This Civilization VII (Civ 7) guide will teach you the best strategies to secure an Economic Victory across different Ages. Learn how to win the Economic Legacy Paths in the Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern Ages.

Civ 7 Economic Guides
Economic Victory Guide	Best Economic Mementos
Best Economic Leaders and Civs

Antiquity Age Economic Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Assign 20 Resources to your Settlements.
Tips for the Economic Legacy Path
Claim As Much Resources As You Can Use Trade Routes to Import Resources Convert to Cities for Resource Capacity Get Civics with Resource Capacity Be Friendly to Neighbours

Claim As Much Resources As You Can

For the Antiquity Age, you want to have cities and towns that can claim as many resources as it can within the 3-tile radius limit. Make sure to do enough scouting so you can find the best spot to place a settlement in an area to get all the resources.

Where to Settle

Use Trade Routes to Import Resources

Another way to get resources would be to import them from other Civs and City-States using trade routes. Find your neighbours and befriend City-States so you'll be able to create trade routes once you unlock Merchants.

How to Set Up Trade Routes With Merchants

Improve Trade Relations with Civs

You can get more than one trade route each with other Civs by spending Influence to Improve Trade Relations with them. This is useful to do if you have a neighbour with a lot of resources in multiple settlements.

Specialize Towns into Trade Outposts

If there are some settlements that are far away, you can specialize some of your Towns into Trading Outposts to increase your trade route range. Consider doing this if neighbours are far away from your settlements.

Towns Explained

Convert to Cities for Resource Capacity

To count towards the goal, the resources have to be assigned to a settlement so you'll need a total Resource Capacity of 20 across your empire. You can also convert Towns into Cities to get more resource capacity by building the Market and the Lighthouse. There are also a lot of resources that can only be assigned to cities.

Should You Convert a Town Into a City?

Prioritize Civics with Bonus Settlement Limit and Resource Capacity

Go for the Civics that give you extra Settlement Limit and Resource Capacity first so you can claim and assign as much resources as you can. There are also some Unique Civics for some Civs that are really strong and might be worth getting first such as for the Aksum or Egypt.

List of Civics

Be Friendly to Neighbours

It's important to maintain good relationships with your neighbouring Civs and City-States to ensure that you have settlements to trade with and that your trade routes remain safe from pillages. If they have resources you want, create trade routes with them instead of going to war with them since you can import them anyway.

Spend Influence to get on their good side with Friendly Greetings to avoid any conflict early on. You'll also need to be friendly with them for higher chances of improving trade relations.

Diplomacy Guide

Exploration Age Economic Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Gain 30 Treasure Fleet Points from returning Distant Land Treasures.
Tips for the Economic Legacy Path
Research Astronomy and Cartography Scout Distant Lands for Resources Deploy Settlers to Distant Lands Instantly Build Fishing Quays Get Shipbuilding As Soon As You Can Build Enough Naval Units for Security

Research Astronomy and Cartography

At the start of the Exploration Age, quickly research both Astronomy and Cartography first. Astronomy will let you make a Fleet Commander for security and Cartography will make it possible for your Settlers to reach the Distant Lands as soon as possible so you can start to settle there.

Scout Distant Lands for Treasure Resources

As soon as you get the required technologies, try to reach the Distant Lands with your Naval Units to find places to settle with a lot of Treasure Resources. At this point, your naval units will take damage each turn they end on ocean tiles so be careful and manage your units safely.

Hover Over a Resource to Check If It Counts

You can check which resources count towards generating Treasure Fleets by hovering your mouse over them. You may find the same resources you have in the homeland across the waters so it's always good to double check.

Deploy Settlers to Distant Lands to Claim Resources

Once you find suitable places to settle in the Distant Lands, move your Settlers there to claim the land as soon as you can. Even while still looking for places, it would be good to move your Settlers in advance to maximize the generation of Treasure Fleets.

How to Get and Use Treasure Resources

Grow Towns into Treasure Resources

On the new towns in the Distant Lands, grow them into the Treasure Resources to build improvements and start working them.

Instantly Build Fishing Quays

Build Fishing Quays immediately on new towns in the Distant Lands using Gold to connect them to your homeland settlements. This will allow them to generate Treasure Fleets as soon as they have improvements on Treasure Resources.

Get Shipbuilding As Soon As You Can

On the Tech Tree, get to Shipbuilding as fast as you can to let your units move across the ocean without taking damage. Movement penalties are also removed allowing your units to reach the Distant Lands faster.

Make Enough Naval Units for Security

You'll want to have Naval Units that can defend your Settlers and Treasure Fleets as they cross the ocean. Enemy Civs may get aggressive and they can capture your Treasure Fleets to get points for themselves. Protect them with a Fleet Commander and some ships on the seas.

Modern Age Economic Victory Guide

Legacy Path Goal
Gain 500 Railroad Tycoon Points and establish World Bank Offices in all Capital Cities.
Tips for the Economic Legacy Path
Research Industrialization & Mass Production Build Rail Stations and Factories Assign Factory Resources Efficiently Specialize Towns into Factory Towns Claim and Import Factory Resources Save Influence for the Great Banker Maintain Good Relationships with Other Civs

Research Industrialization and Mass Production

At the start of the Modern Age, make your way on the Tech Tree towards Industrialization and Mass Production. These are the techs you need to start building Rail Stations and Factory to make progress on the Modern Age Legacy Path.

Build Rail Stations and Factories

Rail Stations and Factories are your best friends in the Modern Age. Try to build as much of them as you can on all settlements possible, this will allow you to maximize Railroad Tycoon Points that you get per turn.

Start building Rail Stations as soon as you finish researching Industrialization since you will need to have a Rail Station first before you can build a Factory. Settlements have to be connected to the Capital by a Railroad to build Factories so build roads using Merchants if you have to.

Build Ports to Continue Rail Connections Across the Water

Settlements that you have across the ocean from the Exploration Age can also be connected to the Capital by building Ports on each side of the ocean. This will continue the railroad connection and allow you to build Factories there for more points.

Spend Gold or Invest Into Production

At this point in the game, you might have a lot of Gold per turn if you're fortunate enough and played your cards right so spend them on buying Rail Stations and Factories It's also worth it to build Production Buildings to make Rail Stations and Factories faster when you're short on Gold and need to build them manually.

Assign Factory Resources Efficiently

You gain one Railroad Tycoon Point per Factory Resource assigned to a settlement, and each factory can only have one type of resource at a time. Assign your Factory Resources to maximize the amount of resources slotted into each factory. At this point, disregard the effect of the resource unless you really need it.

Specialize Towns into Factory Towns

Before you build Factories in Towns, specialize them into Factory Towns to lower the cost of building a Factory. This will also add an extra Resource Slot for the town.

Convert to Cities for More Resource Capacity

You can convert Towns into Cities for more Resource Capacity if you need it by building Gold Buildings. Only do this if you need extra capacity for a Factory Resource.

Claim and Import Factory Resources

Continue what you've been doing in previous ages to get more resources from settlements and trade routes. Look for specific Factory Resources that you can use to maximize the amount of points you gain per turn.

Save Influence for the Great Banker

After you obtain 500 Railroad Tycoon Points, you'll spawn a Great Banker at the Capital. For each World Bank Office, it will cost Gold and Influence to create so try to stock up on your Influence to make the final victory stretch much smoother. The cost depends on previous age performance and relationship with the other Civ.

Maintain Good Relationships with Other Civs

You'll want to maintain good relationships if you can in the Modern Age to guarantee safety and continue importing resources from other Civs. A good relationship with another Civ will make establishing a World Bank Office in their Capital much cheaper too.

Best Economic Leader and Civ Combinations

Best Combinations for an Economic Victory
Amina	Confucius	Xerxes, the Achaemenid

Amina

Leader		Civilizations
Amina		Egypt / Aksum Songhai / Chola America / Mughal
Mementos
Kwalkwali	+1 Gold per Age for each Resource assigned to Cities
Lotus Blossom	+4% of your Gold income as additional Science and Culture

Amina has the advantage of extra Resource Capacity and extra Gold for each assigned Resource. The extra Resource Capacity helps you in accomplishing the Legacy Path for all ages but specifically for the Antiquity and Modern Age.

Equip the Kwalkwali memento to get even more Gold out of your assigned Resources, making the most out of your Resource Capacity. Lotus Blossom helps you generate Science and Culture to supplement your Technology and Civic needs.

Confucius

Leader		Civilizations
Confucius		Han / Aksum Ming / Songhai Qing
Mementos
Brush & Scroll	+5% Growth Rate in Cities for every Specialist in that City (Max 25%)
Altar Set	+1 Culture and Gold from Specialists

Confucius is a jack of all trades when going for an Economic strategy with bonuses for Science which will let you research crucial Technologies much faster. Pair Confucius with the Chinese Civs and he will become an economic powerhouse in the later ages.

The Brush & Scroll memento pairs really well with Confucius letting all his cities grow so much faster to acquire Specialists. Altar Set lets you also receive Culture from Specialists which will help with obtaining key Civics.

Xerxes, the Achaemenid

Leader		Civilizations
Xerxes (The Achaemenid)		Aksum / Persia Chola / Songhai Mughal / America
Mementos
Green Colonel's Jacket	+1 Gold per Age per Trade Route, doubled if you have the highest number of Trade Routes
Royal Mace	+1 Gold per Age for each imported Resource

Xerxes, the Achaemenid can dominate the Economic side of things through the use of Trade Routes. You'll have a lot of Trade Route capacity with other Civs to get all the resources you need as well as boosts to your Culture.

Use the memento Green Colonel's Jacket with Xerxes to make the most Gold out of your Trade Routes. You can also use the Royal Mace memento to make some more extra gold from all the resources you import.

Civilization VII (Civ 7) Related Guides

Victory Conditions and Types

All Victory Guides

All Victory Guides
Culture Victory Guide	Military Victory Guide
Science Victory Guide	Economic Victory Guide
Domination Victory Guide	Score Victory Guide