As a person of Polish origin I feel an urge to clarifie some things.
I believe that the reason why a lot of Poles have no sense of humor is that jokes about Poles are quite rare outside of the USA. Therefore quite a lot of them are unaccustomed with the idea of it.
A lot of Poles are also rather easily offended with having fun picked on the history of their homeland, as the article in Something Awful says Although much was destroyed in WWII, these proud people have outlasted the worst conditions, it has not been easy for the Polish nation the past hundred years, in deed the past two hundred years. Yet the most irritating part was being abandoned by the west after WW2 and given to the USSR to do as they please. Of coarse the action the allies chose is understandable, the UK was at the brink of bankruptcy, the USA was weary with war and so on and the west was not fit to pick a fight with its most powerful ally. There fore the importance of Poland for the war effort and further in the past was downplayed so that the general public would not have to feel to much guilt and most importantly the political readers wouldnt have to do any explaining and humiliate themselves in front of the Russians, so Poland was left for the bloodthirsty commies to have. Intellectually this is not difficult to understand, but on an emotional level it was very insulting.
This is where past history comes in to play, for Poland has always been a last bastion of Europe to the east, constantly fending of Turks, Russians and whatnot from the heart of the continent. Most memorable are the incidents: 1683 at Vienna, when the Turks laid siege to the capitol of Austria with 140,000 men, the Polish king Jan Sobieski commanded a relief force of 74,000 and fended them off. More recently the Polish-Soviet war 1919-1920 when at the Battle of Warsaw the Poles defeated the Soviets to the relief of the west, as the British Ambassador in Berlin, Lord DAbernon wrote: Had Pilsudski and Weygand failed to arrest the triumphant advance of the Soviet Army at the battle of Warsaw, not only would Christianity have experienced a dangerous reverse, but the very existence of western civilisation would have been imperilled.
Ill also ad a taste of some notable numbers from the more distant past: Poland became a republic 1569, in 1635 the Zecz Pospolita was the largest country in Europe and had the third largest population after Russia and France, most European colonies where build thanks to Polish grain.
I strongly recommend my source Gods Playground, A History of Poland by Norman Davies, I dare say youll find it an interesting read.
So the question that arises when picking civilizations for Civ is: what merits countries to be included?
I do understand that all countries cant be included, you have to draw the line somewhere, but when you see long gone civs like the Sumerians, and Hittites included you sort of feel that old hurt nag in your innards.