I get the exact same thing. I see someone else here had the same problem. I'm not sure what to do to debug it. Oh well, back to Wesnoth...
/home/user # dpkg --purge freeciv-server freeciv-client-sdl freeciv-data (Reading database ... dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `freeciv-server' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `freeciv-client-sdl' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. dpkg: serious warning: files list file for package `freeciv-data' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. 41333 files and directories currently installed.) Removing freeciv-client-sdl ... Removing freeciv-server ... Removing freeciv-data ...