To get the most out of this guide, also download and install both the expansions and all the civ packs. You can get most of them at a discounted price by purchasing the Gold Edition, but you will still have to purchase Gathering Storm separately.
You can also find news about the latest updates to the game on the right hand side of the launcher.
A good civ to start with is Rome, led by Trajan. Rome features a fairly straightforward build order, and doesn’t lean towards any one victory condition, making it an easy civ to begin playing.
For beginners, it is recommended to play on Warlord difficulty, as any difficulty below that will ensure that the AI has no chance of winning at all, and anything above that will be too hard for a new player to manage.
Fresh water - One of the most important factors, access to fresh water provides a boost to your city’s growth, by providing extra housing for citizens. Having more housing means more space for citizens, and ultimately a more productive city overall. [3] X Research source Sources of fresh water include rivers, lakes, and oases. Coast - Settling a city on the coast will boost your progress towards the sailing tech, and also allow for the production of naval units that can be crucial to early game exploration and warfare. Settling on the coast also provides extra housing if the city does not have any access to fresh water. Yields - Another thing crucial to the productivity of your city is ensuring that all nearby tiles provide adequate yield. The yield of a tile refers to the amount of food, gold, productivity, and science they provide when worked by a citizen. Hilly Grasslands, Plains, and Floodplains provide some of the best base yield, whereas Snow and Desert tiles provide no yield at all. [4] X Research source Try to settle your city next to tiles with good yields. Resources - Having access to good resources will provide bonus yield and amenities (a resource necessary to ensure the prosperity of your cities) when improved by a builder. Strategic resources will also let you build powerful units to dominate the early game.
You can use your warrior to explore the map in the earliest stages of the game, but it is a good idea to build a few scouts as soon as possible and explore.
Domination Victory - The domination victory is the most straightforward victory type. To win a domination victory, you must capture the original capital of every other civilization in the game. In order to do this, you must have a powerful military. Science Victory - A science victory is won by achieving certain milestones. To win a science victory you must launch an earth satellite, land a human on the moon, establish a martian colony, launch an exoplanet expedition, and finally, land on the exoplanet. To win a science victory, it is essential to generate a large amount of science from your empire’s scientific districts and buildings. Culture Victory - To win a culture victory, you must attract a lot of tourists from other civilizations by awing them with your cultural splendor. In order to do this, you must generate a lot of culture and tourism through great works, buildings, and policies. Religious Victory - Win a religious victory by converting all other civilizations to your religion. It is essential that your religion be the dominant one in every civilization, so build a lot of missionaries and apostles, and generate as much faith as you can. Diplomatic Victory - A diplomatic victory is won by earning a certain amount of diplomatic victory points (the exact number depends on the game speed), which can be earned through events, wonders, wars, and the world congress. Score Victory - If no other victory condition is met in time, the player with the highest score will win a score victory. Try to reach your victory condition as fast as possible, as a score victory is boring and not something you should be aiming for.
Begin with a basic technology like pottery or mining, and slowly progress through the tech tree, focusing on the technologies that are important to you. Some are more important than others, like the ones that unlock scientific buildings if you’re going for a science victory, or new military technologies if you’re going for a domination victory.
Note that in multiplayer, all players take their turns simultaneously.
Military policies - These policies enhance your military, from small bonuses like an increase in combat strength versus barbarians, to huge ones like an increase in experience gain for all units. Economic policies - Economic policies increase can increase production, gold gain, housing, and amenities. Diplomatic policies - Diplomatic policies mainly focus on gaining envoys to city-states as well as diplomatic favor. Enacting the right diplomatic policies goes a long way towards winning a diplomatic victory. Wildcard policies - Wildcard policies mainly grant bonuses to great people generation, which can be useful for all victory types. Unlike other policies, any policy card can be added to a wildcard policy slot, making it highly versatile.
Certain improvements can only be built on specific tiles. For instance, you cannot build a mine on a grassland, or a lumber mill on plains.
In order to avoid getting overrun by barbarians, destroy any barbarian encampments you come across.
You gain some envoys automatically, but can gain additional ones by being the first to meet a city-state, completing quests for a city-state, or researching some civics and policies.
Trade routes, like most other mechanics, can be boosted through wonders and social policies. The amount of trade routes you can have also varies through the game as you progress in civics and technology. Add additional trade routes whenever you can.
Depending on your era score, the bonuses differ. Your civilization will be more loyal and productive, and will be given a greater boost to progress, if you earned a golden age the previous era. On the other hand, if you fail to gather enough era score, your civilization will enter a dark age. All your cities will be less loyal and your empire will be harder to manage. Try not to fall behind, and aim to hit a golden age whenever possible.
You can appoint and assign additional governors as you gain new governor titles, as well as promote existing governors to make them more useful. If you manage to hire all governors, you gain era score to help you avoid dark ages and progress towards a golden age.
World wonders cost a lot of production and take a lot of time to produce, even if your city has a high production output, but are highly rewarding to build.
Great People may then be expended to provide a boost, or, in the case of Great Generals and Great Admirals, be sent along with your military to boost its strength. Managing your great people correctly is key to winning a game of Civilization.
Each government features a different policy structure, some favoring certain victory types over others. Fascism can house many more military policies than democracy, and as such may be good government to consider if you’re going for a domination victory. On the other hand, it has very little slots for economic policies, so picking it if you’re going for other victories can cripple you. Choose the right government for your civilization and you will be on your way to victory.
Sharing a religion with another civilization can increase the information you receive about that civilization, and give you other benefits. Spread your religion using missionaries or apostles, by wiping out other religions and replacing it with your own.
Gold - The most basic trade, you can trade some amount of gold per turn or make a one-time payment to another civilization Great works - Two civilizations can agree to trade great works, or trade one for something else. This is useful if either one of the civilizations is aiming for a culture victory, and the other is aiming for something else. Just be careful not to give your opponent enough to reach their win condition before you! Joint wars - Once you have formed an alliance with a declared friend, you automatically form a defensive pact with them. In addition to this, you can declare joint wars through trade deals. Research agreements - Through a research agreement, two civs can agree to jointly research and share a certain technology that they both need to gain it much faster. Strategic and luxury resources - Strategic and bonus resources can be traded to maximize their output. As you don’t gain extra amenities for duplicate copies of a resource, you can trade any extra resources for new ones from other civilizations to keep your citizens happy. Cities - The ultimate trade deal, trading cities can be done as part of a peace treaty or if you just want to help an ally out.
Even if you’re not aiming for a culture victory, you can trade Great Works to other civilizations that are for a large amount of gold or resources, as they hold great value.
You do not need to attack other civilizations with your military, but maintaining a standing army will allow your civilization to defend against attackers and stay in the game to reach whatever victory condition you are chasing.
For instance, if your civilization is on the banks of a river that is prone to flooding, build the great bath or a flood barrier. If tornadoes seem to strike your city often, hire the surveyor and use her reinforced materials ability to disaster-proof your city. In spite of all these measures though, you will undoubtedly be affected by a natural disaster sometime, so repair the damage with a builder(or your city if a district is damaged) as soon as you can to avoid falling behind.
The more powerful you are, the more you can demand. In some cases, the AI might even be willing to give you whole cities rather than fight a war it knows it will lose.
Keep a watchful eye and carefully monitor how close your opponents are to the victories they are aiming for, and plan your actions accordingly. Try to sabotage opponents close to their win conditions, either through spies, declarations of war, or the World Congress.
The World Congress can also greatly aid you in achieving your goals, by passing resolutions that are favorable to the type of victory you are trying to achieve. For example, if you’re aiming for a culture victory, try to pass a resolution to double your tourism.
Climate change can also be used as a weapon against your opponents. If a winning civilization has most of their cities at low elevations, it might even be worth it to try and trigger climate change, as long as your civilization is protected. On the other hand, if your civilization is at a low elevation, it becomes imperative to keep your carbon footprint to an absolute minimum through the necessary city projects.
