Civ 5 Polish Civilization

Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs

Civilization's Leader: Casimir III

Civ Bonus: Solidarity

Free Social Policy each time your Civilization advances an Era. This amounts to 7 totally free Policies each time your Civ goes up an Era in tech (Research a new Technology in that Era, visible on the Research Screen). These Free Policies do indeed keep your Culture progress toward the next Social Policy the same. This means you don't need to time them in any particular way.

Unique Unit: Winged Hussar

Requires Metallurgy, replaces Lancer

The Winged Hussar's Unique Ability is Heavy Charge, which will force a Unit to retreat to a nearby tile (any direction it can) when it deals more damage than it takes. In order to maximize use of this, you will want to look for opportunities to corner opponents or force them to go a direction you choose, say, push them in range of your other Units (ranged) which can then pick off the target. Its bonus comes in handy bigtime when Units are surrounded and have no place to go. The additional damage is large and a wall of enemies approaching is the perfect opportunity to use this for defense - just ensure your Hussars can then escape. Winged Hussars start with the Drill I Promotion, so they can work their way up to getting better Cavalry upgrades (like regular Charge, dealing more damage to wounded Units). Having this Unit come out of a Ducal Stable with a Barracks and Armory will give it 3 promotions as though you had a War Academy. You can get a lot of mileage out of these units and they keep the Heavy Charge ability when you Upgrade the Unit.

Unique Building: Ducal Stable

Requires Horseback Riding, replaces Stable

Gives the regular 15% Production Bonus to Mounted Units and +1 Production from Pastures, but also gives +15 XP to all Mounted Units and gives +1 Gold to all Pasures. It also requires no gold to maintain. This is an excellent building if you can have multiple Pastures nearby - Sheep, Cattle, and Horses are the Resources to watch for when placing your Cities as Poland!

Playing Against The Casimir AI - Their Tendencies (XML Info and Flavors) Warmonger

Hatred Wonder

Compete Offense

Build Defense

Build City

Defense DoF Friendly

to Civs Denounce

Civs War w/Civs Deception

Likelihood CS

Comp CS War 7 5 7 4 7 6 7 4 6 3 6 5 Other Info Casimir typically wants to play Wide moreso than other Civs and will have a strong military, likely composed of plenty of Cavalry, so Pikemen are excellent defense against him. This likelihood of wanting a large empire and lands with many Pastures (as you should have) may make him want your land for his own. Thankfully, he's a straight shooter and won't often be Deceptive and suddenly attack, so you'll know when he is growing angry at your Civ and why. He's not the best neighbor to have, but not the worst either. Casimir is likely to try to found a Religion for his Wide empire. Start Bias: Plains

The Winged Hussar are great at hit and run tactics like all Cavalry, but their Heavy Charge makes them special and the Upgrade will be kept all the way to Anti-Tank Gun and Helicopter Gunship.

Strategies/Ideas for playing Casimir:



Extra Money and Production is always a good thing, and Free Social Policies are even better when they come in such quantity, though spread out over the course of your game. This is a Civ that is very friendly to new players and can be played in just about any fashion you choose because of the simplicity of its bonuses. They are a very versatile and flexibile Civ, those Free Policies helping them change direction if needed and Adopt trees just to get the ability to build Wonders or go a few points into Patronage to get more out of City-States. I recently won two games with them, the second of which was my first Immortal victory in Brave New World so I definitely have a fondness for this Civ now. I won a Science Victory with only 3 Cities using Tradition, Piety, and Rationalism with a dash of Patronage. I had control of the World Congress with 30 delegates and got my Religion instated as the World Religion, while having some Tourism late-game that let me pressure others to use my Ideology (Freedom for buying Spaceship Parts). It was odd playing them for a Science win, but they are quite good at it and there is a Steam Achievement that inspires one to try.

I have also played them Wide (Liberty Start), and they are well-suited to this type of play when you have plenty of room to take land that has locations you can build Pastures. Overall, they will be played this way more often. The free Social Policies from Solidarity greatly helps to offset the additional Culture for Social Policies for Wide play, so you will be where you would be with a Tall Civ as far as number of Policies adopted, and possibly even have adopted more of them.

In my win, I did not have the benefit of the Ducal Stable. I had but one pasture in my empire, because I got blocked and spawned on a small section of continent with a Coast between the larger part. I adapted and won around turn 350.

The Winged Hussar + Ducal Stable combo is very good and could be helpful to playing them aggressively, because Cavalry are great for running about and wrecking a Civ's resources, and the Hussar can even knock a defender off a resource it's guarding then pillage that tile. I did not make good use of them, but didn't need to war at that time. In another game, they were very helpful on the defense, as I was attacked by a large army. My ranged helped fight the attackers off while the Hussar were able to scoot units around and put them in danger or further from the defending City. Overall, it's a great unit, and it'll get 2 promotions with just the Ducal Stable and a Barracks. You naturally want a Barracks in all Cities to get the Heroic Epic eventually, so with the Ducal Stable it will be as though you have an Armory when building Cavalry. Later on, you can have Helicopter Gunships with Charge + Heavy Charge that will be amazing at destroying Wounded Units while being incredibly mobile.

Playing as Poland, you may want to consider adopting Commerce Policies, because Landsknechts, which come with no movement cost to pillage and generate extra gold when capturing a City, upgrade to Winged Hussars. Although the cost is steep to upgrade the unit, you will have those powerful 0-move pillages and can run about wrecking things. What is more, the upgrades from both units are kept on upgrade, so your anti-tank guns and helicopter gunships can be even more powerful later. Landsknechts never go away, so you could buy them even in the Modern era and gradually upgrade them, choosing which upgrade unit you want to get a few points in - Promote them while they are Melee (Landsknecht), Cavalry (Winged Hussar), or Anti-Tank/Gunship. For example, melee do not get Charge, so you could buy your Landsknechts, hold off on promoting them, upgrade to Winged Hussar, promote, and then upgrade them to Anti-Tank guns. The Upgrade from Landsknecht to Winged Hussar costs about 260 Gold.

If you want to really take advantage of this Civ, try to have one of those three Resources (Sheep, Cattle, Horse) nearby when you are settling. Research Animal Husbandry to find Horses before you settle and unlock the Pasture for your Workers. Do not rush for Horseback Riding until you have other things set up and enough Workers to really begin booming. Your Economic Advisor will appreciate it, and you'll have excellent production output even in smaller Cities.

I highly recommend you try them for a Cultural or Diplomatic Victory. Pushing for extra Culture will make you have a silly amount of Policies adopted compared to other Civs, so you can really be powerful no matter what size empire you have, so long as you can secure some good land.

Share your tips and strategies for playing as Casimir III below!

Tweet