Following this guide requires the Gathering Storm expansion.

It also assumes you have all other Civ 6 content, listed below, though it is not necessary to have these to utilise the key strategies of each civ.

• Pre-Rise and Fall content packs
  
  • Vikings, Poland, Australia, Persia/Macedon, Nubia, Khmer/Indonesia
• Rise and Fall Expansion
  
• New Frontier content packs
  
  • Maya/Grand Colombia, Ethiopia, Byzantium/Gauls, Babylon, Vietnam/Kublai Khan, Portugal

These content packs include exclusive civs, city-states, districts, buildings, wonders, natural wonders, resources, and a disaster, but not core game mechanics - all you need is the base game and the Gathering Storm expansion for those.

Out of vengeance I found peace; the gathering storm across the seas parted to the land of the long white cloud. A realm larger than any island I had seen before - and one that I immediately knew must be protected if it is to serve my people. But friends and enemies alike shall soon arrive in these new lands - how far are we prepared to go to ensure our environment shall stand the test of time?


This guide is divided into multiple sections explaining how best to use and play against this specific civ.

• The Outline details the mechanics of how the civilization's unique features work and what their start bias is if they have one.
  
• The Victory Skew section describes to what extent the civ (and its individual leaders where applicable) is inclined towards particular victory routes. This is not a rating of its power, but an indicator of the most appropriate route to victory.
  
• Multiple sections for Uniques explain in detail how to use each special bonus of the civilization.
  
• Administration describes some of the most synergistic governments, government buildings, policy cards, age bonuses, pantheons, religious beliefs, wonders, city-states and Great People for the civ. Only the ones with the most synergy with the civ's uniques are mentioned - these are not necessarily the "best" choices when playing as the civ for a given victory route.
  
• Finally, the Counter-Strategies discusses how best to play against the civ, including a consideration of leader agendas if the civ is controlled by a computer.

Note that all costs (production, science, etc.) mentioned within the guide assume a game played on the normal speed settings. To modify these values for other game speeds:

• Online: Divide by 2
  
• Quick: Divide by 1.5
  
• Epic: Multiply by 1.5
  
• Marathon: Multiply by 3

Terminology used in this guide and not in-game is explained here.

AoE (Area of Effect) - Bonuses or penalties that affect multiple tiles in a set radius. Positive examples include Factories (which offer production to cities within a 6 tile radius unless they're within range of another building of the same type) and a negative example is nuclear weapons, which cause devastation over a wide radius.

Beelining - Obtaining a technology or civic quickly by only researching it and its prerequisites. Some deviation is allowed in the event that taking a technology or civic off the main track provides some kind of advantage that makes up for that (either a source of extra science/culture or access to something necessary for a eureka or inspiration boost)

CA (Civ Ability) - The unique ability of a civilization, shared by all its leaders.

Compact empires - Civs with cities close together (typically 3-4 tile gaps between city centres). This is useful if you want to make use of districts that gain adjacency bonuses from other districts, or to maximise the potential of area-of-effect bonuses later in the game.

Dispersed empires - Civs with cities that are spread out (typically 5-6 tile gaps between city centres). Civs with unique tile improvements generally favour a more dispersed empire in order to make use of them, as do civs focused on wonder construction.

GPP - Short for Great Person Points. Districts, buildings and wonders generate these points and with enough you can claim a Great Person of the corresponding type.

GWAM - Collective name for Great Writers, Artists and Musicians. All of them can produce Great Works that offer tourism and culture, making them important to anyone seeking a cultural victory.

LA (Leader Ability) - The unique ability of a specific leader. Usually but not always, they tend to be more specific in scope than civ abilities. Some leader abilities come with an associated unique unit or infrastucture.

Prebuilding - Training a unit with the intention of upgrading it to a desired unit later. An example is building Slingers and upgrading them once Archery is unlocked.

Sniping - Targeting a specific city for capture directly, ignoring other enemy cities along the way. Typically used in the context of "capital sniping" - taking a civ's original capital as quickly as possible to contribute towards domination victory without leading to a drawn-out war.

Start bias - The kind of terrain, terrain feature or resource a civilization is more likely to start near. This is typically used for civilizations that have early bonuses dependent on a particular terrain type. There are five tiers of start bias; civs with a tier 1 start bias are placed before civs of tier 2 and so on, increasing their odds of receiving a favourable starting location.

Super-uniques - Unique units that do not replace any others. Examples include India's Varu and Mongolia's Keshigs.

Tall empires - Empires that emphasise city development over expansion, usually resulting in fewer, but bigger, cities.

Uniques - Collective name for civ abilities, leader abilities, unique units, unique buildings, unique districts and unique improvements.

UA (Unique Ability) - A collective name for leader abilities and civ abilities.

UB (Unique Building) - A special building which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal building and offers a special advantage on top.

UD (Unique District) - A special district which may only be constructed in the cities of a single civilization, which replaces a normal district, costs half as much to build and offers some unique advantages on top.

UI (Unique Improvement) - A special improvement that can only be built by the Builders of a single civilization. "UI" always refers to unique improvements in my guides and not to "user interface" or "unique infrastructure".

UU (Unique Unit) - A special unit that may only be trained by a single civilization, and in some cases only when that civilization is led by a specific leader.

Wide empires - Empires that emphasise expansion over city development, usually resulting in more, but smaller, cities.

The Māori technically have no start bias, but Kupe's leader ability creates special starting rules which function akin to an ocean start bias. The precise mechanics of this are detailed as part of Kupe's leader ability.

• Start the game with the Sailing and Shipbuilding technologies already unlocked, enabling embarking of units from the start of the game.
  
• Naval and embarked units may cross ocean tiles without needing the renaissance-era Cartography technology.
  
• Embarked units receive +5 strength and +2 movement points.
  
  • The strength bonus does not affect amphibious attacks (attacks made onto land while the unit is embarked).
• Unimproved woods and rainforest tiles receive +1 production. Rises to +2 with the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic, and +4 with the modern-era Conservation civic.
  
• Creating a fishing boats improvement causes a culture bomb, granting you all surrounding tiles.
  
  • Only tiles that are within the workable range of the tile's city will be granted (in other words, they must be within a 3-tile radius from the city centre).
    
  • This includes tiles from other civs, but will incur a diplomatic penalty if you steal tiles off them this way. Taking land from city-states has no penalty.
    
  • Tiles stolen containing non-unique tile improvements will retain them.
    
  • Tiles containing completed districts, wonders or national parks will not be stolen, but incomplete ones will be, destroying them.
• Fishing boat improvements produce +1 food.
  
• Cannot harvest resources
  
  • This prevents you being able to place districts on tiles containing resources.
    
  • It is still possible to chop down woods or rainforest tiles, and clear marshland, however.
• Cannot generate Great Writer Points nor earn Great Writers
  
  • Great Writer Points are converted into faith as if there were no Great Writers left to recruit.

• If Kupe is present in a game, other civs will be allocated starting positions as if there is one fewer civ in the game.
  
  • Normally, the world's land is divided into sections equal to the number of civs in the game, and each civ is allocated a spot in each section. This allows them to be moderately well-distributed throughout the map. The Māori, however, do not have an allocated chunk of land and hence often has to settle cities close to other civs.
• Start the game with your starting units in ocean tiles if the map type allows for it, skewing towards spots with no land in sight.
  
• Before you settle your first city, gain +2 science and +2 culture per turn.
  
• Your first city has +1 population when settled, and creates a free Builder.
  
• Your Palace grants +3 housing and +1 amenity to its city, on top of its usual benefits.

A classical-era melee infantry unit which replaces the Swordsman

*Purchasing units with faith requires the Grand Master's Chapel government building, which requires either the medieval-era Divine Right or renaissance-era Exploration civics.

**If you have insufficient iron, you may continue to train Toas even beyond researching Apprenticeship.

• Unlocked at the late-classical-era Construction technology, rather than the early-classical-era Iron Working technology.
  
• Costs 120 production, 480 gold or 240 faith, up from 90, 360 and 180 respectively (+33%)
  
• Costs 170 gold, up from 110 to upgrade to from a Warrior (+55%)

• No resource requirement
  
• No gold maintenance cost
  
• Has 38 strength, up from 35
  
• Reduces the strength of adjacent enemy units by 5
  
  • This does not stack with other Toa.
    
  • This does function on enemy adjacent naval units.
    
  • This does not function against cities and encampment districts.
• Has one charge to build a Pā or clear features with.
  
  • Unlike Military Engineers, using up this charge will not expend the unit, but it will disable the ability to remove or repair tile improvements
    
  • As with the other unique attributes of Toa, the build charge is lost when the unit is upgraded.
• With a build charge remaining, may repair or remove tile improvements in owned or neutral lands
  
  • Actions other than building a Pā depletes the unit's moves for the turn but does not stop it from healing if it hasn't performed any other actions that turn.
• Costs 90 gold, down from 150 to upgrade to a Man-at-Arms (-40%)

A classical-era Theatre Square building which replaces the Amphitheatre

*Purchasing this building with faith requires the city to follow a religion with the Jesuit Education follower belief.

• Does not provide a direct +2 culture yield.
  
• Does not provide +1 Great Writer Point.
  
• Does not provide +2 Great Writing Slots.

• 0 maintenance cost, down from 1.
  
• All woods, rainforest, marsh, oasis, floodplain, reef, geothermal fissure, volcanic soil and passable natural wonder tiles worked by this city yield +1 culture and +1 faith.
  
• All features within this city's limits generate +1 tourism each with the modern-era Flight technology.

In this section, the civ is subjectively graded based on how much it leans towards a specific victory type - not how powerful it is. Scores of 3 or more mean the civ has at least a minor advantage towards the victory route.


Culture victory is an effective route to take. The Māori may lack access to Great Writers (and hence a good source of early tourism), but Maraes can be worth a lot more tourism overall by the time you reach the Flight technology. Furthermore, the faith from Maraes go well with Naturalists or Rock Bands for more tourism.

Diplomacy is only moderately effective - the main advantage the Māori have is their huge exploration edge, allowing them to join in with emergencies around the world and discover some isolated city-states before other civs.

Domination is a possible route for the Māori. Being able to cross oceans from the start of the game (and quickly, too) allows for earlier victories than might otherwise be the case. The Toa UU is moderately strong and can perform useful functions such as repairing tile improvements in cities you've just taken, but its high initial cost and research requirement can limit its effectiveness.

Religious victory is a great option, though with some caveats. The Marae UB can produce a lot of faith, and early ocean crossing means you can win a pre-renaissance religious victory where it might not otherwise be possible. However, starting the game in the ocean can put you at a disadvantage when it comes to founding a religion. Still, even without a religion of your own, you can put those faith advantages to good use in the cultural game.

Finally, the Māori lack major advantages in the scientific game. The production and food advantages the civ has can help with city development in general, and there's an incentive to work certain tiles like reefs, rainforest, geothermal fissures and marshes which can gain bonus science later in the game.

The Māori begin the game very differently from other civs, with a wide range of implications. In theory, it may appear to be as simple as a delayed start compensated for with some bonuses in your capital, but it goes much beyond that - affecting how your entire game plays out!


Initially, you'll be placed somewhere in an ocean, usually with no non-ocean tiles in sight. If you can see any blue lines indicating the limits of where a unit can travel (as in the screenshot above), that's an indicator sea ice is down there, and as such you'll want to head in the opposite direction to find decent land.

Finding land can take some time, and you may be tempted to move your starting Settler and Warrior in opposite directions to cover more sea. However, if your starting Settler dies (such as to Barbarians), you will essentially lose the game, so keep them reasonably close to each other.


The two units travelling parallel to each other ensure you can still uncover plenty of sea while giving enough time to defend the Settler if Barbarians are sighted.

Thankfully, the only threat to your units while you're still in the ocean is hurricanes, as other civs (and Barbarians) won't be able to enter oceans for quite some time. Extra embarked movement will also help avoid any threats you might encounter.

Unlike other civs, which receive no science or culture until they found their first city, the Māori receive +2 science and +2 culture per turn. While you'll be able to unlock civics as normal, you have a choice with technologies. Either avoid researching them until you found a city (you'll spend the accumulated science on whatever you choose to research, so it won't be wasted), or else choose research as normal.

By default, a different civ which has founded only their capital will generate +2.5 science and +1.3 culture per turn - at least until it grows in population. The Māori therefore will have a disadvantage in initial science generation (offset by starting with the Sailing and Shipbuilding technologies), while having a slight advantage to culture. The main effect of this is you'll have Code of Laws complete slightly sooner than most other civs, allowing you to use your first policy cards sooner.




Once you've found land, you'll want to found your capital city. But there's more than one way to go about it:

• The Fast Way - Simply settle your city in the first spot which isn't awful. This ensures you can get developing your empire sooner.
  
• The High-Yield Way - Scout around a little bit for a few extra turns (preferably no more than five) before founding your capital, so you can get a strong location ideal in conjunction with Kupe's Palace bonuses. Look out for spots with plenty of woods, rainforest, floodplains, turtle resources and/or a natural wonder if possible, as the Māori civ ability in conjunction with a Marae will produce strong yields.
  
• The Strategic Way - Deliberately position your capital close to the capital of another civ. Capitals are very good at resisting external loyalty pressure, allowing you to have an effective launchpad for a later invasion of the civ. Just be aware that it could backfire horribly against early-game warmongers like the Aztecs, Nubia or Rome, which now have an easy target right on their doorstep.
  
• The Defensive Way - Position your capital on an offshore island, so it's safe from land-based invasion and hence resistant to many early warmongers. This however can make your capital weak in potential yields, and make it hard for your capital to back up your later cities on the mainland if they need defending.
  
• The Hail Mary - Only suitable for maps like Continents and especially Terra which have isolated landmasses. Keep scouting until you find a landmass free from other civs, and settle there. This will give you a very delayed start relative to other civs, but you'll be free from the threat of early invasion and thus will be able to make up for lost time with rapid expansion.

The strategic and defensive ways are niche strategies (and the Hail Mary especially so), so you'll generally want to favour speed or high yields. The fast way is better if you know you'll have aggressive neighbours (as it buys you more time to build up a defence), while the high-yield way is better if your expansion options are likely to be limited. On the whole, however, there isn't a definite best option between the two so decide for yourself!




Settling your capital gives you an extra population point and a Builder. Using the Builder to create some fishing boats (especially on turtle resources if applicable) will give the city impressive starting growth, as well as helping you get the eureka boost for Celestial Navigation and the inspiration for Craftsmanship.

Starting with 2 population means you can start work towards a Settler right away, though Warriors can be useful as an alternative first choice so you can explore the map sooner.

Kupe's leader ability also makes your capital's Palace provide +3 extra housing, as well as +1 amenity. If your capital has fresh water access and a couple of fishing boats improvements, that pushes it up to 10 housing. That means your capital will be able to grow to a good size early on, and support a variety of districts if need be. A Holy Site is a good early choice to try and secure a religion.


Playing as the Māori, you'll often end up settling quite close to another civ. Often, to have enough space to expand, you'll need to start settling other landmasses fairly early on. But Kupe's leader ability does more than limit your initial expansion room - it also affects every other civ in the game!

When the game is set up, the world's land is normally divided into areas equal to the number of full civs, and each civ starts somewhere in their allocated section. This ensures civs have a reasonable amount of expansion space. But thanks to Kupe's leader ability, if the Māori are in the game, they do not receive an allocated chunk of land. Instead, land is divided between the other civs as if the Māori wasn't in the game at all.

There's a couple of major consequences of this. Firstly, wherever you settle your capital will result in you and your neighbours having a little less land to expand into than might normally be the case, as you'll have 2-3 civs crammed close together. Secondly, civs away from where you settle will have more land than normal to expand into. This means that distant civs can potentially become stronger than normal. You can address this, however, by settling colonies around the world so other civs don't have too much easy land to expand into.

• When exploring, don't keep your Settler and starting Warrior too far apart - the Settler may need defending
  
• Usually, you should either settle as soon as you have a city spot (that isn't completely awful), or search for a spot with a lot of features like wood, rainforest or floodplain - or else a natural wonder.
  
• Use your free Builder to develop some fishing boats.

A whole new land mass discovered and I'm not even at Writing yet!

Kupe's leader ability carries with it upsides to compensate for its downsides, but don't particularly make the Māori stronger overall. To compensate, the Māori civ ability has a huge range of bonuses - though also some drawbacks of its own.

The ability in a nutshell encourages you to settle far and wide around the map, making up for the relative lack of expansion potential near your capital thanks to Kupe's leader ability. It should always be considered in tandem with the Marae UB, as considerate settling will secure you a lot of culture, faith and eventually tourism via it.

But there's a lot going on here, so this civ ability is divided into subsections:

• Starting with Shipbuilding - Discusses some of the interesting side-effects of getting these technologies right from the start.
  
• Enhanced Fishing Boats - Discusses the +1 food and culture bombing effects of fishing boats, as well as why some sea resources are better than others for the Māori.
  
• Conservation - Discusses the extra yields for unimproved foliage and the inability to harvest resources.
  
• Embarkment - Discusses early embarkment, ocean-crossing and the speed/strength bonuses for embarked units.
  
• Great Writers - Discusses the Māori inability to generate Great Writers.
  
• Summary - Summarises the entire section into a few sentences.

As Shipbuilding is a classical-era technology, the Māori get +2 era score from the start of the game in pre-medieval era starts.

By starting the game with the Sailing and Shipbuilding technologies, the Māori have a few interesting effects. Obviously, being able to embark from the start is one of them, but let's put that aside for the moment.

Starting with Sailing means you can build Fishing Boats from the start, and rapidly improve the yields of your capital. You'll also be able to train Galleys right from the start, but unless you're up against a strong early naval civ like Norway or Phoenicia, that's unlikely to be especially helpful. Galleys are slower than your embarked land units, so they're not great for exploration.

Because many natural wonders appear at the coast, and you're able to explore coasts rapidly, it's not too hard to get the eureka for the Astrology technology. Fishing and Astrology are the two prerequisites for Celestial Navigation. Being able to create fishing boats from the start, combined with your free Builder in your capital, means getting the boost for Celestial Navigation is easy. As such, you can start building Harbours quite early in the game!

Starting with Shipbuilding, aside from letting all land units embark, also allows you to build Quadriremes - though you might want to hold off until you have the Foreign Trade civic and the Maritime Industries military policy card as Quadriremes are extremely expensive this early in the game. Quadriremes are good at attacking coastal cities, and thanks to your ability to cross oceans from the start, it's easy to attack from a variety of angles or retreat if need be. Be warned, however, that Barbarians are able to produce units tied to the technology levels of civs - having Shipbuilding unlocked early means Barbarians are likely to produce Quadriremes of their own earlier than normal.

Shipbuilding also allows you to take a shot at the Colossus wonder, though you'll also need a Harbour present in a city so you'll need to research Astrology and Celestial Navigation. Still, the Māori nonetheless have a significant head start at this wonder, which grants +3 gold per turn, +1 Great Admiral Point per turn, +1 trade route capacity and a Trader unit, in addition to tourism. It's not the most powerful wonder around, however, so you might want to invest in expansion instead if you don't have much spare production.


As you won't want to put off settling your capital for too long, your capital will usually be on the coast in range of some sea resources. Coastal cities often grow rather fast early on with some fishing boats and eventually a Lighthouse, and coastal resources can offer a good range of yields later.

By default, lake and coast tiles offer 1 production and 1 gold. If a reef is present, an extra 1 food and 1 production is added.

There are six resources in the game which can be improved by fishing boats. Crabs and fish are bonus resources, and are found in every game. Amber, pearls, turtles and whales are luxury resources, and you may not necessarily have every type in your game. Larger maps have a bigger variety of luxury resources throughout the game, though the quantity of resources at any given location is the same.

• Crabs - Found on coast or lake, adds +2
  
• Fish - Found on coast, reef or lake, adds +1
  
• Amber - Found on coast or lake, adds +1
  
• Pearls - Found on coast or lake, adds +1
  
• Turtles - Found on reef, adds +1
  
• Whales - Found on coast or lake, adds +1 and +1

Turtles are the best sea resource as they always appear on reef tiles. Even unimproved, they have a total yield of 2 food, 1 production, 1 gold and 1 science.

With Māori fishing boats, these resources will produce a minimum of +3 food, which is more than enough to cover the citizen working the tile. But fishing boats can receive further enhancements throughout the game...

*This includes enhancements from earlier eras.

That's not all. There's also a range of specific bonuses that either cannot be reliably obtained, or only apply to specific terrain types:

So, let's say you have all of the possible bonuses. Not counting the specific resource yield, you'll get the following maximum yields:

• Coast: 5 Food, 6 Production, 5 Gold, 1 Science, 0.5 Housing
  
• Reef: 7 Production, 6 Food, 5 Gold, 2 Science, 1 Faith, 1 Culture, 1 Tourism, 0.5 Housing
  
• Lake: 6 Food, 5 Production, 3 Gold, 1 Science, 0.5 Housing

Of course, this can't be achieved until the future era and requires Auckland to be present in your game. But still, it's an ideal that shows how great your yields could eventually be.


Even fairly early in the game, reef resources can produce great yields.

Furthermore, creating fishing boats produces a culture bomb effect. This can save a fair bit of gold you might otherwise spend buying your way to further fishing boats tiles, and ensures your access to open waters won't be cut off. Culture bombing is most effective for lake-based water resources, and has niche utility for flipping rival tiles that are next to coast-adjacent water resources, but on the whole it'll be mainly used to get to sea-based resources sooner.

That being said, resist the temptation to settle extensively with the Māori fishing boat bonus in mind. There's relatively few features present in water tiles, and consequentially the Marae UB is largely less effective in coastal cities. Inland cities with lots of woods, rainforest, floodplains and/or a natural wonder are largely better than coastal cities.

In summary, turtles are great, and other sea resources are fine, but remember there's a lot you can get out of inland cities which you won't want to miss out on.



You can't see all the yields in this image as the citizen icons are in the way.

The Māori have a strong incentive to maintain the natural landscape - not so much because of this portion of the civ ability, but because of the faith, culture and eventually tourism that woods and rainforests provide via the Marae UB. Still, this bonus is useful in the meantime to incentivise keeping hold of woods and rainforest, and also helps new cities to develop more rapidly.

Rapid early expansion is crucial for the Māori if you want to maximise your Marae yields later. Getting the Ancestral Hall Government Plaza building in conjunction with the Colonisation economic policy card will really help with training Settlers faster. Bring along some Warriors or Toa to keep them defended as they find new locations.

The best spots for future Marae yields usually consist of floodplains, woods and/or rainforest tiles in large quantities. This often means you need to settle inland - resist the temptation to always settle coastal cities!

For the Māori, unimproved flat woods and rainforest yield 1 less production than if they had a lumber mill. As such, you can use your Builders elsewhere without losing out too much. Rainforest in particular does well out of the Māori civ ability as normally you can't improve them until the renaissance-era Mercantilism civic.

Speaking of Mercantilism, it adds a +1 production boost to unimproved woods and rainforests - as good as they'd be if they had lumber mills! Culture from the Marae UB will help you get there at a reasonable pace. With the modern-era Conservation civic, Māori unimproved woods and rainforests receive another +2 production, putting them on a par with Cybernetics-boosted lumber mills!

Unimproved woods can be used as part of National Parks unlike those with lumber mills, and the Conservation civic makes old-growth woods provide +1 appeal to their tile as well as the usual +1 to adjacent tiles. As such, keeping those unimproved woods around can also be directly helpful for your tourism-generation aims! The Conservation civic also allows you to plant woods, which is brilliant in conjunction with the Marae UB's bonuses for stronger yields.

Finally, the Māori are completely barred from harvesting resources. This can make some rushing strategies difficult as you'll be barred from getting fast early yields that way. It also prevents you from placing districts on resource tiles, so keep that in mind when working out the best spots for district adjacency bonuses.

By the end of the game, your units will be very fast!

The Māori are able to cross oceans from the start of the game. Norway is the only other civ able to cross oceans early on, but even they have to research Shipbuilding first.

Early on, dedicate a few units to exploration. Warriors are fine as they are affordable, fight reasonably well early on, can gain an extra +1 embarked movement and the ability to embark onto cliff tiles via the Commando promotion, and can be upgraded to Toa later. With +2 embarked movement and +5 embarked strength, Māori Warriors can easily evade trouble if need be. Because other civs (and Barbarians) won't be able to enter ocean tiles early on, retreating a couple of tiles into ocean will keep you safe from every early threat except for hurricanes.

Here's a few things you'll want to do while exploring:

• Find tribal villages. Tribal villages appear on the coast reasonably often, and uncovering it can result in some great rewards like eurekas, inspirations, technologies, civics, envoys, a relic or even a Governor title! In the ancient era, every tribal village you uncover grants +1 era score - uncover enough and you can get a fairly reliable classical-era Golden Age.
  
• Discover full civs. Discovering other civs allows you to start trading with them, and start influencing them with your tourism. You also receive +1 era score every time you meet a civ! It also means you'll know exactly who you're facing in your game, so you can adjust your strategies accordingly.
  
• Discover city-states. Discovering city-states sooner means you can enjoy more envoy bonuses, or find a more appropriate suzerain bonus.
  
• Find spots to settle later. On some maps, you might be able to find a continent free of rival full civs - a great spot to expand into. Even if that's not the case, it's useful to settle colonies early on in foreign continents so they can grow to resist all the loyalty pressure that will be placed on them later. Consider settling mutliple cities in the same area in quick succession so they can boost each others' loyalty.
  
• Discover natural wonders. You'll receive +1 era score for every discovered natural wonder, or +3 if you're the first to discover it. Natural wonders also make for great locations to settle later, and will provide bonus tourism with the Marae UB.
  
• Circumnavigate the globe. The first civ to circumnavigate the world receives +5 era score, which is one of the highest boosts in the game.

You'll notice there's a lot of sources of early era score, which can secure you a reasonably reliable classical-era Golden Age. Exodus of the Evangelists is a good choice if you have a religion (or nearly have founded one and need just a few more Great Prophet Points). Together with the faith from a Marae, you'll be able to spam Missionaries able to cross water rapidly - this can allow you to start converting distant civs before anyone else can get to them. Consequentially, the Māori can be rather effective at fast religious victories on water-heavy maps.

If you can't found a religion, or don't think an early religious victory is feasible, you can try instead taking the Monumentality Golden Age dedication and using your faith to purchase Settlers for faster expansion overseas. Be careful if you're leaving your Settlers unescorted, as Barbarians can immediately capture them. Stick to mainly travelling via ocean tiles and you'll be safe for the time being.

Beyond the early exploration phase, Māori embarkment bonuses will be useful for getting units between your colonies, religious units to new cities to convert, and militaries to target enemies. Look out for bonuses to embarked unit movement to save even more time - here are the main ones:

• Hic Sunt Draconis (Golden Age dedication available in the renaissance, industrial or modern eras): +2
  
• Square Rigging (Renaissance era technology): +1
  
• Steam Power (Industrial era technology): +2
  
• Combustion (Modern era technology): +1

Embarked military units are typically vulnerable to enemy attacks, encouraging you to bring along naval units to stack with them and keep them safe. Embarked units have a fixed defensive strength depending on your research era, though it can be affected by relevant promotions.


Ultimately, the strength bonus is most useful early in the game, and largely allows Māori embarked units to survive an extra hit in some circumstances.

The Māori cannot earn Great Writer Points whatsoever. They are instead converted into faith, meaning every Theatre Square is a source of a small amount of faith even before you have the Marae UB built. This has a significant downside that the Māori lose access to a major source of early tourism, though the Marae UB will eventually make up for it.

All that being said, this means that you can use your voting power in the World Congress to block the generation of Great Writers, hurting other civs without setting yourself back.

• Use a few units early on to explore - it can be a great source of era score!
  
• Resist the temptation to settle lots of coastal cities - turtle resources are great, but otherwise you're usually better-off seeking out floodplain/woods/rainforest-heavy locations.
  
• Settle extensively early on so you can secure new colonies; better yields from unimproved woods and rainforest allows you to minimise your use of Builders in new cities and use production for other uses (like the Marae UB).
  
• Extra strength for embarked units is mostly useful early on, allowing your units to survive another hit. Once aircraft become commonplace, you'll need naval ranged units to escort your embarked units.

The Marae building works very differently from the standard Amphitheatre, and has the potential for significantly better yields - but it all depends on where you settle. Because the potential of Maraes is so huge, maximising its yields should be your main consideration when working out good spots to settle.

Beelining Drama and Poetry is a possibility to get the strong Marae yields sooner, but given the need to build both a Theatre Square and the Marae itself in a city before you get the bonus, you might as well head to Political Philosophy first to pick up a government instead, while spending your early production on expansion.

Maraes provide +1 culture and +1 faith to all passable feature tiles in the city. "Passable tiles" include the following:


The culture you receive will be very useful for getting through key civics faster, but can also be helpful in expanding the borders of smaller cities without needing to spend gold. This, in conjunction with the removed maintenance cost for Maraes relative to Amphitheatres, can save you a fair amount of money over time.

The faith bonus, however, is perhaps more effective. A city with floodplains or reef as well as woods will often be able to work nothing but Marae-boosted tiles, giving you an early faith output that can rival that of civs like Russia. If you've managed to secure a religion of your own, expanding it rapidly early on can give you a great head start against religious rivals (especially with the Pilgrimage founder belief, which grants faith for every foreign city you convert). Use your ability to cross oceans early on to convert distant civs without a religion of their own to give yourself an even bigger head start in the religion race.

Without a religion of your own, you can use faith to purchase Settlers or Builders via the Monumentality Golden Age dedication, or save it up for Naturalists and Rock Bands later to aid with a cultural game.



The Preserve district allows you to build on the Māori bonuses for unimproved tiles even further, though it relies on areas of high appeal (such as woodland). Early on, this is most useful for supplementary food and faith.

With the modern-era Flight technology, Maraes add +1 tourism for every feature in its city's limits. This can amount to more than a filled generic Amphitheatre, though this is countered by losing a few eras worth of tourism you would have accumulated. Still, this tourism generation isn't limited by the number of Great Works of Writing you can accumulate, so the yields are still strong and worthwhile.

Finally, the modern-era Conservation civic lets you grow second-growth woods allowing you to create even more features in a city, providing more culture, faith and tourism.

• Settle in locations heavy in woods, rainforest, floodplain, turtle resources or natural wonders.
  
• The Marae can support a fairly early religious victory due to its potentially huge faith boost
  
• With the modern-era Conservation civic, grow lots of second-growth woods for even more yields.

Toa have elements in common with both Rome's Legions and India's Varu, but are best-used for defensive and exploratory roles. Still, they have a number of advantages that make them very suited for those roles, and very much worth your while to train.


Toa require the late-classical era Construction technology rather than the usual early-classical Iron Working technology. This can put the Māori at a disadvantage in early defence, though thankfully Archery is along the way to offer a stopgap defensive force. You'll probably also want to pick up Astrology (and maybe Celestial navigation as well) before heading to Construction so you can buid Holy Sites and attempt to secure a religion.

That being said, here's what you need for Construction:

• Animal Husbandry
  
• Archery (Boost: Kill a unit with a Slinger - can be quite easy if your capital ends up near a Barbarian encampment.)
  
• Mining
  
• Masonry (Boost: Build a quarry - terrain-dependent.)
  
• Horseback Riding (Boost: Build a pasture - terrain-dependent but usually easy to achieve in time.)
  
• Construction (Boost: Build a Water Mill - requires the Wheel technology and some spare production - it may be easier just to research this without the boost.)

Toa, unlike other Swordsman replacements, do not need iron, so you don't need to pick up Bronze Working, nor do you need to carefully settle a city with iron access in mind. This also means that if you have sufficient gold, you can upgrade a lot of Warriors to Toa immediately (but given the fairly high upgrade cost of 170 gold, that's unlikely to happen). Toa are also free to maintain, so don't worry about training some coming at the cost of being able to afford to upgrade others.


Toa have 38 strength - three points better than generic Swordsmen. They also weaken adjacent enemy units by 5 points of strength, making Toa better than Legions when fighting enemy units at the cost of being weaker against cities. Toa in conjunction with Archers can be very effective - Toa have enough strength to resist enemy attacks, while Archers can deal extra damage against any Toa-adjacent enemies.

Note that the Toa strength penalty works on naval units, which in conjunction with the embarked strength bonus from the Māori civ ability, can keep it safe from melee naval units. Consider putting Toa in formation with naval units of your own later on to give your navy an edge in warfare.

If you want to use Toa offensively, bring along a Battering Ram or Siege Tower to handle enemy walls, and take the Oligarchy government for a bonus +4 strength. Be quick in your combat as the high cost of Toa means losing one can be a significant setback, and the late arrival of Toa means it won't be long until enemy civs start introducing units like Knights onto the battlefield. Though Toa aren't the strongest units around on the offensive, they're exceptionally good at cleanup afterwards. If a Toa unit still has a build charge remaining, they're able to repair pillaged improvements, or alternatively you can place a Pā improvement in freshly-conquered land to speed up healing. You can also use their build charge to remove woods, rainforest or marshes, but given the bonuses to them Maraes offer, that's typically a bad use of it.

Otherwise, Toa are best-used to defend against enemy units and to explore new lands. While their window of effectiveness in direct combat isn't huge, their support functions are still greatly useful for a really long time. Toa with the Commando promotion and a remaining build charge are excellent for cleaning up tiles after natural hazards pillage them even into the last eras of the game, as they'll be able to outrun Builders. Toa garrisoning cities can help reduce their vulnerability to melee attacks. And Pā improvements will still be useful - more on them in the following section.

Finally, try to avoid upgrading Toa that have a build charge remaining, as it will be lost. Use up the build charge first by placing a Pā improvement in a strategic location.

• The high cost and late arrival of Toa makes them tricky to use in offensive warfare, but they're great defensively.
  
• At first, a front line of Toa and a second line of Archers can be great for maximising damage output.
  
• Keep some Toa around even after they obsolete to repair improvements, build Pā improvements and provide strength penalties when positioned safely in cities or in formation with naval units.

The Pā is a highly effective defensive improvement which, if positioned well, can make an occupying unit virtually invincible.

Pā are functionally similar to forts, but with one key advantage: Units positioned on them heal even if they performed an action this turn. They're also able to be built two eras earlier than regular forts, but come with the significant downside of having to be built on hills and the lesser downside of not contributing towards the eureka for the industrial-era Ballistics technology.


Pā may only be placed upon hills, limiting their options. It's a good idea to place them in mountain passes or close to a city so they can help to block the path of enemies. Generally, they're not so great out in the open on isolated hills as they're prone to being surrounded - unless you have plenty of units of your own to back them up. If enemies capture your Pā, while they won't be able to benefit from the healing bonus, they will be able to use the fortification bonus.

On the whole, favour positioning Pā in owned rather than neutral terrain. While Pā in neutral terrain can provide you with sight of adjacent tiles even without a unit present, units healing up on Pā in neutral lands won't heal as fast as they would do in friendly terrain.

Because Pā generate no yields, you should avoid placing too many within a single city's limits. Look out for angles you might be vulnerable from and favour those as initial locations. Using them sparingly also means more Toa units will still have their build charge, allowing them to repair pillaged tile improvements.



Damage? What damage?

To bring Pā to their full potential, you'll want Governor Moksha with the Laying On Of Hands promotion. This allows your units to heal up to full health in a single turn within his city's limits. That's good already as a defensive bonus, but in conjunction with Pā, it gives you an immense defensive advantage. A Māori unit defending a Pā that can't be killed in a single turn can't be killed at all, giving the defender plenty of experience along the way.

Land ranged units are perfect for use in conjunction with the Pā-Moksha combination, due to their Garrison promotion. Garrison provides +10 strength to land ranged units occupying any tile that grants defensive strength - including Pā. That gives them a lot of firepower offensively, but also helps them to defend more effectively as well. They'll be able to attack every turn, dealing a lot of damage, while constantly healing up from damage taken.

All this being said, units defending Pā improvements aren't completely unstoppable. They'll be restricted to their tile, so they can't easily chase down wounded enemies. If you fail to sufficiently support your Pā with other units, it could be prone to being surrounded with cavalry units. Heavy cavalry with the Charge promotion can essentially ignore the defensive bonuses Forts offer thanks to their huge strength bonus.

Furthermore, only one city at a time can benefit from Governor Moksha, so you'll need alternative arrangements for other cities. Here's a few possible methods of boosting your healing:

• An adjacent Medic, Apostle with the Chaplain promotion, or the Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi on the same tile or an adjacent one, adds +20 healing per turn.
  
• If you've retired the Great Scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, add +5 to all healing per turn.
  
• If you have the God of Healing pantheon, your Holy Sites and adjacent tiles adds +30 healing per turn.
  
• Next to the Dead Sea natural wonder, units heal all their health.

Earlier in the game, a Chaplain Apostle is generally your best bet, as God of the Sea or Earth Goddess are largely better pantheons for you than God of Healing, and the other options aren't reliable. Later on, Medics will be more useful.


If your overseas colonies are upsetting other civs enough to spark a war, Pā really help with solidifying your position. Small enemy forces will really struggle to kill units defending on a Pā if you have Governor Moksha with the Laying On Of Hands promotion present, which can give you time to secure a more substantial defence.

Note that the Administration sections strictly cover the options that have particularly good synergy with the civ's uniques. These are not necessarily the best choices, but rather options you should consider more than usual if playing this civ relative to others.



Oligarchy helps make your Toa even stronger, but Autocracy can also work well in conjunction with your strong capital.

The Ancestral Hall is usually your best choice of Government Plaza building as you'll want to expand to new places before other civs can and remove the foliage. Still, the Warlord's Throne can be a reasonable alternative if you want to engage in Toa wars.


Theocracy is ideal for religious games. Otherwise, Merchant Republic has a good set of policy card slots.

The Intelligence Agency offers a good all-round advantage due to the versatility of Spies, but if you're not going for a religious victory you might want to use the Grand Master's Chapel to offer an alternative use of your strong faith output.


Democracy's high number of economic and wildcard slots make it a good choice for cultural and religious games alike.

As for government buildings, the National History Museum is good for cultural games, while either of the others can be good for religion. The Royal Society can help you rush Holy Site Prayers projects, while the War Department allows your religious units to get health back when they kill in theological combat.


Synthetic Technocracy works well for religious games due to the boost to Holy Site Prayers projects and the higher number of economic policy cards. Digital Democracy tends to work best for cultural games.



Agoge (Military, requires Craftsmenship) - Helps you train those expensive Toa faster, or train Warriors faster for upgrading into them later.

Colonisation (Economic, requires Early Empire) - While Toa conquest can aid with expansion, for the best pristine city locations you'll most likely need to settle them yourself.

Land Surveyors (Economic, requires Early Empire) - The Māori will often find their cities in close proximity to other civs, which means you'll often have to race other civs to woods, rainforest and marsh before they can take and potentially remove them.

Limitanei (Military, requires Early Empire) - Coastal colonies are often prone to external loyalty pressure, so you may need to stack loyalty boosts like this one to help.

Maritime Industries (Military, requires Foreign Trade) - Being able to build a Quadrireme from the start of the game is potentially powerful in water-heavy maps, but is very expensive. This policy card will help.


Diplomatic League (Diplomatic, requires Political Philosophy) - The unrivalled Māori ability to explore extensively means you can discover a lot of city-states early in the game. You therefore could get a lot of bonus early envoys with this policy card.

Praetorium (Diplomatic, requires Recorded History) - Adds a little bonus loyalty in cities with Governors - helpful for holding onto colonies.


Colonial Offices (Diplomatic, requires Exploration) - Any city not on your home continent will benefit from faster growth and more loyalty.

Logistics (Military, requires Mercantilism) - Combined with your bonus to embarked movement, you'll be able to get units between your colonies with ease.


Colonial Taxes (Diplomatic, requires Colonialism) - Settling on other continents from your capital will grant you a handy gold and production bonus now.


Communications Office (Diplomatic, requires Social Media) - Governors can provide even more loyalty.

Only bonuses with notable synergy with the civ's uniques are covered here.

(Religious) Exodus of the Evangelists (Dedication, Classical to Renaissance eras) - The Māori ability to access the entire world early on means you can access more cities for first-time conversion than other civs. As such, this can be a great source of era score.

(Religious) Exodus of the Evangelists (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - Combined with the fast embarked movement of the Māori, you can rapidly get religious units to new lands to begin conversions.

Monumentality (Golden Age, Classical to Renaissance eras) - An excellent way to use your Marae faith to expand your empire further - simply purchase Settlers!

Hic Sunt Dracones (Golden Age, Renaissance to Modern eras) - A great help if you're still settling overseas colonies, and also makes your embarked movement advantage even more significant.


How you should vote in the World Congress will often be specific to your game - if you have a strong rival, for example, it might be better to vote to hurt them than to help yourself. Furthermore, there may be general bonuses to your chosen victory route or gameplay which are more relevant than ones that have stronger synergy with civ-specific bonuses. Otherwise, here's a list of key relevant votes that have high relevance for this civ relative to other civs.

Deforestation Treaty - Effect B (Prohibits chopping or clearing features of the chosen type) on any option

The Māori are largely discouraged to clear features, but some can benefit a lot. Denying civs from clearing features hurts them a lot more than it hurts you.

Heritage Organisation - Effect B (No tourism from Great Works of this type) on Great Works of Writing

As you cannot generate Great Writers, you might as well ensure that no civ can gain tourism out of them.

Migration Treaty - Effect B (+5 loyalty per turn but -20% population growth in this player's cities) on yourself unless loyalty is completely fine.

Fishing boats or features like floodplains will provide plenty of food, so the loss there shouldn't be too much of a problem. The bonus loyalty will really help with securing footholds on new landmasses.

Patronage - Effect B (No points earned towards Great People of this class) on Great Writers

If you can't have them, no-one can.

Urban Development Treaty - Effect A (+100% production towards buildings in this district) on Theatre Squares

Building Maraes in new cities can be a pain, so why not speed up the process?

City Patron Goddess - If you want to build Maraes in new cities faster, this pantheon can help. It's not your best choice of pantheon, but if all the good options are gone, this is a decent backup.

Earth Goddess - Woods can quickly create high-appeal locations. In combination with Maraes, you could end up with tiles providing +2 faith in the early classical era in addition to some food, production and culture. Definitely one of the stronger options on this list, along with God of the Sea.

Fire Goddess - Geothermal fissure and volcanic soil tiles benefit from the Marae UB, and this pantheon builds on that even further.

God of Healing - Expect a lot of combat in your game? Pā adjacent to Holy Sites can now heal up your fortifying units rapidly. This is a niche advantage, so consider one of the other pantheons over this one.

God of the Forge - Helps you train Toa faster.

God of the Sea - An excellent choice to complement the Māori +1 food from fishing boats. Turtles in particular will generate very strong yields as they're always found on reef tiles, which Maraes can boost.

Lady of the Reeds and Marshes - Not a bad choice especially in desert-heavy areas for some bonus production on tiles which Maraes will later boost.

Religious Settlements - A bonus Settler will help make up for the delayed Māori start, while faster border expansion maximises the number of feature tiles you can accumulate.


You can have one founder, one follower, one enhancer and one worship belief.

Defender of the Faith (Enhancer) - Spread your religion to new cities and build up some Pā improvements, and they'll be tough for enemies to take out.

Jesuit Education (Follower) - You can faith-purchase Maraes, which in turn provide more faith!

Lay Ministry (Founder) - Playing a religious Māori game incentivises you to have both Holy Sites and Theatre Squares present in lots of cities, so this belief will provide plenty of faith and culture.

Missionary Zeal (Enhancer) - The Māori incentive to keep lots of features around can make it harder to move around your realm, while the speed bonus in the sea is lost on land. Solve both of these issues with this enhancer belief.

Pilgrimage (Founder) - An excellent choice that capitalises on the strong faith output Maraes offer in conjunction with the ability to embark over oceans from the game's start. You'll have enough faith to buy a lot of Missionaries, and crossing overseas allows you to reach distant civs without a religion before anyone else can. This can result in even more faith to overwhelm any remaining religious rival.

Religious Colonisation (Enhancer) - Cities following your religion gain +3 loyalty, so this can be a helpful belief for holding onto colonies.

Religious Unity (Founder) - Being able to reach a lot of city-states early on means this belief can be a great way of getting you envoy bonuses sooner.


Auckland (Trade) - A very powerful city-state for cities reliant on fishing boats or reef tiles, as such cities are usually lacking in production.

Hunza (Trade) - Discovering the world early allows you to make the most of this city-state's suzerain bonus, which makes trade routes worth more gold the further they travel.

Kandy (Religious) - Tricky to time well, but you could secure a few relics by exploiting your early discovery advantages - so long as you have somewhere to store them. The Apadana wonder is a good option, but if you can't manage that, you'll need to get to the Theology civic for Temples.

Mogadishu (Trade) - The Māori are inclined towards settling cities in multiple landmasses, and hence even internal trade will often involve crossing oceans. This leaves the trade routes vulnerable to pillaging - at least, unless you're suzerain over Mogadishu.

Nan Madol (Cultural) - Excellent for fishing boats/reef-heavy cities, as all their districts can be a strong source of culture.

Nazca (Religious) - Careful positioning of Nazca Lines can make adjacent tiles with features (such as desert floodplain, oases, woods or rainforest) even better, though this relies on you having access to desert terrain.

Rapa Nui (Cultural) - Moai improvements provide bonus culture on volcanic soil, making them great complements for Maraes.

Yerevan (Religious) - Aside from the obvious utility in the religious game of being able to choose any Apostle promotion, Yerevan's suzerain bonus also means you can pick the Chaplain promotion for an Apostle so they boost the healing of units fortified in a Pā improvement.

Etemenanki (Ancient era, Writing technology) - The science and production bonuses for floodplains and marshes stack well with the Marae bonuses.

Great Bath (Ancient era, Pottery technology) - Because of Kupe's ocean start, you won't have time to build this wonder, so it's one that's better to capture. That being said, it can make a city's floodplain tiles provide bonus faith, which goes nicely with the Marae UB.

Colossus (Classical era, Shipbuilding technology) - The bonus is fine, but not particularly synergistic for the Māori. The reason this wonder is listed is because the Māori start with the Shipbuilding technology, meaning you can start work on this a lot sooner than other civs. You'll still need Astrology and Celestial Navigation to build a Harbour for the wonder's adjacency requirements, however.

Great Lighthouse (Classical era, Celestial Navigation technology) - Helps your naval units to keep up with your fast embarked units.

Petra (Classical era, Mathematics technology) - A city with plenty of oases can produce some very nice yields with this wonder and Maraes.

Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (Classical era, Defensive Tactics civic) - Build this in a city with lots of Turtles resources for the maximum impact. Turtles improved with this wonder and Fishing Boats will yield 4 food, 2 science, 1 production, 1 gold, 1 culture and 1 faith!

Chichen Itza (Medieval era, Guilds civic) - Got a city with a lot of rainforest? Maraes will make those tiles strong already, but add the Chichen Itza and you've got some remarkable yields.

Huey Teocalli (Medieval era, Military Tactics technology) - Water resources can appear in lakes as well as coastal regions, so this wonder can build on the Māori food bonus for fishing boats effectively.

St. Basil's Cathedral (Renaissance era, Reformed Church civic) - It's not unusual to see tundra regions with high forest coverage. With this wonder and Maraes, a city in such a region can produce some strong yields.

Eiffel Tower (Modern era, Steel technology) - Keeping around woods creates some high-appeal regions suitable for National Parks. The Eiffel Tower's appeal boost will help you get even more tourism.

Golden Gate Bridge (Modern era, Combustion technology) - Akin to the Eiffel Tower in its ability to boost National Park yield for a city, only with a bigger boost albeit one restricted to a single city.

Biosphère (Atomic era, Synthetic Materials technology) - Cancels out the appeal penalty of rainforests and marshes, cutting out one of the main downsides to keeping them around late in the game.


Great Generals and Admirals are only mentioned if their retirement bonuses have specific synergy with the civ; not merely for providing a strength bonus to a unique unit.


Hanno the Navigator (Great Admiral) - Provides you with a very fast naval melee unit ready for exploration.


Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi (Great Scientist) - The retirement bonus will make all your units heal faster - particularly useful for those fortifying Pā improvements.

Æthelflæd (Great General) - +2 loyalty for a city - useful for establishing new colonies.

El Cid (Great General) - A Toa corps is a great defender for a Pā improvement in a strategic location. They'll be able to defend effectively against any pre-industrial threat.

Leif Erikson (Great Admiral) - The purpose of recruiting Leif Erikson is to deny his bonus to anyone else, giving you free rein over the oceans for a while longer. If Norway is present in your game, however, they'll already be able to cross oceans by this point so you won't get any advantage here.


Alvar Aalto (Great Engineer) - Bonus appeal for a city is particularly effective in a city that's retained a lot of old-growth woods, as you can create some powerful national parks.


Janaki Ammal (Great Scientist) - Got a rainforest-heavy city? You can get a massive amount of one-off science!


Charles Correa (Great Engineer) - Gain +2 appeal in every tile of a city.

The Māori are the best explorers in the game and can have a presence far and wide throughout the map. Their land-based defences can get quite strong if given time to grow, and their religious potential is strong, but there's periods of vulnerability early and late in the game.



Don't be alarmed if the Māori appear to be an era ahead of you at the game's start. In reality, the free technologies mostly just compensate for the delayed Māori start. While the Māori are able to train Quadriremes early on, they're rather expensive so don't expect to be up against many at first. Still, if you know the Māori are in the game, watch out for early Barbarian Quadriremes! Catapults are great against them, but otherwise promoted Archers are Galleys will help.


The Māori are going to be the first to discover a lot of city-states, natural wonders and will be the first to circumnavigate the world. However, it also means they'll meet every civ in the game early on. This means they have to be careful starting wars as they'll inflict grievances on everyone. Settling far and wide can lead to the Māori having a lot of weak areas of colonies rather than one strong core, making them vulnerable to attack - especially via the sea. A strong navy is very effective against the Māori as they're one of the few maritime-inclined civs to lack advantages in naval combat.

Fast embarked movement makes it easier for the Māori to move their units around, and better strength makes them able to survive more hits, but an unescorted embarked unit is still vulnerable. Early in the game, three Galleys and/or Quadriremes can take out a Māori embarked unit before they're able to retreat to the ocean. From the renaissance era, naval raiders are great at ambushing embarked Māori units. And bomber-class aircraft are exceptionally good at the task.


While the Māori can potentially take tiles off you via fishing boat culture bombs, that's unlikely to happen on the whole so you don't need to worry about that so much. Extra food can make Māori cities grow quickly, but it also marks out tiles that are very vulnerable to pillaging. Pillaging fishing boats grants health to the unit that does so, and the Māori lack advantages when it comes to coastal defence, so you can have some very successful pillage sprees.


This bonus can be thought of as providing free lumber mills for the Maori without them needing to dedicate Builder charges. But given the Māori have a delayed start, that gives you time to take any forest/rainforest-heavy lands for yourself. If the Māori threaten to attack you, you can start chopping down the foliage to deny the Māori their bonuses. The same goes if you capture a Māori city that you don't think you can hold - chop down the trees and get some easy production while denying the Māori strong yields.


The Māori can't clear resources, and they can't generate Great Writers. The former limits their ability to rush early development, while the latter means they won't cause too much trouble for rival cultural civs early in the game.


Kupe's leader ability comes with a hidden mechanic that affects every civ in the game. Civs other than the Māori are distributed around the map as if the Māori weren't present at all, generally meaning there's more land to expand into - unless, of course, the Māori decides to settle near you. If that happens, you might want to consider attacking the Māori and taking the cities they settle - thanks to being at sea for the first few turns, the Māori will be at a technological disadvantage, and it'll be quite a while until they unlock their Toa UU.

On the whole, this ability is as much a drawback as it is a bonus, so focus on counterplaying the other uniques instead.


Kupe attempts to avoid contributing to climate change by not removing features. He also likes to plant woods and found National Parks, and likes other civs that do the same. He dislikes civs that remove features and fail to plant woods or found National Parks.

Kupe will never have the Environmentalist, Exploitative or Industrialist hidden agendas. The former is redundant as his main agenda has the same effect, and the latter two clash with his main agendas.

America, Brazil and Canada are good examples of civs that work well with Kupe given their incentive to keep features intact and/or create National Parks. Otherwise, civs that favour spacing cities apart can do rather well as there'll be less need to clear features for districts or other purposes. Early-rusher civs (Rome especially) tend not to go well with Kupe's agenda given their incentive to chop down woods early on for quick production.

Given their increased technology requirement and high cost, Toa are one of the less threatening unique units to face as by the time they arrive you'll probably have counterplay options ready. Ranged units like Archers and especially Crossbowmen are good against unpromoted Toa as their -5 strength penalty only applies to units they're adjacent to. Toa cost twice as much as Archers to train, so you can easily outnumber the Māori army.

Toa are much more of a problem if the Māori are on the defensive. Their ability to weaken your units can stack effectively with Archers to make you suffer even more damage, and the Pā improvement can be a real problem to counterplay as well. As such, if Toa are becoming plentiful, you might want to hold off until you can get a hold of Knights and get an edge in combat again.


There's three key ways of combatting the Pā improvement.

Firstly, you can try luring the defending unit away from the Pā, such as by attacking it with a ranged unit. This can be risky as the Māori can simply move a new defender into the Pā, or refuse to move and gain plenty of experience from your attacks.

Secondly, you can try overwhelming force to destroy the defending unit in a single turn. Heavy cavalry is useful for this purpose due to their Charge promotion.

Thirdly, you can try simply going around to attack the Māori city from another angle. The Māori are often vulnerable by the sea if that's an option, but otherwise it might be worth seeking out an alternative land route.

While Pā improvements let Māori units heal even if they perform an action, the same does not apply to non-Māori units there. Still, occupying a Pā still comes with fortification bonuses (not to mention the defensive boost of the hill itself). As such, holding onto a Pā in a war can be helpful to defend your position, but if you think you'll need to retreat, consider pillaging the improvement so the Māori will have to dedicate time to fixing it. Note that that tactic isn't so effective if the Māori are still predominantly using Toa in their army, as Toa with a remaining build charge can simply repair it, but otherwise it can be helpful.


Maraes are an awful lot weaker if the Māori are denied the best spots to settle. By taking woods, rainforest and floodplain-heavy locations for yourself, the Māori have to make do with suboptimal spots and therefore inferior culture, faith and tourism yields.

If the Māori are reliant on marsh, woods or rainforest, then capturing their city and removing the features will ensure even if they recapture the city their yields will greatly suffer.

War not an option? Well, consider this: the Māori will be inclined towards building a lot of Theatre Squares in their cities and will often want a lot of Holy Sites, too. That makes it hard for them to squeeze in districts like Campuses, which can make the Māori prone to falling a bit behind in the science game. Cultural civs with better science outputs (e.g. China) will be able to beat the Māori to many key wonders.

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• Civ summaries (Start here for an introduction for all civs)
  
• Civ-specific tricks, secrets and clarifications (Ideal for more experienced players)

• America - no additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• America - all additional content* (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Arabia (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Australia (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Aztecs (Domination)
  
• Babylon (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Brazil (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Byzantium (Domination/Religious)
  
• Canada (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• China (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Cree (Diplomatic)
  
• Egypt (Cultural/Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• England (Cultural/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Ethiopia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• France (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Gaul (Domination)
  
• Georgia (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Germany (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Gran Colombia (Domination)
  
• Greece (Cultural/Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Hungary (Diplomatic/Domination)
  
• Inca (Religious/Scientific)
  
• India (Domination/Religious)
  
• Indonesia (Cultural/Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Japan (All)
  
• Khmer (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Kongo (Cultural)
  
• Korea (Scientific)
  
• Macedon (Domination/Scientific)
  
• Mali (Diplomatic/Religious)
  
• Māori (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Mapuche (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Maya (Scientific)
  
• Mongolia (Domination)
  
• Netherlands (Scientific)
  
• Norway (Domination)
  
• Nubia (Domination)
  
• Ottomans (Domination)
  
• Persia (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Phoenicia (Domination)
  
• Poland (Cultural/Domination/Religious)
  
• Portugal (Diplomatic/Scientific)
  
• Rome (Domination)
  
• Russia (Cultural/Religious)
  
• Scotland (Scientific)
  
• Scythia (Domination/Religious)
  
• Spain (Domination/Religious/Scientific)
  
• Sumeria (Diplomatic/Domination/Scientific)
  
• Sweden (Cultural/Diplomatic)
  
• Vietnam (Cultural/Domination)
  
• Zulus (Domination)

*The Teddy Roosevelt Persona Pack splits Roosevelt's leader ability in two, meaning the game with it is substantially different from without - hence two different versions of the America guide. Lincoln was added later and is only covered in the latter guide.

Other civs with alternative leader personas are not split because the extra personas added in later content do not change the existing gameplay - as such the guides are perfectly usable by players without them.

These guides are for those with the Rise and Fall expansion, but not Gathering Storm. They are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Gathering Storm. To look at them, click here to open the Rise and Fall Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Rise and Fall guide has links to every other Rise and Fall guide.


The Vanilla guides are for those without the Rise and Fall or Gathering Storm expansions. These guides are no longer updated and have not been kept up to date with patches released since Rise and Fall. To look at them, click here to open the Vanilla Civ Summaries guide. The "Other Guides" section of every Vanilla guide has links to every other Vanilla guide.