Ancient Times

Welcome to a journey through the late Middle Ages in Italy. Let’s dive into the world of Antiquity. In this game, I get to decide what victory means to me. Will I aim for the biggest population, the finest trade, or perhaps the mightiest city? Each of these goals requires a unique strategy, so I better choose wisely.

As I build my civilization, I must venture beyond my comfort zone to gather resources. It’s a thrilling adventure, but what happens when resources run dry? Well, I hope one of us emerges victorious before we have to find out the hard way.

Preparation

When you’re setting up the game map, it’s important to make sure that each player has enough space. To do this, we need to place two tiles for each player on the map. We want to position these tiles in a way that keeps the players as far away from each other as possible.

Now, let’s talk about the resources. Each player will start with one grain, one wine, one sheep, and one olive. To distribute these resources, we’ll shuffle them into a marker pile. The remaining exploration markers won’t be used for the rest of the game. We’ll take one of these markers and place it face down on each hex that’s marked for exploration on the map.

First, I’ll pick my color and collect the men, cities, and inns of that color. I’ll also gather 6 wood pieces, a specific set of buildings, and a player aid. Next, I’ll place my houses on the chart on my player aid, making sure to place one man on top of each house. To determine the playing order, we’ll shuffle a group of men and each player will add one man to the group. The first person drawn goes on the first space of the order track, the second on the second space, and so on.

The last player to be drawn gets to choose their starting city and then we’re ready to start the game.

GAMEPLAY

The game is made up of 10 phases of gameplay. During each phase, we can all play at the same time, but we can also decide to play in order if we want.

Phase 1

First, we all take our men off the buildings and put them next to the map of the city. If any of our men are in the country or in buildings in the country, they can stay there.

Phase 2

Now, we can build new buildings in our city. This is when we have to make really smart choices about where to put our men. We need to block our city so no one else can see it. And here’s a rule to make sure nobody cheats – we have to put the goods we used to build the buildings on top of them, so everybody can check and make sure everything is fair.

When I play this game, I can choose to do things in any order. But there’s one rule I have to follow: if I want to use a building, I have to put a man on it first. Each building can only have one man on it. If I want to build a building, I have to pay the goods it requires, take the building, and put it on my city map.

Some buildings can only be built once by each player, so I have to make sure I check my player aid. If all the buildings of a type are gone, I can’t build any more of that type.

Phase 3

This phase decides who goes first. I count how many men I have on explorers and cart shops. The player with the fewest men goes first, and the player with the most men goes last. It’s important to keep an eye on the other players to know when I’ll have my turn.

Phase 4

During this phase, I’ll be constructing buildings in the countryside. But there’s a catch! I can only build within my own territory, and some buildings need to have people working in the city buildings for them to be built. I have the freedom to choose any action I want, in any order, but I have to do them one at a time.

Phase 5

Now it’s time to store my goods. Each storage place can only hold one item per available slot. However, the Cathedral, San Christofori, and Santa Maria have the special ability to store unlimited goods. So, if I’ve chosen either of those, lucky me! I can keep all my goods safely in the Cathedral.

Phase 6

So, here’s how it goes: First, we gotta harvest some goods. Those countryside buildings, they produce one good each. And you know where the goods come from? Well, they come from the hexes surrounding the dude standing on the building. We collect those goods and put ’em in the Harvest box. Oh, and there’s this thing called forced labor that coughs up three goods, but we gotta ditch the first one. Bummer.

Now, when it comes to harvesting the goods, you can do it in any order you like. But hey, remember this: the good that’s hidden under the dude on the building, we save that one for last. Got it? Good. Oh, and here’s a neat trick: if you dedicated your cathedral to San Giorgio or Santa Maria, you’ll get one fish for each Cathedral you built during this turn. Not too shabby, right?

Phase 7

We’re marching on to phase 7, folks. This one’s gotta be done one step at a time. We’ll send our explorer out to do some exploring. Now, here’s the thing: if the counter in the zone of control reveals food, we have to raise the famine level by one. Ugh, not exactly what we were hoping for, but we gotta roll with it.

Phase 8

When I play this game, I get to collect graves based on how hungry I am and what resources I have. The hungrier I am, the more graves I get. But if I have food, that subtracts from the number of graves I receive. And if I have a granary, that subtracts even more graves.

I have to place the graves in empty city spaces. Once those are all filled, I have to put them on buildings instead. It’s a bit sad because once a city space or a building has a grave on it, I can’t use it anymore.

Phase 9

When we reach this phase, everyone gets to pollute their own area. We can do it at the same time, unless our areas overlap. I get to collect three pollutions for each city in my area. Then I have to put the pollutions on empty hexes in my area.

END OF GAME

When it comes to winning the game, the final phase, Phase 10, is crucial. It’s during this phase that I check if I’ve achieved Victory. But there are certain conditions I need to meet in order to win. First, I must choose a patron saint and build a Cathedral. Keep in mind that only one Cathedral is allowed per player.

Each patron saint has different requirements for winning. For example, if I choose San Nicolo as my patron saint, I can win by having 20 civilians, regardless of their location. On the other hand, if I choose Santa Barbara, I need to make sure that I’ve built each city building at least once in order to win.

San Christofori, another patron saint, requires me to have a minimum of three food and at least one luxury good to secure a victory. And if I choose San Giorgio, my winning condition is to enclose another player’s zone of control.

Santa Maria offers a different path to victory. To win as Santa Maria, I need to fulfill two of the aforementioned conditions. It’s important to note that if there’s a tie in victories, the player with the most unpolluted area will be declared the winner.