Civilization 4 Beyond the Sword (BtS) is the newest release in the Civilization Universe and expands the game's modern/future era further.

The game requires Civilization 4 to play, but not the other expansion pack, Warlords, though be careful should you ever have both installed and then uninstall Warlords - you will then be unusable to play Beyond the Sword unless you uninstall that and reinstall it oddly enough.

Beyond the Sword comes with a large amount of new scenarios ranging from scenario in the strict sense as in a pre-made map and circumstance and fully fleshed out mods made by the game developers themselves. These alone promise countless hours of immersive gameplay.

The player in Civilization 4 initially needs to pick a game type (custom game/scenario vs default style game) and then pick the map they wish to play on and their own civilization (faction). If you chose a custom game, you also get to choose additional factors, such as what civilization your rivals play as, whether there are teams, the barbarian factor and much more.

New to Beyond the Sword is also the advanced start system (custom game) where you set an amount of "points" everyone starts out with and then spends before the game starts. This allows you to start in any era and then have a city or two to go with or maybe pick merely 1 city but several technologies or a mix.

Also new, there is now an events system. Every time your turn starts, there is a chance that an event occured. This can range from a forest fire (bad) to finding cryptic writings in a ruin to advance your science (good). These are to a large extent also tied towards where your borders stretch along and what resources and buildings you have built, promising a different flavor of events with every single game.

The goal of Civilization is to build a vast empire and win via 1 of 5 different means:
Domination (having the most population and landmass)
Conquest (defeating all your rivals=
Culture (3 cities with legendary culture status)
Space Race (being the first to reach Alpha Centauri)
Diplomacy (being elected Global Leader by all civilizations)

Beyond the Sword now costs a mere 10 pounds and together with the base game under 20 pounds. Considering the vast amount of offers out there, you are bound to be able to pick the whole set up for just over 10 pounds - a bargain.

With the 3.19 patch, the game also no longer has any DRM so you won't need a CD to play.