Civilization V

K. Fields
2022-04-01T18:46:12-04:00
Video Games

I ended March 2022 by completing a game of Civilization V. It's hard to believe that I played Civilization IV nine years ago. Civ III was several years before that. Sid Meier's Civilization series is well known for the "one more turn" syndrome and it didn't take me long to get immersed in version 5. I chose a default game, which involved playing a random nation and five computer opponents. I was assigned the Aztecs, led by Montezuma. The other nations were the Iroquois, England, Arabia, Greece, and Japan. I started in the middle of a large island running north to south. Japan was on my northern border and Arabia was to our south. Arabia was quite peaceful but we did have tensions with Japan. In previous Civ games, I've gone for cultural victories or technological victories by being the first nation to venture into space. I felt the Aztecs should be played more warlike. One of their unique advantages was sacrificial captives, which provided bonus culture points for each enemy unit killed. Therefore, I pursued a militant path. We eventually went to war with Japan, England, Arabia, the Iroquois, and Greece. We won a domination victory in the year 1966. I could have easily won years earlier, certainly back in the industrial age. However, I stretched things out because I was having so much fun growing my empire and experimenting with newer units.

The Aztecs' special unit was the Jaguar, a specialty warrior. They were great in the early game when we were battling a lot of barbarians in unsettled lands. Unfortunately, Jaguars are quickly outmoded in later ages. That is one knock on the Civilization series. After a certain point, the differences between nations become small and they can feel very similar. Even so, Civ III, IV, and V have all been very fun to play. When the time comes, I look forward to playing Civ VI as well.

1670 AD - The Aztec Empire is in red

1966 AD - Just before capturing Athens and eliminating Greece