485 - Sid Meier's Civilization & Civilization II

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JaySevenZero
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485 - Sid Meier's Civilization & Civilization II

Post by JaySevenZero »

Here's where you can contribute your thoughts and opinions for Sid Meier's Civilization & Civilization II for potential inclusion in the forthcoming podcast.

A friendly reminder that where the feedback for the podcast is concerned, we love it - but keeping it brief is appreciated. We do want to include a breadth of opinions where appropriate, but no-one wants a discussion podcast that’s mostly reading out essays. Better to save yourself time and cut to the chase if you can.
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Miririn
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Re: 485 - Sid Meier's Civilization & Civilization II

Post by Miririn »

Hours and hours of joy when ten-year-old me would borrow my granny's copy of "Civilization II" and play as a horrible, despotic ruler who would condemn all my citizens to a lack of aqueducts or granaries so that I could build as many world wonders as possible. (My sister would play it properly and become a beloved ruler with a well-adorned throne room. I don't know what this says about our respective personalities).

Found the CD Rom in storage a couple of years back and re-played it and I still love it. I think the dialogue of the actors playing the advisors is forever seared into my brain. ("Give me more soldiers, noble liege!")
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Cornelius_Smiff
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Re: 485 - Sid Meier's Civilization & Civilization II

Post by Cornelius_Smiff »

For a 12 year old me, the AGA version of Civ 1 was the initial reason why I wanted an Amiga and in circa 1996 no less. In a time when the Amiga had already pretty much breathed its terminal breath and the rest of my peers were knee deep in a Playstation frenzy, this was absolutely in my wheelhouse.

I remember vividly my first ever playthrough. I created a random Civ called the 'Gelf' in a less then subtle nod to my then Red Dwarf fandom, albeit with a suspiciously French sounding national anthem. I subsequently created my first city, failed to fortify it and was promptly wiped out 8 turns later by some marauding pink barbarian units. The game over sequence was a true masterstroke in forcing me to go back. We all probably know the sequence by now "Archaeologists discover the remains of your Civilization"..etc and so on, but the line that stuck with me, "Smiffy shall return" followed by the suspiciously French sounding Gelf national anthem blaring over my cheap speakers. This roused a sense of nationalism in my fallen Gelf empire that I knew must rise again. I was hooked!

The most appeling parts of Civ for me were moment to moment mini stories that would rise from virtue of each playthrough being completely different. Thanks for my overactive imagination embellishing these stories yet further, I can still remember the great battle of 'Gomping Lake', named so for the large body of water randomly in the middle of this massive continent where I spent the best part of a century chasing down Mongolian cannons and lobbing wave after wave of Militia at a sole Phalanx to retake my capital Gelfalonia. Or perhaps the incredible heroics of my last Musketeer defeating a bombarding battleship in a moment of fluke RNG madness only to be the subject of horific genocide mere turns later when the vengeful Indians unleased rained nuclear fire across my homeland. How can I forget the thrill of crippling my economy in the name of long and costly crusade to wipe out the Germans for having the temerity to occupy the same continent as me and for calling me feeble in a diplomatic exchange when demanding the secrets of ceremonial burial. Berlin subsequently went down in the flames of my vengeful chariots some 1000 years later and the sleight did not go unpunished.

No other game for me has ever captured the sheer joy of conquest or decision by decision mechanics as much as this. It scratches that very hard to satisfy itch of simple yet complex, with the underlying anchor of never quite knowing what to expect and with each session being truly one of a kind. One I still revisit regularly via emulation. I have played objectively more complex games than this since, but none have really ever hit that balance of strategy and whimsy that my inner 12 year old still finds so fascinating. Oh, I did finally learn how to play the game properly instead of killing everything, but those early days will always be my favourite.

Also, never trust the Russians.
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