This means that all you'll be able to truly control while focusing on the ocean are the naval units for trading, other military naval units (which most civilizations will not focus on), and possibly the siege of civilization capitals near the coast. They have no real effect on mainland units with the exception of ranged naval units that can attack the units near the coast. Being able to control the mainland is much stronger because naval units can only control other naval units. The only difference is that if you start off without a solid plan and a clear goal, you will most definitely be left behind compared to the civilization that starts immediately.įor this reason, it's highly recommended that while you are building your civilization early on you don't put resources into multiple areas, such as culture, religion, and a dominant military and instead focus on at most two aspects of your civilization, such as simply having a good culture and focus on religion.Ĭompared to previous Civilization games, there's not as much control you can really have on the game if you have a very large naval fleet. You could know what some nearby civilizations are doing, but unless you somehow get to know all civilizations early on, there could always be another civilization doing what you're planning on doing. First off, you won't know what every single civilization will be going for at the very beginning of the game.
As we noted in the Things To Do First page, knowing what kind of victory you'll be going for is extremely crucial as without it, you won't be able to know how you're going to actually win! However, many people could think that playing it safe and attempting to go for multiple victories would be the best option, in the off chance that there is another one or more civilization(s) trying to go for the same victory as you, so that you can switch over to a new one as soon as you realize they're going to be doing the same thing.