Avalon Hill Civilization

Grand Imperial Variant

From: ryans@io.com (Ryan Schneider)
Subject: AdvCiv: Grand Imperial Variant V2
Date: 12 Aug 1994 21:00:04 GMT

                          Civilization Grand Imperial v1.1
                          
The following is a Advanced Civilization variant that brings in
many aspects off the computer game and many finer details that I
believe will greatly enrich play.  It is suggested that the use
this variant, that the Imperial variant and trade city variants are
both used as well.
  To play Grand Imperial, you need the following items:
     1. All the OLD trade cards from Civilization, as well as the
        new ones from AdvCiv.      
     2. The Western Extension Map.
     3. The six blank cards from both Civ and AdvCiv. 
     4. These rules.
     5. Counters to represent the various City Advances and City
Dispositions used in these new rules. 
     6. The Western Extension Map, and a second set of tokens to
implement the Imperial Variant (highly suggested).
 
Ok, to summarize the changes, I guess I will just go down the turn
order.
 
1. Collect Taxes- Unchanged, although there will be more uses for
these taxes shown later.
 
2. Population Expansion- Unchanged.
 
3. Census- Unchanged.
 
4. Construct Ships- Three types of Ships are now available to the
player.  Ships still cost two to build, but maintaince is
different.  The normal ship (the trieme) still only costs one
maintenence token.  The two new ships (Galleons and Warships) both
cost 2 maintenence.  Basically, think of it like it costs an
additional token to make a trieme act as a Galleon or Warship for
a turn.  (More on how these new ships act later.)
 
5. Movement- Unchanged, except for ships.  This phase begins with
players declaring any of their ships either Galleons or Warships,
and paying the additional token to make the transformation.  After
all players have declared, movement begins.  Triemes and Warships
both move 3 (4 w/ Cloth Making) while galleons only move 2 (3 w/
Cloth Making).  Movement is still performed in census order. 
Triemes and Warships hold five tokens (or trade cards, but more on
this later), while Galleons can hold up to seven.  Embarking and
Disembarking is still handled normally, except that tokens can
remain aboard ships at the end of movement.
 
6. Conflict- While conflict itself remains unchanged on land, there
are some new facets to conflict which will be discussed later.  At
sea, conflict is totally different (for one, it now actually
exists!)  Any time two ships end their turn in the same sea square,
if either controlling player wishes to conflict, conflict ensues. 
The ship with the fewer number of tokens remaining onboard removes
first, then the one with the next fewest, etc. unless a ship is a
Warship, in which case it removes last (like Metal Working).  If,
at any time, the player with a greater movement wishes to stop
after the first wave, he may end conflict (or in the case of mutual
agreement when speeds are equal).  Once a ship has no tokens, and
another ship still has tokens, the ship still containing tokens can
take any or all of the trade cards the other ship may be carrying
up to its own maximum capacity (don't forget to include tokens). 
Excess cards can either be discarded or given back to the other
player (yeah, right). If the winner wishes to sink the other ship
at this time, it must remove one additional token from itself,
unless the winner is a Warship and the other is not, in which case
the ship may be sunk automatically.  Note that if you win with only
one token left you may still take the other ship's trade cards, and
then sink the ship and remove your last token, but you must have at
least one token on board to take the other player's trade cards. 
[I hope that's not too confusing.]
 
7. Build Cities- Unchanged.
 
8. Remove Surplus Population-  This phase changes, and should more
properly be called the Luxury phase.  After removing surplus
population, and flipping for city support, players must provide for
the luxury of their cities.  Luxury points may be provided by:  1.
Flipping more tokens over on the board.
 2. Paying from the treasury.
 3. Trading in sets of Luxury items (Resin, Gems, Gold, Ivory) For
each city, the number of Luxury Points you provide it gives it the
following dispositions:
0- Revolt, the city is flipped over and may not be used to acquire
trade cards this turn, nor can any of its city advances be used.
1- Unhappy, cities that are unhappy are more likely to be affected
by political calamities (iconoclasm, civil war, etc.). Plus, they
gain one less trade card than normal per turn.
2- Content, city acts normally.
3- Satisfied, city is less likely to be harmed by political
calamities. 5- Happy, the city is not only immune to political
calamities, it also gains an extra card when acquiring trade cards
and can be taxed an extra token in the taxation phase.      To
denote the status of a city, place a small six sided die next to
each city, with the coresponding number spent on luxury on the die
(use a 6 for in revolt). [Note that you're not ROLLING these dice,
I wouldn't be so stupid as to add dice to this game :) This phase
was added not only to add something that was incorporated into the
computer game, but also to add a more realistic control of social
policy to the players.  It also makes up for the fact that in the
imperial variant, revolts due to taxation are all but impossible to
have because of the massive reserve of tokens.]
 
9. Acquire Trade Cards.  This is the next radical change to the
system.  Rather than dividing the sacks by value, they are divided
by geographic region, with the calamities and several new cards
being placed an Events stack.  The regions are:   
  1. Armenia-Kuban, Mikop, Nalchik, Caucasus, Cappadocia, Armenia, Lesser
Armenia, Media, Nineveh, Elam, Parthia, Sinope (only if playing
with the trade city variant).   
  2. Mesopotamia- Assyria, Carrhae, Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Susa, 
Babylon, Ur, Mari, Sumeria, Charax, Chaldea, Arabia.
  3. The Levant- Antioch, Aleppo, Phoenicia, Syria, Sidon,
Damascus, Tyre, Jericho, Jerusalem, Gaza, Petra, Sinai, Midian,
  4. Nile Basin-Cyrene, Cyrenaica, Western Desert, Jalo, Siwa,
Alexandria, Tanis, Memphis, Eastern Desert, fayum, Ptolemais, Upper
Eygpt, Buhen, Thebes, Nubia.   
  5. North Africa- West Mauretania, East Mauretania, New Africa, 
Cirta, Numidia, Carthage, Thapsus, Tunisia, Sabrata, Tripoli, Libya, 
Sahara, Tripilotania.   
  6.Iberian Penninsula- Lusitania, Tarraconensis, Pyrenees, Baetica,
Hispania, Iberus, New Carthage, Corduba, Balaeres, Ebusus.
  7. France- Britannia, Londinium, Lugdunensis, Belgica, Upper
Germany, Rhine, Aquitania, Gaul, Rhaetia, Cisalpina, Narbo,
Massillia.
  8. Italian Penninsula-Eturia, Rubicon, Rome, Samnium, Tarentum,
Neapolis, Campania, Corsica, Sardina, Caralis, Palermo, Milazzo,
Syracuse.
  9. Upper Danube- Lower Germany, Germany, Pannonia, Dalmatia,
Illyicum, Appollonia.   
  10. Lower Danube- Sudeten, Scythia, Crimea,
Dacia, Danube, Tyras, Moesia, Paeonia, Thrace, Byzantium.
  11. Aegea- Macedonia, Thessalonica, Lemnos, Lesbos, Epirus,
Thessaly, Chalcis, Delphi, Eretria, Thera, Rhodes, Athens, Corinth,
Argos, Sparta, Phaestos, Knossus.   
  12. Anatolia- Troy, Bithynia, Sardes, Ionia, Miletus, Lycia, Galatia, 
Gordium, Phrygia, Ankara, Kanesh, Cilicia, Van, Cyprus, Salamis, 
Sinope (if not playing with trade city variant)
     I HIGHLY suggest you photocopy the map in the middle of the
AdvCiv book and color code the different regions on it.
     Ok, so now you're thinking: "Great, what's all this for?" 
Well, rather than dividing the trade cards by value, this variant
divides the trade cards by region.  Thus, it becomes not only
advantageous to have a lot of cities, it also becomes highly
important to have cities with access to multiple regions to be able
to gain the different sets of trade cards.  For every city you have
in a region, you may draw a trade card from that region stack, and
an additional card for every happy city to have in the region as
well.  Certain City Advances, described later, allow you to
slightly modify from where you may draw, but I'll get to that
later.  For now, here are the regional trade stacks:
  1. Armenia- 2 Ochre, 2 Timber, 1 Cloth, 2 Gems
  2. Mesopotamia- 1 Ochre, 2 Oil, 3 Spice, 1 Gem, 1 Gold
  3. The Levant- 1 Iron, 1 Salt, 2 Timber, 1 Spice, 3 Dye, 2 Gold 
  4. The Nile Basin- 7 Papyrus, 1 Salt, 1 Oil, 2 Cloth, 2 Spice, 1
Ivory, 1 Gold.   
  5. North Africa- 1 Timber, 5 Salt, 1 Dye, 3 Ivory
  6. Iberian Penninsula- 3 Iron, 2 Grain, 1 Wine, 1 Cloth, 
  2 Bronze, 2 Silver, 1 Gold.   
  7. France- 1 Hide, 1 Ochre, 1 Iron, 2 Wine, 1 Cloth, 1 Bronze, 1 
Gold.   
  8. Italian Penninsula- 2 Iron, 3 Oil, 2 Grain, 1 Bronze, 1 Silver, 
  1 Gold.   
  9. Upper Danube- 1 Ochre, 3 Hides, 2 Timber, 3 Resin.
  10. Lower Danube- 1 Ochre, 2 Hides, 3 Grain, 2 Resin.
  11. Aegea- 1 Hide, 1 Ochre, 2 Iron, 1 Grain, 1 Oil, 1 Cloth, 
  3 Wine, 1 Silver, 1 Gem, 1 Gold.
  12. Anatolia- 4 Iron, 1 Timber, 2 Salt, 1 Cloth, 1 Silver, 2
Bronze, 1 Gem. 
(Note that there are more irons and golds required than supplied in 
AdvCiv, 
so one must use the cards provided with the original civ game or borrow 
them from someone else (most civ
groups probably have more than one set, but ours doesn't, so its
kind of restricted how I make these rules).  This doesn't change
the maximum value of a set, though, they remain at the level
printed on the cards.  You can, however, if you have enough, turn
in one set at max value and the others at whatever other value in
the same turn.) 
  Players also draw from the Event stack.  Depending
on the size of the game, one of ther following charts is used:
  Small Game (4 or fewer players)
No cities=No Event Cards
1-4 Cities= 1 Event Card
5-9 Cities= 2 Event Cards
10+ Cities= 3 Event Cards
  Large Game (5 or more players)
No Cities, No Event Cards
1-3 Cities= 1 Event Card
4-6 Cities= 2 Event Cards
 7+ Cities= 3 Event Cards
 
The event stack is composed of the following cards:
  1. The 12 Calamities from AdvCiv.
  2. 20 of the cards from Civ, with some denoting item on their
face (a black "x", for example) to show that they are valueless.
  3. Six new Leadership cards, made from six blank cards or by
using some other symbol system (black square=Civilized Leader, and
so on, for example).  Actually, you can have more than six if you
hae more than six cards, nine are currently provided.    The new
Leadership cards represent periods in history when the civilization
is ruled by a leader with a certain prowess in various realms of
control.  The six I have created are:
  1. Charismatic Leader- When played, (during phase 1) all cities
are automatically treated as Satisfied for the rest of the turn. 
Even though all cities are counted as Satisfied, it still takes 5
luxury points in the Luxury Phase to turn a city into a happy one.
  2. Theocratic Leader- When Played, the player's civilization is
treated as possessing Theology for the remainder of the turn.  The
player may use all the bonuses of theocracy for that entire turn
(immune to Monotheism, calamity mitigation, and civ credits,
although the Theology can NOT be used as an entry requirement into
the nest epoch).  If the player already possess Theology, then the
player receives Monotheism for one turn.  If the player already
possess both Theology and Monotheism, then the card allows the
player to convert TWO areas that turn.
  3. Assimilative Leader- The player may trade this card to another
player.  When this is done, the player can randomly choose one the
other players civilization cards, and acquire it for himself.  If
the card chosen is one the player already posses, then he acquires
nothing.  Note that the player whose civ card is chosen retains his
copy of the civ card, the Assimilative player simply takes a copy
of the same civ from the bank.  Also note that Civ cards acquire
through assimilation do NOT count towards victory point totals,
unless the player decides to repurchase it on his own at a later
date (if, for example, the player has no other options for Civ
cards to buy, or can get the card at an extreme discount because of
credits).
  4. Civilized Leader- Cash in this card for a one time 50 point
bonus when purchasing civilization cards or city advances.
  5. Warlike Leader- When played, the player is treated as
possessing Military for the remainder of the turn, with all the
pluses and minuses associated with the card.  If the player already
owns Military, then he may create one Barracks City Advance in any
city of his choice.
  6. Merchant Prince- Trade this card in for a trade card from any
regional stack.   
  7. The Great Prosetylizer-  When played, the
player possesses Monotheism and all its plusses and minuses until
the end of the turn.  If a player holds this and Theocratic leader
in his hand at the same time, both must be immediately discarded
without their effects taking place.  If a player who plays this
card is traded Theocratic Leader, then both cards are instantly
anulled and the player loses the effect of the Prosetylizer for the
rest of the turn.  If a player gains this card while already
holding Monotheism, then no additional benefit is acquired (but its
a good card to trade to an allied heathen :).) 
  8. The Great Compromiser-  Trading this card to another player
makes it impossible for either player to make any move that will
result in any sort of conflict between each other next turn,
although they may still choose each other as the secondary victims
of calamities.
  9. Grand Diplomat-  When the holder of this card plays it, he may
choose another player, whose trade cards he can look at, but he
must also show the other player his cards.  Can be played any time.
 
These are the cards that I have created (except for numbers 7 and
8, which were created by the Count and his play test group, and
number nine, which I more or less borrowed from the GWUGS's Civ
Card Diplomacy).  It is encouraged for players to make additional
cards of their own.  Remember that the effects of the cards should
be more or less temporary, or provide for some sort of city advance
as a lasting legacy of the leader.  An interesting thing to do
would be to also make cards representing particularly bad
leadership.  Such Nero-like cards should be made with rather minor
effects though, for I believe that the calamities are quite
adequate in hampering civilizations.   If a player draws a
calamity, it is resolved in the normal way, and can be traded if
tradable.  If, however, a player draws a calamity with a value
higher than the number of cities the payer has in play, then that
calamity is simply discarded, and another event card is NOT drawn. 
Players may still be affected by calamities traded to them with
higher values just like in the normal game.
  If a player draws one of the denoted "old civilization" cards,
then it is treated as a totally worthless card. (But may be traded
to other players none the less as ballast to flesh out a trade..).
  Players may also, at this time, buy cards from any region they
have access to.  If this is done, the player draws a card from the
selected region, and then pays double its face value.  If the
player is unable to pay, the card is laid face up on the table and
auctioned off to the other players.  The winner receives the card,
and must remove is bid's number from his treasury and back into his
stock, the player drawing the card gains nothing.
  Ships may also recieve trade cards, but these cards can only be
cashed in at a port (see City Advances below).  Any Trieme or
Galleon sitting in a coastal region, may place one trade card from
that geographic region's trade deck on itself, but the player, nor
any one else, may not look at what it is until the ship returns to
port (Suspenseful, huh?).  Remember that ships can only hold so
many cards and/or tokens (Trimes 5, Galleons 7, Warships 5).  Note
that Warships cannot harvest trade cards, but must instead steal
them from other players' vessels.  
 
10. Trade- Trade is conducted in the normal manner.  Players may,
if they wish, trade Leadership cards, as well as Ballast cards,
normal trade cards, and tradable calamities.  Players may also
auction off cards they do not care about, by laying them face up on
the table.  Auctioning goes in reverse AST order (Egypt auctions
his goods off first).  The person who wins the bid must transfer
that many tokens from his treasury back to his stock, while the
Auctioneer may transfer up to the bid's value into his own
treasury.  Discarding Trade Cards- Players must denote, in some
way, which deck each trade card belongs to.  My playtesters
suggested coloring the borders of the cards a certain color for
each stack (ie. Anatolia Purple, the Levant Green, etc.)  This
seems to be the best way, since it doesn't harm the functionality
of the cards in any way when playing other variants.  If you're one
of those collector types who likes to keep his games in mint
condition, then you'll either have to think up some other way of
doing it or not play this variant.
11. Acquire Civilization Cards- Acquiring Civilization cards is
done in the normal manner.  There are two new trade cards now
available, which are:  
 
Galleons     Price: 150   Type: Civic
Effects:  Allows player to make Galleons.  Aggrevates Slave Revolt
by 5 additonal tokens.  Requires Cloth Making (so, actually, all
Galleons move 3 at all times). (Borrowed almost verbatim from
GWUGS's Civ Card Galleons)
 
 Navy         Price:150     Type: Civic
Effects: Allows player to make Warships.
 
Players may now also buy City Advances at this time.  The City
advances are:
 
 Militia- CivCard Prereq: Metal Working  Cost: 25 (in sets on
Bronze, or Iron, or from the treasury only)
  Effects: Having a militia in a city allows the city to reduce to
one extra token in conflict.
 
Granary- Prereq: Pottery  Cost: 25
  Effects: Player may use one Grain card to provide city support
for this city rather than two tokens.  Grain cards used in this
manner are not discarded, but may not be used this turn for other
purposes (mitigation of Famine, purchasing civs, etc.)
 
Communal Loom- Prereq: Cloth Making  Cost: 25 (cloth sets and
treasury only)   Effects: +1 to value of all Cloth Sets (+2 w/
Cloth City)
 
Communal Well- Prereq: Agriculture  Cost: 50
  Effects: City only requires one token for city support.
 
City Walls- Prereq: Engineering  Cost: 75
  Effects: City is immune to attack from Barbarian Hordes.
 
CrossRoads- Prereq: RoadBuilding  Cost: 75
  Effects: City may draw its trade card(s) from an adjacent
region(s) instead of its own.
 
Quarry- Prereq: Mining  Cost: 100 
  Effects: Additional +1 to sets of metals and gems.  City requires
an additional two luxury points for each level. (0/3/4/5/7)
 
Port- Prereq: Astronomy  Cost: 75 (Coastal Cities only)
  Effects: City may draw its trade card(s) from any region it can
normally reach in one turn by boat.
 
MarketPlace- Prereq: Coinage  Cost:125 (Gold, Silver, Bronze, or
Treasury only)   
Effects: City may draw an additional trade card
per turn.
 
Apothecary- Prereq: Medicine  Cost: 125 (Spice, Oil, Papyrus,
Treasury only)  
Effects: Civilization gains one Research point (see
below).
 
College- Prereq: Mathematics Cost: 150
  Effects: Civilization gains 1 research point.
 
Music Hall- Prereq: Music  Cost: 25
  Effects: City requires one less luxury point for each level.
 
Theater- Prereq: Drama&Poetry  Cost: 50
  Effects: City requires one less lux. point for each level.
 
Palace- Prereq: Architecture  Cost: 200
  Effects: City becomes Civilization's capital.  City acquires
additional trade card per turn.  City never revolts due to
calamity, and requires two less luxury points for each level.  If
captured, the capturing player may randomly select 3 trade cards
instead of one from the loser's hand, and move up to 9 tokens into
his treasury.  Anytime a player losing his capital has any other
cities that are either Unhappy or in Revolt, then the player
automatically suffers the effects of the Civil War calamity during
the calamity phase.
 
Library- Prereq: Literacy  Cost: 200
  Effects: +1 Research Point
 
Courthouse- Prereq: Law  Cost: 75
  Effects: Prevents corruption, which therefore allows the city to
acquire more than two trade cards per turn.  Note that courthouses
do not GIVE you an extra trade card, but rather they are required
for a city to acquire more than two trade cards per turn.  Example: 
A Happy city with Marketplace should be entitled to draw three
trade cards.  It can only do so, however, if it has a Courthouse,
otherwise the third trade card is lost to the corruptive elements
in the city (ie. not drawn).
 
Town Hall- Prereq: Democracy Cost: 125
  Effects: City treated always as at least Satisfied, and may be
made Happy buy paying only three luxury points (the cost of which
may be reduced by other city advances, such as a Music Hall or
Theater, and increased by things such as quarries).
 
University- Prereq: Philosophy  Cost: 250
  Effects: +1 Research point.
 
Barracks- Prereq: Military  Cost: 100 (Iron, Bronze, and Treasury
only).   
Effects: The city, and any areas that surround it, removes
its tokens last in conflict, unless the area is also in the radius
of a barrack of the other player, in which case both players remove
tokens normally.
 
Temple- Prereq: Mysticism  Cost: 25
  Effects: Lowers the price of each luxury bracket in the same way
as Music Halls and Theaters.  Temples become obsolete as soon the
player acquires Deism or Monotheism and must at that time be
removed.
 
Oracle- Prereq: Deism  Cost: 50
  Effects: Same as Temples.  Becomes obsolete upon the acquisition
of Monotheism.
 
Social Mobility- Prereq: Enlightenment  Cost: 400
  Effects: +1 Research point, and the luxury brackets for ALL
cities are reduced by one in price.
 
Monastery- Prereq: Theology  Cost: 350
  Effects: +1 Research Point
 
Cathedral- Prereq: Monotheism  Cost: 125
  Effects: Same as Town Hall.
 
Marines- Prereq: Navy Cost: 50
  Effects: Players buying Marines may move the marines like a
normal token, although it does not take up population limits or
ship limits like other tokens.  A ship carrying a Marine token is
immune to Piracy, as is a city containing one (see below).
 
Shipyard- Prereq: Galleons  Cost: 150 (Coastal Cities Only)  
Effects: The player gains the maximum number of ships it can have,
all of the new ones starting in the region with the shipyard. 
Plus, anytime a ship is destroyed, it automatically is replaced,
free of charge, by a new ship which starts in a city with a
shipyard.
 
Ok, so there's the list of City Advances.  Now here's the rules for
them.  
1. When a city advance is bought, its token is placed on a
city of the players choice.  
2. A city may posses any number ofcity Advances.  Duplicates of City 
Advances in the same city have no additional effect.
 3. Research Points.  Research points are provided by Apothecaries,
Colleges, Libraries, Universities, Monasteries, and Social
Mobility.  Having Duplicates of any of these City Advances, EVEN IN
DIFFERENT CITIES, yields no additional research points (So, in
other words, its totally useless to have more than one of each
Research producer.  I understand this might seem odd, but otherwise
I beleive Research producers would become altogether too powerful). 
Research points give you credit towards ANY civ or city advance
once per turn as shown by the following chart.
   1 R= 10 Point Credit 
   2 R= 25 Point Credit
   3 R= 50 Point Credit
   4 R= 100 Point Credit
   5 R= 150 Point Credit
   6 R= 300 Point Credit
So, as you can see, RPs are an investment that only pays when
invested in fully.  But once your investment has matured, the
dividend is definitely worth it, especially in longer games.  Note
that RPs, like trade card sets, may not be spent on multiple civ
cards or city advances, unless you want to, for example, with 6 RPs
spend 4 on one item and 2 on another (not suggested..).
 4. City Advances and Conflict- When a city is attacked, and forced
to reduce, one random city advance is flipped over.  An additional
random city advance is flipped over at the end of every subsequent
turn, with previously flipped advances being removed, until a city
is rebuilt in the same area.  Flipped over City Advances may be
rebuilt at half price, ones totally lost must be rebought at full
price.  If the attacker drives all of the defenders from the area,
he may build a city there, and will acquire those city advances
that still remain.  Or, as another option, the attacker may raze
the city advances (in which case they are removed outright, not
flipped over) and move 3 tokens from stock to treasury for every
city advance razed.  
 
12. Resolution of Calamities (Still done before acquisition of Civ
Cards, I just thought it be clearer to explain the City advances
before explaining their effects on calamities).
  For the most part, City Advances do not alter the resolution of
Calamities.  One major item that does alter certain calamities is
the disposition of your cities.  Here is a list of how each
Calamity is changed in the new rules:
  Volcanic Eruption/Earthquake-  A city destroyed by a volcano
loses all its City Advances.  A city destroyed by earthquake loses
one City advance, which is flipped over like in conflict, while one
additional city advance is lost at the end of subsequent turns
until the city is rebuilt.
  Treachery- Only cities that are Unhappy or in Revolt may be taken
by the trader.  If Treachery is drawn and not traded, only cities
that are Unhappy or in Revolt may be reduced.  Therefore, a
civilization without any Unhappy or Revolting cities is immune to
Treachery.
  Famine- If a city is removed, its location loses one city advance
at the end of every turn until it is rebuilt.  Grain cards used for
city support by a Granary cannot be used to mitigate Famine.
  Superstition- Cities that are Happy are immune to Superstition,
a Civilization under the effects of a Theocratic Leader is also
immune. Reduced cities lose city advances as described under
Famine.
  Civil War- The players capital is always retained, and is not
included in either faction's value, but rather placed with the one
the player chooses.  The smaller faction is made by first taking
all cities in Revolt, then any tokens the players wishes, then any
Unhappy cities, then Content.  Satisfied and Happy cities are
immune to Civil War.  (Note: This changes the rules in AdvCiv by
assuming that the smaller faction will always be the one given away
to the beneficiary.  This has always been the case in the games my
group has played, so I assumed this was a safe assumption (perhaps
I assume too much..).)  If a player loses his Capital (the city
with the palace) for any reason, then the player suffers from a
civil war in the next calamity phase (or the current one, if the
capital is lost to a calamity) if the player's empire contains any 
unhappy or revolting citites.  Players holding the great
Compromiser card may, if they wish, hold the Civil War card, and
not suffer from its effects until the next Calamity Phase. 
Compromise, after all, did stall the American Civil war, didn't it? 
(Feel free to implement any other Civ War variants discussed in 
rec.games.board, I didnt feel like deciding on one in particular.)
  Slave Revolt- If a player suffering from a Slave revolt has three
or more cities in revolt, or over half its cities are unhappy, then
the Slave Revolt becomes a full scale Civil War.  Otherwise, the
effects of Slave Revolt are the same, except that these same tokens 
may also not be used in the next taxation phase.  Cities reduced lose 
City Advances as described under Famine.  Note the additonal effect of
Galleons on Slave Revolt (+5 revolters).  With the new effect on 
taxation, Slave revolt can be a serious threat.
  Flood- Same, except that cities lost due to Floods have two City
Advances destroyed, plus one per turn until the city is rebuilt.
  Barbarian Hordes- Same, except that the Hordes never attack a
city which has the city walls advance.  If the starting edge of the
players is totally filled with cities with city walls, then the
barbarian horde does not occur.
  Epidemic- Same, except that cities reduced lose one City Advance
plus one per turn till rebuilt.
  Civil Disorder- Instead of losing all but three, the player
reduces all cities that are not Happy.  If the player holds one of
the four "good cards" for Disorder (Law, Democracy, Music, Drama),
he only reduces cities that aren't Happy or Satisfied.  If two,
then only those that are Unhappy, if all four, then none.  Military
works the opposite, increasing the luxury require to avoid
reduction by one step.  All cities that are in Revolt are given to
the player with the greatest number of tokens in stock.  
Iconoclasm- No change, except of course the rules governing the
loss of City advances now apply.
  Piracy- A player traded piracy loses all of his trade cards
currently on ships to the person who traded it to him, who must put
the trade cards on his own ships or discard them if too many. 
Ships containing Marines are immune to Piracy.  If the trader
doesn't think this is worth it, he can instead make the Piracy card
act like the one published normally in AdCiv, in which case cities
containing city walls or Marines are immune to becoming pirate
cities.  (Option: Additional effect that having a pirate city within 
3 sea squares of one of your cities reduces the number of cards drawn 
by that city by one.)
 
13. Altering the AST
  I don't believe that this should be changed in any way, but I
don't know because of the lack of playtesting.  Please send me
feedback.  Possible changes are the requirement of a certain number
of City advances for each epoch, and the requirement of a capital
to win the game.  Try it out for me, will ya?
[Well, I've now had people willing to playtest my first release, (I
must shower thanks at this time on the Count (ejg@eden.rutgers.edu) and
his AdCiv group(s) for playtesting for me :) ) and they believe
that one must have as many *different* City advances as cities
required to enter the epoch.  I personally think it should equalt
to the number of colors of Civ cards instead, but I dunno, it's up
to whoever wants to play this variant I guess (house rules..)]
Anyways, City Advances DO count towards victory point determination
just like civ cards.
 
Final Notes.
Well, I've now been blessed with playtesters, and they've said that
they really like this variant.  There was one additional request
they wanted that I didn't include, and that had to do with
purchasing city advances.  They beleived that the new system makes
it very easy to get large sets of trade cards right from the
beginning, and that therefore people will go for the higher civ
cards over the city advances.  I think that making city advances an
AST requirement will help, plus the system they recommended seemed,
at least to me, rather hard to keep track of.  Still, I greatly
appreciate thier viewpoint, and perhaps will include the rule in a
later revision, but right now I think people should try it like
this.  The playtesters also said that these rules truly do make one
gain a better appreciation for their Civilization.   And, since
that's what I was attempting all along, I'm glad that is what they
experienced, and I feel that this variant is largely a success. 
I'm sure I'll get some flame about desecrating the sacred rules and
playability of Civilization by changing it so much, but I don't
care.  I think ADCiv is a great game, but I don't see why one
shouldn't try to make it better.
 
Disclaimer.
I admidt wholeheartedly that not all of the ideas contained above
are my own, and have tried to state when I borrowed them from
someone else.  I didn't state where the playtesters ideas were
implemented, but one can easily see this by simply comparing this
version with the version I earlier posted here.  Thanks to GWUGS
for allowing people to use their Civ cards, and a million, zillion
thanks to the count for playtesting.  Bon Appetite.
  ryans@fsp.fsp.com