Civilization VI's second expansion, Gathering Storm released earlier this year and has added a handful of new civilizations and leaders. I am hoping to write a strategy for each of them, but I want to start with the civilizations and leaders who are completely new to the franchise. The final technically "new" civilization is Phoenicia. Phoenicia's leader, Dido has appeared in previous Civilization games as the leader of the Carthagenian civilization, but this is the first time that Phoenicia has been a civilization in the game.

Phoenicia never existed as a singular nation or empire, as the culture consisted of a collection of ancient, independent city states that built a vast Mediterranean trade network based on the export of dates, purple dyes, and textiles. The cities of Tyre, Byblos, and Sidon, on the Mediterranean coasts of modern-day Lebanon and Israel made up the core of the civilization, but colonies reached as far as Carthage in northern Africa and Cadiz in Spain. Phoenician ships were among the first to sail beyond the Strait of Gibraltar and begin exploring the Atlantic Ocean, and some fringe historians suggest that ancient Phoenicians may have made it as far as the southern tip of Africa, and maybe even to the Americas (though this is highly speculative).

Dido is a semi-mythological figure who is regarded as the Mother of Carthage. Most historians agree that Dido existed, that she fled Tyre after a power struggle with her brother Pygmalion, and that she founded the cities of Byrsa and Carthage. There is, however, considerable disagreement about when and how it all happened. According to Virgil's Aeneid, Dido falls in love with Aeneas in Carthage after Aeneas flees the sacked city of Troy (much to the dismay of the Berber king who sought her hand in marriage). Aeneas is ordered by the god Mercury to leave Dido and settle in Italy, which he reluctantly does, and his sons Romulus and Remus would go on to found the city of Rome. Dido kills herself on a pyre and curses the descendants of Troy, thus establishing the rivalry between Rome and Carthage and foreshadowing the Punic Wars that ultimately resulted in the destruction of Carthage. Some traditions even say that Dido continues to haunt Aeneas forever in the underworld. This story contradicts the other accounts of Dido's death, in which Aeneas is never referenced, and Dido killed herself in the Pyre in order to escape marriage to the Berber King and remain faithful to her first husband. The truth is probably forever lost to the sands of time.

DISCLAIMER:
Civilization VI is still a "living game". Strategies for the game (and for specific leaders and civs) may change as Firaxis applies balance patches, introduces new features, or expands the game through further DLC or expansion packs, or as the Civ community discovers new strategies or exploits. As such, the following strategy guide may change from time to time. I will try to keep it up-to-date, and will make notations whenever changes are made. I'll also post links in the official 2K forums and CivFanatics, where I'll also report any changes made. If possible and practical, I will try to retain the original content of the strategy for posterity.

I welcome any feedback or suggestions that readers wish to offer. Feel free to post on the linked forums, or by posting a comment at the bottom of the page.

This guide is up to date as of the release of the Gathering Storm expansion's "September 2019 update" (ver. 1.0.0.341)

I debated with myself about whether to write a guide for Dido at this time, since I've already written a guide for her in Civ V, but I decided to go ahead and cover Phoenicia because it and Dido have some unique abilities that I was curious to play around with, and Firaxis added a new map type that potentially works well with her abilities. Dido is the only leader in Civilization VI who is allowed to willingly move her capital, and moving that capital actually does have some utility within the game.

Continuing my series of strategy guides for the civilizations of Brave New World, I have now moved onto legacy civs whose strategies have changed somewhat due to the expansions' features. One civilization that received an indirect upgrade by the changes introduced in Brave New World is Dido's Carthaginian empire. Even though her actual ability didn't change, the new trade route mechanics changed the function of the harbor, which subtly changes how Carthage should be approached by Brave New World players.

In the ancient world, the Phoenicians exercised near absolute dominance over maritime trade in the south Mediterranean. Phoenician control was centered in Tyre, whose colonies paid tribute but were not directly controlled by Tyre itself. When Alexander the Great destroyed Tyre in 332 BC, the Phoenician colony of Carthage began claiming control over Tyre's former colonies in Sicily, Sardinia, Morocco, and Iberia, and established itself as the commercial center of the Western Mediterranean. This economic success and naval supremacy lead to three Sicilian Wars with Greece and three Punic Wars with the Roman Republic. The third Punic War resulted in the sacking and conquest of Carthage by the Romans.

Historical records of Dido are very limited, and historians debate her historicity. The sources available indicate that she was the daughter of an unnamed King of Tyre, who named both her and her child brother, Pygmalion, as heirs. But when the king died, the people refused to acknowledge Dido as heir, and only Pygmalion was recognized. Pygmalion had Dido's husband, Acerbas murdered in order to claim Acerbas' vast wealth, and Dido stole away Acerbas' gold and fled Tyre along with some attendants and senators. She landed in North Africa, where a local Berber king granted her an amount of land that she could encompass with a single oxhide. So Dido cut the oxhide into small strips and encircled an entire nearby hill upon which the city of Byrsa was founded. She would later also found the city of Carthage before sacrificing herself in a pyre in order to remain faithful to her deceased husband and escape a marriage proposal from the Berber King. She would later be deified by the Carthaginian people, making it difficult to determine if the stories are genuine or just legend.