Game Setup

A Civilization 4 game is set up by choosing a map type, a map size (Duel to Huge), a climate, a sea level, a difficulty, a game speed (Quick, Normal or Epic in the base game, with Marathon added later) and a civilization; the Custom Game screen adds rivals, teams, the starting era, victory types and options such as Beyond the Sword's Advanced Start.

A Civilization 4 game is set up in a few choices made before turn one: a map type, a map size, a climate, a sea level, a difficulty, a game speed and a civilization and leader, in that order on the Play Now path that the Civilization IV manual (pp. 12-15) walks through. The Custom Game screen sets the same things plus the number and identity of rivals, locked teams, the starting era, which victories are allowed and a list of rule options. Beyond the Sword added Advanced Start, which lets you buy a starting empire. Every world is generated fresh, so even the same settings give a different map each game. This page covers each choice, the World Builder for making your own maps, and the keys that open the advisors and save the game.

3D map of an island at left and a mainland at right separated by a strait, a purple border line running down the water, galleys, and city labels reading Aleria, Archer; Pisae, Archer; and Rome, Archer. — Gameplay from the Warlords Steam page: two coasts divided by a purple and yellow border at sea, with the cities of Aleria, Pisae and Rome and ships between them. Firaxis Games and 2K

Quick facts

Setup order (Play Now)	Map, size, climate, sea level, difficulty, game speed, civilization and leader
Map types (manual)	Terran, Continental, Archipelago, Pangaea, Ice Age, Oasis, Lake, New World
Map sizes	Duel to Huge: Duel holds up to 3 civilizations, Standard 8, Huge 12
Climates	Temperate, Tropical, Arid, Rocky, Cold
Sea levels	Low, Average, High
Game speeds (base manual)	Quick, Normal, Epic; Marathon by Beyond the Sword
Custom Game extras	Rivals, teams, starting era, victory types, rule options
Advanced Start	Beyond the Sword; buy cities, units and techs with starting gold
World Builder	Ctrl+W in game
Autosave	Every four turns; Quick Save Shift+F5

Source: Civilization IV manual, pp. 12-19 and 169-171; Beyond the Sword manual, pp. 19 and 50-51; IGN, Jul 26, 2007.

Single Player offers three ways in: Play Now (the step-by-step setup below), Custom Game (one screen with every setting) and Scenario, per the Civilization IV manual (pp. 10-11). The main menu also holds the Tutorial, Multiplayer, the Hall of Fame and the Advanced menu, where Load a Mod, Options, Movies and Check for Updates live. Beyond the Sword added "Beyond the Sword Content" to the Single Player menu for its scenarios, per the Beyond the Sword manual; those games are on Scenarios, and add-ons loaded through Load a Mod are on Mods.

Map types

The map type, a "template" or map script, decides the shape of the land. The Civilization IV manual (pp. 12-13) describes eight world types:

Map type	What it makes
Terran	A world laid out much like Earth
Continental	Several landmasses separated by oceans
Archipelago	Many small pieces of land isolated by ocean
Pangaea	One giant landmass
Ice Age	Rough terrain that tests how well each civilization uses its resources
Oasis	A vast desert dotted with oases and surrounded by jungle
Lake	One large landmass with many lakes
New World	Most civilizations start on one landmass, with an uncharted continent to the east or west

Source: Civilization IV manual, pp. 12-13.

The list grew after release. Patch 1.61 added the Fantasy Realm, Fractal and Shuffle scripts and fixed maps of Africa, Europe, East Asia, the Eastern U.S. and South America, and it made the Continents script produce large continents, per Firaxis's patch notes. Soren Johnson's afterword in the manual (p. 187) credits tester Bob Thomas ("Sirian") with redesigning the map script system and making the Great Plains and Oasis scripts.

Map size and number of rivals

Map sizes run from Duel to Huge, and size caps how many civilizations a game can hold: a Duel map holds up to three, a Standard map eight and a Huge map "a whopping twelve", per the Civilization IV manual (p. 13). Larger worlds mean bigger empires, more units and longer turns, so the manual recommends Standard or smaller "for your first few games". On the Custom Game screen you can play against fewer AIs by closing slots (p. 170).

Climate and sea level

Climate sets the mix of terrain, and the Civilization IV manual (pp. 13-14) offers five. Temperate resembles Earth and is "a good climate to start with"; Tropical has more jungle and less tundra; Arid has few rivers and lakes and more desert; Rocky is full of hills and mountains, rich in metals but poor for crops; Cold has more ice and tundra. Sea level comes in three settings: Low gives larger continents and smaller oceans, Average an Earth-like ratio, High larger oceans and smaller landmasses. What each terrain yields is on Terrain and Improvements.

Difficulty

Difficulty runs from Settler to Deity, with Noble the default and the level where the AI has no advantages, per the Civilization IV manual (pp. 14 and 166-167). It cannot be changed after the game starts. Every level and what it changes is on Difficulty Levels.

Game speed

Game speed sets how many turns it takes to build, research and improve, not how long you have for a turn: in single player "you always have as much time as you want", per the Civilization IV manual (pp. 14-15). The base manual lists three speeds: Epic (more turns), Normal (recommended "for your first several games") and Quick (fewer turns). Speed also changes thresholds elsewhere: Great People need different points at Quick and Epic (p. 91), and the 50,000 culture of a Legendary city is the Normal-speed figure (p. 106). Early turns cover up to 40 years and late ones five years or fewer (p. 27).

A fourth, slower speed, Marathon, existed by Beyond the Sword: IGN's review of Jul 26, 2007 found "The espionage system is far too effective on Marathon speed". None of the four manuals mentions Marathon, so when it was added and how many turns each speed lasts are not given here. GameSpot's 2005 review said speeds were added "in response to fan requests", and IGN's 2005 review found a small world at an accelerated speed could be finished "in less than three hours". Patch 1.61 made timelines "more uniform across game speeds", by Firaxis's patch notes.

Civilization and leader

The last Play Now step picks a civilization and, where it has more than one, a leader, or "Random". The base game offered "eighteen civilizations and 26 leaders", per the Civilization IV manual (p. 15); Warlords added six civilizations and 10 leaders and Beyond the Sword ten civilizations and sixteen leaders, for 34 civilizations and 52 leaders in all. Each leader has two traits, described on Leader Traits; the full lists are on Civilizations and Leaders.

The Custom Game screen

The Custom Game screen sets everything on one page, and the Civilization IV manual (pp. 169-171) describes its parts:

Players: each slot is Open (for another human), AI or Closed, and you can choose which leaders appear or leave them random.
Teams: give civilizations the same team number to lock them into a permanent alliance; teammates share sight, wonder effects, research, and victory or defeat, and can never declare war on each other.
Difficulty: set per human player.
Settings: map, map size, climate, game era and game speed. A later starting era gives every civilization more advanced technology from turn one.
Options: rules such as "Always War", where every civilization is permanently at war, with no Open Borders, tech trading or peace treaties.
Victory conditions: untick any you do not want; see Victory Conditions.

Later versions added options. Patch 1.61 added a "Require Complete Kills" game option, per Firaxis's patch notes. Beyond the Sword added "No Random Events" for its new events, per its manual (p. 18), and its final patch 3.19 made the No Espionage option also remove espionage events and the free Great Spy from Communism, per Steam's 3.19 notes of Jun 11, 2009.

Advanced Start (Beyond the Sword)

Advanced Start begins a game with a civilization "a bit further along than usual": part of the map is visible and you get gold to spend on cities, population, culture, buildings, units, improvements, technologies and visibility, per the Beyond the Sword manual (p. 19). The starting gold depends on difficulty and can be changed on the Custom Game menu. Nobody can attack anyone for the first ten turns, and maintenance must be paid on everything bought. Tick the Advanced Start checkbox under "Game Options" on the Custom Game screen; it is also on the multiplayer setup screen. GameSpot's Beyond the Sword review said it starts you about 10 turns in, and Steam's Beyond the Sword page calls it "A major fan request".

The World Builder

The World Builder edits the map in place: terrain, rivers, resources, improvements, units and cities, city sizes, starting locations and starting technologies, and the result can be saved "as a simple scenario you can share with your friends", per the Civilization IV manual (p. 174). It opens at any time during a game with Ctrl+W, per the Beyond the Sword manual (p. 51). It is one of four modding levels the manual names, with XML, Python and the SDK (see Mods).

Hotkeys: advisors and saves

The function keys open the advisor screens. The Beyond the Sword manual (pp. 50-51) lists them:

Key	Screen	Key	Screen
F1	Domestic advisor	F7	Religion advisor
F2	Financial advisor	F8	Victory
F3	Civics advisor	F9	Demographics
F4	Foreign advisor	F10	Capital city
F5	Military advisor	F11	Globe View
F6	Technology advisor	F12	Civilopedia

Source: Beyond the Sword manual, pp. 50-51.

Other useful keys from the same list: Ctrl+S saves, Ctrl+L loads, Ctrl+O opens the Options screen, Ctrl+W the World Builder, Alt+Q retires (gives up), Enter advances to the next turn, and Ctrl+T, Ctrl+Y and Ctrl+R toggle the grid, tile yields and resource markers. Beyond the Sword's Log screen, with active event quests, is Ctrl+Tab (p. 18).

The game autosaves every four turns into an "auto" folder, and Shift+F5 makes a Quick Save that the next Quick Save overwrites, per the Civilization IV manual (pp. 17-19). The Options screen has four sections, Game, Graphics, Audio and Clock, and the Clock section can set an alarm to tell you "when you should stop playing and go to work" (p. 168).

Frequently asked questions

What game speeds does Civ 4 have? The base Civilization 4 manual lists Quick, Normal and Epic, and IGN's 2007 review of Beyond the Sword also played on the slower Marathon speed (manual, pp. 14-15; IGN). Speed changes how many turns things take, not how long you have for a turn.

What map size should I pick in Civ 4? Civilization 4's manual recommends Standard or smaller for your first few games; a Standard map holds up to 8 civilizations and a Huge one 12 (p. 13).

How do I open the World Builder in Civ 4? Press Ctrl+W during a Civilization 4 game to open the World Builder, per the Beyond the Sword manual (p. 51).

What is Advanced Start in Civ 4? Advanced Start is a Beyond the Sword option for Civilization 4 that gives you gold to buy cities, units, buildings and techs before play begins, with no attacks for ten turns; tick it under Game Options on the Custom Game screen (manual, p. 19).

Can you start Civ 4 in a later era? Yes: Civilization 4's Custom Game screen has a Game Era setting, and a later era gives every civilization more advanced technology from the start (manual, p. 171).

How often does Civ 4 autosave? Civilization 4 autosaves every four turns, and Shift+F5 makes a quick save (manual, p. 19).