Incunabula (computer game)

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Incunabula is a 1984 computer game by Avalon Hill. It was designed by Steve Estvanik. It is the original computerized version of Avalon Hill's Civilization board game. It was eclipsed by Sid Meier's much more successful Civilization, and its following series, released in 1991.

[edit] Gameplay

The gameplay loosely follows the rules of Avalon Hill's Civilization board game. It consists of three type of "scenarios", Incunabula, Imperium, and Traders. Incunabula resembles the board game most. One to three players can play and the computer players can be randomly assigned basis of law and "personality". The personalities determine how likely a computer oponent is to attack you. Personalities are:

Choleric
Phlematic
Melancholic
Sanguine

The choices for basis of law are:

Theocracy
Oligarchy
Utopia
Khanate

Combat follows Civilization rules with a one for one unit loss. There are no technologies to obtain but each player's progress is tracked through phases such as clan and tribe. The game is won on the basis of accumulating trade.

[edit] Trivia

The ships in all scenarios share a common bug. The command to offload can be issued multiple times with a single unit and a new unit will be offloaded each time, regardless of how many units were actually on the ship.