Civilization - The Board Game

[Skanky Burns]

Nice.

[Grumbold]

Curious. I dislike the expansion because it eliminates half the skill imo by introducing far too many trading sets. For me the only appeal is it does make the game faster by doing so. Since getting players round for a five hour game is no easier than a seven hour game I prefer the original. For example having a famine every turn while one or more players hoard the grain cards trying to get a big score makes a lot of sense to me while in the expansion it can be ameliorated by rapid turnover of the other 4 point card set. The ability to convince other players to trade cards with you becomes too important compared to any other aspect of the game.

[Urban Ranger]

I have never played with the expansion so I can't tell, but the original has this nice elegance in the design which makes the game good.

[Chowlett]

Hmm, I feel like firing a game up at some point. Hmm, maybe this evening.

Hmm, I think I'll have to re-download it.

Hmm, glad I kept that '98 install - it allows me (with a bit of fast key-pressing) a true DOS mode.

[Chowlett]

Incredible - it works under XP. Except that I get no sound, and appear to be missing the advcivil.bat file that's mentioned in the readme's, and I'm sure was there last time.

So, a dilemma - do I try it in DOS, thereby being cut off from the rest of the world while playing, but possibly gaining sound; or do I keep it in XP, with the reverse properties.

And does anyone have a copy of advcivil.bat they could send me? Or thoughts on how to get the sound working under XP.

[Mark_Everson]

IMO Civ the board game was reasonably good for its time, but was Completely outclassed by Civilization the computer game. I looked over the AC rules at one point, but never played it. I think it was because it looked more complicated than sounded like fun, but I honestly can't say for sure. Even in its time (late 70s I think), I found Stellar Conquest a much better game, and more similar to the Civilization computer game that was to come.

[Chowlett]

Hmm, I get sound effects, just not MIDI music. Odd.

[devilmunchkin]

it seems hard to do......i just would figure there are too many nuances of the PC game that a board game could not cover.

[Chowlett]

dm - as posted above "it has nothing to do with the computer game of the same name"

It's a board game made by Avalon Hill, which was eventually faithfully translated to Advanced Civilization on the PC, now available at the underdogs. However, it bears no resemblance to Sid Meier's Civilization. It's more trading than war - but it's great fun, if a little long. Give it a go!

[devilmunchkin]

so is it like risk? and does it violate smc's trademark name?

[Rex Little]

Not at all like Risk. Army-vs.-Army combat plays a very small role; when you "attack" another player it's generally with events such as "Volcano" or "Civil war". It's a race to get your civilization to accomplish certain things, and you're generally more interested in advancing your own cause than interfering with someone else.

It doesn't violate the computer game's copyright because the board game came first! Not sure, but I think Sid had to buy the right to use the name.

[Urban Ranger]

Wars are in fact mostly counterproductive in the game, with a few exceptions. The main one being delaying other players from building cities.

[Andemagne]

Have anyone tried that "Imperial Civilizations"-Variation?
you use 2 sets of pieces (110 tokens, 18 cities, 8 ships).

[Urban Ranger]

No, haven't even heard of it.

[Andemagne]

rules for "Imperial"-variation are in that Advanced
Civilization-Expansion. its a all different game, if
you play IC-variation.

another good new rule from AC is that "Trade Special
Cities" or what is was called. for every set of trade cards
gold, ivory, wine,..... there is one city that gives +1 to
sets of that kind of cards. for example corinth has 'wine'
as a speciality, so whenever you cash in a set of wine cards
you get +1 to number of cards (2 => 3, 3 => 4 .....) =>
the set is more valuable. this speeds the game up a little,
and there are little more sence about going to war.
it has a effect on trading too.