Sid Meier's Civilization V
a beginner's strategy guide
Civilization 5 is a turn based strategy game designed on the premise of real-life imperialism scenarios taking place in fictional lands with nonfictional leaders and civilizations. From leader options ranging from the Japanese to the Iriquois, it is one of the most complex and intricate strategy games ever created. Each civilization has its own unique benefits and downfalls as well as its own set of buildings and military units.
The point of the game is very simple. Expand and conquer. In attempting to reach this end, one must exercise a significant amount of strategy, the likes of which one might find in a game of chess or rock-paper-scissors(hue). Strategy in Civilization 5, however, is potentially unlike any other strategy you might encounter. For starters, you need to plan out how many turns it might take you to build a certain unit with how many turns until those units of Roman Crossbowman destroy everything you love. Or how many turns it would take you to travel all the way from Berlin to Rome, and how many units to bring with you so at to not leave yourself defenseless. When first beginning a game of Civilization 5, it all seems extraordinarily overwhelming. But give it time, young one, and soon enough you will be dominating your foes and having peace begged of you by all the inferior civilizations of the world.
Part I: Beginning a Game
Depending on your preferred level of involvement with the game scenario, you will be able to navigate the various menus of the game and alter various pertinent settings. The main menu of Civilization 5 looks like this:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at32609PM.png
From here, to play a single player game, you have two options. You can click, "Play Now" and use pretty average automated settings, or you can click on, "Set Up Game" and do it all yourself. For all intents and purposes, noob, please click, "Set Up Game". From there, you will be able to alter most of the settings a new player would want to alter. The most basic, normal settings are the ones that should already be there when you clicked on Set Up Game. Your options at this stage are very self-explanatory. You have: Your leader, your map type, your map size, your difficulty level, and your game pace. Now, to move forward, I want you to click on, "Advanced Setup". Just read over all of these settings to get a basic idea of what you are capable of altering about the game, and then click "Back".
From here, you are going to select your leader. You have a wide variety to choose from in Civilization 5 which is one of my favorite parts of the game. Remember, each leader has it's own positives and negatives that you will get to learn after a couple hours of playtime. This is what your menu should look like when you attempt to select a leader:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at33235PM.png
Pick whoever you would like. At this point in me attempting to teach you it doesn't really matter. In fact, I will randomize my leader for use in the rest of the tutorial. Once you have read through some of the available settings (but hopefully not changed too much yet) feel free to start your game by clicking, "Start Game".
Part II: Strategy
Once in the game, it should look almost exactly as follows:
If you used all the default settings, you should have two units. A settler, and a warrior. As soon as you get into the game, click on your settler and then click on the square button on the left side of the screen that has a picture of a city inside of it. This will create your very first city. Click on the name of this city. The screen should look like:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at41037PM.png
On the top left, you will see various data variables pertaining to your city. Food, which always needs to greater than or equal to 0 to have functioning citizens. Production, which determines how fast you can create buildings and units. Gold, which is used for purchasing cities and units immediately, interacting with city-states, upgrading units, or trading with other civilizations. Science, which determines the speed at which you research new technologies. And culture, which determines the speed at which your civilization can choose social policies. On the top right, you will see a menu with all of your buildings and citizen management. If you click on Citizen Management, you will be able to select the focus of your citizens. All of the tiles around your city provide you benefits into some of the variables mentioned earlier, and the citizen management screen allows you to determine which is your priority. Default focus is never a bad option. Clicking on, "Buy a Tile" allows you to purchase tiles on the outskirt of your city so that you can later create improvements on them with your worker. For now, just click "Return to Map" so we can get this game on the road.
Next, select your warrior, and then click on the square button on the left side of the screen that has a group of hexagons with an arrow hovering over it. This is the move unit button. Select a tile somewhere on the screen within two units of your warrior to make him move there. You should notice parts of your screen begin to clear the fog of war. Another way to move your units is to simply select the unit and right click on an available tile for it to move to. It is quicker than clicking on the button every time.
Next, click on the orange button on the right side of the screen directly above the minimap that should say, "Choose Production". Where this orange button is located is where anything you need to do before ending your turn will be shown. Here you will see things such as, "A Unit Needs Orders", "Promote Unit" and things to that nature. In Civilization 5, you cannot end your turn until you have completed necessary actions for all cities and units.
Your screen should look like this when you click on, "Choose Production":
ScreenShot2013-07-29at34009PM.png
In any game of Civilization 5, it is strategically wise to begin building a monument in turn 1. This will provide you with more Culture per turn, something incredibly valuable towards successfully advancing your empire. The monument, as you can see, will take 8 turns to complete. The symbols alongside the monument option are notices from your advisors, telling you it's a good idea to create a monument.
After choosing a production, the next thing you will be prompted to do is choose research. After clicking on, "Choose Research", your screen will look like this:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at34258PM.png
I would like you to click on the button labeled, "Technology Tree". This technology tree outlines all of the available technologies and the future technologies that they lead to. Pay attention to this, because certain technologies advance your civilization into the next age and you would not want to do that too soon or too late. Any of these technologies would be good choices but I personally recommend animal husbandry because it leads to the technology Trapping. After you have completed all of these steps, click the, "Next Turn" button."
For the next 8 turns while your monument is building, use your warriors to explore the surrounding area. Don't venture too far, but gather a good understanding of your surroundings. Environmental awareness is pivotal for the first 50 turns in Civilization 5. Now take the time to understand some important aspects of your game. On the very top of the screen, you will see your total civilization's science, gold, gold per turn, golden age advancement progress, culture, and strategic resources. Move your mouse over all of these things and read up on their importance.
After your monument is completed, choose to build a Worker and after you have finished researching Animal Husbandry, research Trapping. Now, take the time to move your mouse over the blocks of land around your capital city. You should see things like, "Plains", "Forest", "Grassland", "Wine" etc etc. The workers job is to improve on these tiles to make better use of the resources around you city. Once your worker is completed, click on any of the tiles around your city and then give your Worker the orders to build a farm. What a farm does is increase food production for your city, allowing more smooth growth and an easier transition into larger cities. Once you have created a farm, and you have finished researching Trapping, click on another tile around your city while still having your Worker selected and give him the orders to build a Trading Post. Trading Posts increase your total gold per turn and make sure that your Civilization has a steady income so as to not go bankrupt. Most buildings and units you create have a gold upkeep per turn, so be sure to keep up with your Trading Posts because going bankrupt is a terrible idea.
Now look at the top right of your screen. There are buttons up here that bring up various menus. The farthest to the left allows you to view various statistics of your gameplay. It is important to become familiar with these things because all of them are an integral part of Civ5 games. The next button to the right opens your social policy screen. Social policies provide various enhancements for your civilization. They are pretty self-explanatory, so familiarize yourself with them after clicking on that button. The third button from the left brings up your advisor menu, where each of your strategic advisors offer varying advice based on your game thus far. The farthest right button is the diplomacy button, where you can see the scores and leaders of the other civilizations you have met. When you meet other civilizations, you can commence diplomatic relations with them through this menu.
From here, you should be pretty well established in game knowledge to continue on and learn on your own. Some further advice: After your first worker, create another Warrior. Search for barbarian encampments, destroying them with your warriors provides experience and gold. Also, not destroying encampments allows them to spawn barbarians that can pose problems later for your civilization. Create Settlers from time to time to make your civilization bigger; Settlers settle and create new cities each with more citizens and more production of gold. But be careful, having lots of cities makes your people unhappy.
Wonders are important to buy so you can have more culture bonuses, but don't spend all of your turns constructing wonders. They aren't THAT important. Also, keep your military reasonable until you need to have a large one because a large army stunts your economy. Building a Granary is important within 20 turns so you have a sustainable amount of food. Don't even think about war with another civilization or city state until at least 75 turns in; Cities do massive damage to units and can often 1 shot much of your military.
And that's all there is to it! Pretty simple, huh? ;)
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.
Thanks for reading; I hope you learned!
a beginner's strategy guide
Civilization 5 is a turn based strategy game designed on the premise of real-life imperialism scenarios taking place in fictional lands with nonfictional leaders and civilizations. From leader options ranging from the Japanese to the Iriquois, it is one of the most complex and intricate strategy games ever created. Each civilization has its own unique benefits and downfalls as well as its own set of buildings and military units.
The point of the game is very simple. Expand and conquer. In attempting to reach this end, one must exercise a significant amount of strategy, the likes of which one might find in a game of chess or rock-paper-scissors(hue). Strategy in Civilization 5, however, is potentially unlike any other strategy you might encounter. For starters, you need to plan out how many turns it might take you to build a certain unit with how many turns until those units of Roman Crossbowman destroy everything you love. Or how many turns it would take you to travel all the way from Berlin to Rome, and how many units to bring with you so at to not leave yourself defenseless. When first beginning a game of Civilization 5, it all seems extraordinarily overwhelming. But give it time, young one, and soon enough you will be dominating your foes and having peace begged of you by all the inferior civilizations of the world.
Part I: Beginning a Game
Depending on your preferred level of involvement with the game scenario, you will be able to navigate the various menus of the game and alter various pertinent settings. The main menu of Civilization 5 looks like this:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at32609PM.png
From here, to play a single player game, you have two options. You can click, "Play Now" and use pretty average automated settings, or you can click on, "Set Up Game" and do it all yourself. For all intents and purposes, noob, please click, "Set Up Game". From there, you will be able to alter most of the settings a new player would want to alter. The most basic, normal settings are the ones that should already be there when you clicked on Set Up Game. Your options at this stage are very self-explanatory. You have: Your leader, your map type, your map size, your difficulty level, and your game pace. Now, to move forward, I want you to click on, "Advanced Setup". Just read over all of these settings to get a basic idea of what you are capable of altering about the game, and then click "Back".
From here, you are going to select your leader. You have a wide variety to choose from in Civilization 5 which is one of my favorite parts of the game. Remember, each leader has it's own positives and negatives that you will get to learn after a couple hours of playtime. This is what your menu should look like when you attempt to select a leader:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at33235PM.png
Pick whoever you would like. At this point in me attempting to teach you it doesn't really matter. In fact, I will randomize my leader for use in the rest of the tutorial. Once you have read through some of the available settings (but hopefully not changed too much yet) feel free to start your game by clicking, "Start Game".
Part II: Strategy
Once in the game, it should look almost exactly as follows:
If you used all the default settings, you should have two units. A settler, and a warrior. As soon as you get into the game, click on your settler and then click on the square button on the left side of the screen that has a picture of a city inside of it. This will create your very first city. Click on the name of this city. The screen should look like:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at41037PM.png
On the top left, you will see various data variables pertaining to your city. Food, which always needs to greater than or equal to 0 to have functioning citizens. Production, which determines how fast you can create buildings and units. Gold, which is used for purchasing cities and units immediately, interacting with city-states, upgrading units, or trading with other civilizations. Science, which determines the speed at which you research new technologies. And culture, which determines the speed at which your civilization can choose social policies. On the top right, you will see a menu with all of your buildings and citizen management. If you click on Citizen Management, you will be able to select the focus of your citizens. All of the tiles around your city provide you benefits into some of the variables mentioned earlier, and the citizen management screen allows you to determine which is your priority. Default focus is never a bad option. Clicking on, "Buy a Tile" allows you to purchase tiles on the outskirt of your city so that you can later create improvements on them with your worker. For now, just click "Return to Map" so we can get this game on the road.
Next, select your warrior, and then click on the square button on the left side of the screen that has a group of hexagons with an arrow hovering over it. This is the move unit button. Select a tile somewhere on the screen within two units of your warrior to make him move there. You should notice parts of your screen begin to clear the fog of war. Another way to move your units is to simply select the unit and right click on an available tile for it to move to. It is quicker than clicking on the button every time.
Next, click on the orange button on the right side of the screen directly above the minimap that should say, "Choose Production". Where this orange button is located is where anything you need to do before ending your turn will be shown. Here you will see things such as, "A Unit Needs Orders", "Promote Unit" and things to that nature. In Civilization 5, you cannot end your turn until you have completed necessary actions for all cities and units.
Your screen should look like this when you click on, "Choose Production":
ScreenShot2013-07-29at34009PM.png
In any game of Civilization 5, it is strategically wise to begin building a monument in turn 1. This will provide you with more Culture per turn, something incredibly valuable towards successfully advancing your empire. The monument, as you can see, will take 8 turns to complete. The symbols alongside the monument option are notices from your advisors, telling you it's a good idea to create a monument.
After choosing a production, the next thing you will be prompted to do is choose research. After clicking on, "Choose Research", your screen will look like this:
ScreenShot2013-07-29at34258PM.png
I would like you to click on the button labeled, "Technology Tree". This technology tree outlines all of the available technologies and the future technologies that they lead to. Pay attention to this, because certain technologies advance your civilization into the next age and you would not want to do that too soon or too late. Any of these technologies would be good choices but I personally recommend animal husbandry because it leads to the technology Trapping. After you have completed all of these steps, click the, "Next Turn" button."
For the next 8 turns while your monument is building, use your warriors to explore the surrounding area. Don't venture too far, but gather a good understanding of your surroundings. Environmental awareness is pivotal for the first 50 turns in Civilization 5. Now take the time to understand some important aspects of your game. On the very top of the screen, you will see your total civilization's science, gold, gold per turn, golden age advancement progress, culture, and strategic resources. Move your mouse over all of these things and read up on their importance.
After your monument is completed, choose to build a Worker and after you have finished researching Animal Husbandry, research Trapping. Now, take the time to move your mouse over the blocks of land around your capital city. You should see things like, "Plains", "Forest", "Grassland", "Wine" etc etc. The workers job is to improve on these tiles to make better use of the resources around you city. Once your worker is completed, click on any of the tiles around your city and then give your Worker the orders to build a farm. What a farm does is increase food production for your city, allowing more smooth growth and an easier transition into larger cities. Once you have created a farm, and you have finished researching Trapping, click on another tile around your city while still having your Worker selected and give him the orders to build a Trading Post. Trading Posts increase your total gold per turn and make sure that your Civilization has a steady income so as to not go bankrupt. Most buildings and units you create have a gold upkeep per turn, so be sure to keep up with your Trading Posts because going bankrupt is a terrible idea.
Now look at the top right of your screen. There are buttons up here that bring up various menus. The farthest to the left allows you to view various statistics of your gameplay. It is important to become familiar with these things because all of them are an integral part of Civ5 games. The next button to the right opens your social policy screen. Social policies provide various enhancements for your civilization. They are pretty self-explanatory, so familiarize yourself with them after clicking on that button. The third button from the left brings up your advisor menu, where each of your strategic advisors offer varying advice based on your game thus far. The farthest right button is the diplomacy button, where you can see the scores and leaders of the other civilizations you have met. When you meet other civilizations, you can commence diplomatic relations with them through this menu.
From here, you should be pretty well established in game knowledge to continue on and learn on your own. Some further advice: After your first worker, create another Warrior. Search for barbarian encampments, destroying them with your warriors provides experience and gold. Also, not destroying encampments allows them to spawn barbarians that can pose problems later for your civilization. Create Settlers from time to time to make your civilization bigger; Settlers settle and create new cities each with more citizens and more production of gold. But be careful, having lots of cities makes your people unhappy.
Wonders are important to buy so you can have more culture bonuses, but don't spend all of your turns constructing wonders. They aren't THAT important. Also, keep your military reasonable until you need to have a large one because a large army stunts your economy. Building a Granary is important within 20 turns so you have a sustainable amount of food. Don't even think about war with another civilization or city state until at least 75 turns in; Cities do massive damage to units and can often 1 shot much of your military.
And that's all there is to it! Pretty simple, huh? ;)
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.
Thanks for reading; I hope you learned!