Advanced Civilization is a game where each player starts with a single nomadic tribe with no skills. As the supreme leader of your people, you use your abilities to grow and develop your people into a powerful and glorious empire. The question is - do you have what it takes to be written into history as an enlightened ruler of an Advanced Civilization?

Advanced Civilization is a challenging game requiring both skill and stamina. Players must manage their board position, financial accounts, their neighbors and the all important civilization advances. Excellent diplomatic, military and trading skills are needed to do well.

This year the format allows two opportunities to qualify eight players for the Final. The two heats will be eight hours long. We will do our best to assure that all games have between six and eight players.

The Final will consist of the best eight players from the qualifying heats. If there are eight or fewer boards, each winner is guaranteed a spot in the Final, with any remaining spots going to the best runners-up which will be determined by % of the winning scores on their boards. For instance, a player who scored 3900 on a board with a high score of 4000 would get 97.5%, but a player who scored only 3700 on a board with a high score of 3750 would be ranked higher at 98.7%. If there are more than eight boards, the eight highest scoring winners will be guaranteed a spot.

Despite the A classification, beginners are welcome in this tournament. Beginners will be coached by the other players at their table and are free to ask for advice. Alternatively, beginners may attend the first heat, at which they may liberally consult with the GM. All players are expected to play to completion any game they start.

NEW: Every player will be handed a copy of the WBC sportsmanship rules prior to their first heat. If any player feels that they cannot abide by these rules, they will be asked not to participate. Violation of the sportsmanship pact can, and will result in any offending player(s) being evicted and barred from the tournament. The game is supposed to be fun. Let's keep it that way.

There are a few 'house rules' in effect.
a) At the beginning of the game, all non-tradable calamities are shuffled into the bottom three cards of their stack.
b) Civilizations will be chosen by random draw from a bag. Trading of positions will be allowed prior to the game.
c) Asia is officially out of play for all games.
d) All games are to use the Western Expansion Map.
e) 6-player games will use the Western portion of the board, with Africa, Iberia, Illyria, Thrace, Assyria, and Egypt being the available nations.
f) 7-player games will use the entire board, including the Western Expansion with Africa, Iberia, Illyria, Thrace, Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt being available.

For those interested in online play, the pbem page is located at http://bpa-civ.rol-play.com/