Posted In: Articles : After Action Review

     

Maybe I’ve lived in Wisconsin too long but I can’t get away from seeing parallels between Green Pay Packers quarterback Brett Favre and the Civilization series. Both exploded like bombshells in their debut but are now getting old; both have been declared used up but fans kept calling them back. With the add-on, Beyond the Sword, Civilization shows, like Favre, that it can still entertain and enthrall with some help from newcomers.

Fewer Long Bombs

Patched to version 3.13, Beyond the Sword is installed from an DVD and, like all Civilization add-ons, is put in its own sub-folder and requires its particular disk to be in the drive to play, Thus, players can choose to play an older version with its particular disc if they don’t like the changes to the standard game while still having access to new scenarios and mods.

The new features don’t alter the general play of the game. The two new major innovations, the espionage screen and corporations, are almost sub-games and need not alter strategies. Espionage aids spies by diverting points from culture and science to spying. Espionage points are allocated to other countries for passive information gathering or to perform any of eleven different forms of sabotage, fomenting, influencing and counter-espionage. A new Great Person, the Great Spy, increases the number of espionage points available. Seven different corporations, including Sid’s Sushi Co., will boost production when the requisite resource level, tech, and great people are present. Expensive at first, the executive unit can spread the corporate bonus to other cities.

Other additions validate the add-on as something more than a collection of scenarios. The Advanced Start option allows the standard campaign to start later in history, giving players money to buy units and cities. The new tech, Aesthetics, has been introduced while five other late stage techs have been enhanced. Twelve new units, not counting the Great Spy and executive, have emerged with paratroopers and tactical nukes being the most interesting. Three new leader traits have been added: “charismatic” produces happiness, “imperialistic” yields more Great Generals and settlers, and “protective” aids defenses. The old “expansive” has been tweaked. Ten “new” civilizations have been added. I set off “new” because some of them appeared in older Civilization engines although the Khemer, Holy Roman Empire, and others are original with this add-on. Of the six new leaders, only Lincoln is a re-run. De Gaulle is a nice choice for a new Frenchman. All civilizations can erect such new edifices such as a customs house and national security agency while the number of civilization-specific buildings has grown. Only one new improvement, forest preservation, appears but seven new Wonders make their appearance. Air units now have defensive mode and can get promotions while siege, some civics, colonies and trade have undergone fairly minor changes. A welcome addition is a screen showing players’ customizable space ships. To get details of all of the above, players must use the Civlopedia as the 54-page manual serves primarily as an overview.

   

New to the Playbook

The most impressive things in Beyond the Sword are the scenarios and mods. Some semantic explanation is required here. A scenario uses standard rules but creates a more goal-oriented set of victory conditions. Mods, on the other hand, use new rules and units for their game. Naturally, some scenarios are modded so any distinction is largely academic even though Firaxis likes to categorize scenarios and mods.

Two of the fifteen scenarios and mods take approaches very different from any other twist of Civilization. “Afterworld” is a turn-based sci-fi action game with one-person units. A special squad works its way through an eerie basement, picking up enhancing objects while fighting off monsters. Their ultimate goal is the usual world-saving gig. At the other extreme is “

efense”, an arcade situation where players’ units run back and forth killing ever-increasing waves of wild things before the time limit runs out. Not my cup of tea but that mod shows the system’s versatility.