[worth]

New IGN Civ V preview. Sounds great.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1075587p1.html

We saw a few battles that highlighted the significance of the new system. In one, two groups of units were facing off against each other around a one-hex lake. An archer unit was able to fire at enemy units on the far side of the lake and stay protected from melee attack by two allied units on either side. In another battle, a small group of powerful units were able to hold off a much larger attacking army in a narrow mountain pass. Because the attacker could only bring one unit into the fight at a time, the defender was able to eliminate the numerical disadvantage.

The diplomacy screen is now a full 3D environment complete with animated leaders speaking in their own language. Each leader has a unique scene that reflects who they are, so you'll meet Gandhi by the river, Napoleon on the battlefield and Bismarck in his office. The backgrounds are animated, and in some cases even interactive, so you'll see Askia standing in front of a burning town he's just conquered, or watch as Washington casually spins a globe. Specular mapping, depth-of-field effects and self-shadowing models help add to the realism of the scene, but in keeping with the tone of the series, the leaders are all slightly idealized. Bismarck is a little thinner, Gandhi a little stouter, and Suleiman look a bit like a Turkish Santa Claus.

In addition to the regular offerings, civs that have discovered writing can also form research pacts with each other. For a little bit of cash up front, each civ gets a 15% boost to research for 20 turns. Either side can break the agreement (by, say, going to war with the other partner), but since both lose money in the process, it's hoped that research pacts can help to foster goodwill without the exploits possible under Civ IV's open border system. One hex of a given luxury resource is now good enough to improve happiness across your entire civ now as well, which should also encourage more trading among civilizations. If you've got two marble and two dye, there's no reason to avoid trading one of each away if you can get access to ivory or spice.

Strategic resources are handled differently. There the quantity is very important. One iron deposit, for instance, will only grant you the right to build and maintain, say, five iron-based units. You can't build any more than that until one of those units dies (or is disbanded) or you get access to more iron. You will be allowed to keep those units in the field if your resource is pillaged, but there's an additional maintenance burden and you won't be able to replace them if they're lost.

Civ V's new city-states offer an interesting way to gain access to new resources. These are single-city civs that are placed at the start of the game and aren't in competition for an overall victory. In a way, they're like NPCs that can help grease the wheels of diplomacy by offering bonuses to the civs that they like best. You may start off near Budapest and find that they have silk, or can provide a culture boost to your civ. If you give them gifts of gold or units, they'll start to like you. If you fulfill their requests, like saving them from a barbarian attack or capturing one of their city-state rivals, they'll like you even more. If you liberate them from a foreign conqueror, you've probably made a friend for life.