2. 6 Other important topics 10
6.1 Civics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1.1 Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1.2 Legal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1.3 Labour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1.4 Economy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.1.5 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.2 Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.3 Diplomacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6.4 Slavery: dealing with unhappiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
6.5 Watery maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7 Less important topics 11
7.1 World Wonders, aka ”Oooooh, shiny !” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.2 National wonders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
7.3 Espionage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7.4 Great people . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1 Introduction
1.1 Why this guide ?
My first reason is simple: there are so many people in the forum wanting to beat higher level, especially noble, and
unable to beat it. I want to answer to them with this document. Long-time posters know that there already exists a
very good guide for beginners (Sisiutil’s strategy guide for beginners), guide which I personally read multiple times
already some time ago. However, even if there are many good informations in it, Sis does not teach his readers what
to do with all these informations, that is, how to really play the game. Not that I blame him, he does already so
much for everyone ! But I will try to complete his guide with mine.
My second reason is that after so much time taking stuff from the community, I wish to give some at last !
1.2 What will this document cover and not cover ?
I hope with this guide to provide to non-expert players a simple guideline that they can use for two purposes: first
to learn some important aspects of the game, and second, to win a game at noble. After all, winning a game at a
new difficulty is always gratifying :)
This guide will focus on some key-aspects in a game of CIV: opening, vertical expansion, horizontal expansion,
city specialization, and war. Some other aspects will be under-used (espionage, great people...), sometimes even
ignored (wonders, corporations).
The economy presented will be mostly based on cottages: easy to handle, easy to use, and great benefits. After
you progress, you can try more various stuffs (like all the so-called xxx-economy), but just remember that in any
case, you need a way to gain techs and a way to produce gold. What you use for that is up to you.
Finally, don’t forget the CIV golden rule: no rule is true all the time ! (Note how this rule contradict itself) Some
things presented in this guide could well deserve you in different situations, every rule can be broken.
1.3 Setup of the game
This guide does not focus on any specific trait, leader, UU, wonder... or anything. So any leader will do, on any
type of map. Just note that some traits will help you much more than others (financial more than philosophical for
instance). The map script can be anything also, even if a script that makes you isolated will give you much more
difficulties: I advise against it for now. I recommend map scripts such as continents, hemispheres, big and smalls,
pangea, lakes... With usual terrain.
Settings will be assumed to be normal: normal game speed, standard map size, 6 opponents, no funny thing with
the settings.
Also note that the option ”automate workers leave old improvements” should be checked, and ”automate workers
leave forests and jungle” should be unchecked. After a while, if you decide against the automation of your workers,
you may check the latter.
Finally, while in the game, toggle resources bubbles by using ctrl-R, and if you need id, the grid by using ctrl-T.
2
3. 2 Early moves
2.1 I’ve got two units: what do I do ?
Take your settler and settle it in the tile it stands in. The program usually makes a good job at assuring that your
starting position will be nice. That does not mean that all starting positions are equal, but that you cannot be truly
wrong in doing that. Then take your warrior (or scout) and start exploring (cf section 2.2). Here, you’re done !
2.2 Exploration
When exploring in the first turns, you want to locate things such as resources, the coast, rivers, the opponents...
Mainly in fact you want to answer to the question ”Where should I settle my next cities?”. For that, with your first
explorer (warrior or scout), circle around your capital. If at some moment you have a few tiles left to explore along
a coast, do not bother, let it to your next explorers: these units (military units, do not build scouts, as they can’t
serve your for defense) will explorer the small corners let by the main explorers and then station themselves into
future city-spots, to guard them.
While exploring, remember that anything which is not straight flat costs 2 points of movement (if you have a scout
this is important); prioritize hills (better visibility + defense against animals and barbarians) and forests/jungles
(defense), but do not let holes in your map of the surroundings: there could be valuable resources !
After a while, if you can, continue to explore (with a multiple movement units) towards and inside your rival’s
territories; you want to know where your opponents are and what kind of land/resources they have. Also, being
aware of the presence of enemy cities is important.
2.3 First techs
Check in the 20 tiles around your capital, its Big Fat Cross: there are some resources in it. At least, there should be
one food resource (rice, corn, wheat, cows, pigs, deer, fish, clams, crabs), as well as some hills: these will be your first
productive tiles. You want first to tech the correct tech to improve one, if possible two, of the best food resources,
then mining for the mines, and bronze working to chop (which will perhaps be necessary if you have forests on the
hills).
After that, tech Bronze Working if you still do not have it, then to mysticism if you are not creative, to archery
if necessary (see section 2.6), then to pottery and finally monarchy if you need happiness quickly (see section 2.7),
that is if you have too few early happiness resources. If you have some, you may get writing or Iron working, and
perhaps even calendar (if you already have some happiness boosters and good commerce places), before monarchy.
2.4 First builds in the capital
This requires a little bit of maths: basically, you want to make sure that your first worker will be busy when it goes
out. So check if, if you build a worker first, you will have the necessary techs to improve tiles when it comes out (see
section 2.5). If it does, build a worker first. Otherwise, build a warrior while growing, ans build the worker when
your capital is at size 2 (this way it will come faster).
Next builds: warriors, or better units if you can (archers, axes, chariots, and their UUs counterparts), until your
capital reaches size 5. Send the first to explore, while the last one stays in the capital; lacking of defenses, citizens
are unhappy if you do not have a unit in a city starting from size 4, so since you are short on happiness, keep them
happy that way ! After exploring, the first units should guard the spots for your future cities, with two goals: prevent
the apparition of a barb city, and prevent the settlers you send from being attacked by animals or barbs. Never send
a settler or a worker un-escorted !
Finally, once at size 5, build worker/settler/worker/settler/worker/settler by working the most productive tiles
in your capital. If you build your first worker at size 2 or are growing very fast, build the second worker at size 4,
and the rest at size 5. And you are done for now !
2.5 First improvements
You have a worker, you have the correct techs for your starting resource, so first improve one or two food resources
- depending on what you have - and then improve other resources or build mines, with at least 3 productions tiles.
You want to improve 5 tiles. The rest can wait.
Note: presence of seafood is treated in section 6.5.
3
4. 2.6 First cities
In CIV, and most of all at the beginning of the game, very often actions are an investment for the future. When you
build a forge in a city, you spend some hammers now to be able to get more in the future. Cities are similar, and
the first one you build are among the most important.
Your first cities have different goals. One of them is to collect your first resources: food resources (for health),
happiness resources (for... happiness) and strategic resources (at this stage, used for your army). Another one is to
help begin to build your army, and to get you more beakers for science.
In concrete terms, this means first that every city should participate to the collect of new resources, and that you
should begin specializing: on your first four cities (including the capital), one of them should be a production city,
and 3 of them should be commerce cities. If possible, the first one should get you a strategic resource of you do not
already have one in your capital; even a commerce city will do, it does not have to be your production city. If you
cannot get a strategic resource with your capital or first city, tech to archery before you build your production city,
which should be either your first or second city (after the capital).
To give some deadlines, your second city (after the capital) should be out around 2000 BC, and you should have
four cities before 1000 BC. Otherwise, there is something wrong.
Finally, the role of your capital is still not clear, since for now it is pumping workers and settlers. In any case,
start specializing if after your first wave of workers and settlers is out. If it is meant to become your first production
city, have one of the other three build military units in the beginning to help while the capital build workers and
settlers.
2.6.1 Where ?
For all of your first cities, have at least one food resource in its BFC, if not two. Flood plains can act as food bonuses,
especially for commerce cities. Also, try to collect resources: food resources should be natural (they are necessary,
as stated above), at least one strategic resource (bronze, horses, or if by luck you already have iron working, iron),
and happiness resources (gold, gems, silver, ivory and fur are golden since you can improve them quickly; calendar
resources and wine are less important for now). Finally, rivers are great for the commerce they bring, for the health
bonus, for the trade connexion they provide, and in the future for levees and hydro plants.
Your production city should have at least a few production tiles (from hills with mines or from resources: ivory,
horses, copper, iron, cows...). If you can get around 15 hammers at size 5 this is great.
Your commerce cities should have green land or flood plains, to help them grow at the same time that they work
cottages. If you cannot get a river, freshwater from an oasis or a lake is enough. Access to the coast is also nice.
2.6.2 What to build ?
First of all, if you are not creative and do not have a religion in the city, a monument; speed up its production either
by chopping a forest, by working a very-high hammer tile, or by working a food resource and slave the monument
when you arrive at size 2. In a production city, build a barracks after that, and then units (you should be able to
build better units than warriors by now). A granary is important, but later, when your production city will grow
again. In a commerce city, build a granary after the monument, then a barracks and units. Then when you can,
buildings to improve your economy or your growing capabilities (see section 3.3).
2.6.3 What to improve ?
In all cities, improve resources first (at least one or two food tiles). Then in a production city, build mines on hills,
and in a commerce city, build cottages. Prioritize tiles along rivers for the commerce they bring.
Also, even if you keep one worker per city, you should have one idle worker if you follow the previous plan. Have
him build roads to connect your cities, to connect resources and get commerce from trade routes.
2.7 Vertical expansion
Getting more cities is nice, but will be useless if you cannot grow them. Growing cities allows for more citizens,
which in turn gives you more production, commerce... For this, you have two enemies to fight: unhealthiness, and
unhappiness.
Unhealthiness is less important, since you still get your citizens, but need more food. Still, you should fight it,
but have already begun: you have health resources, and a granary, and aqueduct or a harbor should help you if you
need some more. Later, collect more resources and build grocers, hospitals...
4
5. Unhappiness is a plague, since a citizen over the happiness cap does not work, but at the same time eats food.
This is one of the reasons why we prioritized happiness resources before. Never stop finding ways to improve your
happiness cap. In the early game, you should have the following:
• If you are charismatic, you have a free +1 happiness, and each monument gives +1 also, so you have a big
advantage.
• If you got early happiness resources (gold, silver, gems, furs, ivory), this is also nice. If you have two of
gold/silver/gems, prioritize metal casting for forges. If you have furs and ivory, prioritize currency for markets.
• If you have 3 or more of sugar, spices, dye, silk or incense, prioritize calendar. With less, the investment is
really too important.
• If you miss some happiness (in the early game, getting +5 or +6 happiness is nice, including buildings), tech
to monarchy. Even more if you have wine. In any case, you will want it at some point or another, because it
can get you a net 2 or 3 happiness bonus in every of your cities.
2.8 Horizontal expansion
After your first four cities, you want to continue expanding: in CIV, land is power. But this time, instead of building
the workers and settlers aggressively in your capital, build them at a slower pace in different cities. Cities which are
at their happy cap are good candidates since it halts their grow. The speed of expansion will vary, but a good rule
of thumb is that you can get as many cities as your happy cap (see section 2.7). For workers, at least one worker per
city is a minimum. More if you have jungle.
Expand towards your enemies first: these places are contested. You can fill your backyard later. The computer
will not settler behind your lines at first, so the backyard is safe. Also, continue to collect resources: they are priceless.
At some moment, you will have no place anymore to expand, so consider taking some cities from opponents if
you need them. When do you need them? If you can get 15 cities, it should be enough to win without too much
problem. Of course, more is also possible, especially if you target domination.
2.9 The future; winning ?
With such a setup, you should be in a good position to win either by domination/conquest or by space. Diplomacy
and culture need some specific strategies, so they are not covered here. As for time, no worry, you should win well
before 2050 !
Winning by space does not mean that you should not war, and winning by domination does not mean that you
should war endlessly. You may expand peacefully and tech towards space, war endlessly and win by domination, or
expand aggressively by war then tech to space, or expand in peace then war starting with planes and tanks... This
is up to you. But 15 cities should give you a good setup to win by either way.
The following sections cover more general topics, which should help you take decisions after the first phase of the
game. Since there are too many possibilities depending on terrain, neighbors, resources, geography... in CIV, it is
impossible to give a strict guide about everything. Even the previous strategy proposed has weakness, that I hope
you will be able to find as you progress.
3 City management
3.1 Types of cities
We can basically sort cities in three kinds:
• Commerce cities: dedicated to produce science and gold.
• Production cities: dedicated mainly to build military. Having one for each 3 or 4 commerce cities is nice.
• GP farm: a very specific kind of city, dedicated to produce (”farm”) Great People. One is enough, but you can
ignore it at first if you want.
5
6. 3.2 Placement
Automation: semi
This is a very vast and important topic, you can search the war academy on www.civfanatics.com for more
information on that if you want some. Even experts often disagree on that. However, here are a few simple rules
that should be enough for now:
• You may take the computer’s indications as hints, but think for yourself before you make a decision to place a
city. Especially because the computers shows you locations near your settlers, not where you want your new
city, and because the computer is bad at taking into account the placement of existing or future cities.
• Always one food resource per city, if not two, or flood plains.
• Prioritize green land and flood plains over other types of lands, at least before biology.
• Gather different resources.
• Rivers are a great plus; freshwater from lake or oasis is still nice. A coastal access is good, but ocean tiles are
lame, so be careful. Land tiles are still superior to sea tiles generally.
• For a production city, freshwater, or coastal access if impossible, is necessary: you need health to offset the
unhealthiness from production buildings, and freshwater access for farms. A river is great since it allows you
later to build a levee.
• For a production city, you need production tiles: mines or resources at first, but then, as you get two of
chemistry/guilds/caste system, any tile is ok since you can lay down workshops that give flat grassland the
same output as grassland hills. Ex-jungle cities along rivers can make very powerful production cities.
• For a commerce city, food is very important: you want to work cottages, not farms. So green land and flood
plains are a priority. Brown land (plains, tundra...) is very bad for a commerce city.
• For a GP-farm, 3 food resources is a bare minimum. Basically, you want to produce a maximum of food with
a minimum of population.
3.3 Builds
Automation: none
Expanding your borders should be the first thing to do in a new city. If you are not creative, this means on of
those, from best to worse (this order is a little bit subjective but should be enough for now):
• Bring a missionary of your state religion (or any religion if you do not have a state one)
• Hire an artist under caste system
• Build culture (with music, if you have enough production)
• Building a building generating culture (monument, library, theater...)
Growing your city should be you second priority. As soon as you have a good happy and healthy cap, a granary
is the most important build you can make to a city (if their ever was a building necessary to every city, that would
be the granary). Then, buildings increasing your happy and health cap are also important, but do not build them if
you do not need them.
After that, it depend on what kind of city you are dealing with. For a production city, a barracks, then production
multipliers are the most important (forge, factory, power source, levee, heroic epic, ironworks). If you want to build
mounted, naval or air units, respectively a stable, drydock or airport is also important. Then units. ONLY units.
Every other building is a waste of resources.
For a commerce city, any building beyond culture, growth and science/gold building is unimportant. As for
science or gold building, you can check easily which one is most important: let’s say that you have a city producing
16 beakers and 4 gold, and costing you 8 gold of maintenance. You can build a library (90 hammers), a market
(150 hammers) or a courthouse (120 hammers). With a library, you produce 25% more beakers: 4 beakers. With a
market, 25% more gold: 1 gold; with a courthouse, you save 50% of maintenance: 4 gold. Here, it’s not hard to see
6
7. that a library if preferred, then a courthouse, and then a market. Do not forget that gold and science production
also depends on your slider !
For a GP farm, you only need buildings to help growth, improve you health/happy cap, and to get specialists
slots (library, temples, market, forge, grocer, observatory, theater...). If you are in Caste System, you do not even
need the latter.
3.4 Managing citizens
Automation: complete
Except for your first cities and citizens, you can automate your citizens. For that, use the governor: the buttons
controlling it are on the left of the mini-map, on the bottom of the city screen. There are six of them: emphasize
food, production, commerce, science, great people, and halt growth. Never use the last one: you will forget it too
often and wonder why your cities do not grow !
In a commerce city, emphasize food and commerce, and when the city reaches its happy cap (you usually notice
that when you get your first unhappy citizen), emphasize commerce and science. In a production city, emphasize
food and production, and when the city reaches its happy cap, emphasize production only. Finally, in a GP farm,
emphasize food and great people, and when the city reaches its happy cap, great people only (at some time, you may
also tick emphasize science: great scientists are arguably some of the most powerful great people).
3.5 Managing workers
Automation: complete
Similar to citizens, except for your first cities, you can automate your workers: with the governor settings used
for managing citizens, bring a worker to a city and set him to ”automate nearest city”. Just be careful with jungle
cities: workers have a tendency to chop jungle before building improvements, while the latter are more important.
When you feel more confident, you may control your workers yourself. But for now, this is not necessary.
4 Teching
Automation: none
Since you will want either to pursue a peaceful or a military victory, we could say that you want to tech to
militaristic techs or economy ones. But in fact, often there are times in a peaceful game where you’re at war, and
some peaceful times in an all-war game. So we’ll talk about periods here, and give for each period some techs to
prioritize. While at peace, tech to development techs. When at war or some time before a war (yes, it requires some
planning), tech to military techs. When I say prioritize, I mean it: go to them the quickest way possible, don’t make
any detour ! Don’t research aesthetics when you want catapults for instance.
• Very early military: Archery; Bronze working, Animal Husbandry; The Wheel (needed in both cases: for
hooking the resource, and to build chariots if you get horses)
• Very early development: Worker techs, Pottery
• Early military: Iron working, Construction, Horseback Riding
• Early development: Writing, Alphabet, Currency, Code of Laws; Calendar and monarchy for happiness
• Middle game military: Machinery, Feudalism, Civil Service, Engineering
• Middle game development: Civil service, Metal Casting, Optics
• Late middle-game military: Guilds, Gunpowder
• Late middle-game development: Education, Astronomy, Printing Press, Banking, Economics
• Renaissance military: Rifling, Chemistry, Military science, Military tradition, Steel
• Renaissance development: Constitution, Democracy, Steam power
• Industrial military: Assembly line, Artillery, Combustion, Industrialism, Flight, Fascism, Radio
7
8. • Industrial development: Biology, Assembly line, Electricity
• Modern time military: Advanced flight, Robotics, Composite
• Modern time development: irrelevant at this time, because either you’re pursuing domination and you need to
focus on military, or you’re pursuing space, in which case:
• Modern time space: Rocketry, Superconductors, Satellites, Composite, Fusion, Genetics, Ecology
5 Warring and the army
Whether you pursue a peaceful or a military victory, having a good military is important. It helps avoiding to be
declared on by the AI, helps you when you’re declared on, and helps you in case of urgent change of plans if you
need to invade someone.
5.1 Military in time of peace
Each city should have at least one military units for garrison (and happiness when you are in hereditary rule).
Depending on the position of the city and its need for happiness, you will need between 1 and 5 military units per
city, usually 2 or 3. Use cheap defensive units for that purpose (archers, longbows, muskets, rifles...).
You also need an army somewhere, both to boost your power rating and to answer in case you are invaded: having
defensive units is not enough, being able to smack the enemy stack while it approaches is very important. An army
of this kind (a ”defensive” army) can have the following composition: a few stack defenders (around 10% of your
stack: archers, spears, pikes, crossbows, machine guns...), not more because after all you have the benefit of being in
your land; some siege engines (around 20%), needed to wound the ennemy before you can attack him; fast moving
units (cavalry mostly, around 30%) to be able to answer quickly to every need; and finally high strength attackers
(40% of your stack, swords, musket, rifles...) because at some moment you need to smack the ennemy stack.
5.2 The goal of a war
Having a goal is a war is necessary: you do not war for nothing. You war for resources, to expand, to defend yourself,
to gain a particular city... Never for nothing. When your goal is attained, you can stop the war. This is very
important, so do not forget it: stop the war when you do not need it any more. The goal may change during the
war, but do not forget it.
5.3 Ages for war
There are several moments when you can war, and some are more easy than others. You may also consider your
unique units, which will emphasize some periods more than others.
• Rush: you should not have to war at the very early game, except if you are really boxed in (that is, if you
cannot get more than 1 or 2 cities). If you have to, forget the early plan, get a settler and a second worker out
asap after the first worker, tech the wheel, connect copper or horses, build barracks and 8-10 axes or chariots
and attack the enemy.
• Early war: catapults, swords, horse archers and/or axes should be the bulk of your army. Archers, axes and
spears are your defenders.
• Middle age war: macemen, swords, knights, trebuchets and/or catapults should be your main attackers. Long-
bows, crossbows, pikes... are your defenders. This is one of the toughest period since you face one of the
best defender of the game - longbows - and beside slavery you do not have any good production accelerator.
Trebuchets are your main advantage to capture cities.
• Renaissance: depending on where you are on the tech tree, rifles, grenadiers, cannons and/or cuirassiers/cavalry
should be the bulk of your army. At this point, your best units also usually are good defenders. This is one of
the easiest period to wage war, both because the jump in strength between medieval units and rifles/canons is
very high, and because drafting comes into play, which allows you to accelerate the creation of your army and
to exploit your tech advantage the quickest way possible.
8
9. • Industrial and modern war: this is very hard to say what your stacks will be composed of, because there are
many possible paths: prioritize artillery with old rifles/grenadiers, or Infantry with old cannons, include tanks,
air units... When bombers come into play, they may very well take the role of your siege engines to help keep
with the pace of tanks (first 2-movement unit of the era, and great city-busting unit). With levees and factories
coming into play as well as universal suffrage, it is very easy to raise an army in no time, even from commerce
cities.
5.4 Preparations
When you plan for war or react to one, switch into total war mode: do not build anything which is not related to
the war until it is over! That means units, XP or production buildings, buildings to deal with war weariness... Even
your commerce cities should participate. In fact, do not switch out of this mode until you have at least rebuilt your
forces to a decent level: you do not want to stop the war exhausted and find yourself attacked by an opportunistic
AI.
When you plan to take some enemy cities, tech to get a military advantage before that. You can do without, but
life is so much simpler with one.
5.5 Promoting units
First rule of thumb: do not promote units until you know what promotions you will need. This often means: do not
promote units until before the fight. If you fear attacks, promote your stack defenders in priority. Also, be aware
that promoting a unit heals it from half its current damages, one more reason to postpone it.
For now, you may follow the following simple rules: promote city defenders with city garrison and drill, and city
attackers with city raider (if you can) and combat. Stack defenders should get promotions such as shock, cover,
pinch... or guerrilla, woodsman. Also try to get one medic per stack, who will get combat, medic 1 and medic 2 (if
you can create a super medic unit with a great general and medic 3 this is the best). Weak fast moving units make
the best medics.
5.6 Capturing cities
When you move to attack cities, groups your units in stacks. Of course they will be more vulnerable to collateral
damage, but they will be much less vulnerable overall. One stack is usually good, but if you have really overwhelming
forces or need to attack some lightly defended cities separately, you may separate your forces into several stacks.
An attacking stack should be composed approximately of 20% of stack and city defenders (needed so that you
do not arrive near the cities in peaces), with the rest being at least half of siege units, and the remaining being your
main attackers (swords, maces, knights, rifles...).
When you arrive near the city, first begin by bombarding the city defenses to 0%, then attack with siege units to
inflict collateral damages. You will very often face at some moment odds of more than 95% for your best attackers,
at which point you can attack. If your best units already have great odds at the beginning, you may skip the
bombarding phase. Do not forget to move some defensive units in the city when you have taken it; if you plan to
keep it obviously.
Which rises the next question: should you keep or raze the cities you capture? Of course this should be part
of your war plan, so do not go attacking cities without thinking about that first. You will usually keep cities when
they are well developed (more than 5-6 citizens with some improvements) and your economy can handle them. Bad
placement is an argument to raze them, but do not forget to bring a settler to get a better city in this case. Cities
with wonders and/or holy cities are usually worth keeping.x
5.7 Managing war weariness
At some point (especially in modern wars), you will be struck by war weariness, and your citizens will refuse to work.
To counter that, two ways. The first is to get war weariness reducers: jails, Mont Rushmore, or police state. The
second is to get happiness boosters: obviously you may get more happiness resources or build happiness buildings,
but one very simple way to deal immediately and temporarily with lots of war weariness all across your empire is
to use the culture slider; when you get the tech theater, you can raise it: each 10% gives one happiness in every
city, with another one if the city has a theatre or a broadcast tower, and another one for each 20% with a coloseum.
Often, you will in fact see your science output raise when you up the culture slider, because many citizens will go
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10. back to work. This makes of theatre a very important tech to wage war: with a theatre, a colloseum and 20% in the
culture slider, it is an immediate 5 happiness boost. ANd when the war ends, you can put back the slider to 0%.
6 Other important topics
6.1 Civics
6.1.1 Government
Switch to hereditary rule asap. Later, when you have more happiness sources (from expansion, buildings or trade),
you can switch to representation. Switch to police state in the case of a long modern war, and to Universal Suffrage
for the space race, when you have enough towns and need production.
6.1.2 Legal
If possible, cottage your capital so you can benefit from the powerful bureaucracy, otherwise vassalage. In the case
of long wars, switch to vassalage, nationhood when you can (at least for the upkeep and the happiness boost; don’t
hesitate to toy with drafting when you can get rifles or better); otherwise, when you have enough towns (15-20),
switch to free speech
6.1.3 Labour
If you’re spiritual, switch to slavery only when you need it, alternating with serfdom and caste. Otherwise, switch to
slavery as soon as you need it (see section 6.4 for more informations). When emancipation kicks in, whip what you
need and adopt it.
6.1.4 Economy
Free market will usually benefit you more than mercantilism, unless all your trading partners adopted mercantilism
themselves. State property will be a life-saver if you war and expand a lot, but remember you can’t get corps with
it.
6.1.5 Religion
If you have a state religion and are not in a state of war, or preparing for a way, adopting organized religion is a good
idea. If you war, theocracy. You can forget about pacifism, it is quite difficult to exploit. If you have no religion,
cannot get one, or if its interest diminishes because of other leaders adopting free religion, switch to free religion
yourself: it will help you. Free religion is also great if you lack happiness, but don’t forget to build monasteries before
scientific method.
6.2 Religion
Do not adopt a state religion if you will piss several leaders while doing so. On the contrary, adopt one to make
yourself friends. Be careful that the other leaders may change their religions, so do not adopt a religion to please a
leader who will change soon after that.
If you get the Apostolic Palace’s religion in one of your cities, either let it in a few cities or spread it everywhere:
this way you can have a certain level of control of it, and you can get the production boosts from temples and
monasteries.
6.3 Diplomacy
Religion is an major aspect of diplomacy, but one of the most important aspect of diplomacy is the following: you
cannot please everyone! There will always be some jerk coming and asking you to stop trading with his worst enemy.
So make a chart of people you will please and of ”others”. Rework that chart if necessary if the civ you want to
please are in conflict. One good thing also is to make sure that other leaders always hate another one more than you.
Do what you can to please the AI leaders: open borders, accept their demands if they don’t hurt you too much,
and don’t hesitate to gift techs. You will be better than them later on. Trade also: resources, techs... Everything is
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11. good to take; and don’t expect fair trades from the AI. But since you can get positive diplo modifiers in exchange,
that’s good!
When you can, trade resources with the AI: do it with leaders whom you know will be reliable, and if possible,
who are not worst enemies of other leaders. You can get important missing happiness and health resources that way.
As for strategic resources, you should try to get them yourself: the AI values them too much.
6.4 Slavery: dealing with unhappiness
Slavery is a very important civic. Since you will give priority to food resources and green land, you should find
yourself regularly with unhappy citizens. When you are, using slavery and sacrificing population to hurry buildings
or units is a great way to both solve the problem and give you production, especially in commerce cities who lack
from it.
For it to be useful, just use the following simple rules: do not whip wonders (too costly), do not make 1-population
whip (except perhaps for buildings giving happiness), and do not whip more than 2 happy citizens at a time (if you
have two unhappy citizens in a city, do not whip over 4 citizens). Finally, do not whip without a granary in the city,
except perhaps for this granary, for a monument in the early game, or in case of urgency.
6.5 Watery maps
We can sort map scripts into three kinds: Mono-continent maps like pangea, lakes, inland sea..., multiple continents
map like continents, hemispheres... and island maps, like archipelago, big and small... Obviously, it also depends of
your situation. You could be in the middle of a continent with lots of islands around or on the coast of an inland
sea. But we can state some basic rules, sometimes overriding the previous ones:
• You start with fishing and a starting position full of sea resources but no land resources other than forests;
build a Work Boat while teching to Bronze Working and growing to size 2; build a worker at size 2, and chop
the remaining WB. If you have land resources without the need to chop, prioritize a worker and the land before
a WB.
• You are in an area full of small islands: prioritize sailing for trade routes and for galleys. Don’t hesitate to build
several of them: You need to explore and to settle the best ones before the AI does. Also, you can specialize
cities less. A work boat makes a fair first explorer (it’s cheap!). Try to get around the world, the +1 movement
bonus will be handy in this kind of map. Finally, you will usually need less workers, since you have less tiles to
improve.
• There is at least another continent: get optics quickly to have a look at the other continent and know the
situation there. Get Astronomy quickly for resource trading and juicy trade routes.
7 Less important topics
7.1 World Wonders, aka ”Oooooh, shiny !”
Wonders can be very powerful if you know how to exploit them, and can be a lifesaver in some cases, but at difficulty
level below prince you should not need any to be able to win. If you want to build some go for it, especially if you
are industrious, but do it with a purpose and do not give it too much resources: you would better expand yourself or
work on your economy before toying with wonders. Resist to their ”Oooooh, shiny!” aspect, this is a trap in which
fall lots of beginners.
7.2 National wonders
In some aspects, national wonders are more worth considering than world wonders. If you can, and especially if you
are industrious (you get a discount on them too), you should try to build the following:
• Oxford university: in your city with the best raw science output. Usually your best commerce city.
• Heroic epic: in one of your best production city.
• Wall street: if you have a city with a good shrine, you can put wall street in it. Later, if you have corporations,
build their HQ in your wall street city: that way you should be ale to win money from them.
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12. • National epic: if you have a GP farm, build it imperatively in it.
• Ironworks: build it in one of your best production city. You can in the late game dedicate this city to building
wonders (Cristo redentor, Hit wonders, Pentagon, Kremlin...) and projects, especially Apollo and spaceship
parts if you go towards space race.
7.3 Espionage
There are many things to do with espionage, but you can safely ignore it if you want. Just build some espionage
buildings (jail, intelligence agency, security bureau) when you get the techs and you are all set.
If however you want to toy a little bit with it: use the espionage advisor screen to divert your EP towards your real
enemies (you do not need to know much about the last in score). Reaching the thresholds of ”see demographics” and
”see research” is nice. Otherwise, you may also build a few spies and either station them in your cities to help thwart
enemy spies, or use some of the missions in your enemies cities: when you are at war, using a spy for the ”perform
counter-espionage” mission before you start it is nice, as well as the city revolt mission, which brings defenses down
for one turn if it succeeds. Finally, if you have a massive espionage boost against a leader, you may also steal techs
from him.
7.4 Great people
Except if you build a GP farm and with the exception of Great Generals, you should not get much Great People.
Even if they are very powerful, you do not need them to win now, and it is more difficult to exploit their potential.
Here are some guidelines for if you get any:
• Bulbing a tech can be efficient if you need it, before industrial times (after, then don’t bulb a lot of the tech).
• Golden ages can be useful for changing civics (in BTS and if you’re not spiritual) and in the late game, especially
for space race.
• Corporations: Don’t hesitate to toy with them, but don’t forget courthouses in cities where you spread them,
and don’t spread them to your opponents.
• Prophets: build shrine if worthwhile (not a shrine for 1 city), otherwise settle in the future wall street city.
• Engineers: Rush a wonder if you like it. Otherwise settle in a production city.
• Scientists: build academies in your best commerce cities (capital first if you’re running bureaucracy). If you
have Oxford University, settle them there after an academy.
• Artists: keep for culture bombing, corporations or golden ages.
• Merchants: run a trade mission to fund upgrades or universal suffrage; otherwise, settle in future wall street
city.
• Spy: settle the first, Scotland yard in the same city the second, settle the rest; or if you want to toy with it,
infiltrate an opponent (worthwhile until renaissance age approximately).
• General: if you’re warring, make a super medic unit with the first one; otherwise and for the next, settle them
into military cities (1 in each is nice because it allows you to get 5 xp with a barracks, enough for a promotion
without the need of vassalage or theocracy).
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