How to Play

Clash of Cultures

2-4 players 180-240 min 7.6 Board Game Geek Rating

Players guide civilizations from small settlements to vast empires through exploration, city expansion, and technological advancement. Using a modular board, they discover new territories, construct specialized buildings like ports and temples, and research from 48 unique advances. Victory comes through multiple paths: founding and growing cities, completing objectives, building wonders, and achieving technological breakthroughs.

Published 2012

Get Ready

Setup the game with these step-by-step instructions before diving into your turn.

Prepare the central board

Arrange region tiles according to the player count diagrams (2, 3, or 4 players), placing all regions face-down randomly except for starting regions which are placed face-up

Determine seating

In a 4-player game, randomly determine who sits where

Distribute player components

Each player receives one Player Board, one Player Aid, cubes, cities, and units in their color (Red, Green, Blue, or Yellow)

Set resource markers

Place all resource markers and Culture/Happiness tokens at position "0" on your Player Board scale, except Food which starts at position "2"

Place starting advances

Each player places one cube on the "Farming" advance (Agriculture) and one cube on the "Mining" advance (Construction)

Set up starting city

Each player places one Settlement and one Settler on the Fertile space of their starting region

Shuffle card decks

Shuffle all different decks (Event, Objective, Action, Wonder cards) and place them near the board

Draw starting cards

Each player draws 1 Action card and 1 Objective card (both remain hidden from opponents)

Position round marker

Place the Round marker on the first position of the Round Track

Determine first player

Randomly select the first player (for example, highest die roll) and give them the First Player marker

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

Execute three actions

On your turn, perform 3 actions in any order; the same action may be taken multiple times

Advance (Progress)

Pay 2 Food (or Ideas which substitute 1:1) to acquire a new advance by placing a cube on your Player Board

Found City

Spend an action to replace a Settler with a Settlement piece on any non-Barren space without a city or enemy units

Activate City - Gather Resources

Collect resources equal to city size (+1 if happy, only 1 if angry) from the city's space and adjacent spaces

Activate City - Build Units

Construct units equal to city size (+1 if happy, only 1 if angry)

Activate City - Increase City Size

Pay 1 Food, 1 Ore, and 1 Wood to add a city piece

Move Units

Move up to 3 units or groups; each unit/group moves one space per action

Civic Improvement

Spend Mood markers equal to city size to improve mood one step (from Angry to Neutral or Neutral to Happy)

Cultural Influence

Target an enemy city of size 2+ within range equal to your city's size

Handle multiple activations

If activating the same city more than once per round, reduce its mood one step after each additional activation

Resolve battles

When entering a space with enemy units or cities, conduct battle immediately

Naval battles

Ships fight using the same battle rules; units on destroyed ships are also destroyed

Explore regions

When moving into unexplored regions, reveal the tile and place according to placement rules

Winning

How to claim victory.

End game trigger

The game ends after 6 rounds, or earlier if a player has no cities when entering the Status Phase

Calculate Victory Points

Each player totals their VP:

Break ties

If VP is tied, the player who built the Great Pyramids wins; otherwise compare VP from city pieces first, then advances, continuing down the list

Shared victory

If ties cannot be broken, tied players win together

Complete objectives

During the Status Phase, declare completed Objectives; place completed Objective cards face-up in front of you (only one objective per card can be completed)

Status Phase sequence

After three turns per player: