The First Round of Through the Ages

Post-Apocalyptic Wonders

Have you ever ventured into the fascinating world of post-apocalyptic fiction? If you haven’t, don’t worry – you’re about to embark on an unforgettable journey. In this article, I’ll introduce you to the captivating game known as “Through the Ages.” Get ready to be transported to a world where everything you once knew has crumbled, as you strive to rebuild civilization and lead your people to a prosperous future.

The Game

Picturing a world devastated by catastrophe may seem bleak at first, but Through the Ages offers an oddly compelling experience. As you play this strategy game, you’ll feel the weight of responsibility on your shoulders. It’s up to you to make important decisions and guide your people through the darkness towards a brighter tomorrow.

The Objective

Your goal in Through the Ages is clear – you must lead your civilization to greatness. But how do you achieve this? It’s simple – you’ll need to collect valuable resources, develop advanced technologies, and construct awe-inspiring wonders. To succeed, you must carefully manage your resources and make the best strategic choices.

The Gameplay

As you begin, you’ll receive a handful of cards that represent your civilization’s leaders, technologies, and wonders. Each card offers a unique ability or benefit that can greatly impact your progress. Sounds exciting, right? It gets better! As you advance through the game, you’ll acquire new and more powerful cards, allowing you to achieve even greater feats.

Through the Ages is played over a series of rounds, with each player taking turns to perform actions. You’ll constantly be faced with choices – Should I focus on technological advancements or strengthen my military? Should I construct a wonder or enhance my infrastructure? These decisions are yours to make, and they will shape the future of your civilization.

The Strategic Element

While Through the Ages is undeniably fun and engaging, it also requires careful strategizing. Each action you take will have consequences, both immediate and long-term. You must plan your moves wisely, considering the impact they’ll have on your civilization’s growth and prosperity.

To succeed in Through the Ages, you’ll need to strike a delicate balance between various aspects of your civilization, such as economy, military strength, culture, and science. Ignoring any of these aspects can hinder your progress, so be sure to take a comprehensive approach.

Conclusion

Now that you’re acquainted with the fascinating world of Through the Ages, it’s time to embark on your own adventure. Rebuild civilization, conquer challenges, and lead your people to a brighter future in this post-apocalyptic landscape. Remember – the choices you make will shape the destiny of your civilization. Are you ready to take on the challenge?

The first round is pretty straightforward, but it sets the stage for everything that follows. We kick things off in Antiquity, a warm-up round where each player grabs a few cards from the deck. This represents the ancient legacy of your civilization.

During this initial round, we all take turns based on the rules for the first round. There are a couple of key steps to keep in mind.

First, there’s the Action Phase. Here, you have the opportunity to choose one or more cards from the selection available in the deck. It’s like building the foundation for your civilization’s growth.

After that, it’s the End-of-Turn Sequence. This is where your civilization produces the necessary resources, such as food, materials, and knowledge. You wrap up your turn by preparing all your actions for the next round.

Now let’s delve into the Action Phase for the first round. You may be wondering what actions you have at your disposal and how you can use them. Well, in the beginning, you only have a limited number of actions, and your options are also somewhat limited.

So, in a nutshell, the first round is about planning and strategizing, making the best use of the resources and actions available to you. It’s an exciting starting point that gets the ball rolling for the rest of the game.

When we start playing, each of us has a different number of white tokens on our Despotism card. Each white token represents a civil action I can take.

The rest of the white tokens, along with the two red tokens, are placed next to the government card. But in the first round, we can’t use them.

During the first round, the number of civil actions available to me depends on where I am in the order of play – I can have 1, 2, 3, or 4 civil actions. I can only use these actions to take cards from the card row.

In later rounds, I can use all my actions at the start of my turn.

Getting Cards

The card row contains 13 civil cards from Age A. Each card has a cost in civil actions, displayed below it in the card row. To take a card, I must pay the specified amount of civil actions: 1 action for the first five cards, 2 actions for the next four, and 3 actions for the four rightmost cards.

To grab a card from the card row, you need to pay the number of civil actions shown beneath it.

When you pay civil actions, you simply remove the corresponding number of white tokens from your government card and place them next to your board. These tokens represent the actions you’ve spent and cannot be used again during this turn.

At the beginning of the game, the starting player only has one civil action. This means they can only take one of the five cards in the first section of the card row. The second player, on the other hand, can take up to two cards from the first section or one card from the middle section. Remember, it’s up to you whether or not you want to use all of your actions.

In Antiquity, there are three types of cards: leaders (green), wonders (purple), and action cards (yellow).

Let’s talk about leaders first.

Leaders are extraordinary individuals who serve as the spiritual guides of our civilization. Their legacy grants us unique abilities and advantages, which can be described in the card’s text or represented symbolically at the bottom.

When you acquire a leader card, you hold onto it in your hand. It remains inactive until you decide to play it. However, during the first round, you are prohibited from playing any leaders, so keep it in your hand for now. Throughout the game, you must adhere to the following rule: you cannot choose two leaders from the same age.

Once you have chosen a leader from Age A, you are not allowed to select another one. This limitation applies regardless of whether the leader is currently in play or has been removed from the game. However, you are still allowed to choose one of the leaders from Age I.

Now, let’s talk about wonders.

Wonders are the most incredible structures in the game. They provide amazing benefits, but they require time and resources to build.

When you find a wonder card that you like, you can immediately put it into play. You don’t hold onto it like other cards. Instead, place the wonder next to your player board and turn it sideways to show that it’s still being built. We call this an unfinished wonder.

You can only have one unfinished wonder at a time. So if you’re already working on a wonder, you can’t choose another one.

Once you finish building the wonder, you turn it right side up to show that it’s completed. Then, you start benefiting from its effects. Having completed wonders doesn’t stop you from selecting new wonders, but it does make them more costly:

When you decide to take a wonder card, it will require an additional civil action for each wonder you have already built.

Let’s say you want to take your first wonder. It will cost you the usual amount of civil actions. However, once you finish building it, the next wonder you want to take will cost you 1 extra civil action. If you decide to build a third wonder, it will cost you an additional 2 civil actions, and so on.

Tip: Before you decide to take a wonder card, there are a few things you should consider. First, make sure you have the resources and means to actually build it. Second, be sure that you truly want that wonder, as it’s not easy to get rid of an unfinished one. Keeping an unfinished wonder can prevent you from obtaining a wonder that you may need more urgently.

Action Cards

An action card is like a lucky charm or a special effort. It’s different from other civil cards because it doesn’t have a permanent effect. When you play an action card, it gives you a one-time benefit, and then it goes away. If you have an action card, you can hold onto it and use it later.

Showing Civil Cards

All civil cards are taken from the card row and played face up. This means that every player can see all the civil cards on the table and know what they do.

If you don’t want to deal with the memory aspect of the game, here’s an idea: every player can show their civil cards when someone asks, or even play with the cards facing up on the table (but at an angle, so it’s clear they’re not in play yet). Even if the cards are public, they’re still considered cards in hand until they’re played or discarded.

Illustration of Collecting Cards

I’m faced with a decision – me and my friends each have a set of cards, and we need to choose wisely. I start with only 1 civil action. My choice is clear: I take the leader Moses and place him in my hand. But that’s not all! I also have to go through my End-of-Turn Sequence. It’s all part of the game.

The next player, she starts with 2 civil actions. She decides to take the Colossus and lays it down on the table, showing that it’s not finished yet. Then she uses her second action to grab the Engineering Genius card. With that in her hand, she can build the Colossus faster. Now it’s time for her to go through her End-of-Turn Sequence.

Finally, the third player has 3 civil actions. He wants to take Hammurabi, but he’s left wondering what to do with his third action. Homer and Aristotle are the only cards available for just 1 action, and we’re not allowed to choose more than one Age A leader. Tough choice.

He could still take Hammurabi and leave 1 civil action unused. Or he could take two cards – maybe Aristotle to add to his hand and the Library of Alexandria to start building as an unfinished wonder. The choice is his. Either way, he finishes his turn with the End-of-Turn Sequence, and then it’s onto the next round.

What Happens at the End of Your Turn?

When I play the game, my player board shows me what I need to do at the end of my turn. However, during the first round, there are only a few steps that matter.

Getting Rid of Extra Military Cards

I don’t have any military cards to start with, so I can skip this step for now.

Getting Ready to Produce

There’s no danger of an uprising yet, so I can move on to the next phase: Production.

Scoring Points for Science and Culture

I’ll move my science points counter forward by the number shown on my science rating. Similarly, I’ll move my culture points counter based on my culture rating.

Since we can only draft cards in the first round, everyone will have the same ratings: 1 for science and 0 for culture. So, I’ll move my science points forward by 1 space. My culture points counter will stay on the 0 space.

Remember: The science rating marker (the round one) doesn’t move. It just shows how many spaces my science points counter (the octagonal one) should move.

Corruption

When it comes to corruption, there’s no need to worry in the first round. You can skip this step altogether.

Food Production

Now, let’s talk about food production. Each farm you have will produce food for your civilization. For every worker assigned to a farm, you’ll need to move a blue token from your blue bank and place it on that specific farm card.

Since you have two farms in Age A, meaning you have two yellow tokens on your Agriculture card, you’ll need to take two blue tokens from your blue bank and place them on your Agriculture card. The cute symbol at the bottom of the Agriculture card means that each blue token represents 1 food. Congratulations! Your civilization now has a reserve of 2 food.

Food Consumption

Good news! Your land is not heavily populated yet, so your people won’t consume any of the stored food. In this first round, you can simply skip this step.

Resource Production

Resource production works in a similar way to food production. For each worker assigned to a mine technology, you’ll need to move a blue token from your blue bank to that specific mine card.

When I play, I move two of my blue tokens to my Bronze card, and I get to store 2 resources. These resources can be used in future turns.

Time to Get Some Military Cards

For each military action I have available, I can draw one military card. But since it’s the first round and I don’t have any military actions yet, I can’t draw any cards. So I’ll just skip this step.

Ready, Set, Reset

Now I put all of my white and red tokens on my Despotism card. This means that on my next turn, I will have 4 civil actions and 2 military actions to use.