Sullla’s AI Survivor: No Room to Breathe!

By | May 29, 2026
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Season 9 Wildcard Playoff Game!

Sullla’s AI Survivor is an annual competition of all Civilization IV AI Leaders by long-time Civilization enthusiast and streamer Sullla. CFC is very excited to announce that the popular series returns after almost a two-year hiatus with Season Nine. AI Survivor has become quite an event over the years for both old and new Civ IV fans.

Game 8 Recap (click for write-up): In the explosive final match of the opening round, Comrade Stalin staged a massive comeback victory, overriding a slow start and poor early expansion to launch a winning spaceship on Turn 325. The central arena of the map quickly devolved into a chaotic warzone, spelling immediate doom for Suleiman, who mismanaged his defenses and fell first to a swift joint assault by Napoleon and Stalin. Catherine the Great, heavily favored by onlookers due to her sprawling corner territory, later teamed up with Stalin to wipe out Napoleon, establishing a dual-Russian stranglehold on the game. While mid-game contenders Augustus Caesar and De Gaulle saw their promising economies ruined by untimely, attritional side wars, Catherine completely stalled her own momentum by neglecting core industrial technologies. This critical blunder allowed the technologically advanced Soviets to easily outpace her with factories and modern weaponry, securing Stalin the ultimate crown while a defeated Churchill collapsed in the final stretch.

Civfanatics may not have been at the top of the leaderboard last week, but we are still doing well in the overall contest. Mylene (aka Fippy) now holds the #2 and a-pen-dragon is holding down 4th place!

Wildcard Game ON May 29th (11:00 AM EST)

Wildcard: The stage is set for a massive, chaotic showdown in the Civ4 AI Survivor Season 9 Wildcard Game, featuring an unprecedented field of 11 survival-round casualties battling on a Huge map under Raging Barbarian conditions. This unique setting promises to test the defensive capabilities of both the pacifists and the warmongers alike. Headlining this match is the undisputed low-peace-weight titan Huayna Capac (#2 overall power ranking), who looks to bounce back from a cold spell and exploit his overpowered Incan civilization. Standing in his way is a bizarrely polarized cast of characters: hyper-pacifists like the scoreless culturemonger Hatshepsut and the underperforming Lincoln, highly defensive but economically stagnant isolationists like Sitting Bull and Tokugawa, and the legendary, unpredictable psychotic aggression of Montezuma. With a single spot in the playoffs on the line, the community expects a bloody, high-stakes collision of conflicting diplomacy, runaway economic traits, and brutal barbarian pressure.

Enter the AI Survivor Picking Contest

Don’t forget to make your picks in the picking contest before the game goes live!

Also, note that our favorite CFC Warrior Queen, Mylene (My), hosts her own friendly betting competition (with fake ducats, of course..ha). Make sure you join in the fun in the S9 Wildcard Picking Game.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season 9 continues Friday, May 29nd, on Sullla’s Twitch Channel at 11 AM EST.

We welcome you to join the fun by discussing here.

PC Gamer: Civ7’s Test of Time update brings players back

By | May 23, 2026
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PC Gamer reports that Civilization VII’s new Test of Time update has pushed the game to its highest Steam player count in over a year.

According to the article, Civ VII recently climbed above 16,000 concurrent players on Steam, roughly double its recent peak numbers. That suggests many players were waiting for a substantial reason to give the game another look.

The update is a significant one. Its headline feature is the much-requested ability to continue playing as the same civilization across age transitions, but it also reworks victory conditions, adds optional objectives with bonus rewards, and makes a broader set of changes aimed at addressing launch criticisms.

Early reactions still appear divided. Some players say Test of Time makes Civ VII feel much closer to a complete 1.0 release, while others argue that issues with UI, pacing, simplified systems, and DLC pricing remain.

Still, this may be Civ VII’s most important update so far. The player-count bump shows there is still plenty of interest in the game – now the question is whether Test of Time can keep those returning players around.

What do you think? Has Test of Time changed your view of Civ VII?

>> Discuss on the forum

Sullla’s AI Survivor: From Versailles to the Volga!

By | May 21, 2026
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Season 9 Game Eight!

Sullla’s AI Survivor is an annual competition of all Civilization IV AI Leaders by long-time Civilization enthusiast and streamer Sullla. CFC is very excited to announce that the popular series returns after almost a two-year hiatus with Season Nine. AI Survivor has become quite an event over the years for both old and new Civ IV fans.

Game 7 Recap (click for write-up): Gilmesh of Sumeria won a tightly fought Domination victory over runner-up Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia. Gilgamesh performed with an almost human-like manner in one of the most impressive displays in Survivor history. Justinian of Byzantium and Saladin of Arabia just barely held on to advance to the wildcard match of the playoff round !!

Tough match for Civfanatics last week. However, Mylene (aka Fippy), Thrasybolus a-pen-dragon are holding down 3rd, 4th, and 5th positions, respectively in the overall contest!

GAME 8 ON May 22th (noon EST)

Game 8: We have a shiny new number one seed in Churchill of England leading the way this match. Churchill has performed surprisingly well in recent seasons, despite not looking that impressive on paper. In addition, we have a pair of Russian leaders in Catherine and Stalin, as well as two French leaders in Napoleon and DeGaulle. Will France survive the Russian Winter this time?!! Rounding out the field is the industrious Augustus of Rome and the deep-thinking Suleiman of the Ottomans.

Enter the AI Survivor Picking Contest

Don’t forget to make your picks in the picking contest before the game goes live!

Also, note that our favorite CFC Warrior Queen, Mylene (My), hosts her own friendly betting competition (with fake ducats, of course..ha). Make sure you join in the fun in the S9G7 Picking Game.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season 9 continues Friday, May 22nd, on Sullla’s Twitch Channel at noon EST.

We welcome you to join the fun by discussing here.

Imperium – a spiritual successor to Ascendancy

By | May 21, 2026
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This will test the memories of many of our CivFanatics but do any of you remember the 1995 classic Ascendancy? After Master of Orion took the Civilization formula to the stars many other 4X space games followed each with a different take, and Ascendancy’s big change was constructing buildings in terrain slots across the planet surface as well as specific ship parts in ship slots. Sadly much like Civ1&2 Ascendancy has been lost to time and is not legally available in modern stores, however one fan frustrated with this situation has decided to remake the game in a spinoff of sorts called Imperium and released a free public beta demo on Itch for everyone to try before going live on steam. He’s eager for feedback so check it out here, and discuss it with us here!

Play the new Civ5 “Game Of The Month” #289

By | May 20, 2026
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It’s the middle of May, and we got a new Civ5 GOTM for you! This time the settings are a bit more special, because this game has the “One City Challenge” enabled, making it extra hard! You play as Bismarck of Germany on a standard size Pangaea map on King level. You must win this game via culture, with the one single city you’ll have. Do you think you can manage this and send in the winning savegame before June 18? Then check out this thread and get your starting savegame!

Civilization VII Update 1.4.0 – Test of Time – now released

By | May 19, 2026
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Today is the day with the big “Test Of Time” update for Civ7!

The new patch comes with a ton of changes. You can now lead a single civ through all the ages, but they get more boni in their own age, but you can still get some of the boni of the other civs, if you like. Also the victory has been reworked, the legacy paths are gone, and instead there are triumphs, which are intermediate goals to your way to victory. Obviously many other things have also been reworked, like parts of the UI and the AI. For more info check here, and discuss this update with us here.

Civ7 – Developer Diary: Designing the Sound of Civilization VII

By | May 16, 2026
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Sara came by to give us another entry of the dev diaries, this time about the sound of Civ7. Associate Audio Director Kadet Kuhne talks about how they looked at the sounds of Civ5 and Civ6, the evolution of the music over the game stages, the return of building sounds and the work to make the languages authentic. If you’re interested in reading more, then check out the dev diary here, and discuss it with us here.

Sullla’s AI Survivor: The Perfect Map for a 300-Turn Stalemate!

By | May 13, 2026
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Season 9 Game Seven!

Sullla’s AI Survivor is an annual competition of all Civilization IV AI Leaders by long-time Civilization enthusiast and streamer Sullla. CFC is very excited to announce that the popular series returns after almost a two-year hiatus with Season Nine. AI Survivor has become quite an event over the years for both old and new Civ IV fans.

Game 6 Recap (click for write-up): Last week, we witnessed a shocking Culture victory by Gandhi of India. Brennus found himself just short of a Domination victory after making a last-ditch effort to win by attacking Gandhi, who had been his friend most of the game due to shared wars and religion. Time ran out on Brennus as he was a bridge too short. Sullla, just moderately perturbed by this outcome 😉 lol, was convinced this result was a major outlier and, as a result, has already run the Alternate Histories on this game, which proved that Brennus was the MAN on this map. Of note, Mehmed of the Ottomans, the heavy favorite, despite jumping out to the best start, suffered a brutal backstab by Brennus to send him packing first, and saved Gandhi in the process!!

Gandhi’s surprising victory kept Civfanatics from the top of the leaderboard last week. However, CFCers still maintain excellent performance in the overall contest. Thrasybolus is sitting at #2 while Mylene (aka Fippy), a-pen-dragon, and Saxo Grammaticus are tied for the 4th position!

GAME 7 ON May 15th (noon EST)

Game 7: The field is wide open this week as a formidable group of leaders battles for a spot in the playoff round. Leading the pack is the #1 seed Gilgamesh of Sumeria, but he faces a massive threat from Justinian of Byzantium, a proven power and former champion who has held elite status for years. Saladin of Arabia might look underwhelming on paper, but he’s riding a wave of recent success that has vaulted him into the #2 seed. Meanwhile, Mao of China continues his streak as “Mr. Runner-Up,” playing with enough strength to go deep into the game without ever quite reaching the summit. The real wildcard remains the “psycho” Genghis Khan; despite a prime starting position, the Great Khan must find a way to conquer his own volatile nature if he ever hopes to secure that elusive first victory.

Enter the AI Survivor Picking Contest

Don’t forget to make your picks in the picking contest before the game goes live!

Also, note that our favorite CFC Warrior Queen, Mylene (My), hosts her own friendly betting competition (with fake ducats, of course..ha). Make sure you join in the fun in the S9G7 Picking Game.

Sullla’s AI Survivor Season 9 continues Friday, May 15th, on Sullla’s Twitch Channel at noon EST.

We welcome you to join the fun by discussing here.