Civ Revolution
Civilizations Guide v1.07
David 'Mr Cynica1' Russell

1 General information
1.1 Copyright
1.2 Contacting the author
1.3 Why write this guide?
1.4 Completion status
1.5 Version history

2 Civilizations

2.1 Arabs
2.1.1 Bonuses
2.1.1.1 Starts with Religion tech
2.1.1.2 Ancient Age - +50% Caravan gold
2.1.1.3 Medieval Age - Mathematics tech
2.1.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Horseman/Knight attack
2.1.1.5 Modern Age - 2% interest from gold
2.1.2 The Arabs have no unique units

2.2 America
2.2.1 Bonuses
2.2.1.1 Starts with a great person
2.2.1.2 Ancient Age - 2% interest on gold reserves
2.2.1.3 Medieval Age - 50% unit rush cost
2.2.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 food from Plains
2.2.1.5 Modern Age - Factories triple production
2.2.2 Unique units
2.2.2.1 Sherman tank
2.2.2.2 Flying Fortress (bomber)
2.2.2.3 Mustang Fighter

2.3 Aztecs
2.3.1 Bonuses
2.3.1.1 Start with extra gold
2.3.1.2 Ancient Age - Units autoheal after winning
2.3.1.3 Medieval Age - +3 science from Temples
2.3.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% roads cost
2.3.1.5 Modern Age - +50% gold from cities
2.3.2 Unique units
2.3.2.1 Jaguar Warrior

2.4 China
2.4.1 Bonuses
2.4.1.1 Starts with Writing
2.4.1.2 Ancient Age - New cities start with +1 population
2.4.1.3 Medieval Age - Literacy tech TBC
2.4.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% Library cost
2.4.1.5 Modern Age - Immune from anarchy
2.4.2 Unique units
2.4.2.1 The Chinese have no unique units

2.5 Egypt
2.5.1 Bonuses
2.5.1.1 Starts with 50% wonder cost
2.5.1.2 Ancient Age - +2 food from Desert
2.5.1.3 Medieval Age - Irrigation tech
2.5.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Rifleman movement
2.5.1.5 Modern Age - +50% Caravan gold
2.5.2 Unique units
2.5.2.1 The Egyptians have no unique units

2.6 England
2.6.1 Bonuses
2.6.1.1 Starts with Monarchy tech
2.6.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 Longbow Archer defence
2.6.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 to naval units' attack/defence
2.6.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Production from Hills squares
2.6.1.5 Modern Age - 2x effect from naval support
2.6.2 Special Units
2.6.2.1 Longbow Archer
2.6.2.2 Lancaster Bomber
2.6.2.4 Spitfire Fighter

2.7 France
2.7.1 Bonuses
2.7.1.1 Starts with TBC
2.7.1.2 Ancient Age - Pottery tech
2.7.1.3 Medieval Age - 50% roads cost
2.7.1.4 Industrial Age - TBC
2.7.1.5 Modern Age - +1 Rifleman movement
2.7.2 Unique units
2.7.2.1 Trebuchet
2.7.2.2 Howitzer

2.8 Germany
2.8.1 Bonuses
2.8.1.1 Starts with ability to upgrade Elite units to new tech
2.8.1.2 Ancient Age - Warrior units built as Veterans
2.8.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 Production from forest squares
2.8.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% Barracks cost
2.8.1.5 Modern Age - 2% gold interest per turn
2.8.2 Special Units
2.8.2.1 Panzer Tank
2.8.1.2 88mm Gun
2.8.1.3 Heinkel Bomber
2.8.1.4 ME109 Fighter

2.9 Greece
2.9.1 Bonuses
2.9.1.1 Starts with Courthouse in capital
2.9.1.2 Ancient Age - Democracy tech
2.9.1.3 Medival Age - More great people
2.9.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% library cost
2.9.1.5 Modern Age - +1 food from sea regions
2.9.2 Unique units
2.9.2.1 Hoplite
2.9.2.2 Trireme

2.10 India
2.10.1 Bonuses
2.10.1.1 Starts with ability to use all resources
2.10.1.2 Ancient Age - Cities not affected by Anarchy
2.10.1.3 Religion tech
2.10.1.4 50% settlers cost
2.10.1.5 50% courthouse cost
2.10.2 India has no unique units

2.11 Japan
2.11.1 Bonuses
2.11.1.1 Starts with Ceremonial Burial tech
2.11.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 food from sea regions
2.11.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 Samurai Knight attack
2.11.1.4 Industrial Age - Cities not affected by Anarchy
2.11.1.5 Modern Age - New defensive units start with Loyalty upgrade
2.11.2 Unique units
2.11.2.1 Samurai Knight
2.11.2.2 Ashigaru Pikemen
2.11.2.4 Val Bomber
2.11.2.6 Zero Fighter

2.12 Mongols
2.12.1 Bonuses
2.12.1.1 Cities you capture generate +50% trade
2.12.1.2 Ancient Age - Barbarian villages captured rather than destroyed
2.12.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 movement to Cavalry
2.12.1.4 Industrial Age - +2 Production from Mountain squares
2.12.1.5 Modern Age - Communism tech
2.12.2 Unique units
2.12.2.1 Keshik


2.13 Rome
2.13.1 Bonuses
2.13.1.1 Starts with Republic and Code of Laws techs
2.13.1.2 50% roads cost
2.13.1.3 50% wonders cost
2.13.1.4 More great people
2.13.1.5 New cities start with +1 population
2.13.2 Unique units
2.13.2.1 Cataphract

2.14 Russia
2.14.1 Bonuses
2.14.1.1 Starts with map of surrounding area
2.14.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 food from Plains squares
2.14.1.3 Medieval Age - New defensive units start with Loyalty upgrade
2.14.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% Riflemen cost
2.14.1.5 Modern Age - 50% spy cost
2.14.2 Unique units
2.14.2.1 Cossack Horseman
2.14.2.2 T34 Tank

2.15 Spain
2.15.1 Bonuses
2.15.1.1 Starts with Navigation tech
2.15.1.2 Ancient Age - 100% bonus to exploration cash
2.15.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 to naval units' attack/defence
2.15.1.4 Industrial Age - +50% gold from cities
2.15.1.5 Modern Age - +1 production from Hills squares
2.15.2 Unique units
2.15.2.1 Conquistador

2.16 Zulu
2.16.1 Bonuses
2.16.1.1 Starts with 'Overrun' at 4:1 advantage instead of 7:1
2.16.1.2 Ancient age - +1 Warrior movement
2.16.1.3 Medieval age - Increased population growth
2.16.1.4 Industrial age - +50% gold from cities
2.16.1.5 Modern age - 50% Rifleman cost
2.16.2 Unique units
2.16.2.1 Impi Warrior

1 Meta

1.1 Copyright

This work is Copyright (c)2008 David Alexander Russell. All Rights Reserved.
The author's moral rights have been asserted. This work may only be
distributed by the following websites:
*davidarussell.co.uk
*gamefaqs.com
*My360.com.au
*MyPS3.com.au
*MyDS.com.au
*gamesradar.com
*cheatplanet.com
*gamershell.com
*supercheats.com
*giantbomb.com

1.2 Contacting the author

I can be contacted via the form on my website at
http://www.davidarussell.co.uk/contact/ - feel free to drop me a line with
anything related to the guide. I'm no expert on the game itself (I don't play
online all that often for example) so I might not be able to answer questions
of high strategy but I'll do my best. If you find any errors in the guide, or
typos, then PLEASE let me know about it - I'll put a credit in the guide if
you've found a real mistake.

1.3 Why write this guide?

Civilization Revolution expands on the greater distinction between civs first
featured in Civilization III. As well as a special unit (some have more than
one!), each civilization has a set of bonuses (one for each age of the game)
which are more specific than the old leader traits like expansionist,
scientific etc. For the avoidance of doubt, the bonuses _do_ carry forward to
later ages, so for example America gets 2% interest on gold reserves for the
whole game rather than just in the Ancient age.

This greater complexity means that there is (unlike in the classic
Civilization II) a real consequence to which civ you choose to play as. At the
same time, as the first Civilization console game, Revolution will no doubt
have attracted many new players who might not know how useful the bonuses are.
For example, what does "Loyalty" do and is it worth having on new defensive
units?  Is +1 food on Plains squares a large amount or a miniscule one? This
guide is here to answer these questions, and give everyone whether a new Civ
player or not a quick overview of the strengths of each civilization.

1.4 Completion status

This initial release of the guide was intially only going to have information
on the civs' bonuses and leave out the special units. However I've discovered
that the special units in Civ Revolution are actually just cosmetic. Unlike
their equivalents in Civ III and Civ IV, they have no greater combat power
than the non-unique equivalent unit. How I failed to notice this while playing
through the game five times I'm not quite sure. The guide should therefore be
complete to all intents and purposes, however there may be mistakes and
inadequacies which I will of course fix.

1.5 Version history

v1.0  - initial release

v1.01 - corrected the contents page saying "NOT DONE YET" for sections that
actually are. Note to self: don't proofread at 3am

v1.02 - asked GameFAQs to list this for the DS game as well, because
appparently the civs have the same attributes in that version (cheers for the
tip Lagu!). Also added three sites (My*.com.au) to authorised list.

v1.03 - two more sites (cheatplanet and gamesradar) added to authorised list

v1.04 - corrected a mistake reported to me by two readers (Quenton and Daniel)
regarding the Egyptian starting bonus

v1.05 - corrected mistakes in the numbering of sections from India onwards -
thanks to dielkathan for pointing them out!

v1.06 - added more sites to the authorised list, and fixed a mistake
concerning the effects of Writing (thanks Chris!)

v1.07 - added GiantBomb to the authorised list

2 Civilizations

2.1 Arabs

2.1.1 Bonuses

2.1.1.1 Starts with Religion tech

This gives you the ability to build Cathedral improvements, which are the
mainstay of Culture production outside of great wonders. It also gives you the
Fundamentalism government type - controversial? Perhaps, but it gives your
units +3 attack which is simply godly (_especially_ in the early game) if you
can handle the fact that it cancels the science bonuses from libraries and
universities.

2.1.1.2 Ancient Age - +50% Caravan gold

I don't like Caravans. They involve far too much micromanagement, especially
with the irksome rule that they get captured if you leave them in foreign
territory between turns. I wish they could just be built, assigned a
destination, and then automatically travel there over however many turns it
takes like Caravan and Freight units in Civ II. Aside from that, the gold you
get from caravans isn't great even with this boost. You'd normally be better
spending the Production on improving your city's own gold output. There is
also the slight snag that you obviously can't send in Caravans if you are at
war with your neighbours - and against the AI that will be quite often since
they have a habit of starting wars for no real reason at all (note to Firaxis:
Game Update? Make them at least as peaceful as Expansionist Militaristic civs
in Civ IV?)

2.1.1.3 Medieval Age - Mathematics tech
Your best chance to take enemy cities (or even a capital) before the Modern
Age is to build a catapult army or two and pair them with an army of defensive
units. This bonus gets you the big shooty things that little bit earlier.

2.1.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Horseman/Knight attack

2.1.1.5 Modern Age - 2% interest from gold
The problem with this bonus is that it only has a significant impact if you
have large amounts of gold in your treasury. By definition if you have large
amounts of gold in your treasury, then you have several cities producing lots
of gold and therefore don't need this 2% interest. Although this is something
of a paradox, it could make the difference between winning an economic victory
and not.

2.1.2 The Arabs have no unique units


2.2 America

2.2.1 Bonuses

2.2.1.1 Starts with a famous person

This is a bit of a lucky dip - you could get anything from a great scientist
to a great leader. Whatever you get, though, will be useful to you at some
point so don't just use it for the sake of it. Especially don't use the 'one
time bonus' option, as these are always a worse deal than what you get for
settling the great person in a city (plus it means that the great person won't
count towards a culture victory). If for example you get a Great Scientist and
your first city doesn't really have any trade (aka science income) to write
home about, then just keep a hold of him (press X to make him stay where he is
without actually doing anything) until you have a city focused on science.

2.2.1.2 Ancient Age - 2% interest on gold reserves

Blah. I suppose it's worthwhile but it's just hard for me to get excited about
this bonus - especially in the ancient age where you have no gold reserves to
speak of. If, for example, you have 100 gold in your treasury (why haven't you
spent it on roads yet?) you'll receive an extra 2 gold pieces over and above
what your cities produce. Only really useful in the late game when you have
thousands in your treasury, and if you have that then you probably have
several large gold-producing cities and therefore don't really need the bonus.
Still, I suppose it could make the difference if two players are going for an
economic victory

2.2.1.3 Medieval Age - 50% unit rush cost

Much better. Unlike in real life, wars in Civ Revolution have a habit of just
appearing out of nowhere. You're quite happily trundling along building Great
Wonders and then the Indians (Author's note: Got nothing against the Indians,
but the absence of Leader Traits makes Gandhi
suspension-of-disbelief-breakingly aggressive) demand some ridiculous sum of
gold or more often a great person to refrain from pounding you into the dust.
Often your only means of attacking any time soon - or of reinforcing the city
that you've just noticed is defender by a single Warrior - is to rush build
units from the cities which have barracks (or, if you're lucky, a Great
Leader) in them. This can often wipe out your gold reserves which, even if you
aren't going for an economic victory, severely restricts your ability to
construct roads or rush-build important Wonders. Being able to do this for
half the cost makes it much less of a game-changing event. To look at it
another way, you could suffer the same financial impact but have twice as many
units. Two Armies really _are_ more than twice as good as one, especially
given the "damage penalty" on units' combat power.

2.2.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 food from plains

It's not a bad bonus especially if you have a city with lots of plains squares
around it for resource-square or bottlenecking reasons. However the Americans
get a lot less mileage out of this bonus than the Russians do. Not merely
because of the wholly obvious fact that they don't have it for as long. The
more crucial aspect is that by the Industrial Age you've probably built as
many cities as you're going to for the simple reason that all the space is
used up. The Plains food bonus is really primarily useful as a means of giving
a city built in a mediocre location a quick leg-up in population growth which
might otherwise be zero or pretty close to it. Still, never look a gift horse
in the mouth

2.2.1.5 Modern Age - Factories triple production

What was that they said about kickass bonuses skipping a generation? To make
it clear American factories don't triple the production of ordinary factories
(for a total bonus of 6x), they triple your production instead of doubling it
like a normal factory. That still means that all your cities - or all of them
you can be bothered building factories in, which should be pretty damn near to
all of them - will have 50% more production capacity than cities of lesser
civilizations. Do I even have to tell you what the consequences of that are? 
We'll start with the most important one: victories. The Modern Age is where
the vast majority of victories are won in Civ Revolution. All of these
victories require lots of production.

Even if you get lucky with a catapult army/archer army combo early in the game
it's likely that you'll have captured one enemy capital at most. Your real
push for a domination victory will come when you research Combustion (for
Tanks) and possibly also Advanced Flight (for Bombers). Essentially playing as
America means you can build one-and-a-half times as many tanks or bombers as
you could otherwise. Civ Revolution is not interior design - less _is not_
more!

The difficulty with a technology victory usually isn't researching Space
Flight. The problem is in building a spaceship with enough propulsion and fuel
units to get to Alpha Centauri before the Aztecs finish the World Bank (or
insert your teeth-gnashing, ICBM-requiring scenario of choice). Every little
bit helps, and having a city near a mountain range with a triple-production
Factory and an Iron Mine will make you very happy indeed.

The three 'terrestrial' victory types require more finesse than simply having
lots of big cities all building stuff, however they have something in common:
they all require you to build a final 'victory wonder'. The idea behind this
is to prevent a victory from happening near-instantly without any way of
stopping it. For example you might not know that someone has three wonders
near completion, which would put them above the Cultural threshold. The
requirement to build a victory wonder means that the other civs have a chance
to club together and try to take your capital. The Factory bonus means that
you'll be under that threat for two-thirds of the time (time = distance /
speed, increase speed by 50% and time decreases by one third). Plus you'll be
able to Rush defensive units as necessary with your medieval bonus and your
other factory cities.

2.2.2 Unique units

2.2.2.1 Sherman Tank

2.2.2.2 Flying Fortress (bomber)
Unlike the other modified units (with the exception of the Mongol Keshik),
this one doesn't have its unit type added to the end of the name. Ingame it's
simply called the 'Flying Fortress', cf 'Val Bomber'

2.2.2.4 Mustang Fighter


2.3 Aztecs

2.3.1 Bonuses

2.3.1.1 Start with 25 gold
25 gold might sound like a pathetic amount of money, and it is. But it's
better than what the other civs start with, which is zero. That 25 gold could
be enough to rush-build the unit (or a city improvement) that kick-starts your
civ's development. Just make sure you USE it within the first few turns,
before your gold production kicks in at which point it's wasted.

2.3.1.2 Ancient Age - Units autoheal after winning
This stops your advances being slowed down by having to heal units between
battles. In particular it avoids the very dodgy situation of having a unit
attacking an enemy city having to stand outside the walls doing nothing for
two turns while healing back damage from the first attack. If your enemy plays
his cards right that's enough time to rush-build a new stack of defensive
units - even without roads to bring in reinforcements from outside. It's bad,
and the Aztecs don't have to worry about it.

2.3.1.3 Medieval Age - +3 science from Temples
Temples are something you'll probably have in most of your cities to stop them
from being culture-flipped. 3 science is better than some of the other city
bonuses, especially when you consider that it can then be increased if the
city also has a Library, University and so on.

2.3.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% roads cost
Although you'd hope to have your major roads (ie from your military production
city to your bottlenecks) built before the Industrial age, it isn't always
possible due to financial limits. This bonus will get all your cities finally
linked together, perfect for that Modern Age "all cities tank rush" if you
swing that way.

2.3.1.5 Modern Age - +50% gold from cities
Getting lots of gold is one of the ways to win the game. This upgrade gets you
one and a half times as much gold. Do I really need to say more? Actually yes
I do. Don't think that this means you can stop at Banks and change all your
Science cities to Gold production: there are a couple of late-Modern Age
wonders that, if you go soft on your Science production, will enable another
civ to overtake you even if they aren't one of the others which also has this
bonus. Specifically the Internet wonder - if you're planning an economic
victory make sure you get that.

2.3.2 Unique units

2.3.2.1 Jaguar Warrior


2.4 China

2.4.1 Bonuses

2.4.1.1 Starts with Writing

Writing isn't of quite the same military importance as it was in Civ games of
old. Gone are the diplomats which could investigate a city's defences, even
bribe a city to join your civilization (these functions are now taken by the
Ranger unit power and Great Thinkers respectively). Instead, you get the
much-less-exciting Spy. Aside from putting at least one in your border cities
(to stop enemy spies from un-Fortifying your units, which has to be the lamest
addition to Civ Rev), their only purpose is as an expensive way to reduce the
strength of enemy defenses - especially since they're a one-shot deal and most
cities take more than one turn of attacks to capture.

2.4.1.2 Ancient Age - New cities start with +1 population

This might not sound like much but the extra citizen (which means an extra
'worked square' of resources coming in) can make the difference between a new
city having zero production (or zero population growth) and having some. It
won't turn good cities into great cities, but it can turn poor cities -
perhaps because they're in a location with lots of water, which means lots of
trade later on but not a lot of other stuff until you get Harbors - into
decent ones.

2.4.1.3 Medieval Age - Literacy tech

This used to be the gateway to the Great Library wonder, but it now gives
access to the revamped-but-still-crucial Courthouse improvement (note to
Firaxis: why the hell doesn't Code of Laws unlock Courthouse? Surely that
would be more logical) which doubles each city's workable squares. It also
allows you to use the Silk resource and build the culturetastic Shakespeare's
Theatre wonder.

2.4.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% library cost

Hmm, call the "worst civ bonus" competition we have a winner. If a city is
producing any amount of science then hopefully you already have a Library in
it by the Industrial Age! Move along, nothing to see here.

2.3.1.5 Modern Age - Cities immune to anarchy

This essentially means that you will not suffer the usual turn of no
production when you switch government types. 'How often am I going to be
changing government types in the Modern age?' I hear you ask. The answer is
not a lot, but when you do this bonus will be a significant help. The reason
is that you will probably only change governments when a rival civ launches a
spaceship, or starts building a victory wonder, and you need to take their
capital sharpish. This presents a problem in that you have to simultaneously
change your Democracy to Fundamentalism (or to Monarchy if you're still trying
to research technology) and also crank out tank armies and bomber wings. This
bonus means your war production starts a turn early.

2.4.2 China has no unique units


2.5 Egypt

2.5.1 Bonuses

2.5.1.1 Starts with a random ancient age wonder

In the initial version of this guide I mistakenly wrote that Egypt started
with 50% wonder cost. Had that been true then Egypt's otherwise poor bonuses
would have been salvaged by an early kickstart to Cultural Victory progress.
As it stands, you instead get a random wonder at the start of the game. This
could turn out to be fairly useful (e.g. free Pyramids so you can get Republic
immediately then Democracy) or utterly pointless (e.g. getting free Hanging
Gardens to increase the population of your capital from 2 to 3. The problem is
that most of the ancient age wonders are obsoleted fairly quickly, and they
all have different bonuses. One of the central skills of Civ Revolution is to
pick a civilization whose bonuses match the victory type you want to achieve -
the Egyptians are a lottery ticket. For example, if you are planning an
economic victory what if you get the Oracle of Delphi instead of the Colossus?

2.5.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 food and trade in desert squares

I can hear the people who played as Egypt in the early Civ games crying out in
frustration. In those games, which could be played on an Earth map with the
civs at their actual historical locations, this would have made Egypt so much
easier... but I digress. Anyway this gives you a great opportunity to build
cities where other civs can't, and will also increase the profitability of
building a desert city for the purpose of taking advantage of the Trading Post
improvement later in the game.

2.5.1.3 Medieval Age - Irrigation tech

Well this continues with the whole "extra food" theme I guess. Specifically it
makes tiles adjacent to rivers produce +1 food. Since rivers are a good place
to build cities defence-wise (units attacking over a river take a 50% power
penalty) you'll probably have several such squares within your civ's borders.
Let the people eat cake!

2.5.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Rifleman movement

See what I meant about the 50% wonder cost? Rifleman are a defensive unit and
therefore don't need to move around very often. Even if you use the 'fragile
artillery army/defensive unit army' combination this isn't going to be of use
because the extra point will make them faster than cannons (so it's wasted)
and slower than tanks or artillery (so it's not enough).

2.5.1.5 Modern Age - +50% caravan gold

The amount of gold you get from caravans is usually not large enough to be
worth bothering about. However if you're going for an economic victory and
have lots of high-production, low-trade cities that don't have anything else
to do then with this bonus they can provide that extra push to get you over
the line sooner. The slight snag is that by this stage you're probably at war
with most of your neighbours, or you will be once they twig that you're going
for an economic victory. Not as bad as the Industrial Age bonus, but nothing
to get excited about either.

2.5.2 Egypt has no unique units

Yep, you read this right. Egypt has no special. Even if special units had stat
bonuses like in previous civ games, this would be difficult to understand
given the poor quality of Egypt's other bonuses. However special units in Civ
Revolution are purely cosmetic. So why on earth do the Egyptians not have a
Chariot unit to replace Cavalry? Have Firaxis never played Rome Total War?
Chariots kick ass!

2.6 England

2.6.1 Bonuses

2.6.1.1 Starts with Monarchy tech

As you might guess, this gives you the ability to use the Monarchy government
type early on. Sure, you'll want to ditch Monarchy as soon as you can for
Republic (during your expansion phase) followed by Democracy, but at least
it's a better government than Despotism. You can also use Dye resources from
the start and pretend to be India, and build the Samurai Castle wonder which
will be very beneficial for you warmongering types. It also rains on the
parade of anyone hoping to Wonder their way to Democracy, as Monarchy
obsoletes the Great Pyramid wonder before they can even get it.

2.6.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 Longbow Archer defence

An Archer Army will be your primary means of city defence for a surprisingly
long amount of time. This upgrade is effectively a 50% boost to your defensive
strength until you get Pikemen. So you won't be overrun early in the game just
because you annoyed a nearby civ.

2.6.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 to naval units' attack/defence

Like with the Spanish, the fact that NPC civs at King difficulty and below
never seem to build Fleets of ships to match yours means that you'll get
limited mileage out of this one. In multiplayer however (or possibly at higher
difficulties - haven't played on them so I don't know whether the AI then
builds Fleets) it's a decent if not exactly jaw-dropping boost.

2.6.1.4 Industrial Age - +1 Production from Hill squares

Like the naval thing it's not something to get all hot and bothered about, but
unlike the naval bonus it is actually possible to put this one to good use.
You'll probably have at least a couple of cities with Hills near them (either
because you're parked next to some Mountains or you're bottlenecking) so this
can add a small but worthwhile increase to your Production.

2.6.1.5 Modern Age - 2x effect from naval support

Naval support isn't essential in attacking cities, but it's certainly worth
setting up if you can. Each ship has a 'naval support' rating in addition to
its ADM. As an example most relevant in the Modern Age, a Battleship has a
naval support rating of 6. This means that if a battle involving a friendly
unit takes place on a square adjacent to the battleship, the friendly unit
will have its attack or defence power (as appropriate) increased by 6 - this
shows in the 'modifiers' section of the battle screen along with things like
veterancy and unit powers. This power means that a single Battleship would
provide 12 naval support instead of 6. To put that in perspective, an
unupgrade Tank unit only has an attack power of 10. Remember though that one
unit can provide naval support at a time - you can't park three Battleship
Fleets next to each other and get three naval support bonuses.

2.6.2 Special Units

2.6.2.1 Longbow Archer

2.6.2.2 Lancaster Bomber

2.6.2.4 Spitfire Fighter


2.7 France

2.7.1 Bonuses

2.7.1.1 Starts with Cathedral in capital

The Cathedral is a powerful Cultural improvement normally not available until
the Medieval or Industrial ages. In that sense you get a longer "benefit time"
on this than you do with the Greek Courthouse, even if it is less influential
in the first few turns.

2.7.1.2 Ancient Age - Pottery tech

Pottery isn't quite the "alpha and omega" that it was in Civ of old. Rather
than being necessary to get your cities growing at a reasonable rate,
granaries now 'just' give you a +food bonus on certain squares. Still, as with
the Chinese population bonus that slight boost might be enough to get an
otherwise troubled city up and running. You can also build the Hanging Gardens
which has also changed completely from the effect Civ players had become
accustomed to - instead of decreasing anarchy (which, thank whatever deity you
favour, has been put up against a wall and shot by Firaxis in their 'slim the
game down' drive), it now gives a one-time-only population doubling to
whatever city builds it. Not earth-shattering since the city in question
probably has a population of about 3, but doubling is still doubling. Oh yeah
and you can use Wine resources too.

2.7.1.3 Medieval Age - 50% roads cost

OK so France gets it later than the Romans, but it isn't as much of a big deal
as you think. If you follow the typical strategy of sending settlers from your
capital to far-flung chokepoints, and then filling in the empty space with
more cities later, you will probably struggle to have enough money to build
roads in the ancient age anyway. It's also in the Medieval age where rival
civs usually get round to making their ridiculous "give or die" demands,
giving you a use for road-building beyond having the amusement of your advisor
giving a Latin name to a French road. Just remember that if you do decide to
connect up your cities, that roads are no longer territory-locked. In other
words, unlike in previous Civ games roads within your territory can be used by
_any_ military unit rather than just your own, so make sure that your capital
gets an upgrade from the starting Warrior before you road up!

2.7.1.4 Industrial Age - +2 Cannon attack

This is a good bonus for those considering a Domination victory. With most
civs, games tend to bypass the cannon - people often research Tanks shortly
afterwards, and therefore tend to not bother building cannons. However this
bonus means that a Cannon only has 20% less attack power than a Tank (8 for a
French Cannon, 10 for a Tank) It costs 40% less in resources (30 Production
for a Cannon versus 50 for a Tank), so in terms of bang-for-your-buck the
cannon is more efficient. Just bear in mind that you'll have to build more of
them and that you WILL lose more. Just build multiple ones and ensure they all
attack on the same turn to wear the enemy down.

2.7.1.5 Modern Age - +1 Rifleman movement

Maybe there's some secret use for roving bands of Riflemen that I haven't yet
fathomed, but in my opinion this is just as pointless for the French as it is
for the Egyptians.

2.7.2 Unique units

2.7.2.1 Trebuchet

2.7.2.2 Howitzer

2.8 Germany

2.8.1 Bonuses

2.8.1.1 Starts with ability to upgrade Elite units to new tech

If you've already played through Civ Revolution as a different civ then you
know the story. That faithful Rifleman Army which held off an enemy attack
forever, and got itself to Elite status with some nice upgrades to boot.
Despite the illogical nature of it you've actually become fond of the unit.
Then suddenly Infantry and Modern Infantry start appearing, and your poor old
heroes are obsolete. Aside from the sentimental aspect this essentially gives
you a constant, free Leonardo's Workshop for any units that you get to Elite
status. They'll automatically upgrade to the newest unit of their type that
you have the technology for. Saves you a lot of Production and time.

2.8.1.2 Ancient Age - Warrior units built as Veterans

Hmm, isn't this what Barracks are for? It's not as if you can even get out of
building Barracks for long because Archers are usually only a few turns into
the game and you'll need a Barracks for those. Not the best starting bonus, I
suppose it gets you a leg-up against Barbarian villages.

2.8.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 Production from forest squares

Forests already have decent Production so you'll want to have at least one
'factory city' near a lot of forest squares if you can manage it. This is a
decent bonus especially once you count the multipliers from city improvements.

2.8.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% Barracks cost
Tnis is useful for when you're going for a domination victory (if you aren't,
why are you playing as Germany when its bonuses are mainly military) and want
to get all your cities ready to participate in the Modern Age tank rush. Or,
if you're impatient, the Industrial Age cannon rush, but cannons are slower
and they also need a stack of good defensive units to protect them.

2.8.1.5 Modern Age - 2% interest on gold reserves
This is of _slightly_ more use to the Germans than it is to the other civs
that get it. Why? Because when you're going for a domination victory every
little bit of gold for rush-building helps. 2% of your reserves each turn
still only means 100 gold on a reserve of 5000. Perhaps now you'll see why I
rate this bonus so poorly.

2.8.2 Special Units

2.8.2.1 Panzer Tank

2.8.1.2 88mm Gun

2.8.1.3 Heinkel Bomber

2.8.1.4 ME109 Fighter


2.9 Greece

2.9.1 Bonuses

2.9.1.1 Starts with Courthouse in capital

Instead of cutting corruption (a concept which is one of the casualties of Civ
Revolution's streamlining) as in previous games, courthouses now double the
number of surrounding squares which a city can use. The eagle-eyed among you
may have spotted a flaw in this: right at the start of the game, your capital
probably has a population of 3 or less than therefore has more than enough
squares to deal with already. However the courthouse means that the automated
worker-assignment has a wider choice of squares to select - for example there
might be Cattle (+food) in one of the extra squares uncovered, giving your two
or three citizens the ability to produce more food by choosing that square
over an ordinary Plains square nearer the city.

2.9.1.2 Ancient Age - Democracy tech

If you're happy not to attack anyone for the rest of the game (and to make
peace against your will if they beg rather than requesting a bribe for peace)
then switching to Democracy early on can be a huge advantage in financial and
scientific terms. Bear in mind that doing this involves bypassing the
settler-production bonus of Republic, and that you could get the same effect
by finding the Angkor Wat artifact which can be accessed with only a Galley's
militia. If that's not enough, you also get the ability to build the
hard-as-nails (at least this early) Pikemen unit and the brilliant-for-culture
Magna Carta wonder.

2.9.1.3 Medieval Age - More great people

Assuming that you're putting all that Democracy sciencyness to good use by
building wonders before other civs have even researched them, this will give
you even greater fruit for your labours. More wonders means more culture which
means great people - and here you are getting a boost to production of those
as well!

2.9.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% library cost

I said it for China so I'll say it hear - if you haven't built Libraries in
your science cities by the Industrial age then you're probably beyond help.

2.9.1.5 Modern Age - +1 food from sea regions

Although your cities are probably already quite large by the Modern Age, more
population never hurt anyone (at least not since they took out the '12
population = anarchy' element of previous Civ games). Especially since your
main science and gold cities will probably be beside lots of water squares for
maximum trade income.

2.9.2 Unique units

2.9.2.1 Hoplite

2.9.2.2 Trireme


2.10 India

2.10.1 Bonuses

2.10.1.1 Starts with ability to use all resources

In evaluating this bear in mind that the 'strategic resources' as they were in
Civilization III and IV are gone. Resources are not used as a prerequisite for
any form of construction - they simply add bonuses (sometimes quite
significant) to particular resource types. For example Gems add XXX to Gold
production, but only once you've researched YYY. The Indians get all these
bonuses as soon as they have a city working the relevant square.

2.10.1.2 Ancient Age - Cities not affected by Anarchy

People who have played Civilization PC games but don't know a great deal about
Revolution are probably swearing at their screens right now. Calm your minds
and clean your mouths, folks. Remember that citizen happiness, and its
negative side anarchy, have been removed from Civ Revolution. The only anarchy
that happens in this game is the turn of no production which happens. Still,
tis bonus means that you can change governments at will throughout the game
without suffering the turn of paralysis that normally ensues. Especially good
to get it early because most of your government changes tend to happen in the
early game.

2.10.1.3 Medieval Age - Religion tech

Same as the Arabs, without the political controversy. If you're keen on early
or late-game conquest (NEVER use it in the middle, due to the science
penalties) then Fundamentalism is your friend. Cathedrals will also help boost
your culture if you're not building all the Great Wonders you can lay your
hands on.

2.10.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% settlers cost

You would normally want to have built all the cities you're going to by now,
but there can sometimes be opportunities. Perhaps a small-to-medium size
unoccupied island that your naval units have spotted. This would be godly if
you got it in the Ancient Age, but you don't so it isn't.

2.10.1.5 Modern Age - 50% courthouse cost

There will usually be a couple of cities in your civ which have two or three
production and stay there. Maybe ones you built in a bottleneck to secure the
territory behind, or built by the sea to maximise trade. These sorts of cities
might never get round to building a courthouse, and this bonus will give you a
chance of sorting that in the late game.

2.10.2 India has no unique units

2.11 Japan

2.11.1 Bonuses

2.11.1.1 Starts with Ceremonial Burial tech

Whatever your other problems, you won't have cultural issues early on unless
you want to, thanks to Temples and the tradeiriffic Incense resource. Also,
unless some sneaky sod is playing as the English, you have the option of
building the Great Pyramid for a fast-track to Democracy.

2.11.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 food from sea squares

This is better than it sounds - you'll want to build cities near lots of sea
squares because they are the best means of generating Trade, which is
converted into your choice of Science or Gold. However unless you luck out and
get Fish nearby, your city could well end up with zero population growth
(depending on what land squares you have) to go with its very low production.
One extra food from _every_ sea square gives you an important legup when
building these cities as well as scaling in effect when they start to expand
and work on more of those squares.

2.11.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 Samurai Knight attack

Knights are the Medieval version of Cavalry, and I think I've said elsewhere
that Cavalry aren't up to much. They are essentially a Catapult with an extra
point each in Defence and Movement. They cost 25% more (25 shields vs 20 for a
catapult). With this bonus it becomes sort-of worthwhile to build Knights
instead of Catapults, since the Knight becomes more powerful as an attacking
unit. The ratio of cost-to-attack power is still the same though, with the
knight having 25% more of each than the catapult. Also bear in mind that, if
you're planning to go for Leonardo's Workshop, Catapults will upgrade to
Cannon while Knights won't.

2.11.1.4 Industrial Age - Cities not affected by Anarchy

Hopefully by the Industrial age you've already got Democracy and done all the
government changes you're planning to. However in an emergency (e.g. an
impending Victory in the modern age), or if you just decide to kick some ass,
you might need to switch to Communism or Fundamentalism. This avoids having
your actual response to the emergency (in the shape of shooty things) from
being delayed by a turn.

2.11.1.5 Modern Age - New defensive units start with Loyalty upgrade

This is a brilliant bonus. Loyalty is the second-best city defence power after
Engineering, and you get it on every new unit! Although the fact that you get
it later makes it less effective than the Russian version, if you're embroiled
in conflict with your neighbours (which you will be once they twig what
victory type you're going for) you'll want to replace your Riflemen with
stacks of Modern Infantry anyway.

2.11.2 Unique units

2.11.2.1 Samurai Knight

2.11.2.2 Ashigaru Pikemen

2.11.2.4 Val Bomber

2.11.2.6 Zero Fighter


2.12 Mongols

2.12.1 Bonuses

2.12.1.1 Starts with 50% trade bonus for captured cities

If this isn't a big neon "do this" sign from the developers then I don't know
what is. You'll be capturing cities at some point unless you're going to sit
and endure the AI attacks for half the game. When you bring out the big stick,
this bonus increases the ongoing value of your prize.

2.12.1.2 Ancient Age - Barbarian villages captured rather than destroyed

A mixed bag. On the one hand this gives you free cities that you don't have to
build settlers for. On the other hand, the barbarian villages are often in
crummy locations and end up blocking production squares that could be used to
put better-positioned cities nearby.

2.12.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 movement to Cavalry

AARGH. Cavalry. If you want to pay 25% more in Production for a Catapult that
outruns its defensive shield, be my guest. I hate the things. This doesn't
even get you a map-uncovering bonus as you'll have done all the land exploring
you can do in the Ancient Age.

2.12.1.4 Industrial Age - +2 Production from Mountain squares

Good things come to those who wait. If you're lucky enough to have mountains
within your borders you'll have a heavy-production city near them. This bonus,
plus a Factory, plus an Iron Mine make for a very quick-building city indeed.

2.12.1.5 Modern Age - Communism tech

Communism is rare among 'government techs' in that it only gives you access to
its government type. Communism the government type gives you increased
Production but stops you getting any benefit from your Temples and Cathedrals.
Tied with Fundamentalism for 'best war government' then.

2.12.2 Unique units

2.12.2.1 Keshik


2.13 Rome

2.13.1 Bonuses

2.13.1.1 Starts with Code of Laws tech

This is probably the best starting bonus in terms of giving you a leg-up in
the early game. Code of Laws allows you to use the Republic government type,
which is vital for early-game expansion as it halves the cost of building
Settlers (1 population instead of two - engageth Ye Olde Civ II Style Settler
Spam :P). Also gives you access to Cattle resources for extra-tasty burgers,
and the ability to construct trading posts.

2.13.1.2 Ancient Age - 50% roads cost

Although you'll still have trouble affording roads this early at half the
cost, you'll have it much better than other civs. Remember that this bonus
carries forward, so you'll _always_ have a more developed road network than
your rivals. Remember Civ Revolution's new caveat to road building, that enemy
units can use roads in your territory. Keep your capital's defensive units
updated to avoid embarassing defeats (aka 'reloads' in singleplayer :P)

2.13.1.3 Medieval Age - 50% wonders cost

Wonders are great. In themselves they can provide bonuses to your economy, to
your scientific research, or to your military. They also contribute to a
cultural victory in themselves, and help to produce great people through their
cultural production in their host cities.

2.13.1.4 Industrial Age - More great people

Read this together with the above section and you'll understand why the Romans
are my favourite faction for non-military victories. You build lots of
wonders, which gets you culture, which gets you great people who get you
culture. Essentially the Romans are the express train to a cultural victory,
or if you get bored with that then any of the other victory types which the
combination of Wonders and Great People will help you achieve.

2.13.1.5 Modern Age - New cities start with +1 population

I guess you can't have it all your own way. The Romans are already godly. You
won't (or at least shouldn't) still be building cities at this stage. However
you could find small islands or pockets of land isolated mountain ranges
(perhaps after researching Space Flight first) and this will provide a nice
boost to such diverting endeavours.

2.13.2 Unique units

2.13.3.1 Cataphract


2.14 Russia

2.14.1 Bonuses

2.14.1.1 Starts with map of surrounding area

Hmm. I may have to take back what I said about the Egyptians earlier. The only
possible benefit of this is that it stops your starting Settler from
blundering into a camp of barbarians and being killed. In any Civ game you are
going to be exploring as far as you can. In order to do that your units have
to cross the area covered by your expanded starting map anyway, so your net
gain is coming fairly close to zero.

2.14.1.2 Ancient Age - +1 food from Plains squares

This isn't hugely significant, but it provides an early boost to population
growth for cities that might be lacking in that department. In fact cities
with lots of Plains can sometimes struggle significantly, as they can also be
deficient in Production to begin with. Having an extra Food coming in might be
enough to kickstart your city's growth.

2.14.1.3 Medieval Age - New defensive units start with Loyalty upgrade

This is a brilliant bonus, and the Russians get it earlier than the Japanese.
Any new defensive units (that means pikemen, riflemen etc.) you build after
you enter the Medieval age get the Loyalty power normally only available
(randomly) to some units which achieve Elite status. It gives you a +50%
defense bonus over and above that granted by veterenacy, Walls and so on. 

2.14.1.4 Industrial Age - 50% Riflemen cost

Riflemen may well be the main unit you defend your core cities with (if you
follow the usual 'bottleneck border' strategy). Getting them for less cost (ie
you can get a stack of three in half the normal time) is a significant
increase to your defensive prowess. Bear in mind though that this,
effectively, does not carry forward as the bonus does not apply to the units
(Infantry and Modern Infantry) which obsolete Riflemen.

2.14.1.5 Modern Age - 50% spy cost

Spies are an expensive way to micromanage an extra advantage when attacking
cities. However to avoid having your fortifications you should try to have at
least one Spy in every city if possible - and a Ring (stack of three) in your
frontline defensive cities. 

2.14.2 Unique units

2.14.2.1 Cossack Horseman

2.14.2.2 T34 Tank


2.15 Spain

2.15.1 Bonuses

2.15.1.1 Starts with Navigation tech

This is a useful tech that's not normally available before the Industrial age.
From the instant-gratification point of view it gets you the Galleon ship
which means you can snag the Atlantis artifact (which is in deep sea
inaccessible to the Galleys other civs have in the early game) for a few more
free techs. You also get to use Whale resources which can provide a
much-needed population growth boost to your anaemic sea-surrounded
science/gold cities.

2.15.1.2 Ancient Age - 100% bonus to exploration cash

Hmm. The problems with exploration windfalls are that there aren't enough of
them and they're too random. Essentially an exploration windfall is when it
says "You discovered an important grassland/desert/river/whatever, what would
you like to name it?". There are probably only about a half-dozen of these
which are readily accessible to you in any given game. Each of them will
probably be relatively near another civ's capital. The increase itself is
welcome especially since it gives you extra cash to build roads with, but the
whole concept of exploration is just done too sporadically in this game for
you to rely on it as a game-defining source of income.

2.15.1.3 Medieval Age - +1 to naval units' attack/defence

Your main source of naval combat is likely to be distant NPCs who declare war
(after you refuse their "great person or your life" offers) only to realise
that sending a Galleon to be a pain in the arse in one of your coastal trade
squares is their only means of force-projection. However this bonus is
probably of little relevance to most Civ players (ie those who don't play at
higher than King or in multiplayer) as at King or lower(*) the AI never builds
Fleets of units but instead only sends individuals. A stack of 3 ships
combined into a fleet doesn't need a +1 bonus to beat a single ship on its
own, unless you've been outdone in the naval technology race in which case you
wouldn't be focusing on naval combat anyway.

*I haven't actually played a full game at higher than King difficulty, so I
don't know how the harder AIs behave in this respect

2.15.1.4 Industrial Age - +50% gold from cities

When the game reaches the Industrial Age you should have your gold-churning
centres up and running. The boost from this can put you well on the way to an
economic victory (unless of course there's another Civ with the same bonus
e.g. the Zulu).

2.15.1.5 Modern Age - +1 production from Hill squares

Combined with the +2 bonus from a Workshop and the Factory, this can turn
cities surrounded by Hills into significant production centres.

2.15.2 Unique units

2.15.2.1 Conquistador


2.16 Zulu

2.16.1 Bonuses

2.16.1.1 Starts with 'Overrun' at 4:1 advantage instead of 7:1

This will greatly ease the remaining 'frustration factor' in Civ Revolution.
Allow me to elaborate. Civilization Revolution abandons the failed attempts in
Civ III to prevent the "Phalanx Problem". This is a quirk of the Civilization
formula which takes its name from an amusing situation which became part of
Civ II legend. 

A Phalanx, for those of you knew to Civilization, was essentially _the_
defensive unit in the early third or so of the game (bear in mind Civ II games
lasted _much_ longer than Civ Rev's 3.5 hours). One of these fortified in a
city with the relevant defensive structures in Civ II (City Walls, Coastal
Fortress) could often (in a relative sense, meaning "more frequently than once
in a blue moon") defeat a Battleship in combat. Yes, a USS Iowa type 'big ass
ship with guns' being _destroyed_ by men with spears and fetching Rome Total
War-style testudo shields. How they even managed to swim in heavy metal armour
is beyond me!

Anyway, to combat what was seen as an embarassing glitch Civilization III
introduced a 'firepower' stat to try and differentiate between units which
fight in completely different ways. I won't go into th details of that here
but suffice to say it has been dropped.

Instead of that, Civ Revolution has the 'overrun' mechanic. Essentially, if
the combat power of the attacker is wildly disproportionate to that of the
defender then the defending units are 'overrun' and the attacker gets an
automatic win without any actual combat taking place (the attacker also
doesn't lose a movement point as it does for a normal attack). However to stop
this from making the game too biased in favour of attackers, this only kicks
in if the attack's power is seven times that of the defence (which for
perspective requires something like a Catapult Army attacking a single Warrior
in open terrain). Lowering that threshold to 4:1 means that your armies will
avoid defensive fights where the defenders have just enough power that they
might have been able to seriously damage you or even win.

2.16.1.2 Ancient age - +1 Warrior movement

Although you'd (hopefully) never be daft enough to use Warriors to attack
enemy cities (if you don't know whether they have Archers yet, assume they
do!), you do get a surprising amount of use out of the little guys in the very
early game. Whether it's wiping out Barbarian villages or just exploring the
map, most of the time you'll use Warriors because Cavalry aren't available
until a couple of techs in, by which time everyone has Archer armies so
there's no point in Cavalry's greater attack power.

2.16.1.3 Medieval age - Increased population growth

Remember that in Civilization Revolution, there is no downside to increased
population. No food consumption, no happiness/anarchy and no squalor means
that population is an entirely positive thing. This is one of the few civ
bonuses that is entirely unique to its civilization, so make sure you take
advantage of all those extra worked squares!

2.16.1.4 Industrial age - +50% gold from cities

By this point in the game you should have most if not all of your cities set
up, and should certainly have them separated into science and gold-producing
cities - even the ones which have very little trade and are really just Tank
Farms (sorry, F-19 Stealth Fighter reference). This means that you'll have
Markets built and will hopefully be on your way to getting Banks if you don't
have them already. This, then, is the perfect time for a huge shot in the arm
to your gold production.

2.16.1.5 Modern age - 50% Rifleman cost

This is great if you go on a military campaign and need Rifleman Armies to
defend the new cities, or if you decided to pass on getting the Leonardo's
Workshop wonder to upgrade all your cities' defensive units for you.

2.16.2 Unique units

2.16.2.1 Impi Warrior