I play Civ with between 5-9 players, and our schedules never seem to coincide for the long periods of time it takes to play the game - So I figured out a way to "save" the game and pick it up later! Please send me your time saving tips and I will post them here!

How to "save" the game

How to speed up the game


How we "save" the game:

1) Make photocopies of the map inside the Adv Civ book.

2) Print out a copy of the excel spreadsheet available by sending me mail requesting it. (Sorry, I don't have enough space on my server...) The spreadsheet is a great way to record each player's stock, treasury, trade and civilization cards without forgetting anything.

3) Use colored markers to mark each Civilization's token, city, and ship placement on the board.

4) Setting up the game will take some extra time. Deal out the trade and civilization cards to the players according to the spreadsheet. Shuffle remaining trade cards and calamities together(so yes, its possible to receive a calamity in the first round!)

5) If the same people are not available, randomly draw Civilization names to assign players.

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How Bernie Roessler Speeds Up the Game

Civilization is my favorite game, and has certainly obtained "classic" status among adult boardgamers. Still, I don't get to play it as often as I would like, due to the difficulty in recruiting enough players willing to commit to the eight or more hours required for the full game. The following hints may help players in speeding up the course of the game so that they may get that extra hour or so of rest before the next days activities (another Civilization Game, right !) . The suggestions do not change any rules, and probably include some practices your group already uses . I will (generally) follow the sequence of play in presenting the suggestions.

Section 17.2 of the Advanced Civilization rules summarizes the core of these suggestions. It states: "To speed play, in many phases all players may carry out the required activity simultaneously, as their actions will have no effect on other players. However, situations often arise in which the actions of other players are of crucial importance in determining a player's actions. Players may insist at any time that activities in a particular phase be carried out in the proper order."

The best way to speed the game, in my opinion, is to have players follow the advice of the first sentence in the aforementioned rules and move simultaneously whenever possible. When it is not possible to do so, without giving other players significant advantages, the trick is to perform the necessary actions, that may influence subsequently moving players, as quickly as possible. Here are my suggestions on how.

First, as the game proceeds (no use wasting time doing it before the game), it is very helpful to arrange your stock tokens in neat rows of five, and treasury into rows of three on your player's mat. By doing so you will always be able to quickly determine exactly how many tokens you have in each pile. It also makes it easy for you (and others) to determine if you have moved the proper amount of tokens from one pile to the other when paying taxes, etc. More importantly, it allows you to quickly perform your Census, when you have a large number of tokens on the board, by subtracting the number still on your player's mat from the total number available. At the beginning of the game, all players will have the same number of tokens on the board until the end of turn four (except Crete). Anyone reading this will also be aware that any player having more than 18 tokens in his or her treasury is doing something very wrong.

During the Population Expansion Phase, I have found it helpful for players to stack the newly placed token on top of the existing token. This helps players keep track of which tokens have already "multiplied'. Also, first multiply any tokens adjacent to ships. This allows any players who move later in AST order and can only be reached by ship to begin their placement. Next, multiply tokens that are adjacent to other players tokens who are moving later in the turn. Once this is done, any other placement will have little, if any, effect on the adjacent players, and they too may begin their placement.

The same procedure holds true during movement. First of all, the unstacking of the multiplied tokens will assist in keeping track of which tokens have already moved. A player should always move his ships first. Once this is done, a subsequent player who could only be reached by ship, may begin moving. Next, move all tokens that will be moving into areas adjacent to players moving later in Census order. Of course, it's possible for two players on opposite sides of the board to move simultaneously.

One aside here if I may. For some reason in our games, we often forget to pay for maintenance on existing ships. Because of this, I appoint a ship monitor to remind everyone to do so. Traditionally, I appoint Babylon to this job, as it's to the usually shipless Babylonian player's advantage to remind others to pay the maintenance.

As the rules suggest, it's a good idea to limit trade sessions. A sand timer seems particularly appropriate for this. This doesn't mean it's too late to trade cards once time runs out, but that negotiations are over and it's either take it or leave it.

Make good use of the Civilization Card Credit Chart on the back of the Advanced Civilization Booklet. At the bottom of the chart, write down what the actual cost of the card will be to you after deducting all the credits. Keep plenty of spare copies of this chart around for use as needed. Keep a couple of calculators handy, and have players plan ahead as to what they intend to buy as well as alternatives. Photocopy pages 14 and 15 of the Advanced Rules for novice players, so that they can study what Civilization Cards will do for them, BEFORE it's time to buy. Experienced players should assist novices in both calculating credits and choosing which card to buy. As much as possible, have players begin purchasing new cards while resolving calamities- though they still won't be able to use the newly purchased cards to reduce the calamities effects of course. Finally, take a break from the game! A dinner break away from it all will make every one more enthused about the end game and, in my opinion, help speed things along.

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