Civilization Building Theme in Board Games

Civilization building genre became popular with one of the most influential video games of all time - Civilization by Sid Meier, released in 1991. It is a 4x (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) turn-based historical strategy game. Civilization got several sequels and spinoffs over the years. If you are a fan or want to try some of them, take a look at latest Humble Bundle.

The player's role in Civilization building games is to guide the development of a civilization over the course of history. In doing that, players must gather resources, research technologies, build monuments to their technological advancement called the wonders, use leaders to inspire their people, get into battles and wars with other civilizations, and so on. All of that is usually done on some kind of a map.

Some of the most well-known board games in the Civilization category are Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game, which is an official implementation of the video game, Clash of Cultures, Nations, and of course Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization by Vlaada Chvátil which is currently #2 in BGG overall list.

Other notable games that are implementing some of the Civilization mechanics are Terra Mystica, 7 Wonders, Twilight Imperium (Third Edition), Imperial Settlers and Eclipse.