Sid Meiers Civilization IV Beyond the Sword
Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword is a new expansion pack for the turn-based A-star title from developers Firaxis that brings a pile of options for a reasonable price. As its title suggests, the new campaigns and gameplay additions will tie into battle - something necessary but rarely the best choice for victory. The game's been beefed up - new leaders give access to more war-thirsty traits. For instance, Abraham Lincoln's charismatic trait lowers the amount of experience a unit need to level up. New additions to gameplay focus on the later eras circa 18th century with the introduction of espionage, corporations and new army units for all civilisations. Corporations grant huge commercial benefits such as increased cash resources to players. But these are very expensive to upkeep. By spreading branch offices to other cities though, players can suck resources from companies and wrest economic control of a city.

Espionage, however, is a little weak, with the failure rate of James Bond wannabes being depressingly high. In addition, there're around 11 custom scenarios and total game modifications, such as maps like Afterworld which turns the slow, deliberate pacing of the Civilization series into a frenetic humans-versus-zombie survival fest. There's quite a bit of content available, but weigh it against free options on sites like Planet Civilization and suddenly it doesn't look so great. If you thoroughly enjoy fighting, the feast of fights in Civilization will make it worth a buy.