Phoenicia
Dido
Uniques and adjacency effects read from the game data.
Victory focusScienceDomination
Kit at a glance
Dido founds an empire that can pick up and move: Phoenicia's cothon rushes naval units and settlers, coastal cities on her home continent stay perfectly loyal, and her capital itself can relocate to any city with a cothon. Flexibility is the doctrine.
Opening: the first 60 turns
Phoenicia begins with the Writing Eureka already in hand, so Writing, Sailing and Celestial Navigation are the first techs and the Cothon the first district. Build Scout, Slinger, Settler, Settler, Settler: Settlers gain extra movement and sight while embarked and pay no extra movement to embark or disembark, so the second and third cities can be a full crossing away with no loyalty risk as long as they are coastal and on the home continent. Civics go Foreign Trade, Early Empire and State Workforce, since Dido's route capacity grows with each Government Plaza building and district production in that city is boosted. Once the capital's Cothon is up, it doubles as a Settler pump with a production bonus, and Biremes escort the wave while shielding Traders along the coast.
Unique to this civilization
District
Cothon
Replaces Harbor
Technology: Celestial Navigation
Unit
Bireme
Replaces Galley
Technology: Sailing
Adjacency effects
No adjacency bonus — standard district rules apply.
How to play it
Colonize every coastline early — bireme escorts keep settlers safe and loyalty is guaranteed. Move the capital toward whichever region matters this era. Trade-route capacity from cothon cities funds the whole seaborne sprawl.
Victory paths
The kit is an expansion engine, and the victory is whatever twelve coastal cities can be pointed at. Science is the most reliable: every Cothon city gets the Harbor and Commercial Hub pairing for science and gold, route capacity from the Government Plaza funds Campuses everywhere, and the capital can be moved late to a central Cothon city so Spaceports and Great Scientists cluster where production is. Domination is the coastal variant: Cothons rush naval units and heal them fully, Biremes rule the ancient seas, and relocating the capital next to the current target shortens every reinforcement line. Culture is possible through sheer city count and coastal districts, and diplomacy through the many city-states a seafaring empire meets first. Religion is the weak spot with nothing in the kit supporting it.
Synergies: city-states, wonders, policies
God of the Sea for fishing-boat production, or Fertility Rites for growth, keeps the many small coastal cities moving; Religious Settlements is redundant because the Settler engine is already the ability. Auckland is the best suzerainty on the map for Phoenicia, Nan Madol pays culture per coastal district, and Valletta lets the faith trickle buy City Center buildings. Reyna with Harbormaster in the capital, Magnus with Provision during the settle wave, then Pingala wherever the capital lands. The Great Lighthouse and Colossus are both Cothon-adjacent picks, and Kilwa Kisiwani boosts yields for each city-state type you lead. Policy cards: Colonization first, then Maritime Industries, Caravansaries, Trade Confederation and Naval Infrastructure, with Wisselbanken later for routes to allies.
Weaknesses and counters
The loyalty guarantee has two conditions, coastal and home continent, and players forget both: an inland city for a strategic resource or an overseas colony on a second continent flips like anyone else's. Capital relocation is a project that costs turns of production, so moving it twice in an era wastes the Cothon city's output. Naval raiders are the natural predator, since a dozen small coastal cities cannot each afford walls and Biremes are outclassed quickly; a rival with Privateers and a few Frigates can pillage the whole route network in one war. Landlocked or Pangaea-interior starts are the weakest case. Common mistakes: settling inland for a river, building Cothons in cities that will never produce ships or Settlers, and leaving the Government Plaza until the medieval era.
Similar civilizations
Related guides
- Science Victory City Planning: Roles, the Production Core, and the SpaceportA city-by-city plan for science victories in Gathering Storm: which cities carry research, which one carries the spaceport, era checkpoints to measure against, and what to do when the plan stalls.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