Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

Neglect your food supply in the Bronze Age, pay for it in the twentieth century.

Vlaada Chvátil's card-driven civilisation game, rebuilt in 2015 from his 2006 original. You take a nation from antiquity through to the modern era — adopting technologies, appointing leaders from Hammurabi to Einstein, and starting wonders that take rather longer to finish than you had budgeted for. It is a civilisation game with no map whatsoever, which turns out not to matter in the slightest.

Everything arrives through a card row that ages as it moves along, so when you take something matters as much as what you take. Your civilisation is a set of dials — food, resources, science, culture, happiness and military — and every one of them is load-bearing. Let the military slip and rivals will simply take things off you. Two hours, 4.4 on the weight scale, and consistently ranked among the best strategy games ever designed.

Perfect for: The person in your group who says "one more turn" and means one more hour.

2–4 players | 120 minutes | Age 14+

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