Has anyone considered adding wonders of the world to Advanced Civ? I imagine this is done in the recent board game of Sid Meier's Civ III, though I haven't seen it yet. Nonetheless, I thought it might be an interesting addition to the game, for those who enjoy such complexity. For example, to build "the" Colossus, a player would require possession of a certain number of bronze commodity cards (2-3), not to be expended, but simply to be retained, for the duration of a number of turns (2-3) during the construction of the wonder (as per the use of grain for famine). After said duration, the wonder would be built in a city that has remained in play for that many turns, and the wonder would remain throughout the duration of the game (only one civ would be able to build each unique wonder), unless a city should be destroyed (if an attacking nation should destroy the city, if they were to immediately replace it with one of their own, the wonder would be preserved, else it would be destroyed, never to be built again). Wonders would have prerequisites for their construction (for example, perhaps engineering for the Colossus) and, of course, would confer certain benefits unique to each of them. For example, the Colossus may allow the controlling player to redeem any ONE set of commodities per turn for a value equal to what they would receive had they one additional like card (as per mining for its commodities). This effect might stack on other bonuses, such that a player in a game using the Trade City Variant (and presumably accordingly possessing a beneficial city), and owning mining and controlling the colossus, might trade in a single silver card to be counted as the value of 4 such cards (+1 "silver city"; +1 mining; +1 colossus). As a stipulation, a player controlling the colossus would only be allowed to invoke its advantage toward commodities s/he had received in trade among other players that turn.

The Colossus is but one of the wonders that would be admitted into the game. Feasibly all of the "seven wonders of the ancient world" would be included, as well as potentially a few others. Too many would inevitably introduce too much new power into the game, so the number allowed in any one game may be a function of the number of players participating.

Please tell me what you think, anyone, or if you already have a concept for wonders - I'd be interested to hear other ideas. Thanks.

K J K Dalamant

I think for the new imperial variant I might include something like "prestige points" that would let gain extra victory points by doing things like building monuments, achieving a cultural pinnacle or having a massive empire.

I’m less inclined to award abilities for specific wonders because, historically, they really didn’t do much for you other than leave a lasting impression on those that followed.

But your idea about requiring certain advances to build them sounds good. And I think prestige points as a whole could be used for something besides just victory points…

Hmm… I’ll have to think about that.

Thanks for your comments, and the prestige points idea I agree with. I must argue, however, that at least some (probably not many) "wonders of the world" most definitely did confer certain distinct benefits to their peoples. For example, the Pharos - the lighthouse of Alexandria - could be seen for up to 100 miles or approx. 3 days’ journey from its harbor; this attracted trade to the city, as did the Great Library in the same city, which provoked much scholarship and compelled many consequent pursuits. Certain wonders, such as the Pyramids, the Colossus of Rhodes, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon provided cultural magnets for visitors who came as tourists or merchants and brought their trade, thereby enhancing the economy and allure/reputation of the city and the civilization as a whole. But, I have to agree that much of what we may speculate to be particular extensive benefits are probably mere mythical romanticizations at best. Nonetheless, reasonable conclusions may be drawn as to plausible advantages of such unique monuments, and my group of gamers is tossing around ideas of this sort to add to our own game - your reactions are much appreciated.

K J K Dalamant

We are probably going to play the imperial variant in a month or two with 9 players on the full map. If you get the rules done for it John, we will give it a try If not, we were planning on coming up with our own variant rules for ACEP. Perhaps based on this site:
http://www.lilback.com/civilization/ah/ ... erial.html

We tried special powers once. Its a great idea, but very difficult to balance. It didn't work for us.

Craig