Civilization 5 Early-Game Guide for Beginners
Gameplay Concepts, Build Orders, Policies, Research, and Starting a Game Strong
Build one or two Scouts to reveal the best places to settle.
This Guide will go over some of the basic principles of Civ 5's early-game, primarly the first 100 turns. This assumes you have Gods and Kings along with Brave New World, but may be helpful to players with none or only one of them, for some concepts carry over. It will be particularly helpful to players who are new to Civilization 5 in general, but also to those who would like to make best use of all the game's features to move up in difficulty. Playing on anything below Prince will eventually bore you - below that level you are given hefty advantages while the AI suffers in stupidity. One of the secondary goals of this Guide is to give players a place to share their tips with others, as many people will read this Guide. Share your gameplay tips with these players using the comments form at the bottom of the page.
Your experience in each game of Civ will vary greatly based on difficulty and the random generation of the World and placement of Civs, City States, Natural Wonders, and Resources. At the time of writing this article, I play on Emperor difficulty because that difficulty exceeds that of a large portion of my audience, meaning I have plenty to teach. Emperor is the sweet-spot for many players as Immortal and Deity are very balanced in the AI's favor, while Emperor presents a decent challenge that is not too easy (for most people) without feeling unbeatable. I will suggest some ideas that apply to all difficulties. If you are playing on a lower difficulty, executing these basic gameplay strategies will start your Civ strong and set you up for victory. You can find basic gameplay tips here which will also benefit a new player, along with the dozens of other Guides you'll find here.
First: Having a Plan
In regards to your Civilization Choice, some Civs are better at certain Victory Conditions than others. Having an idea of what type of win you'd like to pursue will help influence your choice of Social Policies, Research, and Build Order. Many players playing Prince will find that Wonders are very easy to build in massive quantity, while not realizing that this is not doable in a higher-difficulty game. It is better to be selective about the Wonders you Build and create those that aid in your goals.
Still, the best-made plans are often laid to waste. In the screenshot above, Denmark has chosen to Settle in the place I would have picked for my second City. A Liberty start would have been better for acquiring this land, had I better planned ahead, but Harald would have Coveted it and eventually come after me anyway. Starting near another Civ has its benefits and drawbacks - you have a trading partner but also a competitor, and they can sometimes have nowhere else to go but near your own territory. Given the aggressive nature of this Neighbor, it will cause a war - for just as the AI may punish you for settling nearby, you may do the same. Thankfully, any early war will result in only those you've met knowing of anything you do, aside from breaking any promises. So, I promised not to settle near Harald after my expansion was out and kept that promise, but changed my City building and Research to Military-only for a time.
Basic Gameplay Strategy
At the beginning of the game, you should know whether you want to Found a Religion, if you'll be Warlike (even if just in the Ancient-Medieval era and on your Continent), and if you will want to go Tradition and play Tall (with fewer, but big Cities that eventually use all tiles) or Liberty with rapid expansion to go Wide (more Cities with some tile sharing). Some Civs have Unique Buildings or Unique Units that will make you want to Research a certain Technology faster to get access to that Unit/Building. If you are going to play Cultural, you will want to quickly pursue Cultural Techs and build Wonders with Theming Bonuses, while Warmongers will want to unlock new units and keep their economies capable of supporting those units to make the Domination Victory faster. Those can really be a slow endeavor with all the combat, particularly against tough opponents with strong late-game UUs or large empires. Scientific/Diplomatic victory games are generally the easiest to pursue, as they require you only amass large amounts of Gold or Science output. Diplomacy can be completely cut off if enough City-States are taken through War or unique abilities by other Civs, such as Venice being able to City States to add to their Empire.
The number of Cities you'll want to Settle in your first 100 turns is largely dependent on the Map type, Civ you're playing, the Victory you'll go for and there is no clear answer to questions like that. Two or three really well-developed Cities that work all the available tiles around them can be every bit as good as 5-6 or more poorly developed Cities. In general, higher population Cities and smaller empires are easier to manage and protect, so that is easily recommended for someone new to the game. You will want to get those lands settled during these first 100 turns, although later in the game you may discover areas that have been undiscovered and thus unsettled by other Civilizations, ripe for the picking. Don't hesitate to settle there, just keep in mind that all National Wonders require you to put a certain building in every City you create or Annex through conquest and Settling a new City at the wrong time can harm you in the long run if you cannot afford to buy that building.
The Importance of Scouting
Scouts are usually the first thing players build - from one on a tiny map to up to three on a large pangaea. For this reason, the first thing coming out of your first City should be a Scout. It takes 5 turns on standard with a good production start. Scouting tells you where the good lands to settle are located, helps you find Ancient Ruins (goodie huts) to help boost your early Civ and meet City-States and other Civilizations. Any Natural Wonders you discover will each give you +1 Happiness, permanently, while some are worth rushing to build a City nearby to work the tiles or at least have them within your borders. That is perhaps the most important reason for these Scouts - to know where to send the first and subsequent Settlers and where other Civs may do the same. To learn about Cities, the tiles they can work, and information on all aspects of the City Screen, see my Guide to Cities.
Your Starting Warrior - Defending Against Barbarians
Your starting Warrior will let you scout nearby lands and perhaps find a couple of huts but should return home when your first Worker is out to help defend against Barbarian attacks. It's best not to send them far off, rather make a perimeter and know where you will plan to settle your second City. Others may play differently, but I personally always use this guy to defend my Capital and make sure the Worker can do his job without interruption. With the firepower of the Capital and the Warrior being able to finish off a target, you can prevent a Barbarian attacker from pillaging any tiles. Every Civilian Unit you send out thereafter, unless you have sight of a large chunk of surrounding land, should have an escort. So any Settlers or Workers building Roads to distant Cities will need a Military unit to stack with them and prevent the setback of having to take your unit back from them, or worse, having another Civ get to it before you do.
Research Order: Pottery (maybe) and Luxury Techs First
Researching Pottery unlocks the construction of the Shrine, something that is important to produce early if you want to found a Religion or even a simple Pantheon to help your early people. It also unlocks Calendar, which will let your Civ produce Plantations which cover a lot of Luxury Resources. If you start with Salt/Gold/Silver/Gems nearby, you will need Mining to work these Luxuries, but these are still useless to you until you have your first Worker out, so do not bother with that tech first just because they're available. Almost every game of Civ starts with Pottery, leading to Calendar. The most difficult starts, but quite powerful late-game, have many jungle tiles, which will require Bronze Working to chop down. Realize this when choosing your Build Order, for you want to be able to utilize the tech you just researched, and it's useless to have Calendar and a Worker but no Bronze Working to chop the Jungle. Do save the majority of Jungle tiles when you can, because they will generate +1 Science when you have a University in the City working them.
Get the technology for at least one Luxury Tech before you ever consider expanding to your second City. This prevents Unhappiness and allows your Cities to grow. Unimpeded growth will allow you to have a high population, and thus high Scientific output. You'll also have more Citizens working the tiles around your Cities, making them have higher Gold and Production output. You want to leave your Cities on Food focus for the majority of the game to allow you to utilize specialists and have a much higher population than if you did not.
It was worth the fertile land and gave one less aggressive Civ to worry about.
Tradition Build Order: First Worker to Settler
You will want a Worker as early as possible, but there is a limited time to Found a Pantheon. After your Scout(s), go for a Shrine (if you want to Found a Religion), followed by a Worker. You will need a second Military unit, which will ideally be an Archer, but doesn't have to be. This Archer will escort your first Settler to fertile lands while the other unit stays home to protect your Worker. Going Tradition, you get your first Cultural building - the Monument - free, so you can skip building this and wait out the 25 turns. It is very easy to catch up Culturally, and you may find +20 Culture in an Ancient Ruin. By the time you have made the Scouts, Shrine, a Worker and Military unit, your Capital should be around size 4, which is good enough to make a Settler at a respectable speed. You may need a Granary if you have a production-heavy City and the Capital is lower than 4. You should have acquired a few decent tiles through border expansion, so go into City Management by clicking the City and change to a Production focus, micromanaging the tiles so that your City has maximum Production output because it cannot grow while making a Settler. It should be done within 10 turns. When it's done, you'll immediately want to go back to a food focus to keep your Capital growing. Micromanage your Cities where possible, for you can always make better tile choices than the AI governor.
The order of Social Policy selection should almost always go Adopt Tradition > Free Monument > +2 Food/Growth in Capital > +1 Gold/-1 Unhappiness in Capital > +15% Wonder Production > Defense. In general, the only things I might swap are Gold/Unhappiness for the Wonder Production if I will immediately benefit by building a Wonder. The growth is always better, for it gives you extra Production for the latter half of the Wonder build by giving you another tile to work. +15% of 8 Production isn't much, while +2 food +10% growth is realistically a 30%+ increase in Growth for your Capital. Click here to learn more about Tradition Social Policies.
Liberty Build Order: Rapid Expansion
One of the benefits of going Liberty is that you can expand not only in terms of Cities and Workers, but also free up your Capital's build Queue for you do not need to make your first Settler on your own. You can instead choose to go Scout > Monument/Shrine (your preference) > and possibly make a Granary or even a Wonder in your Capital while you wait on the Culture generated from the +1 for Adopting Liberty, +2 for the Monument and +1 base to get the free Settler. You build your first Worker, then take the free one after getting the Settler to make subsequent builds faster. This free Worker will also come while you are making Settlers and Military to defend them, so it is invaluable to building up another City.
The last policy you adopt in Liberty is up to you. You may be in a situation where a Golden Age is highly valuable - such as when building a Wonder, or you may have already made a City connection or two which will let you get more reward from the other Policy. More important is your choice of Great Person. Most will pick a Great Scientist or Great Engineer, but you can certainly take a Great Prophet to ensure you get to found a Religion or even take a Great Admiral to allow you to explore the vast Ocean and discover new Continents. Few would ever select the Great Merchant, Artist, or other types of Great People, for they are easier to come by or less desirable. Click here to learn more about Liberty Social Policies.
Honor and Piety Starts?
Only a true Warmonger would choose an Honor start. It does help generate Culture if you can kill many Barbarians. Only choose this Policy if you will be making great use of Warfare very early, otherwise even playing as a Warmonger I tend to start with Liberty (most often) or Tradition (less often) then move on to Honor. This gives me the ability to expand fast and focus on building up the Military units I'll need to take out other Civs. I prefer Liberty for this because of the City Connection bonus and free Great Person, which is then aided by Honor's Garrison Bonus. Piety is almost never taken at the beginning for it provides a very weak start for most Civs, but does have its merits as a second Policy Tree to choose if you will focus heavily on Religion and spreading it. It is particularly helpful in a Cultural Victory, but any type of Civ can benefit for it will aid your generation of Faith and help you get more out of Religious buildings.
Improving your Lands: Workers
You will want at minimum one worker per City at first, as the borders will be growing constantly. You will want to form your first Capital City Connection through a road by the time both Cities are around 6 population, for this will generate invaluable income for your Civ - only a connection to the Capital counts. You can also connect distant Coastal Cities with Harbors a little later. As for tile improvements, keep in mind that if a City has only 5 population but 10 improved tiles, it is only working half the improvements you have built - so it would be best to move along to another City and help it grow or give it better production output with a mine. Having just the right amount of Workers can keep your Cities growing at an optimal pace. Certain Cities may have no hills for mines, so leave Forest tiles there for Lumber Mills to aid in Production later. Otherwise, you may feel free to chop those forests to give a City a one-time Production boost, particularly helpful for rushing Wonders, Settlers, and other high-cost buildings and Units.
Setting a Direction: Choosing Techs & Policies Wisely
By turn 100, you should be very clear on what Victory Condition you are pursuing, and your Research should reflect that. Browse my list of Wonders and learn about the strengths of your Civ. There may be a perfect time for War that you can exploit, and having an advanced Unique Unit heavily utilized can make a period of War very helpful to your gameplay. In the game I played while writing this Guide, I went with Aesthetics after Tradition and pursued a Cultural Victory. Though there was a time when it seemed my Civ was destined to be incredibly militaristic and I did develop a bit of a Warmonger reputation with other Civs on my continent, I shifted Gears and got the key culture techs - Drama and Poetry, Guilds, and Acoustics, to allow me to produce Great Writers, Artists, and Musicians. I chose Religious beliefs that helped with this - Cathedrals for a Great Work of Art slot in each City I built them, Tithe for Gold to help me purchase buildings and support my Military, and the Oral Tradition Pantheon to allow +Culture from Plantations, which helps when Hotels and Airports are available, as those tiles will generate Tourism.
Growing Cities to Higher Population
Keeping Cities working high-Food Tiles through Citizen Management and utilizing Cities with Granaries and Trade Routes to send Food to key Science Cities will ensure you have a high Population for the Era, useful for faster Research of Tech, higher Production, Specialists, and more Gold output. Controlling more and quality land will ensure that you can later pass your opponents in Population even if you are off to a rocky start, so long as you make use of these things. Place Farms along River and Lake tiles so that Civil Service will give them +1 Food, while ensuring that all Cities have built an Aqueduct as soon as it is possible. Getting Civil Service and Education as early as you can will greatly boost Scientific output, for your Cities will grow faster and be able to use Scientist Specialists, who can create Great Scientists for you. You can then place Academies around the City that will have the highest population and hold your National College, which is constructed when you have Libraries in all Cities.
City-States
Read my Guide to City-States to learn about each type in G&K and Brave New World and how Friendships/Alliances with them will affect your Civ. You can perform Quests to help boost relations with them and make them Allies, who will then share their resources with you. This is very handy for raising Happiness if they have a Luxury you do not, or for your Military should you lack simple Strategic Resources like Iron.
Knowing Where you Stand: Demographics
Civilization 5's Demographics Screen, accessible through the Additional Information menu in the top-right, is an important part of the game. Score is a poor indicator of how you are doing in many games, while the statistics afforded by Demographics gives you a much more clear picture. You will see your standing, the global average, the highest and lowest Civs' values in a number of metrics. Look to Literacy to compare your Research progress to others', population and land control to get an idea how things are going on other Continents you can't yet see, and Military strength in particular. This last metric is crucial - even peaceful neighbors will gutstomp you if you have the weakest military in the world and have something they want, be it Land, Wonders or Resources. You may have just rubbed them the wrong way over the years; some AI are very erratic and dangerous for that reason. Knowing where you stand in these metrics can help you make decisions. Do you need to build more Military Units? Are you ahead in tech to guarantee you can build that Wonder? etc.
Knowing Where they Stand: Global Politics
Additionally, the Global Politics screen, accessible through Diplomacy > Diplomacy Overview > Global Politics, has some incredibly valuable information, but only once you've met Civs. This will display a list of who controls what Wonder, who's denounced/allied with whom and any resources they may have available to trade. I have found myself using this screen more and more often in my games to help me seek targets and know whose side to join. When you sign a Declaration of Friendship with a Civ or Denounce a Civ, others who have done the same take notice. Denouncing the same leaders and signing DoFs will grant Diplomacy Bonuses, snowball and lead to 'teams'... and you want to join one, else you are a rebel on your own in a dangerous world. Switzerland in its neutrality would not well survive the game world of Civilization 5.
I have found Global Politics particularly helpful to know if a Civ has adopted a Policy to enable it to build a Wonder that is only constructible when you've unlocked that Policy. You can see that if no one has adopted Exploration later in the game, you will have no trouble building the Louvre, so won't have to rush with a Great Engineer to build it. Early-game, this is not as useful, but can help you understand your opponent and the direction they're going, particularly if they have chosen all Honor policies.
Establishing Trade
Land and Sea Trade Routes become relevant very early in the game as a means of generating Gold. You may create these to satisfy City-States' demands and gain an ally there, or trade with another Civ to exchange Gold and Science. Keeping your Trade Routes going throughout the game is important to your income, for there are fewer means of generating Gold in Brave New World.
When you have access to a second copy of a Luxury, you can safely trade it away to another Civilization. Having excess of a Luxury is a waste - you want to find someone who will give you either another Luxury or Gold per Turn for it. The best deals come in the form of lump-sum trades (240 Gold) from Civs you have signed a Declaration of Friendship with. Early game, doing this can let you buy a Settler outright (500 Gold). Regardless of what you get out of the deal, letting your resources sit is a waste. You may want to keep your strategic resources out of other Civs' hands, but know that 5 of them is equal to a Luxury and they are very much worth trading if your military does not rely on them, even if for a time. All trade deals with other Civs last for 30 turns.
Being Prepared for Mid-Game War for Non-Warmongers
If you're going to Warmonger, your Military should always be as good and large as possible to keep conquering new territory. If you are not a Warmonger, someone may press you enough to force you to build a larger standing army and even attack. The main way to lose when playing on a difficulty you're ill-prepared for is to have an aggressive neighbor overwhelm you with military might all at once near the mid-game. I experienced it in my first games, and sometimes still find an opponent with a larger military comes crashing through my borders and takes a City. Keep an eye on what is going on in the world, using notifications between turns and the demographics screen. Civs frequently become 'runaways' in a game and will gobble up other Civs and settle every bit of land they can - that is a dangerous foe, particularly when you share a continent.
Building military units in a good proportion - 3-4 melee per 6-8 ranged, will help you defend should an opponent attack, and may prevent the attack all together, particularly when your military is parked near the enemy Civ - but not close enough to make them think you are marching on them. You want 1 ranged in each City to give it a second attack if you go to war. If you are peaceful, try to maintain an army at least around the global average. More units as well as higher technology units both increase the military power score. If you far out-tech your opponents, you will not need as many units, and that can save you a lot of Gold per turn, so do upgrade your units and keep them modern. Having a high-production City that has a Barracks and the Heroic Epic (for having a Barracks in all Cities) along with other Military Training buildings to give newly-created units Promotions will help you steadily build a Military over the millennia.
Be aware that some Civs can be deceptive and appear Friendly, only to stab you in the back and invade. Watch for them having less reason to be Friendly and more reason to dislike you - they will hide their intent and any negative Diplomacy modifiers until the last moment. Watching for heavy Military movement can give you a sign of impending attack. If you can fight them off, you may even acquire Cities through trade deals or retaliation. Taking a couple of Cities from a Civ that is growing through war will only give you minor Warmonger penalties and take some of that power away, making them a weaker opponent. You may even trade those Cities to another Civ that is truly Friendly to you for a high price and have some extra help against that aggressive neighbor.
Early-Game Conquest
Sometimes you just have to take land or find yourself cornered and in a bad position to win the game as I did in my example game with Poland. Whether Domination Victory is your ultimate goal or not, taking Cities can be a part of many games. Wars are waged over resources, border proximity and necessity, just as in the real world. Taking Cities is a simple matter of comparing a City's Combat Strength and delivering an appropriate amount of force. For example, 5-6 Composite Bowmen with attack power of 11 and 2-3 Spearmen are plenty to take out a City with 21-25 Defense, so long as you hang back and kill any defenders before entering the City's attack range (2 tiles). In general, this amount will work so long as you have about half the City's Strength on your individual units. Warring very early in the game, you can even match a Capital City's Combat Strength.
Timing is Everything
The most important thing is timing your attacks and when you take control over new Cities. Get your units to encircle the City outside its attack radius, then move in all at once, so that they are not sent to their deaths one by one. Some Cities can be incredibly tough to take due to terrain and that requires some planning. Of great import is timing these conquests - each City will add 3 Unhappiness + 1/2 its Population in extra Unhappiness. Cities will Revolt for a number of turns equal to their population and generate extra Unhappiness during that time. You should always Puppet Cities at first, and leave some that way forever. Do not unpuppet a City if you have all the Libraries you need for your National College, for example, or you will need another Library to build it. That would greatly slow your Scientific progress, while all you really gain from Annexing is control - though a Puppeted City will not grow to its max potential as the AI automatically focuses on Gold as opposed to Food.
Cities that can be great in Production, Science, or are stationed along your borders with an opposing Civ are those that you need control over. Annexing a City gives you control over it, but makes the City 'Occupied'. Courthouses cost about 500 Gold and eliminate the -4 Unhappiness you will receive for an Occupied City. They can be built, but it is best they are bought outright unless you can afford the Happiness hit. Either way, let them rebuild from the damage and grow for a while before you Annex, as that can be done any time but not reversed.
Razing is a matter of preference. You can sell Cities to other Civs, but that is not always ideal, for you are helping them grow in power over the long-run and possibly giving them resources you could instead trade. Razing eliminates the City from the game and is an action preferably taken on Cities in undesirable locations. The City will burn down in a number of turns equal to the size of its population. During that time, you should be selling off buildings. Click, view City and click a Building that is not a Wonder. You can sell one building per turn, which can help you get extra money from the City. Do the most advanced buildings first and gradually move down the list until the City is gone.
In Closing
This should give newcomers a rundown of all the things they should be aware of early in a game of Civ 5. Some of this applies throughout the game, as I've tried to be very comprehensive in my coverage. In screenshots I was playing as Poland, which is a very versatile Civ that gets +1 Gold for Pastures from the Ducal Stable and a Free Social Policy every time they advance to a new era.
If you have anything to add to this which will help other players, feel free to use the comments form below. Many will read this page, so your tip will go a long way toward helping the Civ community. I do not mind contradictions, for many people have taught me new strategies through these comments and it only helps expand upon the information available here.
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You have my gratitude Carl, for constantly updating this site! I have shared this to my civ friends.They say: "This BACK-TO-BASIC guide is really the secret of a prosperous empire.
I wish you more power!! Keep up the good work. The civ fanatics will always visit here every now and then to check for new articles.
This is a game about learning from mistakes. I think sometimes the instinct is to quit when you know things are going south, but you can keep going and learn even more to make your next game better. I guess I made this page because I know a lot of newer players are not utilizing all the game's systems to make their Empire better, so I wanted to give something that would help them understand how deep this game truly is... I am glad that it is still not boring, I find the challenge of Immortal exciting and can't wait to call that my new standard.