I'm not sure why everyone is so hyped on the new Civ board game. The old one isn't very good (it's on my trade list on BGG if anyone wants it!), and you've already got Through the Ages, which I've been thinking about making my first 10 rated game over on BGG. I mean, I'm willing to give this game a shot, but I can't imagine it being as good as Through the Ages, I really can't.
Anyway, since everyone's all Civ-ed out, here's five reasons you should check out Through the Ages:
1. The Timestream - As you play, cards from the appropriate age are used to populate the timestream. These are things you can use actions to acquire, and could be new leaders, techs, actions, or wonders. They are shuffled each game, and when they show up in the timestream has dramatic effect as to their efficacy. Even the really powerful cards (Michaelangelo is a ridiculous culture leader) might be near worthless if they come at a bad time in the timestream.
2. Tough Choices - You cannot possibly (even come close) to doing everything you want to do with your civ in this game. Some aspects of your civ are going to fall behind of others, the economy is just balanced this way. Want to improve production? You're falling behind on research, or culture, or military. Or you don't have enough food to feed the people working in production. Or you have a shitty government. You can't possibly do it all, and due to the timestream above, and other factors, each game your choices will be different.
3. Interaction - Even in a 2player game (no diplomacy options, since there's only two players), there's a lot of interactivity. Militarily, you can directly attack other players. Worse? You can pay extra actions to grab something far ahead on the timestream, because otherwise, an opponent would get it. You can totally force the player to change the direction their civ is going in, just because they can't afford to fall too far behind in X (whether X is research, military, culture...). At the same time, your plans for next turn go out the window immediately they try to settle a new colony (and you end up "winning" the colony by sacrificing some of your military, which is now very weak).
4. Multiple Viable Paths - While your Civ will be lacking somehow at the end of the game, you can still end up kicking ass over all. I've seen the winner of the game still be mining Iron (rather than coal or oil). I've seen the winner come from a massive deficit by essentially ignoring culture to build up their infrastructure, and then switch gears. I've seen an entire game go with essentially zero military build up.
5. Corruption Done Right - You cannot be a hoarder in this game. If your civ has a bunch of standing wealth sitting around, you lose some of it to corruption. This (coupled with a well thought out economic system) works first as a nice negative feedback loop, preventing a runaway lead. It also forces you into some of those tough choices above. Building a wonder requires a bit of hoarding. You may really want the (usually significant!) advantage of a wonder, but is it worth corruption eating up some of your resources? You may really need a larger army, but you can't really grow it without corruption/famine... unless you demolish a temple or a library...?
6. BONUS SIXTH REASON: EVENTS - Aside from the timestream, there's also event cards. You play one of these into a small stack at the start of your turn. In doing this, you are seeding the future events pile. You won't know when exactly this event will come up, but it WILL come up. It can be anything from a new colony to settle to a bonus/penalty to the civ strongest/weakest in some area. Ooh, a new colony just showed up, should you bid for it? You really want it, but not quite as much as the colony YOU put in the event list, and that'll come up in a few turns. Can you go for both? Can you bid some more military just to raise the price on your opponent(s), but without winning? Or worse... you put a card in there that gives a big bonus to the player with the biggest military... and bidding on this colony puts you in danger of losing that bonus to an opponent. Is the colony's bonus worth it?
*WHEW*
Anyway, this game is amazing.
