William I, Prince of Orange
Big news people. 2K Games have just announced the first expansion to Civ 5, named Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings. A new civ, or new civ expansion always means serious business to strategy gamers. So, what’s new (or old) in this expansion? Religion seems to be back (that’s good), there are 27 new units, 13 new buildings, 9 new wonders, 9 new playable civilizations, improved land and naval combat (naval was weak yes), enhanced diplomacy (I HOPE), espionage seems to be back also (improved from Civ 4 maybe), there will be more scenarios (which will include a Victorian science-fiction setting!) and new city states. Looks like many of us will return to Civ this Spring.
Entire announcement (at 2K games):
Fans of Civilization V have been begging me for an answer to this question for quite some time: will Civilization V get an expansion pack?
Today I am extremely excited to tell you all that yes, it will! Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings is currently slated for a late Spring 2012 release.
It will come as no surprise to those of you who are familar with expansion packs for previous Civilization games that Gods & Kings will add more techs, units, buildings, Wonders, and playable Civilizations. But what about the big brand new game elements that will change the way you conquer the world? Let me lay it out for you:
Tons of New Stuff. I know I just mentioned it, but I want to draw attention to just how many new things we’ve got here: 27 new units, 13 new buildings, 9 new wonders, and 9 new playable civilizations. Among the new civilizations are the Netherlands (William I, Prince of Orange), the Celts (Boudicca), and the Mayans (Pacal the Great).
Religion. That’s right; quite possibly the most requested major addition to the game is coming in the Gods & Kings expansion. Using the new “Faith” resource, you’ll be able to found your own religion and grow it from a simple Pantheon of the Gods to a world-spanning fully-customized religion.
Reworked Combat System. The expansion has a reworked combat system along with an AI that places more emphasis on balanced army composition. Among the changes to the combat system is the addition of melee naval units, which will force you to really rethink the way you execute your naval assaults.
Enhanced Diplomacy, with Espionage. In addition to being able to establish embassies with your rival civilizations, spies will now be an important part of how you conduct your foreign affairs. Surveilling foreign cities, stealing advanced techs, and garnering influence with city-states are some of the things you’ll be able to do with this new powerful mechanic.
New City-States. With religion being added to the game, it only made sense to introduce Religious city-states which will interact with your religion in special ways. In addition, Mercantile city-states will be attractive for those of you who love to grow your civilization’s treasury. All city-states will use the greatly expanded quest system, making city-states more dynamic and diplomatic victories more challenging, while decreasing the importance of gold when dealing with city-states.
New Scenarios. Three new scenarios will be coming in Civilization V: Gods & Kings. Experience the fall of Rome, explore the medieval era, and my personal favorite: a unique scenario in a Victorian science-fiction setting.
Screenshots
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The greatest strategy games ever made (Civilization series)
Finally, an expansion pack for Civ V.
The developers are aiming at the right direction (espionage & religion included).
I still enjoy “Civ IV” with the “K-MOD” (improved AI… watch out! & new global warming concept…).
Good news. Very happy here!
One more happy person here!
This is gonna be awesome!
…and what about the Victorian Scifi settings? If it is multiplanetary I’m in heaven!
I can even compromise for just a little Martian invasion :)
I don’t know how I missed that. “(…) a unique scenario in a Victorian science-fiction setting.”!!! (updated)
We can only speculate… Maybe it’s only the terrain that is off-world (kind like playing Civ5 in a SMAC setting?), or perhaps having access to futuristic units in the medieval era? Multiplanetary would be awesome. Gosh my dream is that we can be successful one day in putting in Sid ‘s mind that he needs to do a new 4X space game, like in the Inception movie :) Buying Master of Orion back from Atari and doing a Master of Orion 4 would be sufficient for now :D
Just speculation, but I read “Victorian sci-fi” as steampunk.
I agree with zigzag, seems like steampunk.
Looks like a good one. Have they released the full modding tools yet though? Last I heard (a month or two ago) they just had basic modding tools and nothing available for more in depth editing of such things like DLLs…
Can anybody identify all the religion icons in the screenshot?
From left to right, i think: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism?, ???, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, ??? Taoism, ???, Zostrianism.
Looks like the list is alphabetical if that helps.
RPS has a close-up of that screenshot here: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/2012/02/civvbig.jpg
Yae, alphabetical order was a good decision :)
So, let’s see. Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism (yes), Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shintoism, Sikh, Taoism, ???, Zostrianism.
So, I do’t know the one that looks like a phoenix bird, anybody?
It looks similar to some Native American representations of Raven… no idea what the catch-all title would be for NA spirituality, as there’s a lot of variance between tribes.
@Adam, You think there’s ANY chance they may bundle this with Civ-5 and resale it as a improved version of the game? I’ve been thinking about buying this for a while….This would make me take the plunge!
Hi. There’s only a slight chance they will sell a bundle with the new expansion Gods & Kings, judging from what they released in the past.
Normally 2K and Firaxis release the expansions but you need to have the original product in order to play them. They released a complete edition bundle for Civ 4, which could lead to believe they will do the same with Civ 5, but we don’t know how many expansions there will be for Civ5. For Civ4 there were 2 expansions (Warlords and Beyond the Sword, with the latter being the best one) and a standalone product (Colonization). In the end they released Sid Meier’s Civilization 4: The Complete Edition.
So, in conclusion, I think it’s unlikely they will release a bundle of Civ5+Civ5 Gods & Kings, but we never know.