by Torala
Hey ilgoga!Great comparison. Really liked to read it. In most points I can agree and in the others I can at least understand your views. But I wanna give my opinion on some selected - although I too have only one CoC-game played so far:
ilgoga wrote:
-Buildings: Only four in CoC and way more in Civ plus that they are upgradeable (and CoC has already got points for the look of them in Oieces above). Civilization
-Wonders: I only got to see 3 wonders in CoC (and build one) but my feeling was that the points were the main reason you built them and the abilities, while useful, was more gravy. The wonders in Civ seems more powerful and more gamechanging (and often something you really rush to get before other players) and so far I like them more. Civilization
I cant really agree on this one. I have roughly about 15 Civ-Games under my belt and after the beginning tries to emulate the Computer-Game you will notice that there is an overkill in building to many buildings and/or wonders. You pick the ones you really need and win with them. In the end its an optimization to win with as few buildings as possible as they take up valuable city activations - in CoC they give you a victory point at least (as having 15+ ressources in one city in Civ often didnt help you win ;))
Same with wonders... there were 3-4 good ones and the rest even never showed or were very situational at best.
I like the boiled down buildings/wonders in CoC and the placement on the map (forming a city with a Wonder actually standing out as something unusual is great - btw: I would LOVE wonder-miniatures as a mini-expansion ;))
For me CoC wins here :)
-Barbarians: The barbarians in CoC can be aggressive and you have to take them in to consideration as oppose to Civ were they just sit around a wait to get killed, but the rewards in Civ are way more exciting then the ones in CoC (yey random reward!). Civilization
I think it to be more like a tie. The sitting-around part in Civ is so true and isnt canceled out by the better rewards I think. Both games have their advantages here - so I would consider it a tie :)
-Diplomacy: Not much in either game, some cards that allows for some pacts, most diplomacy will be the table talk and how you try to influence other peoples choises (as in most multiplayer games). Civ has the trading so I think it has the edge here (even if in our games that is rarely used). Civilization
CoC has trading too (rules, page 14). So more like a tie I think. But as I'm one of the "better" players in my group trading with me never happens... everyone feels I take advantage of them somehow and they dont want to help me ;)
-Playing time: I feel that CoC should play a bit faster than Civ (even if our first play was a little over 4 hours with three players)but after one play I can't really be sure. Tie?
I think it will play much faster - especially with unexperienced players. The tech-cards in civ slowed the game down for our group, because not everyone was able to memorize all the stuff and had to look them up all the time. This wont happen with CoC that easily I hope.
So, Civ can play fast with experienced players - but I think CoC will still be shorter (in a good way - although I like long games - TI3 anyone? ;)).
-Winning: Here is one of parts were Civ really shines, the different victory conditions is really different and are all viable (depending on what civilization you get, some more than others) and fun as oppose to CoC that has a "lazy" VP system which isn't bad but is victory points and it is in almost every game. Also the objectives seemed a little bit too random for my taste (that is you could get some late in the game that you already had "done" for easy points and you could get ones that you had made no progress towards and had no real way of completing). Civilization
The strict winning conditions (you either win this or that way) of Civilization were one of the main reasons I wanted to get CoC. Most of my gaming group often tried to achieve a victory in Civ they choose, screwed up somewhere and couldnt catch up to the strong players.
CoC is much more flexible in that way. You can still win if the game doesnt go as planed and you can switch up your way of getting victory points. A great plus for CoC I think.
----
But in the end it all comes down to your (groups) playstyle and needs. I really love Civilization and I think I will love CoC too ;)
*Edit: Wow...many posts... Some adressed the points I mentioned - I'm just to slow ;)