SID MEIER'S CIVILIZATION VII GLOSSARY

Ability: A bonus or modifier inherent to a Leader, Civilization, Unit, Building, or Wonder. Sometimes referred to as a Unique Ability.

Advanced Start: When starting the game in the Exploration Age or Modern Age, players will begin with an Advanced Start. They are granted several Wildcard Legacy points that can be used to place Cities, Towns, and additional bonuses to prepare for the Age

Advisors: In-game guides that provide help and direction. They are organized across Science, Culture, Military, and Economy. Decisions that further each category typically have a corresponding indicator, called a 'gem.'

Adjacency Bonus: A bonus granted to a tile based on the Features, Biome, Improvements, or Buildings that share a side with the tile. Adjacency bonuses never count their own tile.

Age: A playable chapter of history with a distinct rule set containing unique Civilizations, Units, Buildings, Wonders, and Legacy Paths.

Ageless: A property that indicates no changes to effect or Yields based on Age.

Age Progression: A new mechanic that tracks the amount of points needed until the new Age is triggered. Age Progression increases on each turn with the completion of Legacy Path milestones and reaching the end of the Technology and Culture Trees.

Age Transition: After an Age concludes, players go through the Age Transition process where they select a new Civilization to represent their empire and spend any acquired Legacy Points. In addition, the game world goes through several changes to adjust to the new Age, including Age-specific Tech and Civic trees, new Buildings, game systems, and more.

Agenda: AI Leaders have Agendas, a series of defined behaviors and conditions that determine how their Relationship will change with other empires based on their actions.

Alliance: When two major Civilizations form a mutually beneficial agreement. This allows the Civilizations to share open Borders, have active Vision, and prevent the two from going to War with each other. When an Alliance member enters a War, the other member is given the option to join them.

Artifact: Only available in the Modern Age. These are Great Works that appear on the map in sites where battles or Cities from previous Ages once were, and can be claimed by the Explorer Unit.

Attribute: Traits earned by a Leader over the course of a game that add bonuses to the player in the form of skill trees. Categories are Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic, Expansionist, Militaristic, and Scientific. The Attributes listed for a given Leader or Civilization are the types most common to be granted to them by Narrative Events, but you can earn any of these traits to build a Leader different ways each time you play them.

Belief: A mechanic in the Religion system that provides unique bonuses to the player's Civilization. After founding a Religion, Beliefs can only be obtained during the Exploration Age.

Biome: A large, naturally occurring community of flora and fauna occupying a major habitat or area. Also known as Terrain. Biomes include Tundra, Grassland, Plains, Tropical, Desert and Marine.

Border: Boundaries between your empire, City, or territory and either neutral or other empire, Cities, and territories.

Building: A Production item placed on a tile owned by a City or Town that creates an Urban District. Provides Yields without the use of a Population, but has Gold and Happiness maintenance.

Capital: The initial Settlement created by the Founder Unit at the start of a game. This is always a City and can only be changed during Age Transition. The Capital has the special Palace Building, which has stronger Yields.

Celebration: After a certain amount of turns that are determined by global Happiness, an empire will enter a state of Celebration. For a set amount of turns, an empire-wide bonus will be chosen that is determined by the type of Government. In addition, achieving a Celebration permanently unlocks a new Social Policy slot.

City: The final form of a Settlement created by converting a Town. Has the ability to produce all Units, Buildings, and Wonders. The Capital is always a City.

City Banner: The user interface that floats above the City Hall or Palace and indicates the name, owner, and basic information of the City.

City-State: An Independent Power that's been upgraded through interactions with other major Civilizations.

Civic: Individual nodes, which provide bonuses, modifiers, and unlockable items that make up the Culture Tree.

Civilian Unit: Non-combat Units that can stack on a single tile and can only perform one specific action. They cannot be attacked, but take damage when stacked with hostile Units

Civilization: Nations or cultures from history chosen by each player that are unique to the current Age. Your choice of Civilization determines your set of unique bonuses, Units, and Buildings. Also known as 'civs' for short.

Civilopedia: An in-game encyclopedia, providing information or flavor text on gameplay, mechanics, Leaders, Civilizations, and more.

Cloud Save: Files stored on an online server rather than locally on the device, letting you play with the same save file across different platforms. Cloud Saves required a linked 2K Account.

Codex/Codices: Great Works of writing that can only be obtained in the Antiquity Age. These can be gained in various ways but are most commonly found on Tech Masteries, and are used to achieve the Great Library Legacy Path in the Antiquity Age.

Combat: Attack or defense between Units. Melee Combat requires Units to directly engage via adjacent tiles. Ranged Combat allows Units to engage from a distance across a set number of tiles, primarily determined by the Unit.

Combat Strength: A numerical indicator of how strong a Unit is. Determined by several factors, including the Unit, Terrain type, and more.

Commander: A new type of Unit in Civilization VII. Gains XP when other Units enter combat in its command radius. Has abilities that can be acquired through level progression, providing numerous benefits. Can also pack other Units together and deploy them. There are three different types of Commanders: Army (land), Fleet (ocean), and Squadron (air).

Crisis: A series of historically-themed, cascading events that require all Civilizations to confront and adapt to the situation. Crises are introduced in the later portion of each Age, causing immediate on-the-map issues to deal with as well as Crisis Policies to activate. Toward the end of the Age, the Crisis culminates; upon its conclusion, an Age Transition begins (with the exception of the Modern Age.)

Crisis Policy: During a Crisis, every Civilization must select which Crisis Policies they want to initiate. Crisis Policies have negative effects for an empire and are slotted into their own set.

Cross-play: A multiplayer feature allowing players on different platforms to play together. Requires a linked 2K Account.

Cross-progression: A feature allowing players to access save files on different platforms via cloud saving. Requires a linked 2K Account.

Culture: A Yield representing a player's studying ability. Primarily used to determine the speed of Civic study.

Civic Tree: List of Civics that uses Culture to to unlock Units, Buildings, Traditions, Wonders, etc. There are three types of Culture Trees: the Main Tree, Branch Tree, and the Unique Culture Tree.

Dark Age Legacy: Unique bonus awarded upon failure to complete a milestone in a previous completion of the final milestone in a previous Age's Legacy Path during Age Transition. Only one Dark Age Legacy may be active for your Civilization.

Diplomacy: The series of actions that can be taken between Leaders and Independent Powers. All Diplomatic Actions have an Influence cost associated with them. When a Diplomatic Action is taken, the other party will have the opportunity to Support, Accept, or Reject the action. Accepting the action has no Influence cost, while Supporting or Rejecting the action incurs an Influence cost accordingly. Diplomacy plays a large role in managing your Relationships with other Leaders.

Distant Lands: A property of land in a different hemisphere from the player. Initially hidden and unreachable in the Antiquity Age, Distant Lands can be reached beginning in the Exploration Age. Several Exploration Age Legacy Path conditions are based around interaction with Distant Lands.

District: Automatically created when creating a Building or 'working' a tile. Urban Districts have two slots for Buildings, while Rural Districts gain the available Yield on the tile and are signified by a Tile Improvement.

Economy / Economic: Category or playstyle generally focusing on Gold Yield generation and use.

Endeavor: A mutually beneficial Diplomatic Action taken with another Leader.

Espionage: A hidden Diplomatic Action taken against another Leader. Has a percentage chance of success and the possibility of being discovered.

Feature: Natural environments that can appear on tiles, such as vegetation, wetlands, or reefs. Features do not add additional Yield to a tile, but they may change the Yield that appears on it.

Food: An important Yield that is required to grow a Settlement, causing it to increase in Population with a Growth Event.

Gold: A Yield representing a player's economic power. Primarily used to purchase Units and Buildings.

Golden Age Legacy: Unique bonus awarded upon completion of the final milestone in a previous Age's Legacy Path during Age Transition. Only one Golden Age Legacy may be active for a Civilization.

Government: Part of the Culture system. Governments determine the two unique types of Celebration effects that can be selected when reaching a Celebration.

Great Works: Cultural item or art that the player can gain and put on display in a Building. Great Works are distributed across Ages by type: Codices in the Antiquity Age, Relics in the Exploration Age, and Artifacts in the Modern Age.

Grievance: An action that has a negative impact on a player's Relationship with another Leader.

Growth / Growth Event: When a Settlement has increased in sufficient Population, it will experience a Growth Event. During a Growth Event, you may improve an undeveloped tile to turn it into an Improvement, or create a Specialist in Cities of sufficient size. Growth Events can also expand your Settlement's borders.

Happiness: A Yield that determines Celebrations and Settlement upkeep. Globally, Happiness contributes to achieving a Celebration, whose effects are determined by the type of Government. Locally, Unhappiness causes a penalty to the Yields of a Settlement. Similar to Gold, certain Buildings require Happiness for upkeep. In addition, exceeding the soft Settlement Cap incurs a penalty to Happiness.

Improvement: A piece of infrastructure that gains the available Yield on a tile for your empire; also called a Rural District. Some Civilizations have Unique Improvements that provide additional bonuses and effects.

Independent Power: Non-player entities that are unique to each Age. Similar to Civilizations, players can have Relationships with Independent Powers ranging from Hostile to Friendly. Several actions can be taken toward Independent Powers, including a process to grow them into a City-State, the ability to incite them to raid other nearby Civilizations, the ability to levy their Military Units, and more. Independent Powers are organized across Militaristic, Scientific, Cultural, and Economic, affecting the bonuses they provide as a City-State.

Influence: A new Yield in Civilization VII used in the Diplomacy system. Can be spent as a currency to create or interact with Diplomatic Actions and with Independent Powers and City-States.

Leader: A historical figure that represents the public face of an empire. Leaders and their Unique Ability stay the same across Ages, and have Attributes that can improve over the course of a game. AI Leaders have Agendas, a series of behaviors and conditions that determine how their Relationship will change with other empires.

Legacies: Powerful bonuses that can be acquired with earned Legacy Points, organized across different playstyles. These are chosen at the start of a new Age and go into effect immediately, though some have an ongoing effect that lasts the whole Age.

Legacy Path: A set of milestones that all Civilizations are racing to complete, organized across Military, Science, Culture, and Economy. Achieving each milestone provides a reward corresponding to the category and Age Progression. Completing the final milestone along a Legacy Path grants a Golden Age Legacy Option that can be used in the next Age. Only one Golden Age Legacy can be active for a Civilization. Alternatively, not completing a milestone in a Legacy Path unlocks a Dark Age Legacy Option.

Memento: Collectible bonuses earned through gameplay that can be equipped to a Leader during game setup. Unlocked by increasing the player's Foundation Path level as well as Leader-specific Leader Path level, you can read more about the Legends system and Mementos here. Can be disabled during multiplayer.

Military / Militaristic: Category or playstyle generally focusing on Combat Strength and domination of territory.

Military Unit: A Unit that can engage in combat. Its effectiveness is generally determined by its Combat Strength, though some Military Units also have special abilities.

Movement: A core mechanic that allows Units to traverse the map. Units have Movement points, which determines the distance each Unit is able to travel in a single turn. Some terrain ends a Unit's Movement.

Natural Wonder: A unique Wonder that exists on the map, providing bonuses such as improved Yields and a Unique Ability. Requires a nearby Settlement to claim the tile as yours.

Open Ocean: Water beyond land Coast tiles that is represented visually as a darker blue tile. Open Ocean is inaccessible during the Antiquity Age. During the Exploration Age, players can cross the Open Ocean after researching certain Technology, but will have reduced Movement range and take a small amount of damage until they research Shipbuilding.

Population: The measure of how many people live in each Settlement. Population growth requires Food and Happiness. A Growth Event allows the assignment of a Population to an available unworked tile to create an Improvement, gaining its Yields and expanding the Settlement's borders. For Cities, population growth can lead to the assignment of a Specialist Unit.

Quarter: An Urban District that has two Buildings from the active Age (or that are Ageless) completed in the same tile. Some Civilizations have Unique Quarters with additional bonuses.

Relationship: A visible metric of how well different Leaders have gotten along during an Age. Generating a Favor increases the Relationship, while a Grievance decreases the Relationship. There are five different stages to every Relationship: Hostile, Unfriendly, Neutral, Friendly, and Helpful. Alliances can only be formed with Civilizations that have a Helpful Relationship.

Resource: A limited commodity found on the map. Can only be acquired in a player's territory, when assigning a Population to the hex tile. Several different types of Resources affect where it can be slotted, including Empire, Bonus, City and more. The types of available Resources are also dependent on the Age.

Rivers: Civilization VII features a new River system, moving the water from the edges of tiles into the center. Navigable Rivers allow naval and embarked Units to travel down the length of the water.

Sanction: A Diplomatic Action that aims to hinder or negatively affect another Leader.

Science / Scientific: Category or playstyle generally focusing on Science Yield generation and the Technology Tree.

Science (Yield): A Yield representing a player's research ability. Primarily used to determine the speed of Technology research.

Settlement: A physical entity placed on the map, representing the player's empire. There are two different types of Settlements: Towns and Cities. Affected by the Settlement Limit.

Settlement Limit: A soft cap on how many Settlements a player can possess before incurring a Happiness penalty. Can be increased through gameplay.

Specialist: After reaching sufficient Population in a City, Specialists can be assigned to existing Urban Districts to provide base Science and Culture Yields while consuming Food and Happiness. They also amplify adjacency bonuses.

Social Policy: Unlocked from studying Civics in the Culture Tree. Social Policies are a principal content type of the Culture system. A given civ's unique versions of them (called Traditions) are a special subtype of the overall Social Policy category. Each Social Policy has one or more gameplay effects associated with it. Social Policies (and Crisis Policies) can be swapped whenever a new slot is added.

Technology: Individual nodes, which provide bonuses, Buildings, Units and more, that make up the Technology Tree.

Technology Tree: List of Technologies that uses Science to to unlock Units, Buildings, Wonders, etc. Upon researching a Technology, it can be further studied to develop a Mastery, which has unique bonuses and benefits. Before the final Age, reaching the end of the Technology Tree unlocks a repeatable Future Tech technology, which grants Science Attribute points and Age Progress.

Tile: An individual section of the map space in the shape of a hexagon.

Trade: The exchange of Resources between Civilizations, as well as City-States. Merchant Units must be sent to a nearby Settlement to form a Trade Route and begin trading. Every Civilization has a Trade Route cap between each other, which can be increased through Treaties in Diplomacy. Roads are automatically created when a Trade Route is established.

Trade Route: Trade Routes are the paths created by Merchant Units between Settlements that allow for Trade. The first Trade Route to a player is permitted without diplomatic agreements, while additional Trade Routes can be gained through Diplomacy. Trade Routes can only be established if the foreign Settlement is within connection range of the player's trade network.

Tradition: A unique Social Policy that is unlocked by studying a Civilization's unique Culture Tree. Unlike most Social Policies, which are Age-specific, Traditions are Ageless and can continue to be used in future Ages.

Treaty: A policy-related Diplomatic Action taken toward another Leader.

Unit: An entity that is produced or purchased in a Settlement and can move over tiles. Split into Military Units and Civilian Units. Typically only one Unit can occupy a tile at a time, with several exceptions.

Unique Quarter: Formed when building a Civilization's two Unique Buildings in the same Urban District. Offers an additional bonus, and is Ageless.

Victory: In the final Age, Victories will be unlocked at the end of each Legacy Path. The first player to complete a Victory wins the campaign. If no player completes a Victory in the final Age, then the player who has the most Legacy Points from all Ages wins a Legacy Victory. If at any point a player is the only one left standing, they win a Domination Victory.

Vision: The space that can be readily viewed on the map. Parts of the map that are unrevealed are covered by a Fog of War, completely obscuring those tiles. Tiles that have been revealed but do not have active Vision are visible, but no active information is shared. Tiles that have active Vision can be observed fully. Vision is granted by Units, or within range of a Settlement's borders.

War: When two Leaders share a War Diplomatic Action, they are considered At War. At War Leaders have a Hostile Relationship, where their Units can enter each other's territory and attack other Units. There are different types of War, including a Surprise War and Formal War. Formal Wars must be declared between Leaders who share a Hostile Relationship, incurring no penalties. Surprise War can be declared at any time, but the declarer will incur a penalty where the recipient will receive bonus Influence and free War Support.

War Support: A Leader can spend Influence to gain War Support, providing favorable bonuses. Leaders can offer War Support for other Wars that they are not directly engaged in.

War Weariness: Represents the peoples' willingness to continue the current War. A War without War Support and without victory can lead to complete societal stagnation. The player with the lesser value incurs penalties determined by that difference.

Warehouse: A Building that provides a bonus for every Tile Improvement of the same type within a Settlement. For example, the Granary provides increased Food for every Farm, Plantation, or Pasture within the Settlement. Warehouse bonuses are not removed from a tile if a new (or unique) Improvement is built there.

Wildcard Attribute: Attribute points that can be applied to any category.

Work (To Work a Tile): The act of assigning a Unit, Population, Worker, or Specialist to gain the Yields and bonus from a given tile. Adding a Worker to an empty land tile creates a Tile Improvement and adding Population to an Urban District creates a Specialist Unit.

World Wonders: A wonder that is built, with specific rules, and provides a unique bonus to the first Civilization that successfully builds it. Unlike most Buildings, a World Wonder takes up a full tile. If two empires are constructing a World Wonder at the same time, the empire that finishes it first gets it, and the other empire is refunded some Production.

Yields: A set of statistics generated by all aspects of a player's Civilization that are used to purchase, create, or unlock items throughout the game. Gold, Science, Culture, Influence, Happiness are all types of Yields.

Zone of Control: Rules that restrict Military Units' Movement when they're nearby Units controlled by another power. This is usually displayed on the tiles of the map when active.