Additionally, if your favored stratagem in Civilization revolves around rapid expansion of your empire, then internal trade routes can be used to transfer food and production resources to new cities, allowing you to rapidly build up defenses and boost population growth.Ĭargo ships are worth quite a bit more to raiders than caravans, and historically, merchant fleets have been the fuel of the world's mightiest powers. Similarly, religious pressure is transferrable and can be used to great effect if you're looking for a clever method of picking up converts. If, for example, your civilization is significantly more advanced than the one with which you are trading, your advantage slowly begins to disappear as your trade route grants huge research bonuses to your trade partner. Science, religious influences, and some cultural effects are also transferred via trade routes.

Much like the soft power exercised by real-world economic cooperation, the full potential of trade is elegantly subtle. Significant investment is necessary to reliably safeguard your income sources during the early game, but the trade-offs can be highly beneficial. Distant civilizations and those with different luxury resources yield higher profits, but are vulnerable targets for hostile forces. You have the option of building caravans and cargo ships and then either shipping supplies to and from your own cities or trading with other rulers and city-states. Now, trade routes establish the new foundation for international relations. In the past, international trade was handled solely by agreements between two heads of state and formed the core of the game's diplomacy system. Probably one of the biggest changes is Brave New World's inclusion of trade routes. Richmond should probably be a little worried.

With exceptionally clever additions to many of the weakest areas of past entries, Brave New World isn't just the best Civilization has ever been it stands as one of the most expertly crafted strategy games in recent memory.

It was a somewhat controversial move, stripping out much of the complexity that fans had come to expect, but after both Gods & Kings and Brave New World, the full beauty and elegance of what Firaxis has done is readily apparent. Sid Meier's Civilization V took many core elements of gameplay back to their roots, retooling and refining them in an attempt to modernize the aging mechanics. As one of the first games in the genre and a progenitor of the 4X style, it not only spawned one of the most popular strategy franchises but also one of the most influential. Civilization wears a special mantle within the realm of strategy games.

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