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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by thingsiplay@lemmy.ml to c/gaming@lemmy.ml

Edit: Fixed VPN users blocking: I don't know why, it was blocking VPN users, even though I had set it to allow VPN users before Poll creation! Just checked it again and set it back to allow. My apologies.

Look only after voting: Poll results1 day later at 2026-09-09 07:29 (German Local Time)


The Poll: Allows for up to two title selections. I set option to "Anonymize voter data" and allow VPN users.

Your Tierlist: You can share an image by downloading your Tierlist. No account required.

Do you have a favorite in the series? Which one do you want try and what do you would avoid? Is there any alternative game series you prefer over Civilization?

Sid Meier's Civilization Series: Wikipedia

  1. (1991) Civilization: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: - / -
  2. (1996) Civilization II: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: 94 / 8.6
  3. (2001) Civilization III: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB |Metacritic: 90 / 8.4
  4. (2005) Civilization IV: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: 94 / 8.4
  5. (2010) Civilization V: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: 90 / 8.1
  6. (2016) Civilization VI: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: 88 / 7.3
  7. (2025) Civilization VII: MobyGames | GameFAQs | IGDB | Metacritic: 79 / 3.8

My story

I started with Civilization 1 on Super Nintendo. Amazing game, worked well with gamepad optimized port, but loading times were abysmal in late game. Won all matches by domination. Later played Civilization 2 on Playstation 1. Won all matches by domination too. This time loading times were even worse, to a point I stopped playing because of this. My next game in series was much later when Civilization 5 came out on PC, then later Civilization 6. Both great games. Its the first time I won by other means than domination and the loading times were not an issue anymore. Just purchased and downloaded Civilization 4, which I will try out after posting this.

___

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[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

V is the best that I've played. 2 is a solid choice since it's the foundation more so than the original. 6 is a garbled mess of systems that don't work well together, and attempts to steal mechanics from other games but poorly done.

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 days ago

I'm a bit surprised about this negative feedback over Civ6. Granted I'm not as deep as some others into this, and my experience is limited here. I played Civ5 and Civ6 and didn't have the impression that it was a mess. I know in the initial launch phase of Civ6 lot of people were unhappy about the bad Ai of the enemies. But for mechanics and balance, I didn't think it is that bad.

Don't get me wrong, I don't try to invalidate your opinion or anything like that! Just saying that it surprised me.

[-] ScoopMcPoops@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

Civ VII having 0 votes over 12 hours into the poll is hilarious to me.

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

I'm not sure anyone who only played 7 could call it their favorite civ game.

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

Every person can vote for 2 titles. Civ VII is not even the second favorite for any of the voter. :D

[-] Jolteon@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 days ago

Also relevant is the user ratings of each of the games in your post (ignoring the "critic" ratings).

[-] QuadratureSurfer@piefed.social 5 points 3 days ago

I've played a few of them, but I loved playing Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) the most. My favorite was playing as Gaia's Stepdaughters since you could quickly get control of the planet's "mind worms" which were units that would never go obsolete.

[-] Nefara@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

This was exactly my play too, mind locusts were crazy OP, especially with movement bonuses over Xenofungus. I usually played Zahkarov over Deirdre but the result was always the same, lol. A planet covered in Xenofungus and a massive mind worm/locust army. That game is so good, I was immensely disappointed in Beyond Earth. It couldn't live up to the original unfortunately

[-] Vivacho@lemmy.zip 6 points 3 days ago

I may be in the minority, but Civilization Revolution on my iPad circa 2009 was my favorite thing ever. I liked that it wasn’t as complex as other installments and the mechanics were perfect for mobile device.

Then CivRev2 came around they stopped support for the first one. I hate CivRev2 because it shoehorned a 3d globe map and the mechanics got clunky. Just give me my first edition with bird’s eye view again!

[-] Anchorxiety@reddthat.com 3 points 3 days ago

I loved that game too! The simplicity was what made it so good.

[-] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 days ago

SMAC is the best Civ game followed by Civ IV. Civ III is the worst.

[-] PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml 8 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Civ4 is A-tier.
Civ4: Fall from Heaven 2, Rise of Erebus, Fall Further, Mod Mods transcends S-Tier.

Alpha Centauri is a distant 2nd. But still good.

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[-] rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Alpha Centauri

By a light year

[-] Hakuso@scribe.disroot.org 7 points 3 days ago

One vote per IP.

Only took two exit node refreshes to be able to answer XD

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[-] jqubed@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

I haven’t played all of them but I would say Civilization III is my favorite. It has the classic elements in their most polished form. My dark horse, though, is Civilization Revolution for the Nintendo DS. While Revolution on the other platforms was basically a simplified version of Civilization IV, the DS couldn’t handle that and got an even more simplified 2D version. In simplifying it they really made the 4X gameplay crisper and more focused. They should release a version of that for mobile phones.

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 days ago

I mainly play on PC nowadays (well emulation is a thing, but for Civ I don't need emus). Currently trying out Civ4 and Civ3 is on my todo list. Hmm if 3 is like a polished version of its predecessors, then I think that's it, I will never touch 1 or 2 again probably.

[-] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Civilization Revolution waa my introduction to the series. I havnt played it since 2010, but I loved it.

Now I play civ 6, have hundreds of hours, all the essential mods, and I think Ill play this version til I am dead.

[-] Nemoder@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 days ago

What are the essential mods for 6?

[-] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

So, the UI mods. I had a solid config for a while, but a few months ago aligned my list with Potato McWiskey in an effort to get better as he uses some I hadnt before. I made some adjustments, and I have many of the fun wonders available, but the UI mods are very helpful, and Id consider essential. Its nice theyre all in one link, and is a great place to start imo

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2470646711

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

Haha (not laughing at you, just funny the way you said it). Back when there was only 1 and 2, I thought I play 2 until the rest of my life too. :D I'm currently exploring the rest of the franchise.

[-] Madzielle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 days ago

lol yeah This thread might have me try civ 5, so thanks for posting!

[-] PlzGibHugs@piefed.ca 5 points 3 days ago

I know four is a commonly referenced favourite, but I just couldn't get into it. Beyond Earth on the other hand, was quite fun despite the hate, although didn't have as much replayability or longevity.

[-] Dathknight@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 3 days ago

Civ4 will always be on top.

A lot of it is nostalgia. It introduced me into the series, so I played a lot!

I even left my comfort zone and wrote after action reports and stories around running games in a forum.

The spinoff Colonization was strange, but fun too!

I am currently playing a play per mail game with a friend and I really miss this type of multiplayer in later titles.

[-] Hakuso@scribe.disroot.org 5 points 3 days ago

4 & 5 are pretty close, in my book, but 4 has a GOG release and 5 is still a cracked Steam copy rather than owned, so I pick the one they let me buy.

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[-] Screen_Shatter@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

I haven't played many civ games, I think I started with 4, but I'm apparently a weirdo because I got really into Beyond Earth. I like the scifi theme much more than the alternate history thing, and I enjoyed messing around with the affinities and the tech tree a lot.

Apparently this game got a lot of hate from people who loved alpha centauri. I never played it so... I dunno, I guess I should do that at some point. My problem now is Civ games take way more time than I can spare.

[-] Smug_Marmot@lemmy.zip 2 points 3 days ago

Same here. I enjoyed some civ games but beyond earth was my favorite!

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[-] HerbalGamer@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago

They all just kinda felt the same to me.

[-] joelfromaus@aussie.zone 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Civilisation: Call To Power! Still the goat even if I found out 20 years later that it wasn’t a mainline Civ game and was made by someone else. The main games still haven’t reached the amount of content it had within future epochs.

Edit: changed from Call to Power 2 to the first one. Apparently the some of the future techs were removed in the second so it must have been the first one that I played.

[-] almost1337@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 days ago

My favorites have been Civ 2 Test of Time, Alpha Centauri, and 5. I also played a lot of 4 Colonies, but I would rank it a tier lower.

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[-] MintyFresh@lemmy.world 2 points 3 days ago

In retrospect civ games were just primers for factorio. The factory must grow.

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

Please use a different site next time

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

I don't know why that is. There is an option to allow VPN users. I made sure VPN user is allowed.

Do you know any site for polls, that work well?

[-] Knitwear@lemmy.world 3 points 3 days ago

I got the same VPN message, how odd that they give you an option to turn it off and then ignore your request

[-] thingsiplay@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 days ago

@yxc999@lemmy.ml (Also tagging you here)

I checked the settings again and it was not allowing VPN users, wtf. I know for a fact that I set it to allow before submitting the Poll creation! So now, I set it back to allow, please check if it works.

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 2 points 3 days ago

Now it worked, thank you!

[-] yxc999@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

Good on you for enabling it! I don't have enough experience to recommend a particular one, just search for "foss survey tool" or "foss survey maker" or something, then you at least know what's going on under the hood instead of with Strawpoll blocking me even though you disabled this option.

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this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2026
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