Ibn Battuta Leader Guide For Civ 7

Ibn Battuta is a leader that might initially seem rather weak compared to some of the other powerful leader bonuses in Civilization 7. Extra vision for units and some wildcard points for the attribute tree are hardly mesmerizing bonuses – but once you start to get into building out Battuta with the right civilization and smart choices, he becomes incredibly powerful.

This is mostly thanks to his ability to cover the entire map very early on, grabbing plenty of Discoveries and sussing out the best settlement spots, and then getting carried into the game by the extra powerful bonuses on the attribute tree.

Ibn Battuta Overview

Battuta gets:

• 2 Free Wildcard Points after researching the first Civic in every Age.
• +1 Sight for all units.
• Special Endeavor Trade Maps which reveal the areas of the map other leaders have explored.

Wildcard Attribute Points – Where Should You Spend Them?

Wildcard Attribute points can be placed into any path on the leader attribute tree, which provides you with some sizable early bonuses that continue to stack into the Exploration and Modern Age.

For example, early on, you could slam two extra attribute points into the culture tree to earn bonus wonder production right at the beginning of the game. Pair this with a Memento that gives you an extra attribute point, and suddenly you can slot three points into any tree.

+1 Sight On Units

This is a pretty basic but still enjoyable bonus, especially if you pair it with Battuta’s unique Memento, Imago Mundi, which increases scout sight range by +3 on their Search ability. This means you can pretty much scout the entire map early on, and it will give you an advantage when you first head over to the Distant Lands and start hunting for cities.

Trade Maps

The Trade Map Endeavor is not particularly useful, really. We’ve tried different methods of getting the most out of this, but with your own scouting ability, it’s quite rare that the AI has seen any part of the world that you already haven’t. It might be useful in dense areas where you can’t through borders, but can mostly be ignored.

Ibn Battuta Strategy In Civ 7

This is how much terrain was revealed with one scout activating their Search ability.

Before we get into the best civilizations, Mementos, and more for Battuta, we’ll cover the very fundamentals of what this leader excels at.

Pick A Victory Condition

While you will get to make decisions as the game progresses into the future Ages, you should pick a victory condition pretty much immediately on Battuta. This is because you’ll want to choose the right attribute points from your bonus.

Thankfully, the attribute trees are linked to victory conditions. The economic tree fits an economy victory, the culture tree fits the culture victory, and so on.

It’s Time To Scout

Ibn Battuta should always build at least two scouts at the start of the game. We think it’s probably worth it to build three or even four scouts as you can quickly scoop up Discoveries, often from right underneath the borders of your opponents.

Early Discoveries can provide massive bonuses in Civilization 7, including extra culture, food, advanced military units, happiness, celebration bonuses, etc.

Best Mementos For Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta unlocks three unique leader Mementos as you level him up.

• Traveler’s Sandals – Gain 10 of the corresponding yield whenever you spend an Attribute Point. Unlocked at level 2.

Quite a fun little Memento when paired with your attribute tree point bonus, and it can be used to get some early Influence or gold, but the bonus is quite small.

• Merchant’s Saddle – +1 Movement and Sight for Scouts, Merchants, and Settlers.

This is where Battuta’s scouting starts to get really out of control. Combine the Merchant’s Saddle Memento with the Imago Mundi Memento and your scouts will have +2 vision overall, with a huge boost to the Scouts Search ability that reveals nearby Discoveries.

We’ve actually managed to discover civilizations on Distant Land tiles by combining all of Battuta’s vision bonuses. Not only does this mean you can start diplomacy with them before the start of the Exploration Age, it also gives you an advantage when you first send out your fleets and Settlers. You’ll know exactly the shortest distance between the islands and the opposing continent.

• The Rihla – +1 Culture, Gold, Happiness, and Science per turn per Age for each Attribute tree in which you have points.

Let’s say you have a point in each attribute tree – this is possible with Battuta’s wildcard points. This earn you a net +5 Culture, Gold, etc in the Antiquity, +10 in the Exploration Age, and +15 in the Modern Age. This is a subtle but still quite powerful boost, especially when a lot of your yields get reset in-between Ages. This gives you the opportunity to quickly reestablish yourself with tech, civics, and celebrations.

Our Favorite Memento Combination On Battuta

We just love the combination of Imago Mundi and The Travels Of Marco Polo.

Imago Mundi provides that extra sight bonus to the Scout’s search ability, and the Travels of Marco Polo gifts you 50 gold per every 100 tiles explored by your scouts. This means you can get some really easy early gold, helping you pump out some settlers quickly.

We’re not saying this is the best Memento combination – and ideally, you’d want to pick Mementos that lean into your desired Legacy Path (victory conditions).

Best Civilizations For Ibn Battuta

Ibn Battuta is very flexible when it comes to civilization choices, which makes him a pretty fun leader to experiment with. His wildcard attribute points allow him to tailor his playstyle to pretty much any of the victory conditions.

There’s a pretty obvious choice when it comes to Antiquity Age civilizations at the moment: the Maya. We think the community has come to a universal agreement that they are currently the most broken in the game, with the best bonuses. We’ll also cover some other fun civilization choices for Battuta, though, because not everyone wants to play as the Maya every game.

Maya

The Maya have some fantastic bonuses for science. Not only do you receive science for vegetated terrain, you also get bonuses for your unique districts and an adjacency bonus for Altars via the Maya civic tree.

Ibn Battuta can quickly scout the surrounding areas, pick out the absolute best settling spots with plenty of vegetation, and then use the early Discoveries to get a quick boost to the start of the game.

Head down the Scientific Attribute Tree with your wildcard points to pick up a bonus 25 percent of science towards researching tech, and you’re off to a very fast start.

Aksum

The game recommends you pick Aksum because of a geographic link between Battuta and the civilization, and it does make sense for the character to lean into trade-based gameplay.

Your early scouts will allow you to find nearby AI cities, and you can use the Aksum’s unique trading ships, the Dhow and Tankwa, to establish naval routes.

Aksum also provides +2 gold on resources and a bonus to constructing the Greate Stele.

We don’t think Aksum is one of the best early civilizations, but if played correctly, you can at least enter the Exploration Age with an economic golden age.