Through the Ages Review

Through the Ages allowed each player to build up their civilization from antiquity to the modern era. Wars could be fought, land discovered, governments overthrown, and culture created. It is, frankly, one of the most interesting, diverse, and solid designs out there. But then came this new version. This release, a so-called “new story of civilization” promises to rebalance some cards and adjust mechanics. And it would do so using data from thousands of online games. The result: a brilliant redesign.

The New version keeps everything that made the old game great. Players still strive toward building great wonders while hailing particular leaders in their civilization. The goal, as always, is to accumulate the most culture. Players can force an event to take place, make pacts, or even initiate wars and aggressions against their weaker rivals. The same careful husbandry of resources and actions is present.

Each round, new civil cards come out to a card row. Old cards move the left and new ones are placed on the right. On a player’s turn, they have a number of civil actions (generally defined by their government) and can spend them to increase population, play leaders, build wonders, or build new farms, mines, and urban buildings. Those civil actions are also used to grab cards from the card row with the newer ones costing more actions than older cards.

While the New version retains the same feel and basic mechanisms from the original, some things are quite different. First, the game includes an overwhelming graphical improvement over the original. Every technology is now beautifully illustrated with its own unique artwork. At first, I thought that change was neat, but ultimately merely cosmetic and unimportant. Not true. Something as simple as artwork really enhances the experience and makes it feel more like a game. Interestingly, many of the pacts provide artwork based on real world scenes and photographs.

The most impressive change is the way tactics are distributed. As always, tactics are randomly drawn from the military deck and a player can use a military action to play them. But now, after one turn, they leave the player and go to a common tactics pool. From then on, any player can use two military actions to also adopt that same tactic. This removes much of the luck and makes military more versatile.

There are also numerous small changes and rebalanced cards aplenty. Several of the leaders have been tweaked. But few have been made strictly better or worse. Instead, most have been given similar but new abilities which give rise to new decision spaces.

A play of Through the Ages means constant analysis of your position. How do you get more culture per turn? Following particular leaders might allow you to build more wonders and gain their special powers. Or you might adopt a government that provides you with more actions and versatility. Raking in that culture turn after turn is ultimately what leads to victory.

But that is far from the full game. Experienced players know that you ignore military at your peril. Especially as wars become more available in the third age, a powerful foe can simply steal the culture you’ve amassed. But Through the Ages isn’t really a military focused game. The idea is that military won’t win you the game, but a lack of military could lose it for you. The New Story of Civilization makes further strides toward that ideal. If you ignore military production, and simply rely on your culture, it very well could be that you lose the whole game after a few wars come to your shores.

The New Story of Civilization is a near perfect experience. Through the Ages has always had downtime – especially with four players – and there isn’t much added to address that. And the rulebook, while improved, is still less than stellar. The rules are broken between two rulebooks – a quickplay guide and a full rulebook. The full rulebook, though, seems to assume you’ve read the quickplay guide. For example, it only tells you when the game ends or who takes the last turn in a summary on the first page – important information easily missed. So while it’s better than the original (which had rules broken between three separate variants), it still falls a bit short.

But otherwise this game beautifully provides a long, satisfying story arc. Civilizations rise and fall. Players make pacts and claim peace with one another, but they should also be aware that an opponent’s sizable army buildup is a major concern.

Playing Through the Ages is not just about having fun and competing for points. It is, in itself, a phenomenal and rewarding experience. Seeing your civilization build out, develop into new technologies, and choose among various paths is simply wonderful. You can’t always get the exact card you want at precisely the right time. Cards come out randomly and sometimes other players grab them. So, while you need an overarching plan, you also have to respond to events as they occur.

In the end, Through the Ages is about creation as much as competition. Having the most culture at the end of the game is great. But seeing how your personal civilization grew and changed, fended off bad events and made use of good ones, and ultimately became the titan that it is at game end is personally rewarding.

Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is a deep game ripe for exploration. Just be sure to set aside about an hour per player. Fans of the genre should definitely look into this. And, if you are an owner of the old version, upgrading should be on your to-do list. It is significantly improved in every way and the rebalanced cards (especially wonders and leaders) give the whole experience a refreshing and renewed feel.