Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
— J. Robert Oppenheimer, quoting from Bhagavadgita
Civilization. Mother of all strategy games. Destroyer of spare time.
— Robert Kalweit
Civ 1 & 2
Ever since I had a PC I was playing Civilization. The first part, all squares, units being only icons, the legendary palace. Great experience. Civ 2 was ever so more challenging. I was a kid, had a lot of fun, but never made it to higher levels of difficulty.
Civ 3
The third part was a major improvement in graphics and gameplay. Strategic resources played a more important role and again I played lots of games. Unfortunately most of the games (in higher difficulty levels) “ended” in a cold-war stalemate: About 5-6 remaining civilizations, one of them (if I played well that was me) as powerful as 2 and 3 combined. Everyone had a mutual protection pact with everyone else so you knew: If you’re gonna attack one – you’re end up at war with everyone!
Civilization 4
In my opinion one of the best games of all times! Of course one needs to play it with the Beyond the Sword expansion. There you have everything you need: Espionage, religion, a mix of civics you can choose to customize your empire to your way to victory.
As I have spent probably ideal man-months playing Rhye’s and Fall of Civilization, an incredibly realistic world-simulation. Here’s a more detailed review and resource compendium.
After I “finished” Rhye’s and Fall I wanted to win a game of Civilization 4 on Deity difficulty. This turned out to be the biggest challenge of all. Read more about my attempts and the game that I finally succeeded here.
Civilization 5
In Civilization 5 it’s much easier to brag with my progress and achievements! They’re on Steam! Check ’em out here: http://steamcommunity.com/id/kalle-online/stats/CivV
One of the dedications of this entire page is to provide resources and strategy guides for the most challenging Civilization 5 Steam achievements. I usually blog about them. Check it out! Most of them are of course dealing with scenarios and Deity-strategies, but there’s also guides for winning scenarios with other civilizations (that although challenging don’t grant a Steam Achievement). Have fun browsing and let me know what you think (or like and share on Facebook).
Get Civilization
Every part of Civilization came with various expansion packs/addons. Here’s a list of the all-in-one packages:
Civilization
Sid Meier’s Civilization is ancient by now. You’ll probably get it cheaper on platforms that share old DOS games, but here are some Amazon links:
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Civilization II
[amazon template=multinational&chan=default&asin[us]=B00002SVBV&asin[uk]=B0002OAI2Y&asin[de]=B00004TPEF]
Civilization III
[amazon template=multinational&chan=default&asin[us]=B00029QR7O&asin[uk]=B0017TDGG8&asin[de]=B00264U1H0]
Civilization IV
[amazon template=multinational&chan=default&asin[us]=B0026EGO3A&asin[uk]=B000W2FICG&asin[de]=B001TCOQ12]
Civilization V
Watch out! To play these games apparently you need Steam. Even if you order the boxed set. I personally think that’s awesome, because it brings you all the great Steam Achievements!
[amazon template=multinational&chan=default&asin[us]=B00HWMP0TU&asin[uk]=B00HVEGL7O&asin[de]=B00HEOGPXG]