Nations rise and fall. Can you build an empire while fighting off the invading forces of other tribes seeking to leave their own monuments to history? In "Age of Heroes" you will find out.

Scores for this review will in several areas, with each earning 1 to 5 bricks, with 5 being the best.

THE PREMISE: Use resources to build cities and armies to conquer other tribes in order to create an ancient empire. Play as the Babylonians, Celts, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks or Romans. Contruct roads, build Citadels or hire armies. Nothing inspiringly new, but it is a different take on other games like it.
SCORE: 3 bricks.

THE LOOK: Decent artwork, but again, nothing really great. Mostly just a few images repeated over and over, but those are well done.
SCORE: 3 bricks.

COMPONENTS: 180 cards, rulebook, and a nice plastic case to store everything in. Non-collectible, so you get the complete game in one purchase.

# PLAYERS: 2-6. While you can play with just 2, it is recommended that you play with at least 3 or more.

GAME PLAY: Players either select or are randomly dealt one of the six ancient Tribe cards. These are folded and set up in front of each player. Other than that they have no purpose other than to show who's playing whom, and to provide a reference during game play on the different costs for items. Resource cards are shuffled into one deck for all players to draw from. Item cards are separated into piles and placed face-up to one side. Finally, each player is dealt one City and one Army to begin the game with.

Players are dealt three resource cards. Resources are Gold, Grain, Iron, Stone and Wood. Resources are used to buy more items. More on items in a bit.
Most items require certain Resources to build, i.e., a City requires one each of Iron, Stone and Wood, while a Road needs only 2 Stone cards. Gold is the most sought after Resource, as it can substitute for any other Resource.
Special Resources can also be found in the deck. These are 6 Tribe-related Resources players need to complete a cultural monument. Example: The Celts needs Sandstone to construct Stonehenge, the Egyptians need Limestone to build the Pyramids, the Greeks need Marble for the Parthenon, etc. As each is Tribe-specific, the Chinese won't be collecting Marble.
Once cards are dealt, a Market Day is held. Players may draw one card from the Resource deck, plus one more for each road that links them to another tribe. So if you have roads to all other tribes, you draw 6 cards. However, your road also links them to you, so they also get an extra card. After all cards are drawn, players may then trade Resources with each other in an effort to gain the Resources to build more cities and armies, or to collect enough Special Resources to complete a monument to their culture and win the game. According to the rules, all trades are enforced. Any player attempting to cheat another player during Market Day immediately loses and is out of the game. Players can also use Resources as bribes to avoid being attacked. However, such bargains are not enforced, so it comes down to how well you trust your opponent(s). After all trading is completed, game play begins.
As a sidenote, it should be noted that the Resource deck also contains some rather unpleasant Natural Disasters and Barbarian hordes. Both are played immediately when drawn, except during the first Market Day, when they are discarded instead. Disasters such as Volcanoes (destroy an opponent's City), Earthquake (send an attacking Army away), Famine (everyone discards ALL grain Resources), or even Luck (used to counter one of the really bad ones). Barbarians on the other hand, attack whomever draws them and plunders their hand (discarding all cards), if they win in Battle.
Players then each draw one Battle Card. The player with the highest card (# of sword/shields), goes first, and play proceeds to the left. Ties redraw until someone wins.
The starting player then draws one Resource card, and may take one of three actions. Choices are Collecting Taxes, in which additional one Resource cards are drawn for each City owned, Building, using Resources to build additional Cities, Citadels or Roads, or hire Armies and Generals. Finally, a player may chose to Battle, sending their Armies to attack another player for Conquest (seize one or more Cities), Plunder (steal that player's Resource cards), or Razing (attempting to damage a cultural monument).
Our first few turns were spent Building, as everybody felt too weak to make a successful attack on anyone else. Turns progress quickly, which is a plus to any game. Cities can provide additional Resource draws, Citadels add to your defense against invaders, and Generals act as individual Armies or add to the attack value of an attacking army.
Battles are fast and easy. Players send out their armies against other Tribes. The only real limitation is that you can only attack one Tribe. Multiple Armies cannot attack multiple targets. Once an attack is declared, players draw Battle cards and lay them on attacking/defending Armies. Battle cards have values from 1 to 6. A General placed on an attacking Army adds +2 to the value of the Battle card drawn. Citadels add a +1 cumulative value to the defender's Battle cards. Either attacker or defender may play a Mighty Hero card (also a resource card), to add value to a Battle card. Once all cards are played, values are added and the higher amount wins. Defeated Armies are destroyed, along with any Generals played on them. If a draw occurs, neither side loses their Army. If an attacking player wins, they calculate how many victorious Armies they have. If they attacked for conquest and have at least two victorious Armies, they take a City from the defender. With four victorious Armies, they take two Cities. An attack for plunder allows the winning attacker to take one esource card from the loser's hand for every two victorious Armies. If attempting to raze the defender's monument, only one victorious Army is needed to discard one Special Resource. With two victories, 3 Special Resources are discarded. Surviving attacking Armies are placed under the Tribe card if there is no road between the two tribes. If a road exists, they return home immediately!
To win the game, either complete your Tribe's monument by playing 5 Special Resource cards, be the last surving Tribe on the table, or own 5 Cities.
Play is simple and nicely designed, easy enough for kids to pick up.
SCORE: 4 bricks.

PLAYING TIME: Depending on the number of players. Easily an hour or more. At times it can seem to drag, or get frustrating when you can't get the cards you need through draws or trading.
SCORE: 3 bricks.

RULES CLARITY: Long but fairly clear. A few areas could use some revision, but overall you pick up the game through a combination of play and referencing pretty quick.
SCORE: 4 bricks.

CARD LAYOUT: Simple but well done. Nothing to get excited over, but nice. According to the website (www.legendgames.net), the artist lives in Romania. Nice touch.
SCORE: 3 bricks.

STORY: No story, but lots of historical facts that will (rather sneakily) teach kids some things they probably didn't know, and I love that.
SCORE: 4 bricks.

PROS/CONS: Easy to learn, simplistic play, educational. The card stock is pretty low quality, maybe 110 llb paper, and sometimes not cut where it should be. We found three cards where the top was sliced off just above the picture, with another card top on the bottom. We fixed that with some scissors and Scotch tape.
SCORE: 3 bricks.

CONCLUSION: A nice game with educational qualities. Nothing spectacular, but it does a good job simplifying what other games with the same concept have made overly complicated. I especially recommend this game for families, as it's a great way to spend some time together and learn a little. I honestly hope Legend Games succeeds with this game and can perhaps reissue it down the road with better card stcok and maybe some revamped artwork.
OVERALL SCORE: 3 bricks.

Order this one and give it a try, it's well worth the low price.