Civilization (1980 board game)

This article is about the original Civilization board game designed by Francis Tresham. For other board games named Civilization, see Civilization (disambiguation) § Games.
Not to be confused with Civilization (video game).

Civilization
Civilization box cover
Civilization box cover
2nd US version of Civilization
Players2–7
Setup time15 minutes
Playing time3–12 hours
ChanceLow
SkillsStrategy, tactics

Civilization is a board game designed by Francis Tresham, published in the United Kingdom in 1980 by Hartland Trefoil and in the United States in 1981 by Avalon Hill.[1] The Civilization brand is now owned by Hasbro. It was out of print for many years, before it saw republication in 2018,[2] by Gibsons Games.[3] The game typically takes eight or more hours to play and is for two to seven players.

Civilization is widely considered to be one of the most influential games in the strategy genre, cited as foundational to both the grand strategy and 4X subgenres.

The game is also first in incorporating a technology tree (or "tech tree"), a common feature in subsequent board and video games, which allows players to gain certain items and abilities only after particular other items are obtained.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ "Civilization Rules of Play" (PDF). Avalon Hill. 1981. Retrieved 2014-01-20.
  2. ^ "'In 200 years people will be playing this game': The story of Civilization". Tabletop Gaming. 2018. Retrieved 2020-08-20.
  3. ^ "Civilization".
  4. ^ "Civilization". BoardGameGeek.
  5. ^ Ghys, Tuur (September 2012). "Technology Trees: Freedom and Determinism in Historical Strategy Games". Game Studies. 12 (1). ISSN 1604-7982. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  6. ^ Ghys, Tuur (2012-09-01). "Technology Trees: Freedom and Determinism in Historical Strategy Games". The International Journal of Computer Game Research. 12 (1). Retrieved 2020-08-20.