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Introducing Civilization V's Brave New World - IGN

  • ️Anthony Gallegos
  • ️Fri Mar 15 2013

Wage a culture war, play as the Polish civilization and more.

Editor's Note: Previously the article said the expansion was being created by Aspyr Media. Firaxis is the studio developing the expansion, Aspyr is making the Mac version. We apologize for the error.
This Summer Firaxis plans to release the second expansion for Sid Meier's Civilization V, titled Brave New World. The expansion makes many expected additions such as nine new civilizations, including the Polish, as well as revamps key systems. For more on the expansion, IGN spoke with senior producer Dennis Shirk and lead designer Ed Beach about what to expect."Gods and Kings did a great job of expanding the game through the early and middle part of the game...we really wanted to focus on the back half of the game," said Beach. Thus Brave New World takes a cue from what happened in our own 20th century history, namely the spread of ideologies and the way they polarized nations. The Autocracy, Freedom and Order social policy trees are now the three main ideologies, and once a country reaches the modern era or achieves a certain level of industrialization, it picks one of three. You then build your ideology over time through ideological tenets, which amount to a series of new policies that bolster your society in specific ways.Ideologies are super important to a civilization's culture, and Brave New World wants to address the Cultural Victory option as well. Instead of what Beach calls the "passive" option of building a few cities and kind of holing up while you attempt to make them amazing, the goal is for Brave New World is to reintroduce the idea of cultural warfare. You won't convert a city to your civilization a la Civilization IV, but you can win by exerting majority cultural influence over all the other civilizations.

You don't simply do this making building and wonders that generate culture, but by actively working to spread your culture one Great Work at a time. When you produce a Great Artist, or the expansions new Great Musicians or Great Writers, you can have them create a specific piece for you. You can then place this piece within buildings like museums or opera houses, generating points to bolster your civilization's culture, as well as new tourism points that pressure the civilizations around you. Generate more lifetime tourism than they're generating culture, and you'll win the cultural shadow war. Do this to all the civilizations? You win the game.

Another way you can obtain Great Works for display is through the new archaeology system. After you research archaeology you'll be able to visit antiquity sites of "historic" battles fought earlier in the game, searching for artifacts you can display in museums. Imagine going back to the canyon where your bold Mayan Atlatlists held off the invading Greek spear men over 1,000 years ago -- you can display something of their sacrifice, becoming the envy of your neighbors.

Culture is only one aspect of the Civilization V experience, and Brave New World also plans on bolstering other systems like diplomacy. The United Nations still plays a huge role in a Diplomatic Victory, but prior to its creation you'll have the option to interact with other civilizations via the World Congress. This body is created once a civilization meets every other nation in the world and creates a printing press. After it's established, every civilization gets a number of delegates that they can use to vote on policies (allied city-states also supply you with delegates). The two policies that are voted on each sessions are picked by the host nation that first created the World Congress, as well as the current leader who has the most delegates. The World Congress can ban certain luxury items, put a trade embargo on other countries and do "all kinds of things that change the rules of the game with each session of congress," said Beach. After each session there's a period before the voting takes place, allowing savvy leaders to go around and push other civilizations to trade for votes or straight-up buy them.

When it comes to economics, Brave New World wants to augment base Civilization V with the introduction of International Trade Routes. Now you'll be able to build caravan and cargo ship units, setting them up so they automatically travel back and forth between your city and that of a foreign civilization. As long as you're not at war, you both gain gold and other resources from the deal, which can work against you. Science, Religion and other resources that could be important to your path to victory will leak out to the civilizations you trade with. The units operating the trade routes can also be attacked, allowing you to disrupt other civilization's trade routes if you go to war with them.

The last things we discussed with the team behind Brave New World were the two new scenarios. One puts you in command during the American Civil War, the other tackles the colonial period where the various world powers were all striking out to colonize Africa. Could be interesting, but at this point the studio isn't giving away many details.

Excited for more Civilization V? Ready to take hold back your armies and instead wage a culture war? No specific release date was given, but we're told you'll be commanding Polish forces and trying to nab votes in the World Congress when Brave New World releases this summer.

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on @Chufmoney on Twitter and on at Ant-IGN on IGN.

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Sid Meier's Civilization V: Brave New World