You can now choose between Julius Caesar and Trajan when playing as Rome in Civilization 6 with the new Leader Pass. Trajan’s leader ability gives you a free monument when you settle a city - a very useful early culture boost. In contrast, Julius offers two ways to earn extra gold.
Let’s start with a direct comparison. Trajan’s monument saves 240 gold on the standard speed while Julius has to clear three barbarian outposts to earn the gold you need to buy the monument (with 60 gold in change). Alternatively, he can conquer a city and clear an outpost to afford the monument.
Civ 6 Julius Caesar Starting Guide
Clearing an outpost does require some up-front investment in military units, but this should be something you’re doing anyway. The bonus gold you receive for mopping up barbarians is a strong incentive to produce an extra Warrior or two in the early game.
If you activate the Barbarians Clans mode in the New Frontier Pass DLC, the gold bonuses from barbarian outposts are even higher. Also, the gold is earned by raiding the outpost rather than clearing it, making it potentially worthwhile to camp a unit on an outpost and raid it whenever possible. Recruiting military units from barbarian outposts almost pays for itself with the proceeds of a raid.
Further, the extra gold synergises with an important early game goal for Rome: beelining along the tech tree to Iron Working in order to unlock Legions. All that extra gold you have accrued will make it much easier to upgrade your Warriors into Legions.
- Leader: Julius Caesar
- Civilization: Rome
- Available: Julius is unlocked for free when you link your Steam/Epic account to a 2K Games account
- Leader Ability: Receive 200 gold whenever you conquer a city for the first time or 100 Gold when you clear a barbarian outpost. These gold amounts increase to 500 after you research Steel
Indeed, compared to Trajan, Julius favours a more aggressive approach through the Classical Era. A good early strategy should be to train Scouts to find barbarian outposts and train Warriors to clear the outposts. Then begin to settle cities towards your nearest neighbour, prioritising Iron deposits. Finally, spend all that bonus gold to upgrade your Warriors to Legions and march along the instantly built roads to eliminate that neighbour.
Ultimately, Julius is a solid generalist leader. The bonus gold from outposts complements Rome’s existing Classical Era strengths, allowing you to expand or conquer aggressively in the early game to set yourself up to pursue whatever victory you prefer… or to continue the domination steamroll beyond the Classical Era.
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