Freeciv
From Eduwiki
Freeciv http://freeciv.org is a game of creating civilizations with the goal of either taking over the world or colonizing space. It is a god game because you can control everything about your civilization. Different teams (either people or AI) take turns moving their units and adjusting production.
Summary
In this game you have the option of choosing a Nation, skill level and city type in the beginning of the game(other then the skill level, the other changes did not seem to affect the game any). In addition you need to pick the number of players. If you are playing alone then I would recommend choosing a number between 3-5 players (the computer will play those other players).
Game Strategies
To move your men you can either use the number pad or the mouse (both ways are equally frustrating), but I found the mouse to be a little more managable then the number pad. Every time you move a man you can uncover more land. After so many turns, you obtain a settler which can be used to build a city. The more cities you build the more items you can produce(warriors, money, wonders of the world, diplomats, marketplaces, etc.). When building a city, you want to choose a location that supplies your population with a positive food source. This will ensure faster growth and production. Your city is concerned about three items which are food/production/trade. I found that having a high food and production supply increased the amount of production options I had to choose from. After you have established a territory I would recommend having your workers build mines, fortresses, and roads. Furthermore, you should produce as many men to fight as possible. Chariots and horsemen were the strongest men I could produce, but there are other fighters as well. Once your territory is established is usually when other nations start coming in. This part was the most frustrating for me because I could not find a way to defeat these other nations or push them back. It was very difficult and almost impossible to reclaim your land once it was lost. Having more men to fight definetly helped me stay in the game longer, but I still ended up losing in the end.
The objective of the game is to build a civilization with two initial settlers and one explorer from the stone age, and expand and develop it by conquering over others or winning the space race. With the limited resources that you’re given, you must make decisions on where to explore, where to build cities to recognize the maximum output of food, production and trade, and how to improve your city by adding things such as irrigation and roads. You must do all of this while also avoiding a takeover by another civilization, so it’s important to keep your city protected. You can do this by keeping a warrior in each city. It is a good idea to sign peace treaties with other civilizations you encounter so that you don't go to war, which could deplete your resources and cause you to lose. One key to improving your city is to allocate money into research and technologies, as this is the only way to add to your city, change your government or start your military. In my game I did not get to improve much because I did not build my cities on the ideal type of land, and I was short on settlers so I couldn’t build roads and irrigation. I waited to have enough money to buy more settlers, then added roads and irrigation to be able to move outside my city limits.
The strategy for this game is basically common sense. You pick a nation you would like to represent and expand proudly and then you start settling and building your own empire! The first thing you need to do is explore some land by using your men. You can do this manually by sending them out to different directions or you can command them to "auto explore" and they will explore the land for you. After each turn is done you explore more land. When you see a fertile land with resources such as oil field, mine, forest, or food resources such as fish or bison, you should build a city on that land. Once you have the city your city automatically starts producing soldiers. You can change that to settlers in the beginning so you can build more cities. Meanwhile you keep exploring and taking turns. When enough time passes you will come across other nations and you will encounter them. Usually they will offer to keep the peace with you and then you sign peace treaties with them or alliance agreements for a limited term. This is important in the beginning so you wont go to war and possibly lose your city and men. Also you have scientists who work on different research at any given time. You need to make sure they are working on something all the time because once they are done with something they stop researching until you show them a new goal. You can see this setting when you double click on your city, same place where you change the production of the city. After your scientists developed a new technology you can produce a new thing, may be a ship or different types of soldiers, fortress, palace etc.
Keeping peace with other nations also helps you exchange technology with them, so you keep developing faster. Of course keep an eye on your army production and make sure you have at least 3-4 cities and have half of them concentrate on producing soldiers and war machines. Sooner or later you will need them.
Educational Implications
This game is about the survival of different civilizations. For educational purposes it helps students identify the needs for growth and production in order to be a successful civilization. It also gives a brief history lesson as to how civilizations evolved from the stone ages to the technology age of today, and the decisions our leaders had to make in the process to survive. it's also a good example of how different governments function, and what is needed for an economy to prosper.
This game teaches students how a civilization grows and nourishes. It also teaches the important role of politics and diplomacy. It gives them the control of decision making and the consequences that come with the decision making process. They see the results of their choices some times right away sometimes down the road. It teaches them to do planning and having a long term strategy for success. Also it creates a competitive environment where they need to compete against other nations and learn how to survive.
