I came across this gem while looking for free PC games to download. The introduction page explains that it is similar to Civilization II but has a few differences. It's a non-commercial project developed by one programmer whose goal was to produce a strategy game rather than a simulation. To this end it is turn-based and completely deterministic.

I putzed around with it a few times and almost gave up, as I have never played any of the Civilization games and was slow to catch on. Once I figured out that you can move your citizens around in a city to maximize different benefits (material production vs. scientific research, for example) the game became more understandable and I got hooked. It's very much a wargame, but you won't win militarily without a strong economy and rapid technological advancement. Government form plays a big role too - you really have to think ahead to make an effective strategy.

The rules take some getting used to, as the manual is tree-structured and can't really be read straight through. By the time I got close to winning my first game I'd completely forgotten that I needed at least one of each kind of special resource (mercury, cobalt and uranium) to build the different components of my spaceship, and that those components had to be built in the city that was home to those resources! I did much better my second time through although that was still on the 'easy' setting. Now I'm trying the 'difficult' setting and can already see that the challenge is huge.

Anyhow, give it a try if you like this sort of thing and let me know what you think.

http://www.c-evo.org