And also for Civ4 we get a mid-month GOTM! In this case you play as Saladin of the Arabs on a rocky medium sea level fractal map on Prince level. The starting position is challenging, and you will not find any good huts within 8 tiles around it. You have until December 15 to master this challenge.
For more information please click here.
The developers of Millennia have run a Q&A on their official discord, and they are now reporting back the results. Some of the questions relate back to Civ, e.g.
Question: Will the terrain change with ages? Like finding new ores in civ. And are they influenced by the kind of age? Like the age of plague making fresh water more important
Answer: There are Goods that are revealed as the game progresses or when certain Ages are entered into (or certain National Spirits are selected).
Some relate back in general to 4X games, not that specific to Civ, e.g.
Question: Are there “wonders” like in other 4x games i.e. big projects or buildings requiring large investments of resources for a large return, typically embodying some historical wonder like the Colossus of Rhodes or the Library of Alexandria?
Answer: Wonders exists, but in a different way than in other 4X games. A wonder potentially comes from the empire Innovation system, that grants them (the Colossus of Rhodes is one of these). We also have “megaprojects” which are more involved multi-stage constructions – the Space Race is a megaproject, for example.
whereas others go completely into fiction, e.g.
Question: Is there an Alien Civilization/Nation?
Answer: Not a playable one (now).
For the whole Q&A please check here.
For the mid-month Civ6 GOTM, we go with a true American spirit: You play as Abraham Lincoln of America on a standard size continents and islands map on Deity level. You must win via a domination or religious victory, on a hot and wet planet with abundant resources, but also with disasters and Barbarian clans. You have until December 15 to complete this challenge. For more information please check this thread.
RockPaperShotgun has released a new article called “Strategy games are no longer limited by the “stigma” of being “Smart Man’s Games”, says Ara developer.” In this news article the author talked to the devs of Ara: History Untold about the history of 4X. They comment that in the earlier 2000s the strategy genre was more of a niche and nerd genre, with not many big titles being released. Afterwards they talk about how the situation is currently very different, with many new strategy games with many different flavours being released, and that the pandemic together with board games might have had an impact on this (among other things).
For the full article please check here, and discuss it with us here.
And the new round for the mid-month GOTM for Civ5 is starting now! You play as Ramkhamhaeng of Siam on a large continents map on King level, and you must win via a domination victory. You have until December 15 to get through this challenging start! For all the details please check this thread.
Due to the popularity of our monthly “Game Of The Month” and our Hall Of Fame, it seems that Firaxis has decided to copy the concept and will provide a monthly challenge for a while now also on Steam (our monthly game is also available for Epic store customers though), where you can earn Hall of Fame badges. The first challenge is called “The Age of Abundance” and you play on a standard size continents map as Pericles on Prince level. You start with 2 cities and 1000 gold, and you get abundant resources. The deadline is 1 month away, December 12.
The game ZEPHON looks like another rather interesting scifi ‘Civ like’ 4X turn based strategy game on the way due to for release in 2024. It’s being created by Proxy Studios who made the popular ‘Civ like’ Warhammer 40K: Gladius and Pandora: First Contact games and similar to those games you start out on different alien planets giving it a bit of a cool Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri & Civilization Beyond Earth feel, and perhaps a bit of a Age of Wonders Planetfall feel too. These worlds are apparently filled with “eldritch horrors and cyberpunk monstrosities” which sounds fun, and there’s already a playable demo out too.
Links & more info: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/686436/
The strategy streamer GamerZakh has made a new video, about all the amazing new 4X games which have been released this year.
The video covers many games of interest for us, e.g. Songs Of Conquest, a HoMM like game, Revival: Recolonization, a post-apocalyptic Civ game, Yield, a cute-looking post-Roman-Era 4X, Ara, Millennia, and many others. He also speculates about Civ7.
Do you agree with Zakh, that one of them could be the new king of 4X? Let us know!