Civilization Guide: England (vanilla)

Have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too.

On any Civilization map where there is water, you will find a strong England. The speed of their units over water is exceptional and can allow for either the quick reinforcement of a land invasion or rapidly destroying an invading force. The key to England is to understand the uses of water and to recognize water when you see it. England is a Civilization that requires you to think about your bonuses and actively capitalize on them. It won't win for you, but it will give you the tools you need to do so.

• Key Concepts
• Sun Never Sets
• Unique Units
• Rule Britannia! Rule the waves!
• Wonders, Social Policies and Techs
• Conclusion
• Reference links

Key Concepts

There are a few definitions and explanations that will be used in this article that you should know before continuing.

• Water: Water is defined here as any coast, ocean or inland lake tile on the map.
• Embarked unit: A unit that has consumed its turn to move from land to water.
• Rough terrain: Any hill or forest tile.
• Open terrain: Any grassland or plains tile.
• Bee-line: The act of prioritizing a tech in the course of your research, often to the detriment of other technologies.
• Sealanes: Your movement at sea.
• Wide empire: An empire of numerous cities that are under-developed in comparison to a Tall Empire.
• Tall empire: An empire of a small number of cities (usually under 4) that tend to be well developed.

Sun Never Sets
If you can put a boat on it, England can capitalize on it.

England's unique ability, Sun Never Sets, grants two extra (moves) to all naval units. This applies to both ships and embarked land units.


Ships

Naval vessels are the obvious beneficiaries of Sun Never Sets and they do benefit quite significantly from the bonus. The movement bonus to all vessels, particularly the Ship of the Line (the first major naval combat unit), allow them to reinforce attacked positions quickly and support naval invasions with greater ease than may otherwise be done.

One of the ships with the most to gain from Sun Never Sets is the Battleship. Its movement is increased by 50%, going from a base of 4 to 6. This allows it to match the pace of enemy Submarines, Nuclear Submarines, Carriers and come close to the speed of Missile Cruisers and Destroyers. When you consider that the Battleship has the highest ranged attack strength on water (with notable exception to Submarines), but one of the lowest movement rates of any ship, Sun Never Sets effectively allows it to overcome one of its major weaknesses - its lack of speed. Over the course of the game, this base movement will be affected by technology, wonders, social policies. They key is to ensure that England stays ahead of this curve and this means prioritizing those technologies (Astronomy and Steam Power), wonders (The Great Lighthouse) and social policies (Commerce: Naval Tradition) that affect naval movement.

Embarked land units

One major advantage this brings is that it doubles the speed of your embarked land units, making it quicker and cheaper to travel by water until the development of railroads. Obviously you are limited by where the water is, you will also eventually need to get back on to land with your land units and while at sea they will need to be protected. There are two key elements to this bonus movement where England really shines. The first is in reducing long travel times for settlers, workers and scouts in the early game and the second is in reducing the length of time England's embarked land units spend vulnerable on the water.

One way Sun Never Sets can be used is in avoiding long travel times on land because of rough terrain. An embarked English land unit will outpace its rival on land in four hexes, assuming rough terrain, no roads and start/end points on the coast. In fact, it will leave its rival two hexes behind. Assuming open terrain with no rivers and start/end points on the coast, six hex tiles is the point where water travel begins to outpace land travel on non-road terrain. Both units will cover it in three turns.

This can be a major advantage in the early game. Settlers, in particular, can snag good city locations on the coast (where you want to be anyway) before other Civilizations can struggle through the rough terrain. Your workers can move quickly from city to city without having to waste turns (and !) developing a road network or moving from city to city. Also, early game scouts can often have first call on the exploration of nearby islands and continents by travelling over water than they could on land.

The benefit of quicker movement over water is more noticeable the longer the distance being travelled. It can be quite a substantial reduction in the number of turns your embarked units spend sitting in their vulnerable state. Take, for example, a 15 hex ocean between one continent and another. Another Civilization's invasion force would cover that gap in eight turns. This assumes that they can offload on the first tile they see. In practice, they will spend an extra turn to pick their point of invasion and so the number of turns needed is more likely to be 9. An embarked English unit will cover the 15 hexes in a mere 5 turns and their fifth turn of movement will allow them approximately 3 hexes of pre-disembark movement, allowing them a slightly greater disembark movement than was available to the non-England Civ on turn 9.

The discrepancy does become less as the game progresses as the movement of embarked enemy units is increased with the discovery of certain technologies (Astronomy +1, Steam Power +1 ).

Using the same example but increasing the speed of both embarked units by 1 (3 and 5 respectively - Astronomy). The enemy invasion force will take approximately 6 turns (again assuming they land on the first tile they see) and an English invasion force in 4 (this assumes they land on the first tile they see). Increasing by one again (4 and 6 - Steam Power), the enemy lands in 5 (with 3 hexes of pre-disembark movement) and the English in 4 (with 3 hexes of pre-disembark movement).

Unique Units

Longbowman
A long bow and a strong bow... and a foreign king for a mark!
Cost: 120
Combat: 6
Ranged: 15
Range: 3 (2 base range and free +1 range promotion)
Movement: 2
Requirements: Machinery (Tech)

The last ranged infantry unit available is the Crossbowman, which for England has been replaced by the Longbowman. They are similar in terms of stats, but the Longbowman has the advantage of an additional hex of ranged attack.

Strategy:

There are two important points in ranged combat of which you should be aware. The first is that a Longbowman's range is still limited by rough terrain if he is on open terrain. In addition, the line of sight limits what he can shoot, so scouting units can sometimes be required to utilize the third tile of range. One other minor point is that for the purposes of range, all water tiles count as open terrain. So a Longbowman stationed in a coastal city can shoot the three hexes out into the ocean provided he has line of sight on that tile.

In normal circumstances, to avoid problems with line of sight and rough terrain, Longbowmen should be used on hills to make the most out of their extra range. Ideally these hills should be forested for the defensive bonus and even more ideally these forested hills should be beside the coast.

One interesting tactic to try is send two to three Longbowmen up the coast and position them on some coastal hilltops in enemy terrain. Whether this is to secure an early beachhead or act as a diversion or harrying party is up to you but their offensive capabilities should not be overlooked. They are more resilient than Crossbowmen, by virtue of their extra range more than anything else and attempting to close on a Longbowman could potentially give the Longbowman two shots before the unit makes contact. Two to three strategically placed Longbowmen can hold a static position for quite some time if handled properly (proper target selection, properly placed etc - for more information, read the ranged combat guide).

With 3 range they can outshoot enemy cities and while nowhere near as effective as siege weapons their extra range and given how relatively cheap they are they effectively become Medieval-era artillery (aside from the fact that they do not have indirect fire). While on the defence, the Longbowman's extra range is a major advantage. The longer range makes it possible to have a wider selection of enemy units, and towards the rear of the line are typically wounded units and seige units normally inaccessible to ranged units. The Longbowman, however, can often reach these easy and tempting targets.

In terms of promotions and upgrading, a nightmare for any ranged unit and particularly so for ranged unique units you should take one promotion line and run with it. At your first opportunity, you should take Logistics and March as priorities. These are not only good promotions in and of themselves, but also apply to the unit should you decide to upgrade.

The question of upgrading is always a tricky one, and a particularly painful one for Longbowmen. With three range, it is quite concievable that they can be used as siege units against enemy cities and pull 1-2 damage a turn (2nd damage point coming from 2nd attack through Logistics) even as late as the Industrial Era. Generally speaking, it is better to upgrade Longbowmen with Logistics and March, disband those without either and have those with one or the other act as siege units until they get the second one. This is, of course, all dependent on you having enough artillery/ships. There's no advantage in adding a half dozen more infantry if you already have twenty infantry but no siege weaponry.

Take a look at these images to see the Longbowman's range in action.






Ship of the Line
Britain's best bulwarks are her wooden walls.
Cost: 140
Combat: 30
Ranged: 17
Range: 2
Sight: +1
Movement: 5 (7 with Sun Never Sets
Requirements: Navigation (Tech) + Iron (Resource)

The first major naval combat unit of the game, England catches a break with the Ship of the Line. It is 20 hammers cheaper, has 2 extra ranged strength than the Frigate and is also 2 points faster than the Frigate it replaces. It does, however, still require one source of iron which could be limiting.

Strategy:

The Ship of the Line can, and should, be used to conduct naval operations and ensure the safety of the seaways to allow you to move your units without fear. In a pinch, Ships of the Line can be used as scouts. Their speed and bonus sight makes them reasonable scouts if Caravels are not to hand. The major function of the Ship of the Line, however, is to ensure English dominance of the ocean and to support amphibious invasions.

Against other naval ships, the Ship of the Line does particularly well. Due to the nature of naval combat (link to naval combat guide) which reduces a defending ship's strength by 60% the +2 ranged combat strength can be impressive, especially if it is given a few naval targeting promotions. A Ship of the Line, with Targeting I, II and III can destroy an enemy frigate in a single shot and these are not particularly difficult promotions to get. A Barracks and Armory will give you I and II, and some combat will easily see you to Targeting III at which point you should probably look for Logistics, to give you an extra attack. Range is the next one you should pursue, to allow your Ships of the Line to bombard from relative safety. Unlike the promotions you give to your Longbowmen, the Ship of the Line retains the usefulness of all of its promotions even as it's upgraded which can make for some powerful destroyers.




Rule Britannia! Rule the waves!
No water? You're not looking hard enough.
There are two main map genres that are considered to effectively propel England to the heights of glory, or condemn it to mediocrity. These are map types with lots of water and those maps without, respectively. The problem with such thinking is that few recognize what actually constitutes a water map and what does not. Before dealing with this misconception, there are a few basic strategies that can help you get the most out of England.

England's major advantage in amphibious invasions is its speed. It can, and will, outrun anything else on the water. There is a tendency to overlook the advantages this speed can bring. A two to three turn difference in reinforcing an intercepted convoy of military units can mean the difference between saving a half dozen embarked military units and losing them to enemy Caravels. Waiting an extra two to three turns to reinforce a convoy before it departs can mean the difference between victory and defeat at whatever overseas destination you're looking to reinforce. Your advantage in speed should be pressed and used to the utmost.

You will want to bee-line for Astronomy early. Until you get Astronomy your ability to get the most out of Sun Never Sets from a military perspective is limited. It's still very useful for worker and settler transport, but significantly less so for any amphibious invasion. Think of the water as your road network, which given the movement bonus from Sun Never Sets is effectively what it is. You have a lot of it, and you don't have to pay maintenance for it. Teching Optics allows you to access this road network for the first time, and Astronomy unlocks it entirely.

What, no seas?

There are very few map types that do not contain enough water to take advantage of Sun Never Sets or the Ship of the Line; Great Plains is one, and Highlands another. However, the more commonly used map types all contain more than enough water to capitalize on a quick moving land force, even Pangaea and Continents possess sufficient water for such a strategy. Take a look at a Pangaea map and instead of focusing on the big blob of land, look at the coastline. Now look at all the water available on either side of that coastline. There is a significant amount of room here in which to establish England's sealanes. A small defensive force guarding England's cities while the majority of their forces invade the other end of the continent is perhaps not the most usual type of warfare seen on Pangaea maps, but it is the type of warfare at which England excels. The problem of those units being too far away to reinforce the home territory is not as big a risk with England because of the extra movement on water, movement which has been reinforced with technologies, social policies and wonders throughout the game.

Sun Never Sets gives you options that other Civilizations can only dream about. The battering ram strategy so common on Pangaea or Continents is not England's style of warfare. There are Civilizations out there that can do that far better than England can. What can be done is a much more subtle and elegant form of warfare, utilizing an element of the map that is secondary to the concerns of other Civilizations but paramount to England.

Wonders, Social Policies and Techs




The Great Lighthouse

You may be curious why this is on the list considering the already impressive speed of England's ships. The answer is that you must protect your speed advantage by ensuring others don't catch your speed by reaching key technologies ahead of you or grabbing wonders which boost naval capabilities. In one way, building the Great Lighthouse is more to protect your advantage rather than building on it. However, the second benefit of the Great Lighthouse the +1 sight bonus, which is where the wonder builds on your naval capability and makes this one of the most critical wonders to any England game.

The benefit of the sight bonus may not be immediately obvious. While England's ships have all the speed in the world at their disposal, that speed is less useful without knowledge of who is where and with what - especially during an amphibious invasion when your military units are extremely vulnerable to attack. Extra sight ensures that you can focus your Ships of the Line where they are most needed and can reduce the risk, reduce the number of escort vessels, that your embarked land units will face and need.

The Great Library

You should attempt to get this wonder and select Compass, Theology, Civil Service. The idea behind the Great Library is to advance as quickly as possible to Astronomy, which is when you can begin to take the most advantage of Sun Never Sets and the Ship of the Line. Which Technology you pick is a matter of how the game is developing and your research pace. Compass is the most expensive wise, but has the weakest immediate bonus's. Typically, it makes more sense to choose Theology if you have a high production city that you believe can build The Hagia Sophia before someone else does. If you're less certain of your production potential, then Compass is usually the best to choose as it costs 100 more.

The Colossus

Many will be tempted to go for this wonder because it would appear to synergize very well with the inherent coastal-first strategy that England will tend to utilize. It is, however, a relatively weak wonder for a wide empire and in low production cities (which coastal cities tend to be) 150 can be ill-afforded to be spent incorrectly, especially in the early game. It is also a wonder unlocked by Bronze Working, which is not on the Astronomy/Navigation bee-line that England should normally work toward.

However, in certain circumstances, such as a heavy sea resource start and/or with a Tradition social policy opening it can be quite useful in helping turn initially weak water tiles into good tiles comparable to well developed land tiles.

Also, even a non-Tradition start can sometimes warrant moving for Iron Working first, especially on a Continents or Pangaea map for instance, before setting down the path of Astronomy/Navigation. If you do pursue this route and are keeping the number of cities low, the Colossus may be a worthwhile investment.


Liberty

Of the three early social policy trees available, Liberty is the one you are most strongly urged to pursue if you are to make the most of England's advantages. England shines at sea, and until you reach Astronomy, you are effectively playing with a severely weakened ability. Completing the Liberty tree will allow you to select a Great Scientist or Great Engineer. The Scientist can be held back until you can bulb Astronomy, or you can go for the Great Engineer instead if you believe you can reach Education first and rush-build the Porcelain Tower. The Great Engineer route not only gives you a very impressive wonder, but also a free Great Scientist, which can be then used to bulb Astronomy. It is riskier, however, to go with the Great Engineer as if you miss the Porcelain Tower you can be stuck hard-researching Astronomy, which is costly and delays your rise to prominence.

Under ideal circumstances, your Great Library will discover Theology, your capital will then hard-build the Hagia Sophia while researching Civil Service. The Hagia Sophia gives you a Great Engineer while finishing the Liberty tree gains you a Great Scientist. The Great Scientist discovers Education, and your Great Engineer rush-builds the Porcelain Tower and the Great Scientist from that discovers Astronomy.

The point of pursuing the Liberty track is not so much for the bonus you get along route (which can be nice) but rather for the free Great Person at the very end. If timed correctly, you can effectively jump from the middle of the Medieval Era into the beginning of the Renaissance and start your overseas conquests (even if "overseas" is just down the continent) years earlier than anyone could possible expect.

Tradition

There are, however, some particular starts that benefit more from adopting Tradition early on instead of Liberty. A strong sea resource start, for example, can benefit more from a Tall Empire and wonder-heavy approach that is better suited to the Tradition Social Policy branch.

The Great Library->Hagia Sophia path as outlined above is still what should be followed, the only major change is that you will have to hard-build the Porcelain Tower or hard-research Education. The choice between these is a matter of whether your capital is better suited to production or research. A strong sea resource start will typically be production light and so the Great Person from the Hagia Sophia should be a Great Engineer who should be held back while you research Education. As above, the Great Scientist from the Porcelain Tower is used to research Astronomy.

Commerce

Commerce is a preferred social policy for England. You really only want to get Merchant Navy and Naval Tradition. Merchant Navy will boost your production somewhat, which is one of England's typical problems in games. Naval Tradition builds upon your already impressive naval capability and the opener of +25% in the can benefit a strong sea resource start significantly. Trade Unions, Mercantilism and Protectionism are all reasonable social policies, but they pale in comparison to Rationalism, especially if you managed to grab the Porcelain Tower.


Optics: Being able to embark your units is the first step in taking advantage of Sun Never Sets by allowing them access to the coast. Something which will speed up movement between your cities, allow quicker scouting and possibly open the way up for a quick attack on a nearby Civ.

Astronomy: Allowing your embarked military units to travel over ocean is crucial in increasing their mobility and taking advantage of their extra movement over water. If at all possible, this should be bulbed early with a Great Scientist. This Tech represents the beginning of the period when England has the most advantage over other Civs on water and as as result it should be prioritized.

Navigation: Unlocking the Ship of the line early is a must for England, particularly if it desires to make the most of its increased movement over water. The Ship of the line (like the Frigate it replaces) is the first major naval combat unit of the game and like everything else, the earlier you get it the most use you can make of it.

Machinery: Unlocking Longbowmen is not as important as the Ship of the line, but you should still attempt to grab the tech early. The Longbowmen make for an ideal defensive unit.

Conclusion
Quick but fragile.

As one would expect from a Civilization equipped with two unique units and a unique ability that solely affects units, England is a warmongering Civilization. Despite this fact, to make the most of their bonuses you must play in a way that is inherently risky. Transporting your army over water can, quite literally, allow them to be wiped out of existence by an enemy Caravel. Hardly the safest means of warfare. However, England offers you all of the advantages you need to combat these risks and make this form of warfare not only viable for you, but exceptionally fun and rewarding as well.

Can England be played peacefully? Well yes, it can. Indeed, a Tradition-orientated England with a strong coastal start can do quite well making only limited use of its innate inabilities and focusing on the options presented to it over the course of the game

If you want to make the most of your abilities though, you have to go to war at some point. Zipping around the map in your Ships of the Line and solely exploring is, ultimately, a waste of Sun Never Sets, your Longbows and Ships of the Line. If you wish to play as England and not come away with the feeling that they're a bland Civilization, you have to recognize and use the tools it gives you. Tools which are, admittedly, quite different to the ones other Civilizations possess but ones quite definitely focused on warfare and naval/coastal warfare at that.

Related guides

Military Strategy
* Amphibious invasions.
* Ranged combat.
* Naval combat (to be written).

Economic Strategy
* Liberty
* Tradition
* Commerce


Patch version of this article: 1.0.1.383