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How to Play

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

2-4 players 120-120 min 7.8 Board Game Geek Rating

Players develop civilizations across historical eras by drafting technology, leader, and wonder cards. Success requires balancing science for discoveries, food for population, and resources for construction while maintaining adequate military strength. Weak armies invite attacks that steal resources and populations. Victory goes to whoever accumulates the most culture points by game's end.

Published 2006

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Get Ready

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

1
Choose a civilization
Each player selects one of the four civilizations: Rome (blue), Egypt (purple), China (orange), or Inca (green)
2
Place starting technology cards
Arrange the five starting Age A cards: Philosophy (lab), Religion (temple), Agriculture (farm), Bronze (mine), and Warriors (infantry)
3
Set government card
Place the Despotism government card in the designated govt. slot
4
Prepare resource bank
Fill the Blue Bank with resources (dark blue circles) and food (light blue circles)
5
Prepare population bank
Fill the Yellow Bank with population tokens (yellow circles) according to the numbered slots (0-8)
6
Set up happiness track
Note the happiness indicators (smiley faces) corresponding to population levels
7
Establish worker pool
Set aside the Worker Pool area for new workers, destroyed buildings, and disbanded units
8
Place starting workers
Position initial worker tokens on the Despotism card (4 workers shown)

On Your Turn

What you can do during your turn.

1
Discard excess military cards
Remove any military cards beyond your hand limit
2
Score science and culture
Collect science (flask icon) and culture (mask icon) based on your buildings
3
Apply corruption
Lose resources as indicated by the corruption penalty (red arrow with resource)
4
Produce food
Gain food from farms with workers (green up arrow with food icon)
5
Consume food
Feed your population; lose 4 culture per missing food unit
6
Produce resources
Gain resources from mines with workers (green up arrow with ore icon)
7
Draw military cards
Draw military cards up to maximum of 3 (indicated by red 7 card with checkmark)
8
Reset actions
Return action markers to ready position for next turn
9
Note production skip
Skip the entire production phase during an uprising

Winning

How to claim victory.

1
Accumulate culture points
Score culture throughout the game from science and culture production phases
2
Maintain population happiness
Keep happiness levels balanced with population to avoid uprisings
3
Manage resources efficiently
Balance food production against consumption to prevent culture penalties
4
Advance through ages
Progress from Age A technologies to higher ages to increase scoring potential
5
Highest culture wins
The player with the most accumulated culture points at game end is the victor

watch & Learn

Let the pros teach you with these top videos.

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FULL rules

Looking for the full details? Grab the complete rulebook as a downloadable PDF.

PDF RULEBOOK

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