If you’ve ever picked a new faction in Civ 7 only to get steamrolled by the AI on your first three runs, you know how overwhelming learning a new playstyle can be. The Civilization 7 Black Mongols are one of the most underrated, high-ceiling factions in the game right now, perfect for players who love fast, aggressive play that balances raiding and long-term economic growth. I’ve put 40+ hours into testing this faction across every difficulty and game mode, and I’m breaking down exactly what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid the most common mistakes new players make with them.
What Makes the Civilization 7 Black Mongols Unique?
Unlike most Civ 7 factions that lean fully into either passive economic growth or all-out warfare, the Black Mongols sit in a sweet spot where raiding fuels every part of your empire. Their core faction bonuses reward constant movement and small, frequent attacks instead of long, drawn-out wars, which makes them feel incredibly dynamic to play even after dozens of runs.
Their signature passive is the Nomadic Raid Bonus, which gives you 25% extra production across all your cities for every improvement you pillage. That production applies immediately, so if you raid three enemy farms in a single turn, you get a 75% production boost for every city in your empire that turn. It’s easy to underestimate how powerful this is, especially early on when most civs are still scraping together enough production to build their first granary.
They also get two unique replacements that play directly into their strengths. The Steppe Yurt replacement for the Granary costs half as much to build, has no maintenance fee, and gives +1 food and +1 production for every adjacent pasture in your city limits. You don’t even need fresh water to build it, which lets you settle in dry, resource-rich steppe zones that other factions would ignore. The Black Horseman unique cavalry unit unlocks two eras earlier than the standard Knight, has +1 movement, and ignores zone of control, so you can slip past enemy defenders to raid unprotected backline improvements without getting stuck.
There’s one major downside to keep in mind, though. If you settle more than 3 cities before you reach the Medieval era, all your city centers get a 15% production penalty. I learned this the hard way on my first run, when I settled four cities right away and couldn’t build enough units to fend off a barbarian horde that rolled through my borders. That penalty isn’t a dealbreaker, but it does force you to plan your early expansion very carefully.
Early Game Strategy for Black Mongols Success
Your first 30 turns with the Black Mongols will make or break the rest of your run, so you need to prioritize the right moves instead of following the standard Civ 7 early game routine. You don’t need to rush writing or pottery like you would with a science or culture faction, for example. Your only focus for the first 20 turns is unlocking your unique bonuses and building a small raiding force.
These are the non-negotiable early game priorities I follow on every run:
- Research Animal Husbandry as your first tech to unlock pastures and the Steppe Yurt building as soon as possible
- Train 2-3 Black Horseman units by turn 30 to start raiding unprotected enemy improvements and barbarian camps
- Limit your city count to 3 maximum until you hit the Medieval era to avoid the early game production penalty
You don’t need to build farms early if you have at least two pastures per city, since your Steppe Yurts will cover all your food needs. That frees up your early production to build more raiding units or extra Steppe Yurts to snowball your growth even faster. Barbarian camps are your best friend in the early game too, since raiding them gives you double the gold and production of raiding a standard AI improvement, and it stops new barbarians from spawning near your borders.
If there’s a weak AI civ within 10 tiles of your starting position, don’t be afraid to raid their trade routes and outlying improvements as soon as you have your first two Black Horsemen. They won’t declare war on you for a single raid, and the extra production will let you build up your defenses faster if they do get aggressive later on. Just don’t try to capture their cities early, since your early units aren’t strong enough to break through even basic city walls.
Mid Game Combat and Expansion Tactics
Once you hit the Medieval era, that early game production penalty goes away completely, and you can expand as much as you want. This is where the Black Mongols really shine, because your raiding bonuses will let you build new cities and units way faster than any other civ on the map. You can choose to expand peacefully by settling new cities in empty land, or you can conquer smaller AI civs to take their already built infrastructure for yourself.
Your cavalry units don’t require horses to train if you have at least two pastures in your core cities, which is a hidden bonus most new players miss. That means you don’t have to waste time hunting for horse resources like other cavalry-focused factions, and you can crank out Black Horsemen nonstop to keep your raiding operation running. You should also prioritize researching the Stirrups tech as soon as you hit Medieval, since it gives your cavalry units an extra +2 combat strength and +1 movement.
If you’re playing multiplayer, this is the perfect time to cripple any opponents that are building a lead. Raid their trade routes to cut off their gold income, pillage their mines and universities to slow down their tech growth, and only attack their cities if they’re left completely unprotected. You don’t even need to conquer their entire empire to come out ahead, since every raid gives you a permanent production boost that adds up over time. For single player runs, you can choose to vassalize smaller AI civs instead of conquering them fully, since vassals send you 10% of their gold and production every turn without you having to spend resources managing their cities.
Just make sure you don’t ignore your own infrastructure during the mid game. It’s easy to get caught up in raiding and forget to build libraries and markets in your cities, which will leave you falling behind in tech and gold once you hit the Industrial era. I usually set aside 20% of my production every turn for civilian buildings once I have 5 raiding units active, so I don’t have to play catch up later.
Late Game Transition to Avoid Falling Behind
One of the biggest mistakes new Black Mongols players make is relying too heavily on raiding in the late game. Once all civs have advanced city walls and late game ranged units, raiding improvements gets a lot more dangerous, and the production boost from raiding doesn’t go as far as it did earlier in the game. You need to transition away from constant raiding and focus on your win condition by the time you hit the Industrial era, or you’ll get out-teched by more passive factions.
Swap to building universities and factories in all your cities once you hit the Industrial era first. All the extra production you earned from raiding earlier will let you build these buildings in half the time other civs can, so you’ll quickly catch up on tech even if you neglected it earlier. If you have vassals, you can demand extra science and gold tribute from them to speed this process up even more, as long as your military is strong enough to keep them loyal.
The Black Mongols are incredibly flexible when it comes to win conditions, but I’ve found that domination and science wins are the easiest to pull off. For domination wins, your upgraded cavalry units have extra movement, so you can capture enemy cities in half the time other civs can, as long as you pair them with siege units to break down late game walls. For science wins, you can use your raiding units to pillage any other civ’s spaceports once you start building your own, so they can’t beat you to a Mars launch.
If you’re playing on the highest difficulty, you might run into situations where multiple civs declare war on you at once in the late game. Don’t panic, since your cavalry units are fast enough to defend multiple fronts at once. Raid the enemy’s supply lines to slow down their advance, and focus on capturing one of their cities first to force them to negotiate a peace deal. You don’t have to win every battle, you just have to make the war too expensive for them to continue.
The Civilization 7 Black Mongols aren’t just a one-note aggressive faction, if you play to their strengths and plan around their early game limitations, they’re capable of winning on even the highest difficulty settings. Don’t be afraid to adjust your playstyle as you move through eras, and lean into their raiding bonuses early to build a lead no other civ can catch up to. If you test these tips on your next run, you’ll be shocked at how much easier it is to dominate the map from the first turn all the way to your win screen.