Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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Last friday* (166-1-2009) we started our first Civilization: The Expansion Project game at Alpha-ARES in Barcelona. There were 9 of us and we decided to reach for the East, to give a try to the newly discoverd lands.
So here you have some of us at the stone age (from left to right): Mario the bald Pharaoh, Pau the Parthian, Toni the bearded Kushan, Peretum the bespectacled Indu leader, Jaume the Persian and a partial glimpse of Fredy of Babylon. Out of scope, Joan the Nubian who's taking the photo (wow, what a great stone age nubian technology), the Assyrian leader, suitably nicknamed Warrior, and me the not-so-good-looking Queen of Saba.
Here you have another perspective of the end of the first turn. You see the beard of the assyrian Warrior (of "A las Barricadas!" fame) and the legs (from right to left, this time) of the Pharaoh, the Nubian leader and the Babylon king, who oddly enogh decided to sistematically outsource his stock to the Western Indian Ocean. Other oddities: we used to western trade cards tough we play an eastern scenario for no known reason and we marked non playing civilization spaces with barbarians, to keep border non playing civilization counters in their respective bags.
A detail of the central position, with the awesome trade clock, and a babylonian finger setting some border discussion with Assyria.
This is past 03:00 (have I said we began late?#), the first session last turn (6th), from my Sabian perspective. What a disaster! I overreached simultaneously to Petra and the Horn of Africa. As Egypt and Nubia have a quiet border, both of them have stepped on my lands. The Nubian D-Day in Arabia took profit of my simultaneous building of cities on Ma'in and Ubar: he took a later movement as I had 12 more tokens on board before building them. Now he has a partial supperiority around Zafar , so I'll have to pull out of Africa some reinforcements...
The Pharaoh isn't happy at all. We have all reached the Boronze age, but it has taken too much time to build the first two egtyptian cities and he is late on the Archeaological succession table (AST). If only had he forgotten about my puny menace in Petra (that disturbed some of his plans and swallowed quite a lot of troops), and decided to reach up the Nile against those pesky Nubians! Hope he makes up his mind from now onwards.
The Persian is recovering after a much too early city building that has limited his expansion, together with a very active Parthian expansion. Babylon has taken profit of this by expanding all the way through the southern persian gulf coast up to Bat. If it were not for the Nubian D-Day (and a perhaps an early building of the Sabian city of Ubar), I should stop him right now.
By the way, here you have a closer look at the civilization sumary we use (together with ereasable pens), beside a copy of the original civilization cards. The summary is organized in 17 blocks of three cards so you can see at a glance which cards give the special 10 or 20 point bonus to which cards. The other bonus are still in the plastic bags near the AST.
Here you have me, the Queen of Saba, with the King of Babylon (as well as a partial image of the Persian leader). By the sixth turn there were already some calamities we had to check on the rulebook. Egypt Squandered its wealth (did I mention he was upset?) and Kush could NOT trade a Treachery (he unadvertently warned us of... a little bit too early).
Next friday we will continue (yes friday I've said, we promise this time we'll begin early@, because we will go to our regular supper HQ, that is the Kikiriki).
* or should I say saturday, as way started waaaay too late.
#Not only you have to find a big enough table, find a suitable space for the table and the players, argue with the miniature fellows about the space you take away...
@ but also six of us (what shame!) made the other three wait for moooore than one hour, after a great supper at Terra d'Escudella, in Sants!
Have you got Fish? I have Bone for you!
(this looks like CIV version of Catan's classic Wood for Sheep!)
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Ben Foy
United States
Ellicott City
Maryland
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You keep mentioning the 'Nubian D Day'. Did he kill any of your pop or is he just sitting on empty areas one turn? Seems like the early city build hurts you alot.
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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Does the image answer your question?
Soon, we continue with the report on the second session.
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Ben Foy
United States
Ellicott City
Maryland
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Yikes!
Poor Nubian play for sure. Doesn't the Nubian player know that you'll exact your revenge for the rest of the game?
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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Ah, revenge... I did try, but then came an unexpected guest to our party
Spoiler (mouseover to reveal): Indus!!!
This evening I will post the report
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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Second session (Turns 7 to 10)
The second session started at 23:00, when our last player checked in after supper (Pau the Parthian, at the right in the photo, who asks what has happened with his tax collection/population expansion). Another player joined Assyrian staff with Warrior “a la Barricadas”: they are discussing how to give a surprise to neighbouring Babylon. Meanwhile we get the first image at the left of my Nubian soul friend Riko (see previous post abot D-Day).
On the background there are our Impetus miniature colleagues. A demilitarized table between us assures there will be no conflict tonight.
A shot from “Case Blue” perspective.
Nubia observes Egypt and Assyria moves, while Indus thumbs up. Both Egypt and Indus plans will spark some debate on the following turns. I begin to take photos after a particularly painful Slave Revolt leaves me with a single city. This is the beginning of a increasingly nasty relationship with Indus, who traded me the card... and forgot to stop laughing with several trade minutes lef!
On the background, an informal meeting of MMORPG players discussing what to do in “Driving Miss Daisy in LotRO”. Well the answer is the same as in other MMORPGs of the “Driving Miss Daisy” franchise:
Spoiler (mouseover to reveal): drool about the landscape while killing dumb avatars to increase level, to kill lesser dumb avatars to further increase level, to kill...well you know, in game terms it could be Minas Tiirith as well Tatooine!
Mario the bald Pharaoh is on the roll, stomping Nubia (oh, I'm sooooo sad) and sending ship and troops to Phoenicia... bicephalled Assyria will insist on showing how wrong this move is. Meanwhile Jaume the Persian is still trying to get some much needed vital space.
By the 7th turn some of the first civilization advances are significant: Matalworking for (who else?) Assyria, Pottery for Nubia. Kush gets Empiricism and Parthia develops...Music!
A premonition: Parthia laughs while Assyria advances. In a couple of hours, by the end of the 2nd session, both will lead in victory points. On the Arabian front you get to see THE HORROR. Just when Nubia and Saba had reached a much needed truce (Nubia had retrated from most of Arabia, and Saba limited the African expansion; Nubia did not take profit of a Famine to sink Saba), Indus decided to use its first Civilization advance, an astonishing investment in Navigation, to launch another D-Day in Arabia. For some 20 minutes I felt almost KO. Then some calamity restored divine justice. The whole Indus invasion-calamity dynamic will happen a second time before the end of the session, prompting a parallel report on the "miracle" I will post later.
The situation after 9 turns. Some details: Persia has actually crossed the Own (that is Persian) Gulf . Some barbarians have disrupted Babylon king plans, while he was still recovering from Assyrian first assault to Messopotamia. Saba has forgotten about getting Pottery aiming at Agriculture to get a much needed increase of population limits... Saba is a Monarchy and from now onwards I can rightly proclaim I am the QUEEN of Saba.
The last trade phase of the 2nd session. I get to take the photo because I have not enough trade cards after my recent “Coronation” and the unfortunate consequences of the 2nd Indus invasion. There are still two more sessions to finish and I am almost sure I will not win on victory points... so I'll try to win on laughs!
Provisional VP: Assyria 59, Parthia 56, Kush and Nubia 53, Babylon 47, Egypt and Saba 44, Persia 40 and Indus 39.
Till next friday.
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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3rd Session (turns 11 through 13)
Well, TIME is taking its toll on the game. A new Kushan leader (Jordi, on the right of the photo) has stepped forwards, as the previous leader was too old  to continue (some say Toni is the victim of late effects of a chlore poisoning). This change will bring some fun on the geopolitical situation in the east, after so many calm turns.
Assyria has no longer a dual leadership. As the “bald Pharaoh” has disappeared in the desert, the former Assyrian leader decides to leave the kingdom to his colleague (Joan, on the left of the photo) to start a brand new dynasty in the Nile: the Cebriators. The implicit bond between Egypt and Assyria willl also bring changes to the geopolitical situation, this time in the west.
Meanwhile Pau the Parthian leader (standing between Assyria and Kush) shows his satisfaction as his culture is the first to reach the Iron Age!
The Cebriators have reestructured Egypt more efficiently and begin to put more pressure on Nubia. I have barely time to enjoy the situation: I am encroached with the Indus in Arabia and Nubia is now stronger than me (they have developed Metalworking, instead of Agriculture, just after they noticed Egypt had it “copied” from the previous Assyrian experience of the new Pharaoh). So I have to withdraw in the Horn of Africa. Fortunately my development of Urbanism helps Saba, who is proud to support five! cities, with the trade possibilities they bring.
There is a global warming. On the foreground, the new Assyrian leader checks what to buy to put more pressure on Babylon. Just look at the unusual hieratic attitude of Freddy M, the King of Babylon, on the other side of the table. At the left corner of the photo, Peretung the Indus has his turn. He doesn't look happy at all, after the new Kush leader has broken the immemorial peace in the east. Jordi the Kush prefers not to look, with a certain disdain, while Jaume the Persian ponders the new chances this war brings to his border. Joan the Nubian has usurped my chair as I take the photograph, his geographical center being unfortunatelly closer to Saba. Parthia is analyzing the map, just praying all neighbours keep busy elsewhere for a while.
Did I mention time toll? The Queen of Saba suddenly feels veeeeery tired. Just when Indus had left Arabia to concentrate its efforts on the Kush-Persian front, Babylon develops Agriculture and comes to meet my territory. But that's not the worse: just when I had developped Written Record (some players said I long deserved this particular civilization advance!) and I expected to reach the late bronze age... an Epidemic hits Saba and I have to reduce 3 of my cities (by the time of the photo I already have a new one rebuilt). I reach a conclusion about the fragility of our situation if will leave to my heirs* Having a cold (and being a tired the owner of the game) I announce I will just be able to play one more turn tonight. Thus today session will end early (2:15 or so).
On the eastern war, there is plenty of Indus-Kush action in the upper indus river valley (near the Babylon backed city of Kalibangan) and some “naval” Indo-Persian engagements in the gulf. Babylon keeps Kalibangan but fatefully looses all cities between the Tigris and the Euphrates. Sidon is tired of Assyria and becomes the second successful traitor city, siding with the Kush.
Til next friday.
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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*THE QUEEN LEGACY:
This far I have had my fair share of calamities during the game, but two of them have been particularly tough for Saba, where there is a single area with a population limit of 3 a majority of 1-population areas.
· When I had 3 cities and 15 tokens, a 4th level Slave Revolt hit me. As you cannot count the first 15 tokens (and it is really tough to get 15 tokens in Saba!), I had to reduce a city. But my cities where on 2, 1 and 1 areas, so I needed to reduce 2 out of 3 to support the lone city remaining!
· Then, when I had 5 cities and 13 tokens, a 6th level Epidemic hit me. You have to loose 16 tokens, but you have to leave at least one in each area. As most of my areas have a population limit of one, this meant I had to take 10 of the 16 points out of cities, but as you have to leave a token, each city just counts as 4 of them. So 3 out of 5 cities fell to a single card.
By the way, the management of the 25 points to secondary victims of the Epidemic engraced me with Indus (he left Arabia as a friend for ever, as I spared him) and upset my unduly my Nubian colleague. I just distributed 5 points for the 5 most advanced civilizations (not counting the Parthian leader). It didn't really hurt Nubia. He claimed it was unfair because he had just spared Saba from a Nubian Famine in the same turn. But I'm sure he had already noticed my Epidemic by the moment he felt so generous. Anyway, if I had meant to hurt him, I could have given him the full 10 points I was endowed to send to a single victim.
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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4th Session: Turns 14-17
The game is reaching the final stages. We will probably need only one more session to finish.
If there is no REAL WORLD calamity, that is: just look to the kind warning from our miniature colleagues:
Quote: “This is the 3rd time you move(?) one table of ours, whithout asking for opinion or advice. When you finish this game, leave the things as they were.”
Well, anyway this was the starting position at the beginning of 14th turn, with that cool fake ID “1st Barcelona Challenge Winter 2009”. The pottery card in the ID is a silly old joke (when ARES club became Alpha-ARES somewhere in the 20th century, some said the proper way to refer to club members should be “AlphAreños”, which sounds like “Alfareros”, i.e. Potters).
You can compare the situation some 4 hours later, at the end of 17th turn. Youll notice the most striking changes are the immobility of Parthia and the fast advance of Egypt.
As for the first, it really takes a lot of time to get three 200+ civilization cards (though Politics has been a real hit, mostly on Persia face!), so it seems unfair to receive that untimely Civil Disoderd that left him just below the five cities needed!
Egypt has done his homework (The Bald Pharaoh reaperared briefly, but was told by the Cebriator ruler he'd better go home), but then a late Civil War has broken the momentum (see below).
At the left you see which advances have been developed by which civilization. Parthia is clearly ahead of us. Saba has managed at last to develop Agriculture, so I will be able to put my lands to work. As I already have one more 100+ card (Literacy, which combines nicely with my famous Writting Record), I have chances to enter the Iron Age, so I can hopefully advance far during the last session.
The victory point distribution (17th turn) is:
Parthia and Assyria 90
Kush 81
Egypt 80
Babylon 77
SABA 66
Nubia ans Indus 62
Persia 59
Here you can see our three provisional leaders (along with a standing friend who should really join next match). They look so happy and relaxed! By the way, Kush old leader Toni at the right has returned from the sanatorium and is having a great time. Parthian leader Pau at the center is busy deciding how many cards he will buy this turn. And Assyrian new leader Joan at the left enjoys counting commodities.
A couple of images of the most famous Civil War until now (the previous two in Persia and Saba were mere “tejerazos”). Warrior is begining to count the first faction, along Persian leader Jaume. Tough effects, this Civil War, but it could have been much worse for Egypt, as Nubia had exactly the same rights as Persia to command the alternative faction. Some say Warrior boasting of the changes inspired in Assyria he's being introducing in the egiptian ways (no more skirts, some true boots) is the ultimate reason for the civil war!
Here you have the new situation after the Civil War
(look also I've managed to support 6 cities in Saba before having Agriculture!):
Other memorable experiences of the session:
.14th turn travelling Iconoclasm: Nubia-Saba-Egpt-Parthia-Indus!
·14th turn late movement conflicts between Persia and Indus which contribute to their being provisional last and next to last.
.15th turn barbarians destroy “Terra Mitica” (a kind of Egyptian Las Vegas built at Siwa). In fact Egypt keeps losing cities (to tomb raiders?) all the time.
.15th turn discovery of Politics by Parthia is a blast, to be followed next turn by Babylon. It looks like it hurts.
.16th turn big commodity combos: Babylon 5 Lead cards contribute to finance Politics and Egypt 5 Spice award him 175 points!
See you next week!
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Xavier Salvador
Badalona
Catalonia
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Final sessions (turns 18-21)
The last turns are far better when you play Civ at ease in several sessions. You have time to ponder all decisions (in particular, last card adquisitions) and enjoy the development of the game. We finish the fifth session with (probably) just one turn left, but we rather meet the following friday and keep having have fun.
Egypt and Assyria in particular look like they are having fun...
.. but the Pharaoh is in fact tired of “Preaching in the desert”. During the last turns he tries in vain to organize an attack to the breakaway Parthian leader. But Persia has enough problems of his own, Babylon is busy fighting Assyria in Mesopotamia, and Kush... well we will talk about Kush in just a moment. Here you have Pau the Parthian quiet, very, very quiet... looking how Joan the Assyrian meets Babylon, beside Joan Manel, who finally joined 5th session as the 3rd Kush leader.
Your favorite Queen has a mixed record. We Sabans got to build a city in Arabia Deserta (thanks to Urbanism, of course)... just to be stolen late the same turn because of Babylon politics (we thought he would strike an Assyrian city instead!)
Though we will reach the Iron Age, and we even reach the 7 cities milestone, some of the card distributions are not helpfull at all.. Just look at lone level 7 card (Civil disorder) and the combo of level 6 cards (one each of Copper, Lead and Silver). I can only match 2 Oils and 2 Salts!
Here the fate of the game is sealed. Civil war in Kush... that benefits Parthia! Game over in advance. But, though the winner is almost sure, we will come for one more session, just to have the pleasure to properly finish the game (in fact the 6th session is followed by our first session of Leader 1)
The final scores
·1st Kush 123 points (Pau)
·2nd Assyria 106 (Joan, alone since 3th session, with Joan Carles in 2nd session; Joan Carles alone in 1st session)
·3rd Egypt 94 (Joan Carles since 3rd session, Mario the first two sessions)
·4th Kush 93 points (Toni, except Jordi in 3rd session and Joan Manel in 5th session)
·5th Babylon 90 points (Freddy)
·6th Saba: 89 points (Xavi, that's me)
·7th Nubia: 85 points (Joan, a different Joan from Assyria, that is)
·8th Indus: 68 points (Pere)
·9th Persia: 62 points (Jaume)
Final notes (with hindsight):
·Persia “too fast” city building explains in part why he finished last... and helped Parthia win, many, many turns later
·Assirio-egyptian “structural” peace helped them finish 2nd and 3rd
·An early “skewed” indo-kush border helps Kush finish 4th and Indus 8th
·Babylon plays a good game in a difficult location, to finish 5th
·Nubio-saban early protracted wars explain in part why we finish 7th and 6th
Thanks to all supporters!
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Martin DeOlden
United States
Reno
Nevada
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Awesome session report. I hope to one day get my own game together of this. I have everything ready to play it and now just need the people.
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Kristian Madsen
Sweden
Uppsala
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Fantastic report! Thanks again for writing it up, it does take some effort.
/kgm
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