[1] INTRODUCTION: These rules are intended for use with Avalon Hill's Advanced Civilization.
[1.1] Motivation: These rules encourage more combat over territory. They also provide more trade cards, leading to a shorter game. I'm not promoting either of these as a good thing as such but I've heard both complaints made so I thought I'd try a solution.
[1.2] Relationship to Eastern Extension Maps: This variant is by the same author as, and is consistent with, the Eastern Extension Maps. But it's completely separable from them: you can play with or without these rules, regardless of whether you are using the Eastern Extension Map.
[2] CAPITALS: The following city sites are designated as capitals, and should be marked somehow on the map. They have been chosen for historical significance (admittedly often after the period of the game) and occasionally out of whimsy.
[2.1] Rome (Italy, 2 area).
[2.2] Carthage (Africa, adjacent to Sicily).
[2.3] Troy (Asia Minor, adjacent to mainland Europe).
[2.4] Athens (Eastern tip of mainland Greece).
[2.5] Argos (South-eastern tip of mainland Greece, representing Mycenae).
[2.6] Miletus (South-western Turkey, 1 area, representing Ionian centres of philosophy).
[2.7] Knossos (Eastern Crete).
[2.8] Ankara (Northernmost of the triangle of inland cities in Turkey, no lake, representing Hattusa, capital of the Hittites).
[2.9] Nineveh (3 area north of Tigris, touching two lakes).
[2.10] Babylon (2 area between Tigris and Euphrates).
[2.11] Ur (between Tigris and Euphrates, on coast).
[2.12] Susa (on coast and right hand map edge).
[2.13] Memphis (3 area in Nile flood plain, adjacent to coastal areas).
[2.14] Thebes (rightmost of two adjacent 3 area cities on bottom edge).
[2.15] Persepolis (Persian Extension Map, southernmost city).
[2.16] Mohenjo-Daro (Lower Indus Extension Map, 3 area, upper edge, just to the right of scenario edge).
[2.17] Harappa (Upper Indus Extension Map, 4 area).
[2.18] Pataliputra (Ganges Valley Extension Map, upper right corner).
[3] BIDDING:
[3.0] General: These rules are not fair. They give a lot more capitals to Babylon, for instance, than to the Iberians. So I'm including a bidding system to iron out the advantage and disadvantages of various player positions. This section replaces the usual dealing of cards which determine the order of choice. It could be used in any game.
[3.1] Bids: Each player bids before choosing positions. Each bid must be an integer between 0 and 56 inclusive. If you've lost any of the "blank" tokens then the minimum bid is 1.
[3.2] Order of Choice: The largest bid chooses first, then the second-largest bid chooses, etc..
[3.3] Resolving Ties, Easy Method: Randomly determine the order of players in a tie.
[3.4] Resolving Ties, Complex Method: Randomly determine a provisional order of the players in the tie. Then allow the player coming last to promote himself to first (leaving the other players in order) by increasing his bid by one. If he declines, write him in as last and move on to the last of the remaining players. Repeat until all but the leader have waived an opportunity to increase their bid, players should end up in reverse order of when they wimped out. Note that increasing a bid doesn't ever put you ahead of a player who originally bid more then you did.
[3.5] Cost of Bid: The number of tokens available to a player is 56 minus his bid.
[4] EFFECT OF CAPITALS
[4.0] General: Cities on capital sites are known as capital cities. They behave the same as ordinary cities except as described below.
[4.1] None of the special properties of capital cities are in effect until at least one player has bought a civilization advance.
[4.2] Trade Cards: When receiving trade cards each city on a capital site counts as two cities. A player may have as many as 9 capital cities, and therefore receive a maximum of 18 cards. This is explained in detail in the next section.
[4.3] In a Civil War at least one capital city, if available, must be flipped over by the owning player as part of the first faction.
[5] RECEIVING TRADE CARDS
[5.0] General: Trade cards are given out in two phases: principal and supplemental.
[5.1] Principal Phase: This phase is identical to the standard trade cards phase. Each player receives as many cards as he has cities, up to a maximum of 9. Players may also buy gold cards in this phase.
[5.2] Supplemental Phase: Each player with more than 9 cities receives and additional number of cards equal to his number of cities minus 9. This is done in the usual way except as described in the remainder of this section.
[5.3] Order Change: The extra cards come from the top down, starting with 9, then 8, then 7, etc..
[5.4] Missing Card Change: If a deck of cards has been exhausted then skip over it without counting it as a card.
[5.5] Example: A player has 3 capital cities (counting as 2 each) and 5 regular cities for a total of 11. During the principal phase he receives 9 cards, except that he misses out on a 8 card because the deck has been exhausted by the time it is his turn. He also buys a gold (i.e. a 9) card during his phase, at a cost of 18 amphorae. As a result of the principal phase both the 8 and 7 decks become exhausted. During the supplementary phase he is entitled to an additional 11 - 9 = 2 cards. These would be a 9 and an 8 if they were available, but because there are no 8 or 7 cards available he receives a 9 and a 6 card.
[6] CREDITS
[6.1] Design by David Bofinger.
This file is a variant for the board game Advanced Civilization. This web site also contains further Advanced Civilization material, as well as material on other board games and material unrelated to board games. Please send feedback to the author, David Bofinger.