Civilization Central America is a variant of Advanced Civilization. Players build cities, collect and trade commodities, and buy technologies, dealing with many recurring calamities along the way.
Set in Central America, the map includes the same number of territories, population density, and city sites as Advanced Civilization with the Western Extension Map. There are 3 commodities each in 9 trade card decks, for a total of 27 commodities. There are eight minor tradable calamities, eight tradable calamities, and eight non-tradable calamities. All commodities and most calamities are new. Players may purchase sixty-three new and revised technologies from the Civilization: The Expansion Project rules, with a unique point system used to progress on the Chronological Advancement Chart.
The game comes with all parts required for play except the rules, which may be downloaded from the publisher website and The General (Avalon Hill magazine) archives. Players need not own Civilization or Advanced Civilization.