• CTP is turn based. Other strategy games are "real-time" where you and your opponents all play at the same time. Civilization (and all other turn based games) are structured much like a traditional Role-Playing Game, where each player takes a turn to move units, produce new units, improve tiles (terraforming, farms, etc,) etc. Each turn progresses you further in time.

• The map is made up of tiles.
  • Each tile has a terrain type: Jungle, Forest, Ocean, Desert, etc. Each terrain type has a different defense bonus, and different amounts of essential resources and movement points.

  • There are three essential resources in Civilzation: Call to Power.
    1. Gold, which allows you to fund science, and maintain units and buildings.
    2. Production, which allows you to produce new units and to improve tiles.
    3. Food, which feeds and helps to increase your civilization's population.

  • Each unit has a certain distance (number of movement points) that it can move (use) per turn to move across the world map. Each of the terrain types used on the map cost a different amount of points to move across that tile. For instance, a grassland is easy to cross, so it only costs 1 movement point. Mountains, however, are hard to cross, and so they cost 4 movement points.

  • Typically the defense bonus for a terrain type is related to the movement point cost for the terrain type. Grasslands are easy to cross, but hard to defend (it's so flat -- no defense bonus). Mountains are hard to cross, but they are easier to defend (defense bonus of 100%.) You may also generate defense bonuses by fortifing your units.

• As the game progresses through time, you will continually learn new technological and scientific advances. These advances will slowly push your civilization through 5 distinct ages. Each age, wonder, and technological advance will give new benefits to your civilization, but they may also obsolete older wonders, units, and advances. (Obsolete items do not disappear; you just can no longer produce any new items that were made obsolete. This is usually because a newer improved unit is available. The exception is for Wonders, where the obsoleted wonder no longer gives the benefits it gave you originally.) Below is a short description of each age and different advances and wonders you can build during that age:

  Ancient:

  You start out in the Ancient age, and typically you will already have some basic knowledge (Tool working, Agriculture). "Societies developed the critical writing, cultural, and philosophical ideas that form the foundation of all history."

  • Advances to learn: 22, including Iron working, Philosophy, Astronomy, and Trade.
  • Wonders: 9, including the Hagia Sophia (doubles both the fees from converted cities and the effectiveness of temples and cathedrals), Stonehenge (increases civilization's food production by 25%), and the Chichen Itza (eliminates crime in civilization.)

  Renaissance:

  "A renewed interest in art and culture spawned an upheaval of new ideas. Pre-industrial society was responsible for many mechanical and social inventions."

  • Advances to learn: 20, including Gun Powder, the Printing Press, Industrial Revolution, and Economics.
  • Wonders: 5, including the East India Company (increases boat movement and also gives you gold per foreign trade route which crosses water), Emancipation Act (frees slaves in all civilizations), and Gutenberg's Bible (increases science in civilization, eliminates conversion.)

  Modern:

  "In this time, information flowed faster than ever before, and this enable certain technologies to advance at an exponential rate. The era saw a momentous step forward into new realms outside of terra firma."

  • Advances to learn: 24, including Rocketry, Electricity, Computers, and Genetics.
  • Wonders: 7, including Contraception (increases happiness in civilization), Edison's Lab (grants free advances per age), GlobeSat (radar coverage of the world.)

  Genetic:

  "The macrocosm breached, Civilizations turned to explore the nearly intangible realm of the cellular and microscopic. Research during this time reflected the intermingling of social and technological interests."

  • Advances to learn: 19, including Sea and Space Colonies, Fusion, Cryonics, and Robotics.
  • Wonders: 6, including the Star Ladder (allows transport of units into space and creates a space city), Nanite Defuser (eliminates all nukes in the world), and National Shield (creates a forcefield over every city raising the defense bonus of the city.)

  Diamond:

  "The culmniation of man's efforts in the physical world, the Diamond Age symbolized the height of technology, a bright facet on man's role in the universe. Man broke the confines of the single, known habitable planet, born again into an intergalactic cosmos."

  • Advances to learn: 13, including Wormholes, Digital Encryption, Cloaking, and Ultra-Pressure Machinery.
  • Wonders: 8, including the ESP Center (generates higher regard from other civilizations, opens permanent embassies in all other civilizations, and prevents first strike from other civilizations), The Eden Project (destroys top 3 polluting cities), and the Immunity Chip (increases happiness and eliminates the possibility of infection attacks.)

• There are four ways to end the game:
  1. Losing -- another civilization wins (see below) before you do.
  2. Winning through Alien Discovery -- This requires a whole heck of a lot of science. There is a series of Diamond age units, advances, and wonders that need to be discovered/built to artificially create alien life.
  3. Winning through survival/high score -- if you can survive until 3000AD, and you have the highest civilization score ... you win!
  4. Winning through bloodlust -- decimate all other civilizations so you become the ruler of the whole world!

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