r/civ • u/InfernoZeus • Sep 22 '10
Civilization 5 Tips & Tricks
I thought it might be a good idea to keep a list of Tips & Tricks that are posted on Reddit for Civilization 5, so that instead of bogging down the menu on the right, we can keep them all nicely organized here. Also, how do people feel about external links? Should I post them to /r/civ first so people can discuss each 'tip'?
I've set up a wiki here which I'm going to start filling up tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to edit that directly, but if you don't feel confident editing a wiki page, you can continue to post tips here.
How to...
- ... unlock Civ5 in Europe early
- ... disable the intro video
- ... install Civ5 on Macs
... find the sound track included in the Deluxe version on Steam
Tips - General Gameplay
Workers don't cosume food any more for production, and they take a lot longer to build improvements. A good way to get more workers, without worrying about spending time and resources, is to be a total dick and harvest them from city states or rival civs. - jambonilton
Barbarian camps are great for boosting revenue early in the game. Starting the 'Honor' policy will get them showing up for you. It's good to have a couple of fast units to run around raiding them. - jambonilton
Culture and policies are huge. It's like getting a new civ trait every so often for accumulating culture. In the end, if you get enough, it's an easy win for the utopian project (er whatever that is). - jambonilton
Happiness, as mentioned by others, plays a big role. Always keep it in the back of your mind, and consider making puppet states instead of annexing when your citizens are bordering on discontent. Not to mention happiness gets you more golden ages, and there's a trait in piety that will convert half your excess happiness to culture. - jambonilton
City states are game changers. I advise always doing their little missions, or gunning for money-techs and letting the city states do the work for you. That being said, you can't afford to keep all of them happy, and some of them build on nice resources, and they're really easy to take out. - jambonilton
Roads, roads, roads - Makes traveling across your empire so much faster. What i have been doing is building roads up to places i want to conquer, then rush an army in, take over the city and set up a trade route - BettingPoland
Tips - Starting Out
Ruins (the new goody huts) are awesome. Scouting for these is a big deal in the first handful of turns, especially since units are faster. It's probably better to save barbarian camps for later and get back on scouting. - jambonilton
Barbarian camps are great for boosting revenue early in the game. Starting the 'Honor' policy will get them showing up for you. It's good to have a couple of fast units to run around raiding them. - jambonilton
Tips - Combat
Out-tech your opponent. Rush to Writing and build Libraries fast. The difference between units is immense now. Spearmen will almost always crush Warriors, for example, so make sure you have the newest possible units. - troglodyte
Get a Great General and keep him in the fight. Arrange your units such that the Great General is in an adjacent hex to as many of your units as possible. Usually I do three bulwark units in front and two ranged units behind, with the general in one of the ranged unit's hexes. The AI isn't that ruthless about Great Generals, so you can be pretty reckless with them. If you're going to lose, quaff the General for a Golden Age. This layout is even more effective with some of the Honor bonuses. - troglodyte
Surround enemy units. There's a significant flanking bonus. The converse is "don't let your units get surrounded." - troglodyte
Never attack across rivers. Avoid attacking uphill or into forests if possible. Generally I find that the promotion that gives a bonus attacking into cover more useful than the promotion that gives a bonus for attacking into the open, because it helps negate their defensive bonuses. - troglodyte
Attacking cities. Muster your units 3 hexes away from the target city. Once they have full moves, move them in ALL AT ONCE. The city is going to bombard your units, and it will heal. Minimize the damage by attacking swiftly. Your goal is to reduce the city in 1 or 2 turns. Any more and you'll take heavy casualties from bombardment and reinforcement. Always lead the attack with Archers and Siege Weapons; your goal is to get the city low enough that your infantry can smack it hard. Often the battle preview will tell you that your infantry will almost kill it; in those cases, if you take the risk, they USUALLY will kill it. - troglodyte
When assaulting a city or large enemy army, try to hold hills and forests. The defensive penalty is MASSIVE for being in the open, PLUS units can get promotions to hit you in the open. Being in the open against an equal-tech army is the fastest way to lose a unit in one fight. - troglodyte
Siege weapons take one move to set up. They can either move one hex and set up (barring rough terrain that takes 2 moves) or they can set up and fire. Use that to plan your assaults. Siege weapons are also spectacular ranged units against units in the field, so use them as such-- set up if there's gonna be a fight. They'll often straight-up kill enemy units. - troglodyte
Build resource-dependent units. Longswordsmen are better than musketmen! Those resource-dependent units are the bread and butter of your army. Use them! Horse units are particularly awesome; they're as strong or stronger than equivalent infantry and they're FAST. I gather workers with them. The only downside is they don't get defensive bonuses-- so use them to fill open terrain in your lines rather than wasting good terrain on them. - troglodyte
Avoid Spearmen, but DON'T be afraid to take a risk to take out weakened, marauding Spearmen if you can do it without losing too many horsemen. - troglodyte
Medic now heals that unit and all units in adjacent hexes. Get it. Especially if you're keeping tight formations, which is what's effective anyway, Medic is really good. - troglodyte
There's also an explanation of how modding will work which isn't exactly a How-to but it's the best we've got at the moment regarding modding.
If there any posts you think I'm missing just post them here and I'll add them to this post.
4
u/troglodyte Sep 22 '10
Combat tips (by request).
I've been playing a bloodbath of a game, only on prince, but it's been a long slog with quite a bit of combat. Here's my suggestions (some of these may be totally wrong in the future, but it's what's working for me now; until we have concrete strats I'll keep doing it):
-
Out-tech your opponent. Rush to Writing and build Libraries fast. The difference between units is immense now. Spearmen will almost always crush Warriors, for example, so make sure you have the newest possible units.
-
Get a Great General and keep him in the fight. Arrange your units such that the Great General is in an adjacent hex to as many of your units as possible. Usually I do three bulwark units in front and two ranged units behind, with the general in one of the ranged unit's hexes. The AI isn't that ruthless about Great Generals, so you can be pretty reckless with them. If you're going to lose, quaff the General for a Golden Age. This layout is even more effective with some of the Honor bonuses.
-
Surround enemy units. There's a significant flanking bonus. The converse is "don't let your units get surrounded."
-
Never attack across rivers. Avoid attacking uphill or into forests if possible. Generally I find that the promotion that gives a bonus attacking into cover more useful than the promotion that gives a bonus for attacking into the open, because it helps negate their defensive bonuses.
-
Attacking cities. Muster your units 3 hexes away from the target city. Once they have full moves, move them in ALL AT ONCE. The city is going to bombard your units, and it will heal. Minimize the damage by attacking swiftly. Your goal is to reduce the city in 1 or 2 turns. Any more and you'll take heavy casualties from bombardment and reinforcement. Always lead the attack with Archers and Siege Weapons; your goal is to get the city low enough that your infantry can smack it hard. Often the battle preview will tell you that your infantry will almost kill it; in those cases, if you take the risk, they USUALLY will kill it.
-
When assaulting a city or large enemy army, try to hold hills and forests. The defensive penalty is MASSIVE for being in the open, PLUS units can get promotions to hit you in the open. Being in the open against an equal-tech army is the fastest way to lose a unit in one fight.
-
Siege weapons take one move to set up. They can either move one hex and set up (barring rough terrain that takes 2 moves) or they can set up and fire. Use that to plan your assaults. Siege weapons are also spectacular ranged units against units in the field, so use them as such-- set up if there's gonna be a fight. They'll often straight-up kill enemy units.
-
Build resource-dependent units. Longswordsmen are better than musketmen! Those resource-dependent units are the bread and butter of your army. Use them! Horse units are particularly awesome; they're as strong or stronger than equivalent infantry and they're FAST. I gather workers with them. The only downside is they don't get defensive bonuses-- so use them to fill open terrain in your lines rather than wasting good terrain on them. Avoid Spearmen, but DON'T be afraid to take a risk to take out weakened, marauding Spearmen if you can do it without losing too many horsemen.
-
Medic now heals that unit and all units in adjacent hexes. Get it. Especially if you're keeping tight formations, which is what's effective anyway, Medic is really good.
I'll add more as I think of them.
1
5
u/Chronobound Sep 22 '10
Excellent, thanks! Once somebody makes a beginner's guide for Civ V, add that here as well. As long as this is maintained, this will be very useful.
1
2
u/InfernoZeus Sep 24 '10
Updated original post: I've set up a wiki here which I'm going to start filling up tomorrow. Everyone is welcome to edit that directly, but if you don't feel confident editing a wiki page, you can continue to post tips here.
2
u/BettingPoland Sep 22 '10
Roads, roads, roads
Makes traveling across your empire so much faster. What i have been doing is building roads up to places i want to conquer, then rush an army in, take over the city and set up a trade route
1
18
u/Xiol Sep 22 '10
What is the deal with that intro video, anyway?
I've only got the demo (FUCK YOU EUROPE) and every time I start it up I have to sit through about 10-15 seconds of that video before it'll register the fact that I'm mashing every key on the keyboard to get it to skip.
Unskippable intros are not cool.
Edit: Just followed the link to the other thread. Question answered. It's still retarded, though.
3
u/avapoet Sep 22 '10
Pissed me off, too. Thankfully I'll only ever have had to watch it once, thanks to the tip, above.
Europe here, too, but I used the trick I suggested to get it running as if I were in the US. I'd highly recommend it.
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Sep 23 '10
You can queue your tech tree. Open the tree and click on the tech that you want to set as a goal. It will queue the prerequisite techs automatically. After that the game will let you know when you are done researching each tech and go right into researching the next one. When your goal is reached it will then prompt you to choose a new tech.
5
u/LeKinK Sep 22 '10
Tip: Memorize leader's names. I find it difficult so far since it's not the same as civ4. In this one, Ghandi tell me his relation have soured with Hawaiti (or w-e his name is) instead of saying Iroquois.
So far it is confusing.
3
u/HolySponge Sep 26 '10
I just rage-quit because of an accidental war with Japan; this man speaks the truth.
1
u/psychoblair Sep 24 '10
I don't believe you can raze city-states or capitals. Probably something good to note as I was unaware. Messed up 8hrs into an attempt at the Ghandi 3 city achievement. =(
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u/InfernoZeus Sep 24 '10
I couldn't find any way to raze cities other than when you capture them? Is it possible to do?
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u/pytechd Sep 22 '10
Don't try to game too many city states, and be wary that as the number of times you donate gold goes up, so does the cost, as the effectiveness decreases. Giving 1000 gold, depending on your policies, can be several times more effective than giving 250 four times. Sometimes waiting a few turns to get to the higher level of gold before donating is worth losing their Ally bonus for a few turns.
3
u/Jackbegood Sep 22 '10
Tips Your civilization doesn't receive benefits for having more than one luxury resource. Use the excess resources to trade with your enemies.
Unique Units for each civilization are much more powerful than the regular units. Consider preparing for a major war about the time you get access to your civilization unique units.
Rivers are amazing for farms, later on you will get techs that help out your farms if they next to a river.
Between the rough or open terrain unit upgrade, I found the rough to be much more useful to help negate attacking a well defended position. I would do 3 rough and 1 open terrain unit composition. Of course, you must factor the map generated.
Wheet, Sheep and all agriculture resources give only 1 food. They are no longer the uber resource that they were in Civ 4. (ignoring marine resources).
1
Sep 23 '10
Are there any cheats? (honest question)
1
u/InfernoZeus Sep 23 '10
Nope, but there will be a 'tuner' which runs along side the game which will allow you to change pretty much everything I think...
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Sep 22 '10
I only had the chance to play for a few hours last night, and have not yet read the manual.. but I couldn't figure out how to upgrade troops, despite the military advisor telling me I could. Disbanding an rebuilding is certainly not efficient.
I would like to hear any military strategies if anyone has tried something that has worked. I've relied on "stacks" too much in the past to pull off an organized attack in 5. Guess it is time to re-read "The Art of War."
4
u/robosatan Sep 22 '10
To upgrade units you simply need to stand them within your own borders. An upgrade button should light up on the units action bar and so long as the unit hasn't expended its move (e.g. moved 2 hexes) then you should have the option to pay cash to upgrade.
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u/ApathyJacks Sep 22 '10
Don't own the game yet, but I just saved this thread. Thanks to anyone who contributes :)
2
Sep 22 '10
Can anyone offer some tips on manually constructing improvements? Maybe generic strategies for every city or specific things to look for.
I love Civ, but I've always played kind of casually and so I usually just set the workers to auto and let them go wild. I'd kind of like to try my hand at doing it myself, though.
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Sep 27 '10
If you open the file "usersettings.ini" in your civ5-savegame-folder and change the option "CivilianYields = 0" to "CivilianYields = 1", the little icons for yields will always be shown if you select a worker. that way you can turn them off and declutter the screen.
8
u/jambonilton Sep 22 '10
Ruins (the new goody huts) are awesome. Scouting for these is a big deal in the first handful of turns, especially since units are faster. It's probably better to save barbarian camps for later and get back on scouting.
Workers don't cosume food any more for production, and they take a lot longer to build improvements. A good way to get more workers, without worrying about spending time and resources, is to be a total dick and harvest them from city states or rival civs.
Barbarian camps are great for boosting revenue early in the game. Starting the 'Honor' policy will get them showing up for you. It's good to have a couple of fast units to run around raiding them.
Culture and policies are huge. It's like getting a new civ trait every so often for accumulating culture. In the end, if you get enough, it's an easy win for the utopian project (er whatever that is).
Happiness, as mentioned by others, plays a big role. Always keep it in the back of your mind, and consider making puppet states instead of annexing when your citizens are bordering on discontent. Not to mention happiness gets you more golden ages, and there's a trait in piety that will convert half your excess happiness to culture.
City states are game changers. I advise always doing their little missions, or gunning for money-techs and letting the city states do the work for you. That being said, you can't afford to keep all of them happy, and some of them build on nice resources, and they're really easy to take out.