Civilization the Board Game.

[Utrecht]

Can Settlers be played with two players?

Maybe I should open this up a little. I am looking for fun games to play with my wife, who loves board games (non military strat war) and dislikes roleplaying. We play tons of different card games, occasional Monopoly etc, but I wanted to find something new. Any suggestions?

I wanted to know about Civ so I could play with my friends.

The short answer is no - there is a resource trading element there and only having 2 people involved defeats it (like playing Monopoly with 2 people - sure it is do able, but much less fun)

So good 2 players games.

The most highly recommended on that I can come up with is Carcassone and Carcassone : Hunters and Gatherers. These are tile laying games where a person draws a tile from a bag, places it down and puts one of thier limited people down on the board for either immediate scoring, later scoring or end of game scoring.

Ceaser and Cleopatra is not bad - although there are some suspected balance issues with the value of playing hidden influence points.

Pueto Rico is pretty good - I have enjoyed that one.

Tikal, Java, etc. Are all similar games that are supposedly fun, but I have not played them.

Other games that are 3+ players

I highly recommend Bohnanza - it is (trust me on this) a game about bean farming where you attempt to complete sets to score points. Again, it is a trading game so it really needs the third.

Tigris and Euprates (I think that this could be played 2 player) is great!! It is about building a civilization (in its most abstact terms) in the fertile cresent.

Union Pacific (This can be played with 2 players - but is much more fun with more) It is about building and managing a railroad in North Americal - very similar to Acquire.

Overall, I would go into your local game store (my LGS sells both board games and RPG stufff) and tell them what you are after - after all they are there to help you out.

Also, you might want to go to this site - it lists out pretty much all of the Rio Grande and Mayfay games - two very accessible game companies: http://www.boardgames.com/riogranmayga.html

HTH

 

[Staffan]

Old Civ

Actually, IIRC, the old Civilization board game is in a bit of a chaotic situation regarding the rights. It was originally made by a company called Gibson Games, and then re-released by Avalon Hill. Avalon Hill also made two expansions: Western Expansion Map (introducing the Iberian peninsula and replacing the Italian tribe with the Iberian tribe, and giving Africa some more living space) and Advanced Civilization (which IMO made the game a lot better, giving most commodity "values" two actual commodities among other things).

When AH went bankrupt and was bought out by Hasbro, I'm pretty sure that the rights to (Basic) Civilization went back to Gibson Games (who have since re-released it), but that the rights to the expansions stayed with AH/Hasbro. AH doesn't seem to eager to release Advanced Civ again, which is a damn shame.

 

[Sixchan]

Yep, I saw the game demo at Gen Con and I just took another look at the huge box it comes in at the store this weekend. It had hardly any description on the back so it's difficult to say.

But I've played every version of the computer game series and it is great. It's obviously different as I saw regions of the map are labeled like "Mississippi" and "Congo", I believe. I'm sure it takes longer to play than Axis & Allies, also a great game. But I'd try it if I had the chance.

Basically, the goal of game is to take a tribe of settlers, build a city, grow it, expand by building more cities, develop technology and military forces, and create the greatest, most advanced, and most powerful civilization in the world.

I would also recommend trying Civilization III on PC. It just came out with an expansion set a couple of months ago. It's definitely more complex than the board game, but easy to learn once you understand the basic concepts. VERY addictive!

Play the World was probably the second biggest waste of my money ever. It's barely playable online for most people (even with the patches), the extra civs aren't really any better than ones you can find on the internet, and all the new features aren't so amazing either.

That said, the Patched version of Civ 3 is a great game, but Alpha Centauri is even better!

 

[Olive]

That said, the Patched version of Civ 3 is a great game, but Alpha Centauri is even better!

madness. haven't got play the world yet, but it sounds great. but alpha centuri better than Civ 3? psssssssah

 

[Sixchan]

madness. haven't got play the world yet, but it sounds great. but alpha centuri better than Civ 3? psssssssah

No, seriously, you REALLY shouldn't. Not yet anyway. Given the chance again, I wouldn't buy it until this 'multiplayer' expension pack actually let you RUN a multiplayer game without TONS of lag. If you want extra civs, go to one of the sites I metioned on my first post in the thread. If you want upgrades like radar towers and airbases, play Alpha Centauri.
Honest, I'm not joking. This expansion is NOT worth the money. Wait until its playable, or wait for Civ 4.

And besides, would you really buy a game that won GS's 'Most Disappointing Game of the Year' award?

 

[Mercule]

That said, the Patched version of Civ 3 is a great game, but Alpha Centauri is even better!

I'm not sure I agree with you here, but I certainly wouldn't argue the point. The two are _both_ awesome. It's amazing that a three or four year old game is still even competition for a similar game that's current.

 

[Olive]

And besides, would you really buy a game that won GS's 'Most Disappointing Game of the Year' award?

which game was that? civ 3 or the expansion? have you tried the patches? there's at least two out...

 

[Sixchan]

which game was that? civ 3 or the expansion? have you tried the patches? there's at least two out...

It was the expansion pack. Like I said, Civ 3 was a very good game. And I have the latest patch installed, but the Multiplayer aspect is still virtually unplayable.

 

[Mistwell]

Can Settlers be played with two players?

Maybe I should open this up a little. I am looking for fun games to play with my wife, who loves board games (non military strat war) and dislikes roleplaying. We play tons of different card games, occasional Monopoly etc, but I wanted to find something new. Any suggestions?

I wanted to know about Civ so I could play with my friends.

Someone earlier said no, you cannot play settlers with two players.

They are wrong. Sure you can! First, check out this page:

http://globetrotter.crosswinds.net/index.htm?E&game/rules/eSetCat3.htm

Then try this page, with three 2-player variations:

http://www.unicornsrest.org/reference/catan/

Then there is the official Settlers of Catan card game, designed specifically for 2 players, and there is even an expansion for it:

http://www.coolgames.com/mfg-cat/soc/0485-00.htm

Finally, someone earlier mentioned there are basically 3 games involved, settlers, spacefairers (which also has a 2-player card game version by the way), and cannan (they might have also mentioned cities & knights). That also isn't accurate. There are tons of Catan games! It's just that most of them are in German, not English (yet). However the rules are downloadable in english, and they all make great games. There's Alexander the Great, Cheops, Troy, The Great Wall, Nuremberg, a Settlers Book, which includes 15 scenarios, 18 variants, and enough new components for the truly addicted fan to create as many new versions of the game as one could possibly want. In all, the Luding web site lists no fewer than 16 different published versions of The Settlers of Catan, probably enough to keep any gamer occupied for several lifetimes.

 

[orbitalfreak]

For anyone interested in purchasing the old (or new, if you want) Civilization board games, check E-Bay. I found a few of each version. The 3 old games are listed at $12, $17, and $41 right now.

Here's on of them