Question about the Civilization games.

Civ5 complete for BTA is a really good deal even if BTA was about to rise to 10€, in my opinion.

Never played Civ, but good luck with your question and thanks!

Civ IV is probably my personal favorite. So if you want to start cheap get the tier 1 and try it out. If you like it you can buy more of the same bundle later.

Buy the BTA, you'll get the complete collection of 3, 4 and 5. I personally like more Endless Legend, but CIV5 is good too.

In my opinion the best one is first one (dos). I played it just recently and wasted whole night in it. I didn´t play 5 and above, so can´t talk about them, but a lot of people talk about Civ 5 as the best one (and BTA was really nice for that game, when I checked 30 minutes ago) or Civ 4 is good rated aswell.

Well, I in your situation!) I love strategic games - economic, war and others, but before 2016 I was playing only RTS.
I never interested in turn based games, and when I see some Civilization games i though they look rubbish.)
But in 2016 I wanted to try something new and all in game world was in fever with new Civilization VI, and I wanted to try it.
But I don't have money and proper PC for Civ 6, so I get Civ V for cheap on sale. And I like it! It is cool game on of the best games of all times.)
I think Civ V is a best choice to met Civilization world.) And best thing - it going well on my 9 year old PC! I have problem only on largest maps - because I have only 3Gb RAM.)

Civ5 is in my opinion the best. 4 is also very good (but you will get is anyway with BTA).
Beyond Earth is only average (I really regret the pre-order)

Get Civ5 for BTA, before it rises further in price. Or wait and buy it then. Either way it is a solid buy.
Don't waste your money on Beyond Earth.

Or if you're really hard on cash get tier 1. Most players regard Civ 4 as better than Civ 3. I'm one of the few who preferred Civ 3 between them.

It's very hard to say. I'd say that Civ V with all DLCs is the most feature-complete and advanced, although only in comparison with current state of Civ VI, since it has a lot of potential to become even better with more and more content in the future.

I never liked Civ IV for some reason, while Civ III and previous had their golden ages and are simply outdated by now. If I was about to suggest anything, it's Civ V + all major expansions (G&K + BNW). I'm sure you won't be disappointed, while still making it possible to switch to any other Civ in the future. The current BTA on HB is just awesome for everybody who doesn't own Civ V + expansions by now, and I'd buy it myself if I didn't have it already.

Get BTA with CIV V + expansions, and enjoy!

(BTW, CIV:BE is not really that great either, at least IMO. I wouldn't get it for that price, but I'm cheap bastard, don't follow me too much)

Those games never got me.
Have a bump!

I'm old school. Civ 2 with the unofficial lord of the rings mod was just epic for people that can remember that far back :P. Nowadays, civ V is the one to go to :). Definitely play the games as they are very highly regarded by most gamers.

Can't go wrong with Civ 5 and all of the add-ones.

My first and probably most played Civ was 3. But each other game in the series got less and less of my attention. I don't have 6, but 5 is still a very good strategy game.

5 is best for entry, 4 more complex and my favorite

Just whatever you do, NEVER piss off Gandhi. Due to a strange coding hiccup in the old Civ, he was the most aggressive nuke-throwing AI. This has become kind of a running gag in the series, where that AI drops nukes on everyone who just looks at him funny.

Civ 2 was one of my all time favorite games. CIV 3 is the weakest of them all.

If I was new to the franchise I'd go with CIV5 with the two main expansions.

Civilization 5 with all the addons is the best one in my opinion

I'd goes with Civ V (including All DLC), love all Civ series except Beyond Earth. If you are still new with Civ then play this one, because there's many assistant that help you on build your civilization. I have played civ IV and there are many incredible development in civ v especially City States, it'll grow same with your city (finding resources and build development) so you can choose to ally with them or trying to invade them. although it'll determined by how difficulty you choose before game. All things that Civ IV provided already on Add-on Civ V (DLC) also, there are many civilizations that you can choose.

I've been playing since Civ II (in my opinion, the best, as it's not overly bloated with animations, but still looks good), I've played 3 and I own IV and V, but I just find them hard to get into because they feel too animated/arcade game like...
However, I do know that over the years SM has kept building the AI, and has worked to make the results of actions more real world (you can no longer go nuclear in the 11th century, hahaha, and I don't think reaching 1000% or more is possible anymore), so if you want a challenge, start with the newer ones...
I have a mate who buys each one as it's released, and he swears by playing the newer ones because of the AI improvements... He's clocked up over 1000 hours on the latest one...
I'd say, if you want to ease into it find yourself a copy of Civ II. There are still those of us who play it - there's one guy (google him) who has been playing a single game for the past 20 years - he's now out around the year 30,000 in game time (as far as memory serves) - you can download and play his save file... in his game everyone went Nuclear a long time ago and there are now just competing city-states as most of the land is unusable for building or farming...
My mates and I used to challenge each other with things like who could reach nuclear development first, who could win (defeat everyone else or launch the ark to move into space) earliest, and who could reach the highest percent of achievements (as mentioned prior, over 1000% was achievable)...
If you're sticking with Steam, Civ III is a good starting point - it's cheap and, as I also said earlier, it doesn't have as difficult an AI as the newer versions... then, once you've got the hang of it, move up the line to the newer ones...
Oh, and one last thing about Civ II, the 'advisor' cutscenes were hilarious, and definitely helped whlle learning...
Oh, and another last thing (so I guess the last wasn't the last), in order to get great scores, you need to micromanage every city and unit on the map... otherwise you just can't reach potential...

Oh, and one last thing - missions (which is how I learned to play - kicking the crap out of Germany in WWII with the Russions is so much fun!) in Civ II are included with the game, and don't need to be bought/downloaded as DLC...
All other versions above that have additional DLC (and I don't remember them having misions, as such)...
Also, if you do get Civ II, you will need to run it on a virtual machines (or DosBox) - it just won't work on modern machines without doing so...

No matter which Civ you choose, you get an awesome game. Personally I would prefer IV as it wasnt developed with having online games in mind. Therefore I think it has a better single player experience. And it takes itself a bit more serious than V (and especially VI with its cartoony graphics, and muscle packed units).

More important than the part of the series is to set the gamespeed slower than normal, which is to avoid having anachronistic situations and expanding the eras to feel like a whole game itself. That makes a game feeling more epic and optimizing stuff pays out this way. If you dont like micromanagment (which becomes more and more important through a match) you should probably better go with V.

I almost forgot: diplomacy is way more sophisticated in IV and you can have a deeper look into relationships. It offers more information in general. If you choose IV i highly recommend the mod "Realism Invictus" if you want a more historical approach, with every nation having its own look and some other improvements, but letting the core of the game untouched.

In either case: have a good time!

I loved both 3 and 4, and am a little lukewarm on 5 - a lot of which has to do with the pre-expansion state of the game on release, which I believe was incomplete. They are all excellent, though. No really, they are. All. Excellent.

Civ IV complete is probably most veteran players' favorite Civ game. I played it for a few hundred hours. And there are tons of great mods for it.