Civilization at the Intl. History Olympiad

Hi Everyone,
My name is David Madden, and I'm the founder and director of the National History Bee and Bowl, and from next month, the International History Olympiad. This is an international history competition bringing together over 100 students from around the world. We'll be launching the Olympiad at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA on July 9-15 - further details are at www.historyolympiad.com for anyone who's curious.
The reason I'm posting is that I'm eager to include Civilization as one of the events in the competition, but I need some guidance on how best to go about this. Personally, I played thousands of hours of the original Civ and Civ 2 back in the 1990's when I was in high school and then pretty much went cold turkey when I was in college, since I probably would have flunked out if I didn't.
I haven't played any version of Civ since Civ 2, which I probably could go back and beat again at deity without much of a refresher if I wanted. However, I'm basically completely unfamiliar with the versions since then.
In terms of running a competition, here's the basic set up I have in mind:
1. Competing participants will play a scenario for a distinct amount of time (probably 2 or 3 hours). I think any other set up is going to be too impractical.
2. Scoring will be done through something comparable to the OBJECTIVE system used in the Civ 2 scenarios I remember playing. The more objectives they reach, however we define them, the better their score with the winners having obtained the most objectives within the timeframe. This could be done through something like combined population of one's cities, for example - we can think outside the bounds of normal scoring.
3. We're going to have a limited number of computers on which to run this; players thus will play at different times during the week. Because of this, I think the entire map should be visible from the start, since otherwise (due to word inevitably getting out), those who play earlier in the week will be at a disadvantage.
4. We could also play a game from the start on a revealed map, I suppose, where it's not a scenario, per se, but everyone plays from the same starting point against the same AI opponents, etc.

That's the basic premise. Here are the big questions I have:
1. First, which version of the game is going to be best suited to this approach? I'm leaning to either Civ 5 (which is probably going to have the greatest familiarity among the players) or Civ 2 (which has the advantage that I personally know how the game works). I need to make a decision on this soon, and could use some guidance. For that matter, does Civ 2 even still work on modern laptops? Can we just download Civ 2, or is it only on CD?

2. How do I avoid students using cheat codes? This is a big one. For that matter, is there a way for them to not only not cheat, but somehow disable their ability to save the game before they launch an attack / do something risky so that they can't go back and reload if they fail? If not, that's probably not a huge deal, since it would just basically be like not being able to play ineligible words in online scrabble, as opposed to the usual "challenging" of bad words in tournament play. But if there's a way to disable this, that would be ideal.

3. Is it going to matter what sort of computer this is loaded on? In other words, if being able to play quickly is the essence of this, are players on worse computers going to be at a disadvantage, or doesn't that really matter? Is there a way to prevent not only cheating, but also issues of laptops freezing / crashing?

4. Are there any examples of Civ tournaments, especially tournaments running along these lines? Anything even remotely comparable could be instructive.

5. Is anyone interested in not only providing advice, but perhaps constructing a scenario or world on which this can run? The idea here I think would be to certainly tell players in advance which version of Civ we'll be using and roughly the way it will work (i.e. what I described above), but not the actual scenario they'll play until they arrive at the Olympiad, so they can't practice excessively on the specific conditions for it in advance. I'd be happy to pay someone to do this, along with walking me through the process.
6. Or, if someone (or potentially even 2 people) are interested, I might even be willing to fly them in and pay them to help run this tournament at the Olympiad. I know this sounds pretty good, but serious inquiries only, please (and only from those who would also know how to design the scenarios / world we would play this on). The Olympiad will be an annual event, held each summer in a different part of the world each year so if things work out, this could lead to a recurring position and a chance to run Civ tournaments in some really cool places (future Olympiads are being planned for Hawaii, Japan, Australia, and England).

Okay, I think that's the essence of what I'm going for. Obviously, there are a lot of specifics to be worked out on a relatively tight timeframe, but I think we can make this one of the highlights of the Olympiad, so please post below if you can help me out. Thanks!

This is an interesting premise - good luck with it!

I think modern Civ games are fairly well-suited for this sort of project by virtue of the larger numbers of civilizations and other features - the associated Civilopedias are now pretty thick (although there are certainly errors within it).

One feature that may be helpful is that the newer games come with a number of premade scenarios that may fill some of your requirements (though many are heavily combat-focused); there's something resembling your objectives in the Wonders of the Ancient World scenario, however this is likely to be a poor choice on historical grounds - most other scenarios are based on specific periods and events.

1. I don't think Civ 2 is currently available; all subsequent versions are downloadable.

Civ V is the source of the above examples; Civ IV also has scenarios, though I think these are mostly less-structured and play essentially like a standard game with a set map and civ selection (though I say this not having played them). Both have a diversity of factions; 43 in Civ V, and around 30 in Civ IV. One twist with Civ IV is that most factions have alternative leaders (and a couple have three), so there's associated biographical information about multiple characters.

2. Not sure about this one.

3. Civ V can be pretty demanding in terms of computer requirements - Civ III and IV play a lot faster.

4. Again, not sure - there are periodical challenges advertised on the CivFanatics home page, but I'm not clear what their rules are or how they're adjudicated.

5. Again I'd check the premade scenarios first. For Civ V, the Scramble for Africa scenario was very well-received and has different objectives depending on whether you're a colonial or native power. Conquest of Paradise has a pre-made objective system (the number of treasures you can return to Europe from the New World). The other sandbox historical scenario (as opposed to war scenarios, the best of which to my mind is 1066: Year of Viking Destiny) is Into the Renaissance.

6. England's a cool place?

IIRC, playing with cheats on in Civ 2 will be identified in the game once someone turns them on, and you could easily let the players know that.. As for Civ V, I know you have to modify one of the XML files, so you can just do a quick checksum on that file. As for saves and reloads, my feeling that the only way to guard against that is by by actively monitoring the players while they're playing.

I think it'd be interesting to see college students play Civ 2, seeing as a lot of them would have been toddlers when it came out. Good memories with that game. A bit off topic, but I used to be stationed in Newport News, and I really enjoyed going to York River State Park. Do you ever go fishing or hiking around there?

Hey David! This is Kevin Schultz from Firaxis Games. I love this idea and want to help! I've sent you a private message.

Answering your questions in order

1. Civ2 is not publicly available; however, there is an open-source project called FreeCiv that is basically like a slightly more advanced version of Civ2. It is available for free on all operating systems and can even be played in a browser. As to which Civ is the best for this goal, I would say Civ5 and Civ4 are equally matched: Civ5 is a better game for people who have never played a civ game before, but Civ4 gets a lot more strategic depth out of a lot fewer systems. Civ5's AI is also much worse at playing Civ5 than Civ4's AI is at playing Civ4, so expect to see a lot of students winning by taking advantage of the Civ5 AI's deficiencies, like the fact that they cannot move and attack with a ranged unit in the same turn. Your choices really open up if you also consider spin-offs and mods, like Civilization: Colonization or one of the many singleplayer scenarios available in Civ5.
2. Cheat codes are no longer really a thing in Civ games as far as I'm aware: in new Civ games (Civ4 and Civ5), you either need to enable a mod or use a WorldBuilder to "cheat", both of which can be prevented and/or checked for easily.
3. The only way to prevent crashing/freezing is to play a version of the game that is stable. Both Civ5 and Civ4 tend to be quite stable in singleplayer. Faster computers are only an advantage in multiplayer games of Civ, where players tend to play with the "simultaneous turns" option, which means that players who are able to scroll the map faster and click through the interface without lagging have an advantage.
4. Though there are lots of tournaments for Civ, I cannot really think of any that would be similar to this one. Singleplayer tournaments tend to focus on who can win the fastest using a certain victory method, a certain map and starting point, a certain set of opponents, and/or a certain difficulty level (eg. CivFanatics' own DCL and Game of the Month series are good examples). Multiplayer tournaments have proven to be quite popular, but they play out a lot differently than what I would imagine you would expect from a singleplayer game of civ.
5. For this, I'd recommend asking around in the Creation and Customization subforum of whatever civ game you end up choosing, specifically the Requests thread in the Custom Maps section.

Civ4 is faster, cheaper, more polished and a finished product of very high quality. No brainer there.

Also, for a very rich learning experience, have the students play a massive multiplayer game (there again, civ 4 wins by a mile).

Share the results of the experience later, very interesting initiative...

We're going with Civ IV for this. Thanks to everyone for their input so far!

Sounds very interesting. If you want to prevent saving and reloading as a way to cheat, then you can use BUFFY to control for this. It's a mod of sorts that is used for competitive play on this site. The staff may need to help you check the saves in that case, so you can try to contact some of the Hall of Fame staff to see if they're interested.

When setting up the game, remember to tick for "Lock Modified Assets". This means the players can't use World Builder, and probably other things, like manually editing XML files.

Play RFCDoC.

Well, I checked out the tournament and it seems legit. I'm impressed. So the question here is- what are you hoping from this tournament? Because History Olympiad implies a heavy focus on history, and Civ4 while it is a historical simulator seems to be an odd fit. I assume this is a way to bring some fun into the tournament while not shedding the history focus. In that case I believe that Rise of mankind mod A New Dawn would be the best one- it is fun and conducive to both long and short games depending on need. Although, if there are specific periods of history you'd like more focus on, there are scenarios for that, and if you really want a cut and dry historical stimulation of a game, I'd say RFC DoC.

Thanks to everyone for their help with the Civilization IV tournament at the International History Olympiad! Here's the writeup from the tournament:

Civilization IV Tournament Held at Inaugural International History Olympiad

For decades, subjects such as physics, philosophy, and geography have featured international Olympiads for the best students in the world. History, however, had to wait until July 2015 when 111 students from 16 countries met at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA for the inaugural International History Olympiad. Along with exams, quiz tournaments, sightseeing, and other events, one of the highlights of the week was an official Civilization IV tournament!
Olympiad founder and Executive Director, David Madden, grew up playing Civilization and Civ2, while staff members Brad Fischer and Ted Wysor had spent hundreds of hours playing the more recent versions. We decided to use Civilization IV as the version for the tournament as it ran optimally on the laptops we had purchased, and students were able to learn how to play in a short amount of time. The students who competed were split into three different age divisions: middle school, junior varsity and varsity.
By all standards, the tournament was a complete success. From the initial gasp of the audience when we announced that copies of Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword (autographed by Sid Meier!) would be awarded as prizes to the smiling faces of the champions on the medals podiums, the tournament was a highly anticipated and extremely enjoyable event.
Each of the three age divisions played a separate Civ4 game, with each using a real-world single player custom-designed game. The Varsity division students played as the Khmer Empire, which was quickly cornered in Southeast Asia by a combination of powerful Indian, Chinese, and Mongolian AI opponents. The Junior Varsity division students, who played as India, and the Middle School division students, playing as Greece, enjoyed more relaxing starting locations. All three divisions fought the AI as well as the clock in a race to create the largest and most successful empire within the time limit.
As each student had their own single-player game and identical starting conditions and opponents, the competition was fair and fierce. Nevertheless, beginners to the game helped each other figure out the controls, and experienced players answered strategy questions for everyone from all across the room. Score updates were frequent, and when a player was conquered by the AI, he or she scurried over to a friend's laptop to watch their game progress. The cry "Asoka just nuked Pericles!" quickly became the inside joke of the week.
The top three winners in each division received medals (US students played for their state; foreign students played for their country) and the winners were as follows:
Varsity:
Gold – Kevin Huang, Canada
Silver – Hunter Wotruba, Ohio
Bronze – Josiah Trinidad, Northern Mariana Islands

Junior Varsity:
Gold – Alex Boltz, Hong Kong
Silver – Kevin Chen, Tennessee
Bronze – Gareth Thorlakson, Canada

Middle School:
Gold – Chansol Park, Hong Kong
Silver – Gabriel Worthington, Virginia
Bronze – Joshua Replogle, California

All of us at the International History Olympiad would like to thank Firaxis, for its support of our competition and providing us with the opportunity to share this amazing game with the next generation of history buffs!
-Brad Fischer, Ted Wysor, and David Madden, Williamsburg, VA, July 2015