Posts tagged Civilization V

TOTW: Civilization V – Beyond Earth Announced

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11 years
by in TOTWs

Undoubtedly the most well known strategy game, Sid Meier’s Civilization has captivated gamers for more than 20 years. Over time, Civ has advanced a significant from the original version, and in late 2010, Fraxis and 2K (the companies who makes Civ) released the newest version, Civ V(5). Civ V was a giant upgrade, but still they strive to add more to the gameplay, previously adding more and more civs, situations, map packs, and gameplay features such as World Congress and Trade Units. Still, if you play the game, you know that the later part of the game can get boring and repetitive, which they are trying to fix, but with the newest announcement, the game will not only get more interesting but also longer.

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Snapshot of Civilization(1)

At the Pax 2014 recently, Fraxis announced the release of their newest expansions pack (like the earlier Brave New World) called Beyond Earth. As the name suggests, the expansion pack will allow you to travel into space and, well, do what you do on Earth: settle, conquer, grow, repeat. This of course opens of the game completely, and basically gives the developers at Fraxis a field day. And what they have released certainly shows that.

From what they have said, Beyond Earth is set where Earth is unstable, and you need to find a new home. They have not said if you will start the game as normal, but that is something that probably won’t be known until the release day. You make a space ship based off of your playing style, and even chose a sponsor, each with different benefits. The whole way you colonize the planets is customizable, from the colonists to the cargo. The new planet is home to completely new alien life, (which should be interesting, considering civ’s very detailed civilization animations) tiles, and relics, all which you can exploit for the good of your civilization.

The technology will also be changed to accommodate the space travel. The tree will be split into three categories, each with their own technologies and victory conditions. Also, the new technology feature is not linear. Since your future is vague, the technologies come in sections based off your choices throughout the game.

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Overall, the Beyond Earth pack should be full of surprises with new and fun (hopefully) gameplay. Other than the features I mentioned, there is a lot they haven’t specified, such as the exact game mechanics, or the switching between Earth and space. Units, tiles, resources, civs and even the basic rules of the game will be changed because of the new possibilities of space. Coming out in Fall 2014, Civilization Beyond Earth promises to be a groundbreaking game for the Civ franchise and series.

AOTW: Civilization V Brave New World Review

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11 years
by in AOTWs

Finally! After waiting a year since the last update, Civilization V has been updated in the form of a expansion pack, Brave New World. After coming out on July 9th in the US and July 12th everywhere else, I got to play it and I have to say it is worth the money. If you want a more fully-detailed description of the game, go to the preview. The information was correct. Here, I will go over gameplay strategies and other specifics.

Culture

First of all, the Social Policy Tree has been updated to add 2 new trees: Exploration and Aesthetics. Aesthetics provides support to culture-seeking player, with policies such as reducing the culture cost of policies by 15%. But the real way to win a culture victory is Tourism. To get tourism, you have to produce Great Artists, Writers and Musicians. They can be expended to leave Great Works behind. Each of these Great Works are worth 2 Tourism points. But, you have to house these in building such as Museums, Palaces and Wonders. Without a housing, you will be forced to either wait, produce one, or use the Plan B bonus. Trust me, that is frustrating. I had a Golden Age that lasted practically half the game since I didn’t have a house for the Great Artists. Anyway, put your Great People into cities that are already producing culture, producing Great People, producing more culture. It is a vicious cycle. To win a Culture Victory, you just have to have “Influential” (it rates your tourism influence over other civs in levels) Tourism for every other civ. Also, one civ that can help you achieve this is the new Pedro II of Brazil. who gets extra Tourism and culture in Golden Ages, or “Carnivals”.

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The Policies

Diplomacy

The real only change to Diplomacy is the World Congress, but it is a great one. Once one civ has met everyone in the world, the World Congress begins. Whoever triggered is hosts the first sessions. The hosts get reassigned each new age, but with a reward. First, you and the person with the 2nd most delegates get to propose resolution, which are bonuses that get voted on. Delegates are your votes. If you are the host, you automatically get a couple extra delegates. Other ways to get more Delegates are by wonders and other special features, but one way is very important  city-state allies. In the 2nd age of the Congress, city-state allies give you an extra vote. So, before the congress, use you money and do all you can to win over city-states. Also, when the time comes to get a new host, use all your delegates. It is crucial. Because later on when it automatically proposes World Leader, which triggers the Diplomatic victory.

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The World Congress Screen

War

Not much has been changed in war, for that was what Gods and Kings waas about. But, a civ that strives on war and dominancy was added: Zulu. If war is your goal, Zulu would be a good choice of a civ.

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His Jungle-ness, The Mighty Shaka Zulu

Science

Like war, science was not altered in Brave New World. Only, like G&K, a new civ that is a mix between war and science was introduced: Ashurbanipal. Every time you capture a city as him, you can steal one of their already-researched techs. Very handy.

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And Ashur

Overall, Brave New World defiantly did not disappoint. It’s new features, such as Tourism and Trade Routes, which I did not mention but can be read about in the preview, are so adverse and realistic. Every year, Civ gets closer and closer to felling like real life. And if you haven’t bought Civilization V Brave New World, something is really wrong with you and you should buy it and change that.

AOTW: Civilization V Brave New World Preview

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11 years
by in AOTWs

Whatever kind of gamer you are, wether it is RPG or puzzle, you have got to have heard of Sid Meier’s Civilization V. Civ V is a game where you start as a pre-made civilization, such as Napoleon, Gandhi, Ramesses II and Elizabeth I. Each of these civs have special units and abilities. Basically, you try to beat AI civs, and control the world on way or another. I could go on forever, but, for this I am going to assume you know how to play. Anyway, after about a year to play around with Civ V’s 1st expansion pack Gods And Kings, Sid Meier announced announced a second expansion pack, Brave New World. And from information we have now, it’s going to be a big change.

Civs

First of all, 9 new civs will be added to the game. Here are the most exiting of the bunch:

Ashurbanipal Of Assyria: Being the 3rd Mesopotamian civ, after Darius and Nebuchadnezzar, Ashurbanipal of Assyria has the amazing ability Treasures of Nineveh. It allows you to steal a enemy technology every time you capture a city! This is great for any war-going players that want to have superior weapons and techs.

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Assyria’s Unique Unit, The Siege Tower

Gajah Mada Of Indonesia: Gajah Mada is personally my favorite of the new civs. His ingenious animation is incredibly amazing (OK fine. That my be overdoing it). Spice Islanders, Gajah’s ability, gives each of their fist 3 cities on continents other than the founding continent a free luxury resource of your choice.

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Gajah Mada Himself

Pocatello Of The Shoshone Native Americans: After Hiawatha, Pocatello is the second native american leader. His ability Great Expanse gives his founded cities a free extra tile. Also, their soldiers get a combat bonus when fighting in their own territory. Comanche Riders, his special unit (along with Pathfinder), is a awesome horse rider that replaces Calvary.

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Comanche Rider

Shaka Of The Zulus: Ashurbanipal goes for science; Gajah Mada for trading/culture; Pocatello for expansion; Zulu for war. His best unit, the Impi, replace the Pikemen. They can attack twice, once in range, once in melee in one turn. Also, his ability makes war more efficient and less taxing.

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Shaka

Overall, it is amazing how the designers can come up with so many civs with so many unique abilities and units. They almost certainly have historians working for them. Plus, the tourism and trade route features are used in many of the new abilities. Interestingly, many of the new civs, including Brazil (Rio), Indonesia (Jakarta), Morocco (Marrakech), Portugal (Lisbon) and Venice (Venice) have had their capitals upgraded from city-states. Consequently, about 19 city-states have been added. I have to say, they did a good job (or at least I think).

Diplomacy

The main focus in BNW is making the game more interesting for culture/diplomatic playing in later stages of the game. A big update is the new World Congress. The World Congress is the new way to win a Diplomatic Victory. The World Congress gets initiated when one player meets all the civs, and has the tech Printing Press. Then, you automatically get introduced to all of them. Whoever initiated the Congress hosts it, meaning they get an extra delegate. Each delegate counts for 1 vote (allied city-states can get you more delegates). They are voting on what is called a resolution. The resolution are different bonuses, some projects (Manhattan Project), some rules. The host civ and the civ with the most delegates each pick a resolution, and they get voted on. This gets repeated every so-and-so turns, until the United Nation is built and they elect a World Leader for the Diplomatic Victory.

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Culture

Even more than diplomacy, culture in has been completely turned on it’s head. There are several different new features:

Social Policies/Ideologies

First of all, the Social Policy tree has been changed. Instead of Autocracy, Order and Freedom, which have been changed into the three main Ideologies, there are now Exploration and Aesthetics. Exploration gives more sight and movements, and Aesthetics boosts culture. Commerce has also been changed, giving it the power to upgrade your trade routes.

To make culture not as bland, Fraxis added Ideologies in BNW. Ideologies are basically trees of upgrades (like in religions). As I said, you can choose Autocracy, Order or Freedom. Each has it’s own upgrades, or Tenets, which also influence your relation with other civs.

Tourism 

Tourism is like your counter to other civs culture defense. To generate more tourism, you use things like having open boarder treaties or wonders. Your tourism is rated in 4 or maybe 5 levels: Exotic, Familiar, Popular, Influential and maybe Dominant. If your tourism is strong enough, the public might second guess their chosen Ideology, creating unhappiness (this can be monitored in the Public Opinion bar). If it gets really bad, their cities may switch over to you. If you become Influential in every other civ, you win a Culture Victory.

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Trade Routes

Trade Routes have also been upgraded in BNW. The regular trade routes made by roads still exist, but are just called “City Connections”. Regular Trade Routes are now physical (if you can say that for a video game) units. They can be made in the form of Caravans (for land) or Cargo Ships (for sea). For each unit, you can pick which city you want to have it go to. Each city has it’s own production. Unfortunately  at the start, you can only have 2 trade routes, but select civs and policies can change that. Usually you end up with 7 or 8. Trade routes also carry religious, scientific and tourism-related bonuses to the other city.

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As much as I would like all this to be real (and it probably is), there’s a small chance that it could be wrong. But for now, let’s assume it’s right for the fun of it. Assuming that, I could go on forever on all the new stuff there is. But I will save it for the review. This is a very exciting release for Civilization fans everywhere. And if you don’t have it, I suggest you get it now. It is probably the best stragety game out there, and Brave New World just made it more complete. Check back here for my review after the release on July 9th in America, and July 12th everywhere else!

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