Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
Special Ops: Civilization Board Game Draft...Ants Are Cool!
We draft two original civilization board games with only $30 and 10 rounds, forcing bold choices on theme, mechanics, designer, art, publisher, box size, player count, and length. One becomes an insect super-civ of tech and diplomacy, the other a two-player city builder about climate resilience.
• rules of the $30, 10-round Civ game draft
• insect colony vs environmental adaptation sub-themes
• tech trees and diplomacy vs resource management and city building
• designer picks and why reputation matters
• art direction choices that support readability and mood
• publisher fits and expectations for production and support
• box size, player count, and runtime trade-offs
• final builds, table presence, and playstyle visions
• listener poll to pick the winning design
Let us know which game you would want to play!
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Welcome to the Operation Game Mad podcast, back at better than ever with a special operation today. We are drafting a civilization civilization a civilization game, a Civ game. Uh joining me as always. Two people who can say words, Clayton Gable.
SPEAKER_03:I can't really usually say words, but I am excited to defend my crown as drafting champion.
SPEAKER_00:Whatever. Well said. Well said. Jared, do you have any rebutting words?
SPEAKER_01:I mean. No, I don't. I do have this one comment though. Um I'm gonna blast him today. Absolutely blow him out of the water. Um I would like in the future a more um holistic view and maybe unbiased voting and you know who wins.
SPEAKER_00:So I feel like you're cheated last time. Uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_03:Was there a winner? I I just said that. I and I don't remember. I was I was wondering if you guys were gonna remember. I was wondering if you guys were gonna call me on it, but I don't remember there being any winner declared.
SPEAKER_01:But I remember proclaiming talking about like cows. Uh yeah, yeah, you had a cow thing going on. I remember being really cool though.
SPEAKER_00:So I've got the let's see. I've got the results right here. Please, if you are watching, please ignore that I have not activated my license to Excel right now. I just got a new computer and I have not set it up yet. But uh the first drafting game was the farm drafting game. We had Clayton with a sci-fi press your luck worker placement developed by Reiner Kenizia, Andrew Bosley, artistified, published by Leader Games in a medium box, best at two, playtime 45 minutes with minifigs as the bonus feature. That was his farming game. Jared had dairy farming with deck bag and pool building, hand management, uh designed by Eric Lang. Uh, artist was Roland McDonald, published by Direwolf in a small box, best at three, uh, best played at 60 minutes with deluxe components. So if you didn't chime in last time, let us know who won the farming game, and we can settle this once and for all.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, pretty much.
SPEAKER_00:But today we have a new bout of ruin, and that is Civil Civilization Game. That's how it's said. Civ Civilization game. You've yep. We'll call it a Civ game for short. Uh Civ game for short, Clayton says. Uh, so the if you did not watch the farming draft, the rules are both people are given$30 to spend over 10 rounds, and each round has a category and five options ranging from one dollar being the cheapest to five dollars, and they will go round by round until they reach round 10. And if they run out of money, that's just too bad. Uh, but ideally, they will have some money left over at the end where they can complete all the rounds. Uh, the person with the lowest amount of money at the beginning of each round will go first. So uh I need to let's roll a die. Let's let's roll a die. Oh, yeah. I've got my uh my neat 20-sided die here. Yes, uh D D. Clayton as the defending self-proclaimed champion. Do you want evens or odds?
SPEAKER_03:Evens.
SPEAKER_00:Even Stevens. We have a 14. 14. So please, you get to go first. Yep. Uh the first category is the sub-theme for your civilization game for one dollar, mythology for two dollars, environmental adaptation for three dollars, insect colony for four dollars, trade and guild routes for five dollars, cause cosmic influence.
SPEAKER_03:I'll take insect colony for three, please.
SPEAKER_01:I could have I could have called that yeah, it I was just there for some freaking buzz I mean colonies.
SPEAKER_03:My biology roots, man. I just love the buggies.
SPEAKER_00:Jared, over to you. Mythology, environmental adaptation, trade guilds or routes, and cosmic influence. When you say environmental adaptation, uh like storms are coming, and you are trying to uh protect your civilization from the ongoing onslaught of environmental change. Okay, maybe you're like on the moon or something. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:I'm picking that one. No, no, it will it'll build, uh, it'll build as we go along. This is just the first choice.
SPEAKER_00:You are going environmental adaptation for two dollars. That's right. Two dollars, Bob. Clayton, you have the least amount of money heading into round two, which is your first mechanic. You have cultural development, two dollars area control, three dollars is resource management, four dollars is tech trees, five dollars is worker placement.
SPEAKER_03:You know, Civ games are games I do not play, but I do ever played like Civ Six, any of the Civs? Never played one. I this is this will trigger people.
SPEAKER_01:Tapestry is the most Civ game I've ever played, so and I absolutely throttle you in Civ in uh in Tapestry, so yeah, ready for a beating.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but I do know that in real big boy Civ games, I hear people talk about the trees of technology, and so I'm gonna take tech trees for four.
SPEAKER_00:It's a tough one. All right, tech trees for four. Okay, Jared, where are you going?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I gotta go. Seems kind of kind of a weird one, but resource management speaking big time to me here. Um not weird at all, actually. I don't know why I said that because how's how's how's old Clayton over here supposed to go up his tech trees without resources? So that's right. It'll be interesting to see what he does here. It's pretty easy.
SPEAKER_00:After two rounds, after two rounds, Clay has$23, Jared has$25, heading into the second mechanic for$1 military development, two diplomacy and trade, three dollars is city building, four dollars is era progression, and five dollars is asymmetric civilization powers.
SPEAKER_03:I'll have diplomacy and trade for two dollars, please. Nice. You don't need resources if you can barter and trade with the other players, you know. All right, what we're trading, but we're trading.
SPEAKER_00:He left a lot, he left a lot up here. You could seize back initiative because Clay sitting at$21 after three rounds.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I think well, obviously, with an environmental adaptation game, I was really hoping he'd leave the city building option for me. So definitely this is great for a civil engineer like myself. Um, need that biddy that city building um mechanic here to really fortify your towns. Um, I'm thinking not as much like battle and actual death and destruction as in most of your Civ games. Um I'm thinking cutesy. I'm feeling maybe a little more, it's feeling very airy, light. I'm trying to, I'm I might be trying to win Mary over on this one because she's a big she's a big uh Civ game kind of player, right?
SPEAKER_03:Like oh yeah, she can't stop talking about him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so give me uh City Building for for uh three there. City building for three.
SPEAKER_00:All right. At the beginning of round four, Clayton has$21, Jared has$22. The topic for round four is board game designer. For one dollar, we have Ryan Lukat, designer of Above and Below and Sleeping Gods. For two dollars, we have Martin Wallace, designers of Age of Steam and Brass. For three dollars, we have Jamie Stegmeyer, Tapestry and Scythe. For$4, we have Sid Meyer himself, the original designer of the Civilization Games, and the designer of the Civilization, the board game. And then number five, we have Vlada Shivatal, designer of Through the Ages, all legendary designers in their own right. So, Clayton, to you.
SPEAKER_03:Man, I was really glad Jared has been frugal because this is the round that you want to have the money and for. This is the heart of your game, right here. This is where you don't skimp. I said it in the farm game. If you're gonna skimp on anything, make sure it's not the designer because Vladoshavatl has designed probably the greatest civilization game known to man, and I think he's gonna do it again with a nice insect colony theme. Oh and so I'm I'm spending all the monies to get Vladoshavatl for five. Okay, big roller. Yep. Okay, we might not have anything left when we get down to the the game lengths.
SPEAKER_01:I think we're we're heading down the same train the train tracks as last time, I think. Um I'm going with a a simple uh and absolutely frugal, huge Jamie Stegmeier in my pocket here. Um he I mean, still like I said, I'm still feeling cutesy and tapestry inside feeling very cutthroat, uh slicey and dicey. Okay. But um he's got some, doesn't he have some other I mean he's got apiary? Apiary that's a little more buzzy and fun, but I ain't making no insect colony BS like here with Clayton over here, but uh we'll see.
SPEAKER_00:I'm a I'm a little surprised that he didn't go with Jamie Stegmeyer because he's yeah, he's your boy, Clayton. He has you're doing it.
SPEAKER_01:I think he's got a tattoo on his butt of them.
SPEAKER_03:Listen, I am I'm selling out right now, and I'm playing to the fans that are watching this show and they're gonna vote for me because I know Jamie had his shot at a civilization game, and although I love it and it's good for my taste, tapestry has been you know slandered quite a bit as a a cheap take on civilization. It's just it's just tracks and going up. So I don't know. I'm I'm trying to play to the tryhards out there that want the real deal. Jamie made a game that's approachable for the regular folk. My insect people my insect colony game is not that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:You're looking for the neckbeards. The neckbeards will vote for me.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, got it, got it. All right, uh, round number five is artists. For one dollar, we have Jacob Rosalski, the artist on Scythe. For two dollars, we have Clemens Franz, artist on Agricola and Feast for Odin. For three dollars, we have Mihalo Dimitreski, artist on Raiders of the North Sea and Dice Throne. For four dollars, we have Vincent Dutrait, artist of Duel for Middle Earth and Quest for El Dorado, and for five dollars, we have Ian O'Toole, artist of Dead Reckoning, Raw, Cascadero, and Voidfall. And I will apologize because I had five new artists, and I'm pretty sure Vincent Dutrait and Ian O'Toole did not get swapped out. So sorry about that, but they're still up there, they're still worth it. They still hold a special place in our hearts. So sorry for those two that I left off, but here we go. Uh over to Clayton, who has$16 remaining.
SPEAKER_03:Travis, I'm gonna have to ask you to charge me a little more for this because I don't feel like Jakob Rosowski should only cost one dollar. I mean, that is a steal. I'm taking that one all day long. Scythe is widely regarded for its beautiful artwork at the hands of this man, and I want him drawing bugs for me. So I'm taking Jakob for one.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:If you want to charge me more, this is your chance because that's I think you mislabeled.
SPEAKER_00:That's okay. Uh, Jared, this is your chance to seize initiative right here.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, it'll happen. I'm going Ian O'Toole. I'm I'm banking hard on the artists here. Yeah. Dead Reckoning and Ra, the vivid colors are gonna really need to sell my uh hurricanes. They're coming at these cities, these these uh poor, unprotected. Well, hopefully they're not if you've managed your resources and built your city correctly. Um, so yeah, it's this is gonna be huge. It's gonna be beautiful. Again, I'm trying to hit that that cutesy fun, like you know, that edge right there where you're uh also maybe in the environmentalists out there that are uh concerned about our planet. Uh so it's it's definitely gonna look good. So I'm balling out on this one. You know no tool for five initiative.
SPEAKER_00:Well done. All right, round number six is publisher Jared. For one dollar, we have Cellophare Games, publisher of Gloomhaven. For two set it's cephalofare, cephalophare games. Not Cellophare. Cephalofare Publishers of Gloomhaven. For two dollars, we have Portal Games, publishers of Imperial Settlers. For three dollars, we have De Vere, publishers of Red Cathedral and White Castle. For four dollars, we have Czech Games Edition, publisher of Through the Ages, and for five dollars we have GMT Games, publishers of Twilight Struggle and Dominant Species.
SPEAKER_01:Um this one I'm mainly just going for the block here, maybe. I don't know. Uh CGE through the ages. Um, I'm feeling like definitely want them on my team help uh publish this this absolute award-winning game. I mean, Eschenspiel is is ringing in my ears at this point.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean so Clay tried to swing and get Vlada Shaval, designer of Through the Ages. You blocked him and took the publisher of Through the Ages.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's not gonna go well. Vladel and CG kind of need to go hand in hand. This has thrown me for a loop. This is throwing me for a loop. This is good.
SPEAKER_01:This is where I wanted them.
SPEAKER_03:What do I do? I guess I'm just gonna go. Man, I jeez, not wild about any of these. Um I guess I'll go with De Vere. Are they still like a black mark on the hobby? Because I don't need that influencing my votes here. Never mind. I don't want them. I don't want them. I don't know if they've I don't know if they've done the time yet. I don't know if they've done the time yet. I think I'm gonna go with portal games.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Nice. Even though I can't name a single game other than the one you have listed there that they published.
SPEAKER_00:That's okay. Uh okay. Round seven is box size. This is this is uh clay. You are sitting at$13. Jared is at$10, still leading off the draft. You guys are run out of money quick. Uh so for box size, for one dollar we have pocket slash travel games. We're talking real tiny boxes. For two dollars, we have small box, three dollars, medium box, four dollars, large box, five dollars is mega box. We're talking huge, like the big Awakened Realms reprint of Castles of Murgundy or the uh you know the Everdell complete collection, big old box. So, Jared, where are you going?
SPEAKER_01:This is this is probably bad for my next choices, but I it needs to be large. Any kind of civilization game, you can't put it in anything smaller than a large box, I feel like. Um medium box would not be big enough to contain all the humanity that's inside of it. So this is not good. This is looking very poorly for me at the the end of this this bout.
SPEAKER_00:But all good. There's still good options left. Clayton, over to you. What size box do you want?
SPEAKER_03:Well, if Jared's getting a large box, then I'm obviously gonna get the mega box.
SPEAKER_00:Oh boy. Oh boy.
SPEAKER_03:Because nobody ever said bigger isn't better, and I will defend my big boxes till the day I die.
SPEAKER_00:How big is the box for through the ages?
SPEAKER_03:I don't know. I don't think it's that big.
SPEAKER_00:I don't think it's huge. You got it?
SPEAKER_03:Is it I don't have it, but I've seen it.
SPEAKER_00:That is a game that I would never get played. That's like a a dedication to play.
SPEAKER_03:It's like an all-day game.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Oh, really? Yes, yeah. Okay. Next round, round number eight is best at player count for one dollar is solo. Two dollars is two players, three dollars three, four dollars is four, five is five and up. Jared, you're sitting at six dollars, Clayton's at eight. What is the best at player count that you want for your civilization game?
SPEAKER_01:Uh we're gonna go with two here. And hope hopefully, maybe maybe you can get like a you know, a robot uh kind of like autonomous something to help you out with the other civilizations track. Um, yeah, this one's gonna be tough.
SPEAKER_03:Money's getting tight down here.
SPEAKER_00:That's why I hit that's why I did the last category the way I did. So Clay.
SPEAKER_01:We might not have a bonus feature in my game.
SPEAKER_00:So Clay, what do you want for best at?
SPEAKER_03:I kind of hamstrung myself here by making this a diplomacy and trade game because I don't think you're gonna get a lot of bang for your buck at a three player count. Certainly not so low. Um, I would like to go five. I would like to go five plus, but that's pushing on the bounds of what's possible with my funds right now. So I'm gonna I'm gonna settle for four, best at four.
SPEAKER_00:That's how economic. Lock it in. Yeah. Alrighty. We're tied up. We are tied up at four dollars for the last two rounds. First up for round number nine is game length. For one dollar, we have twenty minutes, two dollars, we have thirty minutes, three dollars is forty-five minutes, four dollars is sixty minutes, and five dollars is one and one half hours, ninety minutes. Jared, you were leading off, so you will keep initiative. Jared, what do you want for game length?
SPEAKER_01:I'm gonna spend it all, you know, 60, and uh I'm not getting a bonus feature. Wow. I'm I'm I just need you need that time to really develop the the uh the civilization. Okay, you can't, you know, you can't just sell out with anything shorter than that. So that's bold. That's bold.
SPEAKER_03:I I agree with him. Unfortunately, I don't like to. Um, but I can't buy the five dollar ninety-minute time frame. So I guess I'll go with three and hope that Vlottle can work some magic to squeeze this game into a 45-minute 45-minute affair.
SPEAKER_01:Hey, go back to our you know, discussions on AI adaptations. Maybe there's like an AI, you know, little assistant that helps you speed up the game here.
SPEAKER_00:I know in on our farm draft, we did have an app assisted uh for one of the special features, bonus features, app integration for a bonus feature. Nobody picked it though. So Calais, you have one dollar remaining. You can get miniature wonders slash monuments as a bonus feature, or you can pass like Jared and end up with one dollar that you cannot do anything with. Do you want the miniature wonders slash monuments for your I'll take them? All right.
SPEAKER_01:For the people not on YouTube, what are what were the other um options here? If we would have saved our saved our pennies.
SPEAKER_00:So if you would have saved your money for bonus feature, round 10, for one dollar we have miniature wonders slash monuments. For two dollars, we have unique civilization boards slash mats. For three dollars, we have a modular map for a little increased replayability. For four dollars, we have an events and chronicles deck that changed through the ages. And for five dollars, we have multi-use cards for your different leaders and technologies.
SPEAKER_03:Honestly, I probably would have wanted the one dollar one anyway.
SPEAKER_00:Really?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, let's do a recap that concludes our civilization game draft. Clayton, you have a sub-theme of insect colonies, you have tech trees and diplomacy and trade for your mechanics. Your designer is Vlada Schwadel, your artist is Jacob Rosalski, your publisher is Portal Games, you have a mega box size, best at four players. The biggest playtime is 45 minutes, and you have miniature wonders slash monuments as your bonus feature.
SPEAKER_03:Need the big box for those.
SPEAKER_00:The the mega box, yeah. The big box.
SPEAKER_01:I'm imagining this as like a big honey, like a hive, a big like you know, beehive mega box that just is just ungodly. You can't stack anything on top of it because it just just looks like a big Utah-shaped honey, honey hive. I don't know. That's what's going on in my head.
SPEAKER_00:So before we read off Jared's results, Clay, do you have any like idea of what you are envisioning for this civilization game designed by Vladishabotal featuring an insect colony?
SPEAKER_03:Um I can't say I have much of an idea more than what we just walked through. I I do imagine it being luxurious, yeah. As Jared has described in the big box, I think there is going to be lots of minis because my$1 purchase of that did not specify. And I think these ants are gonna be building some awesome-looking like dirt monuments all over this big map, and they're gonna be getting these crazy tech cards, they're gonna have these sweet insect themes on them. And I did, as I was waiting for Jared to make a choice, ask my chat GPT to help me out with some creativity on a potential name for this game. And my favorite of the lot it gave me was Kingdoms of the Carapace.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. That's don't they have like Kingdom of Ants coming out?
SPEAKER_03:Isn't that like a uh there's one called March of Ants.
SPEAKER_00:March of Ants, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_03:And did you guys ever play area control game? I think.
SPEAKER_01:Did you guys ever play uh Civ like uh not Siv um Sim, like Sim City, like uh the Sim Ant version? Oh yeah, you could dig your little ant colony.
SPEAKER_00:That would be cool. Oh you could do it like an old like Windows 98 graphics, yeah, that'd be cool. Oh gosh. Hired uh Jacob Rosalski, who does gorgeous detailed sci-fi art just to do like a pixel graphic. All right. Uh so Jared, you spent all your money by round nine. How are you? How are you feeling about that?
SPEAKER_01:Uh I'm feeling pretty confident. I I don't have the you know extra frilly stuff, you know, but I put forward a solid product here. Um, no bonus features. That's kind of the beauty of uh what CEG CGE is gonna do. They're gonna have you know bonus add-on that you can buy later, and they're gonna make more money. So I'm actually doing them a favor for the uh for the next you know um versions and and everything that are coming out. So expansion packs and stuff. So, anyways, yeah, we're looking fine.
SPEAKER_00:Let's let's tell the listener what type of game you develop. So you have a Civ game that is about environmental adaptation. Your mechanics are resource management and city building. Designer is Jamie Stegmeier, artist is Ian O Tool, publisher is CGE Games, check games edition. Your box size is large, you're best at two players, playtime is 60 minutes, and no bonus feature. You're passing on the value to the buyer. Wow, yeah, you have an idea of what this looks like in your mind's eye.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, so we're we're in an open play space here. So I I I beginning of this game, I was thinking like the waters flooding in Florida, and we're trying to save Florida, but then I was like, bro, we could go anywhere and do anything. You could go aliens, you could go to a another world and make it totally unique and um just like lean on these awesome designers and uh publishers and their their great ideas that they have to help fill in the um like you know what is the the theme of this whole Civ game. You know, like I was I also got these vibes from like you know, Superman. Wasn't he like pushed off of his planet because of some? I think maybe he was pushed off because uh Lex Luthor was uh destroying his people, but um nope, no don't come don't come at Travis with those weak freaking DC takes, man.
SPEAKER_00:Lex Luthor is human. Uh Krypton was destroyed due to a infighting and a military coup, but a military coup. That's neither here nor there. What if uh what if let's say we're on a planet like uh let's just call it Arrakis, and you are like trying to adapt to sandstorm and lack of water. That's something just you know, spitballing yeah, okay like that.
SPEAKER_01:We could do it.
SPEAKER_00:We did it. Uh this has been the Civilization Game draft. I do want to give a shout out. This was pitched to us by Mike from Bearwin Plays Board Games after our last draft. He said, Hey, you guys should do a Civ draft. And we did this just for you, Mike. Thank you for the idea. If you have an idea of a type of game that you would like us to draft, go ahead and hit us up on Operation Game Night on Instagram. Uh, hit us up on the comments on the YouTube. Let us know in the comments on the podcast wherever you're finding this podcast, because we like doing this. This is fun. It's cool for us to talk games and talk about uh different mechanics and stuff that we love. So let us know if you like this, what type of game you would like this to draft later. And uh yeah, we did it. I think we did it. I'm gonna say we did it.
SPEAKER_01:We did it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But but what what game would you want to which which game would you want, Travis? We're patiently waiting. We this is how we we judge our you know self-worth, is who you pick, you know.
SPEAKER_00:I think oh man, this is a tough one.
SPEAKER_03:You like big boxes and you cannot lie.
SPEAKER_00:I do like big boxes and I cannot lie. I do like boxes like minis. I do like but I also like resource management and I also like environmental adaptation as a sub theme. I think I think I'm gonna have to go with Clayton on this one. Yeah, I think the insects, I when it's not really fair because I came up with these subtopics and these like this these categories, and I when I typed insect colony in, I like got a little excited myself, and I yeah, you're like, that's a good one. I started dreaming about what it what a civilization building game about insect colonies would be, and I I was kind of a little bit biased. But our listener who had no input into this uh chart is not biased. So let us know who won the civilization game draft.
SPEAKER_01:Put a poll out there on the old Instagram, see how they feel about it. But that's right. I think I would go with the insect colony too. And I wasn't even thinking about the ants, I was all like winged insects. So I'm I'm into the ants, man.
SPEAKER_03:So, yeah, ants are cool, they do cool stuff. Ants are cool, ants are cool. Let's leave it at that.
SPEAKER_01:Title this episode Ants are cool. Ants are cool. Sorry, Travis. You can end the episode now. Sorry. All right, we did it.
SPEAKER_00:This has been Operation Game Night. Thank you for listening. I'm Travis. He has been Clay. He has been Jared. We have been Operation Game Night with a Civilization game draft. And we're out.
unknown:I don't know if you put a mutter out of there. You want to put a phone anywhere?
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