I've played a couple more games since then...
My second game, my Romans faced off against the Egyptians and Germans, as the fourth player couldn't make it. It was a tough thing, as both players are generally demonstrate excellent war-maker skills. I decided to go for an okay military, combined with culture gain...the Germans jumped to a strong early start, with their extra military cards. I traded a little with the Egyptians, giving me some flexibility with culture cards - which managed to bounce/kill Germany's unit flags that were coming to kill my capital, while I eeked out a Culture win. 4.5 hours.
The third game, we planned for an early start at noon, with things set up...4 players. Again, we only managed 3 with a 12:45pm start, but we cleared it in 3 hours. I played the Egyptians better than I did the first game, against the Russians and Chinese. The Russian player had one game under his belt, and the Chinese player had nearly crushed me militarily (before winning with gold?) in that initial game.
It seemed like a tough start - the Chinese player was wiping huts and villages as a fast & early culture beginning. The Russians were slow to start - he clearly wanted to steal technologies by crashing his guys into our cities, but it is a slow beginning. My start turned out to be a powerful engine - Egypt gets a free building (that they have the technology for) - no production points needed, while it takes up the city action for that city. It also starts with a free Wonder, which this time was the Hanging Gardens. A free unit flag (no production, no action needed) every turn. This is like 4-6 free production each turn, without spending a precious city action.
The China player dried up on his raids against the enemy huts...he didn't really refresh his military cards, as he was racing towards culture. Russia was having a slow start still, as I started flooding the world with unit flags. The other players started working together to dull my edge - my capital was producing culture and trade points, while my first non-capital-city had 12 production points a turn...the second non-capital city picked up some trade and had a little production. (The heavy production city also made the Himeji Castle, which is a free +1 for all of your units!)
I drew enough culture cards to dull the worst of the Chinese player's anti-military culture cards, while my military units marched on his capital for my military win.
Some things learned: If you split your military unit flags up, they can't move together into the same space the next turn. Stacking flags, quite good (you get to take more military cards into combat - even 4 to 3 is generally a win). Even if your opposing side has no units left at the end of combat, they can still win if they have enough Barrack buildings, or famous people with bonuses. Game rule: you can spend culture points during City Management, even if you don't choose culture generation for the city's action.
A pure culture win is probably next to impossible - maybe if there are 4-players, and the culture players band together enough to stop the military player.
Anyhow, it's a fair-to-good game. My friend Regan is heading off to Spokane for a spell, and he spotted me a copy of Civ as a leaving-gift...I'm sure I will see some more plays!
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Civilizations, galore!
I've been doing a fair amount of civilization building lately.
Through the Ages is getting regular play at the biweekly (once every two weeks version of the word) Thursday game night.
I've played a couple of games of Sid Meier's Civilization, which I'll be talking about in a bit. 7 Wonders is a nice, quick drafting game which I got as a gift this season - played someone else's copy already, which speeds up my tutorials once my copy gets opened. Finally, playing a bit of Civ 5 on the computer - outside my normal scope of game discussions...essentially as addictive as ever.
Sid Meier's Civilization is a game put out in 2010 by Fantasy Flight. They do a lot of licensed games. If it hasn't been clear in the past, there are some design differences that I wouldn't choose to do for fun. (I would do it as a job, sure.) They put a lot of bits and counters in their games, utilize a verbose rulebook, and generally have cards in the game that provide a lot of swing in the game.
The appealing part is the alleged 2 hours for a Civ game. So far there was a 6-hour game, and a 4-hour game...each time, the players thought that 'with time' they could get it down more. I really doubt that there will ever be a 2-hour game, unless someone just gets wrecked by an early rush.
I read the rulebook for the first game, and the 6-hours includes the tutorial. Some parts just weren't expressed in the rulebook, but we were lucky enough to have a person at the game store's game night who had played a bit already. (Thanks Justin!)
The cool part is the multiple paths to winning - science, military, wealth, and culture. If you're not working on military, a military player will crush you down. Everyone needs science to get the better units/buildings/gold. Wealth is a handy thing for anyone to have, but not crushing if you're behind on it. The culture track nets you crazy chance cards, as well as Great People - essentially cheap buildings.
There is a rock-paper-scissors approach to combat - basically first strike against some other type of unit...sadly, there isn't a reliable way to guarantee what units you bring into the combat. On a more difficult note, if there wasn't first strike or random units, the combat system would be just numbers against numbers. Overall, the combat is pretty crazy and random. Technology boosts are about the only reliable ally against random cards, but it will cost you.
Wealth is achieved by getting gold coins in a variety of ways - some on Great People, or parts of the map...usually by certain technology cards that give you access to gaining up to 4.
Culture is pretty straightforward - get culture chits and points of trade. Try to skimp on everything else once the engine is started. Every time you advance on the culture track, you gain either a 'chance' card or random great person - hopefully the great person nets you culture, and the chance cards misdirect attackers. If there's only one warmonger at the table, you might draw enough cards to stop them cold while you limp in from the marathon.
Science is probably the easiest one to do 'for sure'. 15 technology cards, which is 15 turns if you're getting enough tech for one each round. Each science nets you something good, with the higher-level ones being powerful in proper circumstances.
The game also includes wonders, exploring, huts and barbarian villages - it's a pretty fair representation of the computer game...I just wish it had the elegance of Through the Ages. Worth picking up if you like the Fantasy Flight game design ala Starcraft or BSG...otherwise a long investment of time to recapture the magic of playing Civ on the computer.
Through the Ages is getting regular play at the biweekly (once every two weeks version of the word) Thursday game night.
I've played a couple of games of Sid Meier's Civilization, which I'll be talking about in a bit. 7 Wonders is a nice, quick drafting game which I got as a gift this season - played someone else's copy already, which speeds up my tutorials once my copy gets opened. Finally, playing a bit of Civ 5 on the computer - outside my normal scope of game discussions...essentially as addictive as ever.
Sid Meier's Civilization is a game put out in 2010 by Fantasy Flight. They do a lot of licensed games. If it hasn't been clear in the past, there are some design differences that I wouldn't choose to do for fun. (I would do it as a job, sure.) They put a lot of bits and counters in their games, utilize a verbose rulebook, and generally have cards in the game that provide a lot of swing in the game.
The appealing part is the alleged 2 hours for a Civ game. So far there was a 6-hour game, and a 4-hour game...each time, the players thought that 'with time' they could get it down more. I really doubt that there will ever be a 2-hour game, unless someone just gets wrecked by an early rush.
I read the rulebook for the first game, and the 6-hours includes the tutorial. Some parts just weren't expressed in the rulebook, but we were lucky enough to have a person at the game store's game night who had played a bit already. (Thanks Justin!)
The cool part is the multiple paths to winning - science, military, wealth, and culture. If you're not working on military, a military player will crush you down. Everyone needs science to get the better units/buildings/gold. Wealth is a handy thing for anyone to have, but not crushing if you're behind on it. The culture track nets you crazy chance cards, as well as Great People - essentially cheap buildings.
There is a rock-paper-scissors approach to combat - basically first strike against some other type of unit...sadly, there isn't a reliable way to guarantee what units you bring into the combat. On a more difficult note, if there wasn't first strike or random units, the combat system would be just numbers against numbers. Overall, the combat is pretty crazy and random. Technology boosts are about the only reliable ally against random cards, but it will cost you.
Wealth is achieved by getting gold coins in a variety of ways - some on Great People, or parts of the map...usually by certain technology cards that give you access to gaining up to 4.
Culture is pretty straightforward - get culture chits and points of trade. Try to skimp on everything else once the engine is started. Every time you advance on the culture track, you gain either a 'chance' card or random great person - hopefully the great person nets you culture, and the chance cards misdirect attackers. If there's only one warmonger at the table, you might draw enough cards to stop them cold while you limp in from the marathon.
Science is probably the easiest one to do 'for sure'. 15 technology cards, which is 15 turns if you're getting enough tech for one each round. Each science nets you something good, with the higher-level ones being powerful in proper circumstances.
The game also includes wonders, exploring, huts and barbarian villages - it's a pretty fair representation of the computer game...I just wish it had the elegance of Through the Ages. Worth picking up if you like the Fantasy Flight game design ala Starcraft or BSG...otherwise a long investment of time to recapture the magic of playing Civ on the computer.
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