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Civilizations and leaders Units Buildings Technologies Social policies Game concepts
Civilizations Units Buildings Technologies Social policies Game concepts
Wonders Terrain Resources DLC Gods & Kings Brave New World
Wonders Terrain Resources DLC Gods & Kings Brave New World

The Game

Sid Meier's Civilization V

Civ5logo

Developer: Firaxis Games
Publisher: 2K Games & Aspyr
Designer: Jon Shafer
Ed Beach
Scott Lewis
Game engine: Firaxis LORE
Released: Microsoft Windows
NA: September 21, 2010
EU: September 24, 2010
OS X
November 23, 2010
Linux, SteamOS
June 10, 2014
Game genre: Turn-based strategy game
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer
Ratings: ESRB: Everyone 10+
PEGI: 12
Platform/Format: Windows

Macintosh

Game Media: CD 2, DVD 1
System Requirements:
Game Input: Mouse, keyboard

Sid Meier's Civilization V is a turn-based strategy game released on September 21, 2010. The game's first expansion pack, Gods & Kings, was released on June 19, 2012 in North America and June 22, 2012 elsewhere. A second expansion, Brave New World, was released on July 9, 2013 in North America and July 12, 2013 elsewhere.

Civilizations and Leaders

There are eighteen civilizations available from the start of Civilization V, and seven additional civilizations are made available later through several small DLC add-ons. Nine more civilizations were added with the Gods & Kings expansion pack, and nine other civilizations were added with the Brave New World expansion pack, bringing the total number of civilizations to 43, the greatest number of civilizations that has ever been available in any Civilization game.

This is the first incarnation of the series where the leaders speak in their native language in a fully animated diplomacy screen. This only applies to the audio; all text is in the language selected.

Units

Civilization V has 87 units, ranging from military to civilian. Unlike in previous games, you can have only one unit of each type (Military/Civilian/Embarked) per hex. For example, you cannot have a Horseman and an Archer on one tile. This also applies to cities.

Most units can move 2 hexes (4 hexes for mounted units) and are no longer destroyed if they lose a battle, taking damage instead. You will be able to swap a unit out with one next to it during battle.

Units will take longer to produce than in previous games and as well as this they have upkeep costs associated with them, potentially reducing the number of units you can maintain at one time. The upkeep costs become more expensive the further you are into the game.

There are no longer troop transports. Instead, units instantly transform into makeshift floating transports when moving into water after certain research is completed.

City-States

One new concept in the game is the city-state - small countries usually limited to a single city, that don't compete to win the game. However, they can expand their territory and acquire the same resources as any player can. They provide economic and diplomatic bonuses if you befriend or ally them by doing quests or giving gifts. If you are hostile toward a city-state, other civilizations (friends of the city-states) will become hostile towards you.

Terrains

Standard-Earth-map

Earth-type map showing various terrain features as well as units, cities and city-states.

Plain terrains
Grassland, marsh, plains and desert
Cold terrains
Snow and tundra
High terrains
Mountains (are impassable to all units except helicopters and Carthaginian troops, after Carthage earns its first Great General) and hills (provide more defense and negate the effect of obstacles such as trees for ranged units)
Water terrains
Coast, ocean, lakes and rivers (affect those attacking across them and use up all movement points)
Forest/Jungles
There are several types of forests/jungles representing the four major land masses. Wounded units can hide and recover in trees/forests.

Civilization V also includes Natural Wonders which are automatically placed around the map. These wonders provide Happiness bonuses to any civilization that discovers them. Some of these natural wonders are: Old Faithful, Mount Fuji, Krakatoa, and the Great Barrier Reef. They also give additional bonuses to production and gold income when cities are founded near them or cover them with their territory.

Resources

There are three types of resources: strategic resources, luxury resources and bonus resources. If you have more than 1 luxury resource, you can trade the excess with other civilizations. However, the same does not hold true for strategic resources. A single iron deposit, for example, will yield between 2 to 9 iron resources letting you build up to 6 units that need 1 iron resource. Therefore taking as many strategic resources you can is a must to support large armies.

Improvements and Buildings

Civilization V has 71 buildings, 49 wonders, and 23 improvements. The number of unique buildings is included in the building count. Note that not every civ has a unique building: some have a unique improvement or two unique units instead.

Wonders come in the form of world wonders, national wonders and projects, just like in Civilization IV. The concept of tile improvements has been modified slightly: in addition to Workers and Work Boats, the Great People can now construct special improvements (or "bulb") too.

Great People's special tile improvements replace any improvements already built on them. Roads can go through these special improvements, and they automatically hook up any strategic resources on those tiles.

The building of these special improvements will consume the Great Person, eliminating him or her from the game.

Technologies and Research

Civilization V comes with 74 technologies divided into seven eras, from ancient era to future era.

Although technology trading has been removed, a new feature was added: making a research agreement. Two civilizations at peace can form one for an initial investment in gold, and as long as the two civilizations remain at peace, the research agreement will provide both of them with a research points boost after a set amount of turns. The amount of the research points equals half the median value of costs between the technologies available for this particular civilization. The amount of the research points could be increased with wonders and social policies. However, this can be used simply to make the other civilization spend money before declaring war. Even the AI is known to use this.

Social Policies

In Civilization V there is the ability to adopt social policies through accumulated culture. There are ten separate trees of social policies, and filling out five of the ten rewards the player with Cultural victory. Instead of switching one policy with another, some policies build on others. Each policy has its own bonuses, such as starting a Golden Age.

In Brave New World, there are also Ideologies - end-game uber Social Policies, which not only grant powerful bonuses, but also impact a civilization's standing in the world and its relations with other civilizations. Unlike Social Policies, Ideologies compete with each other on a world level.

Victory Conditions

Once again, there are many ways to achieve victory other than military conquest. You can win by focusing mainly on scientific research and be the first to assemble a space ship to Alpha Centauri. Diplomatic victory requires help from other Civilizations and City-States in the United Nations and the World Congress in later expansions. Cultural victory now requires to complete five out of ten of the social policy "trees" and completing the Utopia Project or becoming influential over other civilizations with tourism in the Brave New World expansion. Obviously, World Domination is an option, but the victory condition has been simplified compared to the other games. Rather than completely destroying the other civilizations, the player who gains control of all capitals wins. You can also win by having the highest score at the year 2050 AD.

Score

If no one wins the game by 2050 AD, then the game gives you a score based on:

  • The number of tiles within your borders
  • The number of cities in your empire
  • The number of people in your empire
  • The number of Social Policies you have adopted
  • The number of technologies you possess
  • The number of "Future Techs" you possess (as Future Tech is a repeatable technology)
  • The number of wonders you have constructed (contributes the most points towards victory)

Downloadable Content

Main article: DLC (Civ5)

There are multiple downloadable add-ons to Civilization V. This includes two expansion packs that add a massive amount of content including new civilizations, maps, scenarios, wonders, buildings, units, and gameplay elements. They are:

Aside from the two expansion packs, several additional add-ons are available to add a few more contents. These include:

  • Civilization and Scenario Pack: The Mongols - Installs automatically for free over Steam; Adds a civilization and a scenario
  • Babylon (Nebuchadnezzar II) - Adds one civilization
  • Cradle of Civilization - Mediterranean (Adds a map for custom games)
  • Cradle of Civilization - Asia (Adds a map for custom games)
  • Cradle of Civilization - Americas (Adds a map for custom games)
  • Cradle of Civilization - Mesopotamia (Adds a map for custom games)
  • Double Civilization and Scenario Pack: Spain and Inca (Adds two civilizations and a scenario)
  • Civilization and Scenario Pack: Polynesia (Adds a civilization and a scenario)
  • Civilization and Scenario Pack: Denmark - The Vikings (Adds a civilization and a scenario)
  • Explorer's Map Pack - Adds several maps for custom games
  • Civilization and Scenario Pack: Korea (Adds a civilization and a scenario)
  • Wonders of the Ancient World Scenario Pack (Adds three wonders and a scenario)
  • Scrambled Continents Map Pack - Adds several maps for custom games
  • Scrambled Nations Map Pack - Adds several maps for custom games

Scenarios

Civilization V has multiple scenarios to play. All of them require downloadable content to be available.

Achievements

The Steam version of the game comes with over a hundred achievements, ranging in scope from "Discover an ancient ruin" to "Beat the game on the Deity difficulty level". They are listed on a separate page, along with explanations of the myriad of references to other works that are included in the achievement names... and there are many.

Images

You can see a lot of Civilization V images on http://ve3d.ign.com/images/game/62125/PC/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-V

Previews

Reviews

Site/Magazine Score Author Date
Destructoid 9.5/10 Sean Carey 2010-09-17
The Escapist 5/5 Greg Tito 2010-09-17
Shacknews ? Brian Leahy 2010-09-17
GamingNexus A Tyler Sager 2010-09-17
Wired 8/10 John Mix Meyer 2010-09-17
Joystiq 5/5 Alexander Sliwinski 2010-09-17
Game Informer 9.75/10 Adam Biessener 2010-09-17
IGN 9/10 Anthony Gallegos 2010-09-20
PC Gamer 93/100 Dan Stapleton 2010-09-20
Gamespy 4/5 Eric Neigher

2010-09-21

Gamespot 9/10 Kevin VanOrd 2010-09-22

See Also

External Links

Civilization V [edit]
Gods & KingsBrave New World
Lists
Eras
Concepts
Miscellaneous
† Only in vanilla Civ5
‡ Only in Gods & Kings and Brave New World
Civilization Series
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Beyond Earth
Civ VI
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