How to Git Gud(Civ 5 edition)

This Guide is set up in order of importance for the game. This is entirely subjective except for the fact that Science is King. It can also vary from game to game, but most of these topics will be important in this order.
This is made for multiplayer so if you're playing with AI then go ahead and screw them over using these strategies.
This is also meant for people who understand and have played the game at least a few times.

No matter what victory goal you are reaching for, science is the most important thing in the game. In the beginning of the game the most important thing is to get Writing as fast as possible. The additional Science will make other technologies faster to get, and ultimately you can vie to get ahead of your enemies with a faster tech. In fact with every Era it is smart to stay along the top of the tech tree because the top offers the better tech, econ, and cultural buildings. The bottom of the tree typically offers more warfare and offensive tactics. Focusing on the top offers faster rates of reaching the bottom also.

Below are tricks to get faster science:

Wonders/Special Buildings - Some good wonders to get are:

• Great Library (everyone goes for this so good luck, but it is powerful)
  
• National College (Get early so you can get the most out of it)
  
• Oxford University (Free tech is always nice)
  
• Observatories (At least one city to be near a mountain you are set with the +50% Science)
  
• Porcelain Tower/Leaning Tower of Pisa (Both can offer Great Scientists)
  
• Hubble Space Telescope (Two Free Scientists is massive)

Specialists - Specialist offer so much in the game with little downsides. The tech from a Scientist Specialist is nice, but the opportunity at a great person is even better. If you can grow cities big enough to support Specialists it is ideal to always utilize them.

Great People - What to do with a Great Scientist is always tricky. In the early game it is always important to get Academies down. The +6 to eventually +10 Science is powerful. Once you have enough Academies the need for them lowers. It has to be judged on a case by case basis but sometimes Scientists can still be popped (Used for the science boost) even in the renaissance or industrial era.

City State Allies - If you are a civ that can get allies quickly, maybe patronage is a viable asset because of Scholasticism (All City-States which are Allies provide a Science bonus equal to 25% of what they produce for themselves.) This equals about 6-7 science in the mid game per city state, and if you manage to get a lot of allies this can equal enough science to maybe be ahead of your opponents.

Rationalism - Rationalism is a wonderful way to unlock science faster. Even when it is not completed the bonus from unlocking it (+10% when your empire is happy), Free Thought (+1 Science from every Trading Post and + 17% Science from Universities), and Secularism (+2 Science from every Specialist) These two policies and the unlock are the most important thing in the policy tree, yes the free tech at the end is nice, but if you are already going down into your ideologies then you do not need the end policy.

Best get your calculators ready and your abacus because this is going to get complicated, I'm kidding. A city if left to it's own AI is outright garbage, so to be better at the game do it yourself. This does deserve a guide in and of itself, but I will give the simple fundamentals hear.

City Focus - Obviously you will never have enough time to focus on making your city powerful in a multiplayer game. You can't tell every pop where to go each turn to maximize your output, because you aren't a sadist. If you are leave this guide please. To fulfill the best way of outputting for a city set it to production focus. If it is not growing select a piece of land to help it grow in the beginning, it should auto focus to at least not stagnant, but always pay attention.

Pop Placements - To place your pops optimally it is best to always have them work the tiles of Great People. It is also important to focus on food and production, eventually with universities jungles will provide science and they will benefit too. But typically in the game (Unless you have a resource that gives a lot of gold or culture) you want to have your citizens that are working the field give production, food, and whatever great people have been offered to the land. Eventually you will want specialists.

Specialists - When it gets to turn 150 to 200, whilst in the medieval and early renaissance you will have these buildings that show specialists that can be worked. Work them. They will offer production, gold, culture, science, and everything to your hearts content. These people do not only offer the riches of their labors, but also the ability to recruit Great People. Once a city reaches a self sustainable population, which can be anywhere between 10-15 Pop you can turn your focus of citizens to fill up every specialist slot. If you cannot work every slot, due to limited starvation or production. You may want to only focus on certain Great People Points. I have a personal tier for Specialists: Science, Production, Culture, and Gold.

Buildings - this is subjective, but if you want to be smart go for Science buildings every chance you can get, unless it takes too long (15 turns in Quick Speed). After Science you focus on whatever the empire needs. If culture seems weak, then build cultures buildings, if gold feels weak build gold productions (not just caravans they are more than just gold makers), and so on so forth.
Personal Tier Building List: Science, Production, Food, Culture/Gold, and Faith.

Wonders - These are always optimal if you believe you can get them. Below are some of my personal favorites. I recommend looking at actual Wonder Tier Lists and not this garbage below.

1. Ancient Era
   
   • Great Library (Science Focus Always try and get)
     
   • Temple of Artemis (Growth Focus)
2. Classical Era
   
   • Colossus (Gold Focus)
     
   • Hanging Gardens (Food in the Capital makes a big boy Stronk!)
     
   • Oracle (Culture Focus)
     
   • Petra (Situational if in desert)
3. Medieval Era
   
   • Hagia Sophia (Religion Focus)
     
   • Borobudur (Religion Focus)
     
   • Machu Picchu (Gold Focus)
     
   • Angkor Wat (Border Growth)
4. Renaissance Era
   
   • Forbidden Palace (Congress Votes)
     
   • Leaning Tower of Pisa (Great Person Focus)
     
   • Sistine Chapel (Culture Focus)
5. Industrial Era
   
   • Louvre (Culture Focus)
6. Modern Era
   
   • Neuschwanstein (Just Good)
     
   • Eiffel Tower (Culture Focus)
7. Atomic Era
   
   • Sydney Opera House (Culture Focus)
8. Information Era
   
   • CN Tower (Growth Focus)
     
   • Hubble Telescope (Science Focus)

Culture is very beneficial (It is a win con after all with tourism). Obviously some Civs are better at getting culture than others, but there is a way to make any Civ have decent culture.

Cultural Buildings - No matter what, with any Civ, you want to get the three guilds built at least a few turns after they are researched. This coupled with a few Amphitheaters and Opera Houses can lead to nearly fifty to a hundred culture. So focus on the three guilds. The goal for culture is to try and reach triple digits by the middle of the game, if you want to prevent someone else from winning in tourism.

Great Works - getting around four to five in the early game (Before Archaeology) is strong, but once you can get archeologists and get a plethora of them, your culture will increase by twenty because of these.

City States - Cultural Cities states can offer so much culture and they can help to grow your own. There is a tier list for city states, I would argue, and this will be discussed in a tiny section below.

Policies - In a game, typically, you have three policy trees to go down until you reach an ideology.

1. The First Policy - Just pick tradition
   Let's face it, if you are reading this guide, you're a bit of a noob, and that's okay, tradition is
   noob friendly. This tree offers everything to help players in a multiplayer setting. The Pop
   Growth in your capital and cities will enable them to become strong, the ability to build a
   monument for free is a huge production saver in the early game, and the ability to buy
   engineers with faith is so powerful late game.
   
2. The Second Policy - Patronage/Aesthetics/Commerce/Exploration
   Each of these offer massive benefits in the game and are good setups to end game win
   conditions. So what does each have to offer?
   
   • Patronage - The ability to get more city state allies, faster science, and free random
     great people. This can help with a science victory and a diplomatic
     victory.
     
   • Aesthetics - Culture Victory Necessary policy. Helps get great culture people faster
     and helps with happiness.
     
   • Commerce/Exploration - Both of these help with money and happiness.
     (Use Exploration if majorly coastal).
3. The Final Policy - Rationalism
   Science is king, read my science section and now you understand Rationalism.

Ideologies - Just pick whatever you want, they're all pretty cool and fun. Try to pick one with the most policies open and then learn from what it offers. I used to only use autocracy until I saw how fun Order and Freedom were. They're all pretty good. Each of them have three win conditions they benefit. Look at them and think which of the win conditions you are going for and pick an ideology with one around.

Great People are amazing, but have to be used effectively to get the right power. When a Great Person is produced you will be surprised and think, what should I do? I will tell you exactly what to do based on the circumstances.

Great Scientists - Use early on for academies, once you have like three or are in the early-late game (into the industrial age) start popping them for science bonuses.
Great Engineers - Use for manufactories to make insane production in your city. If you want to snag a wonder, or are going down Order to build spaceship parts, then stock up on them to use when necessary.
Great Merchants - Use for the customs house early on. If you need a mass of gold then use the second bonus.
Great Artist - Use to get the +2 Culture and +2 Tourism early on. Late game, or whenever you decide to not do a tourism victory. The golden ages can be a huge benefit.
Great Writer - Use to get the +2 Culture and +2 Tourism early on. Late game use the second option to grow culture quickly and make your policies come faster.
Great Musician - Use to get the +2 Culture and +2 Tourism, every little helps. The spreading tourism is ultimately useless.
Great Prophet - Use first two for religion and then the others are situational (You will likely never have more than 2). Use them to either get more faith or spread the religion powerfully.
Great General - Use to make an army stronger with the +15% buff. The Citadel is an amazing improvement due to the culture bomb it gives (It spreads your borders 1 tile around the Citadel). Use to meme on friends, or to get resources you desperately need.
Great Admiral - Use to make your navies better with the +15% buff. Typically not amazing, but could turn the tide.

Some Special Tips

1. Place your Great Person Tiles on grasslands where 2 food is being produced. A citizens costs 2 food to be fed. if an academy is placed down on grassland. Then a pop is working it. The pop is consuming its own food and a net balance is made of just the science.
   
2. Great Person Improvements improve special resources they are built on so you never need to destroy them, except if you're memeing.

Faith is like the Aedile of Civilization 5. It is not necessary to win, but it can provide some benefits along the way. It is beneficial to at least put some work towards faith so that no one player can be overly powerful with their religion. For example if one Civ has Tithe (+1 GPT for every 4 followers) and controls a continent with their religion. They could be receiving maybe 40 GPT or more from their religion.

Here are tips for how to make a decent religion:

Pantheons - Pick a Pantheon that will give you faster faith (Situational and depends on your location). If you cannot pick a pantheon for that then go with whatever you want. (Personally I choose Fertility Rites or Religious Settlements if I cannot get a faith producer).

Founder Belief

• Tithe(This is the best one)
  
• Papal Primacy (If you are going for a faster City-State Game)
  
• Interfaith Dialogue (Can help with science boosts but not amazing)
  
• Most, besides Tithe, are not very strong and can be toppled by a more religious Civ.

Tithe is the best one. However the others can work as well. It just takes practice. Follower Belief

• Pagodas (Most Powerful Building)
  
• Any other buildings are good
  
• Food Bonuses Beliefs (I choose these if I don't like my options and food make city big and Stronk)

Enhancer Belief

• Religious Texts (Spreads religion faster, is very powerful)
  
• Holy Order (Produce missionaries and Inquisitors faster)
  
• Missionary Zeal (Makes missionaries stronger and more efficient)

Tips

• Borobudur is a powerful wonder to spread religions faster and gain dominance.
  
• Inquisitors only work in your Civilization but you can stock up on one or two if someone tries to spread it.
  
• If you think someone else's religion will benefit you and vote it for world religion, you are giving them a stronger advantage.

Trade Routes can give you a ton of gold, but if you only use them for that then you have a problem. That's right there are better ways to make your Civ powerful without using them for just gold sources. Below is some tips for what to build, when to build it, and how to use it.

Cargo Ships - These babies can get you to 30 GPT in the late game. They are obviously powerful and I believe that is what Cargo Ships should be used for. The immense potential for gold from these babies is good, so use them for that. How to counter them? Declare war and begin pirating them.

Caravans - These are the safer option for building trade, and are only viable if you have a capital that is not coastal.

Trading - Granaries in cities enable for food to be traded among the empire. This food can end up making all 4 of your cities over 10 Pop. I believe Trade Routes should be used to get food more than just gold. It makes cities grow large quickly and efficiently. During a game I make sure to have at least 3 Trade Routes going to my capital to make it larger and more powerful.

Gold is important if you use it. If you store over 1000 gold in your reserves*, than you are either stupid or have some strategy I have never seen before that will make you lose the game. Now there are many ways to spend gold, but few are very efficient. Below will be where to spend gold along with how to get a lot of Gold.

Get Gold

• Commerce/Exploration - Can give tons of money through trade routes and other means.
  
• Trade Routes - Can give you lots of gold if using Cargo Ships.
  
• City Connections - Build Roads and harbors to get a large boost to gold. (Roads are very expensive so be careful and don't be crazy)
  
• Markets/Banks/Stock Exchanges - These are your healthcare industry investments, safe and secure. Use them to get a reliable, steady amount of gold.

Spend Gold

• City State Allies - They provide so many benefits and with Patronage it gets even stronger.
  
• Buildings - Not just any building but also in the order of what is in City Management, especially specialist buildings that make you more powerful.
  
• Civillians - Caravans and Cargo Ships are a hassle to build, I prefer to just buy them. Same goes with Workers and, even in the rare case, Settlers.
  
• Units - Only buy them in case of wars being on the horizon you are not ready for.
  
• Memes - Give money to friends to make them stronger and fight other Civilizations that would oppose you.

*some late game buildings cost more than 1000 so sometimes you need more than 1000.

In my MP games, unfortunately, no one ever goes to war, except against AI. So I do not have much advice to give yet. One thing I do have to say is if someone is running away with the game. Declare war on them even if you will not be fighting them. This prevents Trade Routes that can be a massive bonus. Below is where I will be giving compositions for Offensive Units and Defensive Units, even though it should be obvious.

Offensive Units - Anything that isn't a ranged unit. (Siege units are necessary when taking down a walled settlement).
Defensive Units - Ranged Units, 3 of these suckers can defend against a whole army if managed correctly.

Let me know if this guide helps in making you better at the game. I am not a pro nor am I an excellent teacher. I recommend looking at other peoples guides and watching Filthy Robots tutorials to get better. This is only one style of playing the game given in a crash course way, it can be conquered by others, but from how I have played with friends, it has been the dominator so far. I hope it can be conquered and I can learn more on how to update this to be a better Git Gud Guide.

Once you do Git Gud at the game, and understand the core mechanics. Ignore this rule list. Obviously some of these things will benefit even after you play the game, but ignore them for fun. Try to have fun while destroying your enemies, and remember this is a guide, break it and try out new things to get better.