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Sid Meier's Civilization features 14 playable civilizations,[note 1] of which up to 7 will feature simultaneously in any given game.

Color groups[]

Civilizations are grouped into one of seven color groups (plus Barbarians). A civilization's color determines its order of action during the turn: White acts first and Grey acts last, with the barbarians acting in the periphery.

Civilization Team Color chart
Color Order Civilization Leader Capital
WHITE 1 Romans Caesar Rome
Russians Stalin Moscow
GREEN 2 Babylonians Hammurabi Babylon
Zulus[note 1] Shaka Zimbabwe
Japanese[note 1] Ieyasu Tokyo
BLUE 3 Germans Frederick Berlin
French Napoleon Paris
YELLOW 4 Egyptians Ramesses Thebes
Aztecs Montezuma Tenochtitlan
CYAN 5 American Abe Lincoln Washington
Chinese Mao Tse Tung Beijing
PINK 6 Greek Alexander Athens
English Elizabeth I London
GREY 7 Indian M. Gandhi Delhi
Mongol Genghis Khan Samarkand
RED 0 Barbarian (NPC) Attila N/A

Only one civ of each color group can be present on the map at a time, meaning a maximum of seven playable civs will be active in any game. A game that has less than seven active civs can spawn additional players through civil wars. When a civ is vanquished, a new civ of the same color group can appear in unclaimed territory; it begins with the standard Settlers and few, if any, advances.

Leaders[]

Each civilization is represented by an animated sprite in the Diplomacy screen. Unlike later games, there is no mechanism to track a leader's gender, which is presumed male: Elizabeth I's government titles (Empress, Queen, etc.) are custom-coded to Diplomacy dialogue; they are otherwise masculine in the rest of the user interface, such as the Intelligence screen. Dynamic gender mechanics are first introduced in CivNet.

Personality[]

A civilization's artificial intelligence is guided by preset personality traits. Each civ has three personality traits, each with three possible values (two weighted, and a neutral or "balanced" middle):

  • Aggressiveness determines the AI's tendency to launch and maintain war and its general attitude during diplomacy. Ranges from Aggressive to Friendly.
  • Expansionism determines the AI's prioritization of founding new cities versus developing existing ones (i.e., "building wide" versus "building tall"). Ranges from Expansionist to Perfectionist.
  • Civility influences a civ's starting advances (if any) and the AI's prioritization of military or civilian research.[note 2] Ranges from Civilized to Militaristic.

Modding[]

Secretciv1civs

"View Spaceship" menu listing the three unused civs.

During game setup, the user can customize their leader name. CivNet also allows customizing the civilization's name.

Hex editing CIV.EXE reveals definitions for three civilizations unused in the game: Persians (cyan), Muslims (pink), and Hittites (grey).

See also[]

Footnotes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 The second Green civ varies between the PC and Super Nintendo versions of the game: Zulus on the PC, and Japanese on the SNES.
  2. For further details, see Modding (Civ1)/Advances § AI weights.
Sid Meier's Civilization [edit]
Sid Meier's Civilization Civilizations [edit]

AmericanAztecBabylonianChineseEgyptianEnglishFrenchGermanGreekIndianJapaneseSMongolRomanRussianZulu

S Replaces Zulu in SNES version
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