USD ($)
EUR (€)
Back in 1991 Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley designed a new style of strategy game for the computer called Civilization. This launched the genre of what we now term turn-based 4X strategy games where you have to explore new lands and develop your people through the passage of time to reign supreme. Still going strong over 30 years later, the current iteration of Civilization is CIV VI and Firaxis and 2K have just announced the future arrival of CIV VII. Full details of this are to be revealed in August 2024 with a full release in 2025.
Whilst computer gamers will have to wait till then for their fix let’s look at what’s available now for the table-top players.
Sid Meier’s Civilization A New Dawn – Dan Hilton
I suck at civilisation games. I know, a great intro for having a place on this list, right? They annoy me, they never play out how I expect them to and Civilization VI especially, occupies a special place in the back of my mind. The place where things live that I hate that I enjoy. Because I do enjoy it, and as much as it irks me to admit, I was actually quietly excited at the announcement of Civilization VII. Civilization New Dawn manages to distil the video game down into a digestible format for the tabletop. And surprisingly, it does it well. The game bears the Sid Meier’s fabled branding and it is certainly earned. Whilst you will not be having dozens of hours going to war with a nuke obsessed Ghandi, you will however be competing to build your civilisation out in ways that satisfy objectives over several hours. This is not a game where you are acquiring hundreds of victory points. This is a game of careful consideration of how to expand, where to send troops, what resources to take control of etc in a bid to achieve the goals on display first.
The way in which you take your actions is the highlight of the game for me. As it was the first game to use a mechanic that later helped propel the highly popular Ark Nova to its heights. This is the game that gave life to the mechanic of your actions on a track, and the longer you leave the action to move up the track, the stronger and more useful it will be when you trigger that action. This simple mechanic adds so much depth to your choices and helps to make New Dawn a fantastic asymmetrical gaming experience. Whilst it is likely not the most grandiose or expansive game to be featured on this list, it is definitely a game that I highly recommend to anyone who has played the Sid Meier’s Civilization video games.
Now if only they would continue the Sid Meier’s Pirates games…
Imperium: Civilisation Without Maps – Roger BW
The Imperium series (Classics, Legends, Horizons) seems like a contradictory game: everyone knows that civilisation games have a map in the middle of the table, and you send armies or at least settlers out to conquer your enemies. How can a game that doesn’t do those things still give you the feel of the development of a civilisation?
Probably the most important consideration is the Barbarian/Empire card (and its variants with some of the later civilisations). As a Barbarian nation, you’ll get a random card from your Nation pile each time you cycle the deck; as an Empire, you can control which developments to prioritise. But more importantly, other decks change their usability: you can’t send out River Raiders once you become an empire, or even more significantly use the Conquer card that’s in most nations’ decks, useful as it might be on the other hand you can’t develop an Education System or even
Market Stalls until you make the change. This forces you to consider whether you’ll race to become an Empire and prosper from civilisation or remain a conquering Barbarian as long as possible.
But how do you invade your enemies? Indirectly! When you force an opponent to abandon or recall a Region (so it goes back in their discard pile or hand), they may still have the card, but you’ve effectively removed it from their control; they have to take the time to develop it again, using a precious action, before they can see its benefits. The Romans’ (Classics) Roman Invasion forces other players to do this, while the Romans gain a new region of their own; and Bread and Circuses lets them burn off two Unrest every Solstice. Meanwhile the Vikings (Classics) are permanently Barbarian, but with the option to use some Civilised cards, and powerful cards which normally go into History after one use cycle back to their discard pile instead. A nation like the Tang (Horizons) has very limited Uncivilised cards, and doesn’t take away opponents’ Regions, but instead makes itself peacefully prosperous.
Your nation’s cultural and geographical possibilities are modelled by its card deck; the path to victory is determined by card play rather than moving troops, but the game tackles the same questions of prosperity and governance as a traditional CIV game.
Imperium: Horizons – Pete Bartlam
I came to Imperium with the 3rd and biggest box of Imperium Civilisations, all 14 of them, and I was completely blown away. Having been a CIV player on the PC right from CIV I, clocking up literally thousands of hours of play time, I was eager to see how Osprey games and designers Nigel Buckle and David Turczi could simulate such an experience on my table and without even a map board. I was not disappointed.
Each of the 14 Nation decks are unique and display the distinctive characteristics of the peoples involved. Whilst you are totally free to choose your actions and which cards to add from the common cards in the Market you get subtly guided into
developing in a historical fashion. As Roger points out, above, some things will be done when you are still Uncivilised whilst others will develop once Civilisation has been achieved. How soon you wish to transition from one state to the next will depend on your nation. The Magyars, for example, may want to stay as barbarian hordes sweeping across the plains of Europe before they settle down whereas the Japanese will want to move to civilise as quickly as possible to utilise their more sophisticated, educated abilities.
Allied to this, famous leaders and cultural figures are offered to you in your decks but must come on the scene in correct chronological order. This all builds to give a truly unique feel to each of the Civilisations. They also have their own abilities and often completely different means of play. In effect this means you have not one civilisation game in Imperium Horizons but fourteen!
The Nations represented are an eclectic bunch. With the standard Romans, Greeks, Egyptians etc being covered in the earlier games here we have Inuits, Sassanids, Mayans, Polynesians and so on plus the more out there Cultists and Martians.
This can be quite educational: Did you know the Guptas ruled India or that the Abbasids were the third Islamic Caliphate or that the Aksumites ruled Northern Ethiopia and were credited with bringing Christianity to sub-Saharan Africa? Don’t worry, as Osprey say you can play Imperium Horizons without considering the historical back story but it’s more fun if you do.
Horizons brings a new capability: Trading to the party. It also has a Solo bot version available. However, I most enjoyed playing Multi-Player Solo, playing 2 different Nations side by side to compare and contrast their different styles.
Through the Ages A New Story of Civilization – Neil Parker
A great civilisation game for me needs to give that sense of progress and development. After all, you are playing a nation or empire that wants to expand, develop new ideas, look after its citizens and be remembered as a great nation. That is typical for many civilisation themed games, and with Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization, this is the case, but what it does very well I think is the level of detail and its replayability.
There is a fair bit of micromanagement involved as you select which technologies to develop, and how to use your growing population to best effect. You have to feed them too those rascals, farm your resources, develop faith so your people are happy, science so you can develop your society, build new-fangled buildings and maintain defence forces so nasty neighbours don’t decide to steal your resources.
Although the game doesn’t have a map, the game is engaging enough and play can be long but feel remarkably quick at times in terms of advancing through the ages. It is easy to miss out on key technologies too as they get drafted by players, but it can work in your favour too. There is a fair degree of control over your strategy and it has enduring appeal because in large part each game you play can be so very different.
One for the micromanagers though, but it’s fun. I love the theme and the leaders and wonders are quite varied adding the icing sugar to a great civilisation themed game.
Tapestry - Dan Street-Phillips
When Tapestry was announced as Jamie Stegmaier’s ‘ideal’ civilisation game there was huge hype as Stonemaier Games were pretty much at the top of their game. However, the inclusion of the words ‘a civilisation game’ led many people to expect a very specific type of game.
Tapestry takes the elements of classic ‘civ’ games such as development in technology, culture and military prowess and turns it toward his more favoured ‘euro’ mechanisms. The game sees players begin with an asymmetric clan and then offers a number of tracks through which they can develop their civilisation whilst building up a polyomino puzzle of a capital city and exploring a central map where your main interaction with other players happens.
Some argue the theme is very loosely plastered on but first and foremost your original clan will dictate the route you take and everything from that point on fuels that original civilisation. Then each track offers flavour that for those of us inclined, can paint a wonderful picture of where this civilisation goes in their development. I also love the little puzzle of placing buildings into a capital city map, gaining rewards as you do so.
However, the thing I love the most is you can develop your history however you please, sticking to a more historically accurate idea or going all out into the fantasy of it all. I think ‘civ’ games often take themselves very seriously which is exactly what Tapestry doesn’t do and that maybe why it bounced off a lot of players, but that fun side is what keeps me going back for more.
Twilight Imperium 3 & 4 – Neil Parker
As Civilisation games go, Twilight Imperium for me stands out as the epic. A coffin box game that rarely gets played because it can take over 9-10 hours to play, but if you can set aside a day to play it, it is worth it and you feel you’ve had an experience, as long as you don’t get knocked out! Don’t worry too much though as I’ve not seen this happen.
Whereas most civilisation games take place on Earth, either from a planet-wide perspective or a regional one e.g. the Mediterranean, TI3 and TI4 take place across a galaxy. I say both TI3 and TI4 because although TI4 is more streamlined and an easy game to play, and I think better for it, TI3 is certainly still very playable; which is nice for those who have a copy.
I love games with maps and moving units around, the ‘dudes on a map’ style of game. Twilight Imperium offers that with spaceships. Technology is there to research and I really do like the asymmetrical nature of this game and its varied play. Each game offers you the opportunity to play a different space-faring race looking to expand as typical in a 4x game. There isn’t a lot of micromanagement involved, but the game does offer the opportunity for more inter-player negotiations and backstabbing. Making deals and voting on new laws is a key part of the game and it can help those failing behind in the victory point race.
Civilisation is a great theme for games, because in part I feel the level of control over progress and development. Twilight Imperium takes the concept and reaches for the stars.
