This chapter is a guide to all Civ and Civ-related games. Therefore every guide will include this chapter.
The goal of the game
The precise goals of the game vary from game to game. For instance, in Civilization, there are two ways to win: launch a spaceship to Alpha Centauri, or destroy all the other nations. Every Civ game has equivalents to these two goals. For instance, the Transcendence victory in Alpha Centauri corresponds roughly to the spaceship victory in Civilization.
As in chess, the game is divided into several phases and the ultimate goal of the game should not distract you from playing each phase properly. Checking the king without purpose is useless in chess, as is making empty threats for no reason other than to make threats in Civ. In both games, an empty thread may or may not be effective, but for it to be truly effective it must have sound reasoning behind it, and if it does not work it must not punish the player who made the threat.
Expansion phase
The first phase of any Civ game is the expansion phase. Each civilization tries to stake its claim to as much territory as it can, possibly even knocking out a rival with a "rush" if possible. The details of this will differ from game to game and from player to player. For instance, in Civilization II, many players will place cities as far apart as necessary to avoid overlap, four squares being roughly optimal, while the same player may place cities extremely close together in Civilization III (sometimes even two squares apart, or one square apart in extreme situations). All games share a need to constantly produce colonizing units (Settlers in most versions, Colony Pods in Alpha Centauri).