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Xerses, The Achaemenid is a trade-focused leader inCiv 7. He starts with an additional trade route to other leaders, as well as receives lots of boosts to culture and gold every time you establish a trade route or build a road. Trade leaders are able to maintain a lot of Happiness via resourcesanddevelop their towns and cities with all the excess gold.
This guide covers some early strategies for The Achaemenid in the Antiquity Age.
Xerses, The Achaemenid Overview
Xerses, the Achaemenid is a peaceful trader by all counts. He receives significant bonuses for trading and for Unique Buildings.
+1 Trade Route limit with all other leaders.
Gain 50 Culture and 100 Gold per Age when you create a Trade Route or Road.
+1 Culture and Gold per Age on Unique Buildings and Improvements.
These bonuses arethatbrilliant. TheImprove Trade RelationsEndeavor is relatively cheap and can be repeated with ease, but we suppose this does save you a little bit of Influence.
The extra Culture and Gold from Trade Routes and roads stacks up. In the modern age,this reaches 150 Culture and 150 Gold per route or road.
You can useMerchantsto build roads rather than just send them out to complete trade routes. This makes them a useful unit while you wait for a new trade opportunity to open up.
You also get extraCultureandGoldfrom anyuniquebuildings or improvements. Again, this is minimal, but by the time you reach the Modern Age you may have plenty of Ageless buildings that willcontinue to produce useful yields.
Xerses, The Achaemenid Strategy
Here are some early game strategies to get ahead as Xerses, The Achaemenid.
Early Trade
Merchants are unlocked via theCode Of Law civic researchrelatively early in the Antiquity Age. This will allow you to produce your first merchants.
Yourbiggest issuewill be finding settlements that areclose enough to actually establish trade routes. There is no clear indicator in the game that tells you how far away settlements are, so often you’ll need to produce a merchant and then find out if you’re able to trade.
You receive a free merchant when you research Code of Law.
We really enjoy playing Xerses, The Achaemenid onFractalorArchipelagomaps as they favor naval trade routes and allow you to really play a strong trading game early on.
Gold Advantage And Development
The main aim as a trading leader is to establish a wide trade network of strong resources and build up a huge pool of gold.
Gold is extremely powerful in Civ 7 as it allows you to quicklydevelop new townsand fully complete cities bypurchasing buildings directly.
You’re ultimately aiming to complete the Economic Legacy Path in the Antiquity Age - this will allow you to retain any towns you’ve upgraded to cities when you enter the Exploration Age.
The Economic Golden Age for the Exploration Age isn’t that powerful: it just means you don’t need to spend gold again on upgrading towns. If you do manage to claim another Legacy Path Golden Age, then it might be wise to go for those instead of the Economic.
Early Tech, Civics, And Scouting
You should producethree Scoutswhen you play as Xerses, The Achaemenid. This will allow you to scout other players, find out where their cities are, and, if necessary, strategically settle towns nearby so that you can trade early on.
Settlingtoo closeto the AI will incur a relationship penalty, so try not to plant a town directly on top of their capital, otherwise you’ll shortly find yourself at war.
In terms of techs and civics, you should still focus onProductionduring the early game. ResearchAnimal HusbandryandPotteryfor their respective production boosts, thenMasonryandMasonry IIbefore heading towardsCode Of Law.
Best Civilization For Xerses, The Achaemenid
Ideally, you want to take a civilization that plays into the trade game.Aksumis an interesting one because you get a unique trading ship, the Dhow and Tankwa, that is accessible before you get to Code of Law - this allows you to trade very early in the game, if there’s a city close enough.
You can also grab thePochtecha Backpack Mementowhich provides an extra +5 trade route range, which might be handy during the Antiquity Age.
In the Exploration Age, we like to continue leaning heavily into trade by picking theChola.This will allow you to quickly explore the Distant Lands, establish towns on islands, and collect those treasure resources.
Best Mementos For Xerses, The Arcaemenid
We already mentioned thePochtecha Backpackwhich provides an extra +5 Trade Route range, but let’s also take a look at the unique Memento unlocks on The Achaemenids tree.
These are not the best Mementos. With maxed out Trade Route Limit you will unlikely be able toactuallytrade with everyone because Merchants grow in cost exponentially. Culture from trade routes might net you some culture gain, but it’s not a sizable amount.
If you want to play The Achaemenid, really lean into the gold generation by picking up the Royal Mace Memento. This increases your Gold by +1 per Age forevery Imported Resource.This is a much higher value than individual trade routes, as some trade routes can provide five or six resources at once.
