Ethiopia is a strong religious Civilization. I will explain how to win a game of Civilization 6 as Ethiopia. What are the civ's strengths, strategies and win conditions. This guide is focused on the Gathering Storm expansion (with Ethiopian pack).
To win Civilization VI as Ethiopia you must focus on religion, which can be later converted into culture through their ability to purchase Archeological Museums and Archeologists with faith. Most suitable types of victories are Cultural and Religious. Deity players: Early game improve your resource tiles to get faith (to get a prophet) and use mountains to defend yourself (+4 strength), build a Holy Site as soon as possible.
Ethiopia Civilization VI info
Ethiopia enjoys huge religious bonuses, which can be conveniently converted into culture
Provides their cities with extra Faith from resources, increases the Faith yield of their international Trade Routes based on resources in the origin city, and allows them to purchase Archaeological Museums and Archeologists with Faith.
"I have no intention of being an indifferent looker-on if the distant Powers have the idea of dividing up Africa, for Ethiopia has been for more than fourteen centuries an island of Christians in the middle of a the sea of pagans"
Ethiopian cities founded on Hills receive Science and Culture equal to 15% of their Faith output. +4 Combat Strength for all units when fighting on Hills.
A unique tile improvement of the Ethiopian Civilization in Civilization VI. It must be built on Hills or Volcanic Soil tiles.
Research
Base Cost
Maintenance
Pillage Yield
Location requirements
Drama and Poetry
1 builder charge
No maintenance
25
Must be build on Hills or Volcanic Soil tiles
Ethiopian unique light cavalry unit. It replaces the Courser. It is slightly stronger (46 vs 44 strength), doesn't suffer movement penalty in hills and ignores enemy Zone of Control.
Cost
Upgrades to
Resources needed
Strength
Moves
Castles
200 or 400 or 800
3
Cavalry (130 cost)
20 Horses
46
5
Additional information
Strategy
Thanks to its superior sight and mobility the Oromo Cavalry should be used to anticipate attacks and respond to them quickly, even if they occur in the farthest cities.
No start bias.
Ethiopia is all about religion and culture, but other victory types are posible.
Domination is not the most suitable path for Ethiopia, but it is possible. Menelik's leader ability grants +4 strength when fighting on Hills and its unique unit (the Oromo Cavalry) doesn't receive a penalty for movement in hills. This means you should try to always fight on hills when possible, having the higher ground is finally a mechanic we have in Civilization VI.
Science victory is not the best path for Ethiopia, but the civilization does have a significant bonus in this regard.
Culture victory is the best for Ethiopia. Basically religion is converted into culture once you have access to archeologists and rock bands.
Ethiopia has a huge advantage when is trying to achieve a religious victory. Big bonuses and incentives towards faith output make it so religion is the natural path for Ethiopia.
Diplomatic victory is an acceptable path for Ethiopia, making allies and trading is natural for this civilization. Nevertheless diplomacy requires some level of productivity, which is a department Ethiopia is not good at, since you are mostly building Holy sites and campuses as districts.
The Voidsingers is hands down the best Secret Society choice for Ethiopia. This applies when any type of victory is being pursued except Domination, in which case the Sanguine Pact is more convenient.
Promotion title
Unlocked by
Effect
Reach the Medieval Era
Cities earn Gold, Culture and Science per turn equal to 20% of their Faith per turn rate.
Reach the Industrial Era
Unlocks the Cultist unit. This unit is purchased with Faith and uses charges to reduce Loyalty in foreign cities and generate Relics of the Void.
Reach the Atomic Era
Unlocks Dark Summoning, a city project that provides lots of Faith while active, and upon completion, raises the amount of Loyalty damage done by Cultists.
As you can see The VoidSinger governor promotions are all about Faith and being able to use it effectively to achieve other objectives such as increasing Gold, Culture and Science output.
The Cultist is the exclusive unit to the Voidsingers. It can move into foreign lands without declaring war, its ability is causing adjacent foreign cities to lose loyalty and when its killed it grants a Relic of the Void. The aforementioned is great when playing Ethiopia, because it gives you greater access to obtaining foreign cities without waging war.
Council of Ministers makes it so if you found a city not on a hill, then either you are trolling or have a very good reason to do so. The bonus is way too good not to use it, for instance a city founded on a hill with an output of 20 Faith will receive 3 Science and 3 Culture, which is more than the output of a library or an amphitheater respectively.
Ethiopia is not particularly good at producing units (or producing anything in general), but is very good at using the units efficiently for defense. The +4 Combat Strength bonus while fighting on hills means your cities (which should be founded on hills), will be easy to defend with much fewer units than your opponent. The strength bonus applies to all units, so make use of it with your religious units too.
Point your civic development towards Theology in order to get the Scripture (+100% Holy Site adjacency bonus) policy card. Early game you should try and get the following inspiration boosts:
Political Philosophy is important too, you want to get it around the time you start conquering cities (if you go this path as Ethiopia) with your Oromo Cavalry. Oligarchy will make it so your units have +4 strength, this will mean your Oromo Cavalrys will hit with 50 strength (54 on hills), which will give you an edge over other Civilizations. Depending on the difficult level you're playing there is going to be a window of time where your opponents won't have access to Oligarchy, and therefore will be weaker.
Oromo Cavalry is a light Cavalry Unit that is great for the defense of your empire. Having better sight you can anticipate enemy movements and prepare for war effectively. Receiving no movement penalty makes it so this cavalry will reach the farthest cities of your empire in no time.
The unique Ethiopian unit is great on the offense too. The movement and sight makes it great for pillaging, although its strength is only slightly better than regular Coursers, which makes it so you have to use it in a smart way. Use the extra sight to avoid anti-cavalry. Accompany with Crossbowmen to cover weaknesses.
Rock Hewn Church: +1 Faith, +1 additional faith for every adjacent Mountain and Hills tile. Provides Tourism after researching Flight equivalent to the Faith output. +1 Appeal to adjacent tiles. Can only be pillaged (never destroyed) by natural disasters. Can only be built on Hills and Volcanic soil not adjacent to another Rock Hewn Church.
For Ethiopia the Rock Hewn Church is a great tile improvement. Best case scenario it gives +7 faith (and later tourism) to a tile, which will also add 1 science and culture/turn to a city built on a hill (due to Council of Ministers). This is a very significant amount of yields. Most of the time you won't be able to get this much out of it but expect to be able to reliably get 3-5 faith yield tiles out of it most of the time. The +1 appeal can also be utilized later in the game to build national parks and seaside resorts so these improvements can actually end up increasing the tourism output of Ethiopia quite a bit.
In depth: Aksumite Legacy
I recommend to ignore religion in my how to win on deity guide, but if you're playing as Ethiopia you have to do just the opposite. Religion is paramount, almost every single city should have a Holy Site.
The difficulty with building Holy Sites is that you're using the space of a more useful district and therefore the city has to grow to fit more districts. Choose pantheons that help in this respect.
Early game on the higher difficulties will be painful as other civilizations will wage war and your production has to be spent in religion instead of units. Make good use of mountains to make your units efficient in combat.
Science is important no matter what type of victory you are trying to achieve. To get a Oromo Cavalry in time you need a lot of science and therefore should have at the very least 1 good Campus.
Use the Mountains and Geothermal fissures in your favor. If you're unlucky enough to not get Mountains nearby (either occupied by a city state or other civs) then use the huge Government Plaza bonus. Either way don't be late at building Campuses.
If given the option (city has coast tiles) build a Harbor, this is much better as it gives production and food too. Also the Great Admiral points are impactful as Admirals have powerful actions in the game.
Ethiopia is just a strong Civilization, harder to play against than other AIs. There are good way to go about it: