Description: [AdCiv] More Variants I'm glad to see all the recent discussion about Civ and AdCiv recently. It's reminded me of a variant that I came up with that I've always wanted to try, but never got around to (yet). After the selection of countries, but before play begins, each player is randomly assigned a "specialty" category of civilization cards. These specialties break down as follows: Color Specialty Related Opposite Rel. Opposite ===== ========= ======= ======== ============= green Science Technology Religion Arts orange Technology Science Arts Religion blue Arts Religion Technology Science yellow Religion Arts Science Technology Note: You cannot specialize in Civics (red) Each specialty represents an area that the people of your country have decided to focus their society on. Your specialty gives you a 10 point discount on civilization cards of that color and a 5 point discount on all cards in the related area. (Example: A country speializing in Art gets a 10 point discount on Drama/Poetry and a 5 point discount on Monotheism) Because your country is so focused on these aspects of civilization, however, you suffer a 10 point penalty on cards from your "opposite" area and a 5 point penalty on cards from the "related opposite" area. (Example: The country described above must pay 10 points extra for Metalworking and 5 points extra for Astronomy) Civilization cards with mixed colors receive the cumulative bonus/penalty of the colors involved. The only other change is the requirement that, in order to advance to the final spot on the AST, a civilization must have all cards of it's specialty color (including mixed cards containing it's color) to win. I think that this is fairly balanced, but would make for some interesting strategies. Countries based on Art will play very differently from a country based on Science. Also, it makes the game less of a try-to-rack-up-the-points game to one where building up a coherent civilization becomes an important goal as well. Any feedback on this idea would be greatly appreciated... later bengalt@wpi.WPI.EDU From: cthulhoid@aol.com (Cthulhoid) Description: Re: [AdCiv] More Variants The orientated civ's variant sounds real interesting. For those who are interested, here is a Civil War variant that, unlike the original, does not kill the game for whoever gets it. NO-TRADE CIVIL WAR: Use this instead of the normal Civil War effects. When someone draws the Civil War card as part of his hand, he immediately plays it face up in front of him. That player may not trade any Trade Cards this round at all. He may buy Civ cards as normal, and may keep up to eight cards as normal, but he may not trade at all. In essence, he is being "boycotted" because his internal areas are in chaos and no merchant would dare enter a kingdom in such upheaval. If he draws more than two calamities, Civil War always takes effect, and draw as normal to see which one of the other calamities he holds also takes effect (after all trading is over). The Civil War player should not tell other players which calamities he drew other than Civil War, so they will not know whether to trust their trading partners that round, until all trading is done. Cards which help mitigate Civil War: Drama and Poetry: Allows the player to keep an extra Trade Card in his hand at the end of the round (so he could keep 9 instead of 8). Cumulative with Music and Democracy. Music: Same effect as Drama and Poetry. Democracy: Like Drama and Poetry, but allows player to keep extra two cards. Military: All calamities player holds take effect instead of just Civil War plus one other. They are still not revealed until end of trading round. If player only holds Civil War, or Civil War plus one other calamity, no effect. No other cards affect Civil War. Example: The Babylonians hold Democracy and Music. They get hit with a Civil War, and also draw Iconoclasm & Heresy, and Flood. They cannot trade, and get to keep 11 cards at the end of the round instead of 8 because of the mitigating cards. They draw randomly after all trading is done to see whether Flood or Iconoclasm & Heresy affects them. If they also had Military, both Flood and Iconoclasm & Heresy affect them. In either case, the Babylonian player keeps these calamities hidden in his hand until all trading is over. The Babylonian may buy Civ cards as normal. Note the ability to keep extra cards in hand only applies during Civil War. -- Gary