Ranked as Reiner Knizia's best game, thusfar this is the highlight of his prolific career. The game is set in the ancient fertile crescent with players building civilizations through tile placement. Players are given four different leaders: farming, trading, religion, and government. The leaders are used to collect victory points in these same categories. However, your score at the end of the game is the number of points in your weakest category, which encourages players not to get overly specialized. Conflict arises when civilizations connect on the board, i.e., external conflicts, with only one leader of each type surviving such a conflict. Leaders can also be replaced within a civilization through internal conflicts.
Awards
Winner of the 1998 Deutscher Spiele Preis.
1997 Meeples' Choice Award
Part of the Knizia tile-laying trilogy.
Online Play
Re-implemented in:
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