Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first official expansion pack for the Turn-Based Strategy game, Sid Meier's Civilization V.* It features the introduction of religion as a major gameplay component to the game, through a faith-based mechanism. It also adds additional diplomatic abilities to those found in the base game. Additional features include, a variety of benefit types for the establishment and adoption of religion, spies that both level with mission completion and that can be a liability if captured, several new playable civilizations, improved battle abilities, and new units, buildings and wonders.
Expanded Power with Religion and Enhanced Diplomacy
The Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack* introduces the power of religion and improved diplomatic abilities to Civilization V. Religion, used as a major tool, was left out of the 2010 base game release, but now joins culture, technology, diplomacy, and warfare as the fifth pillar of the game's turn-based statecraft and empire building game mechanic. Use of religion begins during a civilization's infantcy, with the player interweaving select core beliefs with particular realities of their civilization. This in turn unifies people and generates faith, setting the stage for the emergence of unit's like The Great Prophet, Missionaries and The Inquisitor, along with the founding of a religion. Religions available initially correlate to actual world religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Shinto, etc., but they are designed to be renamed and customized with player chosen tenets. Civilizations that found religions enjoy certain exclusive benefits, while a later series of benefits connected to a religion can be enjoyed by any civilization that is converted to it. This includes rival civilizations. As the timeline of the game progresses to the renaissance and beyond, religion becomes less important, but remains a surprisingly powerful tool.
Introduces religion to Civ V statecraft gameplay tactics.
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Improved use of spies allows for even more in-depth strategy.
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The Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack also improves on the base game's use of diplomacy, especially in the area of espionage. With spies players can do a wide range of things, including steal technologies, provide intelligence, rig elections, and even counter the actions of foreign spies planted domestically in their own cities.
New Unit Battle Abilities and New Civilzations
Although religion and diplomacy are potent tools of state craft, war is inevitable. This is why Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings includes expanded abilities to units in battle. Improvements include: expanded general health of units to ensure more time for strategy and changes to forces during exchanges, the inclusion of early multi-winged aircraft, expanded offensive abilities of naval units pitted against other ships and against land tagets, and improved defensive abilities of ground units during transport by sea.
Gods and Kings also includes additional civilization not included in the initial release of the base game. In many cases, following the theme of the expansion pack these new peoples possess an extreme potential for influence by/and manipulation of religion. A sampling of the new civilizations available include, the Celts lead by Boudicca, the warrior queen of the proto-British Iceni tribe, and the Maya featuring Pacal the Great the long-time ruler of the powerful city-state of Palenque.
System Requirements
Minimum- OS - Windows XP (SP2) / Vista (SP1) / Windows 7
- CPU Processor - Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8 GHz or AMD Athlon X2 64 2.0 GHz
- RAM - 2 GB RAM
- Disc Drive - Required for disc-based installation
- Hard Disk Space - 8 GB or more
- Video Card: 256 MB ATI HD2600 XT or better, 256 MB nVidia 7900 GS or better, or Core i3 or better integrated graphics
- Sound Card - DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
- Peripherals - Mouse and keyboard
| Recommended- OS - Windows Vista (SP2) / Windows 7
- CPU Processor - 1.8 GHz Quad Core CPU
- RAM - 4 GB or more
- Disc Drive - Required for disc-based installation
- Hard Disk Space - 8 GB or more
- Video Card - 512 MB ATI 4800 series or better, 512 MB nVidia 9800 series or better
- Sound Card - DirectX version 11
- Peripherals - Mouse and keyboard
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Key Game Features
- Introduces religion, wielded through faith, as a crucial tool of the state into the Civilization V game franchise
- A multi-layered belief system that allows for civilization-specific benefits, as well as benefits to any game civilization holding that belief
- Changing benefits to religion depending on the time period of the game
- An improved diplomacy and espionage component that allows for technology theft, foreign intelligence and election rigging, and domestic counter espionage
- Improved capabilities of battle units including, improved general health, the inclusion of early aircraft, and expanded abilities of naval and ground units
- Several new civilizations available for play, including Celtic - featuring the warrior queen of the proto-British Iceni tribe Boudicca, and Mayan, featuring Pacal the Great the longtime ruler of Palenque
- Many new units, buildings and wonders
Additional Screenshots
 Improved unit capabilities.
View larger |  New playable civilizations.
View larger |  New units, buildings & wonders.
View larger |  Addictive turn-based gameplay.
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* Sid Meier's Civilization V -- sold separately -- is required for play.
