Learning Advanced Civilization
A few weeks ago I got together with some local gaming friends to play Advanced Civilization, an expansion released in 1991 for the base game Civilization which came out in 1980. Even though I've been an active gamer since the late 1970s this was a first play for me.
Heard of the computer game Civilization? It is at least partly based on this core system.
My friend Chris organized multiple sessions at his house and helped get us newbies started with some learning tips:
The existing downloadable rulesets out there have many misprints and look to be an OCR of the printed book. I set out to do some cleanup and produce my own versions, which you can find here: PDF version, epub version. It looks like someone else out in BGG world has a similar idea as I just saw a new typeset version of the rules posted which look quite nice.
So I played in a seven player game that lasted 12-ish hours, hung in there for a while and was perhaps in the top 3 early in the game, but ultimately finished last. I didn't care -- it was a blast.
Next up is a four-player game that should happen this weekend with Jacob, Matthew, and friend Connor. We are going to play the Glory that was Greece four player map and variant. I printed an enhanced version of the map on a 20"x30" photo poster at Costco and it looks nice.
Oh, forgot to mention how I got a copy of the game in the first place. I purchased a used and worn copy of the original Civilization on eBay. To upgrade this to Advanced Civilization I needed new commodity and tech cards, and I found some decent options on the 'geek. I then used ArtsCow to print my custom decks. Total cost (including the Costco map) was about $75.