Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Overview

Through the Ages is a civilization-building card game where 2-4 players guide their civilizations from Antiquity through the Modern Age. Players manage civil and military actions to develop technologies, construct wonders, elect leaders, and build armies. Culture points are accumulated through religion, literature, drama, and other cultural achievements. The player with the most culture points at the end of the game wins.

Components

• Card Row board, Culture/Science boards, Military/Current Age boards
• 4 Player boards (personal civilization mats)
• 179 Civil cards (leaders, wonders, technologies, actions, governments)
• 150 Military cards (tactics, aggressions, wars, events, territories)
• 250 Plastic cubes (4 player colors for workers, resources, and tracking)
• 28 Wooden tokens (4 colors for population and production markers)
• Quick Reference sheets
• Rulebook and Guidebook

Setup

1. Set up boards centrally. Place the card row with civil cards dealt face-up in a line.
2. Each player takes a player board and starting components.
3. Players begin with Age A technologies (basic farms, mines, and government).
4. Place starting workers on farms and mines.
5. Randomly determine starting player.
6. Stack civil cards by age (A, I, II, III) with Age A on top.

Turn Structure

On your turn, perform actions using your available civil and military action points (determined by your government type):

Political Phase (Ages I-III only)

• Play political cards (aggressions, wars, pacts, events).
• Resolve events from the current events row.

Action Phase

Spend civil actions on:

1. Take a card from the card row (cost = position in row, leftmost is cheapest).
2. Increase population (pay food cost from your food supply).
3. Build/Upgrade (pay resource cost to construct buildings, mines, farms, or military units; or upgrade existing ones).
4. Build Wonder stages (pay resource cost to progress toward completing a wonder).
5. Elect a leader (play a leader card for ongoing bonuses).
6. Change government (revolution costs all civil actions; or peaceful transition via science).
7. Play action cards (civil or military action cards for one-time effects).
8. Develop technology (pay science cost to add technology cards).

Spend military actions on:

• Draw military cards.
• Play military action cards.
• Build military units (if government allows military building with military actions).

Production Phase (end of turn)

1. Produce science equal to lab output.
2. Produce food equal to farm output; pay food consumption.
3. Produce resources equal to mine output.
4. Produce culture equal to culture output.
5. Check for corruption (lose excess resources/food if storage is insufficient).

Actions

Civil Actions (typically 4-7 per turn depending on government):

• Take cards, build, upgrade, increase population, elect leaders, develop technology, build wonders, change government.

Military Actions (typically 2-3 per turn):

• Draw military cards, play military cards, build military units.

Free Actions:

• Use special abilities from leaders, wonders, or technologies.

Scoring / Victory Conditions

Culture points are the primary scoring metric. They accumulate each turn based on culture-producing buildings, wonders, and technologies.

End-of-game bonus scoring:

• 1 culture per Age I technology in play, 2 per Age II
• Culture equal to science, strength, and happiness ratings
• Culture equal to food/resource production
• 3 culture per colony
• 6 culture per completed Age II wonder

The player with the most culture points wins. The game ends when the civil card deck of the final age is exhausted and each player has had an equal number of turns.

Special Rules & Edge Cases

• Age Transitions: When advancing to a new age, all players must discard antiquated cards. Leaders from the previous age are removed. Unfinished wonders from Age A are removed at the end of Age A.
• Happiness: If unhappy workers exceed happy markers, players suffer civil disorder (cannot take civil actions). Discontent workers (empty happiness subsections to the left of the marker) reduce efficiency.
• Consumption: During production, you must pay food equal to consumption. Shortfall costs 4 resources per missing food.
• Corruption: Resources and food beyond storage capacity are lost.
• Yellow Bank System: Yellow tokens in the bank are not workers; they track population and bookkeeping.
• Military Conflicts: Aggressions and wars require sufficient military strength. Losing conflicts results in resource, population, or culture losses.
• Events: Drawn event cards affect all players (positive or negative) based on their civilization standings.
• Population Limit: Population growth is constrained by available yellow tokens and happiness.
• Equal Turns: The game ensures all players have an equal number of turns.
• Card Row Aging: Cards shift left as new ones are dealt; old cards eventually fall off the end of the row.

Player Reference

Action	Type	Cost
Take card	Civil	Position in row (0-based)
Increase population	Civil	Food cost (escalating)
Build/Upgrade	Civil	Resource cost per card
Build Wonder	Civil	Resource cost per stage
Elect Leader	Civil	1 civil action
Develop Technology	Civil	Science cost
Draw Military Card	Military	1 military action
Play Military Card	Military	1 military action

Victory: Most culture points at game end