Zigzagzigal’s Guides – Gran Colombia (GS)

Overview

Gran Colombia offers fast-paced warfare and an entirely unique type of Great Person. Here, I detail Gran Colombian strategies and counter-strategies.

Introduction

Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
• New Frontier content packs
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics – all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

Are we free? I hoped the revolution would achieve a new age of liberty, a realm of justice and glory. I saw it as a chance for the shining majesty of the New World to dispense health and life to the afflicted of the Old World. I was a fool. Old tyrants are replaced by new tyrants; a common identity short-lived in the face of factionalism, and we are left destitute. There is yet one hope – if Gran Colombia remains united, perhaps then even the distant dreams of my naive younger self may be achieved.

This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization’s unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ’s uniques are mentioned – these are not necessarily the “best” choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) – Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they’re within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining – Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) – The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires – Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires – Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GWAM – Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) – The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding – Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping – Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of “capital sniping” – taking a civ’s original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias – The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Complete information on start biases within the game can be found in the Civilizations.xml file (find the Civ 6 folder in Steam’s program files, then go through the Base, Assets, Gameplay and Data folders to find the file). DLC and Expansion civs have a similarly-named file in their corresponding folders.

Super-uniques – Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India’s Varu and Mongolia’s Keshigs.

Tall empires – Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques – Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) – A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) – A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) – A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) – A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. “UI” always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to “user interface” or “unique infrastructure”.

UU (Unique Unit) – A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires – Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

Outline (Part 1/2)

Gran Colombia has no start bias.

• All units gain +1 movement.
• Promoting a unit does not end its turn nor does it cost movement points.

• When entering a new game era, receive a free Comandante General.
  • The specific Comandante General you will receive is random, though you will never receive the same one twice in a game.

Available from the classical to future eras and does not replace anything.

• Non-competitive unlike other Great People, so other civs cannot deny you them
• Does not grant era score when earned, unlike other Great People. However, like Great Generals, grants +2 era score the first time a unit you own within two tiles scores a kill.
• Offers +5 strength to owned land military units within two tiles.
  • This stacks with the bonus offered by Great Generals.
  • This bonus is not tied to an era, unlike the Great General bonus, so it can apply to ancient-era units.
• Has a unique set of retirement bonuses.

An industrial-era light cavalry unit which replaces the Cavalry

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master’s Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have insufficient aluminium, you may continue to train Llaneros even after researching Synthetic Materials.

• Maintenance cost of 2 gold per turn, down from 5 (-60%)
• +2 strength per adjacent Llanero
• Heals to full health when a Comandante General is retired within two tiles of this unit.

Outline (Part 2/2)

*Due to conflicting adjacency bonuses, getting more food from adjacent plantations means less potential for production from adjacent Haciendas and vice versa.

*Due to conflicting adjacency bonuses, getting more food from adjacent plantations means less potential for production from adjacent Haciendas and vice versa.

Victory Skew

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type – not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.

Culture isn’t an amazing route for Gran Colombia, but they have a few handy advantages. The food, housing and production potential from Haciendas may help with wonder construction, this alone is not a huge advantage in the race for tourism. Promotions not costing movement helps Rock Bands perform more often and maximise their tourism output.

Diplomacy is a reasonable route given the good gold output from Haciendas (useful for aid emergencies) and Gran Colombia’s high mobility making it easier to reach other emergency locations.

Domination is by far Gran Colombia’s best path. The civ’s mobility is consistently strong, the unique Comandante General offers a range of combat advantages and combined with the strong Llanero unit, Gran Colombia can be a huge military threat. That’s not all – the Hacienda improvement also helps with unit maintenance by offering gold.

Despite Gran Colombia having no faith bonuses, they can still make a surprisingly good shot at religious victory thanks to their civ ability. Apostles can move to their target without needing to stop to promote, and all religious units can get where they need to be faster.

Scientific victory isn’t an amazing route for Gran Colombia, but Haciendas can help by providing a strong production output late in the game – perfect for space race projects.

Civilization Ability: Ejército Patriota

If you start on flat land, you can move your Setlter a tile, then back again with a movement point spare to found your capital. This is an easy way to uncover a few extra tiles early on.

Gran Colombia is defined by its mobility. Every single one of Gran Colombia’s units gain extra movement, and all military units can ignore the usual movement costs of promotions.

From the start of the game, you can move your starting units more than usual. While I don’t recommend moving your Settler too much (delaying settling your capital costs precious time later), it’s excellent for enabling exploration with your starting Warrior. You’ll have a better chance of reaching tribal villages and discovering city-states before other players.

It’s a good idea to train some Slingers and/or Scouts early on. Scouts are extremely mobile (especially with promotions) and can uncover land quickly, but Slingers are better-suited to defence and will soon upgrade into Archers.

When exploring new territory, it’s a good idea to move one tile at a time to ensure you don’t accidentally run into Barbarians or waste time running into a dead end (like a peninsula). Be careful with regards to which Barbarians you fight – getting involved in combat against Barbarians extremely early on can waste precious exploration time, but leaving them too long risks them attacking you with a stronger force.

As with any civ, it’s a good idea to get a Settler trained reasonably early on – after all, two cities can produce more than one. A more mobile Settler can dodge Barbarians far more effectively reducing your need for an escort, and time saved getting to a new location will allow you to develop the new city faster.

Gran Colombian Builders will also move faster, allowing them to move onto rough terrain and carry out an action in the same turn.

The movement bonuses even extend to units like Archaeologists and Rock Bands, allowing you to get tourism a bit sooner than other civs can – particularly helpful if your targets are a long way away.

Extra mobility for religious units allows them to reach targets faster and either evade theological combat or stop other civs’ units from escaping it. Few civs have a movement speed bonus that applies to religious units, giving Gran Colombia a reliable advantage here.

The Gran Colombian civ ability grants +1 movement. Add to that a Great General (for land military units) or Admiral (for naval units), and you can build up an effective +2 movement point bonus!

Even a +1 movement point advantage is very helpful. When fighting Barbarians early on, you can retreat injured units more easily – a Warrior or Slinger can cross over a hill or woodland to the other side, keeping them safe from Barbarian ranged units. All your units will also be fast enough to catch up to Barbarian Scouts, allowing you to intercept them before they return to their encampment to summon more Barbarians.

Extra movement also helps with positioning your units. Once you have the Military Tradition civic, you will be able to use flanking and support bonuses. To maximise flanking bonuses, surround an enemy with your units. To maximise support bonuses, ensure your own military units have plenty of other ones adjacent.

Once a land unit is up to 4 movement points (easily possible with a Great General), they are able to cross a river and still have a movement point remaining, or pillage and take another action in the same turn. Both these advantages make it harder for opponents to put together a good defence in time. By crossing rivers and still having movement points remaining, you can avoid the penalty for melee attacking across rivers. Pillaging and taking another action allows you to heal off a pillaged farm and get back into the fight.

Extra mobility is especially powerful for siege units, as their low base mobility and need to set up before firing usually means they have to put themselves in the firing range of a city before they can hit them. Gran Colombia can instead move in and then fire, maximising damage dealt.

No need to rest!

Normally, when military units have sufficient experience, you can promote them, healing them for 50HP and giving a permanent bonus at the cost of the rest of their turn. In more hectic situations, this can be a tricky trade-off as using a turn to heal may mean you miss an opportunity to kill an enemy unit or capture a city.

Gran Colombia avoids that problem entirely. Units can promote and get the associated heal with no movement cost whatsoever, minimising downtime and allowing you to keep fighting. This is most effective with newer units, as they will receive promotions more frequently. Combined with extra movement, this allows you to be more aggressive with your attacks and defeat foes faster.

Military units trained or purchased in a city with Governor Victor (the Castellan) present with the Embrasure promotion will receive a free promotion. While you can use the promotion right away and get stronger units to the front lines quickly, you can also consider holding onto it until the unit fights for the first time for an easy heal. This is most effective for units with melee attacks, like Llaneros.

No movement cost to promote is particularly powerful in conjunction with the Terracotta Army wonder, which provides all your military units with a free promotion. This essentially amounts to a heal for your entire military.

Promotion without a movement cost also affects Apostles, Spies and Rock Bands, as all three have their own promotion trees.

Apostles always start with a promotion and can start with a second if purchased in a city where Governor Moksha (the Cardinal) with the Patron Saint promotion is present. While they can’t earn any subsequent promotions, Gran Colombia’s civ ability is nonetheless a good time-saver when getting them on their way to where they need to be.

Spies don’t benefit from Gran Colombia’s extra movement, and can only gain three promotions, so the time saved is minimal. It’s still helpful, but marginally so.

Rock Bands gain considerably from extra movement as they need to move a lot to get between venues. Movement cost-free promotions helps to save even more time – quite handy if domination doesn’t quite work and you want to switch to a cultural game.

• Extra movement is great for exploration, flanking and escaping.
• You can promote units right away to play more aggressively, or hold on until you need an easy source of healing.

Simón Bolívar’s Leader Ability: Campaña Admirable

Simón Bolívar introduces a unique set of Great People to the game which operate similarly to Great Generals. This section will discuss what you can do with them more generally, while the Comandante General section will look at their specific retirement bonuses and how you can work around them.

You will receive your first Comandante General at the start of the classical game era. Until then, it’s a good idea to focus your efforts on expansion with Settlers, getting some Campuses built for science, getting a couple of Encampments built so you can secure a classical-era Great General and training some units (Archers, Catapults and Horsemen are good to have around).

While Great Generals can’t boost the strength of ancient-era military units, Comandante Generals can. This means that Gran Colombia can rush an opponent rather effectively with Archers once the classical game era begins. Gran Colombian Archers boosted by a Comandante General are comparable to Nubia’s Pítati Archers in speed and strength, and defend even more effectively. During such a rush, you can work towards the Machinery technology to upgrade them to Crossbowmen – with a classical/medieval era Great General and a Comandante General, Gran Colombian Crossbowmen have 4 movement points, 40 melee strength and 50 ranged strength!

The combination of Comandante Generals and Great Generals gives Gran Colombia an immense speed and strength advantage without the limitations most warmongers have. As such, Gran Colombia should continue on the warpath, taking even more cities along the way. Meanwhile, work towards Military Science on the technology tree. You may want to make some detours to Education (for extra science), Stirrups (for Knights, needed for Military Science’s eureka boost) and Cartography (if you exhaust targets in your home landmass).

In the mean-time, light cavalry units such as Horsemen and Coursers will be useful due to their huge mobility, effective pillaging capabilities and – most importantly – the fact they can be upgraded to Llaneros later. Ranged units will continue to be great for dealing with enemy units and cities. Things get a bit complicated with regard to siege units, as Catapults are the only ones unlocked on the way to Military Science. You may have to rely on promoted Crossbowmen to deal with city walls.

Unlike other Great People, Comandante Generals do not grant +1 era score when earned. However, as with Great Generals and Admirals, they do grant +2 era score the first time a unit within their radius scores a kill.

To make the most of this bonus, consider keeping newer Comandante Generals at home until you want to gain a lot of era score at once. For Comandante Generals you intend to retire, consider using them to kill one unit first.

• Comandante Generals pair nicely with Archers, Catapults and Horsemen for early rushes.
• Comandante Generals and Great Generals together offer a huge strength advantage.
• Gran Colombia can get a little extra era score by scoring kills near Comandante Generals for the first time.

Simón Bolívar’s Unique Great Person: Comandante General

With the general bonuses of Comandante Generals covered in the section on Simón Bolívar’s leader ability, it’s time to look more specifically at what each one can do! Just as every Great General has a unique retirement bonus, every Comandante General does as well. However, unlike Great Generals, Comandante Generals aren’t tied to specific eras and are granted in a random order every game.

Below, I’m listing each Comandante General in alphabetical order, but remember you won’t get all of them in a game, and not at the same time in each game. Always be sure to keep at least one around for the strength and mobility bonuses.

Retirement Bonus: Instantly creates the strongest unit you can train based on melee strength, or ranged strength if it’s higher. This unit receives a free promotion. This unit requires no resource maintenance.

This retirement bonus is most effective when activated after beelining a military technology like Military Science, as it can result in you receiving a unit with a huge strength advantage over opponents. It also circumvents the need to unlock a specific strategic resource to use a unit, allowing you to get an Infantry unit without unlocking Refining first, for example, or a Helicopter without Radio. A free Giant Death Robot with Robotics is also a handy late-game military edge.

Still, this is one of the weaker retirement bonuses on the whole, so I’d recommend keeping this Comandante General in most cases unless you really need a heal for Llanero units. Any military advantage granted is fairly short-lived.

Retirement Bonus: +1 trade route capacity and receive a free Trader in the nearest city.

A handy economic boost, especially earlier in the game. Trading with a city-state can be a safe way to secure some extra gold for unit maintenance, or internal trade can help get weaker cities to a better state.

Retirement Bonus: Grants a Governor title.

A versatile bonus depending on what you spend the Governor title on, though a reliable use is to gain an extra Governor for sustaining loyalty pressure on freshly-captured cities. Later in the game, an extra title becomes a bit less useful as you will have already unlocked the most relevant bonuses.

Retirement Bonus: Grants +1 promotion level to a military land unit and gold equal to 50% of the unit’s purchase cost.

An extra promotion is largely more effective the more promoted a unit already is, as each subsequent promotion requires more experience to unlock. That being said, this is one of the less effective retirement bonuses on the whole, so consider keeping this Comandante General around.

Retirement Bonus: All cavalry units within 2 tiles gain a permanent +4 strength bonus.

A very powerful bonus! You can potentially get up to 18 units buffed with this strength boost, but keep in mind that can take a long time to set up. Even getting 10 units boosted will give you a great advantage – particularly with Llanero units, which are strong already.

Retirement Bonus: Enemy units within 2 tiles lose 30HP

Best-used against stronger enemy units as it’s a flat 30HP health penalty regardless of enemy strength. Could be helpful in situations where your Llaneros are mixed up with enemy units, as you can heal yourself while huring enemies at the same time. This is a bit of a niche retirement bonus on the whole, so keep this Comandante General around until an ideal situation arises.

Retirement Bonus: Permanent +7 strength to a land military unit on this tile.

Provides you with a super-unit! This stronger unit will make an excellent escort for Great Generals or Comandante Generals, and if you can combine José Antonio Páez’s strength bonus on top, that’s an incredible +11 bonus.

Retirement Bonus: Units within 2 tiles gain +4 strength permanently when attacking cities.

Particularly effective when used on siege units, but honestly helpul for whichever military units receive it. Be sure to pack as many units close to this Comandante General as possible for the biggest bonus.

Retirement Bonus: All land combat units within 2 tiles regain all movement and attack capability, as if they had just started a new turn.

This is most helpful when used in conjunction with a large force of Llaneros, as they will also heal to full health allowing them to deal maximum damage in their new attack. It’s also helpful for land ranged units with the Expert Marksman promotion or heavy cavalry with the Breakthrough promotion for some extra damage.

Retirement Bonus: +4 strength permanently to all melee infantry and anti-cavalry units within two tiles.

Llaneros can be vulnerable to enemy anti-cavalry units. If an enemy is relying heavily on them, you might want to use a few melee infantry units of your own. Your mobility bonuses will make it easy to catch them, and with this strength bonus, you’ll finish them off quickly.

Still, if you’re in a situation where you have little need for melee infantry or anti-cavalry units, it might be best to hang onto this Comandante General for the strength bonus or to heal Llaneros.

The best Comandante Generals to retire are Antonio Nariño, Francisco de Paula Santander, José Antonio Páez, Manuel Piar and Mariano Montilla – though if you’re in need of era score, it’s a good idea to use them to help defeat an enemy unit first. Others are generally best-kept for niche situations where their retirement bonuses would make the biggest impact.

Unique Improvement: Hacienda

Haciendas are a handy versatile unique improvement that support a city’s food, housing and production needs while providing some gold on top. While they arrive late as unique improvements go, extra gold will still be useful for later warfare.

To unlock Haciendas, you need the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic. Before then, it’s useful to pick up Divine Right for the Chivalry policy card (allowing you to train Llaneros faster) and/or Mercenaries for Professional Army (halving the gold cost of unit upgrades, allowing you to upgrade light cavalry to Llaneros more cheaply).

Getting to Mercantilism quickly isn’t a key priority for Gran Colombia, so don’t feel the need to neglect other useful civics if you need them.

Get some Builders trained ahead of Mercantilism (preferably with the Serfdom policy card for extra build charges) so you can build plenty of Haciendas and get their best bonuses sooner. You may have to also remove existing tile improvements for more yields.

Initially, Haciendas are largely useful for their gold yield and their housing comparable to farms. Extra housing means you can cut back on your use of farms in favour of more production while the gold helps with military unit maintenance. Surrounding Haciendas with other Haciendas boosts production somewhat, and can put them on par with regular mines, but this isn’t an immense advantage. The food yields from adjacent plantations aren’t huge either – you’ll generally not get more than 1 point of food here.

That’s not to say the tile improvement is bad, however – a bit of food and production makes it a tile worth working allowing you to make use of the gold on top. Contrast this with Scythia’s Kurgans, for example, which can generate a decent amount of gold but have no food or production bonuses to help support the city working them.

The Replaceable Parts technology boosts the food Haciendas receive from adjacent plantations. It won’t put them close to the food yields farms will now be able to generate, but given city growth costs precious amenities you’ll need to support conquests, that isn’t too much of a problem.

Things get much better with the atomic-era Rapid Deployment civic. Haciendas surrounded by others will be up to an impressive +6 production yield, as well as the gold and housing. This production advantage will help make up for Llaneros fading in effectiveness around this time, though be warned that large open areas covered with Llanero improvements are prone to droughts.

Haciendas allow your cities to produce more gold without suffering from a substantial loss of production, housing or food, allowing your empire to more easily afford the cost of supporting and purchasing more military units. In the atomic era, they also become a great source of production in their own right.

Unique Unit: Llanero

Very fast and very strong, few can stand up to the sheer power of Llaneros – except perhaps for city fortifications.

Llaneros require the industrial-era Military Science technology. Once you’re done with key early technologies like Writing, Archery, Currency and so forth, it’s a good idea to work towards Machinery (for Crossbowmen) and then Military Science. While technologies are more expensive to research when they’re from a later era than the current game era, you can still unlock Llaneros a fair bit before other civs unlock Cavalry, giving you an immense strength advantage.

Llaneros also require horses to be trained, but early conquests should secure you with at least some if you don’t have some in your territory already. Thankfully, their gold maintenance cost is low so you don’t need to worry too much about having a huge gold income to cover them (and soon enough Haciendas will help with that).

It’s a good idea to train some Horsemen or Coursers ahead of time so you can immediately upgrade them to Llaneros once Military Science is unlocked. Also, keep an eye on Great Generals – you’ll want one for the renaissance or industrial era.

Once Military Science is unlocked, it’s a good idea to also research Metal Casting for Bombard units, as they’re far more effective against city defences than Llaneros are. Refining (to reveal oil) and Steel (for Artillery, which require oil) don’t require that many more technologies.

As light cavalry units, Llaneros can ignore zone of control. This makes them excellent at slipping around enemy units and cities to flank them and to put them under siege respectively. With Grand Colombia’s civ ability and a Great General, Llaneros are up to a massive 7 movement points per turn, so you can very easily surround foes.

That being said, surrounding a foe isn’t always the best option to maximise damage as Llaneros gain even more strength from having adjacent other Llaneros than they do from flanking (at least, without the Double Envelopment promotion). Sometimes both is possible, though this often requires positioning Llaneros where they can’t fight. As such, consider your specific situation carefully:

• Try to surround cities (to put them under siege and stop them healing) and stronger units you don’t want to escape.
• Try to maximise Llanero strength bonuses against weaker units (to minimise the damage you take)

Light cavalry units with the Depredation promotion can pillage for just one movement point. For Grand Colombia, this allows you to pillage as many as four tile improvements in one turn, or to pillage a couple of districts. Pillaging farms or Entertainment Complexes is a great source of health. Improvements are easily replaced once you capture a city, though districts can be more costly to replace. Still, it’s worth going after Campuses for science, and Theatre Squares for culture.

Retiring any Comandante General heals Llaneros up to two tiles away up to full health. This most helpful when there’s a lot of well-promoted injured Llaneros, as they will take a long time to get to their next promotion to heal up. A situation where you’re likely to have a lot of Llaneros in range is when you’re sieging down a city.

Don’t over-use this ability, as you only have so many Comandante Generals available, and if you use your last one, you’ll lose a precious +5 strength bonus. On the whole, I’d recommend having at least two Comandante Generals around so you always have a backup one.

An incomplete example.

By combining Comandante General retirement bonuses with Llaneros, you can make an even stronger force…

• Start with a Llanero (62 strength) and make it into an army (79 strength)
• Add a Great General (84 strength)
• Add the strength bonus of José Antonio Páez (88 strength)
• Add the Fascism government or legacy card (93 strength)
• Add five adjacent Llaneros (103 strength)
• Add the strength bonus of Manuel Piar (110 strength)

Everything up to the Fascism government bonus can be applied to up to 18 Llanero armies – add Mariano Montilla as well and they’ll have 98 strength against cities, plus more with adjacent Llaneros. The maximum strength here exceeds many information-era units!

Llaneros are strong, fast and tough for opponents to stop. Still, it’s worth upgrading them to Helicopters once you reach the Synthetic Materials technology as they’re even stronger than a Llanero unit with six adjacent Llaneros. The higher gold maintenance cost can be covered by your Hacienda improvements.

• Llaneros are great against units, when pillaging and when against unfortified cities, but need siege support to handle city walls – Bombards and Artillery are ideal.
• Consider carefully if it’s better to flank an enemy or maximise the Llanero adjacency strength bonus.
• Retire Comandante Generals near large numbers of injured promoted Llaneros if you want to make the most of the heal, and don’t retire too many.

Administration – Government and Policy Cards

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ’s uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.

Oligarchy‘s experience bonus makes it useful for Gran Colombia as you can enjoy the easy heal from promotions more easily. However, its legacy card isn’t useful for the types of units Gran Colombia tends to rely on. Autocracy is a reasonable alternative – while the wonder-building bonus is fairly niche, the Government Plaza bonuses help speed up Gran Colombia’s start.

Choose the Warlord’s Throne for an easy production bonus from conquests.

Monarchy is the fastest tier two government to unlock, and comes at the same civic as the Chivalry policy card (required to train Llaneros faster).

The Grand Master’s Chapel is a good Government Plaza building as Llaneros are especially effective at pillaging, and conquests will provide you with a lot of faith that you might not otherwise have a use for. The Intelligence Agency is a fair alternative if you lack faith to spare – promotions with no movement cost means your Spies will save a little bit of time.

Fascism‘s strength bonus combines with Comandante Generals for an even bigger strength advantage.

Use the War Department to score health from kills, allowing you to play even more aggressively.

If you don’t mind the loss of science, Corporate Libertarianism comes with a handy versatile production bonus which builds on late Hacienda yields nicely.

Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmanship) – Rushing Archers and bringing along a Comandante General is an effective way to start the game with Gran Colombia.

Conscription (Military, requires State Workforce) – Helps you support the cost of an early rush with Archers, Catapults, Horsemen or the like.

Manoeuvre (Military, requires Military Tradition) – Training Horsemen now means you can upgrade them to Coursers or Llaneros later for an immediate strength advantage.

Strategos (Wildcard, requires Military Tradition) – Securing an early Great General gives Gran Colombia a huge strength advantage over other civs.

Survey (Military, requires Code of Laws) – If you’re using recon units for early exploration, more experience will mean they’ll get to their first promotion sooner and move even faster.

Raid (Military, requires Military Training) – 50% improved pillaging yields – rather handy when you have light cavalry with the the Depredation promotion as they can pillage for cheap.

Chivalry (Military, requires Divine Right) – Allows you to train Coursers and Llaneros faster.

Professional Army (Military, requires Mercenaries) – Upgrading Horsemen or Coursers to Llaneros can be expensive, but this policy card halves that cost.

Serfdom (Economic, requires Feudalism) – Training Builders ahead of time with the boost from the Serfdom policy card means you’ll be ready to build plenty of Haciendas once you research the Mercantilism civic.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) – Build on your mobility advantage even further! Builders will be able to cross rivers and perform an action in the same turn, or go onto a forested hilltop and remove the foliage in the same turn, while military units can catch up to your Great General-boosted units more easily.

Force Modernisation (Military, requires Urbanisation) – Saves gold upgrading units to Llaneros.

Native Conquest (Military, requires Colonialism) – If you successfully beelined Military Science, you may have more advanced units than other civs and hence can make a fair amount of gold out of this policy card.

Public Works (Economic, requires Civil Engineering) – Helps you build more Haciendas.

Total War (Military, requires Scorched Earth) – Boosts pillage yields; particularly handy for light cavalry like Llaneros.

Levee en Masse (Military, requires Mobilisation) – Llanero units are now free to maintain – though Llanero corps and armies will not be.

After Action Reports (Military, requires Rapid Deployment) – Faster experience means more promotions, and more opportunities to heal.

Integrated Attack Logistics (Wildcard, requires Information Warfare) – An even better mobility advantage in enemy territory.

Administration – Age Bonuses and World Congress

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ’s uniques are covered here.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) – Builders can move at a rate of 5 tiles per turn (6 with the Logistics military policy card), allowing them to cross a river onto rough terrain and still have a movement point remaining. You can also use any faith you might accumulate from your conquests to help develop your growing empire.

Twilight Valour (Dark Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) – This Dark Age wildcard might stop your units from healing via being idle, but it doesn’t prevent healing from promotions, which is a key source of health for new Gran Colombian units. As such, you can enjoy the great +5 attack bonus without suffering too much of a downside.

Letters of Marque (Dark Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) – Naval raiders usually suffer from low movement, but with Gran Colombia’s civ ability and this Dark Age wildcard, they can keep pace with their enemies – or avoid being caught when raiding.

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Industrial eras) – Cross oceans lightning-fast!

Elite Forces (Dark Age, Industrial to Information eras) – Haciendas can help cover the downside. Fast experience gain means you can more frequently promote units for easy healing.

How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game – if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here’s a list of key votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Military Advisory – Effect A (Units of the chosen land promotion class gain +5 strength) on ranged land, light cavalry or siege units.

Generally, these three classes of military units are the ones Gran Colombia will be using the most; light cavalry due to the Llanero unit, and the others because they gain considerably from Gran Colombia’s bonus mobility.

Administration – Pantheons, Religion and City-States

God of the Forge – Helps you speed up early rushes.

Goddess of Festivals – Haciendas are most effective adjacent to plantations, and this pantheon boosts plantation yields.

You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) – Gran Colombian religious units will have a huge mobility advantage with this belief.

Kabul (Militaristic) – An ideal city-state for Gran Colombia, doubled experience gain means you can enjoy more frequent healing for your units.

Wolin (Militaristic) – Helps you secure Great Generals without needing to spend production on Encampments.

Administration – Wonders and Great People

Pyramids (Ancient era, Masonry technology) – More build charges will be very useful once Haciendas come available, as you’ll need to build a lot quickly for their best yields.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) – Gives you an even greater mobility advantage on the seas.

Terracotta Army (Classical era, Construction technology) – Potentially incredibly powerful for Gran Colombia, as it essentially amounts to a free heal for your entire military as well as making all your units stronger.

Alhambra (Medieval era, Castles technology) – Gran Colombia can benefit from a lot of military policy cards, so having an extra slot will come in handy.

Meenakshi Temple (Medieval era, Civil Service civic) – Extend your movement speed advantage for religious units even further!

Taj Mahal (Renaissance era, Humanism civic) – The first time a Comandante General aids in defeating an enemy unit, you will gain two era score – or three with the Taj Mahal wonder.

Comandante Generals are covered in their appropriate section earlier in the guide. They are unlocked in a random order each game rather than being tied to a specific era.

Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.

Hanno the Navigator (Great Admiral) – Grants you a ridiculously fast naval melee unit; excellent for exploration.

Bi Sheng (Great Engineer) – Printing is on the way to Military Science, and has a eureka that can be hard to pick up in time without the use of this Great Person.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) – Combined with Gran Colombia’s mobility advantage, Leif Erikson can give you a huge advantage to exploration over seas.

Horatio Nelson (Great Admiral) – Increases naval flanking bonuses. Combined with Gran Colombia’s extra mobility, you can more easily maximise your damage output.

Napoleon Bonaparte (Great General) – Being able to form an early army can make an incredibly strong Llanero force.

Rani Lakshmibai (Great General) – A bonus free Llanero unit.

Georgy Zhukov (Great General) – Extra flanking bonuses works nicely with Gran Colombia’s movement point bonuses.

Counter-Strategies

Gran Colombia is fast and strong in war-time, and can be a considerable threat – especially in the industrial era.

As all of Gran Colombia’s units have more mobility, they’re harder to catch if they’re injured or retreating. Using cavalry of your own isn’t a bad idea, as you’ll be able to keep up with their slower units, and won’t be too disadvantaged against their faster ones.

Try to target one unit at a time where possible so you can kill them and prevent Gran Colombia getting an easy heal from promoting them. If you don’t think you’ll be able to kill a Gran Colombian unit in a turn, try to target one that’s just been promoted or has a high promotion level as it’ll have little opportunity to heal before the next turn.

Simón Bolívar receives essentially a special Great General for free every game era – except for the ancient game era, and minus the speed boost. As such, if you start near Gran Colombia, you can mark out the exact amount of time until they’ll have their big strength advantage. Consider weakening them with a rush to save yourself trouble later.

The main limitation of the Comandante General is that it only applies for units within its radius. As such, the best way to bypass the troublesome strength bonus is to attack Gran Colombia from more than one direction. Ensure your angles of attack aren’t too close as otherwise they’ll easily be able to move their fast military to combat both threats.

A computer-controlled Simón Bolívar likes to build up Encampments and promote units. He’ll like civs with highly-promoted units and dislike those without.

A careful warmonger with some kind of advantage to gaining experience will do well here – Nubian ranged units, Zulu Impis, Inca Warak’aq units and American P-51 Mustangs are good examples of units that are particularly effective at this. Meanwhile, civs that de-emphasise warfare will struggle to meet this agenda.

Llaneros are tough units to face given their enormous strength bonuses, so it’s best to stop them before they start, such as pre-emptively invading Gran Colombia

If you can’t stop them, then trying to catch out individual ones with massed Pike and Shot units can be effective. With the Square promotion, Pike and Shot units can provide a strong support bonus to each other making them stand up moderately well to the power of Llaneros.

Haciendas arrive quite late in the game as unique improvements go, so will generally have a smaller impact than Gran Colombia’s other uniques. You can pillage them for easy health when fighting in Gran Colombian lands.

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