Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

2015

Immerse yourself in Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization, a strategic card-drafting game where careful management of resources, technology, and military might determines the most cultured nation.

120
minutes

2 - 4
player(s)

14+

Heavy

About the game

‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is an enchanting board game that transports players back in time, allowing them to relive the entirety of human history, from the age of antiquity to the modern era. This game isn’t just about winning, but about partaking in a thrilling journey through time, shaping your civilization into the greatest empire the world has ever seen.

The game’s setting is the tapestry of human history. You’ll be able to experience the discovery of fire, the pyramid’s construction, the French Revolution, and the digital revolution, amongst countless other events. The game’s board, cards, and pieces all contribute to creating this rich, historical atmosphere.

Game components Unboxing the fun!

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is a complex strategy board game with numerous components. Here is a list of each component and a description of its role in the game:

1. Game Board: The game board is where all actions take place. It is divided into several sections: the card row, the culture and science tracks, and the military track. Players track their progress and perform their actions here.

2. Civil Cards: There are two types of civil cards in the game, the Age A civil cards and the Age I-III civil cards. These cards represent various technologies, leaders, wonders, and government types that players can adopt throughout the game. The cards interact with the game by providing different abilities and bonuses to players.

3. Military Cards: These are divided into Age A military cards and Age I-III military cards. Players use these to build their military forces and engage in conflicts and wars. Each military card gives the player a certain military strength.

4. Culture Cards: These are special cards that provide different kinds of cultural benefits. Players use culture cards to gain culture points, which are one of the key elements to winning the game.

5. Science Cards: Science cards represent scientific advancements. They are used to gain scientific knowledge, which is necessary to develop more advanced civil and military cards.

6. Blue Tokens: These represent the resources of a civilization. They are used to build buildings and wonders, and to produce military units.

7. Yellow Tokens: These tokens represent the population of a civilization. They are used to staff buildings and military units.

8. White Tokens: These tokens are used to track the happiness of a civilization. The happier a civilization is, the more efficiently it can operate.

9. Red Tokens: These tokens represent the military strength of a civilization. The more red tokens a player has, the stronger their military is.

10. Player Boards: Each player has their own board where they manage their civilization. The player board has spaces for buildings, wonders, and military units, as well as tracks for science, culture, and happiness.

11. Civil and Military Decks: The civil and military decks are where players draw new cards. The civil deck contains the civil cards, while the military deck contains the military cards.

12. Score Track: The score track is used to keep track of each player’s culture points. The player with the most culture points at the end of the game is the winner.

Game setup Lay it out, line it up, let’s go

Setting up ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is an essential part of the gaming experience. This guide will walk you through the step-by-step process.

Step 1: Player Roles

Each player in ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is a leader of a civilization, striving to advance their society throughout different ages. Players will be responsible for managing resources, building infrastructure, and developing technologies to earn culture and military points.

Step 2: Board Placement

Place the main board in the center of the table where it’s easily visible and accessible to all players. Each player should also receive a player board, which will be used to manage their individual civilizations.

Step 3: Initial Resources

Each player starts with 1 civil action, 2 military actions, 18 science points, 18 culture points, and 6 white tokens on their government track. Two yellow tokens are placed on the agriculture technology, and two blue tokens are placed on the philosophy technology.

Step 4: Card Setup

Separate card decks into three ages: Age I, Age II, and Age III. Shuffle each deck separately and place them beside the main board. Draw nine cards from the Age I deck to form the first card row on the main board. The remaining cards form the draw pile.

Step 5: Random Elements

The game has a few random elements to keep things interesting. During the game, players will draw cards from the current age deck, adding unpredictability to the game. The order of the cards in the deck and the timing of when the decks run out can greatly influence the course of the game.

Now that the setup is complete, you’re ready to guide your civilization ‘Through the Ages’. Enjoy the game!

Game flow Round and round we go

‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is a complex, strategic board game where players seek to build the most successful civilization through careful resource management, technological advancements, and tactical warfare. The game progresses over a series of rounds, each of which is divided into distinct phases. Here’s a detailed look at how each round or phase is structured:

1. Card Row Phase:

During this phase, players get to manage the card row, which is a central part of the game’s strategy. Actions in this phase include:

Adding New Cards: At the start of the phase, new cards are added to the card row from the current Age deck.
Removing Old Cards: Cards left over from the last round are discarded, and the remaining cards are moved down the row, becoming cheaper to purchase.

2. Political Phase:

In the Political Phase, the active player can choose to play a Political card from their hand, potentially influencing the overall state of the game. This can involve:

Playing Agreements: These cards usually involve making pacts with other players that can provide mutual benefits.
Declaring Wars: Players can also choose to declare war on their opponents, which can provide benefits if successful but can lead to negative consequences if unsuccessful.

3. Action Phase:

The Action Phase is the main phase of the game, where players spend their civil and military actions to carry out various tasks. These tasks can include:

Building and Upgrading: Players can build new structures or upgrade existing ones in their civilization.
Increasing Population: Players can increase their population by spending food.
Developing Technologies: Players can develop new technologies by spending science points.
Training Military Units: Players can train new military units to strengthen their civilization’s defense and offensive capabilities.

4. Production Phase:

During the Production Phase, players collect the resources produced by their civilization. This includes:

Collecting Resources: Based on the production power of their civilization, players collect resources such as food and materials.
Advancing Science: Players also gain science points based on their civilization’s science production.
Gaining Culture: Players gain culture points, which are crucial for winning the game.

5. End of Turn Phase:

Finally, in the End of Turn Phase, players prepare for the next round. This phase involves:

Discarding Excess Military Cards: Players discard down to their hand limit for military cards.
Refilling Hand: Players can refill their civil card hand up to its limit.
Passing the Start Player Token: The start player token is passed to the next player in clockwise order, and a new round begins.

Players'turn One turn to rule them all

In the board game ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’, each player’s turn is divided into several phases where they can perform various actions. The choices made during these phases can significantly influence the game’s outcome.

Phase 1: Politics Phase

In this phase, the active player may play a single political action card from their hand. The effects of these cards can have a wide range of impacts. For instance, they may trigger wars, affect the balance of power, or lead to the discovery of new territories.

Phase 2: Action Phase

During this phase, players use their civil and military actions to manage their civilization. There is a variety of actions players can perform, each contributing to the development of their civilization:

Draw cards: Players can use their civil actions to draw cards from the card row.
Build: Players can use their civil actions to build or upgrade their city’s buildings, wonders, and military units.
Play a leader: Players can play a leader card from their hand to gain the leader’s special benefits.
Play an action card: Players can play an action card from their hand to gain its benefits.
Research a technology: Players can use their civil actions to research new technologies, which can improve their civilization’s capabilities in various ways.
Start a revolution: Players can spend their civil actions to start a revolution, changing their government type and gaining new benefits.

Phase 3: End of Turn

Here, players must manage their resources. They have to feed their population and produce resources according to their civilization’s production levels. Players must also discard their excess military cards and draw new ones. Any civil actions not used during the turn are lost.

Strategic Choices

Throughout the game, players must make strategic decisions that will shape their civilization’s future. They must balance their resources to ensure their civilization’s growth while keeping an eye on their opponents’ actions. Choosing the right leader or technology, the correct time to build a wonder, or start a revolution can drastically change the game’s outcome. Therefore, each decision must be made considering the current state of the game and the potential future developments.

End of the game All good games must come to an end

‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is a complex and engaging board game that ends when the last card from Age III is drawn and the current round is finished. The game does not have multiple victory conditions, rather, the winner is determined by who has accumulated the most culture points by the end of the game.

Before the final scoring, players must ensure they have completed the following actions:

Resolving Military Threats: Each player must compare their military strength with each opponent. If a player’s military strength is weaker, they must lose resources or buildings equal to the difference in strength. These losses must be resolved before moving onto final scoring.
Manage Civil and Military Actions: Players should ensure they’ve used as many of their Civil and Military actions as possible to maximize their culture and science production. Unused actions do not contribute to the final score.
Finish Research: Players should complete any research they have in progress. Each completed research can contribute to the final score.
Complete Wonders: Any wonders that are under construction should be completed. Finished wonders provide a culture bonus, which will be included in the final score.

Once these actions are complete, players proceed to the final scoring. The final score is calculated as follows:

Culture: Players add up all the culture points they have earned throughout the game. This includes culture generated by leaders, wonders, technologies, and government.
Science: Players add up all the science they have produced throughout the game. Each unit of science generated contributes to the final score.
Bonus Points: Players add any bonus points they may have earned from certain technologies, wonders, or leaders to their score.

The player with the highest total score is declared the winner. In case of a tie, the player with the most science points is the winner. If there is still a tie, the player with the most remaining resources wins.

Scoring Did you outsmart your rivals?

The scoring system in ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is comprehensive and takes into account various aspects of your civilization. Points are awarded at the end of the game in the following ways:

Culture Points:

Culture points are the primary scoring method in ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’. They are earned throughout the game by building cultural buildings, developing government, and achieving culture oriented leader effects. The player with the most culture points at the end of the game is usually the winner.

Science Points:

Science points, while primarily used during the game to develop technologies, are also added to your final score.

Military Points:

Military points are not directly added to your final score, but they can contribute indirectly. For example, certain military technologies can provide culture points, which are added to your final score.

Building and Wonder Points:

Each building and wonder built during the game also contributes to your final score. The points earned depend on the specific building or wonder.

Yellow Tokens on Technologies:

Yellow tokens remaining on technologies at the end of the game are also added to your final score.

Tie-breaking:

In the event of a tie, the game uses the following tie-breaking rules:

The player with the most unused resources (science and civil actions) is the winner.
If there is still a tie, the player with the most total resources (used and unused) is the winner.
If there is still a tie, the player who did not initiate the end of the game is the winner.

These comprehensive scoring and tie-breaking rules ensure that ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ rewards the most well-rounded civilization, rather than simply the most aggressive or the most technologically advanced.

Particular Cases and Exceptions Wait… is that legal?

‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’ is a complex and strategic board game with a variety of unique rules and mechanics. There are some rare or special rules, exceptions, and rule clarifications that can make the game more interesting and challenging.

1. Military Actions:

During your politics phase, if you have more military actions than the cards in your hand, you can play more than one aggression or war card. However, remember that you cannot declare more than one war in a turn.
It is essential to note that you can only play defense cards during another player’s turn.

2. Event Cards:

When a military event is resolved, it affects all players starting with the one who triggered it and proceeding clockwise. However, the player who triggered the event is immune to wars declared by that event.
The timing of the resolution of events can be tricky. For instance, if an event causes a player to lose a colony, the effects of the event and the colony loss apply immediately, potentially impacting other events in the queue.

3. Corruption:

Corruption occurs immediately when you have excess resources at the end of your turn, not during the cleanup phase. If you have more resources than storage spaces, those resources get discarded immediately.
It is important to remember that corruption can also affect your score. At the end of the game, each unit of unused resources counts as one point of corruption, which can subtract from your final score.

4. Card Aging:

Cards in your hand do not age. The cards that age are the ones in the card row. This happens at the end of each player’s turn.
Blue technology cards also do not age. Once you’ve played a blue technology card, it stays in effect for the rest of the game.

5. Leader and Wonders:

Each player can only have one active leader and one active wonder at a time. If you choose a new leader or wonder, the old one is immediately replaced.
It is important to remember that if a leader is replaced or removed from play for any reason, its effects cease immediately.

6. Science and Culture Points:

Science and culture points are calculated at the end of your turn. You can’t spend them during the turn you earn them.
Remember, points earned from technologies, wonders, and leaders are not counted until the end of your turn.

Tips and tricks Play smarter, not harder!

Advanced Strategies for ‘Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization’

1. Plan Ahead: This game is all about long-term planning. Look ahead to future ages and prepare your civilization accordingly. This could involve building up your science, military, or culture depending on what you see coming.

2. Optimize Resources: Resources are vital in this game. Always aim to have enough resources to complete your plans. If you find yourself short, rethink your strategy.

3. Balance your Civilization: It’s important to maintain a balance between scientific, cultural, and military development. Ignoring one aspect for too long can leave your civilization vulnerable.

Beginner Tips

1. Learn the Basics: Before jumping into the game, take the time to read the rulebook. Understanding the basic rules and mechanics of the game will give you a solid foundation to build your strategy on.

2. Start Small: Don’t rush to expand your civilization too quickly. Focus on building a strong base first, then slowly expand as your resources allow.

3. Experiment: This game has a lot of depth and complexity. Don’t be afraid to try different strategies and see what works best for you.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

1. Ignoring Military: While it can be tempting to focus solely on science or culture, ignoring your military can leave your civilization vulnerable to attacks.

2. Overexpansion: Expanding too quickly can leave you short on resources and unable to defend your civilization.

3. Neglecting Culture: Culture is just as important as science and military. Neglecting it can leave you trailing behind in the end game.

Ways to Optimize Gameplay

Keep a close eye on your opponents. Knowing what they are planning can help you counter their strategies.
Always have a contingency plan. The game can change quickly, and being able to adapt is key.
Practice makes perfect. The more you play, the better you’ll understand the game and develop effective strategies.