Sid Meier’s Civilization V: Gods & Kings

Gods & Kings is a great expansion, but only because the design of Civilization V was unusual and incomplete. I’m not sure if it deserves points for reimplementing religion and espionage after Civ5 arbitrarily removed them, but it’s hard to argue with the results. It approaches the returning systems the same way the base game approached the series formula: by completely taking them apart and restructuring them. So now religions have gameplay bonuses customized by their founder, and espionage is an ever-present threat that expands at static intervals rather than a distracting opportunity cost for every unit and building produced. In addition to these new strategic elements, G&K also improves naval combat and expands city-state interactions. Just like the base game, many of the mechanics make no sense from a simulation perspective, and the AI is still tactically incompetent, but the experience is noticeably better with G&K installed, which is the most you can reasonably expect from an expansion pack.