How to Play

Civilization

2-7 players 360-360 min 7.5 Board Game Geek Rating

Players lead ancient civilizations from 8000 B.C. to Rome's emergence, expanding across the Eastern Mediterranean. Victory comes through balanced cultural, economic, and political advancement rather than conquest. Using a pioneering technology tree system, civilizations develop innovations like Metalworking and Literacy. Success requires effectively managing different societal roles—farmers, merchants, warriors—to achieve optimal civilization development.

Published 1980

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Sort trade cards, shuffle value 1 & 2 cards, stack face down in marked areas

Place a calamity card (as numbered) at the bottom of each stack except the first

Take one trade card from each stack per player, shuffle, deal to determine nation selection order

Choose nations in ascending order of dealt cards, then return cards to stacks

Place one population token at your nation's start position

Place square city marker on start arrow/triangle of Progress Chart

Each player has

56 round population tokens (48 for 7 players), 4 ships, 9 city squares, 2 chart markers

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

E1 - Collect Taxes:

Take 2 tokens per city from stock to treasury, or city revolts (player with most stock tokens claims revolting cities)

E2 - Population Expansion:

Add 1 token to zones with 1 token; add 2 tokens if zone has more

E3 - Census:

Count tokens on map, move census marker

E4 - Construct Ships:

Pay 2 tokens to build (coastal zones only), 1 token to maintain; unmaintained ships return to stock

E5 - Movement:

Move in census order (most tokens first); tokens move 1 zone or board/disembark ships; ships carry max 5 tokens, move max 4 coastal zones

E6 - Conflict:

Resolve when multiple players exceed zone token limit; player with fewest tokens removes first; attacking a city requires 7 tokens (8 vs ENGINEERING)

E7 - Build Cities:

Build with 12 tokens in a zone (6 on city sites); max 9 cities; remove excess tokens

E8 - Acquire Trade Cards:

Player with fewest cities first; take one card per city from each stack; may buy gold/pirate card for 18 treasury tokens

E9 - Trade:

Negotiate simultaneously; must offer 3+ cards; state number, total value, and one commodity truthfully; other info may be false; exchange face-down

E10 - Civilization Cards Exchange:

Play reverse order; pay with trade cards and treasury tokens for Civ cards; max 1 of each type, max 11 total; use owned cards as credit toward new ones

E11 - Resolve Calamities:

Red cards and traded black cards are active; resolve max 2 cards in order (52.2-52.9); reduce unsupported cities afterward

E12 - Return Excess Cards:

Keep max 6 trade/black cards total

E13 - Alter Progress Chart:

Move marker one step if meeting epoch requirements (e.g., epoch 2 needs 2 cities; epoch 5 needs 1000+ points in civ cards)