

Though, it's a bit odd that Great Prophets remain nameless in contrast to other Great Persons utilizing notable personages like Henry Ford and Erwin Rommel and it's also a shame that after building and spreading Religion, it becomes less effective as Gods & Kings' second feature starts up: Espionage.Įspionage allows you to have Spies attempt to steal technology gain influence over a City-State and take out rival Spies. Developing Religion feels akin to making a specific character build in an MMO, and having Faith as an extra resource for things such as units and the like makes Religion stand out for me.

These Beliefs confer benefits such as production boosts or combat bonuses, Rather than chart your way through a predetermined Social Policy tree, Religion lets you mix and match from an array of tenets and bonuses. Rather than chart your way through a Social Policy or Technology Tree, you form a Religion by mixing five core Beliefs together. In addition to adding a new core resource for you to accumulate and keep track of, it also offers the most gameplay options and customization compared to other systems within Civ V. Religion is by far the most substantive and creative of the two. After Civ V radically changed some traditional concepts-hexes instead of squares, no more stacking units, and A.I.-controlled City-States-Gods & Kings now reintroduces new Civ V-ified versions of two previously removed features: Religion and Espionage. New York was already getting swept up by my new religion, Scooteronomy, which granted an additional combat bonus to my musketeers as they tore through this alternate reality New York that my game has created.Īs a sort of tradition with Civilization titles since Civ II, Gods & Kings adds an array of new civilizations, units, Wonders, and technologies, while introducing a couple of significant features to the core gameplay of its parent game.

For the newest installment/expansion, Civilization V: Gods & Kings, my first session had Austria laying siege to New York with musketeers in 1532-after swiping the elusive secret of metallurgy from the Americans. What makes Civilization so appealing is the ability to create whatever absolutely-bizarre version of history I want-whether it's the infamous battle of the Roman Phalanx defeating the British tank in Civilization II to having Montezuma drop nukes on France in Civilization IV.
