Advanced Civilization Board Game

It had been a long time since I played Advanced Civilization, a game that was released in 1991 but was an expansion for a game released in 1980. I don’t often dip into really old games anymore, with perhaps a game like Carcassonne being my oldest. However, there is something to be said for a more simplistic, board game experience. And Advanced Civilization delivers that!

What I actually enjoy is that despite the games length – it took us 8 hours – it’s actually not that overly complicated! Everyone is performing each action, sometimes simultaneously, sometimes separately. Depending on how aggressive players want to play – and this game can get mean, very quickly – most turns run fairly quickly. Things bog down a bit as people calculate resources to spend from their cards, and drag even more as players look to purchase cards.

And then there are those pesky calamities to worry about. These will sometimes have minimal consequences, but when a few come out at once, it can cause utter havoc!

The neat feature in this game is how the trading works. Each turn, depending on the number of cities a player has on the board, they will receive resource cards, one for each city they have. So if you have 3 cities, you get 1 Resource 1 card, 1 Resource 2 card, and 1 Resource 3 card. The more of a specific resource you have in your hand, the more they are worth. Since you only get one of each level up to your current city number it will take a few turns, or a few good trades, to start accumulating similar cards.

When trading, players must declare two of the three cards they are trading. The third card is always a mystery to the player receiving, and it COULD be a calamity card. Some calamity cards have additional impacts if they are traded from one player to another, which ultimately keeps everyone on their toes.

The thing that will keep people from really getting into Advanced Civilization is the length of time to play. In a less hostile game, when played at 4 players (it goes up to 8!), you are probably looking at a game that lasts 6-10 hours. If players opt to play aggressively – which means destroying cities, slowing the pace of card accumulation, and ultimately slowing up the game – games could last so much longer.

It’s a pity this game is so old and hard to find. There have been other Civilization games since, but none have replicated the grandeur of Advanced Civilization. It would be interesting to see this game get a remake in 2025, but all pretty. Give me a larger board, poker style chips to represent units and currency (which is the backside of units, so miniatures are out). I would love to see miniature cities, brand new cards, and overhauled artwork. This game would probably be a massive hit, but obtaining the IP could be costly.

Have you played 1991’s Advanced Civilization? Or the 1980 original?