Civilization's Leader: Elizabeth
Civ Bonus: Sun Never Sets
All Naval Units get +2 extra movement. When Spies come in the Renaissance, England begins with two instead of the usual one.
Unique Unit: Longbowman
Requires Machinery, Replaces Crossbowman
The Longbowman gets +1 range over a regular Crossbowman, which is a huge bonus. This allows them to attack Cities without fear of retaliation and gives you more room for your melee close to the City being attacked.
Unique Unit: Ship of the Line
Requires Navigation, Replaces Frigate
The Ship of the Line is an upgraded version of the Frigate. They get +7 Ranged Strength (35), +5 Defense (30), and +1 Sight over the regular version.
Warmonger Hatred | Wonder Compete | Offense Build | Defense Build | City Defense | DoF | Friendly to Civs | Denounce Civs | War w/Civs | Deception Likelihood | CS Comp | CS War | |
7 | 5 | 3 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 6 | |
Other Info | England scores an 8 on Flavor_Naval and Ranged, and will naturally pursue a powerful Navy, with plenty of ranged units on the ground to protect their Cities from land and Sea. This tendency toward navy makes them likely to expand to nearby continents. They are middle-of-the-road as far as forming religion, trade routes, etc. | |||||||||||
Strategies/Ideas for playing England:
If you like naval warfare, Elizabeth is your woman. In fact, if you hate it you might not mind her either. It will let you get more 'mileage', or should I say knots, out of your fleet. The +2 movement is already incredible but their Ship of the Line unit will let them dominate the seas for quite a long time. On any map with loads of islands England is going to be very powerful. The Longbowman isn't bad either. The extra range gives him more opportunities for attack. Longbowman make good defenders, but overall England feels like a conquer and rule type of Civilization more than anything and given their two Unique Units' combat prowess and lack of unique buildings that set you in a direction, should be played as such.
Early-game, I would not bother to push for War unless it's necessary (you get blocked badly). I went Tradition to start and found it fine, but found Montezuma had expanded directly toward me. I loaded up on Archers and a pair of Swordsmen and set out to take two Cities with great positioning, blocking him to a tiny corner of the Continent. I then stabilized my four Cities and went after Ghandi to stop him from running away from me Scientifically, claiming some Wonders in the process. Focusing on Commerce (tapping Exploration for the Bonus), I was able to build a rich economy enabling me to stop smaller Civs from bothering to war with me. If you could play peacefully and expand normally, you'd find yourself in a better position at the same point in the game, but when I was able to begin to play peacefully, things bloomed for my England.
Longbowmen should be used for Conquest as soon as they're available. Plan for their arrival by having Barracks and good production set up. Find Iron so that you can have Swordsmen to stand at the city gates. I find the AI targets them frequently, though in some situations you can hold your melee back to defend the Longbowmen then bring them in when the City is nearly defeated. They keep the +1 Range Promotion when Upgraded, meaning they become Gatling Guns with 2 Range. Get the extra attack, and they'll be the most powerful unit available to you for a time.
If you know you'll go for more conquest, get the Ship of the Line out early, but note that you'll need plenty of Iron and a Melee ship to take Coastal Cities. Keep these alive and they'll later make excellent Battleships. Focus on either naval or land targets for your upgrades, so your Ship of the Line can evolve to have +3 range and attack Cities from a safe distance. You may also consider Supply, which lets them heal outside your territory. Regardless, these ships are meant to group together and bombard land and sea targets. You can win Cities through peace treaties simply by dominating another Civ's military. If you are having trouble with Happiness, choose Cities that feature Luxury Resources you don't have. Other good targets for your Ship of the Line are Cities with high populations in nice flat areas, which make great places to land your Longbowmen - who you should use past their time due to their powerful range.
On an Archipalego, I would definitely go after The Great Lighthouse. Adopting Exploration adds to this, giving your Naval units great mobility. I suggest trying to eventually take your Continent, using many Trading posts to ensure a Gold Per Turn high enough to support a big Navy with land units to back them up. The Longbowman will let you do this, while the Ship of the Line eventually allows you to crush Coastal Cities and Dominate if necessary, else use them to protect your Continent. The great speed of the fleet will allow them to converge on any attackers easily. From there, it's easy to pick an Ideology that suits the Victory you'd like to pursue. Dominate, go for Science, Diplomacy, or attempt to catch up in Tourism. Tourism really blooms mid-game, anyway, so you can beeline to your Longbowman to ensure you have free time to pursue those later Wonders that provide Tourism and Cultural boosts. Diplomatic Victories are certainly doable if you go for a powerful economy, as I did. Ultimately, Declarations of Friendship with Civilizations on other continents that had no idea of my conquest were willing to sign research agreements, which along with a booming population and high Science output, led to Victory.
Sid Meier's Civ 5 is a deep strategy game. I created these individual Civilization Guides to highlight the strengths of their specials and unique units. If you have an opener or tip for playing this Civ that you would like to share with other readers, please use the comments form below. Some Guides are in need of update and will be improved to a new standard of quality or altered to reflect gameplay changes in G&K and Brave New World. | ||||||
America | Arabia | Assyria | Austria | Aztec | Babylon | Brazil |
Celts | China | Dutch | Egypt | England | France | Germany |
Greece | The Huns | Inca | India | Indonesia | Iroquois | Japan |
Korea | Maya | Mongolia | Morocco | Ottoman | Persia | Poland |
Polynesia | Portugal | Rome | Russia | Shoshone | Siam | Songhai |
Venice | Zulu |
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