Civilization VII strategy: Maurya in the Antiquity Age

Civilization VII is a considerably different game compared to Civ V and Civ VI. As such, the leader guides that I wrote for those games won't quite work for Civ VII. Instead, I'm going to be experimenting with a slightly different format of doing independent guides for civilizations and for leaders separately. Leader guides will be complicated, so I'm starting with civilization guides while I figure out how I want to tackle the problem of creating guides for leaders that can change civs 3 times in a single game. Unfortunately, the lack of Hot Seat multiplayer severely limits my ability to do specific testing of things like the damage dealt by unique units in different circumstances, certain diplomatic actions, pillage effects, and other things. Hopefully, Hot Seat will be added soon.

As always, I welcome feedback. I will probably need a lot of feedback as I learn the new game and experiment with the format of these guides. Of course, you can also support the creation of this content by becoming a Patron.

As has been my tradition with these guides, I plan to start by focusing my attention on civilizations and leaders who have never been playable in Civilization games before.

The early life of Chandragupta Maurya is steeped in legend with few historical facts known. What is known is that around 322 BCE, after the death of Alexander the Great, Chandragupta raised an army to overthrow the Nanda Empire and Greek occupiers of India. He was the first to unify most of the Indian subcontinent, and may have abdicated his throne after converting from the Brahmanism religion to Jainism late in his life. One of his successors, Ashoka, would go on to convert to Buddhism, and declare Buddhism to be the official state religion of the increasingly-urban empire. Ashoka would go on to oversee the construction of many stupas and temples across India and expanded the influence of the religion into Afghanistan and Thailand.

Maurya gets to adopt multiple pantheons, and it excels in keeping its citizens happy. That happiness can then be converted into other yields, or be used to support military conquest.

DISCLAIMER:

Civilization VII is a "live service" game, which means it will be periodically updated with new content, new features, and balance changes. I may update this guide if Firaxis updates the game such that it considerably impacts this civilization, or if new strategies are discovered by the community. This guide is up to date as of the 1.2.5 patch on 30 September 2025.

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.

Maurya uniques in Civilization VII

Maurya capital start bias: vegetated.

Maurya civilization unique: Dhamma Lipi

" You can select an additional Pantheon after unlocking Mysticism.
+30% Production towards constructing the Sanchi Stupa. "

Maurya has one of the more flexible unique abilities in the Antiquity Age. The ability to select a second pantheon gives Maurya plenty of options for how they want to play and develop their early-game empire. You can choose 2 pantheons that further supplement Maurya's other abilities, or the ability of your leader. Or you can choose pantheons that fill perceived gaps in Maurya and your leader's abilities. Or pick pantheons that best suit your particular playstyle. Or just pick the best 2 available (based on the current game meta), and deny them to other players.

At the time of this writing, City Patron Goddess (which grants bonus Influence on the Altar) seems to be the most popular pantheon belief for the A.I.s, and is always the first thing to be picked in single-player games. Given the power of Production in Civ VII, Stone Circles is another popular option (especially in multiplayer) -- if you start near multiple rough terrain or mine/quarry resources. Lastly, God Of The Sun is always a great fall-back option, since it adds 1 of [almost] every yield to the Altar.

Maurya also get a boost to building their preferred wonder, the Sanchi Stupa, which grants a couple point of extra happiness, and grants additional culture for excess happiness in that settlement. It's a good compliment to some of Maurya's unique policies, which grant similar bonus yields based on excess happiness.

Unique building: Dharamshala (urban)

Game Info:

" +3 Happiness. +1 Science Adjacency for Quarters and Wonders. Mauryan Unique Happiness Building. Ageless. "

 

 

Requirements: Acharya civic (Maurya unique civic).

Cost: 90 Production.
Maintenance Cost: 2 Gold per turn (standard game speed)

Effects:
+3 Happiness,
+1 Culture for each adjacent Quarter,
+1 Culture for each adjacent Wonder.

 

 

The bonus culture for adjacent Quarters encourages Maurya to build your cities compact. Plop the Dharamshala in between a group of other districts with 2 buildings (which forms a Quarter) or next to Wonders in order to maximize its culture bonus.

The 3 Happiness from this building, combined with 2 from the City Hall (if founded by the Nagarika) will add up to 5 extra Happiness. Maurya has several Traditions that grant bonus yields for every 5 Excess Happiness in a city (and some leaders have similar abilities), so this building will get a non-capital city up to that threshold.

Unique building: Vihara (urban)

Game Info:

" +3 Happiness. +1 Culture Adjacency for Mountains and Wonders. Mauryan Unique Happiness Building. Ageless. "

 

 

 

Requirements: Acharya civic (Maurya unique civic).

Cost: 120Production.
Maintenance Cost: 2 Gold per turn (standard speed)

Effects:
+3 Happiness,
+1 Culture for each adjacent Mountain terrain,
+1 Culture for each adjacent Wonder.

 

 

This building gets bonus Science for adjacent Mountains, which can break up the dense urban layout that the Dharamshala encourages, which makes these 2 buildings somewhat difficult to optimize for maximum possible yields.

The 3 Happiness from this building, combined with 2 from the City Hall (if founded by the Nagarika) will add up to 5 extra Happiness. Maurya has several Traditions that grant bonus yields for every 5 Excess Happiness in a city (and some leaders have similar abilities), so this building will get a non-capital city up to that threshold.

Unique quarter: Matha (urban)

Game Info:

" Mauryan Unique Quarter. Created by constructing the Dharamshala and Vihara in the same District. +10% Happiness in this Settlement. "

 

Combining the Dharamshala and Vihara together to form the unique Matha Quarter will boost the city's Happiness by 10%. This is gross happiness; not Excess Happiness. Having at least 50 gross Happiness in the city will mean that the 10% bonus from this Quarter will be enough to trigger additional yield bonuses for every 5 Excess Happiness (from various Maurya traditions or leader abilities).

However, as mentioned above, it will be hard to optimize the yield from the 2 buildings, since their adjacency bonuses are partly mutually exclusive. Every Mountain that grants bonus Science for the Vihara is 1 tile on which you won't be able to build a Wonder or Quarter from which to get bonus Culture from the Dharamshala.

Unique unit: Nagarika

Game Info: " Maurya Unique Settler. Civilian Unit capable of founding new Towns. Adds +2 Happiness on City Halls. "

 

 

Requirements: none
Replaces: Settler.

Cost: 60 Production | 240 Gold [standard speed],
cost increases with each Nagarika trained.

Maintenance Cost: none.

Movement Speed: 3.

Bonuses:
+2 Happiness on City Hall.

 

 

Despite being named "City Halls", both towns and cities have a City Hall. Thus, every settlement that the Nagarika founds will have the 2 Happiness bonus. Multiple Mauryan Traditions grant extra yield for every 5 Excess Happiness in a City. The Happiness bonus from the Nagarika gets you almost halfway there.

There isn't anything else going for the Nagarika. It doesn't get extra movement, or ignore terrain cost, or cross oceans, or anything cool like that. So treat it like any other Settler.

Unique unit: Purabhettarah

Game Info: " Maurya Unique Cavalry Unit. +5 Combat Strength against Fortified Districts. Ignores Zone of Control. "

 

 

Requirements: The Wheel technology
Replaces: Chariot.

Cost: 70 Production | 140 Gold [standard speed].
Maintenance Cost: 1 Gold per turn [standard speed].

Promotion Class: Cavalry,
Attack Type: melee,
Melee Strength: 30,
Movement Speed: 2,
Sight Range: 2.

 

Bonuses:
Ignores Zone of Control.,
+5 Combat Strength against Districts.
+3 Combat Strength when adjacent to a friendly Infantry Unit (with Vyuham civic),
Adjacent friendly Infantry units gain +3 Combat Strength (with Vyuham civic),
Adjacent friendly units heal +5 HP (with Ayurveda civic).

The Purabhettarah is an elephant-based cavalry unit that specializes in attacking cities. It actually has less movement than the regular Chariot that it replaces, but it's also slightly cheaper to train or purchase, which means they can potentially be fielded in greater numbers. It's combat strength is the same, except that it gets a modest bonus when attacking fortified districts.

If the Purabhettarah had more movement (like a normal Cavalry unit), then its ability to ignore Zone of Control would allow it to bypass defenders outside of a city and go directly to the city walls. However, since the Purabhettarah's movement speed is limited to 2, ignoring Zone of Control does not really have much practical use. Even without ignoring Zone of Control, you would still be able to move adjacent to an enemy unit, and then still use the 2nd movement point to attack another adjacent unit or district fortification. As such, the ability to ignore Zone of Control is only useful if you are moving past enemy units in the open field.

The greatest strengths of the Purabhettarah come from the abilities granted to it by Maurya's unique civic tree. With the Vyuham and Ayurveda civics, infantry and cavalry units will give each other a small strength bonus when adjacent, and all units will heal faster when adjacent to a Purabhettarah. Paired with 1 or more infantry and a Commander, they can potentially roll up on a city with little-to-no warning and wreak havoc. But without researching these unique civics, they are basically just slower and slightly cheaper Chariots.

Maurya Civic Tree

The Mauryan civic tree is largely full of military benefits, centered around the use of the Purabhettarah unique elephant unit. The Vyuham and Ayurveda civics grant adjacency bonuses for combat strength and healing for infantry units that are adjacent to a Purabhettarah. The final policy, Mantriparishad, also provides a boost to yields in all captured settlements.

The policies that are unlocked by this civic tree will also grant boosts to the happiness on science buildings, as well as a boost to science yield based on excess happiness. There is also a policy for gaining additional gold yield based on excess happiness.

Recommended leaders for Maurya

The Maurya will likely pair best with leaders who either produce additional happiness, or who get bonuses from happiness or from celebrations. They can also pair nicely with leaders who emphasis military conquest using cavalry.

Ashoka, World Renouncer leader unique: Dhammaraja

" +1 Food in Cities for every 5 excess Happiness.
+10% Food in all Settlements during a Celebration.
All Buildings gain +1 Happiness Adjacency for all Improvements. "

Maurya has many abilities and policies that increase Happiness and which improve yields for having excess Happiness. Ashoka, World Renouncer adds food to the list of yields that is improved by having excess Happiness. He also gets bonus Happiness on all Buildings for all adjacent improvements. Early in the game, you'll likely have many rural districts (improvements), which will grant this bonus Happiness to adjacent Buildings.

Basically, Ashoka will get extra food to grow his population, and will get extra Happiness to support that extra population.

Ashoka, World Conqueror leader unique: Devaraja

" +1 Production for every 5 excess Happiness in Cities.
+10% Production in Settlements not founded by you.
Declaring a Formal War grants a Celebration.
+5 Combat Strength against Districts during a Celebration. "

The World Conqueror is Ashoka's evil twin. This leader will emphasize Maurya's more aggressive, militant tendencies. For him, excess happiness is translated into Production and into celebrations, during which you should be invading and conquering cities. This leader makes better use of the Purabhettarah unique elephant cavalry. Once conquered, those cities will generate additional production, as well as extra of all other yields after researching the Mantriparishad unique civic.

Charlemagne leader unique: Father of Europe

" Military and Science buildings receive +1 Happiness adjacency for Quarters.
Gain 2 free Cavalry units when entering a Celebration.
+5 Combat Strength for Cavalry units during a Celebration. "

Similar to Ashoka, World Conqueror, Charlemagne leans into Maurya's violent tendencies. All of Maurya's extra happiness can get channeled into celebrations, which will give Charlemagne free cavalry units (in this case, the Purabhettarah), and also give those Purabhettarah a combat bonus during the celebration.

Genghis Khan leader unique: Chosen of Tengri

" +3 Combat Strength for Cavalry units, or +5 when in an Army Commander radius.
Army Commanders have +1 Movement, even when no units are packed into them.
Once per Age, Army Commanders can use the Convert Independents action to convert Independent military units to your control. "

Temüjin is another cavalry-focused leader who's abilities will buff the Purabhettarah. He can also use his Army Commanders to independent units, freeing up your cities to focus on producing Purabhettarah cavalry.

Himiko, High Shaman leader unique: Miko of Amaterasu

" +2 Happiness per Age on Happiness and Diplomatic buildings, doubled if building is both.
+50% Production towards constructing Happiness and Diplomatic buildings, doubled if building is both.
+20% Culture, but -10% Science, and these effects are doubled during a Celebration. "

Himiko will further supplement the happiness bonuses of the Maurya, by building Happiness and Diplomacy buildings faster, and also getting higher Happiness yields from them. This will translate to more and earlier celebrations, which will also buff your culture generation. Just be warned that your science will suffer a little bit, especially if you generate frequent celebrations.

Pachacuti leader unique: Earth Shaker

" +1 Food Adjacency for buildings adjacent to Mountains.
Specialists adjacent to Mountains do not cost Happiness maintenance.
Cities gain bonus Production equal to 10% of that city's Food. "

One of Maurya's unique buildings get an adjacency bonus for mountains, which means that Maurya will want to look for mountain ranges to settle near. Pachacuti will add mountainous terrain to the Mauryan player's start bias, making it much easier to get that mountain adjacency bonus for the Vihara building. More Mountains will also increase the Happiness adjacency for other buildings, such as the Altar, Villa, and Arena. This will all further fuel the bonus yields that Maurya will receive from excess happiness, once Maury has slotted its unique policies.

Pachacuti will also increase the growth rate (and slightly increase production) of cities near mountains, and any specialists assigned to Quarters adjacent to mountains (such as in the Matha quarter, or in quarters containing the Altar and Monument) will not decrease Maurya's Happiness.

Strategy for Maurya in the Antiquity Age

Maurya can create strong feedback loops with its Happiness buffs. The unique Nagarika Settler, combined with the unique buildings, and certain policies can create large surpluses of Happiness in settlements. This surplus Happiness will accumulate into global Happiness, which will speed up the frequency of Celebrations and new Social Policy unlocks. By the end of the age, Maurya can expect to have a lot of social policies in play! Celebrations and Social Policies can then be used to further buff yields based on excess Happiness, or to provide other bonuses. If combined with a leader who also generates extra happiness (or who gains a bonus for having excess happiness), these bonuses can be further increased.

Maurya's large surpluses of Happiness can also support larger populations, which means more districts, improvements, and yields. It can also provide a buffer against the effects of War Weariness, and can provide a buffer against the negative effects of certain crises at the end of the Age.

In order to get your pick of the best 2 pantheons, you should immediately beeline to the Mysticism civic, and enable the Charismatic Leader policy (extra culture on Palace) as soon as you unlock it. Build multiple Scouts and aggressively pursue ruins. Whenever you are given the option to take culture from a ruin reward or other narrative event, you should take culture, until you've unlocked Mysticism. There's no way to guarantee that you'll get the first pantheon, but the sooner you get there, the better the available options will be.

Once you've unlocked Mysticism, your 2 pantheon choices could be to promote rapid growth. Fertility Rites and Goddess of the Harvest can be a good combination that will grow your settlements quickly, claim territory, and improve yields. Other good options can include God of Wisdom for more science, God of Festivals for more culture, and, of course, City Patron Goddess for more precious influence. God of Revelry, Earth Goddess, and Sacred Waters can be good options to further increase your happiness, depending on the nearby map features. And Stone Circles can be good if you have appropriate terrain or resources for mines, quarries, and clay pits, and want an extra production buff.

Unlike Civ V and Civ VI, you won't be expanding your pantheon or developing it to a religion in the Antiquity Age with Maurya. That is something that you don't have to worry about until you get into the Exploration Age and choose a new civilization. So once you pick your pair of Pantheons, you kind of set them and forget them, and just let the yields or benefits roll in. It should go without saying, that if your chosen pantheons require specific terrain or infrastructure, be sure to settle near the relevant terrain and to build the relevant infrastructure.

The Mauryan unique buildings are both unlocked by the first Mauryan unique civic, Acharya. When planning out the locations for your first settlements, you'll want to consider whether you'll be able to place your unique Quarter, the Matha. The 2 buildings that combine to create the Matha get adjacency bonuses from World Wonders, Quarters, and mountains. The Altar and Monument also get adjacency bonuses for Wonders and Mountains, which make them a great candidate for an early-game Quarter than can be paired with the Matha, so that they buff each other. As such, you should look to place new settlements near mountains or mountain ranges, where you can tuck and Altar/Monument Quarter and Matha in next to Mountains, and maybe throw a wonder or 2 next to 1 or both. A Quarter containing the Villa and Arena is another great option to be tucked alongside a Matha and mountains, but those buildings are unlocked later in the Age.

As far as what wonders are good to pair with the Matha, there are a few wonders that I think work very well with Maurya.

One of my favorite early wonders to pursue with Maurya is the Mundo Perdido. In my experience, I often start in tropical terrain when I play as Maurya, but this will depend on which leader you select as well (since leaders also have their own start biases). The Mundo Perdido grants bonus science on improvements, and also boosts the Happiness of districts placed on tropical terrain. This will help boost Maurya's excess Happiness, which (with policies and other wonders) can increase other yields for Maurya.

The Colosseum is also a great option for Maurya, as it also provides a large boost to Happiness.

And of course, the Mauryan's preferred wonder is the Sanchi Stupa, which grants culture from extra Happiness. There are 2 ways for Maurya to unlock this wonder, and neither path is particularly faster than the other. It all depends on what your other civic priorities are. The default method is to unlock the Skilled Trades civic, which lies in the back half of the central path down the civics tree. The other method is to unlock Maurya's final unique civic, Mantriparishad. This may be a bit faster if you beeline to it, but if you go for Code of Laws to unlock Merchants before investing in your unique civic tree, then you'll already be more than halfway to Skilled Trade.

The Angkor Wat also provides extra Happiness, and slots in nicely with the Maurya, but it's a late-age wonder, so any impact it has on your yields in Antiquity will be pretty minimal.

Elephant stomp

If you are able to get all of those 3 or 4 wonders, you'll be about halfway to the Wonders Of The World (cultural) Legacy Path for Antiquity. Maurya is also well-suited to pursuing the Pax Imperatoria (military) Legacy Path. As such, a few other good wonders to pursue would be the Gate of All Nations (which grants more Happiness and War Support), the Terra Cotta Army (grants a free Army Commander and buffs Commander experience gain), and the 2 Mausoleum wonders (Mausoleum of Halicarnassus causes cavalry units respawn if killed, and Mausoleum of Theodoric doubles the yields from pillaging and grants a Military Attribute Point).

The Mausoleum of Halicarnasus is especially good for Maurya, since its resurrection bonus will apply to your unique Purabhettarah elephant units. You can throw them at enemy city walls without having to worry as much about whether they get killed by counter attack. However, be mindful of the fact that the unit can only respawn once, and the game doesn't give any indication which units have already respawned due to this wonder, so it's up to you to remember which ones have already resurrected, and which ones haven't. Also, when they respawn, the units will be at very low HP, which means that in addition to having to march back to the frontlines (at their slow movement speed of 2), they will also have to camp for a while to heal.

To go along with these Happiness and military wonders, Maurya should build a bunch of its unique Purabhettarah elephant units. These are powerful cavalry units that get a moderate combat bonus against Fortified Districts, which makes the Maurya less dependent on having proper siege weapons (which are slow, cumbersome, and require an investment in a mastery technology to really be useful). Purabhettarah also ignore zone of control, and they get additional combined arms bonuses from Maurya's unique civics tree. With the Vyuham and Ayurveda civics, infantry and cavalry units will give each other a small strength bonus when adjacent, and all units will heal faster when adjacent to a Purabhettarah. Unit healing can be further increased with a late-Antiquity social policy, Medicine (unlocked by the Commerce civic).

An army with 1 or 2 Purabhettarah, alternating with 1 or 2 Spearmen can be a potent military force that can quickly take down un-walled cities. With faster healing (and maybe some pillaging), they can quickly recover back to full strength from a successful siege and move on to the next city.

If the city is walled, you will probably still need a Ballista. But once the walls have fallen, the Purabhettarah should steamroll any defenders camping inside.

Capturing cities with Libraries can also be a good way of increasing your codex slots, which can help to achieve the Great Library Legacy. However, any wonders that you capture do not seem to count towards the Wonders of the Ancient World legacy. If you want to complete the culture legacy, you need to build the wonders yourself.

Exploration Age Civilization Recommendations

By default, playing as Maurya will unlock the Chola and Majapahit civilizations in the Exploration Age. Of these 2, the Majapahit is will probably play more off of Maurya's strengths. They will be able to leverage Maurya's higher populations into more specialists and will lean more into religious play to go along with the double pantheons you choose in Antiquity. They also have a unique building that will receive adjacency bonuses from mountains, assuming that you didn't already build Matha and wonders in all the spaces adjacent to mountains in your territory.

If you took a more militant approach, then Mongolia might be a good choice. If you built an army around cavalry units, and promoted your Commanders based on having cavalry, then Mongolia allow you to gain additional free cavalry when you capture settlements.

Playing against Maurya

If Maurya is in the game, expect them to beeline to Mysticism in order to get first dibs on the best 2 pantheons. If you have a particular pantheon that you really want, you'll also need to beeline to Mysticism, and always take culture rewards from any ruins or narrative events that you trigger. The Charismatic Leader policy will also help you to get to Mysticism a little bit faster.

Be very wary of offering or agreeing to Local Festival Endeavors with Maurya. The extra happiness from such an Endeavor could be translated into additional yields, giving Maurya much more bang for the buck than you'll receive, unless your civ or leader also strongly benefits from this Endeavor. If you do really want this Endeavor with Maurya, you can try offering them a different Endeavor first, in order to hopefully drain their Influence bank, then offer the Local Festival in the hopes that they don't have enough Influence to support it, and that they can only accept it.

If you find yourself on the business end of a Mauryan spear, you'll have to contend with its dangerous Purabhettarah elephant cavalry. These units can be very strong if paired with adjacent infantry. Try to separate Purabhettarah from its accompanying Infantry. Focus-firing the weaker unit (whether that's the Purabhettarah or the infantry), or trying to force them to split up to go around obstacles or through bottlenecks, can nullify these adjacency bonuses and make the Mauryan army easier to defeat.

You'll want to make sure you get walls up early if your cities are threatened by a Mauryan neighbor. Without walls, just 1 or 2 Purabhettarah can potentially run roughshod through an entire city -- maybe even your entire civilization -- in just a few turns. By fortifying ranged units behind your walls, it will take longer for the Purabhettarah to break through, and you can focus fire them with ranged attacks each turn.

Discussions & Change Log

Thanks for reading. I hope this guide helps you to build a Mauryan civilization that will stand the test of time!

These strategy guides for Civilization VII have been taking longer to research and write than I would like. Part of this is due to the fact that I'm not as familiar and experienced with Civ VII as I was with Civ V when I started writing strategy guides for that game, so I have to spend more time trying to learn the different mechanics and rules associated with each new civ that I play. I also have a lot more things competing for my time.

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