Elizabeth Tobey: Welcome to the seventh episode of the Civilization V podcast series. I’m Elizabeth Tobey, and today Ed Beach, Lead AI and Gameplay Programmer, and Jon Shafer, Lead Designer, shed some light on one of the most important aspects of Civilization gameplay: Battles and combat. As I’m sure you are well aware by now, combat in Civ V is different from any other game in the series: Units don’t automatically die if they lose a battle, there are ranged units, and only one unit can occupy a tile at a time. And that short list is only scratching the surface of what combat is in the game. Such a drastic change surely was not made without serious thought and planning and considerable inspiration.

Ed Beach: Yeah that's a big one. The combat is probably going to be the element of Civilization V that stands out most to people in terms of how it's different from previous games. In previous games you would have large stacks of units on single tiles and you would send large stacks after other players' large stacks and cities. That's kind of a Civ staple in some ways but we're actually going a different direction with that. We're introducing something called “one unit per tile” where only one military unit can occupy a tile at one time. So what you'll see a lot more is units that have to work in concert with one another and front lines and that sort of thing. Just concepts that haven't been in Civilization before. Additionally there's a couple other big changes we're making. We're introducing ranged combat to the game. This was something that was in Civilization III but we're really expanding on it and in combination with one unit per tile it's really adding a lot more to the game so that's another thing we're really excited about and in order to accommodate the one unit per tile system we've also made it so that cities can defend themselves without a unit station there. So that makes them a little bit harder to take and also kind of swings things a little bit in the direction of defense where you're not gonna be completely screwed if somebody breaks through your front line.

Jon Shafer: I think the other thing to add is combat is now non-lethal. So when you attack a unit, he can sit and take that attack and still be in place and ready to continue to defend that terrain in case someone else is gonna come after him. So what you wanna do is often times to break an enemy line use two or three units in conjunction with each other, sometimes setting up a ranged attack to soften them up ahead of time. So there's a lot of kind of positional strategy in trying to get your attacks setup just right and having the right combination of two or three units to go in to take a key hex.

ET: Jon jumped in to a topic that is a big one for a lot of people. Combat is now not automatically the death of your unit. This not only significantly changes strategy, but also adds value to each unit. Since you can upgrade units as they gain experience and as you gain new technologies, a good player will find that they are still using their original warrior hundreds of turns in to the game. Albeit upgraded, but still the same unit. Keeping these units up to snuff takes more than skill in battle, however.

EB: I think one thing that's very different with the new combat system is you have to look at each of the targets that you're going after and kind of really analyze the terrain around them. A city that's in the middle of an open plain where you can get to it from all six sides is a much easier nut to crack than one that's on the coast maybe with a mountain range blocking access to it from one direction. Since you really need to use those joint attacks where you have two or three units cooperating together out of a couple different hexes to take down a city it's gonna be really tough in those areas where the terrain is restricted. You may have to – especially as the game progresses and you start building up your navy – use your naval units, maybe some of your ranged units, and the ranges get longer and longer as the game goes on – along with the land units and that combination may be what you actually use to take down a city.

JS: Yeah something that we wanted to make sure of is that naval units were more significant in this game. So something that we've done is all of the naval units are now ranged and they can actually hit on land as well. So they can bombard cities directly they can bombard units on the land directly. So if you have a large navy and the enemy doesn't, you have a pretty big advantage because you can roll up with your fleet and blow stuff up and he's not gonna be able to do much about it. In terms of overall philosophy, something that we wanted to do with Civ V and combat was in a lot of ways to reward action over inaction. So you'll see there are some defensive bonuses and certainly stationing units in terrain and setting things up appropriately is important but the commander who can put all the elements in his favor and build up an advantage on one side in terms of what units are stationed where or if you have an advantage in ranged units and can soften up the front line. It's much better to go into a war with an active strategy whether on offense or defense rather than just set units in fixed locations and then rely on them being strong enough to hold out forever. And that was something that you could do a lot of times with stacks because if you had a big enough stack with enough defensive modifiers then the enemy could just never break through it. You were almost, you know, impenetrable.

ET: Without stacks, another pressing question for Civ players is “what about my cities?!” Now, you can only have one unit defending each city, which at face value makes them sound weak and ineffective. However, combat is not always offensive – cities now can defend themselves, and you can build up defenses that will bolster their attacks and make them able to ward off even the heaviest of sieges – if you’re good enough, that is.

JS: As we mentioned, the cities can now defend themselves. So, like units, they have hit points. They actually have more than units because we didn't want them to fall too quickly. And they can be attacked both by ranged units as well as melee units like swordsmen or riflemen or whatever. So they're able to take some amount of abuse and if you support your city you can actually hold off against an offensive. In terms of the city itself, it actually has a ranged attack as well so it can shoot at incoming enemies and damage them or destroy them like another unit can so they can be pretty dangerous in that manner. You have to make sure you have enough units to break through and also to lay siege to the city while it's shooting at you. In terms of offense, you have to counter those advantages. You generally want ranged units that can hit it from a distance and do damage and wear it down so that your melee units when they actually go and attack the city directly don't take as much damage. If you have, let's say, just bunches and bunches of swordsmen, you might be able to take a city but you might suffer casualties or be seriously weakened by that. Whereas if you have a more mixed force with ranged units – especially siege units like catapults – you can knock the city down and take fewer losses that way.

EB: I think the last thing to add is that over time, if you're worried about defending your cities, you can upgrade them with a bunch of different buildings that can be put in the city starting with walls. Later you can add castles and military bases and so forth to continue to upgrade them and that's gonna make them harder to take, it's gonna make their defensive attack back out of the city stronger. So even if you know that a certain city is on the border of your empire and very likely to come under attack you can plan ahead for that and go ahead and buff up its defenses so that it's not as vulnerable as it might be just sitting out there unprotected.

ET: It’s one thing to talk about these combat changes and to explain how everything works – but it’s another entirely to wrap your head around what everything Jon and Ed are saying. Since many old Civ tactics are now thrown out the window, I let the experts give a bit of insight into how new players can jump into combat in Civilization V with some good strategies under their belt.

EB: I think the first thing to keep in mind is that you're gonna want to use multiple units in conjunction like we were mentioning and a key part of that is that there's now a flank bonus that is given to an offensive player when he has additional units that are adjacent to the defender and then he makes an attack with one of those units. It actually also applies in defense if the person attacking you is surrounded by a bunch of your defending units you also get the same bonus. So, in general, thinking about the positional game of where your units are, are any of them vulnerable to being flanked on two or three sides. In all those types of situations, your units are not gonna perform as well and you're not gonna be as effective but if you can get those bonuses working for you then you're gonna have a much easier time.

JS: As an extension of that we mentioned that ranged units are a significant addition. They're actually fairly weak in melee combat though. So if somebody can get a melee unit into range to attack them, especially fast units like knights or horsemen or whatever, then they're very vulnerable to that. So you want to make sure that your ranged units are protected and they're not in the direct line of fire. Something that we have in Civ V is a form of zone of control. Players who've played maybe earlier versions of Civ or other strategic games that have that element will be familiar with that. But what that means in our game is if you move a unit from one tile adjacent to an enemy to another tile adjacent to that same enemy it uses up your turn, no matter how many movement points you have. Normally most units in our game have at least two movement points so you're losing some that way if that's your first move. It really restricts your flexibility so you want to deal with units on the front and you can't just slip through somebody's lines and get into their weak rear where they have ranged units or whatever.

ET: Now it’s time to switch gears. We’re still talking about combat, mind you, but in an entirely different light, because Civilization V is going to have a multiplayer component like none you’ve ever experienced in the past. For those of you who are now on the edge of their seats, I don’t want to get your hopes up – we’re not talking about the nitty gritty of multiplayer quite yet – however, Ed and Jon do have tips on how to approach combat when facing off against other Civ players.

JS: I think the most important thing is to keep in mind the tactics are going to be very important. You can't just stroll up with a big mass of units and expect to win against another human opponent especially. They'll know how to defend against that and they'll be ready to beat that so you have to make sure you're paying attention to what's going on on the map station your units appropriately. I also think scouting is gonna be a big deal because instead of having a big stack that just appears out of nowhere, you're gonna be able to see a large wave of units coming in advance. Especially against a human player you wanna be prepared for that. So having units stationed at different parts of the map near you in order to spot that big incoming wave will be really important. You're not gonna be able to hide your huge invasion force. It's gonna be all spread out and waiting for everybody to see it. And something else I mentioned is that I think boats will also be significant. They are ranged units so they're fairly powerful and if you can gain an advantage there or build up a fleet when somebody isn't expecting it you could have a large advantage that somebody is prepared for. So I think using the naval game will also be significant in multiplayer.

EB: Terrain certainly plays a role. Defending in any kind of rough or restricted terrain like hills or forest or jungle or even behind a river so if the attacker is coming across a river that's gonna provide a defensive bonus. Units out in the open are actually more vulnerable to attack.

JS: Yeah that's something new which is they are weaker – you know they get a penalty for being on flat land so you really wanna be careful where you put your units.

EB: And then there's some units that don't get to take advantage of the defensive bonuses like mounted units and so forth – those fast moving units. They're certainly very useful in combat, especially to get around an enemy's rear but you have to be very careful to protect them.

JS: Because ranged units are so important, something to keep an eye out for are hills. Hills allow your ranged units, if stationed on them, to shoot over other obstacles. Normally if you have a very dense forest your ranged units aren't going to be able to shoot as far as they normally can. However if they're on a hill they can actually restore their range so identifying hills and getting your ranged units on top of them will be something that's pretty important to winning.

Pete: So take the high ground.

JS: Yes.

EB: And if you can't put archers or other ranged units on them at least put scouts because then you'll at least know that the enemy is on its way.

Pete: So in your multiplayer game experiences, what's been your reaction to see this giant mass of units coming towards you? What do you do at that point?

JS: Um, you quit?

Pete: You rage quit. You heard it here folks!

ET: In case you didn’t recognize him, that’s Pete Murray, Marketing Associate at Firaxis. He’s always got the best one-liners during our podcasts.

ET: I started out this podcast by saying that I’d only scratched the surface of combat. Even now, we still haven’t gone through everything that combat holds in Civilization V – but the nuances within the game will vary depending on player and play style – I know that I speak for the entire team when I say that we are eagerly awaiting launch day when we can read everyone’s strategies and exclaim “I can’t believe I never thought of that!”