Civ 5 - A World Superpower

A global superpower can be characterized as a dominant civilization on the global spectrum through the combined means of technological, economical, cultural, military and diplomatic superiority - the five dimensions of state power. Such a civilization wields the capability to project power globally and holds colossal influence over international affairs with largely diversified interests both internally and globally.

An entity worthy of the highest status achievable can be distinguished by one other preeminent characteristic - weapons capable of destroying the planet entirely; namely nuclear missiles and in future era’s weapons of unfathomable destructive power.

Contrary to popular belief a superpower does not necessarily have to be equated to civilizations with the most land, although this does often play a large role in reaching superpower status. Smaller but more highly developed civilizations can attain this title, although more difficult.

This is a broad strategy on reaching, maintaining, and operating a superpower civilization. This guide is generic and not exclusive to certain settings, maps, civilizations, or most mods. For the sake of this guide however, we will set generic defaults; Civ 5 with the Vox Populi mod on an Earth map.

Reaching Superpower

The thing about a superpower is that, quite frankly, your civilization has to become the best at everything. A civilization that attains superpower status without diversification will find its power to be temporary. That aside, there are a couple things beyond luck that can facilitate the creation of a superpower.

Geography

Geography is the single most important aspect in determining the success of a civilization; it dictates available resources, access to trade routes, defensive characteristics in the form of protection by natural barriers and/or chokepoints, and your place in global affairs all the way to the modern era and beyond. It should be an absolute priority to invest in early scouting missions to find locations in which your empire can effectively grow, protect itself, and claim strategic resources - the entire future of your civilization depends on it.

But what exactly should you be looking for? Resource availability is relatively straightforward; your lands should have critical military resources such as iron and in future era’s OIL OIL OIL. Let me say that again. OIL OIL OIL. I can’t express enough the importance of oil. Bombers and carriers are perhaps the most important units in the modern era. Air superiority gives you the power to rain death deep into enemy territory at the speed of naval fleets without having to undergo troop mobilization. You won’t see oil until much later in the game but make sure to have settlers on standby before researching Biology so that you can grab deposits. You do not want to rely on trade for these resources - if you happen to go to war with your trade partner you will be left with a resource deficit and subsequently less advanced units, leading to an almost guaranteed loss.

Terrain geography that promotes defense is certainly more complex to define but can be summarized as lands in which a land invasion of the mainlands would be difficult. This equates to island nations or landmasses bordering few or no other major land bodies. This makes attacks exponentially more difficult; rivals first have to defeat your navy and send a second wave of amphibious land units (which are weak when standalone on the open seas) before ever reaching your coasts.

Settle, settle, settle. Producing settlers early on can stunt your city’s growth and settling cities can challenge happiness metrics, but it will pay off in the long run. Place cities over most unclaimed deposits of military resources and locations with abundant luxury resources, and on choke points that may prove useful for potential wars with a developing enemy.

Your empire will, generally speaking, consist of two types of cities; those that exist solely for resource access (often located in locations completely unsuitable for cities such as one tile islands or arctic land) and core cities which are much more crucial to your civilization. Try to map out your core city cluster so that cities are 6 tiles apart, or at minimum, 5. Closely grouped cities can give you a temporary boost, but giving cities full room to grow will yield exponential benefits late game.

Military Unit Supply Cap

As I said earlier a superpower has to excel across the board, however there’s one aspect that is arguably the most important; military supply cap. This dictates how many units you can have. As important as gold, culture, and research may be, you can always put city production towards them. The same cannot be said for your supply cap.

You simply cannot be a superpower if you do not have a military that can project power globally, and power projection comes from size.

A high cap can be achieved through several key wonders; the Great Wall, Terracotta Army, Himeji Castle, and Brandenburg gate. It should be an absolute priority to build these. There are also buildings/wonders that increase the cap relative to the population of your city. These should be centralized in your capitol which will likely have the largest population with internal food trade routes boosting it.

Calculative Decisions

But the best geography or resources alone are nothing without strategic decision making behind the helm. You will need to carefully navigate through world affairs in a manner that most positively benefits your civilization, often with a calculated view of global ramifications and the future.

Attempt to avoid wars and by extension provocative actions to focus on infrastructure for the first several centuries. Having to build military units early on massively stunts growth and will spiral into exponentially worse effects as the game progresses. However, often this is far easier said than done. I said earlier that you’ll want to settle as fast as possible, which will likely cause tensions with a neighbor. It’s all about finding a balance, and the decision you make depends entirely on the situation at hand.

Ideology and Corporation

Ideologies and corporations go hand in hand. Hexxon Refineries with Order is probably the best combination. Hexxon gives you a ton of strategic resources per franchise and Order has one critical tenet: nationalization - “Each Corporate Office counts as 2 Franchises.” Normally franchises are established in other civilization’s cities, but this puts all of your strategic resources from Hexxon out of your control. The second you go to war you’ll lose a big chunk of those resources, and that’s not good. The nationalization tenet gives you full self-sufficiency. Order is also an incredibly diverse ideology and great for civilizations with lots of cities, which will likely apply to most superpowers.

If Hexxon Refineries is taken I would recommend the Autocracy ideology which gives you a 100% strategic resource modifier and a ton of military benefits. For your corporation I would choose based on whatever your civilization is lacking. Trader Sid's for gold, Centaurus Extractors for production, Giorgio Armeier for culture, TwoKay for food, and Civilized Jewelers for great people.

Unfortunately, there can be a case where you need the autocracy strategic resource modifier to get a global monopoly to build Hexxon. This isn’t ideal since you will have both your corporation and ideology geared fully towards military bonuses, but this is still the best choice. Again, the importance of oil just cannot be overstated.

Sadly for democracy, the Freedom ideology is best for much smaller civilizations.

Maintaining/Operating a Superpower

With great power comes great responsibility. As a superpower you will wield the largest military, the most influential culture, and the greatest economy. But beware, no matter how powerful you may be, collapse can be just around the corner.

Military

The type of units that make up your military is relative to the quantity of land/water on the map. As mentioned earlier, however, for the purposes of this guide the map will be Earth; a collection of highly diverse geographical bodies consisting of continents, islands, and distinct land-masses of all sizes inter-connected by one large body of water.

At least ten units should be stationed at all times to guard your capital city with two units in each of your cities within the core cluster. Sneak attacks can be swift and unexpected, especially so in later eras with units capable of paradropping into your territory. Losing cities can certainly be a blow to your empire, but losing your capital all but guarantees your downfall.

A superpower requires both an advanced and large military consisting of an air force, navy, and army. Although unit stationing is variable relative to global affairs, generally half should be scattered in your territory. The latter half should be stationed globally in allied territory to protect interests, enable rapid deployment of units to conduct offensive and defensive maneuvers globally, and provide swift response times to world events such as wars.

Aircraft carriers are the most powerful unit afloat, capable of delivering air power anywhere to the map. Carriers alone can easily be defeated however, such that fleets should be formed around them. The importance of carrier fleets can not be emphasized enough - they are undoubtedly the most powerful asset your military can wield from the atomic era and beyond. Capable of moving halfway across the map in a matter of turns and wreaking havoc to entire navy fleets and coastal cities whilst providing blistering support fire deep into enemy territory, just several of these fleets can be enough to wrestle total control.

As a baseline for the composition of such fleets, they should consist of a supercarrier in the middle with 8 bombers, 6 carriers surrounding it with 3 bombers and 2 fighters each, two submarines: one to the east and the other to the west, two ranged ships: one to the north and the other to the south, and 8 melee ships to complete the circle. 6 of these fleets deployed globally is enough to hit just about any coastal city in the world within a turn.Of course their makeup should be changed relative to the threats they may face, the missions they might embark on, and the amount of resources you have.

Nuclear Strategy

In the words of Professor Paul Dukes of the University of Aberdeen, “a superpower must be able to conduct a global strategy, including the possibility of destroying the world.” As such, a superpower should be in possession of sufficient nuclear submarines to be in range of bombing any part of the world within a turn. In the worst of scenarios this gives you the ability to inflict unthinkable damage and change the course of history - for better or for worse. Nuclear submarines also contribute to mutually assured destruction; a military doctrine that assures the complete annihilation of the attacker should nuclear weapons be fired. Even if the targeted country is entirely destroyed, its submarines would remain operational and subsequently launch retaliation missiles.

As awesome as nuclear weapons are, don’t make anymore than you need. They will almost never be used so the uranium is far better off in nuclear power plants, giant death robots, and supercarriers. For a standard earth map four nuclear missiles in four separate nuclear submarines is sufficient during peace time.

The Greatest Superpower I’ve Built

One of my favorite games lasted until the year 2200. I played as Venice and my capitol was located on the bottom half of South America. I was able to build 3 cities before I started getting close to my northern neighbor, India. Not wanting to cause territorial tensions I started directing Great Merchants to the empty Australian continent, which I had fully settled relatively quickly. Around the 1950’s I expended my stockpile of Great Merchants to build a bunch of cities on the tiny islands near Australia and in the Atlantic Ocean, securing access to a large amount of oil. This gave me a global monopoly allowing me to start the Hexxon Refinery corporation which, coupled with the Autocracy ideology, gave me an absurd 500 oil. I used this to stock my massive fleet of Sensor Combat Ships with guided missiles, and around the year 2000, launched a full scale invasion of India.

Several hundred missiles obliterated India’s units within the first turn with my tanks seizing nearby cities and my xcom squads doing the same for those on the Northern end of the continent. Within a year India had been reduced to one arctic city with my civilization primed to become magnitudes more powerful than ever before. I soon had a unit cap of 600 with just over a thousand oil. Over the next century I had approximately 100 carriers and 500 bombers, with 6 carrier fleets, each with 19 units, stationed globally. Hundreds of xcom squads were stationed all over the globe in allied territory.

I had the power to destroy just about any city on the planet within 2 turns. But in my blind pursuit of extreme military prowess a resolution quietly made its way into the United Nations; to repeal Casus Beli, which reduces unit costs and maintenance by 15 percent. I quickly realized my influence with city states had diminished and I couldn't buy votes as I still had spies in all capitols, not diplomats, as a relic of the past. My economy was barely holding on to support my military; I was negative 3000 gold a turn which equated to net zero due to instant yields. Powerless, I watched as Casus Beli was repealed and my gold per turn dropped to negative 10000. With 300,000 gold in my treasury, I had 45 turns to get Casus Beli enacted. 30 turns for two United Nations cycles to go through since a resolution cannot be immediately brought up after it is acted on, and another 15 turns after Casus Beli is proposed for the UN to convene - and this was considering I had the influence to get a seat at the table to begin with. And then I would need the votes for the resolution to actually go into effect.

Should I fail, Venice would collapse. Half my military would be disbanded and due to the global move towards peace, Global Peace Accords would likely be enacted causing a 25% increase on military costs. This would reduce my military to a mere 200 or so units, including aircraft, barely enough to protect my vast lands and not enough to project power; paving the way for my retreat from global relevancy.

I began mass spending on envoys and replaced all spies in foreign capitols with diplomats. With what little in my treasury I had, I was able to buy votes and have the Casus Beli proposal passed. I was one turn away from debt.

I thought this was the peak of Venice, but England, who inhabited all of North America, declared war on me around 2150. Seeing this as a chance of expanding into all of the Americas, I redirected all carrier fleets to the area. Although it was a long, expensive, and brutal war, I eventually destroyed England, razed all their cities, and used my stockpile of Great Merchants to repopulate the entire continent. I now had all of North America, South America, Australia, and a bunch of islands for a total of 41 cities. I reached heights I could have never fathomed; 2600 oil, a unit cap of 1400, my capital city production at 145,000, 30,000 gold a turn even with Global Peace Accords enacted, and over 5 million in my treasury.

And this would likely have just been the beginning as many of my new cities had low population. But it was here where I stopped as I now had the power to conquer the world regardless of whatever sanctions or nukes they could muster at me.