Best Leaders For An Economic Victory In Civ 7

Summary

Choose leaders focused on trade and expansion to achieve an economic victory in Civilization 7.
Leaders like Xerxes and Amina excel in expanding rapidly to access resources, essential for success.
Machiavelli and Ibn Battuta offer versatility and gold benefits for economic goals, providing strategic options.

Achieving an economic victory in Civilization 7 means choosing a leader who’s focused on trade, resource management, and expansion. Economic prowess is based on how well you control resources and gain access to new ones, which typically means expanding toward those resources and gaining them through trade.

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While getting more gold is always a good thing, you’ll be focusing more on trade routes and expansion to achieve an economic victory. Leaders tackle this victory in several different ways in Civilization 7. Some are focused on expansion, while others allow you to leverage the resources you already have. There are many different paths towards an economic victory, which also means there are many different suitable leaders.

8

Harriet Tubman

Harriet Tubman crossing her arms in her First Look Trailer for Civilization 7.

Harriet Tubman is one of the more interesting leaders in Civilization 7. She technically isn’t an economic leader. However, her leadership abilities are useful for diplomatic purposes, and you’ll need to stretch your diplomatic abilities quite a bit to accomplish an economic victory.

She also ignores movement penalties from vegetated tiles, which can be useful when you’re trying to expand your trade routes in the early game. However, this does lose its usefulness when you switch to mostly marine trade routes.

Prioritize early expansion to secure resource-rich territories before your opponents.

7

Ashoka

Ashoka is focused on expansion, which can allow you to gain access to resources quickly without relying on trade routes. He’s especially powerful in the first two ages when founding your own cities is still a viable strategy.

He gets extra good in settlements during a celebration and in settlements that have excess happiness. He also gets extra happiness for all improvements. This means your cities will grow faster, and you’ll be able to access resources sooner. Plan to expand quickly at the beginning of each age with Ashoka.

6

Xerxes (King Of Kings)

Xerxes talking in his intro trailer for Civilization 7.

Xerxes is one of the few leaders made for an economic victory. However, he plays very aggressively, so plan to go to war often, even in pursuit of an economic victory. He gains gold and culture each time he captures a settlement for the first time, and he gets extra gold in all settlements.

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Your settlement limit is also increased each age, allowing you to gain access to extra resources without using trade routes. Xerxes can be great for those who want to play aggressively, but he doesn’t have any abilities that help you win an economic victory directly. Gold is great, but it doesn’t actually play a huge role in winning economically.

5

Xerxes (The Achaemenid)

Xerxes, the Achaemenid, crossing his arms.

Xerxes’s Achaemenid persona is even better for an economic victory, especially if you want to focus on trade. He gets a base increase on the trade route limit for each leader. Whenever you make these trade routes, you also receive culture and gold. Many trade-related unlocks are in the cultural tree, so increasing your culture production is important.

Whenever you build a unique building or improvement, Xerxes receives increased culture and gold, as well. It’s very easy to start steamrolling in the later part of each age as all your trade routes and buildings start to add up.

Develop extensive trade networks with other civilizations to accumulate wealth. Ensure these routes are well-protected to prevent disruptions from potential threats.

4

Machiavelli

Machiavelli is labeled as an economic leader. He does have several abilities that allow him to get gold. For instance, he gets gold when he does a diplomatic action, especially when those actions are rejected. But gold isn’t directly related to an economic victory. It can help you upgrade your settlements and expand faster, but this is useful for any victory type.

Machiavelli’s diplomatic nature does make it easier to get trade routes early on, though. If you want to use trade routes extensively, he might be a good leader option.

3

Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta is a versatile leader with Wildcard Attribute Points, allowing for tons of flexibility. He can adapt quickly to any playstyle, making him a good choice for an economic victory. You’ll want to put plenty of points into the economic attributes, sprinkling some into culture to.

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Of course, if your strategy changes down the road, you can always shift and start putting points elsewhere. Ibn Battuta is simply a very versatile leader, and that versatility can be used towards an economic victory.

2

Augustus

Augustus is ideal for an expansionist and aggressive approach, facilitating resource acquisition and territorial growth. His leadership supports rapid expansion, allowing you to control valuable resources and establish a wide-reaching economic network. You’ll want to focus on founding towns near resources that they can feed back to your main cities.

Because Augustus can build such a large empire, he’s able to achieve an economic victory in all three ages. While trade routes are important, sometimes founding towns near the resources you want is the most straightforward option.

During the exploration age, focus on shipbuilding and exploration to find resource-rich lands early.

1

Amina

Civilization 7 Amina gesturing with her sword.

Amina excels at achieving an economic legacy path victory, especially in the antiquity age. She starts with increased resource capacity in cities, allowing you to reach the upper levels of the economic path easily (and without scampering to find camels). She also gets increased gold for resources in cities, which you’ll be concentrating on, anyway.

Amina is a natural choice for an economic victory since you’ll be focusing a lot on resources. She’ll need to make use of both your resources and trade routes to accomplish it, though, since she doesn’t get any expansionist bonuses. Pick a friendly civilization and start establishing trade routes early to take advantage of their resources.