I tried that, but in my case it didn't work properly. Civ 2 is based on text, however, and the text for french and german is provided with the game. What you have to do is open the french or german files with notepad, cut the text out, and use it to replace the text in the corresponding english file. When done properly you can then play the game. (There are a couple of cases where text may be missing, so you may get one or two blank windows of information. In my case it is wonderbuilding with caravans and some spy functions.) Make the adjustments in a second civ 2 folder, so that you can keep civ 2 working and also chose the language you want to play in.