Ikariam

 3rd in the series...

http://www.ikariam.org/

Another review of a web based civilization type game.

Ikariam has very pretty graphics and there doesn't seem to be as much emphasis on war and battles.  In fact, the mines and lumber mills are shared between players on a single island.  The resources you need in this case are: Wood, Grapes, Marble, Crystal, and Sulfur.  You'll not need anything but wood initially, and building is a little confusing to a new player, but I finally got it figured out.  There are a number of buildings to build, in fact, too many for the building zones available.  You need to research Bureaucracy to build on one lot, and the Academy will help you get there, but getting to Bureaucracy is a very time consuming procedure.

Right now, I have a Town Hall, an Academy, a Palace, a Tavern, a Warehouse, a Trading Port, a Shipyard, a Glassblower, a Forester, a Hideout, a Barracks, a Carpenter, and, of course, the town wall.  Over half of these are at level three or above, and I have almost half of my population in the academy helping me research new technologies.  And it takes a =lot= of research points to advance your technology tree very far.

I shan't be paying much attention to Ikariam, there are other games out there that are a little faster on research and slower on building.

Next Time: Empire Craft.