Civilization 6: Tokugawa Leader Guide

This article is part of a directory: Civ 6: Complete Guide

Table of contents

The Great Commanders Pack was the second DLC in the Civilization 6 Leader Pass, and introduces two brand-new Leaders as well as an alternate Persona for Suleiman the Magnificent. Along with Nader Shah of Persia and Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottomans, the DLC also features Tokugawa Ieyasu, the second Leader of Japan in Civilization 6.

Tokugawa Ieyasu is renowned as one of the three great unifiers of Japan, who helped to end the tumultuous Sengoku Period and founded the Tokugawa Shogunate which would rule Japan for the next two centuries. The Tokugawa Shogunate is often remembered for its strict isolationist stance, which is represented by Tokugawa's Bakuhan Ability in Civilization 6.

Tokugawa's Features and Abilities

As a new Leader of Japan, Tokugawa shares the same Civilization Ability, Unique Unit, and Unique Building as Hojo Tokimune. However, his Bakuhan Leader Ability is very different to Hojo's Divine Wind, focusing more on internal affairs and growth rather than the military.

	Name	How it works
Leader Ability	Bakuhan	International Trade Routes receive -25% yields and Tourism Domestic Trade Routes gain +1 Culture, +1 Science, and +2 Gold for each Specialty District at the destination. Cities within 6 tiles of Japan's capital gain +4 Amenities, as well as +1 Tourism for each District after researching Flight (Cities get maximum Loyalty instead of Amenities with the Gathering Storm expansion)
Civilization Ability	Meiji Restoration	Districts receive a +1 adjacency bonus for each adjacent District, instead of 0.5.
Unique Unit	Samurai	Unique Japanese Medieval Era Melee unit Unlocked after researching the Feudalism Civic Replaces the Man-At-Arms - Higher combat strength and doesn't suffer a penalty while wounded 2 Movement, 2 Sight 48 Melee strength 3 Gold maintenance cost
Unique Building	Electronics Factory	Unlocked by Industrialization Technology Replaces Factory - Higher Production and additional Culture output when powered +4 Production to all City Centers within 6 tiles of the Electronic Factory's Industrial Zone. (+3 with Gathering Storm) +4 Culture when Electricity is researched +5 Production when powered (Gathering Storm)

How to Play as Tokugawa

Tokugawa's Bakuhan Ability discourages players from opening international Trade Routes, but heavily incentivizes them to trade domestically. This works well with a tall playstyle, in which the player focuses on a small number of Cities and uses the Food and Production bonuses from domestic Trade Routes to grow them as large and powerful as possible. A large Population in each City will allow them to support more Districts, further increasing the domestic Trade Route bonus from Bakuhan.

The second part of Bakuhan also heavily encourages a tall playstyle, and Tokugawa players should aim to tightly cluster their Cities for the bonus. Not only will this grant each City Amenities (or max Loyalty) and a significant boost to Tourism, it can also allow an extremely powerful play utilizing Japan's other features. Most notably, the Meiji Restoration Ability doesn't specify that the adjacency bonus only applies to Districts within the same City. This means that players can place the Districts of multiple Cities into a single cluster, granting huge adjacency bonuses of up to +6 for a District surrounded on all sides. Then, if some of these clustered Districts are Industrial Zones, their Electronics Factory bonuses will be granted to multiple Cities at once.

With a cluster of Districts maximizing their adjacency bonuses and well-developed Cities fueled my domestic Trade Routes, Tokugawa players can really choose to pursue any victory. However, Bakuhan's bonus to Tourism and Japan's Electronics Factory can make a Culture Victory particularly appealing.

Civilization 6 is available for iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Civilization 6: Elizabeth I Leader Guide