Earth is one of the maps in Sid Meier's Civilization.
Map[]
Advantages[]
The Earth map on Civilization has several major advantages. In early game play, you will already have an idea of where the best city sites are, where your rival civilizations are based, and if you are shrewd, you can tailor your game towards that of isolation in the Americas, or a massive game of conquest and interactivity in Eurasia.
It also has a larger landmass than even the large landmass playing areas that are generated randomly, which can make for advantageous late game-play, with high scoring and a very high number of potential city sites. It is possible to have up to 99 cities in this map - the game itself won't let you build a 100th city without first disbanding another.
The city sites themselves are also potentially utopian. A city situated among irrigated jungle in the Amazon area, in the Mississippi basin, on the river Congo, or in the grasslands of India and South East Asia, can achieve over 30 in population if properly irrigated and railroaded.
Unusual Aspects[]
The Earth map offers some unusual city sites, not easily achievable on real life earth, and because it is not subject to the random generator, also has a small number of single land squares surrounded by ocean, where a player can build a 'fortress' city. The best of these is arguably in the area of Kyushu/Taiwan.
There are grassland squares in southern Greenland, which can be irrigated and railroaded to enable a viable and productive city, especially if one of the Arctic or Tundra squares has Seals or Reindeer as a special resource. Mining one of the unresourced grassland squares into forest provides two valuable resources too.
There are also potential city sites in northern Russia, where the forest extends all the way to the Arctic Sea coast, with a few grassland squares dotted around the area of Novaya Zemlya. In theory it is possible to irrigate and inhabit the whole of Siberia with populous cities.
Tactically, as in real life Earth, establishing cites where Panama and Suez are situated will enable you to use those cities as effectual 'canals', cutting journey times for your sea vessels.
Starting Positions[]
At game start, the settlers of most civilizations begin at the location of their major capital. (Samarkand was the capital of Timur's empire, not Genghis Khan's; Great Zimbabwe had nothing to do with the Zulus.) This means that when the AI builds a city during the first round, the capital at the head of the city list will be constructed in the right place.
Some start positions are a square or two away from their correct placement. Most notably, the actual location of the Chinese capital Beijing ("Peking") is landlocked and only able to access the sea through its port Tianjin ("Tientsin").
The most disadvantageous start occurs for the English. Their settler begins on a grassland square without a resource shield, and their growth is limited to one or two cities on Britain until they develop Mapmaking and begin constructing triremes.
The Mongols (and, to a lesser extent, the Chinese) start surrounded by plains, which provide copious production shields by the midgame but require relocation or time-consuming irrigation in order to allow growth early on.
The Americans start at a slight disadvantage relative to the Aztecs, since their starting grassland lacks a resource shield. The French, Germans, and Greeks start at a similar disadvantage to the Romans; the Egyptians and Indians have a similar problem as compared to the Babylonians and Zulus.
The crowding in Europe can allow a human player to expand quickly, invading neighboring cities with a settler before they can construct a protective militia. If a player fails to do this or achieve a quick chariot conquest, however, it can make for a very difficult game later on.
The Zulus and Russians begin very advantageously, with large amounts of shield-bearing grassland and forests or hills nearby. Since the Russians often begin with two settlers, they and the Zulus are often the most dangerous AI powers during antiquity. During modernity, technologically advanced republics in Africa or the Americas are a common threat.
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Respawning[]
When a civilization is destroyed, the other civilization of its color will appear in the game. If their usual location is already taken or crowded, they will appear in a different part of the map. Common respawn locations include South America, Australia, West Africa, northeastern Siberia, and Indochina.
See also[]
- Earth (map) in other games