Khmer
Jayavarman VII
Uniques and adjacency effects read from the game data.
Victory focusReligionCulture
Kit at a glance
Jayavarman's Khmer feed faith with rivers: Holy Sites beside rivers grant food and housing, prasat temples add culture for every citizen, and huge river cities double as religious powerhouses. Population itself becomes devotion.
Opening: the first 60 turns
Rivers decide everything for Jayavarman VII, so accept a one or two turn walk to found the capital on a river bend where a Holy Site can touch the water and an Aqueduct can sit between the city center and a hill or mountain. Open Scout, Slinger, Settler and research Astrology before anything else; the river-adjacent Holy Site feeds the city as well as the faith pool, which is why Khmer can afford it as the first district. Follow with Pottery, Irrigation and Engineering for Aqueducts, which the civ wants in every city rather than only where housing is tight. Civics go Mysticism, then Early Empire, then Theology, since the Prasat replaces the Temple and unlocks there rather than from a technology.
Unique to this civilization
Unit
Domrey
Replaces Trebuchet
Technology: Military Engineering
Building
Prasat
Replaces Temple
Civic: Theology
Adjacency effects
- Holy SiteAdjacent to a river+2 Faith
How to play it
Settle rivers, pair every Holy Site with an aqueduct, and let cities balloon — Khmer faith scales with population. Relics slotted in Prasats plus Angkor Wat make a genuine relic-tourism side plan if the religious race gets crowded.
Victory paths
Religious victory is the direct route: Aqueducts pour faith into every city, the Prasat adds culture for every citizen in its city, and Khmer's huge river cities push a lot of religious pressure through sheer population. The relic angle is what makes culture the second path rather than an afterthought. Each Prasat carries a relic slot, and stacking relics under a religion with Reliquaries produces tourism that ignores the usual need for Great Artists. The pivot point is the Renaissance: if two other civs have strong religions already, stop buying Apostles for conversion and start collecting relics for the Prasat slots, then let Angkor Wat's housing keep the cities growing into a culture win.
Synergies: city-states, wonders, policies
River Goddess is the pantheon written for this civ, adding amenities and housing to the Holy Sites that already sit beside rivers, and Reliquaries is the follower belief that turns the relics in Prasat slots into a tourism engine. Angkor Wat is a Khmer signature wonder in practice as well as name: extra housing and population across cities that are already large. Among governors, Moksha's Divine Architect promotion lets his city buy districts, Holy Sites included, with faith, and Liang's Water Works promotion, which adds housing for every Aqueduct, lets Aqueduct-heavy cities grow further. Send envoys to Yerevan for the Apostle promotion choice and to Nan Madol if river cities also touch coast. Scripture early, then Simultaneum.
Weaknesses and counters
Without rivers the leader ability is dead and the civ is left with faith from Aqueducts alone, so a dry or hilly plateau start deserves a serious look at moving the capital. Growing cities fast creates an amenity problem that Holy Sites do not solve; skipping Entertainment Complexes leads to unrest exactly when the Renaissance war weariness arrives. Khmer has no early military unique, and the Domrey is a siege unit that only shines when a war is already going well, so a Classical rush from a neighbor is hard to survive. Rivals counter by pillaging Aqueducts, which cost a city both its faith and its food in a single move, and by converting the big river cities early with a religion of their own.
Similar civilizations
Related guides
- Religion and the Faith EconomyHoly Site placement, choosing a pantheon from the terrain you actually own, when a religion race is worth entering and when to quit it, beliefs that build an economy versus beliefs that spread, faith as a second currency, and how religion feeds science, culture, and conquest plans.Last reviewed: 2026-10-03
- Which Civilization Should You Play? Picks by Victory TypeThree to four leader picks for each victory type — science, culture, domination, religion, and diplomacy — with the reason each one teaches that victory well, plus flexible all-rounders and a guide to matching a civilization to how you actually like to play.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
- 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
Last reviewed: 2026-10-03