First Preview of Civilization V: Gods and Kings

Back in February we let you know it had been announced that Civilization V would see an expansion, Gods and Kings. Since then, a few sites were able to get sneak peeks. Unfortunately, we weren't one of them, but we can tell you what they shared with us.

To add to the already known new civs and leaders: Netherlands (William I, Prince of Orange), the Celts (Boudicca), and the Mayans (Pacal the Great); Carthage (Dido) and the Byzantines have been confirmed.

Some units mentioned are the Pictish Warriors, which help produce faith for the Celts, as their unique unit. World War I era tanks, planes, machine gunners and artillery, have also been added so there will be another step in modernizing your armies.

Gamespy gave us a great description of how both the new espionage and religions work. And it sounds totally oooShiny! The way you can make your religion fit your playing style, or your situation in each game, sounds quite intriguing. Faith will now be a yield, just as food, culture, and production are. The more faith you generate, the fast you can grow your religion. Each type of civilization has unique ways to gain faith.

Once you have have faith, you build a Pantheon, which allows you to choose your first belief. After that your faith generates you a Great Prophet, who is capable of founding a religion. Once you have a religion you can combine two more beliefs to your system. The beliefs either effect you the founder, or give benefits to your followers. Once one religion has chosen a belief, that belief is no longer available to another.

Spies no longer being units at all, is interesting as well. Rigging elections, and causing coups are just part of what they're capable of. But you definitely do not want to let your spies get caught. Not only will they be executed, but you'll lose some major face and may find yourself at war over the incident.

Venturebeat's article mentions that the Dutch can produce tulips for trade, and that the city state of Tyre makes jewelry. This would seem to suggest that each civilization and city state has their own unique resource as well. A previously unmentioned change, that would add a whole lot to consider when conquering the world.

Another thing mentioned is that units are moving from a ten hit point system, to a hundred point system. Units will be a lot harder to kill, and combat will take longer. Battle lines could easily become much more of a stand still.

Alas, sadly, there still is no release date. Just sometime in late spring.