Civ II solved the 4x end game grind in an odd way, contrary to this quote from the article: "That means that sooner or later, in every Civ game, you’ll reach a

Civ II solved the 4x end game grind in an odd way, contrary to this quote from the article: "That means that sooner or later, in every Civ game, you’ll reach a point where the challenge is gone but there’s still a long grind before you reach the point at which you have enough capital cities, culture points, rocket launches or religious conversions to win the game." It solved it with tubeworlds. You were allowed, in Civ II to build, say, 24 x 160 worlds, and that made all the difference. Games were exciting all the way through as you raced to deal with the Civilizations next to you and fight toward the ends. No matter what, when you came up against your last one or two computer opponents, they were advanced civilizations that weren't boring to fight even though you were already close to a win. Very sadly, this was dropped from subsequent games, in which you could only generate rather square maps. I have absolutely no idea why. A great loss. I don't play Civ now.