Augustus Leader Guide – Civilization 7

Augustus is a powerful leader in Civilization 7, with a versatile choice of strategy – military expansionism or cultural dominance. Augustus relies on quick expansion to settle multiple towns, increasing production in the capital to help build wonders and military units depending on how you want to play.

Augustus can purchase Culture Buildings, like Monuments and Amphitheaters, in towns and gets a 50 percent gold bonus for any buildings purchased in towns. Unlike other leaders, Augustus doesn’t necessarily want to convert his towns into cities. This guide covers some fun strategies for Augustus, as well as civilization choice and best mementos.

These leader guides are based on singleplayer Deity difficulty Civilization 7.s

Augustus Best Civilizations In The Antituity Age

The game pushes you towards either Rome or Egypt for Augustus, and both of these represent the different play styles for the Roman emperor.

Rome Civilization

Rome is a cultural militaristic civilization that produces vast numbers of its unique infantry unit, the Legion. Its unique commander, the Legatus, can settle a new town with every three levels of experience it gains.

Rome gets a unique quarter, the Forum, which can be constructed by placing the Basilica and the Temple of Jupiter on the same district.

The Basilica provides +4 Gold and +1 Influence adjacency for Culture buildings and Wonders.

The Temple of Jupiter provides +3 Happiness and +1 Culture adjacency for Happiness buildings and Wonders.

When combined, you get the Forum, a unique quarter that provides for +1 Culture and +1 Gold for every Unique Tradition in the Government.

It’s an excellent strategy to pick up the civic tech for both the Temple of Jupiter and the Basilica as quickly as possible. Rome’s unique quarter is a great generator of culture, gold, and influence.

Egypt Civilization

The Egyptians are all about building Wonders, which suits Rome’s more cultural playstyle. You receive +1 Production on Navigable rivers and 30 percent production towards building the Pyramids, which improves your production even more.

Wonder building is largely about production, although you will need science and civic tech to actually unlock the Wonders. Playing on the hardest difficulty, Deity, means you likely won’t get access to all the wonders you want. The AI loves building Wonders.

Instead, pick and choose specific Wonders that you want to aim for.

The Egyptians get access to the Medjay, their unique Infantry unit. It has no maintenance and receives +3 combat strength while in friendly territory. Rather than military expansionism, Egypt prefers a more defensive playstyle.

Their unique unit, the Tjaty, is a great person that can be constructed in the Necropolis, the Egyptian unique quarter. The Tjaty is random each time you produce it, and it costs more production or gold per Tjaty produced.

The Tjaty can have some excellent great person abilities, such as providing a huge amount of production to a Wonder under construction, instantly spawning tier 2 Medjay, or granting extra gold or culture to districts in your cities.

The Necropolis provides 100 gold whenever you complete a Wonder, and is constructed by combining the Mastaba and Mortuary Temple unique districts. These must be placed on the same tile. The Mastaba provides +3 culture and +1 Gold adjacency for Desert terrain and Wonders. The Mortuary Temple provides +4 gold and +1 happiness adjacency for Navigable rivers and wonders.

Best Mementos For Augustus

Your choice of memento largely relies on how you want to play the game. The choice will be determined by a military or cultural approach.

Best Military Mementos For Augustus

There are a lot of choices for military mementos in Civilization 7. Here are a few to try out on Augustus.

• Corona Civica – This is unlocked by reaching level three with Augustus. It provides a +1 settlement limit but makes your towns 50 percent more expensive to convert to cities. This fits Augustus’ playstyle perfectly.
• Inscribed Sling Bullet – This is your standard +1 Attribute point for the Military tree. Attribute points can be tricky to earn throughout a game – requiring you to complete certain quest objectives – so it’s quite strong to start with a bonus point.
• Bicorne Hat – This is unlocked by reaching level five with Napoleon. It provides an extra +1 movement for Infantry units. Seeing as you’re going to have a bunch of Legions, extra movement can help you get your troops in place quicker.

Best Cultural Mementos For Augustus

• Shakokidogu – This provides +1 Cultural Attribute point. Out of all the possible attribute points, grabbing this early Culture point is very strong – with your second Culture point you can unlock a flat +10 percent production towards Wonders.
• False Beard – +2 Culture on Wonders. More culture generation from any Wonders you build helps you clear the civic tree quickly, grabbing access to Rome’s powerful unique civic tech and filling out your tradition and government slots for Rome’s unique quarter bonuses.
• Letter To Adrienne – This is unlocked by reaching level two with Lafayette. It provides +2 Happiness per age for each Social Policy slotted in your Government. Happiness can become an issue for Augustus because you expand quickly and with multiple settlements, often going over your settlement limit and inducing unhappiness.

Best Starts For Augustus

Once again, the type of Resources you’re looking for in your city largely depends on whether you want to attempt a military or cultural victory.

Best Military Resources

• Iron Infantry units gain +1 combat strength
• Salt +20 percent production towards training units.
• Gold +20 percent gold towards purchasing Buildings

Best Cultural Resources

• Marble +10 percent production towards Wonders placed in Grassland, Tundra, and Marine Terrain
• Ivory +10 percent production towards Wonders placed in Tropical, Plains, and Desert Tiles

Augustus Strategy In The Antiquity Era

Augustus has two ways to play the game, although they share similarities: you want to expand quickly, get your towns up as fast as possible, and start producing infantry units – hopefully Legions if you’ve unlocked the necessary tech for them – to either turtle up and protect your wonder-building, or to start dominating your neighbors.

Augustus Early War

Augustus as Rome has an excellent early military rush in the form of Legions which become available with the Bronze Working military tech. These gain an extra +2 Combat Strength for every Tradition you have slotted in your Government.

Pair this with the Roman Civilization’s civic research – Civis Romanus – which provides you 25 percent of the production value of each of infantry unit you train, and you have a way to essentially print culture while also producing military units.

Civis Romanus is a Tradition, not a regular policy card, which means you can re-use this from Age to Age. That might mean you want to lean into choosing a civilization from a following era that has good infantry units to spam.

Civus Romanus is a great Tradition – possibly one of the best in the game – as it allows you to mass produce units without necessarily falling behind in terms of culture generation. It can also be used for some fascinating civic pushes to grab early wonders, like hitting the Colosseum very early, or other Antiquity wonders that fit your style.

We’ve played Augustus as every civilization available in the Antiquity Age, and his character’s expansionist playstyle fits with most civilizations, although the strategies are different every time.