They allow civilizations that don't have a lot of money to benefit from relationships with city states, and make a nice addition to the game. These quests take all kinds of forms, including hassling competing city states, developing new technologies and constructing wonders of the world. In Civ V, players won favor with these small nations primarily by giving them gold now the city states give players goals, and if you achieve them, you win favor and receive rewards. That said, I do enjoy the way spies can be applied to sway relations between competing empires and city states you can rig elections to turn a city in your favor.Ĭity states play a bigger role than ever in Gods & Kings, thanks to the addition of quests. Just having one or two spies can be more frustrating than useful. I'm glad to have spying back in the game, but the new system is too limiting if I want to bear down on espionage I should be able to do so. Players are assigned spies at specific points in the game, and can't train their own as a result, spies are a very limited resource, and you have to choose carefully whether you want to use them against other empires, or protecting your own cities. But the espionage system doesn't look like it did in the past. Firaxis has also brought back espionage, and the ability to steal technologies and perform reconnaissance on your enemies. Religion isn't the only game mechanic making a comeback in Gods & Kings. And since each religion is fully customizable, it helps the faith fit into your unique style of play, and becomes an important -but not overpowered- tool for world domination. As such, religion fits better into the game than it did in Civ IV. As the religion grows, you'll continue to accumulate faith points, which can be used to purchase special buildings like mosques or cathedrals that give bonuses to city growth, and special units like the missionary and inquisitor which are used to spread the religion even further.Įxperienced players will recognize the new religion mechanic as quite similar to Civ V's culture system, where you accrue points allowing you to buy social policies. There's lots of options and multiple chances to tweak, so every religion is going to turn out a little different. You might decide that religious cities get extra food, or that you get gold every time a foreign city adopts your religion. Religions can be named after real-world belief systems, but bear no similarities -when you start your own religion in Gods & Kings, you customize it from the ground up, choosing what bonuses it gives your empire and how it spreads. Civilizations accumulate "faith points" through their population and from various buildings and improvements those points are used to found religions.
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Firaxis toyed with religion in Civ IV, and it was interesting, but badly broken. Gods & Kings tweaks Civ V in lots of ways, but the biggest change is the return of a religion mechanic.