Civ 5 English Civilization

Civ Bonuses, AI Info, Strategies, Unique Units and Buildings

Updated for Gods and Kings and Brave New World DLCs

Civilization's Leader: Elizabeth

Civ Bonus: Sun Never Sets
All Naval Units get +2 extra movement. When Spies come in the Renaissance, England begins with two instead of the usual one.

Unique Unit: Longbowman
Requires Machinery, Replaces Crossbowman
The Longbowman gets +1 range over a regular Crossbowman, which is a huge bonus. This allows them to attack Cities without fear of retaliation and gives you more room for your melee close to the City being attacked.

Unique Unit: Ship of the Line
Requires Navigation, Replaces Frigate
The Ship of the Line is an upgraded version of the Frigate. They get +7 Ranged Strength (35), +5 Defense (30), and +1 Sight over the regular version.

Strategies/Ideas for playing England:
If you like naval warfare, Elizabeth is your woman. In fact, if you hate it you might not mind her either. It will let you get more 'mileage', or should I say knots, out of your fleet. The +2 movement is already incredible but their Ship of the Line unit will let them dominate the seas for quite a long time. On any map with loads of islands England is going to be very powerful. The Longbowman isn't bad either. The extra range gives him more opportunities for attack. Longbowman make good defenders, but overall England feels like a conquer and rule type of Civilization more than anything and given their two Unique Units' combat prowess and lack of unique buildings that set you in a direction, should be played as such.

Early-game, I would not bother to push for War unless it's necessary (you get blocked badly). I went Tradition to start and found it fine, but found Montezuma had expanded directly toward me. I loaded up on Archers and a pair of Swordsmen and set out to take two Cities with great positioning, blocking him to a tiny corner of the Continent. I then stabilized my four Cities and went after Ghandi to stop him from running away from me Scientifically, claiming some Wonders in the process. Focusing on Commerce (tapping Exploration for the Bonus), I was able to build a rich economy enabling me to stop smaller Civs from bothering to war with me. If you could play peacefully and expand normally, you'd find yourself in a better position at the same point in the game, but when I was able to begin to play peacefully, things bloomed for my England.

Longbowmen should be used for Conquest as soon as they're available. Plan for their arrival by having Barracks and good production set up. Find Iron so that you can have Swordsmen to stand at the city gates. I find the AI targets them frequently, though in some situations you can hold your melee back to defend the Longbowmen then bring them in when the City is nearly defeated. They keep the +1 Range Promotion when Upgraded, meaning they become Gatling Guns with 2 Range. Get the extra attack, and they'll be the most powerful unit available to you for a time.

If you know you'll go for more conquest, get the Ship of the Line out early, but note that you'll need plenty of Iron and a Melee ship to take Coastal Cities. Keep these alive and they'll later make excellent Battleships. Focus on either naval or land targets for your upgrades, so your Ship of the Line can evolve to have +3 range and attack Cities from a safe distance. You may also consider Supply, which lets them heal outside your territory. Regardless, these ships are meant to group together and bombard land and sea targets. You can win Cities through peace treaties simply by dominating another Civ's military. If you are having trouble with Happiness, choose Cities that feature Luxury Resources you don't have. Other good targets for your Ship of the Line are Cities with high populations in nice flat areas, which make great places to land your Longbowmen - who you should use past their time due to their powerful range.

On an Archipalego, I would definitely go after The Great Lighthouse. Adopting Exploration adds to this, giving your Naval units great mobility. I suggest trying to eventually take your Continent, using many Trading posts to ensure a Gold Per Turn high enough to support a big Navy with land units to back them up. The Longbowman will let you do this, while the Ship of the Line eventually allows you to crush Coastal Cities and Dominate if necessary, else use them to protect your Continent. The great speed of the fleet will allow them to converge on any attackers easily. From there, it's easy to pick an Ideology that suits the Victory you'd like to pursue. Dominate, go for Science, Diplomacy, or attempt to catch up in Tourism. Tourism really blooms mid-game, anyway, so you can beeline to your Longbowman to ensure you have free time to pursue those later Wonders that provide Tourism and Cultural boosts. Diplomatic Victories are certainly doable if you go for a powerful economy, as I did. Ultimately, Declarations of Friendship with Civilizations on other continents that had no idea of my conquest were willing to sign research agreements, which along with a booming population and high Science output, led to Victory.

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Rob says...

Being English myself, I have naturally gravitated towards playing Elizabeth more than a few times.

At first I found the design of the Civ's bonuses really confusing; extra spy, better naval speed, long range, powerful ships in Renaissance. Aside from the obvious age of naval prowess, what do these abilities have in common?

Reading you comment about "conquering" (which I PARTIALLY disagree with) made realise exactly England does in Civ. Rather than being focused on mass conquering of an entire nation or continent: England are instead focused on selectively and opportunistically capturing or controlling key points around the world. For their own benefit, or to deny others (think about the actual history of the British Empire's relations with Napoleonic France).

So here's how I'm going to play them/recommend playing them, I'll comeback with a report later:

Ancient/Classical: you have absolutely no advantage in this era. Stay small (3 cities max), run Tradition, focus on city growth, culture, religion and defence. Your time will come.

Medieval: The longbow men arrive. The tactical advantage of this unit is enormous. use it to secure your borders, tactically selecting just a few cities in good locations. You still have no bonuses to controlling a wide area so don't go on the rampage, instead think what you are really going to want in the future. You also want to explore a little.

Renaissance: Go Navy- you can explore the world, find the city state types you want an put your spies in them to help maintain control. If anyone is looking too big for their boots, put your foot in their plans by taking away their city states, key coastal towns and over seas colonies. You can maintain a war without actually capturing any cities to deny them sea trade routes, exploration and opportunity to expand. Because you're aiming for the big guys, you prevent run-aways (critical in King, Emperor, Immortal) any warmonger bonuses will be small- you can even look to eliminate them by liberating a few cities.

Industrial onwards: I sea 3 ways to go from this point: and they fit nicely with the 3 Ideologies

Liberal Britain aims for a cultural or diplomatic victory- you do this using spies and your navy to defend city states as above , hampering anyone's attempts to over take you.

Industrious Britain (Order) sticks down its own colonies all over the world in a late wave of expansion. I will probably aim for a scientific victory here.

England shall prevail! (autocracy) Here you make strategic strikes at enemy capitals and key towns- don't rush, instead wear them down slowly from the sea, allying with city states on their border. Spies are ofc used to steal techs.

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14th August 2014 8:05am

Rob says...

Further thoughts on policy/tenets

England Prevails/Autocracy: after completing Tradition, work on Commerce for reduced purchase cost (Mercantilism) before moving to Honour- beeline for Professional Army but do complete the tree. I don't feel completing commerce is necessary as we aren't aiming to have a huge puppet empire.

Once Autocracy is obtained the following will be your key policies, T1: Mobilisation, Industrial espionage,and Fortified borders, Universal Healthcare as needed.
T2: Total War and Nationalism to boost your military, Miltarism and Third Alternative as needed to boost happiness or provide additional resources as needed.
T3: Gunboat first to help you gain allies and maintain dominance, then Clausewitz's as required to finish your most persistent enemies.

Remember, you're not Monty, Boudica or Darius- you have no advantage in completely ruling the world(eg. bonus happiness buildings), our aim is to control it by eliminating threats. You may well eventually win a Diplomatic victory instead of a Domination. Targeting the big bads like Rome can often win you allies and trading partners, and minor warmonger penalties can be erased by liberating some of their conquered territories.

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14th August 2014 8:48am

Rob says...

Liberal Britain

Ironically we will not be picking Liberty of course for reasons as mentioned above. Instead, finish Tradition before cherry picking from Patronage, Aesthetics, Commerce and Rationalism. Obviously if you are focusing culture rather than diplomacy you will get more policies, allowing you to grab Philanthropy, Mercantilism(with Big Ben allows you to grab critical buildings as soon as they unlock, allowing you to focus food/science/wonders, and Secularism. All 4 are also taken for the wonders they unlock. Aesthetics is taken for its own sake if you are aiming for a cultural Victory rather than a diplomatic one (or both/either if you play like me)

Remember that control of the World Congress is absolutely crucial to a speedy Cultural victory, so ironically Patronage is probably more important if you are aiming for Culture victory than Diplomatic.

Don't be afraid to wage war if the goal is to liberate a city state, even if it's ground down to population 1 due to changing hands a number of times, its still worth just as many votes in the UN!

Once Freedom is unlocked, your key T1 tenets are: Avante Garde, Civil Society and Covert Action (make good use of the extra spy), with happiness tenets and Creative expression where you can.

T2: Universal Sufferage and the New Deal are the prime picks here. Volunteer Army and Their Finest Hour are great picks if you find your self under a lot of pressure from the land, they should not be necessary if you have been able to secure your borders with your navy and Medieval conquest.

T3: Treaty Organisation and Media Culture are both excellent Tenets for either goal as they free up massive amounts of gold and weaken your strongest enemies via cultural invasion.

The goal with Liberal Britain is to utilise your Navy and Colonies to simply out shine the rest of the world. Between your spies, navy taking out barbarians (they need a land unit with them) and trade routes you may need not spend a penny to win over city states.

For a Cultural victory you should consider the possibility of using you Navy to capture a key enemy coastal city, either to take their own culture away from the, or to add to your supply of wonders (don't forget to pass Cultural Heritage!)

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14th August 2014 9:29am

Rob says...

Lastly Industrial Britain. (Order)

Here the goal is to engage in a huge wave of expansion during industrial revolution and beyond. As always the Navy is used as a method of control, but with this approach this much more likely to be defensive, your greater speed allows your navy to move in packs to deal with threats as they appear. They are also used to clear up new expansions from rival civs, allowing you to place your own cities exactly where you want them. We're not playing ICS- this is tactical city placement with an emphasis on growth, science and resource grabbing

Early policies are selected much more carefully, since once you expand your acquisition of policies will slow down tremendously. Rationalism is, of course, the priority, but Merchantilism will stack nicely with Skyscrapers when you get it, allowing you to purchase all key growth buildings as soon as they are placed- I cannot emphasise enough how important this is- so FAR more important than the T2 Resettlement tenet that its not even funny. A new city which instantly has an aqueduct, granary, lighthouse (by those tiles) and hospital grows at a truly ridiculous rate- especially if you keep it coastal and send a food trade route there.

Given the rate at which these cities will be growing, its even more important to send out workers with them. This isn't an early game: One settler, one worker and a scout/warrior. This is settlers and workers joining a military expedition- you'll want 3 ranged units (or 2 ranged, 1 melee) and your navy to support them. Once the city has grown in size a little and the key terrain improvements are in place, the majority of workers and the bulk of the army/navy can then move on to the next settlement site.

To help you achieve your goals take Skyscrapers, Social Realism and Young Pioneers, then take Hero of the People, Patriotic War or Double agents depending on your requirements: As we're aiming for a scientific Victory Double agents can be great to stop tech theft, but until you have taken the lead other policies may help you more (But see Carl's note on tactical use of this tenet)

In T2 Academy of Sciences, Party Leadership, Workers Faculties and Five year Plan all help with the development of your cities and science, especially Workers Faculties which will give you a flat 25% to your BASE rate of science.

In T3 I will actually be taking Iron Curtain first. By this point you should have a number of cities, sending 3 or 4 trade routes back to London laden with food will allow it to continue growing at a prestigious rate, powering your scientific output. Space-flight Pioneers is great for finishing off the game but their is little point in taking it early.

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14th August 2014 10:49am

alex says...

England is a fantastic civ to play as. In large sea (archipilago) maps they can go to other continents and colonise them extreamly fast. This is risky but it pays of very well. My tactic with them is to rapidly expand wherever there are luxuary resources to maintain happiness for your large city growth. They are very good at being able to take key locations with important resources. they are perfect for getting a foothold and maintaining it in areas. I find it best to colonise areas very quickly that are territories in which other civs would have expanded into thus preventing them from being a threat. the biggest problem is maintaining the very large empire you will have early on. to do this it is vital to be the lead in trade routes (sea)and absolutely making it your priority to get the 2 wonders that add an additional trade route including the great lighthouse. also it is very important to start a religion with the 2+ gold ability and the religion spreads 30% further away. this helps your gold income and becomes vital to protect your vast empire from the attacks which will inevitably come. also make sure you invest in the happiness providing buildings in the religion group as happiness becomes a seriously limmiting factor when trying to expand. Last thing is this stratagy is very risky and even if you manage to hold onto your territories far away from your cities the other civs who's land that is near will attack your cities. If you are fortunate you will have built up an army made of basic units which are strong enough to defend or critically wound an attacking army in one area only preventing the enemy from taking the city. absolutely do not counter attack just wipe out their melee units and then consolidate after their retreat and hold the line. once you have unlocked the ship of the line and the privater ship and you have a large econemy, the civs are already weak from lack of territory and the game is yours.

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26th August 2014 7:12am

Schalabais says...

I haven't checked every guide there is on playing England, but I don't find much advice on effective useage of the longbowman.
So I experimented myself...

What I do is:
- build a decent bunch, 5+ for each city you would like to conquer
- build a knight to run in and spot for you, so you can use the range to hit the city, then run the knight out again within the same turn(works on flatland..)
- OR(if in hilly terrain), make good use of the extra spy you get playing England, and put it in the city you are planning to conquer, and it will act as spotter for you, making the city visible from 3 hexes away
- if you build a few more longbowmen, you can have them in layers outwards from the enemy city, just outside range, establishing a killzone for units trying to get out to kill your longbowmen, and you can swap them around if the front guys get hit.

Apart from this, as mentioned in the guide, Englands +2 naval range + Great Lighthouse + Eploration starter = Awesome!

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11th October 2014 6:06am

GPuzzle says...

Played England recently, one of my first victories on Emperor.

I was isolated, and the land I was in was horrible - 7 aluminum, 8 horses, 10 uranium and 4 oil - in terms of strategic resources, but it was great in terms of everything else. I settled 5 cities, all with good population and production by the late game. In the meantime, America swallowed Brazil, Mongolia, the Dutch, and Portugal. They became the runaway.

That's where I saw the power of Sun Never Sets.

They attacked me, but I had managed to get Iron from city-states, and they couldn't enter my little island. The sheer mobility of the Caravels combined with the SotL's constant hammering allowed me to stop them from ever damaging my cities, and later Fighters and Bombers locked their troops.

I caught up in science and kept speeding past them due to good usage of spies. I had gotten some pretty good faith production, which allowed me to secure Spaceship parts when I went order. I ignored a bunch of stuff, since my culture and tourism were just so damn big by then, that if I had one more turn (which I didn't, the World Leader votes were being held at the same time, and Washington was going to win), I'd win a culture victory. I ended up with a Science Victory, which I have done a lot lately.

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14th September 2014 1:48pm

Mkez45634 says...

Tips to remember:

-Great light house + SotL (With bounses e.g supply) makes for fast ships with naval tech, in vanilla i managed to get a move speed of 10. Given that SotL can Hit and Run 5! spaces + ranged attack. Enemy cities never saw them coming.

-Exploration has OP synergy with us (make as many of your cities you can costal)

-Longbow's (as stated above) can kill cities without getting hit.

-SotL want the following promotions:
Mobility (1,2 and 3) for extra move
Logistics(need one of the following to obtain: Accuracy III (Ranged), Barrage III (Ranged), Targeting III (Ranged), Bombardment III (Ranged), Coastal Raider III (Naval), Boarding Party III (Naval)) give an extra attack (expensive!)

As you want to hunt in packs take Medic(Need: Shock I, Drill I, Scouting II, Survivalism II) or March(Need: Accuracy II (Ranged), Barrage II (Ranged)) for healing outside of your territory.

Focus bombardment OR targeting per ship, don't mix (get to better promotions faster!)

See http://i.stack.imgur.com/8hrFA.jpg (scroll to the bottom) for a better idea on promotions

Range (Extra attack range. Need: Accuracy III, Barrage III, Targeting II, Bombardment II)

-Statue of Zeus (if you have the DLC) really helps, allthough the Great Lighthouse stacks better with The Sun Never Sets. Domination focused players will try to take this one.

- Focus with a small(ish) core of cities around your capital. Take enemy costal cities if they have important things like wonders or resources (be surgical! you can't afford a lot of these.)

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2nd February 2016 1:55pm

Khan says...

England is my favourite civ ive nearly played everyone now and i played them again it was such an enjoyable game

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28th November 2015 4:25am

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