Just a thought about the Trade Empire Civ card. With the style of Civ that I and people that I know play (very friendly), using the power of this card is akin to stealing a card from another player. The player affected may find this unfair and thus be unfriendly in return or take that stolen trade card into account when trading. In my opinion, this would negate the effects of the card. A more realistic approach would simply be to allow the card holder the option of another draw from the stack of their choice, or even the option to draw and discard from one or more stacks, giving the ability to trade with the trade deck itself.

That way, no player is singled out for one players Civ ability to be used and it's moer like trading anyway, not just recieving another card.

Just one guys thoughts

I like your suggestion. Good idea.

Like you, our group plays a friendly game and Trade Empire is rarely bought - and when it is, the victims of the card find it irritating and this detracts from the group enjoyment of the game.

Some player are reticent to annoy their fellow player, and do not use this special ability card. Maybe these players could be given the option of trading with the stack or stealing from a fellow players?

Of course being a special ability card this would occur during the special abilities phase. What would happen should the player select a calamity card from the trade stack?

Would the calamity be played then - or held over to the next turn?

Maybe this special ability would need to be played first, straight after the calamity phase and before the other special abilities are played?

Or do you envisage that they trade with the stack until they get the card of their choice? But how would this work out in practice?

Maybe another option is that Trade Empire allows a player sacrifice one commodity card of a set to increase the value of another set by one. Of course both cards would have to be the same value. E.g. Sacrifice a salt card to increase the value of a fruit set.

This could work and would remove the possibility of a trade cards stack be tampered with.

I like this latter variation.

It would also make Trade Empire at the cost of 270 a card worth having.

Thank you for your suggestion.

In my experience of friendly games, one usually makes an exemption for the calamity phase, and by extension the special ability phase.
For example, if I and a neighbor is short of living space, we will discuss the issue with each other, and try to move in such a way that both of us will survive with as many tokens as possible, sharing equal of the losses, but during the calamity and special ability phase we try to deal maximum damage to anyone who is leading over us (currently has more VP than yourself). I understand that not all gaming communities has this specific culture, but it works out well for us.

Anyway, all your ideas will increase the wealth of the game, rather than redistributing it, something I'm not very keen on doing, as I think you get enough civcards in a game anyway.

Hi Jonno,

Thanks for your thoughts and while I see merit in your argument that "Your ideas will increase the wealth of the game, rather than redistributing it", I do not like the way card gives an extra advantage to the leading well off players.

In the games that I have played, Trade Empire is generally one of the later Special Ability Cards that is purchased - because the others like Diaspora, Monotheism, and Universal Doctrine give more value.

In general. it is usually purchased by leading wealthier bigger players who have already purchased the other Special Ability Cards, and who inflict the damage on poorer smaller players, who are struggling and cannot afford to purchase the cards to defend themselves from the effects of Trade Empire.

So in effect all the card does is annoy and irritate the poorer less well players and redistributes the wealth to the leading wealthier players.

I am sure this is not the intention of the card.

While the idea mentioned above will increase the overall wealth of the game, - and thus could potentially makes the game play a little shorter, it may also remove the unfairness factor of this card.

Well, that is what all advances does, in one way or another...


I've only seen it in play in a single game, and then it was the first 200+ card purchased in the entire game, so I can't agree on your conclusions.


The irritating part isn't intended, but the redistribution of wealth is, but not only from poor to rich, but between rich as well. Another rich player is more likely to have a card the player with Trade Empire is interested in than a poor player, as rich players generally collect higher level commodities than poor players.

In my opinion, when you wanna buy an expensive card like Trade Empire you are about to play tough. And your fellow players know this.

In our group we have several different styles of playing. One is playing more defensive, others more offensive, and this card is really offensive. When you feel you are the target of this card, i guess you hold the higher comoddity cards and so you can buy the wonder too.

the problems players may have with this card, are the same problems they may have with all secondary effects, and cards like monothesim, fundementalism, politics and so on.