This week we have cracked open Sid Meier’s Civilization the board game. This is the second such game with the first coming from Eagle Games. Eagle Games is known for their giant boards (Age of Imperialism is four feet by three feet) and their less than great game play to go along with those boards. This one comes from Fantasy Flight which is already a good sign.

If you have ever played any of the Civilization games on the computer and enjoyed them, you will probably enjoy the board game as well. It comes with so many pieces and markers that even on the box it says “hundreds”. You will need a lot of time to play this one but we found that it’s hard to get bored of a game when there is so much you can do.

You start the game being one of the great civilizations from the computer games. America, Russia, Germany, Egypt, China, and Romans. There are four ways to win the game. You can win with a technology, military, culture, or economy.

Our first complete game we played had Sheryl as America, Donny as Egypt, A J as China , and myself as Russia. Each civilization has different abilities and starting technologies. Russia started with Communism which increased production.

There are a million things I could write about that happened during the game but I am going to cut to the final couple turns. A few hours in it was very close between all of us. I was very close to getting a tech victory, Sheryl was close to an economy victory, AJ close to culture as well as Donny. I researched Atomic Theory and got lucky enough to find uranium to nuke one of AJ’s and one of Donny’s cities. Also, moved some armies into Sheryl’s zone to cut off coin supply from her banks. Finally researching space flight to get the victory.

All in all, this is a great game. We have played it at least five times since we’ve opened it. It IS a time consuming game but it’s very satisfying as you play it. The cost is $64.99 but with all of the pieces you get, and the fact that it is a different game every time you play it, it is a very solid purchase.

Store copy available if anyone would like to try it.

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