Civilization Analyst

About the Analyst

This site tracks pre-release information about games in the Civilization series. When I started this site, a coherent picture of future releases was hard to find online; nowadays the publishers release lots of information on social media only days before the games come out, so the need for analysis sites like this is greatly reduced. Yet here we are.

Pardon the messy, temporary nature of the pages. They are large and image-heavy, and frequently change. There is usually a limited window between the time the information is available and the release of the game (at which point it becomes mostly irrelevant), and so things are rarely as polished as I would like. Post-release, I try to keep things updated as best I can, but there are other sources that probably do a better job as post-release game guides (see links below).

Links

Civilization Series Official Site: Overviews of Civilization VI and previous entries in the series.
Well of Souls: My main website, containing my artwork and Outsider webcomic, and other game projects similar to this one.
Stars in Shadow: The indie space 4X game that I'm currently working on as artist and co-designer.

People

A number of names get mentioned in various notes around the site, so here is a key to who is whom in Civilization Land:

Ed Beach: Civ VI, G&K & BNW Lead Designer, Firaxis Games
Dennis Shirk: Civilization Senior Producer, Firaxis Games
Pete Murray: Marketing Associate, Firaxis Games

David McDonough: Beyond Earth co-Lead Designer, Firaxis Games
Will Miller: Beyond Earth co-Lead Designer, Firaxis Games
Lena Brenk: Beyond Earth Producer, Firaxis Games
Anton Strenger: Beyond Earth Lead Systems & Gameplay Designer, Firaxis Games

Casey O'Toole: G&K Lead Programmer, Firaxis Games
Liam Collins: G&K Designer/Developer, Firaxis Games
Tiffany Nagano: G&K Producer for 2K Games

Jon Shafer: Civ V Lead Designer, Firaxis Games
Brian Wade: Civ V Programming Lead, Firaxis Games
Dorian Newcomb: Civ V Lead Artist, Firaxis Games
Dan Baker: Civ V Graphics Lead, Firaxis Games
Garrett Bittner: Civ V Producer for 2K Games

Thanks to Greg Rozmarynowycz for his groovy stylesheet work.

Recent News and Updates (detailed change log)

22 April 2025: Update 1.2 is now live, which adds some quality of life improvements.

25 March 2025: Update 1.1.1 is now live, which adds Simon Bolivar, Bulgaria and Nepal for those with the Crossroads of the World DLC.

4 March 2025: Update 1.1.0 which adds Ada Lovelace, Carthage and Britain for those with the Crossroads of the World DLC, is now live.

11 Februrary 2025: Civilization VII is now available for all platforms. Enjoy!

5 Februrary 2025: Civilization VII is now available for early access play. Enjoy!

16 January 2025: There are a variety of previews and community gameplay streams up today. The last few leaders and civilization have been directly or indirectly revealed. I'll be making a variety of updates over the next several days as the new information is processed.

17 December 2024: Firaxis did a developer livestream focusing on the Modern Age.

7 November 2024: Firaxis did a developer livestream focusing on the Exploration Age. There is a lot here, so it will take some time to process.

12 September 2024: Firaxis did a developer livestream focusing on the Antiquity Age.

31 August 2024: Firaxis revealed a few new civilizations in the PAX West livestream.

20 August 2024: Official Civ7 information release has begun with a gameplay reveal trailer. The release date has been announced as February 11, 2025.

11 June 2024: I set up a stub page for Civilization VII with the only current information, which is the leaked 404 image. There should be new information August 20.

7 June 2024: Firaxis has released an Official Teaser Trailer for Civilization VII. The release date is posted as "2025."

8 December 2022: 2K has announced that the release date for pack 2 of the Leader Pass is December 15.

21 November 2022: The Great Negotiators pack of the Civ VI Leader Pass (and Julius Caesar) is available now; however, contrary to earlier claims, the pass is NOT free to those who already own the content in the Anthology. See here for a way to enable the DLC in this case.

15 November 2022: Firaxis/2K have officially announced the Leader Pass.

11 November 2022: I have added a brief summary page to list the information available on the Leader Pass so far.

9 November 2022: There may be a Civ VI "Leader Pass" in the works.

22 March 2020: The April update for Civ VI is available for download now. It adds a number of civilization changes, unit strength changes, and three new units.

15 March 2020: The Portugal Pack is available now.

18 March 2020: First Look for Portugal is up.

15 March 2020: Firaxis confirmed Portugal as the final new civilization for the New Frontier Pass, and announced the new game mode: Zombie Defense.

25 February 2020: The February Patch is available now.

16 February 2020: Firaxis posted a video detailing the February update, which adds a Barbarian Clans mode.

21 January 2020: The First Look for Vietnam is up.

19 January 2020: Firaxis posted a video announcing Vietnam as the new civilization for the January update.

17 December 2020: The December Patch is available now.

19 November 2020: The Babylon Pack is available now.

12 November 2020: Firaxis posted a First Look for Babylon.

8 November 2020: Firaxis posted a developer update previewing the Babylon pack.

30 October 2020: A leaked image from Reddit suggests that Pack #4 will be the Babylon Pack, with Hammurabi leading Babylon, a new "Heroes and Legends" game mode, 6 new city-states and 24 new Great People.

22 October 2020: The October Update patch is available now.

20 October 2020: Firaxis posted a first look of the Pirates multiplayer scenario coming in Thursday's patch.

13 October 2020: Firaxis posted a video previewing the October game update patch.

23 September 2020: The Byzantium and Gaul pack is available now.

22 September 2020: The First Look for Gaul is up.

19 September 2020: It appears that the Japanese version of the Civilization website accidentally posted the text for Gaul in their First Look for Byzantium. I have updated the relevant information in the civilization list.

17 September 2020: The First Look for Byzantium is up.

14 September 2020: Firaxis posted a developer update previewing the September 24 New Frontier DLC. Byzantium and Gaul were announced as the new civilziations.

27 August 2020: The August patch is now live.

17 August 2020: Firaxis posted a video previewing the August game update patch, which is scheduled to go live August 27.

22 July 2020: Firaxis posted a developer livestream. The Ethiopia Pack releases tomorrow.

16 July 2020: Firaxis posted the First Look for Ethiopia.

13 July 2020: Firaxis posted a video previewing the Ethiopia Pack. I added most of the new information to the New Frontier page.

My recent move to a new server seems to have broken the menu system on these pages; I'll get that fixed when I have some free time.

25 June 2020: The June patch is now available.

18 June 2020: Firaxis posted a video previewing the June game update patch.

21 May 2020: The Maya & Gran Colombia pack is now available for purchase. Patch notes here.

19 May 2020: The first look for Gran Colombia is up.

14 May 2020: The first look for Maya is up.

11 May 2020: 2K/Firaxis has announced a new series of DLC called the "New Frontier Pass," which is slated to release in six installments starting this month (May 21) and continuing bimonthly through March of next year. I have added a brief summary page.

10 September 2019: The Civ VI September update is available now.

18 June 2019: The Civ VI June update is available now.

11 April 2019: The "Antarctic Late Summer Update" for Civ VI, which adds a number of balance changes and UI improvements, is available now.

30 March 2019: Firaxis have announced a forthcoming patch with some gameplay and balance changes. Here is a short announcement, and a longer gameplay stream.

13 February 2019: Gathering Storm is available now. Enjoy!

2 February 2019: The last new leader for Gathering Storm is, as expected, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

31 January 2019: There are now a number of Gathering Storm community livestreams up on YouTube.

29 January 2019: Phoenicia led by Dido is the last new civilization in Gathering Storm (there is still one new leader to be revealed).

22 January 2019: The Ottomans led by Suleiman are the next new civilization in Gathering Storm.

15 January 2019: Sweden led by Kristina is the next new civilization in Gathering Storm.

8 January 2019: The Mali led by Mansa Musa are the next new civilization in Gathering Storm.

18 December 2018: The Inca led by Pachacuti are the next new civilization in Gathering Storm.

11 December 2018: While we were hoping it was an out of season April Fools' prank, 'tis but too true: Canada is the next new civilization for Gathering Storm.

04 December 2018: The Maori led by Kupe is the next new civilization revealed for Gathering Storm.

27 November 2018: Hungary led by Matthias Corvinus is the first new civilization from Gathering Storm.

20 November 2018: Firaxis & 2K have announced a new expansion, Civilization VI: Gathering Storm, due for release February 14, 2019. I have added a stub overview page here.

8 February 2018: Civilization VI: Rise and Fall expansion is available now. Enjoy.

6 February 2018: Zulu has been confirmed as the final new civilization for Rise & Fall, which released this Thursday.

30 January 2018: Mapuche has been announced as the sixth new civilization for Rise & Fall.

24 January 2018: Scotland has been announced as the sixth new civilization for Rise & Fall.

22 January 2018: Today a number of community livestreams are being posted featuring gameplay with an R&F preview build. I will post some links to the various previews and make updates as the new information is processed.

16 January 2018: Firaxis/2K posted a New Features Explained video.

9 January 2018: Georgia has been announced as the fifth new civilization for Rise & Fall.

2 January 2018: The Cree have been officially announced as the fourth new civilization for Rise & Fall.

27 Decenber 2017: Chandragupta has been officially announced as the alternate leader for India.

19 December 2017: Mongolia has been revealed as the third new civilization for the R&F expansion.

13 December 2017: Firaxis has a developer Let's Play up showing off Korea and various Rise & Fall features.

9 December 2017: Netherlands has been revealed as the second new civilization for the expansion.

5 December 2017: Korea has been revealed as the first new civilization for the expansion.

28 November 2017: Firaxis/2K has announced the Rise and Fall expansion for Civilization 6, due February 8th of next year.

17 October 2017: Firaxis has announced the addition of Khmer and Indonesia civilizations.

26 July 2017: Firaxis has announced Nubia as a new faction.

22 March 2017: Firaxis has announced a Spring DLC adding Macedon and Persia. They also released an Australia DLC in February.