Board game
Number of players
3 to 6
Party time
From 2 hours
Game difficulty
Complex
Civilization Sid Meier is a strategy board game created by Drover Glen in 2002. The board game was developed based on the computer game Sid Meir's Civilization.
Goal in the board game Sid Meier's Civilization
The player with the most points wins.
Sid Meier's Civilization: Rules of the Game
The essence of the game is the management of your own empire. In the board game you will go from antiquity to the present day. You will explore territories, build buildings and entire cities, invent new technologies, develop, make peace and fight. There are many options for a pleasant pastime here, from diplomacy to epic battles and space wars.
In the game you have to go through 4 eras:
- ancient
- middle ages
- industrial
- contemporary
Each of these eras has its own characteristics and unique fighting forces. And of course each subsequent era surpasses the previous one.
- The playing field is divided into regions.
- The game has military units - the army and equipment. In each era, the unit is classified by era and type. The army is divided into infantry, artillery and cavalry. Technique, in turn, is divided into aircraft and fleet.
- Settlers are very much like an army, but they cannot fight. But they are very important for exploring new territories and building cities.
- Standard bearers - are placed along with military units on the territory that you have not conquered to confirm that this is your army. It is used only for this in the board game.
Research markers are your settlers in regions with the same marker. There are 4 types of marker in the game:
- events
- resources
- futility
- terrain
Resources. There are 8 types of resources on research markers:
- horses
- gems
- rare materials
- coal
- iron
- oil
- spices
Events. In the board game Sid Meir's Civilization, there are 4 types of events that appear on research markers:
- Free technology. Your inventors have made a discovery! You receive new technology from the current era.
- Plague. A mass disease is imposed on the region depending on the era. In ancient times, the disease spread to the region where the marker was found. In the Middle Ages, the disease acts where the marker was found and on all neighboring ones. In the industrial era, where the marker was found and to a depth of 2 regions and all adjacent regions along with them. In the modern era, it extends to the region where the marker was found and to a depth of 3 regions and all adjacent regions.
- Hidden treasures. You get ten gold coins!
- local tribe. A new settlement has been discovered. You and all other players roll 2 dice and add the number on the die to the amount of your settlement. Whoever rolled the higher number on the die controls the local settlement.
Firstly, I would like to immediately note that in the electronic and paper versions there are more similarities than differences. For example, victory conditions:
- The most logical and common path to dominance in games is to win military victory;
- A longer and more carefully planned way - economic miracle;
- For those who like to develop their civilization by conducting scientific research - technological breakthrough;
- And, finally, for convinced pacifists, it will do - cultural dominance.
All four presented methods can (and most often will have to) be combined, because it is almost impossible to conquer the territory of the enemy, whose troops have advanced weapons. If you want science to develop at a rapid pace, be so kind as to back up such research economically. If you want to have a trick up your sleeve, devote more time to the development of culture, and over time, bonuses will appear in your civilization that enhance both the economy and science, and some will also help to harm your opponent on the sly. In "Civilization" all aspects of development are important, but you need to choose one or two priorities and achieve superiority with all your might.
The big plus of this game is the generated map, which is laid out blindly before each game and can consist of 2-4 (according to the number of players) home sites of civilizations, plus 14 neutral sites. Each lot consists of 16 landscaped squares. Imagine how many possible combinations can be formed! Depending on the location of your civilization, by the way, it also depends on what tactics to choose. In one of the games, we had a case in which the player was cut off from the rest of the body of water and while the rest were sorting things out on land, he calmly developed, accumulated resources and military power. Then, after researching "Seafaring", this player sent his armies across the water, and on the other side it didn't seem enough to everyone else.
By the way, about the units presented in the game (combat and civilian units). Compared to the computer version, in the desktop version, of course, the visual component is more meager, but this in no way affects the interestingness of the gameplay. You just have to be more careful. After all, the same infantry unit can, depending on the level of technology development and other combat bonuses, be a less or more dangerous enemy in battle. In the electronic version, all calculations of attack power, defense, damage were calculated automatically by the computer, but on a cardboard map with plastic flags denoting armies, take the trouble to do all the calculations yourself in your mind or stock up on a piece of paper with a pencil. In fact, all this arithmetic may seem complicated only at first glance. After one or two training games, all these calculations will take place quickly and imperceptibly.
There is essentially only one civilian unit - the scout. It performs several important functions: reconnaissance - is necessary at the very beginning of the game (it is the scout who opens unexplored areas, determining how the landscape squares will be located on the site); Scouts found new cities; and the function of transporting resources from squares remote from the city is also available to the scout. In general, the scout is a very necessary and useful unit. No less, but during active hostilities and more, army formations are important, the function of which is only to fight, hold back enemy armies, rob warlike villages in search of rare resources, and ultimately keep the enemy capital under siege
There are only four types of troops in the game: infantry, cavalry, artillery, and in the last stages of the game, after researching "Flight", - aviation. Each of the military branches (except aviation) has an advantage over one and receives penalties over the other (for example, artillery is stronger than infantry, but weaker than cavalry, which is quite logical), this determines the sequence of moves in battle. Military units with new technology research can be upgraded. In addition to the level of modification of units, individual buildings in cities (barracks, academies, etc.) also affect the overall power of the army.
Scientific discoveries carried out by civilizations are independent. That is, even if all your rivals have discovered "Pottery", it is not a fact that this technology will take a place in your scientific hierarchy. All studies, unlike the computer version, are blind. That is, having accumulated a sufficient number of trade points and exceeded one of the marks with a Roman numeral (I - V), you simply draw one technology card from the pile corresponding to the value of the accumulated points. But there is one trick here - let's say, even having accumulated trade points to the point of being able to research a Tier III technology, you will not be able to do this until there is a "foundation" for this technology from at least two technologies of the previous level
So it's up to you to choose: either thoroughly research the entire technology tree without leaving gaps, or force some stages of research in order to be the first to get the Tier V "Space Flight" technology and thus win the science victory in the game. Needless to say, scientific discoveries affect all aspects of the game and are directly related to them. Research allows you to build certain types of buildings in cities, improve existing ones, modernize troops, increase the limit on the number of units in the army, provide profitable trade, and even change the existing form of government (republic, monarchy, communism, etc.). The game has the ability to "soften" the effect of the costs required to conduct research. In this case, be prepared to give some of the accumulated gold to research funds so that each subsequent technology can be discovered with a small (or impressive) lead.
The economic system is represented in the game by a disk with an indicator of the level of the economy and coin tokens. It seems that everything is simple - to bring the level of economic development to 15 and victory is ours. But experienced rivals, noticing that one of the players has proclaimed feudalism, regularly takes coins from resource trading, saves on technologies and, instead of devoting their cities to the arts, pumps out the maximum from the gold mines available to him, they will certainly unite and go to war against such monopolist. They will blockade the mines, overtake them technologically and the result will be sad. Therefore, if you have already decided to save money, then do it with the confident support of the military, scientific, and even better, cultural principles.
And now the cultural news. In Civilization, from the point of view of cultural development, there are clearly cheating states: China and Rome. If the superiority of the former continues as long as there are unexplored huts and villages on the map, then the latter receive precious culture points on almost every occasion. And this is such a resource, which does not happen much. Indeed, with the advancement along the culture track, players take cultural event cards for themselves, which sometimes make life much easier, providing civilization with free resources, speeding up research, etc.
With a more thorough development of the culture of their people, so-called great people (merchants, engineers, artists, generals, scientists) will appear on the horizon, who can be placed in cities and bring tangible benefits. To achieve a cultural victory, collecting only culture points is not enough, because the further the player advances on the culture track, the more resources are required for a further step. And in addition to culture points, trade points will be needed. So this way of achieving victory cannot be called easy either.
In conclusion, I would like to say that even having described the possible methods and conditions for victory, resources and types of troops, I have only touched the tip of the iceberg, because the possibilities provided by the game are truly endless. And having gathered a company of like-minded people, lovers of global historical strategies, you are guaranteed to spend more than one evening playing this game and will return to it constantly, finding and honing new tactics and strategies for achieving victory.
Welcome, O Great One! You are going to lead your people through the millennia into the future. Diplomacy, war, economic growth, and technological advances are all tools at your disposal. Maintain a balance of these four elements and you will see your people flourish. Make a mistake, and your civilization will be hidden under the dust of time.
Game Review
Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game lasts four eras. The earliest is the Ancient Era, followed by the Middle Ages, the Gunpowder/Industrial Era, and finally the Modern Era. Each era has its own unique military forces, city buildings, technologies, and wonders of the world, and in each subsequent era they surpass the achievements of the previous era.game card
The game map is divided into areas in order to indicate the movement of troops and to divide the industry. Areas on earth such as the Orinoco or Gobi are called regions. The blue areas are oceans and are broken up into seas.military units
A military unit is any army or vehicle. Each era has its own specific army. Armies are divided into infantry, cavalry or artillery. Technique is also divided into fleet and aircraft. The table below shows each unit and categorized by type and era.Settlers
Settlers are like armies. The biggest difference is that they cannot fight in battles. However, settlers are very important. Settlers are the only game token you can use to explore and build settlements. When your settler ends its movement on a region with an explorer marker flipped over, you can pick up an exploration marker and look at it. The research marker indicates whether a region contains resources, a special terrain type, a local tribe, or other special places. You can build a settlement during the production phase of a game turn. To build a settlement, replace the settler with a settlement and pay the corresponding price to the bank. Each region can only have one settlement!standard-bearers
All military units in the game are of the same color. Standard bearers are used to determine the affiliation of military units. When you move your military units to a region (sea) where one of your cities is not located, place a banner bearer with them to show that these units belong to you. Used only in this capacity, banner bearers have no other purpose in the game.Research markers
Exploration markers can be opened by your settlers in a region with this marker. There are four main types of research markers:Resources
There are eight different types of resources that you can find on the research marker: wine, horses, iron, gems, spices, oil, coal, and rare metals. When you find a resource, place the research marker back on the region. It remains flipped until a settlement is built in that region. When the settlement is built, turn the research marker face up. The marker is attached to a region, and the owner of a settlement in that region receives a city card with the icon of that resource on it. As described in the advanced rules, a city card with a resource icon produces more gold during the production phase.Events
There are four types of events that can be found on research markers: free technology, treasure, native tribe, and plague. When you find an event, declare what type it is and remove it from the game map. Event effects are as follows:America, China, Egypt, Germany, Rome and Russia - these are the six civilizations that have entered the warpath with each other for the title of the most highly developed. Each of them has its own advantages: be it a wonder of the world or a huge army, a great hero or a powerful fortress. And each of them strives to get ahead of the rest in culture, economy, technology or war. But the crown of victory will go to only one - the one who first reaches the top in one of these four areas of development. What are you willing to bet on?
Who does not go forward, he falls down
You are the ruler of a small but ambitious country. And thank the gods that kilometers of unexplored territories separate you from your enemies, since the current situation needs to be clearly changed for the better. Of course, if you want to win.
The game consists of several rounds, each of which is divided into 5 phases, in which players take turns performing planned actions. They lay cities and build wonders, collect taxes from merchants and negotiate with neighboring powers, build armies and open universities, send scouts to new lands or go to war.
The future of your civilization depends on how correctly you set goals and what steps you take to achieve them. Opponents, of course, tend to anticipate your actions and put sticks in your wheels as efficiently as possible. However, you do the same thing - in the clash of minds lies all the fun of a good strategy game.
Who will fall in love with Civilization at first sight
- Strategies fan. The game mechanics will immediately arouse intense interest, and possible difficulties will only provoke you even more. An argument in favor of the tabletop: diplomacy in the company of real people becomes much more sophisticated, and therefore much more interesting. The game lasts at least 3 hours, but in good company this time will fly by.
- Board game collector. How do you not have Civilization at home yet? No comments.
- The owner of the previous version of the game. At the very least, you'll want to play it. Details below.
How different is the new edition from the old one?
If you think that the new edition of Civilization is the same game, only in a new design, then you are greatly mistaken. Not just pictures have changed, the game mechanics have also undergone significant changes. Players who have already tested the new Civilization are unanimous that it has become more like its prototype - a computer game. Look at the composition - a lot will immediately become clear.
Interesting contents of this big box
- Move Marker- given to the first player in the phase of the current round;
- 4 reference sheets for each player;
- 6 markers cultural level- one per civilization;
- 6 sheets of civilizations, which indicate the special capabilities of peoples;
- 12 disks of trade and economy, which are attached to the sheets of civilization with special rods;
- 20 map sections: 6 homelands for each civilization and 14 no man's lands that make up the main field of play;
- 12 markers cities for four players: each is assigned a capital and 2 simple cities;
- 33 plastic chips: 25 figures armies(one additional for Russia) and 8 - Scouts;
- 12 double-sided markers disasters- Deforestation and Drought.
- 12 markers miracles: ancient, medieval and modern;
- 30 markers huts and villages that can be conquered;
- 49 double-sided markers buildings: "harbor", "phratorium", "workshop/mine", "library/university", "barn/aqueduct", "market/bank", "temple/cathedral", "barracks/academy".
- 18 markers great people;
- 28 markers military technology;
- 55 battle cards: "artillery", "infantry", "cavalry", "aviation" and "combat bonuses";
- 209 tokens: 90 - culture, 28 - wounds, 75 - coins and 16 - resources;
- 224 cards: 4 memo cards, 15 government cards, 144 technology cards, 47 cultural events cards, 12 wonder cards and 1 spaceflight card.
Sid Meier's Civilization is the first game that catches the eye in our store thanks to its very large box. The dimensions of the packaging are quite consistent with the content: after all, inside there is a game that describes the entire history of the peoples on our planet.
"Civilization" is a famous game that makes the second generation of students with a new interest in the study of history and serves as great entertainment for friends who want to have a great time.
Is this a game based on the cult computer game?
Yes, and this version was created by the same person - Sid Meier - who released the very first "Civilization" in 1993.
How to play Sid Meier's Civilization?
It is usually said that the gameplay resembles all global strategies related to the class: “evolve, explore, capture”, but this is not entirely true. The fact is that "Civilization" was just the ancestor of all such games - and any comparisons would be simply inappropriate.
The game is played on a world map, where fierce wars will be waged for every piece of land - as in the history we know. Diplomacy, science and military art, intertwined, give birth to a masterpiece called "Civilization".
The course of the game is roughly as follows: each player at the beginning of the game receives two territories, two legionnaires and two settlers. Players take turns moving their pieces. If there are combat units of players who are at war in the same territory, it turns out with the help of dice who will win.
In the trading phase, you can sell and buy anything, up to the city.
Victory is achieved through the totality of all the achievements of your civilization - for each successful action in the game you get points, which are calculated at the very end.
Does the playing field change between games?
Yes and no. On the one hand, the world map always remains the same - and on the other hand, resources are distributed differently in each new game. Often, the most promising regions from the previous batch turn out to be practically useless in the new one - and vice versa.
In addition to resources, event markers are also randomly distributed on the map (remember the "huts" from the first "Civilization"?), Which can give you both a nice bonus and destroy all the troops in the region.
Different types of terrain have a significant impact on the development of settlements - and the battle for fertile land at first will become one of the priorities of the young people.
How difficult is it to play Civilization?
The game has two versions of the rules: a simple one, suitable for learning and playing with inexperienced players, and a complex one, which is much more detailed and interesting (but requires significant experience and does not forgive mistakes). Thus, you actually get two games: "easy" for companies and "hardcore" for playing with experienced opponents.
How does time affect the game?
Over time, the appearance of settlements, as well as science and troops, change. You have to lead your empire from antiquity to our century, in every possible way protecting the interests of your people.
What exactly is in this huge box?
- A large map of our planet measuring 36 by 46 inches (almost the size of a standard poker table);
- 784 plastic miniatures (navy, armies of four eras, settlements);
- 78 cards of the tree of sciences and Wonders of the World;
- 61 city cards;
- 64 building cards (determining the possibilities of settlements);
- Sheet with play money;
- 3 fertility cards;
- Science tree diagram;
- Player's memo;
- Two sets of two multi-colored cubes;
- A set of rules.
Given the number of different small items, the creators of the game suggested that some of them might be lost - and therefore, as an additional protection, they put "proxy" and replacements for worn out or lost items.
How good is this game?
This is Sid Meier's Civilization, a game that has been an example in this field for many years. Do you think she can afford to be even a little less than perfect? As for the official side, back in 2002 it received the title of "Best Historical Game of the Year".
