Clash of Cultures

The most streamlined attempt at a civ game yet but it still manages to include all those calssic civ elements. If we can get it down to under 3 hours this will be a main stay for me

Tried this out the other day for the first time. I couldn't help but compare it to Sid Meier's Civilization game. There are a lot of problems I have with that other game that this one fixes (better combat system, better and more choices for your tech tree, shorter playing time). Unfortunately it took four hours to play it (still, much shorter that SMC) so that was the only game we are able to play that night. BUT, it says 240 minutes playing time on the box, so you can hardly fault it for being honest. I had a bad dice roll early that forced me to focus on my "advances" (technology track) at the expense of buildings, so I didn't feel like I did much during the game, even though I came in second.

Got my copy a few days ago, traded it out when I found out about the reprint with all the expansions included.

Best Civilization game out there

I have a trepidation of civilisation games. I don't like direct conflict in games, and I don't like heavy use of theme. Yet, I enjoyed this game. Its saving grace for me was the "Objective" cards, which gave me a focus on every turn. I didn't need to worry too much about other players deliberately scuppering my plans, because they didn't know what I was working on. These secret elements make your opponents more unpredictable; make their decisions appear less spiteful ("I'm only doing what the card told me to!") and introduce a nice Euro-style element to the game. Hidden objectives are a staple of the gateway Euro genre.

The game ran for five hours with four players, and down-time is a major factor. But there were enough good things here to leave me with a generally positive view of the game, and for fans of the genre, I suspect this is a brilliant title.

One of my most disappointing games. I was sure I would love it, but it fell really flat. The barbarians seemed random, the tech tree wasn't particularly interesting, and the end of the game just felt like Risk as we smashed similar units into each other and rolled dice. I also really didn't like the rolls for cultural influence either.

I would like to play this again, as I hope I'm wrong about it.

I really wanted to like this one more than I did. It has everything that should make it great - lots of Civ feelings in tech trees, exploration, city building, moving troops around, events, objectives, mood, etc. But because of all that, it stays around on the table too long for the light weight of the systems. If a game is going to last 3+ hours (and this one will), then it needs to have a sweeping arch and appropriate depth. This one seems to try to be simple and perhaps succeeds but then lasts far too long.