Civilisation Board Game?

[Chowlett]

I just wandered randomly into a games store and cam across a board game called Civilisation. I didn't stay long, but from what I could see on the back it did bear remarkable similarities to everyone's favourite computer game - for example, you could research technologies such as Coinage, Agriculture, Medicine and Astronomy, and would have to deal with Civil Riots and such like. I think it was published by Gibson? Anyone know anything about it?

[Rex Little]

It's a very interesting game, but it has little in common with the Civ series of computer games. It's mostly about maximizing your resources through trade, and managing disasters that occur as a result. It takes a long time and a lot of people (7 is ideal, and you should have at least 5 or it loses a lot of flavor) to play.

Years ago, Avalon Hill came out with a computer game called Advanced Civilization which is a computerized version of this board game. It's worth getting if you can find it, if only to learn how the board game is played.

[Urban Ranger]

Great game. Very elegant system. If you have a few friends who are also into gaming, get it.

[Chowlett]

Yes, found it on the Underdogs site. It comes in 10 zips, all put in one big zip. The 10 smaller zips appear to be linked, however, but I'm not entirely sure, and now the Underdogs site is down, so I can't check. I'll just try, I think.

[Urban Ranger]

It's a DOS game.

You unzip all ten files, and there's a program in the first zip file that you can run that glues all 10 parts together.

EDIT: I have just visited the Underdogs and it's up and running.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited April 29, 2001).]

[Chowlett]

Yeah, thanks I got it to work. Only drawback is it has to be run in native dos mode, a Windows command shell won't work.

I've played one game, where I lost hugely, and I now understand most of it I think. But could someone please explain to me what it means to "Support" a city? A number of times I founded a city only to be told I didn't have enough tokens to support it and had to reduce it. What do I need to have in order to support it? Also, how does the game determine how many token I get at the start of each turn for population expansion? I've run out on a number of ocassions, and it can be quite annoying.
[This message has been edited by Chowlett (edited April 29, 2001).]

[Urban Ranger]

Okay, here you go:

quote: After all conflicts have been resolved a player must have at least 2 Tokens on the board for every City he owns. If this is not the case, excess Cities are REDUCED. A City is Reduced by changing it into the maximum number of Tokens that the Zone will support (Agriculture is taken into account).

As for the tokens, you will first take taxes at the beginning of the turn, 2 per city you own. Whatever is left you can use to expand your population. You can change the rate once you have the Coinage advancement.
[This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited April 29, 2001).]

[Chowlett]

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 04-29-2001 11:53 AM Okay, here you go: quote: After all conflicts have been resolved a player must have at least 2 Tokens on the board for every City he owns. If this is not the case, excess Cities are REDUCED. A City is Reduced by changing it into the maximum number of Tokens that the Zone will support (Agriculture is taken into account). As for the tokens, you will first take taxes at the beginning of the turn, 2 per city you own. Whatever is left you can use to expand your population. You can change the rate once you have the Coinage advancement. [This message has been edited by Urban Ranger (edited April 29, 2001).]

Thanks a bunch, that should help a lot.

[Urban Ranger]

Do you know that:

1. There are city sites that are vulnerable to Flood and there are those that aren't

2. You can build cities in areas with no city sites, but you need twice as many tokens

[Chowlett]

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 04-29-2001 11:35 PM Do you know that: 1. There are city sites that are vulnerable to Flood and there are those that aren't 2. You can build cities in areas with no city sites, but you need twice as many tokens

1. Yes, I had picked up on that, from other civs flooding. Not sure which sites, though. However, if you have not flood-plain cities, floods just destroy a coastal. I don't know what happens if you have neither plains or coastal though?

2. This is new to me, but probably not overly useful atm

What are yellow-coloured city sites? And how does it decide order of play, unless someone has Military?

Finished my first game last night, in last place . I got off to a fairly good start, as Illyria against Iberia, Africa and Crete. I got up to 5 cities and was cranking along fairly well, poised on the border of Early Iron age, waiting for 9 tools. With me were Crete and Africa. Then, suddenly, I got a slave revolt card and didn't manage to trade it away. For some reason, rather than just reduce my cities, I actually had to entirely eliminate all 5. No units left or anything. I was quite p'd off, really. (Should this happen, or is it a bug? Othe nations got revolts, but only had to reduce a few cities). That combined with a famine and an epidemic shortly afterwards left me with few units and no cities, so I regressed to the stone-age. Quite impressed I managed to pull it back to Late bronze, almost early iron before Africa finally won. I was helped in this by being the beneficiary of a civil war, twice, but still. I ended up with about 5 cities again. Crete and Africa, OTOH, had 9 and 11 respectively . And that drubbing was with the AI on "weaker"!

So, any tips for a brand new player? What nation should I go? How many opponents (I figured 3 to give ample trading scope, while not having too much competetion)?

The one thing I really noticed was that this game has a serious case of JOMTS ("Just One More Turn" Syndrome). I started a game at about 10 last night, and finished it thinking "That was fun, wonder what the time is?" I reckoned it'd be about half eleven, twelve-ish. Nope, 1am. And me with lectures this morning. D'oh!

Incidentally, the game is PBEM, so if anyone else picks up a copy from the underdogs, I might be willing to play.

[Tau Ceti]

quote: 1. Yes, I had picked up on that, from other civs flooding. Not sure which sites, though. However, if you have not flood-plain cities, floods just destroy a coastal. I don't know what happens if you have neither plains or coastal though?

The yellow sites you are talking about are probably the ones that are vulnerable to flood. (I have only played the board version, and they are white there; the other ones are black.) At any rate, the vulnerable ones are those along the Nile and the Danube, and in Mesopotamia. And you get a flood if you have any units in a flood plain, not just cities. If you have no flood plain units and no coastal cities, nothing happens, but you must be doing pretty poorly for that do happen.

quote: And how does it decide order of play, unless someone has Military?

The nation that has the highest census (most units on the map immediately after population expansion) moves first, followed by the others in descending order. If tied, whoever is first in the following sequence moves first: Africa, Italy, Illyria, Thrace, Crete, Asia, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt. (ie. clockwise starting with Africa)

quote: Then, suddenly, I got a slave revolt card and didn't manage to trade it away. For some reason, rather than just reduce my cities, I actually had to entirely eliminate all 5. No units left or anything. I was quite p'd off, really. (Should this happen, or is it a bug? Othe nations got revolts, but only had to reduce a few cities).

It would happen if you currently had all your units on the map or in your treasury. Of course, you would need a very very large treasury for that to happen as you described it. Do you know that you can spend 18 from your treasury to buy a trade card from the '9' stack?

quote: So, any tips for a brand new player? What nation should I go? How many opponents (I figured 3 to give ample trading scope, while not having too much competetion)?

Egypt tends to be the easiest nation to play, as they have a large and rich home area, narrow and fairly safe borders, and few neighbours. Just make sure you get Engineering to protect you against Flood, and do under NO circumstances build two cities on turn 4 to get into the Bronze Age. Deliberately delaying entry for one turn will give you a much better position. Assyria (my personal favourite) and Babylon are also quite good, though Babylon tends to struggle a bit with getting enough city sites. Crete is a very interesting country to play, but the start is tough and hard to do right.

The board game is always more fun the more players you have. Of course the social aspect is important there, but I think it should apply to the computer version as well. Not sure how the trading works, but with some practice, you should be far better at it than any computer player, so it would probably benefit you to have a full set of opponents.

[Urban Ranger]

City sites. The ones that are affected by floods and the ones that aren't have different colours. For the boardgame it's white and black respectively, but since I haven't played the computer version you have to find out yourself, but it should be pretty easy. Now, there are strategic advantages of building cities in an area without city sites.

First, you get to get rid of a lot of tokens for population expansion next turn. Second, since the country with the most tokens move first, you can get to move last by building cities and using Coinage. Third, cities are hard to attack. An enemy needs to move in a stack of 7 token to attack you, and if you can reduce his stack down to 6 he loses the entire stack. Remember, combats between stacks of tokens occur first. Forth, you can build cities in areas where the food production is rotten and leave the good crop areas for agriculture.

Calamities. There are two kinds. Ones that do nasty things to you, and ones that you trade away to do nasty things to others. The first type has a different coloured back than trade cards, and the second type has exactly the same back as trade cards. I haven't seen Slave Revolt, but if it does nasty things to you, it should be the kind that you can't trade. The other kind doesn't do anything to you even if you don't trade them, they just get shuffled back into the stacks.

Cities. IIRC we could have up to only 9 cities - there were only trade cards with values from 1-9. Maybe the computer version is different.

Starting Countries. Hard to say. Look at the table see what each country needs to progress in the different periods. Africa has few resources but it also needs the least to win. It's not too bad though if Egypt is not in the game. If you get to pick the players you should bunch the computer players together while you start in isolation Most countries are pretty much the same except Crete. It's very hard to play since it needs to waste tokens to build ships early in the game. If you play against Crete you need to keep trying to push them back into the sea.

"Illyria against Iberia, Africa and Crete.". Looks like you are in a bad position since you are surrounded on all sides. Much better if you start with Assyrians or Babaylonions.

Other hints.

- Examine all the calamity cards that can't be traded. See what kind of civilisation cards do you need to offset their effects. Make acquiring them a priority.

- Don't try to build cities too early. You need to expand out more first. Don't be afraid to be stuck a couple of turns on the AST (IIRC).

- Expand first in the direction of your enemies. Leave land behind you and spread out. Grab areas that are adjacent to many others so you can expand rapidly. Once you meet up with your enemies you can back fill the areas you have left empty before.

- Try to get optimal growth early on, i.e., max 2 tokens on any area.

- Build cities in poor regions and farm in rich areas. This way a few farming regions can support a lot of cities.

- Build cities as your line of defense.

- Don't build cities in such a way that you can't move tokens into those areas.

- Be careful trading. You can keep track of the tradable type of calamity cards once they get played since you know how many cards are in those stacks and you know they go to the bottom of the stack after being played.

[Chowlett]

The rules appear to have altered slightly in translation...

quote: Originally posted by Urban Ranger on 04-30-2001 10:12 AM City sites. The ones that are affected by floods and the ones that aren't have different colours. For the boardgame it's white and black respectively, but since I haven't played the computer version you have to find out yourself, but it should be pretty easy.

I think the yellow ones are flood-able then. There's one on the east of the coast north of Greece, one on the mediterranean side of eastern spain and one other elsewhere, I can't quite remember.

quote: Now, there are strategic advantages of building cities in an area without city sites. First, you get to get rid of a lot of tokens for population expansion next turn. Second, since the country with the most tokens move first, you can get to move last by building cities and using Coinage. Third, cities are hard to attack. An enemy needs to move in a stack of 7 token to attack you, and if you can reduce his stack down to 6 he loses the entire stack. Remember, combats between stacks of tokens occur first. Forth, you can build cities in areas where the food production is rotten and leave the good crop areas for agriculture.

Unfortunately, I've never yet been in the happy position of having 12 tokens available in one place, or having sufficient for support if I used them. It is, however, useful to know what the quantity of units needed to destroy a city is, as I have been attacked by pirates.

quote: Calamities. There are two kinds. Ones that do nasty things to you, and ones that you trade away to do nasty things to others. The first type has a different coloured back than trade cards, and the second type has exactly the same back as trade cards. I haven't seen Slave Revolt, but if it does nasty things to you, it should be the kind that you can't trade. The other kind doesn't do anything to you even if you don't trade them, they just get shuffled back into the stacks.

This is where the rules seem to change. I think in the case of Slave Revolt, I may have gained it in the first trading round and failed to get rid of it in the second trading round. However, I have seen intimations that "Crete is the victim of his own treachery", which I'm guessing means that he picked up a treachery card and didn't manage to trade it. I am almost certain I have been affected by tradable calamities I've picked up. In fact, only one calamity I ever picked up was untradable (I forget which). As an aside, I did once get from 4 cities 3 calamities , one untradable. Thankfully, I was told "Zeus took pity on me", and I only had to deal with two.

quote: Cities. IIRC we could have up to only 9 cities - there were only trade cards with values from 1-9. Maybe the computer version is different.

There are certainly only 9 values of trade card, but I think I have seen Africa Acquire 11 goods. Perhaps he bought some.

quote: Starting Countries. Hard to say. Look at the table see what each country needs to progress in the different periods. Africa has few resources but it also needs the least to win. It's not too bad though if Egypt is not in the game. If you get to pick the players you should bunch the computer players together while you start in isolation Most countries are pretty much the same except Crete. It's very hard to play since it needs to waste tokens to build ships early in the game. If you play against Crete you need to keep trying to push them back into the sea.

Unfortunately, not only do I not get to pick my opponents, but not all opponents or map are available with few players. I have only seen available: Africa, Iberia, Illyria, Italy, Thrace, Crete. I shall play with more and see what happens. The computer seems to have a pre-programmed start for Crete. Once it gets past the initial ship problems, it just makes use of the plethora of city sites around there.

quote: "Illyria against Iberia, Africa and Crete.". Looks like you are in a bad position since you are surrounded on all sides. Much better if you start with Assyrians or Babaylonions.

As I say, I wasn't able to with that few opponents.

quote: Other hints. - Examine all the calamity cards that can't be traded. See what kind of civilisation cards do you need to offset their effects. Make acquiring them a priority.

Tricky, without a help file. I would need to basically watch until I saw no other types.

quote: - Don't try to build cities too early. You need to expand out more first. Don't be afraid to be stuck a couple of turns on the AST (IIRC).

That's why I took Illyria - since it's impossible to advance to Bronze until quite late, I figured it would give me some time to get expansion in.

quote: - Expand first in the direction of your enemies. Leave land behind you and spread out. Grab areas that are adjacent to many others so you can expand rapidly. Once you meet up with your enemies you can back fill the areas you have left empty before.

Logical, good wargaming and general empire game strategy. Shall make sure I do.

quote: - Try to get optimal growth early on, i.e., max 2 tokens on any area.

Another good ploy

quote: - Build cities in poor regions and farm in rich areas. This way a few farming regions can support a lot of cities.

I'm guessing by "Farm" you mean leave units rather than cities in the area.

quote: - Build cities as your line of defense. - Don't build cities in such a way that you can't move tokens into those areas.

Presumably to facilitate defense if someone moves in a seven-stack

quote: - Be careful trading. You can keep track of the tradable type of calamity cards once they get played since you know how many cards are in those stacks and you know they go to the bottom of the stack after being played.

Ah. No I can't. The game doesn't actually show the 9 separate stacks, it just allocates the goods to you when you click acquire.

quote: It would happen if you currently had all your units on the map or in your treasury. Of course, you would need a very very large treasury for that to happen as you described it. Do you know that you can spend 18 from your treasury to buy a trade card from the '9' stack?

Yes, I probably had all on the map. As for buying, I knew I could, but I didn't know what I had to pay. Twice the base value, is it?

quote: Egypt tends to be the easiest nation to play, as they have a large and rich home area, narrow and fairly safe borders, and few neighbours. Just make sure you get Engineering to protect you against Flood, and do under NO circumstances build two cities on turn 4 to get into the Bronze Age. Deliberately delaying entry for one turn will give you a much better position. Assyria (my personal favourite) and Babylon are also quite good, though Babylon tends to struggle a bit with getting enough city sites. Crete is a very interesting country to play, but the start is tough and hard to do right.

Right, I'll give them a go. Need more opponents for that.

quote: The board game is always more fun the more players you have. Of course the social aspect is important there, but I think it should apply to the computer version as well. Not sure how the trading works, but with some practice, you should be far better at it than any computer player, so it would probably benefit you to have a full set of opponents.

Do you mean the trading rules, or the "engine"? I should be able to answer both.

Thanks for the help, I'm seriously considering buying the tangible object now.

[Tau Ceti]

-- "This is where the rules seem to change."

The computer game is based on Avalon Hill's Advanced Civilization, which is an expansion set for the original. Unfortunately, after Avalon Hill was bought by Hasbro, production of all old games stopped, and I do not think any are available anymore. Though I have only briefly, once, looked at the box of the Gibson(?) version, I believe it is the same as Avalon Hill's without the Advanced Expansion. (It was the original, and I believe AH produced their version on licence.) But there will be some slight differences between the computer game and the board game, such as here.

In Civ (board), tradable calamities can only be traded once, and whoever gets it then is hit by it. The original drawer can choose not to trade it, and can keep it for later or discard it for no effect. In Adv Civ (computer and board), tradable calamities can be traded any number of times, and whoever gets stuck with it at the end of trading is hit by it - even if he is the original drawer and has not traded it. So your impression is correct. And as you have seen you can only be the primary victim of two calamities per turn.

-- "Tricky, without a help file."

Well, you have us. List of calamities:

[*]No calamities[*]Non-tradable: Volcanic Eruption/Earthquake. Not very nasty. Engineering helps agains Earthquake.
Tradable: Treachery. Not very nasty - can be beneficial as you can plunder the city afterwards. Nothing helps against it.[*]Non-tradable: Famine. Moderately nasty. Pottery helps if you also have Grain cards, which then cannot be used for anything else that turn (you must simply hold on to them).
Tradable: Superstition. Not very nasty. The religion cards (Mysticism, Deism, Enlightenment) help.[*]Non-tradable: Civil War. Extremely nasty. Music, Drama & Poetry and Democracy help. Philosophy usually makes things worse, unless you are very very large.
Tradable: Slave Revolt. Not very nasty. Enlightenment helps, Mining aggravates.[*]Non-tradable: Flood. Very nasty for Egypt and Babylon, otherwise not very nasty. Engineering helps.
Tradable: Barbarian Hordes. Very nasty for Africa, Crete is immune, otherwise moderately nasty. No direct help, although Metalworking slows them down.[*]Tradable: Epidemic. Extremely nasty (the combination Civil War/Epidemic is utterly deadly). Unsurprisingly, Medicine helps a lot. Roadbuilding aggravates.[*]Tradable: Civil Disorder. Extremely nasty. Music, Drama & Poetry, Law and Democracy help. Roadbuilding aggravates.[*]Tradable Iconoclasm & Heresy. Very nasty (deadly in combination with Civil Disorder or Civil War). Law, Philosophy and Theology help. Monotheism and Roadbuilding aggravate.[*]Tradable: Piracy. Very nasty. Nothing helps.[/list=a]

-- "Twice the base value, is it?"

Yes, but in the standard rules you can only buy '9' cards.

-- "Do you mean the trading rules, or the "engine"?"

The engine, primarily. The rules should be, you trade three cards (technically at least three, but you will have trouble finding anyone who accepts more than that) and have to truthfully name two of them?

[Urban Ranger]

I have never played the advanced version, just the original one. IIRC, you can only be hit by two calamities each turn, and they are resolved in the ranking order. i.e., the value of the trade cards with which they stack. So if you have good defenses against two low ranking calmities, you might want to hang on to them so you don't get zapped by higher ranking -- and generally nastier -- calamities.

I guess you get more choices of starting countries if you play with more players. It's more fun that way too.

Africa is a good place to start without Egypt in the game. Just migrate towards the Nile valley and grab all the fertile land there. Also move towards the shore to squeeze Crete.

You should be able to know how many trade cards are in each stack tough. For example, there are 3 of gold (stack #9), unless they expanded it and make 2 commordities in each stack, then it would be 6, plus the totally nasty Piracy card, for 7 cards in total. Now only a player with 9 cities can draw from that stack, so you know how many are drawn each turn. You should be able to find out who got the calamity card by drawing a nice little queue on paper

Worst calamity combo: Civil Disorder + Iconoclasm and Heresy. If you have no defenses, say bye to all your cities.