Whether you're new to Civ or have been leading empires to victory since 1991, Sid Meier's Civilization VII introduces a host of exciting evolutions to this time-honored 4X strategy series. To get new and returning players up to speed on this long-awaited latest entry, here are seven quick tips you should know before founding your first City!
1. The Ages system – Welcome to a new age of Civ
Firaxis' driving philosophy behind the design of Civilization VII is that "history is built in layers," and nothing expresses that concept mechanically quite like the new Ages system. This feature splits human history into three Ages: Antiquity, Exploration, and Modern. Each distinct chapter comes with Age-exclusive resources, Units, and even civs (more on that below), as well as Ageless elements that endure throughout entire campaigns.
Ages are meant to make late-game Civ more fun by reducing micromanagement, preventing civs from gathering too much victory-ensuring momentum early on, and overhauling how civs are balanced to ensure that they always feel at the height of their power. In other words, Ages were implemented to keep that magical first-few-hours feeling going throughout an entire campaign. For more on the many nuances and knock-on effects of this game-changing mechanic, including Legacy Paths and Age Transitions, read Creative Director Ed Beach's breakdown in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #1: Ages.
2. Choose your leader and civ independently
Along with Ages come major changes to how you'll select which civs and leaders to play. In previous Civilization titles, players picked one civ and its accompanying leader to embody for the entire game. In Civ VII, every civ is tied to a specific Age, meaning your empire will evolve as it progresses through history. Because each Age has a unique set of civilizations, every transition to a new Age involves choosing a new civilization to represent your empire, from a selection based on your gameplay decisions or historical relevance.
This means leaders have been decoupled from civs, vastly increasing the number of leader/civ combinations and, by extension, the replayability and strategic depth of Civ VII. Add to that the new Attribute system, which lets you spend points to customize leaders' strengths, and each playthrough becomes unique in a new way for the series. To learn more about Civ VII's changes to leaders and civs, check out Lead Franchise Producer Dennis Shirk's thorough breakdown in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #2: Leaders and Civs.
3. Empire management has been streamlined
Arriving hand-in-hand with these changes to civs, leaders, and overall pacing, other ways in which you govern and grow your empire have been streamlined for Civ VII. In another big shift for the franchise, Builder Units have been removed entirely, and creating Improvements is tied to population growth instead. Accruing enough Food earns Population points, which are allocated to directly add Improvements or Specialists to tiles.
Additionally, after you establish a Capital City, subsequent Settlements begin as Towns, which lack Production menus and automatically convert their Production into Gold. Towns can eventually (and permanently) specialize in producing one chosen resource, or even be upgraded into full-fledged Cities in exchange for Gold.
For more on how Civ VII's handles the continued expansion of your empire, read Economics Feature Lead Edward Zhang's deep dive in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #3: Managing Your Empire.
4. Unravel your empire's Emergent Narrative
In Civilization, the stories of players' empires typically emerge from their strategic choices and the consequences of those decisions. Civ VII introduces a layer of direct storytelling via the new Emergent Narrative system, which tracks your in-game choices, real historical events, and those classic "what-if" scenarios unique to Civ. As your empire grows, you'll be periodically presented with text-based decision points containing two to three choices that let you define your empire's priorities and values.
There are no wrong answers here; these narrative events offer snapshots of individuals and their goings-on within your civ, and they typically offer gameplay bonuses or Resources of approximately equal value. There will be over a thousand narrative events in Civ VII at launch, most which you won't see in a single campaign.
To learn more about this immersive new system, including how it interacts with Discoveries and other elements of Civ VII, check out Narrative Director Cat Manning's breakdown in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #4: Emergent Narrative.
5. Approach warfare from a new direction
Sun Tzu wrote, “In warfare, there are no constant conditions,” and players should approach Civ VII's updated combat with the same mindset. The biggest change comes in the form of Commander Units, which can stack nearby troops onto itself, allowing faster movement across the map before deploying your Units onto adjacent tiles. Commanders are also now the only Units able to gain experience and earn promotions, selected across multiple “discipline” trees.
Players will also need to take a new district-by-district approach to navigating sieges, with defenders incentivized to build walls around vulnerable areas while attackers build specialized Siege Units to destroy said walls. Combined with the addition of proper flanking bonuses (meaning, yes, the direction of your attacks now matters), these changes have transformed and improved Civ combat. For more on how warfare works in Civ VII, here's Senior Game Designer Brian Feldges' in-depth explanation in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #5: Combat.
6. Influence diplomacy and trade on a grander scale
As Game Designer designer Bill Anderson asks in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #6: Diplomacy, Influence, and Trade, "What if, instead of trying to calculate how much Gold is worth trading for some horses, you instead increase your overall trade relations with another leader and let the merchants of your empire do the actual bartering?"
By eliminating the mercantile minutiae of past entries, Civ VII presents your interactions with other leaders on a grander scale, resulting in a new resource for the series: Influence. As the main currency of the diplomacy system, Influence is accumulated on a per-turn basis like Gold, then spent to perform diplomacy actions with other empires.
War, Relationships, and Agendas return too, joined by the new War Support and War Wearniness mechanics. The party with less War Support suffers from War Weariness, leading to Happiness and combat penalties. Declaring a surprise war on a non-hostile leader results in more War Support for the other side, for example, though War Support can also be bought with Influence, whether allocated toward yourself or conflicts between other empires.
For more on how trade has been streamlined, as well as the economic Legacy Paths unique to each Age, check out Dev Diary #6!
7. Legends and Mementos add new layers of progression
Civ VII rewards progress over multiple playthroughs in new ways with Legends and Mementos. Designed to reward every cool thing you do in a given campaign—regardless of victory or defeat—the Legends system lets you level up along the Foundation Path (with any leader) or the Leader Path (respective to each individual leader) by completing Challenges, which reward you with Mementos and Cosmetic Collectibles that persist across campaigns.
While leaders have two Memento slots, there are nearly 100 unique Mementos to earn, affording players additional Units, attribute points, resources, and more. Better yet, Mementos can be assigned to any leader, letting you mix and match to add even more replayability to Civ VII! For the whole lowdown on these meta-level additions to Civ, read Senior Game Designer Matt Owens' full description in our Civilization VII Dev Diary #7: Legends and Mementos.
With these top seven tips, you're now up to speed on the biggest changes in Civilization VII, but that's still just the tip of the proverbial Civ VII iceberg. Check out the Official Civilization VII Game Guide for detailed information on every civilization and leader in the game, along with all the Dev Diary articles for deeper dives into these topics! Build something you believe in when Civilization VII launches February 11, 2025!
