Civilisation board game gets Wisdom and Warfare expansion

Yes this is Sid Meier's Civilisation we're talking about, or at least Kevin Wilson's board game version of Sid Meier's Civilisation, but that headline is long enough as it is.

Inspired by the legendary PC game of the same name, Civilisation is an adaptation of that epoch spanning gameplay that we've come to love over the past two decades. It allows 2-4 players to take charge of famous leaders from history, each with their own special abilities and powers. Expand their empire any way you can: build cities, fight battles and research new technology to advance your civilisation to the top of the pile.

Of course if you've ever played a game of CIV, this type of gameplay will be pretty familiar – you just won't have any AI building your roads and irrigation for you here.

In this new expansion, Wisdom and Warfare, designer Kevin Wilson – who also produced Descent Journey's in the Dark – has added new unit cards, social policies that can shape the direction your civilisation takes and there's an additional six new leaders and nations to choose from.

WAW also introduces new replacement unit cards, which adds extra strategy to the combat side of the game, by splitting a unit's power into health and strength. Fantasy Flight describes it well: “In the base game, combat value is determined by the strength of surviving units plus the combat bonus card value. With the alternative combat cards from Wisdom and Warfare, however, combat value is determined by the total health value of surviving units, minus wounds suffered, plus combat bonus card value. Thus, wounds that don’t kill units can still impact the outcome of a battle, and players must account for this new strategic consideration while playing units and opening new fronts!”

But it's not all blades and guns, Wisdom is a big part of this expansion too. Try adopting pacifism, or expansionism as a social norm and see where it takes you. Each one increases some parts of your society's growth, whilst hindering others.

Other additions to the game include new map tiles for a more varied game world and two new relics to be discovered.

Civilisation Wisdom and Warfare is available now for $35 (£22) straight from Fantasy Flight – with a hefty postage cost – or around £25 from other UK based retailers.

KitGuru Says: Can't say I've played this one myself, but I can vouch for the designer. He's made a few of my favourite big board games and Fantasy Flight have a history of very high quality products. 

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