Since I'm still learning the Civ ropes, I tend to play fairly balanced when unlocking and researching new technologies. I don't want to miss out on anything, although I'm sure that works against me at times. However, I think I'm going to start shooting for my first science victory, which means I need to start focusing more on getting my space program together instead of just building nukes and wiping my enemies off the face of the planet.

Ryan Scott: How do the city-states work? Do you just bribe everybody to hang out with you and be your friend, like in real life?

Will Tuttle: I've really only dealt with the city-states a bit, initially caring about them simply because they instantly award some gold to the first civilization to come in contact with them. However, as I played more and more, I found that you can -- as you so adeptly put it -- "bribe everybody to hang out with you." Want to weaken the defenses of your biggest rival so you can swoop in to deliver the killing blow? Consider funneling funds and resources to a friendly city-state and "asking" them to go to war "with" you. If you can do it correctly, you can take out your rivals without causing yourself any harm on the diplomatic front. I've yet to see how that works in the long-term, but I like to imagine that it'll be something like the way the United States "secretly" funded the Afghan freedom fighters in their war against the USSR. It was a great idea in the short term, but doesn't seem to be working out so well nowadays. And hey, if that isn't what happens, I'm sure some crafty modder will come up with a sweet Cold War mod.

Of course, if you don't give a crap about all of that secret war mumbo-jumbo, you can just attack a city-state and take it over, but even then you've got to choose wisely. Razing a captured city-state will make you look like a jerk to the rest of the world, but it'll allow you to build a new city that fits in better with the rest of your civilization. Simply taking over the city makes its citizens miserable and instantly lowers your civilization's happiness, but it allows you to dictate the production of the city.


The first thing I build in this case is a Courthouse, which restores a modicum of law and order to the now leaderless city, and a Colosseum or Circus, which instantly makes the citizenry more happy with their lot in life. Finally (and this is new to Civilization V), you can create a puppet government. Basically, this keeps everyone happy and living their lives as normal, but the big drawback is that you have no control over what's produced there. Still, you can collect resources and taxes like normal, so this is the easiest option if you don't feel like micromanaging that stuff. I have a lot left to explore in this area, so I'm planning on seeing just how much I can do this weekend.

Ryan Scott: You mean when you're not changing diapers and bottle-feeding two newborns? "Just one more turn, I'm about to invade Japan!"

Will Tuttle: See, that's actually one of my favorite things about Civilization V. I can play an entire three hour game sitting on my couch (thanks to a DVI-D to HDMI connection) with a wireless mouse in one hand and a baby in the other. Naturally, the whole turn-based thing helps a lot too! But enough about babies, let's talk combat.

One of the reasons I've never been a big Civ player was the series' reliance on resource hoarding and the resulting bum-rush known as the "stack of doom" a term I never actually knew existed but I now appreciate as some strategic badassery. Everything's changed now that Civ V has made the jump to a more chess-like layout that only allows for one unit per tile and allows. Being able to launch arrows (or, let's saaaay... tactical nukes) over your front lines by necessity enhances the experience (at least for me) by not forcing me to worry about how many units to cram into one hexagon. As for the move to that new tile shape, I can certainly see why they went in that direction, although I never quite understood what the big deal was until I played. Civ V's angled movement just feels more graceful to me than was afforded to me by Civ 4's square tiles, but I barely even considered the shape of the tile once I was immersed in this insanely addictive, beautifully streamlined game. And yes, "beautiful" is a perfect way to describe the game's greatly improved visuals.

While I certainly appreciate that some of our fine readers may be vehemently opposed to the changes that, yes, could justifiably be viewed by longtime fan as a slight "dumbing down" of the franchise, the fact is that change is (usually) good, although getting used to the alterations will probably require some adjustment. You know what though? It's safe to say that not only has Civilization V already earned itself one new fanatic, it's likely to have thousands (millions? BILLIONS?) more come September.

And hey, if you don't like it, you can always release your frustrations by stomping the ever-living crap out of me online.