Age of Empires: Expandable Card Game

Age of Empires: Expandable Card Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Each starter box has a 96-card deck, four Age Cards, which are used to keep track of what Age you are in; a Civilization Card, which shows the bonuses that your civilization has; one Booster Pack, which contains 12 random cards; and this rule book. Players will need their own starter box to play. For your first game, we suggest you use the provided deck. After a game or two, feel free to customize your deck with cards from booster packs.

Overview

Based on the award-winning Microsoft computer game, Age of Empires is an expandable card game in which you will create a village, recruit military units, and research technologies. Players build their own deck based on one of the eighteen civilizations from the computer game. This first set contains Britons, Celts, Goths, Mongols, and Persians.

Age of Empires is normally a 2-player game but there are rules included for multiplayer battles and scenarios. These scenarios are meant to be flexible and allow for whatever type or length of game you want to play.

Object of the Game

To win Age of Empires, you must complete one of the following winning conditions. These will be more fully explained later.

Destroy all opponent's Town Centers or Villagers.
Collect five Relics and Enshrine them in a Monastery for six turns.
Advance to the Imperial Age, build a Wonder of the World, and protect it for six turns.

Note: See Winning Conditions for a complete explanation.

The Ages

The overall concept of the game involves advancement through four ages, the Dark Age, the Feudal Age, the Castle Age, and the Imperial Age. As your civilization grows more powerful, you will spend resources to advance your civilization into the later ages.

The Deck

The starting 96-card deck is divided into four sections. These sections correspond to the four ages mentioned above. The first section contains cards that have an Age I symbol on them and will be the cards you will use in the Dark Age. The second, third and fourth sections correspond to the appropriate ages.

Three terms are used in regard to the deck. "Total Deck" refers to all four sections of the deck. "Age Deck" refers to the cards for one Age. "Play Deck" refers to the deck that you draw from during play.

Age	Cards
Age I	30 Cards
Age II	30 Cards
Age III	20 Cards
Age IV	10 Cards

Table 1

Customizing Your Deck

After you have played a few times, you will be able to customize your deck further with cards from booster packs. There are a few rules in regard to creating your own deck.

There is a minimum of 90 cards in your Total Deck. (See Table 1) You may have up to five of any card in your Total Deck. The only exceptions are Walls, which may have an unlimited number, and Militia, of which you may have ten. Any card with the same card title counts toward the five-card limit. An arbalest, specific to the Britons, still counts as an arbalest. You may put cards from previous ages into later age decks, but later age cards may not go into earlier age decks. For example, an Age I card can go in the Age III deck, but the Age III card may not go in the Age I deck.

Additionally, some cards list specific civilizations that may play it. Any civilization not listed may not use the card.

Civilization Cards

The Civilization Card lists any civilization specific bonuses you receive. These bonuses are different for each civilization so pay close attention to each player's card. Most bonuses are usable without the need for additional cards. Some bonuses such as the Celt's ability to pay less for siege weapons require special Celt only cards. These bonuses are key when constructing a deck. Also listed on the front of the card are the play costs and statistics for villagers and monks.

On the back of the civilization card, you will find a key to the icons used in the game, a listing of the technologies, upgrades, units, and buildings which that civilization can not use, and a listing of the turn sequence.

Anatomy and Types of Cards

There are several types of cards in the game including Buildings, Units, Unit Upgrades, Events, Technologies, Ages, Wonders, and Relics.

Buildings. Building cards represent the structures that make up your village. These cards have a stacked stone block background. Buildings allow you to gather resources, build units, and research technologies. The Town Center is the most important of the buildings as it allows you to produce villagers.

Units. Unit cards represent the military troops that will do battle with your enemy. They are the horizontal cards with a wood background. Each unit represents multiple troops and, as such, will have tokens on it. Each token represents one of that troop type. Military troops are produced in Barracks, Stables, Archery Ranges, Castles, and Siege Workshops. The site of production is listed on the bottom of the unit card.

Upgrades. Upgrade cards are a form of technology that allow your units or buildings to be outfitted with the latest advancements. These cards are vertical with a wood or stone background. When an upgrade is complete, all cards that it affects are now considered to have the new statistics noted on the upgrade card.

Technologies. Technologies are the cards with a metal scale background. They give your civilization new abilities. Once created, these technologies are put off to the side of your village in the technology section and remain in effect until they are replaced or removed.

Ages. Age cards denote your progress through time. Each player will have a set of age cards. They are placed atop the appropriate Age Deck. (i.e. the Feudal Age card goes on top of the Age II section of your Total Deck.) This shows both you and your opponent what age you are in and what you need to advance to the next age. The age cards are played like technology cards.

Events. Event cards represent special occurrences that affect specific aspects of the game. These are the cards with the parchment background. Event cards may or may not have a play cost. When played, the effect takes place immediately. Event cards may only be played on your turn unless the card has "Play any time" on it. When an Event is played on your turn, it must be played before the Discard and Draw phase. Also, some events require payment of resources to remove them from play or move them to another player. These costs may not be paid until your turn and not until after the upkeep phase.

Some event cards have the keyword Attachment on them. These are a special subclass of cards that are attached to units or buildings and affect the target card only.

Wonders. Wonders of the World are used in the Imperial Age. A Wonder Card has no background; instead a picture of a building occupies the majority of the card. Wonders are buildings in all senses except, if you put a wonder into play, your opponents have six turns to destroy it, or you win the game.

Relics. Relics have a tapestry type background and represent holy artifacts uncovered from the ashes of time. If five relics are gathered and enshrined in a monastery for six turns, you win the game. These cards are gathered by monks and played in No-Man's-Land (which will be described later).

Icons

Icons play a vital part in the Age of Empires game. Listed below is a brief description of each icon and its use. (In the printed rulebook each icon is shown as a symbol; the symbols are described here in words.)

Attack points show how much damage a building or unit deals to their enemies in normal (melee) combat.
Garrison. Certain buildings have a garrison value. The total garrison value of your buildings in play is how many total military tokens you may have. For example, if you have two Barracks in play you may have up to 20 military tokens.
Flag. The flag icon is used in scenario and point games. Its use will be discussed in the scenario section.
Wood. This represents wood, which is collected from Lumber Camps.
Stone. This represents stone, which is collected from Stone Mines.
Gold. This represents gold, which is collected from Gold Mines.
Food. This represents food, which is collected from Farms.
Villager (build cost). This represents the number of Villagers needed to build a building or play an Event card.
Villager (research cost). This represents the number of Villagers needed to research a Technology, Unit Upgrade or Age advancement.
Health. Used to indicate the amount of health points a unit or building has.
Range. Indicates a building or unit's ability to deal ranged damage. Range points are generally found on archer/missile units and towers.

Buildings, units, technologies and upgrades have statistics that show how strong they are. These are listed next to the appropriate symbols at the bottom of each card.

Age icons represent the age a civilization must attain in order to play that card. If a player is in a higher age, they may play lower age cards. (For example, if a player is in the Castle (III) Age, they may play cards from the Dark (I), Feudal (II), or Castle (III) Ages.)

Dark Age (Age I)
Feudal Age (Age II)
Castle Age (Age III)
Imperial Age (Age IV)

Villagers, Resources, and the Village

Before we get to gameplay, we need to learn a bit more about the basic structure and setup of the game.

The Village is the central focus of the game. The village holds your Town Center, your resource production facilities, and support buildings. Resource buildings, such as Farms and Lumber Camps, will be where your villagers are allocated to produce materials.

At the beginning of the game you will start with three villagers, a Town Center, and three buildings of your choice. These buildings are placed face down and must be from Age I.

There are four resource types in the game - wood, stone, gold and food. You begin the game with 10 units of wood, five units of food, five units of gold, and zero units of stone, in your Resource Supply. We suggest using a pen and paper to keep track of your resources. These materials are gathered during your collection/upkeep phase. Wood is gathered from Lumber Camps, Stone from Stone Mines, Gold from Gold Mines, and Food from either Farms or Fishing Ships.

Resources are spent during your building phase, enlistment phase, and any time you want to play an event that has a resource cost. When you wish to play a card, remove the appropriate resources from your supply and put the card into play. The cost is noted in the boxes next to the appropriate icon. Some cards also involve villagers as a construction cost. This represents the amount of time it takes to build a building or develop a new technology.

Villagers are unlike any other token in the game. They gather resources; repair damaged buildings; research upgrades, technologies, and age advancement; they also create new buildings. Without any villagers or the ability to create new villagers, you lose. Once used during a turn, villagers are placed in the Villager Pool to be reallocated later in the turn. The villager pool is the area of the table where villagers are stored.

Paying one food in your enlistment phase creates a new villager. All villagers have a health of 4, and can deal 3 damage in combat. Villagers may defend their village, but may not attack your opponent's village.

Removing them from a location and putting them into your villager pool activates villagers. Activation is carried out in several different ways. When constructing a building, villagers are removed from the Town Center. To collect resources, the villagers are removed from either a farm, lumber camp, stone or gold mine. To fulfill a research cost, villagers are moved from the Town Center onto the card being researched and then removed at a rate of one villager per card being researched, per turn, during your allocation phase. Thus completing research when there are no villagers left on the card.

Villagers can repair damage at the rate of one damage token per turn. To repair a damaged building, allocate villagers to the target building. On your next collection phase, remove the villagers from the card to remove the same amount of damage tokens. Each villager may perform one action per turn.

Village Construction

The village is laid out in a grid. You may have up to three ranks of buildings and as many columns as you wish. (See Table 2)

When placing new buildings into your village, they must be placed adjacent to another building. They may not be placed diagonal to another building. If, during the course of the game, a building is separated from the rest of the structure through the destruction of one or more buildings, that building must remain where it is.

In the back of this instruction book, you can find the deck list for your starter deck. The deck list has four cards listed as starting cards. They are a Town Center and three Dark Age buildings. As mentioned, you will place one Town Center card in the middle back position of your village, face up. The three Dark Age cards go face down on the table, with at least one card next to your Town Center. Building cards played in this manner must be paid for when revealed. For your first game, we would suggest that you choose a Mill, a House and a Lumber Camp as your starting buildings.

Table 2: Village Construction (the layout diagram; see Table 3 for a typical starting position)

Table 3: A typical starting position for your village.

Game Setup

Place your Civilization Card next to your Play Deck. This way you and your opponent can have easy access to your Civilization Bonuses.

In addition to your deck, you will need counters in four different colors or shapes. These will be used for damage, military units, monks and villagers (one color/shape for each). It is easier if your opponent uses different colors but not necessary.

Next to your deck reserve room for two additional piles, one is your Discard Pile, the other is your Snuffed Pile. Events will go to the snuffed pile after being played. When your play deck is exhausted, the discard pile is shuffled. Do not include the cards in the snuffed pile when reshuffling.

The Age I deck is your play deck when you start the game; the other three sections are your age decks. Take your play and age decks and separate them into four piles on the side of your gameplay area. The three age cards (Feudal, Castle and Imperial Age) are placed on top of the corresponding decks face up. The Dark Age card is placed to the side to denote your current age.

Table 4: Typical game setup.

At the beginning of the game, place three villager tokens on your Town Center. Each player shuffles their play deck and then draws seven cards to make up their starting hand. Check your civilization card for any starting bonuses. Play order is determined randomly and the first player begins their turn.

Turn Sequence

Each turn is broken down into the following phases:

Collection/Upkeep
Construction
Movement
Attack Declaration
Attack Resolution
Enlistment
Discard and Draw
Allocation

Collection/Upkeep. During this phase, you collect resources and pay any upkeep that you have on any of your cards.

Construction. During this phase, you may play Buildings, Relics, and Wonders. You may also begin research on technologies, upgrades, and age advancement.

Movement. Only unit cards may move. Movement is either within your own village, to your opponent's village or to No-Man's-Land.

Attack Declaration. If you have units in place to attack your opponent's buildings or units, you may declare an attack on that target.

Attack Resolution. Calculate the damage for each round of combat and remove casualties.

Enlistment. During this phase, you may bring any new unit cards into play or add additional tokens to any existing units. Villagers and monks are constructed in this phase as well.

Discard and Draw. Discard any unwanted cards from your hand and redraw back to seven cards. You may put cards in either the discard or snuffed pile when discarding.

Allocation. Remove one villager token from any cards being researched. Allocate your villagers to different tasks such as gathering materials or getting ready to produce buildings or technologies.

Phase Descriptions and Play Structure

Collection/Upkeep Phase

During this phase, villagers are removed from the resource production buildings, and resources are placed into that player's resource supply for each villager removed. (i.e. if you remove four villagers from a Lumber Camp, you gain four wood units.) Villagers removed from resource cards are removed from play and placed into the villager pool. Any villagers in the villager pool will be reallocated for production in the allocation phase. Resources never expire unless used, although events may remove them from a player's supply. Upkeep is now paid on any cards necessary.

Construction Phase

In this phase, players may bring into play any new buildings, unit upgrades, or technologies. To bring a new building into play, you must deduct the resources needed from the supply. All buildings have a villager cost required for construction. This means you must remove a number of villagers from the Town Center equal to the builder number on the card and place them in the Villager Pool. So, if you wish to construct a new building on your next turn, the villagers needed to build it must be allocated to the Town Center on this turn.

Once a new building is paid for, it may be placed next to any of your existing buildings or any face down card. Once a face down card is built, it is simply turned face up, but must stay in the position it was placed in originally. Also, any new building that is played may be used in the same turn it is constructed. (If a barracks is played, militia may be created there in the same turn, during the enlistment phase.)

Technologies may also be researched during this phase in much the same way as a building is built. The cost associated with a technology is removed from the resource supply. As with buildings, a villager cost is associated with a new technology. Technologies require the investment of time to create; this is called Research. The research icon shows the number of villagers that must be removed from the Town Center and placed on the top of the new technology in order to research it. During your allocation phase you may remove one villager from the technology and reallocate them. Once all of the villagers are removed, the technology is complete and it takes effect. Therefore technologies that require one villager will only take one turn to create. But, if you have a technology that needs three villagers it will require three turns to create. Some technologies require certain prerequisites to be met in order to play them. For example, Forging and a Blacksmith are prerequisites for Iron Casting. When a new technology replaces an old one, the new technology is placed on top of the old. (There are certain circumstances where a current technology can be targeted by an effect.)

The symbol in the rulebook's technology sidebar shows how many villagers must be allocated for research.

Unit Upgrades are similar to technologies in that they require research. You pay the cost, allocate the villagers, and after the research is complete, the upgrade takes effect.

Researched like technologies, Unit Upgrades act differently once in play. Upgrades change what units your military buildings produce. If you had a Militia in play and you upgrade to the Man-at-Arms, your Militia automatically becomes Men-At-Arms. In addition, any further militia cards that are produced automatically become Men-At-Arms. You still use the original unit cards to represent the upgraded version, but the upgrade is placed with your technologies to denote that all of a unit type is now upgraded. In the above example, all Militia cards would now be Men-At-Arms.

You may upgrade your already upgraded units. To replace an obsolete unit upgrade in the technology section, place the new upgrade on top of it.

Similar to technologies, Age Advancement also requires research. The cost to advance to the next age is listed on the Age card. To advance in age you must also meet the building prerequisites listed on the new card. Once your research is complete you immediately enter that age. Since research is completed in the allocation phase, you cannot play cards from the new age during the turn you remove the last villager for research.

During this phase, you may also discard any buildings in your village in order to make room for important buildings later in the game. You may not discard any buildings that have enemy troops on them.

Other cards played during this phase are Relics and Wonders. More information is available later in the rules about playing these types of special cards.

Movement Phase

During the movement phase you may move any of your units. Units reside on a building. If you wish to move from one building to another building in your village, you may simply move to that card, regardless of the distance.

Whenever you move a unit in an opponent's village, you may move that card a number of spaces equal to its move value. All units have a move value of one unless otherwise noted on the card. No diagonal movement is allowed. Only one of your cards may be located on a particular building at any time.

If you wish to move one of your Units to attack another player, the attacking Unit must first move through the edge of your own village. The edge Buildings of any village are called the Fringe. Once at the fringe, you may either move directly to your opponent's village or you may stop in between the two villages. This area is called No-Man's-Land (NML). No-Man's-Land will be explained in more detail later in the rules.

Table 5: Unit placement. (Diagram of unit cards placed at the fringe.)

When moving to an opponent's village, you may place your attacking units on any of the opponents' fringe buildings (excluding the rear edge).

During your movement, you may move as many units as you like. All units move simultaneously, so units may exchange places in your movement phase. A unit may cross a blank square in order to move farther into a village without paying the movement cost for the blank square.

A unit may not occupy a blank square on the edge of a village unless they have destroyed the building that was there.

Table 6: Attack Diagram. Unit #1 may attack because it is on the edge of its village. In this example, the grayed out squares marked with X's are legal targets for Unit #1. Unit #2 is not in position to attack this turn.

Note: During Age I, the Fog of War is in effect. This means you cannot attack or move to your opponent's village. Once a player has entered Age II, the Fog of War is lifted for that player. If an Age II player attacks an Age I player, the Age I player may, on future turns, attack the Age II player.

No-Man's-Land is another location where units can move. No-Man's-Land represents the land between two villages. You can move to No-Man's-Land either as a normal movement or when retreating from combat in your opponent's village. You may only attack opponents' units in No Man's Land if you have either an Outpost or Cartography Card in play, or are playing the Mongols. An unlimited number of units may occupy NML, but only one unit at a time may attack another unit in NML.

Attack Declaration

If you have a unit at a location containing an enemy unit card, enemy villagers, or at an enemy building, they may declare an attack. If you are at a location where there are multiple enemy targets, you may choose to attack whichever target you like from those available. You must declare all of your attacks before resolving any of them. An assisted attack may be performed as well. This will be explained below in the resolution phase section.

Note: You may initiate an attack with your villagers, but only within your own village. Your villagers may not go to your opponent's village. Also, only villagers left on a building after the upkeep phase may participate in an attack.

Attack Resolution

The attacker chooses in which order to fight the battles. After the order has been chosen, the defender may Fast Respond to all the attacks. Fast response means the defender has the opportunity to move each of their units in their village one space (not diagonally) to join a defense. Villagers may not fast respond. (Note: If an enemy unit moves onto your building, but doesn't declare an attack, you may still fast respond to that unit.) There are certain cards that will increase the response range. A unit that cannot enter the building square being attacked may not fast respond. Therefore, fast response only occurs when defending a building or villagers. Remember that you may have only one enemy and one friendly unit on the same building.

After the fast response is complete, combat begins. Combat lasts for two rounds. If there is no unit or villager at the building being attacked, and the building doesn't have its own attack value, damage is calculated and subtracted from the building's health points. To calculate damage, multiply the tokens on the attacking unit card by the attack value, this is the total damage dealt by the unit for one round. Damage is delivered on a round per round basis, rounding down to the nearest ten. Place one damage token on the building for each ten points delivered. If the building takes damage greater than or equal to its health points, it is destroyed and placed on the discard pile.

If the attacker is targeting a building that has villagers on it, the villagers may step in to defend. If the villagers on a building do not defend, and the building is destroyed, the villagers are placed in the villager pool to be reallocated later. If the villagers defend, all villagers on that card must defend. In addition, villagers may not enter combat against ram-type, siege weapons.

Important fact: Villagers have 4 health points and 3 attack points.

If villagers are the targets and there is no unit to fast respond, the villagers must enter combat. If there is a unit available, they may defend the villagers.

When calculating Damage, combat is broken down into two rounds. Casualties are removed at the end of each round. To calculate damage, multiply the number of tokens on your unit card by the attack value, (including any bonuses from events, technologies and unit specialties) then divide that number by the enemy unit's Health Points, rounded down, and remove that many tokens. Each player removes casualties at the same time since damage is simultaneous.

Combat continues until one unit is destroyed by losing all of its tokens, two rounds of combat have been completed, or one side retreats. If a defending unit or all villagers die or retreat before the second round of combat, the remaining round of damage is applied to the building.

After casualties have been calculated and removed in the first round of combat, both units have the option to Retreat. Attackers have the first option to retreat. If they choose not to, the defender may retreat. When retreating, your unit may move to an adjacent card or to No-Man's-Land (if on the fringe) but may not retreat to an occupied building or where combat took place this turn. If your troops retreat to No-Man's-Land, they are safe from attack unless your opponent has the ability to attack in NML. If an attack takes place in No-Man's-Land, retreating ends combat but the unit remains in No-Man's-Land.

Assisted Attacks. If an attacker has two units on adjacent buildings, one unit may assist the other unit with an attack on a building. For example, if the attacker has a militia on a house and a knight on an adjacent barracks, and the militia declares its attack against the house, the knight could assist the militia and declare its attack on the house instead of the barracks. The primary attacking unit (the militia) that is located on the targeted building (the house) will complete its combat first. After this combat is finished, the assisting unit (the knight) will be able to assist with its attack only if the following two conditions are met:

The primary attacking unit (the militia) is the only unit remaining on the target building (the house) after the attack is resolved.

And

The assisting unit (the knight) was not the target of a fast response.

If the assisting unit does not meet both of these conditions, they may not assist, and they lose their attack for the turn.

Ranged Combat. Ranged Combat works a bit differently. If a unit has a ranged value, an additional round of combat occurs. This ranged round takes place before the two rounds of normal combat. If only one unit in a combat has a ranged attack, then that unit calculates its ranged damage by multiplying the tokens by the ranged value and deals that damage to the opposing unit. If both units in a combat have a ranged attack, they both deal damage and take casualties simultaneously, during the ranged combat round.

Archers have a special Hit and Run Attack. This allows them to attack an enemy unit and retreat after the ranged combat round. This may only be used when an archer unit is attacking. The hit and run maneuver may only be used against units. If the ranged round is negated, no retreat is allowed, and both units must enter the first round of normal combat.

Note: Cavalry units negate the range round and therefore hit and run attacks may not be used on them.

Enlistment Phase

During the Enlistment Phase you may construct new units, villagers, and monks, or replenish units.

Certain buildings, such as Barracks, Stables, Archery Ranges, and Castles, have a Garrison Value. The total garrison value of all your buildings in play determines how many unit tokens you may have on the table at any time. If you have one barracks, you may only have 10 unit tokens on the board. If you have multiple building types, such as a Barracks and an Archery Range, you may mix and match the types of unit tokens that you are producing. (i.e. your total garrison value with those two buildings is 20, so you may have 18 archer tokens and 2 militia tokens, or 15 militia tokens and 5 archer tokens.)

Military producing buildings may only produce five tokens per turn. For example, if you have one barracks, you may produce five militia tokens per turn. If you have two barracks and two militia cards in play, you may produce 10 militia tokens.

Military Units may be built by playing a Unit Card from your hand at a vacant unit production facility such as a barracks. Each Unit Card has a specific type of military unit listed on it. Unit production facilities can produce specific types of units, so the correct unit must be built at the correct production facility. For example, if you wish to build a Militia, you must have a barracks with no friendly units located there. New units can be built on a building that has an enemy unit on it. Each unit card may support up to five tokens. Unit cards denote the unit type, while the tokens represent the number of that type of troop on that unit.

Place the new unit sideways across the building card. You may then place a token on the card for each troop purchased, up to the unit maximum. If your unit has been upgraded, you only pay the token cost listed on the unit's card, and not the upgrade cost. All other statistics are listed on the upgrade card.

If you have a military unit that has less than five tokens on it you may Replenish tokens on that unit without a new unit card. To replenish tokens to this unit, the unit must not have moved, or have participated in a battle during the turn. Also, you may not add tokens to units that are in your opponent's village or in No-Man's-Land. The card does not have to be on the appropriate production site to receive new tokens. (To have more tokens added, a militia unit does not have to be on a barracks.)

When building new villagers, you must obey the Villager Population Limit for your village. For each House and Town Center you may have five villagers in play. For example, If you have one town center and two houses in play, you may support 15 villagers. To build a new villager, pay one food, and put a token into the villager pool to be allocated in the allocation phase. You may only create five villagers per turn, no matter how many town centers you have.

If at any time, a building is destroyed which would reduce your population or garrison limit below your current population or garrison total, you may not build any new tokens of that type. You do not, however, have to remove tokens to match your current limit.

Discard and Draw Phase

During the Discard and Draw phase, you may discard as many cards as you want into the discard or snuffed pile and draw back up to seven. You may only discard and draw once per turn (No discard, draw, discard, draw, etc). If you run out of cards, shuffle your discard pile, not including the snuffed pile, and make a new play deck. Since your discard pile is face up, if you discard a card, your opponent may look at it or any other cards in the pile. All event cards must be played before this phase.

Allocation Phase

During this phase, take any unused villagers from your village and add them to the villager pool. Remove one villager from any card being researched and place it in the villager pool. When the last villager is removed, that card takes effect.

If you have finished researching age advancement, shuffle your new Age Deck into your Play Deck. You also have the option of shuffling in your discard pile at this time.

Decide which resources you would like to produce next turn by taking tokens from the villager pool and allocating them to the appropriate buildings. Each lumber camp, farm, or mine may only take up to 5 villagers on it. If you have a lot of villagers, some may be idle. (You may add additional villagers to a production facility, but only 5 units may collect resources.) If you wish to allocate villagers to build buildings, play events, or research cards, place them on your town center for use during your next turn. Remember to place your villagers in safe locations, because they can be major targets for your opponent. The turn is now over.

Note: Players alternate turns until one of the winning conditions is met.

Winning Conditions

As mentioned earlier, there are three ways to win the game:

Destroy all enemy Town Centers or Villagers. When you destroy your opponent's final Town Center, you immediately win the game. Also, if after destroying all of your opponent's villagers, that player cannot create additional villagers, that player loses at the end of their next turn.
Advance to the Imperial Age and create a Wonder of the World. A Wonder takes four turns to construct. When constructing a Wonder, you will pay the costs associated with the card on the first turn of construction. The Wonder enters play with 110 health points. On subsequent turns, the Wonder continues gaining health points with each turn as described on the card. At the beginning of the fourth turn, the Wonder is complete and you must defend it for six of your opponents' turns.
Gather five different Relics and enshrine them in your Monastery for six of your opponent's turns. Relics are unique, and therefore only one copy may be in play at a time.

Siege Units

Siege Units are the products of the Siege Workshop. These units may only have one token per card in play at any given time. Some siege weapons have a special attack type called bombardment.

Bombardment allows the unit to attack buildings, villagers or units from a distance. The bombardment value tells you how many spaces away you may attack. All attacks must be in a straight line and may not be made diagonally. (Table 7) Siege units in NML may attack buildings on the opponent's fringe but are open to attack even without Cartography or an Outpost. Bombardment damage is dealt at the same time as the first round of combat, whether it is ranged or normal. Each unit only gets one bombardment attack per turn, but remains in combat for two rounds as normal. Bombardment units may retreat after the bombardment round.

Table 7: This is a legal bombardment: 2 target.

Table 8: This is not a legal bombardment: 2 target.

Note: Siege units can not be targeted by a conversion attempt.

Minimum Distance is another factor in determining siege unit attacks. Minimum distance tells how far a siege unit must be from its target to bombard. If the minimum distance is one, the unit must be at least one building away from its target.

Scorpions and Heavy Scorpions have a special term called Area Effect, which modifies their damage. To calculate area effect damage, take the attack points of the siege unit and multiply them by the number of tokens on the target unit card.

Monks, Conversion, and Healing

Upon the creation of the Monastery in the Castle Age, your civilization may create monk units. Monks are used to convert enemy units or heal friendly units. When you bring a monk into play, place a monk token on one of your military units. This token represents the presence of a monk that travels with this unit. You may have up to five monks attached to a particular unit. This does not count toward the military token limit for that unit. You may build up to five monks per turn regardless of the number of monasteries in play. Monks may not be attached to any card that says "One token per card". Monks count as a military unit for garrison value, and you must have the garrison value to support them. Monasteries have a garrison value of ten.

When a unit with one or more monks enters battle, a Conversion Attempt is made before the first round of combat (including the range or bombardment round). Choose one military token or villager token as a target for the conversion attempt. You may not target enemy monks for conversion unless a card effect states otherwise. Depending on the total number of monks on your unit, your chances of conversion may vary. If there are five monks on the unit card, your Conversion Rate will be a five. Rolling a six-sided die, you will convert the target on a roll of five or less. If you had one monk you would have to roll a one to convert. The maximum conversion rate is a five, and any roll of six is an automatic failure.

Certain effects will cause a Conversion Bonus. This bonus can be positive or negative and directly raises or lowers the conversion rate respectively. Upon a successful conversion attempt, the token is destroyed and removed from play. If the conversion attempt failed, there is no effect. If, after a conversion attempt, there are tokens left on the enemy unit, combat now ensues.

Important fact: Monks cost three food to create and have 6 health points and 0 attack points.

Monks may heal units instead of converting them. If you choose not to utilize the conversion attempt, you may make a Healing Attempt when one of your monks or units has been killed in a round of combat. You may make only one healing attempt per attack. A Healing Rate is calculated the same way as a conversion rate. If the roll is successful, then you lose one less unit or monk than you normally would. A unit with monks attached may only attempt to convert or heal, not both in the same turn.

When combat damage is being assigned, the attacker may choose to kill off the defender's monks instead of military units. If a military unit loses its last token but still has monks attached, these monks keep the unit alive and in play. The unit may be retreated to your village and reinforced.

Relics

Relics are a special type of card that represent some of the greatest cultural, religious, or scientific items ever created. There are currently five different relics in the game. If a player obtains five different relics and enshrines them in one or more monasteries for six turns, that player wins the game.

To bring a relic into play, you must play the card from your hand into No-Man's-Land (NML) during the construction phase. Since each relic is unique, there can only be one copy of a particular relic in play at any time. To retrieve a relic normally takes two turns. On the first turn the relic is placed into NML, and a unit with monks attached is dispatched to retrieve it. Upon reaching NML, the unit may pick up the relic but may not use any remaining movement. The following turn the unit with the relic may move back to the village. Once the unit has reached the monastery or an adjacent building, the relic is enshrined in the monastery. When a relic is enshrined it is placed under the monastery. Each unit may only carry one relic at a time. Each unit may only pick up one relic per turn.

While retrieving a relic in NML, your unit may be attacked. To attack a unit carrying a relic, you do not have to have Cartography or an Outpost. If attacked and forced to retreat or killed entirely, the unit drops the relic. If the unit that killed the retrieving unit has monks, they may pick up the relic and prepare to bring it back to their village.

Once a relic is enshrined in your monastery, you gain three gold for each relic, during your collection phase. If your opponent has relics in their monastery, you must destroy the monastery in order to get to them. If the monastery is destroyed, any unit with monks attached may move to that location and pick up one relic. If a unit drops a relic, it remains on its current location. Once the fifth relic is enshrined, the six turn victory countdown begins.

Multiplayer and Scenarios

Multiplayer games are a great way to play Age of Empires. You can play with as many players as you like, although if there are more than six, it becomes time and space consuming.

In this section we will explain the scenario point system that is built into the cards, as well as a few basic scenarios. This scenario point system will allow you to create your own custom games, and if you wish to play shorter games. You can use this system to play games that start in later ages. The scenario point system can be used in multiplayer as well as two player games.

Basic Point System

Most cards have listed on them, the number of scenario points they are worth. Scenario points are listed in the small red flag icon on unit, technology, building, and upgrade cards. There are no scenario points on event cards, as they cannot be purchased in a point-based game. When you play a point-based game, each player or team will start out with a specific number of points worth of cards in play.

There are two different types of games that may be played using the point system, General and Defined.

If you are playing a General Game, you will be assigned a certain number of points and you will be able to spend these points in any way you see fit. You may spend them on buildings, units, technologies, resources, and age advancements.

If you are playing a Defined Game, you will receive points that can be spent in the different categories of cards. You get points to put into buildings, technologies, units, resources, and ages/villagers/monks. You may not use points from one to buy things from another category.

Once you have chosen the cards you will purchase, put them into play as if they had been brought into play in the course of a normal game.

If you are playing a defined point game and have leftover points in certain categories, you may use those to buy additional resources. You may not play units in No Man's Land or in your opponent's village.

Also, if you are starting in a later age, remove all the decks from previous ages and start with the current age deck as your draw deck. Players must adhere to deck minimums. If you are starting in the third age, you must still have two decks; a third age deck with at least 20 cards in it, and a fourth age deck with 10 cards in it.

A few basic rules about point games, both defined and general. If you purchase a unit card, you get a full complement of tokens for that card. For example, If you purchase a militia card you pay the cost listed on the card and you receive 5 militia tokens on that card. Technologies may not be purchased unless you also purchase the building and prerequisite technologies needed to create it. The age can be set in one of two ways, either you may decide that players must purchase age advancements or you may set a starting age and each player must start in that age. Please see the chart on the next page for the cost of non-card items that you may pay points to receive.

Any cards purchased count towards the total number of that card allowed in your deck. If you buy eight militia cards, you may only have two of them in your deck. Walls are the exception. Since you may have an unlimited number of walls in your deck, you may only purchase 10 walls of any one type in any point game unless the scenario states otherwise.

Another major addition in multiplayer games and scenarios is the ability to Gift resources to another player. In order to gift another player resources, both of you must have a market in play. To gift another player a resource, subtract five of a resource from your pool, the target player then gains three of that resource. If the receiving player has the Guilds technology in play, they receive four of the resource.

Additional Prices

While most cards have their Scenario point costs printed on the card, resources, additional age advancement, villagers, and monks need to be purchased and have no card to represent them. Refer to Table 9 for the cost for those items.

Table 9

Item Being Purchased	Scenario Point Cost
Advance to Age II	15 SP
Advance to Age III	25 SP
Advance to Age IV	30 SP
1 Wood	1 SP
1 Food	1 SP
1 Stone	1 SP
1 Gold	1 SP
1 Monk	3 SP
1 Villager	1 SP

Advanced Age Scenarios

Tables 9, 10, 11 and 12 list the scenario points used in general or defined games for each of the ages. General games only list a total while the defined game lists points to be spent in each category.

Age II	General	Defined
Totals	160	160
Units		20
Unit Upgrades		0
Buildings		80
Technologies		5
Resources		25
Villagers/Monks		30

Age III	General	Defined
Totals	300	300
Units		50
Unit Upgrades		10
Buildings		135
Technologies		30
Resources		45
Villagers/Monks		30

Age IV	General	Defined
Totals	425	425
Units		60
Unit Upgrades		35
Buildings		180
Technologies		60
Resources		60
Villagers/Monks		30

A special note about Age IV games: We suggest that you play without a wonder victory, otherwise you will find the winner will be the first person to draw a Wonder of the World. (Relic and Conquer victories are acceptable for Age IV games.) See Table 12.

This is a list of additional options that may be used for Point-Based games.

No Relic Victory. You may not win by collecting the five Relics. Although, collecting the relics still gives you the gold for collecting them.
No Wonder Victory. Same as above, but you cannot win by building a Wonder.
No Gifting. Gifting resources between players is not allowed.
Allies. This is a team game, with equal teams. They may be from the same or different civilizations.
Attacking your allies or gifting resources to your enemies is not allowed.
Race Games. First player to finish researching the pre-chosen age wins the game.
No Advance Age (Set Age). No player may pay resources to advance beyond the starting age of this scenario or point based game.
Team Games. Players work together as a team and win/lose as a team.

Other conditions may be created but, these will be the major options used in published scenarios.

Scenarios

On pages 40 and 41 there are two examples of scenario games. We hope you enjoy them. You may go to our website (www.journeymanpress.com) for additional free scenarios.

In scenario games, you may have alternate winning conditions. Also, if there is an additional starting building listed, you may begin with these buildings in play, without paying the cost.

Storm the Castle (3 player)

This is a unique winning condition scenario, in which there are two civilizations attempting to destroy the fortified town of a third. The two attacking players start with fewer resources, technology, buildings and units than the castle player, but there are two of them. The object for the two attacking players is to destroy the opponent's castle, while the defender must stay alive for 20 of their turns. If the castle is destroyed in 20 turns or less the attackers win, otherwise the defender has won the scenario.

Table 13: Storm the Castle

Player	Attackers (2)	Defender (1)
Starting Age	Age 2 - Feudal	Age 3 - Castle
Starting Buildings	1 Town Center; 1 Barracks; 1 Stable or 1 Archery Range	1 Castle; 1 Town Center; 1 Barracks
Starting Units	None	2 Militia (5 tokens per card)
Starting Technologies	None	None
Points for Distribution	160	300
Starting Player	Defending player starts first.
Victory Conditions	Attacker Victory: Destroy Castle. Defender Victory: Castle standing after 2nd player's 20th turn.
Additional Rules	Defender may not build additional castles.

Mediterranean Mayhem (4+ players)

This scenario features each player controlling civilizations surrounding a large sea. Four or more people play until there is one player left standing. Each player may only attack players to the immediate left and the immediate right of their current position. This scenario can also be played with teams if there is an even number of players. Team players alternate turns as they proceed around the table.

Table 14: Mediterranean Mayhem

Player	All Players
Starting Age	Variable
Starting Buildings	1 Town Center (additional buildings purchased based on starting age)
Starting Units	Units purchased based on points allowed per age
Starting Technologies	Based on points allowed per starting age
Points for Distribution	Starting at Age: I - 0 Points; II - 160 Points; III - 300 Points; IV - 425 Points
Starting Player	Randomly Chosen
Victory Conditions	Free-for-all: One player remains after all other Town Centers have been destroyed. Team Game: One team destroys all enemy Town Centers.
Starting Resources	Age I: 10 Wood, 5 Gold, 5 Food. Age II-IV: Purchased based on points allowed per starting age.

Please note: there are additional rules for the Mediterranean Mayhem scenario on the following page.

Additional Rules (Mediterranean Mayhem)

A player loses if their Town Center is destroyed.
If a player's Town Center is destroyed, remove all of that player's troops and remaining buildings from the table. (No player may build a second Town Center in this scenario.)
There is a unique No-Man's-Land between each player and a No-Man's-Land which can only be navigated by boats in the center of the table.
If you move to attack the player on your right you may only place your troops on the left edge of the buildings they possess. This is true with any attack.

Note: You may only attack the edge of the opponent's village that adjoins the edge of your own village.

On pages 43-47 you will find the lists of the cards that are included in each civilization's starter decks in order by age.

Civilization Starter Decks

The card lists for each civilization's starter deck are transcribed below, one section per civilization, with each Age's card list as printed. The number in brackets after each Age heading is the printed card count for that Age.

Britons

Age I (30)

2 Barracks (European)
3 Palisade Wall
2 House (European)
2 Stone Mine
2 Gold Mine
1 Lumber Camp
2 Farm
2 Sheep
1 Boar
1 Gold Nugget
1 Rock Collection
1 You are being attacked by wild animals
1 Exposed Gold Deposit
1 Quarry
1 Stand of Trees
1 Loom
4 Militia
1 Abandoned Mine
1 Berries

Age II (32)

2 Archery Range (European)
4 Stone Wall
2 Stable (European)
1 Market (European)
2 Blacksmith (European)
1 Trade Cart
1 Town Watch
1 Fire Brigade
1 Strategist Enlisted
1 Tracking
1 High Ground
1 Your Tracks Betray You
1 Wheelbarrow
1 Double Bit Axe
1 Fletching
1 Padded Archer Armor
2 Spearman
3 Archer
1 Skirmisher
3 Scout Cavalry

Age III (20)

1 Man-at-Arms
2 Castle (European)
2 Squires
1 Husbandry
1 Threw a shoe
1 Siege Sabotage
1 Typhoid
1 Poor Morale
1 Flaming Arrows
1 Surprise Skirmish
1 Town Patrol
1 Muddy Battlefield
1 They came out of nowhere
1 Relentless Attack
1 Bow Saw
1 Long Swordsman
1 Light Cavalry
1 Crossbowman

Age IV (10)

1 Spies
1 Banking
1 Holy War
1 Alchemist
1 Conscription
1 Sappers
1 Hoardings
1 Guilds
1 2 Hand Swordsman
1 Arbalest

Starting Cards (4)

1 Briton Town Center
1 House
1 Lumber Camp
1 Mill (European)

Celts

Age I (30)

2 Barracks (European)
3 Palisade Wall
2 House (European)
2 Stone Mine
2 Gold Mine
1 Lumber Camp
2 Farm
1 Berries
2 Boar
1 Gold Nugget
2 Exposed Gold Deposit
1 Quarry
2 Stand of Trees
1 Your Hunters are Waylaid
1 Drought
1 Town Bell
1 Loom
3 Celt Militia

Age II (31) (the printed total is 31; the 30 cards below are transcribed as printed)

2 Archery Range (European)
3 Stone Wall
2 Stable (European)
1 Market (European)
2 Blacksmith (European)
1 Trade Cart
1 Coinage
1 Town Watch
1 Fire Brigade
2 Heavy Tree Cover
1 Gather Point
1 Wheelbarrow
1 Forging
1 Gold Mining
1 Scale Mail Armor
2 Celt Spearman
3 Archer
1 Skirmisher
2 Scout Cavalry
1 Celt Man-at-Arms

Age III (20)

2 Castle (European)
1 Siege Workshop (European)
2 Squires
2 Husbandry
1 Threw a shoe
1 Typhoid
1 Good Wind Today
1 The Jester's dead, let's get them!
1 Town Patrol
1 Muddy Battlefield
1 Mercenaries
1 They came out of nowhere!
1 Mangonel
1 Battering Ram
1 Scorpion
1 Celt Long Swordsman
1 Light Cavalry

Age IV (10)

1 Spies
2 Banking
1 Holy War
1 Alchemist
1 Conscription
1 Sappers
1 Hoardings
1 Guilds
1 2 Hand Swordsman

Starting Cards (5)

1 Town Center
1 House
1 Lumber Camp
1 Double Bit Axe (See Civilization Power)
1 Mill (European)

Goths

Age I (30)

2 Barracks (Raider)
3 Palisade Wall
2 House (Raider)
2 Stone Mine
2 Gold Mine
1 Lumber Camp
2 Farm
1 Berries
2 Boar
1 Sheep
2 Exposed Gold Deposit
1 Quarry
2 Stand of Trees
1 You are being attacked by wild animals
1 Drought
1 Town Bell
1 Loom
3 Militia

Age II (32)

2 Archery Range (Raider)
3 Stone Wall
2 Stable (Raider)
1 Market (Raider)
2 Blacksmith (Raider)
1 Trade Cart
1 Forest Fire
1 Decoy
2 Heavy Tree Cover
1 Strategist Enlisted
1 Wheelbarrow
1 Stone Mining
1 Forging
1 Gold Mining
1 Scale Mail Armor
2 Goth Spearman
3 Archer
1 Skirmisher
4 Scout Cavalry
1 Man-at-Arms

Age III (20)

2 Castle (Raider)
2 Squires
2 Husbandry
1 Threw a shoe
1 Siege Sabotage
1 Typhoid
1 Surprise Skirmish
1 Town Patrol
2 Muddy Battlefield
1 Mercenaries
1 They came out of nowhere
1 Relentless Attack
1 Knight
1 Long Swordsman
1 Light Cavalry
1 Crossbowman

Age IV (10)

1 Spies
1 Banking
2 Holy War
1 Alchemist
1 Conscription
1 Sappers
1 Hoardings
1 Guilds
1 2 Hand Swordsman

Starting Cards (4)

1 Town Center
1 House
1 Lumber Camp
1 Mill (Raider)

Mongols

Age I (30) (the printed total is 30; the 29 cards below are transcribed as printed)

2 Barracks (Raider)
3 Palisade Wall
2 House (Raider)
2 Stone Mine
2 Gold Mine
1 Lumber Camp
2 Farm
1 Berries
2 Boar
1 Sheep
1 Exposed Gold Deposit
1 Quarry
2 Stand of Trees
1 You are being attacked by wild animals
1 Rock Collection
1 Abandoned Mine
1 Loom
3 Militia

Age II (31) (the printed total is 31; the 30 cards below are transcribed as printed)

2 Archery Range (Far East)
3 Stone Wall
2 Stable (Far East)
1 Market (Far East)
2 Blacksmith (Far East)
1 Trade Cart
1 Coinage
1 Town Watch
1 Fire Brigade
1 Heavy Tree Cover
1 Strategist Enlisted
1 Gathering Point
1 Horse Collar
1 Forging
1 Gold Mining
1 Scale Barding Armor
1 Spearman
3 Archer
1 Skirmisher
3 Scout Cavalry
1 Man-at-Arms

Age III (21)

2 Castle (Far East)
2 Squires
2 Husbandry
1 Poor Morale
1 Typhoid
2 Flaming Arrows
1 Surprise Skirmish
1 Town Patrol
1 Mercenaries
1 Emperor's Decree
1 Relentless Attack
1 Iron Casting
1 Knight
1 Camel
1 Mongol Cavalry Archer
1 Long Swordsman
1 Mongol Light Cavalry

Age IV (10)

1 Spies
1 Banking
1 Holy War
1 Alchemist
2 Conscription
1 Sappers
1 Hoardings
1 Guilds
1 2 Hand Swordsman

Starting Cards (4)

1 Town Center
1 House
1 Lumber Camp
1 Mill (Far East)

Persians

Age I (30)

2 Barracks (Arab)
3 Palisade Wall
2 House (Arab)
2 Stone Mine
2 Gold Mine
1 Lumber Camp
2 Farm
1 Berries
2 Boar
1 Sheep
2 Exposed Gold Deposit
1 Quarry
1 Drought
1 Stand of Trees
1 You are being attacked by wild animals
1 Gold Nugget
1 Slow Search
1 Loom
3 Militia

Age II (32)

2 Archery Range (Arab)
3 Stone Wall
2 Stable (Far East)
1 Market (Far East)
2 Blacksmith (Far East)
1 Fortune Favors the Foolish
1 Town Watch
1 Tracking
2 Heavy Tree Cover
1 Strategist Enlisted
1 Wheelbarrow
1 Horse Collar
1 Gold Mining
1 Forging
1 Scale Barding Armor
1 Fletching
1 Cartography
2 Spearman
3 Archer
1 Skirmisher
2 Scout Cavalry
1 Man-at-Arms

Age III (20)

2 Castle (Far East)
2 Squires
1 Husbandry
1 Siege Sabotage
1 Typhoid
1 Revelation
1 Surprise Skirmish
1 Town Patrol
1 Mercenaries
1 Relentless Attack
1 Hand Cart
1 Heavy Plow
1 Iron Casting
1 Knight
1 Camel
1 Long Swordsman
1 Pikeman
1 Light Cavalry

Age IV (10)

2 Spies
1 Banking
1 Holy War
1 Alchemist
1 Conscription
1 Sappers
1 Hoardings
1 Guilds
1 2 Hand Swordsman

Starting Cards (4)

1 Town Center
1 House
1 Lumber Camp
1 Mill (Far East)