Civ V List of Acronyms and Terms
Here's the revised War Academy List of Civilization V acronyms and terms -- originally compiled for the vanilla version of the game by binhthuy71, and now expanded to include terms from the Gods & Kings and Brave New World expansions. Hopefully, it will help everyone get a handle on the myriad of terms that we in the CivFanatics community love to use. This is a work in progress. Please feel free to suggest new items in the comments and we'll update the list as we go on.
Content list
- Automatic Abbreviation Expander
- Game Play and Strategy Terms
- Great Person Terms
- Leader Nicknames
- Technologies
- Units
- Buildings and National Wonders
- World Wonders
- Miscellaneous Terms and Acronyms
Automatic Abbreviation Expander
A forum utility called 'ABBREX' (developed by user BandC) is available that automatically expands abbreviations that appear in its database (you can also add to the database). It is a Firefox/Chrome extension, and you can read about it here. Check it out here.
Game Play and Strategy Terms
- 1 UpT - 1 Unit per Tile
- Barbs - Barbarians
- Beeline - Strategy of directing game play towards the earliest possible acquisition of a specific Technology
- Camp - Barbarian encampment
- CV - Culture victory
- Diplo hit - Decline in relationship with another civ or civs caused by a player action
- Dom - Domination victory
- DoF - Declaration of Friendship
- DoW - Declaration of War
- DP - Defensive Pact
- DV - Diplomatic victory
- Expo - Expansion city (city other than your capital) or expansion site
- FoW - Fog of War
- HP - Hit Point(s) (measure of unit health following combat)
- ICS - Infinite City Sprawl (or, to some, Infinite City Spam) - Strategy where as many cities as possible are built with minimum spacing between them (may also include adding cities via puppeting or annexing conquered cities)
- IG - International Games (World Congress resolution)
- LOS - Line of Sight
- Milking the AI - Selling a one-off Resource or Resources to an AI civ when you know that either you’re about to lose the resource(s) to pillaging or loss of a city or that you’re going to DoW the AI in the next few turns. In either case, you have the AI’s Gold and the AI no longer has the resource(s).
- MP - Movement Points
- OCC - One City Challenge - Advanced Setup game play mode where the player can own only one city
- Pillage-heal - Destroying an enemy tile improvement to earn gold and heal an injured unit (up to 25 HP)
- Reload - Loading a saved game from an earlier turn, to replay one or more turns (not permitted in HoF or GOTM) (also referred to by some as "save scumming")
- Reroll - Starting a new game with the same settings
- REX - Rapid Early eXpansion, or founding many cities as quickly as possible
- Rush or Hurry - To buy a unit or building with gold, or to accelerate production of a wonder, building or unit with a Great Engineer
- Slingshot - To beeline to a specific tech using a free technology (e.g., building the GL to slingshot Philosophy, allowing you to build an early National College)
- SS - Space Ship (science victory)
- SV - Science victory
- Tall - Using only a relatively small number of highly populated cities
- TR - Trade route
- TSL - True Start Locations, a game played on an Earth map with the respective civs starting in the locations where they are in real life (only available with mods)
- Turtle - Using a military for defense only
- UN - United Nations (successor to the World Congress)
- VC - Victory Condition (science, diplomatic, culture, domination, or time)
- WC - World Congress
- WF - World's Fair (World Congress resolution)
- Wide - Using a larger number of relatively lower population cities
- XP - Unit eXPerience earned from combat
- XP Farming - Engaging in combat with barbarians, City-States or other civs for the primary purpose of earning XP to promote units
- ZoC - Zone of Control
Great Person Terms
- Bulb - To acquire a technology instantly by using a Great Scientist, but also commonly used to describe the act of triggering the special ability of any Great Person (e.g., "bulb" a Great Artist to start a Golden Age, "bulb" a Great Engineer to hurry production of a building or wonder).
- GA - Great Artist or Great Admiral (or Golden Age), depending on context
- GAdm - Great Admiral
- GE - Great Engineer
- GG - Great General
- GM - Great Merchant or Great Musician, depending on context
- GMus - Great Musician
- GP - Great Person or Great Prophet, depending on context
- GPP - Great Person Points
- GPr - Great Prophet
- GS - Great Scientist
- GW - Great Writer or Great Work (or Great Wall), depending on context
- GWAM - Great Writer, Artist or Musician (collectively)
- MoV - Merchant of Venice
- Plant - Using a Great Person to create a unique tile improvement (e.g., planting a GS to form an academy)
- Spawn - Appearance of a Great Person after accumulation of required levels of Great Person Points or (in the case of a Great Prophet) required levels of faith, or after completion of a particular wonder or adoption of a particular social policy or when buying a Great Person with faith (although the latter is most commonly referred to as "buying" the GP, rather than the GP "spawning")
Leader Nicknames
- Cathy - Catherine (Russia)
- Izzy - Isabella (Spain)
- Kammy - Kamehameha (Polynesia)
- Liz or Lizzy - Elizabeth I (England)
- Monty - Montezuma (Aztecs)
- Nappy - Napoleon (France)
- Nebby or Babs - Nebuchadnezzar II (Babylon)
- Pokey - Pocatello (Shoshone)
- Rammy - Ramkhamhaeng (Siam) or Ramesses II (Egypt)
- Ramky - Ramkhamhaeng (Siam) (less frequently used than Rammy)
- Sully - Suleiman (Ottomans)
- Teddy - Theodora (Byzantium)
Technologies
- AH - Animal Husbandry
- BW - Bronze Working
- CS - Civil Service
- D&P - Drama & Poetry
- HB or HBR - Horseback Riding
- IW - Iron Working
- PP - Printing Press
- ST - Scientific Theory
- TW -The Wheel
Units
- Armored Unit - A unit class consisting of Landship, Tank, Modern Armor and Giant Death Robot
- Arty - Artillery
- CA - Camel Archer (Arabian unique unit, replaces Knight) or Chariot Archer
- Cat - Catapult
- CB - Composite Bowman
- CC or Comp Cav - Companion Cavalry (Greek unique unit, replaces Horseman)
- CKN - Chu-ku-no (Chinese unique unit, replaces Crossbowman)
- GDR - Giant Death Robot
- LS - Long Swordsman
- MA - Modern Armor
- MI - Mechanized Infantry
- Melee Unit - Any unit that engages in combat with an adjacent unit where both parties are damaged, such as a Warrior. Note: As a technical matter, in game, the term "melee" only refers to pre-Gunpowder, non-ranged units (e.g., swordsmen and pikemen are "melee" units, while riflemen and tanks are not), but because all non-ranged units (including riflemen and tanks) engage in "melee-like" (i.e., non-ranged) attacks, "melee unit" has, in common use, acquired a broader meaning.
- Ranged Unit - Any unit that engages in ranged combat, such as an Archer, CB or Keshik
- Siege Unit - Ranged units with a vs. city bonus, specifically Catapult, Trebuchet, Cannon, Artillery and Rocket Artillery
- SotL - Ship of the Line (English UU, replaces Frigate)
- XB or XBows - Crossbowman
Buildings and National Wonders
- CH - Courthouse
- EIC - East India Company
- Granny - Granary
- GT - Grand Temple
- HE - Heroic Epic
- Lab - Research Lab
- LH - Lighthouse
- MPM - Mud Pyramid Mosque
- NC - National College
- NE - National Epic
- NIA - National Intelligence Agency
- NVC - National Visitor Center
- Uni - University
World Wonders
- AW - Angkor Wat
- CI - Chichen Itza
- CR - Cristo Redentor
- ET - Eiffel Tower
- FP - Forbidden Palace
- GL - Great Library
- GLH - Great LightHouse
- GMD - Great Mosque of Djenne
- GW - Great Wall
- HG - Hanging Gardens
- HS - Hagia Sophia
- ISS - International Space Station
- LToP - Leaning Tower of Pisa
- MoH - Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
- ND - Notre Dame
- PT - Porcelain Tower
- SC - Sistine Chapel
- SH - StoneHenge
- SOH - Sydney Opera House
- SoL - Statue of Liberty
- SoZ - Statue of Zeus
- TA - Terracotta Army
- ToA - Temple of Artemis
Miscellaneous Terms and Acronyms
- AA - Anti-aircraft
- AI - Artificial Intelligence - the computer programming that "plays" non-human-directed civs
- Beakers - Units of science
- BNW - The Brave New World expansion of the game (as patched)
- BpT - Beakers per Turn
- CoD - Carpet of Doom - referring to an area of the map that is "carpeted" with enemy units (units occupying every tile)
- Civ - Civilization
- CpT - Culture per Turn
- CR - Collective Rule (social policy)
- CS - City-State or Combat Strength
- DF - Desert Folklore (pantheon belief)
- DLC - DownLoadable Content
- Finisher - The policy benefits obtained by completing a social policy tree
- FoY - Fountain Of Youth
- FpT - Faith per Turn
- FT - Free Thought (social policy)
- G&K - The Gods & Kings expansion of the game (as patched)
- GA - Golden Age
- GBR - Great Barrier Reef (natural wonder)
- Goody Hut - Ancient ruin (provides certain bonuses when first explored)
- GOTM - Game of the Month
- GotS - God of the Sea (pantheon belief)
- GpT - Gold per Turn
- Hammers - Units of production
- HoF - can refer to the in-game repository of game results or, at CivFanatics, the Hall of Fame
- IP - Itinerant Preachers (enhancer belief)
- KSM - King Solomon's Mines (natural wonder)
- LP - Let's Play: A game recorded as a video and presented online
- Lux - Luxury resource
- MotG - Messenger of the Gods (pantheon belief)
- MP - Multiplayer game
- NW - Natural Wonder(s) or National Wonder(s), depending on context
- OB - Open Borders
- OP - Overpowered (on forums, OP also refers to 'opening/original poster' or 'opening/original post')
- Opener - The first policy in a social policy tree, taken by "opening" the tree
- Pop - Population
- RA - Research Agreement
- Rat or Rati - Rationalism (social policy)
- RNG - Random Number Generator (often used when bemoaning a seemingly random or unexpected result - i.e., blaming "the RNG")
- RT - Religious Texts (enhancer belief)
- SoD - Stack of Doom (Note: the SoD is obsolete in CiV with its implementation of 1 UpT)
- SP - Single Player or Social Policy, depending on context
- SS - Sacred Sites (reformation belief)
- TP - Trading Post
- TpT - Tourism per Turn
- Tree - Set of social policies appearing under a separate heading (e.g., Tradition policy tree, Piety policy tree)
- UA - Unique Ability - Civ-specific ability
- UB - Unique Building - Civ-specific building
- UI - Unique Improvement - Civ-specific tile improvement
- UU - Unique Unit - Civ-specific unit
- Vanilla - The original, as-sold version of the game (as patched)
- WLKD or WLTKD - We Love the King Day (+25% growth in city for 20 turns)
- WOTAW - Wonders Of The Ancient World DLC
Note: Amended from vanilla Civ V List of Acronyms and Terms article by binhthuy71.