Mega-Civilization? 5-18 players? 10-12 hours? Srsly?

I would kill to have 8-9 people willing to play Advanced Civ. for a whole day. That is my definition of a perfect game day.

We're already talking about renting a big place somewhere nice and all flying in for a few days to play the fuck out of this. I almost preordered one to grab at Essen but then realized I'd have no easy way to get it home (22lbs!!!) and said fuck it for now.

Mega-Civilization came in the mail.

It's a pretty cool thing. Everything about it is well executed. There's so much stuff that the wooden box is almost a necessity to support the heft of the components. I don't think a normal box would hold up. It's a huge sectioned mounted map, a giant A.S.T., another big Census Board, trade deck holders, and a ton of cards and chits. Ballpark quick-count is about 1200 cards and 1500 chits. I spent all night punching and sorting and reading. Definitely enough for the full 18 players, but with clear instructions and component indicators for games with fewer players.

There are 51 unique Advances (over 700 cards). You can play Western Map or Eastern Map or both, depending on number of players. There are four separate trade card decks that are mixed or chosen in different ways based on player count; around 400 trade cards total. Rather than having to constantly track or add up the purchase bonuses that different Advances give it comes with chits for each bonus type to help keep track. Based on my experience with Advanced Civilization everything looks pretty well balanced, even with all the extra Advances. A 5-9 player game should be pretty similar to what Advanced Civilization provides.

Mega-Civilization is basically Advanced Civilization turned up to 11. There isn't anything drastically different, and playtime should be similar. I do sort of wish that the card holders, player aids, and chits would have been a little thicker, but they're standard German-made eurogame quality and should hold up fine.

Advanced Civ is one of my favorite games so I failed to resist getting this. I also decided I'd be kicking myself if they went through the 3000-count print run without bringing it to the U.S. through normal retail. Shipping was about 20% of the price.

The only way to get this game on the table for a full complement of players is to schedule it as an event, either at a convention or standalone. For a standalone event, players might even need to rent a conference room, because most people don't have 18 chairs, adequate table space, and a big enough room for this game. My basement is set up pretty well for gaming, but 18 would be a bit crowded.