Civilization: Specialty Variant
From: bengalt@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Pencil Rain)
Newsgroups: rec.games.board
Subject: [AdCiv] More Variants
Date: 21 Mar 1994 18:06:56 GMT
I'm glad to see all the recent discussion about Civ and AdCiv recently. It's reminded me of a variant that I came up with that I've always wanted to try, but never got around to (yet).
After the selection of countries, but before play begins, each player is randomly assigned a "specialty" category of civilization cards. These specialties break down as follows:
| Color | Specialty (+10) | Related (+5) | Opposite (-10) | Rel. Opposite (-5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| green | Science | Technology | Religion | Arts |
| orange | Technology | Science | Arts | Religion |
| blue | Arts | Religion | Technology | Science |
| yellow | Religion | Arts | Science | Technology |
Note: You cannot specialize in Civics (red)
Each specialty represents an area that the people of your country have decided to focus their society on. Your specialty gives you a 10 point discount on civilization cards of that color and a 5 point discount on all cards in the related area. (Example: A country speializing in Art gets a 10 point discount on Drama/Poetry and a 5 point discount on Monotheism) Because your country is so focused on these aspects of civilization, however, you suffer a 10 point penalty on cards from your "opposite" area and a 5 point penalty on cards from the "related opposite" area. (Example: The country described above must pay 10 points extra for Metalworking and 5 points extra for Astronomy) Civilization cards with mixed colors receive the cumulative bonus/penalty of the colors involved.
The only other change is the requirement that, in order to advance to the final spot on the AST, a civilization must have all cards of it's specialty color (including mixed cards containing it's color) to win.
I think that this is fairly balanced, but would make for some interesting strategies. Countries based on Art will play very differently from a country based on Science. Also, it makes the game less of a try-to-rack-up-the-points game to one where building up a coherent civilization becomes an important goal as well. Any feedback on this idea would be greatly appreciated...
later
bengalt@wpi.WPI.EDU