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Glory to Arstotzka!
This mod for the strategy game Civilization V — which happens to be super cheap today, thanks to the Humble Sid Meier Bundle — adds the nation of Arstotzka to the popular turn-based game of global dominion.
Arstotzka, as you may know, is the underfunded, mismanaged toilet of a country from Papers, Please, WIRED's 2013 game of the year.
In Papers, Please you play a border agent for an impoverished totalitarian nation, examining the documents of everyone who wishes to enter. You're trying to keep the terrorists and smugglers out — or you would if their papers didn't check out. It's a depressing but brilliant piece of work that has the potential to change your life, or at least the way you interact with the paper-pushers of the real world.
The mod, created by Steam user Snakeeater337 and which requires the Brave New World expansion pack, adds the destitute Arstotzka to the world of Civilization V as a playable country.
Led by the "Glorious Leader," the country comes with its own custom unit and building, pulled from the indie game's storyline. The Border Guard is a rifleman that is weak in the field but gets combat bonuses in friendly territory; the Border Checkpoint is a buffed-up police station that helps thwart enemy spies.
The developer says other fake nations from the world of Papers, Please are on the way. Versions of the mod for the base version of Civilization V and its first expansion pack, Gods and Kings, are a future possibility as well, he says.
