Civ V - New World Order

There has been a reason while new posts in AWB have been rather thin of late, and some of the better ones involve the latest expansion for Civ V, New World Order.
AWB purchased this add on from Steam a couple of weeks ago and has spent many happy gaming hours exploring new ins and outs of this game franchise.
So what are you getting with this expansion? Lots of toys actually, most of which link into each other in subtle ways and hence are slightly difficult to explain in isolation. In brief, you get new nations with their own unique units and bonus, some new units for all to play with, changes to the culture system, archaeology, trade routes, some different ways to win, social policies/ideologies, two new scenarios and a whole bunch of new Steam Achievements to to unlock.
The new Civs are always fun but we have all seen new Civs before so AWB is not going to dwell too long on them, apart from the Venetians who's quirk is they cannot build settler units. Instead they get a type of 'super merchant' unit that allows them to take over City States. AWB has yet to play this Civ so cannot comment too much further on how this works from the inside point of view, although when playing against the Venetians, having the City State you had been carefully grooming suddenly get taken over under your nose can be just a tad annoying.
Most of the unique units for these new Civs are nothing too exciting. As in Common or Garden Civ V and Gods and Kings these are basically just existing units from the tech tree with a +1 in one of the stats and only the host nation can build them. The interesting new unit in the game is the high tech XCOM infantry. Since Firaxis have the rights to both the Civ and XCOM franchises, this new unit is EXACTLY what it sounds like, right down to the Skyranger animation when the unit deploys. While very tongue in cheek in shamelessly referencing the other game, it is also a high end infantry for late late game at a time when the game normally maxes out combat units way before players finish the tech tree. The only thing Firaxis may have dropped the ball over is not going the full way and having late game barbarian units replaced by alien terror raids as an option.
The two new scenarios are an American Civil War and a 1880s Scramble for Africa. Pretty much what they say on the box and something different for those needing a break from the normal full campaign.
Now, the big changes to the game. Culture, tourism, trade and the world congress.
Culture, if AWB remembers correctly, first came into the Civ universe with Civ III. Back then gaining a culture victory was effectively racking up enough Culture 'VP' until the magic number was passed and the game was won.
Common or Garden Civ V had the system where you gained enough culture to unlock enough of the Policy Track until you were allowed to build the 'Victory McGuffin'. Yes it took time and effort, but exactly what this Victory McGuffin actually was or did was casually handwaved.
In New World Order you still unlock the Policy Track, but now wage a constant background cultural war with the other nations by building Tourism. Have a more impressive Tourism rating compared to a nations base culture and that nation slowly starts wearing your jeans and listening to your pop music. When you have all the active nations under your spell, victory shall be yours.
This makes a more challenging game now as successful tourism must be built up by either creating a nice collection of Great Works from your Great Artist, Writer and Musician units that slowly appear through the game, but also by building enough buildings, both normal and Wonders, to house them all in. Mid game unlocks archaeology which also gives you cultural artifacts to add to your museums, provided you manage to actually build the units and successfully send them out across the globe to steal them.
Some of the Wonders in the game have now been linked into the Policy Track as well, meaning they now need to be unlocked on both the Tech Tree and the Policy Track. So if a player is craving their favourite Wonder for their empire, they now need to plan ahead just a little bit more
There is also a bit of 'suits' with the Great Works/Artifacts, and some buildings have slots to hold more then one idea. Mixing the 'suits' correctly gives bonuses to your Tourism and gives you another thing to consider as you max/min your empire.
Tourism transfer is also effected by just how friendly you are with another nation. At war and no one really wants to open a new McFrancise with you, but declare friendship, open boarders and have a few trade links and the cultural influence flows freely.
This brings us to the new trade units.
The traditional method of trading resources via the diplomacy options still exist. These are new units that world alongside resource trading and for the most part, make you lots of gold. Players may build caravans for land and cargo ships for sea up to a limit based on the Tech Tree. These units start in one of your cities, you are given a menu of foreign cities in range and what sort of profit both sides can expect to gain (yes kids, trade works both ways) and you send them off, where they move automatically across the map for several turns until the trade deal is up for renewal and you get to do it all again.
Gold is the main trade, but also religion and, if there is a difference in tech between the nations, science. Trade with a less advanced nation and they receive a rather useful science bonus as they gain hints of your latest advance from the sailors and caravan drivers. Trading with City States tends to make them love you more, allowing you to collect a nice series of allied states without much hassle, although the World Congress might have something to say about that if you are not careful.
While trading on the surface is a good way to gain more 'good things' out of the game system, the flip side is these ships and caravans move automatically across the map once you let them go, and, just like in the real world, it's a dangerous map out there. Players now have to go to respectable efforts building and maintaining a navy or boarder patrols to keep their trade routes safe. Barbarians will loot them as soon as look at them and computer players once war is declared have no issues hunting them down either. So now, just like in the real world, if you want to be a strong maritime trading nation, you had better be prepared to have a strong navy as well.
Now, to jump back a bit into the Policy Track, once a player has either built their third factory or reached the modern era, they now get to select an Ideology: Freedom, Order or Autocracy. Like the Policy Track, these give you new bonuses that you can unlock via culture points. Unlike the Policy Track, other nations now take an active view on who you are. Computer nations will join a like Ideology in friendship or gradually come to distrust a rival. What becomes more important is that cultural influence via tourism also plays a part. If a rival nation holds a lot of cultural influence over a nation with a rival Ideology, large amounts of unhappiness points are slowly gained. If these become too great there is a danger that the people will rise up and 'tear down this wall', forcing you to change Ideologies. Which would be bad.
The Ideologies are also matched slightly with the different victory conditions. Freedom for example has bonuses for the Science/Spaceship victory while the more anti social Autocracy is better for winning via conquest. Matching your preferred end game to the correct Ideology is hence reasonably important.
Speaking of end games, the Diplomatic Victory has also been changed. Gone in the UN Wonder. In it's place is the World Congress that begins once a nation has discovered all the other players and means that every 'X' turns of the game, the nations get together and vote to annoy each other. Each nation gets a number of votes based on the stage of the game, wonders, City State allies and, with later tech, diplomats. Each congress votes on two issues and they are enforced until such time as you manage to overturn them at the next congress. This is where outcomes such has having trade with City States completely banned can come in, or the complete outlawing of citrus fruit. Since there are always two motions at each Congress and your total votes must be split between the two of them, a bit of juggling is required to ensure you always have a motion you are willing to lose should one be tabled that, if passed, could really screw you over.
Then, just to really make it tricky, if you vote against something one of the other nations had put forward, they end up getting grumpy at you, suddenly deciding that no, open boarders wont be renewed for another 45 turns when you can least afford it.
Survive all this and build enough City State allies, and by the late game there comes the chance to vote for World Leader. Pull this off and Victory is Yours. Get distracted however and it becomes another way to lose.
There is more, of course, but that does rather cover the main features. How complex a game you enjoy is a matter of personal taste, but AWB feels these changes to the Civ V system both tie together very nicely and expand the basic game.
60.8 hours of play time in the last two weeks can't be wrong.

X-COM - 8 bit pants wetting terror

Real life has been getting in the way of AWB of late, and for 'real life' you may feel free to substitute the term 'Steam Sale' if it will help you relate easier.
AWB lashed out recently can purchased a copy of X-COM UFO Defence (also released as X-COM Enemy Unknown in other parts of the world) recently from Steam. It was $US2.49, took about 39 seconds to download and install and comes pre shipped with a DOS Box for the great ease of all those who are vaguely aware that MS DOS used to exist in the same way most of us are vaguely aware there used to be a time before electricity.
Now, when we say X-COM, we are talking about the original Mircoprose version and not that glossy reboot did the rounds late last year for all the little console kiddies. This is state of the art 1994 and is still sodding hard, additively compelling and bloody scary, all in 8 bit.
For those not family with the back story, the game is set in the near future of 1999 and while the rest of us are out stressing about the Y2K virus and trying to work out where the hottest chicks were going to be come December 31st, the nations of the world were suffering under a serious of mysterious alien attacks. Having decided that us humans were just not going to take this sort of probing laying face down with pants around our ankles, they formed the Extraterrestrial Combat force - X-COM. ET? Your going home in the back of an ambulance.
So this is your role as the player. You have a budget from the good people of the world. You have a starting secret base - probably under a fake volcano for traditions sake - and a crack team of state of the art Interceptors and rapid response ground troops. You are also going to die horribly. The game runs in pausable real time in global mode where you can watch for UFO contacts in between managing your base for research and production, but once you catch your UFO, it is time to send in the troops to shoot everything that moves and loot the wreckage.
This bit is sodding hard. Combat is turn based tactical. You start in the back of your Skyranger transport with your first task of deploying your squad down the ramp. On a good day that is relatively simple. On a bad day you can lose three troopers before you even get to the top of the ramp. The aliens are better then you. Their guns are better, the AI is cunning, and without a careful and systematic approach you will find plasma bolts from unseen enemy carving into your squaddies and killing them with one shot.
That is just on the first mission.
Gradually you research new techs, both home grown and stolen from the aliens and start to feel your new shiney lazer rifles can take these idiots on... right up to the time you suddenly encounter a new alien type and HOLY SHIT! This one FLYS!
For 8-bits it is surprisingly atmospheric. As you annoy the aliens they start throwing terror raids against you where they blatantly land in a built up area and go full body horror on the locals. There, with the hidden movement of the fog of war, screams of terror are heard as somewhere, unseen in the rest of the city, someone is dying horribly. The terrain, unlike newer releases with their fancy pants movie quality graphics, is fully destructible. Every single thing on the map can be blown up if you encourage it with enough violence. Since your performance (and hence your monthly budget) is not effected by how much material damage you do during combat, the game allows the perfectly rational and rewarding tactic of sweeping areas for aliens by blowing up each and every building they might be hiding inside.
X-COM, nearly 20 years old. It's hard. It's dummy spit frustrating. It's playing one more mission at 2am when you have work tomorrow.
Good fun.