I love Civilization. Many hours were lost playing this game in Uni. Many a day I would play it at my friend’s place downstairs while she was fast asleep — she had a machine capable of playing Civ IV. Alpha Centauri I played and loved too. So I am a bit of a fan.
Civ V came out, and we saw some new additions. I liked it. I have always felt Civ missed out on a few things. It still does, it is certainly not EUIII (more on that later). I like the hex based play. I feel the movement is more natural. I feel ranged units benefit from this too. Of course the hex geometry means you can’t cheat by moving diagonals, a feature I kind of liked. Why? I felt it was the game saying, “Be a bishop, move unexpectedly”.
Speaking of speaking, quotes are there, but seem a little US-centric. I think Civ IV’s were much better done. Understandable I suppose. We also have non-stacking units. Again, I like it. I think it could have been done better, perhaps allowing you to stack a ranged with a non ranged unit, making bowmen a bit more lethal though.
In vanilla Civ V I found the city states to be very divisive. On the one hand they could be useful, providing resources and much needed gold and staging zones. On the other, they seemed to get stuck on missions, and as my usual method is to be friendly to everyone until I see a massive need to bully people and all my allied CS’s just wanted me to bully the others, that was annoying on my first few play throughs. They also seemed to have a nasty habit of deciding to hate me as soon as I was top dog. That seemed a little illogical.
It was good to see the old methods we have always used seem to still serve well. Monarchy, is still my favoured path, backing up a big army, and a good network of cities. So in some ways, not much has changed. I heard a lot of hype that you can’t build more than five cities without collapsing, but I think it was being blown out of proportion.
Oh, and cities can attack. I forget this occasionally and end up with eleventy billion units.
Gods and Kings
I think if you play Civ V you need this. It makes things better. Yes, the AI is still batshit insane. Which helps ‘cause you often end up bombing their peaceful villages into dust anyway. However you can now have City States stay friends, and cancel their requests that you go fisticuffs with City State no. 2 over an imagined insult.
Religion is a fun thing too. You get to do all sorts of things, though I found it to be just a fun feature (setting up zoroastrianism for funsies, then having the orthodox guys go “hey bro, let’s be BFFs. Cool?”). I probably should have read the instructions on that but when did that help anyone?
AI is still Civ AI. instead of being rational they all appear to think that I should just hand over millions of golds immediately. I have noticed a bug in a recent game. They will offer something then immediately deny it when I say accept. This I am sure is a plot against me.
Upgrading units and units in general I suppose
I never quite follow the logic behind different upgrades to units. Sometimes this means I end up with an outdated army, but still do well ‘cause I can shoot 2 hexes away. Oh and Naval units now have to fight embarked units. This is is a little reasonable, though irritating. I haven’t had to check with worker units, but I would like if these just surrendered. A military unit should be in a defensive convoy anyway. So yeah.
Long distance movement is still a major cause of butt-ache. I end up just doing it manually ‘cause it still seems to be too much to ask. G&K does it somewhat better. Vanilla fell victim to... something, where I accidentally left a worker off the coast for about fifty years. I wonder how much that cost the kingdom. It also doesn’t seem a wise use of resources.
Espionage
This is irritating. I think it always will be. I find it a bit fiddly and really only use it defensively. Maybe that is because most my style is defensive, but long experience of the Crazy McLoonypants AI Civ uses has given me some weird PTSD against being overly aggressive and forthright.
Graphics
Good. it is pretty easy to determine what unit is yours. I notice a few glitches when moving units occasionally, but it just adds hilarity to see your Destroyer sail off the right side of the screen and reappear on the left then zoom to the one hex different from the start.
Multiplayer
Slow.
Why I would recommend it
Unlike some games, which suck you in and also make time vanish to the place of sand and fairies and dreams about sand fairies, Civ V doesn’t ask much. Crusader Kings and EUIII make me feel like I should have a spreadsheet open or at least a notepad to note down who I am friends with, who I am not, which of my friends is about to betray me and which I am about to betray. Don’t get me wrong, I love that shit. I just don’t have time for it, and when relaxation becomes more taxing than work I better be getting a six pack from it. Civ I can sit down and play while talking to my partner, and there is a 75% chance I will be able to do both. Or I can sit down and play a bit between doing important things (like getting ready to go out, or killing time before someone turns up).
Why I wouldn’t recommend it
Wife is not a fan of this at all. She has a point. This is just like Civ has always been. You just playing until you realise that you are going to conquer the world, or you keep going till you actually do. This is not to say you always win. Just “actually winning” isn’t “actually interesting”. In some ways it is all just accounting. I think wife’s objection is that I just vanish into computer land.
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