Humor is born in Civilization 5, a game in which the nonviolent Gandhi incites war, and the game’s addictive nature transports players back in time like a time machine. Here’s a quick look at Civilization 5’s game system and key features that make it so compelling.
“If you give gold, there will be no bloodshed.”
“Give us diamonds, and we’ll give you corn in return!”
Recently, humor like this has been trending on the internet. These are all quotes from the game Civilization 5, and it’s surprising and hilarious to hear Gandhi, a known non-violent activist, say them. Gandhi is well known for symbolizing peace and non-violence, but in this game, he is portrayed as inciting war, giving it an anti-war appeal. This is where the humor comes from.
What’s interesting about this game is that historical figures are presented differently from their original image. For example, Cleopatra, who is known for being extremely cold and strategic, is portrayed as a master of diplomacy and economics in the game. These different interpretations of historical figures, as well as the humorous elements, give players something different to look forward to and add to the immersion of the game.
The Civilization series is often referred to as a “time machine” because once you get into it, you can’t get out. In fact, it’s one of the most addictive games in the world, and once you start playing it, you won’t be able to put it down. In this article, I’m going to give you a brief introduction to Civilization 5, a game that has recently been released and has generated a lot of buzz.
Civilization 5 is a turn-based simulation game in which players complete various actions on their turn, and then the computer AI takes their turn. There are three main types of actions that players can take during their turn: domestic affairs (developing and advancing their cities), combat (attacking the opponent’s civilization), and diplomacy (establishing trade or relations with other countries).
When you start the game, you are the leader of a specific civilization, building and developing it through history. Each civilization has its own unique characteristics and abilities, which you must use to grow yours. Along the way, you’ll need to build cities, manage resources, research technology, and coordinate relationships with other civilizations.
First, let’s take a look at Internal Affairs. Internal affairs can be divided into two main categories: clearing and civilization. Improvement is the development of tiles around your city, each of which has the following attributes: Food, Gold, Hammer, and Resources. However, these tiles cannot be used on their own, but by placing a city’s population on each tile, the resources on that tile become available to the city. In other words, a tile without a population is as good as none. Below we will discuss Food, Gold, Hammers, and Resources in more detail.
Food is a factor in a city’s population growth: a city can only sustain its population as long as it has food on the tiles it occupies, and the more food it has, the faster its population grows. Therefore, if you want your city to grow large, you should build it in a location with plenty of food, such as near a river or on a plain. Food is a very important resource, as it doesn’t matter how many tiles you have around you if you don’t have enough people to harvest them.
Gold boosts your city’s commerce, increasing your gold income each turn. This gold can also be used to improve relations with other countries through diplomacy, and even units and buildings can be produced by spending the gold you’ve collected.
The Hammer is an indicator of how much production a city is capable of. Cities can produce units and buildings, for which they need a certain number of hammers. The more hammers a city has, the faster it can produce units and buildings. Hammers are more likely to be found on tiles with ore resources such as gold or silver, or on tiles with hills, so hilly sites are more likely to grow into productive cities.
Resources are scarce because they are not present on all tiles, but only on certain tiles. Resources include food resources such as wheat, sheep, and deer; strategic resources such as iron, copper, and horses; and luxury resources such as diamonds, gold, and silk. To access these resources in your city, you need to build facilities for them using laborers. For example, to access wheat, you need to build a farm on a wheat tile, and to access deer, you need to build a ranch.
Strategic resources, in particular, become more important in the mid-to-late game. Strategic resources such as Iron, Copper, and Horses allow you to produce specialized combat units. For example, a civilization without “horse” resources cannot produce cavalry units such as knights or mounted archers, and a civilization without “iron” resources cannot produce units such as longswordsmen. Acquiring these strategic resources is crucial, and battles are fought over them.
In Internal Affairs, civilization refers to technological research and the development of political systems. Technological research is an indicator of how advanced a civilization is, and there is a big difference between a civilization that is currently researching gunpowder and one that is still working on foundry technology. Technology research is determined by an item called “beakers” that are produced in cities. Beakers are not produced by placing people on tiles, but are added by placing people in buildings in the city, such as universities and libraries.
There are 10 political systems to choose from, but rather than having an infinite number of choices, each system requires a number of “culture” points. Culture is also produced in cities, but instead of being produced by placing people, culture is increased by buildings such as monuments. This culture allows you to choose a political system, such as fascism, democracy, communism, or slavery, each of which provides different bonuses to your civilization. Choosing the right political system for your current situation is the key to accelerating your civilization’s growth.
Next, let’s talk about battles. The most important thing about battles is that the difference between winning and losing is the difference in combat power. All units are marked with a combat strength, and the one with the highest strength will win. However, there are a number of factors that come into play, such as superiority and terrain. For example, if you have two archers of the same strength 3, but one is at the bottom of a hill and the other is at the top of a hill, the archer at the top of the hill gets a +25% bonus to his strength, giving him an advantage in combat. This terrain factor is mirrored in the real world, with a penalty to combat power when attacking across a river. It’s important to take these factors into account when planning your battles.
When you conquer an opposing civilization’s city in battle, you have three options. First, you can completely destroy the opponent’s city. If you choose this option, the city will disappear from the map and you will receive some gold. You can choose this option if the city is not a strategic point. The second option is to turn your opponent’s city into a puppet city-state. This is used if you can’t afford to maintain the city, or if the city is too well located. This can be used as a buffer between the opponent’s civilization and yours. Third, you can incorporate your opponent’s cities into your own civilization. This method allows you to expand your cities, but at the cost of increased city maintenance and a decrease in the overall happiness score of your citizens.
The Happiness Score is an important indicator of the stability and prosperity of a civilization as a whole. Lowering the happiness score adversely affects city growth and performance in wars. For example, if the Happiness Score drops below 0, population growth slows down, and during wars, the combat power of units is penalized. Therefore, when annexing a city, you should consider its happiness score and make a careful decision.
Finally, let’s talk about diplomacy. Players can establish diplomatic relations with the leaders of computer AI civilizations. This can be in the form of simple trade and peace agreements, as well as vassal states, tribute demands, and more. If you have a small army and the AI notices this, it will ask you for tribute or offer you unfavorable trade deals. If you refuse, the AI will send an army to conquer your city.
It’s interesting to note that in Diplomacy, the leaders of each civilization reflect similar personalities to those in real history. There are belligerent leaders and peaceful leaders, and how they behave has a huge impact on the player’s strategy. For example, Japanese leader Oda Nobunaga is a militant character, and if his civilization is adjacent to yours, you’ll have to deal with a constant military threat. Also, players with weaker armies may be asked to pay tribute or cede cities.
This is just a brief introduction to Civilization 5. The game looks complicated, but its intuitive system makes it easy to pick up and play. Civilization 5 is a game that will keep you hooked for hours. If you’re bored, it’s a great way to forget about reality and skip forward in time.
