Arabs Strategy Guide

Learn how to conquer Humankind on the highest difficulty with the Arabs. This guide details AI bonuses, early game strategies, and optimal map settings for victory.

This guide is intended to help players beat Humankind on its highest difficulty, known as Humankind difficulty. The author has beaten the game multiple times on this setting and wishes to share their experiences. Note that the game is subject to updates, which may alter the effectiveness of the strategies presented.

Humankind Difficulty and General Strategy

On Humankind difficulty, AI players receive the following bonuses:

• +3 Food per Farmer on all Cities
• +3 Industry per Worker on all Cities
• +3 Money per Trader on all Cities
• +3 Science per Researcher on all Cities
• +60 Stability on all Cities
• +2 Combat Strength on all Units

The FIMS (Food, Industry, Money, Science) bonuses are flat and scale with the number of workers. Early game, these bonuses are significant and require many districts to offset. However, in the late game, they become less impactful as cities grow larger. The +2 Combat Strength bonus is substantial, making early game combat highly disadvantageous. It is recommended to avoid war until at least the Classical or Medieval era. The Professional Soldiers Civic and leaning towards the Homeland ideology axis can help balance this deficit later on. The stability bonus is also difficult to quantify but can be managed by trading for luxury resources.

The general strategy involves:

1. Avoiding early war (until Classical era at the earliest).
2. Establishing trade for luxury resources.
3. Choosing Agrarian and Builder cultures early to scale into the late game when AI bonuses diminish. Building wide is more effective than building tall.
4. Focusing on accumulating stars/fame, as winning the game requires the most fame. It is not always optimal to transcend cultures immediately, as this can lead to missing out on era stars.
5. Triggering the end game condition, typically via the science ending (researching all technologies) or by eliminating/vassalizing all other cultures if mid-game conquest has been successful.

Map Settings

Optimal map settings to support this strategy include:

• World size: Huge - Provides more land for expansion and allows for more minor cultures to spawn, offering diverse assimilation options.
• World shape: Large Pangea - Facilitates scouting and trade partner acquisition.
• Land Percentage: 70-80% - Balances landmass with enough ocean for accessible trade routes.
• Climate: New World - Ensures a variety of environments.