Civilization (board game)

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Civilization
Game data
author Francis G. Tresham
publishing company Hartland Trefoil 1980,
Avalon Hill 1981,
Gibsons Games 1988,
Piatnik / World of Games 1988,
Jeux Descartes 1989,
Joc Internacional
Publishing year 1980, 1981, 1988, 1989
Art Board game
Teammates 2 to 7 (8 with extension)
Duration 3 to 10+ hours
Age from 12 years

Awards

Origins Award 1982

Civilization is a strategy - Board Game by Francis Tresham G. , published in 1980 in his own British game company Hartland Trefoil . In the United States, this version was released in 1981 by Avalon Hill . Later there was a modified license version of Gibsons Games , which was published in different languages. The German edition was published in 1988 by Piatnik / Welt der Spiele . Avalon Hill brought out a further development of the original variant, Advanced Civilization . In 1989 a French version was published by Jeux Descartes , and a Spanish version was published by Joc Internacional .

The aim of the game is to bring a civilization from its earliest beginnings to the early Iron Age .

Brief description

The board game Civilization uses a game board that shows a map from the eastern Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf. Each of the up to seven players chooses one of the nine civilizations that have defined starting regions. There are no military units, only population stones and ships. The rules for reproduction, movement and combat are very simple, and Civilization is not a war game either: if you wage war for longer, you lose compared to more peaceful players. It is important to found cities because you only get trade cards for cities. Trade cards are all the more valuable, the more of the same you have, for this you have to trade with other players (a concept that was copied in the settlers of Catan ). With enough trading cards, one can acquire civilizational advances that are crucial for winning the game. Civilization's Western Europe expansion for up to eight players enlarges the map to include the Western Mediterranean area and includes some additional trade cards so that there are now two trade goods and disasters for each numerical value. However, there are no major rule changes.

Goal of the game

The course of the game simulates the further development of civilization in the countries of antiquity: At the beginning of the game, the peoples come into the game from their given historical land fields, in order then to expand further through multiplication and to develop further through town planning and trade. In the course of the game, it is important to achieve certain intermediate goals in order to reach the last field on the time scale in the optimal time. The following peoples fight for supremacy in Europe, starting in the southwest and following clockwise (Crete is the only one that does not start at the edge, but in the middle of the map):

Of course, there are also small wars between neighbors, disasters such as epidemics, riots, pirates and the like, which can be fought more effectively by reaching certain levels of civilization.

The game has a longer playing time which, even with experienced players and a brisk style of play, is not less than four (but also ten or more hours for longer games). However, the complexity of the topic is implemented so coherently that connoisseurs like to come together by post , as the optimal number of players is also 7. The relative frequency of the catastrophes, some of which affect several players and throw back entire civilizations, are often shared out by mutual agreement to ensure that the game runs smoothly, in order to keep the damage low for everyone. This is not always the case, however, and epidemics and famine can delay the entire course of the game.

Versions

There are four versions of Civilization:

Original version

The original version developed in 1980 appeared in the United Kingdom in 1981 at Francis Tresham's own company Hartland Trefoil in Northampton under the name Civilization . The same version was sold in 1982 under license Hartland Trefoil by Avalon Hill in the United States . In this version for up to 7 players, the civilizations (except Crete) start from any edge field marked by a strip in the corresponding color. In 1988 Hartland Trefoil in England and Avalon Hill in America brought out the Civilization Western Expansion Map , in which the Italians were replaced by the Iberians and the starting position of the Africans on the left edge changed a little. In addition, a Trade Card Expansion Pack was released , through which 7 new trade goods and disasters came into play.

Advanced Civilization

In 1991 Avalon Hill launched an expansion for the base game under the name Advanced Civilization under the name of Advanced Civilization , which was supposed to eliminate many errors from the original version, including the fact that omissions in the development table are difficult to make up for. The expansion made the new cards from the western and trading card expansion superfluous because it even came with new trading and development cards, even with the new Religion category. Only the schedule of the western expansion was not included.

Avalon Hill was finally bought in 1998 by Hasbro , which incorporated it under the Avalon Hill strategic board games division of its own recently acquired company Wizards of the Coast .

Hartland Trefoil was also bought by Microprose in 1998 , which finally ended up also at Hasbro in the computer games division Hasbro Interactive , which was eventually sold to Infogrames .

Of Advanced Civilization there is an implementation as a computer game.

Gibsons Games

The company Gibsons Games in London received in 1988 a non-exclusive license, a clone of the original game under the name Civilization to customize. This version has received a lot of criticism because it greatly shortens and simplifies the rules. In addition, the game plan of the original game, which showed topological peculiarities, was replaced by a loveless-looking variant with single-colored fields; the starting positions of the players were set on a specific field. This version of Civilization was translated and distributed in Germany and Austria by Welt der Spiele / Edition Spielkunst and Piatnik . For this, too, an expansion of Western Europe appeared, in which, however, unlike in the original version, the Iberians are added as an additional people and the Gauls as an alternative to the Italians. In addition, the differences between the various game boards are even greater than in the main game; new trading cards appeared as a concept, including combined ones. This version was reissued by Gibsons Games in 2018, 30 years after it was first released.

Mega Civilization

The Dutch game publisher 999 Games published in cooperation with Pegasus Spiele for the game fair in Essen 2015 an extended version of Civilization limited to 3000 pieces. The game is a version of Advanced Civilization that has been further developed by fans over the course of 15 years as part of the Civilization Expansion Project and expands the previous map to include the Indian subcontinent. This increases the possible number of players to 5-18, with smaller numbers of players only using part of the four game boards. The game has also been expanded to include further civilization progress and trade goods, and the rules have been partially refined.

Sid Meier's Civilization

There are also two other board games with the same name:

Civilization: Call to Power

Having multiple licenses for the Civilization name allowed Activision to acquire the rights and release the Civilization: Call to Power game , which led to years of litigation with Hasbro.

Web links

Individual evidence

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