Civilization: Two Player Variant
A variant by Matt & Robin Crawford
crawdad@FNAL.FNAL.GOV
We developed this two-player variant to get some practice during long midwest winter evenings.
Use any of the four-player map configurations, with or without the western extension map. Each person will play two countries. Draw for first choice, with the other player getting second and third choice.
Play all countries independently, except as regards trade cards and calamities. Tokens and cities belonging to a player's two countries conflict with each other as if they belonged to different players. Civilization cards are purchased for each country separately.
- The trade cards drawn by each player's two countries are merged into one hand. Each player may hold up to 12 trade cards between turns. Trading occurs between players; a player's two countries share trade cards freely without trading. Either country or both may purchase a Gold card, but the cost of each Gold card must come from a single treasury.
- Resolve calamities in the usual order, but as each one is resolved, choose the primary victim at random from the calamity- holder's two countries. If the chosen victim has already been the primary victim of two calamities in that round, discard the calamity. If the country which traded the card to the primary victim is treated specially, choose that at random from the other player's two countries. If the calamity was not received in trade, consider it drawn by the primary victim and not traded.
- Grain cards may be used to reduce the effects of famine, but the effect of each Grain card cannot be shared between two countries.
- During acquisition of Civilization cards, each trade card redeemed must be allotted to a specific country. The value of a set of like cards cannot be shared. Of course, each country's Treasury tokens may be spent only on that country's behalf.
Victory: When the game ends, each player's score is the LOWER of their two countries' scores.