Civilization Board Game - Tactical Strategy for Ages 14+, 2-4 Players, 1-2 Hour Playtime by Fantasy Flight Games

Very involved, steep learning curve, all the pieces! Many things to keep in mind while playing, many ways to win, never the same game twice, very versatile game board, many different leaders and wonders that give handicaps or benefits that change even more aspects. All of these features mean you have to keep in mind a lot of details and make this game something you'll play with the same people over and over, it's not a quick board game for a party. They did a fairly good job of keeping a lot of classic civilization functions in a board game format. Good quality materials, pieces function well, but you may want to purchase a lot of little zip lock bags or some sort of organizer to help with game set up. There is one red wonder that seems to put the win in the bag for the player who gets it first. This one allows any card's action to be played a second time if you originally played it in the fifth slot - this basically means you play twice every turn if you set it up right and gives a major advantage that does seem unevenly overpowered compared to other wonders. No regrets in buying this though.

My son is a huge Civilization video game fan, and saved his own money to purchase this game. The pieces are durable, similar quality you would expect from an Arkham Horror or Twilight Imperium. My son did the setup and read the rules on his own and found the game to be easily playable even as it is more complex in its dynamics than a more conventional board game (Like Monopoly).

If you love the computer version, then this game will be a lot of fun. There are a lot of rules and setting up takes time. Games will take a long time to play. But games are very engaging and fun once you learn the rules. There are a lot of strategies. Each civ has a special bonus like in the computer version. So each civ offers a unique play style. The game has wonders, techs, city-states, that you will recognize from the computer version. The game also uses modular map pieces that allow you to create random maps by assembling different pieces like a puzzle. This offers a lot of replayability. The two big weaknesses in the game are the lack of any real military play. There are no military units. You just roll the dices to "attack" a tile. I wish the game had military units. The other weakness is the lack of containers for all the tokens. There are a lot of different tokens and once you remove them, they will be loose in the box. I recommend getting some small ziplock bags to put all the tokens in. It will really help you organize everything nicely.

It is more complex that Katan but still a good game to play with family and friends.

Absolutely fantastic! It really delivers that classic civilization video game experience in the format of a board game. Obviously, there have to be major differences to allow this format change but it capture's the games essence very well. Like the video game, it's complex with endless choices and possibilities, yet also streamlined and very easy to play after the first play-through/learning game.Pros:- Very fun, games typically take around 2-3 hours which is not too long, but long enough to feel like the world/game actually evolves- Captures the video game's essence very well- Endless choices and possibilities- Map creation element generates countless random maps for a different setup every game- Turns can happen fairly rapidly, so you don't need to sit around waiting for other players too longCons:- Tons of pieces/tokens and the box doesn't come with anything to store them and keep them separated- Setup takes quite a while (at least 15 minutes)- Wish the game supported up to 6 people (hopefully there will be expansions!)- Wish there were more victory scenario options- Rule-book is a little more complex than it needed to be

Lets start by saying that I’m a big Civilization fan, so the theme and scene is very familiar to me, so when I found out about a Civ board game there was a rush in me to buy it. If you are a fan of Civilization by Cid Meier games, you will find a theme rich and complex game in this.The other thing I have to say is that I only played (and will ever play) this game with the expansion. In my investigations pre-buy the reviews made it very clear that the expansion Terra Incognita fixed many of the problems and ambiguities of the base game and ads many well received mechanics.Now with review:The game put you in the shoes of civilization with unique advantages and leave you to form your own path to victory. The victory conditions are card that put and objective in the beginning. The first to complete this conditions, win; in a sense is a race to the finish. This is a long game, you should see yourself playing with friend for about 2.5-5 hours, in that sense is a epic game.One of my biggest complains with the game are the rules and how to learn them. The core system is easy and full of choice, you always have 5 (6 with the expansion) options that determinate your actions. The problem comes when there are a lot terms and in between the lines rules that affect the game and the rules fails to explain them. I short the rules book is a mess that gets worse with the expansion. Learning to play the game take like 1-2 hours of play time until you know what to do. When you do play, and you do understand the systems, it runs smooth like a well oil machine. The 5 options system is really cool and you should play it to really understand.The components in this game standard good.Like any Civilization game, you immerse yourself in the shoes of a leader and in the passing of the game you will fell your civilization growth, with your first city to you lv4 technology cards. The many leaders and win conditions makes for a long running game that have a lot of replay ability.Is you have a group that enjoys the thrill of building a civilization and have the patience to learn the rules by trial and error, this is a good game for that.