Board game Sid Meier's Civilization: New Dawn. Sid Meier's Secret Action

Civa means a lot to me. There are 2 games in my life that mercilessly ate up my free time - these are Sid Meier's Civilization and all sorts of football managers like Total Club Manager , FIFA Manager And Football Manager .

In 2006, as a student, I bought myself the fourth part of a computer game Sid Meier's Civilization right before the start of the exams, and this was my most fun exam, because I first read books on the subjects until 11 o’clock, and then launched Civa “for an hour” and every hour I told myself that this is definitely the last time I’ll go to bed and go to bed . As a result, I went to bed at 5 o’clock in the morning, and at 7 o’clock I got up and went to the university exam. After successfully passing the session, I spent the whole summer stuck to this terribly annoying, but wildly cool strategy. And then for a long time I bought all the new Civs with extras, until part 6 came out, which I finally gave up on and didn’t buy =)

All erudite desktop gamers know that the computer Civa grew out of the desktop one. And after some time, the publishing house FFG decided to release Sid Meier’s new Civilization in desktop format. This happened in 2010. I had very strong doubts about purchasing this tabletop, because... all my friends said that the base is cool, but has holes in places, so the plugs really need additions. And only by putting everything together will the game look truly cool. For 8 years I still haven’t decided to buy this game, and now it’s probably too late to do so, because... it's hard to get.

But in 2017, a new version of the game was released called Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn . Russian publishing house Hobby World published this game in Russian, and their game is called . This time I decided not to think about the question of whether I should get involved with this game, and at the first opportunity I grabbed it in my hands.

Today I’ll tell you whether Sid Meier’s new desktop Ziva is worth your attention.

Filling the box

I'm always interested in digging through a FFG box. They love to release big boxes and delight geeks with a sea of ​​tokens, tablets, cards and mines. True, in recent years this publishing house has become a little greedy, so their boxes have become lighter than they used to be. It seems to me, A new dawn - this is exactly the modern version from FFG.

Inside the box you will find the usual FFG discs and counters, leaderboards, fragments of the playing field, 4 packs of action cards for each player, cards of diplomacy, cities, wonders of the world, miniatures of cities, capitals and caravans, as well as a whole bunch of different small tokens and 2 D6 dice.

I don't know exactly where the game was printed, but judging by the colorful circles on the ziploc bags, everything was printed in China, where all the original FFG games come from. The quality of the components is very good. Linen cards. There is nothing to complain about - I give it 5+.

How can archers take down tanks?

And before I start telling you about what you need to do in this strategy game, I recommend that you turn off all your knowledge of the computer Civa, as well as the 2010 board game. New Civa is truly something new.

The game takes place on a terrain that the players collect together during the preparation of the game. Each player receives a leader board, with which he will have to complete 3 goals leading to victory. Once a player completes 3 out of 6 possible objectives, they immediately win the game.

The playing field is assembled from various small fragments. Each player will have 3 of these fragments. By laying out all the parts of the field in turn on the table, you will get one large piece of the one and only land, divided into hexes. One cell (hex) corresponds to one of six types of landscape - plains, hills, forests, deserts, mountains and water. A hex with an asterisk indicates the location for the capital of one of the players from which to begin conquering the world.

What else is there on the field? Respawn places for barbarians who randomly run around the map and destroy other people's cities and caravans, resource tokens, places for city-states and several natural wonders lost in the mountains.

The main game engine is unique (I have never seen it anywhere before). A series of actions consisting of only 5 cards is responsible for absolutely everything that happens in the game. The cards are laid out under the terrain line in a strict order, which can be found on the leader’s tablet. On your turn, you just need to take one of the cards in the row, do everything that is written on this card, move the selected card to the beginning of the row, moving cards with lower numbers to the right. This is one of the simplest and coolest mechanics I've ever seen in a board game! Just choose a card - follow its text - move it to the beginning of the row.

What nuances might there be? The further a card is in a row, the more effectively it can be played. For example, if you take a card from the fifth position (mountains), this means that you will control any terrain from plains to mountains (except water). And if you take a card from the first position (plain), then the effect of the card will be significantly weakened by its capabilities.

Let's take a closer look at the starting action cards, using an example of which I will explain the effectiveness of playing a card in a particular position in a row. Each action card is responsible for a specific type of action. Culture allows you to place control tokens on squares adjacent to the city, annexing new territory and capturing valuable resources (the higher the card number, the more complex hexes you can capture). The science increases the value of the player's technology counter; upon reaching certain levels, you can receive new action cards, which are laid out in place of the old ones (new technology cards are cooler than the old ones); the higher the card number, the more technology points the player receives. Economy allows you to move caravan minions to city-states and the cities of other players, while earning valuable trade tokens and receiving diplomacy cards (the higher the card number, the more difficult terrain the caravan can navigate). By using crafts build new cities or wonders of the world that provide valuable bonuses (the higher the card number, the more points the player can spend on a new wonder of the world). War either strengthens the player's control tokens, or allows them to attack barbarians, city-states, or other people's control tokens (the higher the card number, the greater the player's combat strength).

Now I'll tell you a little about the goals. There are a total of 5 goal cards in the game, but any 3 are selected for the game. Each card has 2 goals, one of which must be completed. Typically, objectives require owning two Wonders of the same category, controlling a number of tokens, destroying several city-states, placing control tokens in hard-to-reach places, etc. Each player decides for himself which goals are best for him to complete. By completing one goal from each card, the player wins.

What other gaming nuances are there? Resources and natural wonders allow the player to gain more points, which are needed to acquire wonders of the world. Built wonders of the world give players useful bonuses, but they can be won by occupying a cell with a built wonder of the world. Periodically you need to attack barbarians, because they walk uncontrollably around the map and can destroy your tokens, caravans and even cities. Trade tokens, which can be earned in the game, enhance the properties of action cards (you can get more movement points, more activated tokens, more combat power, etc.), but each action card can have a maximum of three of these tokens (after activation, the tokens are discarded ). The board pieces are double-sided, so players always have many options for assembling the playing field.

The rules are really very simple, so let's quickly move on to the impressions.

Is this the same Civilization? Yes, Civilization! But not the same one

Why did I ask you to forget about all those Civilizations of Sid Meier that you knew before? Because A new dawn is also a civilization game, but not quite Sid Meier (or not at all). From any games from FFG (and from Civa itself) you always expect epicness, full brain load and the widest possible development options. But this is precisely what those board gamers who saw disadvantages in the previous Civa most often complained about. They complained about the large number of nuances, the length of the game, and the need to purchase add-ons. All comments were taken into account - this is how it turned out A new dawn , it’s also a new civilization game that follows newfangled trends.

When I unpacked the game and saw that there was only one rule booklet in the box, I was very surprised, because... at FFG The norm is 2 rulebooks - one contains the rules, and the other contains explanations of the rules and new rules that were not written about in the first rulebook. And all you do is leaf through these two books back and forth, but you really want to start playing right away and without mistakes. I was delighted with the rules of the new Civa, because... their volume is not very large and they are perfectly digestible after one reading. Of course, it won’t hurt to read the rules again, because... something may escape attention, but the main thing is that the understanding of how to play this board game comes immediately.

The game consists of many different components, but don’t be fooled by it, because... After playing half of the first game you will immediately understand that the main thing is new dawn - this is the mechanics of playing action cards, and there are only 5 of them. Imagine that 5 buttons are responsible for all human activity. I pressed a button - I ate, I pressed another - I slept. The same thing happens in the new Tsiva. I chose a card and fought. I took another one and expanded my zone of control. What makes this process especially cool is the numbered card line. This thin and seemingly completely invisible strip of cardboard gives each action card a new value. There is a big difference where the card lies - at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of the row.

A simple example: you need to advance a caravan to a city of interest to you. If you go straight, it will cost 4 movement points. But you will have to go through the mountains, and the action card that allows you to move caravans, at most, allows you to go through the forests, which means you will have to go around, and this is already 7 movement points, instead of 4. Therefore, it is advisable to wait until the desired action card reaches the rightmost position .

But there is another important point - if the action card is in the mountains, this does not mean that you can only use mountains - any areas that are located to the left on the scale are available to you. Mountains are like a joker to whom everything is allowed.

Therefore, the player in the game is constantly faced with a difficult choice - to use the action now, but less effectively, or to wait and advance it further in order to perform the action with maximum benefit. But sometimes there is no point in waiting for the card to reach the maximum in the line if it is beneficial for you to use the action in the desert or even in the forest. When I played this game, some players sometimes forgot about this, playing actions only from the fifth position, although it might be more profitable to use the card that lies to the left.

It's great that action cards can be improved. This is, as it were, the same technology tree from the original Civa, only it does not work in a chain (i.e., slowly but surely), but can unexpectedly swing to the maximum. The maximum level of cards is fourth. By moving the arrow on the technology counter, you will first be able to exchange a pair of cards to the second level, then a pair to the third and a pair to the fourth. It does not matter what level the card was originally. Those. if you can take a fourth-level card, then you can easily exchange it for a first-level card. So it turns out that here you are walking around the map with a steel sword, and then suddenly you master combat aircraft. But this will still happen not at the beginning of the game, but towards the end, so you shouldn’t be upset right away that everything in the game is developing very quickly.

Almost any upgrade to one of the card types leads to you becoming stronger. After playing 4 games, I still haven’t chosen the optimal path for technology development. Except that towards the end of the game I use caravans less often, because I usually already have a lot of trade tokens. Each player decides for himself what he needs to develop faster. Each new map level retains the previous skills and adds new ones. You'll be able to capture more hexes, increase your combat strength, gain more trade tokens or resources, you'll be able to get Wonder Cards more easily, etc.

The field is assembled from fragments, so players will have the opportunity to collect a new card each time before the game. This, of course, is a big plus, because... Before the game, none of the players knows what they will encounter on the map. Maybe there will be a natural wonder near your capital, or maybe a haven of barbarians or a city-state. Maybe your capital will be in the center of the map, or maybe on its edge.

I would like to talk about barbarians separately. I really liked how they were implemented. In some areas of the field there are barbarian respawn points, where corresponding barbarian tokens appear. A special disk is responsible for the actions of the barbarians, which rotates one space at the beginning of any player’s turn. Based on the position of the arrow on the disk, barbarians can move, respawn at the respawn point, or stand. A special raid direction token and a die are responsible for movement. The player rolls the dice and looks at which direction the number on the raid token corresponds to. When moving, barbarians can destroy player control tokens, caravans, and even cities. Therefore, if barbarians often hang around you, then you need to make every effort to destroy them (until they appear on the map again after a few turns =)).

In one game we had a funny situation when one player was very unlucky, because... Barbarians constantly hung around him, destroying his control tokens and caravans. And when his city was eventually disarmed, the player was so offended by the barbarians that until the end of the game he looked for them on the map and mercilessly killed them or built up their respawn points with cities so that they could not be reborn =)

About goal cards. I like the idea of ​​players completing 3 objectives out of a possible 6. But it is still worth recognizing that most objectives ask players to control 2 wonders of specific types, and this is somewhat easier to do than anything else. In addition, the wonders of the world provide decent bonuses, for which it makes sense to compete. Those. building wonders is very profitable. Personally, I would like to see more objective cards in the game, and ones that interact less with wonders of the world.

I liked one cool moment in the wonders of the world. They can fight each other off. When you build a wonder of the world, you take the corresponding token and place it under one of your cities. If another player destroys your city and builds his own city on the ruins, then the wonder of the world is not destroyed, but comes under the control of the other player. Therefore, it is not at all necessary to think about how to find points for building a miracle, because you can simply take it from your neighbor =)

By the way, about conflict. Because All events take place on one playing field, which is scaled to the number of players, then you will always feel that there is not so little free space, but not so much either. Those. At the start of the game, you can exist quite peacefully with your neighbors. But towards the end of the game, sometimes you won't have room to turn around. You will want to go to the edge of the map or to the water, you will have a desire to fuck someone else's wonder of the world or something else. I can't say that war is the need for a new one Civilizations FFG. But this is an excellent effective method of development. Among my friends, it is not very common to act aggressively without any specific motive. Those. in order to attack another player, you need to have a good reason, and not just a harmful character =) Therefore, I myself try to delay the attack on another player until the last minute. For example, in the last game I was one wonder of the world short of victory. But it was from a neighbor whose fighting strength was much worse than mine. I understood that I could act aggressively and win within a move. Or I can spend 3 or 4 turns and build the required miracle myself. I decided to take the long way out. But you can actually fight right at the very beginning of the game. The main thing is that it makes sense.

In general, the new Civa strongly supports logic and thinking in the actions of players. Your task is not to conquer the whole world or build a rocket and fly into space on it, but to complete one of the goals on one goal map and move on to another. If it doesn't make sense for you to attack another player, then don't do it. While two players stupidly beat each other up, the third one always wins =) Therefore, the game can be safely called a conflict game, but sometimes you can do without war. During the game, by the way, some players enter into alliances with each other, sometimes temporary =) So here everything is like in that same computer game.

For variety, the game can offer different fragments of the playing field, different goal cards and different leader boards. What can I say about the leaders? There are only 8 of them in the game. Leaders differ in the starting layout of action cards and a unique property. Different starting card layouts are needed so that the players' actions differ from each other from the very start. A unique property allows the player to do something more efficiently. For example, give a bonus against barbarians, move caravans from any of your cities, give a bonus to the construction of wonders of the world, reduce the requirements for building cities and placing control tokens. To be honest, some leader traits seem more interesting to me than others, so before the game I would still draft them instead of giving them out randomly.

I was incredibly pleased with the length of the game. The batch ends in about 2 hours. At the same time, players do not have to wait long for their turn. Each player plays out his action in 1-3 minutes and passes the move to another player. There are practically no lags in the game, and the players most often keep up with each other. True, if someone lacks the fulfillment of one goal, and someone needs all three, then it will be extremely difficult for the laggard to catch up with the leader, so you need to carefully monitor the goals.

Well, now we can move on to the cons. You can start throwing slippers at me, but I will honestly say that I did not find any objective, powerful, very critical disadvantages in the game. All the games were played pleasantly and left a good aftertaste. But there are plenty of rough edges in Tsiva, so I’ll tell you about them.

Because The game's author's task was to cut down the content to make the game shorter and simpler, then some elements of a typical civilization game were cut out. For example, in New Dawn The conduct of the war is somehow vaguely outlined. No mink for you, not even troop tokens. You just have control tokens and cities that you sort of launch attacks from. All battles are fought in your head =) There is no concept of population, no complex economy. But if all this had happened, then we would have had a completely different game in front of us, which could not cope with the tasks assigned to it.

You've probably known for a long time that FFG likes to cut down the base in order to release a bunch of additions later. Is there something like that in the new Civa? Honestly, yes and no. No, because I don't feel like I got some kind of stump. The base plays very well. But still, I would add something to it - new leaders, definitely new fragments of the field, new wonders of the world and much more goal cards that are not tied to wonders. At the same time, if you add all this, the game will not play completely differently, it will simply become a little more diverse. But I would be interested to know what new the author plans to add to the game. So far it seems a little naked, but nevertheless playable and interesting. Anything added from above will make the game more difficult.

Some leaders are slightly stronger than others in properties.

There is a feeling of a certain dryness of the game. And maybe even a little abstraction. I think this might make the game more appealing to old schoolers. Sometimes it seems to me that A new dawn looks more like board games that came out in the 00s, but this is a feature, not a bug!

The design is controversial. The field is great. I also have no complaints about tokens and spinners. But the action cards are very poorly made. They are completely nondescript and wildly similar to each other. The wonders of the world are drawn terribly, but these are great wonders of the world after all!!! And how could they be screwed up like that? Miracle tokens too, as long as there’s a bow on the side. Something FFG slipped below its level in this game.

Conclusion

I don’t have a lot of experience with tabletop civilizations, but I know that almost all of them are overloaded with nuances and take a monstrous 4-5 hours to play. If you want to take a game that takes a long time to understand and gather players who are ready to spend the whole evening on a good board game, but overloaded with nuances, then you can pass by new dawn .

But this game really pleasantly surprised me. She delivers exactly what she promises. Nobody deceived me that I would get the same Civa from 2010, but which plays in only 2 hours. And no matter what anyone says - yes, A new dawn - this is exactly a civilization game! But it is simpler compared to its competitors.

Playing A new dawn gorgeous. The action card engine is simply incredible. I really want to see some other games based on it. Yes, maybe it would be cool if the row consisted not only of 5 cards, but a little more, so that there were not 4 levels of cards, but 5 or 6... But this is the geek in me speaking. In fact, for a good board game for 2 hours, everything that is in this game is enough.

But I don’t feel like playing this Civa often. I played it once, enjoyed it and put it aside for a week or two (or maybe a month). Why is that? Honestly, it's hard to explain. There doesn’t seem to be anything really bombastic in the game except for a number of cards. But I like that the game doesn't bog me down. One day I was walking home after work and thinking about what this Tsiva could be compared to. And suddenly I began to have associations with clothes. I realized that the new Civa for me means comfortable jeans. Simple but comfortable clothes that you will enjoy wearing in winter and summer, walking around the city, going to the store, etc. But of course Cinderella will not go to the ball in jeans. But you won’t wear a ballgown every day. I hope you understand my analogy.

You can sew different pockets onto our jeans, narrow them or widen them, add some bells and whistles to the front and back, which will make them look even cooler. This is what I expect from 2019 FFG and from Hobby World respectively. You could even say that this will be my most anticipated extra for next year.

All in all, Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn is an unexpectedly very good and concise game that has simple rules and fast gameplay. I definitely leave the game in the collection as the fastest and most relaxed civ that exists in nature.

If you have any questions about the game, I will be happy to answer you in the comments.

Equipment

I took it from my hands, and it turned out that some mines were apparently missing. I understand some of them, but I can’t understand the yellow ones. Yes, and maybe I’m shortchanging myself. Is there a description of the standard configuration somewhere, or can anyone tell me?

That's it, I found it on bgg. If anyone else needs it, here it is:
Components:

One 36 by 46 inch gameboard
78 technology and wonder cards:
15 ancient technologies
10 medieval technologies
10 gunpowder/industrial technologies
18 modern technologies
7 ancient wonders of the world
5 medieval wonders of the world
5 gunpowder/industrial wonders of the world
8 modern wonders of the world
2 blank cards
61 square city cards
64 square city improvement cards
3 square fertile cards
One technology flow chart
one reference card
Four dice (two red, two white)
Rule book
784 plastic pieces:
Armies
Infantry
Ancient 32 Swordmen
Medieval 32 Men-at Arms
Industrial 32 Musketmen
Modern 32 Machinegunners
Cavalry
Ancient 32 Horsemen
Medieval 24 Knights
Industrial 24 Dragoons
Modern 24 Tanks
Artillery
Ancient & Medieval 24 Catapults
Industrial 24 Cannons
Modern 24 Howitzers
Fleets
Ancient 16 Galleys
Medieval 16 Caravels
Industrial 16 Frigates
Modern 16 Battleships
Aircrafts
Modern 32 Fighters
Player Tokens (The following tokens in six colors):
8 Settlers
14 Flag Bearers
12 Villages
12 Towns
10 Cities
8 Metropolises
Coins:
18 1 dollar
12 5 dollars
15 10 dollars
10 20 dollars
10 50 dollars
7 100 dollars
90 explorer tokens:
3 fertile/productive
4 jungle/forest
4 mountains
4 desert
4 plague
4 free technology
6 treasure
6 minor civilization
5 of each of 8 resources
15 no encounter

The interesting thing is that in the Russian version there are only four (!!!) colors of nations and the rules indicate “2-4 players”. I don’t understand: either the Russian version is abridged, or I have an exclusive copy (ahaha). But those miniatures that are listed above are 32, I have 24 each, those that are listed here are 24, I have 18 each, which should be 16, I have 12. I took used ones, but there is a certain pattern. It is unlikely that the former owner completely lost all the pieces of the two nations, clearly lost an even number of miniatures, and reprinted the rules for me from “2-6” to “2-4” players (and the rules indicate “4 sprues of different colors”). Such is the magic)))

Are you joking now or are you serious? I just don’t know if this really happened (that the sprues ran out and the game was “cut down” deliberately). I took it from my hands. 2-4 players is written on the back of the box and in the rules (3rd paragraph in the “introduction”), and I quote: “This board game is designed for 2-4 players and can be played even in the kitchen.” There was no sticker. I can send you a photo if you don’t believe me. I’m curious what the...)))
Or maybe I have an exclusive super-duper-rare version? Well, do you know how numismatists collect defective coins that are worth an enormous amount of money?))) Ahaha

Oh, there were times when we played this game to death. Swearing, insults, knives in the back from “reliable allies.” People stopped smoking for the duration of the party; if you step away for a minute, everyone will immediately agree to cut up your empire. The whole essence of people stuck out in this game; the kind and honest could not see victory in it.

I bought the game a year and a half ago. Played three quarters of the time. At first we naively tried to play it in the evening, played four moves and finished. They have not come out of antiquity. I count this as a quarter. Then, wise by experience, they sat down for the whole day. We played for eight hours and reached the Middle Ages...
I still liked the game. As they say, against all odds. Random battles - we will survive. Random exploration of territories - we will survive. This is civilization! I have under my command four horse figures, two trebuchets and three infantrymen! And soon I will send a cowella overseas and will rob the cows for her. Overall, I find it very exciting.
But there is one thing that bothers me, although not as much as my girlfriend (which is why we don’t play it anymore, yes...). At some point, everyone gives up on technology research and begins an indiscriminate carnage. And then I remember the battles with cubes. That's all, guys. Move after move we rivet fifteen pikemen and kill them against each other. And most importantly, there is no way out in sight. If you buy technology instead of pikemen, you will be captured by fifteen enemy pikemen. And technology is oh so expensive! So it turns out that the game stops and enters a loop.
Someone explain to me what to do with this. If you had such a situation, how did you fix it? If it wasn’t, why do you think it wasn’t?
I honestly want to play it again, but from this experience there is only one person left, besides me, who agrees to this:/

The game has many obvious disadvantages. And the one you named is one of them. The loser loses. This is another disadvantage of this game. if you are behind, then only a miracle can help you, at least catch up with the rest. Counting money in cities, especially in the later stages, is simply killer.
I played with my game cell from 10 am to 10 pm and went through all 4 eras. But the players knew what they were getting into and had already played trial games.
In fact, if you are looking for a civilization game, then it is better to turn to the new version, the scale there is much more modest, but everything is done wisely. The games are very different from each other.
In 2002, when this civa came out, maybe nothing. Now it’s not a cake. Although, if everyone understands what they’re going to play, then it’s quite possible to sort it out for yourself. But not often)

America, China, Egypt, Germany, Rome and Russia - these are 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 others in culture, economics, 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?

He who does not go forward falls down

You are the ruler of a small but ambitious country. And thank the gods that kilometers of uncharted territories separate you from your enemies, since the current situation clearly needs to be 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 out cities and build wonders, collect taxes from merchants and negotiate with neighboring powers, amass armies and open universities, send scouts to new lands or go to war.

The future of your civilization depends on how correctly you set your goals and what steps you take to achieve them. Opponents naturally strive to predict your actions and put a spoke in your wheels as effectively as possible. However, you do the same thing - the clash of minds is where all the fun of a good strategy game lies.

Who will fall in love with Civilization at first sight?

• A fan of strategy. The game mechanics will immediately arouse intense interest, and possible difficulties will only irritate you even more. An argument in favor of 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. What, you don’t have Civilization at home yet? No comments.
• Owner of the previous version of the game. At the very least, you will really 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. It’s not just the pictures that have changed, the game mechanics have also undergone significant changes. Players who have already tried out the new Civilization are unanimous that it has become more similar to its prototype - a computer game. Look at the composition - a lot will become clear right away.

Interesting contents of this big box

• Turn marker- issued to the first player in the current round phase;
• 4 reference sheet for each player;
• 6 markers level of culture- one per civilization;
• 6 civilization sheets, which indicate the special capabilities of peoples;
• 12 trade and economics drives, which are attached to the sheets of civilization with special rods;
• 20 map areas: 6 home lands for each civilization and 14 no-man's lands, which make up the main game field;
• 12 markers cities for four players: each gets a capital and 2 simple cities;
• 33 plastic pieces: 25 figures Army(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: “harbour”, “fratoria”, “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 memos, 15 government cards, 144 technology cards, 47 cultural events cards, 12 wonder cards and 1 space flight card.

Welcome, O Great One! You are about 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 prosper. Get it wrong, and your civilization will be hidden under the dust of time.

Game Review

Game card

Military units

Settlers

Standard bearers

Research markers

Resources

Events

After the hot summer of 1991, the first computer version of the game in the Civilization series was released; Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley were at its origins. It belonged to the genre of turn-based strategy at a global level, combining the 4X model and elements of war. Historically, it was this brainchild that influenced the further development of games of this genre. During this time, the PC version has gone through six incarnations, the last of which appeared on screens in 2016.

Over the years, the game has been successfully ported to many platforms, including the desktop version in 2002. In any case, the distinguishing features of all these variations were the following:

• the player decides how to develop his civilization;
• the game has such layers as economics, politics, war, research (including technology trees);
• The map (playing field) consists of tiles.

The desktop version, according to experts, does not contain a complete 4X model, since there are elements of “studying” technologies (eXplore) and “destroying” the opponent (eXterminate), as opposed to “expanding” one’s possessions (eXpand) and “exploiting” resources ( eXploit), are presented in a truncated form: with “destruction” the capital remains intact, and “research” is reduced to technology, since the entire map is known at the initial stage of the game. Therefore, it turns out to be a solid 3X (1+1+0.5+0.5).

The mentioned technological tree is the internal core and stimulus for development within the game, within the framework of which transitions are made to more advanced branches, thereby expanding the capabilities of the player himself (for example, from the Stone Age to nanotechnology). To some extent, “moving” your civilization along such a tree is “exploring the non-physical world” by analogy with the discovery of new locations and territories on the game world map. Sometimes it seems that the Civilization series of games has always existed and, despite its sixth current incarnation, at the start it was a diamond even before Klaus Teuber even dreamed of it (the first game in the series appeared only in 1995). Nowadays, more and more “video” games are moving off screens and into board games, as being with people at the same table has once again become considered important and valuable.

This fate did not escape Civilization either, because what else could be the best candidate for its tabletop reincarnation?! Despite the fact that games related to the theme of the development of civilizations are most often quite complex and time-consuming (for example, the duration of a game in the modern “king of the hill” according to BGG - from Vladimir Khvatil is about four hours), the latest version is from FFG promises us something unprecedented: you will get an unforgettable experience from a meaningful, but very concise game, since the game time is about two hours.

Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn board game is a much more streamlined, player-friendly version of the 2002 classic, with the same core principles, but with a greatly simplified game system at its heart. It's a fun and fast game that perfectly captures the feeling of your empire expanding in a relatively short time.Once you have laid out the game board according to the rules described, you will populate it with capitals (city-states), place tokens on their corresponding icons on the board, among which will be resources, natural wonders and, the pesky barbarians (their lairs), of course.Each player receives a leader sheet (one of eight available) and, according to the instructions on it, lays out his five action cards (with an “I” symbol on the back) under his personal technology panel of his color.

It will be the heart of the whole game for you. In addition, everyone gets a starting set of tokens, nice plastic figures (cities and wagons), diplomacy cards and a technology disk. The climax of all preparation is the showdown, laying out three (or four) of the five available cards, on which the winning conditions are given (two on each of them, but the player is destined to fulfill only one from each). The player's turn is built around the technology panel, which is represented by a series of actions and five cards laid out below it. First, you perform an action on one of them, perform the action indicated on it, and then “recharge” it, moving it to the first slot of the row, and moving all the others to the right. The more to the right a position is occupied by an action, the more powerful it is. After this, the move is passed on to the next player. The key strategy of the game is to understand when to use actions on the first cells, and when to wait so that the card can have maximum effect.

It should be noted that each slot corresponds to the complexity of the terrain (meadows, hills, forests, deserts and mountains) and is numbered from 1 to 5, which is an indicator of the “strength” of the technological map under it:

• culture - helps to expand your influence on the surrounding territories, expanding the empire and capturing resources;
• science - allows you to advance the pointer on your disk and thereby upgrade technology cards (from level I to IV);
• economy - promotes caravans;
• production - allows you to build cities, erect Wonders;
• military operations are responsible for strengthening your positions and carrying out attacks.

The technology panel is a truly elegant system (its “analogue” can be found in the game), and essentially becomes a small personal puzzle within the larger game, in which you maneuver cards through slots in order to strengthen and elevate your empire. When all players have completed their actions, the event disk should be advanced, which is associated with the emergence (new) and advancement of barbarians, as well as the replenishment of “mature” cities (it is such when each adjacent hex contains a friendly control token or is water) with trade tokens.

The game continues in this way until one of its participants is the first to complete one goal from each victory condition card (if several players apply for this, the one who has more Wonders of the World, and according to the number of friendly sectors on the field, wins). I would like to immediately stipulate that having fulfilled one of the conditions on the card, he marks it with a control token, and even if he loses this later, the fact of the accomplished achievement will still be taken into account. Over the course of the game, your empire will expand, the level of technological development will grow, fend off the attacks of barbarians and conquer their territories, build cities, and send your caravans across the entire map to get resources and additional trade or diplomacy tokens.

It is very interesting to watch when several players with nuclear potential look at each other warily, realizing that the first one to show aggression will provoke a retaliatory strike and will be destroyed. Don’t be sad if your first games go smoothly, and you yourself will forget about it when you taste all the nuances and feel how everything interacts with everything, and the game itself will become a permanent guest on your table. The game scales perfectly: despite the fact that you will experience the maximum emotions from a full party (four of us), believe me, the duel will also be tense, especially if you do not avoid direct confrontation.

It's not difficult to understand how this creation works; it's much more difficult to play it well, using all the wealth of potential hidden under the lid of this box. Yes, of course, this tabletop version of Civilization lags behind its original, the omission of some elements of which is necessary, but in the end it turned out to be a well-calibrated compromise. The FFG company will most likely please us with the appearance of an addition (and maybe more than one), as it did with and, due to which, perhaps, at a minimum, the number of possible players will increase to 5-6, as well as the conditions for victory will be diversified.

The game quite clearly shows the balance between the player's choice in favor of aggression and the loss of sustainable peaceful diplomatic support. Splinter barbarians will keep interfering with your plans when you have already planned everything and are preparing to do something different. The tech tree could be a little better, but it's a long way from being considered bad. For some, Miracles will seem quite powerful, but this is a matter of taste, because everyone is aimed at a different game, which is why there are no ideal games at all.

Game contents:

• Rules of the game;
• 44 plastic figures;
• 8 leaders' tablets;
• 16 playing field fragments;
• 1 event disc;
• 4 technology counters;
• 4 action lines;
• 2 six-sided dice;
• 80 action cards;
• 16 city-state maps;
• 16 diplomacy cards;
• 24 maps of wonders of the world;
• 5 victory cards;
• 240 tokens.

You can buy the board game Sid Meier's Civilization: A New Dawn with delivery or pickup at the Banzgames store by placing an order through the website or by contacting us by phone.