The Best Civ 6 Leaders in Civilization 6 for Diplomatic Victories

Diplomacy is an additional victory condition you can play for in Civilization 6: Gathering Storm. This is a victory condition in which earning more diplomatic favor for a larger number of World Congress votes is crucial. Upgrading governments, winning diplomatic competitions, and establishing more suzerains will boost your diplomatic favor. To give yourself a better chance of diplomatic triumphs, you should play as one of the best leaders for the Diplomatic Victory condition. These are the best Civ 6 leaders for securing a Diplomatic Victory.

Teddy Roosevelt (America)

Teddy Roosevelt is one of the best Civ 6 leaders for the Diplomatic Victory condition primarily because of America’s Founding Fathers civilization ability in Gathering Storm. That civ ability gives you +1 diplomatic favor per turn for each wildcart slot in your chosen government. It also converts diplomatic card slots to the wildcard alternative, which enhances the Founding Fathers effect.

For example, the Democracy government will have four wildcard slots, when combined with the Founding Fathers, to give Teddy Roosevelt a +4 diplomatic favor per turn bonus. If you select the tier four Digital Democracy government when playing as America in Gathering Storm, you’ll have eight Wildcard policy slots. Thus, the American Founding Fathers civ ability for the Roosevelt leader can give you a significant +8 diplomatic favor per turn boost.

Pericles (Greece)

Pericles is the best Civ 6 leader from the vanilla Civilization 6 game to play as when seeking a victory of diplomacy. Greece’s unique Acropolis district is ideal for diplomacy victories because it gives you +1 envoy when built. Thus, building multiple Acropolis districts will enable you to increase your envoys for establishing more city-state suzerains, which will boost your diplomatic favor per turn. His Surrounded by Glory leader bonus also generates +5% culture per city-state with a Greek suzerain, which gives you a nice culture boost for unlocking and upgrading governments faster.

Greece also gains an additional Wildcard slot. More wildcard slots are useful for the diplomacy game because they enable you to select policy cards that boost diplomatic favor. Monarchic Legacy, Diplomatic Capital, Disinformation Campaign, and Rabblerousing are four wildcard policies that increase diplomatic favor per turn. If you play the Dramatic Ages mode, you can also select the Popular Front card that effectively doubles (increases by 100%) diplomatic favor per turn from your city-state suzerains and alliances.

Gorgo (Greece)

Gorgo is another Greek leader who shares the same civilization ability and unique infrastructure as Pericles. You can build the Acropolis district and gain an extra wildcard policy card slot when playing as the Gorgo Civ 6 leader. Thus, Gorgo is one of the best Civ 6 leaders for diplomacy triumphs for the same reasons as Pericles.

One difference is that Gorgo is a more militaristic variation of Pericles with a different leader bonus. Her Thermopylae leader bonus, which provides culture boosts for killing units, isn’t as well-suited to diplomacy games as Surrounded by Glory. Nevertheless, you can still boost culture by killing barbarian units during more peaceful diplomatic games.

Kristina (Sweden)

Kristiana is among the best Civ 6 leaders with which to secure a Diplomatic Victory because of Sweden’s Nobel Prize civ ability. The Nobel Prize gives Sweden a +50 diplomatic favor boost for each great person recruited. That civ ability can be especially effective when combined with Sweden’s unique Queen’s Bibliotheque Plaza building, which gives you additional great person points for authors, artists, and musicians. Combining culture with diplomacy is a great victory for Sweden.

Playing as Kristina also enables you to complete three Nobel Peace Prize competitions. You can complete the Nobel Peace Prize, Nobel Prize in Physics, and Nobel Prize in Literature from the Industrial Era. Winning the Nobel Peace Prize contest will give you a diplomatic point, be recognized as a great musician, and a great artist.

Wilfred Laurier (Canada)

Wilfred Laurier of Canada is another Civilization 6 leader who mixes diplomacy with culture to great effect. Canada’s Four Seasons of Peace civ ability gives Wilfred +1 diplomatic favor per turn for every 100 tourism generated by his civilization. For example, 500 tourism generated amounts to +5 diplomatic favor per turn when playing as Canada. So, a thriving tourist industry gives you a good chance of securing a Diplomatic Victory when playing as Wilfred Laurier.

Four Seasons of Peace also has an additional beneficial effect for players seeking victories of diplomacy. It doubles the diplomatic favor gained by completing emergencies and winning diplomatic competitions. Thus, that civ ability is certainly one of the best for winning with diplomacy in Civilization 6.

Matthias Corvinus (Hungary)

Matthias Corvinus of Hungary might be a slightly more militaristic leader than the others above, but his Raven King bonus can also make him a good choice for the Diplomatic Victory path. Raven King enables you to increase your envoys by levying troops (+2 envoys for each levy) from city-states. Although that can be an expensive strategy, you can potentially amass 10 to 12 more envoys by levying troops five or six times during a game. Adopting such a strategy will enable you to establish more suzerains in city-states that will increase your World Congress diplomatic favor (votes).

The advantage of Hungary’s Pearl of the Danube civ ability for diplomacy is less obvious. However, that civ ability enables you to build Theater Squares and other districts across rivers from city centers with a 50% production reduction. This production bonus can come in handy for boosting cultural output by building Theater Squares faster, which will enable you to upgrade governments sooner.

So, take your pick from those leaders when you want to play for a Diplomatic Victory in Civilization 6 Gathering Storm. Those are the best Civ 6 leaders for that victory condition because they all have leader bonuses, infrastructure, or civ abilities that give you more options for increasing diplomatic favor in different ways. Then, you can dominate the resolution voting in the World Congress with a higher amount of diplomatic favor.