Specialty Variant for Advanced Civilization
After the selection of countries, but before play begins, each player is randomly assigned a "specialty" category of civilization cards.
These specialties break down as follows:
| Color | Specialty | Related | Opposite | Relative Opposite |
| Green | Science | Technology | Religion | Arts |
| Orange | Technology | Science | Arts | Religion |
| Blue | Arts | Religion | Technology | Science |
| Yellow | Religion | Arts | Science | Technology |
Note: You cannot specialize in Civics (red)
Each specialty represents an area that the people of your country have decided to focus their society on. Your specialty gives you a 10 point discount on civilization cards of that color and a 5 point discount on all cards in the related area. (Example: A country speializing in Art gets a 10 point discount on Drama/Poetry and a 5 point discount on Monotheism) Because your country is so focused on these aspects of civilization, however, you suffer a 10 point penalty on cards from your "opposite" area and a 5 point penalty on cards from the "related opposite" area. (Example: The country described above must pay 10 points extra for Metalworking and 5 points extra for Astronomy)
Civilization cards with mixed colors receive the cumulative bonus/penalty of the colors involved.
The only other change is the requirement that, in order to advance to the final spot on the AST, a civilization must have all cards of it's specialty color (including mixed cards containing it's color) to win.
I think that this is fairly balanced, but would make for some interesting strategies. Countries based on Art will play very differently from a country based on Science.
Also, it makes the game less of a try-to-rack-up-the-points game to one where building up a coherent civilization becomes an important goal as well. Any feedback on this
idea would be greatly appreciated...
Happy Gaming!
Send me mail:civgoddess@usa.net
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