Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Prufrock's Wargaming Blog

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Civilization before Christmas

On the day before Christmas a few of us got together to play a first game of Avalon Hill's classic boardgame, Civilization.

The Peoples in play were Italy, Thrace, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt and Africa. Proud Thrace and Cruel Assyria began in the most forthright fashion, vying between themselves for the title of best and strongest. They continued to compete for honour and glory until the Thracian in his pride was hit by a series of calamitous occurrences (internecine warfare, drought, pestilence and still others we shall not name) that brought him low.

The brown jacket of our Assyrian looks particularly wolfish in this light.


On the other side of the Mediterranean world the Pius Italians suffered grievously - twice-in-a-row grievously - from the wrath of Vulcan, which allowed my (Cartho) Africans to throw a few sacrificial youngsters to Moloch and welcome Sicily into their commonwealth of Punic perfidy.

Assyria (in pink) grown fat on the misfortunes of others (all right, and due to his magnificent grasp of the mathematical model underlying the game, but don't tell him that!).


Noble Egypt - plagued somewhat by accounting difficulties - and the Virtuous Woman of Babylon made do the best they could, but as the sands in the hourglass were dribbled first this way then that way it was the Cruel Assyrians who arose the deserved victor.

The Hand of Babylon...

It was a lot of fun and a rare thing in this day and age to find a group of people willing to get together and have a crack at a game this immense. Well done to all the participants!



14 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your feat. Namely, getting enough people to play a game like that. I have that title moldering in the board game pile somewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great game. Not played it since Uni. One correction, - it isn't "Avalon Hill's Civilization". The game was designed by Northampton's own Hartland Trefoil.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very true - but I meant that ours was the Avalon Hill version of the game. No slight to the designer or his publishing company was intended!

      Delete
  3. Never played the game, I'm ashamed to say??? looks pretty cool though!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I played a lot of AH Civilization back in the 90s. It is one of my favourite multi-player games. And getting 6 players (the more players, the better it is) is an achievement in itself - it is quite a long game. Last managed to get 6 of us together about 7 years ago and had a blast.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As one of the participants, it was a blast, and very nostalgic too - harking back to student days in the 80s - when we had time to kill, and everyone you knew lived in close proximity...

      And getting 6 people together *in Japan* - and not even in a nig city at that - is an incredible feat - well done Aaron.

      Delete
  5. Played a few games of this myself. Never finished though as the game always seemed to grind to a crawl during the later stages. We usually declared a winner or perhaps winners. I am glad to have the original game and its expansion. Ggreat fun!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have happy memories of playing this game. Good to see it still being enjoyed.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Played the crap out of this one in the day, it is a fun muliti player game. Beer and pretzels baby!

    Happy New Year!
    Kevin

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for the reminiscences, all! It looks as if most of us would love to be able to get big games like this played more often! Hope everyone had a safe New Year, and will have a rewarding 2016! Cheers, Aaron

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks great! Happy New Year, Aaron. Hope 2016 is a good one for you and your family.

    ReplyDelete
  10. ah, saudade! So many happy hours battling over the mediterranean with my friends of old!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Happy memories from the 80's! I did a search for that game two days ago. Thanks for helping sort out my new campaign map for me. :)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...