Back in December of 2017, Aspyr media brought Sid Meier’s Civilization VI (Free) to the iPad, and it was a pretty groundbreaking moment. The game had launched to critical acclaim on desktop the year before, but I think it was considered to be a little “too much" to port over to mobile, despite these types of games working incredibly well on touchscreens. But Aspyr went and proved the doubters wrong as Civ VI on the iPad was for the most part the exact same experience as on desktop, right down to the pricing scheme. Which was a bold move, because as we are all aware pricing on mobile is a total clown show, so selling a game for a full $60 on iPad (despite it being the exact same game that sold for that price on other platforms) took some guts. Of course the iPad version had intro pricing of $30, and it’s been on sale many times since its release, so I’m not even sure how many people took the plunge on Civ VI at its full $60 price. One thing was for sure though, the game was worth every stinking penny you spent on it, and about 9 months after it hit the iPad a Universal update was released letting iPhone owners get in on the fun.

Just a few days after that Universal update hit, Aspyr confirmed that the Rise and Fall expansion, which released on desktop in February, would indeed be coming to the iOS version of Civ VI. Now the game launched with multiple Scenario packs that you could purchase, which ranged from $4.99 to $8.99 and also have been on sale multiple times in the past (and were even given away over the holidays last December), but this Rise and Fall expansion is much different than those. True to its name, the expansion introduced the idea of nations being able to both rise and fall over time. Do well and your civilization could enter a Golden Age which reaps all sorts of benefits, but screw things up and you could be headed towards a Dark Age. But, if you’re able to pull yourself out of that Dark Age, you can enter the Heroic Age and earn even more benefits than a Golden Age would. The expansion also included nine new leaders and eight new civilizations, as well as a plethora of fixes and new features. And today Rise and Fall is finally available in Civilization VI for iOS.

So, that bold pricing strategy I spoke of earlier? That is alive and well with the Rise and Fall expansion, as Aspyr is selling it as a $29.99 IAP. Again though, this game is worth every damn penny you spend on it, and that includes this major expansion. Sure, it’ll probably go on sale someday if you wait it out, but if you’re a huge Civ VI fan and value playing it on your mobile device then you’ll be getting a whole lot for your 30 bucks. And, while I’m not sure when this went into effect, the base game is on sale for just $9.99 and it looks like all the Scenario packs are discounted as well. So if you haven’t tried out Civ VI on iOS yet, now is a VERY cheap time to do so even if you don’t plan on picking up Rise and Fall. We LOVED the game in our original review of the iPad version and chose it as our Game of the Week. The game is free to download and play up to 60 turns, so as long as you have the space for the rather large 3.7GB file size there’s no reason not to give the iOS version of Civilization VI a spin.