It turns out that 3, 5 and 7 battle rounds (fights) are too much, so I decreased the treshold to 1 for seargant, to 2 for lieutenant and 3 for major. I also updated the rank table example in the message above. As the units are picked from standing forces randomly and only actual fights count (not opening a front), it's still quite hard to upgrade the unit above seargant rank.

I managed to modify the game and change the rules, so that I can enjoy the game more. I made a "Unit Experience Table" (previously "Rank Table") I mentioned before and also created a checklist, so that players can agree on modifications they want to use.

So, for the moment, here is the list of changes/suggestions I have made:

1. Use poker chips to remember how many trade points and hammers (in each city) you have. Update the stacks with new buildings, blockage situations, deforestation and governments (Communism/Democracy).
2. Use "Unit Experience Table" for tracking your unit experience. See the checklist for explanation (text in bold). Experience adds strength value to units as indicated in the table. Thus a situation when a level 1 strength 3 unit kills level 3 strength 3 unit can be avoided. The last table version lists "captains" instead of "majors".
3. Use "Epic Game Variant" (see the checklist) to make the game more enjoyable:

• The game becomes less time-pressing, still it takes only about 4 turns more to finish;
• Players have more strategic options and their mistakes are less painful;
• Cultural Victory becomes more likely and so is the possibility that III level culture event cards will be used;
• Economic Victory is not that easy, but still possible;
• You have enough time to enjoy your technological advancements;
• There always are plenty of resources;
• It is more likely that modern wonders will be build and used;
• If military victory is not gained early, most likely all players will be strong military;
• There will be a lot of surprising breakthroughs for you and your opponents due to advanced technologies, resource abilities, modern wonders and II and III level culture event cards;
• It is more likely that players will try to engage in battles with barbarians or each other.

The "Unit Experience Table" is here .

The cheklist is here . Just tick every modification you want to use (unless they contradict each other). The text in bold just describes the modification/house rules.

Having only played 1½ times, currently my biggest issue is with the Wonders available to lower player numbers. I feel like the total number of Wonder cards in the deck and the number of wonders available at any given time should scale with player number. Either that, or there should be some mechanic that instantly removes all unclaimed wonders of a given era.

For example:

All unclaimed Ancient wonders should be returned to the box as soon as any player reaches II on the culture track, or any player has upgraded all three combat types to at least rank 2, or any player posesses 5 coins, or all players have a level 2 tech.

All unclaimed Ancient and Medieval wonders should be returned to the box as soon as any player reaches III on the culture track, or any player has upgraded all three combat types to at least rank 3, or any player posesses 10 coins, or all players have a level 3 tech.

Of course, I'm not sure exactly how well all of these conditions line up with each other.

Though, I must add that after purchase of F&F expansion, Civ BG seems much more balanced. And I don't feel that my modifications are still necessary. Besides there are some flaws with unit XP and unlimited map feature - in some situation some civs (like Chinese) can advance way too fast and game balance is lost.

For me biggest problem at CIV boardgame is a not balanced victory types. Sciense victory is the easiest one, 'cause you can research 1 tech every turn without a problem. Even in our first game Americans get more then 27 trade points per turn so the got sciense victory then other players have 10 coins and stay at 50% of culture victory track.

So I think we need add one more tech level to teh pyramid or try to develop techs "blindly" - without seeing what tech you research now.

For me biggest problem at CIV boardgame is a not balanced victory types. Sciense victory is the easiest one, 'cause you can research 1 tech every turn without a problem. Even in our first game Americans get more then 27 trade points per turn so the got sciense victory then other players have 10 coins and stay at 50% of culture victory track.

So I think we need add one more tech level to teh pyramid or try to develop techs "blindly" - without seeing what tech you research now.

In the games I've played, science victory is by far the most difficult to achieve as it is the slowest. The game ends few turns too soon before Space Flight can be invented. With the latest expansion, about 70% of our games are won with culture and military comes second. The other victory types are in small margins. Our games typically last 10-13 rounds.

While I love the game, I don't like some of the unbalanced things it has. Some relics are just broken without some nerfs and we've banned Aztecs since they're just too overpowered. Feels funny to have one nation with so many powers and then Indians and Mongols in the game. It's also getting annoying that most of our games are just crazy military build-ups. Because if one player starts doing it, others have to counter to at least some degree. So have to build Barracks, invest in Military Industrial Complex or hope to draw Great Generals. The army building often rules out economy victory and cultural victory becomes a viable support to military. Usually everyone has around 12-20 military power. Any less and you're quickly wiped out or there are unwanted enemy armies as "tourists" sitting on your buildings and wonders.

To alleviate some points we feel are unfair, we play with some house rules. They may not be to everyone's liking but the group I play Civ in, likes them:

• Great Person tiles can only be placed in start of turn phase. Originally we thought this was an official rule (we all learned the game from someone else and just skimmed through the rulebook) and played quite a lot of the games this way. Then when we learned that Great Persons could be placed on the board when they were gained, we played a couple of games like that. But we didn't like it. It made it possible to suddenly boost military and wipe out someone or something else dramatic. So, we included the "You can only place Great Person tiles in Start of Turn -phase" as a rule.
• All our relics have a standard barbarian tribe guarding it. In addition we changed the Golden City to just give 1 investment token at the start of the player's next turn. The player can also invest normally if he desires. And the School (or whatever it was) only gives 1Great Person but the player can choose from 2 (or from more if he has Organized Religion civic and/or is playing Greeks).

I have owned this game since its release and our group seems to love it so I will try to give a breakdown from the many games that we have played. Realize that I will be speaking from a position of owning all of the expansions and no house rules. Some of this will be a critique but most is going to be observations.

Victories - Since the expansions have been released the fastest victory tends to be cultural. At this point an average game is won by turn 9 culturally with Military being a strong second place as the military player attacks the leading culture player (as they usually have very few techs or military advantages). Coin victories are certainly possible with the right Civs, tech, and board setups, and tend to rate fairly close with military victories (especially if the military player is focusing on the cultural player for victory). In my opinion tech victory is by far the most difficult victory achieved and at this point has not been achieved often since our group has become veterans of the game (even when playing Catherine). The reason for this is that even assuming the player is capable of gaining a tech on the second turn (which unless the player gets lucky they usually cannot), They will need 14 turns to win the game (of course 15 without the second turn tech). Now it is difficult to predict all the possible outcomes of a game but even if Catherine is capable of stealing a few techs and possibly getting one from a culture card, great person, or investment, this still only brings her down to a 10 turn average game without some pretty unusual circumstances. This is simply not fast enough to win the game against a good cultural player and most of my players rarely try to go for a tech victory anymore (although sometimes we will try with Catherine and every now and then it is possible with other player's mistakes or an unusually lucky start).

Concerning Civilizations - In my opinion the two most broken civilizations in the game are the Arabs and Spain. The reason I believe they are the most broken is that given an average game both civilizations are capable of winning the game within 9 turns with a high chance of an 8 turn game. The Arabs with culture and Spain with coins. An 8 turn game is practically a guaranteed victory. Often when competing it will come down to who goes first in the last turn as both civilizations tend to win in the city management phase. The weakest civilization in my opinion is the Zulu. Compared to the other Civilization I just don’t believe their bonuses really make them stand out in an average game.

Critiques - I understand that some people see the inability to change strategies halfway through the game as a problem. I don't believe myself that this is a problem with the game. After a few plays of the game everyone quickly realizes that the game requires a strategy from the start and begins playing that way. That being said however, if I believe that someone will only be playing the game once or twice I would most likely recommend another game unless they are just fans of the Civ franchise. By far my largest critique of the game is in the way wonders have been implemented. They are rarely used in our games excepting that Catherine will usually try for the hanging gardens if it is available, cultural players will attempt to add Stonehenge to their repertoire, and Himeji Castle and Statue of Zeus being the favorite of military players. Others just tend to not be worth the loss of other options required to add them (both in the space required on the board and number of hammers/alternate tech choice needed). Also since you only pick 4 of each age of wonder you rarely see the same wonders and it leaves you feeling as if the others should be there somewhere. I would have liked to have seen the wonders tied to the technologies somehow and believe that this would not have been a difficult implementation. As far as combat is concerned I understand the reason why it was implemented in the way it was and applaud the creativity of its implementation. Without the manufacturing of a massive number of unit types and the board being considerably larger it would be very difficult to implement a true video game style combat mechanic into the board game. I believe the current mechanic gives a great way to implement combat without cluttering the board considerably. I understand that tanks can be easily killed with a couple of spearmen but sometimes there are just limitations to translation. I do however, recommend attaining Wisdom and Warfare as soon as possible as it adds quite a bit of strategy to the combat mechanics. Another slight critique is that I feel that there is something wrong with the number of buildings in the game being limited. I understand why it is such but for some reason it just irks me.

Conclusions - As an avid gamer and this game be in my groups go to game list (the others being Caverna, Twilight Imperium, Eclipse, and Arkham Horror) I have played at least 50+ games of this version of Civ (I also own every other implementation of Civlization in board game form). All in all I have very few negative impressions of the game. I believe that the game is fairly well balanced in that I have seen all the victory types win and at least 3 of them are very close depending upon Civilizations being played. I have also seen most of the Civilizations win the game at least once. To date I believe that this version of the game is the most faithful to the video game version in its implementation and that is a huge credit to the designers.

I just bought the game, my group played it 3 times now. The biggest issue I have with it so far is when a city performs a build action they can only build 1 item of the type they choose, even if you have way more build than needed.

I hate the fact that you can only build 1 item. I had 16 build points, and want to build 3 units of 1 level 1 cav, but I'm only allowed to build one. Or maybe a level 1 cav, and a building, but I have to choose only one.

The other issue I have is that they don't have 6 player board, just a 5. Weird!

Thanks,

The main problem is cathedrals, never to be seen in the board. (In the last games I left them in the box and no one realized =) )