Any Civilizations fans out there?

I'm not one of the hardcore fans who has played I through V, but I have owned and played IV and V extensively, and I am a big fan of the turn based strategy and depth they have while keeping it interesting and engaging. Just wondering if anyone else plays Civ, and if so, favorite nations, stories, thoughts on Civ V's changes, etc?

Hell yeah, I'm kind of a fan.

I started with Civ II years ago at my cousin's house. I was too young to understand everything though, eh.
Then there was Civilization III and its expansion packs. A wonderful game, both easy to play and somehow deep in its mechanics. But that wasn't enough !
And then came Civilization IV. The. Best. Ever. Play it with all its expansions and this will be the best Cvilization you can ever play ! Science, spying, diplomacy, culture, religion, trade and economy or just war, you could play the way you wanted and have a damn good time.

Now with Civ V. I bought it for a few euros (12-15) with all its DLCs. And I want my money back.
What the hell is wrong with Civilization ? Buying terrain to expand just for a few gold ? What's this weird doctrine thing ? No religion anymore, nor real cultural influence. And the diplomacy... Seriously ? Four options and that's it ? And these City-State... Gosh. It looks like they made it simpler but how can Civilization be simple if it wants to remain Civilization ?
But hey, at least the army is somehow more "realistic". Somehow.

IMO Civ V is an improvement in many areas. I wasn't a huge fan of Civ IV; well, let me rephrase that. I like Civ V's overall gameplay a lot better, after Gods and Kings came out. Vanilla Civ V isn't quite as good as Civ IV.

In Civ V I really like

• the hex system
  
• the new way religion works (spreading over space and giving specific benefits based on what you choose). But I don't like the whole faith as a resource thing
  
• changed combat: I DESPISED stacks of doom. It all came down to who had the most troops of better technology. Now I feel that combat makes the terrain much more important, as well as the army layout. It feels a little restricted and hard at times, but I think it's an improvement.
  
• the elimination of maintenance costs based on how far away you settled a city from your capital. It made it hard for me to settle in the New World or to do anything of that sort.

However, I do really miss the cultural border wars where you create a cultural powerhouse that expands to take over everyone mwuhahaha

I massively dislike the way wonders work. You spend a whole bunch of turns and then someone gets your wonder. Meaning you've wasted a whole bunch of turns and now not only do you not have a wonder but you're also behind in turns!

Inuki wrote:

I massively dislike the way wonders work. You spend a whole bunch of turns and then someone gets your wonder. Meaning you've wasted a whole bunch of turns and now not only do you not have a wonder but you're also behind in turns!

I don't remember how it worked in Civ IV... did they return anything to you in the form of production or gold? I know you get a ton of gold when you lose a wonder in Civ V, but that's small consolation when you were working on it for 30 turns. I was once playing with my friend against the AI, and I was building the Pyramids. I was on my last turn, so when I saw that it had been completed I was really happy. Lo and behold, it wasn't me who completed it, but the Aztecs who beat by one stinkin turn. I think I slammed my hand on my desk and ended up hurting myself (not to worry, I am not a rage gamer hahaha).

With spies you can see if a nation is building a wonder or not ! SPIES, SPIES EVERYWHERE ! Omniscience FTW !
In Civ IV if I remember correctly, you had gold too. And considering the prices of the buildings and units, it was approximately fair.

Yeah, unfortunately in Civ V you can't build or recruit spies, but I do really like how the espionage system is implemented. It could use some changes, but it is pretty intuitive and makes it a bit like a game where you are trying to hunt down enemy spies and avoid getting yours caught. I didn't know you could see they were building wonders though! I'll have to check that out.

Well, you can recruit spies, but you can't decide when and where. It works automatically.
And whenever you have a spy in a city, you can see what the ennemy is currently buidling here, that's what I meant. There's no alert like "ERMAHGERD, PERAMEDS !".
At least, I don't remember that I had any.