Steve Mariner's Advanced Civilization Training Example Page

Steven K. Mariner

Last Updated: 18-Sep-2008

Advanced Civilization Training Sample

A friend asked me to explain the game. Here was my reply:

Basically, you guide a civilization from the Stone Age to the Iron Age using a series of simple to learn rules that interplay in a complicated manner. In the early stages of the game, the focus is on expansion, establishing borders, building population. This is the fastest part of the game, and makes it possible to teach the game whilst playing it (see below). The mid-game focuses on getting cities built and establishing trade, wherein the game is won and lost. Trade is how you acquire the wealth necessary to earn technological advancements for your civilization, they being the key to victory both in terms of points and also in terms of surviving calamities. The end-game, which fundamentally accounts for half the time in the game, is spent tuning your civilization to withstand the ever- increasing assault of calamities such as famine, epidemic, natural disasters, civil unrest and piracy. The phases of the game are: 1. Collect taxation (Revolts) 2. Population Expansion 3. Census 4. Construct Ships (Remove surplus ships) 5. Movement 6. Conflict 7. Build cities 8. Remove Surplus Population (Reduce unsupported cities) 9. Acquire Trade Cards (Buy gold) 10. Trade 11. Resolve Calamities (Reduce unsupported cities) 12. Acquire Civilization Cards (Return excess trade cards) 13. Alter A.S.T. The A.S.T. is the Archeological Succession Table, tracking each civilization's movement through the various ages. Progress across the track is partially controlled by an ever-increasing set of requirements, including a minimum number of cities and a minimum complement of Civilization Cards. The first several moves along the A.S.T. merely require that you exist on the board. You start the game with one population token, and you have 55 tokens which on one side represent popluation and on the other represent treasury -- indicative of the first of many balancing acts you will need to master in this game. Certain player-count configurations will actually limit you to 47 tokens, but at the seven- and eight-player levels it's 55. So you've got one token on the board, none in treasury, and 54 in "Stock" (unused pieces). You also have nine Cities in Stock; when you're required to count your Stock, cities are worth 5, population tokens are worth 1. Hence, you've got 99 in Stock at the start of the game (9x5 + 54x1 = 45+54 = 99). So the game sequence goes something like this: Turn 1: Collect taxes: You have no cities, you collect no taxes. Population expansion: Your one token doubles to two tokens. Census: Your population of 2 is recorded on the Census table. Construct Ships: You don't, as it would kill your civilization. Movement: Each token can move one space on the board. Conflict: Nobody should be having any yet. Build Cities: You don't have enough people to build cities yet. Remove Surplus Popluation: If you left both of your popluation tokens in a space with a "1" in it, you get the Infinitely Stupid Award and kill one of them. The numbers on the board represent that space's ability to support population; desert type spaces get a 1, lush fields and valleys show 4s and 5s, and so on. Acquire Trade Cards: As this is based on cities, you get none. Trade: As this requires Trade Cards, you don't trade. Resolve Calamities: As noone has Trade Cards, noone can have Calamity Cards. Acquire Civ Cards: As the cheapest card is 45 points and you have no Trade Cards and no Treasury, you buy nothing. Alter A.S.T.: As you did not commit suicide by building boats this turn, you are still in the game and qualify to advance. Turn 2: Population Expansion: 2 become 4. Census: Recorded. Construct Ships: Only if you're stupid. Movement: Each token can move one space. Conflict: Shouldn't be any; Stupidity Awards ready just in case. Alter A.S.T: Done. Turn 3: Population Expansion: 4 become 8 unless you left more than 2 tokens in one space; a maximum of two per space can duplicate for this phase. Census: Recorded. Construct Ships: If you're Crete, your island cannot support all these tokens, so you kill two population to build a boat. Everybody else should not yet be constrained, and nobody in their right mind would want their population lowered just yet, unless they *really* need to move after their neighbor (movement is done in Census order, from high to low, as a game balancing feature -- the player with the largest army has to move first, so the little guys he's attacking can tune their response, limiting how much the lead player gets to walk all over everyone). So if you're not Crete, you probably don't build boats. Movement: People can walk one space OR they can be carried up to four spaces by a boat (five if your civilization has the "Clothmaking" Civilization Card, which you won't yet because nobody has any cities). They cannot do both land and sea movement on the same turn. Each boat can only carry five population at a time, though they can engage in multiple pick-ups and drop-offs along their four spaces of movement. People cannot stay on the boats; the boats merely carry them from one coastal land space to another. Your boats cannot travel across the open sea spaces unless your civilization holds the Astronomy Civilization Card (navigation by the stars). They can move along the coastline, and to islands near your coast. Conflict: Doubt there'll be any this early. Build Cities: Technically, with 8 population, you *could* build a city. During the movement phase, you could have moved 6 of your 8 population tokens into a city site (specially marked spaces on the board where it's cheaper to build cities), and then here, during the Build phase, kill the 6 and put a city there. The advantage: You get a level 1 trade card this turn. The disadvantage: You only have 2 population left, which will double to 4 next turn while everyone else's 8 will double to 16 (except for Crete, whose 6 will double to 12). So if you *really want to* stagnate the growth of your civilization for a few turns, by all means build that city. Stupidity Awards at the ready. Alter A.S.T.: Done. Turn 4: Population Expansion: Africa may have had some people starve off last turn, though with care it can be avoided, and Crete will be at 6; otherwise, your 8 double to 16 unless you've left more than two in a space. Census: Recorded Construct Ships: You'll see more of that this turn, most likely. Constructing ships on the blood of your people is one way to control your population; but at this early stage expansion is King and it is unlikely that you will do it *strictly* for the purpose of controlling population growth. Later, after you have cities, and therefore collect taxes, and therefore have treasury, construction of ships is a *very* handy -- even necessary -- tool to ensure you have tokens in stock. Movement: Once space by land OR up to four by sea. Conflict: There might be some, especially if there's border disputes that cannot be peacably resolved. Essentially the nation with the most tokens in the space wins, although with spaces numbered greater than 1 there is a chance of peaceful coexistence at the end of it all. Basically, each player kills one population token at a time until the number of tokens remaining can be supported by the land (a fight over resources). The player with fewest tokens draws off first. Let's say there's 2 of his and 3 of yours in a "2" space: You Him Total Next Action 3 2 5 He loses one 3 1 4 You lose one 2 1 3 He loses one 2 0 2 Conflict complete Let's say there's 4 of yours, 3 of his in a "3" space: You Him Total Next Action 4 3 7 He loses one 4 2 6 You lose one 3 2 5 He loses one 3 1 4 You lose one 2 1 3 The remainder peacefully coexist. Let's say there's 2 of yours, 2 of his in a "2" space: You Him Total Next Action 2 2 4 You both lose one simultaneously 1 1 2 The remainder peacefully coexist. You get the picture. Build Cities: Some will build one this turn; some will wait until next turn, as their population gets *really* high next turn before they start whacking people. You can move 6 tokens to a city site, or 12 to a non-city site during the Movement phase, and if they survive conflict, they die in the building of the city. Remove Surplus population: Going to start seeing more and more of that; trying to engineer circumstances where they build cities instead of die of starvation shows good planning. You can also use the destined-to-die-anyway tokens to go to war with your neighbors. I don't recommend this as a default action, but there are times... Acquire Trade Cards: Starting with the lowest city-count, nations collect Trade Cards; if you have one city, you get a level 1 card; if you have two cities you get a 1 and a 2, and so on. There are two types of commidities at each level, and levels 2-9 include calamity cards. Level 1, for example, includes Ochre and Hides. By themselves, a single card is worth its face value; a level 1 card is worth 1 point, a level 2 card is worth 2, etc. But as you build sets of a particular type of card, the value goes up exponentially, representing the value you can gain by cornering the market on a particular good. One level 1 card is worth 1 point, but a set of 2 is worth 4 (total, not each). A set of three level 1 cards is worth 9, and so on. The formula is (level x (setsize squared)), if memory serves. There are a different number of cards in each of the 18 different commodity types, and thus the maximum value for complete cornering of a particular market varies. Trade: The rules of Trade are this: 1. You must trade at least three cards. 2. You must honestly tell what two of them are. Chaos ensues. :-) The game is won and lost in trading. So the game now starts moving into mid-game; the focus shifts from expansion to city-building, and with cities come taxes (for each city, you must pay 2 tokens from stock to treasury or cities will start revolting, which at an early stage of the game can be VERY devestating. WATCH YOUR STOCK.) Also with cities come Trade Cards, which in turn means both Calamities will start to appear and Civilization Cards will start to be purchased, most of which modify the rules of the game for your civilization, most notably in their ability to affect (usually for the better, but not always) the effects of Calamities on your nation.

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