Civilization Revolution for Nintendo DS

Usually, I don't play a game on a handheld console if it's available for PS3 or PC but I had to stick to my rule about only playing on handheld consoles for the next two months and I had a copy of this on the shelf which is currently have for sale on ebay so I thought I'd give it a go.  I hope nobody buys it too soon.

This is a great little game and even though it could be regarded as a watered down version of Civilization IV it has plenty of depth and  there is a lot to think about.

The game features food and resources.  If you collect a lot of food in a city the city will grow more quickly but if you collect more resources then buildings and military units grow faster.  A larger city can, generally speaking, generate more food and resources so the temptation is to prioritise food production but some buildings can speed up food production so perhaps creating those first by putting resource production first should be the tactic.  In truth it depends on a city's circumstances and there are other things to consider such as science, which you need to produce to make buildings and units available, and culture which makes a city's sphere of influence grow and protects it from leaving your nation and joining another.

Placing citizens on particular squares causes them to generate the food, resources or trade characteristic of that square.  If a citizen is not placed at all they will generate resources and trade.

It appears that it would be possible to play and win an entire game without generating any cash at all but, as in life, money can be a useful thing to have and is also generated by cities but, unlike food and resources, it goes into a general pot for the whole nation.

Most of the game takes place on the touch screen and this is where you issue your orders; both directing your cities and moving your military units.  When you send military units into battle the fight is played out in a brief tableau on the upper screen which is otherwise just used to carry information.  Military units can be stacked on a single square or all in the same city and when three of the same kind are stacked they can form an army whose power is as great as all three summed.  Unit's of different types have different strengths and weaknesses and can develop to be stronger still through winning victories.  The best military units I can make at the moment are cannon, which have an attack of 7 and a defence of 2 and riflemen who have an attack of 4 and defence of 5.  If you put one of each on the same square then the better defender will defend first if they are attacked and if you keep them together as you move them the superior attacker can be used to assault enemy units.

I am playing this scenario as the British, though it is not clear that this makes any difference in terms of development but I cannot be sure either way.  I started with Monarchy as my system of government and perhaps it would have been something else with a different country.  One thing that I cannot help wondering and which rankles slightly is that when my AI opponents address me they assure me that the " pretentious snobbery" of my people will soon be put to an end.  Would I be accused of this if I was playing as another nation?  Perhaps the French are called arrogant and the Germans officious.

I will forgive this and continue to enjoy Civilization Revolution.  I am writing this on a bank holiday Monday and was very tempted to break my rule and play some Fallout 3 yesterday but this game saved me from that so a bit of negative national stereotyping while not being forgivable can at least be overlooked.