The Civilization series consists of turn-based strategy computer games designed largely by Sid Meier and various sequels and spinoffs. The main purpose of this wiki is to provide information about and strategies for these games.
Descriptions originally came from the Wikipedia article Civilization (series).
Main series[]
| Base Game | Game | Abbr. | Developer | Release | Descriptions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Civilization | Original | Civ/Civ1 | MicroProse | 1991 | |
| CivNet | MicroProse | 1995 | A remake with improved graphics and sound, local and online multiplayer modes, and support for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95. | ||
| Civilization II | Original | Civ2 | MicroProse | 1996 | Introduced the isometric view of the world map and eras divided by time. |
| Conflicts in Civilization | MicroProse | 1996 | |||
| Fantastic Worlds | FW | MicroProse | 1997 | ||
| Test of Time | TOT | MicroProse | 1999 | Includes the original Civilization II plus new scenarios and improved features, including an alien landscape. | |
| Civilization III | Original | Civ3 | Firaxis | 2001 | Introduced unique units for each civilization and aspects of culture, including Culture Victory and takeovers of nearby cities. |
| Play the World | PTW | Firaxis | 2002 | ||
| Conquests | Firaxis | 2003 | |||
| Civilization IV | Original | Civ4 | Firaxis | 2005 | Introduced aspects of religion, Great People, government civics, Classical era, and units speaking their civilization's native language. |
| Warlords | Firaxis | 2006 | Introduced unique buildings for each civilization. | ||
| Beyond the Sword | BTS | Firaxis | 2007 | Redesigned the Diplomatic and Space Victories. Corporations added. | |
| Colonization (Total Conversion) |
Civ4Col | Firaxis | 2008 | Remake of Sid Meier's Colonization with Civilization IV engine. The game is completely separate from the core Civilization IV game. | |
| Civilization Revolution | Original | CivRev | Firaxis | 2008 | The first game in the series designed specifically for consoles, iOS, and Windows Phone; not released for the PC or Mac. |
| Civilization V | Original | Civ5 | Firaxis | 2010 | Introduced a hex-based map instead of a square tile map used in previous titles, and "unstacked" military units, where only one unit of a kind may occupy one space. City-states, buildable improvements, and civilizations' unique abilities added, plus leaders are fully animated and speak their native language. First game with DLC. |
| Gods & Kings | G&K | Firaxis | 2012 | Added religion and espionage/spies. Introduced the Atomic and Information eras. | |
| Brave New World | BNW | Firaxis | 2013 | Redesigned the Culture Victory using the Great Works and Tourism systems. World Congress and late-game Ideologies along with new trade units. | |
| Civilization Revolution 2 | Original | CivRev2 | Firaxis | 2013 | A mobile exclusive sequel to Civilization Revolution. |
| Civilization: Beyond Earth |
Original | CivBE | Firaxis | 2014 | A spiritual successor to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri built atop the Civilization V engine. Takes place in a science fiction setting. |
| Rising Tide | BERT | Firaxis | 2015 | Experiments with floating cities, and new diplomatic settings. | |
| Civilization VI | Original | Civ6 | Firaxis | 2016 | Introduced "unstacked" city tiles, where city improvements, selected buildings, and wonders are placed outside the main city grid space, and a separate culture improvement tree from the technology tree. Leaders' unique abilities and agendas, and districts added. |
| Rise and Fall | R&F | Firaxis | 2018 | Added Dark Ages and greatly expanded upon Golden Ages, and a new Loyalty system which interacts with your current age. | |
| Gathering Storm | GS | Firaxis | 2019 | Added natural disasters and the effects of global warming. New Future Era as well as its technologies and civics. Canals, Rock Bands, Diplomatic Victory, World Congress, etc. | |
| Civilization VII | Original | Civ7 | Firaxis | 2025 | Introduced ages to which each civilization belongs and allowed civs to evolve as players progress through the ages. Made leaders independent from civilizations, so any leader can lead any civ. |
Spinoffs[]
| Title | Developer | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sid Meier's Colonization | MicroProse | 1994 | Created by Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier while still at MicroProse. Would later be remade as Civilization IV: Colonization. |
| Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri | Firaxis | 1999 | Science fiction version of Civilization. |
| Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire | Firaxis | 1999 | The expansion pack to Alpha Centauri. |
| CivCity: Rome | Firefly Studios and Firaxis | 2006 | A city-building strategy game inspired by the series. |
| Civilization World | Firaxis | 2011 | A Civilization game for Facebook. The game was discontinued in 2013. |
| Sid Meier's Starships | Firaxis | 2015 | A tie-in game to Civilization: Beyond Earth. |
| Civilization: Eras & Allies | Firaxis | 2023-2024 | A mobile game originally titled Conquests and Alliances. |
Compilations[]
These bundles show compilations sold physically at stores, not digital only versions that can be changed over time. This is not a complete list.
| Title | Release | Contents |
|---|---|---|
| The Explorer | 1997 | Civilization and the Colonization spinoff. |
| Civilization II: Multiplayer Gold Edition | 1998 | Civilization II and its two expansions: Conflicts in Civilization and Fantastic Worlds. |
| Civilization III: Gold Edition | 2003 | Civilization III and the first expansion, Play the World. |
| Civilization III Complete | 2005 | Civilization III and its two expansions: Play the World and Conquests. |
| Civilization Chronicles | 2006 | All the games from the main series from the first Civilization to Civilization IV. |
| Civilization IV: Gold Edition | 2007 | Civilization IV and its first expansion Warlords, as well as a bonus poster illustrated by artist Greg Hildebrandt. |
| Civilization IV Complete | 2007 | Civilization IV and its two expansions: Warlords and Beyond the Sword. |
| Civilization IV: The Complete Edition | 2009 | Civilization IV, its two expansions, Warlords and Beyond the Sword, and Civilization IV: Colonization. It does not have any DRM (copy protection). |
| Civilization V: Game of the Year Edition | 2011 | Civilization V and all DLC prior to the Korea and Wonders of the Ancient World packs released through Steam. |
| Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gold Edition | 2013 | Civilization V plus the Gods & Kings expansion with all the DLC released between them both. |
| Sid Meier's Civilization V: The Complete Edition | 2014 | Civilization V plus the Gods & Kings and Brave New World expansions with all the DLC released between them. |
| Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gold Edition | 2018 | Civilization VI plus Rise and Fall expansion with all DLC released between them. |
| Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Platinum Edition | 2019 | Civilization VI plus Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions with all DLC excluding the New Frontier Pass. |
| Sid Meier's Civilization VI Anthology | 2021 | Civilization VI plus Rise and Fall and Gathering Storm expansions with all DLC including the New Frontier Pass.[1] |
Related games[]
Due to licensing disputes between Avalon Hill and MicroProse, the Civilization: Call to Power series was developed by Activision instead of MicroProse. However, the series was consolidated into the Civilization franchise when Hasbro purchased Avalon Hill and Activision in 1999. Additional games, such as Freeciv and FreeCol, have taken inspiration from games within the Civilization franchise, but were developed by third parties unrelated to 2K Games or Firaxis.
| Title | Release | Developer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freeciv | 1996 | The Freeciv developers | A free and open source clone of Civilization.[2] |
| Imperialism | 1997 | Frog City Software | |
| Civilization: Call to Power | 1999 | Activision, license from Hasbro Interactive | Not worked on by Sid Meier. |
| C-evo | ?? | Steffen Gerlach | A freeware game loosely based on Civilization II, created by Steffen Gerlach.[3] |
| Call to Power II | 2000 | Activision, license from Hasbro Interactive | Sequel to Civilization: Call to Power. Due to licensing issues, Civilization not in the title.[4] |
| FreeCol | 2003 | The FreeCol developers | An open source clone of Sid Meier's Colonization.[5] |
| NewCol | 2007-2011 | FrƩdƩric Vernier and associates | |
| CivilizationEDU | 2017 | GlassLab | A modified version of Civilization V aimed to be used in the classroom as an education tool to examine the interaction between military, technology, political and socioeconomic issues. Development is in partnership with GlassLab.[6] The project and GlassLab Games studio were both shut down in 2018.[7] |
Board and card games[]
| Title | Release | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Civilization: The Boardgame | 2002 | An officially licensed board game published by Eagle Games and based on Civilization III. |
| Civilization: The Card Game | 2006 | A card game designed by Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson and based on Civilization IV. |
| Civilization: The Board Game | 2010 | An officially licensed board game published by Fantasy Flight Games and based on Civilization IV. |
| Civilization: Fame and Fortune | 2011 | The first expansion to the 2010 Civilization based board game. |
| Civilization: Wisdom and Warfare | 2013 | The second expansion to the 2010 Civilization based board game. |
| Civilization: A New Dawn | 2017 | A board game published by Fantasy Flight Games and based on Civilization VI. |
DLC[]
Platforms[]
|
Platform |
I |
II* |
III |
IV | V | VI | VII | Rev | RevII | BE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Computers | ||||||||||
| DOS | ā | |||||||||
| Windows** | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ||
| Mac / OSX*** | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | ā | |||
| Linux | ā | ā | ā | |||||||
| Amiga | ā | |||||||||
| Consoles | ||||||||||
| Atari ST | ā | |||||||||
| Sega Saturn | ā | |||||||||
| Super NES | ā | |||||||||
| Nintendo Switch | ā | ā | ||||||||
| PlayStation | ā | ā | ||||||||
| PlayStation 3 | ā | |||||||||
| PlayStation 4 | ā | ā | ||||||||
| PlayStation 5 | ā | |||||||||
| Xbox 360 | ā | |||||||||
| Xbox One | ā | ā | ||||||||
| Xbox Series S | ā | |||||||||
| Xbox Series X | ā | |||||||||
| Mobile Consoles | ||||||||||
| Nintendo DS | ā | |||||||||
| PlayStation Vita | ā | |||||||||
| Mobile | ||||||||||
| iOS | ā | ā | ā | |||||||
| Android | ā | ā | ||||||||
| Windows Phone | ā | |||||||||
* Expansions for Civilization II aren't necessarily on all platforms.
** There are multiple versions of Windows.
*** The first three Civilization games are on the original Mac operating system. The rest are on the OSX operating system.
References[]
- ā https://www.pcgamesn.com/civilization-vi/anthology
- ā http://www.pcgamesn.com/did-you-know-you-can-now-play-freeciv-your-browser
- ā http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/priceless-victories-article
- ā http://www.gamespot.com/call-to-power-ii/
- ā http://www.ign.com/articles/2008/06/09/sid-meier-returns-to-colonization
- ā http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/275717/Firaxis_partners_with_GlassLab_for_educational_version_of_Civilization_V.php
- ā https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-12-12-glasslab-set-out-to-prove-games-could-assess-learning-now-it-s-shutting-down
External links[]
- StrategyWiki, which now has what was on WikiBooks
- MobyGames - Civilization Series
- Civilization - Then Vs. Now The Evolution of Sid Meier's Civilization Series 11/1/2017
- Gamespot: The Story of Civilization VI Part 1: A 25-Year Evolution 10/20/2016
- Gamespot: The Story of Civilization Part 2: How Firaxis Shaped the Strategy Genre 10/21/2016
| Civilization Series | |
|---|---|
| Game | Expansion packs |
| Civilization |
|
| Civ II | |
| Civ III | |
| Civ IV |
|
| Civ V | |
| Beyond Earth | |
| Civ VI | |
| Civ VII | |
| Official Spinoffs | |
| Other Games | |
| Comparisons | |