Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization is the new edition of Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, with many changes small and large to the game's cards over its three ages and extensive changes to how military works.
Through the Ages (TTA) is a civilization building game. Each player attempts to build the best civilization through careful resource management, and by: discovering new technologies, electing competent leaders, building wonders and maintaining a strong military. Weakness in any area can be exploited by your opponents. The game takes place throughout the ages, beginning in the age of antiquity and ending in the modern age.
One of the primary mechanisms in TTA is card drafting. Technologies, wonders, and leaders come into play and become easier to draft the longer they are in play. In order to use a technology you will need enough science to discover it, enough food to create a population to man it and enough resources (ore) to build the building to use it. While balancing the resources needed to advance your technology you also need to build a military. Military is 'built' in the same manner as civilian buildings. Players that have a weak military will be preyed upon by other players. There is no map in the game so you cannot lose territory, but players with a stronger military will steal resources, science, kill leaders, take population or culture. It is very difficult to win with a strong military, but it is very easy to lose because of a weak one.
Victory is achieved by the player whose nation has the most culture at the end of the modern age.
- Massive depth and scope
- Historically rich and potentially accurate
- Quality inserts and organization
- Double-sided boards and clear player aids
- Card-driven engine with visible turns
- Very long play time
- High complexity not for casual players
- Large amount of components and setup
- Array
- Historical civilization development from ancient to modern
- Macro-level strategic civilization progression
- Clash of Cultures
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Players draft civilization-related cards to build their engine and advance technologies
- engine building — Cards and actions build an evolving engine across ages
- Personal/Individual Boards — Each player uses their own game board to track actions and development
- Player Board | Main Board — Each player uses their own game board to track actions and development
- Resource management — Players manage tokens and resources to develop civilization and score culture
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- this game is essentially just the cards like the cards make up everything
- freaking awesome
- this is everyone's game board
- it's not for the casual it's not for the faint of heart
- this is a game through the ages for the ages
- there's stickers
References (from this video)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- you can be the most unlike unlikable person, but if you can just get one person to agree to play with you.
- you get to play both roles within a session.
- this is one of the most playable games I think on our list here in terms of just you could play this a 100 times and still be seeing situations you haven't seen before.
- not an easy game to learn.
References (from this video)
- epic historical scope
- deep strategic decision-making
- strong replayability and variety
- very long play time
- steep learning curve for new players
- historical progression, technology, culture, and governance
- Civilization development from antiquity to modern era
- long-form civilization-building with strategic depth
- Race for the Galaxy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — select cards to advance tech, military, and commerce
- card_drafting — select cards to advance tech, military, and commerce
- engine building — assemble a civilization through cards and actions that compound over time
- engine_building — assemble a civilization through cards and actions that compound over time
- Resource management — manage food, resources, and cultures to power actions
- resource_management — manage food, resources, and cultures to power actions
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Dead of Winter, a crossroads game.
- it's nostalgic.
- the campaign ends on the final draw.
- I think this puzzle to me is more crunchy and satisfying than something like Cascadia.
- Cascadia is pretty chill.
- What a good game.
References (from this video)
- deep strategic depth
- high sense of mastery and satisfaction
- rich historical flavor
- steep learning curve
- long playtime for a solo/2-player session
- civilization-building through ages
- Civilization development from ancient to modern times
- emergent historical progression rather than storybook
- Gloomhaven
- Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — players draft action and event cards to shape their civilization.
- engine building — combining cards and technology tracks to drive future actions.
- engine-building — combining cards and technology tracks to drive future actions.
- Resource management — managing food, culture, science, and military resources to enable actions.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "no other civilization game that I've played comes close to capturing the feeling that I get when playing this one"
- "this game does something that I think no other game can do it can tell a compelling Adventure Survival Story without the need of a storybook here the story emerges out of the gameplay"
- "Gloomhaven is one of the most popular board games of all time"
References (from this video)
- deep strategic engine
- high replayability
- long playtime
- steep learning curve
- civilization-building, technology, governance
- civilization development through ages
- engine-driven civilization progression
- Clash of Cultures
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- action-selection — players choose actions to advance civilization and optimize scoring
- card drafting — players draft and manage cards representing advances, leaders, and resources
- Resource management — balancing cultures, science, culture, and military resources
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Rulebooks are the least favorite part of the job; they can be frustrating and hinder learning.
- Patreon support pays for all of this equipment and production.
- The secret word is whatever animal that is.
- Comments are always important; engagement matters for publishers.
References (from this video)
- Iconic, deep civ-building with a massive card river
- High strategic depth and varied paths
- Classic within the hobby and a benchmark for card-driven civ games
- Complex rules and steep learning curve
- Long play time and heavy setup for some groups
- Civilization development, technology, culture
- Ancient civilizations across time
- Strategic, card-driven engine-building
- Civilization-building games
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action points — Spend action points to take actions using your hand of cards
- card drafting — Draft and play a river of civilization cards to develop your empire
- engine building — Build a tableau of buildings, technologies, and wonders to win
- engine-building — Build a tableau of buildings, technologies, and wonders to win
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- "Through the Ages is my number one game of all time"
- "it's a game all about spinning plates"
- "Galaxy Trucker is a game that I fell in love with very early on"
- "Dominion introduced the world to deck building"
- "Gloomhaven comes out on top of an incredibly strong year"
- "Frost Punk is a massive achievement"
References (from this video)
- deep historical progression, meaningful decisions, high variability
- long play time, learned rules can be daunting
- development and governance across eras
- historical civilizational progress through ages
- grand historical progression with evolving choices
- Civilization: A New Dawn
- Gaia Project (analogous long-form strategy)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- age-by-age card drafting — leaders, military, and development cards shape civilization each age
- card drafting — leaders, military, and development cards shape civilization each age
- government and policy shifts — upgrading government changes strategy and capabilities
- Resource management — managing food, resources, and corruption to advance
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the narrative it does ends up being a fun experience
- it's the story. there's almost I find when I'm playing it and horrible things are happening
- through the ages... a grand historical journey
- epic and full-day experience
- you can draft up to your point level and duke it out to the end
References (from this video)
- Highly regarded classic of the genre with deep strategic depth
- Rich variety in cards and tech options across eras
- Long playtime and heavy rules can deter casual players
- Numerous decisions can be overwhelming
- classic civilization building with culture, science, military, and expansion
- Historical progression from antiquity to modern eras; world leaders and civilizations evolve.
- deep engine-building with era advancement
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Deck building — Acquire and utilize cards to drive actions and tech progression.
- deck-building — Acquire and utilize cards to drive actions and tech progression.
- engine building — Plan and optimize a multi-resource engine to generate outputs across eras.
- engine-building — Plan and optimize a multi-resource engine to generate outputs across eras.
- Resource management — Balance science, culture, resources, and population to advance civilizations.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- We absolutely adore this game. It's super super fun.
- the big Mayan calendar in the middle
- you can place a worker on the symbol that matches the god card.
- This is a big deck building game where you are going to have a different nation.
- Every game I feel like is a little bit different because the board map will change.
- Civolution is very good.
References (from this video)
- Beautifully dense board game that captures civilization feel
- Every game feels incredibly different and unique
- Card drafting mechanic with visible upcoming cards
- Excellent war/military system that creates constant tension
- Planning and decision-making for technology upgrades
- Micrometer cubes for satisfying gameplay
- Granddaddy of civilization games that perfects the feeling
- Worthy time investment with 2-3 hour playtime
- Long playtime (2-3 hours for 2 players)
- Requires experienced players
- civilization building
- history
- empire management
- resource management
- military conflict
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Kim is a little new to gaming... I've been in the business for maybe a couple decades... he's ancient he was around before the first board game was ever created
- The reason for that is if you check forums a lot of people will talk about how they don't like the semi-cooperative nature of the game
- I wish he was wrong but okay in my justification if you're playing a board game it's a physical tactile thing
- I have a lot of friends where English is not their first language... with this kind of game being abstract there are no there's no cards to read there's no complicated rule
- Argent is one of the most beautiful mess of the games imaginable
- If you've never seen this game before it is the cutest thing ever ever
- It's been my favorite game forever... I wouldn't bust this down if my family came over
- Every time I feel like playing a board game it feels like there's a part of me that's just like okay I should play Arc Nova again
- I really like when theme matches the mechanics
References (from this video)
- Feel like building stuff
- Massive with great choices
- Mobile app available
- Up to 6-8 hours long
- Building civilization from pyramids to space flight
- Human civilization through history
- Epic civilization building
- Great Western Trail
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Card Play — Play cards for buildings and characters
- engine building — Build up civilization to score victory points
- Technology Track — Develop technologies over time
- Time track — Develop technologies over time
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Board Game Geeks top 100 sometimes feels like random people voting random stuff
- This is the way by two random people from Latvia
- Your mind feels like a fog after playing Spirit Island
- Frodo really doesn't want to destroy ring at the end he's like nah I'll go home
- It's a fine game it's super boring it just the same thing over and over
- Wrongfully not in the top 20 yet
References (from this video)
- Iconic civilization engine with deep strategic depth
- Tremendous replayability and historical flavor
- Excellent two-player and multiplayer balance with long playtime
- Long playtime can be daunting for casual nights
- Rulebook complexity can be challenging for newcomers
- historical progression from ancient to modern times
- Civilization development through ages
- grand strategy with historical flavor
- Sid Meier's Civilization: The Board Game
- Twilight Imperium (epic scale)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card drafting — Drafting pivotal cards to shape your civilization's trajectory.
- card drafting and action selection — Drafting pivotal cards to shape your civilization's trajectory.
- Resource management — Developing a multi-resource economy to enable actions and advances.
- Resource/engine progression — Developing a multi-resource economy to enable actions and advances.
- Tech and government progression — Acquiring governments and technologies to unlock powerful future options.
- Tech trees — Acquiring governments and technologies to unlock powerful future options.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the partner Dynamics in tiu are so fun because you can't talk to each other
- it's the best card game trick-taking game
- this is the game that we keep coming back to for group drama and big moments
- you can't beat the drama at the end when both teams are close to a thousand points
References (from this video)
- deep, highly replayable with many cards and paths
- great to revisit with familiar players
- long and rules-heavy; not ideal for casual sessions
- card-driven civilization progression and strategy
- civilization-building with development from primitive to advanced
- highly strategic, repeat-play worthy
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- card-driven civilization development — cards drive civilizational advances, military, science, and culture progress
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- I think Concordia is one of the best games ever made, full stop
- two players it works extremely well because the downtime is gone
- it's a brain burner game
- the tension in the two-player game is great
- loads of content to explore, tons of replayability
References (from this video)
- deep strategic depth with long-term planning
- varied paths to victory through diverse cards and builds
- app speeds up busy work and can streamline play
- satisfying progression of civilization with growth over time
- very long playtime and heavy downtime
- cube management can be fiddly and slow
- doom spirals can punish lagging players
- presents a Western civ perspective via its theme
- Civilization building and cultural development across ages
- Civilization development from ancient to modern era, with emphasis on culture, infrastructure, and governance
- historical progression with long-term planning and resource management
- Nation
- Civilization: A New Dawn
- Through the Ages (original)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- age progression and leaders — One leader per age; choosing leaders significantly impacts strategy
- card drafting — Draft Civic cards from a display to shape your strategy each turn
- engine-building — Build a synergy of buildings, technologies, and wonders to improve actions
- Resource management — Manage blue resources, yellow workforce, and white civic actions
- scoring and victory — Final scoring based on culture points, with various routes to victory
- war and aggression cards — Seed events that affect all players with military strength and can trigger wars
- Worker placement / action economy — Spend actions to perform actions; manage limited actions per turn
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Through the Ages is a low luck High skill civilization game where long-term planning and skillful use of your limited actions and resources is the key
- one dramatic one is that you can only have one leader per age so making the right choice is huge
- the best thing about this game is its app it handles all the busy work that dramatically slows down the game in person
- it's a story of Western civilization and has presented strongly through that lens
References (from this video)
- Deep replayability with many paths to victory
- Strong thematic integration with mechanics
- Balanced early-game options with catch-up provisions
- Great player aids and turn sequence clarity
- Good value for the price and long-term playtime
- Long playtime, especially at higher player counts
- Steep learning curve with lots of information
- Not ideal for casual gamers due to complexity
- Downtime can be significant at four players
- Civilization development, resource management, and cultural progression
- Civilizations spanning from antiquity into modern times
- Eurogame with historical progression and engine-building
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action points — Players gain action points dictated by government and spend them on actions.
- action_points_allowance — Players gain action points dictated by government and spend them on actions.
- card drafting — Cards are drafted from a row/deck to develop technologies, leaders, or benefits.
- card_drafting — Cards are drafted from a row/deck to develop technologies, leaders, or benefits.
- hand management — Manage hand size and resources to optimize card play.
- hand_management — Manage hand size and resources to optimize card play.
- military_conflict — Military actions determine aggression, warfare, and defense.
- Resource management — Manage food, resources, science, culture, etc.
- resource_management — Manage food, resources, science, culture, etc.
- tableau building — Build a tableau of cards to develop civilization engine.
- tableau_engine_building — Build a tableau of cards to develop civilization engine.
- take that — Aggression cards can affect other players' boards and progress.
- take_that — Aggression cards can affect other players' boards and progress.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- Through the Ages is dripping with theme.
- The game gets better the more you play.
- I officially classified Through the Ages as outstanding.
References (from this video)
- High strategic depth and replayability due to card variety and a shifting event deck
- Strong thematic integration between leaders, wonders, and card text
- Excellent digital implementation enabling asynchronous play and streaming
- Rich variety of leaders, wonders, and paths to victory across ages
- Tension and drama in military actions and end-game scoring balance
- Very heavy rules and potentially long play sessions
- End-game scoring can be opaque to new players without learning the rhythm
- Balancing can be delicate with expansions and random mixes
- Decision density can lead to analysis paralysis in some setups
- Civilization development, resource management, technological advancement, cultural progress, and strategic warfare across ages.
- Historical civilizations advancing from antiquity through modern eras, with leaders, wonders, events, and military conflicts shaping civilization trajectories.
- Thematic storytelling through leader cards, wonder effects, and event cards; ironies of progress and balance are highlighted via debates over card value and strategy.
- Mage Knight
- Puerto Rico
- Dominion
- Through the Ages (board game)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- age progression and technology — The board evolves through ages; technological and urban developments unlock new abilities and scoring opportunities.
- Card drafting and play — Players curate a hand of leaders, wonders, events, and modern actions; card choices steer long-term strategy and near-term engine building.
- end-game scoring and age-end dynamics — End-game is driven by a mix of scoring cards and strategic timing; players balance short-term gains against long-term victory points.
- events deck and era-specific events — A deck of events introduces world-shaping twists; players must adapt to shifting conditions and timing windows.
- military conflict and aggression cards — Aggression cards enable attacks that steal resources or damage opponents; defense cards mitigate, adding risk management to combat.
- Resource management and action economy — A fixed-action economy requires careful allocation of workers, food, and other resources to advance and build.
- territory bidding / exploration (expansionic variant) — Expansion content introduces bidding for territories or territories-like options, affecting map control and resource access.
- wonder construction and effects — Building wonders yields powerful, era-spanning bonuses and can influence asymmetrical development.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- engineering genius is fantastic
- what cards are in the game so that you can form a strategy
- the tutorial in the game is fantastic; it teaches you how to play
- this is one of the most replayable games because of micro decisions and variability
- the digital rules improve play when played asynchronously but there are differences in tabletop play
- I've been playing this game now for 14 years; I'm still learning and enjoying it
- the end-game scoring and the way age transitions unfold can drastically shift who wins
- the variability of card order means no two games are the same
References (from this video)
- deep, satisfying long-form strategy
- tactile components and meaningful progression
- holds up well with modern game design while preserving weight
- very long playtime
- steep learning curve for new players
- Historical civilization progression with long-form strategic decision-making
- Civilizations rise and fall across ages driven by card drafting and resource management
- Epic, strategic campaign scale with multiple paths to victory
- Civilization (tabletop variants)
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- Action points — a limited action economy drives strategic planning across ages
- action_point_management — a limited action economy drives strategic planning across ages
- card drafting — players draft cards to advance their civilization and build capabilities
- card_drafting — players draft cards to advance their civilization and build capabilities
- civilization_progression — civilization advances through ages with escalating decisions and costs
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- the theme is just so strong with this game, the story elements pair with the campaign progression to create an intense mood
- it's a campaign game, and failing forward actually feels satisfying as it changes the path and keeps the story interesting
- this game is on my mind, it's on my heart and my pocket or my wallet is open and ready to spend
- Gideon has to be the best character in Imperial Assault, upgraded he is insane
- the flow of that card row through the game and all these cards, the different orders, creates a satisfying puzzle
- it's a toss-up who knows who's going to win it down the stretch; the campaign stays tight and engaging
- Through the Ages, oh I was so lost, but the depth is incredibly rewarding
- it's a long, long game but the progression feels earned and satisfying as you grow your civilization
References (from this video)
- deep strategic space
- large player interaction through shared world
- very long play time
- steep learning curve
- civilization accumulation and advancement
- ancient to modern civilization development
- grand strategy with historical scope
- Terraforming Mars
- Power Grid
- Gloomhaven
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
- deck-building / card-driven action — Cards drive technological progress and action economy.
- Resource management — Carefully balance food, science, culture, and production to advance.
Video topics + discussion points
Quotes (from this video)
- gloomhaven well everybody knows that right
- pandemic season one is a cooperative game
- it's the crew
- code names
- magic maze
- the correct answer is sheriff of Nottingham
- subscribe like and comment on this video
- time stories isn't it but time stories isn't as well so one point for you
- you don't know board games
- Terraforming Mars