[MR_T3D]

then it hits the city which is still standing.
5 more nukes, still there.

[Turambar]

seriously, why would i want to strike and invade and take over a city that i need to scrub the fallout on afterward?

[Rodo]

Why did you invade the other nation in the first place?

Also, do you take cities? I used to take only the ones having an important ammount of resources on their influence zones... it was frikking annoying to deal with popular uprises.

[IceFire]

Civ 2 was still the best I played.  The later versions seemed to be so complicated.

[MR_T3D]

so no one else is physiqued to see the step up from square to hexagonal maps?
a major change to how the game will be played, mainly in war?

[BloodEagle]

so no one else is physiqued to see the step up from square to hexagonal maps?
a major change to how the game will be played, mainly in war?

Couldn't your units move diagonally in the older ones?  It won't aid movement speeds, at most it will make surrounding enemy units marginally more difficult.

Unless they're actually putting in a real combat system, rather than the usual coin-toss-generator.

[Titan]

Actually, hex will make surrounding easier.

[jdjtcagle]

seriously, why would i want to strike and invade and take over a city that i need to scrub the fallout on afterward?

I would do it just to raze the cities or raze a couple and make them a vassal, securing whatever victory... all I know is they can't come back and beat me.

[Oww_My_Nose]

I like the "Decorate your Throne Room" from Civ II or "Build Your Palace" thing in Civ III, was disappointed to see something like that gone from Civ IV. I'm hoping Civ V will bring something like that back.

[MR_T3D]

Actually, hex will make surrounding easier.

yeah, 6 tiles as opposed to 9.

nice.

[jdjtcagle]

Some News from the CivFanatics website.

extracted info from PC Jeux :

Spoiler:
Civ 5 is made for PC and, therefore, gameplay isn't lessened by any means.

Some experience was gained from Revolution and it will enhance the accessibility and staging of the game.

More clarity in the drawing of detroits, mountain passes and river tracks.

An "African-type" continent doesn't have anything to do with a nordic-type or an asian type continent.

Steep terrain will slow down your expansion.

Elizabeth will favor maritime supremacy.

Napoleon will build a BIG BIG -or a very huge- army.

Bismarck will maximize the industrial output of his nation.

Assimilation of a newly conquered city will make your "Overall Happiness" drop.

The military unit upkeep is also tied to the "Overall Happiness" mechanism.

No more "Spearmen defeated Tanks" since now an heavily damaged Tank will still be a hundred time more performing than an healthy Legion.[Off/HP]

Limited next war at the end of the game.

Religion, alongside with Ecology and Tyranny is a development model.

Religion path => Polytheism - Monotheism - Theocracy

Tyranny path => Despotism - Absolute Monarchy - Fascism

Traditonal path

Democratic path

Swedish PC Gamer, as reported by Danielos:

    About 50 persons are currently working on the game, which has been in development for over two years, but is now reaching the final phases.

    City states:
    These are small, AI-controlled civilizations. They never grow big and doesn´t desire to win. The player must choose if he is to be friendly, indifferent or hostile towards a city state. The attitude you has towards a particular city state will have a big effect on diplomacy. If for example your units is approaching a city state that have friendly relations with another civilization, he will warn you, and if you ignore them, there will be consequences.

    Barbarians:
    The barbarians originate from a barbarian city and will get more advanced units later in the game. You need to wipe out all barbarian cities to get rid of the barbarian hordes.

    City expansion:
    Borders does no longer expand in large areas, but one hex at a time. Remote hexes like marshes, forests and mountains will be harder to acquire.

    Economy:
    You can invest money in your neighboring hexagons, for example trying to acquire an important resource before your opponent.

    Research:
    You can also sign a research-deal with another civilization. This way, both civs will cooperate to reach the new technology and both will gain it when the discovery is made. This was included to encourage cooperation between civilizations.

    Diplomacy:
    The civilizations will have an all-new advanced AI. All opponents will have fixed characteristics. Based on this unique personality, every AI-player will have their own agenda, which the AI will use to plan how to best play to win the game. But there will also be a certain randomness to avoid having the AI be too easy to predict.

Computer Bild Spiele, as reported by Civinator:

    Tech trading is abolished.

    Alliances give special boni (per example the possibility for a quicker research of a technology)

    Cut-out of religions as known in Civ 4 confirmed

    Cities can grow bigger than in former versions of the civ series as they there are 3 tiles for a city in every direction to be worked on.

    New troops must leave a city at once, as there is only one unit per tile

    Distance fighters (archers, artillery and so on) can shoot over the front units, lakes and other tiles

    One philosophy is to form front lines for battles far away from the cities.

GamePro, as reported by dc82:

    Leaders/Civs
    German leader: Otto von Bismark
    China leader: Wu Zeitein/Zetein
    American leader: Washington
    Japanese leader: Oba Nobunaga
    Arabian leader: Harun al-Rashid
    Other confirmed leaders mentioned in the article (Genghis Khan, Caesar, Napoleon, Gandhi)

    Units
    Basic military units move two tiles in combat instead of one.

[Titan]

One unit per tile? Bull****. 

[Blue Lion]

One unit per tile? Bull****. 

I think it's a great idea

[jdjtcagle]

Me too...  Your going to have to battle smart and use strategy no more stack-of-doom.  Best of all no more spamming units in cities it encourages going out to battlefields and taking out armies, makes it more realistic.

I'm excited that barbarians won't randomly spawn but come from their own barbarian city.  City-States are also exciting now I cross my fingers for civil war.

[Blue Lion]

I hated playing "How many units can I stack in a city before I think it's too much?" because the answer was always "I guess one more".

I always wanted to have fronts but it never made any sense to do so.

[Thaeris]

Civ II is still my favorite. I can't tell you how many epic operations I've done without those over-done graphics. 

[Blue Lion]

Yea I have the Civ II disk and the Civ I floppy

[Titan]

I have Civ3: Conquests but no Civ3 

[Thaeris]

I think you can get Civ 1 on Abandonia now...

[jdjtcagle]

For those who don't keep up with the CivFanatics website here is some news from a IGN review.

Naturally, it's not all about making war, so diplomacy has been overhauled as well. Diplomacy has a wider focus but has also been streamlined a bit. In terms of focus, the team wanted to create a game where the player's main interactions weren't always driven purely by competition. The inclusion of unaligned city states that can be used as leverage against larger powers helps move diplomacy in a new direction. By removing the religion and espionage systems, Firaxis hopes to focus diplomacy more on specific strategic situations and less on the exploitation of more arbitrary game elements. [...]

It's not surprising given Jon's background that the new version of Civilization will be even more moddable than Civ IV. All the tools have been taken to a whole new level, so the more you know about XML and programmable DLL, the more you'll be able to achieve with the game. More importantly, the game itself will contain a browser for full community interaction, so you can search for, discuss, install and rate mods all from within the game shell. Firaxis will maintain a small bit of control over this and will rely on player flags to evaluate objectionable content.