14 DAY TRIAL // Civilization V is the new turn based strategy game from Jon Shafer, Sid Meier and the team at Firaxis, allowing players to take control of a nation as a mythical leader and lead them to glory in search of victory via domination, science, social policies or democratic world vote.
I settled on going for a few cities early on, with the dual purpose of both creating some hubs for culture and finding as good place for a tech city and one for a Great Person generator and for making sure that I am grabbing some significant luxury resources so I do not need to worry about happiness early on.
I managed to get spices, elephants and incense early on, two of those with just one city, as well as landing some marble near my capitol, which seems to help with the building of World Wonders.
I also began linking my cities with roads while exploring the tree of the Social Policy screen which ultimately leads to increased happiness for cities that are connected to my capital, in addition to the money received from the trade route.
And then I saw how Babylon was rising, fueled by their Great Scientist bonus, and I wondered how long before they would out tech me and invade with superior units.
This is one of the beauties of the new Civilization V, and its bigger segregation between culture, gold and science.
My focus on culture is only viable as long as I am able to keep up with my neighbors in technology and manage to create a viable defensive force.
The problem with Babylon is that they have a powerful early stage Bowman and as long as they get to Swordsmen before me and focus their production they can easily defeat me, as my unique units appear much later on and I would need a much bigger force to counter his unique Bowmen and swordsman mix.
Fortunately I have Iron, so I can create my own force and see whether Babylon decides I am enough of a threat to declare war, which would really slow down the pace of my cultural development but would give me a chance to try and cut him down to size.