This is a good way of thinking.

What problems could this provide?

You could sell indeed somthing like "Expert Civilization - The East part" and "Expert Civilization - The West part" both standalones, but best together.

I imagine, the East part will be more in demand than West cause, people might know that allready by playing Advacned

"Expert Civilization" is out for two reasons:

1) It indicates you have to be an expert to play...
2) No less legally troublesome than the already established Civilization: The Expansion Project

While an Western release around the Mediterranean is simple, an Eastern edition isn't. Basically it boils down to the map. The West is almost square, and can relatively simply be made to fit on a standalone square mapboard. The East, however, is not square at all, in fact being both northwest and south of the western mapboard. Refactoring that into something that would fit together with a standalone West would require one to do massive changes to the map, almost starting from scratch.

However, if the Far East version ever is finished, that one will work exactly that way. The Standard Edition (18 players) and Far East Edition (9 players) is independent from each other, but if you get both, you can put them next to each other (almost like an "L" actually) and play up to 27 players...

So I'm thinking something like this:

Dawn of History - Mediterranean Edition (9 players)
This is the "normal" edition available for purchase, perhaps even in hobby stores.

Dawn of History - Standard Edition (18 players)
Marketed to conventions and other larger events. Available for purchase only if there is demand, and definitely not in stores.

Dawn of History - Far East Edition (9 players)
For those wanting a change of settings. While rule-wise identical to the Mediterranean Edition it should feature other Commodities, and preferably more "Oriental" illustrations and flavour texts on the Advancements.

For especially large events, the Far East Edition could be combined with the Standard Edition for a total of 27 players in one game.

Of course, right now this is just wishful thinking...

I'm new to the forum here so forgive me if I'm butting in on a discussion that seems to be between just a few people right now.

I think the "Dawn of History" name is a great homage to AH's game. The origin of the name can be easily explained in the game's foreward, acknowledgements, etc.

but there might be a way to sneak in the civilization name in the tagline without referring to either sid meier's or AH's games

"A Journey Though the Early Ages of Civilization"

?

What do you think? too much? I like having "strategy game" in teh tagline though.

Chern

I really doubt you will be able to officially publish this game. Talk with a lawyer first. Hasbro is a very big company, even if they don't care now, they will later. The copyright owner for the original Civ game might come forward with their hands open too....

Hehe.... ok I'm not sure if I really deserve to still be putting my two cents in after my long hiatus but...

I think if you really want to get the game published you probably need to strip away all art and the name. It looks like Flo has the art handled (and quite well). The website woudl need to be redesigned to remove most of the Civilization references (though of course the homage should still stand somewhere).

IMHO I think "Dawn of History" is good enough (no subtitles). People will know its a "civilization" sort of game. In the game description you could put something like: "A decedent of the classic board game of Advanced Civilization, Dawn of History allows players to recreate the rise and fall of ancient civilizations from the dawn of prehistory to the very pinnacle of the late iron age empires!"

Another name that might be good is B.C. (as everything takes place in that time frame and ends at the beginning of A.D.

As far as publishing goes, I'm pretty much in agreement with Craig that it will be very hard to get it published by a mid-large company. However that doesn't mean you shouldn't try and prove us wrong!

Well, as long as I know this game ends at 500 B.C., and in practice the game ends a few turns earlier, so around 1000 B.C.

to me. B.C. seems better than '1000 B.C.'

the game is not about 1000 BC but about a long period before that and a bit after that.

We're working on the problem that sometimes time runs out and you can't finish a game, so that shouldn't be covered in the title.

Here are a few additional suggestions for names that do not infringe upon any trademarks that I am aware of:

Clashing Cultures
Inception of Society
Progression of People
Time management, ur doin it wrong (j/k of course)