Continents: two large landmasses with civilizations spread across both, so reaching some rivals takes ships or embarking (Shipbuilding). Pangaea: one large continent, everyone reachable on foot. Islands: many small islands, a naval game. The map grows with the number of players; rivals are picked at random.
Move the map: drag with the left mouse button, or use W A S D / arrow keys. Scroll to zoom. Click the minimap to jump.
On an iPad or iPhone: tap a unit to select it, then tap where it should go (or the enemy to attack). Drag one finger to move the map and pinch with two to zoom. Tap a tile to see its details; tap underlined words to read about them.
Units: left click a unit to select it. Right click a tile to move there; the white line shows the route and the turn each leg ends.
Found a city: select the Settler and press B or the Found City button. Cities must be at least 4 tiles apart.
Cities: click a city's banner tile to open it. Choose what it builds. Districts are placed on a tile you pick: the numbers show the adjacency bonus each spot would earn. Press + on a unit, building or project to queue it after the current item (up to 5); a district project repeats by itself until you choose something else.
Combat: with a military unit selected, enemies you can attack glow red. Hover one to see the odds, right click to attack. Ranged units shoot without being hit back. A city falls when its health reaches zero and a melee unit attacks it. Ancient Walls let a city shoot (open the city, press Ranged Strike).
War and peace: the Diplomacy button. Attacking someone you are at peace with asks you to declare war first. Peace is possible after 10 turns of war. Barbarian outposts send raiders; clear one with a military unit for 50 gold.
Religion: faith builds up from Holy Sites and Shrines. At 25 faith pick a pantheon (Religion button). Holy Sites earn a Great Prophet: move it onto your Holy Site and press Found religion. Buy Missionaries with faith in a city with a Holy Site and walk them to cities to convert them. If your religion leads in every rival civilization, you win.
Builders: move one onto a tile your city owns and pick an improvement. Each Builder has 3 charges.
Roads: Builders do not make roads. A Trader lays one along its route when the route starts, and a Military Engineer (needs an Armory) lays one tile per charge.
Turn: the big button bottom right tells you what still needs a decision. Press Enter to act on it. Space skips a unit, F fortifies, Y shows tile yields, G toggles the grid, E opens the Encyclopedia.
Saves go to this browser's storage. An autosave is made at the start of every turn.
Moving a game between devices: Menu, Download save file (on an iPad or iPhone this opens the share sheet, so AirDrop or Files works). On the other device: Menu, Open save file.
The short version: expand early, give every city a job, keep districts next to each other on their best spots, and pick the victory you are going for by the middle of the game. Click a heading to open it.
A city can hold 1 district, plus 1 more for every 3 citizens (size 4: 2 districts, size 7: 3, size 10: 4). You cannot build everything everywhere, so let the land decide what each city is for:
When you place a district, the numbers on the map show exactly what each spot earns. Take the highest.
Typical roles:
What every city needs, whatever its job: food and housing to grow (Granary, Water Mill, Aqueduct, later Sewer and Neighborhoods), enough amenities (luxuries, or an Entertainment Complex and Arena), and at least one defender.
Each district earns 1 point a turn toward its kind of Great Person, plus 1 more for each matching building in it: a Campus with a Library and a University earns 3 a turn toward a Great Scientist. The same district in several cities adds up, so spreading Campuses (or Theater Squares, or Commercial Hubs) is the way to win the race for that kind of Great Person.
Run a district project. Every specialty district has one (Campus Research Grants, Commercial Hub Investment, Theater Square Festival and so on), listed under District projects in the city screen. While it runs, 15% of the city's production comes in as that district's yield, and each time it finishes you get Great Person points of that district's kind. It then starts again by itself, so the city keeps working without asking. It is the right choice for a city that has nothing better to build; when it does, consider one of these first:
Gold from your money cities buys units and buildings in the cities that need them, and upgrades old units.
How you win: complete the space race. With Rocketry, build a Spaceport (flat land). Then launch the Earth Satellite, the Moon Landing (Satellites), the Mars Colony (Nanotechnology) and the Exoplanet Expedition (Smart Materials). The expedition travels 50 light years; you win when it arrives. Terrestrial Laser Stations (Offworld Mission) each add 1 light year a turn.
How to play for it: a Campus in every city that has room, then Libraries, Universities and Research Labs. Keep a couple of high-production cities free for the projects. The Space Elevator wonder gives +50% production toward projects in every city.
How you win: for every other civilization, more of its people must visit you than it has tourists at home. Each civilization has 1 domestic tourist per 100 culture it has ever earned; your tourism toward it draws visitors.
Where tourism comes from: Great Works (writing 2, art 3, music 4 a turn), each wonder 3 a turn; after Flight, half of each city's culture; Computers adds 25%; a trade route to a civilization raises your tourism toward it by 25%.
How to play for it: wonders, Theater Squares beside them, Great Writers, Artists and Musicians, and trade routes to whichever civilization is holding out. The Victories and Diplomacy screens show where you stand against each one.
How you win: your religion must be the main one in every rival civilization.
How to play for it: build a Holy Site early and pick a pantheon as soon as you have the faith (25 at Standard speed). The Holy Site earns a Great Prophet: move it onto the Holy Site and found your religion. Only a few religions can exist, so do not wait. Then buy Missionaries with faith and convert cities, starting with the large ones near you. Pressure fades over time, so keep spreading.
How you win: be the last civilization standing. A civilization that loses all its cities is out.
How to play for it: build up before you declare: an Encampment, promoted troops, and siege units (Battering Rams and Catapults break walls). Capture cities with melee units. Take cities one at a time and make peace when a war stalls, to rest and heal. Warn: if you lose all your own cities, the game ends.
How you win: hold 4 cities on Mars with at least 24 people between them (our design).
How to play for it: the Mars Colony project opens Mars and surveys a landing site. Interplanetary Transport lets a city with a Spaceport build Colony Ships; each lands Colonists and a Builder near water ice. Areology reveals the ice (mine it for food) and lava tubes (habitats for housing); Closed Ecosystems brings the Greenhouse Dome. Water ice next to a city gives it fresh-water housing. With the science victory switched on, a science win usually comes first, so either race for Mars early or switch the science victory off in New Game.
How you win: if nobody has won by the last turn (750 at Standard speed, 503 at Quick), the highest score wins.
Points come from: cities, citizens, technologies, civics, wonders, Great People, districts, a founded religion and the cities that follow it, city-states you lead, and space projects. A wide, developed empire scores best.
Decide by about the middle of the game, then steer each city's next district and build toward it. Keep an eye on the Victories button at the top: one table shows how close every civilization is to every victory, so you can see a rival coming in time to stop them.