What I’m playing: Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game (2010)

I may have previously spoken of my love for Sid Meier’s Civilization franchise before, a relationship that started way back in 1996 with the second iteration of the computer game. The most recent version, Civ V, was released back in 2010 and its second major expansion, Brave New World, will be released in July. According to Steam, to date I have played 696 hours of Civ 5, and I would assume an equally large amount of time was sunk into the earlier iterations.

Today, however, I’m going to talk about my very first experience with the board game of the same name. What’s funny about this is that the original Sid Meier’s Civilization computer game was actually based off the 1980s board game, Civilization. So this is a board game of a computer game of a board game. HA!

There have actually been two attempts at turning the computer game into a board game, the first of which was back in 2002 by a different publisher. Below is a timeline to give you a better view of how things have developed over the years:

• 1980: Civilization (board)
• 1991: Sid Meier's Civilization (computer)
• 1996: Sid Meier's Civilization II (computer)
• 2001: Sid Meier's Civilization III (computer)
• 2002: Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
• 2005: Sid Meier's Civilization IV (computer)
• 2010: Sid Meier's Civilization V (computer)
• 2010: Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game (unrelated to earlier version)

With that little bit of history out of the way, let’s jump straight into the game!

First off, this is not a short game. This is absolutely not the sort of game you should attempt to play at 8pm on a Thursday night, especially when three of the four players have never experienced it before. Of course, that’s exactly what we did.

It took Jeff about an hour to go through all the rules and then we played for four and a half hours before quitting at 1:30am. We were probably at least 30-60 minutes away from a winner being crowned, so that should give you a good idea of the scope. Obviously our next should run faster now that we are all familiar with it, but I’d suggest putting aside about three hours if you want to play it.

The game starts with each player (2-4) choosing from a pool of civilizations, all of which have unique powers and play styles. The board is a giant map constructed from sixteen squares that are randomly placed face-down in a 4x4 square. Each player starts in one of the four corners of the map, which are flipped over to allow placement of their capital and starting units.

Units come in two flavors: scouts, who are represented by covered wagons, and armies, that are represented by banners. Each turn, each unit you own gets a set amount of movement points that they can use to reveal and explore new squares of the game map. By doing so you open up new space in which to build new cities, discover “goodie huts” and eventually encounter other players and potentially engage in warfare.

“Goodie huts” come in two flavors: abandoned and barbarian encampments. The former can be looted by having either a scout or an army walk into the square it occupies, revealing a free random resource that can be put towards various projects in your civilization. The barbarians, however, require you to fight for your loot, and as such can only be taken by an army unit.

Combat in SMC:TBG is based on “rock, paper, scissors.” For the majority of the game there are only three types of military units available to you: infantry, cavalry, and ranged. Each unit has a strength assigned to it, which can vary by a few points from card to card. When two units face off in battle, if either one can deal damage equal to the opposing unit’s strength, the opposing unit dies.

Example: A German infantry unit (Strength 1) faces off against a Roman infantry (Strength 3). Both units deal their damage to each other, with the German unit dying and the Roman unit taking a point of damage. If the Roman unit takes 2 more damage before the battle ends he too will die, otherwise the damage with be healed.

Further, if both units in the above example had strength of 2, both would have taken lethal damage and died. However, each unit is geared towards defeating a different type, giving it a chance to strike first in tie-breakers. Infantry excel against cavalry, cavalry excels against ranged, and ranged excels against infantry. So if an infantry unit (Strength 2) fought a cavalry unit (Strength 2), the cavalry unit would get to strike first, killing the infantry before they had a chance to retaliate and deal damage. So ideally you want to build your army to include a variety of units to help balance against whatever opposing units you may come up against.

While exploring the map, settling new cities and beating up on the indigenous people, you can also attack your neighbors, grow your economy, grow your culture, and research new technologies, all of which are potential paths towards victory.

Technology is broken into five tiers, each representing a new age in mankind’s history, and is researched in a pyramid fashion from the bottom up. That is to say, before you can research a level 2 technology you would need at least two level 1 technologies already researched. To research a level 3, you would need another level 2, which in turn would require another level 1. Get it? Good.

There’s a ton more I could talk about this game (e.g. economics, culture, city building), but this post is already fairly long in the tooth so I’m going to stop. But if you are the sort of person who enjoys strategy heavy games and don’t mind committing an entire afternoon or evening to the experience I would recommend you try this game out. It was a lot of fun and I look forward getting a chance to try it out again.

P.S. I have been told by people in the know that aggressive strategies win this game, and as such, the Germans are super over-powered, so maybe leave them out the first time you play.


Image source: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Quotes with Corgis

"It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And then one fine morning—"

-The Great Gatsby

Daily Haiku - April 24, 2013

I'm up and about
Earlier than 'early' is
Wherefore has sleep gone?

Healthy Happenstance

So last week I decided to go on a brief smoothie binge and try out the slightly healthier side of life. I jumped on Macheesmo and pulled out two recipes I hadn’t tried before.

Mean Green Juice 3-4 leaves kale 1 green apple 1/2 cucumbe 1.5 stalks celery 1/4 lemon (no peel) 1/2 cup water

Terry's Rainbow Smoothie 1 ripe banana 1/6 cup apple sauce 1/4 ripe pear 1/6 cup cranberry juice 1/6 cup orange juice 3 baby carrots 1 cup packed fresh baby spinach 1 cup frozen fruit 2 tablespoons milled flax seeds

I halved the recipe for Mean Green and still got two meals worth of smoothie, but thankfully the surplus fared well in the fridge until breakfast the next morning. Terry’s smoothie was much more in line with the other recipe I’ve frequently used from Machessmo, Besty’s Breakfast Smoothie, but with the added benefit of some vegetables thrown in.

While the smoothies turned out all right, the real reward was confirming the correlation between when I eat breakfast and when I wake up in the morning. You may recall many months ago I found an article that suggested just such a correlation and I switched over to eating a later breakfast at 10am to see if it would help me sleep longer. While I didn’t notice any real change at the time, a few days into my smoothie routine I suddenly started waking up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 6:30am, an hour and a half earlier than when I was used to dragging my butt out of bed. And though I am a morning person, I don’t need to be up THAT early, so I’m going back to my 10am routine.

The End.

Daily Haiku - April 18, 2013

Terribly pleased, I.
Birthday surprise, triumphant.
Desserts for the win!

What I'm Cooking - French Bread Pizza

I decided to try and go the healthy smoothie route this week, but before I did I figured I'd negate all the positive health benefits that would come with it by gorging on homemade French Bread Pizza the night before.

Growing up I loved Stouffer's French Bread pizza, but because it was cheap and involved no work whatsoever I never really had the desire to try and make it at home myself. And when I got older and started experimenting on my own, my results were generally underwhelming.

Fortunately, Serious Eats have an entire subsection dedicated to making pizza, and this is the third or fourth time I've tried one of their recipes to great success.

There's not much to the process of making french bread pizza, but their suggested tweaks (e.g., squishing the bread flat and pre-baking the bread with cheese to create a barrier against the sauce) were welcome additions. The recipe is for a whole loaf of french bread, which means you should ideally be feeding four people with it, but I managed to eat 2/3rds of it over the course of two meals. I'll find out tonight or tomorrow how well it reheats, but it was good enough the first time to recommend to all of you.

Daily Haiku - April 15, 2013

I keep sleep at bay
Playing in worlds more robust
Than dreams ever were.

Daily Haiku - April 9, 2013

The strong wind downs trees
Offices go silent, dark
Generators hum.

What I'm Listening To (Sad, Sweet Songs Edition): Mitchell, Spektor, 35MM

Anais Mitchell - "Tailor" (starts at 11:35)



Regina Spektor - "Samson"



35MM (a multimedia "musical exhibition") - "Cut You a Piece"

Daily Haiku - April 8, 2013

Fraudulent charges
Using non-profits to test
A sly thief indeed.

Gardening

One of the many perks that my current residence offers is a fairly large vegetable garden that the owner hadn’t taken advantage of in years. The only stalwart inhabitants that continued to thrive there were a truly massive rosemary bush, and a slightly more reasonable sage bush.

About three years I got the urge to play around in the dirt and promptly planted seeds for a variety of vegetables. Shortly thereafter I realized planting seeds was a slow and fairly hit-or-miss proposition and switched over to purchasing pre-sprouted plants. Over the years I tried out peppers, cucumbers, green beans, cantaloupe, raspberries, basil, oregano, mint and a half dozen types of tomatoes. Nowadays, having learned what grows best and what I’ll actually eat, I’ve settled on just growing basil and Roma tomatoes. Basically, I want to make a much bruschetta as possible during the summer.

Unfortunately, the garden hadn’t seen a lot of use before I showed up and had fallen into disrepair. The automated sprinkler system was a mess, with most of the sprinkler heads broken or leaking and the beds were old and falling apart. Initially I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on it seeing as I didn’t actually own the garden but over the last year or two I decided to start throwing money at it and have been slowly rebuilding the beds from scratch, replacing the sprinkler heads and hoses and keeping the weeds and surrounding bushes trimmed to a respectable degree.

I think the reason I love working on the garden is because it appeals to my sense of organization. Seeing broken-down beds and weeds marring a nicely constructed garden drives me nuts. And don’t get me started on that rosemary bush. Every year I get ready to start gardening again and the damn thing has doubled in size and begun its annual invasion of the other vegetable beds. I feel slightly bad chopping so much off but it’s got to learn it lesson. Just because it’s the biggest bush in the yard doesn’t mean it can bully the other plants.

This last weekend I finally got my hands dirty and began the yearly clean-up and planting of the garden. I completely replaced the primary vegetable bed I use, chopped back the bushes, did some weeding, finally replaced the sprinkler heads and hoses, and planted three tomato and two basil plants. There are still two more beds that need to be completely replaced and a good chunk of the pebbled walkway has been overrun with moss and dirt, but the latter is a massive fight for another day.

If you have the time, money and space I highly recommend you try out a garden of your own. While I lucked out with very sizable, pre-built plot, you can start on a much smaller scale with a single vegetable bed or just a large barrel. I think gardening is an incredibly rewarding endeavor, even if you don’t get much in the way of actual food out of it. For me, it’s an excuse to get outside and get my hands dirty. And speaking of which, if you’ll excuse me I need to go wrestling a rosemary bush back into submission now.

Daily Haiku - April 4, 2013

Ivory trains drop
Doubles break the track apart
Dominoes cascade.

Daily Haiku - April 3, 2013

Blinking light informs
Without it I continue
Use your turn signal.

What I'm Cooking - Blueberry Pie

I love pie. LOVE IT.

I’ve never understood why some people prefer cake over pie (unless it’s ice cream cake, then all bets are off). Pie is the perfect dessert, breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner. Shockingly, I’ve only ever tried my hand at pie three times—twice with this Cooks’ Illustrated recipe and once with a CI cherry pie recipe. All were delicious.

One of the reasons I like this dish in particular is because it showcases the sort of outside-the-box thinking that CI often displays in its search for a perfected recipe: they add tapioca as a thickener, shredded apple as a binder, they use vodka in the pie crust (though that’s a fairly well-known trick at this point) and they place the pie pan on a preheated baking sheet to help the base crust cook faster.

Pie Dough:

2 1/2 cups (12.5 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons sugar
12 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch slices
1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup cold vodka
1/4 cup cold water

Blueberry Filling:

6 cups (30 oz.) fresh blueberries
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated on large holes of box grater
2 teaspoons grated zest (about 2 lemons worth) and 2 teaspoons juice*
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons instant tapioca, ground
Pinch table salt
2 tablespoons unsalted better, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water

*I thought the lemon flavor was too strong and will halve this the next time I make it.

1. FOR THE PIE DOUGH: Process 1 1/2 cups flour, salt, and sugar in food processor until combined, about 2 one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl with rubber spatula and redistribute dough evenly around processor blade. Add remaining cup flour and pulse until mixture is evenly distributed around bowl and mass of dough has been broken up, 4 to 6 quick pulses. Empty mixture into medium bowl.

2. Sprinkle vodka and water over mixture (make sure you use it all). With rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix, pressing down on dough until dough is slightly tacky and sticks together. Divide dough into two even balls and flatten each into 4-inch disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 45 minutes or up to 2 days.

3. Remove 1 disk of dough from the refrigerator and roll on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to 12-inch circle, about 1/8 inch think. Roll dough loosely on rolling pin and unroll into pie plate, leaving at least 1-inch overhang on each side (my rolling pin wasn't thick enough to do this which made for a bit of a mess). Working around circumference, ease dough into plate by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing into plate bottom with other hand. Leave dough that overhangs plate in place; refrigerate while preparing filling until dough is firm, about 30 minutes.

If you have two identical pie pans, check out this video from Alton Brown's 'Good Eats,' as an alternative method to transferring the dough.

4. FOR THE FILLING: Adjust oven rack to lowest position, place rimmed baking sheet on oven rack and heat oven to 400 degrees. Place 3 cups berries in medium saucepan and set over medium heat. Using potato masher, mash berries several times to release juices. Continue to cook, stirring frequently and mashing occasionally, until about half of berries have broken down and mixture is thickened and reduced to 1 1/2 cups, about 8 minutes. Let cool slightly.

5. Place grated apple in clean kitchen towel (I used a washcloth) and wring dry. Transfer apple to large bowl. Add cooked berries, remaining 3 cups uncooked berries, lemon zest, juice, sugar, tapioca, and salt; toss to combine. Transfer mixture to dough-lined pie plate and scatter butter pieces over filling.



6. Roll out second disk of dough on generously floured (up to 1/4 cup) work surface to 11-inch circle, about 1/8 inch thick. Using 1 1/4 inch round biscuit cutter, cut round from center of dough. Cut around 6 rounds from dough, 1 1/2 inches from edge of center hole and equally spaced around center hole. Roll dough loosely around pin and unroll over pie, leaving at least 1/2 inch overhang on each side.

7. Trim bottom layer of overhanging dough, leaving 1/2-inch overhang. Fold dough under itself so that edge of fold is flush with outer rim of pie plate. Flute edges using thumb and forefinger or press with times of fork to seal. Brush top and edges of pie with egg mixture. If dough is very soft, chill in freezer for 10 minutes.

8. Place pie on heating baking sheet and bake 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue to bake until juice bubbles and crust is deep golden brown, 30 to 40 minutes longer. Transfer pie to wire rack; cool to room temperature, at least 4 hours. Cut into wedges and serve.

Daily Haiku - April 2, 2013

A return to weights:
Lifts, curls, presses, shrugs, pull-downs;
Joints creak from disuse.

Daily Haiku - Easter Edition

Pork loin and red wine
To celebrate the return
Of Bunny Jesus.