1
Select Leader and Player Color
Each player takes one random leader sheet and the unique focus card with that leader's picture on the back
2
Choose player components
Each player chooses a player color and takes cities, armies, caravans, district tokens, control tokens, focus and diplomacy cards, and tech dial of that color
3
Place focus bar
Each player places the focus bar of their color below their leader sheet
4
Construct focus row
Each player takes their six focus cards displaying "I" on the back and places them faceup in slots below their focus bar according to their leader sheet order, with "Irrigation" in the leftmost "1" slot
5
Take reference materials
Each player takes one district reference sheet and one of each of the six types of government tokens
6
Set tech dial
Each player rotates the pointer on their tech dial to "0"
7
Deal capital tiles
Deal one random tile with a capital-city icon and a fort token to each player, returning unused ones to the box
8
Determine first player
Randomly determine first player and give them the event dial
9
Create map tile stack
Shuffle remaining tiles to create the map tile stack
10
Draw core tiles
Draw four tiles (two for 2-3 players) from the bottom of the map tile stack
11
Determine core tile side
Roll a die; on 1-3 use side A for all core tiles, otherwise use side B
12
Form the core
Place core tiles one at a time in the center of the table in the order and orientation shown, then place a trade token on each to mark them
13
Place fort tokens
Starting with first player clockwise, each player places their fort token touching at least two spaces on core tiles, not touching another fort or city-state space
14
Place capital tiles
Starting with first player clockwise, each player places their capital tile touching at least four spaces on core tiles and/or fort tokens, then places their capital city on that tile's capital city icon
15
Remove marking tokens
Remove the trade tokens from the map
16
Populate the map
Place tokens matching icons on each space: barbarian tokens with matching letters, city-state tokens with matching icons and frames
17
Place city-state cards
For each city-state token on the map, place both copies of that city-state's diplomacy card near the map
18
Set direction token and event dial
First player places barbarian direction token against any map edge and sets event dial pointer to the helmet with the star
19
Separate wonder cards
Separate world wonder cards by type into four piles, then divide each pile by era into three facedown piles
20
Remove random wonders
Randomize each era pile and remove one card at random from each ancient and medieval era pile, returning them to the box without revealing
21
Create wonder decks
For each type, stack modern-era cards facedown, medieval-era on top, ancient-era on top, then flip the top card faceup
22
Organize wonder tokens
Place all world wonder tokens next to their matching wonder deck by type icon and color
23
Deal victory cards
Place the two fort victory cards ("Fortified" and "Expeditionary") next to the map, then select three additional victory cards at random and place them faceup together
24
Create supply
Place trade tokens and remaining resource tokens in piles near the map
