Unciv Arena School: Global Phase Planning
Author: 遗封
Date: 2025-02-13
Preface: this tutorial is written to help newcomers who want to join upcoming summer tournaments and improve their PvP level. I hope everyone gains enough improvement after understanding this knowledge.
Section 1: Global phase planning
First, in PvP we need to understand global phase planning — what should be done in which time period — rather than making bizarre plans that put enormous pressure on ourselves and end in failure.
We can roughly divide a game into four phases: 1. Opening (T0~25); 2. Development (T26~40); 3. Confrontation (T41~70); 4. Stalemate (T70+). (Divided based on tiny maps; treat special cases individually.)
1. Opening phase (T0~25)
This is the period where the player starts with nothing. Available resources: the capital and its tiles, a limited amount of happiness, and one Warrior. What we need to do: 1. Expand controlled tiles and secure more development resources; 2. Gain initial intel on the enemy and fight early skirmishes for positive returns (including compressing the enemy's usable space, killing units, and deceptive strategies that mislead their decisions); 3. Begin improving domestic development.
Guided by these goals, we should: found a second city (goal 1), use units to pressure the opponent (goal 2), build domestic buildings (Granary, Monument, Shrine) or improve tiles with workers (goal 3). Since early production is limited, each opening choice — starting build (unit opener, monument opener, worker opener), policy tree (Tradition, Liberty, Honor), and tech path (Pottery, Animal Husbandry, Archery, Mining) — emphasizes different goals and evolves into different outcomes.
For example, one of the "Dark Duel" tactics is the Liberty double-archer build: build order usually Monument → Archer → Archer → Settler, tech starts with Archery, policies go Liberty — emphasizing goals 1 and 2 while Liberty's own traits cover goal 3.
So once you understand what you can achieve in this phase, decisions become much clearer: while reaching goals 1/2/3 as much as possible, watch the enemy's moves, and once you roughly judge their intent, respond immediately — in PvP the player is the master of the game, like two chess players countering each other.
Example: the opponent pressures you with units while you're building a Settler. If their play threatens your Settler, you must counter — build units to respond while completing your strategic deployment.
Also remember: being rushed down is still possible — suffering heavy losses from an opponent heavily biased toward goal 2 (captured/killed Settlers and units, or a single-city all-in on your capital). Prevent this, and also restrain yourself from such extreme plays: over-investing in one goal is highly risky and easily backfires.
2. Development phase (T26~40)
Entering this phase steadily, your resources are: capital and its tiles, a second city and its tiles, remaining happiness, and a small number of operable military units. Goals: 1. Continue expanding controlled tiles and securing development resources on top of the earlier base; 2. Learn more about the enemy and fight this phase's skirmishes for positive returns; 3. Raise domestic development to speed up coming online.
Around these goals, there is a lot to do in this phase — it's the period where both sides accelerate development while watching for opportunities. We must consider whether to add more domestic buildings (on top of the existing ones) or more cities for terrain control, while also accelerating army formation to handle possible sneak attacks and the inevitable fierce confrontation of the next phase.
Example: after a Liberty monument opener, I need to speed up completing the Liberty tree. So I add Monuments in my new cities, use workers to improve tiles faster for domestic income, and meanwhile grow my army with quality units to prepare for the next confrontation (setting up defensive lines or offensive layouts), or apply flexible pressure to slow the opponent's development — gaining enough strategic advantage or even an early victory.
Of course, defending against sneak attacks is also vital: keep checking the victory screen's rankings and graphs, examine opponent info carefully, and make the best judgment.
3. Confrontation phase (T41~70) and stalemate phase (T70+)
I call this period the confrontation phase. Why is it only now called confrontation? Because earlier fights are mostly small and local — generally unable to decide the game quickly. But this period is when unit supply approaches saturation (roughly like max-pop in StarCraft/Civ), domestic development is well-established, armies are largely formed, control areas need to expand again, and tile resources grow tight as players control more land. Hence large, fierce decisive battles are all but guaranteed — what we must do is win the decisive battle: crush the enemy's main forces or seize their key cities.
As for situations that remain unresolved for a long time — where even the confrontation phase can't end the game — you enter the longer stalemate phase after T70. What you can do then: keep the front from collapsing while seeking a turning point through wonders, domestic buildings, and higher-quality units to end the game. This is inevitably a very long process; please be patient.