MILITARY
ART EXPLANATION
The defenition of Military: "Organized warfare in any form." Military has been around for millennia. I wanted to make a difference between Avanced Military and Military. and there isn't a specific age or sitiuation to link to 'military' (for AM there is). When reading on this I came to the military development of the thracians (starting 700BC) which was one of the highlights in history. A thracian warrior would make a nice image on this card. (also because the thracians are part of the game). Besides that he's looking less advanced than the Roman Auxilia I drew for AM

MATHEMATICS
ART EXPLANATION
To get to the best option for any image, I try not to look at the original image, but do the study on that topic myself. When I was reading on the history of Math, I soon came to understand that the Greek math was the highliest devellopped in its kind for that time, and still our maths nowadays is mostly influenced by this. Especially the ideas of Pythagoras. (did you know he's never written anything down, all study was by spoken word). So i decided to look for the best image that expresses the Pythagorean Theorem, his most important work. When I got some examples I realized the original card contains this theorem. And the original image really looks good. I DID redraw it, but didn't change the image's looks.




Other options. The pythagorean Pentacle and two different images on his theorem. Use google if you want to know more about the pentacle.

OK. This is some major change. (I mentioned it before. I was thinking about it. Now I know for sure...)
The device shown here on Astronomy was actually drawn for Calendar. It IS a calendar but was actually only used for sea navigation. When I was reading on Ancient Navigation I realized that the device used on the original Avalon Hill card for Astronomy is a devide called the astrolabium and is used much later than the time in which we play the game. (200AD)The device I drew for calendar was THE device used during that time. (Read more on this subject here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism)

So:

1. Astronomy should show the Antikythera Mechanism (100BC)

When I came to Calendar I came to 2 options. the stonehenge (I won't use this here, because of duplicate image for deism) or the egyptian Calendar (2700 BC).
Fun thing is: This calandar has always been on our card "mysticism" The actual thing. the stone circle contains 12 parts for 12 months. So I'll be using this for Calendar. (instead of the Aztec one)(Read more on this subject here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_calendar)



2. Calendar should show the Egyptian Calendar (2700BC)

So here it is. The new Calendar


CALENDAR
ART EXPLANATION
The ancient civil Egyptian calendar had a year that was 365 days long and was divided into 12 months of 30 days each, plus 5 extra days (epagomenes) at the end of the year. (2700 BC). This calendar is kind of similar to the one used nowadays. If you haven't read the above. It was used by Avalon Hill for the Advance Mysticism, but it has not much to do with that card. to be continued

Here's a short detail of my study on Mysticism


Mysticism

The Greeks gave us the very word for mysticism. The word means, “to shut the eyes or mouth.” The closed eyes and mouth in this context do not signify blindness or muteness, but secrecy and silence, and the order not to reveal the secrets of the initiation and revelation that one had received. The roots of Greek mysticism are very old, as old as the earliest Greek expansion through the Eastern Mediterranean in the 7th century BCE.

The basic meaning of “mysticism” has to do with the relationship of human beings to a divinity or deity. Mysticism is “introverted.” It is an “inner” experience, taking place within the consciousness of an individual human being. Yet there is also an “extroverted” mysticism, which is found in ritual and communal contexts. Both kinds of mysticism occur in the ancient Greek world, though the “extroverted” kind is more easily traceable. And in most cases, the “introverted” and the “extroverted” were both present in a mystical practice, rite, or event.

The religion, centered around the shamanic poet figure of Orpheus, though it is not well-documented by contemporary evidence, was highly influential in the development of later Greek mysticism in myth, theory, and practice. Orphism was an individualistic religion, in which salvation came through individual enlightenment, not through an impersonal “contract” between gods and men.

The Orphic egg is usually represented as an egg surrounded by a coiled serpent. The egg symbolizes the belief in the Greek Orphic religion that the universe originated from within a silver egg. It also symbolizes spiritual rebirth.

I'm not only redoing the images on each card. I also plan to redo the layout of all cards.

Here are some examples of how they might look.
This is not definitive. I'd like some respons if other people like or dislike this new style?







What I have changed:
1. I want to put the Attributes as complete as possible on front. (thus instead of 'ship can travel further' I wrote 'Ship movement is increased by one area each turn')
2. I put the cost of the card up next to the name of the card
3. I added a gradient instead of a hard line in multicolours
4. I put all credit on front. no number means no credits
5. I put any specific credit on front.
6. I made a separation between Attributes and Calamity effects.



Please let me know what you think....

MYSTICISM
ART EXPLANATION.
I really believe that the original art for Mysticism is a mistake. It shows the Egyptian Calendar, that has nothing to do with Mysticism. (please read my findings above). This is also a hard card to do an image for, but I found this symbol known as the orphic egg which symoblizes Orphic Mysticism, the most important form in ancient Greece.

MASONRY
ART EXPLANATION
The craft of masonry has been ther for millennia. With mud-brick and stone architecture, masons built towns and fortressed walls and left giant pyramids. When I look at the original art it shwos a monument, but when it comes to the card itself, it protects against Cyclone and gives credits to Engineering. So I drew an ancient coastal brick-wall that protects a city against the water.

Thanks for anyone who responded by mail on my last suggestion for the new cards-layout.

The findings were the following:

1. too chaotic
2. too small letters
3. too colourful


I've changed a bit.

1. I removed the stone texture and the black border.
2. I added 3 stroked white boxes instead of the rocks
3. I resized the credits symbols to be less important on front.
4. I made the image-box a bit bigger
5. I used a larger font for the text-box.

here are some ideas:




Please let me know again what you think about it.

Hello Flo, as I've said before, I think you're doing a great job with the cards. I think you've made the right decision with Calendar. If I may offer my own humble opinion regarding Astronomy, however, I think the Antikythera mechinism is too obscure. Perhaps simply having a ship at night with a familiar constellation in the sky would do? Just a suggestion.

OK.

thanks. Maybe, you could find a guiding image for me.. I'd also like to make two versions.

For my game, I put an explanation on the back of each card, but maybe if there is a better option, I change Astronomy anyway.

greets
flo

I'm thinking something such as this:

http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/4575 ... hipay6.jpg

Ok
thats an option.


I think it'll be a difficult thing to make a large black area
(not to draw, but to make that look good)
i'm going to try a bit.

I'm afraid the starry night thing is not going to work.
I've tried several things to make it look good, but the best option will still be a very dark image which will be very different from the rest. For now I keep it at the device. Maybe there is a better option, but I have no problems witht he device myself.

To test a bit, I've asked some friends about this device. Some of 'em do actually know about this thing. Maybe because we live in Europe, we know a bit more about the european history than people in America do.

(hey we discovered you. hahaha. :D :lol: :lol: :D )

So, I'm willing to change the picture but I think it's not nescesary enough to try and go for a difficult image to look good.

No problem, thanks for trying.