Which Civ to start with?

5

V is not bad, III is not bad (but a bit old now). Go with Civ IV+all DLCs. It's the best. (but not for noobs)

I just started Civilization V. I'd recommend it, there is no stack of doom and it looks beutiful. I think I have only played Civilization 1 before.

5, I just started it without ever playing the others. It is dense, but you'll get sucked in.

Speaking of which, what just happened to 7 hours!?

Civ 2 or Freeciv. Purists represent.

Civ 4 is the best game. Civ 5 is like "Civ 4 lite" with better visuals

All of the titles are unique in kind of how they are played.

I played every single Civilization from the very first when it came out (how I loved the look of the game).

I would recommend to start with V (easiest to start with, as you get a lot of help).
I do prefer IV with both Expansions, but they are harder to master.
III is nice as well, but AI is really tough. Tried it again a few weeks ago, and sucked completely gg

start with the first one :)

Civ 4 BTS is the best there is hands down. but to start with Civ V would be better

Civilisation 2 is all you need, to be honest. It perfected the mechanics and structure. With 3, 4 and 5 elements were changed for the sake of change, rather than making the Civ 2 experience better.

If you definitely want to get an in-depth view of the series as a whole, I'd recommend you start with Civ 2, put a few hundred hours in, and then move on to 3, 4 and 5. You'll see what I mean with the nature of the changes applied throughout the series and how the later titles are really more about cashing in on an established franchise than anything else.

Civ 3 for the laughs off Spearman v Tank, 4 just for variety and complexity, 5 for no stacking and hexes!

i only played civ1 so far, and i would like to know which one is best too. since my last civ1 game was back in the 90ies, i guess i'm right now noob by full right, so i'll go for civ v!

Civilization 4, main reason: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb-jk6Ftx7o

Civ is always good. Just pick one.

3

They are all pretty good and have their ups and downs, but I´d reccomend you to get Civ 5. It is the most noob-friendly game of them and gained the necessary dephts with the Gods&Kings-Expansion.. the base game was "nice fun for a quick round of Civ", but I got back to IV very fast.. IMHO with Gods&Kings it is just as good as Civ 3 or 4. Every one of them has features I´m missing in the other installments, but I could not realy decide if one of them is better then the others.

So I´d say: Get Civ 5! If you got a nice deal for GOTY + Addon, take it! If not you could get the base game first and play some rounds and if you find that you like it, upgrade it with Gods&Kings as fast as possible ^^

start with 5, move on to 4.

5 is great but more shallow than 4, it's a good way to get used to the game as it's much more noob-friendly. Move onto 4 if you have any time left to waste!

In all seriousness though, don't play Civ if you have stuff to be getting on with, it's the most addictive & time consuming game in existence.