FreeCiv
FreeCiv is a free and open source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. Players start in prehistory and build cities, research technologies, and fight wars as their civilization grows throughout history.
empirebuilding
civilization
strategy
open-source
FreeCiv: Free and Open Source Empire-Building Game
FreeCiv is a free and open source empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. Players start in prehistory and build cities, research technologies, and fight wars as their civilization grows throughout history.
What is FreeCiv?
FreeCiv is a free and open source turn-based empire-building strategy game inspired by the history of human civilization. Players start in prehistory with a single settler unit and build cities, improve land for food production, research technologies, and direct armies and navies while guiding their civilization up through history.
Gameplay is similar to Sid Meier's Civilization series. Players explore a randomly generated map, founding new cities to expand their empire. Cities produce food, production, trade, science, culture and other resources which allow your civilization to advance. Players must balance expanding with building an economy, researching technologies, cultural development, and military power.
There are multiple ways to achieve victory. Players can win by military conquest of all other civilizations, achieving a high score by growing an advanced empire, building a spaceship to reach Alpha Centauri first, or accumulating the most culture. Diplomacy options allow forming alliances, trading resources, and waging war against rivals.
FreeCiv offers single player games against multiple AI opponents customized with different behaviors. It also supports multiplayer online games and local hotseat games. The graphics and user interface mimic Civilization II, but newer versions of FreeCiv extend gameplay features well beyond that classic title.
FreeCiv is available for Windows, macOS and Linux. The open source code is written in C and allows user contributions and mods. Its accessibility, depth of options, realistic AI opponents and active community make FreeCiv an excellent choice for turn-based strategy gamers.
FreeCiv Features
Features
- Turn-based strategy game
- Single-player and multiplayer modes
- 2D graphical tile-based representation
- 18 playable civilizations
- Research tree with technologies
- City management
- Diplomacy and trade
- Military units and warfare
Pricing
- Open Source
Pros
Free and open source
Cross-platform support
Active community and mod support
Educational about history and civilizations
Highly customizable gameplay
Cons
Dated graphics
Steep learning curve
Can feel repetitive after some time
AI opponents not very advanced
Limited documentation and tutorials
Official Links
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