(OUT OF DATE/2UC)A Vox Populi(CBP) Guide: Arabia

This guide is currently out of date for the 5.0 aka 4UC integration patch of Vox Populi. I thought it would be easier to make new guides instead of trying to edit these, plus they may be good to have if someone wanted to play an older version of Vox Populi. However, do note that some things in this guide may be out of date, as due to both busier life stuff and the knowledge that 4UC has been coming for a while some parts of the guides weren’t updating even with other VP changes

Arabia has had minimal changes pre 4uc, so this guide should be mostly usable

Once a new version of this guide comes out, it will be linked here 4UC Arabia Guide

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 Arabians!

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.

Arabia has a desert start bias. This may be one of the worst start bias in Vox Populi as Arabia has no specific desert bonuses, and unlike fellow desert dweller Morocco, they don't have a good UI or growth bonus to mitigate this. Petra is always a nice bonus but it still can cause trouble in the early game When you complete a Historic Event, gain +1 and +1 in the capital. In addition, gain +15% towards the progress of a random great person

A mounted ranged unit

Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (19 instead of 17)
  
• Higher ranged strength (16 instead of 14)
  
• Obsoletes at Military Science rather than Metallurgy
  
• Does not require horses

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• Deals 5 damage to all enemy units adjacent to the targeted unit(Splash Damage)
  
• May withdraw before melee combat

Positive Changes

• +2 & +2
  
• When any Trade Route originating here and targeting another Civilization is completed, receive a Tourism boost with that Civilization based on your recent Culture and Tourism output.
  
• Increases the Range of this City's Land Trade Routes by 50%.

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


Arabia has no major military bonuses, nor any incentive to invest in military for anything more then basic defense.
Culture is Arabia's best route. They will have a lot of culture in their capital, as well as lots of GWAMs to generate Tourism. In addition, they can generate tourism from trade routes earlier then any other civ.
Science is Arabia's second best route. While you're gaining culture you'll be gaining just as much science, as well as a good number of scientists and engineers. However, Arabia has an incentive to send ITRs early to get early tourism because of the Bazaar, which means their overall growth is being neglected, however they do gain a few more engineers to make up for this
A side effect of this though, is that they'll have a bit more gold then most in the early game, but they lack any real diplomacy bonuses.
Arabia can actually be one of the stronger religious civs from their bazaar. They may be slow to a pantheon but can easily be one of the first to get a religion.

Above: It may be a small bonus that takes a bit to get going, but it'll start to stack quickly once your infrastructure gets going.

Arabia's UA all revolves around the Historical Moments mechanic. Before delving into the details of their UA, let's take a second to explain exactly how it works.

In order to gain a historic moment, you need to do one of the following

• Earn a Great Person
  
• Build a Wonder
  
• Win a war with more then 25 warscore
  
• Enter a new era
  
• Start a Golden Age(if you have the Finisher from Artistry)
  
• Complete an archaeological dig(if you have the Finisher from Artistry)

Normally historic events are a fairly negligible source of tourism, and certainly not the reason to do anything that gives you it. However for Arabia it is vital to get as many as possible.

Each historic event gives one culture and science for the rest of the game, and while this certainly is useful, I'd personally consider it secondary to the great people bonus. Merely 7 historic events and you've basically generated a full great person's worth of points. Of course it isn't exactly that simple, but nonetheless, this will give you far more great people then almost anyone else, especially in the early game. Great people also give historic events, meaning more great people progress

Above: This science from traits means I've earned 39 historic moments, or about 7 and a half great people worth of points, by the early renaissance

The most active way to earn historic moments is to build wonders, so the goal with Arabia is to build as many as you can, it'll pay off even more then most civs.

Admittedly the Bazaar may be a bit weaker then the base game, lacking the free luxuries it once provided, but it still is a powerful and versatile building. The Bazaar has three main benefits over the market. The first is that it gives extra faith and science. The science is nice but not that important, however it's really the faith that can be very useful, and sets up Arabia as a solid religious civ. The bonus may not come soon enough to get you an early pantheon, but build a Bazaar in all of your cities and you'll be one of the first to a religion, and one with a strong faith base at that. Combine it with the goddess of renewal to give Bazaars extra science and food

Arabia, king of unorthodox tourism

The second bonus is that when a trade route being sent to a major civ finishes you get a lump sum of tourism with all known civs. This isn't a unique benefit, as the caravansary gets it for land trade routes, and the harbor for sea routes. However, they come in late classical and late medieval respectively. Arabia gets the bazaar in the late ancient, a whole era or two sooner. Between this and your high amount of historic moments you'll be generating a surprising amount of tourism to all of your neighbors.

The final bonus is much more minor, Bazaars give land trade routes +50% range. Not a major deal as sea trade routes are still preferable when possible, but between this and a caravansary, your land trade routes should be able to reach across your landmass if sea routes aren't an option.

Such a boring day, if only my country had angered every civilization in the world due to their religious fervor. Maybe things could get interesting. Oh well, such is the life of the Camel Archer

Camel Archers aren't a big step up from the Heavy Skirmishers they replace, but that doesn't mean they don't have something to offer. Camel Archers are very difficult for melee units to kill as Camel Archers will often retreat against melee attacks, especially against pikemen that other civs might try to counter you with, and their mobility should allow them to avoid normal ranged units as well, most of the time at least. The other important promotion they have is splash damage, which allows them to deal 5 damage to all enemy units in range adjacent to the target.

This already sounds like a minor bonus at best, but there's another catch. This will only effect units within your own range that are adjacent to the target. Note how in the picture above that when the Camel Archer attacks the barbarian, splash damage affects the enemy city state unit, but not the adjacent barbarian, because it isn't within normal range of the Camel Archer. Normally this is a bit better when unlocked on siege units as at least they have the range to make this hit more targets, but this isn't something that should be considered much in how you use your Camel Archers. Just consider them slightly stronger Heavy Skirmishers that hold up better against melee units.

Oh and don't forget that they are camels and don't require horses. This is actually the biggest bonus for Camel Archers. They are far easier to mass then other mounted ranged units. Consider that winning a war is a historic moment, and declaring war on a weak neighbor could be an ok idea. Use overwhelming Camel Archers to wipe out their units, take a few siege and a knight or two for the cities, and you can do fairly well. But I would only do so to a weak neighbor, this isn't worth it against a strong defender or a warmonger. Even en masse, Camel Archers don't provide enough of an edge to beat an otherwise superior force.

• Splash Damage
  
• May withdraw from melee attacks

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 King: Any boost in your capital is nice to give it the resources it needs to build early wonders

Goddess of Beauty: Makes those wonders, and even the early great works you're likely getting, worth a good bit more

Goddess of Renewal: A solid boost to your Bazaars, doubly worth it if you do happen to have a lot of forest/jungles, although that's unlikely given your start bias

Spirit of the Desert: Even with your start bias there isn't a guarantee you get many resources in said desert, but if you do, this can be very worth it

Tutelary Gods: A lot of early production so you can more easily get Historic Moment achieving things going

Ceremonial Burial: This should give you a ton of faith and culture given the amount of great people you'll be getting

Council of Elders: A good boost to production and science, both useful to you

Way of Noble Truths: A huge amount of tourism, plus you are actually decently likely to be able to fill the reliquary at some point, unlike many civs

Diligence: A good boost to your relatively weak production

Mandirs: Some extra food to help your cities grow to wonder building potential

Stupas: Great choice if you want to get your tourism going early for a culture game

Synagogues: Production and science, exactly what you want

Pagodas: Since you're sending out a good amount of foreign trade routes you'll get a lot of foreign pressure, which benefits pagodas a fair bit

Orthodoxy: You'll be sending out lots of foreign trade routes by now, now they're helping your religion too

Syncretism: A good boost to your holy city if you haven't been doing well fighting other religions, plus a solid amount of faith

Divine Teachings: The best reformation belief for any science civ

Sacred Sites: The best reformation belief for any culture civ. Try to nab lots of follower buildings to compound the effects

Inspired Works: A good backup for Sacred Sites, especially for Arabia

To the Glory of God: More great people for more historic moments, plus you get even more out of said great people

Start with Tradition to give the capital the edge it needs to build early wonders, plus it can give you some great people for more historic moments. Go with Artistry next, as it gives you even more opportunities for historic moments from golden ages and archaeologists. If you want to continue the Culture route, take Industry to get more trade routes for tourism, as well as faster Great Merchants for yet again even more historic moments. However if you want to take the science route, go Rationalism instead.

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 historic moments

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. This is even more true for Arabia as they will get more great people then most.

Majesty: You'll likely have lots of specialists for the historic moments, so this'll help prevent growth from being 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 expensive, but very useful, especially to Arabia. Cheaper guilds and faster great people are a must for you.

Refinement: A little bit of happiness never hurt

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

Humanism: You'll likely have more great works then most at this point, so this is a solid amount of yields

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

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

Finisher: The main reason Arabia should go down Artistry. This allows you to get about as much as possible out of your UA

Opener: Two trade routes are an incredible bonus, as you can generate even more tourism with them

Free Trade: Faster Great Merchants, plus extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing

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

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

Mercantilism: A good bit of extra science and culture. Who ever said Industry was just gold and production? Wait a minute...

Protectionism: Makes your gold go a bit farther and gives you a bit more food and science, can't complain

Finisher: Arabia is likely to have a lot of specialists, get some extra gold and production out of them

Opener: Little bit of science and a small bit of production too.

Scientific Revolution: Depending on the terrain, observatories could give a lot of science, or not much at all. The extra science from great works helps you more then most science civs however.

Empiricism: Helps make sure other civs won't leech off your science lead.

Rights of Man: A bit of extra yields across the empire

Enlightenment: Postponing this as long as possible means you're getting a more expensive tech for free.

Free Thought: Extra science from Great Scientists is always good

Finisher: More Great Scientists, More Growth, All is good in Arabia

A Cultural Arabia is best suited to Freedom, but a scientific Arabia can do better with Order

Avant Garde: The more great people you have, the more great people you get, so get them faster to get them faster.

Creative Expression: Historic moment and trade route tourism are both partially determined by how much tourism you are making, so make more tourism to make more tourism

Economic Union: 2 trade routes, 2 more opportunities for tourism.

Civil Society: Lots of specialists, less food consumed.

Universal Healthcare: A free hospital in every city, possibly before you even have biology researched, is amazing.

New Deal: You might have a few more great person improvements lying around then most, make them better

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 up a lot, maybe not enough to convert high culture civs at a reasonable rate, but enough that your burst tourism will.

Treaty Organization: Getting a bit of a boost in the world congress can help you prevent a devastating proposal from passing like a travel ban or an embargo on you.

Worker's Faculties: Free Factories is a nice boost, plus they'll now give some extra science

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

Hero of the People: Get a scientist to get the last few techs, or an engineer to put towards spaceship parts

Academy of Sciences: Free Research Labs possibly before you have them researched will help push your science up like crazy

Five Year Plan: This is a crazy boost to your production, so go crazy with it.

Spaceflight Pioneers: Save every engineer you get for when you can build spaceships and win the game almost instantly.

Note that just about every wonder is worth building for Arabia due to their UA, so this section will only look at wonders that help Arabia for other reasons.

Stonehenge: Bazaars may give great faith generation but you lack the immediate punch to get an early pantheon. Stonehenge will get you there, although it is a very competitive wonder.

Pyramids: You'll be building so many wonders early on that you might struggle to find time to build settlers. Why not do both at the same time?

Petra: An extra trade route means more tourism, plus you should be in prime position to grab it with your start bias.

Colossus: Same concept as petra, but it might be harder to grab if you don't start coastal.

Great Wall: Arabia is weak on defense and a juicy target considering how many wonders they will likely have. The Great Wall will be a large step in deterring early attackers.

Hanging Gardens: Helps to build up a city(most likely your capital) to be able to efficiently construct more wonders in the future.

Parthenon: Most civs would have a bit of a hard time having the second art piece immediately available for theming when they build this, but Arabia will almost certainly have generated an artist by now.

Borobudur: You'll likely have a ton of faith to purchase missionaries with, so an extra charge goes a long ways

Karlstejn: This wonder to be fair is probably only useful if you have a major religious rival as getting to your reformation shouldn't be too hard. More important is denying this to someone else's religion.

University of Sankore(Tradition only): Get some science from all those great people you're going to have

Himeji Castle: Similar to the Great Wall, you need every edge on defense you can get

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Great people? Give me more.

Sistine Chapel: Extra culture is always useful, plus the extra great work slots are welcome

Uffizi(Culture): This is a great theming bonus but can be hard to get for most civs. Arabia will find it easier then most to fill all the great work slots

Louvre(Artistry only): Crazy theming bonuses, Arabia might be one of the few who can more reasonably fill it with only great works instead of artifacts.

Soho Foundry: Get some extra production to give yourself the leg up against any rivals also trying to build wonders.

Broadway(Industry Only): Like Uffizi, Arabia will find this easier to fill then most.

Cristo Redentor(Culture): Lots of Tourism, why wouldn't you want that?

Empire State Building: Free great person, meaning technically this is worth two historic events.

Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): A solid production boost across the empire

Kremlin(Order Only): Free policy, can't complain too much

Bletchley Park(Rationalism Only): Your spies are better, enemy spies are worse, plus a bit of science to top it all off.
CERN: Two free techs is always fantastic, especially for a science Arabia

CN Tower(Culture): Will give a huge boost to tourism

Great Firewall: Important for a cultural Arabia to get as anyone else who gets it will prove a major roadblock to your tourism. Still useful for a science Arabia though to slow enemy spies

Hubble Space Telescope: A necessity for a science Arabia, but two scientists is still useful for a culture game.

Sydney Opera House(Culture): A free policy to clean up your last freedom policies, plus extra culture will help the tourism from historic events and trade routes.

Arabia is a bit of an odd civ, and requires a pretty specific playstyle to get the most out of, so it's easy to make mistakes.

Arabia is a very tall civ, that relies a lot on building wonders, but they're no Egypt. Arabia is going to want a few centers of production to get wonders out. Also, they want cities to produce GWAMs as well, and that can't happen super efficiently in the capital AND have it have the production capacity to build lots of wonders
You may think that since Arabia can generate so many great people you don't need to work as many specialists, but since great people give historic moments, thus giving more great people points, you actually want to have specialists even more.
The tourism from trade routes is a decent amount, not to mention it will up the amount your normal tourism affects a civ. Arabia can get this going quite a bit earlier then most civs with their Bazaar, and they need every weird boost they can get.
Bazaars gives 50% land trade route range, but otherwise give nothing else to them. Sea trade routes are still preferable if possible.
Camel Archers are ok, and are easier to build then heavy skirmishers due to not needing horses, but they still need horses to upgrade. Their promotions also aren't strong enough to warrant an invasion unless a civ is pretty weak, nor do they give a major edge on defense.
Arabia is going to seem a fairly juicy target with their high amount of great works and wonders, especially since they lack a good defensive bonus. Make sure you army is up to snuff, and stay on top of defensive buildings.

Arabia uses some obscure mechanics to great effect, and if you aren't paying attention they could run away with things before you realize what's happening. Luckily they have very exploitable weaknesses

Arabia's bonuses to science and culture may be small in comparison to other civs who excel in those areas, but their great people generation is powerful. Luckily to get the most of it they'll need to build lots of wonders, and they lack high production to do so. If you are a civ with high early production you can easily beat Arabia out of the wonders they need to use their bonus.
There's not much you can do to stop the bazaar's faith generation, and it is a strong bonus, but the strongest religious civs like Celts and Spain have little to worry about. As for their trade routes, do what anyone would normally do to counter trade routes. Declare war, try to get others to declare war, and once the world congress comes around, get an embargo up as soon as possible. Arabia lacks normal tourism generation and this will likely force them into a science game, something most specialized science civs can beat them in.
Camel Archers individually are hardly any more threat then normal Heavy Skirmishers, although they are harder to kill with melee units. Ranged units should do just fine. The problem is that they are easier to mass then normal skirmishers. One thing Arabia does lack though is a great economy bonus. You should be able to match them man to man even on a civ with minimal economy bonuses, and beat them on one with a strong economy like Songhai or the Aztecs
Warmongers: Arabia has almost no bonus to military nor a strong economy to support a large army. They shouldn't be an issue at any point in the game.

Scientific Players: Arabia shouldn't be too hard for you to beat, but they are flexible and if they see a civ beating them on science they can switch to culture fairly easily. Nonetheless they shouldn't prove much competition in science

Cultural Players: The most important thing for a cultural player against Arabia is to deny them as many wonders as possible. Try to get them embargoed if at all possible too, and they'll lack the conventional tourism means to beat you.

Diplomatic Players: Get Arabia embargoed as soon as possible. Try to bribe other civs to go to war with Arabia as well, and they will likely do a good job if you get a decent warmonger to do it.

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

• Civ Summaries

• America (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Assyria (Science/Domination)
  
• Austria (Diplomacy/Culture)
  
• The Aztecs (Domination/Science)
  
• Babylon (Science)
  
• Brazil (Culture)
  
• Byzantium (All)
  
• Carthage (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• The Celts (Domination/Culture/Science)
  
• China (Domination/Culture)
  
• Denmark (Domination)
  
• Egypt (Culture)
  
• England (Domination/Diplomacy)
  
• Ethiopia (Science)
  
• France (Domination/Culture)
  
• 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)
  
• Persia(Domination/Culture)
  
• Poland (Domination)
  
• Polynesia (Culture)
  
• Portugal (Science/Diplomacy)
  
• Rome (Domination/Science)
  
• Russia (Science/Domination)
  
• The Shoshone (Domination/Science/Culture)
  
• Siam (Diplomacy/Science/Culture)
  
• Songhai (Domination)
  
• Spain (Domination/Culture)
  
• Sweden (Domination)
  
• Venice (Diplomacy/Culture/Domination)
  
• The Zulus (Domination)