civilization the ultimate brain game

Civilization: The Ultimate Brain Game

by

I’ve always seen Civilization as more than just a game. It’s a test of strategy, planning, and sheer mental grit. If you’re looking for the ultimate brain game, a rich and complex world where you can build an empire and forge a legacy, you’ve found it. It’s a game that challenges you to think, adapt, and conquer on a global scale.

I wanted to put together a guide that goes beyond the basic tips and gets into the real strategy that can help you dominate. We’ll dive into the different ways to win, the art of city planning, the tactics of war, and the nuances of diplomacy. It’s time to move past the beginner stage and start thinking like a master strategist. The world is waiting for you.

The First 100 Turns: Building Your Foundation

The first 100 turns of Civilization are critical. Every decision you make in this early phase can impact the rest of your game. The main goal is to build a strong foundation for the empire you’re about to create.

The Art of the Settle: Location, Location, Location

Your first city, the capital, is the heart of your new empire. Where you place it is probably the most important decision you’ll make in the early game. Don’t rush it. Take a few turns to analyze your starting location and find a spot with the best resources and geography.

A great spot for a capital will have:

  • Fresh Water: A city next to a river, lake, or oasis gets a big housing bonus, which means faster population growth right from the start. Growth is power.
  • High Food Yields: Look for tiles with plenty of food like wheat, rice, or fish. More food means a faster-growing population, which lets you work more tiles and expand your city’s output. A tile with 2 food and 2 production is the gold standard early on.
  • Production Potential: Hills and forests are your best friends for production. Hills give you a base of two production, which is vital for building units, districts, and wonders quickly. Chopping down forests can give you an instant production boost, which is a great tactic to rush out a critical settler or wonder.
  • Luxury Resources: Getting at least one luxury resource early is key to keeping your growing population happy (amenities). A happy city is a productive city.

For example: You start with a settler and a warrior. Instead of settling right away, move your warrior a tile or two in each direction to see what’s around you. You might find a spot next to a river with two wheat resources and a hill nearby. Settling there, instead of on a flat plains tile, will give you a huge head start.

The Initial Build Order: A Symphony of Production

Once your capital is founded, what you choose to build first is crucial. A good build order sets a strong pace for your early development. While you should always adapt to your situation, here’s a solid general build order:

  1. Scout: Your first build should almost always be a scout. Information is a resource, and a scout can explore the map quickly, finding tribal villages (goody huts), natural wonders, city-states, and your rivals.
  2. Slinger: After the scout, a slinger gives you much-needed defense against barbarians. You can upgrade it to a powerful archer once you research Archery.
  3. Settler: Getting your first settler out should be a high priority. The saying “expand or die” is true in Civilization. Try to have your second city founded by turn 50 on standard speed. This city should also be in a strategic spot to grab valuable resources or a key defensive position.
  4. Builder: Once your second city is up, a builder can start improving the tiles around your capital to boost its food, production, or gold.

For example: Your scout finds a tribal village and gets 20 gold. You can use this early gold to buy a tile with a valuable resource or to upgrade your slinger to an archer as soon as you have the tech. This immediate power boost can be the difference between fighting off barbarians and losing your first settler.

The Five Paths to Glory: Mastering the Victory Conditions

Civilization gives you multiple ways to win, each fitting a different style of play and needing a unique strategy. A great player knows how each one works and can switch between them as the game changes.

Domination Victory: The Way of the Sword

The most straightforward path to victory. You need to be the last one holding your original capital, which means conquering the capital of every other civilization. This path is all about relentless military expansion, smart tactics, and managing your logistics.

Core Principles:

  • Early Aggression: To win a domination game, you have to be proactive. Find a weak neighbor and start an early war to grab territory and cripple a rival before they become a threat. Civilizations with strong early unique units, like the Aztec Eagle Warrior or the Roman Legion, are great for this.
  • The Science of War: Don’t ignore science. A tech advantage in military units is often the deciding factor in a war. Rushing key military techs like Iron Working, Siege Tactics, and eventually Combined Arms is essential.
  • Unit Composition: A balanced army is a winning army. You need a mix of melee units to take cities, ranged units to bombard defenses, and siege units to break down walls. Later in the game, a strong air force and navy are necessary for global conquest.

For example: You’re playing as Alexander the Great of Macedon. His unique abilities make him an early-game powerhouse. You build a force of Hypaspists and Hetairoi and target a nearby civilization. By quickly taking their cities, you not only expand your empire but also get a big science and culture boost from his “To the World’s End” ability, launching you ahead of everyone else.

Science Victory: Reaching for the Stars

The Science Victory is a race to be the first to establish a colony on Mars. It’s a path that rewards long-term planning, maximizing your science output, and playing defensively.

The Road to Mars:

  1. Launch an Earth Satellite: This is the first step and requires the Rocketry technology.
  2. Land a Man on the Moon: The next step requires the Satellites technology.
  3. Establish a Mars Colony: The final phase involves launching three modules: a reactor, a habitat, and a hydroponics module. These require the Robotics, Nuclear Fission, and Nanotechnology technologies.

Key Strategies:

  • Campus Adjacency: The Campus district is your science engine. Maximize its output by placing it next to mountains and rainforests. Certain policy cards can double these bonuses, giving you huge science yields.
  • Great Scientists: Actively go after Great Scientists. They can give you instant tech boosts, free libraries and universities, or big increases to your science per turn.
  • Production Powerhouses: The late-game space projects are incredibly expensive to build. You’ll need at least one, and preferably several, highly productive cities with Industrial Zones and Factories to finish them in time.

For example: Playing as Scotland, you can use Robert the Bruce’s “Scottish Enlightenment” ability, which gives you bonus science and production when your cities are happy. You can focus on building a strong economy to keep your cities ecstatic, while carefully planning your Campus districts around mountain ranges. The synergy between your leader’s ability and your district placement creates unstoppable science momentum.

Culture Victory: The Power of Influence

You win a Culture Victory when you have more visiting tourists from every other civilization than they have domestic tourists of their own. It’s a victory of ‘soft power’—making your civilization so impressive that the world wants to visit.

The Mechanics of Tourism:

  • Culture vs. Tourism: Culture is your defense. The more culture you generate, the more domestic tourists you have. Tourism is your offense. You generate tourism from Great Works of Art, Music, and Writing, as well as from artifacts, relics, wonders, and national parks.
  • Theming Bonuses: Museums get a big tourism bonus if they’re filled with Great Works or artifacts from different artists or civilizations, but of the same type. Planning your Great Person generation and archaeological digs to get these bonuses is key.
  • Rock Bands and Seaside Resorts: In the late game, you can send Rock Bands to other civilizations to perform concerts, which generates massive bursts of tourism. Seaside Resorts and National Parks also provide a steady stream of tourism based on the appeal of the tiles they’re on.

For example: As Kristina of Sweden, you can use her “Bibliophile” ability, which grants theming bonuses for wonders and buildings with Great Work slots. You can focus on building the Apadana and the Bolshoi Theatre, filling them with Great Works as fast as possible. You can also trade for Great Works from other civilizations to complete your theming bonuses, creating a cultural powerhouse that draws tourists from all over the world.

Religious Victory: The Word of God

A Religious Victory is won when your religion is the main faith (followed by over 50% of the cities) in every civilization in the game. It’s a battle for hearts and minds, fought with missionaries and apostles instead of swords.

The Path to Global Conversion:

  1. Found a Pantheon and a Religion: You first need to earn a Great Prophet to found a religion. This is a race, as there are a limited number of them. Building a Holy Site and its buildings is the main way to generate the faith and Great Prophet points you need.
  2. Beliefs Matter: The beliefs you choose for your religion define its strengths. Some boost your faith generation, others make your missionaries stronger, and some even give combat bonuses.
  3. Theological Combat: When your religious units (Apostles and Inquisitors) move onto the same tile as a religious unit from another faith, theological combat begins. Winning these battles damages your opponent’s religious presence in the area.

For example: Playing as Saladin of Arabia, you can use his “Righteousness of the Faith” ability, which makes your worship buildings cheaper and gives you bonus science, faith, and culture. You can secure an early religion and choose the “Mosque” worship building, which gives an extra spread of your religion. Then you can train a wave of Apostles with the “Debater” promotion, which gives them a combat bonus in theological combat, and send them out to convert the world.

Diplomatic Victory: The Art of Persuasion

Introduced in the Gathering Storm expansion, a Diplomatic Victory is achieved by getting 20 Diplomatic Victory Points. It’s a win for statesmanship, building alliances, and skillfully using the World Congress.

Earning Diplomatic Victory Points:

  • World Congress Resolutions: The World Congress meets regularly to vote on global resolutions. Voting with the majority earns you one Diplomatic Victory Point.
  • Wonders and Technologies: Certain wonders, like the Mahabodhi Temple and the Statue of Liberty, grant Diplomatic Victory Points when completed. Some late-game technologies and civics also provide points.
  • Emergencies and Competitions: Successfully completing a scored competition or an aid request emergency often rewards you with Diplomatic Victory Points.

Key Strategies:

  • Diplomatic Favor: This is the currency of the World Congress. You get it from your government, alliances, and by being the suzerain of city-states. A large stockpile of Diplomatic Favor lets you sway votes your way.
  • Predicting the AI: Learn the voting patterns of the AI leaders. They often vote in predictable ways, which lets you consistently vote with the majority and rack up points.
  • The Late-Game Push: In the late game, a resolution will appear that can grant a player two Diplomatic Victory Points or make them lose them. If you’re in the lead, the AI will likely vote for you to lose points. A smart move is to vote against yourself, as losing one point (after gaining one for voting with the majority) is better than potentially losing two.

For example: As Wilfrid Laurier of Canada, you can use his “Four Faces of Peace” ability to generate extra Diplomatic Favor from tourism and by completing emergencies. You can focus on building strong alliances and becoming the suzerain of many city-states to create a massive income of Diplomatic Favor. In the World Congress, you can use your favor to make sure you’re on the winning side of every vote, steadily gathering the points you need for a peaceful victory.

Advanced Concepts for the Aspiring Emperor

Once you’ve got the basics down, you need to understand the more complex systems to truly master the game.

District Adjacency: The Puzzle of Urban Planning

Districts are the specialized centers of your cities, and placing them correctly is like solving a puzzle that gives you huge bonuses. Each specialty district gets adjacency bonuses for being next to certain other districts, terrain, or resources.

  • Campuses: Get +1 Science for every adjacent mountain tile.
  • Holy Sites: Get +1 Faith for every adjacent natural wonder tile.
  • Commercial Hubs: Get +2 Gold for every adjacent river tile.
  • Industrial Zones: Get +1 Production for every adjacent mine or quarry.
  • Theater Squares: Get +1 Culture for every adjacent wonder.

For example: You’re planning a new city and you see a spot with a mountain range, a river, and several hills. By placing your city center carefully, you can create a “diamond” of districts: a Campus next to the mountains, a Commercial Hub on the river, and an Industrial Zone surrounded by hills you’ll later mine. This kind of planning will result in a city that’s a powerhouse of science, gold, and production.

Managing Your Empire: Amenities and Loyalty

As your empire gets bigger, you’ll have to manage the happiness (amenities) and loyalty of your people.

  • Amenities: Every citizen in your empire wants amenities, which are mostly provided by luxury resources. Each unique luxury resource provides one amenity to up to four cities. A lack of amenities leads to unhappiness, which hurts your city’s growth and productivity.
  • Loyalty: Introduced in the Rise and Fall expansion, loyalty measures a city’s allegiance to you. A city with low loyalty can rebel and become a free city, or even flip to another civilization. Loyalty is affected by how close it is to your other cities, the presence of a governor, and various policy cards and wonders.

For example: You’ve just conquered an enemy city on another continent. It’s far from your capital and has low loyalty. To stop it from rebelling, you should immediately assign a governor to the city for a big loyalty boost. You can also move a military unit into the city to garrison it, which increases loyalty further. Finally, make sure the city has access to your empire’s luxury resources to keep its citizens happy and loyal.

The Era Score: Weaving a Golden Age

The Rise and Fall expansion brought in the Era Score, which you earn by achieving ‘Historic Moments.’ These can be anything from sailing all the way around the world to building a wonder or converting a city to your religion for the first time. Earning enough Era Score in an era will start a Golden Age, giving you powerful bonuses. If you don’t earn enough, you’ll enter a Dark Age, which has penalties but also offers unique policy cards that can lead to a Heroic Age if you can manage to get a Golden Age in the next era.

For example: You’re near the end of the Classical Era and just a few points away from a Golden Age. You see that you’re close to researching a tech that lets you build a new wonder. You can shift your city’s production to finish that wonder just before the era ends, earning you the last few Era Score points you need to enter a glorious Golden Age and pick a powerful dedication for the next era.

The Final Word: Your Reign Begins

Civilization is a journey. Every game is a unique story waiting to be told, and every decision matters. The knowledge in this guide is a great starting point, but it’s your own creativity and strategic thinking that will lead you to victory.

I’ve armed you with the principles of empire-building, the secrets to victory, and some hard-won wisdom. Now it’s your turn. Go and build a civilization that will stand the test of time. Your reign begins now.