Forbidden Island - A review about global destruction.

Long ago, four artifacts of immense power were hidden from prying eyes by the wise protectors of a long dead civilization known as the Archeans.  This ancient civilization was the keeper of an unimaginable elemental power. A power harnessed through the use of the four treasures: The Crystal of Fire, The Statue of the Wind, The Ocean’s Chalice, and The Earth Stone. Fearing the catastrophic danger that misuse would create, the Archeans housed these dangerous relics on a secluded island, with an elaborate trap that would destroy the treasure, along with the island itself, were it to fall into foreign hands.

The Archaen civilization collapsed, and faded into obscurity long ago, but the Forbidden Island has waited silently, shrouding its wondrous secret, and biding its time until discovery wakes it and starts the deadly machinations that will send it to the ocean floor. That’s where you come in - as a brave explorer, you must retrieve the artifacts from the island, and escape with your life, before the island sinks into oblivion.

Forbidden Island is a cooperative family game designed by Matt Leacock and published by Gamewright Games. Similar in mechanics to Leacock’s lauded game Pandemic, Forbidden Island looks to transform the horrific prospect of global disaster found in Pandemic, into a family game of treasure hunting – with the horrific prospect of global disaster.

The part where the review takes a detour:  

“What?! Global disaster?! You're crazy!” I hear you say, “Forbidden Island is just an exciting family game of treasure hunting”. I do not deny any mental instability on my part, but hear me out: Forbidden Island may have more sinister parallels to modern day issues, and pose more questions about ethics than is outwardly apparent. I’m sure that players start a game of Forbidden Island with heroic intentions, and honestly, will probably gloss over the theme. But playing the game bears the question, “Why unearth these artifacts?” Is it for Money? Power? History? Science? Wouldn’t it be better to leave these treasures in the ground?

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Stronghold - A Review

Some of the most epic and memorable scenes in novels and movies have involved the siege of a fortress. The story of defending one’s home against overwhelming odds is one that resonates deeply in the human spirit. These stories span time and setting, and have been told throughout history. The timeless fantasy world of Middle Earth saw a climactic siege in The Lord of The Rings, when the capital of Gondor was rushed by a sea of enemies. Ancient Greek mythology is full of these stories, shown to enthrall audiences even in modern times, by the success of the blockbuster movie 300, and its bloody, violent retelling of the siege of Sparta. Akira Kurasawa brought siege to feudal Japan in his final epic theatrical masterpiece Ran. Siege makes for exciting and tense storytelling, and it’s no surprise that it invokes those same feelings when presented in a game.

In 2009, game designer Ignacy Trzewiczek brought siege to the table with the board game Stronghold, a non-symmetrical game of siege and defense, where one player uses his limited resources to defend his stronghold against the seemingly unending horde of Orcs, Trolls, and Goblins controlled by his opponent. The invading player uses his massive army to build siege equipment, cast destructive spells, man the ramparts, and ultimately scale the towering walls to breach the stronghold. The defending player must valiantly defend his keep by utilizing his limited time and manpower to train men, repair damage, build traps, and position his dwindling forces to effectively turn the tide of the incoming army. Whoever ends the siege with the most glory is the ultimate victor.

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The Adventurers - A Review

My youngest son is enamored with the press your luck style card game Incan Gold, a game that carries the theme of exploring an ancient temple full of traps and treasures. He revels in collecting treasure, and relishes when others are caught inside the temple and have to forfeit all of their loot.

I have slowly been trying to introduce him to the board game hobby; So, when he recently asked me if there were any other games that had a treasure hunting theme, I was excited to search for a game with a bit more complexity, but a similar feel to Incan Gold.  The game I chose to bring home was The Adventurers, designed by Guillaume Blossier and Frederic Henry, and published by Alderac Entertainment Group.

Alderac Entertainment Group, or AEG, has been an active publisher of Collectible Card Games and Roleplaying Games for over 15 years with the successful Legend of the Five Rings line of products. When it comes to board games, however, AEG is a relative newcomer. AEG announced their entry into board games only two short years ago, in 2009, but did so with a bang. The 2009 line-up consisted of no fewer than 10 titles, including some of the year's most well received games. Since then, AEG has been steadily making a name for itself as one of today's premier designer board and card game publishers.

The Adventurers was one of the titles released in AEG's original 2009 line-up, and while I may be a little late to the party picking it up, it fits the bill perfectly for my current requirement: A family friendly press your luck treasure hunting adventure in an ancient temple, with plenty of perilous traps.

The Game:

The first thing you will notice when you open The Adventurers is the production value. This game is beautiful, with colorful artwork, and wonderfully detailed components. If any game will tempt you to paint your components, this is definitely one of them.

The Adventurers comes with a beautifully illustrated game board that depicts the interior of "The Temple of Chac", a trap laden ruin devoted to the ancient Mayan rain god. The temple is made up of several areas in which the players must search for treasure and avoid traps - but this is usually much easier said than done.

Each player chooses two of the twelve adventurers to explore the temple. The adventurers are represented by a detailed plastic miniature, along with a card that depicts his caricature and displays his special ability. On the back of the character card is a table that the player will use to determine his adventurer's weight and movement. Only one character is ever active at one time, so the back of the inactive character is placed face down, and is used as a player aid.

Upon entering the temple, the entrance is sealed, and the adventurers must make their way to the only exit at the opposite side of the board. Unfortunately, as soon as the adventurers enter, a giant boulder, a la Indiana Jones, begins it's inevitable march towards the exit, slowly gaining speed until it reaches top velocity. If the boulder gets to the exit before the players, the temple is sealed closed, and the adventurers will be trapped inside the temple forever, destined to become part of the decor.

The boulder that moves across the board serves as both timer and trap, and is one of the setpiece components of the game. A large molded plastic piece that dominates the board, it is a constant reminder to the players that the time in the temple is limited. The boulder is one of the many parts of the game that come together to really solidify the theme of the game, and helps to draw players in. A cardboard token moving along a track on the board could have served the same purpose, but wouldn't be nearly as immersive, or fun.

The boulder isn't the only trap that the adventurers need to worry about. The first room that they encounter is one of discovery and danger. Called the "Wall Room", players can search for treasures and learn about traps that they will encounter later in the game. But, if they spend too long there, they will learn the hard way why it is called the "Wall Room". At the end of each round, three cards are drawn that determine how the large plastic walls will move. If an adventurer is still in the room when the walls come together, he will meet his untimely fate as a human pancake.

If the adventurers make it out of the wall room, they will turn the corner to reveal a giant pool of lava. Floating upon the lava are 14 stepping stones, each with a unique glyph depicted on it. These stepping stones are represented by thick, double sided cardboard tokens. The glyphs on the tokens are fairly complex, and many are similar in appearance, but none exactly the same. This is important to note, because four of these stepping stones are booby trapped. If an adventurer steps onto a trapped stone, he will end up taking a deadly swim in the sea of lava. But, the adventurers aren't completely in the dark when it comes to choosing a path across the lava. Back in the wall room, the adventurers were given the option to learn about the traps by using actions to take a peek at the glyphs that appear on the trapped tiles.  If they can remember these glyphs, without confusing them with others, they can make it across the lava safely, and pick up some treasures along the way.

But what challenges are in store for our intrepid adventurers next? What obstacles will they have to overcome to prevail, and exit the temple with the most treasure? Will the adventurers live to see another day? Find out the answer to these exciting questions, and more, after this short discussion about actions!

At some point in the game,  the adventurers will have probably picked up a good share of treasure. This can be both a blessing and a curse, because the more treasure a player has, the greater the load he carries. Many actions in The Adventurers are dependent on this idea of "load".  While having a lot of treasure when you escape the temple is good, having too much treasure may mean that you will never make it to the end at all.

Like most press your luck style games, there is a random element to The Adventurers. This randomness is achieved through the use of five, six sided dice. These dice are rolled and compared to the character's load to determine the number of actions a character can take per turn, as well as how successful he is avoiding certain traps in the game.

At the beginning of a turn, the current start player rolls 5 dice. All players then compare their load to the number on each die. For each die that is showing a number equal to, or greater than the character's load, he gets an action. This means each adventurer will get somewhere between 0 and 5 actions.

This is where the tables on the back of the character cards come into play. The character card is placed over the player aid, and is slid to mark the load, and number of actions available to the adventurer. As the player takes actions, he slides the card to reflect the reduced number of actions available.

With the giant boulder barreling towards him, an adventurer might want to drop some treasures to reduce his load. Discarding treasure cards is a free action that players can take each round before the dice are rolled. Deciding when to drop some treasure can make the difference between life and death in the Temple of Chac.

Dice are also used at certain spots on the game board where a player can try to acquire a high valued artifact. These "alcoves" require the player to roll 5 dice, and get certain combinations of numbers in order to successfully take the treasure. If the correct numbers don't come up the first time, the player can use another action to re-roll any of the dice. He may continue doing this until he is out of actions.  If he runs out of actions, however, he will have to start all over at the beginning of his next turn with all 5 dice, if he wishes to grab the treasure.

It's also worth mentioning that each character has one of 6 special abilities that he may use once during the game. Most of these abilities will help him overcome a particular type of obstacle, and can help the player decide how he should traverse the temple.

If a player happens to die, he can bring his second character into the game. This seems more of a way to avoid player elimination than a balanced mechanic. Once the second character is brought into the game, he is at a severe disadvantage, and doesn't have much opportunity to collect treasure.

The Saga Continues!

Now, back to our daring adventurers! Having escaped the lava, they will have some tough decisions to make: They can enter the underground river, to search for more treasures, but risk getting swept into the deadly waterfall at the end; They can choose to cross the rotten bridge, which may collapse if they are carrying too much weight; Even still, they can chose to go the long way, stopping to try for the high valued treasure in the hidden alcove, at the risk of being crushed by the unstoppable boulder.

Whichever way they chose, there are risks to be had. If a player is too greedy, he may find himself at the bottom of a ravine, drown in an underground lake, crushed by a boulder, or trapped for the rest of his short life in the temple. If he ignores the treasure, and takes the safest path, he may exit the temple alive, but find that he has gained only the ridicule of his fellow adventurers who have become unspeakably wealthy from their priceless finds in the temple.

The Verdict:

The Adventurers is a great press your luck game that really succeeds in fully immersing the players in it's well crafted theme. It is easy to put yourself in the shoes of a movie archaeologist turned adventurer, and live out some of your childhood fantasies for 45 minutes. The tension and near-miss encounters keep you at the edge of your seat, and the highs and lows of making or missing that critical die roll make it exciting till the very end.

Although the instructions state that the game is for 2-6 players, I'm not sure that I would play it with less than 4 people. With a lot of people playing, there is a lot of tension and excitement, with less players, that feeling tends to dwindle away.  Players tend to take more risks with a higher player count as there is more competition for the treasures. The few times that I've played The Adventurers with only 3 players, it really seemed to fall flat, and I can only imagine that a 2 player game would be even less compelling.

The Adventurers is not a heavy game by any stretch of the imagination, but it offers a bit more complexity, and interesting choices over a simpler game such as Incan Gold. The fact that it isn't a brain burning experience makes it a great family game, or light game to play as filler or with non-gaming friends.  I don't think I'll find myself pulling out The Adventurers when I want a meaty "gamer's game" experience, but it is a lot of fun, and I see myself playing it many more times in the future.

As long as The Adventurers is played casually, I see it having staying power. Played too seriously however, it begins to show some weaknesses. First of all, due to the way that the traps on the lava field are selected, someone who has memorized all of the glyphs would have an unfair advantage during the first half of the game. Second, there are only a handful of obstacles that the players encounter. After a while, these could start to feel a bit stale. Finally, The Adventurers has a great deal of randomness built into the gameplay, which can be a turn-off for some players who prefer their games to be based entirely on skill.

As a light family game, however, The Adventurers shines. It is full of theme, has a wonderful tension that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and only gets better the more people who play.  The randomness of the game works as an equalizer, and can allow people of different skill levels to all have a great time, which can be an advantage when playing with younger children. If you enjoy the adventure theme, and have a group of people with the same mindset who like to have fun, I don't think you could go wrong with giving The Adventurers a try.


It Came From The Thrift - Star Wars: Epic Duels

STAR WARS: EPIC DUELS

I am what I like to call a "second hand boutique enthusiast". Everyone else just calls me a "thrift store junkie".  I am sure that they are correct in their observation, but I'm perfectly happy living here in my own little corner of denial. After all, spending time stalking the thrift stores is not the most glamorous of pass-times. Thrift stores are usually disorganized, smell like an attic, and have shelves that are laden with junk most of the time. But, every now and again, the clouds part, angels sing, and a ray of brilliance descends from the sky to illuminate a rare gem (Although, sometimes it’s just swamp gas, and I bring home a dud).  My finds range from the questionable (Hydlide for the NES), to the truly surprising (a full size original upright Ms. Pac-Man arcade machine).

In "It Came From The Thrift Store", I hope to chronicle and review some of the more interesting finds. Many of these items are out of print, and some of them may not be in the best shape. But, if you are willing to look past the piles of Trivial Pursuit and Pictionary, there is a lot of fun that can be found in your local charity shop for under $3.00.

The Game:

Today I’m going to talk about a game I picked up recently - Star Wars: Epic Duels. Epic Duels supports 2 to 6 players, and was published in 2002 by Hasbro, during the marketing blitz for Star Wars: Episode II. Like so much Star Wars merchandise, Epic Duels languished on the clearance shelves towards the end of its life. And, like many games that seem to acquire cult status, it didn’t really gain recognition until it was long out of print.

The resurrection of a dead clearance title in the collective mind of board game enthusiasts was partly due to another game entirely. More accurately, it's designers: The designers of Epic Duels would create a game years after its lukewarm release that would cause the board game world to take notice. The designers in question are Rob Daviau and Craig Van Ness, and the game that caused the world to take notice was Heroscape.  Incidentally,  Daviau and Van Ness have collaborated on several other highly regarded Hasbro/Avalon Hill published games, including two more thrift store grails -  Star Wars: The Queens Gambit,  and  Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Game.

Like Heroscape, Star Wars: Epic Duels is a tactical combat game. Players choose one of 12 “teams” from the Star Wars Universe. Each team consists of a main character and one or more supporting characters (thankfully absent is a certain Jar Jar Binks). Players can recreate battles from the movies in one of four iconic settings, sup plied as two double sided game boards. Players can also choose to create fantasy duels, pitting characters from the movies together in glorious “What if?” scenarios. One of the games I played recently saw Darth Vader dueling against the young  Anakin Skywalker.  Poor Anakin died at the hands of his future self, crea ting some sort of universe destroying time paradox, I’m sure.

Setup:

After selecting their teams, each player gets a card-stock character sheet depicting the chosen characters, a set of adequately painted miniature figures, and a custom deck of cards for that team. Players roll a stickered die to determine  turn order, and take turns placing their miniatures on the game board. The main characters are placed in predetermined squares on the playfield’s grid, the proper square marked with the character’s name. The minor characters are then placed in any open space adjacent to the main character. After character placement, players place wound counters on their character sheet in the indicated space - to show no damage, and each draws four cards from their deck to form a starting hand. Play is ready to begin.

Gameplay:

At the start of each player’s turn, a die is rolled to determine movement. The die determines if a player may move one, or all of his characters, and how many spaces they may move. Different boards have different configurations and obstacles, and a player does not have to use all of his movement. This gives the player some meaningful tactical decisions to make when moving his characters. After movement, players can then take 2 actions. Each action can be one of three choices: Draw a card, Play a card, or Heal.

Combat in Epic Duels is card driven. This means that it is important to have a selection of cards in your hand. Although you start with only 4 cards, the maximum hand size is 10. Each team’s deck has different cards in it, tailored to the strengths and weaknesses of that particular team. Drawing cards can be a very important action, but since a player only has 2 actions per turn, it’s sometimes a difficult decision to make.

The only way your characters can attack, is by playing one of your cards. This is the second action type you can take. Basic combat cards have an attack value, and a block value printed on them. The attacking player plays his card face down, and the defending player plays his card face up.  When both cards have been played, the attacking player flips his card over, and his attack value is compared to the defender’s block value. If the block value is greater than or equal to the attack value, no damage is dealt. If the attack value is greater than the block value, then the character being attacked takes the difference between the two values as damage, and moves the appropriate wound counter on the character sheet.  When the wound counter reaches the end of the character’s health track, the character is defeated, and is removed from the board.  Although the back of the cards for each team are uniform, the front of the cards have an image of either the main character, or the minor character(s). A card can only be played if it matches the character doing the attacking or defending. You cannot, for example, use a Chewbacca card when Han Solo is attacking or defending.

Direct combat isn’t the only benefit of playing cards, and this is where the flavor really comes out in the game.  There are several “Special” cards in each deck that may be played as an action. These are unique to each character, and allow for many different effects, ranging from drawing cards, to moving other players’ characters around. It can be a lot of fun to “force push” other characters around the board, and using your character’s power really helps to get into the mindset of your character. (In fact, I’m pretty sure that speaking in a broken English Muppet voice when playing Yoda is now a house rule at my place.)

The last action that a player can take is to heal his character. This option only comes into play if the main character is still alive, and his supporting characters have been defeated. A player may discard a supporting character card to gain back one health.
The game continues with players taking turns this way until one of the main characters is defeated, or one of the players goes through his deck twice. The winner is the player left standingFrom behind the darkside lurks. but ever vigilant the light is. mmmmm. yes., or, in the case of running out of cards, whoever has the most hit points.

I have described the standard 2 player game here, but there are also several official variations in the rulebook: a 2-4 player “team game”; a 2-6 player “free for all” game; and a 2-4 player “master play” variant. I won’t go into each variant here, but it is nice that the rules allow for up to 6 players, turning the epic duel into an epic brawl.

The Verdict:

Star Wars: Epic Duels is not an incredibly deep game, but there is enough depth in the game to make for some interesting decisions. What it lacks in depth, however, it makes up for in personality. Each team has a unique deck of cards, with unique abilities and weaknesses, which really work to give the characters a life of their own. Through the 66 different team combinations in a standard 2 player duel, there is a lot of personality, a lot of variety, and a lot of game play to be had in Epic Duels.

Aside from not being too deep, Epic Duels is not perfectly balanced either. Certain combinations of teams can swing wildly to favor one team over the other. Surprisingly, I really don’t feel that this is a negative. If everything was perfectly baHan Solo is shooting first.lanced, I think the whole game would feel much more sterile and mechanical. The fact that you can play as the underdog in a duel really helps to cement the flavor and theme of the game, and turns a potential black mark into an endearing positive.

The boards and cards are a bit chintzy, and the miniatures are not incredibly detailed, but they suffice. They quality and variety of components are actually fairly impressive when you consider that Star Wars: Epic Duels was originally released in the $25 range, with a mass market demographic.

When it comes down to it, Epic Duels is just plain fun. It is a nice casual romp in the Star Wars universe, without the expectation of an intense, brain-burning tactical game. Played with a group of like minded people who enjoy the Star Wars mythology, and who want to have some casual fun, I’d wager that Star Wars: Epic Duels would be a home run.

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game - A Review.

Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game is Fantasy Flight's 2010 tabletop take on the popular Video game franchise of the same name. Designed by Kevin Wilson, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game attempts to capture the feel of Sid Meier’s Civilization the video game (which I’ll refer to as Civ from here on out), a game about growing a civilization from humble roots through the use of military might, technological achievement, cultural enrichment, or acquisition of wealth.

Wilson isn’t the first to tackle a board game conversion of the Civ license, but those that have tried before him have failed to really capture the essence of the original. Wilson has experience successfully bridging the gap between the computer and the tabletop with his work on Fantasy Flight’s Warcraft: The Board Game, and Doom: The Board Game. His respect for these games really shows through in his design choices, and the way he smartly approaches the licenses. His work on Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game is no different. His design is not a quick attempt at slapping a licensed theme on a preconceived game design, but instead pays homage to the source material, and creates a very engaging board gaming experience.

Civ might seem like an easy target to make the transition to a board game. After all, it had definite roots in the board game medium. Sid Meier, creator of Civ, has expressed that the classic Avalon Hill board game Civilization was a strong influence on the design of Civ. But, inspiration wasn’t the only influence that board games had on the computer game. Sid Meier also employed former Avalon Hill employee Bruce Shelley as an assistant and collaborator when designing Civ. Before joining Meier, Shelly had worked for Avalon Hill bringing games such as 1830 and Titan to market. With such a tie to board games, it is surprising that almost 20 years after Civ was published, Fantasy Flight seems to be the first contender to finally capture the feel of Sid Meier’s Civilization.

Let’s take a closer look at this board game, inspired by a video game, inspired by a board game, and see what makes it tick.

Tokens and counters are all high quality, and wonderfully illustrated.Components:

In true Fantasy Flight style, the components in Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game are wonderful. And, in true Fantasy Flight style, punching out the components will take a while. But, after all of the components have been freed from their cardboard sprues, it becomes apparent that the modular game board and mountain of tokens are all made of high quality cardboard, and covered with beautiful artwork. No one is going to accuse this game of having low production quality.

Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game has a variety of different components:

A market board - The market board holds all of the buildings, units and wonders that can be purchased during the course of the game. It also contains as a scoring track for culture points earned during gameplay. The market board looks nice, and serves as a place to put most of the components in the game. I just wish that it had places for more of the components. While half of the game stays organized with the market board, the table can still get cluttered as the piles of tokens, plastic figures, and cards that don’t have a place on the board can fill the empty table space. Aside from that small detail, the market board is very useful, and nicely illustrated.

Map tiles - Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game uses a modular map to create a new game world each play. The tiles that make up this map are single sided and placed face down at the start of the game. Map tiles are flipped over as areas are explored, recreating the exploration aspect of Civ. Each map tile has different terrain represented on it, and iconography describing what is produced in each area. The terrain and icons are easily distinguishable, and appealing to look at.

The civilization sheets feature dials similar to those in other Fantasy Flight titles.Civilization sheets - The civilization sheets are cardstock mats that describe the civilization, and list its special abilities, starting government, and starting technology. The civilization sheets also allow the player to manage his available gold and trade using an attached cardboard dial. These dials will be familiar to anyone who has played Runewars, as they are practically identical. The dial is a really novel idea, but I’m always concerned that I will rip the comparatively flimsy cardstock sheet when turning it.

Plastic units - Military Units and scouts are represented by plastic figures in the game. The scouts look like the iconic covered wagon from the Civ games, and the Military units are represented by colored plastic flags. Fantasy Flight is known for their detailed miniatures, and I was a bit disappointed to see that the units were represented as flags. I think this is an area that Fantasy Flight could have upgraded to increase the immersion a bit. I really would have liked to see figures that I could paint.

Cards - Cards are used to represent many things in the game. Combat is resolved through the use of cards, technology and governments aThe combat cards can feel a bit cluttered and disorienting.re represented with cards, and events are triggered through cards. The cards are good quality, and serve their purpose well for the most part. However, I do have an issue with the combat cards: the iconography on the cards can be a bit difficult to make out at a glance; the art makes the cards feel cluttered; and the orientation of the cards changes their meaning. The combat cards are my biggest gripe with the game in general, they just seem a bit obtuse to me, and I can’t help but thinking a set of dice would serve the same purpose in a much simpler manner. Perhaps if the combat cards had clearer icons, and didn’t seem so cluttered, I wouldn’t feel as strongly as I do about them.

Tokens, Tokens, Tokens - Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game uses tokens for everything: cities, buildings, great people, culture, wonders, military tech level, resources, wounds, money, villages, etc. Even though there are a lot of these pieces of cardboard, they all serve a particular purpose and work well at representing what they need to in a clear and direct manner.

All in all, the components are top notch. My only real criticism was with the combat cards, and that may be more of an issue with the combat mechanism itself.

Gameplay:

Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game is a fairly complex game. Because it stays faithful to the source material, there are multiple paths to victory: Military, Economic, Cultural, and Technological. These multiple victory conditions require a set of rules, and components, for each path.

Players explore, collect resources, settle, and grow their cities striving to be the first to reach the victory condition in one of these victory paths. A cultural victory requires a certain number of culture points to win; a tech victory is awarded to the first person to research "Space Flight"; an economic victory is gained by amassing a certain amount of wealth; and a military victory is won by conquering another player’s capital city.

A player grows his city by purchasing buildings to add to his city. These buildings increase the footprint of his city, and in turn, allow more resources to be generated. Most resources are generalized as "Trade" or "Production", although specific resource types can be collected and produced in the game as well. The resources that a certain position on the map produces are indicated by the icons on the map tile, and are modified by the building tiles that are placed on top of them. Resources are spent to purchase more buildings, military units, technology, and culture among other things. These newly purchased items add to the power or production of a city, generating a kind of "economic engine" moving the player forward towards his goal.

There are rules that dictate where players can grow their cities. Due to the way these rules operate, a large part of Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game is about area control. It is beneficial to grow your city before your opponent does, but at the same time, it can leave you vulnerable to attack. Players have to balance their progress towards a victory goal with growth of other aspects of their civilization.

Three of the four victory paths are not directly confrontational in nature. However, like in Civ, military might plays a large role in this game. Combat can be a bit unintuitive at first. There are two representations of the player’s military might: The first is the units on the board, which move to establish the location of the player’s armies; the second is the deck of cards that players maintain to represent the military strength and unit types found in their civilization. The combat cards are more of an abstract representation of the civilization’s military might, as the same deck of cards is shared between all of the armies on the board, and a hand is drawn from that deck when combat begins. Units and cards are purchased separately, creating a bit of a dissonance between the two.

When combat actually occurs, players take turns placing their combat cards along an imaginary "battle front". Each combat card represents a different type of military unit: Infantry, Mounted, and Artillery. These units have a Rock, Paper, Scissors relationship with one another when determining which unit takes damage first. Every card can represent each of the four military tech levels, with the attack value of each level oriented along one of the four sides. This makes it important to keep your cards rotated in the correct direction so that you don’t accidentally make tactical decisions using the wrong number. Each card also has an illustration of the unit type for each military tech level, and an icon for the type of unit that card represents. All of this information makes the card feel cluttered, and it can be difficult to glean information from it at a glance.

Combat is balanced, functional, and fun, but it’s a bit fiddly. I’m not sure that the card mechanic really fits perfectly the way it is. I think a simpler mechanic, or perhaps dice based combat would have kept things running a bit more smoothly, but this small criticism definitely isn’t a deal breaker. I don’t dislike combat in Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game, I just wish it was a bit more streamlined.

The game plays well from 2 players to its maximum of 4 players. The different victory conditions are well balanced, and I can see a player making a solid winning strategy using any of the paths. A game of civilization could easily last for 3+ hours; maybe more if the players are new to the game. The instructions suggest removing the "Wonders" for the first game, and I would agree that it creates a slightly easier, yet still fulfilling first game experience.

Conclusion:

Overall, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game does an excellent job of capturing the feel of its video game namesake. It makes a fun, deep strategy board game that could easily stand on its own without the Civ license. It is definitely one of my favorite civilization building board games, and I don’t think I would turn down a game if I had the time and opportunity to play. I’m not totally sold on the card based combat mechanism. However, it is still fun, and doesn’t detract from the game, as it’s just a small part in the larger whole. The game is a bit on the long side, and may be hard to get to the table for people who cannot spare a block of time to play, and, due to the sheer number of components, putting the game away and taking it back out to finish a game becomes unfeasible. For those that love a nice long meaty game, Fantasy Flight’s offering definitely scratches the itch, though.

When all is said and done, Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game really gives the feeling of building a civilization from scratch. With all of the different leaders, technologies, and governments available, the strategic combinations are endless. Who can resist reliving a history where Abraham Lincoln of the Communist States of America wages a vicious war against Cleopatra and the money grubbing anarchists of Egypt? I certainly can’t, and I would definitely recommend giving Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game a try.