Date: December 28th 2008
Players: 9
Mapboard: West
Civilization: (Celt, Iberia, Carthage, Rome, Hellas, Minoa, Hatti, Assyria, Egypt)
Version: 2.11 Beta
Non Playing GM: Yes
Playing time: 13 hours
Finished?: Nearly (one space)
Winner: Jochem


I used this game both for playtesting some new rules and for my trophy-game I organize two times a year.


At 10 o'clock all players were in and we quickly used the set of numbers to choose each civilization so that everyone would have a chair at the right place on the table. I did no play myself but acted as gamemaster and waiter. (dealing cards and drinks, as well as credit tokens, AST and census altering, judge, and for speeding up the game). I first started explaining the changes from V2.10 to v2.11 and secondly the playtest rules.

We played the new West map Gerart has made and the new player-tokens I've created. None of the players inclusing me played on the new map before (as well as the current 18-player map, which almost are equally).

Soon Hellas took advantage as he was not making agreements on civilization borders. I saw some players doing this and it always turns out to be a problem later, as this treaty cannot be overruled and one player is in benefit where the other isn't. Hellas took as many space as possible giving him a lot of tokens and then bought 'Military' as soon as possible. For most of the remainder of the game he managed to keep this advantage in census count and still moving last. Only before the last turn a second player bought Military as well.

Egypt really got sacked twice by a flood. With our playtest for removal of an additional 5 tokens this player really received some damage but soon managed to recover.

Carthage was run over by Iberia who actually took a third of Africa this way. This way Carthage pushe towards Egypt and this is how Egypt got stuck between Carthage and Assyria.

A treaty between Assyria and Egypt (as mentioned above) kept this problem. The few city sites were quickly built and this created a wall in favour of assyria.

Celt first took the areas reaching to the black sea, but later got drawn back by Hellas and Hatti.

Minoa managed to be drawn back to zero cities. Later on some increase came up ut the damage was done.

No Volcano has erupted, though many earthquakes occured (some in Iberia)
Assyria was run over by Barbarians once. The same for Egypt.

Rome was hit hard by a slave revolt which kept him back on AST later on.


The new AST-order we playtested worked really great. Movement switched form one end to the other at any moment several players had the same census.

We think Egypt is a little too tight. Since both Nubia took a part on the east map, and Babylon isn't on the West map anymore.

Military was quickly bought by Hellas. He considered 'Advanced Military' bu only if more players would buy Military. This did not happen. Now, he said, as I'm moving last, moving out of an area is always more interesting than taking losses from adjacent areas. I see AM only as an addition for several players having Military.

Therefore I think the current name 'advanced Military' isn't that bad after all. Related topic:
http://www.civproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=467


Assyria bought Roadbuilding because the player was focussing on Crafts. In practice the few turns holding this card, it gave no real advance. It just couldn't be used. This is why we suggested a change here:
http://www.civproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=541

Only two times a player managed to get to 9 cities. The following calamities never showed up: Piracy, Banditry, Regression.


In general we think the map is too tight. Not much, but a little. That's why I opened a topic here:
Map changes:
http://www.civproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=543


We denied the new option for Agriculture. A better option is available.
related topic:
http://www.civproject.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=539


We used the Timemarker for reference only, placing it two space back in the start. In the end of the game, the timemarker came equal to the first marker (Assyria), with Hellas, Celt, Iberia and Hatti one space behind.

If we would have played with the time marker and placing it at its normal positition we would have finished the game with it.


In the end Jochem (Hellas) was the winner.
The price is a trophy to be returned for the next game over 6 months.
The trophy consists of a replica of the Minoan Phastos disc (which by many archeologists is linked to the Hittite Civilization (Hatti)

Final Score:

1st - Hellas - 99
2nd - Iberia - 97
3rd - Hatti - 96
4th - Assyria - 94
5th - Egypt - 93
6th - Celt - 84
7th - Minoa - 76
8th - Carthage - 75
9th - Rome - 68


Any more results will be added later.

These are some photos:

Excellent write up!

I played Minoa, and tried to play fully in the spirit of the expansion project: Choosing a strategy and holding it no matter what happens. Now I learned there is a limit to this, but in the game I refused to purchase Metalworking early because I believed opponents should damage me not that much, because some less damage was effective enough. But Hellas thought I should win the game if I wasn't made weak in time, since Minoa went well in the game and already had 25 religious credit tokens. I tried the yellow strategy, and yellow came: Yellow also was the colour of Hell(as)...
Another important player in this plot was Rome. He started a war against Carthage like Iberia did, and therefore Carthage suffered the same damage as Minoa suffered. So only one of us two could profit from a Civil War, but unfortunately Carthage was the primary victim of the Civil War two times out of the three times the calamity felt (the third time Egypt was the victim and Carthage the beneficiary.) But the beneficiary at most took 10 unit points. In the last round a Tyranny felt, with me as beneficiary. The effect of it was that I took 2 cities and some tokens, which gave me 2 additional points, so I beated Carthage because of that effect.

I myself believe the game went not well in general: The game balancing effects seemed too weak for me. This can be because there was few space on the map, with effect that most players didn't reach the 7 cities, so game balancing calamities like Civil Disorder occured rarely. Another cause of it can be that players didn't play well enough. The neighbours were too affraid for Hellas, so Hellas managed to create so much space for himself that he was able to leave some areas empty in the middle of his region, and no opponents were brave enough to move into his spaceful area. Also Rome did some strange actions which screwed up the game balance instead of restoring it, like waging war against the damaged Carthage, even during the calamity phase.
For me the game went bad anyway: I tried to test a yellow strategy (including Diaspora), but because of the damage done by Hellas I have no result of this test, except that I sometimes must look to what others do and counter some effects of them for me.

I think is can be a part of the commonly friendly strategy some players have. It was clear Hellas took up some more offensive strategy and lucky received less defense. At leat not enough.

Maybe this is another subject that could justify a new Roadbuilding that gives the opportunity to move two areas as long as no conflict occurs in the first area. It gives some more options to move 'inside' a civilization. At least at the edges.

No doubt I prefer a more offensive strategy in general. Not to make this game a wargame, but I've never been so fond of players making agreement on borders, trading without calamities or NOT targetting specific players as secondary calamity victim.

It's true that a 'tighter' map requires more offense, though as mentioned I do agree the map should give a little more space so that at least on or two player can have 9 cities each turn. (ofcourse may be different players each turn) so at least 7 an 8 cities per player are common, not rare.

Not only it brings the balancing calamities in the cycle, which make room, but also it generates more wealth that's required to purchase the 'fun' cards like Diaspora or Provincial Empire. In the end these cards are IN the game to be purchased. Not to only dream of...