The following section won't discuss each individual unit - we have separate pages for that. Read the following breakdown and think when and how to use each unit you build: a correct use will take advantage of all its special abilities (for example, engage enemy cavalry with anti-cavalry units, such as Spearmen). Civilization V uses a very sophisticated combat system, and in order to be successful in it you have to arm yourself not only with soldiers, but also with knowledge. For that, you must know what each particular type of unit is good at and what its drawbacks are, or you will never be able to form a clear strategy for its use. The first and foremost key to success in combat is to know the advantages and disadvantages of your army.

If not, you may first want to read the other articles in the Combat section before starting this one. This article assumes that you're familiar with the basic terms used herein, such as Combat Strength (CS), Movement Points (MP), and so on, as well as the general rules for the types of combat (melee, ranged, etc.). In order to master the combat system of Civilization V, you will need to learn a lot, and hopefully this article will help you with that. And after that we have the civilization-specific units, which have even more special abilities! All of this together creates a very interesting and quite sophisticated combat experience. Besides the individual features of generic units, we also have the promotion system which allows each individual unit to acquire additional strengths and turn better in some aspects of warfare.

The combat system in Civilization V and its expansion sets is elaborate and detailed, allowing for some really brilliant and quite lifelike military strategies to develop.

This article will discuss in-depth combat strategy and military tactics in Civilization V. It is written for the Brave New World expansion, although some elements of it might serve for older versions of the game.

Civ 5 early game strategy