25/04/2020

Civilization IV

"Never bring a sword to a gunfight."




Has the 1001 list deemed it essential to play every single Civilization game so far? Oh no, we skipped Civilization III. I wonder where that one went wrong. Anyway, we're back to turning a bunch of early humans into a world superpower in Civilization IV, and truth be told, I've played so many Civ games for this list that I've forgotten what it was that I'm looking for in this genre of gaming.

Did I want things to be easier to grasp? Probably. Improvements in graphics are a bonus, but not an essential one if memory serves. I'm basically going into this game knowing what I'm going to get, but not the form I'm going to get it in.

Will we rise and dominate the globe, or get crushed or out-cultured by our neighbours?




Fun Times


The Swahili choir is in full swing as the CG intro takes us on a sweeping tour through the ancient world, already at war, because that's what people do. Can't we all just get along? Maybe I should try for a more moral victory in Civilization IV. Or better yet, any kind of victory. Have I won a Civ game yet? I can't remember.




Let's hope it is as easy as this to rule over the masses. To find out, we're going to have to head into the tutorial (which requires a restart of the entire game, strangely), which is voiced by none other than series creator Sid Meier. The Sid Meier.




Hello, Sid. What do you have in store for us in Civ IV? Can we call it CIV or is that too confusing?




As is to be expected, you start with a wee little city, with a band of warriors to defend it from lions and a couple of scouts to explore your surroundings. Helpful overlays remind you of keyboard shortcuts, but I found pointing and clicking to be more to my liking. Click a unit to select them, click a space to tell them to move, and if they've got enough movement points before the turn ends, they'll get there. If not, well, give it a few decades and they'll be there before you know it.




Like previous titles, this turn-based affair will allow each of your units to act if you have anything for them to do. Scouts roam around and increase your knowledge of the world, warriors fight, and workers turn the land surrounding your city into farms, mines and cottages, increasing the number of resources you have to work with.

They're not strict resources, so far as I can see, but the amount of food you can farm, stuff you can mine and money you can generate, the better equipped your city will be to churn out buildings and soldiers.

Over time, cottages grow and receive more income from an unknown source, and defending units add to the defensive stats of your city. Everything works together and when you start spanning out and make more cities, linking up together with a network of roads will mean sharing all your many resources. Your empire is already beginning to flourish.




Six ways to win, huh? Let's hope I find myself working towards at least one of them. Sid mentions that CIV is a little like a board game, which is something I can get behind. It isn't helping me keep track of where I'm at and what I'm working towards for one of those six victories, but I do at least understand the turn structure.




Heading out into lands unknown, we find the one and only Gandhi. Make sure to stay in his good books. I've no interest in fighting him right now anyway, but I'll be sure to set up a forward command post of some sort between him and me...




He proposes open borders, which we'll make use of to have a look around the map with a little more freedom. Of course, that does work both ways. Judging by those defenders, I think we need to step up our military might. Just in case.




Increasing our research and developing new technologies and units puts us in a better position. Archers now mean we can take out threats at range, metal will obviously be better than wood, and this thing called Optics will probably come in handy in the future.

If it sounds useful, get working on it. The number of turns it'll take to make will vary depending on resources and skill levels and other numbers working under the hood that I was probably told about by Sid, only to forget. The sooner something is made, though, the sooner you can start to work on everything that stems from it. Archers won't be archers for much longer when Musketmen and Cannons make their appearances.




Perhaps seeing my intentions, Gandhi asks for a trade. He wants my knowledge of sailing. He isn't offering anything for it, he just wants it. Wants me to do all the work. It's not happening, Gandhi. Yeah, I could negotiate and try and get something out of him, but as your first negotiation, you've failed, Gandhi. You've insulted me. This doesn't mean war, yet. But it doesn't look good.




You're not getting it, are you? I'm working away, training units and building libraries, putting knowledge to use in the evergrowing Roman Empire. That's not free. You need to cough something up. Try again.

Also, watch me use this knowledge of construction to construct the Colossus. Yeah, that'll teach you.




CIV maps are large, but space is limited. The territory will be fought over, and I soon see Madras pop up on my borders. I better strengthen my position. Let's see what we can develop.



Grenadiers. Excellent. It seems these Romans prefer fighting from a distance. I won't fight just yet, though. I'll wait for something important.




We've discovered sugar? Ok, that needs protecting at all costs. Gandhi, we're at war.




Oh, you won. Ok, well, just you wait, I'll be back. 




I don't know when it was, but at some point, I discovered that units can be told to go and do their own thing. Workers can be told to develop cities and will build farms and roads where necessary. Military units will roam the lands, not necessarily looking for fights, but being prepared for them nonetheless. Scouts and ships will explore, and one of them managed to circumnavigate the globe. Here's the world, in all its teeny tiny glory. This planet ain't big enough for the two of us.




It seems my Grenadiers have taught you a lesson in negotiation, Gandhi. A lesson you've learned too late, however. I did say I would try to win by other methods, but that can wait for another game.




While my troops were roaming the countryside, my cities were able to grow in peace. Key figures were born and contributed their genius towards the construction of wonders, useful buildings and key technologies. Everything from science to religion was bubbling away in the Roman Empire. We had culture coming out of our ears. Perhaps I could just tie Gandhi up while Rome was left to grow.




It's pretty much what I did. I designed war elephants a few decades before mass media, and then the game end countdown began, and the race was on. The Manhattan Project was available. I haven't learned how to fly yet, so it probably won't get me anywhere, but as far as threats go... well, we know what happened when this was completed, don't we?




While working towards a possible nuclear winter, we researched Rock and Roll and Recycling, and the Roman Empire rejoiced. Ah. Success. Our tiny little town now spanned the screen, and then some. At this point, I was just developing things that I thought I should have gotten round to already, like Hospitals, and the Sistine Chapel.




And that was that. A Roman victory via time running out. Not the greatest way to win, but a win is a win. Some post scoreboard graphs can be used to see how well we won, but according to CIV, it seems I have lots of room for improvement.




Final Word


A few hours of CIV saw me complete this tutorial scenario. Not very impressively, and with a lot of nuances to learn, but it was pleasing enough that I want to dive right back in and try another, more British Empire, on a map with more foreign leaders to negotiate with - and get pummelled by, most likely.

A lot is going on under the CIV hood. If you roll up your sleeves and maximise your actions, I'm sure you can bust the game wide open and achieve victory before you invent the wheel. For the rest of us who don't do any of that, you can have a whole load of fun seeing the weird ways your empires develop as you skip out bits of technology and radical thinking, and end up using war elephants well into the new millennium.

You may get a little irked by having a lot going on, or not quite understanding how your neighbours are developing so fast. I'm not sure how the difficulty pans out, but each nation starts with key technology and ends up with unique units, so there's going to be strategies suited to some leaders more than others.

At the end of the day, you can span almost all of human history in a game that makes it all manageable and fun. We've seen that already in earlier Civilization titles, but Civilization IV is - at the time of the 1001 lists' first printing - the latest and greatest. Well worth a play, even if just for one empire or two.


FORGET ABOUT THAT


10 hours of gaming later, on one of the easiest difficulty levels, across multiple maps with different factions and I've still not won a game.

The last game I stumbled into villages within a few turns that gave me settlers. Fantastic! The empire begins immediately, and it sprawled across much of the continent. I was at peace, developing everything under the sun, nudging my territory outwards, but with no urgency.

At some point, with multiple flourishing cities, I got into a war with France. Easiest war ever: they were on the other continent. The only thing I had out there were a few ships. Fight me. I'll be over here, minding my own business.

The game end counter has been clicking down for what feels like an hour now, and I'm heading - slowly - into space. How did France get here? How the hell did they destroy an entire city in a single attack with an infantry unit of some kind? Screw you, France. Let me build my rockets.

What better time for the Russians to swarm - literally swarm - over my territory, destroying everything in sight. Farms, mines, units just milling about, minding their own business. Gone, like it never existed. And what are my cities occupying themselves with? Building a spaceship. Another city disappears like nothing happened, taken over by a Russian horse.

And the annoying thing? In the previous game, I successfully launched two nuclear weapon-equipped ICBMs, again towards France. Nice graphics. Zero damage.

So, the final word is really this: How the hell do I even win one of those six victory conditions?

Fun Facts


A victory can be achieved by being the first nation to send someone to space. In fact, all the way to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. I really need to try that game again.

Civilization IV, developed by Firaxis Games, first released in 2005.
Version played: PC, 2005.