

Or, if a player just wanted to see the world burn, they would opt to maximize their military output at the risk of lagging behind in science.īut if we were to talk about purely militaristic strategies, Civilization V excels also in that field. They would invest more in science and might have a weaker military overall. Say that a player wants to pursue a science victory, which requires the player to advance in the science tree so they can build spaceship parts. Each route has their own requirement, which usually involves “dominating” other civilizations in one aspect or more. Such is the core of Civilization V. There are multiple victory routes in the game: science, domination, culture, and diplomacy.

And depending on the end goal of your strategy and after checking with your finance minister, you can choose to specialize or maintain an all-round approach. We recognize that “power” is comprised not only of military strength but also economy, culture, science, etc. This is especially true as our lives get more complex by the minute. Hart coined the term “grand strategy”, almost anything can be incorporated into the realm of strategy. Or at least understand the more abstract concepts in strategy. Having invested over 300 hours in Civilization V without any end in sight, I can safely say the game provides, within its artificial limits, a place for me to apply theory into practice. Luckily, there’s Civilization V, which helps the aspiring strategist apply what they learned in a sandbox simulation of real-world politics. Sure, I understand that strategy is a clash of wills, but how do I observe such a phenomenon without leaving the comfortable ivory tower? Furthermore, observing behaviour takes a long time. What’s even more problematic is the fact that there are few ways in which I can translate what learned in class into real-life situations. Studying about war and strategy is boring, especially when we cover the dry, theoretical aspects like Clausewitz and game theory.
