Through the Ages: A New Story of Civilization

What it is

You guide a small city-state through history by taking cards from a shared row, where new options arrive expensive and get cheaper before they vanish. Workers produce food, resources and science, and your government sets how many actions you get each turn. Culture decides the winner, but a weak army invites trouble. It suits patient players who want a whole evening with one civilization.

What we love

• The card row is a clever conveyor belt, forcing you to choose between cheap now and gone later.
• Each wonder and leader is one of a kind, so the fight over them is real.
• The digital version has an excellent tutorial for learning it.

Honest trade-offs

• Budget about an hour per player plus an hour or two, so four players can take around six hours.
• The manuals are dense and the learning curve is steep.
• Downtime gets heavy with more players, and novices can slow the table.

AI summary of player sentiment

Content advisory

Combat is central but abstract; no graphic depiction.