Civilisation Board Game? - Page 2

Tau Ceti · May 4, 2001, 16:17

-- "How is it decided where the Barbarians start?"

They always start in one of the starting areas of the nation that is hit by the calamity, and they have to take the one where they do the most damage to the victim. So you should only be hit if you occupied all three of Babylon's map edge areas.

About that Flood, it is even more fun when it happens the other way around.

If you do not have a flood plain of your own, and you can get away with it, try to have a single unit on someone else's flood plain at all times.

Chowlett · May 4, 2001, 18:34

quote:

Originally posted by Tau Ceti on 05-04-2001 04:17 PM
-- "How is it decided where the Barbarians start?"

They always start in one of the starting areas of the nation that is hit by the calamity, and they have to take the one where they do the most damage to the victim. So you should only be hit if you occupied all three of Babylon's map edge areas.

Yes, I probably did. I'd pushed Babylon quite a long way south, so I controlled all eastern edges down to Susa (eastern-most territory of the flood-plain, north side.

quote:

About that Flood, it is even more fun when it happens the other way around.

If you do not have a flood plain of your own, and you can get away with it, try to have a single unit on someone else's flood plain at all times.

That's sneaky. Not only do you get away without loss of a coastal city, you also ensure they get hid by a nasty disaster in a hopefully nasty way!

btw, now that Adv Civ is out of print in the board game version, how much would you expect to pay for a mint-condition, just the expansion, Advanced? I did some scouting on EBAY, on the off-chance I could pick one up cheaply (to go with the original, if I do eventually buy it) and found only two. Guess how much?

Tau Ceti · May 4, 2001, 19:42

-- "Guess how much?"

No idea, but since you are asking, probably quite a lot. $50?

Anyway, I believe Adv Civ is only compatible with AH's own Civ version. Not sure why, as I have never taken a good look at other versions (I have only seen the Gibson version once, and briefly), but maybe the components (trade cards in particular) are not identical. So you should probably rather look for a complete set...

Chowlett · May 4, 2001, 20:25

$50 is very close. One just sold for about $60 (I reckon, it was 56 when I last saw it), and the current one has climbed to $34 in 5 bids. Complete sets seem to be rare - assuming they'd appear under a search for Advanced Civili(s/z)ation, there are currently none - and they'll be hugely expensive. I might just ettempt to do it myself, if I get that far. I can lift the rules off the computer game and probably create authentic-looking trade cards with the help of a scanner for the backs.

Urban Ranger · May 4, 2001, 23:40

I say stay with the original for now. The additions of Advanced Civilisation are nice, but I don't think it should cost that much. $30 or so maybe, $60 no way.

Chowlett · May 5, 2001, 00:14

Did slightly better in that game - I was only second-last, beating Illyria. When Africa moved into the Finish square, causing Iberia to win, I had just moved into the late Iron Age, with a tool that put me half-way towards the final numbered square on the AST. I finished with about 3100 points.

I have one major annoyance about calamities, and that is whenever the Barbarians struck Babylon, they alway came through me to get to Babylon. How is it decided where the Barbarians start?

I did have a very curious combination of Civil War and Flood - the civil war caused Thrace to get 2 of my units, while the rest of my nation stayed with me. Then the river flooded, forcing me to reduce 2 cities (Which were instantly rebuilt), and washing away the 2 units Thrace had annexed. I thought it was mildly funny.

May 7, 2001, 23:53

Wow! I'm glad I stumbled upon this thread...havem't been checking 'other games' for some time now...

I was a huge fan of the Civilization board game! I used to spend hours playing it with my friends from '86 all the way through '93 when I discovered Sid Meier's Civ.

I never knew there was an expansion to the board game or that there was a computer version of the game. Does the game have multiplayer capabilities, by any chance?

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Chowlett · May 8, 2001, 07:31

Yes, PBEM. I'd be willing to give it a go with you if you like. To get the game to work, you need to extract (IIRC) the adciv.0## files adn run tdujam.exe in the same directory (if it complains, try extracting digital.und as well). Then run install.exe from wherever it unpacked itself to.

To run the game, you need to reboot your computer, and go to Command Prompt Only. Install a mouse driver, and play.

May 8, 2001, 21:32

Sure!
I'll post in this thread once I've downloaded and installed the game.

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Underdogs · May 8, 2001, 22:23

Advanced Civilization is on the Strategy section of my site, along with other Avalon Hill oldies that have long ago been abandoned

See my sig for the URL.

Haven't gotten around to scanning the manual yet, though.

-Underdogs

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http://www.theunderdogs.org/

May 9, 2001, 21:25

Managed to download and install it. Installing wasn't as easy as I thought. In the end, I had to unpack each of the zip files before running the exe.

Also, there was the need to copy the crack file before running the game.

However, I haven't managed to play the game, because I get a 'unable to configure mouse' error.

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Urban Ranger · May 9, 2001, 23:39

Maybe you need to boot into pure DOS...

Chowlett · May 10, 2001, 03:44

You do indeed need to boot into pure DOS, although running in windows shouldn't give that error...

When in DOS, you then need to install a mouse driver - you really need a file called "mouse.com", if you have a driver disk for your mouse, you can probably find it on there, it'll be under "Dos Drivers" or something similar. Failing that, it's fairly small (3 files possibly needed, total size 86 kb), so I could mail it to you.

If that isn't the problem, sorry I can't help.

when you do get it working, you may want to edit your advcivil.bat file so that reads...

quote:

c:\mouse\mouse
echo off
ac_start
ac_main /nt %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9

which will automatically install the mouse (assuming the path is correct, obviously), and the run the game skipping the rather long and not-particulrly-interesting titles.

May 10, 2001, 21:14

I got the 'msmouse.exe' file from the microsoft website. (It's stored in the win98 section, even though it's a DOS driver

)

So I finally got the game working after using the 'advv1.bat' file.

I played a few rounds, and it seems just like the board game, so far.

I realised that we need at least 3 players for a PBEM game. It seems not to allow AI players for PBEM games. Also, the 3-player game is a smaller map.

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[This message has been edited by phoenixcager (edited May 10, 2001).]

Chowlett · May 11, 2001, 05:27

Ah yes, missed that. Anyone else up for it?

Btw, have you tried running advcivil.bat? advcivv1.bat will force the game to start in old-style VGA mode.

May 11, 2001, 22:27

Yes...I tried the advcivil.bat file, but it just led to a screen filled with ASCII characters...

If we get a third person to fill the PBEM slot, you can email me at phoenixcager@email.com

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Chowlett · May 12, 2001, 06:12

Not many people read this forum - I'll post on the OT.

May 21, 2001, 09:52

It's a shame that no one wants to give this a go....
It would have been fun to be able to try it out.

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Chowlett · June 6, 2001, 10:10

Right, now that term is over, I am now really seriously considering buying this game. I do, however, want to check a couple of things first.

Firstly - how long does an average game take to play?
Secondly - am I likely to be able to find other players, given I'm the only person I know (for example) that plays Civilisation (Sid Meier) style games?

Tau Ceti · June 6, 2001, 11:39

A typical game takes about 10-12 hours, depending on the number of players and the length of the food breaks.

I have found that a surprising number of people are willing to give board gaming a go, but the time factor may put them off. Plus you really should have at least five people to play it (four as an absolute minimum), so if you do not know any potential players, it could be tough.

Chowlett · June 8, 2001, 18:38

Any further thoughts?

Urban Ranger · June 9, 2001, 03:39

Go check your university's gamers' club for players. I am sure there's one at Cambridge, after all, you have all sorts of geeks (used in a positive sense) there

. Check the Student Union's directory for a Gamers, or Wargaming, or Science Fiction, etc. Club.

BTW you might not need to buy the game. The club might have it, or somebody there might have it.