Civilization 3 Expansion: Play the World

The "Play the World" expansion pack was originally released in 2002 and it was generally considered buggy and incomplete. Patching fixed many of the bugs but the multiplayer portion still left much to be desired due to poor original design. Unfortunately, these design flaws were deeply rooted and could not be fixed by further "free" patches (it just wouldn't be economical) and so the developer went to work on a new expansion pack called "Conquests".

Now, in 2003, with release of the "Conquests" expansion pack, the "Play The World" (PTW) xpack has been rendered utterly obsolete, since Conquests includes all of the 'good' stuff from PTW (and none of the 'bad'!). Conquests also has many new features (new civs, new wonders, new techs, new units, etc) and much better multiplayer support.

My advice to anyone considering buying this PTW xpack is: DON'T!

You're much better off getting the "Conquests" xpack instead which, at the time of this writing, is the same price as PTW!

In summary, the "Conquests" xpack:

a) includes everything in the PTW xpack except the bugs and flawed multiplayer support

b) has a bunch of new stuff: civs, techs, units, wonders, etc.

c) costs the same as PTW!

Good luck.

Their support suggested opening ports, but that's really just for Internet games, not LAN. Failing that, they blamed it on Microsoft. Adding insult to injury, you actually have to buy a separate CD for each PC even though it is a LAN game. Most games don't require this for LAN games; sure for Internet, but not LAN.

My favorite feature of the game is the simultaneous moves multiplayer mode. Unlike the bugs and glitches of the Play the World add-on, the Conquests version features a fairly streamlined play. I frequently play a small or normal sized world with friends on a local LAN (although internet play is viable as well) on a weekend day.

Another feature that makes Conquests great is that it expanded everything about the game without changing the core system. Instead, it just adds more choices a player must make to be successful (which is a good thing for those that like strategy games like Civ3).

Friends of mine who make Mods for games have found this add-on to be very exciting. Not only does Conquests come with recreations of real life conquests (such as WWII in the Pacific), Mod makers can create their own Mods just like the conquests that come with the game.

At about $20, Conquests is a great deal that delivers a lot. Its flaw, although not directly related to the game, is that Firaxis/Atari released the "Play the World" add-on separate first (charging $20 for that game as well) and included it free in "Conquests." While it was a smart choice to sell them together for "Conquests", those of us that purchased the first add-on feel cheated.