I play many turn-based strategy games, including chess and Polytopia. Polytopia is a really good game. If you miss Advance Wars on a GBA, you'll probably love it. It combines maneuvering and resource management in a way that, for example, Civ can't do. But, thinking that Polytopia is a more sophisticated or challenging game than chess is nuts. The article goes in to all the details, but it comes down to Polytopia is a pleasant game that is easy to master, like many similar games. I'm very good at it. But I am only slightly competent at chess while expending 10X the brainpower.
is there a paid expansion? I played it for like 2 days and felt like i ran out of depth immediately.
The worst thing about Civilizations and its clones is how these games predispose one to think in terms of eternal aggression between states. It's a really bleak game. Where chess is a battle, Civ is a never ending war. The game is over when there's nobody left to fight.