Civilization V

I love Civilization. Always have. For the unfamiliar with the series, it's a 4X game - explore, expand, exploit, exterminate - in which you control an empire and attempt to meet certain victory conditions before the other teams do. It's ridiculously customizable and almost endlessly replayable. This version of the game - the fifth - has been out for five years, so it's hardly "new" in any sense. All the same, it's the latest and greatest from a long-beloved franchise of mine, so naturally I've dumped several dozen hours into it in the week I've had it, staying up far too late for far too many nights in a row in the process.

I've started and finished three games of Civilization V, essentially beating it three separate times. It's time to put the game away for a while now so that I can move on to other games. And also so I can get some sleep. Anyway, here's a quick rundown of the games I played.

1. The Americans - For my first game, I jumped in with every standard setting as George Washington of the American people. The randomly generated map had me starting out on one big continent along with four other civilizations, while a sixth - England - started out on a separate continent entirely. I quickly established my first few cities in the lower left corner of the continent and then raced toward the middle expanding my empire along the way. I eventually settled a city right next to Egypt's borders (Egypt was on the lower right) and Egypt didn't take too kindly to that. We went to war, and although Egypt offered a peace treaty pretty quickly, I declined, and ended up driving them out of the game by taking all of their cities. This didn't go unnoticed by the other three civilizations, who all began to denounce me. I had earned a reputation as a warmonger, and by taking all of Egypt's cities I was also the largest empire in the game from that point forward. France, directly to my north, eventually challenged me to a war and so I took all of their cities, too. At this point I was barreling toward a "domination victory," achieved when every other civilization loses its capital city. But England was still all the way across an ocean, and getting a large enough army there would have been a pain in the ass, so instead I just put all my focus toward scientific research and won the game by being the first civilization to successfully launch a spaceship to a new planet. This one was well in hand from the time I was beating France down, and the final hours of the game certainly felt like they dragged a bit.
2. The Romans (Tyrells) - Because Civilization games are endlessly modifiable, I knew there'd be a map of Westeros out there somewhere. Instead, there were half a dozen. I picked the largest one, increased my difficulty settings, and rolled into what would become my favorite Civilization game to date. (Here's a high-resolution Westeros map for reference.) I chose to play as the Romans this time around, but when the game randomly spawned me near the Highgarden part of Westeros, I knew I was really going to be playing as the Tyrells. From the outset, there were eight civilizations on just one continent. From my corner, I knew my biggest three rivals would be Arabia (Dorne) to my south, Egypt (Stormlands) to my east, and Spain (Westerlands and the Reach) to my north. Role-playing right along like the biggest damn nerd, I took the Tyrell-Martell rvialry to heart and almost immediately went to war with Dorne. It was costly and stupid. While I did end up winning the ordeal and taking the whole peninsula in the process, it was a pyrrhic victory. I was way behind, technologically, as I'd focused all of my efforts and resources on the war effort. I also had once again immediately earned denunciations from every other civilization. Rapid expansion had also left me poor and taking new cities had rendered my population widely unhappy. Almost immediately, Spain (Lannisters) and Egypt (Baratheons) declared war on me and went straight for my northern side while my armies were still making their way back from Dorne. It was only the mountainous terrain that saved me from Egypt, as all units receive defensive bonuses on hills; a minor naval war broke out in the Sea of Dorne, but Egypt never really challenged me with any land units. Spain very nearly took my northernmost city, Cider Hall, but I was able to defend it with a few crossbowmen and a well-timed plea for peace. (I think I had to essentially buy peace from them.) Egypt gave up their attack shortly afterward and I settled into the long process of building up my defenses, bringing my Dornish cities up to speed, and trying to foster good will from every other civilization. It worked, mostly because of all the riches I was reaping as the Tyrells; whoever designed the map knew to put all kinds of commodities in the Reach, and I was quickly establishing all kinds of trading engagements with those around me. Meanwhile, way up in the north - really, in the North - England was making absolute hay as an aggressive version of the Starks. They had the largest territory in the game and eventually eliminated China (who started near the Neck or the Riverlands, I think) and knocked the Aztecs (no idea where they were even based) down to one pathetic and inconsequential city on one of those islands in the Bite. It looked very much like England was going to win. And then everything changed when Egypt went to war with me again. This time, I was entirely ready not just to defend, but to counter-attack. Spain stayed out of it, allowing me to focus everything I had on pushing back against Egypt. I took every city Egypt had, forcing them from the game. And then, oddly, and with horrible timing, Spain declared war on me. I took their six or seven cities away in ten to fifteen turns. It was a bloodbath. This was late enough in the game for me to have stealth bombers and nuclear missiles, and Spain just never stood a chance. That left four civilizations remaining. England, taking up the entire North; me, owning essentially everything south of the Riverlands; the Aztecs, again, confined to one small island and with no hope of winning; and Polynesia, in the Eyrie and at the Twins, also too small to have any shot at winning the game. England was at war with Polynesia, and winning. And they could have knocked out the Aztecs in a turn or two if they really wanted to. The stage was set for a showdown between me and England - Tyrell vs. Stark - with the Neck itself set to be the site of just wave after wave of battles. I knew I couldn't win a war with England. They had more cities and just so many more units - even though I don't think they had bombers and nukes yet. So instead, I did the most Tyrell thing possible, and scored a diplomatic victory. This is a late-game alternative to winning via domination or space race, in which every civilization casts a vote for who should win the game. It only ends the game if one civilization garners enough votes, and, sure enough, that's exactly what I did - thanks largely to some immense donations to the lesser civilizations around me. I never actually went to war with England, nor did I ever move a unit further north than the Neck. Still, from very early on, it was clear that England and I were the top two dogs in the fight - and I beat them without ever fighting them in a single battle. Ha! Those Starks. They'll never learn how to play the game of thrones!
3. The Polynesians - This one will be real quick because, well, this game was. It was also boring as hell. Looking for a completely different experience, I played a game where the world map was set to an "archipelago" type; everyone was scattered on different islands, most of which weren't even big enough for more than two cities. From the very beginning in this one, I was aiming for a cultural victory - a victory triggered when you've generated enough culture, which is hard to do when you're at war, obviously. No one ever declared war on me, nor did I ever delcare war on anyone else, nor did any civilization get knocked out of the game. Like I said, a very boring game. Worst of all, my victory was all but assured pretty early on, once I got my culture-making engine going - but I still had to sit through eleven other civilizations making their moves and asking me to go to war against each other. I played this whole session in one night, but it was a six-hour ordeal. Thank God for Netflix.

Anyway, that was Civilization V. I loved it, and if I had nothing but time on my hands, I'd still be playing it. (I never did get a domination victory.) Oh well. There are two expansion packs for the game, and I'm sure I'll check each one out another time.