Leader Guide For Trung Trac In Civilization VII

In Civilization 7, choosing a leader is the most tremendous decision you’ll ever make. The civs themselves will transform with the dawn of each age, giving you a total of three by the time you’ve finished the game, but your leader is eternal; they will endure the passing millennia.

This makes their individual abilities critical in the long run. Trung Trac’s slate can be consistently constructive as you shift your civilizations, so as we provide an overview on how to play this legendary Vietnamese heroine, we’ll maintain a close eye on what she brings to the table as Antiquity gives way to Exploration, and Exploration to Modern.

Overview

Before we dive into the details, let’s take a brief look at Trung Trac’s broad-ranging purposes. Each of these core aspects plays the largest role in shaping your tactical approach to Civilization 7.

As we can immediately see, Trung Trac is a prime candidate for your warmongering ambitions. Her contributions to combat are bolstered by one of her two big boosts to science. Some leaders’ synergy is a tad harder to parse, but Trung Trac is straightforwardly battle-ready.

Militaristic, Scientific

The most surefire way to determine a leader’s most appropriate victory paths is by looking at their traits. In Civilization 7, every leader has a pair of traits; thus, they will possess some combination of the following:

• Cultural
• Scientific
• Militaristic
• Economic
• Diplomatic
• Expansionist

A more detailed examination of all six of these is beyond the scope of this guide, but we’ll turn our attention to Trung Trac’s traits: Militaristic and Scientific.

As we’ve mentioned, Trung Trac blends her two traits in effective fashion. It’s fitting, however, that Militaristic is listed first: her Scientific value is less impressive than her Militaristic acumen.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider pursuing a Scientific victory. Indeed, most leaders can capably engage in any victory path. But Trung Trac is a leading pick if you intend to win your wars, especially if they’re wars that you initiated.

The Antiquity Age

While “winning an age” only truly applies to the conclusion of the Modern era, it’s imperative that players achieve at least one legacy path in both the Antiquity and Exploration Ages. To that end, we’re zooming in on how to be the most successful in each age as Trung Trac.

You can certainly eke out an ultimate win without them, but the Golden Age legacies you will obtain for subsequent ages are substantial bonuses leading into your next choice in civ.

The Best Antiquity Civilizations For Trung Trac

Maya has the Hul’che unique ranged unit and the fantastic Jaguar Slayer, a unique scout that can initiate combat and set invisible traps to damage the enemy. The Kuh’Nah unique building builds your Science via Wonders and Vegetation tiles.

The Uwaybil K’uh unique quarter, grants additional Production every time you research a Technology; Production will assist you in building units, Science buildings, and further Wonders – all useful for Trung Trac.

Persia is another great choice. Infantry units will benefit from +3 Combat Strength whenever they attack, and if you’re interested in gaining more War Support throughout the game, the Gate of All Nations Wonder is terrific.

The Immortal unique infantry unit heals 15 HP whenever it defeats an enemy, keeping your battles going for longer, and getting you out of harm’s way rapidly if things take a turn for the worse.

Rely On Your First Commander

During the Antiquity Age, Trung Trac gains a unique boost that won’t apply during the subsequent eras: her first Army Commander comes equipped with three free promotions.

The impact of this shouldn’t be understated. In Civilization 7, only Commanders gain promotions. This is in sharp contrast to previous titles, although every promotion can make a huge impact on your offensive and defensive strategies.

How you spend these three promotions is up to you, but we do have some recommendations:

• Initiative allows you to immediately attack with your units once they’re unpacked. This prevents you from the significant vulnerability that otherwise occurs, as your units will all stand around for one turn, leaving them open to attack
• Rout, which is also on the Assault path, provides +2 combat strength to infantry units when they attack (rather than defend). Build up a few Warriors, and within a handful of turns, you will be notably stronger than your opponents.
• Mobility can be found on the Maneuver path, and it grants the Commander +1 Movement while on land. Furthermore, they’ll ignore Terrain movement restrictions, so long as they’ve got at least one unit packed.

Armed with this trio of tactics, your first Commander will reach enemies swiftly, strike them just as swiftly, and do so in more deadly fashion than most of your rivals.

Declare Formal Wars Once You Have A Couple Of Cities

It’s equally useful when attacking independent powers, which you should definitely be doing on a routine basis for the potential quick sources of Production, Science, Culture, or Gold. Not to mention, you will be helping to further train your Commander for the wars to come.

Speaking of which, go ahead and declare a Formal War on your nearest neighbor as soon as possible. (Well, unless they’re especially threatening, in which case, consider doing so to somebody else!)

Formal Wars can be declared as soon as you’ve reached Hostile status with a rival civ, which will require repeatedly upsetting them through one fashion or another. Denying their endeavor offers can be a handy way to make it happen.

The +20 percent bonus to Science that you will receive for this will get you better-equipped for further conflicts at a more rapid clip, but don’t forget that you won’t gain any boosts to any cities that aren’t on Tropical terrain. Seek that out at any cost when settling your towns.

Soften your foes as soon as you have three, or even two, cities, to benefit from this perk. Consider leaving them alive, albeit crippled, so that you can wage further wars with them in future ages. Declarations of Formal War will be made all the easier since they’ll already hate you for your past actions.

Recommended Techs And Civics

The Exploration Age

In the Exploration Age, most civs will have at least some reason to venture out into the open ocean and discover the rest of the world. This isn’t too big a sea change (pardon the pun) for Trung Trac, whose gains from finding new lands are relatively incremental.

Knowing where future foes are located will eventually aid you, and if you want to engage in numerous naval battles, building up a navy is a must; but Trung Trac should focus more on other developments until the second half of the age.

The Best Exploration Age Civilization For Trung Trac

Mongolia is a strong fit for Trung Trac. Capturing an enemy settlement will always spawn a cavalry unit, furthering your war simply for doing what you set out to do. Capturing settlements in your Homelands earns you more Military Legacy Path points.

This also applies to controlled settlements in Distant Lands, which is partly why we recommend getting your navy up and running before age’s end.

The Keshig unique ranged unit moves faster and (similar to the Persian Immortal) heals 15 HP upon defeating a foe, and the Ortoo immediately restores your cavalry units’ movement if they happen to be standing on the improvement. Useful for wars on freshly-conquered settlements.

Keep Warring On Your Home Continent

Before you set sail into lands unknown, take the opportunity to tick off your surviving neighbors all over again. Not only will this continue to play to Trung Trac’s strengths, keeping them on their toes and weakening their empire will thwart their own cultural overseas ambitions.

Here’s why this Mongolia is so important: the Non Sufficit Orbis Military Legacy Path ordinarily mandates that, by its final milestone, you have gained 12 points from settlements in Distant Lands.

Mongolia bypasses this entirely, allowing you to rack up the points in Homelands instead. You needn’t travel across Deep Ocean tiles, and you can mop up any remaining points in Distant Lands later in the age if necessary.

Double Down On Science

This, of course, plays directly into the importance of not neglecting your Science. During the Exploration Age, technological progress will benefit Trung Trac slightly more than social policies.

If you’re still founding cities rather than stealing them all from your rivals, remember to do so in Tropical environments. (Be sure to focus on Tropical enemy cities whenever possible, too.)

Even if you aren’t simultaneously aiming for the Enlightment Legacy Path, which will require plenty of Specialists and five incredibly high-yield tiles (harder than it sounds, honestly), this will sync with your war engine. But really, you should probably do this as well.

Recommended Techs And Civics

The Modern Age

This is it: here’s how we’ve managed to win the game even on higher difficulties. In the Modern Age, warfare is more imperative than ever, and your options for it expand considerably.

Trung Trac’s scientific prowess will enable you to earn vital technology before many of your rivals, and if things look grim for a Military victory, your prior-age developments will come to your aid for a Science victory alternative.

The Best Modern Age Civilizations For Trung Trac

Meiji Japan is an excellent Modern Age option. Its military applications are clear; the Mikasa is the game’s best heavy naval unit, and the Zero is the best anti-aircraft fighter unit. At this point in the game, you’ll be spending more time at sea regardless of past choices, and aerial warfare proves critical to military paths in the late game.

Gaining Science equal to 50 percent of a Building’s Production cost when Overbuilding bolsters your overall Science progression.

The French Empire is a capable alternative. Garde Imperiale, the French unique infantry unit, can attack from range and gain +2 Combat Strength when near an Army Commander – and by now, you ought to have Army Commanders aplenty.

Jardin A La Francaise provides +5 Culture, which is by no means unwelcome. For Trung Trac’s purposes, however, it’s the +1 Happiness adjacency for Culture Buildings and Wonders that really counts. Similarly, and more impressively, the Salon grants +5 Happiness in conjunction with adjacency bonuses for Culture.

The Nuclear Option

Modern Age military victories are messy affairs, but they’re capped off by potential catastrophe: if you’re pursuing this path, you’ll eventually need to build the Manhattan Project, followed by the Operation Ivy project.

Needless to say, completing the Manhattan Project provides a nuclear weapon. By the time you’ve got this, you’ve likely already endured a heap of warfare in the Modern Age. But if you still have a pesky rival trying to obliterate you, well, a nuclear weapon might end those ambitions swiftly.

Ideological Prerequisites

Before all that can commence, however, you will need to earn 20 Ideology Points. These are gained by conquering settlements for the first time. You’ll get one point if you lack an Ideology (a Civic tree critical to victory), and two points if you do.

You’ll get three points if you do so against an opponent with a different ideology. This makes things interesting: it can be advantageous to have Trung Trac deliberately avoid alliances now in favor of the maximum chances of earning the most points against every rival civ.

Of course, if you’ve chosen an Ideology and then another civ chooses similarly, it won’t hurt to count them as your friends. You can achieve the Ideology victory path without slaughtering the rest of the world.

Maximize Your Advantage From Past Wars

For Trung Trac, your prior conflicts will be a major boon in the Modern Age. She still gains that +10 percent Science in Tropical cities, which is doubled while in a self-declared Formal War. As such, you can reliably crank your Science up by a full fifth the entire era – as well you should.

That Hostile relationship that you’ll surely enjoy with the other civs will make Formal Wars easier to declare, as we’ve previously discussed. But the Modern Age especially benefits here, because you really need to be hitting your chosen opponents hard and fast to curb their own major army growth, which is guaranteed to occur if left unchecked.

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