For those looking for a stripped down Civ, take a look at Polytopia (iOS / Android). They've done a mostly brilliant job in creating a very minimalistic Civ-sty

For those looking for a stripped down Civ, take a look at Polytopia (iOS / Android). They've done a mostly brilliant job in creating a very minimalistic Civ-style 4x game. Has two modes: a 30 turn game in which the player with the highest score wins. Building wonders and temples gives more points than conquest, so that mode is a very stripped down version of a cultural victory goal. And then there's the free-for-all mode, with no turn limitations and the only possible victory is conquest. I mostly play the latter. There's a simple tech tree. Diplomacy is done in an interesting way, and I wish more games would emulate it. There's no direct negotiations, relationship scores, or anything like that. Instead, you have to measure how they feel about you by the way they act. They give you a greetings when you first meet. If they laugh at you or are suspicious, then they'll probably attack immediately. If they worship you or condescendingly pat you on the head, then they won't attack for a while. And this is also built on by judging them based on further actions. If you move a unit adjacent to theirs, and they don't attack it, then you know they're trustworthy for a time. And you can subtly manipulate their feelings towards you by doing things like not counter-attacking even when they're attacking you. This is useful in a multi-front war when you're losing. You can make the decision to concentrate an offensive on one front when your defenses can possibly hold on a second front. If the enemy isn't hellbent on your destruction, they'll possibly just stop attacking and do something else. If you accurately guess that they hate another nation more than they hate you, then attacking the hated nation will get them to consider you acceptable. It's a bunch of big gambles and an interesting ones. Judging the other nations' attitudes towards you by intuition alone. That definitely adds a little nuance to the conquer-the-world bits. Most games are over in 30 minutes or less, though occasionally they stretch out when you're evenly matched. Even then, it's rarely more than an hour.