Civilzation: The Board Game

[Terrapin]

When I was a lad, all too many years ago, I recall playing a table top war/strategy game called "Civilization." It consisted of a map of the ancient Mediterranian, with several historic nations demarcated. Each nation had one or more locations where a city could be founded. I cannot recall if there was a mechanic for individual citizens working particular bits of land. Each city had a radius which produced certain resources which were used to create units. One of these resources was food (represented by bundles of grain) of which you had to collect a certain number in order to increase the population of your city. Trade was handled by cards which functioned more or less like Risk cards: Turn in a 'Set' to reap the reward (gold). I think there was a concept of learning new technologies, but again, I am not sure. My friends and I played it a couple of times, but like most war games, the paper work and dice rolling really bogged the game down, making each game a long and tedius slog...

Now, I know I am not dreaming about this because I recently found a baggie full of Citizen counters printed with a person on one side and a shaft of wheat on the other. Did anyone else ever see such a game? Does anyone know whether this game was a forerunner to computer Civ?

 

[ElephantU]

You are not dreaming...

The board game version of Civ came out in the early 80's, first in the UK then by Avalon Hill in the US. It was based on a map of the Med area, with cards and dice and charts. They still play an "Advanced" version of that at Origins each year.

Here's a link with more detail:

http://www.fact-index.com/c/ci/civilization_board_game.html

 

[BlackAdder60]

Dont know. The game you describe resembles Avalon Hills Civilization, but in that one you wouldnt harvest anything at all. Rather your population grew by them selves. In the beginning of every gameturn, any territory with one token would get another one from the "Stock", territories with 2 or more tokens would recieve 2 tokens from the "Stock". At the end of each gameturn, one would check the maximum number of tokens each teritory could support and remove surpluses back to the stock. In the mean time you could move your tokens (tribes) around on the board (map), 6 of them would be required to build a city.

By removing the 6 tokens from a territory to stock, you would "build" a city (replace the tokens with a City marker). Then when you had cities you could start aquire "trade cards" wich could be traded with the other players and used to buy "Civilization cards" (Civ advances).

But I know Avalon Hill didnt invent the concept. They bought the rights from some Britt, I believe.

Sids knockof came waaay later. (Though I love SIds Civ & AC games anyway)

 

[Terrapin]

Wow, good job, guys! Wish this BB had existed when I was in college, it would have made those research papers REEAALLL easy!

 

[cht13er]

I've been playing a Dutch game at my girlfriend's house that sounds like "Colinisten"...

"The Colonists".

It is surprisingly like CIV - build cities, roads, ships, improve...but no tech.

The focus of the game is on the die roll (depending on what it is you can get different stuff - gold, wood, wool, wheat etc) but it's a fun game nevertheless.

~ Chris

 

[Prof. Garfield]

I have it. It is called colonisation in english. The very basic macanics are like civ, but it has some important differences: Comodities. Instead of caravans, there are commodities ranging from muskets to food. These are transported in ships and wagon trains. Most comodities are for selling in europe, the natives or other european colonies (though all can be sold) or being improved from raw materials to finished products to be sold to europe. Muskets and horses are used to make soldiers, dragoons and scouts. Food functions as the food in civ, except that it can be moved around by ships or wagon trains to other colonies (cities). Tools are used to create pioneers (settlers) who can improve the land. Colonists can be moved in and out of colonies freely and any colonist can make a new colony. When colonists work the land, they chose a job and create comodities, depending on the type of land and its improvements. Colonists also can also work in cities, doing jobs there (mostly improving raw materials), though carpenters take lumber and convert it to buildings (that sometimes also require tools to finish). Colonists can be expert at certain tasks, and they usualy preform it twice as well if they are.
Wonders and advancements are represented by "founding fathers". They give improvements to your colonial empire. For example: Magellan increases the speed of ships and also shortens the time for ships to sail to europe from the west edge of the map, and George Washington improves the status of soldiers (to vetren, if they are free colonists, to free colonists if they are indentured servents and to ind. servants if they are petty criminals) that win combat, if they do not have a profession. "Liberty bells" do two things: they create sentiment for indipendance and they give founding fathers.
When more than fifty percent of the colonists suport indipendance the player can declare indipendance from their sovreighn. Then they will enter into a war with their mother contry, who will send armys against them. Libety bells then induce foreign intervention, which will give the colonies artilery and better units (though they can raise them themselvs) but especialy Men-of-War, something the colonies cannot get for themselvs. After foreign intervention, liberty bells give extra score.

There is much more to the game than this, inclueding taxes and parties (like the Boston Tea Party). Colonization is also a Sid Meir game, and the first one I had.

 

[Conrino]

Deffinitely must be different from the civilization we know and love if it's a board game. Even so, it sounds interesting.