Civilization V

Firaxis's 2010 strategy game is the entry that redrew the series map. Square tiles became hexes, which sounds cosmetic and changes everything about movement and frontage, and the old stacks of doom were replaced by one military unit per tile - so wars became about terrain, chokepoints and ranged support rather than piling everything into a single unstoppable column. City-states were added as minor powers to court or bully, and culture became a victory condition you could actually build toward rather than a side statistic. The two expansions are effectively part of the game now: Gods and Kings restored religion and espionage, and Brave New World rebuilt the late game around trade routes, ideologies and world congresses. It is slower and more deliberate than Civilization VI, with a cleaner interface and a less busy map, which is why a substantial part of the community never moved on. The AI remains its weak point at high difficulty, where it leans on bonuses rather than better play, but the one-more-turn pull is undiminished.