PolyCast 417: Strategy Game Nostalgia

By | June 11, 2023
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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

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

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

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

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

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.

New indygame release: Myriads: Renaissance (a fantasy 4X)

By | June 2, 2023

Today we got another release in the 4X hemisphere: Myriads: Renaissance.
This game is a turn-based 4X game, set in a fantasy rennaissance setting. You colonize floating islands, develop them, recruit armies and fight battles.
It also belongs to the more recent wave of smale-scale 4X games, with a single game taking roughly 4 hours to complete.
The game just got released today, and you can for the start get it with a 10% discount, 17.55 instead of 19.50. And there is also a free demo, in case you want to give it a try first!

You can download Myriads: Renaissance here, and come to the forum to discuss it with us here.

Old World update #109

By | June 1, 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 UI enhancements, an improved turn summary, the creating of minor cities has been easened, and you can now also win an alliance victory in single player mode . 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.