Brave New World is the new expansion to Civilization V, released earlier in July. I’m a huge Civilization fan, so I was chomping at the bit waiting for the expansion to be released. After spending some time getting familiar with the mechanics, I’m ready to give my opinion on this incredibly successful expansion.
New Civilizations and Wonders
The best part of any Civilization expansion is, of course, the new civilizations you get to play as, which include Poland, Brazil, Assyria, the Zulus, Portugal, Indonesia, Morocco, the Shoshone, and Venice.
Just like every other civilization in the game, the new nations come with their own special rules, abilities, and unique units or buildings. After some time playing the game, Indonesia is probably my favorite. Their ability gives you a unique luxury item in the first three cities you found that are on different continents. That means I can keep my subjects happy and improve my international trade at the same time. 
There are also new wonders you can construct, such as the Parthenon, Broadway, the Globe Theatre, Borobudur, the Uffizi, the Red Fort, Prora, and the International Space Station.
New Cultural Victory
One of the biggest additions to the game is a change in the cultural victory mechanic. While before, all you had to do was complete enough of the cultural trees, the new expansion requires more strategy.
Certain buildings now contain slots for what are known in-game as great works. These can be great works of literature, art, or music. You create great works by earning Great Authors, Great Musicians, and Great Artists. The more of these Great Works you have, the higher your Tourism score is.
Tourism basically quantifies how much other people want to be a part of your culture. Tourism acts as your offense, while your culture acts as your defense. Basically, if your Tourism eclipses your opponents culture, you win. Now there is actually a point to building up your culture, besides the bonuses it would give you. If you neglect your culture now, you could find your citizens pining after another civilization.
New Mechanics
Brave New World comes with a few new mechanics as well. Trade can now be controlled through trade caravans and cargo ships. You can send these units on trade missions over land or sea. Sending your trade units to other nations will net you bonuses to gold and science. They will also spread your religion (if you have one) to other nations. But be careful, because the ships you are sending may bring back the other nation’s religion to compete with yours.
Ideologies are also a new addition. The ideologies (autocracy, freedom, and order) act as customizable social policies that you can change on the fly.
Using culture points, you can buy different bonuses for your ideology. If things are going poorly, you can change to another ideology for a new set of bonuses that may help you in your current situation. Since each of these ideologies were once social policies, they have been replaced with Aesthetics and Exploration. Aesthetics improves your culture and ability to generate Great Works and is a must if you’re going for the new cultural victory. Exploration favors seafaring civilizations, giving gold and exploration bonuses to your naval units.
Diplomacy has also changed. Once somebody has researched the printing press and met all the nations in the game, the World Congress becomes available. In the World Congress, you can vote with the other nations to enact trade embargos, bans on goods, or taxes on military. The way you vote can also have lasting effects on your relationships with other nations, so think before you vote. Changes to the spy mechanic allow you to send your spies into a nation’s capitol as a diplomat instead of a spy. They will not attempt to steal technology, but will give you insight into the plans the leader is making, be it a decision to invade another country or how they will vote in the World Congress.
New Scenarios
Brave New World comes with two new scenarios: War Between the States and Scramble for Africa.
War Between the States is a bit underwhelming. It basically amounts to all out war, the goal being to conquer the other sides capital. It’s not the most interesting scenario in the game. That title would go to Scramble for Africa.
The goal in Scramble for Africa is different depending on which group of civilizations you are playing as. The European nations are fighting for the resources and wonders in Africa. The North African nations are focused on amassing gold. The tribal African nations are trying to advance their culture. The clincher is you are not allowed to declare war on any other nations who are working towards the same victory you are. It is my favorite scenario by far.
Other Cool Stuff
There are a couple new units in the game, besides the unique units for the new civilizations. The archer units upgrade path has been finished with a new bazooka unit. The X-Com unit is another new addition, a cool nod toward Firaxis Games’ other strategy game, X-Com: Enemy Unknown.
The archaeologist is a new unit that enhances exploration. They can only be constructed in cities that have a university. Archaeologists are able to create dig sites in areas where there may be ancient treasures buried. From these dig sites you may get a Great Work, an artifact, or the option to turn the site into a landmark.
Final Thoughts
The only criticisms I can make against the game rest solely on the AI. Sometimes the AI is strangely irrational, but this is a minor concern in face of all the positives. Brave New World does what every good expansion should do. It builds on the mechanics that already exist while adding new things to improve the gameplay. This expansion has turned Civilization V into a solid 9 out of 10 for me. If you’ve put off purchasing Brave New World, I encourage you to go get it. If you’ve never played Civilization before, definitely give it a shot.
Published: Jul 22, 2013 10:54 pm