FFG, you are killing me!

Oh man, there goes my money another end of year hehe

Fantastic! Civilization is THE game screaming for an expansion, and here it is finally!

Will be REALLY interresting to see how they've handled the map building for 5 players... Pentagonal Donut World perhaps?

 Surprised Great Britain is not included although nice to see India and Greece. So FFG, when will you add Great Britain? either under Victoria or Elizabeth. Cant really have a game about great civilisations and empires without the British now ;) Maybe under an Imperial expansion - i'd like to see Napoleonic France too.

Fnoffen said:

This is one thing I'm hoping to see in one of the previews.

I would expect to see rules before any preview is released.

Then I must sadly inform you that your expectations have, imo, already been smashed since I would count the announcement itself as a sort of preview insofar that it gives a pre-view at some parts of the expansion.

It seems to me that a Five (5) player expansion would be easy with a few additional tiles.  The Board would be something like this...

[X][_][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][X][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][_][X]

...where the X's indicate the starting locations for the Civilizations....  

SIX Player might look like this...

[X][_][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][_][X]

Seven Player...

[X][_][_][_][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][X][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][_][_][_][X]

And Eight Player...

[X][_][_][X][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][_][_][_][X]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[_][_][_][_][_][_][_]
[X][_][_][X][_][_][X]

...and So on...  Just making sure that at least 2 tiles are separating each of the initial civilizations...

Now, I know what the next protest will be... 

"Putting a player in the center of the board is putting them at a disadvantage",

 ...but I would counter with...  How is that any different that starting on the same continent with 4 other civilizations surrounding you in the Computer game?  SM's Civilization has been a challenge since it's beginning, and often times, it wasn't "fair" either.  Remember, in the BG you're usually playing against your friends and associates, and the game doesn't have to be about combat.  You can be a diplomat too...

Maarek said:

FFG always do previews first, rules last.

ballpark7 said:

I would say it's extremely unlikely that the 5-player map would place one of the players in the centre surrounded by the other four.

Second that. Much more likely they've come up with a pentagonal map. They did come up with a triangular so why not?

My attempt at a "donut"-world layout:

          [x][_][_][x]
        [_][_][_][_][_]
      [_][_][o][o][_][_]
    [x][_][_][o][_][_][x]
          [_][_][_][_]
              [_][_]
                [x]

[x]= Starting tile
[_]= Regular random tile
[o]= Simply a hole in the map.

Maybe not absolutley beautiful but it might work...

Bleached Lizard said:

Did you even read my second post?

ballpark7 said:

This says it all...   and the draw back with the "Donut World", although an interesting idea, would be the size of the Game Table needed for the playing area alone... 

ballpark7 said:

I think this is a poor justification for starting one player in the middle of the board.

First of all, the differences between playing a board game with 5 people and a video game with 5 people are that you are in the same room instead of spread all over, and you are in that room for a set period of time. All of the conflict, decision making, and emotional investment are crammed into those two or three hours that you're all playing the game together. This means that disadvantages are perceived as more disadvantageous, players who are losing badly will complain more vocally, and if someone's not having much fun, it greatly affects everyone else's experience. Starting a player in the middle of the board could easily result in a feeling of hopelessness that would cause that player to have less fun, which would in turn cause everyone else to have less fun.

Second of all, just because the game doesn't *have* to be about combat doesn't mean it *won't* be. I guarantee you that in the groups I play with, if one player started in the middle of the board, we would all go after him. And he would have less fun because of it. Which sucks. Games shouldn't force that upon their players.

Is really 5 player, is true in the expasion?

Agusan said:

Quoting (and editing by adding bold type on the issue-important part) from the second paragraph (third if you count the quote from Captain James Cook) of the News article:

"With exciting new game options, new map tiles, and components for a fifth player, Fame and Fortune will deliver your civilization to remarkable new heights."

And to be honest, I don't think FFG would lie about something like that.