Civilization V: How to Win a Match and Beat the Game

Different Ways to Win

Civilization V allows you full freedom of your very own civilization. Its advancement through the annals of human history will be entirely up to you and your own discretion; as such, you can decide how you want to win the game. It’s advised that, at the beginning of the game, you decide which way you’ll want to win so you can make preparations towards that, as it won’t be so quick and easy to get that victory. You’ll have a ton of things to keep in mind and work towards, and if you aren’t zeroing in on one kind of victory, you might find yourself wasting a lot of valuable time. Here are each type of victory conditions and how you can win the game with them. Some have been revamped thanks to Brave New World, so we’ll give you how to win in the base game as well as the revamping expansion for those victories.

Domination

A domination victory is all about taking over other civilizations. You’ll want your army strength as well as city defenses (for when they inevitably retaliate) up for this one, and you’ll need to choose policies with a very “military” outlook to them. Keep in mind rulers tha You won’t be the most beloved civilization, that’s for sure.

Base Game: You simply had to be the last civilization with your own, original capital city still under your control. You could just take over everyone’s capital cities and you’ll be set, or you can let someone else do the dirty work, then take their capital. Either way, all that matters is that you’re still in possession of your original capital city.

Brave New World: You don’t just have to have your own original capital city; you need to have that and every other civilization’s original capital city under your control.

Cultural

Cultural victories will see you harvesting a ton of culture and influence. You need to focus on the arts and crafts parts of the world: the world wonders, the artists, the musicians, the writers. Really build your cities up with the goal of having as many snobby cultured citizens as possible.

Base Game: In order to win by a cultural victory, you need to completely fill five trees out of the social policies, which will in turn unlock the Utopia Project, and then you just need to complete it.

Brave New World: Brave New World throws the cultural victory on its head. You now need to focus on tourism and making sure your civilization has the most influence in terms of tourism. This means focusing more on Great Works from your artists, musicians, and writers rather than necessarily focusing on culture. You’re going to want to always make a Great Work when a new artist is porn, and you’ll want to place it in an open slot in one of your cities as soon as you can. This is opened up with cultural buildings like museums, amphitheaters, and opera houses.

Science

A science victory will obviously require your civilization to put a focus on science. Develop your tech tree and take a look at the future; you’ll need to plan which routes to take to reach every single piece of the spaceship you’ll have to build as well as Rocketry which opens up the Apollo Program. In fact, it’s probably preferable for you to just focus entirely on the fastest tree to get to all the pieces. Scientists are your friends, use them up to quickly research through the tree whenever they’re born in your civilization.

You need to build the Apollo Program special project, and then you’ll need to build a spaceship which requires the following:

• SS Booster (Advanced Ballistics research needed)
• SS Booster (Advanced Ballistics research needed)
• SS Booster (Advanced Ballistics research needed)
• SS Cockpit (Satellites research needed)
• SS Engine (Particle Physics research needed)
• SS Stasis Chamber (Nanotechnology research needed)

While all parts need to meet up at the capital city, you should consider having multiple cities building the parts independently to get it all done faster. Be the first one to complete the spaceship and you’ll have won the game.

Diplomatic

The diplomatic victory is all about making everyone love you. You’ll need alliances, and city-state love, and you’ll want to prove you’re a great, shining beacon in a world with many civilizations all over. This victory requires you to win the majority of votes from the United Nations.

Base Game: You need to build the United Nations wonder in your civilization in order to have two votes instead of just one. Once it is built, everyone gets a chance to vote for the World Leader and once a decision is made, that civilization wins by a diplomatic victory.

Brave New World: The United Nations now organically forms once a civilization has entered the Information Era. Every 20 turns from them, every civilization will vote for a World Leader. Whoever wins by majority of the votes, wins the game by a diplomatic victory.

Time

The time victory is the default way to win once the maximum amount of turns for the game is reached. The civilization with the highest amount of points will walk away the champion with a time victory. The points are largely decided by a combination of the following:

• Gold
• Resources
• Number of Cities
• Total Population
• Tiles Owned
• Technologies
• Social Policies
• Wonders
• Military Units

This victory is perfect if you’re just looking to score some victory-based achievements, pro tip.