For this Classic Review, we’re looking over at our friends from one of the premiere Mac gaming sites, Inside Mac Games.  Franklin Pride reviews Civilization V, and, not to give anything away, but we think he likes it.

So, for all the Civilization fans out there, should you buy this? Heck yeah! The core gameplay remains the same, combat is more interesting than ever before, culture provides a large number of major new options, and it’s easily the best Civilization release to date.

You can check out the full review over at the Inside Mac Games website.

Hey, Civ fans, we’ve worked through some of the kinks and have finally come up with our Civilization V Gameplay Competition! Without further ado, here are the rules:

• The competition starts today and runs through Monday, May 30.
• All contestants must play on the Mac version and use the provided save game file as their starting point.  You can download the save game file HERE. (Update 5/18: A new save game file has been uploaded. Any played games that do not use the new save game file as a starting point will not be counted. We apologize for the initial mistake that required all DLC to be installed.)
• Here are the parameters of the game:
  • Leader/Civilization: America
  • Map: Earth
  • Map size: Small
  • Difficulty: Emperor
  • Game pace: Standard
  • Victory Conditions: Conquest only
  • Barbarians enabled
• Saving and reloading mid-game in order to try for a better outcome from a certain action is highly discouraged and not allowed.
  • However, contestants may play through a game multiple times (from start to finish) and submit multiple entries.  Only the top entry will be considered.
• Important: To submit an entry, email a copy of your completed save game file to gameagent@aspyr.com with the subject header “GOTM: Civilization V Competition Submission.”  In the email, please include your name, the number of turns you took, and your score.  You may provide a screenshot of your Hall of Fame screen if you wish, but it is not required.  It is essential that you follow these directions–any entries that are missing any piece of required information WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED. (Update 5/24: Hoo, boy. It has come to our attention that the game actually does not end after capturing all cities and that a Conquest victory may actually be technically impossible. To compensate, please save your game just before the final city on the map is taken and submit that file for our review. We apologize (again) for the mix-up. We promise the next competition will run much more smoothly!).

The goal of the competition is to beat the game by conquest in as few turns as possible.  In the event of a tie, final scores will be used as a tie-breaker.  Obviously, some points of the competition (particularly whether or not you use multiple saves and reloads) cannot be monitored, so we ask all contestants to be on their best behavior and act like benevolent rulers to maintain the integrity of the competition. We will review the entries and announce the winners (plural!) on Tuesday, May 31.  The runner-up will receive a GameAgent Store coupon good for 50% off any product. The winner will receive a GameAgent Store coupon good for 50% off any product, a Civ Anonymous t-shirt, and a super secret (and SUPER AWESOME) mystery prize! If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.  Otherwise, good luck to everyone! *Don’t forget, if you still need to pick up a copy of Civilization V, you can save 10% at GameAgent.com when you use the coupon code GOTMCivV! Update 5/31: Congratulations to Jim M. who successfully followed the guidelines of the competition and completed his global conquest in the fewest number of turns!  Jim has won a GameAgent Store coupon (good for 50% off any product), a Civ Anonymous t-shirt, and that super secret mystery prize–a Sid Meier-signed copy of the Civilization V Special Edition!  We also want to recognize both Mark G. and Pablo R., both of whom are runners-up.  Finally, a big thanks to everyone that competed and helped us putting this competition together!

In part two of our Art of War series, we look at the importance of momentum, defense, and naval support. You can check out the previous installment here.

Part 2: Basic Offensive and Defensive tactics

Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. -Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Momentum

Referred to as the “flow of battle,” he who has decisive control over the flow of combat will win, this is certain. You must make your enemy react to you, catch him off balance and weak, strike him with strong blows, and change your tactics, forcing him to react to you. You should never have to react to his weakened counter offensives, because you’ve anticipated him, cut him off and crushed that option even as he thinks of it. Once you gain the momentum, never give it up. In reference to games like Call of Duty in multiplayer, at a certain point in the match, or at a certain skill level/tactics level for the other team, you’ll notice the losing team is just reacting to the movements and attacks of the other team. You can also see this in professional team sports: the losing side has lost the momentum to the other team and, without a drastic maneuver to regain that momentum and get back on an aggressive footing, will be defeated. It’s merely a matter of time at that point. (more…)

In this Classic Review post, we’re touching base with the guys over at MacGenius who reviewed Civilization V earlier this year.  In addition to the game’s overhauled battle system, they particularly loved the near-infinite replayability of the game:

And hell yes, this is the type of game that you want to just play over and over. Like its predecessors, Civilization V is amazingly addictive, with games commonly drawing more than five or six hours out of me in a single sitting. The reason? Because win or lose, Civilization V allows players to guide an entire society and craft their own story, taking them from the dawn of history and far into the future.

Check out what else they thought about the game over at the MacGenius website.  Additionally, you can read more about Civilization V Mac here.  

Prior to implementing the Game of the Month feature here on the GameAgent Blog, we’ve been eager to set up a competition of sorts revolving around Civilization V. Now that Civilization V is our Game of the Month, we can’t think of a better time to get the competition started! Of course, one of the problems with the idea is that we’ve never hosted a gameplay competition like this before, and that’s why we’re asking for your help in getting things properly set up!  The idea is that we want to set forth some rules and other game parameters to create a standardized match, then let you guys do your best to out-perform each other.  While we’ve already got a basic setup, we wanted to get your input on how we could further refine our contest idea to ensure that the game is both fun and fair.  Here are the parameters of the game as we see them so far:

• Leader/Civilization: Any
• Map: Earth
• Map size: Small
• Difficulty: Emperor
• Game Pace: Standard
• Victory Conditions: Conquest only

The goal of the contest would be to win in as few turns as possible, using accumulated points as a tie-breaker.  To submit an entry, one would leave a comment on the contest blog post, including a screenshot of the completed match.  As we’re not utilizing any sophisticated verification or cheating-detection software, the contest would rely heavily on the honor system for all entrants. Currently the contest is scheduled to go live next Monday, May 16, and last through Sunday, May 29.  Do you guys have any other thoughts on how to improve the contest and/or its rules and parameters?  Let us know in the comments!  If we use your contribution, we’ll be sure to credit you in the final rules as well as hit you up with a GameAgent Store coupon good for 20% off any product!

Editor’s Note: For this new multipart series, we asked US Marine Eric Glocker to combine his love of games and his marine training to provide a reference guide of battle tactics that could be implemented in the seminal strategy game Civilization V.  Eric recently shared his thoughts about the historical accuracy (or in some cases, a lack thereof) in FPS games like the Call of Duty series.  Eric also runs two of his own blogs on which he muses on cooking, eating, and drinking; and everything else under the sun, including video games.

Part 1: The Essential Art of War

Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions. -Sun Tzu, the Art of War

Diplomacy is all well and good, but sometimes you have to follow the life style advice of Conan the Barbarian and “crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women” (or men for that matter–there were some bad ass warrior queens in ye olde days). Tactics and technology go hand in hand in a grand strategy game like Civilization V, similar with resources. Even if you’re sitting on a pile of iron ore large enough to outfit a million men with arms and armor, if you don’t have the technology to smelt it, why waste your time? Choose your technology carefully, in a manner that will be supportive of your combat strategy. Always remember that balance between civil and military functions is the key to success in Civilization; like in a real society, if a country focuses completely on its military it will quickly become backwards and regressive, or at the very least poor, impoverished and backwards technologically speaking. Without a solid civilian infrastructure backing your Defense Force or Grand Army of Conquest, you’re just waiting for the death blow to fall. (more…)

Seamus Bellamy of Mac|Life takes Civilization V for a spin in this review from December of 2010.  What did he think?  Here’s an excerpt:

Boasting a refined combat system, rich 3D graphics, and a streamlined micromanagement system, Civilization V is worthy of the franchise’s crown as the king of all strategy games. Aspyr, the developer that also ported the last Civilization game to the Mac, did a tremendous job maintaining Civ V’s look, feel, and playability.

You can check out the full review over at the Mac|Life website.

Today we’re proud to announce a new feature here on the GameAgent Blog that we’re calling… (drumroll please) …The Game of the Month!  Perhaps not the most innovative title, but we wanted to come up with something that encompassed everything we have planned, and quite simply, Game of the Month just works.

So what exactly do we have planned?  Well, for starters, how about a month-long discount on one of the hottest Mac titles out there?  If you or anyone you know still hasn’t picked up Civilization V Mac, you’ll be able to grab it at the GameAgent Store for a 10% discount all the way through May 31–just use the coupon code GOTMCivV at checkout! We’ll also have tons of different stories and feature articles on Civilization V all throughout May.  We’ll be posting classic reviews, dev diaries, and even tips and tactics brought to you from a trained US marine!  In addition, we’ll be featuring a game-playing contest open to anyone that owns the game.  We’ll put forth a specific scenario and set of rules, and the player with the highest score will win a special prize! You’ll get all this and more this month on the GameAgent Blog, so be sure to keep up with us via Facebook or Twitter so you don’t miss out!