Populous

Populous presents a conflict between divine beings, each guiding a human population toward total dominance. Players begin with a single follower placed in a wilderness, where terrain must be altered to create habitable land for expansion. A larger population increases the player's divine power, creating a race against a rival deity who is pursuing the same goal.

Divine intervention extends beyond shaping the land, allowing for direct assaults on opponents. Players can unleash natural disasters such as floods, swamps, or volcanoes upon enemy settlements. Concurrently, a leader from a sufficiently large population can be empowered as a hero, who gathers strength from followers to launch a direct military assault on the enemy's people.

The objective is the complete eradication of the opposing population, achieved through a combination of territorial management, population growth, and strategic divine powers. Victory unlocks a challenging sequence of hundreds of additional worlds to conquer, framing the conflict as an ongoing celestial contest.