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Lafayette is a diplomatic and militaristic leader in Civ 7 with some awesome strategies that help you build units withextremely high Combat Strengthright from the start of the game. The main strategy involves takingGreeceas your Civilization and stacking Combat Strength bonuses on your Hoplites, but the strategy can work with any unit from any civilization to give you a big advantage over the AI in warfare.
This guide covers the best Lafayette strategy to dominate the Antiquity Age with massively buffed units.
Lafayette Overview
Lafayette gets access to a Unique Endeavor, calledReform.This grants you an additional Policy Slot. If the opponent also supports it, they get a solicy slot as well. You’ll receive+1 Combat Strength for every Tradition slotted in the Government.
+2 Culture and Happiness per Age in Settlements. Doubled in Distant Lands.
Lafayette is one of the best leaders in the game if you manage to pull off his powerful Antiquity Age strategy of stacking policies andbuffing your units.
This works by building up lots of Influence gain, sending out theReformEndeavor to other players in the game, and then stackingTraditionsin your Government to increase your unit’s combat strength.
Traditions arepolicy cardsthat are specific to your civilization. Regular policy cards will not improve the Combat Strength of your units.
Lafayette Strategy For The Antiquity Age
Lafayette wants to focus on earlyInfluenceand then start the military production machine.
Early Scouting And Discovery Priority
Producethree Scouts.Use these to quickly find Discoveries around the map. This is the priority of bonuses you should pick:
You’re also on the hunt for city-states. Lafayette will likely lean towards generating a lot of Influence, so you can definitely grab some city-states as friends as you go.
Grabbing Early Influence Gain
There are a few ways you can start to earn some Influence early with Lafayette.
First, you can choose to opt for aNeutral Greetingwhen you first encounter the AI. In theory you should be able to recover that initial penalty to the relationship by sending multiple Endeavors their way later on.
Secondly, you can rush for theMasonrytechnology to build an earlyMonument.
If you’re feeling particularly aggressive, you can head straight for theCitizenshipcivic to get theWeiyang Palacebefore anyone else. This is the best Wonder in the game for Influence-based playstyles.
The Weiyang Palace is unlocked via theCitizenshipcivic, which is fairly late in the tree.
The Reform Endeavor
Your unique Endeavor, Reform, should be usedwhenever it comes off cooldown.It’s a little more expensive than other Endeavors so make sure you save up a little Influence to use it again when it becomes available.
Right at the start of the game, you probably want toprioritise city-statesand some earlyEndeavors to boost your culture and sciencevia the AI rather than jumping right into Reform.
Greek Civilization Combo
Lafayette excels when combined with the Greeks. Not only does Greece provide excellent Influence bonuses (+3 Influence on the Palace), you also get access to some powerful civics that complement Lafayette’s militaristic goals.
With the combination of Lafayette’s bonus from traditions providing combat strength and the extra combat strength from city-states, you canscale some very impressive Hoplitesin the Antiquity Age.
This is a great strategy for Deity difficulty level, as the enemy receives significant Combat Strength bonuses compared to your base units. With this strat, you can keep up and even overtake their bonuses.
