Gran Colombia is a strong military Civilization. We will go in depth about how to win a game of Civilization 6 as Gran Colombia. What are the civ's strengths, unique units, strategies, perks and win conditions. We will review how to play Gran Colombia through the stages of the game. This guide is focused on the Gathering Storm expansion (with Maya & Gran Colombia Pack), but we also talk about secret societies.
To win a Civilization VI game as Gran Colombia it is preferred that you focus on war early on, which means you have to rush Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working and Horseback Riding technologies. Have at least 2 encampments as soon as possible in order to snatch a Great General. After having a small army consisting of some Horsemens and Archers, declare war on your neighbor. Proceed to win every war using Great Generals and Comandate General together. Domination victory is best suited for Gran Colombia, but after setting a foot in the game through blood you can get almost any type of victory desired.
Gran Colombia Civilization VI info
Gran Colombia boasts unit-mobility far superior to any other Civilization, units enjoy +1 Movement and the ability to be promoted without ending their turn. This makes it so Gran Colombia is a Civilization strongly aimed at winning the game though war or getting a Domination victory.
+1 Movement for all units. Promoting a unit does not end that unit's turn.
"Generous souls always interest themselves in the fate of a people who strive to recover the rights to which the Creator and Nature have entitled them"
Entering a new era Grants a Comandante General, a unique type of Great Person.
Unique to Gran Colombia, grants +5 Combat Strength and +1 Movement to owned land units within 2 tiles, irrespective of the Era of both. These bonuses can stack with those of a Great General.
A unique tile improvement of the Gran Colombian Civilization. It must be built on Grassland, Grassland Hills, Plains or Plains Hills tiles.
Unlocked by
Base Cost
Maintenance
Pillage Yield
Location requirements
Mercantilism
1 builder charge
No maintenance
25
Must be built on Grassland, Grassland Hills, Plains or Plains Hills tiles
Gran Colombian unique light cavalry unit. It replaces the Cavalry. It has the same base Combat strength (62), but has a way lower Gold Maintenance (2 vs 5) and also receives +4 Combat strength for each adjacent Llanero.
Research
Cost
Upgrades to
Resources needed
Strength
Moves
Military science
330 or 660 or 1320
2
Helicopter (130 cost)
20 Horses
62
5
Additional information
Strategy
Llaneros are used for fast and powerful strikes, conquering an entire mid-game civilization in less than 15 turns is not rare when these units are used together with Comandante General and Great Generals. Thanks to the Llanero ability reaching 80+ combat strength is often achieved, making this unit comparable to a Tank, but with better mobility (up to 7 Movement vs 4 in the case of a Tank) and maintenance cost (2 vs 8)
No start bias.
Gran Colombia wins primarily by conquering every other Civilization in an absurdly fast fashion.
Domination is the most suitable path for Gran Colombia, when a Civilization has the ability to defeat Tanks with Cavalry or Swordsmans with Warriors, then science isn't as important, and focusing all efforts into war is more effective. Gran Colombia enjoys huge advantages in this regard thanks to its way better unit-mobility, coupled with good use of Simón Bolivar's Comandante Generals. Try and build encampments early in the game, declare war as soon as you have a small to mid-sized army.
Science victory is not the best path for Gran Colombia, the civilization doesn't have any bonuses in this regard. Nevertheless it is possible by overwhelming war earlier in the game.
Same case as Science victory.
If you're playing on Emperor or higher difficulty a religious victory becomes hard, as you have to snatch a Great Prophet against the AI, which has great advantages early game, while Gran Colombia does not have any bonuses when competing for this Great Person. Nevertheless if you are able to sort out this problem, then Gran Colombia does have 1 advantage, Ejército Patriota, which grants all units (including religious units) +1 Movement. Nevertheless generally it is better to ignore religion when playing Gran Colombia.
Diplomatic victory is possible for Gran Colombia, after conquering half (or all) the world you will boast a superior level of productivity
Both Gran Colombia and the Sanguine Pact shine in wars, it is just a perfect match.
Promotion title
Effect
Reach the Medieval Era
Grants a Vampire unit in your capital, and allows your Vampires to construct Vampire Castles (maximum two per empire).
Reach the Industrial Era
Grants a Vampires unit in your capital. Increases maximum Vampire Castle build to three. Your vampires now intimidate adjacent enemy units, reducing their combat strength by 5. Pillaging now costs Vampires 1 movement.
Reach the Atomic Era
Grants a Vampire unit in your capital. Increase maximum Vampire Castle builds to four. Units can teleport between Vampire Castles.
The Vampire is an exceptional unit whose main weakness is its poor mobility, with Gran Colombia this is no more, as Vampires can reach up to 4 Movement (Comandante General + Ejército Patriota) under Simon Bolivar's command.
Comandante General are great units, they grant +5 Combat Strength and +1 Movement to owned land units within 2 tiles, irrespective of the Era of both. The particularity of these bonuses is that they stack with those of a Great General, resulting in Gran Colombian units being able to defeat more advanced units, such as Archer against Crossbowmen.
Winning over Great Generals before anyone else is very important while playing Gran Colombia, with this in mind we need to build early encampments, which need Bronze Working technology (it can be hurried by killing 3 barbarian units)
Gran Colombia through the ages
Gran Colombia is a civilization that gets stronger the later the game goes on. If you can pull off an early war, that is really good because you are accelerating towards the point Gran Colombia reaches its power-spike (Llaneros and Hacienda), but it is not necessary. If you want to play it more slowly you can do it by securing your borders, getting some science and production before pulling the trigger on one of your neighboring civilizations.
Starting build should be something like Scout-Scout-Scout-Settler. Swap a Scout for a Warrior or a Slinger if you're being harassed by barbarians or other civilizations. You might be asking, Why so many Scouts? Because Ejército Patriota, that's why. Having 1 extra movement will allow your Scouts to roam all around the map, getting lots of City-State bonuses and Tribal villages.
In the case you're playing the Secret Societies mode, build order should be more aggressive, something like Scout-Warrior-Slinger-Scout, as clearing a Barbarian Camp (or more than one if unlucky) is needed to meet the Sanguine Pact, the secret society you should always try to ally when playing as Gran Colombia.
Our mission early game is securing our borders with 3 cities (Capital included), and at least 2 of those cities must have encampments in them, because we are going to war soon and we want to secure our first Great General. In order to do this we need to research Bronze working (requirement for encampments), which Eureka is achieved by killing 3 barbarian units.
Preferably settle close to Horses and towards your first prey, or the first civilization you're going to war with. While exploring or advancing towards this opponent you are likely to find their Settlers unprotected, this is something that happens more often when playing as Gran Colombia thanks to its superior mobility. Declare war and take the settler, it is worth it even if you have to delete the settler to avoid giving it back.
Ignore religion completely if you're not set on going for a religious victory.
In the Classical Era Gran Colombia is able to go to war with Civilizations that are more advanced technologically and win. You will receive your first Comandante General, this coupled with the Great General that you should be getting by now (if you built enough Encampments and buildings in them) will make it so your Warriors are able to destroy Swordsmans, Archers defeat Crossbowmans and Horses win against everything (including cities). You should prepare a decently sized army, something like 3 Archers, 2 Horseman and the initial Warriors and then declare war.
As said before, there is the option to not go to war early game as Gran Colombia, as the Civilization only becomes stronger later in the game. Nevertheless if you have more fun playing aggressively I really recommend attacking now using the strategy stated in the previous paragraph.
Conquer the opponents in less than 20 turns, stonks.
If you followed the strategies previously presented the game should be over now and you will be able to proceed to any type of victory of your choosing (except for religious). In the case you didn't play as aggressively as recommended (and survived decently), then there is no problem, Gran Colombia will hit its power-spike in the Renaissance to Industrial Era, because in these eras Hacienda and Llaneros are unlocked respectively. Apply the same Great General + Comandante General strategy, but with Llaneros in groups of 4 this time, you should be able to devastate enemy civilizations in no time.
Encampments are key to Gran Colombia strategy, not only you must push out units like crazy, but also snatch as many Great Generals as possible. Simply build Encampment in every single city.
Science is important no matter what type of victory you are trying to achieve. Gran Colombia doesn't really need to build Campuses in order to win, as long as you capture cities (early game) that have them. If you didn't play aggressively early game it is better that you have at least one good Campus, with strong adjacency bonuses.
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.
Ignore Holy Sites.
Gran Colombia is just a strong Civilization, harder to play against than other AIs. There are good way to go about it: