Sid Meier’s Civilization VII is set to revolutionize the beloved 4x strategy series with a host of new features and gameplay mechanics. Building on the foundation of its predecessors, Civ 7 introduces innovative changes that promise to deepen strategic options and enhance player experience. From the ability to choose leaders independently of civilizations, to the dynamic progression through different Ages with unique challenges and milestones, the game offers fresh opportunities for both seasoned veterans and newcomers alike.
With a focus on balance, customization, and replayability, Civilization VII aims to deliver the most engaging and dynamic entry in the series yet. Here’s everything I know about what to expect from this Civ 7 and how it is different from Civ 6.
AI Improvements
During the PAX presentation civ developers talked about significant improvements that have been made to the AI, enhancing both its raw capabilities and its decision-making processes. The AI team has doubled in size, allowing for more focused development on making each phase of the game engaging and meaningful. One of the key goals has been to eliminate uninteresting and unnecessary decision-making that often plagued the later stages of Civilization VI, where players would find themselves clicking randomly and making trivial choices. Instead, Civilization VII aims to make each Age distinct, engaging, and filled with choices that truly matter.
A prime example of these improvements is the way the AI now handles military tactics. Commanders and armies in Civ VII can be consolidated under a single leader, allowing for streamlined movement and deployment across the map. This enhancement reduces the need for managing dozens of individual units in complex positioning battles, enabling the AI to focus on strategic, impactful decisions rather than getting bogged down by micromanagement.
Victory Types
In Civilization VII we now have four primary victory types: Science, Culture, Military, and Economic. However, the new victory path system offers gameplay flexibility to the players and does not require a victory type commitment from the get-go.
While traditional victory conditions are achieved in the last Age only, each Age has a Legacy Path that offers unique milestones and quests that contribute to the overall victory. For example, if a player is able to fulfill all objectives for a specific path then they reach Golden Age that offers significant bonuses and rewards.
Because of our Legacy Paths, you’re able to focus on two, sometimes even three of those, depending on how well you are doing, and get as far as possible into those Legacy Paths. Those have various stepping stones along the way, and you may not necessarily reach the very end of a Legacy Path and receive the top reward, but it is possible to at least hit maybe that first or second level in a couple of different spots. Those attributes are reflective of the kind of playstyle that civ has and the bonuses that they get, so those will help you a fair amount towards those two Legacy Path areas.
Carl Harrison
Antiquity Age objectives for each Legacy Path (as of 08/2024)
- For a Cultural path, the player must house seven World Wonders within their empire, showcasing their cultural achievements.
- For a Scientific path, the goal is to display ten codices, reflecting the civilization’s knowledge and intellectual prowess.
- A Military path requires the player to control twelve towns or cities, with conquered settlements counting as double, emphasizing both conquest and expansion.
- An Economic path involves assigning 25 resources to various settlements, demonstrating economic management and resource allocation.
Path milestones provide diverse challenges and strategic depth, requiring players to carefully plan their actions throughout each earlier Age to achieve their desired victory type in the Modern Age.
What are Ages
In Civilization VII, the concept of Ages introduces a dynamic and evolving gameplay experience, where each Age brings unique challenges, opportunities, and strategic decisions. Unlike previous installments, Ages in Civ 7 are not just linear progressions but are defined by specific milestones and transitions that impact all civilizations simultaneously.
Players navigate through three distinct Ages that could be about 200 turns each:
- Antiquity Age
- Exploration Age
- Modern Age
Each Age comes with its own set of technologies, cultural advancements, and gameplay mechanics. The transitions between Ages, marked by crises influenced by the player’s past actions, create a more interconnected and responsive world, forcing players to adapt their strategies as they move through history. This new system adds depth to the game, encouraging players to think ahead and plan for both immediate and long-term goals as they guide their civilizations through the ebb and flow of time.
There are options to play a single age scenario if you will or a full three-age campaign. The actual victory condition is only satisfied with the Modern Age, meaning that you can win an Antiquity or Exploration Age, but not the game.
Changes with each Age
Civilizations progress to the next Age together, ensuring better game balance. This approach presumably prevents any single civilization from becoming a runaway leader in technology or culture. It can be speculated that the faster a civilization moves down the timeline, the better prepared it will be to transition to the next Age.
Each Age brings a set of changes:
- Civilizations: Civilizations are Age-exclusive, and come equipped with Unique Abilities, Units, Civics, and Buildings and/or Improvements. Although there will be certain civilizations that could span all three Ages, like India (Maurya -> Chola -> Mughal) or possibly Japan. The human player will have the first dibs on the civ choice, whereas AI will try to stick to the historical choice.
- Resources: Each Age contains a set of obtainable Resources on the map that were available during that time period. Some Resources span multiple Ages, while others are exclusive to an individual Age.
- Civics and Technologies: Ages determine which Civics and Technologies can be researched. So each Age has its own research tree with in-depth techs and future techs available until the Age transition.
- Buildings and Units: Available types of Units, Buildings, and Wonders are determined by the Age. Some buildings might become less valuable; however, there are indications that their effects can be carried over and even enhanced by achieving a Golden Age in a specific path.
- Independent Powers: Independent Powers are minor factions on the map that can be interacted with.
- Game Systems: Certain game systems are only available during each Age, ensuring every Age feels unique and exciting to engage with.
- Playable Map Area: Ages determine the overall size and scope of the playable map, expanding as the player transitions into new Ages. It sounds, as though map changes could be more significant than simply crossing an ocean, as in previous versions.
Age Transition
Age progression in Civilization VII is tracked through the gameplay, with your actions contributing to a progress meter. However, it remains unclear which specific actions fill this meter or how much each action contributes. The devs mentioned quests, narrative events, eliminating other civs, and so on.
Crisis
Once the meter is filled, the Age ends, and all players enter an Age of Transition. During this time, a crisis of some sort occurs, influenced by your previous actions. For example, barbarians might begin attacking everyone, or the crab people might arrive and cause chaos. While details are still scarce, it’s clear that once you overcome the crisis, you transition to the next Age.
We have several different crises. The one that we’re demoing right now is an invasion crisis, sort of imagine you’re the Roman Empire and you’ve gotten too big and everyone wants a little piece of your action. And so those barbarians are at your gate and knocking on down the door. So that’s the one that we’re demoing in the build we have here right now. But we’re working on other types of crises, things like unrest in your population or plagues and some of those systems for crises use the same random event system that we use for the natural disasters.
Ed Beach
Possible crisis types:
- Invasion
- Unrest
- Plague
Legacy Options
When an Age comes to an end and you enter an Age Transition, there are several action a player is required to take:
- Choose a new civilization to lead your empire in the upcoming Age
- Decide which elements of your previous civilization to retain
- Choose Legacy options from the previous Age, that are reminiscent of government policies
You will also see the game map expand with new Independent Powers to ally with, new Resources to gather, and new Discoveries to explore.
Several factors influence the choice of your new civilization during an Age Transition. These factors include historical connections between your previous and future civilizations, your leader selection, and specific gameplay choices made in the preceding Age. Throughout your game, you might aim to stay true to historical continuity by selecting civilizations with historical links, or you might prioritize civilizations that align better with your strategic goals.
Civilizations and Leaders
For the first time ever Sid Meier’s Civilization VII allows players to select their leader independently of their civilization, offering the flexibility to develop entirely new strategies by combining different gameplay bonuses. Each leader has a unique ability that can be further enhanced with customizable attributes earned through gameplay, allowing you to adapt or strengthen your strategy as you advance through different Ages.
This means, in theory, you could choose Augustus to lead Egypt or Benjamin Franklin to make Mongolia great again. The leader you select stays with you throughout the game, but the civilizations they govern will change three times with each Age. Although, we are going to have certain civilizations lasting through all three Ages like India.
The leader/civ decoupling also allows developers to introduce new leaders, bonuses, and game enhancements more efficiently. Additionally, it promotes a more balanced gameplay experience, addressing the challenges faced in Civ 6, where a few dominant civilizations were often banned in multiplayer games due to their overpowering advantages.
Civilizations List
Below is the presumed list in-progress as of 08/2024.
100% confirmed civs can be tracked on the official guide website.
Antiquity Age
- Aksum – Cultural / Economic
- Egypt – Cultural / Economic
- Maya – Diplomatic/ Scientific
- Maurya (India) – Militaristic / Scientific
- Rome – Cultural / Militaristic
- Japan (ancient) – ?
Exploration Age
- Shawnee – Economic / Political?
- Songhai – Economic / Militaristic
- Chola (India)
- Norman – ?
- Japan (Meji) – ?
Modern Age
- Buganda – Militaristic
- French Empire – ?
- Mughal (India)
- England – ?
- Japan (modern) – ?
- United States – ?
Changing Civilizations
Here’s how changing civilizations works: If you start as Egypt in Antiquity, you can transition to Songhai in the Age of Exploration due to historical similarities reflected in the civilizations’ attributes—both are Cultural/Economic and share other traits, such as benefiting from bonuses related to navigable rivers.
However, if you complete certain actions or discover specific technologies or civics in the previous Age, you could unlock and transition to a completely “unrelated” civilization. For example, one known option is based on the number of resources collected; if you possess three horses, you unlock Mongolia, allowing a transition from Egypt to Mongolia.
In the Modern Age, you could then transition to Buganda or another civilization.
This means that only certain civilizations are available for transition by default. However, there seems to be an option to maintain historical continuity between civilizations or disable this setting and choose any civilization moving forward. For instance, with historical continuity enabled, Egypt is linked to Songhai and then to Buganda, according to the creators of Civilization VII.
Civilization Unique Features
Each civilization has unique set of characteristics:
- Ability
- Attributes (preferred path?)
- Civic Tree
- Unique infrastructure
- Unique Civilian Unit
- Unique Military Unit
- Associated Wonder
For example, Egypt’s “Gifts of Osiris” provides +1 production on navigable rivers. It’s not entirely clear whether these abilities remain when transitioning to the next civilization, but logically, they should stay, with the next civilization’s abilities stacking on top. We know that Songhai also carries bonuses towards navigable rivers and trade that compliments Egypt’s own bonuses.
One notable difference is that Civ 7 introduces a civilian unit for each civilization. Here are some examples:
- Nagarika: Settler replacement Unit. Adds Happiness on City Halls.
- Trade Ship replacement, cannot be pillaged, increased range
- Tjaty (like Great Person or Comandante from Civ 6) It can randomly do one of these: add culture, gold, grant combat unit, grant codex, add production to wonder etc.
- Army Commander. Can gain the ability to create a new Settlement after a set number of Promotions
- Scout replacement Unit. Has the Stone Trap ability, creating an invisible trap that must be placed on Vegetated tiles; Stone Trap deals damage to any enemy Units that enter the tile and instantly ends their movement. This ability recharges after a set number of turns.
- Missionary replacement, Has increased movement, and Rivers do not end movement.
Civilization Unique Civic Tree
Moreover, each civilization has its own unique cultural development tree. While technology and civics trees are shared among all civilizations, each civilization also has a small tree of three to four unique cultural technologies. These civics offer bonuses to various yields and currencies, units promotions etc. This ensures that every playthrough will be highly distinctive.
In Civilization VI, with its 53 leaders, you could pride yourself in A-Z challenge considering the game completed by playing each one. However, in Civilization VII, you’ll need to combine leader abilities and attributes, plus civilization abilities for each Age, as well as civics to achieve a more comprehensive experience.
Civilization Wonders
Each civilization also has a unique wonder that it can build faster than others. For instance, Egypt has the Pyramids, which it can construct 30% faster than other civilizations. While other civilizations can still build these wonders, Egypt does it more efficiently and quickly.
In the demonstration, for example, it was revealed that the Maya civilization is associated with the wonder “Monde Perdido,” a ceremonial complex. Rome has the Colosseum, Songhai has the Tomb of Askia, and so on.
Leaders
Leaders remain unchanged throughout the game, that way you keep the personal attachment. Naturally, leaders have unique traits. For example, Egypt’s leader Hatshepsut gains +1 culture for each imported resource and a 15% boost to constructing buildings and wonders in cities located on navigable rivers.
Below is the presumed list in-progress as of 08/2024 with some of the leader traits.
- Hatshepsut: +1 Culture for every imported Resource. +15% Production towards constructing Buildings and Wonders in Cities adjacent to Navigable Rivers.
- Augustus: +2 Production in the capital for every town. Can purchase Culture Buildings in Towns. +50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns.
- Amina: +1 Resource Capacity in Cities. +1 Gold per Age for each Resource assigned to Cities. +5 Combat Strength on all Units in Plains and Desert.
- Ashoka: +1 Food in Cities for every 5 excess Happiness. +10% Food in all Settlements during a Celebration. All Buildings gain a +1 Happiness Adjacency for all Improvements.
- Tekumseh: Increases food, production, and combat strength based on the number of allied city-states.
- Himiko: ?
- Confucius: ?
- Benjamin Franklin: ?
- Napoleon (Vanilla): Reduces the Trade Route capacity for a target civilization and causes massive Grievances. Gets bonus Gold per Age for every leader he’s Unfriendly or Hostile with, but less Gold per Age for every leader who sees him as Friendly or Helpful.
- Napoleon (Revolutionary): Giving all army commanders extra movement and granting Culture each time he defeats an enemy unit.
Leader Attributes
However, they now have upgrades and six attribute research trees: Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic, Expansionist, Military, and Scientific. Over time, you develop these leader skills, which affect your entire game and the civilizations you choose.
Technology and Civics Trees
The technology and civics trees in Civilization VII are both age-specific and age-constrained. This means that once you have unlocked all the technologies from Antiquity, you won’t be able to access technologies from the Age of Exploration until the entire world transitions into that Age. This design helps address the issue of scientific civilizations advancing too quickly; you can’t progress too far ahead because available technologies are limited until the next Age begins. It’s important to note that when a new Age starts, it does so for all civilizations simultaneously.
Additionally, some technologies and civics allow for more in-depth research or specialization; these are known as Mastery techs, which provide extra bonuses.
Moreover, it seems that once all current technologies are researched, future technologies may become available to fill the gap, offering more rewards and better preparation for the next Age.
Cities and Towns
In Civilization VII, the introduction of towns alongside traditional cities brings a new layer of depth to settlement management, offering players more strategic choices and flexibility in developing their empire. While cities retain many of their familiar mechanics, they now have additional slots and functionalities, and towns introduce fresh mechanics that can greatly impact your gameplay.
Cities: Familiar Foundations with New Flexibility
Cities function similarly to how they have in previous Civ versions, serving as central hubs for production, culture, science, and military. However, resources system has been updated and now each city has four slots available for assigning resources, allowing for more strategic allocation to maximize various outputs.
Towns: New Settlements with Unique Advantages
Towns are a new type of settlement introduced in Civilization VII with several unique properties that differentiate them from cities. Unlike cities, towns start with only two resource slots by default, but they offer distinct benefits that can be strategically leveraged. All settlements founded, aside from your capital, begin as towns. One of the key features of towns is that they convert all production into gold, making them highly valuable for generating wealth. Additionally, food yields in towns are twice as effective—not only do they contribute to the town’s growth, but they are also copied and added to a connected city, enhancing the overall food supply of your empire.
Towns start as growth towns, which grow more quickly than cities. Once a town reaches a population of seven, you can choose to upgrade it to a city for free or specialize it further into a specific type, such as a farming, fishing, or mining town. Specialization allows towns to focus on particular resources or production types, providing unique buffs and benefits to your empire. For instance, assigning resources to settlements can provide specific bonuses, such as a 10% increase in science output.
Transforming Settlements: From Towns to Cities
Players also have the option to spend gold to convert a town into a city, with the cost decreasing over time, potentially scaling with the town’s size. This flexibility allows for dynamic expansion strategies, where towns can either be left to specialize or upgraded to cities depending on the player’s needs and strategic goals. However, it’s worth noting that all non-capital cities might convert back into towns when a new Age begins, adding a layer of complexity to city management and planning.
Managing Happiness and Settlement Caps
Spamming cities will be a difficult endeavor with a new concept of settlement cap, because happiness penalty will be incurred for exceeding the settlement cap. The settlement cap limits the total number of cities an empire can have. This cap can be increased by progressing through the culture tree, highlighting culture’s dual role in advancing both Civics and expanding settlement capabilities. The settlement cap system is unique for each empire, offering a tailored approach to growth and emphasizing the importance of balancing city development with cultural advancement.
You will incur a -5 happiness penalty in all settlements for each settlement that exceeds the cap. This penalty is more severe if you exceed the cap with a larger number of cities (e.g., 10 cities over the cap versus 4 cities over the cap), making it crucial to carefully manage the number and type of settlements to maintain a stable and happy empire.
Overall, the distinction between cities and towns in Civilization VII provides new strategic opportunities for players to consider as they expand and develop their empires. With towns offering unique benefits and the ability to specialize, and cities serving as versatile centers of power, players will need to carefully plan their settlement growth and resource management to maximize their civilization’s potential.
City Development: No Builders
City development in Civilization VII is one of the most revolutionary changes in the series’ history. Workers are saying goodbye—longtime fans might recall that there were no workers in the first and second versions of Civilization either; their functions were combined with settlers.
Urban Districts
The game now distinguishes between urban and rural districts. Urban districts are somewhat similar to the districts in Civilization VI but are implemented differently. For instance, if you want to build a granary, you can construct it as a district on a tile adjacent to the city center. Each district can initially house two buildings, though this number will likely increase with technological advancements and Age progression. So theoretically, you could build the granary in the city center, but if you choose to place it on a neighboring tile, it becomes a district. The districts have to placed adjacent to each other, therefore creating a continuous and organic city sprawl. Each district also acts as a culture bomb, increasing the borders around it.
Rural Districts
On the other hand, rural districts are formed by new citizens. For example, if there’s a forest next to your city and a new citizen appears in the city, placing them on the forest will build a lumber mill, forming a rural district. No workers or improvement chargers are needed, a new citizen simply starts working the district.
Quarters
Specialized districts are now player-created. For instance, if you construct two unique Egyptian buildings in one district, that district becomes a Necropolis and provides certain bonuses. If you build two scientific buildings in a district, it becomes a campus; two production buildings turn it into a production district, and so on.
The specific bonuses aren’t fully disclosed yet, but the concept is more logical than in Civilization VI, where you randomly built a production district. Now, you have a neutral district that transforms into a specialized one as it develops. It appears that adjacency bonuses are back and can be enhanced by policies as well as assignment of specialist citizens.
Specialists
Specialists play a crucial role in optimizing city productivity and advancing your empire. Unlike in Civilization VI, where population is often allocated to work tiles for basic resource generation, Civ VII introduces a more strategic use of specialists. Here, you can allocate population to occupy specific buildings, such as libraries and universities, to conduct bonus research and enhance your empire’s output. This feature allows for a more focused approach to developing a “tall” empire, where fewer, highly specialized cities can generate substantial benefits.
Buildings
Players can use gold to purchase certain buildings, such as granaries and fisheries, although not all buildings are available for purchase this way. This adds a new layer of decision-making regarding resource management and city specialization.
—–Aged vs. Non ageless buildings can be built over in future ages so you can “redesign” your empire.
Walls are built like buildings but don’t take a building slot meaning you can chose to have walls in any district tiles you want.
Core Gameplay and City-States
Apart from these changes, city development is generally the same as in previous installments. You now only build units or buildings that turn into urban districts. City-states remain in the game, but no specific details were shown; they likely resemble the barbarian clans from Civilization VI. Initially, they appear as small settlements akin to barbarian camps, which presumably evolve into mini-cities, similar to the mode introduced in Civilization VI.
Diplomacy System
Diplomacy has also seen a significant change, borrowing elements from Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth. This installment featured a diplomacy system that many found more engaging than previous versions. In Civilization VII, there will be a unique resource called “influence,” which you’ll spend on diplomatic interactions with other civilizations. Proposing a trade of resources? Spend influence. Closing borders? Spend influence. Opening borders? Spend influence. While further details are not yet available, the new system looks promising, potentially more engaging than the systems in the fourth, fifth, and sixth installments of the series.
Civilization VII is shaping up to offer a fresh take on the series with innovative changes in city development, diplomacy, and Age progression, promising an even more engaging and strategic experience for players.
Navigable Rivers
Speaking of which, some rivers in the game are now navigable, allowing you to place a city not just on the coast but also farther inland along a river—similar to many major modern cities, like London, where large shipyards were built, and the English fleet was launched on the Thames.
Religion
- Pantheon in Antiquity
- Additional pantheon choice is possible with civ traits like Maurya
- Religion in Exploration
- Unique Civilian Unit for Shawnee: Hoceepkileni is a Missionary replacement Unit. Has increased movement, and Rivers do not end movement.
Units and Warfare
Let’s talk about units and warfare in Civilization VII, where significant changes have been made. The game introduces army commanders, essentially the equivalents of generals. These commanders are now the only units in your armies that gain experience points, and they have their own skill trees similar to those of civilization leaders. These trees are divided into various military specializations: Defense, Offense, Logistics, Maneuver, and Leadership. Notably, Leadership isn’t strictly military because, for example, a commander with Leadership skills can positively affect city development. If a commander with advanced Leadership skills is stationed in a city, the city begins to receive various bonuses.
It’s currently unclear how these commanders are obtained—whether they are built or granted through technological advancements. What is clear, however, is that the commander serves as the core of your army. You can assign up to six units to a commander. Initially, this limit is lower, but it increases with technological advancements. So, you can embed up to six units with a commander and move them across the map together.
When units are assigned to a commander, they can’t fight, nor can the commander. However, when an enemy is spotted, you press a button, and the units deploy around the commander on adjacent tiles. This explains the six-unit limit—only six units can fit around the commander on the tiles. Once deployed, the battle begins, and the units receive bonuses from the commander’s abilities. The commander, in turn, gains experience points from the actions of these units. Therefore, it’s less critical to preserve individual units but crucial to protect commanders.
Unit Composition and Reinforcements
It’s advisable to bring a diverse mix of units—like a rock-paper-scissors scenario. Melee units are positioned upfront, cavalry on the flanks, and ranged units in the rear. An interesting new feature is the ability to designate a commander as a reinforcement point.
For example, if the commander is a certain number of tiles away from a city, a unit built in that city can instantly join the commander’s group. You don’t need to manually move it from the city, which reduces unnecessary actions and micromanagement. It’s still unclear how this will be implemented—whether it will depend on a specific distance or allow reinforcements from across the map—but this is an important innovation.
Given that each turn in the game represents at least a year, and sometimes more, it makes sense for units to arrive at the front immediately rather than after several turns, which could span centuries.
Scouts
The scout unit has new functions. For instance, the “Observation” ability allows the scout to remain stationary but increases its visibility. Visually, this looks like the scout climbing a watchtower. This ability is helpful for those worried about surprise attacks, as scouts can be positioned for early detection of enemies.
Another feature, “Search,” reveals all special locations (called “discoveries” in this game) within six tiles, after which the scout can move to collect them. This is a pleasant feature, removing the guesswork about where these discoveries might be, which were akin to ruins or tribal villages in previous games.
Fortification
Civ VII introduces a new fortification mechanic for combat units, adding a strategic layer to battlefield management. When you fortify a unit on a tile, the game now marks that tile as fortified, a feature that goes beyond just boosting the unit’s defense. If a fortified unit is taking heavy damage and needs to retreat, you can now swap it out with fresh troops without losing the fortification bonus. The tile retains its fortified status, allowing the new unit to immediately benefit from the defensive advantages. Meanwhile, the damaged unit can safely retreat to heal.
This new mechanic provides a more dynamic and tactical approach to managing your forces in combat, offering both defensive strength and flexibility.