Playtesters needed: USC: Counterforce, Reus 2, Great House of Calderia

By | June 13, 2023
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Firesquid Games, an indy publisher focused on strategy games, is currently looking for playtesters for 3 of their upcoming games, and all 3 are of interest to the Civ-Fanatics audience!

  • Game #1 is Reus 2, which is a strategy game with a similar concept to Black & White: You control giants on a planet with a civilization, and you try to influence this civilization with your actions.
  • Game #2 is USC: Counterfoce, a turn-based tactics game in similar spirit to XCOM. It is a turn-based game where you control a squad of customizable soldiers to fight against all kind of monstrosities.
  • Game #3 is Great House Of Calderia, a grand strategy game set in a fantasy renaissance setting. You need to control your lands, your wealth, and your family and defeat other families.

This announcement was posted via the FireSquid Twitter account, and you can sign up here to be selected as a playtester. You can discuss this playtest with us here.

TechSpot: 30 Years of Civilization – Over 51 Million Units Sold and a Billion Hours Played

By | June 12, 2023
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TechSpot has today published an article about the last 30 years of Civilization (which should be 32 years…).
In this article, the author goes through the history of the Civilization franchise, how the first people playtested Civ1 for hours, the addition of modding in Civ2, Baba Yetu, and many other things. The author also doesn’t forget all the other important games related to Civilization, like Alpha Centaur, Beyond Earth, FreeCiv and FreeCol.

An excerpt:

“Just one more turn,” an expression that’s become synonymous with the game Civilization. It’s a feeling of becoming so swept up, immersed, and engrossed in a game that hours, even days, pass by in a single gaming session without you noticing. Meals are missed. Showers become an afterthought. These simple routines are cast aside in the relentless pursuit of just one more turn.

Thanks to Christopher Tin for pointing out this article.
You can read the whole article here, and discuss it with us here.

PolyCast 417: Strategy Game Nostalgia

By | June 11, 2023
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PolyCast Logo

The four-hundred-and-seventeenth episode of PolyCast, “Strategy Game Nostalgia“ is now available for streaming on ThePolyCast.net. This episode features regular co-hosts CanusAlbinus. Stephanie “Makahlua”, Phil “TheMeInTeam”, and Jason “MegaBearsFan”. Topics for this episode include:

Intro
– 00h01m00s | Wing Dings, Dingbats, and Dinkuses
News
– 00h04m48s | Firaxis Games Studio News and Civilization 7 Soft Reveal
– 00h12m22s | Leaders of the Sahara Developer Livestream and Forum Discussion
– 00h17m30s | Leaders of the Sahara Release
– 00h35m42s | Rock, Paper, Shotgun’s Voted List of readers’ 50 Favorite Strategy Games of All Time and Forum Discussion


NOTE: This Episode was recorded on February 25, 2022.

PolyCast is a bi-weekly audio production recording live every other Saturday at 12 Noon US Eastern Time throughout the year, in an ongoing effort to give the Civilization community an interactive voice.

Civilization 5 Hall of Fame: New Gauntlets

By | June 7, 2023
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The Civ5 “Hall of Fame” is an ongoing competition, but we like to run time-definite competitions between updates that we call Gauntlets. The team now has published the next 2 challenges for you:

G-Major CXXXIV

We challenge you to play the following game: You need to play a King-level game with Pacal of the Maya on a small fractal map on quick speed. You need to go for a domination victory, while preventing all other civs from achieving another victory. For the other necessary conditions please check this thread.

G-Minor CCVII

We challenge you to play the following game: You need to play a Chieftain-level game as Augustus of Rome on a standard-size great plains plus map. You need to go for a domination victory, while preventing all other civs from achieving another victory. For the other necessary conditions please check this thread.

Field of Glory II: Free on Steam until June 8

By | June 6, 2023
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Fields of Glory II is a historical turn-based tactics game.
It is a war game, covering the Roman era from before Christ, allowing you to fight battles in various places over Europe.
The base game is currently for free on Steam, until June 8, 9 AM.
The DLCs are not included, but are currently also heavily discounted.
This news item was discovered via GameSpot. Come join us in the forum discussing the game here.

Play the new Civ6 “Game Of The Month” #160

By | June 5, 2023
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And we’ll continue also through summer with a new monthly game for you! In this Civ6 GOTM you play as Suleiman of the Ottomans on a standard size small continents map on King level. There are abundant resources, but disasters are abundant as well! You need to achieve a scientific victory, while preventing all other civs from achieving any type of victory. You can submit your result of your hopefully magnificent game until July 1. For all necessary information please check this thread.

The Value Foundation: “Game Changers: Antiquity and Video Games”

By | June 4, 2023
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The Value Foundation, a foundation dealing with history, video games, and education, has released a video where they discuss how various games have revolutionized game history. They talk about the concept of civilization, and how it appears in video games. Obviously they discuss our very favourite game, among others (e.g. Assassin’s Creed or Minecraft). They discuss that the concept itself is very unclear to scientists, but that Sid Meier planted down his own definition, which is often rather progressive. They further talk about how the game is, while educational, is in many ways also abstract, e.g. that you play an eternal leader, but never have a look at the history of average people. At the end, they note that Civ is revolutionary in a sense that it has spread the interest for history to many people, defined “Civilization” and let to many new games which picked up concepts from Civ.

Oh, and they’re also waiting for Civ7.
Watch the whole video here, follow the Value Foundation on Twitter and join us here to discuss this video.

Play the new Civilization 5 “Game Of The Month” #222

By | June 3, 2023
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And also for June we got you a new Civ5 challenge! This “Game Of The Month” lets you play as Ramesses II of Egypt on a standard size pangaea map on quick speed. The difficulty is King level, and you need to achieve a culture victory, while preventing all other civs from achieving another victory too. You have time to build the pyramids as well as all other wonders until June 30. For all other information please check this thread.