TL;DR – Every single feature of the Civilization Franchise (at the time of posting) in one Map

Back in 2021, during Civilization’s 30^th Anniversary, we put together a map that charted every location that has ever been added to a Civilization Game. It was a fun exercise, well, other than trying to get Mesopotamia to work. But after I released the Map, it became clear that I had missed a couple of items. So, with the recent Civilization VII announcement, it felt like this was the right time to come back in and fill in those missing spots.  

As always, here are a couple of notes before we start: First, the civilization boundaries on the Map are based more on clarity than anything else, so in most cases, they conform to their modern counterparts. We have also worked using the commonly implemented political borders, not necessarily what nations claim, and this means making some judgment calls, which you will see below. Also, while all attempts have been made to ensure that everything is accurately placed, putting this together meant working from multiple sources, map projections, and sometimes not firm locations. As such, no matter how much you try, there might be some slight discrepancies here and there. If you want to learn more about some of the location choices that we made, you can find more details in our first Full Civilization Map.

North America

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With the new Map, I decided to update the underlying template to the latest version of my world map, which we use for all our Map-Its. It is not a ground-up rebuild. Instead, it is a tweak of the old version. In North America, you will see some changes on the Atlantic coastline. However, the big update is the Great Lake region. I have never been happy with how the Great Lakes looked on any of my maps, and getting it to a point where I am pleased with it has been a long time coming. Also, I got you, Newfoundland. Eventually, I will probably finish updating all of Canada’s coastline, but Canada, you have so many islands … so many … like have you counted them all … one day, but not today.   

South America

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With South America, you may notice that we have updated the Patagonian Archipelagos away from being a bit stodgy to closer to what they are in real life. But also, in South America, you will find some of our first Wonder additions. In the first Map, I discounted a lot of the World Wonders that were more ephemeral. As the franchise moved on, there would be fewer and fewer of these; however, it was a mistake to ignore them outright. Unlike, say, the Pentagon or Sydney Opera House, these don’t have an explicit point on the Map as to where they needed to go. So, I always went with where the best vibe was.      

Africa

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With Africa, Madagascar got a bit of a refresh. However, that is about it. Unfortunately, it is the area of the globe that has received the least attention during the franchise, and hopefully, Civilization VII might fix some of that.  

Europe

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The first update to Europe is the addition of the one city I was missing on the first Map, so a big thank you to Civilization Reddit for that help. The big update on this Map is the British Isles, which I was never thrilled with. Thanks to the new wonders and the updated coastline, I had the opportunity to do a ground-up rebuild. Now, as you may remember from the last Map, the British Isles were the second most crowded location. This was a long job; I mean, I noticed some issues that I had to fix while writing this article. However, I am much happier with how it turned out. It also meant that I tweaked the Celts map a touch as I redid the French coastline. The rest of the islands get an update so that they are not just blobs, so wave hello to a nicer Iceland, and I will get to you one day, Greenland.  

The Middle East

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With the Middle East, we can see some map tweaks as we take another trip to the Caspian Sea. This did involve moving some of Persia’s cities around as I had made some mistakes last time. Also, one of the big things I missed with the other Map was that I forgot about barbarians. In different versions of the game, they have been just unmarked, nameless warriors constantly cornering and killing my scout because it took one step in the wrong direction. However, in some of the earlier Civilization games, they were linked to real peoples around the world. In this version, we have fixed it and added them, as long as they have not also appeared as a civilization proper in the games.     

East Asia

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With East Asia, we also get the other significant addition that we made from the Map, and the only addition is technically new content. With the surprise Civilization VI Leader Pass back in 2022-2023, we got a bunch more cities that needed to be upgraded to capitals, two of which you can find in China. It also has the one wonder that I spent the most time trying to find the right location. There is no real Sun Tzu’s Academy, but thankfully, we will have a slightly better reference to the original works going forward. I had to do a lot of digging into Sun Tzu, and this was the best place I could find, but I think it is still contested.

The Pacific

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Last but not least, we get to combine Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australasia all into one Map. There was no real reason to do it other than I wanted to, and I think it looked good. Also, New Zealand got an update that meant that we completely rebuilt it, but I am happier with how the North Island looks now.

The World

Here it is, the whole world in all its glory. This is a map that, on the one hand, took a couple of months to put together, but it has also been a map that I have been working on for several years. So, what civilizations do you think are missing from this Map that you would like to see in Civilization VII? Let us know in the comments below.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Have you seen any odd maps in Movies, TV or Video Games?, let us know in the comments below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can follow us Here. Check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day.

Credits –

– The World Map that we used as a base several iterations ago was created by ‘San Jose’ which is shared with a Creative Commons Licence.

– The Nation detail maps America, Antarctica, Anticosti, Argentina,  Australia 1, Australia 2, Azores, British Isles,  Canada, Cape Verde, Canary Islands, Caribbean, Caspian Sea, China, Cook Islands, Europe Relief, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Fiji, France, French Polynesia, Funchal, Gilbert Islands, Germany, Great Lakes, Greece, Hawaii, Iceland, India, Italy, Jan Mayen,  Japan, Karachi, India, Madagascar, Maledives, Marshall Islands, Mauritius, Micronesia, Micronesia, Newfoundland and Labrador, New Zealand, Netherlands, Northern Mariana Islands, Provinces Maritimes, Réunion, Samoa, Scandinavia, Seychelles, South Africa, South Georgia, Spain, Taiwan, Tonga, USA Midwest and Northeast,  Valley of Mexico & Vietnam  that we used for reference were shared with a Creative Commons Licence or was in the Public Domain. They were originally created by Aotearoa, Alexrk2, Antigoni, CIA, Dr Wilson, E Pluribus Anthony, Frantishak, Fut Perf, HectorMoffet, Htonl, Kelisi, Koyos, L. Claudel, Li Chao, Maximilian Dörrbecker, Mrflip, Mysid, NASA, NgaViet, NordNordWest, Phizzy, Radosław Botev, Saqib Qayyum, Sémhur, Shadowfox, Silver Spoon, Sting, Szczureq, The Emirr, Tschubby ,Tubs, Tyk, United States Corps of Engineers, United States Department of the Interior, Uwe Dedering, Visitor from Wikishire, Wikimedia Commons, Yavidaxiu & Yug.

– The River Maps Amazon, Amu Darya, Amur, Aras, Colorado, Columbia, Congo, Danube, Dnieper, Don, Elbe, Fraser, Horn of Africa Rivers, Indus, Karun, Kizilirmak, Kuban, Lena, Liao, Limpopo, Loire, Mackenzie, Mekong and Irrawaddy, Niger, Nile, Ob, Okavango, Pearl, Rhein, Río de la Plata, Sefīd, Saint Lawrence, São Francisco, Syr Darya, Tarim, Tigris and The Euphrates, Vistula, Volga, Yangtze, Yellow, Yenisei, Yukon & Zambezi  that we used as a guide for this Map was shared with a Creative Commons Licence or in the Public Domain. They were originally created by СафроновАВ, DEMIS, Emma Pease, Francis McLloyd, Hel-Hama, Imagico, Keenan Pepper, Kmusser, MatthiasKabel, Qyd, Shannon1, Sting, Ulamm & The United Nations.

Disclosure – I am a moderator on the site Civfanatics of which several staff and players are members of the ‘Frankenstein Testing Group’, Firaxis Games internal playtesting team. I am not part of this team, nor do I have any links with Firaxis Games or 2K.