Introduction to Games of the Month

Welcome to Games of the Month

Here's where you can find all the info of what the games are and how to play them'

What are Games of the Month (GOTMs)?

The games of the month are regular games that give you the chance to play Civilization single player, and then discuss your strategy and compare your results with other players.

The idea is, everyone plays from the same starting save, which you download from this site. When you've finished your game, you upload your final result save. Once each game is over, we publish the results, so you can see how you compared with everyone else. You might even win an award if you got - say - the fastest victory or the highest score. And we have discussion forums where you can interact with the other players.

How It Works

A Brief Summary of the Procedures

Read the rules of the competition here. Please note the two over-riding rules:
1. Do Not Reload A Save To Change Any Move, Outcome Or Decision.
  This Includes Replaying From The Start.
2. If you are uncertain about whether an action is an exploit, you should contact the staff before doing it.
Get the game information and download the start file using the links on these pages
Play the game, avoiding unnecessary reloading, and avoiding looking at spoilers you shouldn't.
Civ3 Players: Save and submit your .SAV file after you have finished here.
Civ4 Players: Submit the .Civ4SavedGame, .CivWarlordsSave or .CivBeyondSwordSave file after you have finished here.
All players need to tell us your Forum nickname and when your Save was made, and to provide an email address in case we need to contact you about your entry. We do not use your email addresses for any other purposes, or give them to anyone else.
Read and participate in the spoiler threads when you are eligible.
Watch and wait for the results. They will be published on the home page here, on the main CFC news, and in a Forum thread.
Most of all, enjoy the GOTM experience.

Overview of the Games of the Month

Several times each month we start a new game, save it in the very first turn and place it on this site. Then everyone can download this saved game and play it. Everyone plays the same game in the GOTM, allowing a meaningful comparison of playing skills and strategies.

The Civ3 games released on the 1st of each month are set up to be played with the Civ3 Conquests version. Those released mid month must be played using the Play the World expansion

Civ3 games are released at three different playing Classes: 'Conquest', 'Open' and 'Predator'.

Novice players can choose the 'Conquest' starting save for extra starting bonuses, and a score penalty.
Players wishing for an extra challenge can choose the Predator start save to start with extra handicaps.
All others will choose the Open option for a game with a standard set-up.

The C-IV games are currently set up to be played with version 1.74 of Civ 4, version 2.13 of Warlords and version 3.19 of Beyond the Sword.

C-IV games are also released at three different playing Classes: 'Adventurer', 'Contender' and 'Challenger'.

Novice players can choose the Adventurer starting save for extra starting bonuses, and a score penalty.
Players wishing for an extra challenge can choose the Challenger start save to start with extra handicaps.
All others will choose the Contender option for a game with a standard set-up.

After playing major phases of your game you may choose to participate in the discussion groups in the Game of the Month forum where some of the best players in the world discuss strategy and tactics from a common frame of reference. We encourage you to play the entire game through to completion and when you're done, submit your results back to us. We compile monthly statistics on every game and rank the performance of everyone who has participated. We have a casual community of players built around a common interest in playing at least one good game of Civilization each month and sharing our exploits with our friends and comrades.

Medals are awarded in each game to players who submit one of the three highest scoring games. Achievement awards are presented to the players who submit the fastest/strongest finishes by the different victory conditions. Special recognition awards are also presented to players who attain a number of other noteworthy or sometimes dubious honors. Earn a medal or an award in any event, and your name will be inscribed in the “Pantheon of Heroes” forever. The Pantheon recognizes and records the historic achievements of all players.

In addition to recognition in the Pantheon of Heroes, every player earns points by playing and submitting any of the GOTM events. Points are accumulated from events during the previous six to nine months to reward players for posting outstanding performance and consistently strong play in multiple game events. The Civ3 Global Ranking and Civ4 Global Ranking of player performance represent lists of some of the best Civilization players in the world.

The Civ3 Games of the Month may also be played with special attention to details to sumbit for the Quick Start Challenge (QSC). Quick Start Challenge games document timelines of the opening movement sequences from 4000bc up to 1000bc and attempt to measure which player can build the most powerful civilization in this short period of time.

New Games of the Month are developed by the GOTM staff and posted on the 1st and 15th of each month. Completed submissions for full games are due on or before the corresponding day of next month.

A Succession GOTM feature was introduced in 2004. This is a team competition where players take turns to play 10 turns an pass the the save file on. SGOTMs are played to GOTM rules plus Succession Game protocols. Watch the forums for news of new SGOTMs played with Civ3 and Civ4.

There is a short summary of the links in this page at the foot of the page. For a much more comprehensive reference to the information sources for Civ3 GOTM you can visit the GOTM Reference Thread

You must be a registered member of the CivFanatics forums website in order to participate in any game event or discussion group. Registration is free and carries no special obligations or commitment to play. Please use your registered member name for the CivFanatics Center (your CFC member name) when you submit all your games so that your submissions are correctly attributed to you. Please also use it in any correspondence with the Staff.

Registration also provides you with free access to private messaging and filtered email that prevents your personal email address from being used by others while allowing you to communicate freely with all the members of the CFC gaming community. We will use the features to contact you if we need help in processing any of your game submissions.

General Rules

To play the GOTM games with Civilization III you must first install the latest patches for your software. These are currently versions: PTW version 1.27f, or Conquests version 1.22. Please note that the Civ3 GOTM no longer supports Civ3 version 1.29.

To play the GOTM games with Civilization IV, Warlords or Beyond the Sword you must install:

The latest patches for your software.
These are currently Civ4 version 1.74, Warlords version 2.13, or Beyond the Sword (BtS) version 3.19.
If you do not have BtS then you need to replace the CvGameCoreDLL.dll files in your Civ4 and/or Warlords Assets folders to emulate the effect of a BtS installation. Download these files here.
The latest version of the Hall of Fame Mod for your Civ4 software.
This includes a set of very useful playing aids, such as autologging, improved Domestic and Foreign advisers, auto-save on exit etc. It also provides enhanced security features, helping to ensure that the game is played fairly by all players.

You must play your own game without the assistance of spoilers and other information not available to you as an individual player.

There are some types of exploits and bugs listed here that are specifically allowed or disallowed. If you wish to take advantage of a bug or exploit not listed then you must contact the staff via Private mail for a ruling on whether or not it will be allowed.

You may not reload the game from any previous save file or an autosave file, including the Start file, in order to replay and change any events that occur in the game. Reloading gives you an artificial knowledge of future events and might allow you to manipulate the outcomes of some random events, but these behaviors will often leave a distinctive signature on your game that can be detected by further review of your submitted save game files

For the same reasons, you may not retire and then continue the game from an earlier save. Retirement gives you additional map knowledge not otherwise available during the game.

Every submitted game is validated to make sure it originated for the original starting save file and to ensure that other players can load the file to compare your results to the results they may have achieved in the same game. A number of special software tools are combined with a review by experienced Civilization players to help extract and compare key events from all submitted games.

To submit a full Game of the Month you need to play the game through to a completed victory of defeat condition. Your submitted game file should be a manual save from the first continuation turn after your victory or defeat, unless you suffer a conquest defeat. In that case you must submit a manual saved file from the turn before defeat. You may submit a Retired game, but this will not be eligible for any awards, and its score may be penalised. You only need to submit the final save file, but every player should retain backups of savegames on or around 2000 BC, 1000 BC, 10 AD, and 1000 AD. The extra savegames may be requested by members of the GOTM staff to help in validating the results of all the submitted games

To submit the Civ3 Quick Start Challenge you need to prepare a timeline of the early game and submit a 1000 BC save file. Visit the Quick Start Challenge information pages for more details

List of Civ3 Links

List of Civ4 Links

Last updated: Dec 13, 2025