These guides are designed to help players who are new to Civ but still interested in Vox Populi, familiar with Civ but new to Vox Populi, or even those well versed in Vox Populi who just want to see if there's anything they didn't know about a particular civilization. I am actually a big fan of Zigzagzigal's Civ guide series, and it really helped me learn a lot about the game, and I wanted to bring a similar experience for fans of the Vox Populi or Community Balance Patch modpack. For those interested in the modpack it can be downloaded here[forums.civfanatics.com]

Anyways, without further ado, onto the Polynesians!

Before I go into depth with this guide, here's an explanation of some terminology I'll be using throughout for the sake of newer players.

Beelining - Focusing on obtaining a technology early by only researching technologies needed to research it and no others. For example, to beeline Bronze Working, you'd research Mining and Bronze Working and nothing else until Bronze Working was finished.
Finisher - The bonus for completing a Social Policy tree (e.g. +33% Great Scientist rate and +25% growth in all cities from rationalism.)
GWAM - Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. These are the three types of Great People who can make Great Works, a major source of tourism for cultural Civs.
Opener - The bonus for unlocking a Social Policy tree (e.g. +25% Great Person Rate and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Tall Empire - A low number of cities with a high population each.
UA - Unique Ability - the unique thing a Civilization has which doesn't need to be built.
UB - Unique Building - A replacement for a normal building that can only be built and used by one Civilization.
UI - Unique Improvement - A tile improvement that can be made by workers that doesn't replace any other improvement that can only be made by a single civilization
UU - Unique Unit - A replacement for a normal unit that can only be built by one Civilization or provided by militaristic City-States when allied.
Uniques - Collective name for Unique Abilities, Units, Buildings, Tile Improvements and Great People
Wide Empire - A high number of cities with a low population each.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.

Polynesia has a coastal start bias. This lets them make great use of their UA and UI.


Your units can always embark and move over ocean. Embarked units have +1 sight

+2 from fishing boats and atolls. Melee naval units can construct fishing boats

No from isolation




A melee unit



Misc Changes

• Arrives at Chivalry instead of Steel

Positive One-Off Changes

• Obsoletes at Rifling rather than Gunpowder
  
• Does not require iron

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• -15% combat strength to all adjacent enemy units(Haka War Dance)

These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Polynesian uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking


The Maori Warrior gives some advantage on offense, and your early deep ocean embarking abilities could provide some interesting offensive opportunities, but most of Polynesia's military advantages apply better on defense.
Culture is Polynesia's victory of choice, as Moais give lots of culture that translates perfectly to tourism
Moais also give a decent bit of production, and the Polynesian UA gives a good amount of food as well. About the only thing Polynesia lacks a bonus in is science though
Moais give a small amount of gold in the late game, but it ultimately isn't a big deal. Polynesia's ability to discover civs and city states across the seas gives them a decent diplomatic advantage though.
Polynesia is better then anyone at discovering ruins, and if their lucky, that could mean lots of faith for a religion without having to invest anything into shrines, although this isn't that reliable.

Being able to embark into deep ocean right from the start of the game holds 1 major and 1 minor implication for the Polynesian early game. The major implication is on your exploration, and it has a major impact. Even on your starting continent, being able to embark could save some time moving through rough terrain on the coast. But of course things start becoming much more noticeable once you are off of your starting land. You can get ruins long before other civs do. You can meet city states and get their first meeting bonuses before anyone else. You even have a great shot at meeting every civ and founding the world congress. But arguably most important of all, you can find settlement spots long before any other civ. While it is unlikely you'll be able to settle EVERY island before other civs, you can certainly get a lot of them. You don't even have to be that fast about it, since you have till the renaissance to get all the land you want before other civs can contest you.

The minor benefits to early deep sea sailing is to your military. While Polynesia lacks many military bonuses that aren't defensive in nature, they can pull off some interesting things nonetheless. You can retreat your ships and embarked units into the deep ocean when they are hurt. You can chase down other civs naval units better too, as oftentimes it is less efficient to move on the coast then it is the ocean, this is even more applicable when you're trying to chase down embarked units.



Outside of exploration, Polynesia offers a few domestic bonuses in their UA. While I would argue none of them are as impactful to Polynesian gameplay as early deep sea sailing, they all do a good job of complementing the coastal playstyle. Fishing boats are already amazing tiles in the early game, and Polynesia cranks that up a notch. That 2 food won't matter a huge amount later on, but early on it helps a ton. Of course, the big problem with sea resources is having to build a one use fishing boat to get it, however Polynesia solves that too


Above: The trireme just put down a fishing ship and yet is still around, able to put down more fishing boats in the future. Do note that you can build fishing ships before triremes, so at least for your capital buying/building a fishing ship or two isn't a terrible idea before you get sailing

The last thing you get is that your cities don't suffer unhappiness from isolation, which is caused by not being connected to your capital by road, lighthouse or trade route. This seems a minor benefit, since lighthouses are good for much more then connecting cities, and therefore you want to build them regardless. I'll get into it more later in the guide, but this is pretty useful in certain cases.

Deep sea sailing may define Polynesia as a civ at first glance, but it is really the Moai that is the core of their strategy.


Please ignore the truly monstrous yields on those fishing boats

At first glance Moais seem to give a relatively small amount of culture, at least compared to other civs that rely on improvements for a culture win. However there are two main things that give them an advantage. 1 is that Moai's gain increased culture for each Moai they are near (see the picture above for an example) and 2 is that compared to many culture improvements, the Moai has relatively lax placement requirements, merely requiring a coastal tile. With Architecture, a Moai could potentially have 8 culture, since the absolute most a Moai can be surrounded by is 5 Moais. That is of course somewhat unrealistic to have, most Moais will probably only have 2, but 5 culture is still a great amount that translates very well to tourism.

Moais also give another powerful benefit, almost of equal importance to the culture. A massive 20% combat strength bonus if your unit is within 3 tiles of the Moai. Assuming you mostly settle coastal and build Moais everywhere you can (which you should be doing anyways) you will pretty much always have this bonus on defense. Polynesia will likely have a wide, very spread out empire, which can be hard to defend. Having a defense bonus built into something you are already doing is immensely helpful.

In order to fully make use of the Moai, you want to have as much uninterrupted coastline as possible. A city on the coast is, in fact, hurting your ability to effectively use Moais. For most civs settling a city 1 title inland, especially when not on the same landmass as your capital, is a bad idea. Polynesia can get away with it however, mainly because their cities don't get isolation penalties. I wouldn't say this means you should never settle on the coast however. A general rule to follow is that if you have a coastal resource you should settle coastal, otherwise you can afford to move inland to better utilize your Moais

Polynesia already has a decently strong defense due to their Moais, the Maori Warrior gives them an extra little boost.


Above: Note the -15% combat strength on the barbarian unit

The Maori Warrior is sort of like an elephant unit, boasting significantly stronger combat strength than what it replaces, as well as reducing the combat strength of nearby units. Unlike elephant units though, the Haka War Dance promotion gives a 15% debuff instead of 10, and also carries over on promotion. This means their major benefit helps you throughout the game. They also don't require iron, making them much easier to use then their longswordsman counterpart. Maori Warriors and their upgrades should be all the defense against land units you need.

-15% combat strength to adjacent enemy units(Haka War Dance)

Polynesia should start with Progress to help build Moais efficiently. They should continue with the normal culture route of Artistry into Industry


Opener: If at all possible, try to avoid growing your capital much before you get this, you'll get more science that way. The culture you immediately get from this will likely almost be enough for the next policy

Liberty: If you don't have any worker techs yet, it might be a good idea to save this for later, otherwise this makes sure you're improving stuff and getting Moais up ASAP

Organization: Faster workers, settlers, and even great people all help infrastructure get built just a little bit faster

Expertise: Faster building construction is great, especially in the early game where production might be sparse.

Fraternity: Little bit of food and science, both good to have

Equality: You're likely to build pretty wide as Polynesia, this helps make sure happiness is not a problem

Finisher: A nice bit of gold to support whatever you need


Opener: Guilds are expensive, but very useful. Cheaper guilds and faster great people are a must for any cultural civ.

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt, just keep your guilds up

National Treasure: Extra gold from all the great people you'll have, plus an extra one for free

Humanism: Once you start building up your great works these are some solid yields

Heritage: You're going to be building plenty of wonders, get some golden ages out of them

Cultural Exchange: Mo Culture, Mo Tourism, Mo Win!

Finisher: Even more artifacts and landmarks, awesome to see


Opener: Two trade routes is good to keep up tourism bonuses

Division of Labor: Seaports and Train Stations are normally expensive buildings, but now they are in line with other buildings. Also a large boost to your production and gold outputs

Mercantilism: A large boost to your culture and science outputs. If there was something for food and faith and you'd have everything you could ever want.

Free Trade: Extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing

Entrepreneurship: Gold and production, the industry tree knows what it wants, and you do too.

Protectionism: A nice boost to your food and sciencee

Finisher: You'll have at least a few specialists, so extra production and gold from them is a good thing

Being a wide, cultural civ, Order is the obvious choice for Polynesia


Communism: You lack strong production bonuses, and there are some crucial late game culture wonders, this will help you bridge the gap.

Peace, Land, Bread: If you've been doing lots of settling, both poverty and building maintenance are probably a big drain, so this helps both problems and gives some growth

Hero of the People: More Great People are always good to have.

Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, but you are mostly here for the extra science.


Five Year Plan: Now your Moais give almost as much production as they do culture.

Dictatorship of the Proletariat: If you can get your happiness up, this is the bonus that will win you a culture victory

Cultural Revolution: Should prove a massive boost to your tourism, especially if lots of people went order


Spaceflight Pioneers: The extra science will be nice to clean up the tech tree, and great engineers being more efficient might help you snag that last good wonder

Great Leap Forward: Good to clean up the last of the tech tree.

I don't personally think any of the ancient era wonders are that great for Polynesia. I think they are better off focusing on exploration and infrastructure early on, although more power to you if you want to build one of them


Great Lighthouse: You'll probably have a widespread empire, so faster ships will allow you to defend it better


Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): Cheaper purchases will help a good bit in a wide empire, especially for purchasing a unit to help defend a far off city


Globe Theatre: Free great works, golden age points, and reduced unhappiness all in one.

Himeji Castle: Between this, Moais and Maori Warriors, you'll be nigh untouchable on land

Sistine Chapel: You'll be generating lots of culture across your empire, why not make more?

Uffizi: One of the best theming bonuses in the game, plus lots of culture


Louvre(Artistry Only): THE best theming bonus in the game, and a headstart on actually filling it

Neuschwanstein: May be a bit hard to build due to terrain, but will help a ton with happiness problems


Broadway(Industry Only): Uffizi: The Musical

Cristo Redentor: Lots of tourism, and extra tourism on what you're already building to get tourism

Kremlin(Order Only): Definitely the worst of the 3 ideology wonders, but a free policy is nothing to sneeze at


CN Tower: More Tourism from every source of tourism. Building this should seal a culture victory for you

Great Firewall: This wonder doesn't do much for you, however if someone else were to build it, a culture victory would become much harder

Polynesia actually has a pretty straightforward gameplan, but this gameplan definitely has some weaknesses that you'll need to be aware of and cover up appropriately


Polynesia is one of the only coastal inclined civs without a major advantage in naval combat. You'll need to make sure your navy is pretty strong, as you'll need to defend a large area.


It's easy to think that since you will be the only one able to access certain landmasses due to deep ocean sailing, that you don't have to worry about settling them quickly. While it is true that you have a good amount of time, other civs will get deep sea sailing eventually. If you haven't settled the majority of the land you want by the renaissance, someone is going to take it, robbing you of one of your main advantages, free choice of land.


It may be tempting to largely ignore the Maori Warrior and assume Maois will be enough to defend the land. It won't be. 20% is great but meaningless if you don't have an army to use it on. Maori Warriors and their upgrades are exactly what you need to ensure your land defense is up to par.


A bit of a long winded "don't" but basically, if you can fit a good amount of Moais in a city spot, then it is a good city spot. Anything else is just a bonus.

Polynesia is completely unrivaled in exploration, and they turn that into a strong culture game. However they fall prey to a lot of the flaws of a wide empire, even more then most wide civs.


Polynesia can embark into deep water from the beginning of the game. There isn't really much you can do to stop or counter that. However, because of this, it has a certain effect on how they build their empire that you can exploit in the mid to late game. Polynesia is going to try and settle islands that no one else can reach without deep sea sailing. This means their empire is going to be very widespread, and not the best defended, especially from the coast. If you are a strong naval civ, or even just any conqueror, Polynesia will be very vulnerable from the sea once ships can deep sea sail. Take out some of their more fringe cities, especially those that are relatively close to your own, and you'll hurt Polynesia's long term culture and tourism.

As for the other parts of Polynesia's UA, just try to steal any fishing resources you can, or otherwise just note that in a naval invasion, their's a solid chance you'll have more tiles to pillage then a lot of other civs, since Polynesia really tries to get coastal resources.


The best way to limit Polynesia's ability to use Moais is to take coastal tiles for yourself. Whether that's by settling your own cities or taking Polynesian cities is really up to you. Of course if Polynesia does get them up, and you try to invade, be wary of the 20% combat strength bonus. Try to pillage as many Moais as you can and lure the Polynesian army out of the 3 tile bonus range.


Maori Warriors are similar to elephant units, except arguably more effective in their strengths, including carrying over the debuff promotion. However their is probably a much more effective counter against them then against elephants. Ranged units. A Maori Warrior only debuffs adjacent units, and has slower movement then an elephant unit, so it won't be able to effectively chase down ranged units either.


Early-Game Warmongers: If you can strike before Polynesia can put up many Moais, they should prove absolutely no challenge. The only thing of note is that you probably won't be able to fully kill them, as they will likely have a city that you can't reach.

Mid-Game Warmongers: If possible for you to do, attack from the sea, Polynesia will be quite vulnerable. If you have to attack on land, use a combination of ranged units and mounted units (not mounted ranged units for the most part though, they will suffer the 15% combat penalty since they only have one range) ranged units can kill Maori Warriors effectively, and mounted units can pillage Moais

Late-Game Warmongers: Naval invasions are going to be even more effective now, air units will also be very useful. If you can manage to take out all or at least most of the upgraded Maori Warriors, there shouldn't be anything major stopping you from invading on land either, send in armor units to pillage, and thing should go well

Cultural Players: Polynesia is going to be a really tough one to face, as they have strong culture and a strong defense, meaning that they will be hard to culturally convert, but not easy to just invade to get around it. If you have strong production bonuses, try and deny Polynesia all the good culture wonders, you should be able to out compete their tourism in that case. If you lack production, but are an obligate cultural civ, you might need to shift gears to conquer Polynesia. On the plus side if you do manage it, your culture goals won't be lost, as you can utilize your conquered Moais as Polynesia would've

Science Players: Try to get to Astronomy fast to get a chance at some of the islands before Polynesia does. If Polynesia gets to be a bit of a problem, go for naval techs to cut them down to size.

Diplomatic Players: Their isn't a ton you can do to really hurt Polynesia other then standard anti-culture decisions like Travel Ban

These guide cover every civ in the game, and can be used as a quick reference

• Civ Summaries

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