That's a real hard question, but a much easier question is "Which Civ game had the best opening music?" Which is obviously Civ 4 with that absolute banger, Baba Yetu. I still get chills when I hear it.

So while my memories of each Civ game may not be terribly strong, I think I've probably played the most hours of 4, and again, that song. I think that's where my vote has to go.

Baba Yetu is great but opening of Civ 1 was so inspiring (if you had a good MIDI box, I don't remember it sounding this good tho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrRGfHArMNA )

For me it's Civ III. I love the more graphical details but still non-3D aesthetic.

I’m the same way, something about the graphics is just perfect. Similar to Factorio for me.

It takes years or decades for 3D to catch up to where the best 2D games were graphically.

I don't think so. I played the original Civ on my Amiga, I love #6 but my favourite was probably #4. I'm not sure where that'd put my estimated age but likely lower than it is.

That seems likely. To me the original is still the best. Its killer feature is that you can play a game in a single sitting. Breaking up a game over multiple days kills that absolute immersion that is the hallmark of a Civilization game.

For me Civ iii has the most fleshed gameplay, dlc are coherent, and you get plenty mods. Civ iv had the best ux and ergonomic, but dlc don't really interoperate that well each other they just seem tackled to the game.

Alpha centauri

This is definitely the best civ game. The depth of this game is incredible. So much more immersive, more creating than any of the other civ titles. I haven't played it in years but I can still remember the voices of the faction leaders.

This is the next in the series that I plan to cover :-)

I liked Civ II a lot, but I feel Civ V with all expansions was best.

Still haven’t tried Civ VI though, waiting for a bargain with all expansions included.

Civ6 took some time for me to get into. Changes to perspective and building bothered me quite a bit at first. Once I got the hang of the new systems, I didn’t mind those changes but the game felt shallower until the expansions started coming out. Those brought it up to par for me. I would still say 2, 3, and 4 were the best.

I agree. What revolutionized it was playing it on dial up with friends. My best friend lived a town over so it was a great way to hang out and conquer the world at the same time.

The original Colonization was my first "civ" game, but it was Civ 2 I have fond memories of playing when I stayed home from school sick with Flu.