a Diplomatic League slot and an Amani posting are the cheapest way to stay ahead, since both add envoy weight beyond the envoys you actually spend.

Value by era

Early on the bonus is a rounding error — one or two Great People give a couple of percent on a Culture output that is itself small. The curve bends upward through the medieval and Renaissance eras, when Great Writers, Artists and Engineers arrive every few turns and each one nudges the multiplier again. By the industrial era a normal Great-Person-oriented empire is near the cap, and that is exactly when Culture per turn is high enough for a full-strength percentage to translate into whole civics. Late in the game the multiplier plateaus but its base grows, so it never really fades; unlike most cultural city-states it is still worth grabbing in the modern era if you have a large Great Person count, because the accumulated total applies immediately rather than needing to be rebuilt.

Pitfalls and how to protect it

Do not let the bonus talk you into buying Great People you cannot use just to tick the counter — a Great General purchased with hard-earned Faith in a peaceful game is still a wasted resource, and each one only adds a small step toward the cap. The better habit is patronising cheap leftovers late in each era, when the AI has ignored a Great Person for many turns and the Gold price has fallen. Losing the city-state to conquest wipes the entire accumulated multiplier at once, which hurts far more here than with a flat bonus; if Antananarivo sits next to an expansionist AI, keep a defensive pact or a garrison of your own nearby. Should it fall anyway, liberating it restores your envoys, and the count of Great People is yours regardless, so the multiplier snaps straight back.

Envoy bonuses

• 1 envoy+1 Culture in your capital and in each Amphitheater you own.
• 3 envoys+2 Culture in each Art Museum, Archaeological Museum and Consulate you own.
• 6 envoys+3 Culture in each Broadcast Center and each Chancery you own.

Envoy bonuses are shared by every city-state of the same type.

Other Cultural city-states

• Ayutthaya
• Caguana
• Kumasi
• Mohenjo-Daro
• Nan Madol
• Rapa Nui
• Vilnius

Related guides

• City-States and Envoys: Where Your Influence Should GoWhere envoys come from, how to spend the first handful, which city-state types match each victory plan, how to win and keep suzerainty against the AI, and when conquering a city-state is the right call.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Diplomatic Victory: Earning and Spending FavorA working plan for the Gathering Storm diplomatic victory: where Diplomatic Favor actually comes from, how World Congress sessions and votes turn into victory points, which emergencies, competitions and wonders matter, how to keep alliances alive, and when to spend favor versus hold it against a rival's lead.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
• Early District Planning: The First 100 TurnsHow to read city sites for future adjacency, decide between settling for yields now or reserving tile clusters, and know when a planned layout should be abandoned.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03