Civ 5 won't launch

[Kakapoo1]

I click to play civ 5 and I select the platform i want to play it on (direct X9) and then nothing happens, the game doesnt launch and no message appears? nothing happens?

[Ocean Guy]

Make sure you have performed the First Time setup.
Also, you can try launching the game directly through \Steam\steamapps\common\Sid Meier's Civilization V - CivilizationV_DX11 (Sadly, no DX9 option exists in this manner, as far as I know).

[Kakapoo1]

When I click play it comes up with a menu saying select a ...... and they are all grayed out apart from Direct X9 so I click it then nothing happens

[Kakapoo1]

Im going to try and install it on drive :C instead of drive :D because that worked when rome total war wouldnt launch, I will get back to you once Im done : )

[Ocean Guy]

Is your video card compatible with Direct X 10/11 or only with 9?
If you are unsure, then are you playing on a Windows XP operation system?

[Kakapoo1]

yes I am playing on windows xp

[Ocean Guy]

That is why you can only run the game in DX9, as XP does not support DX10 or DX11.

As for the issue of it not running, have you performed the first time setup, as mentioned?

[Kakapoo1]

what is the first time setup? just to make sure

[Ocean Guy]

The first time you start up a Steam game, you will get one of the pop-up windows from Windows (if I recall correctly it is a pop-up, it has been a while since I used an XP) stating that a program associated with Steam is reuesting permission to run.
After accepting this pop-up, you will get a small Steam window with the text "performing first time setup". This first time setup will usually contain 2 or 3 steps, and the window will tell you what step you are on. One of these steps usually includes installing DirectX (this does not cause any harm at all if you already have DirectX installed).

If you aren't promted with the pop-up when starting Civilization V, try running the "Launcher.exe" file located in the same folder as stated above.
Make sure to run it as an administrator.

Also, if I am not entierly wrong, there is supposed to be a file located in the Civilization V folder or in a subfolder that contains data on wheter or not the First Time Setup should be performed or not, as to avoid the First Time Setup to be initialized on every startup.
This is atleast the case with other Steam games, where you get promted to perform the First Time Setup on each startup, and in order to fix this bug, you have to edit said file.

Finally, a friend of mine had a similar problem with the windows prompts did not show up (this was on a Windows 7 machine). He managed to fix this problem by restarting his computer. You could try restarting your computer and immediately run the Launcher file as an Administrator, if all else fails. However, I cannot at all confirm that this will make the game work.

[Kakapoo1]

where is this subfolder?

[Ocean Guy]

As mentioned; I have no idea. I know that such a file exists with the game Dishonored, but I do not know where the Civilization file is located, although it should exist.