Civilization 4

Civilization 4 (Sid Meier's Civilization IV) is Firaxis Games' turn-based strategy game, published by 2K Games for Windows on Oct 25, 2005, in which you lead a civilization from 4000 BC to the space age. Its expansions Warlords (2006) and Beyond the Sword (2007) and the standalone Colonization (2008) are sold together as the Complete Edition, $29.99 on Steam.

12:15 Civilization 4 (Sid Meier's Civilization IV) is Firaxis Games' turn-based strategy game, published by 2K Games for Windows on Oct 25, 2005, in which you lead a civilization from 4000 BC to the space age; its expansions Warlords (2006) and Beyond the Sword (2007) and the standalone Colonization (2008) are sold together as the Complete Edition. You found cities, research technologies, adopt religions and civics, raise wonders and armies, and win by conquest, culture, diplomacy, the space race or score. Lead designer Soren Johnson rebuilt the series from a new codebase, Leonard Nimoy reads the quotes, and its theme, Christopher Tin's "Baba Yetu", became the first piece of music written for a video game to win a Grammy. It is still played two decades on: Beyond the Sword had 1,695 players on Steam at 17:45 UTC on Oct 21, 2026. The clip is an early Beyond the Sword game on an island map: picking the next research, purple cultural borders along the coast, and a city finishing Stonehenge.

Painted collage of world landmarks from many ages. In the foreground a sphinx, terraced gardens, a domed temple with columns and the Colosseum line a paved road; behind them stand a stepped pyramid, the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle, the Statue of Liberty, a skyline of towers, a hot-air balloon and a rocket climbing on a trail of smoke. — Official key art: a sphinx and the Hanging Gardens at left and the Colosseum and a Greek temple at right frame a stone road leading past pyramids, towers, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and skyscrapers toward a rocket lifting off. Firaxis Games and 2K

Quick facts

Buy	Steam (Complete Edition), GOG
Price	Complete Edition $29.99 on Steam (Oct 21, 2026)
Developer	Firaxis Games
Publisher	2K Games (Take-Two Interactive)
Lead designer	Soren Johnson (also lead programmer)
Released	Oct 25, 2005 in North America, Nov 4, 2005 in Europe
Platforms	Windows; Mac by Aspyr from 2006
Expansions	Warlords (Jul 24, 2006), Beyond the Sword (Jul 23, 2007); standalone Colonization (Sep 23, 2008)
Civilizations	18 with 26 leaders in the base game; 34 with 52 leaders with both expansions
Engine	Gamebryo
Narrator	Leonard Nimoy
Theme	"Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin, Grammy winner on Feb 13, 2011
Metacritic	94
Sales	Over 1 million by Mar 16, 2006; 3 million by Mar 2008
Steam players	1,695 in Beyond the Sword, 696 in the base game at 17:45 UTC, Oct 21, 2026
Steam reviews	Beyond the Sword "Overwhelmingly Positive", 96% of 2,898 English reviews (Oct 21, 2026)

What Civilization 4 is

Civilization 4 is the fourth main game in Sid Meier's Civilization series and the first in full 3D, which the launch announcement called a first for the series. You play one civilization against computer or human rivals on a map of square tiles, from a single Settler in 4000 BC until someone wins or time runs out, usually in 2050 AD. Each turn you move units, choose what each city builds and pick the next technology. Early turns cover up to 40 years each and late ones five years or fewer, per the base game's manual. New players start with the Tutorial, which Sid Meier narrates (GameSpot), and the Beginner's Guide.

A game grows from a few cities to an empire. Cities work the tiles around them for food, production and commerce; Workers build farms, mines, cottages and roads; commerce is split between research and gold. Borders spread with each city's culture, and a tech tree of over 80 advances, with "or" prerequisites so each game can take a different path, leads from the Wheel to Fusion. The Civilopedia (F12) holds every rule.

Soren Johnson's team began from a new codebase and treated every part of the older games as "up for grabs", he wrote in his afterword in the manual. Corruption and waste were never coded: a city instead costs maintenance that rises with distance and the number of cities, so an empire of many weak cities loses money. Pollution was replaced by a health system tied to food resources, and riots by citizens who simply refuse to work. Production and research overflow into the next item, so nothing is wasted.

Combat merged attack and defense into one strength value with situational bonuses (archers on hills, spearmen against mounted units), and units earn promotions like characters in a role-playing game. Johnson's afterword names the "Stack-of-Doom" problem that comes with unlimited stacking and gives the answer: catapults, cannons and artillery deal collateral damage to a whole stack. See Units for every unit's strength and cost.

Civilizations and leaders

The base game has 18 civilizations and 26 leaders, each civilization with its own unique unit and each leader with two traits such as Aggressive, Financial or Spiritual. Warlords added six civilizations and 10 leaders, three traits and a unique building for every civilization; Beyond the Sword added 10 civilizations and 16 leaders. With both expansions that makes 34 civilizations and 52 leaders. Gandhi, Elizabeth, Napoleon and Montezuma are in the base game; Ragnar of the Vikings and Shaka of the Zulu came with Warlords; Hammurabi, Abraham Lincoln and Sitting Bull with Beyond the Sword. The full lists are on Civilizations and Leaders.

What Civilization 4 added to the series

Religion is the best-known addition. 2K's page says Civ 4 "was the first entry to feature Religions that can spread across the map", and testing settled on seven: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Taoism. The first civilization to research each founding technology founds its Holy City, Missionaries spread it, and a shared or rival State Religion pulls AI leaders toward friendship or war. See Religions.

Civics replaced the old single choice of government. The civics screen shows 25 options in five categories (government, legal, labor, economy and religion), so an empire can run Hereditary Rule with Slavery and Organized Religion, then switch piece by piece. Johnson credits Alpha Centauri as the inspiration in his afterword. See Civics.

Great People are the third pillar, and 2K's page says Civ 4 introduced them. Specialists and wonders earn Great Person points; the base game has five kinds (Artist, Merchant, Prophet, Engineer and Scientist), and the expansions added the Great General and the Great Spy. Each can found a religion's shrine, rush a wonder, start a Golden Age, discover a technology or settle as a super specialist. See Great People and Wonders.

The expansions and Colonization

Warlords (Jul 24, 2006) added six civilizations, Great Generals, vassal states, unique buildings, the Charismatic, Imperialistic and Protective traits, three wonders and a set of scenarios. Beyond the Sword (Jul 23, 2007, $29.99) added corporations, espionage, random events, the Apostolic Palace, colonies, Advanced Start, a new space race and 11 scenarios, and it includes everything Warlords added, per its manual. Its final patch, 3.19, reached Steam on Jun 11, 2009, and it is the version most players run today and the one most mods need.

Colonization (Sep 23, 2008) is a separate game, not an expansion: a remake of Sid Meier's 1994 Colonization built on the Civ 4 engine, in which England, France, Spain or the Netherlands settle the New World and win by declaring independence. Every release in order is on Release History.

How you win

The base game's manual lists six victories: Conquest (eliminate every rival), Domination (two-thirds of the land and 25% more population than anyone else), Cultural (three cities at Legendary culture), Space Race (reach Alpha Centauri), Diplomatic (win the United Nations vote) and Time (the highest score when the last turn ends). Any of them can be switched off at setup, and the Victory screen (F8) shows how close each player is. See Victory Conditions.

Difficulty runs from Settler, which gives tips, through Noble, where the AI plays by the player's rules, up to Deity, per the base game's manual; above Noble the AI gets discounts and free units. See Difficulty Levels.

Modding

Civ 4 was built to be changed. Barry Caudill, the game's senior producer, wrote in 2K's developer blog before launch: "Our goal is to make this the most moddable version of Civ ever". Rules and text live in XML, the interface and events in Python, maps and scenarios in the World Builder, and in 2006 Firaxis released the game core's source code as an SDK. Johnson later wrote that the team "viewed the product not as a single game but as a generic turn-based strategy engine" (Designer Notes).

The big mods are still worked on. Fall from Heaven 2 turned the game into dark fantasy, Rhye's and Fall of Civilization makes civilizations rise and fall on an Earth map, and Caveman2Cosmos stretches the tech tree to 734 or more technologies. Beyond the Sword shipped two fan mods, Fall from Heaven: Age of Ice and Rhye's and Fall of Civilization, in the box (manual). See Mods.

Multiplayer today

Civ 4 shipped with LAN, Internet, Hot Seat and Play by E-mail games, and Johnson told PC Gamer it was built "initially, as a multiplayer game". Pitboss, a server that keeps a game running while players log in and out over days, came later with patches and Warlords. When GameSpy closed, 2K moved online play to Steamworks on Jun 5, 2014; the update "functions identically" except that Direct IP was removed. 2K then put the original build on Steam as an unsupported beta branch for players who want Direct IP (2K Support). Steam's page says the Mac version's online multiplayer is no longer supported. See Multiplayer and Running Civilization 4 Today.

Reception

Critics rated Civ 4 among the best games of its year. It holds a Metascore of 94 from 50 reviews; GameSpot gave it 9.4 and IGN 9.4, whose review opens: "the only reason to stop playing Civilization IV is to tell other people just how good the game is". It was GameSpot's Best PC Game of 2005, took Game of the Year awards from IGN and GameSpy, and was named Best Strategy Game at the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences' Ninth Interactive Achievement Awards, per 2K.

It sold well and kept its fans. 2K counted over a million sold by Mar 16, 2006, and Take-Two 3 million by Mar 2008; no later figure for Civ 4 alone has been published. In 2014 GameSpot called it "a masterpiece" that refined the earlier games "to near perfection" (GameSpot), and in a 2015 PC Gamer reader survey it came second with 21.6% of votes, behind Civ 5. See Reception and Awards.

Development and Baba Yetu

Firaxis Games made Civ 4 under Soren Johnson, its lead designer and programmer, with Barry Caudill as senior producer and Sid Meier as Director of Creative Development (2K). Take-Two bought rights to the series and signed Firaxis to a publishing deal on Jan 26, 2005, then bought Firaxis itself on Nov 7, 2005, after launch. The 3D world runs on Emergent's Gamebryo engine, and Leonard Nimoy narrates the opening and reads a quotation for each new technology (GameSpot). See Development History and Soren Johnson.

"Baba Yetu", the main menu theme, is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili set by Christopher Tin, whom Johnson knew from university: they "were roommates at Oxford my junior year", Johnson wrote. On Feb 13, 2011 it won the Grammy for Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist(s), the first piece of music written for a video game to win a Grammy. See Baba Yetu.

Compared with later Civilization games

Civ 4 is the last main game of squares and stacks. Civilization 5 (Sep 21, 2010) moved to hexagons and one military unit per tile, and PC Gamer wrote in 2018 that "Many Civ 4 die-hards criticized changes like only allowing one military unit per tile, and the lack of features like religion in the initial release of Civ 5." Civ 5's own lead designer, Jon Shafer, a lead designer of Beyond the Sword, later told PC Gamer that "A stack model is probably better". Civilization 6 (Oct 21, 2016) let some units share a tile, and PC Gamer's review of Civilization 7 (Feb 3, 2025) missed Civ 4's espionage ("Civ 4, how I miss thee"). See Civilization 4 vs 5, 6 and 7.

Where to buy it today

The Complete Edition, with Civ 4, Warlords, Beyond the Sword and Colonization, is $29.99 on Steam as package 4323 (the four bought one by one cost $54.96) and is sold DRM-free on GOG for Windows. On their own on Steam, the base game is $19.99, Warlords $4.99, Beyond the Sword $9.99 and Colonization $19.99 (prices of Oct 21, 2026). Steam's anniversary sale of Sep 3 to 17, 2026 took 80% off the Complete Edition. See Complete Edition and Where to Buy.

Frequently asked questions

Is Civilization 4 still worth playing? Critics who revisit it still praise Civilization 4: Kotaku's Zack Zwiezen called it "the pinnacle of the series" in Sep 2025, while PC Gamer in Feb 2026 called Civ 3 and Civ 4 "a little creaky these days" while noting Civ 4 "still has its adherents". Beyond the Sword is rated "Overwhelmingly Positive" by 96% of 2,898 English Steam reviewers.

Which version of Civ 4 should I buy? The Complete Edition ($29.99 on Steam, or DRM-free on GOG) has the base game, Warlords, Beyond the Sword and Colonization. Beyond the Sword needs the base game but not Warlords, and most Civ 4 mods are made for Beyond the Sword 3.19.

Does Beyond the Sword include Warlords? Yes for the game rules: Civilization 4's Beyond the Sword includes Warlords' traits, Great Generals, unique buildings and the other Warlords additions without Warlords installed, per its manual. Warlords' own scenarios come only with Warlords.

Can you play Civ 4 online? Yes: since Jun 5, 2014 Civilization 4's online games on Windows run through Steamworks instead of the closed GameSpy, without the old Direct IP option. LAN, Hot Seat and Play by E-mail still work, and the Mac version's online play is no longer supported.

Does Civ 4 run on Windows 11? Neither 2K nor Steam has published a Windows 11 statement for Civilization 4; Steam still lists the original Windows 2000/XP requirements. Kotaku wrote in Sep 2025 that the Complete Edition "will run easily on any modern PC".

How many civilizations are in Civ 4? Civilization 4 has 18 civilizations in the base game, 24 with Warlords and 34 with Beyond the Sword, led by 52 leaders in all.

Who sings Baba Yetu in Civilization 4? Christopher Tin wrote Civilization 4's theme "Baba Yetu", and it "was first performed by the Stanford Talisman a cappella group", per GameSpot. It is also on Tin's 2009 album Calling All Dawns, and it won a Grammy on Feb 13, 2011.