Rome is one of the most versatile Civilizations. I will explain how to win a game of Civilization 6 as Rome. What are the civ's strengths, strategies and win conditions. This guide is focused on the Gathering Storm expansion.
The short answer is to expand a lot early game and then rush Legions in the Medieval Era and conquer a lot of territory. After winning many wars using Legions, proceed to any type of victory you prefer, domination and culture being easier for this civilization. Settle as much as possible.
Rome is an expansive Civilization. The secret to achieving any type of victory as Rome is simply settling so many cities that outputs are overwhelming.
Allows all their cities to start with a Trading Post, automatically builds roads to new cities within trade range of their Capital, and increases Gold income from Trade Routes going through their cities.
"Divide and conquer!"
All of his cities get an additional City Center Building (which will be a Monument if the game is started in the Ancient Era).
A unique district of the Roman Civilization in Civilization VI. It replaces the Aqueduct district and must be built adjacent to both the City Center and a River, Lake, Oasis, or Mountain.
Engineering
Must be adjacent to the City Center and either a river, lake, oasis or mountain.
Additional information
Roman unique melee unit. It replaces the Sworddman. Can construct a Roman Fort and has slightly higher strength than regular swordman.
Military Tactics
10 Iron ()
Strategy
Although a strong early game unit, it doesn't shine as much as its Rome equivalent, the Legion.
The Legion should be combined with Archers for a Medieval Era conquering campaign. They can both build Forts and repair damaged upgraded tiles. This is great to defend and kick start your new conquered cities.
No start bias.
Rome is just about expanding and then proceeding to any type of victory you're interested in..
Surely the easiest type of victory to achieve as Rome. Early game play very aggressive (if playing on deity difficulty) and very expansive. In the Ancient Era Rome shines, Trajan's Column makes it so you start with a free Monument, and therefore you will reach Oligarchy faster than usual, giving your units +4 strength. Conquer and expand as much as possible.
Science victory doesn't come naturally to Rome, there is not a single science bonus, except for the fact that Rome is expansive, therefore more cities and then more sciente output..
Culture victory is a good fit for Rome, granted not as good as Domination. Free Monuments will kickstart your culture in order to get Drama and Poetry sooner. Bigger cities with Baths in them will allow for higher culture output. Free trade routes will make it easier to get Tourists from other Civilizations.
Religion is just not an attractive type of victory for many of us, for those of you who are the exception: Rome doesn't have any particular bonus towards religion. You will have to do with the sheer amount of cities and output.
Diplomatic victory is an acceptable path for Rome, the expansion will make you meet a lot of city states, and therefore have a lot of Diplomatic Favor. This combined with the production of your cities will make for a fairly easy Diplomatic victory.
This is one of the leader abilities with the shortest description in the game. Very simple, yet effective bonus. Having a free building affects mostly the early game as you get Monuments in your cities, and therefore you will be the first to get your civics, which in turn will bring many bonuses with them. To make best use of the bonus try and produce some settlers early game. Having a lot of cities will equal having a lot of Monuments and it will only snowball from there. Point your governor points towards Magnus with the Provision promotion (Settlers in the city do not consume population)
Point your civic development towards Early Empire, did I mention we want to expand? Pick up as many inspiration as possible:
Political Philosophy is important too, you want to get it around the time you start conquering cities with your Legions. Oligarchy will make it so your units have +4 strength, this will mean your Legions will hit with 44 strength, 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.
In the real world Legions effectively transformed Rome into an empire, conquering barbarian with superior order tactics. In Civilization VI they are stronger than regular Swordsmen, but starting Gathering Storm they do have 10 iron cost. If you expanded properly in the early game you should cover enough territory and therefore you are very likely to have Iron inside your borders.
Legions are not that great if they go alone, there are other Civilizations that can go and conquer the early game just with a single tye of unit. This is not the case for Rome. Combine Legions with Archers and one Battering Ram if the opponent has walls.
What is the advantage of having so many cities if there aren't people living in them? Enters the Bath, while being much cheaper than Aqueducts it provides more population room. You have to be careful about settling cities in a location with a source of water for your Bath, remember, Mountains will do too.
Continuing with the expansionist Rome style, the Civilization is all about connecting those new cities. Free Trading Posts and Free Routes make it so you have enough money to fund your military and movement inside the empire is easier.
Movement inside a big empire is necessary. Roads will make it so all tiles cost 1 movement point to enter, except for river crossings. This is even better in areas with lots of woods and rainforest that would usually be very hard to navigate. You will be able to quickly send builders to remote areas or defend against Barbarians with fewer units if necessary.
This ability becomes really useful when the Medieval Era hits and your Legion start getting Hungry for some new cities, after conquering a city it will automatically have a road to your capital, granted the newly-captured city is in a 15 tile range of city of your own that is connected to your capital. Reinforcements will be easy to deploy, Rome will indeed send more Legions through it's roads. This means you can start wars with a small army and add numbers down the road.
I recommend to ignore religion in my how to win on deity guide, but if you're going for a religious victory there is no way of achieving it without an early holy Site and many more as the game advances. Hojo Tokimune's ability to build Holy Sites built in half the time makes it easier to get a Prophet.
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. Choose pantheons that help in this respect.
Religious victories often become unviable when another civilization is as or more dominant. Unlike other civilizations Rome can do something here as you will have the infrastructure needed to go for another type of victory.
Science is important no matter what type of victory you are trying to achieve. To get a Legion 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.
Natural Philosophy civic card doubles Campus adjacency bonus and thus is very recommended. Its upgrade in the modern era is the Class struggle civic and doubles Industrial Zone adjacency too.
You have to choose between Commercial Hub and Harbor because the city can only hold one trade route so it doesn't make sense to have both districts. 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 they have powerful bonuses.
Harbor is so much better than Commercial Hubs that making a Harbor in a 1 tile lake is worth it. You can surround it and get huge adjacency bonuses while getting food and production in a tile that otherwise would have been useless.
Rome is just a strong Civilization, harder to play against than other AIs. There are good ways to go about it: