The most fascinating game ever.

Scientists say that mankind first appeared before 40.000 to 60.000 years. So what did they do between this time and the time scientists date the remaining of early cultures, like the Egypt? The answer is simple, they were nomads, who weren't able to settle down, to build cities and to do agriculture, which seems to be necessary for building something up, that will last and that can develop. But this is even not enough, something else is required, that is important for a nation, a tribe or a civilization: A leader, a king, a parliament, someone who guides the people, who knows the goal and knows of his responsibility. When you want the fate of a nation to lie in your hands, and a political carrier takes too long in your opinion, then "Civilization" is offering the best situation: 4000 years BC, a tribe of 10.000 people and the future open for your dreams...

It won't be that easy, of course: Barbarians, diseases and the leaders of the other tribes standing in your way to build up a nation, that will stand the test of time. So be prepared...

BASIC RULES I: LANDSCAPE

The land is a very important side you always have to look at whether you move units, found cities, attack enemies or explore the world. In Civilization the landscape is set up as a grid of squares. Each square contains one of the following landscape types: Rivers, plains, prairies, woods, tropical woods, oceans, hills, mountains, swamps, deserts and ice-deserts.

Each terrain type has a certain movement value. The number of movement points a unit has, is reduced by the movement value of the terrain. If the unit doesn't have so much movement points, it can move by a chance that is movement points divided by movement value. Each unit can move at least one field per turn. The movement value can be reduced to 1/3 by building roads and to zero by building railways.

The land your cities are surrounded by is of course very important for their development. River and Sea offer good possibilities for trade, woods and hills provide good construction materials and plains can be worked on for food.

When military units battle each other, the defending unit always has the advantage of being able to use the defense value of the land it's on. Plains, prairies and the deserts don't offer any additional protection, while woods and hills offer 50%, swamps 100% and mountain 150% of additional protection towards the defensive value of the unit.

BASIC RULES II: CITIES

Cities are the sources of your power, they construct military units, increase your gold amount and push research forward.

The population of a city is represented by a number. One means 10.000 people, two means 10.000 + 20.000 = 30.000 people, tree means 10.000 + 20.000 + 30.000 = 60.000 people and so on. Each population unit needs two food units per turn and can be used as one workforce unit.

Each workforce can be placed within the city range, which is 5 x 5 square, without the 4 corner squares and with the city in the middle. A workforce placed onto a square of the map will produce each turn an amount of food, trade and resources that is determined by the landscape type and the improvements settlers(pioneers) have installed.

For each population number two food units are removed from the harvest of a turn. If there is more food produced than needed this surplus is stored. If you don't have enough food being produced to serve the citizens demand, they will take it from their stores. But if the stores are allready empty the population number will decrease one by one until you produce enough food again. On the other side if the amount of stored food exceed a certain level the size of the city increases and the stores are empty again, waiting to be filled up again. One of the most important buildings aims for this fact: Build a granary and each time the population number increases the stores aren't any more empty but 1/2 full, this means doubled city growth rate!Food is most produced on plains, prairies and rivers. By irrigating the ground, and building railway you can improve the number of food being produced.

Resources are all the sorts of materials that are used to construct building and units, they are represented by shields. Plains produce sometimes resources, Prairies always one shield, Woods two shields, hills, if a mine was build, three. The output of rescources increases by 50% when railroads have been built.

There is also trade in your cities, but there is an own chapter for that...

BASIC RULES III: TRADE

Trade is represented by two arrows, it is transformed into gold, research and luxuries, depending on your tax rates setting(e.g. you have 4 trade units, and 50% taxes, 25% research and 25% luxuries that will be 2 gold, 1 research point and 1 unit of luxuries). Trade can be earned by workforce on rivers, oceans or squares with roads on them and by setting up trade-routes with other cities, which should be as far away as possible, on an other continent, be as large as possible and be part of an other nation.

Gold is added to your treasury, if you don't have to pay for keep up any buildings. Gold offer quick reactions on all sorts of treats. When an enemy is heading up for an unprotected city and the phalanx-defense has just started being produced, you can spend your gold to finish the production and have a defense up, when the enemy gets in range. When you need a faster development in a town, gold is, if available, the solution, simply buy the required buildings.

As soon as you get research points, you can set up where your research should go. In the beginning of course there is very little to choose, perhaps "Alphabet", "Wheel" and "Pottery". When you made your choice the research is set up and as soon your cities earned enough points of research the advisor will tell you the benefits of the new technology. Most technologies offer new buildings, military units or further research topics(e.g. "Automobil"-research enables you to build tanks, "electronic" and "mathematic" offer together to research "Computers", and "Currency" enables to build a marketplace in each town).

Luxuries are needed whenever you citizens get upset, because the city is two much crowded, you don't offer enough amusement and religion, or there are too much soldiers from this town serving in your attack wars. Two units of luxuries turn an unhappy population unit to normal or a normal one to happy. If you have more unhappy people than happy ones, there will be a civil-war in the city, which means no gold, no production, no research, until the affair is settled.

BASIC RULES IV: WAR

There will come a time when you have to arm your nation, the reasons are not so important (winning the game, prevent an opponent to develop any further, revenge, or simple power), but I never played a Civ. game without a war. Now you need military units which have three statistics: Attack, Defense and Movement. If a battle occur, the computer calculates and only one of the units will survive. If you attack, your attack number is considered, if you are attacked the defense number. The terrain and experience of the troops are also called for the calculation process. When you attack more than one unit on open air and win, all enemy units will be destroyed, even tough you only had to fight the strongest one. If your enemy is in a city or fortress, it's not that way: You have to battle each enemy step by step, unless you don't have nukes (hehe).

There are three sorts of units: Air, sea and land units. Land units can only battle each other and move on solid ground. Sea units can attack sea and land units, and only move on sea square. Air units can attack anyone and move anywhere, but they have to return after one or two rounds to a friendly city or carrier ship for refueling.

BASIC RULES V: STRAGETY

When you play this game you have goals, these goals are usually (1) to win the game, (2) to achieve highest score, (3) to get the space-craft in direction for Alpha-Centauri(is 1+2 toghether). My strategy for achieve all of these goals sounds like this:

- Expansion, expansion, expansion and again expansion. The faster you expanse, the faster you have laid the ground for your power to develop. This means build cities as much as you can. To achieve this you have to do built one settler and then one building, one settler and then one building (or military unit)... .The buildings and military units are necessary, because each time you build a settler the population number is reduced by one. If you build with no limit, you would force the cities to disappear, because everybody has moved out of them.

- Technology is a primary goal! The technological benefits are that high, that it's simply a must to develop science as fast as possible. Attacking is connected to heavy losses unless you don't have an more avanced technology. If you and your enemy are equal with technology you need a much, much better infrastructure, i.d. faster transport connection to the front line, better production capacities in your cities and high gold income.

These technologies are the ones your research should aim for: Railroad (50% more food and resources), Automobil(tanks!!), Democracy (+1 trade on each field, no corruption, ultra-fast city growth.

- Don't waste resources on useless military units. Resources are very rare until railroad provides the big boost, so don't waste it!! Even one military unit in one city is in most chases too much! Why do you should waste more than 1/10 of the cities strenght on nothing??! If you look what you lose, when you have in each city only one defending unit over 50 turns, it makes up a hundred buildings. If an enemy approaches you can build up a defense or move a settler in for first defense, until military units have been trained.

- Don't get into any fights, except the beginning years, until you got tanks. Wars in medival times are like stepping on the break when trying to accelerate at the same time. It slows development, it forces you to change gold tax rates higher, i.d. lower research rates, it is waste of resources and the benefit is much too small. This means not that it is forbidden to overhelm a small opponent and so allow him to develope in peace. But never get in war with an opponent who is more than 50% your strenght. You may do that, when technology is up, when you can win by using intelligent combinations of air, sea and land forces to win by combat strategy, which the human player always is better in, but medival combat is just throwing forces on each other, no tactics, no benefit because of limited strenghts and movement ranges.

- When you want to make WAR concentrate on this: 1. Don't change your state form away from Democracy, because that would mean heavy loses in your gold budget. 2. Be sure that you have all technology you need for the war, don't get in combat, when the technology is just in development. Because it will definitly too long. 3. Concentrate on the capital. When the capital has fallen, chaos will come upon your enemy. No income, civil-wars and you the smiling winner. 4. Be conscious about city-walls. The are a real problem, even for tanks, so you have to come with a airial forces or artillery.

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Last update was on 22.02.98.