Civilization 6 Rise and Fall guide - expansion details and what's new in Civ 6 Rise and Fall?
Everything we know about the first Civ 6 expansion.
Civilization 6's Rise and Fall expansion is the first of its kind for the game, brining with it a fairly major shake up to regular mechanics and several new civs, too.
Below, you'll find details on everything we know about the expansion, including a list of those new civs and their details, as well as any other general Rise and Fall details and links to our specific Rise and Fall guides and all the info on what's new in Civ 6 Rise and Fall, too.
A quick note: we've refreshed out Civ 6 guides for the game's launch on Nintendo Switch, but just be aware that they contain information regarding the Rise and Fall DLC as well as the base game, which means some things only apply if you have that DLC! Otherwise... crack on!
What's new in Civ 6 Rise and Fall - expansion details, new mechanics and more
The Rise and Fall expansion is pretty substantial and, as we've come to expect from Civilization expansions, both adds new mechanics to the game and new content like leaders and Civs, too. Here's a rundown of all the new things you can expect, and we'll explain those in a little more detail just below. You can view the rest of the Civ 6 Leaders list in our guide to the base game, which we'll update in due course.
- New Civs and Leaders
- New Governors mechanic
- New Loyalty mechanic
- New Ages and Era Score mechanic
- New Emergencies mechanic and Alliance changes
- New Units, Wonders and Districts
- New Timeline and Historic Moments feature
New Civs and Leaders
There are eight new Civilizations and nine new leaders coming with Civ 6 Rise and Fall. Here's a list of each and a brief summary of what they're best at.
| Civ | Leader | Specialty |
|---|---|---|
| Mapuche | Lautaro | Combat and Appeal-based culture and Tourism |
| Scotland | Robert the Bruce | All-rounder |
| Georgia | Tamar | Religion and Golden Ages |
| Poundmaker | Cree | Trade Routes, diplomacy and early-game expansion |
| Chandgragupta | India | Warmongering and conquest |
| Genghis Khan | Mongolia | Massed cavalry combat |
| Queen Wilhelmina | Netherlands | Trade and culture from water, river and naval bonuses |
| Queen Seondeok | Korea | Science and mines |
| Shaka | Zulu | Early game military. |
New mechanics: Governors, Loyalty, Great Ages and Historic Moments
Given the typically intricate state of the new mechanics, we've put together a couple of dedicated guides to getting the most out of Civ 6 Rise and Fall's new features, which you can check out here:
- Civilization 6 Rise and Fall Era Score - how to earn Era Points and Historic Moments, plus Golden Ages, Heroic Ages, Dark Ages and Dedications explained
- Civilization 6 Rise and Fall Loyalty and Governors explained - how to increase Loyalty and earn Governors in Civ 6
- Civilization 6 new Civs - all new Civs in Rise and Fall and other Civ 6 DLC
To give a brief explanation, Governors are a new mechanic introduced with the Rise and Fall expansion that act as a kind of modifier for specific cities of your choice.
There are a handful of unique ones that you can unlock in a game. They work in a similar sort of way to Great People, only they're earned via the Civics tree when you unlock a specific Civic, like you would occasionally earn the odd extra Envoy in a similar fashion. They also each have an upgrade tree of their own, that's full of unique bonuses they can provide to your cities.
Loyalty ties into Governors, and works a bit like a combination of Amenities and Religion: if your city's Loyalty gets too low, it'll revolt or declare its independence - you can reconquer it or convert it back by getting its Loyalty score raised again.
Great Ages, meanwhile, reintroduce the Golden Age that we had back in Civ 5, but in a more complex fashion. Each time you change Eras, so from say the Classical Era to the Medieval Era, you'll be assessed on how much Era Score you earned in the last one, which is accumulated via things called Historic Moments.
Depending on how well you did, you'll reach a different kind of Age, which grant you rewards for completing certainactions, sometimes in the form of Era Score to help you get to a Golden Age, and sometimes in the form of proper in-game rewards like boosted Production, if you manage to reach a Golden Age that time around. Earning Era Score is crucial and as we explain in our Historic Moments and Era Score guide, it comes from all kinds of sources.
New Government Policies - here's a list of all the current Government Policies in the base game - related to the Great Ages system have been added, too, with special Dark Age policies giving you a chance to bounce back, usually with a bonus to one goal at the expense of another.
An example is the Inquisition Policy, which allows you to start an Inquisition with just one Apostle charge and grants +15 Religious Combat Strength in friendly territory - at the cost of 25% less Science in all cities. Making it into a Heroic Age gives you even more bonuses than a Golden Age though, so it may well be worth it!
It's a cool feature, we think, and adds an added layer of overall direction to your Civilization. We look forward to trying out a deliberate Dark Age to Heoric Age strategy and seeing if that pays off!
If your lust for Civilization 6 knowledge is still going strong, expansion owners should take a look at our Civ 6 Rise and Fall guide hub which takes you through the basics of everything new, whilst we have dedicated pages on Governors and Loyalty, along with how to earn Golden Ages, Era Points and Era Score through Historic Moments, and a full list of new Civs in Civ 6 Rise and Fall and other DLC. Otherwise, our Civilization 6 guide, tips and tricks covers the essentials before you master early game, mid-game and late-game strategies. We also have tips on the new Districts feature, a Leaders list with their Traits and Agendas, plus the best ways to get Gold, Science, and Faith, how to win by Religious Victory, and how to earn the elusive Science Victory and Military domination victory. Finally, here's the Culture Victory, Foreign Tourism, and Domestic Tourism explained in depth.
New Districts, Units and Wonders
There's one new District in Rise and Fall - the Government District - of which there can only be one per Civilization.
New Units include Drones, Spec Ops, Pike and Shot units and Supply Convoys, whilst there are eight new man-made World Wonders in total, as well as seven new Natural Wonders.
The World Wonders are: Amundsen-Scott Research Station; Casa Dde Contractión; Kilwa Kisiwani; Kotoku-In; the Statue of Liberty; St. Basil's Cathedral; the Taj Mahal; and the Temple of Artemis.
Emergencies and new Alliances
Finally, another new mechanic is the addition of Emergencies, and the tweaking of the Alliances function.
Now, the longer an Alliance lasts the greater the rewards, with there now being levels of Alliance that increase the bonuses as you climb the tiers.
Emergencies, meanwhile, mean something a little different to what you'd expect - they're less about ambulances and fire engines and actually are a term for Emergency Alliances formed between mutliple Civs in-game.
When certain events occur - like a City-State being conquered or a nuclear weapon being used, Civs can band together to achieve a specific goal, like converting an enemy Civ's city to another religion. If they succeed they'll get a special bonus - normally a huge amount of gold - but if the targeted Civ succeeds in preventing them, that Civ gets a bonus instead.
That's just about all we have on Civ 6 Rise and Fall's new features, but don't forget to cycle back to our main Civilization 6 guide hub for guides to the vanilla game and all the types of victory and resource, and much more.