That’s three hours of my life I’m not getting back

They should make students studying history play Civilisation; I’m sure they wouldn’t object, especially if it’s for their passing grade.

There’s nothing like the final stages of a domination victory, when you’re pumping out catapults and conquistadors like there’s no tomorrow, when you’re researching technology that will take so long to learn you will have completed the game, when units you built on the other side of the map won’t make it to the battle before it’s won, to make you realise that Eisenhower was right – the military industrial complex is a force to be reckoned with.

If the game didn’t just end instantly when I’d won, I’d be left several dozen units to … find a purpose for and a dozen factories midway through building more units. Would you throw that progress away to go build settlers? You’re already committed, you may as well see them through. And all that military research too, switching now would be hubris.

You end up with a lot of hardware, a lot of knowledge, and a lot of production capacity, looking for the next war.