New Civilization VII Livestream Gives A Thorough Look At How The Early Game Plays

Firaxis hosted a livestream showing gameplay of the upcoming historical 4X game, Sid Meier’s Civilization VII.

With this version of the game bringing some core changes to the formula, in particular how the game is now spit into three different ages, the livestream sheds light on the many particular little changes that Civ fans would want to see. And the dev team certainly showed a lot.

The sub-2-hour stream specifically covers the Antiquity Age, i.e. the early game, of Civ VII. From founding a new city to transitioning to the next Age, we got to see a lot of the intricate new changes, a lot of which is to make the game less about micromanaging.

Here are some interesting new changes we think worth mentioning:

  • Turn 1 starts with one founder unit and that’s it. No warrior unit. Not settler unit. Founder is used to found captial city. Production of either scout or warrior is short after founding city- just 1 turn required.
  • Tiles have height levels so units cannot move over cliffs. Instead of trickier terrain tiles costing more movement points to move through, most units must end turns on tricky terrain tiles (like marshes). Scouts are exempt from this.
  • Ability changes to scout unit: Lookout functionally replaces Sleep. Allows Scouts to be station and provide 1 extra vision in surrounding tiles.
  • No workers. No builders. Settlers/Founders are not captured when attacked by enemy units, they are destroyed.
  • Tile improvements are now Rural districts. Each population growth lets you pick one tile to improve and change into rural district. Will “culture bomb” when selected as district (expands border by adding all adjacent tiles of the district into your territory)
  • When building buildings, you must pick a tile to turn into an Urban district. By default, each Urban district can have two buildings. Just like Rural districts, Urban districts will culture bomb when built.
  • You can build a Rural district on any tile and create the tile improvement without unlocking specific tech. Tech unlocks give bonuses to tile improvements instead.
  • Settlers are used to found towns. Towns don’t require micromanaging (they auto-expand based on what priority you set it), and converts production into gold. Not all buildings are buildable in towns. Can spend gold to buildings, units or convert into full city.
  • There is a settlement limit, but it’s a soft cap so you can still play wide (build more cities).
  • Story events can trigger. This can be triggered due to the leader you play as, the civ you play as, both, or other events. One example lets you pick and objective to complete (similar to Civ VI’s Eurekas/Inspirations) to earn a bonus or opt out and get gold instead.
  • Government choice is now tied to what bonus you get when a Celebration happens rather than like in Civ VI where it determines how many Civic slots you have.
  • Walls are built on specific urban tile, not a city-wide building.
  • Unit promotions now all go to army commanders instead. Can still bank promotions. Promotions now are presented as a full skill tree instead of picking one of two choices.
  • Commander’s promotions has an AOE effect- any unit in that area gets all benefits of the promotions.
  • Commanders can die, but they can respawn. They are ways to reduce amount of turns until respawn.
  • Armies can “pack” into the army commander. Like a stack in games before Civ V. Units in the pack must be unpacked to move and attack.
  • Milestones- progress towards the win in all the ages. Four legacy paths (culture, military, science, economic) each with specific milestones to achieve. Gain enough to get Golden Age.

These notes does not cover the entire livestream worth of gameplay changes being showcased, so it’s still worth a watch. What it does point out is that there are so many new changes, ranging from major overhauls that rexamines how you play a game of Civ to nice little tweaks. Just like past numbered entries.

“First Look” videos have begun rolling out for Civ VII. Unlike in Civ VI, the first of the First Looks videos only focus on the leader (since any leader can potentially lead any civ). Hatshepsut is the first of definitely many to come. Each Civ VII leader has a leader attribute, an agenda (AI opponent behaviour), map start bias (what terrain the leader will likely spawn close to) and leader bonuses.

Sid Meier’s Civilization VII releases on February 11, 2025 for the PS4, PS5, PC (Steam, Epic Games Store), Mac and Linux (Steam), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch.

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept