Civilization V: Civilizations & Leaders Guide

When I first started playing Civilization 5, one of the first things I looked for on the internet was a list of all civilizations and their leaders. I found a few, but none of them gave a convenient list of each civ, their leader, the unique trait and the special buildings and units they provide. I still wanted to have such a list, so I decided to make it myself instead. Hopefully it will be useful to some other people – please do feel free to drop a comment if you have something to add or feel a correction needs to be made somewhere. After all, Firaxis is still heavily patching Civ 5, and some of the stats might change.

Civilization: America

Special Ability: Manifest Destiny: All land units have +1 sight and a 25% discount when purchasing tiles in cities.

Unique Unit: B17: Replaces the Bomber unit. Starts with Siege I and Evasion – which reduces damage from air interception by 50%. This normally takes a few upgrades, so this is a great unit for the early stages of the late game.

Unique Unit: Minuteman: No penalties from moving into forest tiles. This is a situational useful unit, depending on how quickly you get gunpowder. It’s obsolete quite quickly.

Comments: America has a few good bonuses, and the +1 sight for land units should not be underestimated when it comes to exploration.  The 25% discounts when purchasing tiles is honestly not that great, it will save you a bit of gold here and there but it won’t make a significant difference. The B17 is fantastic when laying siege to cities, and the Minuteman can be useful in certain situations but isn’t going to make a lot of difference either. America is a decent Civilization for any play style.

Civilization: Arabia

Special Ability: Trade Caravans: Trade Routes give +1 Gold and Oil (strategic resource) provides double quantity.

Unique Unit: Camel Archer: Replaces the Knight and provides a ranged unit rather than a melee one. Attacking with a strength of 15 over 2 hexes is extremely valuable on such a fast unit at the medieval stage of the game – this is a great unit.

Unique Building: Bazaar: The Bazaar replaces the Market and provides an additional copy of each luxury resource being worked on by the city. This is fantastic for trading, especially if said resource is scarce.

Comments: The +1 gold bonus might not seem like a big deal, but it does make a difference on the larger maps. It also encourages you to connect your cities more quickly, which benefits your game as a whole. The double oil benefit is far more important than it might seem, but you will not notice it until the late game. Oil is a requirement for many of the stronger units in the late game, and allows you to field large numbers of carriers and bombers. Arabia can be applied to any play style, but is very well suited for making a lot of gold.

Civilization: Aztec

Special Ability: Sacrificial Captives: Gives culture for each enemy unit killed.

Unique Unit: Jaguar: Since the Jaguar replaces the Warrior, you receive this benefit immediately. Jaguars receive a combat bonus in Jungle and heals 2 damage when it defeats an enemy unit in battle. Obviously this unit is quickly obsolete.

Unique Building: Floating Gardens: Replaces the Water Mill and gives +2 additional food to each lake tile the city is working(!) in addition to the normal flat +2 food the Water Mill already provides. If you can find a lake spanning several tiles, this is a fantastic building, but extremely situational.

Comments: Sacrificial Captives is a rather unusual ability, but the culture you acquire from killing enemy units can really add up in the long run. The floating gardens are extremely situational, and the Jaguar is a very short lived affair, so it’s unclear where the developers were going with this civilization. It’s obviously best suited for a militaristic approach, but there are civilizations better suited for this.

Civilization: Babylon

(Available from the Digital Deluxe Edition, or as DLC)

Special Ability: Ingenuity: Free Great Scientist when Writing has been researched. Doubles the rate at which Great Scientists are born.

Unique Unit: Bowman: Replaces the archer and gets +2 ranged Combat Strength and Defensive Strength compared to the standard archer.

Unique Building: Walls of Babylon: Replaces the Wall. Gives 7.5 defensive bonus vs. the normal 5 and costs 20% less. Together with Bowman, this gives Babylon a great early defense.

Comments: Babylon is obviously meant to be a scientific civilization in Civ 5, and it provides you the early defense bonuses to handle it as well. It is highly recommended to use that initial Great Scientist to build an Academy somewhere, as the early techs are not expensive enough to waste him on rushing one. You do not want to miss the Hagia Sophia when playing Babylon!

Civilization: China

Special Ability: Art of War: Effectiveness and spawn rate of Great Generals increased.

Unique Unit: Cho-Ko-Nue: Replaces the Crossbowman. Fires twice in one turn, which makes this unit extremely useful and much more powerful than its normal counterpart.

Unique Building: Paper Maker: Replaces the Library. The Paper Maker gives an additional +4 gold when compared to the Library, which translates into a net income of +3 gold per Paper Maker due to the 1 gold maintenance.

Comments: China is a bit of an odd one to place. You get a bonus to the military side of things, a gold bonus to libraries in the form of the Paper Maker and a unit which fires twice a turn in the mid game. The gold bonus can add up very quickly, increasing your gold income without losing focus of research, and is a fantastic building when you consider that markets and banks increase this bonus even further. China is very well suited for military victories, but can do very well in the Space Race as well.

Civilization: Denmark

(Available as DLC)

Harald Bluetooth

Special Ability: Viking Fury: Embarked units have +1 move and  only 1 movement cost for moving from sea to land. Melee units are charged no movement cost for pillaging improvements.

Unique Unit: Berserker: Replaces Longswordsman. +1 Move, free Amphibious (no attack penalty when attacking over a river or from the sea).

Unique Unit: Norwegian Ski Infrantry: Replaces Rifleman. +25% in Snow/Tundra/Hills (unless Forest or Jungle is present) and half movement cost.

Comments: Denmark has clearly been designed as a military civilization, with extremely specific bonuses. Best used on island maps to take full advantage of the Amphibious nature and embark bonuses. The ‘free’ pillaging option is pleasant, but doesn’t make as big an impact as the bonuses from Germany and Japan. Not the best faction, but under the right circumstances there are some pleasant advantages.

Civilization: Egypt

Special Ability: Monument Builders: +20% Production bonus towards Wonders.

Unique Unit: War Chariot: Replaces the Chariot Archer. They have 1 additional move point compared to the Chariot Archer, and don’t require the horses strategic resource.

Unique Building: Burial Tomb: Replaces the Temple. Burial Tombs give +2 happiness when compared to the Temple. This can be of great help if you are trying to build a fairly large empire. This building comes with the downside that your enemy will get more gold when they conquer your city.

Comments: The +2 happiness bonus for all your cities should certainly not be sniffed at, as it provides an easy mechanism to deal with your expansion early on. With the Piety social policy track you can further utilize the happiness by converting excess happiness into culture. The War Chariot provides a great early attack unit, which can be spammed to your desire. You will definitely want to make use of the +20% wonder production to get some early wonders, and a good production city is of great benefit to Egypt. As a result, Egypt is particularly well suited to cultural victories, but can do very well on the others too.

Civilization: England

Special Ability: Sun Never Sets: +2 movement for all naval units.

Unique Unit: Longbowman: Replaces the Crossbowman. The Longbowman has a range of three hexes, making it a fearsome ranged unit in the early stages of the game.

Unique Naval Unit: Ship of the Line: Replaces the Frigate. Comparing the Ship of the Line to the Frigate, bearing in mind that by default the unit benefits from the Sun Never Sets ability, it really provides a fantastic vessel. The Ship of the Line has 7 moves vs. the 5 a frigate enjoys, does 17 ranged damage instead of the 15 of the frigate and costs 20 fewer resources!

Comments: The Ship of the Line combined with the +2 movement bonus, truly dominates the seas for the entire mid period of the game. If the map contains a lot of water, England is going to be very powerful if played properly. The Longbowman provides an excellent unit for long-range support to your attacking forces, and England is a great choice for a military victory through conquest. The Great Lighthouse provides an opportunity to really add to your advantage, and any enemy civilization which manages to build this before you will close the gap somewhat. The Commerce social policy track is almost mandatory with England.

Civilization: France

Special Ability: Ancient Regime: +2 Culture per City until the invention of Steam Power.

Unique Unit: Foreign Legion: Replaces Infantry. The Foreign Legion receives a combat bonus of 20 when fighting outside friendly territory, making it an incredible offensive unit.

Unique Unit: Musketeer: Replaces the Musketman. Musketeers have a combat strength of 20, and they are the most powerful units of the renaissance era.

Comments: France is a fantastic choice for both Cultural and Military victories. Due to the +2 culture bonus, you will produce your first policy before any other Civilization, and depending on where you put this you can really make a fantastic start as a result. Rush to Stonehenge to get a real lead (the Tradition social policy track will help here, due to the wonder production bonus) and despite the fact that Steam Power massively drops your culture income, you should be well on the way towards glory by that point. In addition to this, France really starts to shine on the Military side as soon as Gunpowder is discovered, as your Musketeers are the best unit of their era.  Later on, Foreign Legion – an incredible offensive unit – are not obsolete until you start mass producing Mechanized Infantry.

Civilization: Germany

Special Ability: Furor Teutonicus: When defeating a barbarian inside a camp, there is a 50% chance of converting them to your side as well as earning 25 Gold.

Unique Unit: Landsknecht: Replaces the Pikeman. The Landsknecht is only half the price of the Pikeman unit (50 vs 100 production) and allows the Germans to rapidly deploy an army compared to their enemies.

Unique Unit: Panzer: Replaces the Tank. The Panzer is completely superior to the standard Tank, providing +10 combat strength and +1 movement. On top of this, they can move after attacking – showing the Blitzkrieg tactics the Germans pioneered in World War II.

Comments: It goes without saying that Germany is aimed at Military victories. Their bonus encourages you to hunt barbarians and if luck is on your side you will expand your army and gain some experience early on. In the Medieval Era, make good use of your ability to spam the Landsknecht by overwhelming your enemies. In the early late game, the German Panzer is one of the most terrifying offensive units, and your ability to move after attacking allows for true Blitzkrieg tactics. Your absolute priority in this stage of the game is to secure enough oil to keep your war machine going.  Remember the Arabian oil bonus? These guys are particularly well suited as long-term allies!

Civilization: Greece

Special Ability: Hellenic League: City-state Influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate.

Unique Unit: Companion Cavalry: Replaces the Horseman. The Companion Cavalry improves upon the Horseman by 2 additional attack power (14 in total) and +1 movement. Essentially, this is the classic era Blitzkrieg unit, as Horseman already have the ability to move after attacking. It also comes with the ability that increases the chance to spawn Great Generals.

Unique Unit: Hoplite: Replaces the Spearman and give an additional +2 combat strength (total 9). Bear in mind that these units get 100% combat strength bonus vs. cavalry, so that this unit ends up with 18 combat strength vs. the standard Horseman’s 12.

Comments: Greece is incredibly well suited for a Diplomacy victory, and absolutely screams for use of the Patronage social policy track. Both of the unique units are for the early stages of the game, allowing your to rapidly expand your influence and defend your city state allies – which are well worth defending provided that all your bonuses are focused on them.

Civilization: Inca

(Available as DLC)

Pachacuti

Special Ability: The Great Andean Road: No movement penalty in hills. No maintenance costs for improvements on hill tiles, half maintenance costs elsewhere.

Unique Unit: Slinger: Replaces the Archer. -2 Melee combat strength, ability to withdraw to an adjacent tile if attacked at melee range by non-fast units. (E.g. Cavalry, etc.)

Unique Building: Terrace Farm: Tile improvement. +1 Food, +1 Food if adjacent to mountain. Can only be built on hills. Requires Construction.

Comments: The Inca have some truly unique bonuses, which should not be underestimated. Yes, the Iroquois receive the same movement bonus for forest tiles, but hills cannot be destroyed – where forests become less common as the game progresses. Having more powerful farms can be a huge bonus to early growth, especially since the Inca start bias ensures mountains and hills will be present around their capital. The slinger is brilliant in the early game, as it’s much less vulnerable than the standard Archer unit.

Civilization: India

Special Ability: Population Growth: Double the Unhappiness from the number of Cities, but Halve the Unhappiness from Population size.

Unique Unit: War Elephant: Replaces the Chariot Archer. Compared to the Chariot Archer, the War Elephant loses 1 point of movement, but has double the melee combat strength and gains +2 ranged power as well. These are truly fantastic in the early stages of the game.

Unique Building: Mughal Fort: Replaces the Castle. The Mughal Fort is a great improvement compared to the Castle, as it gains 9 defense vs. the normal 7.5. It costs 20 less production to build and gives +2 culture to top it all off. Once flight has been researched, it starts providing gold – so it will start paying for itself.

Comments: India is a fantastic choice for players who don’t like infinite city sprawling tactics and is great at having about 3 cities with an enormous population. In my last game with Arabia I ended up with 27 cities, most of which were size 10, and some of them well above 20. Still, I had a higher population count in my game with India, with only 3 cities. India is best suited for any victory which doesn’t involve conquest.

Civilization: Iroquois

Special Ability: The Great Warpath: Units can move through forest and jungle in friendly territory as if it were a road. These tiles can be used to establish trade routes.

Unique Unit: Mohawk Warrior: Replaces the Swordsman. The Mohawk Warrior gains a 50% combat bonus when fighting in forest and jungle. If these are available in large numbers, you can use this to your advantage but it is rather situational.

Unique Building: Longhouse: Replaces the Workshop. The Workshop normally gives a 20% bonus to building construction, but the Longhouse changes this completely. Instead it gives a +1 bonus to production for each forest tile the city uses. This means that the production bonus applies to any form of construction, which is rather nice. Unfortunately it’s extremely situational, and you absolutely must have forest tiles to gain some benefit.

Comments: This is one of the civilizations which has a nice idea behind it but is far too situational to be of use long-term. If you want to hit the Iroquois where it hurts, cut down their forests and they lose any and all advantages they enjoy. Nevertheless, the ability to create trade routes without road improvements reduces the upkeep costs and makes for a nice bonus. Mohawk Warriors are very strong but only if they are in Forest or Jungle Tiles – and the Longhouse is fantastic but only if you have a lot of forest available. As a result, the Iroquois need to be played in a very specific manner and might not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Civilization: Japan

Special Ability: Bushido: Units always fight at full strength, even when damaged.

Unique Unit: Samurai:  Replaces the Longswordsman. Samurai are identical to Longswordsmen except that they gain Shock I and Generals II abilities. This increases their combat potential by 20% in open terrain and increases the likelihood a great general will spawn when defeating an enemy.

Unique Air Unit: Zero Fighter: Replaces the Fighter. The Zero gains a combat bonus of 100% vs. other Fighters and as such enables the Japanese to dominate the skies. This is invaluable in the early part of the late game.

Comments: Japan is perfectly suited for a Military victory, and gives an excellent example of why the Aztecs are a bit underwhelming. The ability to fight at full power even when damaged allows the Japanese to dominate almost all fights where there are equal numbers. The Zero is a fantastic unit in the early late game and enables you to clear the enemy skies of enemy air units to make room for your bombers. Japan is incredibly strong early on in the game, but remain a force to be reckoned with throughout the entire game. It’s not until the late game that other Civilizations can fight on mostly equal footing, due to the technology and infrastructure that should be available to them at this point.

Civilization: Ottoman

Special Ability: Barbary Corsairs: 50% chance of converting a barbarian naval unit to your side and earning 25 Gold.

Unique Unit: Janissary: Replaces the Musketman. The Janissary gains 25% additional combat strength when attacking (20 total) making it a very powerful unit of the Renaissance Era. In addition to that, the Janissary has the ability to heal to full when killing anything that isn’t a barbarian unit.

Unique Unit: Sipahi: Replaces the Lancer. Identical to the Lancer, except for its +1 sight bonus. Rather underwhelming.

Comments: The Ottoman Civilization is obviously created with a Military strategy in mind. However, the special ability is extremely underwhelming and relies on access to barbarian naval units. The Sipahi isn’t a unit that’s going to swing the Ottoman civ towards your favour, so that leaves the Janissary. It’s a great unit, but there are honestly much nicer/better Civilizations if you’re looking at a military victory. The Ottoman civ could do well on a map with a lot of water, but England would be a superior choice in such a case.

Civilization: Persia

Special Ability: Archaemenid Legacy: Golden Ages last 50% longer. During Golden Ages, your units receive +1 movement and a 10% combat strength bonus.

Unique Unit: Immortal:  Replaces the Spearman. Compared to the Spearman, the Immortal gains +1 combat strength (total 8). They also heal at double rate, making it a useful unit to go barbarian hunting with.

Unique Building: Satrap’s Court: Replaces the Bank and gives +2 happiness in addition to the usual 25% gold bonus.

Comments: Persia is all about its special ability around the Golden Ages and your absolute priority is gaining Chichen Itza. Where other players gain a 10 turn Golden Age, you’d at that point be looking at 20+, providing a huge bonus to your Civilization as a whole. Every tile with at least 1 production and 1 gold receives an additional production and gold, giving you a massive bonus to your gold and production output. The Satrap’s Court is a nice building compared to the regular bank, which helps you deal with unhappiness without losing focus of your gold income. The Immortal is useful for hunting barbarians, but isn’t as great as it might sound on paper. A dead unit can’t heal after all… During Golden Ages, focus your cities on production and get those buildings, wonders and units pumped out. It’s tempting to waste a Golden Age on building up gold – but it’s much better to use them to gain a lead over your opponents.

Civilization: Polynesia

(Available as DLC)

Kamehameha

Special Ability: Wayfinding: Units can embark and move over oceans immediately. +1 Vision Range for embarked units. +10% Combat Strength if within 2 tiles of a Moai.

Unique Unit: Maori Warrior: Replaces the Warrior. Starts with “Haka War Dance” promotion (any enemy on an adjacent tile receives -10% combat strength).

Unique Building: Moai: Tile Improvement.+1 culture. Requires Construction.

Comments: The bonus from Moais and Maori Warriors do not stack, which make them a little less useful than they might first appear. Early in the game the combat strength differences are too small to actually receive a massive advantage from these improvements, and my personal preference is to build ‘real’ tile improvements. I’m not convinced on Polynesia, though it does have some attraction for a rapid expansion strategy due to the Wayfinding bonus. Still, I find them a bit lackluster.

Civilization: Rome

Special Ability: The Glory of Rome: 25% production toward any building that already exists in the Capital.

Unique Siege Unit: Ballista: Replaces the Catapult. The Ballista gains another +4 combat strength over the Catapult (18 total). It is otherwise identical to the Catapult.

Unique Unit: Legion: Replaces the Swordsman. The Legion gain +2 combat strength over the Swordsman, but of much more interest is their ability to build roads and forts. You can literally build a road towards your enemy with the same army that will conquer them. Win!

Comments: Rome is one of the Civilizations best suited to an offensive strategy. The 25% production bonus begs you to expand your empire and create a large military. The Ballista and Legion work incredibly well together, giving you the ability to build a road right towards your enemy, conquer their city and move on. Rome is well suited for all play styles.

Civilization: Russia

Special Ability: Siberian Riches: Strategic Resources provide 1 Production. Horse, Iron, and Uranium provide double quantity.

Unique Unit: Cossack: Replaces the Cavalry. Identical to Cavalry, except the ability to deal +50% more damage against already damaged units. They can easily pick off anything in their era. The 3 movement of cavalry is useful here. A great support unit, and this ability has to be taken into account when targeting enemy units.

Unique Building: Krepost: Replaces the Barracks. Reduces the culture cost of acquiring new tiles by 50%. Russia can quickly expand their borders by building a Krepost in all cities surrounding strategically important terrain. (Which in Civ 5, is almost every single hex in the game!)

Comments: Russia is a fantastic choice for military conquest, with the ability to quickly assimilate a large amount of land, and field very large armies. The doubling of strategic resources makes a big difference when it comes to horse and iron based units early on – and nukes/death robots in the late game. These of course also make excellent bargaining chips and Russia is thus a great choice in larger multi-player games.

Civilization: Siam

Special Ability: Father Governs Children: Food and Culture from friendly City-States increased by 50%.

Unique Unit: Naresuan’s Elephant: Replaces the Knight. Unlike the Knight, this unit requires no strategic resources to build. It gets a 50% bonus against mounted units and is an excellent counter to the Knights of other civilizations.

Unique Building: Wat: Replaces the University. Removes the +2 research bonus per Jungle tile, and replaces it with a +3 culture bonus. It also lowers the maintenance cost by 1 gold vs. the University. Unlike the University, the Wat doesn’t seem to require a Library.

Comments: Due to the City-State bonuses, going for the Patronage social policy track is an absolute must. This will give you enough food in tribute to enable you to divert more attention to production and specialists – without limiting your growth. Siam is well-suited for any victory type, but really shines when you take full advantage of the City-States.

Civilization: Songhai

Special Ability: River Warlord: Triple gold from Barbarian encampments and pillaging Cities. Embarked units can defend themselves.

Unique Unit: Mandekalu Cavalry: Replaces the Knight. Gains a +30% combat bonus vs. cities.

Unique Building: Mud Pyramid Mosque: Replaces the Temple. Removes the 2 gold maintenance costs and adds another +2 culture, for a total of 5. Superior to the Temple in every single way; a truly fantastic building.

Comments: Songhai is particularly well suited to both Cultural and Military victories, but can do very well at any type of victory in the hands of a good player. The culture bonus should not be underestimated, and unlike the French bonus this one lasts the entire game. Don’t forget that the removal of maintenance costs is a rather big deal as your opponents are still paying this! The bonus you get whilst pillaging cities can really help in funding a war, by allowing you to improve your infrastructure back home without stopping the production of units. This civ is much better than it might first appear to be!

Civilization: Spain

(Available as DLC)

Isabella

Special Ability: Seven Cities of Gold: Gold bonus when discovering Natural Wonders (larger bonus when Spain is the first to discover a particular Natural Wonder). Culture, Happiness, and all tile yields (production, food, commerce) are
doubled on Natural Wonder tiles.

Unique Unit: Tercio: Replaces the Musketman. +20 Cost, +2 Strength, +100% versus Mounted.

Unique Unit: Conquistador: Replaces the Knight. No penalty when attacking cities (Knight has 33% penalty), +2 Vision Range, Embarkation with Defense (as per Songhai bonus).

Comments: Spain is a very situational civilization. If you’re lucky and have a few wonders near or within your empire, you will benefit from some quite nice bonuses, but wonders are rare and you will rarely have several of them within your borders. The unique units promote a very aggressive strategy during the Renaissance Era – with the Conquistador being a particularly great unit aimed at conquering territory on other continents.

Civilization: Mongolia

(Available as free Downloadable Content as of October 25th, 2010)

Special Ability: Mongol Terror: Units fighting City States receive a +30% combat bonus. All mounted units receive +1 movement.

Unique Unit: Keshik: Replaces the Knight. Gains 2 additional moves (total 5!), has 8 combat strength vs. the Knight’s 18, but gains a 13 strength ranged attack. Gains promotions at double rate, and contributes double amount of experience towards earning a Khan. An incredible skirmish unit.

Unique Unit: Khan: Replaces the Great General. Gains 3 additional moves (total 5!) and heals all adjecent units.

Comments: I’ve brought in Captain Obvious for the commentary on this one: Mongolia is aimed at military victories, taking out city states after they’ve done all the hard work to build up. The Khan provides a fantastic level of support to their insanely fast armies. No, seriously.

• Civilization 5 Review
  03 October 2010 6:00 PM | 7 Comments

  You bastard Ghandi! You absolute shit! This sentence sums up something in Civ 5 which is rare in a game. Ghandi just made me mad. I cared that he’s just invaded my long time ally of Kuala Lumpar, denying me supplies of Iron, Gems and...