Advanced Civilization is a grand game of strategy by Avalon Hill. It is an expansion to the original Civilization game, and in my opinion "advanced" civ is much more playable. In it you play as the ruler of one of the ancient civilizations of the world and try to use trade, science, and some combat to ensure that the world is fashioned in your best interests. :)

I love a great strategy game, and that's what Advanced Civ is. However, after a game has gone on for over 8 hours it gets kind of boring. With this in mind, and also the fact that I prefer to keep randomness and stuff to a reasonable minimum, I've created a few House Rules (below) that tend to make things go smoother, and speed game play significantly. I originally created these rules back in May of 1995. Feel free to send me an email to tell me what you think!

1. Technological Leaps
   A civilization must advance to the first square of the next age if it qualifies for it. In no case may a civilization advance two ages in a single game turn. It is hoped that this will speed the game along.

2. Loss of Technological Status
   If a civilization cannot meet the requirements for the age it is currently in, it does not advance on the AST (this is not a rule change). If it cannot meet the requirements of the previous age, it moves backwards one space. If it cannot meet the requirements of the age before that, then it moves back an additional space. If a backward move on the AST places a civilization in a different age, then a random civilization card is discarded, but can be repurchased for half of the after-credit price. This rule supercedes the rule whereby a civilization moves backwards on the AST if it has zero cities. This rule is intended to help balance out the upward movement effect on the AST of the Technological Leaps rule (above), but can be used independently.

3. Stealing Technology
   If a city is taken by combat, in addition to normal pillage, the conquering player has the option of either:
   1. taking a trade card at random from the player who just lost the city, or
   2. immediately copying at no cost any civilization card held by the conquered player.
   If "B" is chosen, then the conquered player discards a random trade card. This rule is meant to help civilizations advance technologically and speed the game up. It will also most likely increase the conflict in the game, which may or may not be a desired effect.

4. City Defender Advantage
   When tokens are defending a city, defending tokens get an additional advantage similar to the Metalworking advance. If both parties (or neither party) have Metalworking, the attacker loses first. If the attacker has Metalworking and the defender doesn't, then conflict is resolved as normal. If the defender has Metalworking and the attacker does not, no additional advantage is given by this rule. Defending tokens are defined as tokens from the same civilization as the city. It just seems like common sense that tokens defending a city should "know the land" better than an aggressor, in addition to probably having some sort of defensible structures built.

5. Revised Epidemic
   A civilization trading the Epidemic caliamity to another civilization may be targeted as a secondary victim for a maximum of five unit points of damage. Epidemic is otherwise unchanged. This rule seems to help distribute the damage more fairly in games with fewer than five civilizations, which in practice seems to happen frequently, although the original game testers at Avalon Hill probably didn't playtest with so few players. We did.

1. A civilization must draw two trade cards instead of one for each city during phase 9. In between rounds, a civilization may retain no more than 8 trade cards for future rounds.
2. A civilization may purchase one additional trade card as soon as all trade cards are distributed. This purchase is made for the price of two times the number of the card being purchased, and is done in the same order as the cards were distributed in.