The undisputed G.O.A.T. of Civilization games. Childhood classic. Got me into studying history, politics, religion, and philosophy a lot more when I was young and was profoundly influential on my college major / minor and eventual career path. When you build empires, you start to perceive your own life as one.

Fun fact: Baba Yetu is the Lord's Prayer in Swahili.
Fun fact 2: Civ IV is the only video game to win a Grammy (and 6 years after the game released).

Classic / 10

One of the best games of all time.

Civ 4 has some of the best strategy experiences tucked into it's own little engine. We have never seen anything like Fall From Heaven 2 for Civ 5 or 6. That alone is worth a massive recommendation.

Fall From Heaven 2 is the premiere 'Might and Magic + Civ' experience, lots of varied and intricate uses of magic, fantasy elements ( Dragons! ) in a way that really takes Civ 4's base mechanics and cranks them up to 11.

There are countless versions of Fall From Heaven 2. For those players on Linux, Master of Mana Extended is the most stable build I have found. Ashes of Erebus is a great mod for beginners, but has some pretty obnoxious crash bugs on Linux. ( This stuff might vary depending on your machine )