The Gathering Storm expansion added Eleanor of Aquitaine, who can lead either the English or the French, and the Vietnam & Kublai Khan Pack added Kublai Khan, who can lead either the Chinese or the Mongolians. The Rise and Fall expansion added Chandragupta as an alternative leader to Gandhi for the Indians. Originally there was only one civilization with multiple leaders: the Greeks, who may be led by either Pericles or Gorgo. The Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions and the New Frontier Pass DLC pack added 8 new civilizations each, bringing the total number of civilizations to 50, the largest number of playable civilizations in any game in the Civilization franchise to date. The Poles, Australians, Persians, Macedonians, Nubians, Khmer, and Indonesians were later added as DLC. Vanilla Civilization VI included 18 different civilizations at the launch, with the Aztecs (19th) as a pre-order bonus that became available to everyone 90 days after the launch.

A wise player will learn not only all different civilizations' special abilities and units, but also their leaders' special traits and agendas, which will allow them to anticipate the AI behavior during the game. Thus the same civilization may behave quite differently throughout the game, depending on which leader is currently at its head. When they are controlled by AI, each leader also pursues a specific agenda throughout the game, which modifies the AI behavior of this civilization. Each civilization in Civilization VI has a unique ability and two other unique components: a unit and a piece of infrastructure, which may be a building, a district, or a tile improvement.Ĭivilization VI makes a distinction between a civilization and its leader, not unlike Civilization IV - each civilization can now have multiple leaders, and each leader comes with their own unique ability, which is added to the other unique traits of the civilization (and, in some cases, provides an additional unique unit, piece of infrastructure, and/or Governor that further augments that civ's and leader's specifics). Civilizations are playable factions, each of which represents a historical nation, empire or cultural group.

Empire city slots