
So, before yet another cup of tea gets cold, let's look at the versatile system that serves as the lifeblood of this whole endeavour: trade routes.

While Brave New World's most high-profile additions, such as the new cultural victory conditions and powerful World Congress, are aimed at adding interest and depth to the long game, they are predicated upon a new mechanic that is introduced almost immediately.

Brave New World includes all the mechanics introduced there (although you'll still need Gods and Kings installed for its extra leaders and civilisations), and in going further it leaves my desk strewn with even more mugs. The main contributing factor to this new wave of tea abandonment is how well the additional systems and features of Brave New World are integrated into Civ 5, and how they serve to enhance the more recent additions in 2012's Gods and Kings expansion. In fact, it exacerbates it, leaving me with lots more washing up. Scores more have gone cold as the music from that Hovis advert induces a Zen-like state and centuries run into hours and millennia stretch into days.īrave New World does not solve this problem. The Civilization 5 developer is responsible for dozens left half-finished and forgotten, their heat dissipating as the decades roll by and Leonard Nimoy's honeyed tones note the founding of another milestone in human history or landmark feat of ingenuity.

I have lost count of the cups of tea that have gone to waste at Firaxis' expense.
