User Guide

Islam
The first civilization to discover “Divine Right” will found
Islam.
Judaism
The first civilization to discover “Monotheism” will found
Judaism.
Taoism
The first civilization to discover “Philosophy” will found
Taoism.
CIVICS
Civics represent the various forms of government available in
Civilization IV. Are you a despot or a king, a democratically-
elected ruler or a theocrat? Does your civilization have open
markets or closed? Do you have trial by jury, or trial by fire?
Many possibilities are available to you.
EFFECTS IN PLAY
The civics you choose to employ have great effect upon the
character and success of your civilization. Some civics increase
your cities’ productivity. Others increase their wealth. Some
civics make it easier to create and maintain standing armies.
Others help you to export your religion to other nations.
There are no “best” civics in the game: all are potentially very
useful in different situations.
THE CIVICS SCREEN
Go to the Civics Screen [F3] to review your current civics, to
see which other civics are available to you, and to learn about
other as-yet undiscovered civics.
ACQUIRING CIVICS
You begin play with the most primitive civics: despotism, trib-
alism, and so forth.You acquire other civics through techno-
logical advances: the “Hereditary Rule” civic requires that your
civilization master the Monarchy technology, for example,
while Mercantilism requires Banking. (In addition, the
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Pyramids wonder makes all “government” civics available.)
CATEGORIES OF CIVICS
There are five different categories of civics, each controlling a
certain aspect of your civilization: Government, Legal, Labor,
Economy, and Religion.You will always have one civic of each
type in operation.You can change one category of civics with-
out affecting the others.
UPKEEP
Each civic type has an “upkeep” cost associated with it: no
upkeep, low upkeep, medium upkeep, and high upkeep. This
represents the relative amount of gold that your civilization
must pay each turn to employ that civic. In general, the more
useful a civic is, the higher its upkeep.The actual cost in gold
per turn of civics varies according to the size of your civiliza-
tion: the more cities you have and the larger your population,
the higher the upkeep cost for any and all civics.
If you are considering changing a civic, go to the Civics
Screen. Check the Upkeep/Turn value on this screen – it rep-
resents your current ongoing civic outlay – then click on the
civic you are considering.The Upkeep/Turn value will change
to show what your upkeep will become if you change to that
civic.
Be careful about changing over to civics with high upkeep
costs; they are often powerful, but can put a real strain on your
treasury. Some civics may be desirable simply because they
have no upkeep costs! It’s often a good idea to check your
Financial Advisor screen before changing civics.
CHANGING CIVICS
When you acquire the technology that allows you to use a new
civic, a screen will pop up asking if you want to change to that
civic. At any other time you want to change civics, you need
to go to the Civics Screen by clicking on the icon in the top-
right corner of the screen (or type [F3]). Once on the Civics
screen, click on the civic or civics you want to change to, then
click on the “Revolution” button in the bottom-right corner.
(If you decide to keep things as they are and not change any
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