In the Age of Civilization, you must lead your people to their glorious future. Analyze the characteristics of every era you are facing, make the best choice for your kingdom development, and become several famous civilizations in our fascinating history. By going through the rise and fall of empires, a unique civilization of yours will finally arise!
Age of Civilization is a pocket-sized civilization game. Throughout one game, each player leads up to three historical civilizations to form a unique combination of abilities. Players build Wonders, research technology, develop culture, conquer for glory, or even exploit their people. Only the player who wisely manages his workers and wealth can achieve the greatest civilization.
Game-play overview
The game is played with 6 rounds. In the 1st round, each player picks one civilization card in the market and gains a number of worker tokens according to the population value indicated on the civilization card. Players may assign workers to action slots in the public region. There are usually 5-6 actions for each player to choose and these actions change between rounds. By assigning workers, players carry out the actions' effects such as earning coins or paying coins for technologies, wonders, or victory points, etc. At the end of a player's turn, workers may return to the player or disappear according to the kind of action it was working on.
In subsequent rounds, players MAY pick another civilization card to replace their previous one. In that case, you reset the number of your workers to the population value indicated on the new civilization card and you lose the main ability of your previous civilization, but the legacy abilities of all your civilizations last forever. In each game, a player can only pick three civilization cards in total, so deciding when to raise a new civilization and which civilization combinations to pick is a big strategic decision of players. When the 6th round ends, the player with the most victory points is the winner.
—description from the designer
- Cheap entry point for history/civilization interest
- Versatile: works solo and multiplayer
- civilizational development through worker actions
- Historical civilization rise and fall
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- beat-your-own-solo mode — A solo variant to chase a personal score rather than direct competition.
- worker placement — Action selection by placing workers to achieve civilization tasks.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the mere mortal tier I'm talking about people that have either no board gaming experience at all or at most they've played Monopoly Uno or maybe Katan
- the perfect uh game to introduce to someone to the Rand W genre
- this is the perfect game to introduce someone to the Roll & Write genre
- this is a great option especially if you know that they like card games or nature
- I've seen people draw some gorgeous Maps
- this game made me feel all smart and stuff
- Everdale is a fantastic puzzle
References (from this video)
- Solo-friendly and compact box for travel
- High replay potential due to many civilizations and scenarios
- Accessible setup and straightforward rules demonstrated in video
- Engaging strategic decisions despite luck elements
- Strong luck element depending on civilization order and card distribution
- Uncertain multiplayer balance and potential for slower pace in longer sessions
- Component differences between Kickstarter and retail versions may affect experience
- Civilization development, exploration, and culture
- Civilization-building across early to classical eras
- Educational, tutorial-like with live explanation and playthrough
- Age of Galaxy
- Age of Wonders
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action selection and worker placement — Six action slots where players assign workers; the slot distribution changes per game; actions resolve to produce gold, research, culture, and points.
- Civilization rise/annex system — Each round you rise a civilization or annex an existing one, governing the main power and worker allocations; limits on number of active civilizations.
- End-of-round and plague mechanic — After each round, AI gains a military/cube and plague increments can force resource loss.
- Military strength and conflict — A sword/defense mechanic pits player's military strength against AI; loss of workers may occur if outmatched.
- Resource management — Players manage money (gold), research tokens, and workers to support actions and projects.
- Variable setup and scenario guide — Card distribution and plague slot create a variable setup; solo scenarios are guided by scenario book.
- Wonders and scoring — Wonders provide points and sometimes special effects; end-of-round and end-game scoring via culture, research and feats.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the game itself is fun as well
- it is very prone to luck
- this game definitely gets a warm recommendation
- the small box ... really great for traveling
- you can set it up and play it within 20-25 minutes
- I'm planning to play through all these scenarios in the future