Civilization V Analyst: Civilizations

*This page last updated: 16 May, 2012 16:29 PST.

Civilizations

Each civilization has only one Leader choice. Leaders no longer have Traits.
Instead of Leader Traits, each civilization has a unique Special Ability. For a list of Special Abilities, see the list below the table.
Each civilization now has two colors (primary and secondary) and a distinctive icon/badge instead of a flag.
Each civilization has a Unique Unit, and some have a Unique Building or Unique Improvement, but roughly half of the civilizations have a second Unique Unit instead of the structure.
World is divided into four regions (Europe, Asia, Africa and America), each with distinctive regional music, city graphics, and terrain graphics.
Civilization V shipped with 18 civilizations plus two available as downloadable content (DLC).
5 more civilizations have since been released as DLC.
9 more civilizations are due to be released with the Gods & Kings expansion.

Civilization	Icon	Leader	Capital	Unique Unit	Unique U/B/I	Special Ability
America		Washington	Washington	Minuteman	B-17	Manifest Destiny
Arabia		Harun al-Rashid	Mecca	Camel Archer	Bazaar	Trade Caravans
Aztec		Montezuma	Tenochtitlan	Jaguar	Floating Gardens	Sacrificial Captives
China		Wu Zetian	Beijing	Chu-Ko-Nu	Paper Maker	Art of War
Egypt		Ramesses II	Thebes	War Chariot	Burial Tomb	Monument Builders
England		Elizabeth I	London	Longbowman	Ship of the Line	Sun Never Sets
France		Napoleon	Paris	Musketeer	Foreign Legion	Ancien Regime
Germany		Otto von Bismarck	Berlin	Landsknecht	Panzer	Furor Teutonicus
Greece		Alexander	Athens	Hoplite	Companion Cavalry	Hellenic League
India		Gandhi	Delhi	War Elephant	Mughal Fort	Population Growth
Iroquois		Hiawatha	Onondaga	Mohawk Warrior	Longhouse	The Great Warpath
Japan		Oda Nobunaga	Kyoto	Samurai	Zero	Bushido
Ottomans		Suleiman	Istanbul	Sipahi	Janissary	Barbary Corsairs
Persia		Darius	Persepolis	Immortal	Satrap's Court	Achaemenid Legacy
Rome		Augustus Caesar	Rome	Legion	Ballista	The Glory of Rome
Russia		Catherine	Moscow	Cossack	Krepost	Siberian Riches
Siam		Ramkhamhaeng	Sukhotai	Naresuan's Elephant	Wat	Father Governs Children
Songhai		Askia	Gao	Mandekalu Cavalry	Mud Pyramid Mosque	River Warlord
Mongolia*		Genghis Khan	Karakorum	Keshik	Khan	Mongol Terror
Babylon**		Nebuchadnezzar II	Babylon	Bowman	Walls of Babylon	Ingenuity
Spain**		Isabella	Madrid	Conquistador	Tercio	Seven Cities of Gold
Inca**		Pachacuti	Cusco	Slinger	Terrace Farm	Great Andean Road
Polynesia**		Kamehameha	Honolulu	Maori Warrior	Moai	Wayfinding
Denmark**		Harald Bluetooth	Copenhagen	Berserker	Ski Infantry	Viking Fury
Korea**		Sejong	Seoul	Hwach'a	Turtle Ship	Scholars of the Jade Hall
Sumerians†		Gilgamesh	Ur	Phalanx	Ziggurat	Land of Two Rivers
Hittites†		Muwatallis	Hattusa	Heavy Chariot	Lion's Gate	First to Iron
Saxons†		Harold Godwinson	London	Huscarl	(none)	Briton Allies
Normans†		William I	Caen	Norman Knight	Motte and Bailey	Castle Builders

*Free DLC. **Paid DLC only. †Paid DLC Scenario only.

Special Abilities

Manifest Destiny (America): All land military units have +1 sight range. 50% discount when purchasing tiles.
Trade Caravans (Arabia): +1 gold from each Trade Route, and Oil resources provide double quantity.
Sacrificial Captives (Aztecs): Gains Culture for the empire from each enemy unit killed.
Art of War (China): Effectiveness and spawn rate of Great Generals increased.
Monument Builders (Egypt): +20% production towards Wonder construction.
Sun Never Sets (England): +2 movement for all naval units.
Ancien Regime (France): +2 culture per turn from Cities before discovering Steam Power.
Furor Teutonicus (Germany): Upon defeating a Barbarian unit inside an encampment, there is a 50% chance you earn 25 gold and they join your side. Pay 25% less for land unit maintenance.
Hellenic League (Greece): City-State influence degrades at half and recovers and twice the normal rate.
Population Growth (India): Unhappiness from number of cities doubled, Unhappiness from number of Citizens halved.
The Great Warpath (Iroquois): Units move through Forest and Jungle in friendly territory as if it is Road. These tiles can be used to establish Trade Routes upon researching The Wheel.
Bushido (Japan): Units fight as though they were at full strength even when damaged.
Barbary Corsairs (Ottomans): 50% chance of converting a Barbarian naval unit to your side and earning 25 Gold. Pay only one-third the usual cost for naval unit maintenance.
Achaemenid Legacy (Persia): Golden Ages last 50% longer. During a Golden Age, units receive +1 Movement and a +10% Combat Strength bonus.
The Glory of Rome (Rome): +25% production towards any buildings that already exist in the Capital.
Siberian Riches (Russia): Strategic Resources provide +1 Production, and Horse, Iron and Uranium Resources provide double quantity.
Father Governs Children (Siam): Food and Culture from friendly City-States increased by 50%.
River Warlord (Songhai): Receive triple Gold from Barbarian encampments and pillaging Cities, Embarked units can defend themselves.
Mongol Terror (Mongolia): Combat Strength +30% when fighting City-State units or attacking a City-State itself. All mounted units have +1 Movement.
Ingenuity (Babylon): Receive a free Great Scientist when you discover Writing. Earn Great Scientists at double the normal rate.
Seven Cities of Gold (Spain): Gold bonus for discovering a Natural Wonder (bonus enhanced if first to discover it). Culture, happiness, and tile yields from Natural Wonders doubled.
Great Andean Road (Inca): Units ignore terrain costs when moving into any tile with Hills. No maintenance costs for improvements in Hills; half cost elsewhere.
Wayfinding (Polynesia): Can embark and move over Oceans immediately. +1 Sight when embarked. +10% Combat Strength bonus if within 2 tiles of a Moai.
Viking Fury (Denmark): Embarked Units have +1 Movement and pay just 1 movement point to move from sea to land. Melee units pay no movement point cost to pillage.
Scholars of the Jade Hall (Korea): +2 science for all specialists and for all Great Person tile improvements. Receive a tech boost each time a scientific building/Wonder is built in the Korean capital.
Land of Two Rivers (Sumeria): Receive free Great Scientist when you discover Writing. All units pay just 1 movement point to enter any tile adjacent to a river.
First to Iron (Hittites): Strategic Resources provide +1 Production and Horse and Iron Resources provide double quantity.
Briton Allies (Anglo-Saxons): City-State Influence degrades at half and recovers at twice the normal rate.
Castle Builders (Normans): Swordsmen can construct the Motte and Bailey unique improvement in the same time it takes a Worker to build a Fort.

City States

City-States are single-city civilizations that do not found new cities or try to "win" the game. They will seek protection from one or more of the major civilizations.
There are three types: Cultured, Maritime, and Militaristic. The type determines what kind of rewards the city-state can give.
The nameplate UI (shown at right) for a city state is similar to that of a regular city, except that the icon on the right shows the Type and is color-coded for status (red for war, green for friendly, blue for allied), and there is a bar underneath showing current Influence.
When you first make contact with a City-State, it will give you a gift of gold (15). If you are the first civilization to contact them, the gift is larger (30).
Your empire has an Influence rating with each city-state, which starts at Neutral. Hostile acts (such as trespassing, stealing territory with a Culture Bomb or declaring war) will reduce influence, and friendly acts (giving gifts of gold or units, or performing favors) will increase it. Influence decays rapidly over time, and so must be maintained, or it will drop back to Neutral.
With sufficient Influence, the city-state will become Friends with your empire, and will provide bonuses according to type: Culture for Cultured, Food for Maritime, and a Militaristic state will periodically give you military units (unless you ask them to stop).
With even more Influence, the city-state may Ally with you. Alliance provides more of the same kind of bonus as Friendship, but an Allied city-state also gives you any Strategic or Luxury Resources they have access to, provides you visibility in their territory, and will join you in war if you are attacked (similar to a Vassal state in Civ IV). Allies will also vote for you in a UN election (each city-state has one vote, just like a regular civilization).
City-States can be friends with any civilization, but can only be allied with one at a time.
City-States can be conquered, in which case bonuses are lost and it becomes a normal city in your empire. Except that it cannot be razed, and other civilizations may have an incentive to try to recapture it from you and liberate it. If you recapture a city-state that was previously conquered by someone else, you will have an option to liberate it. If you do, the city-state will automatically ally with you, and you will receive a huge influence boost, but then it will decay over time just as normal.
City-States may periodically ask for favors (quests/missions) from friends. Missions might include clearing barbarians, defending against another civilization, connecting via road, building a Wonder, generating a specific type of Great Person, gaining access to a particular Luxury Resource, discovering a particular civilization's territory, or attacking a rival city-state. Completing missions will grant additional influence points.
City-States can capture enemy cities, but they will raze them unless this is not possible (cities cannot be razed if they were city-state or civilization capitals) and in this way they can have more than one city. I once saw Florence capture several rival city-states in the New World continent of a Terra map (where there were no civilizations to separate them). However, they can't found new cities.
City-State units will not enter a civilization's territory unless they are at war and attacking that civilization, even if they are friendly or allied. This makes allied city-states of limited use in many wars, since their units often can't get to the site of battle, and they won't attack enemies in your territory.
City-States do not appear to explore ruins or to attack Barbarian encampments.
Some Social Policies (notably in the Patronage tree) add to City-State influence or reduce the rate at which influence decays.
City-States have a Personality category: Friendly, Hostile, Neutral, or Irrational. Personality appears to be random from game to game.
A befriended Friendly city-state will usually make requests that require some peaceful action, like building a Wonder or constructing a road to them.
Influence with a Hostile city-state drops more quickly than normal. They will also make requests to capture neighboring city-states more often.
Neutral city-states are fairly even keel, and try to mind their own business.
City-States are very numerous; there are typically twice as many city-states as civilizations in a normal game.
City-State color scheme always has black as the secondary color.
When you click on a City-State you are presented with a menu that shows information on the City-State and your current influence with them, and who (if anyone) they are allied with. There are three action buttons: Provide Gift of Gold, Gift a Unit, or Declare War.
If you are not friends with a city-state, trespassing in their territory causes a loss of Influence.
You can Pledge to Protect a city-state, which is supposed to deter other civilizations from attacking it. In practice it seems that a civilization will often attack a "protected" city-state anyway, but will offer an apology (or a taunt, depending on the relation) as they do so to the "protector." Sometimes you can try to bargain for peace using the "Make Peace With" diplomatic option (see below), but often the city-state is locked in permanent war with the civilization and this is not possible.
City-States (full list of 28):
- Almaty: Militaristic
- Belgrade: Militaristic
- Bucharest: Cultured
- Budapest: Militaristic
- Brussels: Cultured
- Cape Town: Militaristic
- Copenhagen: Maritime
- Dublin: Militaristic
- Edinburgh: Militaristic
- Florence: Cultured
- Geneva: Cultured
- Genoa: Maritime
- Hanoi: Militaristic
- Helsinki: Maritime
- Lhasa: Cultured
- Monaco: Cultured
- Oslo: Maritime
- Kuala Lumpur: Cultured
- Ragusa: Maritime
- Rio de Janeiro: Maritime
- Seoul: Cultured
- Sidon: Militaristic
- Singapore: Maritime
- Stockholm: Maritime
- Tyre: Militaristic
- Venice: Maritime
- Vienna: Cultured
- Warsaw: Cultured

Barbarians

Spawn from camps in fog-of-war territory. Camps provide gold when destroyed.
Are interested only in destruction. Will not build cities or occupy captured cities, only raze and pillage.
Camps on the coast will generate naval units. Seaborn barbarian units will blockade naval improvements, but don't appear to destroy them.
Civilian units (Workers and Settlers) attacked by barbarians will be captured and taken to the nearest encampment. There they can be recovered by any civilization that destroys the encampment. If you recover a unit belonging to another civilization, you will have the option to return it or take it for yourself.
Barbarian unit types allegedly can progress with that of the most advanced civilization, but most often lag behind.
Germany and Ottomans have special abilities that allow them to convert Barbarian units to their own cause.
Units can't gain more than 30 XP from fighting barbarians.

Diplomacy

Special engine for full-screen, full-body 3D interactive leader discussions. Not a pre-rendered video.
No more religion to help or hinder relations.
No more trading technologies.
Social Policies that you have chosen do not affect relations with other civilizations the way Civics did in Civ IV.
Details of leader attitude and +/- relationship factors no longer shown to player.
All agreements are temporary, and expire after a fixed number of turns (30), which is really tedious.
Most agreements cannot be canceled; you must wait for them to end.
Diplomatic options:
- Gold
- Gold Per Turn
- Open Borders: requires Writing
- Defensive Pact: requires Chivalry
- Research Agreement: requires Philosophy
- Pact of Cooperation
- Trade Cities
- Other Players
  - Make Peace With
  - Declare War On
  - Embargo Against
  - Pact of Secrecy Against
- Trade Strategic Resources
- Trade Luxury Resources
- Don't settle new Cities near us.
In a Research Agreement, you agree to invest a lump sum of gold with another civilization, and will receive a random technology after 20 turns. If either side terminates the agreement, however, the remainder of the investment is lost.
A Pact of Cooperation will improve relations with that leader.
A Pact of Secrecy is a covert agreement to undermine a third civilization. It will make the partner in the pact less friendly toward the target civilization, and more likely to go to war against them.
Leaders are sensitive to player's placement of military units and settlements near their borders, and will complain about them.
Leaders may contact you from time to time simply to make a statement, such as admiring your military or economy, or to taunt you about your weakness or aggressiveness.
If you capture a city that formerly belonged to a third-party civilization that has been eliminated from the game, you can choose to liberate the city, reestablishing that civilization. You automatically gain a one-sided Open Borders agreement with the reestablished civilization, and the leader seems grateful... though perhaps not too grateful.