A short review of Sid Meier's Civilization Board Game. Board game Sid Meier's civilization

Sid Meier's Civilization is the first game that catches your eye in our store thanks to its very large box. The dimensions of the packaging are quite consistent with the contents: 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 second-generation students take a new interest in the study of history and provides great entertainment for friends who want to have a great time.

Is this a game based on the cult computer game?

Yes, and this particular 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 is reminiscent of all global strategies related to the class: “evolve, explore, capture,” but this is not entirely true. The fact is that “Civilization” was precisely the ancestor of all such games - and any comparisons would simply be inappropriate.

The game is played on a world map, where fierce wars will be fought for every piece of land - just like in the history we know. Diplomacy, science and the art of war intertwine to give birth to a masterpiece called Civilization.

The flow of the game is approximately as follows: at the beginning of the game, each player receives two territories, two legionnaires and two settlers. Players take turns moving their pieces. If there are combat units of players in a state of war on the same territory, dice are used to determine who will win.

During the trade phase, you can sell and buy anything, right down to the city.

Victory is achieved through the totality of all the achievements of your civilization - for each successful action in the game you receive 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 - but on the other, resources are distributed differently in each new game. Often the most promising regions from the previous batch turn out to be practically useless to anyone 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 either a nice bonus or destroy all the troops in the region.

Different types of terrain have a significant impact on the possibilities for the development of settlements - and the battle for fertile areas will initially become one of the priorities of the young people.

How difficult is it to play Civilization?

The game has two versions of the rules: simple, suitable for learning and playing with inexperienced players, and complex, characterized by much more detail and interestingness (but requiring significant experience and not forgiving of mistakes). Thus, you actually get two games: an “easy” one for groups and a “hardcore” one for playing with experienced opponents.

How does time affect the game?

Over time, both the appearance of settlements and science and troops change. You have to lead your empire from antiquity to our century, protecting the interests of your people in every possible way.

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 (fleet, 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 capabilities of settlements);
Play money sheet;
3 fertility cards;
Science tree diagram;
Player's Memo;
Two sets of two multi-colored cubes;
A set of rules.

Considering the number of different small items, the game creators assumed that some of them might get lost - and therefore, as additional protection, they included “proxies” and replacements for worn out or lost items.

How good is this game?

This is Sid Meier's Civilization, a game that has set an example in this area 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 “Best Historical Game of the Year”.

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 entire 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 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 for the new era. 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.

Imagine that vast and rich lands are spread out in front of you, ready for development. Imagine yourself as the leader of an entire people... Imagine that the greatness of an entire civilization depends only on your decisions. Lead your people forward sanely and courageously, and your name will remain for centuries...

What is the game about?

In the board game Sid Meier's Civilization, 2 to 4 players take on the roles of great leaders of historically real civilizations, each with their own unique abilities. Players can explore the game's modular map, build cities and buildings, fight, research increasingly advanced technology, and attract great minds with their level of culture. It doesn’t matter what style of play you prefer, the main thing is to lead your people to prosperity!

Who is Sid?

Designed by Kevin Wilson, the Sid Meier's Civilization board game is inspired by and based on the legendary video game series created by Sid Meier. In them, players take on the difficult burden of managing an entire civilization over the centuries, developing its technology, economy, culture and military power. So there are four different paths to victory in the game, and each one is very different from the other.

Game Features

Fans of Sid Meier's original video game series will find a lot of familiarity, as the tabletop version remains true to the basic principles, although it presents a completely unique gaming experience - you can watch how a small nation builds an indestructible empire. Players at the beginning of the game, with only one city, one army unit and one scout must go through the centuries and become the greatest civilization in the world. Build your empire and stand the test of time using innovative game mechanics with multiple paths to victory!

Will you lead the world's greatest army to crush your enemies? Or perhaps you will be the first to go to the stars, and your civilization will become the most technologically advanced of all in the history of mankind? In this game the choice is yours!

Inaccuracy in the Russian edition of “Civilization”

We thank Yuri Tapilin for the information provided.

Information for those who play the localized version of "Sid Meier's Civilization" in Russian. An inaccuracy has been discovered in the Roman card (see illustration). The nation attribute should read: "+1 space on the culture track for each wonder built, city founded, city or village captured."

The text erroneously states that the Romans receive a bonus when capturing huts, and not other people's cities. The omission is not critical, but it is advisable to keep it in mind, otherwise the Romans may rush very quickly towards cultural victory. There are enough huts at the beginning of the game, but it’s still a matter of getting to the enemy’s city.

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.

A huge, wide world awaits the start of your blossoming empire. Will you give the world many wonderful wonders, will you build huge cities, will you create a cultural society and, as a result, will you be able to lead your civilization to victory?

Many paths to victory

In the board game Civilization, using different strategies, there are many ways to win. You may want to focus your civilization on culture, decorating the world with beautiful works of art, extravagant theaters, and musical masterpieces. Or do you have powerful armies under your personal command, thereby creating an advantage on the battlefield, and your key to victory is conquering all opponents? Another way to win is to become the richest empire by accumulating gold and jewels throughout the game. Or will you prefer to take first place in the development of technology and be the first to achieve space flight?

Manage your empire from start to finish

One of the most charming elements of the Civilization computer games is the ability to manage an empire from its dawn to the modern era, expanding your meager country step by step. This element is also a striking feature in the board game. All players start the game in equal conditions, with one city, army and scout. You will have to build your civilization from the ground up, collecting resources, conquering villages, expanding your army and improving buildings that will give you the chance to advance further from era to era.

Choose your leader

As players begin to play and choose their leaders, they will undoubtedly recognize some personalities. The board game offers 6 different civilizations, each with their own leader and special features. Will you play as Cleopatra and take advantage of the Egyptians' fast building ability? Or would you take on the role of Abraham Lincoln and lead the Americans to victory with their increased productive capabilities? Within each civilization there are many different strategies and ways to win the game. Playing again and again you will try to try out new tactics to achieve your goal!

If you have enough time to study the rules of a board game (and they are quite large) and you are a fan of the computer series Civilization, as well as a fan of games where you need to think and strategy is important, then don’t even think about it - buy it. Civilization allows you to play with different characters, this adds a special flavor and interest to the game. Also, the ability to move your empire from era to era adds a spirit of competition between players. One game of the game takes quite a long time, so for players who need to play “quickly”, it will not be suitable.

Rules of the board game "Sid Meier's Civilization"

Introduction

The game we will be reviewing today is not the first attempt to turn the classic computer strategy Civilization into a board game. The first version appeared in 2002 and was characterized by extremely high complexity and long games. In 2006, a card game based on Civilization, which never found popularity, was printed in a limited edition. And in 2003, Mare Nostrum was released, which, in the wake of the success of the third part of the computer strategy, received the name Civilization in Russian translation. It is quite common to believe that Sid Meier created his classic civilization under the influence of the board game of the same name, released in 1980, but this is not so. The design of the 2010 tabletop Civilization is made in the style of part 5 of the computer strategy. But the gameplay is more reminiscent of the classic version with rectangular cells on the map instead of hexagonal ones and the ability to place several units on one cell. The playing field, instead of the usual folding one in the previous version, has become segmented, which allows you to receive a new card in each game game, and a huge number of figures from the previous version of the board game have been replaced with rather symbolic flags, indicating any military units and scout figures, which combine the functions of settlers and workers from the computer version of the game. The rules of the board game Sid Meier's Civilization are quite voluminous and it would take a lot of text to fully consider them, so we will take a brief excursion into them.

Beginning of the game

At the beginning of the game, each player chooses a color and a leader of one of the six civilizations that he will represent in the game. He receives a civilization board and home plot map, figures and markers of his color, a deck of technology and government cards. Then a game map is formed, depending on the number of players, consisting of their home areas and a certain number of random areas of the map. A market tablet is also equipped, on which cards and markers of military units, technologies, buildings, cultural events, etc. are placed. Once the general preparation for the game is completed, each player places his capital on one of the four central squares of his home plot . One of these squares has an arrow printed on it, indicating the location of the city for the beginning player. After placing a city, the player places one military unit and one scout in any square bordering the capital, except water ones. Once these and other preparations are completed, you can start playing.

Phases in a board game

A game in Civilization consists of a sequence of rounds, each of which in turn consists of five unique phases.

In phase start The first player marker is transferred, as well as new forms of government are selected and new cities are founded.

In phase trade players count and receive trade points brought by their territories, and can also negotiate and exchange with each other.

In phase cities the player is free to buy a new chip, create a military detachment or erect a building in the city, spending a certain number of production points on this. Instead, the player can dedicate their city to art or collect a rare resource from its borders.

In phase campaign Players move their pieces around the field, which can lead to discovering new territories, invading barbarian huts or villages, or even fighting other players. Battles in tabletop civilization involve step-by-step playing of a certain number of combat cards, representing troops of three types: infantry, cavalry and artillery. Each army has its own strength and right of first strike according to the rock-paper-scissors principle. In the later stages of the game, aviation also enters the battle, which is knocked out of this chain.

During the research phase, all civilizations research the same technology if they have enough trade points for it. Technological development is the most important aspect of both computer and desktop Civilization. Without developing technology, your civilization risks falling too far behind more advanced ones, which will almost certainly lead to defeat. With the help of technology, you can improve military units, open access to new buildings and forms of government, strengthen the economy, and even increase the maximum number of cities.

About technologies

In the 2010 board game Civilization, technologies are divided into five stages and they are built hierarchically. To build a technology of a new level, it is necessary to have two technologies of the previous level as a foundation, on which it relies. Thus, to build a technology of the fifth stage, it is necessary to have 2 technologies of the fourth, 3 of the third, 4 of the second and 5 technologies of the first stage.

Options for winning the board game Civilization

According to the tradition of the computer version, victory in the tabletop Civilization can be achieved not in one way, but in four ways at once. Cultural The civilization that reaches the end of the culture track will achieve victory. Technological victory occurs as soon as one of the players researches level 5 technology. Economic Victory will be achieved by the player who has accumulated 15 coin icons on the economy disk. You can also win military by capturing the capital of any hostile civilization.

Bottom line

The board game Civilization, of course, does not convey all the depth and variability of its computer parent, but nevertheless it is an excellent, complex and deep board strategy that will certainly not leave indifferent fans of the classic computer version. Of course, the rule book is thick, and a game game lasts for more than one hour, but at the same time, Civilization is one of the best representatives of the complex strategic genre in the world of board games, and if you have always dreamed of rewriting history in your own way, be sure to pay attention to this game.