Kids today.
Civilization was originally a boardgame by Hartland Trefoil out of England--yes, the same guys who originated the 18xx line of games.
Avalon Hill picked it up for the U.S.
Many of Sid Meier's features were originally present in the game.
The game was played in several phases per turn:
1. Taxation. 2 per city (up to 9 cities), unless you had Coinage, whereupon you could vary by 1-3 per city. If you didn't have enough tokens, your cities would revolt.
2. Population expansion. Areas on board had a pop limit of 1-5. Areas with 1 or 2 would double, others would add 2 up to amount of tokens available (usually 55, and this includes taxation)
3. Census. This was important as movement was done in population order. Highest first. Modified by Military, which let you move after those without it.
4. Shipbuilding. 2 treasury or 2 people per ship.
5. Movement. Move up to 1 area unless you had roadbuilding. Ships could carry up to 5, moved up to 4. Could not cross open sea unless you had Astronomy. Some areas have city sites, need 6 tokens there to build a city. Non-city sites needed 12.
6. Population support phase: You must have 2 population per city, otherwise they are reduced. This is also done after the conflict and calamity phases.
7. Conflict: If 2 or more nations are in an area AND population limit is exceeded, conflict ensues. The lesser force eliminates first. If equal, both move at the same time, so if two nations move into a pop 1 area, both die. This is modified by Metalworking, where upon the other guy always eliminates first.
8: Collect trade cards. For each city, you collected a trade card of a certain denomination. 3 cities, collect from 1, 2, and 3 decks. Trade cards were valued according to the deck number times number of that card squared. Thus 1 salt would be worth 3, 2 salt 12, 3 salt 27, 4 salt 48.
9: Trade. This resembles the old game Pit where you trade commodities back and forth. You have to truthfully state the number of cards and the value of the cards being traded. However, there are calamities that can be traded, such as epidemic, iconoclasm, and my personal fave--barbarian hordes.
10. Calamity resolution: Calamities are resolved in deck order. One nation cannot be the direct recipient of more than 2 calamities (indirect recipient is another matter)
11. Purchase tech: Cash in trade cards and treasury for technology. Many of our old AA friends are there, such as currency, mysticism, law, music, polytheism, etc.
11. AST progression: AST stands for Archaelogical Succession Table--There are 5 ages, and each age has a certain requirement. Early bronze age needs 2 cities. Late bronze age needs tech from 4 groups (art, craft, science, civic, religion). Others require a point total of technology.
The game can be played by up to 8 and a complete game will take around 6-8 hours. The map ranges from Southern England to the Arabian Peninsula. The 9 nations are Africa (Carthage), Iberia (Italy), Illyria, Thrace, Crete, Asia (Hittites), Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt.
