sporrrrrrre!

[cmdr_zoom]

Like lots of people, I'm eagerly anticipating Will Wright's latest killer app, Spore, sometime early next year. The Flash intro on the official site amuses me, as one segment roughly depicts my typical Civ game:

Explore the world
Place defensive units in cities
Endure the slings and arrows (or in some cases, tanks) of rivals while pouring most of my resources into research
Finally break out and decisively obliterate everyone else with my overwhelming tech advantage :D

Comments

[deromilly.livejournal.com]

Me too, me too!

[shadur.livejournal.com]

heheh, yeah.

"Hey, Julius, about those knight raiding parties you kept sending into my territory?"

"What of them, you snivelling bookworm?"

"I'll see your knights and trebuchets and raise you... Oh, Warlord-empowered Modern Armor, fast-attack Gunships, mechanised infantry and stealth bombers."

"... Can we talk about this?"

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

"No."

(Ten turns later, after the Empire is reduced to a single outlying city...)

"Now, let us discuss the terms of your surrender."

[shadur.livejournal.com]

Pretty much. Except that the Warlords expansion to Civ4 allows for capitulation - in effect, the capitulating civ becomes a vassal state :)

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

Bah. Even if you get to control those cities as your own, you still don't get the satisfaction of rolling over their pathetic armies (that used to give you so much grief) in an unstoppable tide of Panzers.

Sometimes I'm willing to accept a diplomatic victory, but not from the guy who's been a pain in my ass for the last five hundred years.

[shadur.livejournal.com]

You don't get to control them as your own. You just get unlimited passage through them, a happiness bonus to your own population, and the pleasure of watching the capitulating leader grovel and clench his teeth every time you order him around. :)

[shadur.livejournal.com]

Also, in Galactic Civilizations 2 (which is several kinds of awesome besides, but I don't have two hours to sing its praises right now) you can, if you've been doing enough damage consistently to another civ that's way on the ropes, receive a transmission along the lines of "You've destroyed our military and smashed our planets, and there's nothing we can do any more to stop you. We don't have a choice. We surrender to you, and will pray nightly that someday someone else crushes you utterly the way you did to us."

So. Utterly. Worth it. :)