TL;DR: Ethiopia is here and get ready for it to chuck faith into hyperdrive.

We are getting a new expansion for Civilization VI, well not quite, over the next year we have a season pass, the New Frontier Pass, which will give us several new Civilizations and Game Modes over the next year (which you can find out more information HERE). The next new Civilizations has been released so let’s dive into Ethiopia.

Civilization Leader: Menelik II
Leader Agenda: Ethiopian Highlands. Likes Civilizations who build cities away from Hills. Dislikes those who build near Hills.
Civilization Capital: Addis Ababa
Civilization Bonus: Aksumite Legacy Its cities earn +faith from resources boosted further from international trade routes from resource-rich cities. Can purchase Archaeological Museums and Archaeologists with faith.
Leader Bonus: Council of Ministers extra culture and science based on the faith output on cities founded on hills, combat bonus on hills
Unique Unit: Oromo Cavalry +combat strength +sight, no movement penalties for hills, replaces the courser
Unique Improvement: Rock-Hewn Churches built on hills or volcanic soil, can’t be built next to each other + Faith, extra faith from adjacent mountains and hills. Will only ever be pillaged not destroyed by natural disasters. +Tourism with Flight
Rivers: Awash River,
Cities: Axum, Harar, Gondar, Sodo

Right from the start, it should be clear that this is a civilization that is geared toward faith, with almost every single part of its bonuses supporting that playstyle. To begin with, you get faith from resources in your cities, so while you might not be the first Civilization to get a pantheon if Mali or Indonesia is in the game, you will be one of the first. This should start the ball rolling for a civilization that is going to be focusing on faith for a lot of the game.

However, because of this faith focus, it will mean a couple of things for your gameplay. To begin with, one of the core places you are going to get faith from is your Rock-Hewn Churches. However, they go on your hills which are usually your key production tiles. This may mean that you will want to get some of those production-bonuses in your religion (like the Meeting House) to balance it out. It also means that you will need to make sure that all of your cities are built on a hill (which you should probably be doing anyway) because that bonus to science and culture will be needed. You may also want to build the Grand Master’s Chapel to focus all that faith into things other than Great People.

However, some draw backs will make this an interesting civilization to play. To begin with, if you don’t spawn near hills or mountains you are going to be right out of luck, now I would assume they have hills starting bias, but we all know that does not always work. Also being around hills and mountains, there will be a lot of tiles that you won’t be able to work, and you don’t have The Inca bonuses to offset that. The movement will also be a bit of an issue, but at least the unique unit can get around quickly, and if you can make the battle come to you, well only a fool attacks Ethiopia in their home territory.

Overall, I think this is the first of the new civilizations of the New Frontiers Pack that has me excited. This is because it plays into how I like to play the game, with a strong faith game. It will be interesting to see just how high you can get faith production in your cities. I will be 100% giving this Civilization a try when it drops next week.

To learn more about the Civilization: New Frontiers Pass, you can read it all in our Features Thread.

If you want to get to know the world of Civilization 6, you can explore our Map of Civilization VI

To join in the discussion about the New Frontiers Pass, come join the fun at Civfanatics  

    By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

What Civs would you like to see in Civ 6 New Frontier Pass?, let us know what you thought in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy