A Guide to Playing as the Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia Leader in Civilization 6

Cyrus II was a leader who established the Persian Empire during ancient times. He’s a Persian leader that players with the Persia and Macedon scenario pack can select to play as in Civilization 6. Cyrus II is a Civ 6 Persia leader who offers a leader bonus, unique infrastructure, and civ ability effects that are best for games of cultural or military domination.

The Fall of Babylon Leader Bonus

The Fall of Babylon is Cyrus II’s leader bonus in Civilization 6. In the Gathering Storm and Rising Storm expansions, this leader bonus gives your units a +2 movement increase for 10 turns after declaring surprise wars. The surprise wars you declare will only count as formal wars, which reduces their grievances. This leader bonus also has a +5 loyalty per turn effect for cities you occupy with garrisoned units and eliminates yield penalties for occupied cities during wars.

Persia’s Satrapies Civ Ability

The Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia leader has a Satrapies civ ability that gives you an extra trade route with Political Philosophy unlocked. All your domestic trade routes will generate +2 gold and +1 culture yields thanks to the Satrapies civ ability. This civilization ability also enhances roads within Persian territory by one level.

Persia’s Unique Infrastructure and Units

Pairidaeza is the unique infrastructure for the Civ 6 Persia leader. That is a unique improvement you can add to grass, desert, and plains tiles that generates at least +2 gold and +1 culture. Pairidaeza also generates +1 culture when adjacent to Theater Districts and Holy Sites. Placing a Pairidaeza beside a Commercial Hub and City Center increases its gold yields by +2.

The Diplomatic Service civic and Flight technology also enhance Pairidaeza’s cultural and tourist value when unlocked. Pairidaeza generates +1 additional culture with Diplomatic Service. That tile improvement generates tourism equal to its cultural yields when you’ve researched Flight.

Immortal is Persia’s unique unit, which replaces Swordsman, that’s both a ranged and melee unit. That unit has a melee attack rating of 35 and a ranged attack strength of 25. Immortal is basically a Swordsman with a bow and arrow, which makes it a versatile unit.

Tips for Winning With the Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia Leader

The Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia leader is best for winning cultural victories. His Pairidaeza unique tile improvement is good for boosting cultural output and tourism in your Persian civilization. Plus, the Satrapies’ civ ability can also come in handy for increasing culture output via trade, enabling you to unlock civics faster when playing as Cyrus II.

When you start a game with the Cyrus II Civ 6 Persian leader, focus on unlocking the early game Early Empire and Political Philosophy civics ASAP. Unlocking Political Philosophy will give you an additional trade route to exploit during the early game. Early Empire enables you to add Pairidaezas to tiles.

Add many Pairidaezas to tiles within your Persian civilization. The good thing about the Pairidaeza is that it doesn’t restrict you to one per city, like Canada’s Ice Hockey Rink does. Thus, you can add as many Pairidaezas to grass, desert, and plains tiles (including hills) as you wish to increase the culture and tourism they generate by more significant amounts. Try to place your Pairidaezas beside Theater Square and Holy Site districts to maximize their cultural yields.

Also, note that the Pairidaeza has a +1 appeal effect for adjacent tiles, which you can further exploit for securing cultural victories. For example, adding Pairidaezas alongside coastal grass and plains tiles might enable you to build some more Seaside Resorts by increasing the appeal ratings of those tiles. To further boost tile appeal, construct the Eiffel Tower wonder that gives all tiles within your civilization a +2 appeal boost when built.

Trade should also be a part of your Persian strategy for the cultural victory type, at least. Build more Commercial Hubs and Harbor Districts for Market and Lighthouse buildings so that you can expand your civilization’s domestic and international trade routes. Establishing more domestic trade routes will increase Persia’s cultural output. However, you might also be able to establish some international trade routes that generate higher cultural yields.

Select policy cards that will further boost your trade routes when playing as the Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia leader. For example, Caravansaries, Triangular Trade, and Ecommerce are three policies you should select that will increase gold generated by all domestic and international trade routes. Ecommerce is the best policy that gives your trade routes a huge +10 gold and +5 production yield boost in the vanilla Civ 6 game. However, that card’s effects have been nerfed to +5 gold and +2 production yields in Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm.

Domination is perhaps the best victory type to go for with Cyrus II beyond culture, especially in Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm. That is mainly due to the loyalty and movement effects that the Babylon Leader bonus gives you. The +5 loyalty per turn for units garrisoned in occupied cities captured makes it somewhat easier to prevent rebellions arising.

Remember to keep your units garrisoned in captured cities during wars to maximize the loyalty effect until full loyalty is secured. To further enhance loyalty in cities with garrisoned units, select the Limitanei policy card. That card has a +2 loyalty effect for cities with garrisoned units in them when selected.

Overall, the Cyrus II Civ 6 Persia leader is a good choice to play as for a cultural extravaganza, thanks to the unique infrastructure and civ ability he offers. Fully exploiting the Pairidaeza infrastructure and Satrapies’ civ ability will enable your Persian civilization to unlock more civics and generate tourism faster. Although Cyrus II isn’t among the best militaristic leaders in the game, his Babylon Leader bonus will also give you a leg up for fighting surprise wars in the Civilization 6 DLCs.