SUMMARY - In this game, players take one of three civilizations (Norse, Greek or Egyptians) and build their civilizations by acquiring resources and building different buildings, monuments, etc. I know this is based on the PC game by the same name, but it really reminded me of Age of Empires (same designers probably). There are two cards for each civilization, so up to six people can play.

MECHANICS - In this game, players take turns gathering, building, recruiting troops or fighting (as based on a hand of cards they put together at the beginning of the turn). There are other options, but they escape me at the time -- explore is another one. Basicially, you are given a grid with different terrain and have to explore your grid to uncover rescources. You collect these resources during gathering and use them to build buildings. Each building has a different function. For example, the storehouse allows you to carry over more resources while the granary allows you to collect more grain during your gatherings. The mechanics reminded me of the dice roll in "The War of the Ring," but players choose their own options. Fighting is done to destroy another player's buildings, resources, or stores. What I like about this game is that the attacks are strategic quick hits more than they are all out wars (until someone gets close to winning). For example, one of my neighbors took a resource that I wanted, so I attacked him and captured it. Another was taking the lead in building numbers so I attacked him to destroy his buildings.

Another mechanic is that the players choose the weight of the victory conditions at the beginning of each turn with most players "chipping in" a VP to one of four categories (most buildings, first wonder, winning last battle, or biggest army). In one game we played, "Most Buildings" was collecting the most VPs, so there was a lot of building and destruction going on to vie for those VPs.

You can also advance to different ages, which gives you a variety of bonuses including the ability to build different types of troops.

Armies are comprised of regular soldiers and mythical creatures. This is what I thought I would like least about the game, but ended up liking the best. I like to play the Norse and enjoy building Frost Giants (good at defeating mortal troops) and some others. It's a pleasure to put together your army. Each type of troop has a category (archer, calvary, giant, etc) and a specialty (anti-flyers, anti-giants, etc) so there is some thought that goes into building your army.

PLAYBILITY - This game played very well, even though you have to wait through the other players for your turn, there are certain actions that engage all players, so you are not in sleep mode when it isn't your turn. I thought the record keeping was easy and easy to track on the grid cards given at the beginning of the game.

The combat system was similar to another game I played (that I can't recall right now -- either Civ or Age of Imperialism) in which both players have an army, but put up on troop against another, adding a certain level of "play calling" to the game. I really don't like this type of combat system and would rather lay them all out in the battlefield and go from there.

COMPONENTS - While the figurines are not painted, they are attractive. It is fun to take your army of dwarves, frost giants and heros into a battle against elephants and mummmies. The cards are well designed, compact, and easy to manage.

STRATEGY - Definitely go for the store house first! Keep an eye on the army your neighbors are building. If they are building Giants, but yourself some anti-giants. When building, go for the ones that increase your resources first and then maybe go for some others.

OVERVIEW - I have played many civilization building games in the past and always get bogged down by the counting and/or territories. This game takes what I like best about the game and eliminates what I don't like about those games. For example, in Civ, you have to buy technologies and buy them in a certain sequence. There is none of that in this game. In Civ you have to worry about all kinds of borders. In this game, you just worry about the player to your right and the one to your left. Some might think this is a bad thing and that's fine, but for me, I enjoy this game without those features.

I had a lot of fun with this game and would recommend it for those who like civilization building games but don't care for all the record keeping. It's also a good intro game for younger kids...maybe around 10?