I was 100 turns into Sid Meier’s Civilization VII, when I conquered almost the entire continent that I started on.
I began my hands-on preview humbly as Persia in the Antiquity Age before expanding through conquest, capturing more settlements than founding them myself. My power grew as the Antiquity Age crossed into the Exploration Age, and Persia evolved into Mongolia. I had amassed a giant army and waged several wars by the 100th turn, and I’d barely explored much of the new world. As someone who enjoys playing Civilization games quite aggressively, I’m already loving my time with Civilization VII and all of the core changes to the formula that it brings.
Civilization VII, launching on February 11, deftly eased me into the experience, with comprehensive tutorials to remind me of core systems, legacy paths, and objectives to follow. While it feels overbalanced for military builds and has some quirks with peace treaties, I can already tell that Firaxis created a strategy game I’ll have no problem sinking dozens of hours into.
Civilization VII is a 4X strategy game. That subgenre gained its name because its gameplay loop sees players explore unknown lands, expand their territory through conquest or by establishing settlements, exploit the resources in their land, and potentially exterminate any nearby opponents. I tend to lean into the expand and exterminate parts of 4X quite heavily.
Thankfully, Civilization VII is very accommodating to that. Xerxes, King of Kings, quickly emerged as the clear best Leader choice for me. His unique ability, “Crusher of Rebellions,” boosts my units while fighting outside of my territory. Persia was a militaristic-focused civilization that paired well with Xerxes, so I’d chosen that and started a game in no time. Like its predecessors, Civilization VII challenges players to found a settlement before slowly expanding it, hexagonal tile by hexagonal tile.
I had no trouble easing back into this formula thanks to my familiarity with the franchise, but Civilization VII does a great job of thoroughly explaining everything in its tutorials and always giving me a clear direction. I credit the legacy path system with this, as it gives players Culture, Military, Science, and Economic goals to complete in each Age. As the Antiquity Age turns ticked on, I started building combat units and researching any useful tech that the in-game military adviser recommended.
I met my neighbors quickly. My continent was home to three other leaders: Machiavelli, Tecumseh, and Ashoka. By the end of turn 100, two of these leaders would be defeated and the other was a former ally turned enemy.
I was playing quite aggressively, but Ashoka was too. He had also quickly expanded with a town to my north while I focused on growing my capital. Although I had been planning to attack him, Ashoka got the jump on me and swiftly invaded Persia. This caught me unaware while my units were spread out exploring the map, and I came quite close to losing my capital and being kicked out of the game right away.
Weirdly, that’s when Ashoka offered peace and even let me take the city to the north as payment. I’m unsure if that was a bug or an early-game AI oddity, but this terrible peace deal for Ashoka ultimately set the stage for my success. I used the extra settlement to increase the gold, culture, and science I accrued with every turn as I established an alliance with Tecumseh that further strengthened my economy. I continued researching more powerful units and preparing for war, eventually fighting Machiavelli to the South.
Machiavelli didn’t put up much of a fight, so Tecumseh and I quickly wiped him out. At this point, Tecumseh and I were the continent’s two superpowers, and we kept working together. After taking some time to let my units heal, bring some city-states into my civilization with gold, and grow the settlements I did own, I once again attacked Ashoka. This time, we were much more evenly matched, but his forces were spread too thin. I took some of his southern settlements, enough to trigger an Age transition.
The Antiquity Age was about to become the Exploration Age.
As the Exploration Age began, I had to evolve my civilization. I ultimately chose to turn Persia into Mongolia as Mongolia offered benefits when it came to fighting on my home continent. I saw units and buildings transform to mark the start of a new age, but my goal was still the same: take over the continent. I waged war with Ashoka again, and his losses continued. Before long, he had been wiped out.
The obvious thing to do now was to send units to the newly discovered continent across the ocean and establish settlements there. However, my legacy path still required me to take over several settlements, and there were still many under the control of Tecumseh. I took my time to bulk up my army and presence on my home continent as Tecumseh explored the new world and eventually had his borders surrounded and was militarily weakened through espionage.
I then declared war on who, until then, was a clear ally to me, beginning a long series of wars that would drag out until turn 100. By then, I had limited Tecumseh to just one small capital city surrounded by my territory on the continent. Otherwise, it was all mine. As turn 100 rolled around, I finally decided to let my wars against Tecumseh subside and start to explore the new world.
Civilization is at its best when it gives players the sandbox to create their own world histories like this; Civilization VII is already hitting all of the notes in that regard. I am a little concerned by how powerful I felt going a military-focused route, so I will need to play a more culture-focused game to see if that’s a viable path to victory. Regardless of how that shakes out, I will remember my first 100 turns with Civilization VII and how I had to betray Tecumseh to take control of my continent for a long time to come.
Sid Meier’s Civilization VII launches for PC, PlayStation 4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on February 11.
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