I am only now discovering the sheer addictiveness of Sid Meier's Civilization.

I’ve been playing since 1991. My friend had a copy and I was so into it I’d go over to his house to play it when he wasn’t home. Then I got my own copy and I haven’t stopped playing since.

Well, except that one time where I had to have my wife hide the Civ V disc from me because I couldn’t stop myself.

I guess what I’m saying is take breaks and go outside, but I know your life will be “just one more turn…” from here on out.

Never too late to dicover a classic.

By sheer chace I came across Alpha Centauri (wikipedia) a sequel to the original Civilization on gog.com. Best purchase ever. Exceptional gameplay. The best 5$ I remember spending.

I helped develop Unciv.

Have fun.

Had to uninstall Unciv from my phone.
Having a Civ-like app 24/7 available in my pocket isn't something I can handle...

I was babysitting the neighbours kids one night and their dad was like "kids are in bed feel free to play civ (III) until we are back"

I had no idea what he was talking about and he delayed his date night to give me a tutorial. Gave me the CD rom after because it wasn't needed to play. Great times.

Peaked at Civ 4, been downhill from there.

If the idea of having Civs that change with the era, but Leaders who stay the same appeals to you...

Humankind did it better than Civ 7.

Just one more turn, bro.

Then you'll totally go to bed.

I spent so much time playing this version, loved it but not the 30min+ turns while waiting to do a move in end game. Depending which version you are playing, you can save before entering one of the random village huts and if you get something you don't like (attacked) you can reload and it will reroll the hut. Not all versions allowed this

I'll add my vote for Sid Meyer's Alpha Cebtauri, it is a masterpiece. If you want to branch out Master of Magic is also quite fun and adds some interesting twists. Though it's not a Sid Meyer game. There's even a remake of it.

I played more Civ 1 than any of the later games. Civ 2 is also great as is 4 (3 is decent, but I wasn't nearly as enthralled with it). Every game in the series since has had aspects to it that I disliked enough to keep me from continuing to play and I heard enough bad comments about 7 to not both buying it.

Civ 2 is still and always will be the best civ Boat stacking armies for an invasion was the bomb

Civ 2 is my favorite, plus it has a large collection of fan-made scenarios that cover almost every single sci-fi franchise with some fantasy mods as well, plus lots of historical scenarios that are fun to play.

There's even a mod that lets you play mafiosi in a SC2K-like NY:

It is also a time capsule in who we were twenty odds years ago.

• modpacks
• scenarios

I've played the first five Civ games and I have fond memories of buying units with diplomats! There's also FreeCiv which is an open source project that's very similar to Civ2 but probably supports modern hardware better. It's been built for android but from what I understand they're built by third parties so if you're tech savvy or feeling adventurous you could build it yourself. I played it many years ago in a really rough state where nothing was explained and my own knowledge of Civ 2 was the only thing that made it playable but from what I have heard it's much better now.

Fun fact, Civ1 was ported to the SNES and Civ2 was ported to the PlayStation.

I really love this approach and find myself employing it more the older I get. The second game has the best simplicity/fun ratio imo but 4 is also pretty good in that regard.

If you enjoy the original Civilization, be sure to try out Freeciv. Basically the original game but with expanded gameplay and updated for compatibility. It's OpenTTD to Transport Tycoon, if you're familiar with those games. It also has multiplayer features, and there are sites that run turn-per-day MMO events.

Civ III was the height of the Civilization franchise.

I remember hitting "next turn" and going to eat, because it d take 30min to compute all AIs lol. I d save literally every turn

it's the opposite for me. I can't get into the old ones. I should be able to though. I think I understand the game, have some hours playing five and six, but my ADHD gets the better of me with these user interfaces

I have an original Civ2 disk with my CD stacks. Only one remaining cd-rom...

cough heroes of might and magic III cough

I've been playing civ since '96 starting with civ2 on a console. Been playing civ4 beyond the sword for the last 8 months or so. It's a mod that comes with civ4 complete. Very addictive. I like taking over cities through cultural domination. I usually play 3-5 hrs a night while "watching" tv.

I think my favorite Civilization game is actually Civilization Revolution. It is a casualized console release, but I feel it has just the right amount of complexity to be a really fun, chill game. Also, I like going for an economic victory in that game.

I have vanilla Civ V on Steam and I was able to get Civ VI with a bunch of expansions for free through Epic. VI has some cool stuff, but I think I enjoy V more.

I actually find the new ones quite good at getting you started, with their dynamic tutorials (I started on 6).

I still missed a lot of stuff that took me several matches to understand, but it explained enough for me to manage the easier difficulties properly and as I learned more about it I started going over to harder challenges.

And even with a thousand hours on Civ6, I ended up having a very similar experience when I started Civ7.

Link?

Civ 6 was the one that finally got me, and I actually found that easier to get into than 1 and 2, which I had tried before. I did go back from 6 to play earlier titles and also liked 2, 4, and 5, but I keep coming back to 6. Unfortunately, I could not get into 7. I really tried, but I just wasn't having fun somehow.

Edit: If you like the older titles better, maybe try FreeCiv, which is similar to 2, or UnCiv, which is similar to 5.

You've got a good point there that I am also often making when talking about gaming and maybe also trying to present gaming to non gamers.

There is so much implicit stuff grown over decades that for some series the barrier of entry is almost impossible for newbies. Be it the control scheme of some fifa or the complexity of a strategy game that just has to surpass its predecessor, not many developers consider this. Sometimes it's even part of a reason for downfall.

Most people don't know: There's a multiplayer variant of Civilization 1: CivNet. Barely playable today, as it's a Windows 3.1 game. I loved it till late in the 2000s.

I'm late to the party, but if you're new to Civ and looking for which game to start on, ignore the people who say that you need the DLCs for the "complete" experience.

I started on Civ 6, and fell for this, getting a complete edition (at a deep discount). When I tried to play it, I was quickly overwhelmed by the complexity. Now, 80 hours in, I realized I can play with just the base game rules, and that's what I've been doing, and now I yearn for one more turn. I'll eventually start playing with the DLC rules, but not before I get a good grasp on the base game.

I guess Widelands could be to your taste? Also, original SimCity, Micropolis.