A Guide to Playing the Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 Leader in Civilization 6

Lautaro was a Mapuche toqui who led the resistance against the Spanish colonial conquest of Chile during the 16th century. He is also the Mapuche Civ 6 leader you can select to play as in the Civilization 6 Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions. Lautaro offers players a mixture of cultural, productivity, and combat (war) bonuses that can make him a more versatile leader.

Lautaro’s Swift Hawk Leader Bonus

Swift Hawk is Lautaro’s unique leader bonus that gives your units a +10 combat strength bonus when fighting against civilizations in Heroic or Golden Ages. That combat strength bonus also applies when fighting free cities formed from rebellions. When you eliminate units within their city borders, Swift Hawk causes that civilization to lose 20 loyalty. However, that increases to 40 loyalty points when you defeat units for a civilization in Golden or Heroic Age.

The Mapuche Toqui Civ Ability

The Mapuche Toqui civ ability increases cultural and production yields by 5% in your cities that include a governor. This civ ability increases combat experience for units recruited from cities with governors by 10%. It also enhances loyalty for cities within nine tiles of your governors by +4 per turn.

The production, cultural, and combat experience percentage increases from governors triple for captured cities not founded by your Mapuche civilization. Thus, governors in cities taken from other civilizations generate 15% more culture and production yields and 30% combat experience for units.

Mapuche’s Unique Unit and Infrastructure

The Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 leader has a unique Malón Raider Renaissance unit with a melee attack of 55 and a movement rate of four. This unit receives a +5 combat strength bonus when fighting within four tiles of friendly territory (civilization tiles). Malón Raider can also pillage tiles for one movement cost, which is less than the standard three.

Chemamull is a unique Mapuche infrastructure that you can add to tiles with +4 breathtaking appeal. That infrastructure generates cultural yields amounting to 75% percent of its tile’s appeal. For example, a Chemamull on a tile with an appeal rating of +4 will generate +3 culture. Chemamull generates tourism equal to its cultural output with Flight unlocked. Plus, the Chemamull generates a +1 production yield.

Tips for Winning With the Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 Leader

The Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 leader is quite a flexible one who can be reasonably effective for securing three or four alternative victory conditions, but doesn’t necessarily excel for any. However, Mapuche is primarily a cultural civilization with its Chemamull infrastructure and Toqui civ ability. So, it’s probably best to go for a Culture Victory when playing as Lautaro.

Whatever victory condition you play for with the Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 leader, governors must be at the heart of your strategy. Build a Plaza district and buildings so that you can appoint more governors. Appoint a maximum of seven governors so more of your cities will benefit from the Toqui civ ability that will increase their cultural and productivity yields. When playing for a cultural victory, Pingala should be the first governor you appoint and promote for his Librarian, Connoisseur, and Grants effects.

To further boost your Mapuche governors’ effects, build the Casa de Contratación wonder. That wonder increases gold, production, and faith yields for your non-home continent cities with governors by 15% for each. You will also gain three more governor titles for appointments or promotions when the Casa de Contratación is built.

Noting that the Toqui civ ability trebles its yield percentage increases for governors in non-founded cities, capturing some settlements from another civilization will boost your cultural output somewhat more. Consider declaring (and winning) at least one war to capture a few foreign cities in which to place your governors. Then, you can place some governors in cities absorbed into your civilization to increase their culture and production yields by 15%. The Swift Hawk bonus and Toqui ability also make it easier to secure loyalty in cities captured from other civilizations.

Add as many Chemamulls to tiles as you can to boost your cultural and production yields. Click on the Appeal map lens filter to identify breathtaking tiles where you can add Chemamulls. Also, note that Theater Squares have a +1 appeal tile adjacency bonus, which can help you increase tile appeal for Chemamulls. Planting woods will also boost the appeal of adjacent tiles.

A single Chemamull will generate at least +3 culture yields and equivalent tourism for its tile. However, you can increase the cultural yields and tourism they generate by building the Eiffel Tower wonder. The Eiffel Tower increases the appeal value of all tiles in your civilization by two, which will amount to an additional +1 culture yield from each of your Chemamull tiles.

Science and domination are two alternative victory conditions you can play for with the Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 leader. The Toqui civ ability and Chemamull infrastructure can come in handy for increasing city production for space races. Try adding governors and Chemamulls to cities with Spaceports for space race project production increases.

The Swift Hawk leader bonus can be valuable for players seeking a Domination Victory, especially when waging war against civilizations in Golden or Heroic Age eras. Its +10 combat bonus is a significant one that will certainly make it easier to win wars against civilizations in the required ages. Even when you can’t exploit its combat bonus, defeating enemy units around their cities will reduce the enemy civilization’s city loyalty. The Toqui civ ability will further increase captured cities’ loyalty when you place governors within nine tiles of them.

Although the Lautaro Mapuche Civ 6 leader isn’t necessarily among the best for winning any specific victory condition, he’s more versatile than many alternatives. Culture is the Mapuche civilization’s greatest strength, particularly when combined with a victorious war for cultural dominance. However, you can also establish a more productive, militarily strong civilization for space races or warmongering with the Lautaro Mapuche leader bonus, civ ability, and unique infrastructure.