Civ V Acronyms and Terms (BNW)

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.