Theodore Roosevelt stands as one of the most versatile leaders in Civilization 6, capable of steering the American empire toward vastly different victories. Whether embracing the cultural renaissance of the Bull Moose persona or the continental dominance of the Rough Rider, success hinges on a nuanced understanding of the game’s strategic layers. Among the most critical of these is the Governor system. The right governor, with a carefully selected promotion path, is not merely a bonus—it is the essential catalyst that amplifies Teddy’s unique abilities, transforming potential into decisive action.
Analysis on player forums consistently highlights a common pitfall: generic governor assignments. Simply placing Pingala in the capital for yields is a start, but it fails to capture the powerful synergies available to a leader like Roosevelt. This guide provides a definitive breakdown of how to tailor governor promotions specifically for both of Teddy’s personas. We will explore the optimal promotion paths, strategic placement, and advanced tactics that allow a player to fully leverage the strengths of America, turning every governor title into a calculated step toward victory.
Understanding Roosevelt’s Core Mechanics
Before assigning any governor, it is crucial to analyze the foundational abilities that make Teddy unique. Player communities often stress that a leader’s abilities should dictate their strategy, not the other way around.
The Bull Moose: A Symphony of Culture and Appeal
The Bull Moose persona is designed for a Culture Victory, with abilities that reward careful city planning and environmental stewardship.
- Antiquities and Parks: This is the cornerstone of Bull Moose Teddy. Tiles with Breathtaking Appeal gain +2 Science if adjacent to a Mountain or Natural Wonder, and +2 Culture if adjacent to a Wonder or Woods. Furthermore, all tiles in a city with a National Park gain +1 Appeal. This creates a powerful feedback loop; high appeal generates yields, which in turn can be used to create National Parks, further boosting appeal. A popular strategy is to plant forests on undesirable tiles to elevate the appeal of adjacent ones, creating perfect locations for National Parks and Seaside Resorts.
- Film Studio: This unique replacement for the Broadcast Center doubles the Tourism pressure from that city. This is a monumental advantage in the late game, turning a culturally rich city into a global tourism hub.
The Rough Rider: Forging a Continental Empire
The Rough Rider persona is geared towards a Domination Victory, focusing on controlling the home continent and leveraging a powerful unique unit.
- Roosevelt Corollary: This ability provides +5 Combat Strength to all American units fighting on their home continent. It also grants a free Envoy when sending a trade route to a city-state for the first time. Many professional gamers suggest this encourages an early-game “Amani sweep,” where the Diplomat governor is used to quickly gain suzerainty over nearby city-states.
- Rough Rider: This unique Modern Era unit is a game-changer. It earns Culture for every kill on its home continent, has a +10 Combat Strength bonus on Hills, and requires no strategic resources. This allows for the creation of a powerful, self-sustaining army that not only conquers but also accelerates civic progression.
- P-51 Mustang: Replacing the standard Fighter, this Atomic Era air unit has an extended operational range and gains experience at an accelerated rate, making it a formidable tool for controlling the skies.
The First Governor: A Critical Decision
The first governor title is a pivotal moment in the early game. The choice often comes down to two of the most powerful governors in the game: Pingala and Magnus. For either of Teddy’s personas, the arguments for each are compelling.
Pingala: The Default for a Reason
Many experienced players advocate for Pingala (The Educator) as the first choice in nearly every game. His initial promotions provide an immediate and scalable boost to the two most important early-game yields.
- Librarian and Researcher: These first-tier promotions grant +1 Culture and +1 Science per citizen, respectively. In your capital, which is likely to have the highest population, this provides a significant boost, accelerating your path to crucial early civics like Political Philosophy and key technologies. For Bull Moose Teddy, this early culture is vital for reaching Conservation to plant forests and build National Parks. For Rough Rider Teddy, it helps unlock military-focused civics and governments.
Magnus: The Engine of Expansion
Alternatively, Magnus (The Steward) is the premier choice for players who prioritize rapid expansion.
- Provision: His base ability allows the city to train Settlers without losing a population point. This is incredibly powerful for an early land grab, allowing you to claim valuable territory and resources without stunting the growth of your core cities.
- Groundbreaker: This promotion provides a 50% bonus to yields from harvesting resources or removing features. This “chop” bonus is a cornerstone of many high-level strategies, allowing a player to instantly produce a unit, a district, or, most importantly, a critical early-game Wonder.
For Teddy, the choice depends on the map. If you have ample room to expand, Magnus can help you build a wide empire quickly. If your starting position is more constrained or you need to rush a specific technology or civic, Pingala is often the safer and more consistent choice.
Governor Strategy for Bull Moose Teddy (Culture Victory)
A Culture Victory with Bull Moose Teddy is a game of patience and precision. Your governor choices must reflect the need for Great People, high Appeal, and massive Tourism generation.
Pingala (The Educator): The Great Person Engine
While a strong first pick, Pingala’s true power for a Bull Moose run emerges in the mid to late game. He should be placed in your highest-population city, preferably one with both a Campus and a Theater Square.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Librarian/Researcher: As discussed, these are essential for a strong start.
- Grants: This is the single most important promotion for a Culture Victory. Doubling the Great People Points generated in the city is non-negotiable. This allows you to secure the Great Writers, Artists, and Musicians needed to fill your museums and wonders, generating the Great Works that produce Tourism.
- Connoisseur: This promotion adds +1 Culture per citizen, further amplifying the output of your main city.
- Curator: This is the final nail in the coffin for your cultural rivals. It provides +100% Tourism from all Great Works in the city. A city with Pingala and Curator can single-handedly generate more Tourism than entire rival civilizations. Analysis on forums shows that a city with just a few themed museums can become an unstoppable tourism juggernaut with this promotion.
Liang (The Surveyor): The National Park Specialist
Liang is the unsung hero of a Bull Moose victory. Her abilities are perfectly tailored to manipulating tile Appeal and building the infrastructure for National Parks.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Guildmaster: Her base ability grants an extra build charge to all Builders trained in her city. This is invaluable for planting forests (after unlocking the Conservation civic) to boost appeal across your empire.
- Zoning Commissioner: A 20% production bonus towards building districts helps you quickly establish the Theater Squares and Entertainment Complexes that are vital for a Culture Victory. A popular strategy is to move Liang between newly founded cities to speed up their initial district construction.
- Parks and Recreation: This is Liang’s key promotion for Teddy. It allows Builders to create the City Park improvement, which grants +2 Appeal to adjacent tiles. This is the perfect tool for crafting the ideal diamond-shaped, four-tile area of Breathtaking tiles required for a National Park.
- Reinforced Materials: In the Gathering Storm expansion, this promotion is a lifesaver. It makes all improvements in the city immune to damage from environmental effects, protecting your carefully crafted high-appeal tiles from being pillaged by floods or storms.
Moksha (The Cardinal): The Faith-Fueled Naturalist
The connection between Faith and a Culture Victory is often underestimated. National Parks are created by Naturalists, units that can only be purchased with Faith. Moksha is the key to generating that Faith.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Bishop: His base ability grants +2 Faith for every specialty district in the city, providing a solid foundation for Faith generation.
- Divine Architect: This powerful promotion allows you to purchase districts with Faith. If you have a strong Faith economy, you can use it to instantly build Theater Squares or Wonders, providing a massive tempo advantage.
- Patron Saint: While this promotion directly benefits religious units, establishing Moksha in a city with a strong Holy Site and multiple districts makes it the economic heart of your Faith generation, ensuring you can purchase Naturalists as soon as they are available.
- Laying on of Hands: This is a defensive promotion, allowing your units to heal fully in one turn. While not directly related to culture, it can be crucial for defending your culturally significant cities from late-game aggression.
Governor Strategy for Rough Rider Teddy (Domination Victory)
A Domination Victory with Rough Rider Teddy is about leveraging your home-continent advantage and maintaining momentum. Your governors must be able to secure loyalty in conquered cities and fuel your war machine.
Victor (The Castellan): The Siege Master
Victor is the quintessential military governor. He is the first and most important assignment for any player pursuing a Domination Victory. His primary role is to be placed in a newly conquered city to quell its rebellious tendencies and fortify it against counter-attacks.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Redoubt: His base ability grants the city +5 Combat Strength and an additional ranged strike. This immediately makes a city harder to capture.
- Garrison Commander: This is Victor’s most powerful promotion. It grants +4 Loyalty per turn to the city, which is almost always enough to prevent a newly captured city from rebelling. It also grants +5 Combat Strength to any of your units defending within the city’s territory.
- Embrasure: This promotion adds yet another ranged strike to the city, allowing it to deal significant damage to approaching enemy units.
- Air Defense Initiative: As you approach the Atomic Era and Teddy’s unique P-51 Mustang, protecting your cities from enemy air power becomes critical. This promotion provides a significant defensive boost against aircraft.
Magnus (The Steward): The War Machine’s Furnace
While Victor holds the front line, Magnus should be established in your primary production city. His role is to churn out the units needed to win the war.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Provision: The ability to train units without consuming population is a massive advantage. You can continuously produce Rough Riders and other units without stunting the growth of your most important city.
- Industrialist: This promotion grants +2 Production for each strategic resource in the city. For a domination player, who will be accumulating horses, iron, niter, and oil, this provides a substantial production boost.
- Vertical Integration: This powerful capstone promotion provides +10% Production towards units for each adjacent district. A well-planned industrial zone with Magnus can become a military production powerhouse, capable of building an entire army on its own.
- Surplus Logistics: While seemingly a growth promotion, the +20% growth helps your production city grow larger, allowing it to work more production-heavy tiles.
Amani (The Diplomat): The Fifth Column
Amani offers a more subtle but equally powerful path to domination. According to the player community, her ability to manipulate city-states and exert loyalty pressure is a perfect fit for Rough Rider Teddy.
Recommended Promotion Path:
- Emissary: Her base ability allows her to be established in a city-state, acting as two Envoys.
- Affluence: This promotion can be useful for generating gold from trade routes, helping to fund your military.
- Propagandist: This is the key offensive promotion. It causes all foreign cities within 9 tiles to lose 2 Loyalty per turn. A popular strategy is to place Amani in a city-state bordering your enemy, combine her effect with the Bread and Circuses policy card, and watch your enemy’s cities rebel without firing a single shot.
- Puppeteer: This promotion doubles the number of Envoys Amani provides, making it incredibly easy to become the Suzerain of a city-state and gain its unique bonus and military units.
Conclusion
Mastering the Governor system is the final step in unlocking Theodore Roosevelt’s full potential. The path to victory is not paved with generic choices but with deliberate, tailored promotions that synergize directly with his unique strengths. For the Bull Moose, a cultural victory is achieved through the Great Person engine of Pingala and the appeal-crafting mastery of Liang. For the Rough Rider, continental domination is secured by the unyielding loyalty provided by Victor and the relentless production fueled by Magnus. By understanding these synergies and implementing these advanced strategies, any player can transform their American empire from a fledgling nation into a world-defining power, truly embodying the historical duality of one of America’s most iconic leaders.