Hexarchy turns Civilization into an accessible 4X card game that you can finish in an hour

By | July 21, 2023

Today, PC Gamer has published an article about Hexarchy, titled “Hexarchy turns Civilization into an accessible 4X card game that you can finish in an hour”. In this article PC Game describes a bit how the deck building mechanics work, how you gather resources, and that you can finish a match in a single evening.

An excerpt:

While it prevents you from executing the kind of grand, hundred-turn-long schemes that the most exciting Civ games often end in, it serves Hexarchy’s quickplay format. Virtually everything you’ll do will inch you closer to victory, and a few of my matches still ended memorably. After the Russians destroyed the heavily buffed mamluk I was relying on to defend my capital, the city was left wide open. A spot of pillaging later, and they’d sent a Cossack forward to capture it, sweeping up all the points generated by its wonders and clinching the game.

You can read the full article here, and discuss it with us here.

Play the new Civ6 “Game Of The Month” #163

By | July 20, 2023

And we continue the GOTM at scenic places, this time you get a lake view! You play as Elizabeth I of England on a hot and wet standard size island plates map with abundant resources on Deity level. You need to go for a science victory, and prevent all other civs from getting one of the other victories as well. You have until August 18 to win all the Noble prizes!

For more information please see here.

TurnBasedLovers: Top 20 Modern Turn-Based Strategy Games to Play in 2023

By | July 19, 2023

TurnBasedLovers has published another article/video, which is interesting to the CFC community, called “Top 20 Modern Turn-Based Strategy Games to Play in 2023“. The authors have made a list of interesting turn-based games from the last year, with no particular order in them, but all interesting.
For the 4X fans among us, there is plenty of fodder, as they mention Old World, Master Of Magic, the coming Galactic Civilizations IV, Myriads: Renaissance and Revival: Recolonization, and they are all worth checking out. For more tactical and other types of games you also have your choice from the article.
There is definitely not game shortage until Civ7 arrives!

You can read the whole article here, and discuss it with us here.

Play the new Civ5 “Game Of The Month” #225

By | July 15, 2023

Also for this “Game Of The Month” we give you a summer feeling with a nice beach scenario! You play as Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon on a standard size inland sea map on Deity level. You need to strive for a science victory, but at the same time you must prevent all other civs from reaching another victory. The deadline for your summer holidays is August 15.

For more information please check this thread.

GameHistoryOrg: 87% Missing: the Disappearance of Classic Video Games

By | July 11, 2023

The video game history foundation has posted an article, which is not about Civ1 or Civ2, but still in the current context very relevant. The article describes that 87% of historic video games (range 1960-2009) are currently not available at all. While many games can be bought on online platforms like Steam or GoG, the vast majority, nearly 9 out of 10, are actually not on these platforms. According to the study this is comparable to the survival of American silent-era movies (14%). This means for many old games the only possibility to preserve them right now is to preserve the legacy systems which run these games, and hope that the floppies or other media they are stored on don’t degrade.

These facts are very relevant for the Civ community. While the series from Civ3 to Civ6, and also including Alpha Centauri, is available on online platforms, the first 2 games of the series are still not legally downloadable.
Let’s hope that these classics will be preserved for the future.

A summary of the study, including further links, can be found here, and you can discuss this study with us here.

Old World update #110

By | July 6, 2023

Mohawk Games, the developers of Old World, have released the latest update for their game. This update includes, among other things like bugfixes and performance improvements some changes to MP like allowing players to change midgame when loading a save, and tribes and AI nations can now also raze cities.

Discuss this update with us here (and read the full list of changes too).

Old World is currently available in the Epic Store, on GOG and Steam.

The Civ4 “Hall Of Fame” has been upated

By | July 5, 2023

The Civ4 Hall Of Fame has again gotten an update! New players have been inaugurated in our everlasting Hall Of Civ Fame! You can find the whole overview in this thread!

14 games were accepted since the previous update.

Congratulations to jnebbe for the highest score of the update with a Huge, Normal, Emperor, Domination game for 406,949 points.

jnebbe was the most active player during this update, submitting 4 games.

Only one player was brave enough to take on Deity this update:

Firmlife – 1960 BC, Huge, Marathon, Deity, Conquest game for 171,207 points.​

Firmlife – 1280 AD, Huge, Normal, Deity, Diplomatic game for 92,363 points.​

New Number One Entries:

A number of players gained number one positions:​

​Firmlife with a 1960 BC, Huge, Marathon, Deity, Conquest game for 171,207 points.​

Firmlife with a 1280 AD, Huge, Normal, Deity, Diplomatic game for 92,363 points.​

​jnebbe with a 150 BC, Standard, Normal, Immortal, Domination game for 242,058 points.​​

jnebbe with a 1180 AD, Huge, Normal, Emperor, Domination game for 406,949 points.​​

jnebbe with a 50 BC, Large, Normal, Monarch, Domination game for 164,728 points.​​

Firmlife with a 520 AD, Huge, Normal, Prince, Religious game for 11,176 points.​

iggymnrr with a 1145 AD, Tiny, Marathon, Prince, Space Colony game for 363,944 points.​

nocho with a 1250 AD, Duel, Marathon, Prince, Space Colony game for 393,398 points.​

​Lcpl Jack Jones with a 2050 AD, Large, Quick, Settler, Time game for 5,630 points.​

​

A number of players gained a composite table High Score (i.e. Any Condition):​

​jnebbe with a 1180 AD, Huge, Normal, Emperor, game for 406,949 points.

Gauntlet Updates

Congratulations to ZPV for winning G-Major 186 with a date of 1260 AD, iggymnrr was second on 1452AD, nocho 3rd in 1512AD and Cartesian Bear finished in 1914AD.

Techspot: A Chat With Video Game Composer Christopher Tin

By | July 4, 2023

Techspot has published an interview with Christopher Tin about his work, how he got to designing the music of Civ4, and how this has kick-started his career. In the interview he mentions that Civ was his dream job, with the right combination of elements which interest him, and that there is probably no other game he’d have liked to compose the soundtrack more than Civ. They also talk about that more than 20 years ago video game music was just not of interest in music education, and that this has changed in the meantime. The interview is not short, but well worth reading.

An except:

Techspot: Is there a game or project whose soundtrack you admire that you wish you had the opportunity to take a crack at yourself?

Christopher Tin: I’ve often said that Civ is, in a way, my dream gig. I had a very strong background in classical and world music. Civ is the perfect palette for real life and a lot of musical ideas in that world. I don’t know that there are a lot of other franchises that I think to myself, “Oh, God, I wish I was scoring that.” I like scoring strategy games because, in a way, the music I get to write isn’t so action-driven, allowing me to write pieces that are a little more dynamic in terms of emotional rain.

You can read the whole interview here, discuss this article with us here, and also thanks to Christopher Tin, who brought this article to our attention via Twitter.