Video Preview of Civilization Board Game

[Skwink]

Release Date: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_n...ield-keywords=Civilization+board+Game&x=0&y=0 Jan, 11, 2011

 

[remake20]

I still enjoy a nice board game.

 

[stormerne]

Shouldn't board games be obsolete by now?

Better a board game than being bored by a game

 

[anti_strunt]

Actually they've had quite a renaissance (especially here in Germany). Why should sitting around the table with friends, playing a good game, having fun, ever become obsolete?

"Ameritrash" games (hey, I didn't come up with name!) have been seeing something of a resurgence too in the last few years. The previous Sid's Civ was certainly more of an Ameritrash than a Eurogame... Lots of little plastic soldiers, boatload of rules, oodles of theme... This one seems to cut a balance between the two, and probably for the best.

 

[choxorn]

Hey, don't pretend that we're the only ones who make crappy games.

 

[anti_strunt]

Hey, don't pretend that we're the only ones who make crappy games.

Actually I think it's a term of affection...

 

[CommandoBob]

Hey, don't pretend that we're the only ones who make crappy games.

An example: Jerry Jone's Juvenile Athletic Club (aka Dallas Cowboys).

 

[CommandoBob]

Back on topic.

This game will be released in January? Yack! That means it won't be available this Christmas.

 

[anti_strunt]

Back on topic.

This game will be released in January? Yack! That means it won't be available this Christmas.

Say what? Aren't board games even more dependent on holiday sales than most entertainment products? "Say, Billy is always sitting in his room by the computer, we should get him something that all the family can enjoy together..." How many board games are bought outside the jolly season, anyway?

 

[MasterDinadan]

Say what? Aren't board games even more dependent on holiday sales than most entertainment products? "Say, Billy is always sitting in his room by the computer, we should get him something that all the family can enjoy together..." How many board games are bought outside the jolly season, anyway?

For traditional board games like Monopoly and Clue, this is probably the case.
For "hobby" games like this one, not so much. No parent is going to just come across Civilization: the Board Game, because you aren't going to find it in places like Wal-Mart or Target.

You basically have to find a specialty game shop, or certain comic book shops that also stock games, or order online.

Fantasy Flight Games is well known in the niche board game market though. There are many people already eagerly awaiting this product.

Also, board game releases are a complicated thing. They are printed overseas, and due to the nature of the product and the fact that it has to go through customs, the shipment can vary wildly. In the board game industry, release "dates" are really just best estimates.

 

[MasterDinadan]

Did they bring back unit stacking and tech trading? I didn't like that about Civ V.

"Units" in the board game are kind of abstract. You basically have a "deck" of units, and you draw from the deck to form a hand when a battle start, and play them from your hand to resolve combat. The number of cards you get in your hand depends on a number of factors, including how many "armies" are in the battle, whether you are defending a city, whether you have any tech-related bonuses to combat, etc.

So you have army figures that move around the board, and then you play card from your hand which represent the units present in that army.

It's a pretty elegant solution, considering that managing dozens of different unit types would be unwieldy for a board game. This system manages to maintain the "rock-paper-scissors" aspect of certain units (infantry beats cavalry beats ranged beats infantry) without the positioning being so fiddly.


As for tech trading, it's not possible in the board game. This is intentional, and the difficulty of a tech victory is reflected in that. If trading were allowed, tech victories would be too common compared to other types.

 

[TheDS]

I personally didn't find the Eagles Games version very fun--the rules weren't very elegant and the game took too long for what it was. It also lacked tension and fell into Monopoly-syndrome near the end, where you KNOW who the winner is but you're just waiting for the time to tick by. I only played it twice, and I never want to play it again. Unless I am paid much in cash to play it, lol.

Blaming the tool doesn't get the house built. If all TWO of your games devolved into one obvious player winning, then you obviously played wrong. You should have been ganging up on the winner.

OUR games were often races to get to one of the three ending techs, to try to deny them to the guy who would obviously win with them, and we rarely had battles because of the highly random nature of the battles. WE were all buildiers. Groups with all fighters tend to devolve into endless battles looking for some tiny advantage to win with. Tense, but annoying to be unable to buy anything but units.

You need to have someone who's willing and able to create a coallition against the winner! I saw this happen a lot in Age of Imperialism, but for that I had access to a couple dozen people for the online version, for Civ I only had access to 3 people.

 

[Morningcalm]

By all accounts, the board game is amazing. One thing does concern me though--one poster on boardgamegeek.com said that there wasn't much leeway in victory strat. You want to devote yourself to one condition and go for it.

Interestingly, Romans are a nice mix of cultural and military in the board game (where in the comp game they are just mediocre Ironmongers).