A 4UC Vox Populi Guide: Sweden

These are an updated set of guides for the Vox Populi mod meant to help players learn the details and how to play each civ in the game. Whether new to civ entirely, experienced in civ but new to Vox Populi, or even well experienced with the mod and just looking for a refresher, these guides are designed to be useful to all. These guides were inspired by Zigzagzigal's guides, as they helped me learn a lot about the game when I first started playing it over a decade ago, and I wanted to provide a similar experience for the Vox Populi mod, which has become my go to way to play civ v, and is my favorite strategy game. For those looking for the download for the mod, it can be found here[forums.civfanatics.com]

With that out of the way, onto the Swedish!

Before getting into the specifics of the civ, a few terms that I may be using during this guide will be defined here

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. All Naval and Air units gaining a promotion increasing their strength as they take damage from Imperialism.)
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% GWAM generation, +10% culture generation during golden ages and +100% construction of guilds in Artistry)
Scaling with Era - Any trait scaling with era will double in the medieval era, then increase by the same amount every era afterwards (For example, a +1 bonus scaling with era would increase to +2 in the medieval, +3 in the renaissance, etc. until a max of +7 in the information era)
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.
UGP - Unique Great Person - A replacement for a great person that only one civilization can generate
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.
WLTKD - We love the king day.
XP - Experience Points - Get enough and you'll level up your unit, giving you the ability to heal your unit or get a promotion.
ZOC - Stands for "Zone of Control" which is the effect that causes units to use all their movement if they move from a space adjacent to an enemy unit to another space still adjacent to that same unit

Sweden has a Tundra start bias. This will push them towards the edge of the map, making it somewhat more difficult to conquer the world. It also will result in lower food. However one of Sweden's UB's does interact with tundra, so it isn't all bad.
Land melee units get +20% when attacking Siege units get +1 Whenever a great person is born, all units heal 10 hp and earn 3 xp.

Great Generals and Admirals give +15% combat strength

A mounted ranged unit

*Base sight, actual sight is 3 due to a promotion Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (28 instead of 27)
  
• Higher ranged strength (24 instead of 22)
  
• Obsoletes at Ballistics rather than Military Science

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• 50% combat strength when attacking units above 50% hp(Hakkaa Paalle!)
  
• +1 sight(Sentry)

A melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (41 instead of 38)
  
• Obsoletes at Combined Arms rather than Replaceable Parts

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• 15 damage to all adjacent enemy units after advancing when killing a unit(Grenadier)
  
• Unit will heal every turn, even if it performs an action(March)

Positive Changes

• Does not require fresh water
  
• +3 & +3 (Up from +2 and +0 respectively)
  
• When expending great people, +12 in the capital, scaling with era
  
• +1 per 2 tundra tiles worked

Positive Changes

• Unlocks at Dynamite(Instead of Radio)
  
• Has no population requirements
  
• Does not require a wire service to be built
  
• Costs 500(Down from 800)
  
• Gives +5& (Up from 1 and 0 respectively)
  
• +2 & +3 to all public schools
  
• +3 to all academies
  
• +2 to all great works
  
• Gain +10 with all city states when expending a great person
  
• Gain 50 when expending a great person, scaling with era

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


Sweden is one of the strongest domination civs in the game with many powerful offensive bonuses. These bonuses still translate decently well into a good defense.
The Bastu can be a fairly powerful source of culture, albeit one that does not translate at all to tourism.
Between both the Bastu and the Nobel Committee, Sweden has decent science both early and late. However they lack any bonuses to infrastructure.
The Nobel Committee gives Sweden a small amount of gold, but most importantly it gives Sweden surprisingly strong diplomacy in the late game.
While lacking any faith bonuses, Sweden doesn't quite need to pull off an early rush, and can afford to invest more into early faith then your average warmonger.

On initial read of the Swedish UA, one might assume that only units that actually have the "melee" classification would count, like warriors, swordsmen, etc. Or, at least it would only apply to them as well as gunpowder units like the fusilier and rifleman. However...

Every land unit that attacks in melee gets a 20% strength bonus when attacking. This means Sweden can have a fairly wide array of unit choices for their offensive core. However, you cannot just have an army consisting of melee units, at least if you want any hope of capturing cities. That's where the next part of the UA comes in

All Swedish siege units have +1 movement. If there is any unit type most benefiting from extra movement it may actually be siege. It allows them to move into a hill or forest and fire, or, more importantly, let's them move into a flat tile within enemy territory and still fire. This pretty much means that they move like regular units in enemy territory, and faster outside of it. This makes siege far less clunky to use, giving Sweden a very strong army comp for pretty much any situation they find themselves in

The news of a great Swedish general has given the troops a second wind

Whenever any great person is born (including generals and admirals), all your units are healed for 10hp and given 3xp. This means your units are going to be getting trickles of healing and xp throughout a war and even in peacetime. Overall you generate more great people as the game progresses, so this aspect will get stronger overtime. Still, in the early game you'll want to be working as many specialists as you can afford. Make sure in particular to build all your guilds buildings asap, those are usually the best and fastest source of great people.

That's a lot of bonuses, especially for this early in the game

Finally, last but certainly not least(although what would you even call least of the 4 parts of this UA?), Swedish generals and admirals give an extra 15% combat bonus, for a total of 30%. On top of counting as a great person for the healing and xp, Swedish generals and admirals are extra effective. Make sure to keep them safe as losing one can be a huge blow to your army's effectiveness.

After conquering my neighbors, nothing does me better then a nice warm sauna

The Bastu has 3 main traits, of which I'd only really say 2 are really all that good. The first and least important, is giving 1 science for every 2 tundra tiles worked. As shown in the screenshot above that Bastu is only giving 1 science, although to be fair this was a pretty minimal tundra start, that city had the most tundra of any city I had. I've had previous games with an incredible god of the stars and sky capital still only giving 3 science around a similar point in the game however. It isn't nothing, especially given Sweden's start bias meaning you'll likely have at least some Tundra, but it's not great.

Bring out the vasta!

Every great person expended gives 12 culture, scaling with era. This synergizes well with the Swedish UA, giving you even more incentive to generate great people. Since this scales fairly linearly with every city you build a Bastu in, the more you expand the more culture you're going to get, to a potentially fairly high amount late game. Early on, especially given the rarity of great people spawns this won't be a ton of culture however, in the screenshot above it's a bit more then a turn of culture.

Arguably the most important aspect of the Bastu however, is just simply that it is a bath, that doesn't require freshwater. Baths are a solid building for both culture and gold, however the freshwater requirement means it won't get built everywhere. The Bastu however, can be built everywhere.

Haakapeliita Hakkapeelitta Haakkapelitta Hakkapelittaa Ha-kka-pe-lii-tta?

The Hakkapeliitta is a bit of an odd unit for Sweden. It's a mounted ranged unit, which is usually not something that Sweden wants to make use of, given the only ranged unit on land they get bonuses to are siege. That's not to say these are useless however. With their +1 sight and high movement, they can be great spotters for siege. They are also excellent at softening up units, with a +50% attack bonus against units above 50% hp. This does mean they hit at least as hard as the rest of the Swedish army, and can still be pretty effective with standard mounted ranged hit and run tactics

The Brazillians have put up a surprisingly solid resistance. It ended with the sound of hooves

• 50% combat strength when attacking units above 50% hp(Hakkaa Paalle!)
  
• +1 sight(Sentry)

Standing proud, in lands just conquered; yet itching for something greater

Caroleans are Sweden's best power unit. They inherit all the strengths of the Swedish UA, plus they get 2 extra benefits.

First is that whenever they kill an enemy and move forward, all newly adjacent enemies take 15 damage. These makes it so even when advancing out of position, Caroleans have a much higher chance to survive. In a more ideal scenario however, it means killing one unit weakens the enemy line even more, allowing for a potential snowball of advances, killing multiple units in one push.

Almost as important though is March, allowing Caroleans to heal even after performing an action. Between this and the Swedish UA, Caroleans are going to be a nightmare to kill, often healing anywhere from 15 to 25 a turn, more if they are getting kills (assuming authority). If a Carolean isn't killed in one turn it will be way less hurt then it should be.

Promotions kept on Upgrade

• 15 damage to all adjacent enemy units after advancing when killing a unit(Grenadier)
  
• Unit will heal every turn, even if it performs an action(March)
  

Sweden is an absolutely monstrous conqueror, but the Nobel Committee gives them another potential path

Woo, money!

The Nobel Committee expands on Sweden's great person potential in 2 ways. First is by giving gold when expending your great people, adding on top of the culture yields. More importantly though, it gives you +10 influence with EVERY city state whenever you expend a great person as well. Sweden might be a little late to the diplomatic game but this is actually a very powerful bonus. It won't get you any city states remotely under contention alone, but this gives you, practically speaking, a rising influence rate rather then a decaying one with every city state, meaning every diplomatic unit you put into a city state is effectively permanent. Even if you're sticking to the normal domination route having city state control gives you better control of the congress which could otherwise screw you over, and just leaves less targets and even some aid against other nations. Don't forget as well that since this is an early Foreign Bureau, this gives your diplomatic units the ability to move through other nations borders without open borders, something only England and anyone who builds the summer palace can do earlier then you, giving you a potential window of using diplo units more efficiently then anyone else

All the double letters in the Swedish uniques really keeps throwing me off. Hakkapeliitta, Committee, just too many letters!

A bit less important is the bonuses the Nobel Committee give to public schools and academies. Between this and Bastu's it gives Sweden a solid but not excellent culture and science base. Enough to get a conqueror by if not quite enough to leverage a victory off of on its own.

Despite not being a cultural warmonger, Sweden should still take the path of Authority into Artistry finishing with Imperialism.

Opener: Culture and science from kills is real nice, cause boy is Sweden gonna do a lot of killin'

Imperium: Some nice yields from border growth, and more importantly a lot of yields from city conquest, of which you'll also be doing a lot of.

Tribute: Free Settler is nice, lets you expand while still working on your military/infrastructure to build your military

Militarism: Sweden lacks any early money bonuses, so this makes sure you can actually afford your early army

Dominance: This combined with your UA should help assure your units stay nice and healthy

Honor: Extra strength and extra units. Everything a warmonger could want

Finisher: Some purchasable melee units that are good at attacking cities? Sure why not!

Opener: Honestly most of the reason you're here with Artistry. The extra GWAM rate is massive

Refinement: You'll be wanting to work a fair few specialists. This makes it easier and more profitable

National Treasure: Free great person is good for anyone but especially you. I'd recommend either a general, admiral or diplomat depending on your needs.

Humanism: Golden ages are good, getting them faster is good as well

Heritage: While not your victory condition per say, some tourism can be nice for making conquested cities a bit happier.

Cultural Exchange: Nice bit of production and culture.

Finisher: Some extra Antiquities for more artifacts/landmarks, can't complain

Opener: The extra great general movement is huge, plus you can't complain about cheaper units

Regimental System: Your already incredible generals and admirals are now even better. An excellent boost for Sweden

Civilizing Mission: You'll be doing lots of conquering, this just makes those cities you get this late actually useful.

Exploitation: Any infrastructure boost is greatly appreciated for Sweden.

Colonialism: Yields from buildings you want, and extra bonuses from monopolies you probably have. Very nice

Martial Law: Happiness could be a fairly big problem at this point in the game, and this is potentially a lot.

Finisher: While absolutely devastating on land, your navy and air force are relatively generic, so this helps a decent bit with that.

Whether staying on the warpath or switching to diplomacy, Autocracy serves Sweden best

Elite Forces: You'll be needing both new units and wanting your old units to get stronger. This helps both be better

Iron Fist: Both your vassals and city states now give you a lot greater benefits

United Front: Military supply could be an issue, now it shouldn't really be. Plus this makes it even easier to hold on to your city state allies, especially the valuable military ones.

Lightning Warfare(Domination): A big boost to your most important units

Martial Spirit(Domination): Choose when you get this carefully, but this combat boost can be enough to win the game on if you time it right

Mare Nostrum(Diplomacy): Both coal and oil could be a struggle for a large empire. Not so anymore. Plus your ships are much deadlier

Total War(Diplomacy): Lets you rapidly build up more troops, but more importantly makes bullying city states much easier. As to why you might care...

Co-Prosperity Sphere(Diplomacy): Lets you rapidly increase your influence with city states while reducing others via bullying, sort of like a mini great diplomat.

Air Supremacy(Domination): Air units let you break defensive lines faster and better then ever before, and this gives you a massive lead on getting an airforce up.

Terrain/resource specific pantheons are not listed here unless they have some other synergy with a civ's uniques, however they can often be a great choice if the terrain/resources you start with favors them

God of War: The classic choice for a dedicated warmonger, and Sweden is no exception

God of the Stars and Sky: If you get an especially bad tundra start this can easily turn your fortunes around. Do everything in your power to get this if you get a tundra heavy start.

Goddess of Beauty: May seem a slightly odd choice, but it gets great person points going faster then pretty much any other option

Hero Worship: Once again the best choice for a domination game, Sweden included

Ceremonial Burial: You already want to be generating lots of great people for a multitude of reasons, might as well add one more

Teocallis: A great choice for any warmonger

Orders: Just like Teocallis, a great choice for domination play

Mastery: You'll have a fair few specialists, may as well give them a boost

Cooperation: Just like Mastery, better specialists

Symbolism: A big boost to how many great people points you're generating

Zealotry: Strategic resources could be a bottleneck, this will help a lot with that.

Sacred Calendar: I see this as slightly inferior to Symbolism for Sweden specifically, but this should still prove a sizable increase to your great person generation

To the Glory of God: Despite being domination focused, this just gives so much value to Sweden in particular that you'd be a fool to pass this up if you can get it

Crusader Spirit: A big boost to your offensive potential. The classic pick for a domination civ, if not specifically in Sweden's case. Still a great option though

Defender of the Faith: An inferior option to Crusader Spirit, but a good backup nonetheless

Holy Land(Diplomacy): If you are certain at this point you want to go diplomacy, this will give you a huge edge

Statue of Zeus: Makes taking cities that much easier
Great Wall: Not only a free general, but some defensive safety, plus denying it to an enemy you'd want to invade

Terracotta Army: Add some more culture onto all the kills you're getting

Alhambra(Authority Only): Gives a huge boost to your mounted units, making them a truly devasting force on offense

Karlstejn: Sweden is not exactly a religious civ, but can benefit massively from getting a reformation

Leaning Tower of Pisa: More great people = more healing, xp, culture gold and influence. A must grab if possible

Himeji Castle: You want this less because it helps you and more that it could make invading someone with it difficult

Globe Theatre: A nice boosts to all the GWAM specialists you're probably running

Louvre(Artistry Only): A bunch of spots to put all the art and artifacts you have/are going to acquire

Brandenburg Gate: A great option to make your army just that extra bit stronger

Neuschwanstein: Happiness is likely a big problem, this will help a fair bit

Prora(Autocracy Only): Speaking of happiness problems, they're gonna be a lot less of a worry
Pentagon(Imperialism Only): Makes your air force easily the best in the world
CERN(Diplomacy): A huge boost to your influence, should seal the diplomatic victory for you.

Sweden empowers a very standard army composition, but to treat them exactly like a standard warmonger misses some of their complexities

Unless you are on a Pangea map or a map where every civ is coincidentally on one continent, you are going to need a decent navy. Even all of your land bonuses can't conquer someone across the sea without a bit of support
Given one of your UUs is a melee unit, it can be tempting to ignore mounted units, but they benefit just as much from the Swedish UA as melee units. In the medieval era in particular knights are an incredibly powerful option for any civ, you included.
Don't forget several of Sweden's uniques hinge on generating great people, so if you focus on building your cities like a normal warmonger, you're missing out on huge military, cultural, and even diplomatic bonuses
Sweden does have a tundra bias and sometimes some tundra cities will need to happen. However, don't think that the Bastu makes Tundra preferable to other lands. The science it gives from tundra isn't substantial, the culture is the real reason you build those
Your army is at its strongest when at full offense. Having your army sitting fortified loses out on a lot of Sweden's bonuses. As a subset of this, since you get constant trickles of healing from great people, if you have a unit close enough to full health, don't have it sitting around healing more, send it back to the front.

Sweden arguably has the strongest land army in the game, that isn't reliant on the power spikes of unique units. They also have solid culture and science to back this up, with the potential to sneakily dominate the diplomatic game later on. However, Sweden lacks any infrastructure bonuses. They rely on keeping up a conquering snowball and taking lots of valuable land through conquest to thrive. Contain them, especially early, and they will have nothing.

Sweden has an insanely strong army, but it is best on the attack. Use hit and run tactics with mounted melee and mounted ranged units, and/or use ranged units from well fortified positions behind rough terrain or in cities. Their siege in particular while faster is still extremely weak on defense. Take those out and even though they'll have the edge in a straight fight they'll struggle to take your cities.

Taking Swedish generals is especially important. Suiciding several units may be worth it in order to kill a general. Focus fire on any Swedish unit if you can help it, a unit surviving on low health may get healed a fair amount from a great person birth.

You hear what a sauna can do to your reproductive health? No thanks

There isn't a lot you can do to stop Sweden from building lots of Bastus but as with much of their kit, it is all about containment. Bastus only reach their fullest potential when Sweden has a lot of cities, and a lot of population to generate great people from. Stop Sweden from expanding, especially into good land, and this won't really get them much culture

No offense to the Finnish language but are all those letters truly needed?

While on the surface Hakkapeliitta may not mesh well with the standard Swedish army comp, they actually give Sweden a level of mobility they usually lack. Hakkapeliitta can easily soften up your army while the main Swedish force advances to crush you. Mounted units of your own are going to be best to take these down, but don't let them lead you back into the main army if you can help it.

Caroleans are strong, but they are just the extreme culmination of the Swedish gameplan. Focus fire one unit at a time, try not to leave units vulnerable standing in front of them, and they should be manageable.
This brings a whole new dimension to the Swedish late game. The thing to most worry about is the diplomatic edge this brings Sweden. You'll need to keep a very close eye on your city states, as if Sweden gets an ally of one of your city states it will be extremely difficult to unseat them as their passive influence is almost certainly more then you have. Strangely enough, if you aren't worried about Sweden conquering you (which should be a major worry tbf) it may be best to declare war on Sweden to prevent them passively gaining their influence.
Early Game Warmongers: Leverage whatever bonus you have and attack Sweden on their turf. They will almost certainly be unable to field a bigger army then you if even one of similar size, and as long as you are on the offensive they lack almost any defensive bonuses this early

Mid Game Warmongers: A tricky time but still not impossible. Keeping the pressure on Sweden is still key. Watch out for mounted assaults

Late Game Warmongers: This is going to be tough. Sweden's engine will be at its greatest potential. If at all possible, attack them from the sea or even air, almost no one can outmatch Sweden on land at this point in the game

Diplomatic Players: Early on there is nothing to fear from direct diplomatic competition but late game can be tough. Make sure you keep extra levels of influence on your city states. Consider passing Global Peace Accords to help bankrupt them

Scientific Players: Sweden has some science, but certainly less then a true science civ. You'll need every advantage that gives you though as Sweden is generally hitting at one tech level stronger then they should be. Keep your army and defenses as up to date as is possible

Cultural Players: There are a few cultural wonders Sweden might want you can snag, but just beware that will paint a target on your back. Be prepared to face the consequences of building something like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

• Arabia (Culture/Science)
  
• The Huns (Domination)
  
• The Inca (Science/Domination)
  
• Korea (Science)
  
• The Netherlands (Diplomacy/Domination/Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Russia (Domination/Science)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)