I recently got my edition of Eagle's Civilization: The Board-game. I already own War! Age of Imperialism, a masterpiece if you ask me, maybe the best board game ever made; so you can be sure that I was going to get my hands on their latest enterprise.

The game board is like all of their game boards, huge, so big in fact you might have a hard time finding a place to play it. The artwork on the gameboard is kind of funky like in WAOI; I generally like a little cleaner artwork like in the new Lord of the Rings Risk. It is difficult in some areas to tell where the borders are between the territories, as they are thin red lines. Nevertheless I think on the whole it is a very nice board.

The other cardboard components like the money and the exploration chits are nice, and the cards, of which there are quite a few, are also nicely done.

The rules are clever, and with the technology algorithms it is similar to Civilization the computer game. Technological achievements and Wonders are just cards, though, so you don't get the really dramatic display you have when you are playing the computer game. But here again, I am just quibbling. The purpose of the game is to have the biggest and most advanced civilization like in the computer game, but the computer game Civ III gives you an opportunity to flex your military muscle and you can win the game via conquest. The board game de-emphasizes the military aspect of play. I have a couple of issues with the rules, though. Planes and ships both move 3 spaces per turn; that seems kind of unrealistic to me since planes fly at several hundred knots and ships go about thirty. Furthermore planes can "land" on battleships, which seems kind of strange.

I think fans of the computer game will like the board game, and for those who are willing to sacrifice the artwork and strategic display for game play, the rules are well done and the game is very playable. On the whole it's an excellent endeavor from the new Superpower of Board Games. Unfortunately not everyone will be thrilled with it.

My problem is that when I opened the box, I experienced a big letdown. All of the combat units of all of the epochs are the same color. The Eagle Games webpage implies, in the photos of the figures, that the cities, explorers and combat units will be molded in different colors, as all of them are depicted in a pale yellow. It turns out that the cities, explorers and flagbearers are molded in red, yellow, green, gray, blue and purple but the combat units, all 408 or so, are molded in a tan color. In order to show ownership of these identical figures, you have to accompany them with a flag bearer, a piece molded in color that serves no other purpose in the game. Maybe that's not so weird when you're throwing swordsmen and catapults into combat, heck, the Romans had flagbearers. The sight of those little banner-carrying guys in robes leading tanks and fighter planes into combat is just plain ludicrous. Molding all of the combat pieces in the same color is extremely lame in my opinion.

Eagle Games appears to have needed to cut costs. If they were going to mold the figures in color, they would probably have had to include more sprues, so you would not run out of battle ships (there are only two per sprue). And it would have been difficult to fit more figures in the box, as the darn thing is full to the brim as it is. But they could have molded each sprue in a different neutral color, like a tan one and an olive one, a brown one, and so on. Then at least the strategic display would look better.

I have Civ III the computer game and I love it, but I was hoping I would get a boardgame that stood on its own feet, and I don't think this one really does. To me, a boardgame is a boardgame and a computer game is a computer game. There was no effort in this game to be innovative with inspiration by Civilization the computer game; instead we have a noble attempt to make a boardgame out of a computer game and you can only do such a thing so well.

Eagle Games sells sprues of figures from their other games, the civil war one and WAOI. I am hoping they will release sprues of these combat pieces molded in color. I believe people will buy them. We who buy these games are hobbyists, we are not kids who buy off the shelf at Toys R Us. Hobbyists will pay big bucks to have the game they want. The hobby store where I recently bought Loewenherz has all of the Clix figures and Warhammer stuff, and those hobbyists spends hundreds of dollars on their pastime.

Buy this game. If the company makes enough money on it, maybe we'll get the combat figures in color! And, indeed, when I asked Eagle Games about this I got a reply from the Big Kahuna, Glen Drover. He noted that in fact the reason they did not mold the figures in colors was because there would need to more figures than would fit the box, and that, hallelujah, they are planning to make the colored sprues available separately in November. He also noted they would be very reasonably priced. Having the figures in color would neutralize my primary problem with the game, and I would then be forced to praise it incessantly.