The Ethiopian people represent a civilization in Civilization V: Gods & Kings. Ethiopia is a purely "defensive" civilization. Home to ancient empires dating back to the waning centuries of the first millennium BC, Ethiopia has a storied history driven by the rule of great kings and emperors.
As one of the few African nations to avoid the colonial ambitions of Europe, Ethiopia maintained its sovereignty well into the 20th century, remaining independent until the invasion of Italian forces led by Mussolini in 1935. As early as the 10th millennium BC, Ethiopia was inhabited by tribal peoples who subsisted using early forms of agriculture and animal husbandry. Later during the height of the ancient Egyptian civilization, traders from both nations established routes for the exchange of gold, obsidian, ivory, and other precious materials.
Let's delve into the specifics of playing as Ethiopia in Civilization V.
Ethiopia's Unique Attributes
Ethiopia's unique traits are really cool.
Unique Ability: Spirit of Adwa
Their unique ability is based on city count, in which their units will be granted a combat bonus when going up against the units from civilizations with more cities than Ethiopia. All your units receive a 20% combat bonus against the units of Civs or City-States with more cities than you.
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Puppeted cities and cities in the process of being razed count, so if you had 4 cities, and your rival had 2 regular and 3 puppet cities, you'd still receive the 20% bonus against their units. City ranged attacks are not affected by the 20% combat bonus.
So to make use of this bonus, keep your empire small and build some military units to defend your lands.
The Ethiopian UA makes no distinction between fighting in friendly, neutral or enemy lands. So long as your opponent has a higher number of cities than you, all your units will fight 20% more effectively against all their units. This differs greatly from the Shoshone UA, where the bonus only applies to land units in their own territory. This means you don't have to use your UA defensively - you can use it effectively on the offensive, too!
If you want to go warmongering as Ethiopia, start by invading Civs with only slightly more cities than you, and work your way up to those with vast wide empires. That will ensure you start each war with the 20% combat bonus, as you can't raze capitals and as such will gain cities every war.
The key advantage here is that as long as you don't expand too much, you can keep a smaller or less-developed army than anyone else and still remain competitive. For most of the game, military technologies are on the other side of the technology tree to scientific and cultural ones, but thanks to this UA, you can afford to delay such detours. You can think of this ability like the Mayan or Siamese UUs - enabling you to focus on getting a domestic advantage rather than having to build a huge defensive force.
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Later in the game, combat strengths of units will rise considerably in both absolute and relative terms. Renaissance units aren't too much stronger than medieval-era ones, but there's quite a jump to the industrial era, and even more to the modern era. Thankfully, the industrial era's where your UU comes along to help out, and the upgrade path for them converges with technologies useful for a tall-building peaceful Civ anyway. So, while the 20% bonus may not be enough on its own to deal with Civs with a militaristic technological advantage, by the time it could really become a problem, you've got other features to help out, too.
In summary, the Ethiopian UA lets you focus on peaceful development rather than having to build up armies.
Unique Unit: Mehal Sefari
In the dawn of the Industrial Era, the Ethiopians also have access to the Mehal Sefari, their unique replacement for the Rifleman.
Mehal Sefari are much like Ethiopia's UA. On the face of it, they're a defensive unit, but they also have good offensive capabilities, too.
In addition to the combat bonus in rough terrain, the Mehal Sefari receives an extra combat bonus when fighting near the Ethiopian Capital.
Read also: Planning Your Ethiopia Trip
Here's a detailed breakdown of the Mehal Sefari:
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Replaces | Rifleman |
| Technology | Rifling |
| Upgrades From | Musketman |
| Upgrades To | Great War Infantry |
| Production Cost | 200 |
| Purchase Cost | 680 |
| Resource Needed | None |
| Combat Strength | 34 |
| Ranged Strength | N/A |
| Movement | 2 |
| Range | N/A |
| Sight | 2 |
| Bonuses | 15% combat bonus in rough terrain (Drill I), 30% combat bonus near the Ethiopian Capital (bonus reduces the further from it this unit is) |
| Upgrade Cost | 110 |
Mehal Sefari come at a useful time, where combat strengths of units are increasing rapidly and as such the 20% combat bonus your UA offers may not be enough on its own. With a slightly cheaper cost, the Drill I prom...
Unique Building: Stele
Their unique building, the Stele, gives them a nice Faith boost right from the start of the game (because it replaces the first building available in the game, the Monument), allowing the Ethiopians to be among the first nations to establish a religion.
As the game's only Monument replacement, the Stele is the only UB that can be built straight away. This doesn't necessarily mean you should - with twice as much faith as a Shine on offer, there's a very high chance you'll be the first to a Pantheon even if you build something else first. It's not a bad idea to start with a Scout to get an idea of what your starting terrain is like, so you can pick the most appropriate Pantheon with the Stele faith.
Here's a table summarizing the Stele's attributes:
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Replaces | Monument |
| Technology | None |
| Building Required | None |
| Required to Build | Amphitheatre |
| Production Cost | 40 |
| Purchase Cost | 280 |
| City Restriction | None |
| Maintenance | 1 |
| Available From | Start |
Strategic Approaches for Ethiopia
Although Ethiopia's unique ability suggests that one play with a low number of cities, the Faith bonus from the Stele could also become a potential to establish a religion as early as possible by means of expansion. If one does not wish to utilize the Ethiopians' unique ability, it is possible to create a large and expansive empire with a strong religion.
Even though the terrain changes, locations stay the same. Early wars are unlikely: So when it comes to Social Policies, choose the Culture track. Doing that, you’ll get more culture and thus will be able to unlock the Military track later in the game, while you actually need it.
LGWI Live! - Civ V Scramble for Africa (Deity, Ethiopia, Blind)
Expansion
Securing a Pantheon easily isn't hard as Ethiopia, and neither is getting a religion. In order to get one quickly, you can build new cities early and make use of the Legalism Social Policy in the Tradition tree so they instantly have Steles.
Some players like to take the rather more extreme measure of building wide in order to maximise faith output. Ethiopia can have the game's strongest faith output this way (prior to Indonesia getting their Candi) which works well with faith-hungry beliefs such as To the Glory of God. The problem with this is that it renders Ethiopia's UA useless, so be sure to keep your defences strong to counteract that if you're going down such a route.
Generally though, I'd advocate building a tall empire so you can make use of Ethiopia's UA, allowing you to keep your army efficently small. Nonetheless, it's still useful to expand to at least three cities quickly in order to get a good early faith generation going (and building cities earlier gives them more time to mature.)
Religion
Ethiopia can easily be the first Civ to a religion, hence giving the first pick of religious beliefs. It's a good idea to pick beliefs relevant to a tall empire - they can help towards science or culture, meaning you have a backup victory route if one doesn't work out later on in the game.
Due to Ethiopia's head start in founding a religion, you can get around to spreading it before anyone else. This gives you a significant advantage to religious pressure, which means you'll be able to convert lots of cities and make the most of Founder beliefs. Pick one that gives you rewards from the number of religious followers or the number of cities following your religion for the maximum potential.
Victory Routes
Like the Celts, Ethiopia may appear to have low scores, but that's because their uniques tend to be indirectly useful towards victory routes rather than directly so - there's no defensive or religious victory, after all. Ethiopia scales very well with difficulty in singleplayer as computer opponents will have a head start to founding cities (so you can use your UA's defensive bonus easily) and usually, founding a religion is difficult (which the UB deals with.) As a result, on the highest difficulties, Ethiopia can perform better than many Civs with a greater focus on a single victory type.
So, which victory route to take? If you keep the number of cities you own small, you could take your UA towards a domination victory - just keep razing your conquests. Your UA encourages building tall, which synergises nicely with scientific victories, although your UB encourages building wide. Early religions tend to fit culture better than science or domination, so heading towards a cultural victory will work effectively. Overall, culture or science will probably be the most effective options.
Beyond the founding of a religion, you can spend the rest of the game working towards your preferred victory route. Again, science or culture fits a tall empire best, and their technologies are close together.
So, thanks to an early religion, you're on the long road to eventual victory.
Note: This guide assumes you have all game-altering DLC and expansion packs (all Civ packs, Wonders of the Ancient World, Gods & Kings and Brave New World)
Similar Civilizations
Ethiopia's strong faith emphasis very early in the game makes very similar to the Celts. Ethiopia defends better and is usually first to a religion, but the Celts have a strong mid-game happiness bonus and are usually first to a Pantheon.
Another Civ to consider is the Mayans. They also have early faith bonuses, but they clearly skew towards scientific victories unlike the less clear paths of Ethiopia and the Celts.
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