A 4UC Vox Populi Guide: The Netherlands

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 Dutch!

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

The Netherlands have no start bias. Some of their uniques do interact with the coast but they don't come online until a bit later in the game so it should be easy enough for them to expand to the coast.
+3&+2 for each unique luxury resource you import or export from/to other civilizations and city states, scaling with era.

A melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (20 instead of 17)
  
• Lower and cost (100/200 down from 135/300)
  
• Obsoletes at Rifling rather than Gunpowder

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +33% when within 2 tiles of friendly cities(Burgher)
  
• +10% to all adjacent friendly land units(Goedendag!)

A naval melee unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (42 instead of 40)
  
• Obsoletes at Radio rather than Industrialization

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Enlist defeated enemy units surrounded from more than half of adjacent traversable tiles. Captured units start with 25% of max hp, 0 xp and can immediately move but not attack.(Prize Ships)
  
• Can heal outside of friendly territory. +5 hp when healing(Supply)
  
• +125% combat strength against cities. -50% damage taken from cities(Vanguard)

Positive Changes

• +3 & +5
  
• 1 Artist slot and 1 art/artifact slot
  
• When killing or identifying an enemy spy, +50 scaling with era
  
• +1 +1 and +1 for each global monopoly you have

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


Sea Beggars can be a dominant offensive force in the right circumstances, but the Dutch's best military strengths lie on defense, particularly with the Goedendags.
The Dutch UA, Polders and even the Doelen give a decent amount of culture, and the Doelen's artist slots gives the Netherlands a solid tourism potential.
The Doelen also gives a bit of science, and between it and the Polders, the Dutch have a solid infrastructure starting in the late medieval/early renaissance
The Dutch are one of the strongest gold generating civs in the game. They don't have a lot of direct bonuses to diplomacy, but are encouraged to go statecraft.
Finally, the Dutch are completely generic for religion.

A small start, but an important one

For each unique luxury you trade, whether imported or exported, you get 3 gold and 2 culture scaling with era. While early game you might have very few luxuries to trade the gold and even more so the culture can be an absolutely massive deal. It's pretty much always worth doing trades, even those that may not seem worth it

77 gold, or about 26 of the 50 turns this trade deal lasts

The AI is now aware of the benefit you get from this, and will usually give you horrible deals for trading a new luxury you aren't currently trading. It is still almost always worth it however, you'll likely still generate more gold then you lose, and the culture is even more impactful as well. Later on you'll have the resources to much more easily get across a lot of trade, and hopefully you've managed to befriend some civs that are willing to not totally give you awful deals, but even if not, it's still worth trading with whoever you can.

About a fifth of my total income at the turn of the industrial era comes just from the extra trade bonuses. My culture from the Dutch UA makes up closer to two fifths

Note The +10% combat bonus comes from the Goedendag

The Goedendag is a largely defensive unit, coming with 2 important promotions. The first is that any adjacent friendly unit gets 10% extra combat strength, not stacking. A small, but easy to apply bonus, mix in Goedendags around your entire army makes it just a little bit better.

Bolstered by the nearby city support, the Goedendag stands ready to repel the barbarian invaders

Giving much more strength, the Goedendag gains a massive 33% combat strength bonus when within 2 tiles of friendly cities, which weirdly enough does include allied city states. This gives Goedendag a very solid strength when fighting near one of their cities. 26.6, or 28.6 when adjacent to another Goedendag. While conditional, and largely defensive, this does make the Goedendag one of the strongest land units in the medieval era in terms of raw combat strength, only really contested by the Cataphract, but due to formation I would definitely beat them in a straight fight on Dutch territory.

• +33% when within 2 tiles of friendly cities(Burgher)
  
• +10% to all adjacent friendly land units(Goedendag!)

Fish by the polder, fish by the polder

Polders give a solid amount of yields to tiles normally not able to give great yields, coast lakes, and marsh. Their biggest yields are food, production and of course, as almost all Dutch bonuses give, gold. Keep an eye out for tiles that can fit polders on them, especially lakes. Lakes are pretty much the most valuable tile you can get for the Netherlands, especially a large multi tile lake. Luckily these tiles don't have much competition to build much else on, so you aren't giving up much to get these polders out, but sometimes it can be difficult to find suitable tiles. Not only do polders give solid yields, they also allow land units to walk onto the tile, potentially allowing new shortcuts and easier traversal, whether for pure logistics or military purposes.

Didn't have the most fortunate polder terrain this game, but dang if they ain't pretty after economics

Helping out the Dutch strategy of totally peaceful trade and development that definitely won't change with the next unique, the Doelen comes with two notable bonuses, one that helps the standard Dutch strategy, and one that offers a new opportunity. The first of those is that it gains 1 gold, culture and science from every monopoly you have. The Netherlands can easily get a lot of monopolies, especially as the game goes on, giving you a solid amount of culture and science across the empire(and also gold, because you needed more gold playing the Dutch). Given that it is your only science bonus, it can help to make sure you get as many monopolies as possible to make sure you aren't falling too far behind.

The other, arguably more interesting bonus, is the artist specialist slot. The only way to get artist slots is by building artist guilds, which are limited to 3 per civilization, and by going tradition. This gives you more artist slots then any other civ, and is the only way to get extra GWAM slots besides from the Celtic UB. This gives the Netherlands an interesting cultural edge if you want to go that route.

Ah, we've got enough tobacco to make sure our Doelens will be as smoke filled as a forest fire. Very culture. Much science. So gold

Please sir, can I have some cities please? I'm starving out here

Taking a hard right turn into aggressive conquest, the Sea Beggar may be the strongest unit on the seas in the renaissance, coming with 3 notable promotions

The promotion that I personally think is the most impactful is Vanguard, giving the Sea Beggar a ludicrous 125% strength increase against cities, as well as reducing the damage they take from cities by 50%. This means any city without proper support a complete sitting duck, basically incapable of taking out a few sea beggars, even with fully up to date defenses. With a few units to take out any other units around just two or three sea beggars can take just about any coastal city.

Weigh, hey, and up she rises!

The second, and actually only truly unique promotion the Sea Beggar has is the ability to capture defeated enemy units. Compared to vanilla, this isn't a variable percentage but instead guaranteed if you have the unit surrounded on half or more of traversable tiles (units that are enemies of your enemy count for this purpose, see the Incan corvette up above). These units start with 25% of their health and can move but not attack. If you can pull them out to heal that's great free units, but don't be afraid to run them right back into the enemy units as a meat shield, better they take a hit then your actually upgraded unique units. The main exception to that is of course another unique unit, try to save those if at all possible.

The last, and least promotion is Supply, letting you heal outside of friendly territory and with a +5hp healing to boot. This is definitely useful, don't get me wrong. Often times in a normal naval scenario it is worth it to suicide units simply because it will take them too long to get back to where they can heal, but for Sea Beggars that isn't the case, and can simply be pulled back behind your other units to heal pretty much anywhere.

• Enlist defeated enemy units surrounded from half or more of adjacent traversable tiles. Captured units start with 25% of max hp, 0 xp and can immediately move but not attack.(Prize Ships)
  
• Can heal outside of friendly territory. +5 hp when healing(Supply)
  
• +125% combat strength against cities. -50% damage taken from cities(Vanguard)

The Netherlands should start with Progress to get their luxuries online asap, then Statecraft to help them get even more monopolies, and finally it depends on what path they wish to take. If you plan to go culture or diplomacy Industry is the obvious play, but if you either are dedicated to domination or just see a lot of opportunity for Sea Beggar conquest, go Imperialism

Opener: A solid bit of science and culture. Should get you to your second policy almost immediately

Liberty: Getting a worker online to get your better luxuries improved quickly

Organization: A nice bit of production plus even better workers

Expertise: Even more production to get your cities online fast

Equality: If you've been expanding fast happiness might be getting close to negative, this will stop that. If happiness isn't close to becoming a problem then take this last

Fraternity: Some solid food and science. Make sure to connect your cities.

Finisher: More gold. Because that's what the Dutch are lacking

Opener: Hey you know what would go great with all that gold your generating? More gold!

Trade Confederacy: A solid bit of influence to make sure your city states stay in line

Foreign Service: Spies are neat, having more of them is good

Shadow Networks: Hopefully by this point you've gotten a fair few city states on your side. This gives you some nice benefits from them

Exchange Markets: The real reason you're here, this should help towards getting a bunch more monopolies

Consulates: A nice little boost to your potential in the World Congress

Finisher: The Dutch aren't the most wonder dependent civ, but it's still nice to make sure you don't have to worry about falling behind on policies if you do want to build one.

Opener: Helps your gold go a good bit farther, because you needed that

Subsidies: A decent boost to your science and gold, can't complain

Mercantilism: 2 trade routes for even more money/city state influence

Division of Labor: A nice boost to culture and production, both of which are quite welcome

Gold Standard: Makes all that gold you have to invest a lot more valuable by being worth even more production. Plus if you're keeping up on luxuries it's a constant boost to culture and gold

Entrepreneurship: A good boost to most non polder tiles you probably have

Finisher: Can't complain about more happiness and better tile yields

Opener: Your Sea Beggars will immensely appreciate the extra movement.

Colonialism: This is so good for the Dutch that it is tempting enough to go Imperialism even on a non domination game. All those monopolies you have are now even better

Civilizing Mission: The main reason you're going domination is cause Sea Beggars are so good at taking cities. This helps ensure the cities you take are actually decent.

Exploitation: Improves most tiles you can build Polders on, making them even better

Regimental Tradition: A nice boost to your generals and admirals. The Netherlands have more reason then most to consider spending admirals for extra luxuries, as these luxuries are always ones not found on the map, giving you a free monopoly.

Martial Law: Makes it easier to maintain the cities you conquer

Finisher: Makes your navy (and air force) much more effective even as a battle wears on.

If you plan to go for a Diplomatic or Cultural victory, Freedom is best, but if you are pushing for domination Autocracy is the obvious choice

Civil Society: Makes your Polders give a bunch more food, very nice

Economic Union: More trade routes to get more city state influence and/or tourism

Covert Action(Diplomacy): Makes it much easier to flip city states

Creative Expression(Culture): Gives you a fair amount of raw tourism to help your victory, plus a nice amount of culture

Avant Garde(Culture): Gives a huge boost to all your great people, but most notably for you is how many more artists you'll be getting

Arsenal of Democracy(Diplomacy): Should help immensely in keeping city states.

Self Determination(Diplomacy): If you can get an opportunity to quickly nab a city you can liberate with upgraded Sea Beggars, this gives you huge rewards for doing so

New Deal(Culture): A nice bit of extra yields and tourism

Capitalism(Culture): You're bound to be working a ton of specialists, this makes them a decent bit better

Transnationalism(Culture): You're bound to be trading with a ton of people, this gives you a lot of benefit from it based on your corporation

Media Culture(Culture): A huge boost to your tourism, hopefully giving the final push you need to win

Containment: A huge boost to your control of city states and the congress

Military-Industrial Complex: A nice boost to your science if you've been able to get a bunch of Polders down

Iron Fist: You probably have both a lot of city states and a fair amount of vassals. This helps make both better

Elite Forces: A solid boost to building up and strengthening your army.

Mare Nostrum: Oil is very important to keep up a strong navy with. Speaking of, your navy is definitely a fair bit stronger with this

Martial Spirit: One to choose the timing of carefully, but you can easily win the game in these 50 turns if you are prepared

Air Supremacy: While your main bonuses are on the sea air control is extremely important, and this makes it much easier to get it

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

Goddess of Festivals: As practically the whole gameplan of the Dutch is to get as many luxuries as possible, this can give you a huge amount of yields

Goddess of Purity: If you can find a lot of lakes, this gives your Polders even bigger potential then they already would

Theocratic Rule: Since you are trying to get as many luxuries as possible, you will very often be in wltkd.

Evangelism(Culture): If you want to go for a culture victory, this is the best choice for just about anyone

Hero Worship(Domination): Similar to Evangelism, the best choice for any domination game

Indulgences: You're producing a lot of gold. This will translate to a ton of faith

Mastery: You'll be working a fair amount of specialists thanks to the Doelen, so might as well make them better

Stupas(Culture): An amazing choice for any culture game

Teocalli(Domination): A solid boost to your army

Order(Domination): Similar to Teocallis, but slightly more defensive

Abode of Peace: Helps you keep control of your city states from all the trade you'll be doing

Orthodoxy: You've got a lot of trade routes going, might as well get some spread

Holy Land(Diplomacy): A massive boost to your World Congress control

Crusader Spirit(Domination): The best choice for most domination games

Sacred Sites(Culture): The best reformation belief for any culture civ

Mausoleum of Halicarnassus: Since your getting lots of luxuries for lots of wltkd, this makes them better

Petra: You'll want a lot of trade routes, and this is an extra one.

Great Wall: Combined with the Goedendag it will be very difficult to attack you until gunpowder

Colossus: Same as Petra, an extra trade route is fantastic

Oracle: Almost a free social policy and tech, an amazing wonder

Great Lighthouse: Makes your later Sea Beggar rushes a lot more effective

Forbidden Palace(Progress Only): You may have a ton of gold but not an infinite amount, and this makes it go farther
Summer Palace: A big help to anyone wanting to play the city state game

Uffizi(Culture): A great place to put all those works of art you'll be generating

Himeji Castle: This gives you the defensive boost you need to make it a true nightmare to try and attack you.

Sistine Chapel: A nice boost to your culture and a place to put your art

Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): A few extra votes to make sure you can pass what you need in the World Congress
Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): A nice boost to your production, and you can never say no to a free policy

Prora(Autocracy Only): You don't exactly need happiness, but a free policy is a free policy

Cristo Redentor(Culture): A massive boost to your tourism. A must build for any culture game

Broadway(Industry Only): Better for culture then diplomacy games, but still a nice amount of culture either way

Pentagon(Imperialism Only): A huge boost to your air force, all but guaranteeing superiority in the skies.
CN Tower(Culture): A huge boost to your tourism, should hopefully give you the boost you need to win

Sydney Opera House(Culture): The Dutch don't have a ton of culture so they could get to the point of having influence over everyone but not yet having 2 level 3 policies, this should help with that

Great Firewall(Culture): Doesn't help you that much, but if someone else gets this they could almost entirely stop you from winning

CERN(Diplomacy): The influence towards all city states should all but guarantee you control over almost all of them, and therefore a Diplomatic victory. Can't complain about 2 free techs either.

The Netherlands balance a few weird things, between trade and monopolies, but also a powerful naval unit, there are multiple routes to go with the Dutch, and none are the most obvious on their own merits. Therefore, some mistakes could be made.

City states can be a very easy way to trigger the Dutch UA, as the luxuries given by an allied city state count as being imported. Furthermore assuming you went statecraft they can help get monopolies for the Doelen, so do your best to get as many city states as you can, particularly mercantile ones, even if you aren't going for a diplomatic victory
Most of the Dutch kit encourages them to turtle up and play nice with everyone, but the Sea Beggars are so incredibly strong that you'd be leaving a lot on the table if you ignore them. You don't have to conquer the whole world (although you could) but taking a few key cities from a powerful rival can be incredibly impactful
Polders are quite strong but have decently strict placement requirements. Keep an eye out for large straights in the ocean, as well as lakes. They are high priority settles for you, arguably even more then luxuries for monopolies
The one problem with going too hard on Sea Beggar conquests is that the world will start to hate you, and therefore you can't trade anymore. Vassals ignore that problem, giving you a reliable partner (or multiple) to trade with.

The Netherlands have one of the strongest economies in the game, getting tons of gold from multiple sources. They combine this with a solid defense and a potentially terrifying naval rush. However, the Dutch are very reliant on working with other civilizations, need specific terrain to reach their full potential, and lack many bonuses that directly aid a victory condition. There are things to do to contain them

The Dutch get a ludicrous amount of gold from trading luxuries with other civs. There is a very simple strategy you can employ to prevent the Dutch from benefiting from most of their UA. Just don't trade luxuries with them. It's really as simple as that. Categorically refuse to trade any luxuries with the Netherlands and they won't be getting any benefit, at least from you. Of course they will have other civs to trade with, but if the Dutch are being a problem, getting a sanction on them will completely ruin them. Well hello to you as well good sir, no I am not French

Goedendags can be deceptively strong in the right situation, but the bulk of their bonuses are very conditional, and purely defensive. If you can, lure Godendags away from their cities to the edge of Dutch territory where they have minimal bonuses. But if that's not an option, the best bet is to whittle them down with ranged units. If you are within range of a city, it is actually better to kill other units first though. If you aren't within range of a city though, the opposite is true, as you want to kill the Goedendag so other units aren't getting the combat buffs

Polders can give great yields to normally only ok tiles. It is hard to stop the Dutch from settling on the coast where they are almost guaranteed to build at least a few polders, but the best thing you can do is to prevent the Netherlands from settling any lakes.
The best thing you can do to prevent the benefits of Doelens from getting out of hand is to simply contain Dutch expansion. Doelens scale very well the more of them there are, so if you prevent the Dutch from settling many cities, they can't build as many Doelens and they probably can't get as many monopolies, therefore getting minimal yields from this building.
Sea Beggars are an absolutely terrifying force on the sea, and they upgrade pretty well too. While they are a true menace to cities, they actually aren't much stronger at fighting other units then a regular corvette. As long as you prevent them from killing your units and turning them to their side, Sea Beggars can go down relatively easy. Just focus fire to kill them as they can go off to heal much easier then most naval units.
Early Game Warmongers: The best time to take out the Dutch. They may have a slightly better economy then most at this point but otherwise this is by far their weakest point.

Mid Game Warmongers: Try to lure Goedendags away from cities or pepper them from range. Be careful on the seas from having your navy turned against you, but as long as you focus fire Sea Beggars are much worse on defense then offense

Late Game Warmongers: More or less the same strategies as mid game except their a little bit weaker. Air units in particular can do very well against the Netherlands

Diplomatic Players: Use your World Congress leverage to sanction the Netherlands and they will entirely fall apart

Cultural Players: Your existence alone will likely make a cultural Netherlands life hard, as you likely have more culture then them making it difficult for them to convert you, plus you likely can get to the cultural wonders faster then they can. Even taking one or two crucial wonders can spell doom for their plans. Any other Dutch, mostly just use the tips above

Scientific Players: The Dutch should mostly prove no direct opposition to you but do be sure to keep your defenses in top shape around the renaissance and industrial eras, as a Sea Beggar assault could spell doom

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