Ever since Civ5 released it has been a constant presence on my pc desktop. It’s my go-to game when I have some time to kill and most of the time that 30 minutes I had to kill become a marathon that end late into the night. I just love that game. Earlier this week the first expansion was released and it’s a blast.
Religion !
The big addition to this expansion is religion. Religion in Civ5 works as an enhancer to your civ. You accumulate faith points which can be then used on buildings and units. You can also use religion as way to give yourself an edge in the political game by converting others to your religion or simply use it to improve aspects of your civ. There’s a lot of options.
The best part is that if you’re the founder of a religion you get to pick the traits of your religion and make it custom fit for your civ. A lot of the bonuses are situational but if you happen to fall into the right conditions they can be pretty useful.
The best part is that all of this is optional, it can be powerful if you invest in it but you’ll lose some effort in other areas and if you chose to ignore it you can still win the game by the other means.
Spies!
Spies are back too and they are… good… in certain cases… Okay, spies are one of those things that by itself won’t win you the game but that in a close fight can be the extra edge you need. The way they work is that you have an Intelligence panel where you assign your spies to certain tasks like stealing tech and rigging elections.
The one strategy where spying can give you a real edge would be the diplomatic victory since you can ally yourself more easily with independent city-states.
It’s a good time to be a king
If you’re any kind of civ 5 fan I strongly recommend this expansion. Religion and spying add more options to an already great game and they are fun. On top of that Gods and Kings adds scenarios, a much improved AI and there’s even a scenario to play a steam punk version of the game complete with steam tanks and flying airships.
I highly recommend it!
Is it bad that when I want a good dose of some Civ gameplay, I always go back to Civ 3? I made sure to load it on my new PC and it’s still the ultimate Civ experience for me.
Yes it is bad… very bad.. true hardcore civ players load up civ4!
I’ve always liked Civ: Call To Power best personally.