Yeah, they kinda screwed themselves by getting the first one perfect.

The ideal sequel would be "Civ 1, with new graphics and better automation". Then iterate on that every few years.

freeciv might scratch that itch a little

Have you tried Polytopia[0]?

[0] https://polytopia.io/

I wondered if anyone would bring it up. Polytopia other than csgo is the only game I really play anymore. It's essentially civ distilled into a perfectly cruftless experience. It's also perfect for multiplayer, as it works beautifully on phones (less friction to take a turn) and you can easily jump into 24-hour turn limit games.

I'm not sure the civ guys can come up with something to compete with it. The recent games were so bloated and everything dragged on to the to point you'd just lose interest mid game, or quit before an inevitable victory/loss in the late game.

Also I'm not sure what you could do to improve Polytopia to make it a better game, except adding multiplayer team games.

Civ V improved a lot on warfare. There's not a lot of depth to stacks upon stacks of the same units.

No, it was a big downgrade. It wrecked game balance, and the AI was incapable to deal with the new system... all while the worst issues with stacks had been solved years ago in Alpha Centauri !

Just because new players didn't know how to scout and/or that artillery does collateral damage to stacks...