The Egyptian civilization is one of the many playable factions that gamers can choose within Civilization 5, lead by Pharaoh Ramesses II. This civilization possesses unique benefits in the form of the Burial Tomb building, War Chariot ranged unit and the Monument Builders special ability. This guide will cover the exact bonuses and strengths these bring while giving a brief overview of each.
Civilization Leader: Ramesses II
Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses the Great was the 3rd pharaoh of Egypt, reigning from 1279-1213 BC considered the overall greatest, most powerful and highly regarded pharaoh of Egypt. Responsible for many great wonders and vast construction projects, the pension for building wonders is something that is strongly represented in the game. An AI Ramesses II is likely to snatch up every wonder he can possibly build on his way towards a cultural victory. On harder difficulties, players may find it near impossible to beat him to the punch on many of these projects, meaning that if he is in the game and you covet building wonders, it may be in your best interest to take him out or cripple his empire as soon as possible.
Special Ability: Monument Builders
The Monument Builders special ability of the Egyptian civilization provides a single bonus, granting a +20 percent production rate when constructing any of the world wonder projects, which is the major reason why it is so hard to outpace Egypt in wonder building. Second to military action in crippling the empire, the best bet to countering this ability for another civilization is to outpace Ramesses II in terms of research so you can actually access the projects faster than Egypt can.
Special Unit: War Chariot
The War Chariot is a special Ancient era mounted unit that has a number of unique benefits, first and foremost not actually replacing any other base unit in the game. Second, there is no horse requirement to build this mounted unit, which can be helpful at times if they are scarce or you want to mass produce them, but Horses aren’t exactly a rare resource anyways. War Chariots have no defensive bonuses, get a -25 percent damage reduction against cities, but make up for this with 5 movements and being the most mobile ranged unit for quite some time after they are first available.
Special Building: Burial Tomb
The Burial Tomb is a Classical era building meant to replace the Temple which switches up the benefits the original provides with some boons and deficits. First, the culture given is reduced from 3 down to 2, but also adds +2 happiness where the temple adds none. The Burial Tomb also has no maintenance cost and the same production value as the building it replaces. One unfortunate drawback to the Burial Tomb is that it makes your cities ripe targets for enemy conquest, since they double the amount of gold given to an enemy if the city they are built in is captured.