Oligarchy

Major Bonus: All Land Melee, Anti-cavalry, and Naval Melee class units gain +4 Combat Strength

Minor Bonus: +20% Unit Experience

Oligarchy Rundown

The most well rounded T1 Government in the game since it has a card slot for each type of card: Militaristic, Economic, Diplomatic, Wildcard.

This is the Government you're going to want to be running if you're warring a neighbor or if you think war is a possibility due to your neighbors. The Legacy Card, Oligarchic Legacy, is easily the most useful to have throughout the game so that's something else to keep in mind as well.

Strengths:

• Directly impacts warfare: both defensively and offensively. Because of that if you're fighting a war of any type this is going to be the most obvious choice regardless.
• Versatility: Oligarchy had a policy card slot for every card type, this means your government will be extremely well rounded since you can choose one of each type or some of one type and multiples of another with the wildcard
• Oligarchic Legacy: the legacy card of Oligarchy will stick with you for the rest of the game which means if you're fighting someone who did not run Oligarchy and have it active when they build their T1 government district building then they will not have the capacity to match your combative power

Weaknesses:

"Jack of all Master of none": You've certainly heard the phrase and that situation really applies here since the specifics of Oligarchy though really well rounded are not perfectly suited for all situations: for example Oligarchic Legacy does not apply to all units but rather only specific classes of units, Melee, Anti-Cavalry, Melee Naval. Also it cannot compete with the other government types in specific situations such as expansion and infrastructure, Combat with an alternative class of units other than listed above

Militaristic Policy Card Slot: 1

At the point in the game where you have Oligarchy you're going to be running

• Conscription
• Agoge
• Maneuver

Depending on what types of units you're producing/planning on producing or if you've produced your units already.

Economic Policy Card Slot: 1

Usually you're going to be running Urban Planning here, alternatively if you're expanding you can run with Colonization if you're improving tiles and actively producing builders then you should use Ilkum

Diplomatic Policy Card Slot: 1

With only Diplomatic League or Charismatic Leader as options to use when you first get this government type this is a pretty simple choice: If you have already met City States and received First Meets on them for the free Envoy the you want to run Charismatic Leader, if you have not yet met City States or did not get First Meets then you want to run Diplomatic League. Any time you plan on investing your first envoy into a City State you should be running Diplomatic League.

Wildcard Policy Card Slot: 1

You've got some options here, you can obviously choose any civics card to run with early game but the ones I've found the most useful are as follows:

• A secondary Militaristic Policy card, combined with Conscription so that you can produce Filler Units as well as your main armies
• A Great Person Wildcard, to secure a specifically impactful Great Person in your game-plan
• A Dark Age Policy Card (usually Twilight Valor) to bring an early war to an end
• Oligarchic Legacy Policy Card. This one speaks for itself, double up on oligarchic legacy so that you have the extra combat on your Melee and Anti-cavalry class units to end a war or keep yourself in the game
• Both Colonization and Ilkum to rapidly expand and improve your base infrastructure

End