(OUT OF DATE/2UC)A Vox Populi(CBP) Guide: Austria

This guide is currently out of date for the 5.0 aka 4UC integration patch of Vox Populi.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 However, do note that some things in this guide may be out of date, as due to both busier life stuff and the knowledge that 4UC has been coming for a while some parts of the guides weren’t updating even with other VP changes

Austria has had some decent changes in how the city state marriage mechanic works, but on the whole are still played the same, so this guide should still be fairly good

Once a new version of this guide comes out, it will be linked here [new guide link waiting]

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 Austrians!

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.

Austria has no start bias. In theory you want flat land for Hussars, but they are both offensive in nature and late game, so by then no matter where you start the land should be pretty flat. The rest of your uniques don't really care about terrain
+50% rewards from city state quests Can use to arrange a marriage with an allied city state. While at peace with the city state, marriages cause restinginfluence to increase by 75, scaling with era, and gain +15% great person rate in the capital

A mounted ranged unit

*The Hussar has a base movement speed of 5, but due to Lightning Warfare becomes 6
**The Hussar has a base sight of 2, but becomes 3 due to Extra Sight (1) Positive One-Off Changes

• Higher combat strength (28 instead of 27)
  
• Higher ranged combat strength (23 instead of 22)
  
• +1 sight (Extra Sight (1))
  
• Obsoletes at Mobile Tactics rather than Military Science

Positive Stay on Upgrade Changes

• +15% combat strength when attacking. +1 movement. Ignores Zone of Control(Lightning Warfare)

Negative Changes
No food from population(Normal grocer gives +1 per 5 citizens) Positive Changes

• +3
  
• +33% in this city
  
• 10% of cities is converted into
  
• 1 Merchant slot

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


The Hussar allows for some mid-game conquest, but Austria lacks the gold or production to keep war going for a full domination victory, and their other uniques don't synergize well with domination
Culture is a good backup route for Austria. Austria's great people generation is nearly unmatched due to the UA and UB, which allows for lots of GWAMs
Austria gets a decent amount of science from the Coffee house, as well as from being able to generate lots of Great Scientists. Their production benefits a bit from more Great Engineers as well, but that isn't as important.
Despite lacking any gold bonus, Diplomacy is the clear victory route of choice. No one maintains city state alliances as well as Austria, nor can they gain them as well since Austria has bonuses to obtain city states too.
Austria lacks religious bonuses, but their slow early game means they can easily afford to invest some early infrastructure into religion.

Above: For anyone else this mission would give around 42 influence, enough for a friendship sure, but not too long a one. For Austria this will be a brief alliance and a long friendship

Before diplomatic units come along, city state quests are the only way to get city state influence. Even when diplomatic units come along fulfilling quests is a great way to get influence. For Austria it is even more so. Some quests early game don't give enough influence to even get a friendship, and even for those that do it is usually fairly brief. One quest will always give Austria enough influence for a decently long friendship, and some quests might even give an alliance. Not to mention whatever yield completing the quest gives is increased as well, which while a bit unpredictable, can be quite helpful.

Alone the 50% quests would make Austria a pretty good diplomatic civ, but that isn't the only benefit they have.

Above: The icon that kinda looks like a white science beaker with a ribbon indicates you have a marriage with a City State, which should allow you to easily keep track

If you can maintain a City State alliance for at least 10 turns, Austria can spend gold to get a diplomatic marriage. The amount of gold starts at 200, and increases by 200 for every marriage you have. Early game 200 gold is a decently large amount, but if you avoid spending too much money you can build it up very quickly. Late and even mid game this is less of an obstacle, but still something to keep in mind. When you get a marriage with a city state, as long as you aren't at war with the city state, Austria's resting influence increases by 75 points, which scales to 150 in the medieval, and by 75 again every era after that. They also get 15% great person rate in the capital. You even retain the marriage if someone else allies the city state, and while a dead city state gives no benefits, the marriage returns if the city state is liberated.

Below: how many delegates I had mid-industrial era. Obviously there are plenty of bonuses in play outside of my dominance of city state allies, but still.

Austria can completely dominate the world congress, and is harder to dethrone then any other civ. Just make sure to keep up a good economy, and make sure to get city state allies as fast as you can

Above: It can be easy to forget, but marriages give great people generation in the capital. There are more bonuses in play then just marriages for 250%, but that is still a very high amount, much higher then anyone could probably reasonably achieve at the end of the game, let alone in the Industrial

Austria already has the diplomatic game on lock, so the Coffee House instead builds on Austria's great people generation, as well as providing some other bonuses. 33% great people generation would be a lot for any other civ then Austria, but for Austria, it isn't that huge. It definitely helps, but Austria can easily get over 200% on some map sizes from their UA. What's good about the Coffee house though, is that it can be built in every city. Austria doesn't have much of a growth bonus, so their capital probably won't grow to incredibly large sizes, certainly not enough to be able to work several specialists slots for every great person, not at least until the very late game. So other cities will still be useful to generate great people, particularly GWAMs.

Above: Note the science from yield conversion

The other important bonus of the Coffee House is that it converts 10% of culture into science. Converts probably isn't actually the right word for it, as you aren't losing 10% culture due to this building, it's more like it generates science equal to 10% of your culture. This won't be an insane amount, especially since Austria doesn't have many bonuses that give straight culture, but it is nonetheless good to have so you don't completely fall behind on tech.

Do you have a stubborn diplomatic rival who just won't stop trying to take City States that are rightfully yours, or maybe an aggressive neighbor who won't stop harassing you or your marriage partners? Introducing the Hussar! (Wings not included)

The Hussar doesn't really change the Austrian gameplan in the long term, and certainly doesn't push them towards domination. However, that isn't to say it is a bad unit, far from it. In fact it is incredibly useful to take out anyone who threatens your diplomatic dominance. Lightning Warfare is a very powerful promotion. The 15% attacking strength is nice, but what is more important in my opinion, at least for a mounted ranged unit like the Hussar, is the movement and ignoring zone of control. A mounted ranged unit is best used by moving near a target, especially a weak target, taking a shot, and then retreating out of range of enemy fire. 5 movement can work well in ideal terrain, but isn't necessarily perfect in every scenario. 6 movement though, will nearly always allow you to move in, strike, and escape out of counterattack range. Ignoring zone of control, while not as important for a ranged unit as for a melee unit, can still allow you to chase down a wounded unit, or get out of a situation where you had bad positioning far easier.

The Hussar also has 1 extra sight. Normally mounted ranged units shouldn't be in rough terrain, but placing one Hussar on a hill to get more sight is a good idea. Do note that this doesn't remain on upgrade, so keeping an unupgraded Hussar around is not a bad idea.

• +15% combat strength when attacking. Ignore zone of control. +1 Movement(Lightning Warfare)
  

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 Commerce: The faster you can get up gold for royal marriages the better, and this pantheon should help a lot

God of the Sun: A good alternative to Commerce, gives more gold in the short term, and is almost certainly the better choice if you have lots of farm resources

Goddess of the Home: Lots of food so you can take better advantage of the great person boosts you have

Ceremonial Burial: You'll have lots of great people, this makes them worth even more

Apostolic Tradition: A nice amount of food for (hopefully) your capital

Thrift: Should give you a lot of extra gold to throw around

Gudwaras: Lots of food for more great people

Cathedrals: More gold for more marriages

Abode of Peace: A bit of gold, plus huge bonuses to getting and keeping city states

Symbolism: Even just +2 to all great people points will be massively boosted by all the marriages you have

Holy Land: Should secure your stranglehold on the world congress

Global Commandments: While this won't help you gain the world congress, you're already very good at it, and this gives nice bonuses for controlling the congress

Sacred Sites: If you are already sure a diplomatic victory isn't in the cards or you want to go for culture, this is the best reformation belief for any culture game. Try to nab lots of follower buildings to compound the effects

Austria should start with Tradition to capitalize on their great people growth. They should then take Statecraft to make sure they can secure city state alliances. Finally, whether they plan to continue with diplomacy or take a more unusual path with culture, Industry is the way to go.

Opener: The extra population is useful for early wonders, and even early specialists

Justice: The early production will help with any early wonders you want to build

Sovereignty: Border expansion is nice, plus this is some artist generation for early tourism

Ceremony: The extra science will help clear up any remaining worker techs

Splendor: I always recommend going Splendor before Majesty because Splendor can give a good amount of culture, getting you to finishing Tradition quicker. In fact throughout the game this will net you a large amount of culture and golden age points

Majesty: Considering your capital is going to likely have a lot of specialists, this ensures your growth isn't stumped.

Finisher: Get a bit more use out of your great person improvements! Plus hey, a stronger capital never hurt yeah? Have a throne room!

Opener: Small bit of gold and a few extra yields in the capital can't hurt

Trade Confederacy: Better trade routes and a small bit of extra influence from them.

Foreign Service: So now city state quest give double rewards. Awesome.

Shadow Networks: A massive boost to science, especially late game

Consulates: A few more delegates never hurt

Exchange Markets: An extra trade route, bonus tourism modifiers from having trade routes with other civs, possible monopolies, a fantastic boost.

Finisher: Less policies required for wonders is pretty solid for you, and the yields from each world congress should be very high.

Opener: Two trade routes is an incredible bonus for any goal, especially tourism and diplomacy

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

Free Trade: Extra gold from ITRs is always a good thing

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: A bunch of decent bonuses add up to a great policy to boost food, production and science

Finisher: Austria is likely to have a lot of specialists in the capital at least, so this is a great boost.

Being a diplomatic, great person generating civ, Freedom is a no brainer for Austria

Civil Society: You capital should be able to grow quite a bit better after this

Avant Garde: Basically an extra coffee house everywhere

Creative Expression(Culture): Make your great works work great.

Covert Action: Makes your spies better at getting those tricky city states your diplomatic rivals don't want to give up.

Arsenal of Democracy: The perfect bridge between Austria's diplomatic and great people strengths

Capitalism: Will help with the large amounts of specialists you likely have.

New Deal(Culture): With all your great people you'll probably have a ton of improvements from them.

Treaty Organization: Helps to make sure you aren't letting city state influence fall too low.

Media Culture(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.

Pyramids: This will net you a ton of golden age points, and the settler is nice too

Temple of Artemis: The growth is pretty good, and the reduced unhappiness from urbanization will actually help a lot

Great Wall: You're pretty vulnerable this early, so building the Great Wall will help a lot

Hanging Gardens: Build this in the capital so it can work more specialists

Roman Forum: You don't really need this, but a free great diplomat is very helpful, and better diplomatic units are still nice.

University of Sankore(Tradition Only): This should actually net you a lot of science.
Globe Theatre: Should give a solid amount of golden age points

Himeji Castle: Hussars are coming soon so you won't be AS vulnerable, but this is still good to have

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Excessive? Maybe. But that doesn't mean it isn't useful

Summer Palace: Austria has enough diplomatic bonuses to make this not an essential wonder, however it is still great to pick up if for no other reason then denying it to someone else, as someone with this wonder can contest your city states much easier

Uffizi: You'll have lots of great works, good to get more culture out of them

Palace of Westminster(Statecraft Only): Once again excessive, but it makes absolutely sure no one can contest you in the world congress
Broadway(Industry Only): You will probably have a bit easier time filling this up then most civs, since you can generate musicians really quickly

Cristo Redentor(Culture): A ton of tourism, not much else to say

Empire State Building: A solid amount of gold for Austria

Statue of Liberty(Freedom Only): Should be a ton of production in the capital, and a free policy never hurt

CN Tower(Culture): More Tourism from every normal source of tourism. Should seal the final push of tourism

Great Firewall(Culture): Not that useful to you, but if someone else gets it they become much harder to culturally influence

Austria has one of the smoothest late games of any civ, and overall a simple gameplan, but mistakes are possible.

While even playing optimally you'll be getting more diplomatic marriages in the mid and late games, it is still important to get as many marriages early as you can. To do that, you'll need money, a lot for the early game. Make sure you are on top of building markets, and try not to spend much money on other things
Early game Austria is very vulnerable, so you will need to get a decent military up, but even once all your uniques hit their stride your defense isn't great as Austria, which includes Hussars, so make sure you aren't neglecting troops.
Hussars are a solid unit, and taking out a troublesome rival is a good idea. However you shouldn't do more then that. Hussars aren't quite good enough to take over the world, and none of your other uniques really support world conquest.
While you do still gain marriage bonuses while not allied, you still want to be allied to your city states. Allied city states give more delegates, and if they aren't your ally you risk the person that is allying them declaring war on you, denying you any bonus from that city state, including the marriage.

Austria has one of the strongest late games of any civs, with a focus in dominating the world congress. However, with an insane late game comes a weak period earlier on, and Austria is about as extreme in both regards as you can get.

The more Austria is able to get their UA going, the harder it is to stop. So stop it early. It takes 10 turns for Austria to be able to form a marriage, so make sure to never let Austria keep an alliance up for long. But sometimes, whether the city state is far from you or it simply being too early, you can't stop Austria from getting a marriage. There is still something you can do. If you can get the alliance from Austria, simply declare war on Austria and they will no longer get the benefit. This is better to do when the world congress is founded, as this will hurt Austria most then, even if you can't afford to actually attack Austria. If you can't break Austria's alliance with a city state, you could always conquer the city state. This hurts Austria even more then other diplomatic civs, since they lose an alliance and a marriage. Just make sure you can reinforce the city state, as if they can easily recapture it, all you've done is make other civs mad at you for conquering a city state.
The Coffee House gives a solid bonus to great people. There isn't a big amount you can do to stop them from building this, short of conquering it. However, the Coffee House is mostly a supplement to the great people generation of the UA, so if you prevent Austria using their UA, the Coffee House will merely be trying to make up the difference, instead of adding to it.
Hussars are fast, and hit fairly hard, but they are still mounted ranged units. Mounted melee units are probably the best option to fight them, as even with their enhanced movement speed, mounted melee units should still be able to pressure them. Normal melee units generally do very poorly against Hussars since they ignore zone of control, so using them is probably not a great idea.
Early-Game Warmongers: This is the best time to take out Austria. Taking Austria out fully is a good idea, as if left alive they still could cause trouble in the world congress.

Mid-Game Warmongers: If this is before Hussars, there isn't much difference then early game, other then maybe having more city states around. If Austria does have Hussars, bring plenty of mounted melee units of your own. Consider conquering some city states, especially if you don't think you can take Austria fully out

Late-Game Warmongers: Austria will probably have some solid mounted ranged units from their Hussar wars, so be wary of that. Armor units do well until they get to Helicopter Gunships. Air units should do well after and even during that. Try to fully kill Austria, or at least conquer lots of their city states.

Diplomatic Players: Contest Austria hard on any freshly allied city states to prevent marriages. The more resources Austria has to spend on one city state, the less marriages they can get in other city states.

Cultural Players: Austria has insane great people generation, which means they will have a lot of great works. However that won't help them a lot if they lack any good theming slots. Since Austria lacks production bonuses, take cultural wonders yourself. In fact, try taking some diplomatic wonders and investing some resources into diplomacy to try and prevent Austria from dominating the world congress too much.

Scientific Players: Similar to cultural players, try and use your superior tech and production to try and take diplomatic and cultural wonders to contest Austria on those fronts.

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

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