Maybe it's because it was the first one I played, but something about the 2d aspect of this game gripped me. I don't have the same love for the games that came after it, the 3d graphics somehow take me out of the historical element.
The fact that in the older games you are basically playing on a map, gives off this almost board-game feeling that is cosy and immersive. (I know that civ was inspired by a board game)
Playing civ3 as a kid really made me feel like I was in whatever era I was playing at. Still remember those jazz fusion tracks especially.
I was playing this game in college like 16yrs ago. Me and a few buddies played it regularly. While studying with one of them I'm taking a break and watching him play. He's playing against the AI on one of the harder difficulty levels with Raging Barbarians on. Then he gets a warning about a barbarian camp near one of his major cities. I'm watching and was like, "Dude you should take care of that before it gets bad". "It's not a problem. I got the forces to deal with them anytime I want." He is pretty arrogant. A couple turns later they attack. I'm watching like 30 barbarians from that camp raid his city. It took 5 to break his defense and the other 25 pillaged all of his resources.
I fucking miss this game!
Knew a guy like that. We finally convinced him to try horizon zero dawn after I already beat the game. So now it's on new game plus extremely hard experienced players only pass this point please. He claims that's how hard he wants it to be. So I let him get stomped on by sentient lawnmower. He complained it was too hard after that.