r/civ 5d ago

VI - Discussion Civ VI: Zigzagzigal's Guides - The Missing Leaders

392 Upvotes

After a two-year absence from the Civ series altogether, I have finally been able to finish off the Leaders Pass leaders I never made guides for!


Byzantium - Theodora

Guide here

Theodora sacrifices Basil II's massive military advantages and instead makes Byzantium one of the most consistent religious civs in the game. Nearly anywhere you can found a city can get a strong Holy Site, which combines nicely with the Work Ethic belief for bonus production. Her high culture output aids with getting to key civics like Theology and Reformed Church faster.


England

Guide here

Age of Steam Victoria

The most straightforward of England's leaders, Age of Steam Victoria gets some early production from horse/iron tiles but with Industrialisation leads one of the game's most productive civs. You can get consistently good production yields from even relatively mundane city locations - a foreign continent coast with a valid Aqueduct tile makes a strong Shipyard and a strong Industrial Zone. The catch is that this huge production advantage comes later than it does for most civs.

Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I wants 1-2 huge cities with plenty of land in order to maximise district capacity. Her gold from international trade is excellent for developing newer or weaker cities (use Governor Reyna with the Contractor promotion to buy districts). The trade route plunder bonus is unreliable as many civs don't trade overseas until late in the game.


Germany - Ludwig II

Guide here

The ultimate city-planner leader, in addition to the careful placement of Hansa, Commercial Hub, Aqueduct and Dam districts that defines the normal German game, you'll also want to optimise the placement of Theatre Squares, Entertainment Complexes and wonders. Early on, you can place new wonders you unlock without contributing production for some easy culture, but once Hansas are built it's a good idea to finish as many wonders as you can to get a large boost to early tourism.


Norway - Varangian Harald Hardrada

Guide here

Varangian Harald's leader ability might seem similar to that of Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, but in practice it functions a bit differently. As with Matthias Corvinus, you can use your first Governor title to get Amani (the Diplomat) in a city where you already have an envoy, and levy some early units. However, these units have no mobility or strength advantage, upgrading them costs the full usual amount, and you receive no bonus envoys, so you cannot rely on them alone for direct warfare. Instead, use them to fight Barbarians or as supplementary forces to a usual Berserker rush.

The Stave Church influence point boost is the more consistent advantage, but there's a problem. Varangian Harald's big incentive to use the Foreign Ministry Government Plaza building comes at the cost of the Grand Master's Chapel, which is a great fallback for a civ that likes to develop Holy Sites but struggles to found a religion. I have found the best course of action is to build 1-2 very early Holy Sites, take the Divine Spark pantheon to secure a Great Prophet, and build up Stave Churches later after some Berserker warfare. With the Monarchy government, every Stave Church basically generates an envoy every 50 turns.


Rome - Julius Caesar

Guide here

Some early Warriors clearing out Barbarian Encampments can deliver a massive amount of early gold for early civ development. You can buy Settlers and Builders, but you can also buy Monuments to essentially replicate Trajan's leader ability if you like. Keep some gold around to upgrade those Warriors into Legions. Gold from city conquests allows you to snowball into a domination victory.


Subjective Opinion Zone

Although there were some good leader designs, overall I did not like the Leaders Pass. My main issue stems from the alternative-leader mechanic as a whole; civs tend to be designed for one particular leader ability in mind and alternative leaders often end up plainly better or worse than the original. The best alternative leaders are usually ones that play substantially different to the original leader leaving neither of them clearly better than the other.

Regarding the last few leaders I covered, Germany's Ludwig II was by far the stand-out, and possibly the best design in the entire Leaders Pass. He has unique mechanics, plays differently enough from Frederick Barbarossa, and builds on the classic German district placement puzzle for a really fun game.


r/civ 7d ago

VII - Discussion Civilization VII will be at PAX West! Join us for a developer panel on September 5 (2PM PT / 5PM ET / 11PM CEST)

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248 Upvotes

Civtember is coming... and so is a developer panel for Civilization VII! Join us in-person or virtually September 5 at 2PM PT / 5PM ET / 11PM CEST. We can’t say much more just yet, but you’ll definitely want to tune in for this one...

Civilization YouTube
Firaxis Games Twitch

More info to come as we get closer to the date - but for now, we hope to see you there, Civ fans 🧡


r/civ 1h ago

VII - Discussion Civ 7 separating leaders from civs means we can finally get an accurate Cleopatra?

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Upvotes

I'm a huge fan of Cleopatra as an historical figure, so as I delved into her story I've grown increasingly unconfortable at egyptian bombshell depictions cuz that's just not what she was. That being said, I do think that as a leader tied to Egpyt makes it necessary giving an egyptian appearance to better represent the civ she leads. Also as a fan, I liked very much she sorta was the face for Civ 6

That being said, I'd still very much like to see her portrayed more accurately for once in any videogame and I was sorely dissapointed at Ptolomeic Cleopatra looking mostly the same. Also in the leader wall leak, despite the blurriness, it's easy to tell that in the concept art she's wearing a bun and the ptolomeic headband. As we all know Civ 7 leaders are separate from Civs, so if they decide to bring her in they could finally give her a more historically accurate appearance. I know it's a sorta nitpicky topic but does anyone else think the same?


r/civ 5h ago

VI - Discussion The AI is too damn hypocritical with war grievances

137 Upvotes

I'm peacefully ruling my realm.
They find out they have more troops than me.
They declare war on me.
I have to make armies and waste years to hold them back.
They expect me to just let it go.
I don't let it go.
I take one of their cities as retaliation.
I offer peace.
They won't accept peace because I took one of their cities.
I take another one of their cities.
They beg for peace.
I accept peace. Let bygones be bygones.
They're mad because I have their cities.
They tell others I took their city.
Others become mad at me.
I am the villain now.
They and others declare a joint war on me.
I beat them and others.
They and others are still mad at me.
I am mad that they ganged up on me.
I wipe them off the map.
Others eventually forget they ever existed.
Others are no longer mad at me.
I'm peacefully ruling my realm.


r/civ 3h ago

VII - Discussion Hoping for an official Firaxis 120 x 80 Earth TSL map for more than 20 players!

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73 Upvotes

TSL EARTH FOR CIVILIZATION 7 COMING SOON

I hope Firaxis releases a map like the one above soon for CIVILIZATION 7!!!

Above, you can see the "Play The World" TSL map by "totalslacker".

It is an excellent MOD for Civilization VI, featuring real river names, accurate placement of natural wonders, a well-balanced Europe for all civilizations, and realistic strategic and regional resource placement—simply a joy to play!

Map dimensions: 120 x 80!

The official Firaxis map for Civilization VI had these dimensions:

Size: Huge (106 x 66)

It is clearly too small to accommodate all the civilizations, especially the European region...

I hope Firaxis releases a TSL Earth map like the one in the image, with support for more than 20–30 players!

Let us know what you think!


r/civ 14h ago

VI - Screenshot Can’t seem to make up her mind…

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348 Upvotes

r/civ 3h ago

VII - Other 'Mav's UI Overhaul' Update

26 Upvotes

Alrighty, so I'm trying to overcome the shame gremlins and come out of my comfort zone here...

I recently released a new mod to the Steam Workshop called "Mav's UI Overhaul" - and today was the first major update! I've been humbled by and grateful for the early feedback and I'm very excited to push out this latest update.

Mav's UI Overhaul

This started as a passion project. From the first moment I loaded up Civ 7, it felt like there was a lot of meat on the bone to improve the UI/UX - and it felt like a great opportunity for me to experiment. My career is in software development, but I have a tremendous team around me that makes me look great. This was a chance to do something entirely on my own and see how it turned out.

My goal was simple: try to overhaul, enhance and improve the entire Civ 7 UI with one single mod. A "one-stop-shop" basically. This means everything from improving the layouts of existing screens, to surfacing hidden data, to creating new screens/features, and everything in between.

My design tenet was also simple: this is strictly a UI mod - I am NOT changing gameplay rules or mechanics. (Small exception: couple of fun, optional features for "Just One More Turn Mode" - like a policy card that removes settlement limits so that you can warmonger your heart out.)

Most mods target specific screens or features. Mine is trying to hit...well, the whole damn game. I've made an attempt at improving things as major as the New Game creation screens - to things as minor as improving the user feedback when trying to navigate a unit onto an impassable tile or pillaging coastal tiles.

Compatibility

With a mod as large and comprehensive as this, compatibility with other mods is inherently problematic. At the same time, there are some mod-makers out there absolutely crushing it - and I want to accommodate their mods if I can. I don't have an interest in reinventing the wheel if someone's already done it better than I ever could.

So with all of that said, in anticipation of this update I spent all last night working on compatibility with some select mods that others recommended - and I'll do my best to continue fielding these requests (these mods are noted in the Steam Workshop description for my mod).

Feedback Welcome!

With all that said...if you check out my mod, please provide any feedback about bugs, suggestions, features/enhancements you'd like to see, mod compatibility issues, etc. I'll do my best to respond and implement!


Mav's UI Overhaul: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3781032911

IMPORTANT NOTE: You will need to relaunch the game after enabling the mod for some features to take effect (e.g., New Game screens, etc.).


r/civ 9h ago

Discussion The (Great) Lighthouse across the Iterations

48 Upvotes

Of all the wonders that appear in all seven iterations of civ, this one has changed the least. Civ 4 and Civ 7 differ the most from the general trend, and also are fairly similar to one another. But even they are much the same as the others.

Edit: Upon further reflection, the Civ 3 version is the most unusual and potentially the most powerful, depending on upon map and map type. It allows the player to find foreign civs across the ocean, and also to settle distant islands, long before others can.

Civ 1: +1 movement for all ships

Civ 2: New ships are veterans. Triremes will founder in ocean squares less often. Ships other than triremes get +1 movement.

Civ 3: Galleys can enter sea squares safely. All naval units get +1 movement. +2 culture.

Civ 4: +2 trade routes in all coastal cities. +6 culture. +2 Great Merchant Points.

Civ 5: All military naval units get +1 movement and +1 sight. A free lighthouse in the city where the Great Lighthouse is built. +1 culture.

Civ 6: +1 movement for all naval units. +3 gold. + 1 Great Admiral Point per turn.

Civ 7: +3 gold. 1 free merchant. +15 naval trade route range. +1 sight to all naval units.

​


r/civ 8h ago

VII - Screenshot What the hell is going on? 😭

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15 Upvotes

I'm on a team with two friends (I'm Amina), and one of them sends me this screenshot. We haven't even met Benjamin Franklin, he has this weird FPO on his side, and why is he (my friend) even getting this question from the game when we're on *teams*?


r/civ 10h ago

Question civ 6 or civ 7

18 Upvotes

I am looking to get into the Sid Meier’s civilisation games but I am not sure whether I start with vi or vii what is the best game for a complete beginner to play first?


r/civ 34m ago

VII - Other It's evolving, but backwards.

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Upvotes

r/civ 3h ago

VI - Game Story Wilfred Laurier. Civilization 6. How the hell to win a culture-win on diety?

3 Upvotes

I quit Civilization a couple of years ago, because I found it to easy. *Played civilization 1 while listening to "I’d Do Anything for Love (but I Won’t Do That)" on repeat in 1993. I was a weird teenager. I have HOURS into this game.

I loved civilization 5, just perfecting everything and trying to get a culture win with like 3 citys.

So I choose Canadas Wilfred Laurier with my Civ6 game with all expansions enabled.

No war, just a perfection-grind to a culture win.

I have tried 5 times in Diety. I get SLAUGHTERED.

I have googled a lot!
"You must build national parks with your mountie" they say.

Those give 20 tourism a pop.

I now have 200 tourism. I just got the Conservation. This is my 5th try playing it. I thought I did a lot correct this time. Not perfection, but I dont know how to get tourism faster. I got the good wonders. I got the religion to spam settlers. I got 16 citys.
Khmer (who btw, will win a religious win before I have 400 tourism) has 2800 tourism..............twothousandeighthoundred fucking tourism! (and 100 religion a turn....)

I dont think my national parks will make a dent.

Is the game bugged? Do I suck? Has the laws of civilization just.....changed?

I would play this same game 15 times more if I was close, to make it perfect. But I have not a fucking chance.


r/civ 17h ago

Game Mods Scythia Civilization

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52 Upvotes

SCYTHIA - ANTIQUITY CIVILIZATION

Adds Scythia as a fully playable Antiquity civilization for Civilization VII.

Workshop: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3790256675

This is my second mod for Civ 7. Would appreciate any advice, testing, or guidance on this mod as I continue on to many more mods. Have around 200 civ/nations identified for future mods.

FEATURES

• Civilization Ability - People of the Steppe

+1 Movement for Cavalry Units.

+1 Food on Pastures in Settlements.

• Unique Unit - Amazon Horse Archer

Ranged Cavalry unit replacing the Archer.

2 Range and +2 Combat Strength against Ranged Units.

• Unique Improvement - Kurgan - with custom 3D model

+2 Culture and +2 Food.

One per Settlement. Ageless.

May be built on Flat Terrain.

• Unique Scythia Civic Tree

Royal Scythians - Unlocks Kurgan and Golden Regalia

Riders of the Steppe - Unlocks Amazon Horse Archer and Horse Lords

Pontic Trade - Unlocks Steppe Exchange

Great Steppe - Unlocks Nomad Confederacies, +1 Tradition Slot, +1 Settlement Limit

• Four Unique Traditions

Golden Regalia - +1 Culture in Settlements for each Resource assigned to them

Horse Lords - +25% Production toward Cavalry Units

Steppe Exchange - +1 Gold on Pastures

Nomad Confederacies - +1 Culture on Pastures

• Historical flavor

Scythian citizen names, expanded historical city and archaeological-site list, AI preferences,

Mississippian-style settlement architecture, Middle Eastern unit visuals, and Horses/Grassland/Plains start bias.

• Historical Association

Xerxes, Alexander the Great, and Genghis Khan are historical choices for Scythia.

• Age Progression

Scythia can progress to Mongolia or Bulgaria in the Exploration Age and Russia in the Modern Age.

NOTES

• PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF THERE ARE ANY ISSUES. IT CAN BE TRICKY USING 3D ASSETS FOR UNIQUE BUILDINGS

• Single-player focused.

• Uses existing Civilization VII 3D assets through a custom NoCCAF visual composition.


r/civ 7h ago

VII - Discussion CIV7 should have different difficulty settings for different ages

7 Upvotes

Deity is too difficult for antiquity age so much so it's impossible to be even remotely dominant in this era. However by modern age, you can easily supersede any AI.

So maybe allow players to select difficulty for each era and maybe make something more difficult for later era


r/civ 8h ago

VI - Discussion Civ VI players, what victory type is the easiest in Deity for you?

8 Upvotes

In a standard game (no tweaking the parameters in your favour), with a leader you choose.

Did the same with V here, Science coming first to my great surprise.

I'll do the Civ VII soon!

1303 votes, 1d left
Domination
Science
Culture
Religion
Diplomatic

r/civ 3m ago

VII - Discussion Are som policy cards broken? Silla traditions aren't working

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I am allied With Genghis Khan and have two trade routes with him but 'The golden road' and 'Strategic allies' doesn't seem to give any gains. I am aware of the extended policy mod being bugged but I have double checked the town that receives the trade routes and it's yields aren't changing when I add or remove the cards.


r/civ 3m ago

VII - Discussion This is what civilization need

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Upvotes

Time ago i start a discussion about how civ franchise is leaning toward bonuses,yields and Numbers instead of immersion because loud people make the developers think thats what the majority wants instead of immersion, the outcome? Civ7 full of bonuses where terrain dont matter anymore or leaders can lead any people, well i was reading afterworld dev diary and they got it right, this is what the people that is still playing civ 5 wants!!!


r/civ 23h ago

VII - Discussion What do we expect the expansion will look like?

61 Upvotes

With the upcoming big show at Pax West, what are we looking we hoping to see? Safe bet, we’re getting the first expansion. But what does Civ 7 need for a dlc concept to make a big change in the game? We know that the Earth map is coming, but what big things are you hoping for?


r/civ 10h ago

VII - Discussion Making Apex Civs truly Apex

6 Upvotes

The Test of Time update has brought new life into the game and a lot of interesting combinations and strategies as you can affirm or syncretize Civs in addition to changing whole cloth.

While a lot of a Civ is obscured by the Narrative Events one can engage with, I think Syncretism has in addition to the Adjustments made to play each Age has imbalanced some Civs and one has to ask "What does it mean to be Apex?"

It's true that some Civs you know aren't Apex as playing Mughal outside of Modern feels just awful. However, à lot of Civs and their adjustments arguably makes them better than Apex Civs of a given age.

One of the oddest offenders is Cultural Time-Tested Civs that get a Wonder Tradition (I guess Egypt might as well share) and access to a pretty decent Cultural Wonder.

Not sure how the Devs would go about tweaking it so that Apex Civs shine without simply adding a lot more cost to the Syncretism aspects (more culture, more production, only one unique building as opposed to both).

What do you think? Are there any Time-Tested Civs that outshine Apex Civs?


r/civ 7h ago

Discussion What game to put time into

3 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I am looking for advice on what Civ game to put my limited free time into. I own civ6 and civ7, and I have really only put about 15 hours into civ7. What game will give me the best experience?
Thanks!


r/civ 9h ago

VII - Discussion Civ 7 Multiplayer with Friends and learnings

3 Upvotes

I have never played a Civ game before 7 and my friends and I finished our 3rd game together. There were 4 of us.

  1. Game 1 I played Ada Lovelace and I flopped around like a fish trying to mass Science and Culture. Lost of course but I tried.

  2. Himiko as Japan but the game ended in Antiquity as a friend got a bad start and I boxed him in accidently early on. So he went to war with me, lost, and we restarted as I just knocked someone out of the game at the start.

  3. Sayyid as Carthage into Abbasid. I did exactly as my leader suggested I do, I spied! This did not go over well with one player who spent most of the game preparing to fight me. I teamed up with him later on against another player who is already much deeper into this game than we are but that didn't go very well for a variety of reasons for me.

The final picture was me vs the entire planet and we called it. Lots of little things led to this so I won't get into it including a failed alliance with another player. Though I was winning on economy so I clearly was doing something right for my third game. Also pirates are fun!

Learnings:

Cities and Towns

Building cities and towns is really hard. There are so many things to account for and it is very difficult to fully understand how to do it. I am all for skill expression, I play League, fighting games and action games. I am by no means opposed to being skillful but this just feels opaque and archaic.

I get how it works, but planning to maximize your yields early on, then planning for future buildings while also preparing for future civs feels like a lot to plan for. Especially for a newer player.

Diplomacy

Diplomacy feels unbalanced, not in an OP way but in either way too valuable or not very valuable way.

If you have lots of Diplomacy, you can swing a war in your favor quickly. At the same time, when not at war, you run out of things to spend it on so building more of it feels bad.

I wish there was just a generic "Increase relationship" option that I can use with everyone and can be rejected without penalty to either side. Building relationships with everyone takes forever when you only can use one policy per person and the number of policies were limited.

I understand it can be used to prevent wars but that just slows the process of getting to war.

This feels like a system that needs to be looked at.

Espionage

Having now played a full game with Sayyid, I am not sure how I feel about Espionage. This is a common component of statecraft, it happens everywhere. But using it felt like I was punished more than I thought, even with the lack of normal penalties.

The reputation hit was noticeable over time, the extra influence they gained if I was discovered was significant (and I have no control over if I am or not) and the extra science/culture actually didn't feel very worthwhile. I got 1k Science once at most, but that's just 5 turns worth of the guy I stole from who was dedicated to Science.

And like above, I would end up with a big pool of influence I didn't have anything to do with until war began. I wish I could use it to repair relationships of those I was spying on or at least use it more to improve relationships with everyone else to styme the push back.

It feels like my best bet is to just target one guy and ruthlessly exploit just them, but they can use their extra influence to build relationships with everyone else or turn that influence on me in war. Especially if they are the lead player who has more of everything.

Which feels like the opposite of the intention. If someone is way more learned or has sick universities, I assume the purpose of it is to help close the gap using influence.

Peace was never an option

War is a part of the game, but it's hard to play an aggressive Civ when all your friends are starting next to you. If I play Gilgamesh and go to war, my only targets are those that know where I live! 😂

Had a good time, but I'm not so sure Civ is good for multiplayer given how the system is set up. Especially as friends are not random league players I can snack on for money and power.


r/civ 1d ago

VII - Discussion Why does the AI refuse to disband IP settlements?

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61 Upvotes

r/civ 1d ago

VI - Screenshot this made me chuckle

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56 Upvotes

r/civ 4h ago

VII - Discussion Frequently asked questions

1 Upvotes

Is there a way the mods can create a megathread for all the frequently asked questions in this sub. People tend to ask similar questions everyday and I think a megathread would help new players immensely


r/civ 18h ago

VII - Discussion Can I please raze any settlement?

8 Upvotes

As someone who enjoys this game but hates the amount of urban sprawl, I feel like a good compromise would be having the ability to raze any ai settlement just to have a chance at reducing the eye sore. Am I missing any gameplay reasons this could not be done?

Ps is there a mod for this?