The Australian magazine PC PowerPlay edition #176, April 2010, has an exclusive 6 page preview of Sid Meier's Civilization V. Included is a number of already seen images, but tucked up nicely in all the material are two new images confirming two of the Leaders/Civilizations being speculated: France (Napoleon) & Montezuma (Aztec).





Summary of new points:

• Jon Shafer - lead design.
• Dennis Shirk - Producer.
• Dorian Newcomb - Lead artist for Civ 5.
• Ed Beach - lead AI programmer (help program the Hubble space telescope).
• Chris Hickman - lead animation.
• Clearly specified that only one civilian and one military unit per hex.
• Units on high ground inflict more damage.
• Battleships will have long-range bombardment (not specified).
• Troop transports are gone! "But what about troop transports? They're being done away with. Instead, units instantly transform into makeshift floating transports, in a similar way to Empire Earth. While crossing any body of water, a sizeable army is going to take up a lot of tiles, and be extremely vulnerable. Any serious seaborne invasion will involve careful planning and tight coordination of the navy and air force, which gels with history".
• War-like Civs will have units with more experience and battle readiness, but suffer the war effects on culture, science and economy.
• Weaker nations will be able to hold off powerful invaders through the use of choke-points, high ground and rivers.
• City-states won't try to win, but to survive.
• Singapore confirmed as a city-state.
• Multiple Civs can gain the benefits off a single city-state.
• No multilateral diplomacy.
• Romans (Caesar), India (Gandhi), English (Queen Elizabeth), Mongols (Genghis Khan), France (Napoleon), Japan (Oda) all confirmed as Civs (Leaders).
• When you conquer a city you can form a Puppet-State. "The addition of puppet states is going to mitigate the tedium. Whenever you conquer a new city, you can choose for it to become a puppet state. This means that you reap the benefits of its research, culture and gold but don't get a say in what it produces."
• The interface will not change to reflect time period or Civ.
• The map will be split into regions, and each regions terrain graphics will differ subtly. EG: Savannah plains will look slightly different to Steppe plains.
• Forests will range from tropical to wintry pines.
• Caesar speaks in Latin, Oda speaks in medieval Japanese.
• Because of the resources and time to make one leader, only one leader per Civ.
• Leaders have flavours instead of traits.
• Genghis Khan more likely to attack when provoked. Queen Elizabeth will try to capture ports and build a powerful navy. Gandhi is a peace-nik, but if the only way to win is to nuke your capital he will probably do it FTW.
• There are currently 25 leader flavours.
• The author hinted at a hands-on play preview coming soon.