An Analysis of Civilization The Board Game PDF

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An Analysis of Civilization: The Board Game

IAT 210 June 13, 2017

Question 1: Bibliographical Reference Wilson, Kevin. Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game [Game]. Roseville: Fantasy Flight Games. 2010. Question 2: Significance of the Name of the Game The game I am analyzing is Sid Meier’s Civilization:The Board Game, created by Kevin Wilson and published by Fantasy Flight Games. This game is based on the widely popular video game series Sid Meier’s Civilization. With the release of Civilization VI in 2016, the series has sold over 33 million copies since their first game in 1991 (Tharoor, 2016). It is one of the best selling strategy video games of all time. The design of the video game Civilization took inspiration from Risk, a classic war strategy board game, and included building and city management elements from the video games Simcity and Railroad Tycoon (Edwards, 2007). Despite some necessary simplifications to some elements of the game such as the combat system, that cannot be mirrored from a video game to a board game due to its computerized complexity, the core elements that inspired the creation of Civilization is still intact. This is significant because it allows fans of the Civilization video game series to have some familiarity with the board game, making the 32-page rulebook less overwhelming as they already understand some of the basic concepts of the game. Players may enjoy the close personal social interactions of a tabletop board game while making the same complex strategic decisions derived from the popular video game. The game’s name, Civilization, also has historical context, players can play as various different powerful civilizations from the past such as the Egyptian or the Roman empire, each with their own unique attributes. For example, the Egyptian’s unique attribute is that they are able to build more buildings during their City Management turn. This unique attribute fits the historical context of the Ancient Egyptian empire, as they were one of the fastest developing civilizations of their time. The fit between the game name and the historical context makes the game more realistic, creating a more immersive experience.

Question 3: Entering the Magic Circle The magic circle is the boundary of where the game takes place. When players enter the magic circle, it is like entering a new realm, space and time are based on the rules of the game that they are playing. It creates a new set of meaning or goals for the players, which encourages them to follow the game rules to win the game. In Civilization, the game board defined the space of play, and the rules of the game put all units in play on grids of the game board. The magic circle begins when all players have put their units on the board and become ready to start the game. Inside the magic circle, the rules change the perception of time in the real world, instead of a clock to keep track of the progression of the game, players move in turns. Each turn varies depending on how long each player takes to complete their turn, but each turn is measured in the same amount of time. In my playthrough of the game, in the “movement” turn, one of my friends would often take much longer to complete their turn because he enjoyed fighting the aggressive village camps. When he fights a village camp during his movement turn, he has to engage in combat system developed in the

game, which can take about 5 minutes to complete. After the fight, his turn is over and it counts as one “movement” turn. Now, during my turn, I would often only move my scout unit to find a good place to build a new base, this usually only takes about 10 seconds for the “movement” turn. The magic circle takes place as time is no longer defined as how long has passed between each turn, my friend took 5 minutes to complete his turn and I took 10 seconds to complete mine, but they were both considered to be a single turn. The real world measurement of time becomes irrelevant to the measurement of time inside the magic circle.

Question 4: Game Objects: The Scout Game objects are the physical or abstract parts of the game mechanics that players can interact with. Some of the objects in the game include the scout units, the market (for buying buildings), the tech cards (for upgrades), the resource chips, and the city markers. I believe the Scout unit is the most important object in the game, this unit is used to explore new areas of the board, set up new cities, and collect resources every turn. These units can also be placed on enemy buildings to “blockade” them from getting resources from that building until it leaves that space. As players are only limited to having a maximum of two scouts on the board, players must carefully decide where to put them. The number of important actions that the scout can do makes it one of key components of strategic decisions in the game.

Question 5: Attributes of the Scout Attributes indicate specific information about an object, it is categorized to show the possible effects of a given object. Objects can have multiple attributes and each attribute has can have one or more states. The attributes of the scout unit includes the “play” attribute, with the states “in play” (on the board) or “out of play” (not on the board). The scout unit has static attributes, such as it is always moveable during the movement turn and the color of it remains the same throughout the game. The “build city” and “blockade” attribute both has two states, “yes” or “no.” The “placement” attribute includes the states “alone” or “accompanied.” In further detail of the “placement” attribute, this attribute depends on where and who the scout is placed with. At the end of the movement turn, if the scout is in the “alone” state, enemy army units are able to kill the scout without engaging in combat, if they move to the same tile as it during their turn. However, if the scout is with a friendly army unit, it turns into the “accompanied” state. Now, if an enemy army unit enters the same tile as the scout, they must engage in combat against the other player if they wish to kill the scout. In my playthrough of the game, I soon realized the importance of the scout unit, it can collect or steal several resources from other players every turn. However, this also made it one of the most vulnerable targets in the game. If I wanted good resources I had to move far away from my city capitals and put my scout in the “accompanied” state for protection, but this would leave my cities more vulnerable to attacks. The balance between protecting the scout and my cities were often difficult to decide. This is an example of attributes of objects adding more strategic value into the game.

Question 6: Some of the Operative Actions Due to the complexity of Civilization, there are several operative actions that can be taken place. On the “city management” turn, players are allowed to “produce a figure, unit, building, or wonder,” “devote to arts,” or “harvest a resource.” However, players are only allowed to use one of these actions for each of their cities in the city management turn. On the “trade” turn, players have the actions: “collecting trade (a resource for upgrades),” and “negotiating and trading” with other players. On the “movement” turn, players can move units to new places and engage in “combat” and on the research turn, players can “upgrade tech cards.” The amount of simple operative actions works together to make the game more complex as players must decide when is the right time to use a given action.

Question 7: Resultant Actions and Strategy In the Civilization board game, one can win in many different ways, not just by defeating the enemy’s capital city. A player may also win by collecting enough of specific resources, such as culture tokens, gold coins, or tech upgrades. The vast amount of operative actions in the game, gives way to several resultant actions that can aid in winning the game. In my playthrough of the game, my friend would often use the operative action “devote to arts” to collect culture tokens. The resultant actions of “devoting to arts” is that he is unable to make any units, collect any resources, or build buildings during that turn, however, he becomes one step closer to achieving a “cultural victory.” At first, I ignored his collection of the cultural tokens, but as the game progressed and he became very close to achieving the cultural victory, I had to change my strategy and attempt to stop his production of culture tokens. In the end, I had to gather all my army units and rush to attack his city capital in attempt to achieve a military victory before he was able to achieve his cultural victory. He loss the battle in his city capital as a resultant action of “devoting to arts” because in his strategy, he invested too much turns into collecting cultural tokens which did not allow him to build enough defensive buildings.

Question 8: The Test of Skill This game contains a combination of mental and social skills. Like a game of chess, Civilization tests the mental skills of the player. Placing units in the right place, purchasing the right buildings at the right time, and picking tech card upgrades that are most situationally useful for that game all require mental skill. However, there are some elements in the game that also require social skills. For example, when trading resources with other players, players are allowed to make non-binding agreements, which requires the trader to read the opponent’s mind on why they would want to initiate in such a trade. In my game, I lied in an agreement early on in the game to get an advantage, but the consequence of that action is that it also made my friends team up against me for lying on an agreement. Like most strategy games, players can improve their skills with practice. By playing each of different types of civilizations and testing different strategies, players become more familiar with common strategies and moves for each civilization. With practice, players would be able to easily identify some key indications of which strategy another player is playing and attempt to counter it. For example, in our playthrough, a unique tech card that my friend used was called “Engineering” which allowed him to build two buildings in one turn instead of just one building. This is an indication that my friend was

attempting to prolong the game so that he can collect more and more resources in the long run. To counter this strategy, I rushed to upgrade the strength and mobility of my units so that I was able to pressure his cities, this would make his tech upgrade weaker because he would have to build defenses to counter my army or risk his cities getting destroyed.

Question 9: Contrast Between Operational Rule and Behavioral Rule An operational rule from Civilizations, is that on the movement turn, the first player must finish their turn before the next player moves, and the turn sequence is clock-wise. A behavioral rule that is implicit in the game is that players should not take too long to complete their turn. Although players are technically allowed to take as long as they like, it is unsportsmanlike to take far too long to complete each turn. In our playthrough, we would often tell another player to “hurry up” if they were being too slow. Although it did not resort that a player took so long that we decide to skip his turn, it is sometimes done with the agreement of the other players. This behavioral rule underlines the operational rule, players are suppose to wait for the other player to finish their turn before making their own, but it is expected that each player completes their turn within a reasonable time frame.

Question 10: Analysis of Player Motivation The game players that would be most attracted to this game are ones who enjoy strategy. In Civilization: The Board Game, careful decision-making and planning is critical in every turn. This game has many strategic decisions to make every turn such as city and resource management, exploration, combat, and upgrades. The game uses innate complexity to make several viable strategies, forcing players to think about the long-term plans and balancing their resource production, defenses, and offenses. Players find the game pleasureable through making careful decisions and feeling the satisfaction and excitement in setting up and watching their long-term plans unfold. Another type of player that would be attracted to this game are ones that enjoy competition. Many competitive gamers tend to enjoy games that tests their skills, such as Starcraft, League of Legends or Chess. The game can be competitive as it primarily tests the mental skills of the player. Players find pleasure in outplaying their opponent or countering their strategy, which could finally result in a satisfying victory. As each game typically takes 2-4 hours to complete, competitive players can feel very satisfied knowing that their victory had little to do with chance, but achieved through making a series of well made plays throughout the game. Works Cited Edwards, Benj. "The History of Civilization." Gamasutra. N.p., 18 July 2007. Funk. Introduction to Game Studies. 1st ed. Vancouver: Simon Fraser U, 2015. Print. Tharoor, Kanishk. "What Sid Meier’s Video Game Empire Got Right and Wrong About ‘Civilization’." Longreads. Kill Screen, 26 Oct. 2016. Wilson, Kevin. Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game [Game]. Roseville: Fantasy Flight Games. 2010....