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PaperclipPerfector  17hr ago (text post)   742 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 26, 2026

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Just had to point this out:

I looked through alternatives to my fav strategy game Civ V, and thought back to Humankind which I played for a bit a few years ago. The promo pic/logo is so on the nose. So woke. Ferocious white woman leading a male black doctor by the hand into the future. Female flintlock wielding revolutionary. Common.

Do you play Vox Populi? I find it really is necessary and is the only civ game that is sufficiently difficult after 30 years of playing civ. I tried to get back into IV but struggled to find a good balanced difficulty. And relearning the systems wasn’t easy after being away so long.

All this is to say, i think modded civ is the only real alternative to civ.

I played a few games in VP before tiring of it. It's too different. I don't like how they went full overhaul. Yes the AI is much better but that turns all the wars into real slogs, forever wars.

I use Lekmod now. It's different enough and balanced enough for my tastes, while sticking pretty close to what makes Civ V, Civ V. If I set the difficulty to Immortal, I can get a challenging experience without tearing my hair out.

It’s probably a me thing, but I just can’t get engaged with a video game at this point without tear your hair out difficulty.

Female flintlock wielding revolutionary.

At first glance I thought they're trying to go for WWII Italian Partisan (often portrayed as female, fair enough in my mind) by the outfit, but the badge on the hat is French colours, so I suppose it's the French Revolution?

Civ IV is the best Civ.

Does anyone know of a way to get Civ II on Windows 11?

Broke Take: Civ IV is the best civ game
Woke Take: Civ V + Vox Populi is the best civ game
Bespoke Take: Civ VII is the best civ game.

Fight me...

Civ IV has bad graphics and a doomstack problem, terrain is pretty much pointless. It requires little in the way of tactical knowledge. If I wanted to play something with randomly deep systems and a bad UX I'd play dwarf fortress. Most of the problems Civ V has also applies doubly to Civ 4.

Civ V needs a mod to make it playable. Enough said. Base game has huge problems with wonder-spamming and cities being pointlessly stacked much like Civ IV's armies. Later Civ's actually made city location and building placement meaningful beyond just "build it here for the resources it hits". The culture traditions are basic as hell and pretty much do have optimal choices leading to a massive reduction in build diversity.

"Civ VII is the best" is a nuclear hot take. I can only aspire to such heights of picking fights.

I just went and replayed Civ V this evening and it gave me a good perspective on all the things Civ 6 and Civ 7 have done better that I should be greatful for.

I think the towns and cities distinction is far more interesting than the cities only. The pointlessness of most luxury resources other than just box checking was improved upon. Weather and terrain effects were good. I think adjacency bonuses make for a more interesting settling dynamic around city planning and location, beyond the usual "find a 3 radius that doesn't overlap" or a strategic choke point. Culture is actually a bit more interesting, it's not just a collect resource-take bonus. I think 7 created the Culture Tree "tech" tree and separated it from the Science Tech Tree. I find that much more challenging, enjoyable and allows for greater complexity of play. It also helped the wonder spamming problem by splitting wonders. Actually having to place the wonders also helps not spamming them. This is getting long, but I could ramble on about how 6 and 7 are better than 5. (it's been awhile since I've played 4).

In Markdown, you have to add two space characters at the end of a line in order to create a line break.

Thanks bae.

I really wish that there was an easy way to change Civ 4 to 1upt (there is a mod I've seen, but I couldn't get it working on Linux so I'm not sure if it's good or not). It's so hard to go back to stacks of units, they're just so boring to play with. Otherwise yeah, Civ 4 is supreme.

Does the AI still carpet their territory with units on higher difficulties in 1upt? I found that as annoying, if not more annoying than the doomstack play in IV. At least it's easy to chew through a doomstack with a few sacrificial catapults or other units that do collateral damage.

Honestly not sure. I only play on King. Was going to move up to Emperor once I played all the leaders once, but that turned out to take me forever so I still haven't done it.

My nigga.

Civilization IV is the greatest strategy game since chess. Twenty years later I still play in on a regular basis.

Pfft. Not gonna bite.

Civ wasn't what I wanted to bring attention to here, and I said 'my favorite' while you claim 'best.'

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