Civilization Revolution Walkthrough

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  • This page contains a full text walkthrough for Civilization Revolution, the turn-based strategy game for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS. This guide contains tips, hints, and secrets for competing against others or the computer in a regular scenario. Please use the table of contents below to take you directly to specific sections of the walkthrough.

  • Introduction

    This guide provides tips, hints, and secrets for the major console edition of Sid Meier's Civilization series, Civilization Revolution. Each game is on a randomly generated map against other humans or computer AIs, meaning that there is no definitive way to win. This walkthrough was devised using the PlayStation 3 version, so certain details may differ from the Nintendo DS version.

  • City Placement

    1. There is a gentle balance to determining when you should build settlers. The problem is, settlers temporarily stop population growth and take away two population when they are built, so you can't start them so early that they take forever to build. But, your enemies are expanding as well, so you can't be too late in claiming territory.
    2. Besides your capital, all of your cities should have a specific purpose in mind, like being big gold, science, or hammer producers, or simply acting as a defensive fort in chokepoints. Gold cities work best with lots of sea squares, and hammer cities work best with hills, forests, and mountain squares.
    3. Though not as important as in previous Civilization games, you should attempt to place a city near one of the resources on the map as well. These will provide universal bonuses of gold or production to your civilization.
    4. Keep in mind where your enemies are and expand towards them first, hopefully cutting them off from settling in valuable areas.
    5. Cities off of your main continent will naturally be harder to keep for a number of reasons, but they can still be useful particularly in developing gold, as they will likely have sea squares near them. They may also simply be useful in claiming land so other civilizations can't have it.

  • Warfare

    1. Declare war either by walking into enemy territory or by giving the war dialogue option when in diplomacy with the target country.
    2. Other civilizations may declare war upon you either randomly if your relations are bad enough, or after you refuse a demand of theirs for gold or technology. Refusing or countering an enemy demand doesn't always lead to war, but if your military is small, it often will.
    3. Don't get caught with a small army. If the computer AI thinks you have a small army in terms of units or technology, then they will constantly hassle you, asking for gold and techs in return for continued peace.
    4. If you know that you have a very specific technological advantage over a local enemy, declare war early on to try and wipe them out. They will become stronger later, when it becomes harder and harder to amass a significant tech advantage as everyone starts trading with one another.
    5. The Wonder Leonardo's Workshop upgrades all of your units to the most current form of that type of unit. Therefore, you must make sure you build at an opportune time, before other civilizations but after it becomes useful.
    6. Just because you can't see any enemy units in a city in peace-time doesn't mean there are none there. You need spy units or the "scout" upgrade to an elite unit to see who's there.
    7. Catapults and other siege units help greatly in taking down city squares where the enemy has grouped together lots of units. They apply some damage to every unit in the square, making them essential for your offense.
    8. If you're going for a domination victory, keep declaring war on an enemy as soon as you have more technologically advanced units. It is almost always too difficult to take over an enemy on your tech level, because their defensive units have a huge advantage in the cities.

  • Technology

    1. There are very specific bonuses for each tech if you are the first to research it, often the unit it unlocks. These are very useful, as otherwise these units might be too expensive for you to build at the time.
    2. Unless you're attempting an economic victory, you should probably keep the vast majority of your cities producing science rather than gold.
    3. For a domination victory, try to reach the Religion tech quickly. It gives you the government type Fundamentalism, which improves your fighting ability.
    4. For a space race victory, make sure you are only researching the techs necessary for victory. Don't spend any time on dead end techs like Communism.

  • Gold

    1. Gold comes primarily from trade, exploration, resources, and sea squares.
    2. Even if you're not attempting an economic victory, try to keep some gold on hand to get the economic milestone benefits every now and then.
    3. Gold can be used to rush production, build roads, or trade via diplomacy.
    4. When attempting an economic victory, you should eventually switch all of your cities over to gold production rather than science, where before only your gold mine cities were doing so. Do this when you are either falling behind late in the game, or when you see that the rest of the techs only benefit the military and the space race victory.

  • Great People

    1. Great people appear either after certain culture thresholds are met in your civilization; after your treasury holds 500, then 10,000 gold; after you steal them with spies; after you take over an enemy city that held one; or by finding the School of Confucius (one of the 5 ancient artifacts you can read about in the exploration section below).
    2. There are different types providing different bonuses, usually with one giving instant gratification and the other working over time. In the early game, the latter is typically more useful.
    3. Great Builder: Instantly finish production on whatever you're working on or reduce construction costs in the city you settle them in. Only use the production bonus on wonders unless you're in some other sort of emergency. Game-finishing wonders like the United Nations can't be rushed this way.
    4. Great Scientist: Instantly research your next technology or provide a +50% science production bonus to a city. The latter option is almost always preferable.
    5. Great Explorers/Industrialists: A certain amount of instant money, or +50% gold production in one of your cities. The latter is almost always preferable.
    6. Great Humanitarian: +1 population to all cities in your empire, or +50% population growth in one of your cities. This depends greatly on how many cities you have and how much time is remaining in the game.
    7. Great Thinkers/Artists: Convert an enemy city (chosen for you) to your empire or +50% culture production in one of your cities. Converting the enemy city adds to your number required for a cultural victory.
    8. Great Leaders: Upgrade all units stationed in a city once, or settle in a city to provide a bonus to all produced in the future. The latter should usually be preferable.

  • Exploration

    1. Exploring areas before your opponents can give you gold bonuses, both from discovering "great landmarks" like rivers and forests that you can name, and by absorbing barbarian tribes and villages.
    2. Unlike previous games, there is no way to peacefully enter enemy territory with military units. Great leaders can, (at their peril), explore through enemy territory, as can spies.
    3. There are 5 "ancient artifacts" in each game that provide great bonuses to the first to explore and find them. All are located on a random land square far away from other civilizations, except for Atlantis, which is in a random sea square.

  • Governments

    1. Despotism: Starting government type. You don't receive any culture penalties when nuking someone, but otherwise there are no benefits and no penalties to this government type. You should switch it out as soon as possible.
    2. Republic: Settlers only take away 1 population when built rather than 2. Definitely switch it out for Despotism, and start spamming settlers while you can. Switch it out as soon as you find something better, though.
    3. Monarchy: Doubles the beneficial effects of your palace (capital city). More useful than Republic or Despotism, and you can still declare war if you want to.
    4. Fundamentalism: +1 attack for all units, libraries and universities no longer produce science output. Don't keep this for very long, but this government type will seriously improve your war-fighting capability.
    5. Democracy: +50% trade, you cannot declare war. Clearly, this is probably your best choice if you don't plan to start any wars. Sometimes, when you refuse to accept peace from an enemy who has declared war on you, congress will override your decision, restoring the country to peace.
    6. Communism: +50% production in cities, temples and cathedrals no longer produce culture. Not helpful for a cultural victory, assuming you have built temples or cathedrals in the past. Otherwise, very good for a potentially belligerent civilization.

  • Late Game

    1. At some point, get out a calculator and figure out if you can win before your enemies. You know how fast you're advancing, but you can only get a general idea of how far along your enemies are through the "Who's Winning?" screen. It's harder to know how close you are with a cultural victory, but keep in mind that you aren't done until you build the United Nations after reaching that limit of 20 cultural events.
    2. If one of your enemies is closing in on victory faster than you, and you don't have any options to increase your efficiency, attack them. Taking their capital will often completely derail them from a possible victory.
    3. Domination victory: Just keep conquering your enemies. You may have to prioritize certain civilizations if you can tell that they are about to complete another victory type.
    4. Technology victory: Research only the necessary techs and produce only things that benefit your spaceship. Take the capital of any opposing nation who gets their spaceship up first.
    5. Cultural victory: Most of the cultural victory necessities are either coming on time or they aren't, you don't have a lot of control late in the game. Be ready to switch to another victory type quickly if you find that your culture isn't producing quickly enough or there aren't any more wonders to build.
    6. Economic victory: You should eventually switch all of your cities over to gold production from science after you feel you've advanced enough technologically. Many of the late techs only benefit the military and space flight, so ignore them and get focused on making money.

  • Victory Conditions

    1. Domination: To complete a domination victory, a civilization must capture all of the other civilizations' capitals on the map. This requires a good military all over the world to take and hold the enemy capitals.
    2. Economic: Have 20,000 gold in your coffers at once (in other words, spent money doesn't count) then build the World Bank wonder before anyone else. Civilizations aren't allowed to build the World Bank until they collect 20,000 gold, but the completion of the wonder is what determines who won an economic victory first, not just beginning its production or collecting the gold.
    3. Cultural: Reach a tally of 20 of the following combined: culture-flipped enemy cities, Great People, and Wonders. After you achieve that, you are allowed to build the United Nations, which you must complete before anyone else in the world.
    4. Space Race/Technology: Tends to be the fallback victory if your plans for one of the others didn't work out. You must research and build the parts to a spaceship, launching it before any other civilization. Spaceships require one fuel pod, one habitation unit, one propulsion unit, and one life support unit. After all pieces have been added to the ship, it will launch, reaching Alpha Centauri in twenty or so turns. The opponents will then likely declare war on you, as they stop you from winning if they take your capital.
    5. Time: At 2100 AD, the game simply ends, and the civilization with the highest score is the victor, though most would consider the game a draw at that point. Civilization Revolution is built so that this almost never happens.

  • Civilizations

    • This section gives each civilization's unique traits and bonuses, followed by a short description of how they are useful in certain victory possibilities. The era bonuses stack, you don't lose them as you advance technologically.

  • America

    1. Begin with: a Great Person
    2. Ancient Bonus: 2% interest on gold in treasury
    3. Medieval Bonus: Rush units at half price
    4. Industrial Bonus: +1 food from plains squares
    5. Modern Bonus: 3X production from factories
    6. Unique Unit(s): Sherman Tank (Tank), Flying Fortress (Bomber), Mustang Fighter (Fighter)
    7. America is a more or less well-rounded civilization, with bonuses that benefit every victory in some way. The added gold, production, and food should benefit your civilization in general, allowing them to take on any victory. Still, America is probably best suited for an economic victory.

  • Arabia

    1. Begin with: the Religion tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: +50% gold from caravans
    3. Medieval Bonus: the Mathematics tech
    4. Industrial Bonus: +1 attack for horsemen and knights
    5. Modern Bonus: 2% interest on gold in treasury
    6. Unique Unit(s): none
    7. Arabia is best suited for economic and domination victories. The extra gold from caravans isn't especially useful, but the 2% interest on gold you save is very useful for the economic victory. The Religion and Mathematics techs actually both benefit your military more than anything, as you receive the attack-bonus Fundamentalist government and catapults respectively.

  • Aztec

    1. Begin with: a wealth of gold
    2. Ancient Bonus: units heal after winning in combat
    3. Medieval Bonus: temples provide +3 science
    4. Industrial Bonus: Half-price roads
    5. Modern Bonus: +50% gold production
    6. Unique Unit(s): Jaguar Warrior (Warrior)
    7. The Aztec Empire is very well suited for a domination victory, potentially very early in the game. First of all, their unique unit is useful right from the start. Second, their starting wealth of gold can be used to rush an extra unit that could easily take the first enemy capital you come upon. Third, the units healing after winning is very useful in the strategy below.
    8. Aztec Immortal Strategy: Thanks to the Aztec's Ancient Bonus, units heal themselves after winning a battle. Combine that ability with The Oracle wonder, which tells you if you are about to lose a battle, and you should never lose a battle. Then, with Elite units, you can give them the Blitz upgrade, which allows them to attack multiple times in a turn. With a unit or army like that, you can attack over and over, always at full health, never losing a battle on offense. This is a very useful strategy for the domination victory.

  • China

    1. Begin with: the Writing tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: new cities have +1 population
    3. Medieval Bonus: the Literacy tech
    4. Industrial Bonus: Half-price libraries
    5. Modern Bonus: Cities not affected by anarchy
    6. Unique Unit(s): none
    7. China is suited to the Technological victory over anything else. Writing and Literacy allow them to build science-producing buildings, and libraries are half-price after you reach the Industrial era.

  • Egypt

    1. Begin with: a Wonder
    2. Ancient Bonus: +1 food and trade on desert squares
    3. Medieval Bonus: the Irrigation tech
    4. Industrial Bonus: +1 rifleman speed
    5. Modern Bonus: +50% caravan gold
    6. Unique Unit(s): none
    7. The wonder and desert square bonuses are very useful early on. The later bonuses of Irrigation, rifleman speed, and +50% caravan gold, are not really that helpful, just nice. If on the random chance you do inhabit or take over a desert area, you are much better suited for it than other civilizations, but that doesn't benefit any victory in particular. The wonder helps with a cultural victory just slightly.

  • England

    1. Begin with: the Monarchy tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: +1 defense for Longbow Archers
    3. Medieval Bonus: +1 naval combat
    4. Industrial Bonus: +1 hammer (production unit) on hills
    5. Modern Bonus: Naval support doubled (when a ship is positioned outside an enemy city when you attack it)
    6. Unique Unit(s): Longbow Archer (Archer), Lancaster Bomber (Bomber), Spitfire Fighter (Fighter)
    7. England's bonuses all benefit a domination victory, though not as well as many other civilizations do. The Longbowman defense and naval combat bonuses just aren't that well suited for actually taking enemy capitals, though they help in wars in general.

  • France

    1. Begin with: a cathedral
    2. Ancient Bonus: the Pottery tech
    3. Medieval Bonus: half-price roads
    4. Industrial Bonus: +2 attack for cannons
    5. Modern Bonus: +1 rifleman speed
    6. Unique Unit(s): Trebuchet (Catapult), Howitzer (Artillery)
    7. The French have bonuses benefitting a domination victory primarily, with a slight affinity for a cultural victory with the cathedral. Your various artillery pieces throughout the game should dominate all others, with the extra attack and unique units.

  • Germany

    1. Begin with: Elite units automatically upgrade technologically
    2. Ancient Bonus: Warriors start as Veterans
    3. Medieval Bonus: +1 production on forest squares
    4. Industrial Bonus: half-price barracks
    5. Modern Bonus: 2% interest on gold in treasury
    6. Unique Unit(s): Panzer Tank (Tank), 88mm Gun (Artillery), Heinkel Bomber (Bomber), ME109 Fighter (Fighter)
    7. Germany are very useful for a domination victory. Your first warriors can be useful throughout the majority of the game if you can manage to make them Elites through victories early on. Otherwise, the extra gold and production bonuses should likely be put straight into the war machine, as all of your WWII era units are stronger than normal.

  • Greece

    1. Begin with: a courthouse
    2. Ancient Bonus: the Democracy tech
    3. Medieval Bonus: more Great People
    4. Industrial Bonus: half-price libraries
    5. Modern Bonus: +1 food from sea squares
    6. Unique Unit(s): Trireme (Galley), Hoplite (Pikeman)
    7. If you decide to take the Democracy government right at the start (which stops you from declaring any wars) then you have a very good route to a cultural victory, particularly with Greece's Medieval and Industrial bonuses. Hoplites, though costly to build, will outclass any invading enemies for a long time if built.

  • India

    1. Begin with: access to all resource benefits (you don't have to research relevant techs first)
    2. Ancient Bonus: cities not affected by anarchy
    3. Medieval Bonus: the Religion tech
    4. Industrial Bonus: half-price settlers
    5. Modern Bonus: half-price courthouse
    6. Unique Unit(s): none
    7. India's bonuses are rather general, not necessarily speeding your way to a specific victory. The Industrial Bonus is mostly useless, but the Modern Bonus can really open up any dead-locked cities that never grew to a reasonable size.

  • Japan

    1. Begin with: the Ceremonial Burial tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: +1 food from sea squares
    3. Medieval Bonus: +1 Samurai Knight attack
    4. Industrial Bonus: cities not affected by anarchy
    5. Modern Bonus: defensive units receive loyalty (better defense) upgrade
    6. Unique Unit(s): Samurai Knight (Knight), Ashigaru Pikeman (Pikeman), Val Bomber (Bomber), Zero Fighter (Fighter)
    7. Japan is best suited to a domination victory, mostly thanks to the Samurai Knight and its Medieval Bonus. Samurai Knights are also mounted in this game, meaning that they have a greater speed than anything else in that era.

  • Mongolia

    1. Begin with: +50% trade from captured cities
    2. Ancient Bonus: Barbarian villages captured, not destroyed
    3. Medieval Bonus: +1 cavalry speed
    4. Industrial Bonus: +2 food from mountainous regions
    5. Modern Bonus: the Communism tech
    6. Unique Unit(s): Keshik (Horseman)
    7. In general, the Mongol Empire is best adapted for the domination victory. The Communism tech, cavalry speed, and Keshik all help that cause. Be careful with the Ancient Bonus, as it can lead to your country spending too much on city maintenance if you take too many Barbarian villages.

  • Rome

    1. Begin with: the Code of Laws tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: half-price roads
    3. Medieval Bonus: half-cost (production, not gold) Wonders
    4. Industrial Bonus: more Great People
    5. Modern Bonus: new cities start with +1 population
    6. Unique Unit(s): Cataphract (Knight)
    7. The Medieval and Industrial Bonuses help greatly for a cultural victory, whereas the starting and Ancient Bonuses just help with the early game in general. The Modern Bonus should be useless, as you won't really be adding new cities in the Modern Era.

  • Russia

    1. Begin with: more of the map is unveiled to begin with
    2. Ancient Bonus: +1 food from plains squares
    3. Medieval Bonus: defensive units receive Loyalty (better defense) upgrade
    4. Industrial Bonus: half-cost Riflemen
    5. Modern Bonus: half-cost Spies
    6. Unique Unit(s): Cossack Horseman (Horseman), T34 Tank (Tank)
    7. Not really great bonuses for any particular victory. They are marginally better suited to a domination victory than on average.

  • Spain

    1. Begin with: the Navigation tech
    2. Ancient Bonus: Double gold on finding "Great Forest/River/etc."
    3. Medieval Bonus: +1 to naval combat
    4. Industrial Bonus: +50% gold production
    5. Modern Bonus: +1 production on hills squares
    6. Unique Unit(s): Conquistador (Knight)
    7. Marginally suited to an economic victory. Also better at founding an overseas empire, which tends to produce more gold than anything else anyway.
    8. Naval Dominance Strategy: Spain begins the game with the Navigation tech, which gives you Galleons from the start. That unit allows you to reach ocean squares with galleys very early in the game, which has a number of benefits. Other civilizations will have to build the Great Lighthouse to have a chance of keeping up with you. If you are sealed in early on, you have access to much more land than other civilizations, particularly if there are multiple continents on your map for the game. Beyond that, you will always be better able to keep an overseas empire than anyone else besides perhaps England, thanks to your other bonuses.

  • Zulu

    1. Begin with: better "overrun" ability
    2. Ancient Bonus: +1 warrior speed
    3. Medieval Bonus: cities grow faster
    4. Industrial Bonus: +50% gold production
    5. Modern Bonus: half-cost riflemen
    6. Unique Unit(s): Impi Warrior (Warrior)
    7. The Zulu are good for conquest early on, with their better, faster warriors. Sending these to one or two enemy civilizations right at the start could wipe them out in their infancy, leaving you in a much better position for most of the game. The overrun ability allows your units to skip the fighting and just automatically destroy enemy units that are vastly inferior to them. Zulu troops have to be only 4X as strong as the enemy they can overrun instead of 7X.

  • Tips for Civilization Veterans

    1. Civilization Revolution has been streamlined for the series' console debut, so there are several changes regular players of the PC versions of Civilization should keep in mind.
    2. More population is always good in Revolution. In previous versions, excessively large populations tend to cause unhealthy and unhappy cities.
    3. No percentage of land area or population is necessary for a domination victory, but only keeping all capitals on the map at once.
    4. Revolution doesn't penalize the player for having too many cities early on as badly as the PC games do.
    5. Resources are never necessary to build something. They only provide bonuses, but you don't specifically need a resource to build a building or unit.
    6. There is almost nothing you can trade except technology and gold. Diplomacy has a smaller role in Revolution in general.
    7. Just because you can't see any enemy units in a city in peace-time doesn't mean there are none there.
    8. There are no more worker units. Roads are built between cities only, at a cost of a certain amount of gold, and resources are automatically used.
    9. Movement is the same over any land squares except for mountains, which are impassable.
    10. Attacks coming from hills get bonuses. Previously, only defending on a hill got a bonus.
    11. There are no open borders agreements. You cannot move into enemy territory without declaring war.

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