We’re currently re-arranging our daily schedules a bit so as to be able to play boardgames more often, perhaps making our CarcaSean visits a twice weekly rather than weekly affair. The highlight of last week’s sessions was Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization, which was kindly taught to us by Han. As its name implies, it’s a boardgame inspired by the PC-based Civilization series and attempts to abstractly simulate the competition between rival civilizations from ancient history to the modern age. Since this was our first game and due to time constraints, we only played up to Age 2, skipping the third and final age.
The keyword here is abstract as my first thought when all of the components were taken out of the box was “Where’s the map?” Indeed, there isn’t one. The main board basically serves only as a handy way to track the many different variables the game needs, including the Cultural Points that the players need to accumulate to determine victory. Without a map, any civilization is assumed to be able to attack any other when necessary. The only territory that the players fight over are the Colony cards that confer various advantages to the civilization that manages to win them.
