User Guide

WINNING
To win Civilization II, you must follow one of two broad strategies to a final goal: Either
win the space race or conquer the world. The first civilization to colonize Alpha Centauri
wins; this nation most often has a large factory base dedicated to producing the specialized
components of spacecraft and a head-and-shoulders lead in technological development.
However, it’s possible to use industrial espionage and judicious invasions to steal the
necessary advances, while sabotaging the production lead of a more advanced but less
well defended opponent. A leader who pursues the second option, conquering the world,
is likely to focus on military strategy, though building a strong economy and financing
insurrections can be pretty successful, too. See Winning the Game for an in-depth
analysis of Civilization II’s scoring system.
THE VARIOUS DOCUMENTATION
It’s a truism at computer game companies that most customers never read the manual.
Until a problem rears its head, the average player just bulls through by trial and error; it’s
part of the fun. When a problem does come up, this type of player wants to spend as little
time in the book as possible, then get back to the game. For those of you who just need
a quick reference, the Reference: Screen by Screen section is the place to go.
For the rest of you, we’ve tried to organize the chapters in the order that you’ll need
them if you’ve never played Civilization or Civilization II before. If you’re new to Civ,
the sidebars on concepts should help you understand the fundamentals of the game.
The Technical Supplement is the place to find installation and startup instructions and
any late changes to the game. Since it was written later, the information in it supersedes
anything in the manual.
The README file that comes on the CD-ROM has the rundown on the very latest changes
(due to printing and binding time, the manual has to be completed before the playtesters
recommend their final tweaks). That info supersedes even the Technical Supplement.
In addition to the printed stuff and the README, Civilization II comes with a unique
compendium of on-screen help. Click on the CIVILOPEDIA menu to call up a list of options
describing units, improvements, governments, and even game concepts. Entries are
hyperlinked so that you can jump from one entry to another with ease, and the new SEARCH
feature allows you to brows alphabetically through every topic.
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