Analysis of countless playthroughs and community discussion reveals a clear consensus: Jayavarman VII of the Khmer is a top-tier leader for achieving a Religious Victory in Civilization VI. The Khmer’s unique abilities create a powerful synergy of faith, food, and population growth that, when properly leveraged, can lead to a swift and decisive victory. This guide provides a detailed, actionable strategy for harnessing the full potential of the Khmer civilization on the path to religious dominance.
The Foundation: Understanding Khmer’s Strengths
A successful Khmer strategy begins with a deep understanding of their unique abilities. These abilities are not merely bonuses; they are the pillars upon which your entire strategy will be built.
Monasteries of the King: The Power of the River
Jayavarman VII’s leader ability, Monasteries of the King, is the cornerstone of the Khmer’s religious strategy. It provides two powerful bonuses to Holy Sites built adjacent to a river:
- +2 Faith Adjacency Bonus: This provides a solid foundation for your faith generation from the very beginning of the game.
- Food Equal to Adjacency Bonus, +2 Housing, and a “Culture Bomb”: This is the true power of the ability. A riverside Holy Site not only generates faith but also fuels explosive population growth. The Culture Bomb, which claims all surrounding tiles upon completion of the Holy Site, allows for rapid border expansion and secures valuable resources.
The implications of this ability are clear: every city you settle must be on a river. This is not a suggestion; it is a mandate for a successful Khmer game.
Grand Barays: Faith from the People
The Khmer civilization ability, Grand Barays, further enhances their synergy between population and faith:
- +1 Amenity and +1 Faith per Population in Cities with an Aqueduct: This ability transforms your populous cities into faith-generating powerhouses. The more your cities grow, the more faith you will generate, creating a powerful feedback loop.
- +2 Food from Farms next to an Aqueduct and +1 Faith from Farms next to a Holy Site: This ability provides even more avenues for growth and faith generation.
The Grand Barays ability makes the Aqueduct a critical district for the Khmer. It is not merely a utility district for housing; it is a key component of your faith-generating engine.
The Prasat: The Relic Engine
The Khmer’s unique building, the Prasat, replaces the Temple and is a cornerstone of their religious strategy. It provides several powerful bonuses:
- +6 Faith: A solid boost to your faith generation.
- +0.5 Culture for Every Citizen in the City: This helps to accelerate your progress through the civics tree, unlocking key policies and governments.
- Missionaries with the Martyr Promotion: This is the most powerful aspect of the Prasat. Missionaries trained in a city with a Prasat automatically gain the Martyr promotion, which generates a Relic if the unit is killed in theological combat.
- Extra Relic Slot: The Prasat also has an extra Relic slot, providing a home for the Relics you will inevitably acquire.
The Prasat is the key to the infamous Khmer “Martyr strategy,” a powerful tactic for generating massive amounts of faith and tourism.
Early Game (Turns 1-100): Settle, Pray, and Grow
The early game is critical for setting up your Khmer faith engine. Your priorities are to settle on rivers, build Holy Sites, and secure a religion.
Initial Build Order and Tech Path
A popular and effective opening strategy is as follows:
- Scout -> Settler: Your first two builds should be a Scout to explore your surroundings and a Settler to found your second city.
- Astrology: Your first technology research should be Astrology. This unlocks the Holy Site, which is the foundation of your strategy.
- River Settlements: As you explore, identify prime locations for new cities. Remember the golden rule: settle on a river. Look for locations with good food and production tiles to support early growth.
The First District: The Holy Site
Your first district in almost every city should be a Holy Site placed directly on a river. This will immediately trigger the bonuses from Monasteries of the King, providing you with faith, food, and housing. The Culture Bomb will also help to secure your borders and claim valuable tiles.
Pantheon: The River Goddess
The ideal Pantheon for the Khmer is River Goddess. It provides +1 Amenity and +1 Housing to cities with a Holy Site adjacent to a river. When combined with Monasteries of the King, a single riverside Holy Site will grant a staggering +3 Housing and +1 Amenity, providing the fuel for massive population growth.
Mid-Game (Turns 100-200): The Faith Engine Ignites
The mid-game is where the Khmer’s religious strategy truly comes online. Your focus will be on founding your religion, building your faith engine, and preparing for global conversion.
Founding Your Religion: The Right Beliefs
Securing an early Great Prophet is essential. Once you have founded your religion, your choice of beliefs will have a significant impact on your game. Many professional gamers suggest the following combination for a powerful religious game:
- Follower Belief: Work Ethic: This is one of the most powerful beliefs for the Khmer. It grants Production equal to your Holy Site’s adjacency bonus. With the +2 Faith adjacency bonus from Monasteries of the King, your Holy Sites will become powerful production centers, allowing you to build districts and units at an accelerated rate.
- Worship Building: Wat: This provides +3 Science, helping you to keep pace with other civilizations in technology while you focus on faith.
- Founder Belief: Reliquaries: This is an essential belief for the Khmer. It triples the Faith and Tourism yields from your Relics. This belief is the key to the “Martyr strategy” and will supercharge your faith income.
- Enhancer Belief: Holy Order: This makes your Missionaries and Apostles 30% cheaper, allowing you to mass-produce religious units and overwhelm your opponents.
The Martyr Strategy: Turning Death into Faith
The “Martyr strategy” is a unique and powerful tactic available to the Khmer. It involves intentionally sacrificing your Missionaries to generate Relics, which then provide massive amounts of faith and tourism. Here’s how it works:
- Build Prasats: Construct Prasats in your cities to ensure your Missionaries are trained with the Martyr promotion.
- Mass-Produce Missionaries: Use the Holy Order policy card and the Holy Order belief to produce a large number of cheap Missionaries.
- Sacrifice Your Missionaries: Send your Missionaries into the territory of a religious rival and let them be defeated in theological combat by their Apostles or Inquisitors. Each time one of your Missionaries dies, you will receive a Relic.
- House Your Relics: Place your newly acquired Relics in your Prasats and other available Relic slots.
- Reap the Rewards: With the Reliquaries belief, each Relic will generate a massive amount of faith and tourism, allowing you to purchase even more religious units and exert religious pressure on a global scale.
Infrastructure: Aqueducts and Growth
As soon as you unlock the Engineering technology, begin building Aqueducts in all of your cities. The Aqueduct is the key to unlocking the full potential of the Grand Barays ability, which provides +1 Faith per population. With your high-growth cities, this will become your primary source of faith generation.
Late Game (Turns 200+): Global Conversion
The late game is all about leveraging your immense faith generation to convert the world to your religion. Your primary tools will be your Apostles, which you will be able to purchase in vast numbers.
Apostle Spam and Key Promotions
With your faith economy booming, you can begin to “spam” Apostles, sending them out in waves to convert rival cities. When promoting your Apostles, look for two crucial promotions:
- Proselytizer: Removes 75% of other religions’ pressure in the target city. This is vital for flipping heavily-contested cities.
- Translator: Triples the religious strength of the Apostle in foreign cities.
A popular strategy is to use your Translator Apostles to eliminate the religious units of your opponents, and then use your Proselytizer Apostles to convert their cities.
The Role of the Domrey
While the Domrey, the Khmer’s unique Trebuchet replacement, is not a religious unit, it can play a crucial role in your religious victory strategy. The Domrey is a powerful siege unit that can be used to weaken or conquer a key religious rival, making their cities much easier to convert.
Conclusion: The Inevitable Victory
By following this guide, you can turn the Khmer civilization into an unstoppable force of religious conversion. The synergy between their unique abilities creates a powerful engine of faith and growth that is unmatched by any other civilization in the game. From the early game focus on river settlements and Holy Sites to the mid-game explosion of faith from the Martyr strategy and the late-game Apostle spam, the path to a religious victory with Jayavarman VII is clear and decisive. The player community consistently demonstrates that a well-played Khmer civilization does not just compete for a religious victory; it dominates.