Tutorial:
Each game is very unique and you'll definitely have to learn as you go (I'm still learning as I go to some degree), but if you have some of the basics down it should be easy enough.
The game plays out in ages. There are four ages (Antiquity, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd). Gameplay doesn't really change based on the age, but the cards change as you'll see. Ages are determined by the cards on the left of the playing board.
During your turn you'll have a variety of things you can do. The most important things to remember are that you have a limited number of civil actions (denoted by the white circles beneath your current governmental structure – despotism to start out), military actions (red circles) and resources/food (show in your stats on the left). During the first turn you're limited to one civil action. From there you'll be able to use four civil actions and two military actions per turn until you upgrade your government. I'll provide more detail on this later.
The goal of the game is to earn the most culture points (denoted by the musical note). The game ends at the beginning of age 4. Various things impact culture points, but I recommend racking up recurring culture points. An example of a recurring culture point is Religion. If you have a worker employed in Religion he generates one smiley (I'll explain later) and one culture every turn. There are typically 21 turns in a game, so if you have Religion from round one on, you'll generate 21 culture points from that one worker.
Underneath the musical note is a light bulb. It represents your science points. The more science you have/generate, the better technologies you'll be able to develop. Science isn't terribly important during the first few rounds, but it becomes increasingly more important as the game progresses. Like, culture points, I recommend obtaining recurring science points (more workers as philosophers means more science).
The icon under the light bulb (crossed swords) represents your military might. Because you have one warrior you currently have one military might. Hover your mouse over him (or any of your workers) to find out what they produce - their production is directly beneath the cost, which I'll get to later.
The next icon (looks like a compass or blue ribbon) represents any bonuses you have to aid you in colonization. This is an advanced part of the game which I can describe to you later when we reach that point of the game.
Beneath that is your current food followed by your current resources. Food is used to increase your population and resources are used for just about everything else. Resources are essentially your currency in this game. Food is obtained by your farmers (you currently have two) and resources by your miners (also two to start).
VERY IMPORTANT: food and resources are represented by blue dots (note your “blue bank” below the farms, mines, etc). Each farmer and miner you have will remove a single blue dot from the right side of that bank each turn. Spending food/resources will return those dots to the “bank”. If you stash resources food for too long, you’ll find that you reach the 2nd section of the bank causing CORRUPTION. Corruption will reduce your total resource production by 2, 4, or 6 based on how corrupt your civilization is. It’s especially important to avoid corruption when possible.
The game plays out in ages. There are four ages (Antiquity, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd). Gameplay doesn't really change based on the age, but the cards change as you'll see. Ages are determined by the cards on the left of the playing board.
During your turn you'll have a variety of things you can do. The most important things to remember are that you have a limited number of civil actions (denoted by the white circles beneath your current governmental structure – despotism to start out), military actions (red circles) and resources/food (show in your stats on the left). During the first turn you're limited to one civil action. From there you'll be able to use four civil actions and two military actions per turn until you upgrade your government. I'll provide more detail on this later.
The goal of the game is to earn the most culture points (denoted by the musical note). The game ends at the beginning of age 4. Various things impact culture points, but I recommend racking up recurring culture points. An example of a recurring culture point is Religion. If you have a worker employed in Religion he generates one smiley (I'll explain later) and one culture every turn. There are typically 21 turns in a game, so if you have Religion from round one on, you'll generate 21 culture points from that one worker.
Underneath the musical note is a light bulb. It represents your science points. The more science you have/generate, the better technologies you'll be able to develop. Science isn't terribly important during the first few rounds, but it becomes increasingly more important as the game progresses. Like, culture points, I recommend obtaining recurring science points (more workers as philosophers means more science).
The icon under the light bulb (crossed swords) represents your military might. Because you have one warrior you currently have one military might. Hover your mouse over him (or any of your workers) to find out what they produce - their production is directly beneath the cost, which I'll get to later.
The next icon (looks like a compass or blue ribbon) represents any bonuses you have to aid you in colonization. This is an advanced part of the game which I can describe to you later when we reach that point of the game.
Beneath that is your current food followed by your current resources. Food is used to increase your population and resources are used for just about everything else. Resources are essentially your currency in this game. Food is obtained by your farmers (you currently have two) and resources by your miners (also two to start).
VERY IMPORTANT: food and resources are represented by blue dots (note your “blue bank” below the farms, mines, etc). Each farmer and miner you have will remove a single blue dot from the right side of that bank each turn. Spending food/resources will return those dots to the “bank”. If you stash resources food for too long, you’ll find that you reach the 2nd section of the bank causing CORRUPTION. Corruption will reduce your total resource production by 2, 4, or 6 based on how corrupt your civilization is. It’s especially important to avoid corruption when possible.
Okay, now on to a brief discussion on civil
actions. Just about everything you do costs a civil action (or more). Taking a
card from the card bank costs the number of civil actions indicated to the
right of the card. The first five cost one, the next four cost two, and the
last four cost three. At the top of the game board is a drop-down menu which
shows you your current list of available actions given the game situation.
These can change throughout your turn based on your other actions, so check it
frequently.
If you have enough food you can increase your population – of course this costs a civil action. This increases your available workers in the worker pool which are then used to build other things. Brief note on population: like your blue bank, you have a yellow bank which represents the total number of available workers in the game. Every time you increase your population, a yellow dot is removed from the bank. The cost (in food) is represented by the food symbol directly beneath the yellow dot. Also like the blue bank, there are negative categories for food, but it’s considered CONSUPMTION. This is not to be feared nearly to the same degree as corruption.
VERY IMPORTANT: the smiley faces above the yellow bank indicate how content your population is. If your population is too great for the amount of smileys you have, you’ll have discontented workers who won’t produce anything for you.
To determine how many resources are required to build something, hover over the category you’d like to buy. For example, if you want to buy religion, hover over the word “religion” and it shows that it costs 3 resources to build it. Note that the benefit of each thing you buy is multiplied by the number of workers you have in the category (ie, two workers in religion generate a total of 2 culture points per turn and a total of two happy faces).
Last two things: technologies and wonders. When you play a new technology you obviously have to pay science points. The benefits the new technologies provide vary, but they are typically very useful. A good example is discovering a new mining technology. When you do, you can upgrade your current miners to use the new technology (represented by a new category stacked atop your current mine) and make them more efficient. Those workers will then produce a higher quantity of resources, but will still only need one blue dot from your blue bank in order to do it.
Wonders (purple cards) are fancy items that offer permanent benefits to your civilization (happiness, science, culture, strength, etc). They are harder to build at the beginning than at the end of the game, but have can ultimately be game-changers if used properly.
If you have enough food you can increase your population – of course this costs a civil action. This increases your available workers in the worker pool which are then used to build other things. Brief note on population: like your blue bank, you have a yellow bank which represents the total number of available workers in the game. Every time you increase your population, a yellow dot is removed from the bank. The cost (in food) is represented by the food symbol directly beneath the yellow dot. Also like the blue bank, there are negative categories for food, but it’s considered CONSUPMTION. This is not to be feared nearly to the same degree as corruption.
VERY IMPORTANT: the smiley faces above the yellow bank indicate how content your population is. If your population is too great for the amount of smileys you have, you’ll have discontented workers who won’t produce anything for you.
To determine how many resources are required to build something, hover over the category you’d like to buy. For example, if you want to buy religion, hover over the word “religion” and it shows that it costs 3 resources to build it. Note that the benefit of each thing you buy is multiplied by the number of workers you have in the category (ie, two workers in religion generate a total of 2 culture points per turn and a total of two happy faces).
Last two things: technologies and wonders. When you play a new technology you obviously have to pay science points. The benefits the new technologies provide vary, but they are typically very useful. A good example is discovering a new mining technology. When you do, you can upgrade your current miners to use the new technology (represented by a new category stacked atop your current mine) and make them more efficient. Those workers will then produce a higher quantity of resources, but will still only need one blue dot from your blue bank in order to do it.
Wonders (purple cards) are fancy items that offer permanent benefits to your civilization (happiness, science, culture, strength, etc). They are harder to build at the beginning than at the end of the game, but have can ultimately be game-changers if used properly.
Please feel free to contact me with any questions
or feedback.
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