I remember playing Civ 1 back in the day. It was a great game, albeit easy to win with rapid-expansion strategies. Civ 2 was probably my favourite of the Civilization series (Alpha Centauri being my favourite overall).
As time went on, the designers worked harder and harder to block the best strategies in the game rules. They added more and more convoluted systems of upkeep, corruption, etc. in order to slow down a rapid expanding player. This has probably been my biggest beef with the series: redesigning the rules to counteract the player instead of making the AI opponents smarter. I haven't played Civ 6 but Civ 5 just bored me to tears with how much of that nonsense they did. That game felt like you had a million decisions to make and none of them had much consequence.
As time went on, the designers worked harder and harder to block the best strategies in the game rules. They added more and more convoluted systems of upkeep, corruption, etc. in order to slow down a rapid expanding player. This has probably been my biggest beef with the series: redesigning the rules to counteract the player instead of making the AI opponents smarter. I haven't played Civ 6 but Civ 5 just bored me to tears with how much of that nonsense they did. That game felt like you had a million decisions to make and none of them had much consequence.