Civilization... the Card Game? YES!

[Bengaley]

I have to say, when I first saw Civilization: The Card Game stuck into Chronicles...

I was amused. "Heh, just some space filler. I'll try playing it."

And so, I played it with a friend while we were waiting in line for World of Warcraft Burning Crusade (I purchased Chronicles earlier in the day).

And so... we played again. And again. And with more people. I've played it almost as much as I've Civ 4, and more than the other games I've bought in Chronicles (Although, to tell the truth, I already own Civ 1, 2, 3, and 4..)

But the card game...

I've taken this game to 8 or 9 different people. And even with my friend who has a hard time understanding anything more advanced than Zelda 1 or 2, he got the rules with a quick explanation... and playing through one round.

Everyone else did the same for the learning curve.

Not only that, but the game is fun, and has the entire feel of Civilization in there: It's a series of interesting decisions that makes you want to play for one more turn. No two games are alike.

I admit, there seems to be a few drawbacks, IMO: Population doesn't quite seem very valuable, and there's not a huge wealth of variety in what could happen with no event cards... But that COULD be solved with expansions, and I'm already working on ideas for event cards for my own use.

The instructions were a bit weakly worded, so I added in two rules: Discards are placed face down, and a limit of 3 population per plot...

Which all the players agree added to the game, so I've assumed that was part of the rules.

Is it worth 70 for Chronicles just to get the Card Game? Nope, but I hope Firaxis figures out a way to release the Card Game by itself. It's addicting, but the cards arn't well made and are starting to show wear after only 12 or so games...

[Morrissey]

If there's any Brits reading this I saw Chronicles for sale in Game this week for £19.99, so if you're half tempted to get it, now's the time.


(This thread is really starting to sound like an advertisement now)

[Bkeela]

I can't see the fun of playing with other humans, especially face to face.

[Addled Platypus]

try playing with "knuckles" rule


assaign a point value, who ever loses gets knuckled

(keep deck together, hit loser on knucles with edge of deck by how many points they lost by...better with more people playing btw- it can get bloody)

[Morrissey]

Hurrah for resurrecting dead topics!

Just seen Civilization Chronicles for sale on Amazon.co.uk for £12.96! A bargain when you consider Civ 4 on its own costs £16.99 from the same website!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-Chronicles-PC/dp/B000J5SDQE/ref=pd_ts_c_th_10/202-5513294-8000659?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=right-5&pf_rd_r=1S0PGVDVPTRH1TZA95DF&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=132928791&pf_rd_i=468294

[Wiglaf]

why anyone would buy chronicles is beyond me.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
why anyone would buy chronicles is beyond me.

For the card game, of course. Soren and I spent a lot of time working on that.

And glad you've enjoyed the game Bengaley. We thought it was pretty fun in-house too. Not the best card game in the world, but it captures the feel of Civ about as well as one could.

[Bengaley]

I am now going to have to purchase yet another copy of Chronicles, actually.

Why?

Because the packaging for the card game sucked, and I lost a bunch of cards. I think.

I don't suppose someone can be nice enough to pass me a list of what cards and how many are available?

Mr. Shafer -

Not only do I thank you, but my friends thank you. Prior to me forcing them to try Civilization the Card Game, they wouldn't look or even think of playing card games like that. Now, we are all looking out for more like 'em.

Meanwhile, the rules feel kinda... in need of an expansion. As well as some limitations on unit-cards, as oft-times one player ends up with all of them.

Meanwhile, I say this with knowing, KNOWING that the answer is no... any plans to release it by itself?

[Bengaley]

Originally posted by Wiglaf
why anyone would buy chronicles is beyond me.

It has a bunch of nifty stuff in there. It's a collectors item - you'd buy it for the same reason that you'd buy a limited editon of anything.

A LOT of people don't have Civs 1 or 2, or Test of Time for 2. I don't have ToT by itself (Although I did pick up Civ2 when I picked up MOO2 and LoMse), and I only managed to pick up Civ 1 because I spotted it at a thrift store.

Civ 3 complete I actually passed onto a friend who had been wanting to try it - that's how I got my first copy of Civ3, friend tossed me his.

Also, having another copy of Civ 4 is nice as multiplayer actually works well, as I forced my best friend to start playing and learning ^_^

That and it's down to 50 bucks or so now.

So, you get Civ 4 (Lets be nice as say, 30), All of Civ III (20, lets say), Civ II ToT (10), Civ I (Not available outside of collecter's items, so not counting a price), Civ the Card Game (I'd pay about 12 for a new set by itself, but let's say 0), extra stuff like 'Making Of' DVDs (Again, lets say 0...)

So, just counting the stuff you can find for sale...

Civ 4 - 30
Civ II - 20
CivToT - 10

That's 60 right there - ten bucks short of the original price, and that's not including the 'free stuff' into the value.

So yes, there are many reasons to purchase Civilization Chronicles.

Eat. My. Shorts.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Bengaley
I am now going to have to purchase yet another copy of Chronicles, actually.

Why?

Because the packaging for the card game sucked, and I lost a bunch of cards. I think.

I don't suppose someone can be nice enough to pass me a list of what cards and how many are available?

Yeah, the "production quality" of the card set themselves could have been higher. I have a draft of the rules on my machine but sorry, no card list.

Mr. Shafer -

Not only do I thank you, but my friends thank you. Prior to me forcing them to try Civilization the Card Game, they wouldn't look or even think of playing card games like that. Now, we are all looking out for more like 'em.

Meanwhile, the rules feel kinda... in need of an expansion. As well as some limitations on unit-cards, as oft-times one player ends up with all of them.

Meanwhile, I say this with knowing, KNOWING that the answer is no... any plans to release it by itself?

We had intended to make it cover all eras and not just the Ancient but the gameplay didn't quite work out. Maybe there's conveniently room for a Medieval set?

The idea was that you could horde cards, but that would limit you in other ways - the other players could then construct more buildings, or the Wonders, etc.

I don't know about any plans to release it stand-alone. That would be up to the Marketing and 2K folks upstairs.

[Robert]

That would be up to the Marketing and 2K folks upstairs.

Upstairs?

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by CyberShy

That would be up to the Marketing and 2K folks upstairs.

Upstairs?

Meaning, the guys in charge. It's a figure of speech in english.

[Bengaley]

Originally posted by Jon Shafer

We had intended to make it cover all eras and not just the Ancient but the gameplay didn't quite work out. Maybe there's conveniently room for a Medieval set?

The idea was that you could horde cards, but that would limit you in other ways - the other players could then construct more buildings, or the Wonders, etc.

Well, Ancient/Classical works as a starter... But..

...mmm...

Oh, wow, that actually works. The techs as they are can be broken down into 'Ancient' and 'Classical' eras. Increase the number of total techs a bit, break them down into various 'Ages'. In fact, break the entire deck up into eras - the main bit would be Ancient/Classical, with addons for Medieval/Enlightenment, and then one after that'd be Industrial/Modern...

Once all techs from the current era have been purchased, take the current draw deck and discard pile, put them aside, and replace the draw deck with the one for the next era. Cards in your hand stay in your hand, so you can have the whole Axeman vs Tank going on..

Unit cards from previous eras can still attack and defend, but if they are blocked/used to block, they are discarded rather than sent back to your hand.

To keep things simple, there's no need to add new buildings - the same ones can be used throught the various eras, but the different era buildings have period-style art.

You could stick in a few more wonders, but only have them be able to be built in their age - can't build the Hanging Guardens during the Modern Age, but if you build it in the Ancient/Classical age, you get its benefits until the end of the game..

Sorry, that all just cognated right here. I do game design as a hobby, and I've been thinking about the card game for awhile ^_^;;

But yeah, as I said above, one of the things I wanted to do were 'Event' cards that you can play on yourself or someone else - Such as Famine(Half food income on player's next turn), Bumper Crops(Double food income on player's next turn), Trade collapse (Half commerce income) Trade Boom (Double commerce), Resource Shortfall (Your colonybase shrinks a popula- er, wrong game. Half hammers), Extra Industry (Double hammers)... Also would be Population Boom (Next pop bought is cheaper than normal by $ammount), Population Bust (Bext pop bought is more expensive by $sameammount), and the same for exploration to gain new land - +5/-5, depending on the 'event'.

Then also a rule that say you can only have as many attacking unit cards as you have population, which would give pop a bit more meaning... I think.

Erm... I guess if you have time to comment ^_^;;

[Robert]

Originally posted by Jon Shafer

Meaning, the guys in charge. It's a figure of speech in english.

For a moment I thought those guys had infiltrated you

[Winckle]

Sorry to bump this thread, but I'm having some troubles interpreting the rules, if someone could clear this up for me:

When I collect resources at the start of my turn do I have to spend them by the end of the turn or I lose them, like mana in magic the gathering, or can I horde my resources for use in later turns?


Thanks for any possible help.