That Civ is not as eurocentric / western bias, etc. as Europa Universalis or Crusader Kinds does not mean that it is not also centric in that way. I consider that point shown at this point.

I haven't listened to Hardcore History yet, it's on my "must watch" list. The other I haven't heard of.

One small point which I don't want to make too much of: a game functions on rules, but it need not have clear winning or losing conditions in order to be a game. A good example of this is the original SimCity, which was just a sandbox. "Winning" is the continued survival of your city, which has parallels to real life, in that there is no defined way to win, you are winning as long as you continue drawing breath. Civ of course is very different.