Overview
A guide on how to play Brazil with the Vox Populi(Community Balance Patch) mod. Brazil is probably the strongest tourism civ in the game, and can make some good money on the side as well.
Introduction
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 Brazilians!
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.
Brief Unique Summary
When a 
+25%
A recon unit
Compass
Medieval Era
Rocketry
Atomic Era
Scout
(80
)
Zeppelin
(500
)
- +25% yields from ancient ruins(Treasure Hunter)
- May cross oceans before astronomy(Ocean Explorer)
- Gains xp from revealing tiles(Reconnaissance)
- Gain
&
- +33% combat strength against barbarians(Brute Force)
- Ignores terrain cost
- Unit will heal every turn even if it performs an action. Can use enemy roads/railroads(Survivalism III)
- +2 sight while embarked(Extra Sight While Embarked)
- Can build Mines, Quarries, Brazilwood Camps, and Forts in owned territory
Negative Changes
Does not have the Embarkation With Defense promotion
Positive One-Off Changes
- Higher
- Obsoletes at Rocketry rather than Steam Power
- Can build Mines, Quarries, Brazilwood Camps, and Forts in owned territory
Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes
- Unit will heal every turn even if it performs an action. Can use enemy roads/railroads(Survivalism III)
- Gain
Calendar
Ancient Era
Physics
Medieval Era
Acoustics
Renaissance Era
Radio
Modern Era
Jungle tile
adjacent to a
luxury resource,
and not adjacent
to another
Brazilwood Camp
- Provides a copy
of the
Brazilwood
Luxury Resource.
Brazilwood gives
+1
as +2
if you have a monopoly
on Brazilwood.
The Hexxon Refineries
Corporation
also gives
Brazilwood +1
- Physics
+2 - Acoustics
+2 - Radio
+2
*+6
**The maximum yields, or any yields, is more realistically increased by 1
Strategies and Victory Routes
These scores are merely my personal opinions from playing and examining this Civ, you may find other uses for the Brazilian uniques that make you disagree with a certain ranking
OffenseDefenseCultureTourismScience
/
Growth/ProductionGold
Diplomacy
Religion
Brazil doesn’t really have any military advantages, but their UA allows them to go on much longer wars without stopping due to unhappiness.
Brazil has incredible culture, culture that translates into tourism, and great tourism from other ways. A Culture victory is the ideal route for Brazil.
The Brazilian UU generates a pretty strong amount of science, and their jungle start can give a bit of extra science too. Science can be a good backup, but between their lack of growth/production and their advantages towards culture, I wouldn’t say they excel at it.
Brazil’s UA gives a great amount of gold, and their UI gives a bit of gold too. They lack any real advantage towards diplomacy though.
Finally, Brazil has no religious bonuses, but can afford to build shrines early on at least.
Unique Improvement: Brazilwood Camp
The first thing that you notice about the vast majority of civilizations in Civ V is something to do with their UA, but with Brazil, the Brazilwood Camp will likely be in effect before the UA is. Brazilwood Camps have some of the strictest placement requirements of any improvement. It’s similar to the French UI in that in needs to be next to a luxury resource and they can’t be built next to each other. It’s even more strict however, in requiring a forest or jungle. It is very important to claim any possible Brazilwood Camp spots you see in your initial scouting.
Compared to most other UIs, which tend to give several types of yields, the Brazilwood Camp is very focused on what yields it gives. It does give some gold, but the main reason you will want Brazilwood Camps is for the culture it gives. A massive 8 culture come the modern era, assuming you still have the monopoly on Brazilwood. Not only is this helping you get an edge on social policies early on, this translates to a ton of tourism, more then any other improvement, possibly even more then what landmarks are giving in the modern era at least.
While the yields of Brazilwood should be considered as part of the Brazilwood Camp, it is good to note that this is an extra guaranteed luxury. It will provide a bit of extra happiness and also some trading opportunities. It’s a small thing considering everything else that both the Brazilwood camp and Brazil’s other uniques give, but it’s still nice.
Unique Ability: Carnival
The Brazilian UA is one of the more complicated, and somewhat poorly explained UAs in the game, but despite that, it is very strong. The way a golden age works is that whenever you accumulate enough golden age points (generated from excess happiness or other unique sources) you get a golden age for several turns. The cost increases each time a golden age spawns, and there are certain wonders and other ways to instantly start a golden age, which is done by instantly giving you enough golden age points to start it. For Brazil, whenever a Golden Age begins, they gain a lump sum of gold and tourism equal to 40% of the cost of the golden age
A good thing to note is that you will still get the lump sum even if you “start” a golden age while another one is already going on, so you don’t have to worry about it.
Another thing that occurs during a golden age for Brazil is that their cities enter Carnival. But what is Carnival? It actually replaces the normal “we love the king day(WLTKD)” and can be triggered through any other method of starting WLTKD. In addition to the normal benefits, Carnival increases culture by 25% and reduces unhappiness from needs by 50%. The extra culture is very strong, and combined with their UI makes Brazil one of the strongest culture generating civs in the game, but I think that the happiness bonus is much more important. The more happiness you have relative to your unhappiness, the more golden age points you’ll be generating, which means you have more golden ages which means, for Brazil, more gold and tourism. Keep an eye on what luxuries your cities want as well as what other civs are trading, and you should be able to consistently keep at least a few cities always in carnival.
Rio has a lot of tea here. We thinking a Chinese or Japanese style of Carnival, or are we feeling British?
Unique Unit: Bandeirante
Can I just say I love this unit model?
Bandeirantes are an interesting unit. For one they don’t really serve a military role, offensively or defensively, at least for the most part, unlike pretty much every other UU. Secondly, they don’t especially synchronize with Brazil’s other uniques. However that’s not to say they are useless, in fact they give some great benefits, largely due to one promotion. Flag Bearers. This gives 3 culture, science and gold for every tile they uncover. Considering even a duel map has 960 tiles, the math checks out to be… a lot of yields. Even on a duel map that’s easily enough science for at least one tech and social policy, and the potential only grows as the map size does. Usually whenever you finish scouting enough to find nearby settlement spots and neighbors you just put your scout(s) on auto-explore, but with Brazil that is wasting yields. Once you find all the spots you want to settle, take that scout back home until compass, then send him out once upgraded. In fact, it’s probably worth building 3 or 4 Bandeirantes so you can scout faster because the science and culture will more more valuable early on as techs and policies are cheaper.
Bandeirantes do have a few more minor bonuses as well. First off they start with Survivalism III which lets them regenerate every turn even if they take an action. This, along with their higher strength, lets them handle any barbarians they encounter better. Survivalism III also let’s them use enemy roads/railroads. This is somewhat useful for exploration as even with open borders, they are still considered “enemy” roads, but this has some use in war too. A Bandeirante can slip into enemy borders, move very fast, and pillage a lot of tiles and just be a nuisance.
The other small bonus they get is they can build quarries, mines, Brazilwood Camps, and forts in your territory. This isn’t a very big deal as they are much more useful out exploring, but once that’s done, they do move faster then workers, and can defend themselves, so they are technically better then workers for building those things. They certainly don’t replace workers though as they can’t build everything
- Unit heals every turn, even if it performed an action. Can use enemy roads/railroads(Survivalism III)
- Gains Culture, Gold and Science whenever the unit discovers a tile(Flag Bearers)
Unless you really want to keep them around for building, upgrade Bandeirantes if they happen to come into your territory while exploring.
Social Policies
Brazil takes a standard Culture route of Tradition into Artistry and then finishing with Industry
Opener: The extra population will help you get more production to build early wonders
Justice: The early production will further help wonder building
Sovereignty: Border expansion is nice, plus this is some artist generation for early tourism, and potentially some golden age points in the late game.
Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs, as well as limit the downtime between having the techs to build wonders
Splendor: I always recommend going Splendor before Majesty because Splendor can give a good amount of culture, getting you to finishing tradition quicker. Oh yeah, and also some golden age points.
Majesty: You’ll probably have a good amount of GWAM specialists, so this helps prevent growth from getting too stumped
Finisher: Get a bit more use out of your great person improvements, and the throne room is a good overall boost in the capital
Opener: Guilds are normally expensive, but very useful for a culture game. The faster Great People rate is nice too.
Humanism: The yields on all great works is nice, but it’s best for literature as those give golden age points
Refinement: Happiness is golden age points
Heritage: You’re going to be building plenty more wonders, get some golden ages out of them
National Treasure: Extra gold from all the great people you’ll have, plus an extra one for free
Cultural Exchange: Mo Culture, Mo Tourism, Mo Win!
Finisher: Because Golden Ages should generate more tourism
Opener: Seaports and Train Stations are normally expensive buildings, but now they are in line with other buildings
Division of Labor: A large boost to your production and gold outputs
Free Trade: Faster Great Merchants, plus extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing
Entrepreneurship: Gold and production, the industry tree knows what it wants, and you do too. Even a small bit of happiness. Joy!
Mercantilism: A good bit of extra science and culture. Who ever said Industry was just gold and production? Wait a minute…
Protectionism: 2 more trade routes is a little more opportunity for the odd amount of tourism. The extra Carnival yields is pretty nice too.
Finisher: Little bit of yields, plus even more happiness.
Ideology
Freedom is an easy choice due to Brazil’s focus on Golden Ages.
Urbanization: Your jungle heavy cities might have been struggling to grow if they had a lot of Brazilwood Camps, but now they should thrive.
Avant Garde: You’ll soon be making the final tourism push, you’ll want to squeeze out as many GWAMs as you can.
Creative Expression: Make your great works work as hard as your Brazilwood Camps towards tourism
Civil Society: Little bit of extra growth, why not?
Universal Sufferage: A free golden ages, longer golden ages, and more happiness to get more golden ages. Awesome
Capitalism: Will help with the large amounts of specialists you likely have
Transnationalism: Corporate franchises actually increase Tourism towards the civ you found them in, so getting a few extra will help
Media Culture: This will push your Tourism over the edge and you should be able to convert even high culture civs, at least with a musician or two to back you up.
Treaty Organization: Having some pull in the World Congress is good to prevent really bad policies like Travel Ban from passing.
Wonders
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: An early Carnival, plus is makes them better for whatever city you build this in.
Pyramids: A free settler is great, but you’re here for the golden age points
Great Library: A hard wonder to get, but a free tech is great and the writing slots are solid.
Parthenon: A free great work, plus a bit of culture and science
Notre Dame: A free golden age, all you could ever want.
University of Sankore(Tradition Only): A little bit of science from all those great people
Chichen Itza: Longer golden ages and a little less unhappiness so you can get more golden ages.
Globe Theatre: A must have wonder for Brazil.
Leaning Tower of Pisa: More GWAMs, and great people in general is good for any cultural civ
Sistine Chapel: You already generate a ton of culture, so multiply it even more
Taj Mahal: Free golden age, golden age points, even a few extra yields, this is a great wonder for Brazil
Uffizi: A more conventional culture wonder for more conventional tourism
Louvre(Artistry Only): Tons of tourism, enough said.
Neuschwanstein: May be tricky to build due to placement requirements, but happiness, I think you get where I’m going by now.
Broadway(Industry Only): Like the Uffizi, but for music
Cristo Redentor: Lots of tourism from things you’re already building to get tourism, an essential wonder for any culture game
Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): The production is really nice as Brazil really lacks it, and the social policy is awesome too.
CN Tower: More Tourism from every normal source of Tourism.
Great Firewall: Not actually very useful for Brazil, you want it to deny anyone else it as this will make a culture win much harder if someone else, especially someone with high culture builds it
Sydney Opera House: Can’t say no to some last minute culture yeah?
Pitfalls to Avoid
In order to make the most of Brazil, you need to be active in how you use your uniques, otherwise they might go to waste, leaving you with very little.
Carnival gives a large sum of tourism that has nothing to do with your tourism generation. However, you can’t win the game off of it alone. You still need to keep up with conventional tourism in order to win.
Getting luxuries is important for both aspects of your UA. More luxuries means you have more happiness which means you get golden ages more often, which means more carnival. Trading for luxury resources to trigger WLTKD is also important, as while the goal is to trigger golden ages as often as possible, there will still be some downtime where your cities aren’t in carnival, which is wasted culture, and means your cities are more unhappy, meaning golden ages take longer.
Your Jungle start bias gives you some minor protection in the early game, but it won’t stop a dedicated warmonger. Probably the best use of the money you get from Carnival is to purchase a military, but do build more if you need to. Doesn’t matter how happy or well developed your cities are if they aren’t yours.
Brazil is a tall civ, no question about that, but Brazilwood camps have some decently strict placement requirements, and you’ll want to get as many spots that can build them as you can. The reduced unhappiness from carnival means you can actually build somewhat wide and be nowhere near unhappy, although don’t overdo it, as you still want to get golden ages frequently.
Brazilwood Camps are important to build, but they need to be next to a luxury and not eachother, as well as in a forest/jungle. You don’t have to keep around any forests/jungles that you can’t build Brazilwood Camps on. Judge those tiles like you would any other civ.
Once you have done enough scouting to know your closest neighbors, city states, and potential city spots, pull back your scouts. The more tiles you uncover, the less yields you’ll get from Bandeirantes.
It can feel easy to ignore Bandeirantes because they don’t help much in combat, nor do they directly help tourism. However the potential yields Bandeirantes can give are fantastic, and while you don’t need more gold and culture(although it certainly doesn’t hurt) the science is very important. You can’t build important wonders without their techs after all, and you need every advantage in getting them due to your lack of production.
Bandeirantes are great units, but they don’t offer much in combat. If you try to make an army out of them, they won’t hold up to pretty much anything renaissance, and even a lot of medieval units.
Ransacking Rio: Counter Strategies
Brazil is one of the strongest cultural civs in the game, and have a surprisingly strong economy and even good science that makes them in theory pretty flexible. However, they most certainly have weaknesses to exploit
The best way to hurt Carnival is to deny Brazil luxury resources. Don’t trade with Brazil, and settle spots that you can near Brazil with luxuries. This prevents them from getting carnival in their cities, both because they can’t improve them themselves, but also because they have less to trade to other civs, and it also gives them less happiness, so therefore less golden age points.
Similar to their UA, the best way to counter Brazilwood Camps is just to deny Brazil territory where they can build it. Take up any luxury resource spots near jungle or forest, and they won’t be able to build many Brazilwood Camps.
Bandeirantes can give Brazil a large amount of yields, so the best way to deal with them is to kill them. They don’t have embarkation with defense, so they are very vulnerable to ships. Park several ships around Brazil’s coast, and declare war if you see any come into the water. Of course there’s a good chance they got some out before you had a chance to build a navy, so there isn’t a ton you can do if they are already exploring, unless you get lucky and run into them during your own exploration, but it is still worth it if you can kill some, the slower they explore the less useful their science and culture is. Do be prepared for a Brazilian response if you neighbor them though. They likely won’t have a large military when you declare war, but they can purchase one pretty quick.
The Aztecs with their Jaguar warriors, can easily invade Brazil with their jungle start, well before they get their first lump sum of gold from a golden age. In fact, since both the Aztecs and Brazil have a jungle start, there is a solid chance they start near each other, making the matchup even worse for Brazil.
Warmongers: Brazil is no bigger threat militarily at the beginning of the game then they are at the end, but that’s not to say they are a complete pushover. Brazil will probably have a good nest egg of cash to build up a quick defense force, but it will be a very basic army.
Cultural Players: Brazil has strong tourism and culture, and will probably be the last person you culturally influence. However, Brazil lacks production bonuses, so most cultural civs should be able to beat Brazil to the important wonders.
Scientific Players: Consider stealing any wonder that gives some sort of Golden Age bonus, like Notre Dame or Taj Mahal, and that will hurt Brazil a decent bit.
Diplomatic Players: A sanction will deny Brazil happiness and carnivals. Standard anti-cultural things like Travel Ban will also hurt them a lot.
Other Guides
- Arabia (Culture/Science)
- Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
- Babylon (Science)
- Byzantium (All)
- Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
- China (Domination/Culture)
- Denmark (Domination)
- Egypt (Culture)
- England (Domination/Diplomacy)
- Ethiopia (Science)
- Germany (Diplomacy/Science)
- Greece (Domination/Diplomacy/Culture)
- The Huns (Domination)
- The Inca (Science/Domination)
- India (Science/Culture)
- Indonesia (Domination/Culture/Science)
- The Iroquois (Domination)
- Japan (Domination/Culture)
- Korea (Science/Domination)
- The Maya (Science/Domination)
- Mongolia (Domination)
- Morocco (Culture/Diplomacy)
- The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination)
- The Ottomans (Domination/Science)
- Poland (Domination)
- Polynesia (Culture)
- Rome (Domination/Science)
- Russia (Science/Domination)
- The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
- Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
- Songhai (Domination)
- Spain (Domination/Culture)
- The Zulus (Domination)