From: propsero@hotmail.com (Jeremy) Subject: Suggestions for SM's Civilization I've seen some good banter about Sid Meier's Civilization: The Boardgame on this forum and others. I agree with the many who said the game suffers from a lack of thorough playtesting and some questionable rules. Rather than throw up my arms, I tried to "fix" the game. With a few rules modifications I think it is a *fantastic* game. Below are my suggestions for making this game great, for those of you with the will to improve the game despite the poor press it's gotten. * Don't use the tech chart that comes with the game; use Nethog's fantastic tech tree (available at http://www.redmooninc.com/naughtybean/civ/files/civ_bg_tech_tree_100.pdf) -- it has costs, effects, benefits, dependencies of all techs and is updated based on errata. * City improvement obsolescence: the rule that all improvements become obsolete with a new era is a bit flawed. I suggest using the rule that specific newer-era technologies obsolesce specific older-era improvements. (Chart available at http://www.redmooninc.com/naughtybean/civilization.htm) * The combat system is pretty poor. We didn't like it, anyway. So I wrote my own, which I feel improves combat greatly, by making it feel more like group combat, reducing the Rambo syndrome of 1 lone improved unit killing 10 enemies, and making large army combat go faster. The rules are available at http://kraybill.net/games/battlerules.doc and are less than a page. There also is a much more complex and rich battle system posted on the eaglegames.net forums. I haven't played it but people who want greater complexity (it supports damaged units, shore bombardment, retreating, unit upgrades) should take a look. See http://eaglegames.zeroforum.com/zerothread?id=1200 for the thread. * Use a pen & paper for tracking players' production. That way you don't have to recount every single round. This saved us a lot of time. If you don't mind having a laptop at your table, there is an online spreadsheet for tracking player production at http://www.redmooninc.com/naughtybean/civilization.htm although we found we could do just fine by accounting for all changes on paper while the game was going. * Trading is a bit clunky, but it works. However, it works better if instead of trading resource/city cards you just take that person's color flag holder and put it on the traded city. * Catapult / Trebuchet auto-upgrade: This mod is optional but I prefer it. The auto-upgrade rule for catapults seems there solely because they didn't ship Trebuchet parts with the game. It leads to everyone amassing catapults at the end of the ancient era so they get cheap trebuchets. Good for the person who bought Math, bad for everyone else. The fix is simple. Once trebuchets are available, flip all catapults upside down. Upside down catapults are catapults, normal side up catapults are trebuchets. Catapults never get upgraded to trebuchets, just as with any other army unit. If I had plastic figures that could pass for trebuchets I would use them in addition to the catapults. * Resource Markers: This one is also optional but I prefer it. Ditch the event (civilization/plague/technology) markers. Play with the resource markers exposed at the beginning of the game. Settlers still get 2 MP's, but have to pay 1 MP to "settle" in a spot prior to putting down a settlement (this keeps their movement/settle dynamic the same as the base rules, just without the exploration element). I think this makes initial placement much more strategic. It can also really suck to play in a 5-player game and be the one dude whose continent had four plagues and three civilizations that you didn't get. An alternative suggestion I haven't played but looks sound is to put out ALL the resource markers, face down such that some of the spots on the board have 2 resource markers. When someone explores, they flip one of them over and resolve the effect (if any). As a later action, their settler can "re-explore" and flip the other over, discarding the original. So, is Civilization flawed? I think so and many agree. Is it fixable? Yes. How is it when it's fixed? Fantastic. I love the game, and heartily recommend it to everyone out there. There are still three cons to the game after the rules are fixed: - poking out all the pieces is a huge pain, not only figuratively but literally. Use a partner (or three) and a knife or your fingers will really hurt. Or buy a punched game from one of these people who doesn't like the game and doesn't want to fix it. - the game board is huge. Too large in my opinion. It barely fits on my table. - the game is long. This is not a downside for me as I was looking for a long, build-your-empire game. A 2 player game should last 3-12 hours. A 4 player game should last 6-24. On the upside, with the above rules and experienced players there isn't a ton of boring downtime because you're always watching what others are doing and it's a lot of fun. Also if you have a group that likes diplomacy/treaties/deals/contracts between nations they'll love this game. Additionally, for reduced length games I posted some suggestions on boardgamegeek for reducing game length by playing specific scenarios (e.g. "settle the new world" or "capture the flag") -- These ideas are really nascent, but this game has such potential for variants like that I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of these develop as time goes on. Hope you benefit from these. Any feedback appreciated. -jk