Gran Colombia Civilization Guide (Civ 6): Simón Bolívar

Gran Colombia is the fastest civilization in Civilization VI, and it isn't close. Every unit — settler, builder, scout, army — moves an extra tile from turn one, and promoting a unit doesn't end its turn, which means your troops heal mid-attack and keep swinging. Stack a free unique Great General on top of that every single era, and you have the premier tempo-war civ in the game: an empire built to attack first, attack often, and never give the defender a turn to breathe. The wiki's strategy page puts it bluntly — "Domination is overwhelmingly the best choice for Gran Colombia" — and this guide won't argue.

Quick Facts

Leader	Simón Bolívar
Civilization Ability	Ejército Patriota
Leader Ability	Campaña Admirable
Unique Unit	Llanero (replaces Cavalry)
Unique Great Person	Comandante General (via Campaña Admirable)
Unique Improvement	Hacienda
Starting Bias	None
Best Victory Paths	Domination → Religion (distant second)
Weakest Path	Science / Diplomacy (no supporting bonuses)
DLC required	Maya & Gran Colombia Pack (New Frontier Pass, May 2020)

Civilization Ability: Ejército Patriota

Two effects, both deceptively powerful:

1. +1 Movement for all units. Not military units — all units. Your settlers reach city spots a turn sooner. Your builders arrive and improve faster. Your scouts see the whole map before anyone else has met their second city-state. And your army crosses terrain at a pace defenders are not calibrated for: infantry that moves 3 tiles ignores rivers and hills the way other civs can't, and cavalry becomes nearly uncatchable. On open maps — plains and grassland — this is the single strongest military ability in the game.
2. Promoting a unit does not end that unit's turn. Normally a promotion is your whole turn for that unit — you heal a bit and stand there. Gran Colombian units promote and keep acting. A unit that survives a fight at 20 HP can take its promotion heal mid-turn and attack again. Across a war, this is worth dozens of free actions. It also applies to Apostles, Rock Bands, and Spies, which matters more than it sounds if you pivot off the Domination track.

Leader Ability: Campaña Admirable

• Entering a new era grants a Comandante General, a unique Great Person.

Every era change — no conditions, no cost — Bolívar receives a Comandante General. Over a full game that's up to eight free unique Great Generals.

Comandante General

Think of it as an era-independent, enhanced Great General:

• Its passive aura stacks with a standard Great General's aura (multiple Comandante Generals do not stack with each other). A unit inside both auras can reach a combined +1 Movement and +10 Combat Strength — achievable as early as the Classical era, when most civs are fielding 28-strength Warriors.
• Each Comandante General also has its own retire effect, giving you a real choice: keep the aura on the front line, or cash it in for a one-time bonus.
• Earning your first one (entering the Classical era) grants +4 Era Score — a free shove toward a Golden Age. Later ones skip the standard +2, but units inside a Comandante General's aura earn +2 Era Score on their first kill, so active war keeps the score flowing anyway.

The practical takeaway: from the Classical era onward, Gran Colombian armies fight at strength values the game doesn't expect for another age. Your timing windows aren't tied to unit unlocks — they're tied to era changes, and you control those through research pace.

Unique Unit: Llanero (replaces Cavalry)

Stat	Llanero	Cavalry
Combat Strength	62	62
Movement	5 (6 with Ejército Patriota)	5
Cost	330 Production / 1320 Gold	Standard Cavalry cost
Maintenance	2 Gold	5 Gold
Unlocks	Military Science	Military Science
Resource cost	20 Horses (Gathering Storm)	Horses

Abilities:

• Ignores enemy zone of control (standard light cavalry trait) — with 6 movement, Llaneros flow around formations to reach cities and siege units.
• +2 Combat Strength for each adjacent Llanero. This is the signature mechanic. A lone Llanero is a slightly cheaper Cavalry; a herd of Llaneros is something else. Three adjacent Llaneros fight at 66 before any Great General stacking — add the Comandante General plus a standard General and you're attacking at effective strengths in the mid-70s in the Industrial era.
• Fully heals when in range of a Comandante General that uses its retire ability. A battered Llanero corps parked near its commander can go from near-dead to full HP in one action — then keep attacking, because Gran Colombia doesn't stop.
• Lower maintenance (2 vs. 5 Gold) — you can actually afford the swarm.

The Llanero window (Military Science onward) is where Gran Colombia games usually end. But the honest truth is you don't need to wait: +1 Movement, free promotions mid-combat, and stacked general auras make every era from Classical onward a viable war window. The Llanero is the exclamation point, not the sentence.

Unique Improvement: Hacienda

Built by Builders, unlocked at Mercantilism (civic), and restricted to Grassland, Grassland Hills, Plains, and Plains Hills tiles:

• +2 Gold, +1 Production, +0.5 Housing
• +1 Food per two adjacent Plantations — after Replaceable Parts, improves to +1 Food per adjacent Plantation
• Plantations and Haciendas gain +1 Production per two adjacent Haciendas — after Rapid Deployment, improves to +1 Production per adjacent Hacienda
• Pillaging a Hacienda restores Health

The Hacienda solves Gran Colombia's one structural problem: a war machine needs a domestic economy, and this civ has no campus, harbor, or holy site bonuses. The adjacency geometry rewards building Haciendas in clusters around your plantations — a tight triangle of three Haciendas starts producing meaningful Food, Production, Gold, and Housing on flat land that would otherwise be dead tiles. Since Gran Colombia has no starting bias toward plantation resources, scout for them and settle toward clusters deliberately.

The Game Plan

Turns 1–50. Use your settler's bonus movement to claim a strong capital quickly — you reach good spots before the AI does. Scout aggressively (your scout is the fastest unit on the map), identify your first victim, and build an Encampment early: Bolívar's whole game runs on promoted units, and the AI that loves promoted armies is telling you how to play him. Standard opener into Classical-era military units.

Turns 50–100 (the first war). Entering the Classical era hands you your first Comandante General and +4 Era Score. Pair it with a standard Great General if you have one, and your Swordsmen are attacking at +10 strength with 3 movement. Declare on your nearest neighbor and take their capital. The promotion-doesn't-end-turn rule is your micro edge: let damaged units finish kills, promote mid-turn, and hit the next target.

Turns 100–180 (the snowball). Mercantilism unlocks Haciendas — cluster them in your core cities to fund the army's upkeep. Each new era brings another Comandante General; retire some for their one-time effects, keep one with the main stack. Keep wars short, take capitals or key cities, make peace, reposition, and repeat. Your army heals faster, moves faster, and promotes in combat — peace treaties are just reload time.

After turn 180 (the close). Military Science unlocks the Llanero. Build them in herds of three or more, keep a Comandante General in range, and run over the remaining capitals. If the map somehow drags on, remember the movement and promotion bonuses apply to everything — a Religious pivot with hyper-mobile Apostles is the wiki-sanctioned plan B.

Common Mistakes

1. Playing tall and peaceful. Gran Colombia's bonuses are almost entirely military tempo. Every turn you're not leveraging +1 Movement and free promotions is a turn you're playing a bonus-less civ.
2. Forgetting the mid-turn promotion. This is the most-missed mechanic in the civ's kit. Promote units during combat, after they've been damaged — the heal plus continued action wins wars by itself.
3. Splitting up your Llaneros. The +2 per adjacent Llanero only works in packs. Run them as a single herd, not as raiding singles.
4. Retiring every Comandante General immediately. The aura — especially stacked with a standard Great General — is usually worth more than the one-time retire bonus. Keep at least one on the front.
5. Ignoring the economy. No economic bonuses plus an army's upkeep equals bankruptcy. The Hacienda exists precisely to fix this — build clusters at Mercantilism, not eventually.

---

Data verified against the Civilization Fandom Wiki (Gran Colombian (Civ6), Simón Bolívar (Civ6), Llanero (Civ6), Hacienda (Civ6)) — full source list in the site data files. Reflects the New Frontier Pass and Gathering Storm ruleset.

Related: Domination Victory Guide · Civ 6 Leader Tier List · All Civilizations