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Board Game Entry
Information
Designed By
Art By
Published By
Year Published
2006
# of Players:
2 − 4
User Suggested # of Players
Best with 3 players
Recommended with 2, 3, 4 players
(193 voters) [poll]
Playing Time
240 minutes
Mfg Suggested Ages
12 and up
User Suggested Ages
14 and up
(45 voters) [poll]
Language Dependence
Extensive use of text - massive conversion needed to be playable
(68 voters) [poll]
Category
Mechanic
Primary Name
Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization
Alternate Names
Im Wandel der Zeiten
歷史巨輪 / 历史巨轮
Expanded By Show Expansions »
Families
Description Edit | History

Through the Ages is a civilization building game. The goal is to develop your civilization, not to destroy other ones. Military strength is just one aspect of your nation, as well as population, production or science. It is up to you which aspect you will concentrate on, more or less, but you should not underestimate any of them while building your civilization.

Victory is achieved by the player whose nation produces the most culture during the game. However, there are many ways to produce culture: through religion, literature or drama, by building wonders, by utilizing cultural persons etc. Considerable amount of culture can be gained even via wars or aggression.

More Information Edit | History

History

Originally announced as "Civilization: the card game" for Essen 2006, this game stirred up quite some interest. The designer publisher has intended this game to be a "CIV-lite". It has development, economics, war, and all the other elements you'll find in a civilization game, but in four hours play time.

Online Play

2009-02-03: VASSAL module (version 2.46): Through the Ages v. 2.46

PBEM Guild: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/639

Cyberboard Gamebox: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/42335

Cyberboard ver 2 Gamebox: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/42070

Awards

2007: International Gamers Award

Microbadges

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/throughtheages.gif Through the Ages Fan - Culture
http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/TTATech.png Through the Ages Fan - Tech
http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/TTAHappy.png Through the Ages Fan - Happy People
http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/TTAArmy.png Through the Ages Fan - Military

http://files.boardgamegeek.com/images/microbadges/mb_VlaadaChvati.gif Vlaada Chvatil fan

Contents (2008 Edition):

  • 1 Gameboard
  • 1 Rulebook
  • 275 Wooden Counters:
    • 120 Yellow
    • 90 Blue
    • 35 White
    • 30 Red
  • 40 Player Cubes (10 x 4 Colors)
  • 4 Player Mats
  • 4 Reference Cards
  • 341 Cards:
    • 185 Civil
    • 155 Military
    • 1 Start Player

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Files
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13 Unofficial FAQ
I went through all the Rules questions in the forum and added ones that came up multiple times, had a fair bit of discussion about, or just needed a simple clarification. This is based on the 2008 FRED Edition (English) of the game. If I messed anything up, feel free to send me a geekmail or post a comment and I will update the file. Again, this is by no means official, but a lot of the answers came directly from the Designer or original Publisher in forum threads.
2009-07-02
4 ZunTzu gamebox in English
Uses the same cards as the vassal module. This is the first release, version 1.0
2009-05-14
6 Revised Through The Ages Cyberboard Game Set
Revised TtA (1st edition) gamebox and scenario fixing card errors in Englestein's set (includes Fabozz edits): * Deleted Age II Cav should be 2 cards in 2 player, not 3 * Age I Patriotism changed to 2 res from 1 * Age II Breakthrough changed to 4 sci from 2 * Fundamentalism should have 5 mil actions and token art was wrong * Communism token art was wrong * Fast Food Chains now 4 4 4 4 * Internet now 2 3 4 3 2 * Ocean Liners now 3 2 2 2 3 * Mas, Arch, and Eng now say "urban" * Raid cards now say same type and level * Einstein, Gandhi mispelled * Churchill no action icons * Assassinate, International Tourism typos
2009-05-03
2 2 Player Full Version (ver2 gbx)
Setup for 2-player full version of game using ver2 Cyberboard gamebox. Has all 4 colors to choose from, but all 3 and 4 player cards are deleted. ** removes extra Swordsmen and adds trays (see 4-p gsn file description)
2009-04-29
1 3 Player Full game Cyberboard scenario (ver2 gamebox)
3 player Full Game scenario file for use with version 2 of the TtA Cyberboard gamebox. This still has the same trays and all 4 colors as with the 4-player scenario, but it removes the 4-player only cards from the Civil Decks. ** this removes erroneous Swordsmen + adds useful new trays**
2009-04-26
1 scenario file for 4-player game (uses ver2 of gamebox)
Setup for 4 player Full version of the game Trays are specifically tailored for 4 player game as well. It also includes an extra tray for a referee so that it can be used to correct mistakes when trying to teach the game to new players. ** removes erroneous extra Swordsmen + adds trays to assure that earlier Age current events are drawn before higher Age events**
2009-04-26
10 Through the Ages version 2 Cyberboard Gamebox
***thanks to DBatutis this fixes all of the errors inherited from previous versions*** This updates to Fred 2nd edition player boards and changes the layout of the card track board so that all can be seen on a single screen. It also has game pieces for the scoreboard and for pacts rather than markers. The new scoreboard pieces for total culture are double-sided with a "+100" on the back. Although it does use most of the materials from the other gamebox, the addtion of the new boards makes it not backward compatible, so it is listed as a new file rather than a revision. Note that the CB compression is set to Most Compression, so the file will load a little more slowly than if you reset it to Fastest.
2009-04-26
3 Im Wandel der Zeiten - German Rules Summary with Turn Overview
Detaillierte Kurzregel mit Übersicht der Zivil- und Militäraktionen. Ich verwende diese (anstatt der 32-seitigen Anleitung) um meinen Freunden das Spiel zu erklären oder um etwas nachzuschauen. Es werden die vielen Regeln mit Beispielen abgedeckt.
2009-04-22
16 TTA Vassal Help for new players
How to play Through the Ages with the Vassal engine module. Screen shots and helpful information on how to get a game started, how to navigate the module and some basic guidelines for end of turn and age using the Vassal TTA module.
2009-03-15
22 TtA Setup & Rule Aid (for 3rd printing/2nd Fred printing)
After recently buying the latest version of TtA (3rd printing/Fred 2nd printing) and going through the great Aid from hholzgrafe, I had made several changes and updates which I thought may be useful to others. This is the first draft, so please send me any comments or clarifications you think would be helpful. ***Thumbs are appreciated***
2009-03-08
Statistics
User Rank: 5
Num Ratings: 2583
Average Rating: 8.34
Standard Deviation: 1.48
Num Views: 415335
GeekBuddy Analysis: Analyze
Similarly Rated: View
Avg. Game Weight: 4.1 moreinfo
Fans: 183
Personal Comments: 1040
Users Owning: 2639
Users Wanting: 568
Users Trading: 38
Has Parts For Trade: 1
Want Parts In Trade: 1
Price History: View
Total Plays: 8154
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