In Civilization you could compete while maintaining 6 cities most of the time in Mega Civilization (as in Advanced Civilization), you cannot. The high-numbered trade cards are hugely valuable, and if you can’t get reliable access to them, you not only won’t win, it’ll be hard to even feel like you’re accomplishing anything in the game. Firstly, the goal for the first third of the game or so is to get yourself into a position where you can build and keep 8 or possibly 9 cities from turn to turn.

There are two things you want to bear in mind here.

Mega Civilization: The 12-hour, 18-player, 22-kilo monstrosity you are now contemplating, designed by Flo de Haan and John Rodriguez. For the most part I’m going to assume you’re using the Basic AST, but I’ll throw in a few comments for the Expert AST as well (in the critical early game where choices make or break you, I don’t think it makes a huge difference).įor clarity, there are three very different versions of Civilization, and I’ll refer to them in this piece by their official names:Ĭivilization: The 1980 Francis Tresham classic, published first by Hartland Trefoil then by Avalon Hill.Īdvanced Civilization: The 1991 Avalon Hill design-by-committee total rebuild, spearheaded by Bruce Harper. This is not how to win the game this is how to avoid getting into an unrecoverable hole in the first third. So here are some strategy tips to get you started. Additionally, if you’re an Advanced Civilization veteran, that game may have taught you some bad habits you’ll have to break. There is a lot of stuff going on, and the huge array of civilization advances available for purchase makes the strategy space look huge (a lot larger than it actually is). It’s easy to go into a game of MegaCivilization feeling a bit overwhelmed – especially if you’re playing a full-on game of 12 or more players, or if you’re new to the game and have little experience of prior versions.

Civ 5 early game strategy