Here are some pictures from my last Civ conquest. I've had two pretty notable conquests in the past week and the first one was pretty amazing, but these pictures are from the second one. You might notice three Civs each with a score of Zero. Two of them were my doing. I whooped up on Spain (Isabella) and Greece (Alexander). I like picking off the weakest of the Civilizations when I'm the strongest... free cities!

The first game I won this week was incredible. I was at war with someone, and I was clearly the weakest on the planet. Well, it comes down to the end, there's about 20 turns left and I calculated that I needed about 19 to finish the spaceship! Well, one person was already attacking me pretty heavily, I think it was France (ironic, as it where, since I play as Germany!), and then with about 15 turns left, TWO other nations declare war on me!! I think they felt I was going to win, and didn't like that. These are all computer players, so the fact that three of them wanted to not see me finish was pretty cool, however, they did not get their wish! I had some pretty huge cities. I had taken over a Barbarian city pretty early, and it had grown to be a huge city with tons of gold and fast production, and contributing lots of research, all the while sufficiently feeding itself and growing. Well, that was the second city taken by the onslaught of the two opponents as the hordes from the east moved in. It sucked. So, I just decided to protect Berlin for the last few turns. At this point, there was only around 6 turns left, and Berlin and the Barbarian city, that I had taken that had grown into a powerhouse, were pretty much right next to each other. So I stacked up a bunch of troops around Berlin, and held my breath for the last few turns! I won, but damn was it f#@#!$ing INTENSE!! I usually don't consider other experiences with Civ "intense". "Fun", "difficult", but never really intense. It was a fun time. I won't be playing again until tomorrow night probably, since the Flyers play both tonight and tomorrow night. Of course, Friday is like my stay up all night and play video games day, so when the Flyers are over, the night's really just beginning! Unless I go out, of course.

So far, my only way of winning has been to win a space victory, but Civ has many victory types. The space victory is the easiest, since it's just a technological victory. You can win a cultural victory (3 cities with "Legendary" culture status), standard conquest (defeat all other civilizations and control the world!!), land and population victory (control a set percentage of land and population), a diplomatic victory (voted on through the League of Nations which you can build), and possibly some others. So, it's a great game that can be played forever without getting bored.

In my best game, I won a space race victory in 1991! That's pretty sweet. However, I've heard of some pretty remarkable victories on a Civ forum. One guy apparently won a cultural victory some time in the 1600s! It's one of those that was heard from a guy that knows a guy that knows a guy, so I dismiss it as Urban Legend. My 1991 space race victory put me in the good graces with Henry VIII on that list of your leadership abilities. Usually I'm Dan Quayle! That sucks.

Oh, and whoever picked the Bucs to win the Super Bowl is WAY off. I'd bet that they go out in the first round :)