With each new installment of the Civilization series we can make a long list of everything we miss from the previous game. It’s a trend going back as far as Civ II, which is definitely where the game peaked in terms of complexity. The more modern incarnations would never see, say, a ten year long game that ends in a 1700-year-long, inescapable war. “Accessible” shouldn’t necessarily be a dirty word, but in stripping out or simplifying things like forms of government and internal revolt, Civ has definitely lost something that made it special. Which is why it’s so good to see an expansion like Gods & Kings, which adds some much-needed depth and complexity to a game that sometimes feels like it’s been trimmed down to the bone.
Religion and espionage provide welcome new strategic options that we’ve sorely missed since moving on from Civ IV. Where before religion had been folded into a single Piety social policy tree and religious buildings just counted toward culture points, now we have a full system in place for founding, defining, and spreading religions, along with a third “faith” currency. When starting a simple pantheon, we can adopt tenets like tithing (if we want to gain extra gold) or holy warriors (if we feel like using our faith to build an army). Spreading a religion to allies and enemies provides greater advantages to the founder of the religion, but also grants minor perks for the people who actually control those cities. Population and proximity determine how a particular belief system spreads, and Great Prophets and missionaries can speed the process by converting an entire city in one go. Best of all, while doing this won’t make you any friends, neither will it actually constitute an overt act of war. Killing a prophet as he makes his way to your holy city on the back of an ass, however, will.
