By Josh Sprague From Social Games Today

As CivWorld opens up to new players, we want to offer some guides to help sort through the many details of the game. While the game offers a nice tutorial, the big picture can be a bit elusive until you play through an entire game. To kick things off, we want to focus on exactly how to win.

One thing that makes CivWorld unique is that you can actually win the game. This can be done as a civilization and as an individual. We’ll get to personal victories below, but for now, let’s focus on winning as a civilization.

How to Win as a Civilization

Each player is in charge of her own nation that may join one of the game’s preset civilizations with other players. These include historic civilizations like the American Territories, the Japanese Shogunate and the Egyptian Dynasty. The civilizations available in the game are random and don’t offer any specific bonuses or limitations like civilizations in the traditional series.

Any player can found a new civilization as long as one is available in the game. These can grown as other players join, but they can never exceed 20% of the total players in the game. At that point, the civilization is closed to new players. Civilizations can also strategize their membership by voting to close and open borders in the game.

Civilizations compete to win eras and there are 21in the game. Each half of an era has its own winning conditions and some bring bonuses and limitations. For example, one era may increase culture production while another decreases gold production. All players in the game experience these changes equally, which adds to the need to know what to expect in each era.

Eras can be won by meeting one of four different winning conditions. These conditions are:
Domination – Domination victories are achieved by winning in battle against a rival civilization. You can’t just win against anyone as the size of the civilization is determined by the game. For example, an early winning condition could require defeating a civilization that hosted 10% of the game’s players, but subsequent domination victories could require a larger civilization with 20% of the game’s players.

• Economic – Economic victories are very cut and dry. If your civilization amasses enough gold, you win. This starts out at 20,000 gold, but each economic victory bumps up the number needed to win the next half era.
• Culture – Cultural victories are achieved by building wonders. To build a wonder, member nations must donate great individuals for a wonder’s construction. Early era cultural victories may only require three wonders, but later cultural victories will require a much higher number. Since science unlocks new wonders, meeting these goals becomes more complex over time.
• Science – Scientific victories are achieved by discovering new technologies. The goal technology can be discovered by a single player whose discovery is shared with his civilization.

Winning with a singular focus is tough and the game’s dynamic winning conditions forces diversity in strategy and style. Say a civilization wins with an economic victory. The next set of winning conditions will increase the amount of gold needed for the next victory, but the domination, culture and science victories may stay the same. Each subsequent win in a category will scale that category and not the others. So, the amount of gold you would need for successive economic victories could get very high while a culture victory remains low hanging fruit.

Planning with your civilization and checking in for each era is key. It’s important to learn how to spot that optimal winning condition and rework your resource production to meet it in concert with your team. Thank goodness for a good chat log

How to Win Personally

Fame points represent your overall score in Civilization. There are Fame points that build up in each game and a “lifetime” score that you carry with you throughout your CivWorld experience. In addition to a winning nation, each game has a winning player based on who earned the most Fame in that session. Here are the ways you can earn Fame:

• Be a member of a civilization that wins an era victory. Every time your civilization wins an era, you’ll get a bump to your Fame. Joining a civilization that wins a lot contributes a great deal to your final Fame score.
• Win a medal. Medals are doled out for a variety of contributions you make to your civilization. For example, you may get a medal for being the first to upgrade a building to ginormous size or for being the bringing the most might to a military victory. Keep an eye on your medal screen to see what new goals will garner you another award.
• Win auctions in the market. Not all auctions bring Fame, but some specific items are a quick way to buy it. For example, bidding the highest on the Temple of Angkor Wat will net you a fast 10 Fame points.
• Win contests. Sometimes, auctions in the Marketplace will be replaced with contests. These track all the players in the game and the winner is determined when the time runs out. One contest might look for who has the most productive farmer, while another rewards the player who wins the most gold in the Caravan game. There are a large variety of contests listed on the CivWorld Wiki and they’re a good reason to check into the Marketplace frequently for a fast bonus to your Fame.

Fame points reward the most active CivWorld players as well as the players who are the biggest benefit to their civilizations. Randomly chasing personal Fame could distract you from the game’s bigger goals, and it’s important to keep in mind that your civilization’s success is the ultimate benefit to your Fame. Find the Fame rewards that match your civilization’s current goals and pursue those to optimize your personal and collective success.

While it’s easy to play, CivWorld is a complex game compared to most Facebook entries. As we dig deeper, we’ll check in with more guides to illuminate the experience. In the meantime, share the tips and tricks you’re learning in the game.

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