Which Version?

Well, personally I'd say get the ultimate bundle, but start off with dread lords.  Im not sure about dark avatar, but in the Twilight expansion im getting pwned by the AI on normal.  Which is good, but if I hadnt started on dread lords.....

The expansion is very much worth it though.  Twilight is pretty sweet, with updated graphics and some pretty sweet new techs, and tech trees for each race. 

I gotta add this game pwns civilization, only because its in space, and has every cliche sci fi race, and has the ship builder.  Loads of fun.  This game is like crack, except cheaper.

Hi jedolley,

Unless you are wanting to work your way through campaigns, I would recommend starting with Dark Avatar myself. It's practically the same as Dread Lords, but for a couple of extra civs to play against. As a beginner though, I would definately play Avatar before Twilight. The reason for this being the Tech Trees. In Twilight, each civ has their very own Tech Tree arrangement, which apart from being insanely fun for an advanced player, could be quite overwhelming for a beginner. There is a fair bit to learn in GC2, and learning from your opponents is alot easier if they're playing with the same rulebook.

Good Luck with it mate, it is an incredible game, packed to the rafters with depth and features. If you do get stuck, the GC2 forums are always lively and helpful.

Thanks for the responses! I went ahead and got the ultimate bundle with the coupon code that was floating around. I loaded up dread lords, but just started watching the turtorials. I was leaning towards going through the campaign. but was wondering if its better just to create a new game and do it that way. Not sure what the differences are, and it doesn't seem as if the tutorial goes into the difference between the campaign and a new game, but i'm only on the 3rd video.

well the campaign is ... if you like or want to know the story behind the dread lords and such ...

the main part of the game is the "simple" standard game anyway. The campaign is just a succession of standard games with preset maps, settings and objectives and a story to unfold ... that's all there is to it

Personnaly I never played the campaign of DL in the whole time I had it, and when I bought DA and TA (recently) I just cheated my way through DL & DA campaigns just to see the storyline. And truth is the storyline ain't that great, it's good that is all (way below the starcraft storyline for example, even if the gametype is different)

I'd play though the campaign. It is, in effect, an extended tutorial. You'll learn a bit of the backstory, which is nice for immersive purposes, and by the time you have completed it you will have a pretty good working knowledge of the mechanics of the game.

As to which version to start out with; for many games, you would want to work your way through from the first, just to be able to follow the storyline. In the GalCiv series, this is much less important to the actual gameplay.

I personally would jump right in to TA. It's the version that you will end up in anyway, so you might as well start learning it now. The program is much more efficient at using your system's resourses, the graphics and effects are much better, and it is, IMO, the most interesting version. In DL/DA, all of the races share a generic tech tree, which makes all of them play pretty much the same. In TA, each race gets it's own unique tech tree, which gives each one of them a much different 'personality'.

DL/DA are a bit easier to learn at first, but TA is a much deeper game.

Good luck, and if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.