In The Zeitgeist

As already noted, I am putting together a GeekList of the top 10 games on my BGG user profile. This next one, Civilization, is #7 on my list, and is the third one mentioned on this blog that comes from game company Avalon Hill (the other two are Titan and Diplomacy). I should note that being #7 on the list does not make this my 7th favorite game; the list is ordered from newest game to oldest game. So it just means it’s a game I’ve been playing for a long time.

I don’t remember if I played Civilization in high school, but I definitely did a lot in college. There was a group of us guys from our gaming club, called the Wargamers Club, that would play all day on Saturday in our dormitory. Yeah, we were a bunch of nerds alright. While our peers were out in the sunshine doing sports or whatever, we would spend 10+ hours focused on a board game. Because that is how long a game of Civilization takes to play. But it’s such a good game, that it is worth the time. At least, to me it is. I actually enjoy playing a game that takes a whole day to finish.

This game, as its title and box art suggest, simulates the rise of ancient civilizations in the old world. The board is a map of the lands around the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the fertile crescent in the modern Middle East. You play one of the well-known civil societies or empires of ancient times, such as Egypt or Assyria. You spread across the world, build cities, trade resources, and develop techonologies. Sometimes you have a little conflict with other civilizations, but there is not much war in this particular game. However, there are calamities like earthquakes and civil disorder that alter the board.

Unlike the other older games on this list, Civilization is one I’ve kept getting back to through my whole life, albeit much less frequently than in college. It seems like once every few years throughout the 2000s, someone would host a game, including me sometimes. I even wrote a helpful post with advice on what was needed for a succesful game, in the form of a review: So you want to play Civilization…

I think a big part of what keeps me coming back to this game is that it is fun to play even if you fall behind and are likely to lose in the end. You know you will lose, and the game has hours left to go, but it’s still enjoyable to do what you can to build up your own civilization. Plus there’s the fun of seeing the calamities come out and reshape the board every turn.

There have been expansions to the game, which extend the map and add resources, as well as reimplementations which slightly alter the rules. Personally, I only own the original, base game, though I have played other versions on occasion. Most recently, when I’ve played, it has been one of these new versions where the map is extended to pretty much cover all of Eurasia and North Africa, and the game can accomodate a huge number of players.

There was a game convention some time in the 2010s where I first learned about these reimplementations. I found out some folks were playing Mega Civilization, and I wanted in! We played on the last day of the convention, a Sunday, for over 12 hours. I did not mind at all using up one entire day of the convention for this purpose.

Mega Civilization can accomodate up to 18 players, but we had about 12 or so, which was still a huge number and just made the game that much more fun, to me. I played again at the same con some years later. Then, after I moved to Pennsylvania in 2018, I played again at a convention in this region.

The last time I played was in 2023, though it was yet another reimplementation, Mega Empires: The West. Played for an entire Saturday, just like in the good old days. I was in last place, but still had a great time.

They keep tweaking the original game, but these new versions remain the same in spirit. They evoke the same joy while playing them – as well as requiring the same stamina – that I recall from my gaming youth.